Doc Farmingham
I was told, by them who knows...
By his own admission, Doctor Jeffries Darihda grew up in a relatively normal situation. To elucidate, life out on the frontier was not easy, even in the best and most fruitful of times. Then, when The Kobold Accord was crushed by a good and true High King of The Unified Kingdoms of Craysilt, the sudden dearth of activity was too much for many of the formerly lauded heroes of the Kobold Wars, and those who did not accept public positions or become players in some theater group, faded into obscurity over the course of the next fifty years. Many of them simply dispersed into the various communities around The Impenetrable Forest of Birkwud, wherein they had been battling for years. Many seemed to have better success assimilating themselves into society out there on the frontier, where rugged individuality and a certain heavily-armed-paranoia were not only expected, but often appreciated. Oftentimes even necessary; Kobolds are not the only dangers lurking around the hinterlands. This ultimately led to an attitude that a certain amount of violence was, while not tolerated, accepted by the Humans who now occupied the continent almost exclusively. So the infant-to-young Jeffries almost certainly had heard about violence, but had been sheltered from it by parents who cared for him well enough. His father, a well known alchemist in certain circles and caring enough in his own way, quickly took note of his son's burgeoning interest in taxidermy and hunting, and taught him about both quite young. He taught the boy how acetate could be used to preserve certain organs and tissues, and how to remove the soft tissue from the bones of the animals he hunted.
Jeffries grew to be sixteen years old before he finally acted on the dark impulses that had been growing within him over the years. As the boy hit puberty, his thoughts (as all teens' do), turned to those of love. He quickly learned that he was attracted to other men sexually, which was actually accepted in his community, if considered a little 'eccentric'. But he also found himself looking for a very special kind of partner. A very, very still partner. So still the cold of the night would turn their skin cool to the touch. He began to drink dharak at an alarming rate to keep these thoughts at bay, but to no avail. Then, one day, his father noticed something. Young Jeffries' growing collection of bones included those of Elves, Humans, and Kobolds, as well as those of a dragonborn male. With horror, all the reports of missing people came flooding back to him; dead, or missing, or found tormented and defiled at the side of some hunting path. He turned to see his son, and the look in his eyes terrified the man.Thinking fast, he just smiled, saying "Good news, son! We got your acceptance letter to The Bardic College Campus!" His son's eyes lit up, suddenly those of his vibrant, kind lad. But he never forgot the dead look in his boy's eyes. The eyes of a shark. Jeffries' father managed to raise enough money to send him to the world famous learning institution, where the clever Jeffries quickly found himself excelling at medical studies. It was fascinating to him! All of it. But especially the skeletal system. He curtailed his homicidal instincts and instances for quite some time, while he completed his studies. Census data indicates the missing persons rate in Greynor spiked tremendously during his tenure there, yet no proof has ever been found that could link him to the disappearances. He decided to stay on in Greynor after he graduated, opening a small osteopathy clinic near the Valley Gate.
It was several years before his drinking took hold of him again, and his blackout episodes were getting worse. Worse, and more and more frequent, and soon a pile of corpses lay, headless, in a large pit full of lye in the barn of his clinic's property. He blamed it on 'medical research', and simply carried on with his grisly hobby. Before too long, a sinister and unholy urge began to grow in his loins, and he began to defile the corpses of his victims sexually before macerating them, dismembering them, and dissolving all but the heads in lye and lime. The heads had begun to grow into an impressive (if one is a psychopath) altar, dedicated to his victims and bearing parts of their bodies, disguised as costumes and sculpted pieces. The thing is, he got sloppy, and one of the boys escaped, even drugged as he was. The young boy had had a hole drilled into his skull, near the portion called the 'prefrontal cortex', and filled with a solution of muriatic acid to damage the gray matter, and a charm potion to maintain control of his victim...but, it turned out, the boy was half-elven; the child's natural resistance to the charm potion allowed him to escape, stumbling naked out into the snow of the winter, where three women saw him and sprang into action. They were too late; the poor child died in their arms. Jeffries, fearing the jig was up, burned down his clinic, with his mistress tied up inside, to cover his tracks before fleeing back into the wild frontier, and his home in Stilton Head.
He opened a new clinic under the name of his Mother's township; Farmingham. It was a thing those in the Kobold Wars did relatively often; change their names and pray for redemption. Settling on the Kinehoof islet of the delta city, he was able once again to forestall his drinking and addiction proclivities, for a time. But when his father finally passed away at the ripe old age of 107, he lost the only person in the world he had ever had a connection with, and he began to kill in earnest, until finally he was captured, and sentenced to Death by Gallows. There are those who say, however, that a series of grisly murders years later in Craysilt were the work of the Mad Doctor. In fact, a talented True Crime journalist named Rory Tucker is confirmed to have been the Kinehoof Kannibal's forty-seventh victim.1
Rory had been saying he was getting close to the Kinehoof Killer's current location, and was last seen alive heading up-river to Craysilt, by ox-barge on the River Whitten. He left his belongings to his nephew, Cory, who went on to start a successful mercantile chain. But once a year, Cory would take the ox-barge north, searching endlessly for Doc Farmingham. Medical professionals and clergy often travel in disguise upon the ox-way, or in a group with friends. For there are an inordinate amount of unsolved murders upon the ox-way. More than eighty percent of those homicides and missing persons are healers. Coincidence? Well, Them Who Knows say...no!
Jeffries grew to be sixteen years old before he finally acted on the dark impulses that had been growing within him over the years. As the boy hit puberty, his thoughts (as all teens' do), turned to those of love. He quickly learned that he was attracted to other men sexually, which was actually accepted in his community, if considered a little 'eccentric'. But he also found himself looking for a very special kind of partner. A very, very still partner. So still the cold of the night would turn their skin cool to the touch. He began to drink dharak at an alarming rate to keep these thoughts at bay, but to no avail. Then, one day, his father noticed something. Young Jeffries' growing collection of bones included those of Elves, Humans, and Kobolds, as well as those of a dragonborn male. With horror, all the reports of missing people came flooding back to him; dead, or missing, or found tormented and defiled at the side of some hunting path. He turned to see his son, and the look in his eyes terrified the man.Thinking fast, he just smiled, saying "Good news, son! We got your acceptance letter to The Bardic College Campus!" His son's eyes lit up, suddenly those of his vibrant, kind lad. But he never forgot the dead look in his boy's eyes. The eyes of a shark. Jeffries' father managed to raise enough money to send him to the world famous learning institution, where the clever Jeffries quickly found himself excelling at medical studies. It was fascinating to him! All of it. But especially the skeletal system. He curtailed his homicidal instincts and instances for quite some time, while he completed his studies. Census data indicates the missing persons rate in Greynor spiked tremendously during his tenure there, yet no proof has ever been found that could link him to the disappearances. He decided to stay on in Greynor after he graduated, opening a small osteopathy clinic near the Valley Gate.
It was several years before his drinking took hold of him again, and his blackout episodes were getting worse. Worse, and more and more frequent, and soon a pile of corpses lay, headless, in a large pit full of lye in the barn of his clinic's property. He blamed it on 'medical research', and simply carried on with his grisly hobby. Before too long, a sinister and unholy urge began to grow in his loins, and he began to defile the corpses of his victims sexually before macerating them, dismembering them, and dissolving all but the heads in lye and lime. The heads had begun to grow into an impressive (if one is a psychopath) altar, dedicated to his victims and bearing parts of their bodies, disguised as costumes and sculpted pieces. The thing is, he got sloppy, and one of the boys escaped, even drugged as he was. The young boy had had a hole drilled into his skull, near the portion called the 'prefrontal cortex', and filled with a solution of muriatic acid to damage the gray matter, and a charm potion to maintain control of his victim...but, it turned out, the boy was half-elven; the child's natural resistance to the charm potion allowed him to escape, stumbling naked out into the snow of the winter, where three women saw him and sprang into action. They were too late; the poor child died in their arms. Jeffries, fearing the jig was up, burned down his clinic, with his mistress tied up inside, to cover his tracks before fleeing back into the wild frontier, and his home in Stilton Head.
He opened a new clinic under the name of his Mother's township; Farmingham. It was a thing those in the Kobold Wars did relatively often; change their names and pray for redemption. Settling on the Kinehoof islet of the delta city, he was able once again to forestall his drinking and addiction proclivities, for a time. But when his father finally passed away at the ripe old age of 107, he lost the only person in the world he had ever had a connection with, and he began to kill in earnest, until finally he was captured, and sentenced to Death by Gallows. There are those who say, however, that a series of grisly murders years later in Craysilt were the work of the Mad Doctor. In fact, a talented True Crime journalist named Rory Tucker is confirmed to have been the Kinehoof Kannibal's forty-seventh victim.1
Rory had been saying he was getting close to the Kinehoof Killer's current location, and was last seen alive heading up-river to Craysilt, by ox-barge on the River Whitten. He left his belongings to his nephew, Cory, who went on to start a successful mercantile chain. But once a year, Cory would take the ox-barge north, searching endlessly for Doc Farmingham. Medical professionals and clergy often travel in disguise upon the ox-way, or in a group with friends. For there are an inordinate amount of unsolved murders upon the ox-way. More than eighty percent of those homicides and missing persons are healers. Coincidence? Well, Them Who Knows say...no!
Summary
A psychotic bone doctor is called the Kinehoof Killer (among other things) is said to have murdered dozens of people up and down the River Whitten since early 5300NG. The son of one victim had taken it upon themself to travel the river at random points of the year, suspiciously investigating any clergy he could find. Both of these individuals have conflated in the character of the Kinehoof Killer, Doc Farmingham.
Historical Basis
This legend is based upon a true story...all except the parts after 5330NG.
Spread
A version of this story has spread to every river community in Pax.
Variations & Mutation
The names can differ slightly, and places and dates are open to interpretation.
Cultural Reception
It is a common myth in Pax, widely accepted.
In Literature
It is mentioned in countless works of fiction, several psychology handbooks, and the apocrypha.
In Art
It is the subject of numerous school doodles and student doodling. Also, some of the more tortured souls in the art worlds.
1 It is unclear how many meals Jeffries had had prior to his capture, but he had two hundred and forty-three while in custody and on trial.
Oi, what a grisly story. X-D Suggestion: set the line-height for the main text to 1.8 or 2.0 em, makes it way easier to read.
will do thanks! Yeah, this one was a bit off the beaten path for me, but the Doc has been a villain in my gaming scenarios for years. He got worse and worse in my head, and then summer camp came around...