Rick Wurmtoter

Rick Wurmtoter is the resident pest-control specialist at J.W. Wells & Co., where his work includes dealing with Dragons and safeguarding colleagues from supernatural hazards. His character is defined by a striking combination: mock-heroic titles and an unshowy, practical competence. He can discuss a dragon infestation in a bank vault, explain the firm’s dangers to new employees, and, when a goblin threatens Sophie Pettingell, act with immediate precision.

Identity and Credentials

An entry in the firm’s list of names and qualifications identifies him as Lieutenant-Colonel Dietrich Wurmtoter, followed by the initials RHG and FICDGBI. The surrounding explanation gives those credentials their characteristic J.W. Wells mixture of grandeur and absurdity: Rick is a Knight of the Holy Grail and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Dragonslayers of Great Britain and Ireland. His Lieutenant-Colonel rank is also described as genuine, provided the Riders of Rohan count as a proper army. The titles make him sound like a figure out of heroic legend, even as his actual job is the firmly practical business of pest control.

That work gives him a distinctive place among the firm’s specialists. Dennis Tanner describes Rick as its resident hero, principally occupied with Dragons. The danger is not a remote or mythical abstraction: Dragons are attracted to accumulated wealth, which in contemporary terms means places such as museums, art galleries, and banks. At the time Tanner explains the work, Rick is away dealing with an infestation in the vaults of Credit Lyonnais. The bank hopes he can remove the Dragons before the disruption affects the Euro on Wall Street. Rick’s heroic credentials thus belong to a working world where supernatural pests can have financial consequences.

A Guide to the Firm’s Hazards

Rick’s first appearance in the supplied scenes shows him attending to the unglamorous business of getting employees safely out of the building. As Paul Carpenter and Sophie leave the lower levels late in the day, Rick is coming down the stairs to remind them that it is nearly time to go home. He explains that the firm would not want to lock the doors while they were still below ground. His warning is grounded in personal experience: he says that this nearly happened to him once, and that the underground area is cold enough to risk pneumonia. While talking, he fingers a claw hanging on a chain around his neck and rubs his back against the fire-door frame to scratch an itch he cannot reach.

The moment joins practical concern to odd detail. Rick does not merely issue a rule; he explains why it matters, recalling the possibility of being trapped below and the cold that followed. The claw at his neck quietly links the mild workplace exchange to the dangerous supernatural business surrounding him. His manner, however, remains matter-of-fact: he mentions the hazard while also complaining about an ordinary irritation, then escorts Paul and Sophie toward reception. The firm’s perilous environment reaches its staff through routine reminders as much as through spectacular emergencies.

Rick later gives Paul and Sophie the safety briefing they should have received on their first day. He openly acknowledges that the explanation is late because the office’s secrecy and obfuscation have delayed it. His first item is a rule they have already nearly violated: employees should make sure they are out of the building by half past five. That instruction echoes his earlier warning about being locked underground, turning the stairwell encounter into more than a passing courtesy. Rick recognizes their previous near-miss as a safety failure and uses it to begin the briefing, without pretending that the workplace has handled its duty of explanation well.

Manner and Relationships

When Paul and Sophie are summoned to the main conference room, Rick’s head appears around the closed door to let them know they are expected. After Humphrey Wells has left, Rick waits before moving or speaking; then he flows across the room and perches on the table’s corner. The image makes his movement seem unusual without diminishing his approachability. He greets Paul warmly, introduces himself to Sophie as the person responsible for pest control, and offers her his hand. Sophie is taken aback enough to shake it and almost smile.

That response distinguishes Rick from the more imposing or abrasive figures in the office. He is an experienced supernatural professional, but he approaches the newcomers with a personable manner rather than using his authority to intimidate them. His smile is described as capable of selling a great deal of toothpaste, an intentionally incongruous image beside his knightly titles and dangerous work. Even his explanation of the firm’s hazards begins from a familiar, collegial position: he wants the employees to receive information they should already have been given.

His interaction with Paul and Sophie combines friendliness with responsibility. At the conference-room briefing he addresses the pair together, treats the missed safety instruction as a real problem, and explains the danger directly. Earlier, he had allowed them to pass and had made sure they knew why the underground rooms were risky. Later, when Sophie is in immediate danger, his concern becomes action rather than explanation. Across these encounters he is not presented as their supervisor, but he does take on the role of an experienced colleague who notices the hazards newcomers may not yet understand.

Intervention and Narrative Role

Rick’s clearest demonstration of competence comes when Paul and Sophie are in a room with a goblin and a love philtre. Paul has managed to get the potion into a glass and Sophie has taken it. The door bursts open; Rick crosses the room in two strides, wearing a glove on his right hand and carrying an empty hamburger box in his left. He pulls the goblin from the front of Sophie’s dress, puts it in the box, and snaps the lid shut. As Paul falls and Sophie slumps against the wall, Rick takes the glass from her before she can drop it and empties it into the washstand sink. He then checks whether either of them has been harmed.

The details make the rescue a compact demonstration of preparation and speed. Rick arrives equipped with a glove and a container, handles the goblin directly, and disposes of the potion before it can be consumed. The ordinary hamburger box is an especially sharp counterpoint to the supernatural threat: the scene’s danger is met not by a grand display of magic but by an improvised-looking piece of practical equipment and decisive movement. His first concern after securing both threats is to ask about Paul and Sophie’s condition.

The sequence also completes the pattern established by Rick’s earlier warnings. He first explains the danger of remaining underground after hours, then formally gives the delayed safety briefing, and finally appears in person when an immediate threat reaches Sophie and Paul. These episodes do not give him a broad personal transformation; instead, they establish a consistent function in the story. Rick makes the firm’s hazards legible, embodies its improbable professional heroism, and proves that the genial pest-control specialist is capable of acting faster than the danger can unfold.