The Bee Dungeon

PONon-Bee 366.1 - New Bee-ginnings

Tamosmed stood before a stone door, taking one last moment to steel his resolve. Now, it was all well and good that Forgemaster Ughlarer had declared him Golem-master, on paper Tamosmed was now the second highest ranking authority among the black elves. De facto first if Forgemaster Ughlarer did not deign to intervene...and the forgemaster had locked himself up in his personal smithy after his conversation with Tamosmed.

Among the signatories and the wider Compact, that all but made Tamosmed head of the black elves. But amongst the black elves themselves, particularly his fellow golem-crafters? They wouldn’t care, ranks among their craftsmen were earned, not given. Tamosmed was a rising star amongst the golem crafters...but he was by no means a master. He had no such achievements that would have earned a place among the masters, much less to be the master over them. Successfully developing slime crafting would suffice, but Tamosmed had not completed that yet...and that would be more Belissar and his bees’ achievement than Tamosmed’s. As of right now...a mere journeyman had been supposedly put in charge by his blood relative, disowned or not.

He was under no illusion that any of the golem crafters would respect his new rank. He’d consider it a victory if they stooped to speak with him at all. His promotion reeked of the act kind of politics and nepotism they hated most, it was entirely possible they’d spite him as a result. And the forgemaster would be of no help here, not only would that defeat Ughlarer’s goal with his promotion, but it would only hammer home that Tamosmed’s authority stemmed from who he was related to and not what he had achieved.

But still, he would try his best to convince them. If and when he perfected the slime crafting process, he would need the skills of the best golem crafters among them to design the golems for the slime bees to replicate. And besides, Tamosmed had done all that he had for the sake of his people. It would all be meaningless if they rejected it out of hand.

So, with one last breath, Tamosmed pushed open the doors. Inside, he found the master golem crafters assembled. All of them glanced at the wand at his waist. The golem-crafter who had been his master when he was an apprentice...and reappointed as his master when Tamosmed was demoted back to apprentice...stepped up to him, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow.

“So, Tamosmed...the old fool has not only reinstated you, but promoted you to Golem-master, did he?”

Tamosmed stood tall and prepared to make his case.

“Yes...”

But as soon as he said that, his former master grabbed Tamosmed by the shoulders and dropped his head.

“Oh thank the gods!”

As Tamosmed attempted to comprehend his master’s actions, the others began to crowd around him again.

“It’s about time!”

“Ughlarer was always a hot-headed idiot!”

Tamosmed thought he was prepared for this conversation, but apparently not. He could not help but ask...

“You’re all...ok with me being named Golem-master?”

The masters all laughed.

“Obviously!”

“We’ve been banging on that fool of forgemaster’s door every day for weeks now!”

“This means the dungeon is open again, right? Right?!”

“Not only that, but now that you’re golem-crafter, we can send you the requisition requests directly!”

His old master even had tears streaming down his face.

“I’m free, I’m finally free! Thank the gods!”

Tamosmed’s eyes widened as he began to understand. Both he and Forgemaster Ughlarer had overlooked one, extremely important thing, both back when he was demoted and now again when he had been promoted.

Tamosmed was the black elves’ dungeon master. The mountain in the Land of the Fair the black elves’ occupied was sparse on natural resources, barely a drop compared to what the black elves had before according to the records. Tamosmed’s dungeon had solved that problem once he began developing it, filling with all sorts of mine rooms and resource mineral nodes that enabled the forges to work day and night once more.

A flow of resources that had been completely cut off along with Tamosmed. Even when he was allowed back in, he had only been made an apprentice. He was not permitted to fulfill contracts on his own or engage with the other craftsmen besides his old master. They all had to go through the poor elf, so his master had been flooded with requisition requests...and he was obligated to inspect every single ingot Tamosmed’s dungeon produced.

Tamosmed slowly began to smile.

“Well then, the dungeon will be open once more! And you will need the resources, I have some plans for the forge mountain and I need your skills to accomplish them.”

The masters all grinned together.

“Whatever you need, Golem-master!”

It turned out that for these particular master craftsmen, an abundant flow of resources was worth even more than their pride. And it turned out that Forgemaster Ughlarer had done Tamosmed an unintentional favor by demonstrating to every black elf what would happen if they lost access to the dungeon he had built. And so, Tamosmed’s new authority was confirmed as genuine, opening the door for him to allocate the black elves’ resources as he pleased. Or rather...opening his eyes to the fact that he had controlled those resources all along...

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General Rippotis watched as a bird shade formed down in the sea of Hunger below. He grabbed small javelin from one of his saddlebags, had Raklasi angle sideways, and threw it down. The javelin pierced through the head of the bird shade, dispersing it before it could fully form.

They’d been lucky that the Hunger hadn’t attacked them more frequently given how much mana they were using. If their luck held, they might make it out of the big sea of Hunger before it made a real attempt at catching them.

Then all they’d have to do would be sneak past all of Tower Lords in their way, given that it was High Council Stadvolous’s faction that controlled the part of the Conclave closest to them. But General Rippotis doubted they expected him to be flying back with the Pixie Queen at his side, so he would much rather dodge them than what the Hunger could do. It had been strangely inactive on his trip to and from Belissar’s Tower as it was...which made him uneasy, if anything.

But the coup was the threat facing him now, so he’d have to leave the Hunger for now. Indeed, his communications were improving, he was now close enough to receive more details about the situation back home...as well as to issue some more detailed orders.

His Tower, for instance, was under assault by a combined army of Stadvolous’s underlings. His Tower still had solid defenses and powerful defenders, even during a Grand Subjugation they had to remain prepared for emergency purifications, after all, but the rebel Tower Lords were using their big monster armies to their advantage. His defenders could not respond aggressively since their losses would be permanent, meanwhile the rebels could push forward at the cost of respawning bodies. A callous way of doing things, but it would only take a few casualties among his elite defenders to start tipping the scales. He just couldn’t train up new Tower Guards while his armies were away and his training facilities under siege, at least not quickly enough to fend off the current assault...

Or so it had been, merely days earlier. But today was a new day and General Rippotis was armed with new allies, new quests, and new knowledge. He began to put all of it into practice right away, rearranging his Tower more substantially than he had done in decades before informing his beleaguered defenders of his plan.

“Gather every farmer, gardener, flourist, and herbalist you can. We need to grow as many flowers as possible.”

General Rippotis primarily used his Tower for training and challenging, but he did have some production-oriented rooms. Mines to gather metal for his weapons and armor, exotic forests and jungles to gather ingredients for potions and medicines, even extra farmland in case of drought and famine. He used them sparingly, kept them in reserve, or else filled them with dangers of their own, intent on making humanity work for the gifts they could receive from the Tower.

Today, he gathered every room with flowering plants he could, then added a bunch more into whatever spare room slots he had, even converting rooms he didn’t consider essential. He connected them all together, creating a block of several floors filled to the brim with all manner of plants. His soldiers heeded his command, going through the noncombatants that had evacuated into the Tower from his territory to find all the ones experienced in raising plants. These began to rush around the new rooms, plowing new fields, spreading new seeds, and giving advice on the placement of resource plant nodes...

Then, General Rippotis took a huge chunk of his available mana and created as many monster bee queen spawners as his Tower could handle. He finished off by contacting those already in his Tower.

“Queen Commander of the Second Bee Hive, Queen Commander of the Fourth Bee Hive, assist the new recruits. Lend them your workers and your honey as you can spare and help them build their hives. Use every flower in the Tower as you will...and then prepare to build me an army.”

Even through the haze created by the Hunger, the two queen commanders’ response dance came through clear and immediate.

“Yes, General!”

General Rippotis smiled. He had intended to speak with Heigiosa about changing their stance on monsters...only to find that Heigiosa had already come to the same conclusion as he, and had already deployed the First and Fourth Bee Hives he had left in her care to defend the City of Light. He still wasn’t clear on how those two beehives had fended off an army of dragonkin monsters...but the important part was that Heigiosa no longer had any reservations regarding monsters.

And neither did he. So...it was time for the Dragon Banner Army to expand greatly. And to let the Queen Commanders do as they desired, ever since they had spawned...

The Inferno Empress was at her wits’ end. She had tried everything, everything! And still...she had no idea how she was supposed to evolve this bee! And what did it even mean to make an insect like this happy?!

A place of honor among her guard? It was a bee, it couldn’t understand such a thing! Riches? The bee ignored gems and rare metals even if she placed it upon them! The joys of lighting flames? How was a bee like this supposed to build a fire?! Soothing incense? The bee flew away once the area grew smoky!

And evolving? How was this bee supposed to challenge in the name of fire?! How was it supposed to fell shades and conquer lands in her name?! Consuming mana-imbued meat cooked in the sacred flames? It didn’t even have a mouth, just a little tongue thing that couldn’t even take a bite!

She let out a screech that echoed through her Sacred Den. What was she even supposed to do?!

In utter desperation, she brought the bee to the room she called the Mountain of Supplication, where she had all those who sought her power prove their worth. A volcanic field of black rock and burning rivers of lava, with a big volcano rising in the center, spraying fumes and smoke into the sky and pouring out lava into the rivers. The bee was in a spherical wicker basket, she opened it up now.

“You know what? Bee or not, you shall go through the same process as all who would serve me! Make your pilgrimage through fire and smoke, spend your days meditating amidst the flames along the slopes of the mountain, the higher the better! Only then, if you survive for a time I deem sufficient, will I bother trying to deal with you, insect!”

The bee did not reply to her frustrated, half-mad tirade. It did, however, take the opportunity to fly out of the basket. The Inferno Empress fully expected it to fly out of the room, which would be her excuse to be done with it. It would have failed the rite of supplication and proven itself unworthy of her Sacred Den, so there! Then she’d have her minions search for a new bee, preferably one she had even the faintest idea of how to deal with!

The bee, however, flew into the room, flying towards the volcano at its center. The Inferno Empress blinked.

The bee then flew up the volcano, straight into what she liked to call the kill zone, where the extreme heat, bubbling lava, and noxious fumes claimed the lives of many supplicants and the hopes of many more. Where the vast majority of them failed their task and proved themselves unworthy.

The bee zipped around the heat and the fumes...until it spotted a patch of white flowers. Wildflowers that had been accidentally carried in after a foraging mission and that had spread to the volcano, stubbornly refusing to die to either heat or acid rain. The Inferno Empress had decided to allow them because their stubborn resilience was a message to the supplicants, that even a flower could accomplish that which she asked of them. It definitely wasn’t because she liked how they looked.

The bee buzzed and flew down to the flowers, each of which was made of a bundle of smaller flowers. It clung to the bundle of little flowers and stuck its tongue down one. It repeated this several times for one flower, then with several more flowers. After that, it flew around the mountain until it found a small patch of volcanic ash and debris. There, it began digging into the ash, making a little burrow...right in the middle of the kill zone.

The Inferno Empress was left staring out into space as she followed the bee with her sacred sight.

“...what?”