• Mature • Doctor Devin, Part 3

[Devin]

Part 1
Part 2

Vhalar 18, Arc 719

On the evening of the 18th of Vhalar, Devin Thorn, thief, conman extraordinaire and priest of Delroth snuck down a hallway in the Medicine House, towards the room where the medicine women kept their most potent and valuable medicines, as quickly and quietly as possible. For the first time since he had started working as a “specialist for Northern Medicine”, he couldn’t hear or see anybody nearby.

To-trial would be the trial that he would finally get his prize!

He rounded a corner – the storage room was only a few metres away – and abruptly collided with someone that was walking in the opposite direction at a brisk pace. He let out a small yelp of pain, followed by a curse because his plan to rob the Medicine House had been thwarted once again, and then he finally took a closer look at the other person, freezing in shock as he did so.

It was none other than Tey’droa, the scary old medicine woman that was in charge of the Medicine House!

What was she still doing here?

Tey’droa glared at him as if she blamed him for their little accident before she asked, in Common because Devin’s Xanthea still left a lot to be desired, and she didn’t want to have to constantly repeat what she said, “Doctor Hawthorne, what are you still doing here?”

“I was looking for you, Tey’droa!” Devin claimed, smiling the brightest smile that he was capable of and resisted the urge to rub his chest where the medicine woman had crashed into him.

He was panicking slightly.

Was the old hag suspicious of him or was he just imagining things?

“My last patient has gone home, so I wanted to ask you if I could help you. I want to learn more about what kind of medical problems you deal with here in Desnind!” he told the old woman.

“Hrmm”, Tey’droa grumbled, considering him. “Well, follow me then, Doctor Hawthorne. You can assist me with an autopsy. One of the patients just died, and we need to determine the cause of his death. His symptoms were unfortunately … somewhat confusing.”

Devin nodded enthusiastically and walked after her, further and further away from all the fun medicines he would be able to sell for a lot of money on the black market – if only he managed to steal them.

He was panicking even more now.

She wanted him to help her with an autopsy?

He had no idea how to perform one!

[Devin]

“I see that your hand is not bandaged anymore, Doctor Hawthorne”, Tey’droa remarked as they walked down the hallway together.

“I took the bandage off this morning. My hand’s fine again”, Devin claimed and smiled brightly as if he were just so very relieved.

In truth, he had never injured his hand.

He had only wrapped a bandage around it so that Tey’droa wouldn’t make him operate on somebody – because he had no idea how to actually perform a surgery.

A few breaks earlier, he had taken his bandage off because he had planned on quitting his job at the Medicine House later that trial, as soon as he had emptied the storage room.

Except that it seemed as if he would have to stay here for another little while, at least if he didn’t want to leave with empty hands.

If he stayed, someone might find out that he had been lying and alert the authorities though!

Help!

He didn’t want to go to prison!

Maybe he should just run!

~~~

“Here we are”, Tey’droa said a few moments later, opened a door. She handed Devin a surgical mask and a pair of protective gloves, and he realized that it was too late to run now.

Maybe he could fake an epileptic fit if everything else failed though?

He eyed the surgical mask and the gloves for a moment with a look of utter disgust – they were incredibly ugly and didn’t match the rest of his outfit at all - before he put them on.

As much as he hated being unfashionable, he didn’t really want to contract a disease either.

He wasn’t sure if you could contract a disease from a dead body, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

His heart was beating a bit more quickly as he took a look around the room that the medicine woman had taken him to.

It resembled the rooms where he normally treated his patients, except that the person on the examination table was obviously not moving and covered by some sort of black cloth.

Upon seeing that, he momentarily forgot that he was supposed to fear for his life and freedom, and his curiosity got the better of him.

He came closer and lifted the cloth a bit in order to look at what was under it.

A moment later, he let go of the cloth again abruptly, a look of utter terror on his face.

He had few, if any problems with dead bodies – he’d seriously considered becoming a necromancer back when he had still been living on Scalvoris after all – but by Delroth, he hadn’t expected that!

[Devin]

The man was a middle-aged Sev’ryn, with … well, his skin had probably been a nice, uniform caramel colour at one point, but now it was covered with green splotches. His hair was green as well, and what more, there were huge, disgusting red boils on his head!

There was something about him that vaguely reminded Devin of something he had seen – and experienced - before, but he was too busy being terrified to think about it further. He was actually so busy being terrified that he forgot all about how he had been about to have a panic attack because Tey’droa had asked him to help her with the autopsy.

When the medicine woman produced a scalpel and proceeded to cut the body open, he stood slightly behind her, watching her with a mixture of fear - and fascination because he had never seen what people looked on the inside before. Come to think of it, most people probably didn’t look like that on the inside, he realized.

The man’s insides were covered with green splotches, and there were more disgusting boils and such, but there was surprisingly little blood. Was that normal or did dead people not bleed anymore?

He didn’t have time to ponder that question any further as Tey’droa abruptly thrust a pair of surgical instruments into his hands and told him, “Keep the chest cavity open while I remove his organs, will you, Doctor Hawthorne? I need to take a closer look at them.”

For a moment, Devin was actually relieved because he wouldn’t have to do the actual cutting and organ-removing as he had feared after all (he didn’t know how to do that), and then he realized that he would have to get much closer to the boils in order to keep the chest cavity open.

Oh no!

[Devin]

A moment later, Devin looked at what was probably either a lung or a liver (he couldn’t tell the two organs apart – but he knew what a heart looked like which was something he was rather proud of). Tey’droa stood next to them and looked at him. “Do you have any idea what he might have been suffering from, Doctor Hawthorne?” she asked.

Devin felt as if this were some sort of exam, and if he failed, he would be sent straight to prison.

“Ummm”, he murmured and scratched his head as he tried to think of a halfway acceptable answer. His head … that was it! Back when he had still been living in Scalvoris, he had volunteered as a test subject for that crazy alchemist once. What had been his name? Petyr … Petyr Lovan!

The man’s potion had given him a terrible allergic reaction, and what more, it had temporarily turned his hair blue!

If alchemy could turn someone’s hair blue, it could probably also turn their hair green, right?

“Alchemy!” he exclaimed. “Maybe he drank a potion, and the potion didn’t work as intended, but ended up killing him. I have some experience with alchemy, and I saw a similar case once”, he explained and smiled all over his face, mentally congratulating himself on his great idea.

The old medicine woman raised an eyebrow before she remarked, “That’s … possible. I’ll be honest, Doctor Hawthorne. I wasn’t sure about you when you first came here, especially when you failed to provide a diploma, but you may be a decent doctor after all, even if some of your methods are a little … unorthodox”, she decided.

“I’ll stitch him back up now”, she informed him and produced a needle. “And then we’ll need to talk to his family – and see if we can find the potion-maker in question!”

Devin grinned because he quite liked being praised – and decided that he would try again in a trial or two.

Maybe he’d finally be able to steal something from the storage room then!

[Pig Boy]

Devin

Points

10/10 no magic

Knowledge

Stealth: Sneaking down a hallway
Endurance: Colliding with another person hurts
Medicine: Wear protective gloves when you handle dead bodies
Medicine: Performing an autopsy helps determine the cause of someone’s death
Medicine: Probable cause of death: Alchemy
Medicine: Dead people don’t bleed a lot

Loot/losses

--

Wealth

--

Renown

10 for helping with an autopsy and making a diagnosis into the bargain!

Comments: Devin's narrative really flows with a delightful exuberance that really brings the character alive when we get to the dialogue! He's such a funny and quirky character, even though he's a conman, it's hard not to like him. Which I guess is half the point when you're conning people! Maybe he'll learn enough about medicine that he'll actually con himself into helping another person out. Great writing here.

Let me know if there's any issue with this review.