Marrow Spider
GM's Eyes Only
Spoilers. This page is written for the GM, and players who read on will learn things their characters don't know.
A giant spider of tombs and ruins that eats the marrow of the long dead. Source: Iron Kingdoms Monsternomicon, p. 22 (Crypt Spider).
What it is. As long as a man is tall, bloated, with flesh translucent enough in bright light to show its innards. Eight barbed legs grip stone, and six eyes see in near-total darkness. Its oversized mandibles crack bone for the marrow inside, which is its only food. It webs its lair's walls and ceilings to climb them, not to catch prey.
Behavior. Not aggressive, and it would rather flee, but it defends its nest and its food. It opens with a spurt of the acid it uses to dissolve caskets and bone, which eats flesh and metal too, then closes to bite. A tomb usually holds two or three adults and possibly hundreds of spiderlings. A big crypt can hold a dozen or more adults.
The memories. A marrow spider seems to keep the memories of the dead it eats. Its brain can be distilled into a potion that lets the drinker sift through the memories, languages, and skills of the last intelligent corpse it consumed, for a few hours. The potion isn't sold, so anyone who wants one has to go get a spider.
In Tir Hathar. A dungeon denizen. The Long War left no shortage of dead, and the potion gives a reason to want one alive, or at least intact.
Stats¶
First draft, built from WWN's baseline stat lines.
| HD | AC | Atk | Dmg | Shock | Move | ML | Inst | Skill | Save | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marrow Spider | 2 | 14 | +3 | 1d6 | 1/13 | 30' climb | 7 | 6 | +1 | 14+ |
- Acid spit. Once per scene: a ranged attack out to 20 feet for 1d8 damage that ignores armor-based AC. The acid keeps eating for 1d4 more damage at the end of the target's next turn unless they spend a Main Action scraping or washing it off.
- Tomb-dweller. Sees in near-total darkness and climbs walls and ceilings at full speed. It's skittish: it makes a Morale check as soon as it's hurt, unless it's defending its nest.
- Memory potion. A marrow spider's brain, distilled with an hour's work and a Heal or Know check against difficulty 10, makes one dose. The drinker can sift through the memories, languages, and skills of the last intelligent corpse it ate for 2d3 hours. A failed check wastes the brain.
Still open: playtesting the numbers.