Chetney Pock O'Pea

 is a gnomish blood hunter and member of Bells Hells. He is played by Travis Willingham.

Appearance
Chetney is an elderly gnome who appears to be "a hundred-and-something" years old. He stands about 3 foot 4 inches and has well-muscled arms. On his right arm is a tattoo of a crown and the letters "RTA", which stand for "Recognize The Alpha". Tufts of silvery-grey hair sprout from and over his ears from under a knitted cap with ear straps pulled down tight on his head. He wears a leather chest harness, pointy-toed boots, and woodworking tools around his waist.

In his werewolf form, Chetney becomes taller, and his silvery-grey hair grows from his entire body. The transformation takes place quickly and results in his bones breaking and realigning and claws ripping through his existing fingernails. His voice is much deeper and gruffer as a werewolf.

Personality
Chetney loves woodworking, especially furniture making and toymaking. He works almost exclusively in wood and scorns the use of metal in craftsmanship; it may have been over this or a similar issue that he left his job in Uthodurn working for Oltgar. His skills as a woodcarver lend him skill in breaking and entering.

Chetney has shown himself willing to volunteer for risky situations within his skillset but hesitant to rush into danger that seems beyond his capability. He is quick to retort, stubborn-willed, and foul-mouthed but perceptive and capable under pressure.

Background
Chetney is a wood craftsman from Uthodurn, regarding himself as a master craftsman. He formerly made furniture but has since mostly found success as a toymaker, becoming particularly good at rocking horses. He worked for Oltgar, who mentored him in toymaking, in a shop in the city's Deliberation Disk. Chetney and Oltgar came into a dispute in 843 PD over a "change in direction", allegedly about no longer working with wood, that drove Chetney to believe that Oltgar "betrayed the very craft". It escalated until Chetney "messed up my employer something fierce" and was chased out of Uthodurn into the surrounding forest by the Glassblades.

A couple months before, while trying to trap food in the forest, he was bitten by a human werewolf, whom he killed, and contracted lycanthropy. Some time after, he was found by members of the Claret Orders. Though they initially tried to kill him, they did not because he could exercise some control over his lycanthropy. He traveled into the Savalirwood, and someone there directed him to find aid for his lycanthropy with Gurge Kisgregg in Jrusar, Marquet. Chetney claimed he was directed by a craftman's guild; however, Chetney was lying about seeking Gurge out for professional woodworking reasons, so this is very possibly not the case. Chetney successfully found Gurge, who shortly grew tired of him and hoped to direct Chetney to the Gorgynei instead. Gurge entered Jrusar to look for Ajit Dayal, who knew of the Gorgynei's location, was kidnapped upon entering Jrusar, leaving Chetney without allies.

Campaign 3: Bells Hells
Chetney witnessed the yet-to-be-named Bells Hells fighting with a spitting mimic outside the Dreamscape Theater. When the party approached him, he asked them for help in finding Gurge. During the fight with Ira Wendagoth in, Chetney transformed into a werewolf and revealed his true intention for finding Gurge, due to them both being cursed with lycanthropy and eager to control their powers.

Dorian Storm
Chetney took a great dislike to Dorian when he met him. However, the two warmed up quickly, and Dorian directly called him a friend and a member of the party when patrolling the Moon Tower. When Dorian left Bells Hells to return to Tal'Dorei, Chetney's parting gift to him was a hand-carved wooden toy skyship.

Fearne Calloway
Chetney immediately liked Fearne.

Fresh Cut Grass
Chetney immediately liked Fresh Cut Grass.

Laudna
Chetney was consistently alarmed by Laudna (though he was hesitantly delighted by Pâté).

Ashton
Chetney's handcrafted carved wooden toy for Ashton was an articulated posable hand.

Notable items

 * Alchemist's supplies
 * Woodcarver's tools
 * Breastplate
 * Chisel (1d6)
 * Parrying hammer, mechanically acts as a shield
 * Map of the Oderan Wilds
 * Boots of Elvenkind
 * Gloves of Thievery
 * Butcher's Bib
 * Horn of Silent Alarm
 * 3 vials of Skirath poison

Former items

 * Eversmoking Bottle, used during the heist at the Twilight Mirror Museum to slow down members of the Verdict, not found as the group left the museum and presumably taken by the Verdict

Feats

 * Shadow Touched (Intelligence)
 * Invisibility (1/Day)
 * Inflict Wounds (1/Day)

Gnome abilities

 * Darkvision
 * Gnome Cunning
 * Subrace: Forest gnome
 * Natural Illusionist: Minor Illusion cantrip
 * Speak with Small Beasts

Blood hunter abilities

 * Hunter's Bane (Hemocraft Die: d6)
 * Blood Maledict (1/rest)
 * Blood Curse of the Marked
 * Fighting Style: Dueling
 * Crimson Rite
 * Rite of the Flame
 * Blood Hunter Order: Order of the Lycan
 * Heightened Senses
 * Hybrid Transformation (Chetney becomes Medium while transformed)
 * Feral Might
 * Resiliant Hide
 * Predatory Strikes
 * Bloodlust
 * Extra Attack

Rogue abilities

 * Expertise: Stealth and one other
 * Sneak Attack (1d6)
 * Thieves Cant

Behind the scenes


Chetney was conceived as a "true, legit" take on the character Chutney Chocolatecane, a Christmas elf Travis played in and in Narrative Telephone ' s "Chutney's Christmas Vacation"; Campaign 3 and the Critical Role special do not share continuity, and the gnome Chetney is distinct from the Christmas elf Chutney.

Chetney bears similar facial scars to his Christmas elf counterpart, and his knit cap alludes to Chutney's Christmas hat; similarly, both are armed with a weaponized wood chisel. As Chutney is a toymaking elf from the North Pole who rues the replacement of wooden toys with plastic ones, so Chetney is a toymaker from the snowbound northern city of Uthodurn who opposes the use of metal instead of wood in craftsmanship. Both Chutney and Chetney committed an act of violence against their former employer (Santa Claus and Oltgar respectively). Snowflakes are also depicted in the animation on Chetney's stat card, a further nod to his inspiration, and Chetney, a blood hunter, was initially stated to be a rogue like Chutney.

Travis wanted Chetney to join the party a little later in the story, so Chetney was not introduced until toward the end of. Instead, Travis played Bertrand Bell (a returning character) until and was absent from the table until Chetney's introduction.

Appearances and mentions

 * Campaign 3, every episode beginning at

Quotations
Laudna: "Are you armed to the teeth?" Chetney: "Yes." Chetney: "I do now."
 * Chetney: (on meeting the party) "You're awfully nice. I mean, I could be fucking armed to the teeth. You don't know me."
 * Chetney: (explaining his woodworking past) "I started with furniture and there wasn't much of a market for that where I was. I wanted to make something that people loved, so I switched to toys. I'm particularly good at making rocking horses."
 * Chetney: "I love working with wood."
 * Chetney: "Woodworking is something I've had a passion for decades, maybe longer. I learned from some of the best." [...] "The wood speaks to you. You just have to be ready to listen."
 * Dorian: (to Chetney) "You have a friend, right? Like a group of friends?"
 * Chetney: (after admitting his lycanthropy to the party) "I won't lie. There are some things that I haven't told you yet, but I'm trusting you more, and I have selfish desires. There are people that need to die, and things that need to be righted, but that's down the road."
 * Chetney, on multiple occasions: (in his mind) "Balls!"

Trivia

 * The animation on both his gnome and his werewolf stat cards is of falling snow.
 * Chetney is one of two members of Bells Hells with darkvision. Because Laudna acquired it magically through her sorcerer subclass, he is the only one who has darkvision naturally.
 * Chetney was introduced in December 2021, apt given his roots in a Christmas-themed one-shot.
 * The RTA tattooed on Chetney's right shoulder stands for "Recognize the Alpha"; Matt emphasized in-universe that the concept of wolves having an alpha is based on outdated and disproven research popularized in The Wolf by L. David Mech, who has since disavowed the book's premise.