Ridditz

“What does the sunrise think of you, does it envy your legs and ability to eat eggs? Perhaps you are the ones that can greet the new dawn and survive... Hey, listen. People call me Ridditz. I can’t offer you much in the way of coin, but I know this forest better than anyone. You fought the Riftspawn. I can help you defeat more Riftspawn. The ones that are coming. You do that, and people around here will be extremely grateful, like the granting Noble Titles kind of extremely grateful. You ever heard of the Riftguard? That could be you!” 

• Eccentric: Talks to animals. Wears tattered clothes adorned with moss and bone charms. Thinks aloud.
• Compassionate: Hates war, but will fight if it means saving the innocent or the balance of nature.
• Stubborn: Refuses help, rejects orders, and never admits mistakes… but his heart is usually in the right place.

• He desires a patch of untouchable wilderness where no lord, soldier, or monster will ever bother him again.
• He sees the Riftguard as a necessary inconvenience he sees as a way to save the city and “earn some peace and quiet.” with a single stone.

• Laws of Nature 
• Duty and Honor

Ridditz believes more in the laws of nature than he does the laws of man. However, he cares deeply for people, from a distance. He feels like he has failed to protect the people of Portaland too many times in the past and is determined to make a difference.

• Loner - Ridditz is and always has been an introvert that greatly values his alone time. He can only stomach brief interactions with groups of people and large crowds are right out.
• Depressed - Ridditz has lived a long life and has many regrets. Sometimes they feel like a mountain pressing down upon him.

• Grants an Ambush Round on all Forest Encounters
• • Once per Forest engagement, roll 1d6. On a result of 5 or 6, the players get a surprise round.
  • Can grant additional harvest items from defeated monsters if a bond or friendship is formed between him and any of the PCs.
  • Could also provide forest-exclusive herbs, poisons, or natural remedies if players earn his trust.

• Barely participates in city politics but serves as the city’s local vet and animal control when necessary.
• When the Melding began, he was probably dragged in against his will or forced to flee his grove.
• Stays in a makeshift lean-to near the outskirts of town, near the dead druidic circle.

• Speaks in riddles.
• May distrust the Riftguard initially.
• If the party shows restraint, wisdom, or kindness to the wild, he may reveal insight about the portals, the Melding, or even cultist activity.

Ridditz looks like a man who has outlived the old world. He’s wiry and knotted with age and muscle, with a back slightly hunched not from frailty, but from watching everything too closely for too long. His wild and unkept beard is long and streaked with mossy gray and earthy green and his thick brows seem to scowl even when his face is relaxed.

His skin is weathered bark: deeply tanned, cracked with sun and age, scarred with thorns, bites, and memory. His eyes are still sharp though, they flick around like a hawk’s, suspicious, piercing, and rarely trusting.

His hands are never clean. His boots are tattered scraps. He smells of grass, mud, and campfire smoke.

Ridditz’s clothing is all function over form.

• Cloak: A threadbare, leaf-stained green cloak made from stitched-together pelts, torn banners, and moss-dyed linen.
• Hat: Often wears a wide-brimmed, crooked hat.
• Footwear: His boots are mismatched and in tatters.
• Accessories: A bandolier full of loose plants and herbs, knives and survival tools and a ring made of heartwood and amber.
• Weapon: A gnarled walking staff with the weight of a cudgel. 

At first glance, he’s a cranky old man who wants to be left alone. At second glance, he’s definitely still that, but he also cares deeply for the land and all its inhabitants, human and animal alike.

• He is Very Old and Used to Be a Druid of the Portia Circle: Before the last Melding, Ridditz was a low ranking druid before his circle fell into ruin after druidic magic was outlawed shortly after the Veil-Tear. 

When the rest of his fellow druids were hunted down, he faked his own death, burned his grove, and now hides under the name Ridditz. He’s over 300 years old.

• He Once Let a Riftbeast Escape — And It Cost Dozens of Lives: During the last Melding, Ridditz encountered a young riftspawn that he believed was misunderstood. He thought it was a beast of nature, not evil. He let it go. Days later, it massacred a refugee convoy, including three children he knew by name. The creature was only doing what was in its nature, but Ridditz can’t shake the guilt he feels for his involvement.

He has never forgiven himself. This is the real reason he stays close to Portaland now. He wants to make up for his past mistakes.