Pulp Bee

These are big wasps, about two feet long, with four legs, a pointed stinging tail and two pairs of wings a foot long each. The body is black, jointed from head to abdomen, while the thorax and legs are a vivid red that makes them easy to recognize. Like many insects they cling easily to cliffs, walls and other sheer surfaces.

Pulp bees fight to defend the hive, where the queen and her eggs dwell. The sting deals 1d6 damage, and a victim who fails a save vs. poison takes another 4d6. Anyone who fails that first save must also save vs. paralysis or go rigid after 2-24 rounds. The paralysis lasts 2-12 hours, and afterward the victim is left feeble, at -2 Strength, for another 10-12 hours.

Wild swarms build their hives on the plains that ring the desert world's wastes. The bees secrete a paste that sets almost as hard as wood, and nests built from it are very tough for intruders to break into.

Each hive holds three castes. Queens lay and hatch the eggs. Gatherers fly out to collect food from nearby plants and flowers, carry it home, and chew it into a mash which they swallow; the producer bees then turn that raw material into a sweet liquid that hardens into the colony's main food. Fighters double as builders, raising the nest and guarding it while eggs incubate, much like the soldiers and workers of other insects. Every caste looks the same, except that queens are usually much bigger.

Some human and elven clans keep pulp bees for building material, often inside a city or an oasis village.

Many cultures want the wood-like secretion for construction. The sweet liquid is delicious and nourishing: one quart keeps an adult going in the desert for two days. Once it hardens it loses some value but still feeds an adult for up to one day.