Passes, 441-27.

How are there twenty-seven people who voted against closing a portal to Hell.

"Thank you all kindly, and one more thing. We'd like the killing of dryads and the sale of their wood banned." Txell, if you have the exact wording...

Sure, if he has it written down she can read it...

The committee condemns the Evils wrought under Asmodean rule against our friends and neighbors, and recommends to Her Majesty that the law prohibit the harvest for sale of dryad trees, or conspiracy for the same, on pain of death, and we recommend that those organizations charged with tracking down cults and Asmodean remnants be charged also with investigating whether these incursions have ceased, and bringing them to an end if they haven't.

Shit, did he fuck up?

Feather didn't realize this was odd when the committee met on the first day of the convention, but in retrospect it really stands out that the other committees have been bringing actual laws to a vote while all they have is a toothless 'recommendation to the Queen'. Closing the portal to Hell requires the archmages and they can't pass a law telling them what to do - Elie Cotonnet outright struck down some would-be laws that they voted for - but stopping the murder of dryads is surely a valid law. The floor would probably vote the same way for a law as for a recommendation.

This wouldn't have happened if that horrible woman didn't decide to have her fun by way of hurting the forests. Even if the vote for the recommendation passes, they can't propose an actual law the next day, that would probably insult the Queen after explicitly giving her a mere recommendation. Especially if the Queen decides to ignore the recommendation. Presumably she won't bother passing a decree just to say 'I am ignoring the recommendation and the law remains the same.' Which could mean no-one can tell if she's still considering it, or ignored it, or actually decided against it. Anyway to bring up a real law for a vote it would have to pass the committee and the horrible Eulalia would block that.

...maybe Voshrelka has a better plan? Feather thought she was trading not-killing-dryads for plant growths, but surely she wouldn't trade them for merely voting up a suggestion if the Queen ignores it, so - she must be doing some strategic groveling behind the scenes to make the Queen endorse it (if it passes), otherwise why even work through the Convention?

...Who do they have speaking up to second the suggestion? They need to at least explain to the floor that dryads are all Good and that they die if you kill their trees! The Sower didn't actually explain why it's much more important to stop harvesting dryad trees than other trees! She gets in line to speak.

Hi, yes, elder convention druid here, she's available to be two steps ahead of Feather yet again.

"Seconding," says the woman who brought up this proposal in the first place. "We now have more than one paladin in attendance; could one of them please come up and confirm for everyone that killing a dryad, especially for resources to extract from their corpses, is Evil? Because that's what felling them does. It kills them. Killing them should be illegal like murder is illegal."

She's not a paladin but she lined up to speak on this one. "The druid Voshrelka has been generous with her time and her spells in support of the people of Cheliax," she's doing her part of the bargain and giving us Plant Growths, "and her request of us was that we redress this evil of the old regime as promptly as possible. We are all benefitting from the generosity of the druids of the Barrowood, our neighbors and allies, and should ensure that this matter of great importance to them is handled." I do not give a shit about the trees but I give a shit about the Plant Growths and so should you. This is not actually a very expensive ask, in exchange for Plant Growths.

Sure, Elorri grew up near a forest. "Dryads are normally Chaotic Good, and even if it ever comes to pass that there is some legitimate reason to kill one, extracting their wood afterwards rewards murderer and non- alike and I will vote for a blanket policy against it."

Fey are, as a rule, to be suspected, but unless the Thrunes somehow corrupted the dryads, they are good, and deserve to be left alone. He'll clap from his seat.

Nod. There. Nobility and a paladin, both confirming Thing Bad. Any fucking questions.

"The harvest of dryad trees is vital to our national security. The magical properties of the wood make them especially useful for constructing warships; it's not impossible to achieve the same result with ordinary wood and spellsilver, but banning the dryad trade entirely would require a significant increase in spellsilver production to compensate. If the druids want to negotiate a formal treaty guaranteeing some quantity of plant growths, fine, but permanently outlawing a major industry in exchange for vague assurances that they could easily go back on in a year is just stupid."

...the major industry... is... murder...

Elorri appreciates the Law behind the anonymity but now he has to consider that almost anybody could have said that whenever he meets any of these people in a social context.

Well it wasn't this druid, because this druid is almost literally growling at the anonymous noble. She doesn't get up to speak, but she's definitely trying to figure out who the fuck that noble is, anonymity be damned.

She can probably rule out a bunch of people on the grounds that they're visibly sitting in the audience and couldn't have gotten back quite that quickly, but figuring out who it is is going to be harder.

There are only 600 people in this room, this is a solvable problem...

Jordi still doesn’t like sailors. Which means he’s friends with the druids and their forest creatures? Time to argue with that anonymous guy.

”Do we even still have any enemies with fleets that share a sea with us, to build more warships to fight?”

"Andoran's pirates constantly offer provocations on the high seas and when the time comes to reunify with them it will be necessary to stop all the pirates from interfering."

Is the convention going to now debate preparations for war on Andoran. What could possibly go wrong.

"Murdering innocents to build ships for war is Evil. Very plainly, very obviously Evil. I can't stop you from voting to keep doing it. But I can help make sure you're not deluding yourself."

"Anyone who votes to keep the vital murder industry is voting to perpetuate Evil and should not be surprised if they go to Hell."

Hopefully this is something enough people here care about?

"Andoran's pirates are looking for slaves, and it's not that they won't take other stuff when they catch a ship full of spices but we just made slavery illegal."

"It doesn't matter what excuses they give, we can't tolerate a neighbor with an active policy of encouraging piracy and lawlessness controlling the seas between us and Absalom."

“Andoran is ruled by a good archmage and a paladin, sharing power. They wouldn’t make a war against us for evil reasons, and I’d be suspicious of anyone who doubts paladins and good archmages so much.”

No one thinks Andoran is going to declare war on us, moron.

“Andoran still owes us for all their attacks on our ships. Spices stolen, sailors killed, ships destroyed or captured. We should build an even bigger fleet and pirate their ships until it’s all paid back.”