The meeting quickly devolved into Belissar, the karnuq, and Sehfitis asking the spiderkin as many questions as they could think of. They did discover, however, that the mana learning wasn’t perfect and the spiderkin didn’t remember all the exact details of her ancestors’ lives. Still, they managed to learn quite a bit.
They confirmed that the sorcerer kings, the wicked kings of old as the Tower Lords called them, were responsible for creating the beastkin as Nenavann had claimed. The spiderkin confirmed that her ancestors remembered seeing karnuq among those who served alongside them, though they did not know what had happened to them after the spiderkin broke away. They found signs that other beastkin had also mutinied after them, but the spiderkin weren't concerned about others and so never confirmed exactly what happened. As for the sorcerer kings themselves, all the ones the spiderkin knew of were gone, killed either by the Hunger, a group of rebels apparently linked to the Tower Lords, or the spiderkin themselves. At the time the spiderkin broke away, the remaining sorcerer kings had apparently been hell-bent on reclaiming their domain from the Hunger and had thrown all their efforts into doomed counteroffensives, so the chances any had survived were miniscule.
All of that, though, was ancient history. It was quite shocking for all parties involved to hear…but it didn’t really change their current circumstances. More relevant, however, was the information on the spiderkin in the present day. There was, as the karnuq had feared, a growing web of spiderkin nests in the Underway. Even more concerning was confirmation that the spiderkin had claimed Towers of their own, some apparently located down in the Underway itself.
Because the one thing Belissar really needed now was another set of potentially hostile dungeon masters.
At that point, though, the spiderkin queen was clearly growing fatigued and everyone had more than enough big revelations to chew on, so Belissar decided to resume the original point of the meeting.
“Ok, I think we should wrap up the questions for today. Niobee, First of the Fifth’s First Daughter, do the bees have any questions?”
Niobee responded for the bees.
“Hive of hives thinks since spiderkin queen is first spiderkin in King’s realm, should call First Spiderkin Queen, first of her line. Is ok?”
The spiderkin queen gave a tired nod.
“Ok! Hive of hives welcomes First Spiderkin Queen! No other questions.”
The First Spiderkin Queen yawned as she tried to nod. She walked over towards Belissar and plopped her spider body on the ground, then leaned her human torso against his leg. Belissar wasn’t sure how to respond so he just let her do what she wanted.
“Ok then…it’s getting late, so I’m just going to say it. I wanted to discuss using our DP to buy room features. I wanted to try and get those basic animal dens Tarwantrad mentioned since the spiderkin like meat too, I figure we might need more rabbits. Does anyone object or have other ideas?”
Nobody did, so Belissar moved forward. He had over four thousand DP at the moment, so enough for four room feature choices. He could only hope one would have the option he wanted…
Please select a room feature:
- Stone Roads (Rarity: Common, Type: Utility)
- Random Resource Plant (Rarity: Common, Type: Resource, Variable)
- Dirt Trails (Rarity: Common, Type: Utility)
…first one was a miss, then. And not just one, but two road features. Belissar had heard that stone roads were supposed to be nicer than dirt ones, but he hadn’t traveled one himself so he didn’t know how exactly. The fact was, the bees wouldn’t be using either.
Well, he supposed that wasn’t necessarily true anymore. They did have the wax golems now, which might benefit from a road or two. Still, Belissar didn’t think the benefits outweighed getting a new plant, provided it wasn’t one Tarwantrad already had, and in any case he could probably build his own road if he really wanted to. The karnuq had already flattened some trails in their home room and had access to stone to boot, maybe Muuraqi could do something?
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Belissar shrugged. None of these features were the one he wanted, so he just chose the resource plants.
Random Resource Plant selected.
Almond Tree is now available!
Belissar hummed a bit. Almonds, huh? He had seen them mentioned in books before, but his village hadn’t grown any so he didn’t know much about them. They were some kind of nut if he remembered correctly. But if nothing else, a new kind of tree might be nice as long as it had flowers for the bees to forage from. He’d just have to plant one and see.
In any case, it was time to move on and try again.
Please select a room feature:
- Goopy Mud (Rarity: Common, Type: Water, Ground, Trap)
- Fire Spout (Rarity: Common, Type: Fire, Trap)
- Treasure Chest (Rarity: Common, Type: Resource)
…another miss. And two repeat options to boot…though he wasn’t sad to see fire spouts offered again. He still didn’t know what treasure chests were used for, though.
“Actually, the Tower Lords make frequent use of chests when training the Tower Guard. I am not privy to the details of their workings, but I do know that they are used to store resources and items for the Tower Guard to locate when challenging their Tower’s trials. The doctrine states that we should put in effort to earn the gifts of the gods through the challenges…though, I must admit, after witnessing your Tower’s relationship between bee, flower, and karnuq, I do question if this is a necessity.”
Oh, Sehfitis did, though, to some extent. But even he wasn’t sure why the rewards were placed inside treasure chests, as the Tower Lords did not share the exact workings of their Towers with the augurs.
Belissar may have wondered more under other circumstances but everyone was tired and the meeting was going late so he decided to disregard that option for now. Maybe he could ask the Circle about it later but none of them were here right now. He had a new feature to look over in any case.
- Type: Water, Ground, Trap
Description: An area of mud that is especially viscous and sticky. Not only does it slow down anyone attempting to traverse through it, the mud clings to everything it touches, weighing down the target even after they’ve left the trap’s area.
That…wasn’t bad, when Belissar thought about it. It would go well with the bog, which was full of mud anyways, and the flying bees wouldn’t be affected by it at all. The karnuq and beeswax golem would, though, but they didn’t plan to have the karnuq fight in the bog to begin with given the vaporous hemlock spitting out clouds of toxic mist there.
So, it was that or fire spouts, a more direct means of attack. But…couldn’t the Third of the Sixth’s sprayers now do the same thing, thanks to the God of Fire’s blessing? With that in mind…and wanting to move quickly, Belissar made his choice.
“Ok, I think we go for the mud and put it in the battle bog to slow down attackers, since the Third of the Sixth’s hive can already do the fire spout thing and we still don’t know what treasure chests are for. Any objections?”
There were none, only happy dances from the Third of the Sixth.
Goopy Mud is now available.
And just like that, half of his DP was gone. Belissar hoped the third time would be the charm…
Please select a room feature:
- Random Resource Mineral (Rarity: Common, Type: Resource, Variable)
- Basic Cob Hut (Rarity: Common, Type: Ground, Structure, Monster Nest)
- Basic Animal Dens (Rarity: Common, Type: Fauna, Resource)
Belissar threw his hands up into the air.
He then flushed as everyone started and stared at him. The First Spiderkin Queen jumped at his side and begin looking every which way.
“…sorry, I got excited. They showed up…the animal dens, I mean. We can spawn more rabbits without making new rooms now.”
The First Spiderkin Queen tilted her head.
She broke out into a wide grin.
“So, we’re picking that one, no objections, right?”
Chief Rohsuak chuckled as everyone either danced the negative or shook their heads.
“It was your goal tonight, was it not?”
Belissar’s smile turned sheepish and he rubbed the back of his head.
With no further delay, Belissar did what he set out to do.
Basic Animal Den is now available.
He turned to the First Spiderkin Queen and the First Butcher.
“I’ll set one up in the butcher’s room tomorrow, let’s see how many it makes and then we’ll add more if we need them. Does that sound good?”
The spiderkin danced as the butcher bee buzzed.
Belissar smiled once more. Well, there had been a lot of commotion recently, but things were working out well…
In a large cavern absolutely coated in webs, a large spiderkin woman lounged on a hammock. Bones, weapons, armor, and glowing crystals hung from the ceiling all around her, while eggs covered the ground below. Smaller spiderkin scampered around the room, using the walls, roof, pillars, and web bridges crisscrossing the empty space to travel across all the room. Two such spiderkin crawled along the central web bridge that led directly to the larger spiderkin’s hammock, carrying a third spiderkin in-between them. The third spiderkin was hacking and coughing and covered in burns.
The large spiderkin sharpened the chitin claws on her hand as she listened to the three spiderkin talk.
“So, my new queen failed to establish a nest, you say? Disappointing, she showed such promise growing up. I had greater expectations for her than that.”
The large spiderkin then grinned.
“But I suppose a god’s nest is not to be trifled with lightly. Unlucky for her…not so for me. Her loss shall not be in vain.”