Darkweaver

Seen in its element, a darkweaver is a shapeless smear of black that slides like oil across cave walls or settles into the deepest pools of shadow, wrapped in folds of darkness like a cloak. Strip that darkness away and the truth is worse: a rubbery globe bristling with tough, wiry tentacles and shorter, thick feeding tubes. Planar travelers claim they would rather meet the silent sovereign of the planar city.

Instead of silk it spins shadow, in webs that can wind for miles through lightless tunnels. Outer strands feel like cold, oily nothing and slither from light like snakes. They blend so perfectly with natural shadow that a character has just a 10% chance of spotting them before stepping in; rangers, seasoned guides and creatures with unusually keen senses have 30%.

The web gets worse the deeper one goes. Moving inward is always easy. In the outer zone, sight falls to half, and anyone heading back out moves at half speed and must save vs. spell to push through strands that now cling and ignore light. The inner zone, usually some 100 yards across, cuts vision to a quarter, so a lantern that normally throws 60 feet lights only 15. Trying to leave requires a save vs. spell, and failure means the victim is slowed and confused about direction, turning ever deeper; even success leaves him slowed. At the center, black as a darkness spell, lies the lair. Victims there must save vs. spell or be held, and those who succeed remain slowed and cannot get out unless they kill the weaver or dispel its web.

Prey that will not come is steered into a passage it can seal, or the weaver gets ahead and blocks the way, weaving a fresh 10' cube of gloomweb each round. Webbing a spot twice thickens it to inner-zone strength; three times, to the strength of the center.

Once per round it can use confusion, sleep or suggestion at 60 feet. Wherever shadow or darkness lies, it can become invisible, split into 2 to 5 mirror images, or step through the dark to a shadowed spot no more than 200 feet off. Inside its web it also has one daily use each of shades, solid fog and symbol of despair. It speaks by limited telepathy out to 60 feet, which humans and demihumans hear as hissing whispers in the dark.

Only once a victim is helpless at the center does it attack, lashing with tentacles for 1d2 each. If four or more connect, its proboscises sink in for an automatic 2d4 per round, with a save vs. spell each round to avoid a permanent 1-point Constitution loss. A grabbed victim can only struggle or fight back with a Type S weapon. Three things break its hold: suffering over 15 points of damage, a successful bend bars/lift gates roll by the victim, or any magical light striking it.

Light is its great weakness, and it flees when torn from its shadows. A light spell destroys one 10' cube of web and deals 1d3 to the creature. Continual light destroys 1d6 cubes, strips its shadow protection for 1 round and deals 1d6. Intense effects such as sunray or the sunburst of a wand of illumination deal 2d10, destroy 2d6 cubes and strip the shadow for 1d6 hours; its unshadowed AC and magic resistance are listed in parentheses.

Darkweavers lurk in tunnels, murky forests and foul swamps across the Abyss, the plane of howling winds and the plane of raw chaos, especially in caves. Some think they came from the Demiplane of Shadow, where many reportedly still dwell, and settled where conditions pleased them. They are sexless and reproduce, rarely, by splitting; a newly divided offspring is a 3 HD copy of its parent.

Patient and scheming, a weaver will promise thinking prey anything, avoids threats like greater tanar'ri, deals with stronger neighbors and will skip one meal today for two tomorrow.

It eats whatever wanders near but hides behind illusion and lies when something able to kill it enters the web, so nothing is known to hunt it regularly. Alien as it looks, it is subtle, and its greatest joy is tricking enemies into delivering themselves to it.