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| Chorister Bees | |
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| Type | Sky-Beast |
| Location | The Reach |
[B]ees the size of dogs, each marked with a blazing sigil. They don’t buzz, but sing in plainsong. They may be benign – as long as you don’t carry any Chorister nectar.[1]
Description[ | ]
Chorister Bees are a Sky-Beast of The Reach, found in the form of a swarm. They can be found near Titania or Leadbeater & Stainrod's Nature Reserve. In combat, Chorister Bees deal 6 damage with each hit, and are strong enough to push your Locomotive around.
They also feature in a random event that can occur when visiting Titania, damaging and possibly destroying buildings.
A Chorister-Corpse[ | ]
| A Chorister-Corpse | |
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| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 271051 |
The swarm is a ruin of twitching legs and broken wings. One of the bees – the sigil on its back occluded with ichor – begins its final, tremulous song.
Interactions
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes | |||||
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| Copy part of a lost sigil from the bee's back
Your weapons have damaged the corpse.
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Grim notation
The bee is a ruin of splintered wings and yellow-black bristles, and you can only reconstruct a fragment of the sigil. But it is a start.
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Game note: You will need three bee-sigil pieces to reconstruct its Correspondence sigil.
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| Combine your sigil-pieces and reassemble the lost sigil
Like the other bees, this too has been damaged by the battle. But you only need one more detail to have the full symbol.
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The last marks
The bee sings its song, even as it dies – a discordant accompaniment to your triumph. You trace the final detail of the sigil marking every Chorister Bee.
You return to your cabin and overlay the three sketches. Between them, the sigil, trapped between the pages. Pinned down here, it is easy to make a perfect copy. Then it is only a matter sifting through your notes till you identify it.
 A Mistake, Forged into a Triumph
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| Harvest a stinger for your settler
She spent the battle with her face pressed against the window-glass.
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A successful retrieval
Your crew draw lots. The three who drew short set out into the drift, armed with the big saw. They hack away at the still-vibrating stinger. There is a brief violet flash when a stoker's boot brushes against the sigil on the chorister's back.
Soon, your crew return, hands golden with spilt fluid, the stinger held aloft. The settler offers to mend the stoker's scorched boot.
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Advanced query needs investigation Advanced query needs investigation
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| Harvest a stinger for your settler
The settler watched the battle with crossed arms.
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Empty hands
"Don't put your crew to any risk on my account. The chorister attack is old news by now. A tail won't impress anyone anymore." She gives a sad little smile. "I suppose I'll just have to rely on my charm when I get there."
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Advanced query needs investigation
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| Collect a pristine pair of wings
The Phlegmatic Researcher in the Leadbeater & Stainrod Nature Reserve requested them for study.
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A successful retrieval
A crewman is sent out to sift through their corpses. Some time later, he returns with the single pair of wings your assault did not perforate or shatter.
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| Collect a pristine pair of wings
The Phlegmatic Researcher in the Leadbeater & Stainrod Nature Reserve requested them for study.
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A successful retrieval
A crewman is sent out to sift through their corpses. Some time later, he returns with the single pair of wings your assault did not perforate or shatter.
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| Shave the bee
This is what the Carpenter needs to fix the Magician's equipment. It would only be fair to draw lots to see whose razor gets used.
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A close shave
Fortunately, you didn't draw the short stick. Nevertheless, you're still the one who has to shave the d__n thing. The hairs are stiff, sharp chitin; the razor doesn't cut through easily, but it does so mercifully cleanly once you get the hang of it. The hairs pile like needles around you, and are swept up for delivery back to the Carpenter in Port Avon.
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| Cage and tend to the bee
A devil at the Well of the Wolf has requested a live bee. You may be able to lure it into a trap using chorister nectar.
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Got you!
The last bee crawls clumsily after the nectar, and a brave crewman tugs the trap shut. You heave it on board. The droning song is deafening in the close confines of your engine's corridors. You order it kept at the opposite end of the locomotive from your cabin.
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Advanced query needs investigation
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| Send someone out to recover their nectar
Chorister nectar is valued by poets, vocalists, and those with a sweet tooth. Unfortunately, to get at it you have to go through quite a lot of bee.
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Failed event | Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.
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| A costly trade
A crewman is elbow-deep in bee when the beast gives a final spasm and plunges its stinger into his wrist. His death is quick and loud.
The other nectar-harvesters return hastily to your engine. The few thimblefuls they've managed to gather will fetch a few sovereigns in port.
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| Successful event | ||||||||
| Oil of the sky
Clearly, you chose the right woman for the job. Judging from her equipment she's done this before: a set of pliers, a serrated knife, a steel straw, and a bladder. She returns after an hour, her sky-suit stained with bee, and a full gourd's-worth of nectar in the bladder.
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| Partial success event (5%) | ||||||||
| Better than nothing
Your crew don their sky-suits. Hefting hatchets, they launch themselves into the soupy ether. What follows is butchery.
Sadly, the bees were less efficient, and you garner only a single cupful of the precious nectar. It'll probably fetch a few sovereigns in port.
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| Listen to its death-hymn
They say it contains secrets, if you can bear to listen all the way to the end.
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Failed event |
Game note: Gain Experience. | |||||
| Torment
The sound is maddening! Like steel nails dragged down a blackboard inhabited by amorous alley-cats! Can you bear it?
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No! Close the hatch! | The bee's ululations are sealed out among the stars and the sky.
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| Listen to the end! | In adversity, strength. You grit your teeth and endure to the end. You'll dream of that song. You'll find yourself humming it on the bridge, while your officers stare in horror.
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| Don't listen, and lie about it to the crew | You close the hatch hastily, and spin the crew a fanciful tale of the bee singing a lullaby from your childhood in your mother's voice. How wide their eyes are!
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| Successful event | ||||||||
| Lessons
The sound is memorable but not notably distressing until that high-C, which makes your teeth itch. Afterwards, are you wiser? Are you stronger? You are not less so. The bees died. You lived.
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| Collect a Chorister-Corpse Trophy
The New Somerset Hunting Club will be pleased.
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Mounted and ready
The crew set about the creature with hacksaws while the Quartermaster prepares a board. Once the entrails are dried, they nail it firmly there. The Hunting Club will no doubt wish to replace it with something in mahogany or bronzewood once you deliver it, but this will do for the moment.
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| Collect the soul of a bee
The Princess encourages you not to waste any part of the bee, especially the parts she needs.
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The collection of bees
Collecting the soul of a Chorister Bee swarm is traditionally an onerous endeavour, made a little easier by the distraction the Incognito Princess provides. She stands by her porthole, nose nuzzling against the glass while the spectral remains of the swarm jostle to get closer to her. "Oh, you little people already love me," she whispers, thrilled.
While the Princess is bonding, you have a more arduous task – slowly unwinding a soul from the bee's not-quite-corpse while avoiding the last futile twitches of its sting.
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