Alanik Ray
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Alanik Ray is a heroic NPC native to the Ravenloft setting of Dungeons & Dragons, having debuted there back in the days of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition. He is a male elf originally born as a wealthy merchant's son in the realm of Darkon, but left that locale as a youth after being expelled from his family home when he discovered his father made much of his wealth as a drug lord and black marketeer; when Alanik protested his father's crimes, the patriarch Ardal banished him. Disgusted, Alanik turned to crime fighting, joining the Neblus watch and using it to dismantle his father's criminal empire, after which he quit Darkon and moved to Mordentshire, where he set up as a private detective. That lasted until the year 747 BC, where he was invited back to Darkon to serve as the Chief Constable of the Matira Bay watch by newly appointed town mayor, Baroness Karimana Reldkasen... unfortunately, he fell afoul of the Kargat, and when Azalin vanished during the Requiem, they moved to eliminate him and he narrowly escaped with his life. He fled to Port-a-Lucine in Dementlieu and opened up a new detective agency, where he has been found ever since.
Basically, Alanik Ray is the Sherlock Holmes of the Demiplane of Dread; a highly intelligent whose love of the finer things in life is equaled if not exceeded only by his passion for mystery and deduction. Though he normally is patronized by wealthy clientele, he has a particular fascination with crimes centered around "particularly cunning" villains or supernatural elements, and as such he is willing to waive his fees for cases that catch his intrigue, especially those brought to him by less-wealthy would-be patrons. For defense, he wields Goldenfang, a +4 Dagger that looks like it was shaped from solid gold, and a number of pistols. He even smokes a hookah, although in his case it's an enchanted item called a Hookah of Truth, the smoke of which produces a Zone of Truth.
Of course, every Sherlock Holmes needs a Dr. Watson, and for Alanik, his Watson is a human physician by the name of Dr. Arthur Sedgewick. Sadly, we know next to nothing about him beyond that he exists, he has saved Alanik's life with his medical skills several times, and he writes accounts of their cases which he has begun to publish, with two such compilations existing in-universe so far; The Life of Alanik Ray and The Casebook of Alanik Ray. Alanik is also a correspondent of Van Richten and, after the events of Bleak House, he's interested in pursuing the good doctor's mysterious disappearance.
Notable supernatural foes that Alanik Ray has faced include Rabel Utik, Toben the Many, and a prostitute-hunting green hag serial killer known only as "The Hag of Chateaufaux".
Although he has been statted up in both AD&D (10th level Rogue) and in 3rd edition (Rogue 4/Detective 6) in Champions of the Mists and Ravenloft Gazetteer II respectively, Alanik is ironically a very minor character; whereas the other NPCs from Champions had been the stars of official novels (because it was the 90s and novels were a thing that pretty much all D&D settings got), Alanik's only appearances to that date had been as a flavor-only character mentioned in two of the Van Richten's Guide books - the Guides to Ghosts and Hags, specifically. 3rd edition wouldn't treat him much better; he got mentioned in Van Richten's Arsenal due to his connection with the Hookah of Truth, and also name-dropped as a flavor character in a third VRG - the Guide to the Walking Dead.
5e
Alanik Ray reappears as an NPC in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Ravenloft campaign splat "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft". Here, there's more emphasis on his forming an informal monster hunter's alliance/network with Van Richten, the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins and the new character Ezmerelda d'Avenir from Curse of Strahd. Also, he's now wheelchair-bound, having broken his back after falling off a roof whilst pursuing a serial killer (cue "Wheels and the Legman" jokes). Also, since this is the 2020s and subtext can just be actual text, he and Arthur Sedgewick are gay and married to each other.
