This guy goes in and out of the temple on a regular basis!

Feather will walk up to him near to the temple! "Hello! Are you a cleric of Erastil, or can you tell me where to find one? I want to ask them about what Erastil tells humans to do and why."

"I'm a cleric of Erastil. But He doesn't talk much."

"Oh. Well, maybe you can help me anyway? I actually want to know what the humans who follow Erastil think, I just guessed Erastil told you about it." 

"I'm Bright Morning Feather, a druid from Ravounel Forest. And - the humans from outside the forest are always attacking it. Trying to cut it down. Not just under Asmodeus, but back under Aroden and all over Avistan, maybe all over the world, going back hundreds or thousands of years, the forests are always getting smaller and everyone who lives in the forests dies and the humans expand their lands."

"And - I understand wanting more for yourself, many people are like that. But I'm Good, and you're Good. And Good people should be able to find a better way than making war on each other and letting the strong destroy the weak, right? Good people shouldn't attack neighbours who just want to live in peace. Not everyone in the forest just wants to live in peace, but we would if we'd be left alone, and I don't think if we never came out then the humans outside would stop attacking us."

"But most humans around the forests are farmers, and many farmers followed Erastil before Asmodeus, and maybe they will again. So I wanted to ask what you think about it. Why can't we make peace, so both the forests and the humans outside get to live?"

"I've been talking to people outside the forest and it seems like - most of them at least, don't think that most of us are people. Animals, plants that - have feelings or can talk - almost all creatures that aren't human or humanoid but that still have thoughts and feelings and that you can help or harm. I always thought being Good meant being Good to everyone. The people here, and in the villages around our Forest, seem to think only humans and maybe elves are the people you should be Good to. Some people here don't even think halflings are people! It doesn't make any sense to me, and it extra doesn't make sense that you could be Good and still think that, but maybe you can explain?"

"I think I'm Lawful Neutral, not Good. Might drift that way over time.

"If you do enough magic to an animal or a plant, you could make it a person. But you shouldn't. You can make anything smart with enough magic. A sword or a statue or a rock, if you're strong enough. It's just a damn fool thing to do. Anyone who wants to make a person should have a passel of children the normal way and learn to take it seriously. Druids going around turning trees into people are being irresponsible and violently defending the trees after they've done it is their foolishness that I don't care to adopt."

That's disappointing; Feather really wanted the Good-outsider perspective on things, but she's already talking to this man, so she'll try to understand how he sees it.

"I don't mean awakened creatures, I mean - take a regular animal, any animal. You've probably got cows or goats or horses or chickens or something on your farm. That animal can feel things, right? You - I don't mean you personally, I mean someone - can hurt them or not. Can treat them well or badly, can make them work hard and beat them when they fail or can be kind to them and only ask them to work a reasonable amount and let them rest when they're tired and care for them when they're sick."

"Doesn't Good say to help and not to hurt, if you don't have to? Doesn't Good say not to kill without reason? Why would that apply to a human and not to a horse or a cow? Is it different to drive animals out of their home because you want it for yourself, or kill them, than to do the same to other humans?"

"I take care of my animals and they work and produce for me, and when they can't, or when it's what I raised them for to begin with, they go in the pot. I take care of my tools, too, and my house, and my family. If my goat hops the fence and eats my neighbor's vegetables, or my dog's not trained well and bites his kid, or my son's not kept in line and knocks up his daughter, I owe him and his to make it up to them best I can. No druid ever showed up at my house to say, sorry, sir, my pet tree escaped and stepped on your oats, please let me make it up to you with a Plant Growth. As an example. Maybe some places they're doing their best but I never heard of it."

"That's what I would want! If something from the forest bothers or harms you, we'd apologize and - make up for it, like you say. That would be peace, and - being good neighbours you'd want to live next to," thank you Raimon. "And if someone from outside went into the forest and hurt people you'd do the same for us, and that never happens anywhere that I heard of. Do you think that's possible? And for Erastil and his people to say - that's Good, and help deal with people who want to continue the war instead and try to cut down the forest?"

"It's true not everyone in the forest - my Forest anyway - wants that. But most human villagers outside it don't have priests of Erastil. Do you want both sides to change, so there's peace?"

"Now, what is it you're talking about precisely, when someone goes into the forest and trespasses on your people? Gathering firewood and mushrooms? Taking a squab? Chasing down something toothy that's been after the chickens or the children? Sheltering from pesky cityfolk? It's not as though everyone knows that a forest's safe for a polite neighbor and how to be one. You're a queer bunch and haven't got fences and don't come by for supper, how are we supposed to know your manners let alone know them clear enough to prefer to freeze rather than risk your pet tree?"

"Well obviously we'd have to work to talk to each other and build ties and - one thing we druids know very well is that really understanding different people is hard and takes a lot of dedicated work. So I know it wouldn't be easy! I just want to get to the point where someone on the other side, someone like you, at least says - it's worth trying. That if we can get there, that would be a good thing, and we're going to try."

"And - yeah, some other people I talked to were also confused about what druids were bothered by and what we'd want you not to do in the forest." Which means she's better at explaining this now! Hopefully.

"Hunting is fine, hunting is normal. But if you go into the forest something that lives there might hunt you. That's not going to change; the forest is where those people - uh, those creatures live, it's there for those creatures to live in, just like everyone else. But we'd stop them from going out of the forest and bothering your chickens or your children, and if any did we'd go after it so you didn't have to. There's plenty of room inside the forest, nobody has to leave it to hunt."

"So if you want to go in and gather deadwood or mushrooms or hunt deer, that's fine, except there might be an owlbear or something that tries to eat you. If you want to just stay there for whatever reason, that's fine, except something might attack you or you might step on a poisonous thorn or something, so you'd have better luck finding someone who lives in the forest and wants to host you for a while, but the druids and - everyone who is organized to defend the Forest, we wouldn't harm you and we might try to help you."

"What you mustn't do is try to cut down or burn down a whole part of the forest so you can build more farms or something."

Feather is aware she's describing a radical new kind of relationship between the forest and the outsiders, which many people in the forest might not want to accept. She might not accept it herself, once she's had time to think through the implications! But - getting someone from the outside to agree to some solution other than war or blood tribute, even just in theory, would be a first. Maybe a first step towards something, maybe it will help her think of something better later, or just help her understand what kinds of things the Outsiders will and won't agree to. Because the Forest is still losing the war.

"And fending off the owlbear if it hunts me while I take wood, what about that?"

"So - I'm making this up, I'm trying to imagine a better world, I don't have all the answers yet, but we'd try to work them out together."

"We can't have a druid accompany everyone who gathers wood, or every owlbear for that matter. There aren't nearly enough druids! But we can make a line, a border, and try to make sure owlbears don't come out to bother you, and if you go past that line to gather wood you have to defend yourself. Very few humans go deep into the forest as it is. If you just want deadwood for burning, maybe we could use plant growth on some kinds of quick-growing woody bushes that only live a year or two anyway and then leave a lot of wood matter for you to harvest."

Obviously they wouldn't be helping the humans grow trees and cut them down young, but that doesn't mean there can't be creative solutions that are better than that!

"You need a proper log for a long-burning fire, shrubs are only good for kindling. What I mean is, if I see an owlbear, I'm going to reckon it's not my friend. I certainly don't know how to tell the difference between one that wants my meat and one that likes my hat. So if I go in and spot one and kill it....?"

"If you meet one, and kill them thinking it's in self defense, I think that's - sad, like all unnecessary killing, but it's understandable? Just like an owlbear might not be hungry at the moment, but they meet a human on the edge of the forest where both humans and owlbears can go, and the human looks like a scary adventurer coming near their lair, so they'll attack it in self defense if they think they'd win."

"As long as you're there for a different reason, and you're not chasing down owlbears and killing them because you think they're all monsters and a threat. And the owlbears would also learn not to go into the shared zone that humans go into, or not to confront them, unless they were ready to fight."

"Animals who can't talk still have many ways to signal they're not there for a fight, or to back down. Killing when neither side really wants to kill is rare. So I think - I hope - this kind of thing wouldn't stop the peace from working. And of course an awakened owlbear, or a druid who was an owlbear, who wanted to look at your hat would be able to make you understand they weren't attacking, and they would understand if you said no, even if you don't share a language."

"As for the logs... I don't know a good solution yet. I know people have tried to find one, and they're still burning trees in the Verduran forest, and that's - very sad. If there were enough old trees dying for you to burn, that would be great, but it probably needs a very big forest. But... is that the only problem? Would you be at peace with the forests, and let us be good neighbours, if we found a solution to the wood you need to burn, like - a different way to keep your houses warm, or something?"

"To keep the houses warm, to cook, to scare off wild animals camping outside. To build with, houses and barns and fences and trellises and pitchforks and plows and furniture. Ships too, I think, not that I know from ships. Wood's useful and it's most useful if it comes in a big chunk and not a twig. Who'd be in charge of saying what a given man had in mind if he went into the forest and an owlbear wound up dead?"

Huh. That's a really tough question. Feather things it might be a Lawful one? She knows Law has a lot of intricacies she never really studied.

"I don't know," she confesses. "Like I said, I don't have it all planned out. I'm not nearly Wise enough, and I'm just one person, I can't think of all the right solutions by myself. But what we would want is something we both agreed on, that would be better than war and taking things by force and killing the other side. I think that's - something Good people should agree on. And then work together to figure out how to make it happen. So I want to know - if we solved all the details - is that something you want? Is that something Erastil, or his humans if he doesn't speak to you, want and will work for, against the humans who want something else?"

"Also I - really think there should be a solution to the firewood thing, just because there are so many different plants that grow in different ways, and I only know the ones from my Forest but there are many many more across the world. I don't know how to make wood for buildings and ships without killing young trees, but maybe there is a solution? We just need to spend our time looking, instead of - fighting each other, or defending the Forest."

"...I think your idea sounds pretty nice. I think a forest is bad to have around by default but a lot of human things are bad by default too and you could work at it and make it better. But I'm brought up a bit short when you want me pledging allegiance to a nice friendly forest that doesn't exist, against humans who don't believe it's right around the corner and want the unfriendly ones that they live near pushed back."

"I'm not asking you to change before we have. I think this kind of thing would require a lot of careful planning and talking between everyone, and then probably changing together. Like this convention, where you want to decide on new laws, and after everyone has spoken and agreed everyone will start following them at the same time. And I'm just one person, I'm young, I can't tell anyone else in the Forest what to do. You're just one person. But -"

(Wow, she's completely failing today at being impartially-Neutral and carefully listening and understanding other people like a proper druid, she's just being Feather! After this conversation is over she's going to meditate so hard until she can get through talking to an outsider human without saying one word about her own feelings!)

"Until today every human from outside the forest I had talked to just wanted to destroy the forest. They didn't want to be good neighbours, they didn't understand that everyone matters, that the forest should also exist and making the world all farms and cities with only humans in them would be bad. Or they didn't care because it wouldn't be bad for them."

"That's an Evil way of life. And there are always Evil people but - it's just one-fifth of nature. It shouldn't get everything its way, there's a balance. Good should care about everyone. Law and Chaos and Neutral shouldn't all want to destroy the forest just to make room for more humans."

"So I want for us to understand each other. If we can't agree that it would be Good to make peace, then I want to understand why, what I'm missing, so I can make it work. I'll never stop trying. And I hope - if one day we, or someone, figures out how to do it, and has an idea that solves all the details - that you, and people like you, who live outside the Forest, will agree to it. Not because we would force you. Because you would be happy not to be at war anymore."

"This is a lot of alignment talk. Most people don't even know what alignment they are. You can get some folks to do some things by saying they're Good, or they're Lawful, but only if those folks believe you, and why should you be an expert? Particularly why would you be an expert if you think all those things ought to balance, when most people have pretty strong opinions favoring some over others! A world without any forests in it would be fine in my book. Getting there would be a heck of a thing, I think your vision's prettier by a long shot, but the place itself would be fine, if there'd just never been forests. Farms are good."

"It's not about knowing what alignment you are, it's about - knowing what the alignment is, and living life that way? Don't you, I mean all the humans... know what Good and Evil and Law are? Wasn't Asmodeus trying to make you all Lawful Evil, how'd that work if people didn't know what Law or Evil are?" Feather is very confused by the proposition that the humans outside the forest don't actually know what the alignments are! The ones she talked to in the villages close to the Forest always swore they were trying to be Lawful Evil!

"The balance is about - it's something druids care about in particular. And some other True Neutral people. The world is full of people who are - sorry, who live life by different alignments. And there always will be, unless you kill everyone who's not like you, which you won't because everyone else would fight someone tried that, and no-one's stronger than all the people who live by other alignments put together. And the -" life-webs, she can't explain that in Chelish - "the world is very big and complex, and if you take out everyone who isn't Good or everyone who isn't Lawful or something, what's left won't work."

"So we work to maintain the balance, and to keep the - complexity working. The druids are also of all different alignments, and we need to work together on the things the druids agree about. It would be no good if Evil druids fought Good ones all the time, you might as well not have druids! So we agree about many things and how to work and live together."

"That probably doesn't matter to you. Which is fine! If you want all humans to be Good or Lawful or something, that would be fine! As long as they're not all Evil and all want to destroy the forests for power."

"I think you're saying that if there's war, you want to win it and destroy it. But it would be better, prettier you said, to have peace instead. And - I understand that. I can work with that. It's better than what I had before. If that's what you think then if all the humans were like you we could probably make there be peace."

"Asmodeus was sure trying that, but you can do evil things without thinking twice about them. The Crown's trying to phase out paper money because it was evil, turns out, and I sure didn't know that and neither did my wife who handles the money. Before Erastil chose me I never, ever thought 'I should do what's Lawful here' or 'what's the Good option' and I wouldn't say it comes naturally even now. I thought 'what do I owe my neighbor', and 'what will be best for my children', and 'how can I make my marriage work', and 'what will get the peas to grow and the goats to give milk'. Does that all add up to something by Pharasma's reckoning, sure it seems to! But that didn't come first and the more you talk about it the more you sound like you're trying to slip some trick past me.

"I bet you're an expert on forests and how they work inside. But in Heaven everyone's Lawful Good, and there's farms upon farms where the blackberries have neither thorn nor seed, and if it's not 'working', then who cares if anything's working? You can't convince anybody you've got to keep the forest around because otherwise things'd be too - samey? Too extreme? Those are druid worries and you've already convinced yourself."

Wait, the paper money is Evil? She was so happy not to have to handle worked metal coins! ...never mind, that's probably not important right now.

"I don't want to trick you!" Anyone would say that, wouldn't they. "I mean - I thought you already had an idea of what Good is, because you follow Erastil, so I thought we had something we both understood, and I tried to use that. I don't want to tell you what Good is if you're not sure already, I'm not a proper teacher!"

"I don't know much about Heaven. If it's good for people to live on farms, then I expect they have farms, I just don't think they got their farms by burning down forests, that wouldn't be Good at all. Nirvana definitely has forests and it would be weird if no-one Lawful Good wanted any forests." Maybe all the Lawful gods don't like forests for some reason? If the gods make blackberries without seeds then she's very suspicious of whether they actually understand how anything works.

"You're right that - I need to convince you, convince people, for reasons they care about. The reason I thought would matter to someone pursuing Good isn't everything not being the same, it's that the forests already exist and so Good shouldn't harm everyone who lives in them, all the animals and plants as well as the humans and other creatures who can talk to you. But if that's not obvious to you, then we have different ideas of what Good is and I should probably - find some people here who do think they know what Good is and ask them what they think." There are temples to some other Good gods here, surely someone here actually knows (or at least thinks they know) what Good even is?

"I can check with one of the fellows from abroad who can read and are probably themselves Good and suchlike, but I will be pretty surprised if they tell me it's Evil to cut a tree or cull a monster."

It's not Evil to kill one tree or animal if you want to eat them or burn them for fuel or you're afraid they'll hurt you or someone you care about! Just as it's not Evil to kill one human to eat them! Both actions are equally (non-)Evil, and in fact both are Neutral! Feather is really frustrated at her apparent inability to get this very basic premise across, but it probably won't help anything if she just says all this again.

"I don't think those things are Evil," she says eventually. "If you're doing them for reasons like wanting to eat or wanting fuel or to protect someone. Just like you have different words for killing and murder, some killing of animals and trees is fine, and some is wrong. I don't know if I can explain what I think to you any better than I already have. I'll try to find some other people to talk to, until we'll maybe understand each other better."

"Thank you for talking to me. Do you want to ask me anything? I can also cast a cure spell for you if you want, or give you three magical berries that each replace a whole meal if eaten within three days," et cetera.