The Spiders from Mars
The desolate plains of an alien world named for an ancient culture’s war god appear lifeless from a bird’s eye view, but appearances deceive. Strange formations crisscross that alien world’s desolate plains, and entities monstrous and malevolent live within those formations.
Martian spiders, or zlopavouk in their own bizarre language, are intelligent, communal creatures who build elaborate networks of tunnels and tubes out of soil, rock, and adhesive secretions, creating a composite material every bit as strong as granite. Divided into rigid castes, most Martian spiders are workers, who occupy the lowest tier in zlopavouk society. The workers have little in the way of genuine will, but instead live content, controlled by a combination of pheromones and telepathic commands produced by the higher castes, the fierce warriors and the terrifying nobles.
Like a terrestrial spider, a Martian spider’s body consists of two parts: a cephalothorax and an abdomen. It has nine legs, six growing from the cephalothorax, three per side. The other three legs, noticeably larger, grow from the abdomen, spaced more or less equally. A Martian spider scuttles rapidly on all nine legs, but it can also rise up on its rear legs, moving in a semi-rotating gait so that it can bring its forelimbs to bear. These forelimbs end in three-fingered hands. Martian spiders of all castes have three pedipalps near their three fanged mouths. The bite of a Martian spider is highly toxic. They also have three compound eyes spaced to the front and sides of the cephalothorax, giving Martian spiders a field of vision nearly 360 degrees in breadth.
Workers are smallish, being about three to four feet long. They do not have spinnerets like terrestrial spiders, but instead have structures evolved to scoop soil, move rocks, and then shape and fuse them with adhesive secretions. Warriors are larger, reaching seven feet in length. Their three-fingered hands end in hooked claws, and their fangs are exceptionally large. Noble Martian spiders are larger than workers but smaller than warriors. An observers may readily identify a noble Martian spider by the clusters of bright red nodules growing around its eyes. These nodules contain highly specialized psychic organs.
Martian Spider Workers
Agile Fingers & Venomous Fangs
Skilled (+2) at: Following Orders
Bad (-2) at: Thinking Outside the Box
Stress: [] [] [] (6 workers)
Martian Spider Warrior
Aspects: Driven to Conquer, Fierce Member of the Warrior Caste
Skilled (+2) at: Attacking with Speed and Precision, Commanding Workers
Bad (-2) at: Anything Not Related to Fighting and Killing
Stress: [] []
Martian Spider Noble
High Concept: Psychic Ruler of Martian Spider Society
Trouble: “Obey Me!”
Other Aspects: Hyper-Intelligent Alien Overlord, My Intricate Plans Cannot Fail, Your Mind is My Mind
Approaches: Careful Good (+3), Clever Great (+4), Flashy Mediocre (+0), Forceful Mediocre (+0), Quick Fair (+2), Sneaky Fair (+2)
Stunts
Telepathic Powers: Because I have telepathic powers, I gain a +2 to Cleverly create an advantage or overcome an obstacle by directly influencing the mind of another.
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