Karma & The Colony
| Karma | |
|---|---|
| Karma rubs her back legs together in a hiss. To Spring it sounds like hurry hurry hurry. | |
| Personal | |
| Age | 2 |
| Height | 2'5" |
| Weight | 48 lbs |
| Gender | N/A |
| Pronouns | It/Its |
| Species | Giant Wolf Spider |
| Relatives | Spring (adopted sister) The Colony |
Design
Appearance
Karma has the appearance of a wolf spider, but about 24 times larger. It is covered in a thin layer of brownish bristles, with darker patches creating a striped pattern across its abdomen. It has four pairs of eyes, one of which is particularly larger than the others.
Personality
Karma is protective, being very attached to Spring and quick to attack anything it perceives as a threat to its family member. The giant wolf spiders of Barovia differ greatly in social structure from their smaller sized counterparts; rather than hunting alone, they form small groups called colonies. These colonies are generally made up of approximately 3-4 breeding wolf spiders, one mating wolf spider, and 2-4 larger web weaving spiders who may or may not be mating pairs. Giant web weavers and giant wolf spiders form a mutualistic colony, in which the web weavers define the territory by creating large strands of webbing throughout their forested habitat, and the wolf spiders prowl around the webbed areas, seeking food to either chase into the webs or pluck out to bring back home to the colony. Both web weavers and wolf spiders raise their individual young communally, laying far fewer eggs than their smaller counterparts, in the realm of five to ten rather than hundreds. The young are raised on their progenitors backs until they are old enough to leave the colony and create their own, often in pairs or trios of siblings. Giant spiders are actually quite intelligent, having simple vocalizations to communicate between each other about prey and danger, and are able to learn to recognize several hundred words of human speech, much like dogs.
Biography
The Colony is one of several giant spider colonies throughout the valley of Barovia. It is made up of three adult wolf spiders (Barb, Mandible, and Hiss, as named by Spring), two adult web weavers (Haze and Shadow), three juvenile wolf spiders (Claw, Moss, and Karma), one juvenile web weaver (Cricket), and one human, Spring. There were formerly two other members of the colony, a juvenile web weaver called Chasm, and a juvenile wolf spider called Slash. Both were killed by outside adventurers after Strahd used his powers to force them to leave their colony and attack the outside adventuring party.
