Why should you care? Well it was my mom that introduced me to the weird world of sci-fi, horror and the macabre. Her idea of a bedtime story was telling about a haunted schoolhouse where the floors still were stained with the blood of two boys that killed each other in a knife fight. Or of a man who was so sick of his nagging wife that he chopped her up and buried her in the garden, only to have the flowers grow with her face on them. She introduced me to Dark Shadows and "documentaries" on Bigfoot and Atlantis. Though to be fair I think my dad introduced me to the Twilight Zone and I know my love of bad horror movies comes from him.
So here is a creature she had to share with me last week. It works well for D&D but I think she had more of a pulp feel for this.
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| Albino Spider by Mooki003 |
Web Witch
| Human Form | Spider Form | |
| Armor Class: | 8 [11] | 5 [14] |
| Hit Dice: | 3*+2 (15 hp) | 3*+12 (25 hp) |
| No. of Attacks: | 1 poison dagger | 1 bite |
| Damage: | 1d6 + Poison | 2d6 + Poison |
| Special: | Magic, see below | Invisibility |
| Movement: | 30' | 20' Web 40' |
| No. Appearing: | 1 | 1 |
| Save As: | Witch 3 | Fighter 3 |
| Morale: | 8 | 10 |
| Treasure Type: | Special | Special |
| Alignment: | Chaotic | Chaotic |
| XP: | 160 | 185 |
The web witch is a female humanoid that can also take the form of a huge spider. Not a lycanthrope, the web witch can shift between forms once per round as often as she likes. In her human form she appears as a smallish woman (possibly of elf decent) with very pale skin, long white hair and eyes with a reddish tinge. She will typically wear a long black dress or gown that appears to be made of silk. It is, but her own spider silk. When in human form she can be mistaken for a vampire. Despite the ability to use witch magic a web witch cannot form a coven with other web witches. Though it is speculated that she may be able to do so with other witches and/or hags.
In her human form she use magic as a 2nd level witch including the use of magic items usable by a witch. GMs should pick out which spells the web witch has access to.
In her spider form she appears as a huge white spider with red eyes. When sitting in her web she can make herself and the web invisible until touched. The web itself is made up of stick long black strands of spider silk. The web witch can move about in spider form invisible as per the invisibility spell. She can speak in this form, but not use magic.
A favored tactic of the web witch is to pretend to be a damsel in distress and lead a party of adventures into her maze of webs where she can shift form and feed on them. She will keep any treasures she can find including magic items, but items such as swords, armor or other weapons she will discard, magical or not.
Once per year a web witch will capture a humanoid male for breeding. Three months later she will lay a clutch of eggs. She injects a different poison into the male to paralyze him and place the clutch in his mouth. After one month the clutch will hatch and 10-100 (10d10) baby web witches will devour the male from the inside out. The hungry web witches will then turn on each other til only about dozen survive (2d6). They will reach maturity in one year and transform to their human shape for the first time.
The silk of a web witch is much prized by wizards as a superior ingredient for their web spells. Creatures need to have a Strength of 15 or higher or be 6 HD or higher to break free.
The venom of the web witch is also valued.
There is no known relationship between the web witch and the fabled Queen of Spiders or the Dark Elves.
There are rumors of more powerful web witches that can use even greater witch magic.
"Web Witch" is copyright 2014 Timothy S. Brannan.
All monsters stats and text below is considered OPEN under the guidelines of the OGL.
