"No. Treants aren't fey. Neither are elves. Neither are metallic dragons or werebears, and you should leave all of these alone. You should kill werewolves if you can't cure them, but not if you can, and -"

He tries to inhale. "The forest is big. There is very much in the forest. If a group of Arcadians landed at the western coast of Cheliax, some areas you would not mind them settling and fishing and farming, and some areas they would be chased off from, and they would be very confused why some strix liked them and some didn't. The Whisperwood is not a thing, it is a world, and it is a world where if people who don't know it go bumbling around they will get themselves killed and probably hurt other people. Some places the Sower is right and some places the Sower is wrong and I can't specify precisely enough for you to not all get yourselves killed unless we are walking the outer rim of the Whisperwood right there."

"...what resources that can only be found in proper forests? We just all voted to ban one of those for being Evil apparently, and trees grow all over the place in small numbers that don't hide any gnolls or anything, and monsters are the opposite of a resource."

"The Barrowood's had a better track record of keeping the bits that outsiders wander into safer and less damaging than the rest, but Tuimfane is of course quite right. Bumbling blindly inside is not recommended for one's safety and longevity, and it is much more complicated than the simple gloss makes it sound.

"As to resources - so, some of them are directly beneficial to you, like ship logs and certain herbs that are very picky about their conditions? Some of the things found there druids need for our spells, and actively need to be in places of high concentration of life. And yes, some of those spells are directly beneficial to you as well, though forgive me for not going down the full list of what coincides to what and where it needs to be grown. But it is also about, hm. Drawing away the monsters that would otherwise haunt more populated areas. Whisperwood's dragon, for instance, would it be better if she instead decided to take over a city to rule for herself, ravaged your pastures and farmlands and demanded tribute from you directly? No, absolutely not. The fey are similarly drawn in and away from your settlements, as are gnolls and goblins drawn away from raiding your crops and killing your livestock to eat. I know that the modern conceit is that forests are breeding grounds for monsters, that if you were rid of them you'd be rid of what they hold, but in a properly managed system, this is not so. They obviously can become breeding grounds, without proper management from druids, but they're... sort of a place to collect all of the strange and prickly things that would not play nice in your tidy civilization. So you don't have to deal with them."

"They keep coming out, though."

Voshrelka's claim is an obvious deceit. Most kinds of people can't live, or at least thrive, outside a proper forest. The Outsider-human ideal is to destroy everything nonhuman except what they eat, and if they can kill the forests despite the dragons and fey who live in them and fight to defend them, they will also kill the remaining dragons and fey who don't have a forest to hide in.

Of course she's not going to say any of this.

"Yes. Your government slaughtered the shepherds that were supposed to keep them in, then dove into its depths for their own prizes, stirring up trouble that they would then not have to bear the consequences of. Which then wanders out to kill you. This is not the way it should be."

Things come out of the forest and into the mountains, too, sometimes. But the mountains aren't easy to climb, so they don't get owlbears or lesser grades of fey who just want to make mischief, they get dragons, and bigger fey, who actively want something. So if you don't want them around you can usually give them the thing, or tell them where it is, or grovel about not knowing, and they'll mostly leave you alone; but sometimes they just want to talk, and that's why Liushna knows Sylvan and Draconic and why the tribes of the itarii have fey and draconic sorcerous bloodlines. Overall it's a system that works pretty well! 

"Just grow wings and live in mountains" is not remotely actionable advice though so she keeps her mouth shut. 

"I don't think any forest has ever been 'shepherded' so well that it didn't emit dangerous beasts at all. Even Verduran on the east edge, where they have the agreement with Taldor. But certainly it will be worse where the druids see no reason to try."

“Your towns and cities emit dangerous beings at a similar rate,” points out Voshrelka, dryly. “But yes, perfect safety is a goal to be worked towards, not an easy guarantee. And I did mention your country betrayed us, didn’t I?”

"The Asmodeans betrayed you and we all rejoice that they have been all put to death for their crimes."

Actually it was before that, with the greed of the Arodenites, but sure. She will play along with this polite fiction. It made her furious, when she was younger, but now she knows it’s part of this dance of theirs. Just another thing to be leveraged.

"Indeed! And they will not be mourned by any of us. You’ll note that I am here, attempting to change things." She taps her fingers on the table as she thinks.

"But this is all - more long term change that will be tricky to implement. If possible, there are two things I'd like to accomplish today. The first is officially outlaw dryad harvesting, the sooner that becomes written law the better. The second is... I suppose not forest based, but. Plant Growth. Someone, somewhere, needs to work out which places to Plant Growth to lessen the chance of famine. I can dump it randomly on applicable farmland in flight range, but that doesn't really do anything for the overall situation itself. Just Westcrown. So." She motions vaguely with her hand. "Assistance there sooner rather than later - while everything is still growing - is of utmost importance."

"I don't think anybody knows where all the farms are and which ones are having trouble. But if you can go by what a place is growing, you want grains and beans. That's what keeps a body going, everything else is to make it taste better."

She gives a firm nod; this is, if nothing else, useful information.

"One would want to map out a travel circuit, I think, through the Heartlands - the part of Cheliax that has historically grown nearly all of the food our people eat. I can provide you with maps; they are imperfect but I think tend to have the right things next to the right other things. When the Heartlands has a good harvest we ship the grain downriver and it is inexpensive in the cities also. Would you want accommodations along your route? Assurances that every lord whose land you pass through knows why you're there, has agreed to enforce the ban on dryad harvesting as best he can, and will not tax the improved harvests excessively?"

Oh good, she lives in the Heartlands. She's never had anyone to cast Plant Growth on her village's fields and she's not entirely sure why it's so important, but it sounds like it would probably be nice.

The claim that the Heartlands is the top breadbasket of Cheliax is an exaggeration, but Voshrelka doesn't particularly care to call her on it. It can actually be argued that it's a better place to start than the Sirmium, because it's closer to where she is right now. But by her estimations, the Sirmium is still in the top spot for food output. She's pretty sure this noblewoman is saying this and not trying to figure out how to do the sensible thing and get one of the many wizards of Cheliax to teleport her because it'll benefit her lands, personally. This is fine by Voshrelka.

"No accommodations are necessary," and she doesn't particularly trust anyone's promises, but saying that is not being a good little Plant Growth druid, so instead she will pretend her reasons are more noble, "and assurances of those kind would be welcome, but I understand word will spread slowly and my necessity is speed to prevent oncoming famine. But a map and a travel circuit is exactly the sort of thing I meant. The ones I have are hundreds of years out of date."

Well. Sort of. Technically the route she used for Diminish Plants isn't as out of date, only being about fifty years instead of over a hundred, but she will be pretending that this route does not exist and never did and those famines were just bad weather and war. Anyway, that one wasn't built for efficiency of maximized spell usage, but for plausible explanations for failing harvests that do not trace back to any druids.

"I will get you an up to date one as soon as possible. We are very grateful."

"You could probably ask nobles from any province about this kind of thing and get the same."

Nod. "I expect I'll end up doing that, but I also," don't particularly want to chase down every noble to ask them for how best to devote her time to saving their people, "expect they might be difficult to approach, especially personally as a druid."

Anyway, she gets out her maps of the old Plant Growth circuits. The paper is yellowed, the ink is faded, and it's got a sort of crumbly delicate quality that hints at its age. These maps are, in fact, older than almost everyone else in this room.

"Here are the old circuit maps," she says, and carefully slides them over to Lady de Seguer, "I would appreciate having updated copies returned to me as soon as possible."

Is she sort of ordering a Lady around directly? Yes. Is this a druid flex? Also yes. Is she enjoying this a little? Definite yes. Dance, nobles, dance, it's to your own benefit.

She takes them very carefully and ...isn't sure how she'll carry them around, actually. That will be a problem for Future Eulàlia. "The people of Cheliax are grateful for your generosity."

Solemn nod.

See, Feather would also go around giving you plant growth if you gave her what she wants, except what she wants is to not have logging zones in her forest.

...at least when she gets route maps it'll be from the Archduchess of Kintargo and hopefully she won't feel as bad about making her happy as she does seeing Eulàlia smile. A happy Eulàlia is disturbing.

"Should I maybe announce on the floor, about the maps? At the same time as the bit about the portal to Hell and sending Ravounel a real ambassador. I don't know how fast you can go or how many of those you can cast in a day."

"That would be appreciated, thank you."

As to her abilities: "Two per day," actually three, but she wants to be able to dictate at least one of her third circle spells, and knows how humans are, "and I can be a bird that flies 50 miles per hour," actually she can be even faster with the help of Greater Longstrider, and the estimated speed she's offering is already on the low scale in case of inclement weather, "for six hours a day." Actually twelve. But, again: not being honest about her abilities. "I do not need to drop my wildshape to cast Plant Growth." That one's true, though, and frankly she thinks it would be strange to meet a druid of her power that hasn't figured out how to cast spells while wildshaped. It would be downright suspicious to lie about, especially at her age, and admitting to doing Plant Growth circuits before.

All of this to say that: druids, even when purposefully underestimating their own travel speed, can hustle.

"- amazing. I'll let 'em know and they can put their maps together with those ones."