Mesothelae

## Description

A huge, primitive spider with snapping jaws, hairy legs, and a horned head. Her abdomen is covered in thorn-like spikes and bears a venomous stinger.

## Attributes & Strategy

The Broodmother Mesothelae starts her fight on the side of a wall, shrieking and holding up her forelimbs to sic a swarm of underlings on the player. These smaller, hairier spiders are not her offspring but her suitors and will attack relentlessly to win a shot at mating with the Broodmother. The initial wave consists of four, all of whom can attack with claw swipes and bites and have health values comparable to Propappus. Two more will gradually join the fight, though there is ample time to quash the first four before reinforcements show up.

If all her minions are defeated Mesothelae will drool and preen her fangs, signaling that she is about to pounce. This attack is easily avoided but deals very high damage. Once she's on the ground Mesothelae will begin to strafe and circle the player, probing their defenses with weak but very fast and long reaching claw swipes. She will lunge if the player tries to approach her or gives her enough time to close in and has quite a vicious bite. She is also completely impervious to damage and can only be avoided during this part of the fight.

If Mesothelae lands a bite or is avoided for long enough she'll scurry away and run backwards up the wall she started on, summoning another wave of minions. Like before this will consist of six male spiders (four initially and two stragglers) who can be fought normally, but this time Mesothelae will support them by launching sticky globs of webbing. The suitors are completely unaffected by this but the player can become trapped if they get hit or walk over the patches of webbing they leave behind. Being caught in webbing doesn't hurt, but the surrounding spiders do; button mash to escape or become overwhelmed.

Killing all of the males will prompt Mesothelae to attack and return to her grounded phase. She will still be invulnerable to all attacks but can nevertheless still be harmed: use spark to ignite the patches of webbing she left behind in the last phase. If she's close by or standing on top of one her underbelly will catch fire and deal heavy damage, sending her scrambling back up the wall wailing for reinforcements. If the player can *not* accomplish this she will repeat the last two phases.

The third and fourth rounds of summoning and pouncing will follow this same pattern and play out in much the same way, though the number of minions summoned will increase to ten and Mesothelae will gain a new attack, a venomous stinger jab. This is easy to see coming and get away from but is very hard to avoid at close range or when cornered and will drain the player's health considerably.

In the fourth and final round Mesothelae will summon the same number of spiders but pick up two dangerous new tricks. First she will start to summon her minions while grounded, crowding the cave floor with groups of 2-4 suitors that can easily push the player into webs or make the Broodmothers attacks harder to avoid. Secondly she will grow more wary, scurrying backwards or sideways if the patch of webbing the player ignites isn't directly beneath her, making timing and accuracy vital.

Catching Mesothelae on fire for a third time will send her into another retreat, though this time she won't have the strength to get away. Her footing gives way and her smoldering body falls to the cave floor, leaving the player free to move on as her would-be mates close in to devour her.

## Trivia

* *Mesothelae* is a real suborder of spiders that still exists today. Its oldest members evolved 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period, long before the dinosaurs. They were once thought to have reached enormous sizes due to the discovery of *Megarachne* in 1980, though it was later revealed to have been a long-legged Eurypterid "sea scorpion" that had simply been misidentified as a spider.
* The male spiders she uses as minions have modified versions of her own character model, downscaled to 30% her size and with added body hair and no spikes. They have a 40% chance of dropping SM health pickups when killed and represent the only way to heal during this fight.
* Burnpowder and Brightpowder acquired in the previous level *will* carry over into the Mesothelae boss fight but don't do anything to change the course of the fight. Burnpowder does speed up killing minions but does nothing to the Broodmother. Brightpowder flinches both her and her minions, but not for long, and since they retreat when flinched it doesn't present a good opportunity to attack.
	+ Deepblood does not appear in the previous level and thus cannot come to play in the Mesothelae fight.
* Broodmothers can sometimes be seen crawling around in Legend levels but are completely harmless. They squish if stepped on and provide no health pickups.