Talessa Heldargar

Talessa Heldargar is a short, buxom woman who dresses in soft, many-pocketed woolens, worn leather boots and gloves, and a wimple to keep the sun off her head and neck Her wimple conceals a set of Neverwinter Knives (such bejeweled knives are small and made to be concealed), one pair in the braids of her hair, and a third on a necklace crafted to break apart when tugged sharply. Talessa is known to be friendly, industrious and tireless, and is a shrewd haggler. She’s equally likely to be found at work somewhere in Neverwinter as her home in the River District. Talessa is a sage specializing in knowledge of plants, herbs and vegetables. She is also an accomplished apothecary and master gardener. The interior of Talessa’s sprawling residence is awash in the competing scents of dried herbs, cooked vegetables, boiling liquids, cheese and wood smoke. The exterior hosts a wide variety of plants, trees, bushes and vines, and a garden that is the envy of any in the city. A small staff of live-in apprentices tend the cook fires and keep the place from being overrun by wandering vines. The most senior apprentices assist Talessa with her forays into Neverwinter, and complete errands on their own within the city. The later task sometimes involves greeting new customers at their residences and then escorting them to a pair of tall trees that front a path of square stones leading to Talessa’s front door. Customers are instructed to keep well away from the creeping vines that snap at anyone approaching too close to Talessa’s garden home, and to wait under the trees (whose branches are woven together to form an arch that is proof against rain) until summoned inside. Talessa sells unguents, remedies and non-magical potions derived from plant oils not native to the northern Sword Coast Talessa’s expertise in cultivating guardian plants—thorny, poison-on-contact plants; pollen and spore producers of the toxic and sleep-inducing varieties; plants that produce a glue¬like sap when their branches are broken; an aggressive, vine- tentacled flesh eater—has done much to fill her coffers of late. For a coin fee paid upfront she installs guardian plants within the gardens of her customers along with a minor fee to tend the plants to maturity.[2] These coins are spent on new plants, fungi, seeds, and anything else she hasn’t seen before. Likewise, for historical accounts of Neverwinter’s gardens, and lorebooks detailing the work of tending plants and gardens as it is practiced in other parts of Faerun. Neverwinter’s old nickname—the City of Skilled Hands—is a sobriquet Talessa wants to see returned to use in Neverwinter. She is convinced it was the hard work of hundreds of talented gardeners that made the city so beautiful, earning for it a reputation that once stretched as far south as Tethyr, and inland to Cormyr. Talessa has been frustrated of late by the refusal of Narvos Heg to sell her an illustrated book of arbors found in Neverwinter, that she suspects is among his collection. Narvos' last words on the subject were, "Why, that book is nigh worthless and falling apart! What would it do to my reputation to sell you such an ugly tome? I may just use it for kindling and spare you the expense." [1] Fees for sage advice are on a per question or per hour basis: 1 sp per question or 20gp per hour. All fees are paid in advance. [2] Such fees are charged on a per plant basis, ranging from 50gp for poisonous plants to 5,000gp for the flesh eater, and 1 /100th that amount per week to tend each plant. Talessa owns a handful of unique Pots of Awakening (XGtE, p.138), and has begun selling awakened shrubs to her customers (MM, p.31 7). The awakened shrubs take 45 days to mature, and obey both Talessa and one other individual she designates immediately after the creature breaks free from its magical confinement. Price per shrub is left to the DM to determine.