Hive, The

The Hive
The Hive tumbling through wildspace
Basic Information
Crystal sphere	Unknown
Type	Asteroid
Size class	A
Shape class	Elliptical
Type class	Earth body
Satellites	Defense orbs
Population summary	Silver slimes, humans (the Anari), stone giants, nixies, reps, gorgons, medusae, cockatrices, basilisks, undead, various birds and animals

The Hive is an asteroid base created by the Sazaur beholder nation, with the assistance of the Arcane.

Description

The Hive is an elliptical asteroid approximately 10 miles (± 16 kilometers) in diameter, which drifts through wildspace tumbling slowly end over end. The asteroid's most distinctive surface feature is an enormous brass dome over 4 miles (± 6.5 kilometers) in diameter. As part of its defenses, the Hive is concealed by a powerful invisibility field that renders anything inside its area of effect invisible to anyone outside the area. The Hive can only be seen by ships or creatures entering the area of effect.

The Hive was also defended by several defense orbs, approximately 65 feet (± 20 meters) in diameter. Each black and gray defense orb was armed with powerful destructive enchantments by the Arcane, and powered by an orbus that was sealed in at the time of the orbs' creation. However, most of the defense orbs have been destroyed by enemy fleets over the last 800 years.

The Hive has a number of enormous internal rooms which account for about 300 square miles (777 square kilometers) in area. Gravity pulls "down" on all room surfaces, meaning that each surface is habitable. The internal gravity generally does not interfere with the gravity plane of a spelljammer traveling through its enormous tunnels and rooms; the only noticeable effect is when a ship moves from one surface to a perpendicular surface, and the gravity gently "pulls" the ship upright relative to the new surface.

The entire Hive is filled with fresh, unusually sweet-smelling, breathable air. Atmospheric pressure near a room's surface is normal but at the centre of a room the air becomes quite thin, similar in effect to climbing a high mountain. Inside the Hive, the air is always cool, becoming colder near the center of each room. Close to a room's surface, however, the air becomes warmer, similar to a brisk autumn day. Most of the asteroid complex is well lit by enormous crystals; however, certain areas may be darker than others.

Internal Structure

The Hive was designed to collect enough energy (the life force of the creatures slain by the Ravager) to empower the Queen's Eyes relic, eventually creating a powerful artifact that would ensure the Sazaur beholders would remain supreme and allow them to eliminate all rival beholder nations. The Arcane designed a series of enormous interconnected rooms that, through the principle of "sympathetic magic", would each be associated with one of the Queen's Eyes, empowering that particular eye with magic that duplicates the eye-beam powers of a beholder.

In the center of the Hive is an enormous spherical chamber about 5 miles (8 kilometers) across. This is where the Ravager is assembled and then disassembled once it has slain all its enemies or victims and collected their life force. The collected energy is then distributed to each of the 11 Queen's Eyes crystals. Connected to the central chamber by cylindrical tunnels 1,000 yards (914 meter) long and 100 yards (91 meter) in diameter, are 10 cube-shaped rooms, arranged in two groups of five evenly spaced around the central chamber. Each of the smaller rooms is about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) on a side, providing about 25 square miles (64.7 square kilometers) of surface area, since each face of a room can be inhabited. Each of the smaller rooms is lit by a giant, glowing crystal that hovers in the middle of each room. Each crystal is shaped like a decahedron (a 10-sided die) and is about 50 yards (45.7 meters) across.

Inhabitants

Each of the smaller cube-shaped rooms within the Hive has its own unique environment. Some of these rooms even boast a thriving ecosystem which supports living creatures.

• The Incarnations - Most of the smaller rooms are ruled by the physical embodiment of their particular magical effect, known as an Incarnation.
• The Anari - The Anari are the descendants of humans enslaved by the Sazaur to help build the Hive. The Anari are a diminutive race, with fair hair and golden-skin, and typically wear loose silken robes of white and gold. The effects of the room they inhabit has rendered the Anari simpleminded, scatterbrained, and easily distracted.
• The Stone Giants - The Sazaur beholders originally intended to stock the chamber associated with the flesh to stone eye-beam with creatures that petrify their prey, including medusae, cockatrices, gorgons, and basilisks. However, they also decided to stock the room with enough livestock to feed the Hive’s inhabitants, and enslaved a group of stone giants to tend to them, reasoning that the giants would be tough enough to survive the rigours of their new home, but dull-witted enough that it would be easy enough to keep them in line.
• The Nixies - About 300 years ago, a band of nixies survived the Ravager’s attack on their spaceborne home, and made their way into the Hive. However, the nixies were transformed into enormous featureless, slug-like creatures, 150 feet (46 meters) long and 20 feet (6 meters) wide. Their new forms are covered in a cold grey slime that locks them into a state of temporal stasis, making them essentially ageless.
• The Reps - The Reps are amorphous humanoids apparently made of a clay-like substance. They vaguely resemble male and female humans of all ages, with lumpy grey skin smelling of rotten fish. They are hairless and featureless, except for a wide, toothless slash for a mouth that nearly divides their heads in half, and two small indentations that serve as eyes. Reps wear crude clothes, such as smocks and sack dresses, all of which are made from the red fibers of the sajj plant. Reps are dull-witted and extremely timid; any threat, real or imagined, causes them to panic and run for cover.
• The Undead - The room associated with the death ray eye-beam serves as a necropolis. The room is currently inhabited by hundreds of corporeal undead, most of whom are humanoid, but a few are the remains of various unrecognizable alien races.
• Silver Slimes - The silver slimes are artificial life forms created by the Arcane to maintain the Hive and the Ravager. The silver slimes were also designed to refresh the asteroid's atmosphere and serve as guardians onboard the Ravager when deployed.

The Ravager

When the Ravager is inactive, it is broken down into its component parts, which are stored throughout the Hive's internal spaces. When the Hive is threatened by an enemy fleet, or comes across a likely world to prey upon, the Ravager is reassembled, and deploys through the brass dome, which valves open like the eyelids of an enormous eye. Once the Ravager has consumed the life energy of all opposing life forms, it returns to the central chamber, where it is disassembled and the energy is stored or distributed as needed.

History of the Hive

About a 1,200 years ago, the Sazaur beholder nation came to dominate their crystal sphere due to the leadership of a powerful and influential Hive Mother (or Queen), and had virtually exterminated all other beholder nations from their sphere. However, when the Queen died in battle, the Sazaur nation’s fortunes went into decline. The Sazaur ruling caste resolved to regain their supremacy by creating a powerful artifact, known as the Queen’s Eyes, using the eyes of the deceased Queen as their template relics. The Sazaur focused their entire nation’s resources to this task and enlisted the mysterious Arcane to assist them.

Over the next two centuries, the Sazaur hollowed out an asteroid to create a huge "incubator" called the Hive. Since the artifact creation process called for the lives of a billion creatures, the Sazaur also decided to house within the asteroid a weapon of mass slaughter known as the Ravager. The Sazaur never got to create their artifact, but they did manage to use their ultimate weapon - once. In a massive ritual, the Sazaur animated the Ravager for the first time. The weapon immediately began to fulfill its function by engulfing and destroying the entire Sazaur nation. Without its creators to control it, the Hive drifted through wildspace on a random course, eventually passing from the crystal sphere and disappearing into the phlogiston.

The Hive was sighted at sporadic intervals over the next millennium in many different crystal spheres. Wherever it was seen, disaster soon followed. The Hive could not move independently: it simply drifted on a slow, straight course, passing through crystal sphere walls due to the powerful magic of the Queen’s Eyes relic. The Ravager, however, evidently could operate autonomously and displayed no preference for killing beholders over any other victims. It swept down on dozens of worlds, leaving total devastation behind. Meanwhile, whole armadas perished against the Hive’s defenses.

The legend of the Hive grew, especially among the beholder nations. Each realized that if they could control the Ravager, they would achieve total supremacy. In the last recorded incident, the Hive took extensive damage from rival fleets of beholder Tyrant Ships. At the end of the battle, any of the fleets could have finally defeated the Hive, but with victory in sight, they turned on each other and destroyed themselves. Although its defenses were breached, the Hive drifted on.