Shade Spider

Shade Spider(s) are Banes and Wyrm creatures made out of amputated hands.

Overview

These awful monsters are quite small, from 10 to 30 centimeters in diameter. They have five or 10 limbs apiece, fewer if they lose them in combat. Shade spiders are actually severed human hands or pairs of hands. They reproduce by attacking humans and amputating more of their own kind. The humans usually resist.

The spiders often attack in hordes, and can be incredibly scary. The spiders made from Garou paws are scarier still, resembling tarantulas.

Rumors circulate that a human hand soaked in mummy-elixir was the progenitor of these creatures. If so, the original hand may yet be around. It is certain that its progeny, unlike Caine, neither know nor care.

The shade spiders are magic things created by a Level Three Thaumaturgical ritual known as Necromachy. The necromacher needs to to obtain a small amount of blood from a vampire, usually one guilty of diablerie. If this is not available, blood wept as tears may be substituted, but the spiders will not be good fighters. The mage needs to preform a long ritual to endow the severed hands with vigor, but they do tend to last awhile, and can procreate. Often a necromacher simply throws severed hands into a jug where the spiders live and lets "nature" take its course.

They are unintelligent and ignorant of tactics. Health Levels are meaningless for such small creatures; any hit will kill them, and area-effect weapons will kill more than one, if possible.

The spiders are able to see and sense in darkness and can even function underwater. They do not visit the spirit world, or even know of it.

Image

Shade spiders begin life rather awkwardly, as the human hand was not designed for independent motion, but they alter as time goes by. Slowly the fingers slip toward a radial or symmetrical position, becoming like the legs of a starfish or brittle star. The stump grows feelers for smell and taste, while the translucent nails become five ocelli.

Stats

First Edition

Attributes: Strength 1, Stamina 1
Rage 0, Gnosis 0, Willpower 1

References

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