Talzedir the Burnished Justice

Civil action

The Path of Nightshade deal with the Aftermath of the Red Claw Epidemic. They assist in the containment and cure of the disease and curse. They meet Queen Talzedir and gain her favor.

It’s taken a couple of days to get paid   We take the cure recipe to Sky Full of Stars and she says it’s simple to make. She says the “cure” is not a cure for the curse, they will still be addicted, but they won’t sicken and die. So, this will buy time for everyone to get cured of the curse by the clerics.     Bobushio doesn’t want to give the recipe to anyone because he wants the credit for curing the people. Thuniel wants to give it to the state so they can mass-produce the cure to save as many people as possible.     Our alchemist needs 300 GP to get started, and it will take 6 days. Bobushio and Thuniel have a tiff about him valuing the credit above the lives of suffering. Sky Full of Stars says that, with perfect luck and ten competent helpers, she could make a test batch in four hours. Someone with better equipment might be able to make it reliably faster.     Bobushio uses the teleportation circle to go to the Tower and eventually gets Triss’s help. It turns out that Triss might be a little racist against Tabaxi, but will work with Sky Full of Stars in order to save lives. There’s tension there. Bobushio comes back to the city.     They get a working antidote within a couple of hours. Sky Full of Stars is trying to palm gear from the Tower, so Bobushio asks her what she needs. She gives him a shopping list of 600 GP of gear that she wants. He convinces her to put stuff back, and now we have an Advanced Alchemy station on the ship.     We now can pass out the cure starter to qualified alchemists.     In the meantime, we go to Captain Kolias and request an audience with the Queen regarding a cure. He says he’ll take us, but it’s above his pay grade.     We travel with an armed escort to protect us. He talks to us about Talzidier. He tells us she is very fair and transparent. She works hard for her people, but he isn’t sure of her motivations to do so. She is very religious, and she can detect deceit. We just need to be respectful, and we should be fine.     We come to the Citadel, a huge fortress of a building, built to scale for an ancient dragon. The city has burst the walls, but they don’t have problems because she is a deterrent by her very presence. The city is full of beautiful flowers, the most common are very deep purple with bronzed edges of the petals. They are famous for these Ravenblooms, and they grow like weeds.     Mozakosh makes herself a flower crown as we walk. We are greeted at the gates. They are skeptical about who we are and why we should talk with the Queen, but Gilly talks our way in. Gilly has been carrying herself with authority much more since Rockshire. She’s becoming a leader. Moz and Thuniel are very proud of her.     The dragonborn we’re talking with are accustomed to dealing with halflings, more or less. In the castle, we catch that a lot of people are worried because the queen is sick. We are welcomed into a space. One of the dragonborn is really, really interested in Momo. He asks about Momo, and what he is. Moz says that she calls him a flying squirrel. She recounts her history with Momo, he has fae blood, and the old woman who sold him, said he wanted to go with her. Momo chirps for reassurance, and when Moz gives it, he leaps away to explore the castle.     After a wait, the Queen accepts us into her presence. We are given the choice between dragon or human form. We say whatever she is most comfortable. She is indoors, with a huge sunroof, on an enormous bed. She has been sick for a couple weeks, refusing treatment so weaker people could get healed first.   She is enormous and awesome and beautiful. Her long crest spikes and her wing frill are patina’ed. She is slender and sleek and lovely. But we can see that she is also sick.     She bows to us and welcomes us. She asks if she can lie down during our interview. She skips pleasantries, knows all our names, and her voice is potent, even in a whisper. She says that it is a blessing from Bahomet that we came at the time we did.     We present that we have a cure to the wasting away element of the curse. It will not lift the addiction itself. The queen calls people in to consult about the recipe and start the logistics immediately. The queen offers to let us stay at the Citadel if we have ways we can help. We offer to help oversee the distribution.     Meanwhile, Bobushio wants to prep the taverns to distribute the cure. And he asks Triss and Marwynn to get people from the Tower to come to Ravenbluff to help lift curses. Bobushio goes back to the ship with the alchemist sourdough and tells the crew to send any wizards that come through to Wiz’s Armchair.     Bobushio sends a bit of starter to Captain Kolias, then goes back to Penny Jamjar and proposes that she help him distribute the cure. He asks if she knows any alchemists. She says, “Go to the Decoction” to Sarah Winchester, she’s the best one. He hands out the starter and pays everyone to get them started. He hits five shops and 200 GP on his way to Sarah. He gives the alchemists empty Red Claw barrels. And he stops by the Ruby Elephant to see how they’re doing.     This shop was owned by Paelas Oririnn (white dragonborn). He recruited her to the organization because he was impressed that she crafted herself an impressive prosthetic leg. She’s still there, and still fine. Though she’s startled to see him alive. She says she’s been cut off, and she went to ground when she heard that Oni Island had been destroyed. Bobushio fills her in on the current situation and asks her to spread the word through her contacts that a new batch of Red Claw mark II is soon to be available at Wiz’s Armchair.     Paelas shouts at Rufus to watch the shop again, and Bobushio realizes he didn’t know she had a kid/younger brother.     The starter gets sent to the Citadel, and we immediately whisk it over to the alchemists and tell them it’s the starter cure “fresh from the Tower”. They start churning out cure.     About this time, Gilly heads to the ship and finds out that everyone is getting sent to Wiz’s Armchair. At that moment, a student wizard, Robert, comes through, panting and ready to help. He’s got a huge backpack full of scrolls of lesser Restoration. Roscoe is giving bad instructions, so Gilly steps in. She and Gerrig copy out more clearer maps.     The wizards start showing up at Wiz’s Armchair. There are four, and they can cast a Restoration spell of sorts. Barrels of cure show up within an hour or two.   A final wizard shows up while Gilly is still on the ship. The doyan of enchantment, Onag, shows up. He’s tall and bearded. He asks Gilly about the situation, and says he needs an audience with the queen. Gilly escorts Onag and his Rabbitfolk assistant in pink wizard robes. She’s “Bebe Bunny”.     Onag is fascinated at being this far from the Tower. He is the ONLY orc for MILES. He gets looks like nothing else. He starts asking about the history and culture here, but realizes quickly that there’s so many places he wants to visit. He is here as an ambassador, but still is half dressed as a blacksmith.     At the Citadel, he asks for an audience with the Queen and goes in alone. We find out that he is there to reassure her that the wizards are here to help, and we’re not invading. He speaks fondly of Bobushio’s urgency in getting people here, and is very diplomatic. Afterward, he confides in Gilly that it was possibly touch and go during the interview, but us paving the way helped out.     The Tower is still a neutral party in the war, but they are here to provide aid.     Under the guise that more Redclaw is in the city, we’re able to treat nearly everyone. There are some people who are really, really angry that the cure isn’t actually Red Claw. Bobushio does tell people he has the recipe for Red Claw, sans curse. Penny offers to buy the recipe, so Bobushio finagles getting her into his organization. She says she doesn’t want to be affiliated with pirates, but she could offer a discount to the Onikuru, if they know a secret codeword. Bobushio asks her to put in a good word for the Pirate nation.     The queen needs a BIG dose to get healed. She tells her people to distribute the cure to everyone else first because she has plenty of health. She is guilty that she drank so much. Her pride has been wounded by being taken down by an ale.     Thuniel tries to get an audience in the next couple of days to ask for assistance hunting down Tucker, but the queen doesn’t grant an audience. Her secretary says that She has other priorities right now.     Bobushio and Thuniel don’t eventually have a showdown. Bobushio pours her a perfect Dwarven beer, and she forgives him.     (Turns out that Gilly stole a cask of cursed Red Claw before it was all destroyed, with the help of Bobushio’s distraction. They each have a drink once the cure is ready. Bobushio also steals a couple restoration scrolls from Robert to lift the curse afterward.)     We’re going to ask for someone to help us Locate Creature   Bobushio still needs to read the ledger we found