The Spider and The Assassin

"Where is she?" Aunty Spider's web sat in a elaborately decorated corner. It was currently empty.

"Forgive me master, I don't know. She has started wandering and keeping odd hours. I've never seen her like this in all my life."

"Find her before someone from outside does. If a commoner kills her we will have to find a different way to conduct our business."

"Yes sir." The boy's heart thumped loudly in his ears. He had a small understanding of how special she was and that getting a replacement would be impossible.

The man in the fancy clothes was about to leave but instead whipped around and grabbed the teen's shirt collar, twisting it tight. "If she doesn't return or if she ever leaves this room again, you will find no quarter here. She has been a part of this family longer than you have. Never forget that this is an honor greater than your life."

As I listened to Aunty Spider tell her story, I pictured it in my head. I could see the unremarkable man back just before he came of age. He wasn't a particularly good fighter, but his stealth abilities were decent and he was skilled in spider care and poison use. I could see his master leaving the room to head to a morning tea and his next target. The old master wasn't the head of the family, but the face in noble society. He was good at social manipulation and poison use. Thus his anger when he was unable to obtain Aunty Spider's blessing before he left. If the mission failed, he planned on killing the boy anyways. But it didn't.

I could even see the young Aunty Spider returning from her stroll of listening to people speak in the morning market. Over the last few months she had learned enough of the language to mostly understand what people were saying but was still working on the writen language. However, she was oblivious to what had occurred before her return. She went back to her web, snacked on the grub left in the golden dish, and then went to sleep.

When Aunty Spider woke up the next evening she found herself in a glass cage. It was about as large as her corner web and her dish had been moved to the bottom with a pile of fresh grubs, but it seemed a hastily made with little freedom for being self-sufficient.

The boy was watching her. "I'm sorry Lady Arachne, but you will have to live the life of a caged treasure now. My master is too afraid that you will leave us and your patronage has been vital to the family's growth. They do not know what they will do without your young to carry out their work."

Aunty Spider glared at the boy. Living in a cage would not do. However, she held not hatred for him. Instead, if they wanted her as a patron, it was time they worked on a new deal. And no one was better at negotiating a contract than her.

As the boy returned to his evening chores and eventually went to sleep in the nearby bed, Aunty Spider began weaving. By morning she had finished her masterpiece; a web certainly more stunning then ever they saw before. Then she sat and waited.

***

Just as the morning light came into the room, Aunty Spider's caretaker peered into the cage to make sure she was still there. To his surprise, there she was sitting in the middle of a web that had none if the usual spiral patterns. Instead it was a three dimensional representation of the Farrell family crest.

The boy opened the cage and put out his hand for Aunty Spider to climb up. "If you can understand me, climb up into my thumb."

Aunty Spider did.

"I'm guessing you can't speak, so if you can write wave your left back foot."

Aunty Spider would have rolled her eyes if she could, all of them, but followed the unusual request. It wasn't easy to wave her back left foot. However, writing was her goal. She couldn't write well yet, but at least it would be faster than trying to respond by make a new web each reply. She was proud of her work, but it wouldn't do for a conversation. Neither would this silly foot waving.

The boy took her to the desk and pulled out some paper, a quill, and ink. He preped the quill and put it next to her. Aunty Spider stared at it. What did he think she could do with that, levitate it? It was at least ten times her size.

Instead she picked up a droplet of ink in her front two legs and dipped her legs into that as she moved across the paper. Regularly she had to go back for more, but it was still faster than the web.

The first message read: I demand to renegotiate the terms of our business--

"Are you still listening?" Aunty Spider asked.

I snapped out of my daydream. "Y-yes?"

"Then what was I just saying?"

I gulped down a fly that had forgotten I was there. "You were telling me how he had lifted you up in his hands and rushed you to their scrying stone to check your stats. What is a scrying stone?"

Aunty Spider gave me a complicated look. But then, she was a spider, so all her looks were still complicated to me. "Well," she said slowly, "after we had negotiated a little he indeed took me to be appraised. While he had called it a scrying stone, it did little more than tell them the worth of an item. In the case of living things it would show level, stats, and special characteristics. Though, while they were not rare, later I would learn that theirs was a little more advanced than others and the Kingdom considers them a controlled magic item for trade and commerce. Thus, they are not found in common households. "

I imagined what it would have said when he placed her on its dark shimmering surface:

***

Name: Lady Pandora Arachne of House Farrell (True Name: Sara Margret Jones)

Pandora Spider Level: 100

Assassin Level: 1

Description: A Pandora Spider who grew up around the vapors and spilled concoctions of a deranged alchemist. When the alchemist lost his lab to debt, it became the property and patron of the famed house Farrell.

Attributes:

Strength - 7

Agility - 33

Vitality - 23

Intelligence - 22

Charisma - 25

Skills:

Weaving - 100

Parachuting - 17

Stealth - 22

Seduction - 47

Traps - 55

Knowledge Set - Spider

Spider Special Abilities:

Web - The ability to create silk using a spinnerette that can be used in multiple ways. Maximum strength equals vitality times two as bonus for 20th level.

Acid - The ability to spit out stomach acid to digest food. Maximum strength equals vitality times two as bonus for 50th level.

Electrostatic Climbing - The ability to use Van Der Waal's force to create adhesion strong enough to carry up to 170 times body weight when going up vertical surfaces. This multiple extended to upside down climbing at 70th level.

Jumping - Increased jumping capability up to strength score in feet horizontally and half as much vertically. Doubled as bonus for 10th level.

Pandora Poison - A unique poison found only in the rare Pandora Spiders. The poison seems to be neurological, but the symptoms are unpredictable ranging from mild mood swings to raging passion. The only thing all bite victims have in common is death one to three hours after being bitten. Poison effects expanded as level 60 bonus. Poison control bonus at 90th level.

Exoskeleton - Instead of bones, spiders have exterior armor equal to half their vitality. Increased to full vitality as bonus for 30th level.

Websight - Ability to sense vibrations against weblines to map a three dimensional mental image of anything touching them, extending to one foot per intelligence score. Multipled by four as bonus for 40th level.

Spider Control - The ability to charm or dominate other spiders in the area. The number is of equal level to intelligence score. Increased to intelligence x3 as level 80th bonus.

Soul Touched - At 100th level, evolved into a vessel capable of storing a soul. Through pact of nature, granted soul by She Who Cries Blood in the Shadows.

Assassin Special Abilities:

Stealth Attack - All damage while hidden is multiplied by 2.

Hide In Shadows - Hiding in shadows doubles stealth.

Modifiers:

Size Diminutive - All physical stats are divided by 4 when compared against a medium sized creature.

***

Aunty Spider continued talking, "he explained later that animals gained a level a year and that different animals would gain a different amount of attribute points per level. Animals also gained skills and milestone abilities, but since all beings were fundamentally animals, humanoids and monster gained these things as well. The average animal got most of their points in the first few years and then average about one point per year after that depending on how long they lived. However, don't get too excited about these things, size effects how much those points are worth compared to a human. We are fundamentally food for the stronger. Shorter lived creatures might not even make it to their first year, which makes them very rare among those with souls."

"Why even give animals souls if it's so impossible for them to obtain." I commented snapping up another fly. There certainly couldn't be many flies with souls.

"There are some long lived animals that regularly make that milestone. Don't be fooled by the silence, but most of the trees around here are extremely old."

I shivered at the thought. I was so glad I didn't come back as a tree and forced to stand in one spot all day. But then, I guess I shouldn't knock it if I haven't tried it. I could have come back as a wandering tree or a treant. I could almost see a handsome figure in my head with branches and vines curving in and out of eachother as it slowly moved through a tropical forest tending to other plants. Flowers cascaded down its back with bees and birds happily flitting about. The scents, the connections between one root system and the next, all seemed like an alien world I had to pull my thoughts away from--I was not I tree. I was fine being a frog. "What about the humanoids?"