First appearance: S2E9 — Bees — Rosa v Veronica · watch it on YouTube
Veronica is a blue-haired, lightly dressed elven bladesinger who fights with a rapier, a sword, and a great deal of flirtation. In her first Deathmatch she seduced the Box of Chaos and attacked the Arbiter himself. She ended it with a new job on the Grandmaster’s bee farm and a hole in her memory where Gerald used to be. She returned as “the Bee Farmer” for the opening round of the Battle for the Crown. There she struck the blow that finished one of the Arbiter’s champions.
Story
Bees? (S2E9)
Veronica entered S2E9 — Bees — Rosa v Veronica promising she was “someone who is competent and I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” She faced Rosa in a desert bazaar. Doug the Pug chose her as his favourite, and then the Grandmaster admitted she had rigged things so that Veronica started as “it” in a game of explosive tag. Veronica’s opening was less than graceful. She tried to parkour across a canvas tarp, fell straight through it and ended up sitting on her ass. (“She’s beauty. She’s grace.” “She falls right onto her face.”)
She soon recovered. She cosied up to Rosa, who was disguised as a giant bee, and patted the fuzzy costume, catching static on her fingers. Then she passed the tag on with a crackling, perfect Shocking Grasp and a whispered “it.” Rosa answered by lassoing her and shoving her into the Box of Chaos. Inside, Veronica fed the box a handful of nuts and then seduced it outright. “It’s been a long time since anybody’s touched me like that,” the box sighed. It gave her a Ring of Evasion, and as it spat her out she heard a faint “call me.” Since she had touched the box’s hand, the tag passed to the box itself, which, as Rosa put it, was now “it forever.” The box came back as pink and yellow fire and left a tattoo on her arm that read “Gerald.” It whispered, “I’ll be with you always now.”
The rest of the match was a romance with chaos running through it. Gerald carried Veronica in his fiery arms, dodged a runaway hamster ball with her, and made a slow-motion dive to shield her from flames before remembering he was made of fire. Veronica conjured a dainty, translucent elven beekeeper suit as armour. She plucked a strand of her hair and turned it into a ray of frost, then followed it with her rapier. When the Arbiter whipped up a sandstorm, she and Rosa agreed to call a truce and climbed toward the hosts together. With a perfect crack of her whip, Veronica caught the Arbiter by the ankle and yanked him off his ledge while he was eating nachos. She swung her blade at him with Gerald’s flame licking along it. He caught the blade bare-handed and told her: “You think Gerald is strong enough to beat me? I invented Gerald.”
The Grandmaster loved the show and made both champions her bee farmers. The Arbiter did not let the attack go. He called them “a couple of pals having good times,” and charmed her with silver-shimmering eyes. Her memories of Gerald and the name on her tattoo faded away. He left her just enough to know something had been taken. “I’ll see you around the bee farm,” he said, and flew off. The Grandmaster called him a sore loser. Veronica took it differently: “This is my villain origin story.” At the table, her player admitted Veronica had planned to turn on Rosa at the end but couldn’t do it, because “that’s sad.”
Battle for the Crown Round 1 (S2E18)
Veronica returned in S2E18 · Battle for the Crown Round 1 · Team Grandmaster (Toddleheim & Veronica) v Team Arbiter (Ralzamon & …. She fought for the Grandmaster alongside Toddleheim against the Arbiter’s team, Ralzamon and Glub Glub, in a fortress frozen in ice. This time the stakes were real: deaths in the war would be permanent. The Arbiter needled her before the fight. “Maybe while you’re out there, you’ll find your true love,” he said, and cackled. She went by her beekeeper name, Dewdrop Grizzlby. Chaos snow briefly turned her into a giant badger, and a polite but devastating goring from cow-shaped Ralzamon knocked her out of the form. She answered by snowboarding down the tower on a loose plank, skewering the Glub Glub cow and smacking him in the face with her pommel.
Things turned grim when Ralzamon froze her in place with a spell and Glub Glub beat her bloody with his great club. The Box of Chaos heard her bones crack and slammed down into the arena to help her. She thanked it politely and did not recognise him. She broke free, set her jaw back in place, and asked Glub Glub, “Oh, is that all you got?” Later she zapped Glub Glub in the ass with Shocking Grasp (“20,000 volts straight to the asshole,” the Arbiter said), then walked to the box and met Gerald all over again. “Veronica! You never called!” She had no idea who he was, and the tattoo he had given her no longer had a name on it. She traded him her Ring of Evasion, which he thought might once have been his gift to her. Without realising it, she touched his hand exactly the way she had when they first met. In return he gave her a silver Horn of Valhalla. On her way out she noticed “G and V” carved into the side of the box and thought, “that’s weird.”
When the Arbiter buried the fortress in an avalanche, Veronica outran it on top of the snow. Down in the forest below, she blew the horn: “Oh, Glub Glub, I brought some new friends for you.” Five berserkers named Bug Bug, Slug Slug, Grug Grug, Shazzle and Mazzle dropped from the mountain to fight for her. She leapt into a tree and froze Glub Glub with the same spell Ralzamon had used on her. Then she clung on through a psychic lance with blood running from her nose (“Not today”) and set Ralzamon’s cloak ablaze with a fiery orb. After Ralzamon fell, she climbed down, told Glub Glub “All’s fair in love and war,” and brought him down with a ray of frost. The Arbiter finished him with his boot. The Grandmaster raised Veronica and Toddleheim on icebergs before the Acolytes and claimed the tournament’s first point.
Personality and Abilities
Veronica has pale skin, long light-blue hair, a symbol tattooed on her forehead, and a high-collared crop top, skirt and wrist wraps. She wears no armour (“I’m just all, all clothes, baby”), even in frozen arenas. She is breezy, flirtatious and quick with a comeback. She is fond of calling people “darling,” knows “a lot of weird bee facts,” and keeps a cool head even when beaten nearly senseless. Beneath the charm she can be ruthless: she came in planning to betray her opponent, and she went for the Arbiter on purpose.
She fights as a bladesinger. She mixes rapier and sword strikes with spells like Shocking Grasp, Ray of Frost, Chromatic Orb and Hold Person, and her magical armour can take the shape of a shimmering beekeeper suit. She has a fighter’s ability to catch a second wind and push through, and she is unusually nimble, especially on ice and snow. In her first match she carried a 10-foot whip with sentimental memories attached, which she refused to give up.
Relationships
- Gerald: Her fiery lover for one Deathmatch, until the Arbiter wiped him from her memory. He still adores her and keeps helping her.
- The Arbiter: She pulled him off his ledge and he took her memories in revenge. She swore he had “some shit coming to him.”
- Rosa: Her bee-costumed opponent, then her climbing partner and fellow bee farmer.
- The Grandmaster: Gave her the bee farm job, and later picked her to fight in the Battle for the Crown.
- Toddleheim: Her teammate in the Battle for the Crown, who drew attacks while she reached the box.
- Glub Glub: Her opponent in the Battle for the Crown, who battered her early on and whom she finished in the snow.
- Doug the Pug: Picked her in their first meeting, and later she nominated him for Grandmaster.
Memorable Quotes
- “Guys, can we wrap this up? I got a hot date later.” (S2E9)
- “You look good, babe. Hot, even.” (S2E9)
- “I’mma be real here. Which one of you looks like a weak bitch?” (S2E9)
- “This is my villain origin story.” (S2E9)
- “You have a perfectly fine face. Trust me, I wouldn’t forget a face like yours.” (S2E18)
- “Are you saying you’re horny for me?” (S2E18)