Closed Illness is Not Poison

[Alea Davenport]

61st Winter, 513

It seemed to Alea like the entire Nitrozian household had collapsed almost overnight. The vast majority of the family was bedridden, including Valerius. She hadn't had to see too many of the other sickrooms, but Valerius seemed to think a little sickness was akin to dying. Alea, who had been sick before in her lifetime, did not think it was quite as bad as the young Nitrozian boy made it out to be. Still, uncontrollable vomiting was never fun for anyone, and from what she saw of the other household slaves running to fetch bowls and towels, it was the same throughout the mansion.

Alea had given her best effort to help ease the suffering of the sick, but she had no particular skill or knowledge of healing, and it was all she could do to try to make her charge comfortable. Today Valerius, unable to bear any more, had instructed Alea to seek out an associate of his, one "Nolan Parnell". Seeming to think he'd been poisoned, Valerius had sent her and ordered her to come back with a cure. He'd threatened her with punishment if she failed, but Alea thought he might be a little delirious and more than a touch desperate, so she was inclined to forgive his threats... on the assumption that he never carried them out. It wasn't her fault he'd never had a cold in his life.

She had to ask directions a few times, since she had never met Mr. Parnell before and wasn't sure where his shop was. Fortunately, once she hit the docks, the name of the shop, "Inovations," was known enough that it wasn't too hard to find (though she did pass it once before she noticed it). IT did not look like much, but then, she knew better by now that to judge buildings in Ravok by their outward appearances. She took a look at the sign in the window and frowned in confusion. Why was the shop name split into two words like that? It didn't make sense.

The illogic of the sign still nagging at her, she cautiously opened the door and tiptoed in. Clearing her throat lightly, she called out in a somewhat timid voice, "Mr. Parnell?"

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar grit his teeth at the untimely interruption. His research was definitely revealing many uses for this new fungal enzyme. He had noticed it as a strange phenomenon that was blending, or uniting, fungal species in wild patches. As yet, he did not know if the union was the result OF the enzyme, or the CAUSE of it. But that was of considerably less importance than the uses he had found for it.

It had blended properties of several toxins he worked with, and embellished them to a degree as well. Not that any had now gained effects that they'd never had before, but where some toxins were only temporary, many now left permanent debilitating effects upon the victim. And a few blends were resulting in new applications. He'd already found inhalation toxins that could be added to ingestion types, or contact types that could be now reduced to a smokey fume and applied with a spray bladder.

He was in his element, imagining scenarios where new blends would be useful, and remembering situations where he'd wished he'd had them. He had lab components spread all over his workshop. Some in preparation for use, some sitting, percolating, some soaking and a very few, still waiting to be employed.

Burke had done well to keep the buying public off his back. Inoadar knew that by the time he'd exhausted his creativity with this new enzyme, he'd have a lot of common restocking to do. He felt a little bad for Vera, his apprentice. Though she stood to benefit as well from this research, it was something he himself was only learning. She would be completely in the way as he experimented. She was sharp, but in this case, she had nothing to add. When he learned all that he could, he would begin teaching her, and accepting her insight into things he might not have considered. But for now he needed focus! And a gabby little girl underfoot was not going to help.

'Neither is a gabby big girl...' he snarled to himself as the young woman crept hesitantly into the shop. He made a renewed effort to exclude all thoughts of the outer room, and returned to his work, until Burke came though the door, a grimace of apprehension on his face.

"I'm terribly sorry sir. This girl here isn't a customer, she's a messenger."

Inoadar sighed in frustration. He wanted to order Burke to go out and ask the girl what she wanted that was so important. But he knew Burke would have done what he could to find it out before bothering him when he was so enthused about discovery work. He shrugged slightly and put a hand on Burke's shoulder, "Alright, stay here and give a shout if the middle beaker begins to pressurize. I'll go see what this is about." He explained absently to his assistant to watch for a sudden cessation of steam from the central tube, indicating that the steam now carried sufficient vaporized resin to block the tube.

He was suddenly thinking it might be important after all. Burke would have done all he could to impress upon this messenger that "Master Parnell" was very busy and would want her to give the information to him. If she didn't, it could only be that she was following explicit instructions. He washed his hands quickly and set aside his apron before going into the front room

"Yes Miss? I am Master Parnell. How can I help you?"

x

[Alea Davenport]

Alea really had no idea whether talking to the assistant would be sufficient, but this was Valerius she was dealing with. Chances are, he wouldn't be satisfied even if she followed his instructions exactly. She was not at all convinced this man would be able to cure what looked to her to be a common sickness, but she wasn't planning on giving Valerius any leeway to blame her for it. It wasn't that she feared what he would do to her if she failed, so much as she feared what she might do to him if he were stupid enough to punish her without cause.

Mr. Parnell got right to the point, so Alea figured she'd better as well. "Valerius Nitrozian sent me. He's got sick, along with most of the household. He seems to think you can cure him." She didn't bother trying to keep the skepticism out of her tone. "Anyway, I'm not going back there without something to show for it. I'm no use to them there, so I might as well see if you're as good as Valerius seems to think." Was she playing on his pride? Perhaps a bit. Mostly she was just annoyed at having to run almost certainly pointless errands... and, though she wouldn't admit it, she was slightly concerned for her master's health.

She was still curious about the name of the shop, but she did not think the shop owner would answer if she just blurted out the question. Maybe once he resigned himself to putting up with her, he'd be more receptive to satisfying her curiosity.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar thought at first that it was some sort of joke. "What? Again?" he snorted. There was the immediate suspicion that there may be some signature poison at work, something by a powerful enemy of the Nitrozians. He did not yet know that other high families were afflicted, but this would not have changed his mind about it anyway. No, it was more the mention of the "household" being sick as well that made him discard the thought of conspiracy. If it was to demonstrate such an elite poisoner's capability, why bother poisoning the slaves and servants?

He waited a moment to see if this woman was going to say that any of them had died. But all he got was the additional pressure of flattery for his prowess. He rolled his eyes, 'Great. So I'm supposed to be able to cure sickness now too?' He wondered if Valerius really believed that or if he was delirious. He ought to know better. Even Vera, his little trainee, knew more abou...

The thought stuck, and stopped his defeatist reverie. Vera may just know which herbs her old master had stocked up on for this sort of thing. He held up a hand to indicate to the visitor that she should wait. He went in the back and told Burke to return to his NHC unit and fetch Vera, that he would finish up the present blend-and-test process. He could see that he had a chime or two before any action would be required, so he followed Burke back out into the room.

When then the young man left, Inoadar turned to the woman, "Okay, I am sending my assistant to bring a child here that hopefully has some knowledge about the herbs or seeds or whatever that will be of use." He anticipated a skeptical look at the mention of a "child" being the source of expertise here, and wanted to get the doubt out of the way right off.

"She was a slave assistant to an herbalist here in town and will probably have good insight into what may help. I frankly do not trust the herbalist himself. He will try to "sell", not help, and Vera's mem-..that's her name, "Vera"...her memory will be good. The fact is, miss...uh...what IS your name, if I may ask? The fact is, I know very little of this. I think Mr. Nitrozian is trusting to my creativity more than anything else. And my discretion." He did not mention that the herbalist would probably not wish to help HIM in particular, after he had backed up Vanari's freeing of the child by setting blade to his crotch.

He checked through the door into the lab and turned back. "I need to finish up this little process back here. There is nothing toxic on the fire right now, so if you want to come back here, any further details, symptoms, observations or whatever else you can provide may be useful."

x

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was indeed skeptical, though less that a child was capable and more than the man in front of her would take a "child's" advice. In her experience, adults always underestimated people younger than them. At least Mr. Parnell was willing to acknowledge the expertise of someone younger. Alea considered him with new respect. Perhaps he wasn't quite as stupid at the typical grown up.

She could not quite get a word in when he asked for her name, so she waited until he paused for breath, before introducing herself as Alea Davenport. At his offer, she followed him into the back room, looking around at all the strange objects, most of which looked to be made of nice, breakable glass.

Distraction delayed her answer to the man's request, and she was in no hurry herself, but after a moment she said, "Well, like I said I'm not convinced it's anything more than a regular cold. He was coughing a lot, and throwing up some, but mostly complaining. If he's well enough to complain, he can't be that sick, can he?" Alea looked questioningly at Mr. Parnell, genuinely unsure of the answer and treating him as the expert on the matter.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

"...But mostly complaining..." the young lady, who named herself "Alea Davenport" had said. Inoadar lost his grip on a few snorts of laughter he'd tried to suppress. He could envision the scene easily enough. He'd seen similar behavior from the young aristocrat during the mid-season outbreak of the flu. He'd practically refused to accept the concept of a Nitrozian contracting something so ignoble as a sickness.

At the time, Inoadar had felt a bit of guilt over it. He'd falsified an outbreak of sickness to drum up business at the new Sanitation Station, the NMSS. It had actually been the result of a mild poison that had skin disease-like effects, which he'd put into a bottle of sauce at a sidewalk cafe in town. He'd deliberately targeted that diner because of its catering to non citizens. Since only citizens were allowed at The Healing Hand, Inoadar had figured they would get the bulk of non citizen patronage.

It had appeared to work out just that way too. But Inoadar supposed that, knowing it was not really a disease that first time, Valerius was justified in thinking it was not sickness when the flu broke out. And now, a second outbreak so fast on the heels of the first, it wasn't that foolish to think this was something more "targeted" than another flu.

But for now, Inoadar found Alea's description of Valerius' behavior pretty consistent with a privileged man's attitude. That he just couldn't be a victim of something that also affected the poor riff-raff of the city. So, he thought he'd been poisoned. So be it. he would concoct something to ease the standard flu symptoms, and claim it was an anti-toxin.

He turned to the young woman, Alea, "Here is what I propose. I'm going to make nothing more than a typical tonic and tincture for the flu. But I am going to tell him...or rather, YOU are going to tell him...that I believe that it could be a poison that has afflicted him. That if it's what I think it is, it will get steadily get worse without some particular diet item. What is there that he dislikes? Tell him that I said that I believe it to be a form of "signature" poison, in that it is geared to work only on people that do NOT eat that particular food. Be sure to use that term, "signature". He has heard me use it before, so it will add legitimacy to the notion."

He looked out the window, but Burke and Vera were not in sight yet. Well, there was plenty to do before they arrived. "Now let's not be cruel. I mean, pick something that he doesn't like, not something he absolutely can not stomach. We want him to be able to keep it down, after all. But in the meantime, he will still feel sick, he'll probably blame it partially on having to eat this "unworthy" food. But he'll slowly get better just by getting over the flu. Tell him that what we make here is a "catalytic stimulant to activate the counter-adherent enzymes enabling the toxin repressive element in the metabolic inhibitors of..." whatever food you choose."

Inoadar chuckled, "He'll probably stop listening after the word "catalytic", but it will sound intellectual enough to be worthy of him." He stepped up to a closet in the back room, holding it open as he looked back. "Well, shall we get started? We've got work to do before Burke and Vera get here." He pointed to a cabinet and tossed Alea a key, "Here, open that and get out the three pouches on the top left and the small box in the middle of the second shelf from the bottom. Check the labels for 'LPR', 'Rug', 'BT', 'Hom' and 'Bon'. Take a handful of the "Rug" and "LPR" and put them in that crank grinder, But don't actually grind them until you have water boiling. Then they need to be sifted. I will get the equipment set up in the meantime."

x

[Inoadar]

Inoadar

Inoadar set up a complicated array of tubes and beakers, lightly coating the ends of the pipettes with colored dust beforehand and then pumping in air pressure to check for broken seals. If there had been any bursts of color, he would know there was a leak.

All he was really looking to make was some medicine to relieve the symptoms of the flu. Lilly Pad Root, labelled as "LPR", would account for the chills and perhaps some sneezing or chest congestion. Hommos flowers, the more discernible "HOM", would relieve stomach pain and a sore throat. Bon'Mur, obviously "BON", worked well on fevers and Beltor, "BT" was a general reinforcement for all those symptoms. Then they would all be tied together in a nice, sweetened 'Rug' berry Tea.

Alea ground the herbs as instructed while Inoadar ran the Bon'Mur roots through the wringer, extracting fluids with each pass as he steadily increased pressure. He now took the Hommos flowers and let them soak in the fluids from the Bon'Mur roots. By this time, Burke and Vera had arrived and he set the young girl to monitoring the pressure boiling of the Beltor leaves. He had not had time to make a proper tincture of it yet, but under pressure boiling, the results would be comparable with the traditional long term soaking and straining.

He had a series of screened connections extending from the pressurized beaker through a series of fittings that offered steadily increasing resistance to the passing of any fluid. He'd found this to be a workable substitute for the more effective ten-to-fifteen day soaking. The fluid would, of course, be the same alcoholic base you would soak it in to make a tincture.

Inoadar chuckled at the thought that Valerius probably would also attribute the effects of drunkenness to being poisoned. He would have preferred to simply give the man the same Noose Vine tea he'd brewed up at the NMSS. But the man would surely recognize the "flavor" (for lack of a better word) and realize this was simply cold medicine, and not an antitoxin.

The three remaining herbal mixes were each assigned a separate beaker. Not all were set to boil, but they were all processed in order to be ready at the same time, with Inoadar and Vera checking their progress to get it timed as closely as possible. The air had been pumped out of the large central chamber so when released, the fluids would be pulled by the vacuum into a common beaker to blend with the Rugberry tea. This was necessary because each individual element needed to be processed differently, under different heats, different lengths of time and different catalyzing techniques.

But in the end, it was all blended together in a thickened, alcohol-fortified syrup. Inoadar decanted this into a small glass jar and gave it over to Alea. "Remember, tell him this will allow suspension of further toxicity until the targeted food can be metabolized in a regular dietary regimen." He and Alea knew this phrase was truly irrelevant, but they shared a grin over the anticipation of Valerius' conviction that this was far more than just a flu tonic. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

x

[Verin Rush]

Alea Davenport

Knowledge :

Skills

Skill	XP
Observation	+1
Rhetoric	+1

Lores

*Nolan Parnell: Associate of Valerius
*The Placebo Effect
*Valerius: Exaggerates

Micellaneous :

Injuries

*None

Loot/Expenses

*One "catalytic stimulant to activate the counter-adherent enzymes enabling the toxin repressive element in the metabolic inhibitors of..." something! That is to say... one placebo.

Inoadar

Knowledge :

Skills

Skill	XP
Medicine	+1
Observation	+1
Philtering	+1
Poison	+1
Rhetoric	+2

Lores

*Alea Daveport: Works for Valerius
*Fungal Enzyme: Makes Poisons More Potent
*The Placebo Effect

Micellaneous :

Injuries

*None

Loot/Expenses

*None

____________________________________________

Notes

*Ah, the Fungal Enzymes! Verin would like that knowledge!
*Alea, I assume your Seasonal Expenses are being paid for by Valerius - if you could put a little note on your CS, under your ledger or something) stating as such, that would me nice
*Lovely little thread - I laughed. It's a shame this thread was handed in - would have been very nice to see this played out, and see more banter between the two.

Feel free to PM me with questions, comments, or concerns, if you have any.
Also, remember to either delete your grade request or edit it as 'graded'.
Thank ye!