Editing The Wilderlands of Absalom (section)

===Hive of Cxa-tru===

[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?806873-IC-IV-The-Wilderlands-of-Absalom&p=21503125#post21503125 Link]

Located in 12.40. The hex's land value is 9.
In subhex 306: an organic structure, resembling a termite mound, but much, much larger. It towers perhaps two hundred feet above the ground and, from where they stand on the hillside above the valley in which it stands, looks to be maybe 75 feet in diameter.
Mel'ar'Quinthai is their Queen
M'ellgotharx'o, fifth Furusiyya of the Serriterae is their ambassador to Wolf Keep.

They call themselves serriterms, and Harn gets the impression that their Hive has been in existence for centuries, at least. "We learned to write in the Common tongue from the human traders that used to ply these routes," she -- for Harn discovers that M'ell is female, at least as far as human genders are concerned -- writes, "and the memories of my people run deep. We have not forgotten, though it has been many broods since we last saw Man in our valley. Every once in a while the folk you call 'beastmen' would stray into our Hive, either to trade or raid." They seem to know little of the outside world, and Harn gets the impression that most of their civilization is underground. He cannot get an accurate picture of their numbers -- M'ell is constantly referring to both herself and her kin in the second person. The adventurers would guess they are cultivating some 600 or so acres of vegetables -- of what variety he is not sure -- but again, many of her references seem to imply an underground source of food, as well.

The serriterms, as Harn learns, are divided into several rigid castes. M'ell belongs to the warrior caste, while the three smaller termite-men accompanying her are what she refers to "drones". There are others she refers to as "alchemist", but Harn gets the impression that they may be closer to shamans than the chemists he is familiar with. There is also, of course, the Queen, of whom M'ell refers to often but doesn't actually describe that much.