The Rowa Vale (World Guide, Tourist Attraction) (Patreon)

Plans to convert the sparsely populated Shumi Valley into a new ‘naturally operating’ Rowa Hive as a tourist attraction were first put forth in the year 4612. It would take nearly a year to obtain the consent of the valley’s existing residents, and actual work, what little was needed, would begin in late 4613. The whole project would be directed by Professor K’noor, a mitanni biologist with a very deeply rooted fetish for all things rowa.

Rather than simply give the valley to the Mashirowa hive, Professor K’noor instead worked to set up a no-conditions, no-limits ‘reenactment’ of a rowa invasion. To this end, work was done to provide traditional farm community housing and rice paddies to upwards of three thousand voluntary participants. Major exits to the valley were blocked to prevent any inadvertent spillover, should the hive get a bit too excited during their invasion and subsequent activities.

In early 4614, the new voluntary residents would move into the Shumi Valley. Professor K’noor ensured that every one was informed enough to be regarded as giving voluntary unlimited consent, but not well enough to really prepare themselves for what was actually intended to happen. A long, three year delay in the invasion would then take place. This was largely caused by a lack of sufficient rowaforms of the appropriate type within the existing population of the Mashirowa Hive. These types were largely known, and those that were known were invariably unpopular with the usual volunteer entrants into the ranks of the hive. It would take several Hive Weeks worth of no-conditions catches in Mashiva’s parks to make up the deficits.

The invasion of the Shumi Valley would take place on the holiday of Woodstore, in the year 4617. The residents were taken completely unawares, and unprepared for the sheer terror of the event. There were no pleasantries. No niceties. Only insectoid beasts, hunting the residents down, one by one, or by groups. Capturing them. Infusing them with their ‘bug juice’. Transforming them into yet more bugs to populate the newly established hive.

Professor K’noor would personally participate in the invasion. The result would be her transformation into a barrel-bottom tier rowa ‘scorpion’ in reward for all her efforts to bring the event to fruition. It is presumed that she would have immediately joined all of the other hunter type rowaforms, seeking out and helping to transform anyone who escaped the initial wave. This would have helped ensure that, by the end of the day, the only remaining denizens of the valley would be the rowa.

Overall control of newly renamed Rowa Vale would fall to the non-profit Rowa Vale Adventure organization, based in Mashiva’s Resort District. The R.V.A. is responsible for maintaining the Vale’s farms and housing. The Mashirowa Hive, in turn, agrees to ignore appropriately uniformed R.V.A. workers so long as they stay within the bounds of their assigned work zones, on the agreed upon schedule. This schedule generally allows work on the first two business days of every week, and a four day work period once a quarter. R.V.A. workers who stray, are out of uniform, or who remain outside of the work schedule become fair game for the hive.

Tourists may gain access to the Vale using the free shuttle flights offered by the R.V.A. Clothing and other possessions are prohibited. Landing is offered at a large number of different points where small villages are located. These have stocks of food and sanitary facilities. None of the buildings are secured against the rowa, though one is generally safe for the first few days after their arrival. The rowa do keep track of comings via shuttle, and goings via foot, and if someone overstays their time in a village, the rowa will do whatever they need to take them, often ignoring newer arrivals when they do so.

The only ways out of the Vale are the control points at the two ends of the valley, and a few old trails that heap up to narrow passes into neighboring valleys. Thus far, no visitor arriving during normal operations has managed to escape the rowa. The potential does exist, and as far as anyone can tell, the rowa aren’t doing anything in particular to preclude it.

Every Hive Week, the Rowa Vale hosts the Bug-Butt Peril Challenge. Before this begins, the rowa completely retreat from the surface of the Vale. Participants are then shuttled into the designated village landing points near the northern end of the valley. After a night’s rest, they are required to leave their current village just before dawn and head to another. The rowa go on the hunt just after dawn, though in a much more limited fashion than a full invasion. If a participant gets to a new village without begin caught and transformed, they can stay there until the next day.

The objective of the Challenge is for participants to make their way, village by village, until they reach the southern control point. Everyone who makes it gets a considerable monetary prize, with bigger prizes going to the first and the last to make it out. Anyone left behind at the end of Hive Week is treated just like any other visitor to the Vale, and usually caught in short order.

Only two classes of visitor to the Rowa Vale are not subject to being hunted by the rowa. The first are those who’ve gotten themselves a Biogel Games Team Glitter biogel body mod. These individuals are generally those who’ve decided to join one of the three Rowa Prefecture Biogel Games teams, and are waiting for their team to play at Anwae Arena in order to join them.

The second ‘immune’ class of visitors are those who’ve donned qualifying HiveWear parts. These parts include any bottoms which subsume the groin/pelvic area. Word has it that the R.V.A. intends for all of its active valley workers to be suited in appropriate HiveWear at some point in the near future, likely by the end of 4621, though for the time being uniforms are far more conventional.

The R.V.A. is always recruiting new valley workers. Pay rates start out at a substantial ¢500 per two day work week and ¢1,200 for the quarterly four day week. Workers willing to don bare minimum HiveWear and work a full week in the valley start at ¢1,500 per week. Top, bottom, and feet add a ¢100 per week bonus. Hands add an additional ¢50. Those willing to don a HiveWear mask as well can earn ¢200 more. Those willing to do so and work as an out-of-valley-hive-business helper leave R.V.A. service and become a permanent part of the Hive.