Kravopayonk

*Spiderlins, Gobspiders, Spider-Thieves*

The Kravopayonk are a species of spider-like people who live in small communities in deep forests. Because of their defensive detachment from other cultures, most other peoples encounter one of two kinds of kravopayonk-- outcasts, or the Yedzjatyri, the pirate-like religious order who defend the kravopayonk way of life from those abuse or attack it. The former are of course not representative of their fellows, and the latter travel on the business of avenging wrongs done to their people. They are not interested in elucidating the finer points of their culture, except by literal fine points of weapons.

In truth, many people from other cultures would be ill-equipped to understand kravopayonk culture if they saw it. Warm communities that see themselves as a single large family, where children are raised not by their parents, but by the community as a whole--where all labor is done by the necromantically animated dead, and children consume the flesh of the dead. This disconnect is itself part of why the kravopayonk are so often vilified by outsiders. It is so different from the dominant cultures of Oerth that it looks as sinister as their reputations promise.

## Personality

Individually, kravopayonk vary as much in personality as anyone else in any other culture or species. As a whole, however, the kravopayonk are... not insular, because they actually take great interest in other cultures, but they are very defensive of their communities and culture, because of how many people have tried to abuse, take advantage of, or destroy them.

A kravopayonk community is aggressively anarcho-socialist. They believe there are two valid forms of property, personal and public. Personal property is one's home, clothes, grooming tools, are items of intimate meaning to the individual. Anything which represents capital, the ability to produce value, is the property of the community. There are grey areas in this divide. A sword is, essentially, a form of capital, and thus, it is the property of the community. But a jeweled sword created by a kravopayonk's lover as a gift to them is not. It represents something much more than simply a means of producing value. In general, individuals are expected to exercise good judgement, and largely it works out. When it doesn't, there are impartial adjudicants to ensure that no harm or offense was intended, and that matters are dealt with to the satisfaction of all parties, even when there was harm or offense intended. Perhaps especially then.

## Physical Description

Kravopayonk have what is essentially a humanoid torso atop a splay of four legs, with a small, round abdomen protruding behind them. Their long legs and splayed positioning of them raise their heads to about human chest-height, but their proportions are closer to halflings or gnomes. The average kravopayonk is about five feet tall and weighs about 60 lbs. Unlike the true spiders of Earth, kravopayonk can produce silk from both their abdomens and small spinnerets on the undersides of their wrists, although the silk from their abdomens is generally more suitable for long lines, while that from their wrists tends to be produced with more force, in larger globs rather than lines.

Kravopayonk faces are largely humanoid, but lack any real external nose or ears. They instead smell through their mouths, and have small ear holes a bit further back than other humanoids. The pedipalps of their arthropoda ancestors have evolved to be held up and back when at rest, and thus greatly resemble long pointed ears at a glance, but when examined more closely, can be seen to be thick and jointed and tipped with sharp claws. Kravopayonk have eight eyes, four on each half of the forehead, with the central most eye of each grouping being large and more humanoid, but they, as a species, tend towards nearsightedness just as their arthropoda ancestors.

The most dramatic departure from humanoid facial anatomy, however, is their retention of spider chelicera, though they close very tightly and can be mistaken on first glance as a chin with a thick line down the middle and two points on the tip. Indeed, when they speak, their chelicera do move much as other humanoids’ chins do, but when eating or expressing anger or frightfulness, the chelicera will spread wide, showing the maxilla and throat below.

Kravopayonk are covered in leathery material, somewhere between chitin and skin, more flexible than the former but tougher than the latter. Their coloration is nearly always dramatic, with stark contrasts between base and spots, stripes, and smears. Their eyes are frequently a fairly dark color with flecks of a lighter color, such as red flecks on black eyes, or gold flecks on midnight blue. They are largely hairless compared to spiders, but do commonly have sparse hairs on their limbs, which play a role in their tactile senses (especially in sensing vibration), and they grow hair on their crowns, much like other humanoids, and will style it exactly the same as others do, for practicality, ornamentation, or both.

The Kravopayonk are monecious, each individual possessing both ovum and sperm producing organs. These organs are primarily internal, with only the very edges of the tarsi of their phallipalps visible on the undersides of their abdomens. These phallipalps are very short and thin modified legs that originally were simply limbs that placed and picked up sperm-laden globs of webbing in their arthropoda ancestors, and are now specialized sex organs in the modern quasi-humanoid kravopayonk, which broadly function similarly to those of male-sex humanoids.

## Relations

Kravopayonk and elven communities that share a forest have what is best described as a strained congeniality. Elves, for their part, are largely able to recognize the community basis of kravopayonk settlements, but have a millennia-engrained distrust of spider-adjacent people due to the drow, and many elves are not comfortable with the pragmatic attitude that kravopayonk have towards the dead. Kravopayonk are very interested in their elven neighbors, but recognize that many elves do not approach governance as they do, and are all too ready for their arms-length "friends" to decide that the kravopayonk are simply monsters who sit on a resource the elves need, or in league with their ancient subterranean siblings-turned-enemies, or simply foolish creatures who must be "protected and guided" (which always means enslaved and put to labor). Relations between kravopayonk and tallfellow halfling neighbors are slightly better, as halflings tend to be a bit more socialist and don't have the closeness to spider-themed enemies that elves do, and tallfellows and kravopayonk are about the same height (which seems minor, but relative height plays a very real role in how people see each other, especially in groups), but there is still strain.

Some might think that kravopayonk get along better with drow, but drow have only a very surface level fondness for spiders, the kravopayonk resemble drow who have *failed* their goddess, and the kravopayonk do not trust people who subjugate anyone, let alone their own people.

Humans, dwarves, and pretty much every other culture of the Flanaess outright distrust the kravopayonk, for a lot of reasons. The notable standouts are the Yadharnwyr, the Vashar, and the Anther Kreen. Yadhanwyr do not possess the engrained prejudices against spider-like shapes that living humanoids do, and a lot of militaries are, internally, pretty socialist and communalist, so the yadharnwyr are quite ready and able to understand the spider-people. The Vashar, likewise, do not have the engrained disgust of spiders that other mortals do, and they do not see the kravopayonk usage of the honored dead as laborers as notable in the slightest (especially since nearly all vasharans understand that skeletons do not imprison the souls that previously inhabited the animate bones). The biggest point of contention between vasharans and kravopayonk is the role of pain in life, and many vasharan-kravopayonk friendships treat this difference of opinion in the way that other cross-race friendships treat their peoples' respective arts, a source of playful arguments over drinks where neither side means any offense. Anther Kreen, being fellow arthropoids, who are just as communalist as the kravopayonk, and understand the othering that kravopayonk face in humanoid culture, are perhaps the spider-peoples' boonest companions.

## Alignment

In the grand, perplexingly black-and-white scheme of morality on Oerth, kravopayonk tend towards neutrality. They believe that the proper way of life is to care for one's community, and that to forsake it is to commit a slow suicide. But they also believe that an individual has every right to decide their own way of life, even if it is stupid and selfish and ungrateful for those who came before and made that possible. They also believe that to put others before oneself is the greatest virtue, but also that it is entirely reasonable to look out for oneself against all those who lay a hand on them in ill-will. They see the world and all within it through a series of concentric and overlapping rings, often visualized as a web. One stands for themselves, when necessary, against even their own family. They stand for the family against those who live near them. They stand for those who live near them against those who live further away. And this extends ever onwards, where they, *consciously,* stand for those who are closer to them against those who are farther from them.

In that sense, and along with their ubiquitous use of undead, kravopayonk tend towards chaos and evil, as defined by those who call themselves good and lawful and cannot comprehend the idea of self-introspection to see if their actions support those claims.

## Kravopayonk Lands

Kravopayonk settlements are primarily found deep within forests, but they are by no means only found in such surroundings.

## Religion

Kravopayonk religion is less focused on gods and more on spirituality. They believe that all life and existence is interconnected in a great cosmic web, all dependent on all. As such, when a kravopayonk dies, their head is alchemically preserved and hung in the commune's crypt-web, while their body is placed in the larval rookery, interred in webbing, to be the first meal of newly hatched kravopayonk, returning the strength they gained from the commune to its next generation.

A kravopayonk will bequeath any personal belongings of particular meaning to individuals, while the rest, mostly common and unremarkable items, are given over for those who have need to claim. Occasionally, particularly personal items with great meaning, such as any tokens given to them as emblems of personal achievement or honors, will be placed inside the preserved head of the kravopayonk.

Once a corpse is cleaned of flesh and only a skeleton remains, it is retrieved from the rookery to be animated as part of the commune's labor force, giving even the bones of the individual back to the commune that nurtured them.

The sole deific figure in kravopayonk culture that outsiders are most aware of, though even then only vaguely, is Babcia Yedzja, who exists to enforce the social contract of their society when even enlightened self interest is not enough. Those kravopayonk who would rather horde public and communal goods for themselves, who would enslave and prey upon their siblings, are threatened with Babcia Yedzja, a grotesque crone of a kravopayonk who lives in an immense fowl mummified in webbing and animated with necromancy, its eyes burning with baleful fire and wings hanging ragged and skeletonized. The kravopayonk who serve this terrifying figure are the Yedzjatyri, a quasi-piratic religious order, who, under her auspice hunt those who would betray or assault kravopayonk communes, stealing from or enslaving them. They employ stealth, sabotage, and outright assassination to protect their communes, the kravopayonk people as a whole, and exploited people in general. These militant assassins can be recognized by the symbol of Babcia Yedzja, a pair of wing bones on a web from which three feathers are suspended, branded into their chitin.

## Language

Kravopayonk speak their own language, Kravonk, and though they have a bit of trouble with certain sounds, can speak most humanoid languages with what amounts to a thick accent.

## Names

Being monoecious, kravopayonk do not have masculine and feminine names as other cultures do, and as a culture that raises children communally, they do not have patronyms or matronyms. When necessary to distinguish between two kravopayonk with the same given name, "commune-nyms," that is, names which mean "of (commune)" are used, and if that does not distinguish them, kravopayonk will usually turn to descriptors, such as "Acablot Odważkiełgmin, the Yedzjatyri with the flower tattoos."

**Sample Names:** Acablot, Antondst, Bakunn, Feattn, Kropotk, Maxstirn, Ramdster, Slauvzjek, Yedzjakiel, Yohkmidt

(Basically take an anarchist or communist slogan or theorist, and play with it a bit, or use something slavic)

## Kravopayonk Traits

* + 2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str. Kravopayonk are agile and their strongly communal culture teaches them to be very personable, but their small frames leave them weaker than many other races.
* **Small Monstrous Humaniod**. Kravopayonk are small-sized monstrous humanoids, granting them Darkvision 60 ft, a +1 size bonus to AC and attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus to Stealth checks, at the cost of a -4 size penalty to grapple checks and a need to use smaller weapons.
* 30 ft base landspeed, 20 ft Climb speed. Kravopayonk, essentially, benefit from a constant nonmagical *spiderclimb* effect, allowing them to cling to even sheer surfaces or upside down, though not to smooth surfaces. They receive a +16 racial bonus to Climb checks should they need to make them.
* **Stability:** Kravopayonk's four legs allow them to resist tripping and stay standing more easily than other races, granting them a +4 racial bonus to resist bull rush, trip, and similar attacks, and to stay standing on unsteady ground.
* **Spider's Stride:** Kravopayonk ignore difficult terrain due to natural undergrowth as if they possessed the Woodland Stride ability of a 2nd level druid.
* **Natural Attacks:** Kravopayonk possess a natural bite and two claw attacks, each dealing 1d3 damage.
* **Webbing:** Kravopayonk may spin webs as a Small Giant Spider. In addition to spinning large webs and throwing webbing nets, they may also create web lines. Treat these lines as spider's silk ropes, with a maximum length of 50'+5' per character level and a grappling hook attached to the end, save that the range increment is 5'xcharacter level, and any surface the line is thrown at is treated as having ample places for the hook to grip.
* **Web Bolt:** As an attack action, a kravopayonk may fling a gob of sticky webbing at enemies as a ranged touch attack which deals 1d3 plus strength modifier subdual damage, and acts as a tanglefoot bag--however, the webbing can *only* stick a target to the floor, *or* apply a penalty to attack rolls. On a critical hit, the kravopayonk may elect to blind the target *instead* of sticking them to the floor or applying a penalty to attacks. As a full-round action, the kravopayonk may create a web bolt with a web line attached, creating a tether between themselves and the target. The target must free themselves as they normally would from a tanglefoot bag, but the kravopayonk can drop the line at any time as a free action.
* **Full-Body Respiration:** Kravopayonk breath through spiracles arrayed over their torsos and abdomens. While this means it is difficult to choke a kravopayonk (and they are effectively immune unless all their spiracles are obstructed), it also means they are more susceptible to environmental hazards to their breathing. Kravopayonk may only hold their breath for 1 round per point of constitution, and suffer a -4 penalty to all saves made to resist drowning or gas attacks.
* **Languages:** Common, Kravonk. Kravopayonk learn additional languages for a high Intelligence as normal.
* **Favored Classes:** Rogue and Witch