Dark Spider

''Rearing itself up before you is an enormous spider the size of a man with disgusting, oily black skin, mottled with lurid red and purple streaks. Its features are almost humanoid and it regards you with a menacing leer.''

Combat
Dark spiders prefer to either strike from ambush using their webbing or attack with greater numbers and overwhelm their foes. Warbands of warrior spiders are often led by individual defilers or psions, who use their powers to bolster the melee attacks of the warriors.

In melee, dark spiders strike with two claws and a poisonous bite. The venom of the queen is particularly potent and is easily capable of killing an adult human. The poison of the other dark spiders is still dangerous but less routinely fatal than that of the queens.

Description
Dark spiders are an intelligent species of subterranean arachnid that lives in highly organized tribal units. Divided among warriors, psions, defilers and queens, they have no natural enemies but often create enemies through their predatory behavior when nesting young.

Dark spiders stand six feet in height and weigh 120 pounds, although their queens reach twice that size when mature. The more intelligent among them are able to master humanoid tongues, and some have been known to trade silk to merchant houses in return for warm-blooded slaves.