Goblin Spider

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The goblin spider, or earth spider, looks like a huge, furry spider of a particularly evil cast. It lurks in the wild, wooded mountains of Kara-Tur.
The goblin spider has a plump abdomen, eight spindly legs, and two curving mandibles capable of grasping and crushing its victims. Long fur, usually black or dark green laced with golden or scarlet stripes, completely covers its body. It has a dozen eyes, arranged in four rows of three, resembling those of a human; the eyeballs are black or golden, the pupils white or dark green.
Goblin spiders speak their own language, the language of spiders, the trade language, and the language common to any human inhabitants near their lair. Goblin spiders are excellent mimics, able to imitate any voice or animal sound they have ever heard. (When imitating a language they don't understand, they only can repeat words or phrases they actually have overheard, verbatim.) The devious
==Combat==
The goblin spider does not spin webs; instead, it makes its lair in an underground tunnel. The entrance to its tunnel is carefully concealed by a trap-door opening. While concealed at the bottom of its tunnel, the goblin spider can detect the vibrations of creatures passing overhead. When a victim nears the trap door, the goblin spider springs from its tunnel and attacks (the victim modifies his surprise roll by -5).
Once combat begins, the goblin spider tries to grab its victim and drag him back into the lair, closing the trap door behind them. In any melee round in which a goblin spider hits with both attacks, the victim has been grasped and held. Held victims fight with a —4 penalty to their to-hit rolls. A successful "bend bars/ lift gates" roll allows the victim to free himself from the grip. Characters who are not held also can help free the victim. Wrenching the victim free requires 20 or more points of Strength from at least two characters. While the goblin spider is gripping a victim, it cannot make other attacks.
There is a 30% chance that 2-8 (2d4) giant spiders lurk in the immediate vicinity of any goblin spider lair. These creatures serve as guards for the goblin spiders and fight alongside them. In return, goblin spiders provide them with food.
== Habitat/Society==
Goblin spiders dwell far from human habitations, mainly in densely forested mountains. Eons ago, goblin spiders dominated large sections of land now controlled by humans; they now view humans and their allies as trespassers on their homelands. Goblin spiders take every opportunity to cause harm to human travelers and settlers on the edges of their territories.
At about 10 years of age, a male goblin spider reaches maturity. He looks for a mate—a dangerous proposition, considering females sometimes mistake the males for prey. If the male avoids attack, he mates as quickly as possible, then flees into the wilderness. A few weeks later, the female lays an egg sac at the bottom of her tunnel. She dies shortly therafter. The sac contains several hundred tiny eggs. When the first few spiderlings hatch (usually about 1-6), they destroy the rest of the eggs, then scramble from their mother's tunnel to seek out lairs of their own. The spiderlings grow to full size in about two months.
Although goblin spiders do not form organized societies, large groups of them sometimes assemble in huge underground caverns to worship an extraplanar entity called "the Earth Spider." The Earth Spider is an evil spirit that looks like a huge black spider with the face of a screaming man. The Celestial Emperor has bound the spirit to the Realm of Mirrors. The Earth Spider seeks escape from that realm, and is rumored to employ goblin spiders as emissaries in the Prime Material Plane. Goblin spiders themselves occasionally are called earth spiders by those unaware of the actual spirit.
Ecology: Goblin spiders are not fussy eaters, consuming anything they can catch. (Humans are preferred, however.) Their own eggs and young may fall prey to snakes, frogs, and birds, but most predators consider mature goblin spider too dangerous to hunt.
Category:Creatures
Category:Kara-Tur Appendix Creatures