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It doesn't matter ... if this one here ... is a peasant, a member of the minor gentry, old nobility or aristocracy. He's lying on my table. And to me, as I hum to myself, a duke's worth a jester. Before God we are all equally wise-and equally foolish. |  | |
| - Milo to a knight while operating on another, The Lady of the Lake | |||
Milo Vanderbeck (d. 1269), also known as Rusty, was a halfling and Shani's mentor and friend. She worked beside him in the field hospital during the Battle of Brenna, alongside Marti Södergren and Iola the Second.
Originally, Milo thought Shani would collapse from exhaustion or faint at the gruesome operations, but she, along with the others, proved herself quite capable. Milo also showed he was a true doctor in the sense he patched anyone up on his table, whether they were an enemy soldier, peasant, elf, or otherwise. He further showed this when one knight tried to force Rusty to look at the wounded Count Daniel Etcheverry ahead of everyone else, but Milo calmly told the knight the count would have to wait his turn like the rest.
A year later, in 1269, he was in Maribor with Iola, tending to the sick who'd come down with the Catriona plague, despite there being no cure. Unfortunately for them both, they contracted the disease and died soon after.
Before dying, Rusty discovered that certain plants like the celandine decelerated the symptoms of the plague in those affected. This knowledge was then used in St. Lebioda's Hospital to treat the infected.
Notes[]
- His quote "Red to red, yellow to yellow, white to white. Sew like that and it's sure to be fine." is paraphrased and referenced throughout the games. This line also became Shani's famous joke as a dean at Oxenfurt Academy.
- In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there's a gwent card that bears that description.
- In the third game, it's referenced during the quest Contract: The Oxenfurt Drunk by the medic at the Oxenfurt Morgue.
- In The Witcher, Shani mentions him a number of times in conversations, including his death.
- In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, he's the author of the in-game book, The Rudiments of Pathomorphology.