"CRYSTAL SPIDER"

Crystal Spiders are a mobfaction that tends to attack players trading down
roads and usually near intersections. A giant magical Crystal Spider Queen
creates massive crystal caves, which are the source of her magic. She
creates baby spiders until she is killed.

The cave has a main entrance on the road, which makes the road impassable
by wagon, as it has a huge hole in the ground that leads down into the
cave.

When the queen appears she generally throws everyone nearby around and
unforms them before quickly running down into her cave. She is almost
always found down the main shaft.

The cave has many other exits as well. Initially many baby spiders swarm
out of these exits and the main shaft. The other exits are shown as
TRAMPLED for a time, which makes them easy to locate. The main shaft exit
on the road will only show trampled for a few moments.

The baby spiders are not strong, but they are smart, and they use scent as
masterfully as lions do. It is key to understand to LOOK AROUND and see
which way the wind is heading. You must get past the babies and enter the
cave to kill the queen, as she will make new babies almost as fast as you
can kill them--if you take that tactic.

If the queen is killed the cave will quickly collapse, as its magic has
died as well. To defeat the whole mobfaction to get the HEROPOINTS and
GOLD you must kill all the babies. These are usually pretty easy to track
down if you use the wind.

Note that generally a spider will attack a player before attacking other
mobfactions, but all other mobfactions will attack spiders before players
when in the same room.

Thanks goes to Anzerion for the basic concept of this mobfaction.

See Also: MOBFACTIONS DM TRADING