Honey Mines
from The Lost Honey Mines of Texas
These caves are filled with millenia worth of the bee's endeavors, as far back and as far down as you dare to explore. Dwarven honey miners brave the dangers to bring back ancient honey, as concentrated as amber. It is from this that they brew their fabled mead.
I am very pleased that this question was asked because otherwise I would never have discovered the stories of the honey mines. I encourage anyone the least bit interested to follow the link and read the tall tales about the Lost Honey Mines which I greatly enjoyed. Below are 2 excerpts (each about a different mine):
…Carrying the famous smoke gun and a lantern, he was able to explore the cave to a depth of some thousands of feet. He returned with a report of the enormous amounts of honey and wax almost at their finger tips. The exploring company went to San Marcos and obtained sledge hammers and rock chisels and returned to enlarge the opening. But as soon as they commenced to pound on the rock, snakes began to issue from every little hole in the face of the bluff; and while no-one was hurt, the sight was so terrible that the men fled and no amount of hidden treasure could induce them to return…
...During the spring season, when all of the chaparral flowers are in bloom, to one standing on the top of the bluff the bees going and coming from the mouth of the cave resemble a great stream of smoke, and the hum of their wings is so loud that the roar can be heard for miles. According to the story, thirty years ago a surveyor who was hunting some old Spanish bench mark in the vicinity of the cave discovered a second entrance and, making a torch out of his coat, went into the cave protected by the smoke from the burning coat. He passed through room after room filled with long white sheets of the purest guajillo hone and estimated that the cave contained several million pounds of it…
Snake storms! Wearable coat torches! And this does not include the cave with the ghosts. If ever there were a fantasy-ready concept this is it.