The Blood Bee Hive

[etherial]

From the Court-mandated parole log of Gronk Longtusk:

3 Teayu
We're heading into the Mountains to smoke out a Blood Bee Hive. August and Varis have convinced everyone to carry sacks of salt for protection from blood bees. I suspect it might be some kind of hazing ritual, but salt is useful so I bought it anyway. Naturally it rains.

4 Teayu
August and Ceadda hear Blood Bees in the night, but nothing attacks us.

5 Teayu
Lots more Blood Bees in the night, flying to and fro, particularly in the direction of the Iceclaw Moot. They're probably all dead.

6 Teayu
About an hour from the Trollmoot, a swarm of Blood Bees attacked us. A Blood Wasp and six minions flew in. I killed two right away but they managed to sting Shadow Stalker. Varis very effectively unleashed his Lightning and we mopped the rest up.

We raced the sun to the Iceclaws and found them in outright war with the Blood Bees. Another Blood Wasp and four Blood Bees greeted us at the door. Shadow Stalker leapt up onto a house with August on his back and engaged the Blood Wasp. We made relatively short work of them, but he ended up on the far side of the house and was then ambushed by two more Blood Wasps. We were able to rescue him, but Shadow Stalker had been knocked out and Varis was temporarily paralyzed in the action.

We gave August a bit of a dressing down about running off on his own and then sat down for a hot meal. He wants to use his damage shift talent on us, but he's just not loyal enough to us for it to be a serious consideration. He doesn't have our backs.

This engagement was a retaliation on the Trolls for trying to attack the Blood Bee Queen. The good news is, we know where she is. The bad news is, most of the Trolls are in rough shape. We'll have to decide in the morning whether to mount our raid or take a day to rest.

7 Teayu
With Varis fully healed, we spend the day heading West to the Blood Bee Hive. We coat ourselves in the ridiculous salt and I coated some of my arrows with it as well.

We discovered a massive underground hive complex with eight entrances. Blood Bees would periodically leave the hive and attack us until August charged forward to attack a lone Bee and they unleashed their Ambush on him. As he was nearly overwhelmed by the swarm, he and Shadow Stalker escaped, and the Bees switched their atention to Ceadda.

That's when the Blood Bee queen erupted out of the ground and joined the fray. I hit her with an arrow and Varis blasted her and some of her minions with a Desperate Lightning Bolt, but things were looking pretty grim for Ceadda.

I dumped the last of my Karma into a True Shot with a salt arrow aimed at her blood sack, and her abdomen erupted and shriveled at the same time, tearing her body to pieces. The remaining Blood Bees became listless and the hive was easily wiped out afterward. We burned the bodies and destroyed the remains of the hive and headed home.


Other PCs:
August Rey, male Dwarf Cavalryman
Ceadda, male Human Warrior
Varis, male Dwarf Elementalist