Belissar’s day was going quite well so far. Tamosmed was finally free to visit his Tower again, so Belissar helped him check on the slime and thermal mining bees before Tamosmed returned to the karnuq settlement. After that, Belissar went ahead and planted the flowers he had received from the pixies in the Apothecary’s Hut, adding them to the mix. He had been happy to see one of the maddening queen’s daughters especially interested in the dancing columbine.
Once that was done, Belissar set about to implement the advice Tamosmed had given him. He checked on his mana…
Available Mana: 283/1900
He took a deep breath. It would be expensive…but he could afford a mithril node even with the unsuitable environment penalty. Not to mention he was getting more mana from the daily purifications now, so it wouldn’t take very long to build it back up. In fact, he’d add as much mana as a mithril node cost far faster than it would take to develop a suitable room…
Belissar thus steeled himself, and then placed a hundred mana mithril node in the Dirt Tunnels connected to the Apiary. He headed on over to the room and found the thermal mining bees already investigating. The node itself was a glimmering silver that clearly stood out from the dirt and the more mundane mineral nodes around it…and that was before considering how much mana was wafting off of it. The thermal mining workers turned to him and hovered around him in the way that Belissar knew meant they were waiting for instructions. He gave them a smile.
“Yes, I made this for you. Please try to see if you can use it in your hive.”
The thermal mining bees danced a combination of salute and “King best king!” dances before zipping over to the mithril. Belissar watched for a bit…it seemed they were having a bit of trouble. Some of the workers clung to the node for several minutes without managing to break off a piece. Fortunately, the glowing harvestable part of the node was far easier to work with and the workers did manage to gather some from there.
Belissar crossed his arms. The thermal mining bees could use the mithril…but it was going to be a much longer process than even the other metals. It might be a while before he saw any changes as a result. But he smiled and shook his head. In the end, the thermal mining bees seemed happy with the node despite the difficulty, and that was a victory to Belissar.
He left them to it as he set about with the next task: attempting to make the lava tube room Tamosmed had mentioned.
“Hey Niobee, can you let everyone know I’m going to add new Lava Field and Dirt Tunnels to the third floor? They’re free to visit the Lava Field but they should know I’m going to try and fill the Dirt Tunnels with lava, so it might be dangerous.”
Belissar got to work as Niobee relayed his message. The third floor currently had a Lava Field, but since that was the burning bees’ home Belissar didn’t want to risk changing it. So, he placed a new Lava Field and Dirt Tunnels in the two empty room slots on the floor. He made no particular changes to either room, but he moved the entrance to the Dirt Tunnels onto its roof, and added several more. These he placed at the bottom of rivers in the Lava Field and, just as he had hoped and Tamosmed had advised, lava began pouring down into the tunnels. It was more of an ooze than a flood, so it might take a while, but Belissar was already pleased with the results as he watched burning lava dump down on a tunnel. That seemed like something he could use for the Tower’s defenses…
For now, though, Belissar left the new rooms to spread lava through the tunnels. Nenavann had arrived to show him, the bees, and the karnuq how to build boats, so Belissar headed over to learn.
He spent the rest of the day on that task until time came for the daily purification. Belissar was confident they’d be able to handle it today, but he still urged everyone to be careful. They hadn’t seen all the different shades that could appear, after all.
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And speak of the Hunger, he trigged the purification only to see the spiky salamander return. The shade that had caused a serious amount of casualties among the bees and heavily wounded several of the karnuq hunters. Belissar’s expression turned grim. If there was a shade that would cause the bees harm, this was the one.
And then the digging assassin stung its unprotected belly from below before retreating safely underground. The shade launched its spines but they didn’t penetrate deep enough into the dirt to threaten the assassin. The shade then collapsed when it reached the candle tunnel and the assassin’s venom mixed with the maddening wax fumes.
And that was that, without any bees or karnuq taking even a single spine. Belissar stared for a moment before breaking out into a laugh and shaking his head. It seemed he had underestimated just how far his bees had come.
The next day, just after Belissar finished his morning routine, Tarwantrad burst through the nexus door, bouncing up and down.
“Belissar! Come quick!”
Belissar judged by the smile on her face that it was good news, so he quickly made his way over.
“Hi Tarwantrad, what is it?”
Tarwantrad rushed up to him so fast that Niobee buzzed at her.
“Gardeners! My bees evolved gardeners!”
Belissar broke out into a big grin.
“Already? That’s amazing, congratulations!”
“And it’s all thanks to you, and you, Niobee! And all your bees! My bees watched your gardeners work and figured out how to evolve them! Now we can both have gardeners tending to the flowers! And my bees, my bees are so happy now! Now they can help me work on the flowers directly!”
Belissar happily listened to Tarwantrad gush about her new bees for a few minutes…until he heard a chuckle from a voice he didn’t recognize.
“I’m pleased to see you so happy, Tarwantrad, but could I ask you to introduce me?”
Belissar turned to find another green elf woman standing just behind and to the side of Tarwantrad…a woman who looked like another Tarwantrad, in fact. She was even dressed similarly, just without the abundance of flowers Tarwantrad wore. Tarwantrad flushed.
“Ah, right, sorry. Belissar, this is Aldatrad, my mom.”
Aldatrad smiled at him.
“Greetings, Tower Keeper Belissar. It’s nice to finally meet you, Tarwantrad has told me so much about you. I hope she hasn’t been bothering you too much, her passion gets the better of her sometimes but she always means well.”
Belissar returned the greeting.
“Hello, nice to meet you. And…Tarwantrad hasn’t bothered me at all. She’s been a great help, I probably wouldn’t have bargained with the Compact if it wasn’t for her.”
Aldatrad made a big and satisfied grin while Tarwantrad groaned and averted her gaze.
“I’m overjoyed to hear that.”
It was then Belissar noticed she was holding a small sapling in a pot that she now held out to him.
“I know it is not much to a dungeon master but please, accept this gift. A pear tree from my own orchard. In time, it will provide for both you and your bees.”
Belissar smiled and took the sapling.
“Thank you, would you like to try some honey?”
Aldatrad’s eyes twinkled as every warden in earshot stared enviously.
“I would love to, thank you.”
Belissar went and retrieved some of his personal honeycomb stockpile while also storing the sapling for now. He returned to find the two green elves one of the tents the wardens set up for guests, handed over the pieces of honeycomb, and then sat down himself. Aldatrad’s face lit up as she tried a bite of the honeycomb.
“I must say, I no longer wonder how you managed to charm Queen Vanieskon. With honey , it’s a wonder she hasn’t tried to monopolize your Tower outright.”
Tarwantrad crossed her arms.
“Well, she did try to deal with Belissar before anyone else knew they needed to.”
“That’s more the signatories’ fault than her doing. I told my uncle to trust you, but he insisted on waiting for the Compact’s consensus.”
Both Tarwantrad and Aldatrad sighed and shook their heads together. Aldatrad then turned to Belissar and smiled.
“Speaking of which, Tower Keeper Belissar, I’m sure you’re wondering why Tarwantrad brought me here today?”
Belissar nodded, so Aldatrad continued.
“Officially, I am supposed to represent the green elves. But honestly, that Herading has another thing coming if he thinks I’d try to take advantage your friendship with my daughter, so please don’t mind any of that if you don’t want to.”
Belissar shook his head.
“No, I’d be happy to talk about it. The pixies have been a big help so far, so I wouldn’t mind making more deals.”
Aldatrad glanced over at Tarwantrad and nodded.
“You were right, he is very gracious, isn’t he?”
Tarwantrad nodded back with a huff.
“Seriously. I’d have given those signatories a piece of my mind if the pixies hadn’t come up with that loophole.”
Aldatrad covered her mouth as she giggled.
“I’m surprised you didn’t. Well then, shall we discuss what we can squeeze out of your granduncle?”
Tarwantrad giggled back.
Belissar wasn’t sure how to respond but it seemed like Tarwantrad and her mom were going to help him so he decided to just smile and let them talk.