The Church of Shelyn is spreading Sinflower discreetly as well, primarily recommending it to established couples who are having issues in the bedroom.

Milani is fighting the good fight in Andoran, Galt, Cheliax and Nidal. She has little time to spare for the spread of contraception when Calistria is already doing her work for her. 

Cayden Cailean is similarly occupied.

So far, so good...

There is also another kind of Sinflower on the market. It's called Black Sinflower and it's a hundred times more potent than the stuff those goody two shoes priests will give you. It's intensely pleasurable, highly addictive, grows from negative energy, and the first dose is free.

Urgathoa.

She was wondering when she'd bite. She's clearly put a lot of time into reverse-engineering her carefully DRM'd blossoms. 

This is a real problem. It's going to give all contraception a bad name if this is what Sinflower becomes known as. 

She doesn't have an immediate counter. Excess has always been a thorn in her side. Generally she treats it with deep connections that matter to people, such that they're able to see that the option is bad, but Urgathoa's stolen a march on her while she was busy in Tian Xia. 

She will have to talk to Abadar and Irori about this.

Okay, so the likely move and countermove here is that Abadar bans Black Sinflower or possibly Sinflower more generally, Urgathoa continues producing it anyway and smuggling it. There'll be a demand, at first because it gives an intense high, then because people are addicted. 

Urgathoa's put a lot of effort into this one. She must have spent quite a bit to pervert the inherently positive-energy based nature of Sinflower to instead run off of negative energy. Then again, Urgathoa is the patron of undead: making things run on negative energy that should run on positive energy is kind of her thing. 

Sunaira's first option for her defense is to introduce some other form of drug - either a medical treatment that helps with addiction or a safer alternative to Black Sinflower that still gives its characteristic high. She has the second already available, but releasing it feels like directly playing into Urgathoa's hands. The endless quest for a purer and stronger variant of Sinflower is Urgathoa's domain, not hers. 

A step-down drug is safer. She has such things in her collection as well - they're part of her domain of sacrifice - but again, Urgathoa is her better in the realm of drugs. 

If she's going to introduce that, she'll need real backing from a deity of healing who can contest Urgathoa on her own turf. Sarenrae or Yeulral. 

What was Urgathoa doing already in the realm of drugs? That matters to her assessment; sad as it is, if this is just one more tool in Urgathoa's large arsenal of narcotics and intoxicants, it might not be worth fighting specifically. It might be better to fall back on domains of community and support and help people with the problems that make them turn to Urgathoa rather than try to individually stamp out every new drug she makes.

There is in fact already an entire nation just south of Osirion that makes most of its money from the drug and slave trades. It's called Katapesh. It's sponsored by Abadar, just like Osirion is sponsored by Abadar.

... Maybe she should not in fact be relying on Abadar to ban obviously harmful drugs. 

Among the drugs commonly available just in Absalom, there is Qat, Demon Dust, Succubus Kiss, Pesh, and Shiver. All of them have serious deleterious effects on the mortal body and all of them are addictive. 

This is, in fact, an ongoing problem.

Ah. 

Okay, she is not going to fix this overnight. She is not going to overthrow the entire nation of Katapesh in a week, or rid the streets of Absalom of drugs overnight. It's a tragedy that Urgathoa is going to claim more souls using a tool she inspired her to, but she is going to have to fight this one in the trenches rather than coming up with one single, sweeping change that will make everything right. 

She needs a strategy here.

... Moreover, this complicates things with Osirion. The last thing she wants is for Osirion to be so destabilized that the lot of bandits in Katapesh take over the country. 

You know, on reflection, she's been typecasting Abadar as a strict, no-nonsense deity, but in Katapesh he doesn't seem to care at all about the oodles of vice that are present - because it's all legal there, naturally. 

When she considers Katapesh... Abadar seems to mostly give people what they want, societally or mercantilely. She's been confusing his followers in Osirion with the deity himself.

Maybe she should be working together with him rather than opposing him. He's still a fundamentally amoral deity, but they have shared goals in the sense of prosperity and trade...

And if Abadar says the worship of Sunaira is fine, then that will make the transition in Osirion much, much easier.

She should be talking to the old players from Osirion about now. They'll have home field advantage.

... Except that both Bastet and Hathor are chaotic good. If she involves them she's much less likely to be able to work together with Abadar.

Hey Bes, you used to play in Osirion, right?

Yes, I did. Why?

I'm looking into introducing myself to Osirion. I'm a deity of joy, like you are, but like you I'm Neutral Good, not Chaotic Good like Bastet or Hathor. I want to avoid being confused for Calistria or other Chaotic goddesses of sexuality by the Osirian people. 

Do you have any advice?

Use committed relationships. There's also a carve-out for bards and professional performers that you can take advantage of, that was part of my old domain. 

What precisely are you trying to do?

Introduce birth control, primarily. Osirian women get a horrible deal and I want to improve their treatment.

Sell it on the benefits to the community. Less neglected children, less extra mouths that can't be fed, less crime due to poor families not being able to care for their own. People want to have fun, even in Osirion; adapt your strategy away from sexuality a bit and use the nonsexual parts of that Pleasure domain. Love will probably also help. Try to keep families together. Reform is inevitable once birth control becomes widespread, but you can ease the transition and make it something Abadar might accept.

That's all I've got for now. Good luck.

Can I convince you to come back and play again?

I'm sorry, but I've got a ton of balls in the air in Kemet. The former-sultan-now-king's passed a decree where he's relegated parliament to an advisory role and it's really a lot to manage. Maybe in a few years more.

It's alright. Thank you for the advice nonetheless.

Hey Abadar, what's it worth to you to resolve the birth control question in Osirion with it being legalized?

I'm not really in the business of telling people what they should or shouldn't want. There certainly seems to be a demand for it, but the law's rather against many of its consequences.

That said, if you want to trade with me I'm listening.

What price would you put on this? What's your opening offer?

This much.