Beschreibung
Jorogumo
Of all the fiendish yokai that prowl the land, few can match the cunning and ingenuity of the jorogumo: a shapeshifting spider-demon with a humanoid head and torso perched atop the abdomen of a grotesque, giant spider.
Living Form
Jorogumo are skillful shapechangers, disguising themselves amongst their Humanoid prey. Some spend years in plain sight, mimicking the lives and habits of ordinary townsfolk and accruing a kill count in the hundreds over decades of careful slaughter. Jorogumo revel in the art of infiltration, with the most adroit even becoming community leaders.
Spider Arts
Jorogumo are consummate artists, exhibiting mastery across various crafts, including carpentry, artifice, song, and dance. Their performances are nothing short of sirenical, drawing in all manner of beings who stand in awe at their beauty and talent, blissfully unaware of the horror that awaits them just below the floorboards of the stage.
Patient Hunter
Horror stories tell of quaint roadside inns that pop up out of nowhere, beckoning merchants and travellers alike with the promise of full bellies, soft sheets, and a charming host. Those ensnared by these promises rarely return—stolen from their beds, wrapped in sweet-scented silk, and dragged below the earth to the jorogumo's lair. Here they are left, desperate and struggling, their muffled screams meritless as they lie trapped in a dark, webbed tomb. Ever sadistic, jorogumo sing soft tales of lost love and fallen heroes to their prey, holding them in a tender caress, even as they fill the cocoon with corrosive digestive juices.
Empty Embrace
Jorogumo shed regularly as they grow, leaving behind mindless, predatory husks. These Undead are driven by a relentless, aching need to be whole, a yearning to wrap around flesh so that they may become reborn. Once a jorogumo husk has killed its prey, it envelops it within its body and then undergoes a metamorphosis, birthing a new jorogumo. Unfortunately for a living jorogumo, these husks' hunting practices are crude and messy, and they threaten their forebears' continued concealment.
Merkmale
Aching Emptiness
When the husk kills a Humanoid with its Devour attack, the Humanoid's corpse is left suspended and encased with webbing inside the husk's carapace. Over the next 24 hours, the two fuse together, and the husk is reborn as a jorogumo that can use its Shapechanger action to take the appearance of the Humanoid it killed.
Spider Climb
The husk can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Web Walker
While in contact with a web, the husk knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web. The husk also ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Aktionen
Multiattack
The husk makes two attacks with any combination of Bite and Web.
Bite
Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage.
Devour
Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one restrained creature. Hit: 28 (8d6) necrotic damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13).
Web
Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30/60 ft., one creature. Hit: The target is restrained by webbing. As an action, a creature can make a DC 13 Strength check, freeing itself or a creature with its reach on a success. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 5; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage).