i understand that a lot of it was time/pacing limitations on the cast but in-universe, it is wild how fast caduceus picked up on the whole "infiltrating the iron shepherds and murdering every one of them". my guy goes from sitting in his forest peacefully (if very lonely) to an infiltration and murder spree in the span of like 5 hours
It IS wild but I think there are a number of factors at play that make it make sense. His high wisdom allowing him to go with the flow, the fact that saving people from slavery is pretty simple morally speaking so he doesn't have to think about it too hard, the joy of seeing other people in who knows how long, the religious high of Following The Wildmother's Will.
From his perspective, these people are a message from his Goddess, (and based on the butterfly dream he's right) so of course he's fully committed to this righteous quest to free people given to him by The Wildmother.
Caduceus was already level 5 when we found him. Yes the meta reason is so that he matches the rest of the party, but in universe he gained that experience somehow. He lived in a lovely grove surrounded by a spooky dangerous forest filled with terrifying mutated beasts, bandits, slavers, and other criminals. So while this was obviously an insane first meeting, I'm fairly certain this was not Caduceus' first fight to the death. I think the biggest difference was for the first time in a long time he had company.
