The Bee Dungeon PONon-Bee 352.1 - Bee-ware of Assumptions

With the allied forces biding their ti, Starami was free to begin deploying his army en-masse. More dragonkin and Tower Guards poured out of the tunnels, secured their periter, and then marched towards Belissar’s Tower. There they found the abandoned structures used for the negotiations between the Compact and the sigmaka, as the alliance hadn’t considered it a priority to dismantle the settlent. They had, however, left many a surprise within it.

Suprises that were hastily and aggressively cleared out by unhappy kobolds before the area was occupied by the Tower Guards. There, they were able to signal their Ground mages below who dug a new tunnel directly from the Underway to the Tower’s entrance so that their supplies would not be intercepted on the surface. Starami’s army then began fully deploying, establishing a base camp in the remains of the abandoned settlent, and preparing for their assault on the Tower itself.

All of this went uncontested, as the true dragon hovered above and oversaw the entire process, ready to swoop down the mont any new enemies showed themselves. Though it seed that none were willing to challenge it any further.

So it seed, at least.

Down on the dragon’s belly, the digging assassin bee crawled across its scales, its tiny feet and weight unnoticeable by the much larger beast. Captain Karpakynne still clung to the bee’s back, further hiding the two of them with pixie magic.

The bee stopped and tapped one of the scales with her antennae, then began dancing around.

“Here!”

Captain Karpakynne peeked over the head of the bee. There, she found a scale that had a big scratch in it, perhaps a remnant of so old battle. The scale was still solid and in place, but it was bent slightly, creating a gap between it and the scales surrounding it. The pixie captain grinned.

“Excellent, let’s get to work, then!”

The assassin bee’s antennae twitched.

“But…hive-burner big and has lots of mana. One sting won’t kill?”

Captain Karpakynne chuckled.

“Then we’ll use lots! Dragon this size won’t even notice your stinger and I’ve got so numbing potion here too, so we can sting it as many tis as it takes! Besides…”

Captain Karpakynne hopped off the bee and onto the dragon, growing back to about the sa size as the assassin bee. She reached into a pouch at her pocket and pulled out an entire lance. One with a stinger-shaped bulge by its handle and painted with black and yellow stripes.

“That’s what this baby is for, courtesy of the Order of Hive and Stinger! The na’s not just for show! Sting this bulge here for and then I can tune my mana with your venom. Then I can enchant your venom and make it both deadlier and harder to notice by stinging with you!”

The assassin bee quickly danced a salute and then stung the lance where directed.

“Ok!”

Captain Karpakynne grinned once more, then took out a numbing potion and poured it out into the gap between the scales. Then, she and the assassin bee both took positions around the scale and she hefted the lance, lifting it high.

“Now, let’s do the Order of Hive and Stinger proud!”

With that, bee and pixie began to repeatedly sting the gap between the scales.

The dragon didn’t notice anything occurring…

The Tower Guard finished setting up their base camp as ti went on, establishing their own network of barriers and wards to prevent ambushes and shield them from magical scrying. They conducted a thorough sweep as well, ensuring nothing remained in the settlent that possessed any mana, anything that the opposing Tower Lord might use to spy on them. Then, and only then, did Lord Starami join them on the surface.

He gazed upon the Tower with his own eyes, the Tower that had caused him so much trouble as of late. His gaze leapt to the banners along its side, yellow flags with the symbol of a bee landing a flower.

“Bees, huh?”

The majority of monsters encountered so far had been bees as well. Starami could not help but think of the village his fool of a son had burned, the source of the ad he once cherished. The eyewitness reports did ntion a fallen peasant had been caught up in the Tower’s birth…was it possible that the beekeeper responsible for that ad had survived?

Starami scowled, banishing that wishful thinking. Even had the beekeeper from that village survived, there was no chance a peasant like that could have successfully constructed a Tower. They would have been utterly helpless before the initial purification alone, before any of the gods would have bothered to assist them. And even if by so miracle they had survived until now…there was little chance the fey had let them be. They would be, at best, a mindless pet of the fey, only permitted to think what their masters allowed them to, so caught up in deceptions they’d have lost all touch with reality. Death by the Hunger might have been more rciful.

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It was pointless to dwell on such things now. If anything, he might have thought it a trick of the fey, another attempt to distract him, if there had been any possibility that the fey knew of the ad. There was not, though, so he pushed such delusional thoughts aside and focused back on reality.

“Proceed.”

At his command, a single kobold was forced to push open the doors of the Tower and step inside. Starami watched through its eyes as it stepped out into a stone hall of impressive size. At first, the hall seed stark, lacking any sort of decorations save the large windows on the walls and ceiling…and the statues of the Tower’s gods. Starami reconsidered his evaluation as he saw the large statues looming over the kobold while the windows focused the bright light of the moon down upon it. Perhaps the stark adornnt was intentional.

Starami frowned as the kobold observed the statues of the gods. A statue of a bee took the central position, a god of bees perhaps? But joining that god were ones Starami recognized…including two of the great elental gods, the God of Fire and the God of Water, each a god on par with his own patron the God of Dragons. And then…the greatest god of them all, the God of Light herself. That a Tower less than a year old had gained four secondary patrons was already impressive. That not just one but two great elental gods would acknowledge it…practically any Tower Lord of the Conclave would envy such fortune. That the God of Light, who rarely offered secondary blessings at all, would lower herself to do so as well…

Even Starami could not help but hesitate for a mont as the stern expression of the God of Light’s statue stared down on him, seeming to pierce right through the kobold and into the Tower Lord’s own soul. The God of Light…took a special interest in this Tower? The one occupied by the fey?

But Starami tore his gaze away. He had already defied the gods, the God of Light included. The God of Dragons rewarded those who strove for their own ambition, who fought with all their might to forge their own destiny and take what they deserved. If Starami could not please his patron, he’d at least embody him.

So, he gave the command to his Tower Guard. An elite scout squad moved in and secured the hall, finding neither traps nor monsters. Shortcuts may still remain hidden until used, but the scouts could find no trace of any comings or goings. Starami thus gave the order for his forces to move in and set up the usual first room assault camp, both to keep the way clear and to prepare to contain any purifications that appeared.

Starami didn’t intend to wait for a purification, though. The fey were still out there and their necromancer was still at large. A long siege would favor them, giving them ti to work their tricks, to pick away at his forces, and to grow a new undead horde with every casualty they inflicted. He’d push through their tricks with the raw might of dragons, bringing them to heel with overwhelming power.

He also did not like the way his all of his Tower Guards were freezing when they stepped into the hallway, staring up at the God of Light’s statue before turning their heads away with demoralized expressions.

So, he ordered a kobold to test the next room. The door to the next room opened to an opaque vortex of swirling light, a sign of an environntal seal. Starami narrowed his eyes. This is where the true assault would begin…

But even with the environntal seal, he doubted they’d encounter any truly troubleso room-based threats. The Tower’s primary patron had a domain focused on living things, after all, so the focus would be on the monsters. The Tower’s rooms would likely be ones that provided ideal living environnts for said monsters. Those could prove hazardous depending on the monsters…but these ones were bees. And bees…liked flowers and fields, forests at worst. Starami strongly predicted that any environnt favorable to bees, even monster bees, would be easily survivable by dragonkin. The worst he could imagine was a room that required flight to traverse, but his forces were well prepared for that.

And yes, the Tower had other patrons who were known for harsher environnts, naly the God of Fire and the God of Water…but this was a young Tower with less than ten floors to its na. By Starami’s reckoning, the Tower likely had less than eight hundred mana to work with, so devoting so of that to a room unsuitable for its primary patron and defenders would have been foolish. And while it wasn’t strictly necessary to expand every ti the Tower gained enough mana to qualify…with ongoing purifications only once a week at fastest and slowing down as new Towers joined the Conclave, along with the need to take any perks that might strengthen the Tower Guard should they appear, it took so long to qualify for new expansions that it was a waste not to attempt them as soon as they were available.

Though, the size of the Tower compared to its age did imply the Tower could conduct ongoing purifications at a faster pace, or that the Tower Lord spent expansion purification rewards and DP on extra mana. But the latter case ant the Tower would have even less options available for its defense, so made it even less likely the Tower Lord would have picked rooms unsuited to the Tower’s primary patron. The forr case would require an aggressive mindset to take advantage of…which again would imply the Tower Lord would expand at first opportunity.

Plus, they had already seen a substantial swarm of bee monsters, so Starami also knew much of the Tower’s mana was already accounted for given the number of spawners the rogue Tower Lord must have needed. It was also possible to breed the monsters, that was how he had so many kobolds after all, but both the Conclave’s records from subjugated rogue Towers and his own experience with breeding monsters was that naturally born monsters were significantly harder to control. A natural-born drake or wyvern practically had to be tad from scratch before they’d beco as obedient as a monster from a spawner! For a Tower this young to have an obedient monster army required that a good proportion of those monsters co from spawners, if not all of them.

So, no, while so lightly hazardous Fire or Water rooms might be possible, this Tower simply could not have afforded a room that would present a danger to any but the weakest of dragonkin…

As Starami analyzed the opposing Tower to keep his mind off the statues of the gods, his Tower Guard brought a kobold towards the door at the far end of the hall. The kobold finally stepped into the next room…and was instantly annihilated.