Lore24 Mar 25: Giant Spiders

Giant spiders can range from the size of a large dog to the size of a small elephant. They usually live in forests, where they can set up their webs. Since they are adapted to hunting megafauna from deer and antelopes to elephants and dinosaurs, they do not set up their webs vertically, but rather horizontally on the ground. Larger animals moving about get stuck to the sticky threads, then get entangled in more as they thrash about trying to free themselves. Some species can even run around their prey, discharging stored webbing from their abdomen, entangling their prey as they go. Despite popular belief very few species are actually venomous, most simply use their large fangs to kill their prey.

In mythology giant spiders are usually associated with Pafatra, the Crafter, and some of her temples keep them as sacred animals, using their silk to weave garments or make armor. These temple spiders are also selectively bred for their silk, especially for it to take enchantments better, so many of the oldest temples can create wondrous items from spider-silk that can offer similar protection to metal, with only a fraction of the weight.

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