I must confess to making a grievous error. In my haste to get promoted to increase my leadership, I made peace with the dwarves before clearing out the Underground Sea and the dwarven armies turned neutral. They wouldn't have been difficult, but it is missed experience, gold, and random treasure chests. The completionist within me weeps.
Did I mention that in one random battle I found 2 magic runes and 1 mind rune? All in the same battle? True story. Every battle I miss, I imagine that there were 1 or more runes waiting to be pilfered.
EDIT: Gatts and YENKO informed me that they are always neutral and I didn't actually miss anything. Thanks guys.
On the bright side, when I advanced the main story Tom Digor granted me his +4 attack hammer (since I still use giants there are no item morale issues) and King Mark offered me a new artifact, the ring of intelligence. It's +3 int and after 30 battles I can use it for a permanent +3 int. I took off Anga's Ruby for now (I just got promoted so no leadership issues) and since I finally broke 15 INT I did the mage trial in Arlania. I was massively overleveled for it of course, and got a staff that I already owned as a reward.
So I have 3 options going forward:
Mehgard via locomotive
Elven Lands via boat
Demonis via portal
I'm tempted to loot Demonis before going to the elven lands, as I don't want to go back and forth too often. I also noticed that the train ride to Mehgard is instantaneous (unlike dirigible rides that advance the game 1 day) so if I cared about my score, going back and forth between Mehgard and Ardan would not matter.
travelingoz: I have never used Dryads, but I have fought against them. I would have to imagine Dryads are head and shoulders above Royal Thorns, since they have the same ability to summon thorns plus putting low level stacks to sleep. In addition to that, you can heal and resurrect them and they are not vulnerable to fire. As far as how they'd fare in the dwarven lands, I think they would do fine. They float, so giants won't hurt them, and their hit points are low but not terrible. Every dryad lost is an inquisitor saved.