The 'Doctor''s page

I'm still here. Though given that's it's been almost two months with no word, I'm guessing the DM isn't going to come back. :-(

I am still around.

My condolences to you.

Seems like the communal version would be more appropriate? I can learn the non-communal version and make extracts of it, but I'd only be able to make 2 and sadly, I do not yet have the Brew Potion feat. We would probably need a lot of it if we wanted to hit all the soldiers though. Or we could also try to just hit the captains/leaders, but that might be harder to target depending on how they get their meals.

I would suggest we try one of the more slow-acting poisons, but I suspect our options on the poison front are going to be somewhat limited. Right now I only have 3 doses of poison on me (belladonna), so we might only really have access to what the local alchemist happens to have.

Oh, speaking of, adding to the list of things we should do:
6) Stop that local alchemist from suppling whatever alchemical supplement he's currently working on to the military.

Yes, that's basically what I meant for the arrows. :-)

Looking back, we were told we had 2-4 weeks to do this (minus I think we've been here about 2 days). There are 200 quivers, so we'll want to do about 17 (for 12 days) to 8 (for 26 days) quivers a day. If we have more splitting the group like what we're currently doing, Rose and Talia can be all sneaky sneak while Kelvar and me cut up arrows. Not sure how long it would take to cut the arrowheads off of a quiver of arrows. I would guess using something similar to a pair of bolt cutters or sheers would be quickest. We could also probably put on thick gloves to avoid getting cut and just snap the heads off.

Since there are "five" in our group (including Timeon), I tend to lean towards buying a multiple of 5 (so 10-15 quivers worth) for our upcoming "long journey". We could also maybe get Rose to tell Timeon to practice archery as a semi-visible thing. Depending on how we want to do the poison (buy/steal from alchemist vs maybe attempt to look around outside for ingredients), we could also go hunting a few times with bows. Though given all the snow, I'm not sure if there are likely to be plants I could actually harvest to make poison.

If we want to cut up the arrows, another thing we can do is buy a couple of sets and cut them up in our room (assuming they look more or less the same). Then swap them out for the ones in their armory and repeat the process. Or if we think they're unlikely to notice a few out of 200 quivers gone, we could skip buying our own arrows. It's more time sneaking in, but less time in the keep. Or maybe I'm just over thinking it.

For 3, I think ideally we'd arrange it for Mott to walk in on Kaitlyn and Zach mid-act. That way it's solid proof and if anything is going to push one to kill the other, that would probably be how. We could also maybe try to stir up his emotions beforehand to try to prime his rage.

Hmm, so thus far we've found a way to get to their food supply (AKA poison it) and arrows to burn. My guess is we can poison the food whenever since it's likely more for an "in case of emergencies" type thing. I'm wondering if we should wait on burning the arrows until close to the siege though; not sure how often that room is checked upon. We could also try to make it less obvious that the arrows are sabotaged, say by cutting off all the arrow heads or trying to build something that makes it look like the quivers are full when it's really only the end of the arrow that's intact.

Back in their room, the Doctor and Kelvar undergo a bonding montage. They braid each other's long illusory hair. Paint each others' nails. Gossip about cute people and what the girls are up to. Try on each others' clothing (because for some reason it didn't occur to them to use their headbands for this). And, of course, have a slow motion pillow fight in their PJs.

With a jolt the Doctor comes awake, using his writing desk as a pillow. He quickly checks his nails to assure himself that they're paint-free. Phew, just a nightmare. He shakes his head, yawning. Clearly it was time to put away his crude maps and get some real sleep. They could catch up with their companions in the morning.

As Rose drinks the odorless, tasteless potion, there's a distinct feeling of her throat constricting. The sensation grows, squeezing her throat tighter and tighter until it starts to spread out to the rest of her body. Her chest compresses, forcing what air she had out of her lungs. The rest of her body follows suit, the pressure moving out from her center. Soon it feels like she's at the bottom of the ocean. There's no air to be had, just vast amounts of intense force flattening her body. One instant she's but a two-dimensional cut out and the next she is gone entirely. At that point the pressure thankfully lets up, allowing her to gain a much needed breath of air.

The Doctor hands two vials that almost look like they're completely empty. Only by shaking it and seeing the slight movement of the meniscus is it possible to tell that they are otherwise. "There you go. Just be aware that they pack a bit of a punch." He tries not to look too pleased by that statement, moving his hand to push his glasses further up his nose. "Try not to make any noise when you drink them. And if you don't mind, bring the vials back intact, so I can reuse them. I would offer to escort you or play lookout, but the more people sneaking around there are, the more likely someone is to get caught."

When the group is ready to head out, he then makes his way back to his room to begin sketching out a rough map of the places he had visited that day.

"Oh, I already have that formula; picked it up from that shrieking mushroom thing earlier. It's just an either-or in terms of giving us darkvision or invisibility. In this case since supplies are already low, it makes more sense to use resources on invisibility and just give that to those who already can see at night. And since Andrel plans to show you where to go, he can use invisibility initially and you can each keep a potion on yourselves to use at your discretion, should the need arise. But yes, eventually perhaps I'll make us some stylish glasses to help instead."

The Doctor strokes his fake beard at the mention of stew. "Yes, that will be a good thing to add some 'spice' to. We will likely want to wait until closer to our little party. And perhaps make sure we don't get some unwanted crashers with medical knowledge to ruin our fun."

The Doctor continues making small talk with the dwarves for some time, but eventually excuses himself, saying perhaps they will meet again the next day. He then goes to his room to prepare for their evening outing.

When the group is together in one of their rooms.
"My day's studies were fruitful; I was able to master the art of invisibility. Unfortunately, I'm only able to make two a day. I'm not sure how many times Andrel may be able to produce a similar effect, but mine will only last around 4 minutes. I suspect that that is hardly enough time to do a proper investigation, so it may be best to reduce the number of people who go on this little trip. Perhaps those who are well suited to seeing in the dark? I don't know if there will be torches and carrying our own would likely be counterproductive to my extract."

As they wait for the drinks, the Doctor introduces himself. "Call me Nicholas. And hopefully all the repairs are simple, run of the mill maintenance? Though I suppose it must be a decent-sized job if they were willing to drag you all away from your homes to work on it. Otherwise surely they would have simply used locals. Unless they needed your special dwarven expertise for something?"

When the drinks arrive, he politely excuses himself, leaving Barnabus to talk amongst his companions. Off in some hidden corner, he hastily mixes up an extract and downs it. He then wanders back, ostensibly to observe/learn the card game, but actually to try to eavesdrop on Barnabus' conversation. Spending a minute to mix up a comprehend languages extract and drink it.

In case Andrel did not wish to risk his blossoming friendship with the local guard by approaching the dwarves, the Doctor takes it upon himself to approach them instead. "Friends, what brings you to this fine establishment in such a good mood? Are you celebrating something? It certainly makes a marked change in the atmosphere of this place. Come, let me buy your all a drink." He waves to a server to bring over a round of ale for the dwarves.

Ok, sg. In that case I spent 6 hours copying invisibility and undetectable alignment in to my spell book. I can do detect thoughts tomorrow.

Finally ready for a break after several hours diligently examining the nuances of the new formula, the Doctor pays the alchemist for the information he gained with the promise to come back the next day. His stomach gives an unhappy growl as it reminds me that breakfast was oh so long ago, so he heads back to the inn for a late lunch.

After lunch, he spends a few hours walking around. Not looking for rumors so much as simply getting a lay for the land. He does his best to commit the different paths and locations to memory, so that he could sketch a crude map later.

When dinner time rolls around, he heads back, ready to meet with his companions.

Not sure if this is the kind of thing I can take 10 on or not. If I can, that is that I'd do since the DC is 22 and 17 for the two checks and both my Spellcraft and Craft(Alchemy) are +12

So if I can't take 10, I actually failed 2/3 of the decipher checks. Not sure if I can retry and what implications that has for paying to copy formulas.

Their brief sync up finished, the Doctor heads towards the alchemist's store once again. When he arrives he exchanges a few banal pleasantries with the man, but rather quickly gets down to business. He manages to knock off the first formula with little difficulty, but ends up having trouble concentrating for the other two.

"Well, it'll be a bit easier to have a look around after I learn a few new tricks from the local alchemist. As such, I would suggest tonight at the earliest. And if we believe it would be more worthwhile to check it out during the day, then I would say tomorrow. But anyway, learning some new formulas is the bulk of my plan for today. And probably the next couple of days as well. I'm afraid it's a bit of a lengthy process."

@DM: Just double checking, you said here that it's 1 day per formula? Just want to make sure that's accurate since I thought it was normally 1 hour per spell level

Night

The Doctor strokes his fake beard. "If you said we were doing this tonight, the answer would be 'no'. However, after I try to learn some new formulas from that alchemist, I may be able to. Probably won't last much longer, but we could supplement with multiple doses."

Morning
Finally away from the unnerving rocking of that ship, the Doctor slept quite well that night. He wasn't the early riser his roommate was, but his excitement of learning new spells encouraged him to wake up a bit earlier than he might otherwise. He was up in time for Timeon to bring them breakfast and joined Kelvar in their trek to the girls' room to update them and plan the day's activities.

Rose was sitting up in bed. She let Talia answer the door after arranging herself in such a way as to seem perfectly disarrayed and demure, clutching the thin sheet high, but somehow still managing to show a great deal of skin. The expression on her face was one of surprise, worry and mild embarrassment.

When their late-night visitor was revealed to be the Doctor, she rolled her eyes, huffed and flopped back down on her pillow, all her seductive pretense gone in an instant.

"He's not here.' Rose grumped. "He's probably just out snooping around somewhere, or meeting with some dumb local to blow off some steam."

The Doctor seems oblivious to Rose's temporary attempt at seduction. "Yes, I suppose you're most likely correct. If it were malicious, I doubt his weapon would have disappeared a moment after he did. There also probably would have been a struggle unless it was some kind of high level teleportation magic, though I see no reason why we would be the target of such a thing." At least, not yet anyway. "I'll spend a few moments looking around to see if I can tell where he went, but otherwise hold off on summoning the hounds unless he's still gone in the morning." The Doctor joins Talia in checking out the room. He then spends maybe ten minutes attempting unsuccessfully to determine where his "guard" had run off to before returning to his room and his study of the various documents they had in their possession. Or I guess he enters the room and sees Kelvar depending on how long that little excursion went on.

"Oh, you're back. Next time a heads up might be useful, so we know you haven't been kidnapped. Was your little trip interesting?"

The Doctor blinks. "Uhhh, Andrel, buddy? You heading out for a night stroll? A little warning would be nice..." He opens the door to look out. He vaguely recalled him mentioning being able to turn invisible, but surely he would have at least said something before suddenly vanishing? Clearly, something more was afoot.

Probably? not seeing his companion in the hallway, the Doctor goes to knock on Rose and Talia's door. "Hey, did Andrel mention that he wanted to go exploring tonight at all? He vanished without word to me from his room." Note to self, also be careful of searching for invisible people in our rooms in the future.

Diplomacy: 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (9) - 1 = 8 Lol

"Nicholas" attempts to join "Andrel" in chatting up the locals. While he fairs better than his companion, he also fails to get anything useful. He tells himself it's because he's trying to keep his "guard" out of trouble and that's distracting him. However, the powers that be think it's just because he's not cut out for such work. Really, he should be left alone in his lab doing experiments far away from all people save his test subjects.

-----

Later that night, he regroups with everyone (minus Timeon) in one of their rooms. "So, how was dinner and..." he looks at Talia, "...whatever it was you were up to. Learn anything interesting? Andrel and I managed to sell off all but the narwhal horn, gaining these bills of sale* with the Tailor's and Jeweler's guilds. We also met a rather interesting alchemist who apparently studied under Richter briefly. And who is now in the process of fulfilling some kind of alchemical contract with the local military. Something to perhaps ask the soldiers about if we find any more loose-lipped than those we dined near. But anyway, while he didn't want to share whatever formula he's working on for the military, he did agree to let me look at a few other ones he has. I plan to return to his place of buisiness tomorrow to copy a few."

*I believe they're worth a total of 2800 gold.

Ok, cool. Guess we may as well try to find more rumors over dinner while we wait for the others to get back then.

The Doctor thanks the alchemist and heads back to the inn. Seeing his companions are gone, he turns to "Andrel". "Well, it appears we are left to our own devices for dinner. Perhaps we might spent the time seeing what interesting tidbits we might overhear? Perhaps buy some poor weary souls a few rounds with our successes of the day? Hopefully after that our companions will have returned and we can share what we've learned this day."

I'm not entirely sure on the timeline; is anybody actually at the inn when we get back? Or is this happening at the same time Rose is with Timeon's family and Talia is infiltrating the church? That is, of course, assuming we make it back to the inn.

Alchemical allocation is definitely on my list (as well as picking up the Brew Potion feat again). However, I get a free formula when I level up, so I have 2 level 2 formulas I'll get for free before I can use 3rd level extracts. So I'll probably wait for that instead of paying to copy it since I don't need it right now. Fun shenanigans will be had in the future though. :3

Any thoughts on formula I should copy? I was considering detect thoughts, invisibility, and undetectable alignment seem the most immediately useful.

"Yes, I can understand the temptations one might face to try new formulas in the pursuit of knowledge. As for myself, I know just enough to realize how little it is that I truly know. No point testing things on myself when there are so many safer ways for me to learn more. Speaking of, I shall return tomorrow then with my notebook, ready to see what knowledge I can gain. I wouldn't want to take up too much more of your valuable time. Unless there was something, you needed as well, Andrel?"

The Doctor did not like knowing that this out of the way man had a mutual acquaintance to him. Though he did his best to ignore it, his mind raced trying to think up explanations. Surely this wasn't just a simple coincidence?

Unless Kelvar had more things to say/ask, I'm ready to pay for the ginger and head back to regroup.

Ugg, sorry. Saw the post and then promptly forgot about it.

"Ahh, a smart plan indeed. It should pay handsomely." The Doctor nods in admiration. "For now, I think the ginger is my main concern. Though depending on what formula you're willing to part with, I may be interested in some of those as well. No doubt you have several beyond my current capabilities, but I'm sure with enough time and practice I may come to understand them."

So basically buying the ginger and possibly some of his formulas. Not really sure how to pry for more information about what he's doing with the army, so no further questions on that point.

The Doctor politely thanks the jeweler for the information and leaves.

-----

"Oooo, a military contract. How lucrative. I must admit, I dabble a little in alchemy and herbalism myself. While there's still much for me to learn, I can understand how it could turn the army here in to a mighty force to be reckoned with indeed. Though the dangers here must be...more pronounced than I was lead to believe if such measures are necessary." He edges a little closer to his trusty "guard" and gives him his best it's your job to protect me, so make sure you do your job look. That's my attempt at giving Kelvar a chance to start talking if he wants; I don't want to exclude him, but it seems like we'd want more information on what this military contract is if possible.

"Or perhaps there is some kind of mass offensive planned? Something to finally end the roving bands of monsters and miscreants I've heard about?"

Is Ghastenhall a big enough place that I would have heard of it without a Kn(Geography) roll? Basically wondering where it is relative to here and where we started.

"I have no current plans to head there /to Ghastenhall, but I'm also in no particular rush to leave this area. I assume you had some errand you had hoped we could assist with?"

But he's a Doctor. How else is he going to write prescriptions? ;-) (or perhaps gets the ingredients he needed for his own "medicines")

At the jeweler's
"Ahh, unfortunately it is not our tale to tell. I merely procured it when we stopped to trade with some natives of the area. I afraid I didn't stop to ask how they went about retrieving it, merely what they wished in return. It is, of course, quite understandable that you would wish to focus on your more immediate projects rather than acquire something that will spend time merely gathering dust. I don't suppose you know of anyone else who might be interested in it?"

At the apothocary's

The Doctor takes what time he has before the owner shows up to look around for anything of particular interest.

Guessing the poisons are locked up out of sight as well as most things of alchemical interest, but thought I'd roll just in case there's something out in the open that would catch his eye.
Nature/Alchemy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17 Same bonus for either roll

"No trouble at all, good sir. It gave me a moment to admire you lovely wares. As for why I'm here, I'm afraid I found myself on a rather long boat ride recently and, well, it simply didn't suit me. Unfortunately, it seems quite likely that I will have to venture on to one once again in my near future. I was hoping I could find some ginger to perhaps put in my tea to help with any potential seasickness. Though I must admit, your earlier statement has peaked my interest; has something occurred recently that would cause you to be busier than normal? Nothing too serious, I hope."

Rose is the group's master forger. She has full ranks and a racial bonus.

Side note: I'm on vacation this week and will have very limited posting time until next monday.

You may have a racial bonus, but I'm the one that went to jail for forgery. Thought that is, perhaps, an argument against me forging something, haha. At the very least, he could help with it; even with only 1 rank, he has a +12 for making forgeries.

Sounded to me like people were in favor of selling the horn as well. Also, I don't remember, was there anything special about the wedding band to make it stand out? I personally have no reason to want to keep it, but I'm not sure if doing so would raise any awkward questions that we don't want to answer just yet.

The Doctor politely thanks each of the merchants in turn, carefully tucking the bills of exchange somewhere safe. I will have to inspect those a lot more carefully later...

After dealing with selling the horn and maybe the ring:
Stepping outside of the jeweler's place, the Doctor takes a quick look around to see if he can see any obvious signs for an apothecary. If he can't, he approaches any visible guards or simply someone who looks like they're not in too much of a hurry to ask for directions there.

So, not saying we should do this necessarily (and definitely not right now with my sad little 1 skill point in linguistics), but the Doctor could theoretically attempt to forge more bills of sale in an attempt to get us more cash. Just something I thought I'd mention to keep in mind for the future because at some point I definitely want to forge something.

Yup, selling goods and also checking out the local apothecary, especially interested in anything that could be used to poison birds.

"Alright then. Perhaps if don't end up spending too much time haggling, we might take a look for the local apothecary to see what it has in stock currently. I don't suppose either those soldiers you were chatting up happened to mention where the merchant district was? Or perhaps the Sister's walkabout happened to pass by it? If not, I'm sure the inn keeper could give us some directions."

"Yes, I was also thinking of looking for poison for the birds. Preferably something slow-acting as we'll likely have the time, and it'll be less suspicious. Though I suppose that will require us to sneak around if it requires multiple small doses. I made need to find a new source of poison though, as I'm not sure what I have on me is enough."

Currently all I have on me is 3 doses of belladonna. We might be able to find something local, but if not, we'll have to find some kind of underground/black market if we need more.

Are there plants suitable for poisoning animals that would grow in this climate? If so, what are they and how rare are they?
Kn(Nature): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13 D'oh!

Also, if we can find a scroll of Invisibility for me to copy in to my formula book, I will also be able to provide extracts of it.

"But yes, it sounds like we're agreed that selling our wares should come first. Perhaps two of us could do that while the other two try to find the rookery?"

Just a heads up that I'm going to be packing/traveling Sunday and Monday, so will likely not have a chance to update those days.

The Doctor shrugs. "Suit yourself." Then, not wanting to have everybody split up immediately without first forming a plan, he waits for all their group to reassemble and find a private place to talk, first making sure that Timeon would stay put at least long enough for them to finish the conversation in private. Or if after conferring with Rose he doesn't think that's going to happen, he'll just talk in Infernal while keeping an eye on him.

"So, what should our plan be? Obviously we need to gather intel, but we should perhaps have some coherent strategy to make sure we don't duplicate effort. In addition to that, we should probably sell some of what we brought with us, if for no reason other than to maintain some kind of cover about why we're here. I'd also like to look into what kind of scrolls we might procure that might come in handy."

The Doctor plasters on his best attempt at a jovial smile as the innkeeper does his best at flattering the "knight". Once he acquires the keys to their lodging, he goes about searching the room and finding the best place to at least pretend to hide their goods they meant to sell. Anything truly valuable would remain on their persons of course, but that didn't mean he wanted their other things to be needlessly stolen.

When she has a moment away from Timeon, he addresses Lady Rose. "Any thought to what your 'orders' should be? I could try to draft something up using that ship captain's documents as an example. Hopefully you won't need it, but if you join that captain for dinner and he's as married to his work as he sounds, they might come in useful."

I thought you were going to be the party face, Rose? Which I guess in my head meant, "lead merchant/owner". Also, perhaps I'm just not super up on my disguise rules, but I would have thought the circlet could hide your armor? I've basically been using it as one-stop shopping fashion accessory to look like I'm dressed fashionable (AKA nice clothes without armor) while still wearing armor. But since that's mostly flavor that hasn't affected anything yet, maybe I've been doing it wrong.

Tapping his head thoughtfully, the Doctor begins to form his disguise. He starts at the bottom with comfortable boots made for walking. Because that's what they're gonna do. And one of these day those boots were going to walk all over Talinguarde. Tucked in to those boots were a pair of thick, dark pants held up with a simple belt. Above that he added a simple white, cream, button-up blouse, but he forwent any sort of neck adornment, opting instead to just leave the top button undone. Shivering in the cold, he added a long-sleeved undershirt underneath it and a dark vest with a simple pocket watch tucked into one pocket over it, and topped the whole thing with a heavy, knee-length jacket. All the clothes appeared a bit worn, but well taken care of. Not the most fashionable outfit, but I guess the goal here isn't to turn heads....

Done with his clothing, he began to alter his appearance, adding some extra girth and rounding out his face in an attempt to give him more of a jolly, appearance. He lightened the color of his skin, hoping that with the extra weight would give the appearance of someone who tended towards a more sedentary lifestyle without being completely inactive. His hair became a dirty-blonde color, cut short and neat, and he gave himself a short, well trimmed Van Dyke beard. He aged his face a bit to give the appearance of someone in their early to mid fourties and turned his eyes a light blue-gray color. He tucked his vanity glasses into a pocket, first transforming their frames from a relatively narrow, rectangular shape to a round frame. Finally, he put the finishing touches by adding a few ink stains to his right hand.

Now done, he gave a spin. "How do I look?" he asked in a slightly deeper, rich tone. "I'm thinking of going by the name 'Nicholas'."

The Doctor eyes Timeon as they approach and then enter the town. I should perhaps look into a sleeping draft of some sort. If we're not careful, he'll run off while we sleep and ruin all our plans. When they get relative close, he disguises himself as a merchant, playing off his bookish looks and vanity eye glasses to play up his role as record keeper of the business. While he had no doubt his noble baring would allow him to pass himself off as the owner of the business, he had been told that his sometimes difficult to hide distain for his lesser was a tad...off putting. Which wouldn't work well for their current mission.

"Once we've settled in, I wouldn't mind taking a look at some of the wares this town has to offer. I'm hopeful that now we're in a place with some measure of civilization that I can find some formulas that might be useful to us. Since I don't think it'll take weeks for us to ply our own wares, if asked, we could say that we're waiting to rendezvous with another group that's supposed to bring us goods to carry South for trade."

The Doctor continues to inch closer as he fires on anybody still alive.

Crossbow, mutagen: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 7 + 2 = 15
Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

The Doctor continues to slowly edge forward after reloading his crossbow. He the fires once again at one of the remaining sailors.

Another 5ft step closer, reload, and fire at sailor 2
Crossbow, mutagen: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (10) + 7 + 2 = 19
Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Assuming that Marvin could wait for a little bit, the Doctor reloads his crossbow, takes a step forward, and aims it at one of the sailors further away.

Reload, 5ft step towards Sailors 1 and 2, and then fire.
Crossbow vs Sailor 2, mutagen: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 7 + 2 = 26
Damage: 1d10 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5

The Doctor raises an eyebrow at the sailor attempting to attack him. "Really now? You know, I don't like your attitude, so I'm afraid you're going to have to die in flames now." He then smiles sweetly as he steps back and fires another explosive missile in to the man point blank.

5ft step away and then another explosive missile to the face of the sailor that moved next to me.
PBS, mutagen: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 7 + 1 + 2 = 17
Explosive missile, PBS, regular damage: 1d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 + 1 = 11
Fire damage from bomb: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (1, 6) + 5 = 12

The Doctor is in a good mood as he attempts to find a suitable place to stand for their little party. He briefly considers climbing the mast for a good vantage point, but then decides it would be too suspicious. It's the the subject of some minor debate what he should drink to fortify himself for the fun to come. But eventually he settles on just drinking his mutagen. After all, if need be, he could brew another dose with some downtime.

Before combat, drinking mutagen. I figure that's not too suspicious since he's drunk his concoctions before to stave off the cold.

Surprise round
Resisting the urge to whistle, the Doctor lines up a clear shot. Let's see how these new crossbow bolts stand up... Rapidly shaking one of his new, smaller vials to start the chemical reaction, he quickly places it into a neat little slot in one of his crossbow bolts and fires it at the captain. Explosive missile

Flatfooted AC, PBS, mutagen: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21
Explosive missile, PBS, regular damage: 1d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 + 1 = 3
Fire damage from bomb: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (4, 2) + 5 = 11

Round 1
He then takes a split second to decide his next course of action. He remembered that in the last battle, vs Frosty the Ice Man, the captain had shrugged off the accidental splash damage from his bomb. He had heard of men going in to such a rage that they could ignore minor injuries before, so hoping that was only the case in the heat of battle, he quickly loads another one of his modified vials. Actually, I'm probably confusing 5e with Pathfinder with that. But oh well. Another explosive missile!

Flatfooted AC, PBS, mutagen: 1d20 + 7 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 7 + 1 + 2 = 16
Explosive missile, PBS, regular damage: 1d10 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 + 1 = 10
Fire damage from bomb: 2d6 + 5 ⇒ (3, 2) + 5 = 10

"So we signal between 2 to 4 weeks from now, got it." Since no one else made a move for it, the Doctor accepted the signal rocket, putting it in his backpack along with his other things. Really must get myself one of those magical bags...

----

"Given that they just ate, Captain, it seems bit unlikely that they'd actually eat you. They probably just wanted to test out their new toys."

As Kelvar prays, he makes his own preparation for the days ahead. Once done, he finds the rest of the group to plan quietly with them. "Any thoughts on getting in to the city? We could pose as traders. I, at least, am interesting in seeing what wares I can procure back in civilization." We had both seal pelts and what we took from the tribesmen to trade. Though I think I remember the DM saying that some of that stuff is illegal?

"Alternatively, I could try whipping up some papers for us based on the ones we got off the captain of the patrol ship we encountered earlier. Might help with infiltrating the guard."

"We came together through a mutually beneficial arrangement. Cardinal Thorn, unlike certain other fools, clearly recognized the potential benefits of my research and isn't one to stand in the way of scientific progress. As for what I am to him, I'm afraid you'd have to ask him that. He clearly has many plans, not all of which I have earned knowledge of, so who am I to say what part I play in the grand scheme just yet?"

The good news was that with Sakkarot's shared (or at least shared with some of the group) faith, he was less likely to try to kill them in their sleep, so long as they had a part to play. The less good news was that he had found that many were quite fanatic about their faiths, and often ill-inclined towards those who were, shall we say, less ardent in their feelings.