The Bee Dungeon

Belissar finished up the new beehouse for the guardian angel bee, turning it into a feature. The guardian angel bee spawner was broadly similar to all the other queen spawners so far, so Belissar prepared three additional beehouses hidden in burrows for the angel bees that would spawn in the coming days. He then watched with a smile as the guardian angel queen climbed into her new home and got to work, while the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter began discussing the latest battle and evolutions with the rest of the hive of hives. He left the Beecity, not wanting to get in their way.
Then he suddenly paused and slapped his head.
“I forgot to make the new room!”
Such was his excitement over the new bees that he had sent the First of the Fifth’s First Daughter off without realizing he still had more to add to the Tower!
Niobee stirred on his head.
“Want call First of the Fifth’s First Daughter?”
Belissar thought for a moment but shook his head.
“No, let’s let her work. Now that I think about it, you and I have always placed the rooms ourselves and told the hive of hives about it later, so it should be fine to do that again.”
Belissar decided to do so now, lest he forget again, though he briefly checked the Tower’s mana first.
He nodded to himself. Even after all the new features and spawners, he still had plenty left to afford a new room. He could even make another dragonvein room if he wanted…though he’d hold off for now.
After all, he couldn’t conduct his usual daily purifications thanks to the siege, since Starami’s forces would contain the shades and prevent them from moving past the Hall of Purification. Belissar had discussed the Hall with his allies and they had advised him to hold off on using it for as long as possible. As long as Starami didn’t know what it could do, he’d waste time waiting for an emergency purification that wouldn’t actually help him, buying Belissar and his allies time to grow stronger and wear down their opponent, so it wasn’t worth using the Hall on a daily purification he didn’t even need to do.
General Rippotis had told him the Tower could handle the daily, ongoing purifications if Starami contained them…but had also mentioned that Belissar wouldn’t get any rewards in that case. So, for now, Belissar would have to wait for an emergency purification he had to use the Hall on before resuming the daily purifications. His current mana was all he had to work with for now, unless he wanted to spend DP on mana. Once his DP recovered from buying all those feature choices, that was…
At that moment, Belissar’s eyes opened as wide as they could go and he began to tremble.
“Niobee…I messed up.”
Niobee buzzed and took off from his head.
“King! What wrong?!”
Belissar crouched down and clutched his head.
“I…forgot about the healing fountain feature we got earlier. The wounded bees, the wounded sigmaka…they all could have used the fountain to heal. Niobee…are there still wounded that need help? Did…any of the wounded die? Did I…did I…kill them?”
Niobee, however, immediately danced a negative response.
“No wounded died! Second of Sixth and lighthouse saved! Some still healing but all saved.”
Belissar collapsed back onto his behind, putting his hands behind him to stop from lying down entirely. He teared up as his tension broke.
“Thank goodness…”
He took a deep breath and then closed his eyes. He wiped away any moisture and then forced himself to his feet. Regretting the oversight now wouldn’t help the wounded. Adding the fountain he had forgotten about would.
“Niobee, can you let the Second of the Sixth and our allies know I’m adding a fountain next to the healing tent?”
Niobee landed back on his head and danced her salute.
“Ok…King ok?”
Belissar sighed and forced himself to nod.
“I’m upset with myself, but I’ll be fine. Better than the wounded, so let’s make sure they’re taken care of.”
Niobee stood still for a bit before dancing her reply.
“King always takes care of, bees learned take care of fallen from King.”
Belissar gave a weak smile and brushed Niobee’s back in response, then focused on what he needed to do. Without further delay, Belissar checked the area around the healing tent, found a clear spot, and added the fountain. The fair folk, karnuq, and sigmaka in the area jumped when a fountain began to rose from the ground, but the nearest bees explained to them what had happened as the news spread through the hive of hives.
Belissar took another deep breath and frowned. He hadn’t been punished it for it this time, but forgetting the fountain really was a big mistake that might have cost him if it weren’t for the miracle lighthouse. The most grievously wounded were still within it, kept alive by its powers until they could be healed, a true miracle saving them from himself. And it had only been a day or so since he got the fountain, how had he forgotten it this quickly?
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But dwelling on it now would only make him more likely to forget things, so Belissar decided to continue on with his work while he had time to focus. He placed a Tornado Plains room on the second floor, just in front of the battle Flower Meadow, along with other experimental rooms like the cold room and the Muddy Seabed. He didn’t plan for the bee army to fight in it just yet, but if Starami managed to break through maybe a tornado might give them trouble. For now, he added a basic mana flower node and a soaring beeblossom node, which was apparently discounted in the room, maybe since they were both Air-aligned? In any case, he hoped those flowers would benefit from the room and so give the bees plenty to forage from.
He and Niobee then went to check out the new room. Belissar found a flat plain of green grass and the occasional flower stretching out in every direction before him. Gusts of wind constantly blew through the room, causing the grass to rustle in waves that washed over the room.
After a few minutes of looking, though, Belissar found nothing else to see besides the flower nodes he had planted and the room’s shrine. Even the room entrances and shortcuts just appeared as swirling vortexes of glowing fog that blended into the background from a distance.
Belissar glanced up at Niobee.
“Niobee, can you let the hive of hives know about the new room? It should be fine for them to forage from but they should be careful, storms are supposed to form here. Also…could you ask the memory bees what other features we got that I haven’t placed yet?”
“Ok!”
After dancing for a bit, Niobee reported back. From the flurry of room feature purchases when he was seeking external shortcuts, Belissar still had treasure chests, gold, coal, deer, rolling boulders, and stone roads that he could place. There were machineel trees too, but he had already placed a node for them in the battle Fairy Grove and they were otherwise waiting for him to develop an appropriate room. Belissar decided against most of those for the time being, they might be useful but he didn’t want to use his remaining mana frivolously until he could resume daily purifications. He did, however, enable deer in the hunting room for the butcher and bloodsucking bees, along with all the other denizens of his Tower that liked meat.
Beyond that, there were the more recent options from the God of Light. He still had the Sparkling Desert room to place and the Crystalspine cactus to grow in it. The desert room was fairly cheap, so he also went ahead and added one to the second floor’s growing collection of potentially hazardous experimental rooms.
He and Niobee checked the new desert room…and Belissar immediately had to shield his eyes. The entire ground was sparkling brightly, making the ground shine as much as the sky. When his eyes adjusted…he found sand. Lots and lots of sand, stretching out in every direction.
…since there wasn’t much to see and it was also quite hot, he placed the usual shortcut and mana flower node, then put a Crystalspine Cactus node in the center of the room. After which…
…his mana had dropped significantly. He could no longer afford a dragonvein room at the moment. He decided not to mention to Urubran that he could have before all of this…a dragonvein volcano room might have been nice, but Belissar really did want the cacti for the shining bees and guardian angel bees, so it couldn’t be helped for now.
Just one more reason to hope the siege would end soon. And since he had placed the rooms and features he wanted for the day, Belissar decided to check in with his allies and see how the defense was going…
The day went on for Starami’s Tower Guards, ominous fog or no. A few of them tried to blow the fog away, but it very quickly returned and wasn’t worth the effort, so the rank and file soldiered on in the gloom. The Ground mages cut, acquired, or hardened the dirt into stone blocks that the Tower Guard carried into the first room of the Belissar’s Tower, assembling a small camp and fortifications in the big hallway of the gods. They did leave a wide and clear path straight through the room, only blocking off the area where their own guards would keep watch.
Of course, with so many Tower Guards moving in and out of the Belissar’s Tower throughout the day, many of them noticed the statues of the gods despite their leaders’ attempts to hide them and many were present when the statue of the God of Air appeared as well. The hushed whispers from the night before spread across the camp, not helped by the fog that seemed to isolate them from their masters.
Throughout it all, the entire camp remained on guard, watching for any sign of mischief by the fey. They knew the fog had to be the fey’s doing, but an entire day passed without any further happenings. The humans reluctantly turned in for the night, wary but weary from an entire day on guard.
And that is when the Royal Pixie Guard made their move! A group of the pixies flew through the night from one of Belissar’s external shortcut, invisible to those who relied on their eyes. They approached the camp, stopping just outside the hidden barriers set up to catch them. Barriers that were all too noticeable for the fair folk who lived and breathed mana. One of the pixies motioned and another approached the barrier, examining it in great detail.
Then, the examiner burst out laughing, smacking his legs. The lead pixie crossed his arms.
“Hey now, what’s so funny?”
The examiner had to wipe tears from his eyes.
“These idiots are using a simple mana sensing barrier with an audible alarm!”
The lead pixie stared for a moment before bursting out in laughter himself. The entire group of pixies joined him, filling the night with giggles and mirth.
“By all that’s fair, they’ve done half our work for us! Well, it would be rude not to respond to such an invitation! Liltasare, if you’d please.”
A pixie in a ballroom gown gave an elegant curtsie midair, then flew up to the barrier. She curtsied once more, then began to dance in the sky in slow, graceful motions. Her wings shone in the light of the moon, then glowing pixie dust began to waft off of them. The dust gathered together into clumps that each flashed once, a copy of the dancing pixie appeared after each flash.
Liltasare spun around with an elegant smile and extended her hand forward, then all of her copies danced their way straight through the barrier.
A piercing shriek like metal scraping metal cut through Starami’s camp. Tower Guards on the verge of sleep swore and tumbled out of their beds, rushing to slap on what armor they could and grab their weapons. Starami’s army deployed in force, Tower Guards assembling into formation, dragonkin hordes dragged out of their pens and driven forward, mages chanting and preparing their spells. The fey had finally made their move and were coming to raid them in the night and the Tower Guard would be ready to meet them!
And so, they rushed to the place the alarm had been raised, where countless beings had crossed into their camp…
They found nothing there.
The Tower Guard did not let their guard down, though. They carefully combed through the area, being careful to remain in contact with one another and to avoid being isolated in the
lingering fog. Yet, no matter how hard they looked, they could find no trace of any intruders.
Then a second shriek cut through the night, making them all jump. One of their captains scowled.
“We’ve been had, they’re coming from the rear! Back to the camp!”
The Tower Guard rushed back to their camp and then made their way to where the fey made their true incursion…and found nothing there yet again.
Then the alarm shrieked a third time. And a fourth…and a fifth…over and over…