Doctor Fodd's page

Hey guys, I'd really love to take over the campaign, but there's a few problems.

One is that I'm already DMing several other campaigns on these boards, and I'm a player in a few more. I hate to admit it, but I think I'm at capacity DM-wise.

Another is that I had no idea how the plot of this campaign was intended to go. I don't know how to work the clues together, what the characters Boneshaker introduced signify...anything. It'd be very difficult for me to pick up the story where it left off, and have it all "hang together."

I hate to say it, but I can't take over the leadership of this campaign. Sorry guys.

Indeed I do. Give me until the end of the week to plan out how the campaign will resume/continue on, so I don't write myself into a corner. I'll keep this train moving.

I got the message about taking over the campaign and I'd like everyone to know that I'm considering it. It wouldn't be easy to do so, because I honestly had no idea how this mystery would play out, but I really like the characters and setting we have here, so I may just be a DM and PC at the same time, or make Doctor Fodd an NPC.

Agreed, the campaign concept was really killer and the cast of characters was interesting. I might take over the campaign myself if the DM is gone for good.

"Undoubtedly ingested. I was unable to find any puncture wounds, or wounds of any kind, on the animal's body. This led me to deduce that the dog was fed poisoned food. I would keep an eye out for any food offered to you on this journey." The alchemist's voice is grim, as he thinks back to the dinner he had enjoyed in his private train car only hours before. The shepherd's pie and greens now rest uneasily in his stomach. Could I be like Fido here in a few hours? he thinks to himself, worried.

"It seems as if there is yet another weapon that we must account for," the Doctor says, rising to his feet. "I have reason to believe the dog was poisoned."

As a PbP DM myself, I've been there. Hope you're feeling better.

Yes, I had hoped to get some results from my inspection of the dog's body. It appears our GM is busy with something else?

I never post on the weekends at all, I sympathize :)

As he examines the surrounding area closely, Fodd glances back up at the dwarf behind him. "Do your arcane senses detect anything amiss in this train car, Grayarhmun?" he asks.

Sorry, I was very busy at work yesterday and exhausted after. Here now!

The Doctor narrows his eyes as he looks at the closed windows. He subtly presses the toes of his shoes into various spots in the carpet, feeling out for dry spots to determine the overall shape of the wet area. While he's doing this, he studies the poodle by walking over closely to it, checking its fur for blood and wounds, and if he fails to find any of those, checking the throat for signs of being strangled by the rope.

Fodd first notes the squishy floor and glances to either side of the car to see if windows had been left open. If they were, then the simple explanation of rain coming in would suffice. If not...something else was at play...

His thoughts are jarred by the presence of the dead poodle in the corner. "Whose dog is that?" he asks, by way of greeting. His sunglasses are back on, and they gleam in the dim light. Does the dog have any evident stab wounds I can tell from just glancing at it? Is there matted fur around its neck that could be consistent with strangulation?

The Doctor had been listening and nodding silently in reaction to the back-and-forth of the conversation. At Gryarhmun's urging, he moves away from the rain-slicked window and toward the main body of the train.

"We would be happy to help you investigate, sir," the large alchemist rumbles. Sotto voce, he asks the guard leading them through the train cars... "What can you tell me about the cause of death? Was there a struggle?"

Just an FYI to you GM, I don't post much on the weekends, that's when I have my infant son in my custody and that's daddy time. :) I try to make up for it by being extra active during the work week, when I'm supposed to be working (or on my lunch break, like now)

The Doctor moves to one of the windows, facing the shantytown, and stares thoughtfully out at the rain. Gradually, his eyes adjust to the darkness, but he's no elf; he can barely make out anything in the field below.

He lifts the window pane up to open it wide and sticks his head out of the window, peering to his left, trying to see if any of the cars farther up the train have retained power.

The Doctor rises from his chair at last, removing his sunglasses and pocketing them. Underneath his bulky red jacket, numerous jury-rigged pockets contain his alchemical equipment. His sense of paranoia ensured that he was never far from what he needed to do his work.

"Do we know anything about this area we are passing through? I thought I saw a map mounted somewhere farther up in the train cars as I was led through to the caboose..."

His voice trails off. [b]"No matter. It would not do to race blindly off the tracks, only for the train to start up again and leave us behind. At least give Miss Kelly time to don her armor. I think Gryahrmun speaks wisely."

Fodd's hands tighten on the armrests of his chair, but he does not rise.

"Quiet!" he commands, urgently to the darkness of the car. "Listen..."

Closing his eyes against the blackness, he focuses his attention on what he's hearing. Even when Nicholas comes back with his lantern, he listens, trying to hear anything that might be approaching. Any audible clues regarding what's about to happen?

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

The Doctor's eyebrows rise up slightly and his lips part in a smile at Nicholas, but apart from nodding his head in acknowledgement of the young man's halfhearted greeting, he says nothing. He continues smiling as he rubs his chin in thought, his sunglasses aimed at the apple.

Sweet. Welcome back.

"I confess my ignorance as well. It was high time for another adventure to take me far from home, and I assumed that the details would be made clear in time." the doctor chuckles a little. "In the meantime, I love trains. The longer the trip, the better. I just love seeing the countryside fly by as I ride in comfort. I must differ from your opinion on that, Master Dwarf," he comments to Gryahrmun.

Fodd gently lifts Kelly's hand even as he bows before her in introduction, flashing his brownish eyes for a brief instant over his sunglasses as he turns his head to look up at Juliet.

"Chemistry and its sister field, Alchemy, are my fields of study, madam," Fodd replies, smiling broadly down at the smaller woman as he straightens back up to his full, towering height. "I'm very familiar with the nocturnal sleeping habits of the intellectually possessed! Ha ha!" He laughs at his own wit once again. His conspiratorial wink that he flashes at Juliet can't be seen in his eyes, hidden as they are behind his round glasses, but rather in the wrinkling of skin around one eye.

The Doctor gestures at the chairs in the sleeping car's common area, before taking a seat himself, next to the Dwarf. "And what intellectual curiosities keep a sharp-looking young woman such as yourself up at all hours of the night, I wonder?" he asks, stroking his hairless chin.

"Ah, so my reputation precedes me? Hmmm, ahhh, I am of but modest renown," the tall alchemist replies, adjusting his sunglasses with a small smile. "I assure you, the pleasure is all mine."

The door to the caboose car crashes open and the light from the exterior of the cars casts a dark silhouette across the floor of the room that the dwarf and human had been speaking in. Fodd stands there a moment, his bulky frame darkening the doorway, before stepping inside and slamming the door shut behind him with a loud BANG.

"Good evening," the doctor offers them, taking heavy steps toward them both until the alchemist stands less than a yard away. He wears dark, circular sunglasses that completely obscure both of his eyes. His lips are dry, and he licks them briefly before speaking. "I beg your pardon for confining myself away from socializing over the past day. I have been...feeling unwell, and had...restrained myself to my quarters out of concern for the health of my compatriots." He makes a show out of dabbing his wide-set nose with a handkerchief he pulls from his waistcoat. Like the rims of his sunglasses, the handkerchief is golden yellow. It appears to be made of silk, embroidered with a complex repeating design.

"I have convalesced, however, and am anxious to make the acquaintances of my traveling mates. It would not do to simply lurk in my sleeping area all day and night this whole trip, eh?" he laughs loudly at the end of his own sentence, revealing large teeth on his upper and lower jaw.

"I am Doctor Fodd. Pleasure to meet you both."

I'll be here on the 27th, chums. If anyone's thirsty in the meantime, don't hesitate to ask for an extract from your pal, Doctor Fodd. *grin*

If you'll allow it Boneshaker, I'd be happy to whip up some healing extracts!

I also took the trait that allows me to Use Magic Device with Int, so I'll be useful in that regard as well.

I guess I'm that mystery 5th man that Boneshaker alluded to in the recruitment thread. Doctor Fodd here, and I'm changing my class (and my backstory, somewhat) to accommodate this party's need for some sexual spiritual healing. Haven't fully settled on a class yet, but it'll be support-y.

Yes, the experience he earned while "leveling up from 1 to 2" (in the mechanical sense) was enough to earn him great renown. His history was just one of the things that Christoph had to study closely in order to steal his identity.

None of Fodd's former adventuring party members live in Crasmere, though. That's why it was on the top of his list of places to start to build a new life in.

I don't see a discussion thread linked yet, so I'll drop what I have for Doctor Fodd's backstory here.

The alchemist wears dark, perfectly circular sunglasses at almost all times to conceal the true colors of his eyes. There were those who would be observant enough to note that the good Doctor adventurer was renowned for his eyes of green; and those famously good-looking eyes were now brown.

Every other detail was perfect. The gait, the larger-than-normal body type (for a human,) the hair, even their voices matched. They could have been long-lost brothers; for all the large man knew, they were. The fact that the original Doctor Fodd was an alchemist, experimenting with strength-boosting serums, created a plausible explanation for allowing his inner wolf to show through from time to time. This final detail sealed his fate.

The man now posing as Doctor Cornelius Fodd was in fact born under the name Christoph Derander. Born to a single mother in desperate poverty, and possessing a superhuman appetite even at an early age, life was hard on Christoph. It became even harder when his mother offered him up as sacrifice to a witch's coven, out of pure desperation. The experiments the witches performed on young Christoph were abominable, but they produced one positive result - the ability to shapeshift into a half-human, half-wolf hybrid, at will. This transformation, though...unpleasant to go through, awakened a fierce desire for independence in him. He planned his escape from the coven's clutches for months before setting his plan in action, but he still bears some of the scars from his escape, hidden now under his many layers of clothing. Wounded but free, and with the rage of the abandoned witches howling at his back, he set out into the world. He was determined to live on his own, but possessing no friends and fewer social skills, he was not successful in carving out any success for himself. He sank into the same poverty that afflicted his mother.

It was then that Cornelius Fodd, famous adventuring alchemist, happened to cross his path, while Christoph was sweeping a chimney for pennies. Seeing the man that so closely resembled him, obviously living a life of comfort and ease, made him seethe. He resolved to steal the Doctor's life, identity, and therefore success, lifting him out of the life of poverty and desperation he had always known. One thing the jobless man had plenty of was time - and he used it well, studying not only Doctor Fodd's mannerisms and body language, but also his profession, developing a keen interest in alchemy in the process. His teachers were hedge-witches that performed minor magic in back alleys, or what few books he could steal from Fodd's extensive library. When he felt he could slip into the other man's shoes well enough to fool even his family, he struck, sneaking into Fodd's house and murdering him in his sleep.

Everything went so well at first. He even maintained friendships with the men that Doctor Fodd had known, such as the old gnome, Sanji Hancock, and his young ward Chimp. It all came crashing down, however, when a winsome young alchemy student named Esmerelda Faribault furrowed her brow in consternation one day, and observed to him the newly changed color of his irises. No alchemy experiment caused permanent iris discoloration, she said. It was one of the base truisms of the craft...how had he done it? Derander cursed inwardly, and debated murdering the student, but decided that a hasty lie and a new life of adventuring was the better way to go. He's on his way to Crasmere to start a new life, using Fodd's resources and identity. He now goes so far as to think of himself as Cornelius Fodd, even when alone, nowadays.

Being a secret werewolf is my justification for going Beastmorph Alchemist. I'm actually just allowing my inner wolf to come through slightly whenever I alter self using a mutagen!

Minor change - dropping Vivisectionist but keeping Beastmorph, to give myself a little more flexibility by keeping my Bombs and sacrificing the raw damage of Vivisectionist's sneak attacks. Still keeping the same playstyle, only I'll be able to throw bombs whenever I'm not able to get in melee.

Doctor Fodd here, alchemist avatar for DM Mooshybooshy.