Anders Roth

Anders Roth is a male human cleric NPC in the Om campaign.

Anders Roth is a traveling cleric of Charno. He was present at Midway Inn during the murder of Harn Bronzeaxe and the subsequent attempted mutiny by Davin Firth and the battle against the creature summoned by Harn’s acolytes. He remained at Midway after these events, essentially becoming the resident cleric.

## Background

Little is known of Anders Roth’s past, he was a wandering cleric of Charno and had befriended the gnomish bard Hibblepibb the Hilarious in his travels. By Gatekeeper of 465 he had made his way to Midway Inn. He appeared to like the inn and made little secret of his desire to settle down there as the local resident cleric, in spite of the fact that the position was already filled by a cleric of Morin named Harn Bronzeaxe.

## A Vision from Charno

Anders received a vision from Charno telling him that great change would be coming to this realm and that only those who followed the true faith of Charno would be spared. The Bull told him that it was inevitable that many would perish and that the change coming was unavoidable. Anders saw vision after vision of smoking ruins and death, but then among the carnage he was shown a great golden bull stranding as a barrier to protected those who paid homage to Charno.

Based on the vision he traveled into the Kirathi Forest near a haunted wood and located an ancient Irda ritual buried with a number of old elvish artifacts.

At some point in his investigations he seems to have become aware of the existence of The Triad and possibly the efforts of their followers to bring them back to Om.

## Murder of Harn Bronzeaxe

On the 13th of Gatekeeper, Harn Bronzeaxe was murdered. Gryff Stonepusher, Harn’s chief acolyte, quickly pointed the finger at Hibblepibb and Anders, claiming that the former despised dwarves and that the latter wished to usurp his position.

The Royal Explorers assisted First Rider Davin Firth, the leader of Brightblades (the local guard), in the investigation, but the acolytes vowed that as soon as Harn’s burial rights were attended to that they would enact their own justice if the First Rider did not arrest the guilty parties. As a precaution for their own safety, the Royal Explorers asked HIbblepibb and Anders to secure themselves in the local jail so that they would not be subject to vigilante justice. Reluctantly, the two agreed.

Anders was soon released however as Davin Firth claimed to have found definitive evidence of Hibblepibb’s guilt. For his part, the gnome declared his innocence and swore he was being framed. The Royal Explorers ultimately unearthed that First Rider Davin himself had murdered Harn after losing a huge sum of money to him and being further shamed by the cleric, and then framed Hibblepibb to cover his crime.

To further cover up his cover up, Firth convinced most of the Brightblades that Midway’s owner, Varis Dorn, the Royal Explorers and the caravan they were escorting were all Orlesean spies and had to be killed. He led an attack upon them, but it was cut short when Fynnhanar detonated a fireball in their midst, killing most of the Brightblades and horribly wounding Firth. Varis promptly executed Firth and all seemed to be resolved.

Anders began to administer healing to those still alive and wounded, but suddenly from within the temple a horrible roar emerged. Gryff Stonepusher and his acolytes had summoned a spirit of justice to avenge their master, but what was conjured instead was a horrible monster that slew the dwarves and raised them as undead.

Anders fought in the subsequent battle against the undead and the creatures. He speculated that the veil between the world and the realms beyond may have been weaker in the area due to ancient Irda experiments, causing Gryff’s ritual to go wrong.

## After the Mutiny

In the aftermath of Davin Firth’s attempted mutiny at Midway Inn, the structure there was in chaos. Varis Dorn, the owner of Midway, was escorted back to Waymere by Captain Hunter Brynan to answer to Duke Agrippa for his extrajudicial execution of Firth. Harn Bronzeaxe was dead as were all his acolytes, leaving no cleric, and the Brightblades were left at less than half strength and without a leader.

Anders took the now vacant position as the resident cleric and worked closely with the senior Brightblade left, Aster the Lucky, to attempt to rebuild the Brightblades and keep things running.

Varis Dorn did not return from Waymere after a few weeks, and Anders decided he was not going to return, and so claimed ownership of Midway Inn.

He initiated the construction of an enormous golden statue of a bull in honor of Charno, as he had seen in his visions. Anders also renamed the Brightblades to Charno's Fist. He seemed to be using potions to essentially force the laborers to work nearly endlessly at a breakneck pace, arguably controlling and enslaving them to do his bidding.

## After the Battle of Waymere

After the Battle of Waymere many refugees came to Midway, and it was almost immediately filled to capacity. Anders ordered that skilled craftsmen who could continue construction on the statue could find refuge, but that most others would need to move on. He did agree to sell what supplies he could to the refugees, but did charge an exorbitant price for the service.

On the 23rd of Twins Jasper Conroy led a massive convoy of three thousand refugees from the Battle of Waymere to Midway. Some of the skilled craftsmen were allowed into Midway to find residence, but the rest were denied entrance. Anders and Jasper parlayed and Anders agreed to sell enough food for the caravan to reach Dunkirk in exchange for 5,000 gold coins.

Shortly after Jasper departed, however, the bull statue was blown down by an enormous wind and there were possible signs of sabotage.

## Conflict with the Fate Fighters Mercenary Company

Sometime in the month of Minstrel, Penelope Strong and Margot, from the Fate Fighters Mercenary Company, scouted Midway Inn to try to determine what Anders Roth was up to. They found that Roth had taken the enormous golden statue and had it made into several smaller statues, and that most of the refugees he had taken in had been sacrificed for to animate them.

Upon reporting back the leadership at Stonewatch Abbey launched a campaign against Midway Inn to bring him to justice. The campaign was successful in that it destroyed the animated golems and Roth's forces, however Roth himself escaped.