I will not speak in great detail about my encounter with the great spider, Karonaks. Suffice to say, it allowed me to observe it, to speak with it, and to take notes on its lifestyle for the purposes of my own education, however the agreement was made only with the condition that I would not share my findings with the world.

I have heard from my "colleagues" that this is a decision born from madness, or selfishness, yes. But for me, it is a simple matter of respect. If I show such consideration to my fellow Fey, why would I not show it to Karonaks as well? The spider is a better conversationalist than half the people here anyway.

— Eiryen Nesaleen
 

Overview

It's said that many living beings have, inherent to their existence, an inbred fear of certain creatures or situations: falling, loud noises, darkness. Snakes. Fire. Spiders. Perhaps it is because of that last fear, that so-common phobia, that Karonaks is among the most feared of the Great Beasts... as well as one of the most consistently active.

A Record of Encounters

6,651Y A small village is found covered in webs and full of corpses, each corpse without any obvious physical damage. Karonaks is soon spotted atop town hall. This is the first recorded encounter with Karonaks.

12,234Y An ancient stone tablet of unknown origin is found depicting what might be Karonaks - an immense spider surrounded by humanoid figures on their knees.

14,769Y A Dragon fights, and is killed by, Karonaks. The dragon's desperate attempt to burn Karonaks with its fire breath results in a forest fire.

16,235Y An adventurer discovers a dead army covered in webbing hidden inside a cave system in Gaean. Her presence rouses Karonaks, and she barely escapes alive.

22,008Y Karonaks is studied in its natural habitat by the great sage Eiryen Nesaleen when she travels to Gaean to study the local Flora and fauna.

22,654Y Glinon Barrow, a magic-user, attempts to secure the heart of Karonaks to enhance his power. Thought sheer luck he is able to kill Karonaks as it sleeps and devour its heart. The mage's corpse is found later with its stomach torn out. He is surrounded by the bodies of miniature black spiders.

33,068Y Karonaks makes the acquaintance of Oriana Tansea when the Shadow Sorceress seeks it out in the mountains near Incaendium. An unknown deal is forged between the two.

A Brief History

Karonaks made its first appearance in 6651Y, when a traveling merchant stumbled into a remote village and found it covered in webbing, all of its residents dead. The corpses were fairly fresh - fresh enough that it was evident that whatever had killed them was not an act of violence. At least not any violence anyone had encountered before. Later, the merchant would say that the bodies seemed to be lacking... something, but he could not put his finger on what it was.

The source of the death, at least, soon became apparent, as the merchant and his entourage spotted a spider the size of a small building sitting atop a large building. The creature appeared to be asleep, and so the visitors immediately took their leave.

From this point forward, Karonaks would haunt Gaean's nightmares in perpetuity.

That said, Karonaks is one of the more approachable Great Beasts... all things being relative. It has been known to communicate with those who have the capacity to communicate with it and has, on at least one occasion, formed a kind of alliance with someone - specifically Oriana Tansea. What makes the difference between food and friend for Karonaks remains unknown... but it is common wisdom that anyone who encounters Karonaks should attempt to befriend it... because that certainly has a higher chance of success than running.

Despite some possible clues - most notably an ancient tablet depicting the Spider (or a similar one?) being worshiped by some beings that might be Human - the origins of Karonaks remain a mystery.

Habitat

Left to its own preference, Karonaks will make its home in forests or caves. That said, it is equally at home in, for example, the ruins left behind after it extinguishes a village. Most importantly, Karonaks dislikes wide open spaces, preferring areas with shadows and many vertical and horizontal surfaces to attach itself or its webbing to.

Appearance

Karonaks appears as a large, black spider-like creature with glowing yellow eyes. Its bulbous back body is heavily armored, and its spindly legs are fuzzy and tipped with hard black blade-like tarsus. It should be noted that while Karonaks is distinctly spider-like, it is not literally identical to an oversized spider; as an obvious example, it does not appear to have a mouth, and its face is 90% glowing eyes.

Some people think it's cute. This is a controversial statement among scholars.

Behavior

Despite its inability to directly speak, Karonaks is believed to be among the most intelligent of the Great Beasts. Survivors have reported their believe that Karonaks is capable of sophisticated strategizing and use of tools; it has also been known to rig traps using environmental Objects and its webbing.

Because it is so intelligent, Karonaks is simultaneously extremely dangerous - even by Great Beast standards - and somewhat... reasonable. It has no mouth and cannot speak, and it lacks telepathic abilities, but it is possible for someone who can directly communicate with a creature's mind to have complex conversations with it, to reason with it, to strike bargains with it.

Karonaks follows a cycle of sleep and wakefulness where the sleeping time and waking time are flexible, but roughly equivalent to one another. This means that it can choose its own sleep length by choosing how long it is awake. As of right now, Karonaks has been mostly awake and active for four years, which means that eventually, when it sleeps, it will need to sleep for four years or so as well.

During its sleep cycle, it is almost impossible to wake Karonaks without killing it. But more on that in a bit.

Abilities

Karonaks is a highly intelligent magical giant spider, and its abilities reflect that. It is also essentially immortal, and its abilities reflect that, as well.

General Physical Abilities

Physical Power: As is to be expected, Karonaks is extraordinarily strong, durable, and quick.

Stealthier Than You'd Think: Despite its massive size, Karonaks moves in almost total silence. It is also able to make use of shadows to hide itself with surprising effectiveness.

Blade-Tarsi: The tarsi at the end of Karonaks's legs are black and bladed, capable of cutting through stone, flesh and metal with equal ease.

Armored Body and Head: Neither mundane nor lightly enchanted weapons can penetrate Karonaks' armored body and head area - substantial strength and a substantial enchantment must be used to have a chance at damaging the Great Beast.

The Deadly Web of Karonaks!

Karonaks' most obvious - and obviously spideresque - ability is the creation of webbing. Its webs are remarkably strong and impossible to sever for most people. However they can in theory be broken by someone either strong enough or carrying a powerful enough weapon.

That said, the strength of the webs is not their most dangerous property.

Karonaks can create several different types of webbing, each with a different property:

Paralytic: The white paralytic webbing is not as physically strong as other types, but it hardly matters because those in contact with it over more than 10% of body will be paralyzed.

Life Drain Webbing: This is the primary method through which Karonaks both kills and feeds. By wrapping a living being in this greyish webbing, the victim's life force is depleted and transferred to Karonaks, replenishing its energy and healing any wounds it may have suffered.

Dream-state Webbing: This light golden webbing puts those captured in it into a dream-state. This dream will seem real to the person, though some anomalies may occur that can alert the victim to the artificiality of its surroundings.

Pain web: These dark grey webs crackle with dark energy and inflict extraordinary pain on anyone in substantial physical contact with the web.

Sensing Strings: Sensing strings are exceptionally thin and colorless, making them difficult to see in small numbers. Karonaks can make use of these "strings" to get a sense of what is happening in an area from a distance, as it can get a vague sense of anything in the area of the strings. This is not exact, but for example if a group of humans passed through an area rigged with sensing string, Karonaks would know roughly how many there are, roughly how large they are, and whether they have an obvious energy signature (magic-users, psions or elementalists making active use of their abilities for example.)

Sometimes, Karonaks will weave multi-powered webs by alternating threads of different types. This does deplete the strength of each individual effect, but it allows for complicated layering of abilities to create a number of effects not achievable through one variety of web alone.

Its most commonly used combination is paralytic-dreamstate-life drain.

Finally, like any spider's webbing, Karonaks' webs are (or can be) sticky. As such, it often uses webbing as tools in setting up traps and the like.

Don't Kill It. Really, Don't.

Life-Death Cycle: If killed, Karonaks' body - and all of its parts, whether or not they are attached to its body, collapse into hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of miniature spiders over the course of the next few hours. These spiders secret an acid that burns through anything barring their way. The spiders will go in search of one another and, when 1% or more of the spiders find one another, they physically merge into Karonaks, resurrecting the Great Beast with all the memories of everything experienced by its different parts. Karonaks' initial size is dependent on how many spiders were able to come together to remake it. Either way, it will grow as it feeds.

When killed during hibernation/a sleep cycle, reforming immediately puts Karonaks back into his awake cycle.

Status Quo

For the past decade or so, Karonaks has settled in the deepest parts of the Shadow Forest, where it and Oriana Tansea act as guardians to one another. It has thus far remained active, though it may be due for hibernation in the relatively near future.

Threat Assessment:

While Karonaks' basic abilities may not seem to be as formidable as that of other Great Beasts' on the surface, its high intelligence and ability to strategize adds a new level of danger to its power-set. Furthermore, it is not only almost impossible to truly kill, when it resurrects itself, it will remember the face and location of whatever killed it. This in combination with its intellect, stealth and ability to weave multi-powered webs to create various effects makes it a terrifying beast indeed!

That being the case, Karonaks is a Vis level threat.