Honey Without a Harvest
Honey Without a Harvest
“The sweetest bait hides the strangest infestation.”
— Hook · Side quest / investigation and rescue
“Bodhi sets down a sealed honey jar and a knife scarred by old stings. The giant bees at the Riverwood edge have begun laying traps, leaving honey where anyone can reach it, and one missing forager has not come home. She needs someone to find out what changed before frightened people destroy the colony or walk willingly into its bait.”
— Hook · Side quest / investigation and rescue
At Shanti Kitchen, Bodhi serves the party a small plate of honeyed flatbread but keeps the honey jar sealed. She explains that her usual gathering route has become dangerous. Her last helper, a visiting forager, vanished near the Riverwood edge after following a honey offering that was visible from the path. Bodhi can provide the colony's usual location, describe normal giant bee behavior, and identify safe landmarks, but she has no explanation for the change and does not know about parasites. Jaya can explain that the bees' defenses seem arranged around empty spaces. Arin can guide the party to the territory at dusk.
Bodhi
Bodhi approaches the party at Shanti Kitchen after closing, when the last customers have gone and the cooking fires are low. She offers food first, then asks for help with a problem she considers both dangerous and morally delicate.
Rumours
d5 · table- 01The bees have stopped humming at night, which is worse than their daytime aggression.
- 02One accessible honeycomb was perfectly clean inside, with no larvae and no bees nearby.
- 03A forager swears the wax walls were rebuilt after being cut, as if the hive itself noticed the damage.
- 04Bodhi's old route passes a useful patch of ground that has not been visible since the Riverwood undergrowth surged.
- 05The missing forager was last seen carrying an empty jar, not a full one.
If the party fails, the parasite network continues expanding, the Riverwood route becomes hazardous, the missing forager may die, and frightened locals may destroy the giant bee colony. If the party succeeds but uses indiscriminate violence, Bodhi's honey source is lost and the surviving bees may never recover. The best outcome protects people, preserves the colony, and removes the central controlling node.
Background Lore
Bodhi, chef and owner of Shanti Kitchen in Shantiniketan, has long gathered wild honey from giant bees living near the edge of the Riverwood. Recently, the bees have become unusually hostile. They now construct resin walls, wax tripwires, sticky pits, and misleading defensive barriers, while leaving unusually accessible honey in conspicuous places. The honey is bait, not an established infection vector. The colony is being controlled by blood-feeding parasites linked through a shared hive mind, with a central Raktash Brood-Core coordinating every infected host. The parasites are strongest during daylight, while infected bees behave much closer to normal at night.
Bodhi, chef and owner of Shanti Kitchen in Shantiniketan, has long gathered wild honey from giant bees near the edge of the Riverwood. The bees have recently become hostile, building strange wax and resin defenses while leaving accessible honey offerings as bait. A forager is missing, and Bodhi wants the danger understood and stopped without destroying the colony that sustains her kitchen.
