Father Lambrecht Raes

Father Lambrecht is the major antagonist of Black Crusade and chief adversary of Sir Diederic de Wyndt. A Catholic priest whom sought the power of the blasphemous Laginate Grimoire for the purposes of witch hunting and "saving" the church. His hubris drove him into conflict with Diederic into the Ravenloft domain of Malosia.

Background

A Frenchman and Catholic priest, Father Lambrecht was one of the pilgrims sent by the Pope to Jerusalem. In the plague of madness that hit Jerusalem, he enlisted the aid of Diederic de Wyndt in his quest after the latter rescued him. Although he claimed to , he simply sought to gather the remains of the Laginate Grimoire and was willing to sacrifice Diederic's life as well as those of his fellow Crusaders, or even murder- such as in the case of Baron Joris van den Felle, to get what he wanted. However, his attempt at seizing the Laginate Grimoire was foiled by Diederic, and he was taken in to be tried for heresy and murder.

The trial did not go well, for there was no direct evidence of Lambrecht's responsibility in the baron's murder, and Lambrecht successfully argued that he pursued knowledge of the enemy in order to fight the enemy. Moreover, he called into doubt Diederic's credibility as a witness as a victim of the madness plague. However, Diederic turned things around by bribing the errant deserter Eliseo into providing false witness against Lambrecht. With such a witness, Lambrecht was convicted, to be hanged and the grimoire to be burnt. Yet the Laginate Grimoire did not burn and instead erupted in an explosion of mist, taking with it Lambrecht. Although injured by the explosion, Diederic followed into the Mists.