Battered Wife

Witchers refer to this monster as a '**Battered Wife**' it is an arachnid-like monster species that chooses populated cities as its natural habitat. During the darker hours which it emerges to hunt, it bears an uncanny resemblance to a young woman in distress, and while it can't talk, the sounds of moaning and sobbing it emits can be easily mistaken for calls for help. This spider nests in the sewers or abandoned houses, and hunts by night and late evening, luring unsuspecting folk to dark alleys. When the unknowing prey approaches the monster, it attacks by leaping forward baring it's many legs and venomous fangs.

A individual **Battered Wife** can live up to 10 years, and during its lifetime it can lay thousands of eggs. Fortunately for humanoids, this species doesn't look after its brood and vast majority of newly hatched spiders die within days to cats, dogs, etc. The few which survive, grow to maturity over a couple of weeks, and unfortunately their collective nest can host multiple spiders.

While the **Battered Wife** can feed on any animals, its favorite prey are city-dwelling humanoids, and the unusually high number of disappearance cases is a characteristic sign of this monster's presence, which hopefully is handled by summoning a Witcher.

## Physiology

This eight legged arachnid-like monster is able to tuck its back two sets of legs behind it as if kneeling well as press its two forelimbs together to resemble human arms to disguise its limbs, its face which has long hair at the bottom resembles a hooded woman facing downward.

## Abilities

* **Spider Physiology**: **Battered Wives** possess the traits, attributes and/or abilities of a spider, air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk.
	+ **Darkvision**- **Battered Wives** possess natural darkvision, allowing them to see in dim light as long as it's within 60 feet of them they see as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. Though they cannot discern color in darkness, only in shades of gray.
	+ **Human Disguise** (Imperfect)- A **Battered Wife** is able to mimic a distressed woman to attract human prey.
	+ **Poison Immunity**- Due to its insectoid nature and unique physiology a **Battered Wife** has immunities to most known poisons.
	+ **Silk Manipulation**: **Battered Wives** can create, shape, and manipulate silk, a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles.
		- **Web Generation**- Being an arachnid-like monster species Battered Wives are capable of producing webs that they can use to complement their senses as well as hamper the movement of their prey.
	+ **Wallcrawling**: As a spider-like creature, **Battered Wives** can fasten onto and climb vertical and horizontal surfaces without falling.

## Weaknesses

* Sunlight Sensitivity- A **Battered Wife** has a harder time hitting things or noticing things during the daylight hours so unless it is starving they usually will wait until nightfall to hunt.

## Trivia

* This monster was created by Felipe Escobar Bravo on DeviantArt originally, I was unable to find his page or the original picture though, all credit goes to the artist for this creature.
* Lobishomen and **Battered Wife** infestations are commonly mistaken for one another, it usually takes a practiced hand like a witcher to identify that the disappearances are caused by monsters and to correctly identify which type.
* **Battered Wives** are free to use in stories and articles, all I ask is that you honor the lore present and if you make one add their name and a link to this page.

## Notes

* The insectoid species known as the Battered Wife is a purely fanon creation as such there is no official proof of their existence in the Witcher works outside the fanon community.