Game Help: Tending

    Though Sylvans are most often found caring for the forests and
    woodlands, every Mystavarian is able to TEND them. Tending
    encourages healthy growth in whatever herb or tree receives it, and
    within a named forest your affinity with that forest will often
    improve for the effort. You can tend wherever a herb or tree is
    growing; within a named forest it also shifts your affinity with
    that forest, elsewhere it simply helps the plant.

    TEND TREES tends only the trees in the location, nurturing them
    toward larger, healthier growth. A tree whose canopy has grown longer
    than is good for it will also have a branch pruned back as part of the
    tending; a tree already trimmed close is simply nurtured, never cut, so
    a gentle tend can never harm it. To deliberately harvest branches from a
    tree, use TRIM instead, which will take a branch whatever the state
    of the canopy (and dismays the forest if it cuts one too short). TEND
    HERBS focuses solely on the herbs, encouraging them to grow at an
    enhanced rate. TEND on its own, or TEND HERE, tends to both.
    TEND <name> singles out one particular herb or tree.

    Take care not to overdo it. Each herb or tree keeps count of how
    recently it has been tended, and once that count passes a threshold -
    lower for the more delicate herbs than for hardier trees - further
    tending turns harmful, damaging the plant's health and souring the
    forest's regard for you rather than improving either. Persist past
    that point for too long and the plant will refuse further tending
    outright until it has had time to recover. The count fades on its own
    over time, so patience is usually all that is needed.

    Forest affinity only shifts within a named forest; tending elsewhere
    still benefits the flora, it simply leaves no mark on how the wilds
    regard you. Those with sufficient forest affinity may consult FOREST
    STATUS, and those with sufficient Assessment skill may SURVEY
    FLORA (or TENDS for the tend-count alone), to judge a plant's
    health, whether a tree's branches are long enough to be worth trimming,
    and how close the plant stands to being overtended before committing to
    tending it.

    A forest is shaped as much by what is left unplanted. Fire can catch in
    dense woodland and leap from tree to tree, but it will not cross open
    ground where nothing grows, so a few clearings kept through a forest act
    as breaks against a spreading blaze, and a forest with a little room to
    breathe tends to hold better health for it. Should flames take hold,
    DOUSE beats them back quickly with water, while EXTINGUISH can
    only stamp out low growth.

    TENDS reads back the tend-count on the herbs and trees here without
    tending anything, the same reading SURVEY FLORA gives minus the health
    line. It costs nothing and scales with Assessment the same way, and Druids
    and Nemophilists read it in full regardless of their study.

    Syntax:
        TEND (HERE)
        TEND TREES
        TEND HERBS
        TEND <name>
        TENDS (or TENDED)