Dridders

A huge dridder gorging herself on unfortunate captured elves in her underground cave.

Dridders are half human, half spider creatures, who come in a large variety of sizes on Felarya, some measuring 3 feet tall while others easily reach 100 feet in height. They are dangerous and patient predators, possessing deadly venom, acute reflexes, and an uncanny ability to lay traps.

In general, dridders in Felarya can be divided in two types: The Wanderers and the Weavers. That's not an absolute rule however, and some dridders manage to blur the line between the two remarkably well.

Wanderers are usually visually more acute than the weavers, with thicker, more muscular spider legs. They are more adept at navigation through all types of terrain, able to run faster and jump for longer distances. They can steadily chase after prey for long distances and are capable of impressive short bursts of speed, although they still tend to prefer ambush tactics. While they can produce silk, they are generally much less adept than the weavers at it and typically don't build complex webs.

Weavers tend to possess less heightened senses and less endurance overall, but their legs are extremely sensitive to the faintest touches and vibrations of their web and some of them possess special claws allowing them to grasp silk and weave it with unparalleled agility. They can use it not only to hunt but also to craft clothes and even buildings. They typically hunt in a smaller territory than the wanderers, but it's lined with countless strands of silk that allow them to sense even the tiniest movement caused by someone disturbing one of the security web-lines. The intensity of the vibration quickly gives a good indication of the size or strength of the creature, and with webs spread out all over, a dridder can monitor an intruder or potential prey's movement through their territory as it hits different signal lines. If it is not heading for their den, the dridder will have more then enough information on the intruder to know its general location and whether or not it would be worth going to investigate it.

With their ambushes, giant dridders pose a big danger to travelers in Felarya and small groups of them have been seen raiding human settlements. Little is known about them in general, but they tend to carry a grim and dark reputation. Indeed, many of them display a cruel and ruthless behavior in the frenzy of combat which has gotten their whole race wrongfully labeled as evil. Dridders are fierce fighters and have a war-like society that holds their warriors in very high regard. As a race, they are not very proficient at magic in general, although some exceptions exist of course. They largely make up for it with their natural weapons though, such as their claws and, above all, their venom which is often lethal, even at small doses. They actually possess a wide variety of venoms, some of which will only make the bitten creature sleepy. They have two methods of feeding. Like most Felaryan predators, they simply swallow bite-sized prey whole and alive, but if the prey is their size, they immobilize their victims and slowly liquefy their internal organs into a soup, sucking them out much like a normal spider. Needless to say this last fact contributes a lot to their sinister reputation and creates incomprehension, as Dridders themselves see it as perfectly normal and by no means disgusting.

Dridders often use weapons and armor, and it's not uncommon to see their legs reinforced by spiked plates. Their blacksmiths are very skilled, and among the best in Felarya. Many dridders have a deep distrust of nagas, the result of a long-standing and bloody feud existing between the two species. Some legend among dridders foretells that one day, Sineria, Queen of the dridders, will return and destroy the nagas once and for all. In return many nagas are taught to never trust a dridder. Some dridders are actively searching for clues to the location of Sineria’s tomb. So far little has been found. There is much proof that dridders once formed an organized, sophisticated, rich and powerful civilization with some old Victorian-styled structures and clothes. Nowadays most dridders in Felarya have a much more primitive look to them, but if you encounter a spider lady dressed in smart, fancy attire, you may be facing a survivor from the era of Sineria's reign.