Rochol

Rochol is an NPC from the Temphere campaign universe. He is a half-elf monster hunter that the Garden Party encountered on the road between Caellond and Mire's Edge. Due to a misunderstanding a fight was almost triggered with him, but luck managed to smooth things over at the last moment. He is currently working for the village of Sedgely to track a rogue werewolf, believed to be in Caellond. As with all Temphere NPCs, Rochol is played by Tiger.

## History

### The Black Claw Gang

Rochol and his partners, an aaracockra named Shanks and a human named Beatrix, were on the prowl for a rogue werewolf they believed to be loitering in the area. Late one evening, they noticed a group of five strangers camped off the road they were travelling down. Uncertain as to the nature of these campers, Rochol and his group decided to creep up towards them and watch them in the darkness so as to ascertain their motives.

Unfortunately for Rochol, that group of travellers was the Garden Party, and Dahlia spotted the monster hunters from her sentry post up a tree. She warned the rest of the party of the strangers, and believing that the warriors creeping up on them in the dark could only be bandits, the party feigned preparing to go to sleep to get their guard down, then Cree cast Sleep on Shanks.

Panic ensued, with both sides gearing up for a fight. Anther shouted to the strangers that they didn't want to fight, but the message was somewhat undercut by the arrow she was simultaneously firing into the trees. Intended as a warning shot, it lodged into Rochol's shoulder. Anther then called, "this is your last warning!"

To the party's surprise, those words prompted Rochol to stand up, calling out for everyone to stop attacking each other. He'd finally put together what was going on, and despite Beatrix's protests- and Anther's continued inability to comprehend basic diplomacy, such as "not asking the guy I just shot for my arrow back"- he managed to deescalate the situation.

Both sides explained, at least in broad strokes, what they were up to. The party let Rochol know that they'd encountered a lone wolf the night before, very close to their camp, which piqued his interest immediately. Eventually both sides went their separate ways, reassured that nobody was going to have their throats cut in the night.

### Where Wolf?

Rochol and his companions reappeared weeks later in Caellond, much to the surprise of the party. They explained that while they'd found the werewolf the party had encountered, it wasn't the specific one they were interested in. They'd been hired to look for a wolf who'd been terrorizing a village called Sedgely, and had reason to believe it was now in Caellond. They asked the party about anyone who'd come into the village within the last few days, of which the party identified the vagabond Vandoryth and Valanthe's newly hired librarian, Itisko.

Rochol and company covertly asked the party to lure Itisko out into the city at night, so that they could corner her and check if she is a werewolf. Valanthe, upon being informed of this, was not pleased and is contemplating complaining about the issue to the lord of Sedgely.

After a good bit more investigation, during which Rochol became annoyed with the party several times for not playing along with his distressingly aggressive methods of flushing the werewolf, the investigation finally bore fruit. With help from Dahlia's dog Marigold, the party was able to identify that Vandoryth was putting off a wolf smell. Rochol asked the party to lure Vandoryth out to an abandoned tavern called the Ivory Swan. They reluctantly agreed with this plan, and once there Rochol had Shanks shoot a tranquilizer at Vandoryth, triggering him to assume a wolf shape. However, the party noticed that Vandoryth's wolf form seemed to have a broken jaw, an injury which should have healed if he was a werewolf. Cree used Identify to check the magic on Vandoryth, and confirmed that he was not a werewolf, but *was* under the effects of a Wish spell.

Rochol, however, was very dismissive of this information. He asserted that it didn't matter how Vandoryth was able to shape change, he was still a wolf shifter and still needed to be arrested. However, thoroughly losing patience with the hunters at this point, the party objected. They wanted to ask Vandoryth for his side, because it was clear something more than the obvious was going on. Rochol's "nice" façade fractured entirely, and he argued vehemently with the party. It wasn't his job to question Vandoryth or ascertain his guilt, he was just supposed to bring him in. The party finally managed to get him to agree to let them talk to Vandoryth, but it doesn't seem like he's going to be especially cooperative if they decide they want to let him go.

### And the Thunder Rolls

Rochol appeared only briefly, loaning a lightning lance to Fracture to use in the fight against the storm giant quintessant. The party then returned the weapon to him at the end of the adventure.

### Baby Guard Drake Interlude

The party saw nothing of Rochol after returning the lance, until they realized that he and his team were holding Jesper hostage. (They had previously assumed Jesper was in Sedgely.) The party went to check on Jesper, much to Rochol's irritation. He initially tried to brush them off, but when it became clear they wouldn't be dissuaded he gave the party clearance for a brief meeting. Shenanigans promptly ensued, culminating with a very exasperated Rochol having to ask Beatrice to check a cookie for magical tampering and wrestling with Anther over it before he finally kicked them back out again.

## Personality

At first blush, Rochol seems to be a very level-headed, perceptive individual. He isn't one to get into fights that can be avoided, and even when he'd be well within his rights to be upset he seems more given to let bygones be bygones if it means nobody getting hurt. He seems serious and aloof, but well mannered.

However, there are some definite flaws to him as well. It is clear he isn't really interested in monster hunting for the sake of helping people, but instead has a very mercenary attitude towards the trade. He gets impatient with people (such as the party or Kyhur) who want to avoid starting proverbial witch hunts against potential innocents and obstruct his work in the process. He also has the potential to be horrifically callous, referring to Vandoryth as a "beast" and belittling the party for wanting to "give him a chance to sell you on his sob story?" He isn't particularly interested in the truth of a situation, and despite agreeing with the party when they asserted once before that werewolves aren't all evil, was willing to arrest Vandoryth on principle of he turned into a wolf when tranquillized and dismissed figuring out if he was actually guilty or not as Sedgely's job.

## Trivia

* Anther's impulsive actions in the encounter with Rochol became a running gag in the party.
	+ "We don't want to fight- TWANG!"