Exotic Races

Bone Spiders

Bone Spiders are among the more unique races to set foot on the Emerald Plane.

Bone Spiders are arranged somewhat like crabs or spiders, but much larger; they have a large central section about a meter across, from which six meter-long legs extend. They have a head section at one end; it is not articulated with a neck, but continuous with the body. Two arms extend from the front, from slightly below the head, one on either side of it. They have multiple eyes — two large ones on the head facing forward, and four smaller pairs situated around the head; this arrangement gives them more than 180 degrees of vision, and allows them to see above and below them. Bone Spiders have large bone plates covering their backs, underbellies and limbs. There are a half-dozen diamond-shaped plates on their back, which overlap at their edges a little like scale mail; the plates on their underbellies are segmented, arranged in strips. Bone Spiders are semi-aquatic; they have gills on their underbellies, and can breathe underwater, though they are not particularly good swimmers. Bone Spiders are omnivorous.

Bone Spiders only recently made contact with the Commonwealth. Bone Spider explorers first discovered the Emerald Plane and the Commonwealth some twenty years ago; a trickle of Bone Spider merchants have followed.

Bone Spiders are from a lone island some two months’ voyage from the eastern coast of the Emerald Plane. Their island is not large: it is roughly circular, and it would take less than two weeks to cross it on food at its widest. The island is rocky and mountainous, rising to a single low peak in its middle. Along its northern and southern coasts, the rocks descend directly into the sea; besides a few lagoons, there is little arable land. Along the eastern and western coasts, there are flat stretches, hosting thin bands of soil and greenery between the sandy shores and the rocky slope.

The Bone Spiders earliest culture began in a system of flooded caves and caverns in the center of their island. Among their earliest myths are the stories of ascending from the deep caves to surface, and then descending form the slopes of the mountain to discover the thin crescents of fertile ground on their eastern and western coasts. Bone Spiders have long practiced aquaculture in the shallows around their island, and have a long history of boat-building and sailing. Only within the last hundred years did Bone Spiders begin to develop the kinds of boats that could cross the open ocean.

The total Bone Spider population is not large; they have largely filled in the habitable portions of their island and the shallows around it, though they number fewer than five hundred thousand. Despite this fact, they seem in little hurry to expand onto the Emerald Plane. They do seem eager to trade, however, and a steady trickle of Bone-Spider merchant-ships have docked at ports along the eastern and southern coasts of the Emerald Plane.

Those traders who do encounter these rare creatures should be advised: Bone Spiders find attempts to mimic their culture to be very tiresome.

Bone Spiders produce several varieties of beer, wine and liquor from the plants they grow in aquaculture; these exotic spirits fetch a high price in the Commonwealth's market. Merchants who deal with them know that Bone Spiders will not actually drink the spirits that they sell; nor do they mistake the wax-paper containers the wine is stored in as a sign of quality.

Vitals

Strange, spider-like creatures from a distant island.

  • Old Age: 125 years

  • Average Height: 0.5m

  • Average Length: 2.0m

  • Average Weight: 75kg

  • Diet: Omnivore (preferential carnivore)

  • DUR 35, STR 30

  • +5 SAV, +5 SOM, +10 WIL

  • Movement: Climbing 3/9, Hexapod 4/12, Swimming 2/6

  • Senses: Normal

  • Size: Medium

  • Tags: Natural, Hexapod, Bone Spider

  • Language Group: HHED

  • Aquatic: Bone Spiders can breath underwater.