Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu is a Ratfolk who is part of a raiding group. He is the group's doctor and makes sure that everyone is healed up for the right price.

## **Description**

### **Appearance**

Dr. Wu is a dishevelled ratfolk who's always dressed in a doctor's uniform. He always carries his medical equipment and a bloody bag full of eyes with him. The eyes in the bag are all fashioned into artificial replacement eyes for his missing right eye. Since he takes the eyes from other creatures they are usually larger than his eye socket which makes it protrude out if it. Given his unsettling appearance it is not pleasant to look at him for too long.

### **Personality**

Dr. Wu is a clearly insane individual. He spouts out nonsense in inappropriate situations and tends to ramble on about random things. Despite his lack of mental stability he is still a very capable doctor. Dr. Wu has great knowledge about medicine and surgery. Whenever someone is injured he is the first one to step up and give them a very professional treatment. However he will never do so without compensation. He only provides his healing services for the right amount of gold. Refusing to pay will result in him getting angry and even attacking his patient. Dr. Wu also has a compulsive obsession with collecting eyes. He will always look for new eyes that he can gather from corpses or, if the situation allows it, living beings.

## **History**

### **Background**

Doctor Verner Wunnenstein was a person known throughout the Elbashakyan Sultanate as a medicinal genius and prodigy surgeon. However, last year this name vanished from the surface of the Sultanate. Just after Doctor Wunnenstein departed for a signing event of his book “The Surgeon Vermin” in Swanrunia, he went missing. What transpired on this fateful day?

Just before his disappearance Doctor Verner Wunnenstein turned 31 years old. He spent most of his lifetime studying medicine in the Elbashakyan Sultanate. He revolutionized modern medicinal practices by introducing multiple surgical techniques to the world. The knowledge he acquired over the years is written down in his book “The Surgeon Vermin” that he published 2 years before his disappearance. This book assisted in making Doctor Wunnenstein a known person amongst Healers and Doctors. Even the scholars in Swanrunia caught wind of his expertise and invited him for a lecture/signing event. To avoid a long-winded journey through the desert and the dreaded land of Panton, Doctor Wunnenstein departed by ship. He only travelled with a few other research colleagues, without any bodyguards to protect them. Doctor Wunnenstein was a devout Cleric of the God of Wisdom and believed that with his guidance he could make it across the sea unharmed. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

During his trip, Doctor Wunnenstein and his crew got attacked by pirates. They were no match against the pirate crew. Part of Wunnenstein’s research colleagues got killed while others were left alive only to get tortured. Doctor Wunnenstein was one of the unlucky few that had to suffer among the living. Almost a whole day passed while they were beaten and tortured until the pirates finally got bored. They tied up the few living scholars and left a wild, hungry dog with them. To let the prestigious Doctor Wunnenstein suffer more, they pinned him down with enough ropes and used his glasses to slowly burn one of his eyes. The pirates took everything valuable on the ship and left the research team to die, stranded on the open sea.

The hungry dog went right to work and started feasting on some of the tied-up researchers. Doctor Wunnenstein couldn’t pay much attention to this display of feral violence as he was too busy screaming while his eye slowly burned. In a desperate attempt to survive, he began biting through his restraints. The dog almost killed every one of the researchers except for Doctor Wunnenstein. Thankfully he was able to free himself before the dog made him his lunch. Still in incredible pain, Wunnenstein kills the dog with his holy magic. Sadly, he couldn’t do so before his colleagues died

Without a capable crew, he couldn’t manoeuvre the ship back to solid land. Wunnenstein was stranded at sea. For many days he had to survive on his own with multiple reeking corpses being his only company. To keep himself sane he thought about a plan in case he comes back to shore:

**“First, I must heal myself after my return. Then I will get some money for transport and a way to replace my eye … simple enough.”**

The first few days passed. Wunnenstein survived with the few provisions left on the ship. They will only last for a few more days so Wunnenstein tries to drink and eat sparingly. The pain of his burned eye, the smell of his rotting colleagues and the emotional trauma he had to live through were getting to him. He keeps repeating his hopeful plan.

**“I must heal myself. I will get some money and replace my eye. Simple Enough. Simple Enough. Simple Enough …**

Wunnenstein burns through his rations faster than expected. He gave in to hunger and ate everything he had. His sanity diminished and so did his energy. He had to eat something. He heard the voices of his colleagues, encouraging him to use their bodies to survive. As dastardly as it was, he had to eat something. While he commits this gruesome act, he keeps repeating his … what was it again?

**“Must heal … Get money … Replace eye”**

His chances for survival were slim. After weeks at sea, he got no more energy left and almost no more food. However, he wasn’t in a bad mood. The voices in his head were great conversation partners, he folded pages from his own book into origami cranes and he even had a great snack just a few minutes ago. It was some cooked, spongey meatball. The best thing he ate in days

To his surprise his ship suddenly hit something. It washed onto a nearby beach where some people from a Raiding Clan discovered it. They were curious about the ship and presumably wanted to loot it. They found a crazed Ratfolk on board who kept repeating something to himself.

**“… HEAL … MONEY … EYE … “**

The rat introduced himself as *“Dr. Wu”.* He didn’t remember his full name, but he remembers that he has a PhD. As insane as this person was, they did notice that he actually had great healing capabilities and offered his services for either money or eyes. The eye payment was weird. The Ratfolk used them to fashion taxidermy replacement eyes for his empty eye socket. The raiders took him in and kept Dr. Wu around as their local healer without knowing who he really was.

## **Other**

**Trivia:**

* Dr. Wu's name is a reference to the Steely Dan song "Doctor Wu"
* At the end of Voyaging Rampage Dr. Wu had a total of 10 different eyes in his possession, two of which he harvested during the campaign.