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A bit of a question...How would a hive of honey bees be effected by being on or near ley lines or nexuses? Effects on both honey, bees, and hive structure.

Not aware of anything in canon that says anything would change.

But for fun you could make the honey a PPE rich delicacy for Psi-Stalkers.

I was thinking along similar lines, only with cheeses aged in the cave of a sleeping dragon....

taalismn wrote:I was thinking along similar lines, only with cheeses aged in the cave of a sleeping dragon....

Ain't Psi-cola made from some herbs or fungi grown close to lines and nexi?
Got to check Psyscape on that subject for possible ideas.

This is what leads to Xiticix.

More seriously, go wild. I could see there being a variety of effects, and perhaps the easiest is just make permanent spell effects on everything. The hive has a permanent Armor of Ithan. The honey is a healing potion. The bees shoot Fire Bolts.

pblackcrow wrote:A bit of a question...How would a hive of honey bees be effected by being on or near ley lines or nexuses? Effects on both honey, bees, and hive structure.

It would be subjected to Ley Line Storms and astrologically-generated random dimensional disturbances.

"Being near nexus point" generally has no effect whatsoever on living creatures however. People/plants/animals live on nexus points reguarlly.

SolCannibal wrote:

taalismn wrote:I was thinking along similar lines, only with cheeses aged in the cave of a sleeping dragon....

Ain't Psi-cola made from some herbs or fungi grown close to lines and nexi?
Got to check Psyscape on that subject for possible ideas.

Them secret herbs and spices....

Because why not: all Old Believer Beekeeper's Magic is of triple effectiveness when involving hives living and feeding exclusively within ley lines. All egg-based magic is of double effectiveness when using chickens raised exclusively within ley lines or involving mega chickens (as found in the Splicers article of Rifter 66), and of ten times effectiveness when involving mega chickens raised within ley lines. The spell Enchant the Mighty Rooster, when cast with triple the PPE by an Old Believer upon a mega chicken while on a ley line nexus, is instead known as La Colère du Coq d'Or, is of 10 times duration, grants 200 MDC and a SN PS of 40 to the chicken, simultaneously inflicts all bird-related warning/warding effects as found in Chaos Earth: Creatures of Chaos, and music from the Rimsky Korsakov opera plays throughout. Any vampires that confuse the Hymn to the Sun with Aloha Oe are immediately destroyed.

At least one of the Faerie Foods involve "Honey" (PF2E pg261, Walnut Candy, though depending on the actual recipe it might be an ingredient in some of the other foods).

Per Rifts Book of Magic, Nature Magic has spells involving Honey (WB18: Mystic Russia might go into the branch of magic better, two spells specifically mention Honey in the title and require it physically to work, and Bee's Wax is involved in even more, but I can't say as I don't have WB18).

Nothing in these examples requires the Honey to be grown there to be used AFAIK, but it could done that way by a GM (Quest Giver: "no ordinary water will not do, I need it from this particular spring go get it for me and I will reward you"-type thing).

The option does exists for the Ley Line/Nexus exposure to cause them to mutate and the resulting product have magical properties (precedent WB7 pg40-1, Ley Line Mutations, you'll be looking at a custom mutation and not on the table, but...).

ShadowLogan wrote:The option does exists for the Ley Line/Nexus exposure to cause them to mutate and the resulting product have magical properties (precedent WB7 pg40-1, Ley Line Mutations, you'll be looking at a custom mutation and not on the table, but...).

Oh damn, that's a pretty nice table to have at hand. Replace "Ocean magic" with a school of spells somehow more thematically appropriate to the nexus locale of one's preference and you're good to go when it comes to local fauna. Extra weirdness by adding mundane animals from other dimensions or worlds that end up going local and mutating later on. Definitely gonna adapt & exploit the hell out of it in my future games.

ShadowLogan wrote:The option does exists for the Ley Line/Nexus exposure to cause them to mutate and the resulting product have magical properties (precedent WB7 pg40-1, Ley Line Mutations, you'll be looking at a custom mutation and not on the table, but...).

Makes sense, why would it only apply to ocean life, after all?

There's also 'Nexus Born' in Rifter 73... page 39 only talks about "humanoids" becoming them, but what if we allowed it for non-humanoid species? Imagine all that bonus PPE in each honey bee.

Axelmania wrote:

ShadowLogan wrote:The option does exists for the Ley Line/Nexus exposure to cause them to mutate and the resulting product have magical properties (precedent WB7 pg40-1, Ley Line Mutations, you'll be looking at a custom mutation and not on the table, but...).

Makes sense, why would it only apply to ocean life, after all?

Maybe different qualities of PPE permeability of salt water (or even water in general) in relation to an air atmosphere could lead to an accumulation/concentration of energies in a certain way due to the interplay of sea currents, for an example. Or maybe it's limited only to the Pacific Ocean and connected in some yet unknown manner to the influence and presence of the Lord of the Deep, who definitely possesses mutative powers & qualities.

Options are available if a GM prefers to restrict the phenomenon's breadth and decided to arcanobabble his way through reasons for it.

Axelmania wrote:There's also 'Nexus Born' in Rifter 73... page 39 only talks about "humanoids" becoming them, but what if we allowed it for non-humanoid species? Imagine all that bonus PPE in each honey bee.

Good to know. Yes, that does seem to be a point in favor of the "yes, this happens in Nexus-touched places both above & below water" camp indeed, won't deny. Gonna check that one out.

I do not think we have to invent some techno-babble to explain the WB7 mutation table. Ley Line/Nexus & Rifts & magic driven mutations are a known thing that appear in various Rifts books and are unconnected with ocean.

Rifts themselves are responsible for the Sea Titans in WB7 and The Azhum Asylum residents in WB2.

Magical Mutations exist like the Keepers of the Desert (WB14), possibly Dark Hounds (WB12/30). The Psi-Ghost Class speculates there defining power might be an example of Ley Line exposure (among other). Dinosaur Swamp's (WB26) Mutant Barbarians might also be the result of ley line exposure (among other possibilities). The Psi-Stalker is a ley line mutant.

I would not be surprised if there are more examples of Ley Line/Rift/magical-energy based mutations either.

ShadowLogan wrote:I do not think we have to invent some techno-babble to explain the WB7 mutation table. Ley Line/Nexus & Rifts & magic driven mutations are a known thing that appear in various Rifts books and are unconnected with ocean.

My point was more "it's possible babble away why the table might be restricted to just underwater creatures, sea creatures, or even just sea creatures of one specific ocean, instead of generally applicable, depending on a GM's particular take of how the parts of the setting fit", so kind of the opposite of looking for a techno-babble explanation for using it for everybody.

ShadowLogan wrote:Rifts themselves are responsible for the Sea Titans in WB7 and The Azhum Asylum residents in WB2.

Magical Mutations exist like the Keepers of the Desert (WB14), possibly Dark Hounds (WB12/30). The Psi-Ghost Class speculates there defining power might be an example of Ley Line exposure (among other). Dinosaur Swamp's (WB26) Mutant Barbarians might also be the result of ley line exposure (among other possibilities). The Psi-Stalker is a ley line mutant.

I would not be surprised if there are more examples of Ley Line/Rift/magical-energy based mutations either.

Azlum is considerably more specific in circunstances than "extended exposure to ley lines leading to mutated lifeforms existing in its vicinity", i'd say. The Keepers of the Desert is indeed much closer to what you describe though radiation & inbreeding of already mutated survivors definitely plays a role too.

Precedent for magical mutation does exist in a number of sources, but how each things worked out the way they did and what specific conditions might lead a individual human being to eventually transform into a sea titan, psi-talker, keeper of desert or something else altogether (if anything) is quite open for grabs, what to say of non-human beings, sapient or not, from a number of origins.

So bring on those psychic hivemind bees! Brew up that magically-enriched mead!
(Though if you're making mead from the honey of psychic PPE-mutated bees, getting the stuff might be a minor adventure in itself....approaching the hive and fighting your way to the honeycombs...or maybe negotiating with the hibvemind(what would a feral bee gestalt want in return?).

@SolCannibal
I'm not disputing that a GM couldn't find a way to justify restricting the table, but there really isn't any reason to for a quick-roll situation which is what IMHO those tables are setup for. The other examples that we can point to aren't really for just quick-roll situations, but more developed for GMs to use or players to play (as case maybe). However, the common thread between them is that magical energies like Ley Lines and Rifts (which form on Ley Lines/Nexus) can induce mutations in creatures.