Why do people insist on treating "several" as a perfect and superfluous synonym for "few"? To my mind, "a couple" is two, maybe three, "a few" is three, four, maybe five, and then when you get to "several," it suggests not only "severe" but "seven," so you think six, seven, eight, maybe even twenty. I once explained to a woman that I was stuck in her apartment in a blackout for several minutes -- twenty or so -- and her take on the word "several" dismissed it as a mere blink of the eye. "Several" is a word with a meaning and is NOT interchangeable with "few."
I just wanted to settle THAT controversy.