Really Big Tree

Dewey shakes his head.
“We’d need something much stronger than a beekeeper suit to protect against those stingers. Unless anyone knows where we could get some plate mail, our best bet may be to find a way around like Fox suggested.” Dewey looks around to see if he can spot any openings leading to sturdy enough branches to stand on. “...Or not. We may simply need to fight our way through.”

"But that's haaaaard" Katie whines. "When I tried they just kept coming and coming and coming and coming and-"

Tia holds up her key. "We don't need... plate... mail... I think? Um, whatever that is..." She loses her bikini-esque armor for a moment, then replaces it with a much more regal-looking toga decorated with gold jewelry and several frills.

“You think the armors from our Soul Keys might be enough to ward them off long enough to make a run for it?”

Tia flicks her tongue a few times. "...Maybe?"

Dewey sighs, looking down at his amulet. “I suppose it’s worth a shot. Is everyone ready?” Dewey takes a chance to analyze one of the bees guarding the entrance from a distance.

Buzz Buzz
Element: Poison
Weapon: Stinger
Skills: Poison Sting, Alarm Buzz, Deafening Buzz, Berserk Mode
Weakness: Wind, Metal
Resistance: Plant, Water, Earth, Soul
Drops: ?
Description: Relatively weak alone, but rely on overwhelming numbers to bring down much more powerful enemies

“Seems they aren’t particularly dangerous on their own, but they rely on swarming to take down threats. If we’re going to run through, we’ll need to be quick if we want to get through before they overwhelm us.”

Everyone looks around the group. Katie and Fox nod to each other. Tia still looks a bit hesitant, then looks down at the floor below. She seems to be estimating how long it might take to run across.

Dewey waits for Tia to make her estimate, flipping through his time to find the right spell and settling on Mystic Gale.

Tia looks back up at the floor above, then leans back like she's looking even further past. "But... what if there's something waiting on the other side?"
"...I think there's something waiting on the other side."

Dewey stops dead in his tracks, mentally cursing how he hadn’t thought of that himself. “Back to the drawing board, then. When we first arrived they were fighting that invisible creature. Perhaps we could lure it into the hive? We’d need to find a way to get it back here though, and regardless of who wins we’d have to fight one or the other in an even more agitated state...”

"Um... Well... Let me think..." Katie says to herself. "Lizards like warm things and bright things, so maybe we could try something like that as bait?"

Dewey flips through his book again, going back to one of the first spells he ever used and creating a fireball in his hand. “I’ve got this, although running around a tree with an open flame seems ill-advised, to say the least.”

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem. Living trees are pretty resistant to fire..." Fox says. "Um, I'm 99% sure this one's alive and healthy. I can kinda tell that stuff when I'm like this."

“You’re right... I must be slipping if I forgot about that. Too many late nights...”

Tia still seems hesitant. "I don't really like using one of my cousins like this... but if we don't want to go try to find some materials, I don't have a better idea." She looks up nervously again.

Katie frowns. At least, you think the werewolf is frowning. "It's... fine, probably. That's how nature works."

“...Cousins? Do you mean that in a metaphorical sense of it being a reptile, or is there something I’m missing here?”

"Metaphor... Probably."

“...Right. Of course.” By this point Dewey is beginning to look tired, the lack of sleep likely starting to take a toll on his ability to think straight. “Anyways, I guess I’ll go see if I can go life it out. You guys get out of the way, if this works it’s going to be coming in at full speed.” Dewey heads back down the stairs towards the previous floor.

Fox and Katie press against the wall as you walk away. Tia watches you go until you're almost down, but then joins them. You get to the bottom of the stairs and vaguely get the feeling something is watching you.

“Naur!” Commanded by an incantation, the flame bursts to life into a larger fireball floating in Dewey’s hands. He looks around the room holding it out and getting ready to run, not even realizing he still isn’t speaking English. “Tul- a get nin, ún!”

Dewey hears a footstep, then another a bit closer. And then another, faster and faster. He takes off running up the stairs, hearing the sound of something very large and very close behind him, slowly gaining. He thinks he can make it to the top... or at least really close. Fox, Katie, and Tia are all waiting near the top, up against the wall.

Dewey keeps running full speed, listening to the ever-closer footsteps behind him. Once he’s got a straight shot at the entrance to the hive he launches the fireball forward and dives out of the way.

Dewey sees the fireball go flying in, then hears the stomping continue past where he was a moment ago. Something goes past, and then the bees at the entrance begin to swarm back into the hive. Inside, a furious buzzing begins to grow louder and louder.

“There... We can either try to slip through amidst the confusion, or wait for the creature to thin their numbers enough to fight our way through.”

"Well... Let's get a better look," Katie suggests. She starts moving up to get a closer look. "Um... I don't think we're going to fight our way through thinner numbers..." she says.

When you get up and get a better view, you find the floor, walls, and ceiling all coated with honey and combs. And easily a hundred of these bee-monstrosities all flying around. At present, they seem to be focused on something you can't see near the edge of the room.

Dewey takes a look as well, the full weight of just what they were just recently planning to run through hitting him like a sack of bricks.
“Ah. Well that’s... Yes, we’d better go now while they’re distracted. I’m not sure how we’ll get back, hopefully we’ll think of something by then. Everyone ready to go?”

Tia, Katie, and Fox all nod.

“On my mark... 3... 2... 1... Now!” Dewey breaks into a sprint again, making a beeline (pun intended) for the stairs on the other side.

Katie takes off, easily flying ahead. The others all make it a few steps before realizing walking through the thick, sticky honey is like trying to wade through deep mud. Fortunately, the bees remain focused on the invisible thing. A few get smacked and go flying off somewhere, and another two are crushed... it seems.

"Do we keep going?" Fox asks. "If those things get interested in us while we're in the middle... it could be a problem, right?"

Dewey sweeps his eyes around the room, searching for a path with less honey for them to take. “Echor!” Dewey casts Mystic Frost ahead of him, attempting to force the honey in front of the group to crystallize enough that they can walk along it. If that doesn’t work, he’ll advise the others to beat a hasty retreat.

The honey thickens, but refuses to solidify.

Dewey sighs, frustrated but unwilling to risk the lives of the group on a gamble like this. “Fall back, we don’t know how long they’ll stay distracted.”

Tia nods and starts trodding her way back. She stumbles a few times, but manages to keep her footing. Fox has the least trouble of anyone besides Katie, managing to beat everyone to the stairs handily.

"...You guys go, I'm gonna fly ahead and check things out!" Katie announces.

Dewey nods, keeping an eye on the hive entrance to make sure the bees don’t come after them once they’re done with the chameleon. Dewey reaches the top of the stairs last. The invisible thing comes running past, leaving a trail of honeyed footprints as it runs. A half-dozen bees go flying past in hot pursuit, then abandon the chase and turn when they notice you.

“And that answers that, we would have never made it all the way through. Quickly, before they alert the hive!” Dewey attacks one of them with Mystic Gale. Dewey strikes one of the bees with a burst of wind, and knocks it over. Fox throws his scythe, slashing through that bee, and the one next to it as it returns. Tia unleashes a burst of blue light that slams into all of the bees, finishing the weakest of them.

One bee stabs Tia in the stomach, and another impales Dewey's side. He feels the now-familiar sensation of poisoning go into effect. Another bee starts flapping its wings and buzzing loudly. Fox covers his ears and yells. The last two bees seem to hover in place and start glowing.

By this point Dewey barely even reacts to the poison, having grown far more accustomed to it then he would like to be. Instead he focuses on casting Mystic Gale again, aiming at one of the glowing bees. He doesn’t bother giving any verbal commands assuming that Fox can’t hear him, simply pointing at the other glowing bee.

Fox crouches down and seems to be preparing a stronger attack. Dewey blasts one of the glowing bees, which retaliates by biting him - turns out they have impressive jaws, as well as their stingers. Even with his soul key, he's able to feel it. The other glowing bee slams Fox with a tackle, who goes skidding back without breaking out of his stance. Another of the bees begins glowing, while the other two attack Tia from either side. She yelps, then throws her spear into the air. It bursts apart and rains several small arrows of light onto the bees, taking out the one Dewey injured.

"That's two..." Tia says.

Dewey continues playing whack-a-mole with glowing bees. Hopefully since it’s already been hit by two of Tia’s attacks Mystic Gale will kill it without giving it the chance to retaliate.

Dewey blasts another of the glowing bees with wind, this time finding it weak enough to be shredded in a single blast. Fox leaps up and slices through the glowing one that tackled him last time. Another bee stings Dewey, and the last of the group buzzes loudly before biting Tia's shoulder. She shoves it back, then drives her spear through it, tossing its corpse over the ledge.

Another 3 bees arrive behind the group.

Dewey attacks the last remaining one of the original group just in time to notice the three new ones, mentally cursing at the realization that he’s not going to be able to keep fighting forever with this poison coursing through his bloodstream.

Dewey takes a shot at the last of the original bees. Without it in an enraged state, it's not enough to take it down. It stabs him in the neck, and he can hear his soul key beginning to whine from the strain of dealing with all the incoming damage. Fox is quick to finish the thing off, slicing through it as easily as the other. Two of three new bees swarm Fox, who seems to be getting worn down, as well. The last tries to stab Tia, who ducks out of the way. She grabs Fox and Dewey's hands and starts pulling them down the stairs as fast as she can run.

Dewey doesn’t resist her attempt to pull him down the stairs. The thought crosses his mind that they’re leaving Katie behind, but hopes she’ll be able to figure out that they were forced to retreat rather than looking around for them.

You reach the bottom of the stairs, and it doesn't seem like the bees are interested in chasing you all that way down. While Fox and Tia catch their breath, Dewey notices the mysterious invisible creature seems to be strangely absent... maybe?

After a few minutes of waiting, Katie comes in... from the door to the outside. Not where you expected her to reappear. "Hi! So, um... I managed to make it to the next floor. Barely. I had to dive out a window. There was this big spiderweb near the top of the stairs that I got all tangled up in, and then I had to turn into a wolf, and then there was this girl and then I jumped out the window."

“Oh... Okay... Was the girl caught in the web too?”

"No, she was just kind of standing... in the wall?" Katie explains.

Dewey is momentarily confused, but decides to worry about that later. “Well in any case I think we’ll have to call it a night, if we weren’t able to hold our own against those ones there’s no way we’re getting through the hive like this. Either we need a new plan, or significantly more people.”

Dewey notices Tia swaying her hips and flicking her tongue in and out. She seems to be in a trance. "I... thought... I felt something... It's good I didn't go up there. We would have had to fight."

“Something like a guardian, or a monster like the Gorgon Sisters?”

Tia snaps out of her stupor and stops swaying. "Oh... Katie, was she green?"

"Oh, yeah! I didn't even think to mention it. Yep."

Tia nods. "That's one of the beasts... And if someone carrying a soul got too close..."

“...” Dewey feels a sneaking suspicion that he knows what probably happened to the Wind Guardian now, but decides that the others likely figured it out too and that pointing it out would do nothing but make Tia feel uncomfortable.

"So, we should go find something to help us deal with those stupid bees for next time... Or bring a lot more people. Or both."

"Some kind of armor that's really resistant to being stabbed... oh, and poison," Fox says.

“Yes. Something stone or metal should do the trick. I don’t suppose any of you know of any other portals leading somewhere we could gather materials?”

"Well, if we want to try stone, the Howling Cliffs should work. As for metal, um... We have no idea where that portal could be," Katie says. "We mostly explore wood-y places and stuff."

“Then it sounds like our next step should be finding anywhere in town where a portal could be. Should we do that tomorrow, or take a night to rest?”

Tia seems lost in thought.

Fox shrugs. "I'm fine to keep looking, but... where do we even start?"

Some kind of factory, perhaps? I’ll check a map tomorrow afternoon and see if anything stands out.” It takes him a bit, but Dewey notices Tia’s drifting off again. “Tia, is something on your mind?”

"Hm? Oh. Just trying to remember what Mom said the metal beast was like... She said that one was really scary. Not like the beast here. Oh, well, all beasts are scary to us guardians, other than our own, but... I mean double-scary."

“Then we’ll probably want to avoid going too deep into that labyrinth. With any luck we’ll be able to find the materials we need without coming face to face with it.”

Tia seems glad for that. "Are we done for tonight?"

“Yes.”

"OK. I'm going to go home and hug Sproink... Bye."

Fox grabs her sleeve. "Wait. I managed to grab some stuff from those bees... We should split it up before we go."