Snow Spiders

Snow spiders resemble burly, eight-legged spiders covered in fur, yet they are actually warm-blooded mammals of the northern forests and tundra. White fur covers the head and back, while the legs are banded pale gray or brown, ideal camouflage on snow. Unlike true spiders, they have a large, upright head on a supple, owl-like neck, two almond eyes of pale blue or amber, and jaws full of razor teeth. Each furry foot has three clawed toes in front and one behind, with webbing that carries them over drifts and makes them strong swimmers.

Packs of 5-15 hunt mostly in the hours before sunrise and just after sunset. A spider can bite for 1-3 points of damage, with acidic saliva adding 1-6 points of corrosive damage, halved by a save vs. poison. Its preferred attack, though, is impaling. Each heel hides a 3-foot spike of bone; the spider springs at its target, extends the spikes, and lands feet-first for 3d8 points of damage. It can jump 15 feet horizontally or 10 feet straight up, and the same spikes grip ice, trees and rocky slopes.

The pack hunts as a unit, scouting, laying ambushes and striking together. A deep, ringing chime frightens herds and flocks into fleeing toward waiting packmates. On home ground in the right season, they go unseen 85% of the time, and sharp eyes give them +1 on surprise, though their smell and hearing are only average.

Their fur burns easily, so normal fire deals double damage; against magical fire they still get their magic resistance and any saves. Nonmagical cold has no effect on them. Above 50 degrees F they turn sluggish, their AC worsening to 8 and their movement dropping to 8.

Snow spiders need land that stays snowy most of the year. Each pack lives in a deep, concealed burrow dug into a rocky hill. In summer they half-hibernate, venturing out only a few nights; in colder months the pack ranges for days after prey. They talk with clicks, chirrs and simple hand signs while hunting, and though they cannot speak other tongues they can learn to understand one. Any treasure in the den belonged to prey dragged home to eat.

Every hunter is male; the lone female is the queen, who is larger, slower, thicker-skinned and lacks the leg stripes. She digs and expands the den, never strays from it, and raises the young while the males feed her. Twice a year she bears one or two kits. Males stay in the den a year before joining the hunt, while female kits are normally carried out to die in the wild. Two exceptions exist. When the pack nears 20, the queen keeps the next female, who leaves after a year with several young males to found a new pack. And when the queen senses old age, she bears a single daughter who, once grown, kills and eats her and takes the throne; the old queen does not resist, and the males take no part in the meal. In lean times the pack also kills and eats its weakest male.

Snow spiders eat only what they have killed themselves. Locals sometimes gather their saliva for use as acid, but the creatures are hard to catch and harder to keep. A lone captive, cut off from its pack, curls into a corner, will neither move nor accept live prey, and starves to death.