Vilmaris Baymond

Appearance
A small dwarf man standing 3 feet and 8 inches tall. His hair is in twists which are shoulder length when down, but are usually pulled back out of the way. A pair of gold-colored glasses sits on his nose; one side of the glasses has foldable colored screens for observing alchemical substances and specimens in different ways. He wears beads made of different stones around his neck and wrist. His clothes are a mix of brown leather, belts and pouches, and white cotton fabric with blue accents. His clippable cape and pointy shoes are both sky blue.

Personality
Ducat’s defining patience works well with Dr. Baymond’s tendency to go quiet and cease explaining what he is doing. They think, maybe, time passes differently for long-lived dwarves, or maybe he’s just a little bit of an airhead.

He will conjure a question and explain the knowns and unknowns, and finally the first half of the question, then trail off into his mind, thinking intently. Ducat has begun to pick up on where he will be going next, and provide the answer for him—this has, in turn, lead to him speaking aloud a little more often, giving them a conjoined “eureka” moment as they figure out and say what he’s thinking at the same time he decides to voice it.

Vilmaris has a small tendency to condescend to the kind of people regularly disrespected (poor, non-fitting in, etc) until they have proven themselves skilled, talented, or Good in some way (oh, they’re a person too, duh). The people he associates with purposefully are mostly those who share his interests, caring less about gelling of personality or lifestyle.

Backstory
Seven years ago, Cageport became afflicted with an extreme and fatal version of rattle gasp; a year after, Vilmaris arrived to treat the inhabitants. He built a five-story tower and filled it with patients and research. Eventually, the situation in Cageport devolved into strict quarantine and the eventual evacuation of all those not yet infected. Now, those who were infected and left behind appear to be fungi-infested and fungi-piloted undead husks - it is not clear if Vilmaris was aware of that development or not.

Vilmaris instructed those who left not to allow the knowledge of what happened in Cageport spread beyond the refugees and keep it all a secret.

While treating patients of Rattlegasp in Cageport, Vilmaris used arcane stones to log his treatments.

Log July 24th, 847
Vilmaris looks tired, dejected, but still dignified. He looks ahead and down at his folded hands.

"I suppose I should update these things, since I am a doctor conducting a field study of invasive pulmonary amanatosis, rather than a bystander with an MD. Treatment is going poorly, some difficult decisions have been made. Including quarantining the tower; only the infected and I are allowed instead. The anti fungal tonics and PPE and caution suffice as adequate protection. The tonics do have their side effects but my hardy constitution helps. I would not wish this on anyone else, though. They have no affect on any already infected. The treatments I tried have not worked now but on previous cases they have always worked at least a bit. I would recommend surgery, but the fruiting bodies are too embedded. Animal testing may come next. After that, who knows."

Ducat Bucket
Five years ago, when Ducat was twenty, Vilmaris happened to be in Green Harbor at the same moment they and their mother were seeking additional help containing the minor rattle gasp outbreak in Summerwind. Once they managed to control of the symptoms of the infected, Ducat asked Vilmaris to remain and teach them alchemical medicine to supplement their traditional knowledge, which he agreed to do. "At their first meeting, Ducat would have sworn Dr. Baymond did not like them one bit. He was not the rudest person they had ever met; he never referred to them as “tiefling” and he never stared at them uncomfortably long nor made a point of avoiding a range of six feet from their tail. He did, however, avoid eye contact when they said hello — but he was terribly short. And he did get terse with them — but he was dealing with a deadly illness, that was why he was here in the first place. So Ducat did not judge the helpful doctor for his initial show of unfriendliness.""Such forgiveness did not help once the Rattlegasp spread had been contained and they wished to become his apprentice in the alchemical arts. A great deal of anxiety welled up inside of them at the thought of asking him to tutor them. They needed to! Their mother Aria was an expert in plants—namely their use in healing sickness and wounds, or increasing the spicy edge of food. As wise as Aria was, Dr. Baymond’s appearance in Summerwind opened their eyes to the world of microbiology in a way they could not forget. There was a tiny alien world on the surface of every pond, stream, sea or slice of skin and the creatures there were much weirder than themself. It only grew more complex when you considered how magic brought the concept further. They wanted to observe, note, and categorize what was carbon and what was enchantment. In the first, rules were to be found, whereas beings of Cael knew the laws of magic were slightly flexible, able to be pushed. Dwarves had a mastery of merging the two that Ducat wanted to know. All they had done was look closer..."