The Bee Dungeon

The Third Daughter of the First Daughter of the First Queen of the First Dynasty of the Fifth Spawner of King’s Realm, the third of her line, and the First Honeybee Queen of Flower Tender’s Realm, was having a good day! Flower Tender’s stingless queens had started to embrace the hive of hives, just like her queen mother’s queen mother once did! That was good because they weren’t as good at making honey as her, so they really needed to cooperate if they wanted to evolve lots of bees!

Additionally, Flower Tender’s army was going to fight! The Third Daughter would be able to see a new way of fighting with a new army made up of flowers instead of bees! Then she’d be able to tell her queen mother and the Fourth of the Seventh all about it! They’d be so happy!

So, the Third Daughter did as Flower Tender asked and sent her workers and gardeners out to forage the monster flowers, all while watching through their eyes thanks to her communers. Some of the workers and gardeners stayed with the monster flowers as they prepared to fight, ready to watch the battle once it started!

The Third Daughter herself stayed by Flower Tender, who had one of her queen mother’s communers with her! The Third Daughter was dancing with the communer, exchanging information with the wider hive of hives since she had the opportunity, and listening to Flower Tender as she spoke with the ward one.

“The purification has started, the shade assaulting my dungeon is mobile. The room corruption Belissar’s facing doesn’t seem to be related to the special purification.”

The ward one didn’t seem happy today.

“That’s concerning, his dungeon shouldn’t be facing purifications like that at its age. But we’ll have to worry about that later, is the shade moving towards the nexus door or will we need to direct it?”

The Third Daughter buzzed her wings. Was King and the hive of hives in danger? Flower Tender furrowed her brow, making Third Daughter buzz again.

“The door is along its path, so it should be fine. I’m going to start moving my flowers now.”

The ward one nodded. Flower Tender got to work and her flower army started moving, crawling on roots and vines. The Third Daughter calmed down a bit and focused on her workers, ready to watch the flowers fight…and maybe sting the invader if there was an opportunity. The fast they finished this battle, the faster they could go help King and the hive of hives!

Then Flower Tender jumped.

“Wardmaster! The shade went through the nexus door!”

Ward one scowled.

“What?! What happened?”

Flower Tender grit her teeth.

“It corrupted the nexus door, but my dungeon didn’t intervene like Belissar’s! A corrupted door formed and the shade stepped through!”

Third Daughter buzzed as loud as she could. If the enemy went through the leaf door, then it could attack King and the hive of hives! She immediately started a mana dance.

“Queen mother! Danger! Enemy went through leaf door!”

…but there was no response. The Third Daughter froze.

“Queen mother? Can see dance?”

Again, her queen mother did not respond. The Third Daughter focused on her link to her queen mother and the hive of hives…and found it had grown much weaker. As if her queen mother was suddenly very far away.

The Third Daughter’s day wasn’t going as well anymore.

Belissar kept his attention on the entrance to the corrupted Fairy Grove. Tarwantrad had begun her purification, so before long he’d be able to address it.

Not that he’d decided what he was going to do about the corrupted room yet. He had no idea how dangerous those mushrooms shades might be and there was a whole room of them now. On top of that, he didn’t know what effect a corrupted room might have on his defenders, it might be dangerous to even enter the room. It might be better to just accept some core corruption and purge the room, then hope the core purifications would be easier…

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Then, the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter started buzzing. Belissar turned to see her in a frantic dance.

“King! Can’t see communer! Can feel but can’t see dances!”

Belissar’s eyes widened. But before he could reply, the Tower chimed in.

Warning! Corruption levels surging! Emergency purification required!

Remaining hostiles: 1

Belissar gaped at the message.

“What…? What happened?”

He turned towards the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter…but she had just said she couldn’t see her communer anymore. Belissar tried to reach the communer with his Tower sight. The link was faint, he could only see vague figures. He heard Tarwantrad shouting, her voice going in and out.

“Belissar…shade…nexus door…careful!”

Belissar narrowed his eyes.

“I think Tarwantrad’s shade corrupted her nexus door…and I think it just moved here.”

Duke Turuhave raised an eyebrow.

“I thought we confirmed your purifications weren’t affecting each other?”

Belissar focused his attention back on the entrance to the corrupted Fairy Grove.

“I don’t know what happened. But I’ve also lost almost all connection with my monsters in Tarwantrad’s dungeon too…maybe the nexus door is broken now.”

Duke Turuhave frowned.

“Then we are truly on our own now.”

Belissar nodded.

“Yes…and I can’t see the new shade since the fairy grove is corrupted. We won’t know what it is until it hits the Dirt Tunnels. But, Tarwantrad’s dungeon is bigger than mine. A shade that was attacking her dungeon…is probably stronger than any we’ve faced yet.”

Duke Turuhave steeled his expression.

“…I will prepare the Silver Host to confront it.”

Belissar glanced at Chief Rohsuak.

“You had better get ready too. I think we’ll need your help.”

Chief Rohsuak just nodded and hefted her axe, then left to join the karnuq hunters. Belissar started stirring up his own mana, ready to make spell-bees if necessary.

What followed was a tense wait. Since Belissar couldn’t see into the Fairy Grove, he had no idea where the new shade was or what it was doing. He had no idea when it would enter the next room, nor any idea of what it was or what it could do. Everything was uncertain. The only way to get answers would be to send scouts into the corrupted room…but Belissar wasn’t going to do that while a dangerous shade was at large, so there was nothing he could do but wait.

So he stared at the entrance to the corrupted room with his Tower sight, twitching every time the Hunger swirled. The bees buzzed each time he did, so he did his best to temper he reactions…but he couldn’t claim he succeeded. The karnuq shifted around as well, while the silver elves stood in unnatural silence, doing their best impression of stone statues.

Then, finally, there was a change. Something began emerging from the corrupted entrance.

“Here it comes, everyone!”

Belissar focused on the mass as it took a step into the Dirt Tunnels. And then…he blinked.

Out stepped…a person. Two legs, two arms, two eyes. No extra arms or legs, no extra eyes, no writhing tendrils. A normal humanoid woman by shape, save for a tail on her waist and a pair of catlike ears on the top of her head. The Hunger comprising her body seemed more solid than usual, with only a faint misty aura outlining her body. The one unnatural feature was her face…the lack of one, to be precise. Her head was a featureless mass of Hunger save for two glowing red lights where her eyes would have been.

“It’s…a beastkin woman of some sort?”

Belissar heard someone click their tongue. He turned and found Duke Turuhave scowling.

“Humanoid shade. The worst part of the Hunger, it can throw mockeries of your fallen comrades against you. That was how the Silver City fell, by the time it came for us, the Hunger had already consumed many people. We found ourselves facing the world.”

Belissar furrowed his brow.

“It’s strong, then?”

Duke Turuhave narrowed his eyes.

“At least as strong as the warrior was in life.”

As Belissar and Duke Turuhave spoke, the catkin shade leaned forward and extended its arms to either side. Claws of Hunger formed over its fingers, then it raced into the Dirt Tunnels.

It ran as fast as the cat shades, racing through the tunnels. Belissar’s eyes widened.

“It’s fast!”

The shade then came upon the first trap, the Pit Trap and Sticky Honey Trap combo. The shade’s eyes narrowed, then it leapt right over the Pit Trap despite the illusory ground. The sticky honey trap activated, spraying its honey right at the shade.

The shade swung its hands like a cat would their paw…and a blade of Hunger shot forward. The honey parted to either side and the shade jumped through, completely dry.

Belissar did not panic yet, though. The Pit Trap and Sticky Honey Trap were the simplest of his defenses, most shades could get past them. The shade had yet to face the beeswax candle hall or the trapped slope that would fill with sticky honey, now equipped with toxic bee honey. Those tended to have far better results.

Still, he did tell the groundmelder bees to hold off for the moment, at least until they got a better read on what the shade could do. It might be better to wait for the first miracle lighthouse in the next room, if the shade was particularly strong.

The shade soon reached the beeswax candle hall, where candles made of toxic and maddening wax hidden by pixie magic filled the hall with deadly fumes. Shades had perished just traveling through the hall, so perhaps this invasion would end without a fight.

The catkin shade paused at the entrance to tunnel. It narrowed its eyes once more…then began swinging its arms, sending out blades of Hunger. These carved deep gouges until the dirt until some of them started to hit the hidden candles. As soon as a candle was revealed, the shade would focus its attention there, until the candle’s wick would be cut to pieces and burn out.

Belissar…was starting to get concerned…

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