[Darksword]

I just began doing the little quests around the Castle in Ch4. It was early in the morning, and Keroloth was standing by the fire when I got the quest from him and also when I brought his purse back to him. I'm a Dragon Hunter, and there is no option but to say the dragon hunters are responsible, because if Nameless is cheeky to Keroloth and Keroloth attacks him, all the other militia and paladins join in. So, as soon as I say the dragon hunters are the suspects, Keroloth and all the other Innos guys go and attack the Dragon Hunter Rathon who is also near the fire, and the whole thing goes crazy.

On the other hand, I reloaded and did the Jan as smith quest first and by the time it was done, Keroloth had started training his guys again. Rathon had walked away from the area, and Jan was smithing. This time, when Nameless said the dragon hunters were responsible, Keroloth went for Jan, and Nameless could take him down without all the other guys attacking.

I think it was the time of day that was important. But it might have been completing the Jan as smith quest before bringing the purse to Keroloth, I don't have a save game to go back and experiment, as when I tried to reload my first Keroloth quest save game, the save wouldn't load and I crashed out of NotR, and the same thing happened every time I tried to reload that game.

So I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts: time of day, or Jan as smith, or both? Thank you all.

[Zephir]

Keroloth's preferred target is Ferros. If Ferros isn't close enough, he attacks Jan instead. Rethon is his last choice.
So it's mainly a matter of distance, though I'm not exactly sure how close "close enough" is.

[Darksword]

That's interesting. What worried me about the attack on Rathon was that as soon as Nameless joined in and attacked Keroloth, all Keroloth's buddies attacked Nameless. But perhaps that happened because I mistakenly hit someone else first, it was a mob scene.

[dorfbengelchen]

You can tactically (ab)use Keroloth to your advantage.

There is the quest of the smith asking you to bring him dragon trophies for the dragon-hunter's armour. And then - to your surprize - demanding 12.000 pc of gold.
The hero expresses his discontent due to the fact that he had helped Jan to become smith and being like "ungrateful".

In this situation i thought: "ok, let him see what that greed is good for". Pay him and THEN go to Keroloth and say that you suspected the dragon-hunters.
He will then go after Jan and for sure knock him down. You can then loot Jan's body and get back your gold and a penalty charge overmore