Ashikumo, the Centipede Spider
If there are gods somewhere down there, they must be cruel.The Ashikumo combines the worst aspects of spider and centipede, with countless legs and bone-melting venom. Large, powerful, and aggressive, they grow to dominate the territories they settle, with few other beasts willing to challenge them. Despite their bulk, the Ashikumo hunt with speed and power, crushing prey with claws like axes or cutting them in twain with chopping pincers. Few risks the ire of an Ashikumo, and their lairs are shunned by all but the brave or foolish.
Description
Like a Kumo's bite.The Ashikumo's lower bodies extend several meters, supporting a torso and head covered in heavy, smooth carapace. The long body of the Ashikumo is lined with short, clawed legs, and they are capable of moving across the cavernous floor with surprising speed. It is covered by tough but flexible plates that are fused to segmented body. It grows as the Ashikumo does, molting every so often. Ashikumo is usually mottled black that pales to a grey as the beast age, with tales of Ashikumo so old and vicious that their shells have turned a stark white. In some places of Araea, their coloration changes to match their environment.
The front of the Ashikumo is covered in sturdy carapace with long, stiff hairs covering it like a bristle. Each hair is tipped with a barb that can painfully hook into flesh. They have two large legs and four smaller, spider-like that help them manipulate food. Two massive pincers jut out just before their gnashing maws, dripping with venom.
Male and female Ashikumo are virtually indistinguishable, with only the most sharp-eyed Kaia-Tani able to tell them apart.
Behavior
The Ashikumo are aggressive and fast hunters that rush their prey for a quick kill. Although their pincers can slam shut with enough force to dent or event pierce armor, it is their venom for which the Ashikumo is most feared. Fast-acting and painful, the Ashikumo's poison seeps into the bones of their victim and dissolves it. Even before the bone gives way, the pain is usually debilitating enough to lay anyone low.
It stank of decay and drying blood. I tried not to think about what was crunching underneath my feet one step or yielded so sickeningly with the next. We took what we could and fled to fight on better terms. None of us were to keen to end our days laying in that wretched mess.
Life-cycle
With in a year, the larvae begin to form their armored-shell and sprout legs. It takes another few months for them to develop their venom, at which point they are driven away by their parents. Soon after, the mated pair will drift apart with the dominant Ashikumo usually remaining in the shared lair.
Ashikumo grows slowly and molt through their front carapace every few years. Such discarded shells are highly valued, but scavengers must be careful - Ashikumo most frequently molts close to their lairs.It isn't certain how long an Ashikumo can live, but some villages go for generations knowing that certain caverns are best avoided. Others think the Ashikumo are biding their time, gaining strength and size until they can return to the Far Deep.
Crawling Terrors
If you aren't good and eat your mushrooms, the Ashikumo will get you.Ashikumo are greatly feared in the Inner Shell. A single one is more than a match for even a full war-band and when an Ashikumo marks its territory, people do their best to stay well away. To the Ashikumo, humans are prey like any other. They are not deterred by even large groups, but can be driven off by fire. Such tricks typically only work once or twice before the creature learns.
Some of the Ashikumo develop a taste for human flesh. These scarred man-eaters become legends where-ever they dwell, for their cunning and brutality.
If an Ashikumo is discovered living near to a settlement, the response is either to drive it away or to avoid it. While large city-states can hire entire bands of hunters to try and kill the creatures, small and poor villages have fewer options. Some attempt to use fire or even collapsing tunnels to keep the Ashikumo from reaching them, but rarely successful.
Few Ashikumo-hunters grow old.When an Ashikumo is felled, the slayers are wealthy people. Honor and glory go to any Ashikumo-slayer, and the body of the beast holds great value to any Cadaverurgy-smith. There is enough carapace on a single Ashikumo to make several pieces of armor, while its terrifying weapons make swords, daggers, and axes. Ashikumo meat is passable, mostly eaten as a sign of virility and conquest than for taste. Some of the organs are poisonous and go to the alchemist rather than the chef. Very little in Araea can be afforded to go to waste.
Inner Shell Far beneath the Surface, the Inner Shell hold majestic caverns and dark, dangerous tunnels in equal measure. Most of humanity lives in the Inner Shell, flickering lights in the darkness - hiding from the Blight above and the dangers of the Far Deep beneath. That does not mean the Inner Shell is safe by any measure - as hungry Ashikumo often demonstrate. Read more about the Inner Shell
Bone-Sculpting
The powerful venom of the Ashikumo is a highly prized reagents for Shikei, treasured for its effect on bone. The bone-sculptors dilute the venom many times and use it to make the skulls they work with malleable. It allows them to shape the bone in ways that would otherwise be difficult or destructive. The measurements have to be very precise and too strong a solution will eat right through the bone - or the Shikei's hand.
Origin
Ashikumo are found in several places across the Inner Shell, threatening city-states as far apart as Mharaji and Ahumahi. Legend goes that the Ashikumo came from the Far Deep, driven off by predators there. Some scholars point to the Ashikumo's potent venom as evidence, claiming that it is not for hunting, but to defend themselves against even greater hunters.And most Kaia agree - it would be best to never meet whatever makes food out of an Ashikumo.
Totems
Like the Suryō Spider, Ashikumo appear often in art or their names claimed by those who hope to embody their strength. War-bands and mercenaries call themselves Ashikumo to bolster themselves or intimidate their foes. In the ice-haunted realm of the Dhanû, Ashikumo are common subjects for their masks.Dangerous Delicacy
Ashikumo egg and larvae are supposed remedies to a wide range of woes, from Blight poisoning to impotency. The very wealthiest on occasion order hunt for them when feasts draw near, where they are more impressive for the trouble it is to acquire them than taste or texture. Hākari-Kaia on occasion risk all to add the Ashikumo to their dishes, but they usually know better."Ashikumo brew" of various kinds can be found across Araea. These shysters claim to have distilled the essence of the beast into a single bottle and that those who imbibe it will come to possess great strength and power. More dangerously, they sometimes sell ointments and poultice they claim will drive Ashikumo away.
That's it. You've found a way to make spiders worse. Congrats!
I'm sleeping with a fly swatter close by tonight.
<3 Thank you :D
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.