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Description

The Orb Thiever (or some say Blorb Thiever), is a large terrestrial arachnid that has chosen to ditch life on a web. When one says "spider," people tend to think of the critters that sit up high on intricate traps of woven silk. The Orb Thiever does not fit in this mold, as they spend their entire life walking on the ground, rather than climbing trees or other tall structures. While they do still possesses the eight legs of the arachnids, only four of them are really used for travel. You can easily tell which of the pairs these are, as they are shorter and bulkier, which is good for movement and burdening heavy loads. The remaining two pairs are quite different then these, as they are greatly elongated and much thinner. They are also positioned before and after the middle walking legs, which tend to make people equate these limbs with "arms." Their structure allows for more dexterous movement compared to the stocky simple walking legs, bending and reaching in a variety of different ways. These limbs are for manipulating their environment and for carrying certain objects, which is another reason why people see them as arms. The front pair sit on the stalk-like structure of the creature's cephalothorax, which puts the head of the arachnid on a very defined "neck." A pair of pedipalps sit below the head, which are used for help in eating and grooming, with the males of the species also using it for reproductive purposes. The head itself sports a nasty pair of flexible fangs over top their suctioning mouths, and their iconic arrangement of the eight arachnid eyes is impossible to miss. On the other end, with the other pair of arm limbs, is a flexible abdomen that sports a strange hand-like structure. Flexing "fingers" on the end of the abdomen allow it to have a sort of grip, which is combined with the arms to help carry large loads. On the very end are the spinnerets, which everyone knows is where the sticky silk comes out. However, I already mentioned that they don't make webs, so why have the spinnerets? And if they don't make webs, how do they catch food? Both of these questions can be answered at the same time, as they tie into the unique way that Orb Thievers hunt and consume prey.

As an arachnid, this species sticks with the typical carnivorous diet, but they pursue this way of life in a rather odd way. If they have no web, then they must go out and hunt for their food, which is what they do after they have completed a strange but crucial step. Before any Orb Thiever can even think about catching some prey, they must first hunt down another target: Slimes. This species has developed a sort of parasitic relationship with Slimes, but not because they feed on them. When an Orb Thiever spots a Slime, it approaches with slow caution to get close, but then charges in swinging. What lashes out is its front most pair of arms, looking to stab into the pseudobody of the targeted Slime. This jab is not meant to pierce the heart, rather it is so that the sharp spur on the tip of its arm can come in contact with the slimy substance. Once inserted, the hollow spike pumps in a special venom that has a stunning effect on the Slime's heart. This venom appears to be a mild paralytic, not meant to kill but to temporarily subdue. When the spur flushes in the venom, the heart seizes up and the Slime loses control over its pseudobody. This usually results in the Slime collapsing into a gooey puddle, as it fails to properly regulate its form. Now in this vulnerable state, the Orb Thiever takes what it came for: the Slime's slime!

This spider has no interest in the heart, it only cares about the gloop that makes up the pseudobody. Using the paddle-like structures on its arms, it will scoop up a bunch of the slime and transfer it to the abdomen. There the other pair of arms will begin to work it as if it was a ball of clay, rolling it and shaping it into a sphere. While it manipulates the stolen slime, the abdomen is releasing sticky silk and mixing it into the forming ball of gunk. This silk is specially designed to dissolve when in it comes in contact with slime, adding a sticky, thickening compound to the material. The injection of the silk makes the slime more workable and more stable, as such a substance often turns to loose sludge when it loses contact with the heart. Once the Orb Thiever has taken its share of slime, it will simply skitter off and leave the dazed Slime to recover. It should be noted that these spiders rarely ever kill the robbed Slime, and they never take all the goop for themselves. They are careful to leave the heart a fair amount of slime, so that the creature has enough to hunt and live. What they want is for the Slime to survive so that it can build its pseudobody back up again, ensuring excess slime for the Orb Thiever to....well, thieve.

The Orb Thiever will do this to Slimes to build itself up a nice orb of sticky gloop. How many Slimes they need to parasitize depends on the size of the spider. The smaller young ones usually only need to steal from one or two, while full grown adults go after multiple. However, this is for them to construct a brand new sphere, which is quite rare. Usually an Orb Thiever will maintain and build upon the same ball that they made in their youth, refreshing it with new slime. Over time the slime will lose its potency and composition, so further thievery is needed to keep it nice and fresh. This mass is held in place by the back arms and the hand-like abdomen. When they have themselves a hefty orb of slime, then they can go after prey. What they hunt depends on their size, as they usually only target stuff smaller than them. Anything with meat will do, and they will use the same arm spears to attack. Here, the venom is not really in play, as it is meant for the Slimes. Instead, they just seek to impale prey upon their arms, launching a flurry of stabs against victims. When their target is sufficiently weakened, they then reach for their gob of silk-infused slime. The mass is slammed on top of their prey, and the Orb Thiever will use its arms to push prey deeper into the gooey orb. The thick sticky slime will hold victims fast, and asphyxiation is inevitable when they are submersed in it. Already weakened by injury, most prey cannot escape the orb's hold and they will perish within it. Once they expire (though technically it can begin before they die), the digestive properties of the slime will begin to breakdown their bodies, reducing it to juice that is absorbed by the goop.

This nutrient infused slime is then slurped up by the pumping mouth of the Orb Thiever, who has essentially turned this sphere of stolen slime and silk into an external stomach. This orb combines the cocooning and envenoming of prey that most spiders use to eat, and it is all in one convenient ball on their back. There is no worry of their catch being stolen, since they carry this orb at all times, and it allows them to live on the move, following prey and the changing seasons. Once these spiders get bigger and older, this sphere can play an even more direct roll. Since they can reach an impressive size, that means that their orb can get quite large too! With such mass, the slime ball becomes a powerful tool and a deadly weapon. Swinging this orb around can cause major damage, able to shatter bone and send foes flying. Holding it with either arms or a rope of silk, it can whip this thing around like a flail, capable of smashing through buildings and cracking the toughest armor. It can also slam this down with incredible force, the sheer weight of this orb squishing victims like bugs.

At a certain size, many Orb Thievers will change hunting tactics and position this orb in their front limbs. When they spot a gathering of potential prey, they will set the sphere on the ground and use their limbs to roll it, much like a dung beetle. Moving at a rapid pace, the spider will charge at prey with this tumbling mass, seeking to run them over with it. The speed and force tramples prey and the sticky slime will hold them fast, causing them to be embedded in the spinning sphere. The Orb Thiever will run with this tactic as far as it can until it can no longer see viable prey. Once it has sufficiently flattened the area and depleted the possible food, it will tend to its orb, shoving prey in deeper and removing pieces that are indigestible. It is a rather bizarre tactic, but one that works too well. Often this rolling slime ball will catch more prey than the spider anticipated, sucking up smaller insects and critters that the arachnid didn't even notice. And when going after a herd or group of prey species, it allows them to take down multiple meals with ease. Some find this strategy amusing, but these are often the people who never witnessed it first hand. While it sounds funny on paper, it is rather horrifying to watch, and usually that crushing sticky sphere is pointed in your direction, as these arachnids will go after anything that fits inside this orb of death.

While it is mainly used for hunting, fighting and eating, this payload of slime is also used during the breeding season. Females will bury their eggs within this orb, pushing them to the very center. There they will be protected from predators and parasites, while also bathing in the nutrient-rich slime. To prevent their eggs from being damaged, carrying mothers will kill prey before burying them in the goop ball. When a live one is affixed to the orb, a single fatal stab of their claw will finish them off. The mothers will be extra protective of their gooey bundle, spending more time tending to it and making sure nothing gets stuck in it that could harm their eggs. When the time comes, the wriggling of their eggs will alert them to the hatching. The mother will then tear open their orb and free their eggs before the spiderlings hatch. Once they are born, they will spend the first couple weeks of their lives clinging to their mother. They will ride on her body and on her slime ball, feeding on the nutrient goop whenever she gets a kill. Eventually they will grow large enough to strike off on their own, and the brood will scatter into the wild.

Orb Thievers are truly bizarre creatures, finding a rather strange way to take advantage of a Slime's composition. I haven't even mentioned that they drape their bodies with excess slime to protect them from parasites and harsh weather! They are fascinating spiders to study, but unfortunately they can be quite the danger. At a certain age, they can get as big as a person, and at that point they won't be so scared of people. If cornered or desperate for food, they won't hesitate to use their stabbing arms to drop a human or anything similar. Unfortunately, they don't stay that size for long. Orb Thievers can get quite big, big enough to start putting people on the menu. Farmers can find their herds or flocks decimated by an older spider, whose rolling ball tactic can scoop up numerous victims. Gatherings of people can also trigger the arachnids desire to hunt, as they see it as a cluster of food readying to be rolled over. I have certainly heard one story about a family picnic that went horribly wrong when one of these spiders showed up. They won't hesitate to try their luck in scooping up several targets, bowling through a platoon of soldiers and then just keeping on rolling on with several screaming prisoners in tow. When faced with threats of violence, these arachnids can respond with devastating force. That slime ball is seriously no joke, able to punch through walls and flatten enemies. Their slimy shroud also helps absorb damage and arrows, giving them more chances to roll you up and digest you for dinner. However, some people have succeeded in taking down these spiders. In fact, some folk hunt the younger ones to harvest them for their venom. Like I said, it isn't so good against meaty creatures, but it can do a number against Slimes. For those who want to kill Slimes (it better be for good reason) or take down a slimy abomination, anointing their weapons with this venom will give them a serious edge.

I have heard rumor of some Slimes actually making partnerships with Orb Thievers, serving as a living goop ball instead of being robbed. If this is true, then that would mean big new changes for these spiders! It would also mean some real problems for the rest of us. These things are already terrors enough when they are working alone...

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

-----------------------------------------------------

Nah, na na na na nah na- OH GOD RUN!

Been awhile since we got a species that interacts with Slimes. These are always fun to design and I feel that add a lot to the world. If you have a fantasy land that has such bizarre creatures such as Slimes, then you got have other critters that take advantage of that!

Description

The Orb Thiever (or some say Blorb Thiever), is a large terrestrial arachnid that has chosen to ditch life on a web. When one says "spider," people tend to think of the critters that sit up high on intricate traps of woven silk. The Orb Thiever does not fit in this mold, as they spend their entire life walking on the ground, rather than climbing trees or other tall structures. While they do still possesses the eight legs of the arachnids, only four of them are really used for travel. You can easily tell which of the pairs these are, as they are shorter and bulkier, which is good for movement and burdening heavy loads. The remaining two pairs are quite different then these, as they are greatly elongated and much thinner. They are also positioned before and after the middle walking legs, which tend to make people equate these limbs with "arms." Their structure allows for more dexterous movement compared to the stocky simple walking legs, bending and reaching in a variety of different ways. These limbs are for manipulating their environment and for carrying certain objects, which is another reason why people see them as arms. The front pair sit on the stalk-like structure of the creature's cephalothorax, which puts the head of the arachnid on a very defined "neck." A pair of pedipalps sit below the head, which are used for help in eating and grooming, with the males of the species also using it for reproductive purposes. The head itself sports a nasty pair of flexible fangs over top their suctioning mouths, and their iconic arrangement of the eight arachnid eyes is impossible to miss. On the other end, with the other pair of arm limbs, is a flexible abdomen that sports a strange hand-like structure. Flexing "fingers" on the end of the abdomen allow it to have a sort of grip, which is combined with the arms to help carry large loads. On the very end are the spinnerets, which everyone knows is where the sticky silk comes out. However, I already mentioned that they don't make webs, so why have the spinnerets? And if they don't make webs, how do they catch food? Both of these questions can be answered at the same time, as they tie into the unique way that Orb Thievers hunt and consume prey.

As an arachnid, this species sticks with the typical carnivorous diet, but they pursue this way of life in a rather odd way. If they have no web, then they must go out and hunt for their food, which is what they do after they have completed a strange but crucial step. Before any Orb Thiever can even think about catching some prey, they must first hunt down another target: Slimes. This species has developed a sort of parasitic relationship with Slimes, but not because they feed on them. When an Orb Thiever spots a Slime, it approaches with slow caution to get close, but then charges in swinging. What lashes out is its front most pair of arms, looking to stab into the pseudobody of the targeted Slime. This jab is not meant to pierce the heart, rather it is so that the sharp spur on the tip of its arm can come in contact with the slimy substance. Once inserted, the hollow spike pumps in a special venom that has a stunning effect on the Slime's heart. This venom appears to be a mild paralytic, not meant to kill but to temporarily subdue. When the spur flushes in the venom, the heart seizes up and the Slime loses control over its pseudobody. This usually results in the Slime collapsing into a gooey puddle, as it fails to properly regulate its form. Now in this vulnerable state, the Orb Thiever takes what it came for: the Slime's slime!

This spider has no interest in the heart, it only cares about the gloop that makes up the pseudobody. Using the paddle-like structures on its arms, it will scoop up a bunch of the slime and transfer it to the abdomen. There the other pair of arms will begin to work it as if it was a ball of clay, rolling it and shaping it into a sphere. While it manipulates the stolen slime, the abdomen is releasing sticky silk and mixing it into the forming ball of gunk. This silk is specially designed to dissolve when in it comes in contact with slime, adding a sticky, thickening compound to the material. The injection of the silk makes the slime more workable and more stable, as such a substance often turns to loose sludge when it loses contact with the heart. Once the Orb Thiever has taken its share of slime, it will simply skitter off and leave the dazed Slime to recover. It should be noted that these spiders rarely ever kill the robbed Slime, and they never take all the goop for themselves. They are careful to leave the heart a fair amount of slime, so that the creature has enough to hunt and live. What they want is for the Slime to survive so that it can build its pseudobody back up again, ensuring excess slime for the Orb Thiever to....well, thieve.

The Orb Thiever will do this to Slimes to build itself up a nice orb of sticky gloop. How many Slimes they need to parasitize depends on the size of the spider. The smaller young ones usually only need to steal from one or two, while full grown adults go after multiple. However, this is for them to construct a brand new sphere, which is quite rare. Usually an Orb Thiever will maintain and build upon the same ball that they made in their youth, refreshing it with new slime. Over time the slime will lose its potency and composition, so further thievery is needed to keep it nice and fresh. This mass is held in place by the back arms and the hand-like abdomen. When they have themselves a hefty orb of slime, then they can go after prey. What they hunt depends on their size, as they usually only target stuff smaller than them. Anything with meat will do, and they will use the same arm spears to attack. Here, the venom is not really in play, as it is meant for the Slimes. Instead, they just seek to impale prey upon their arms, launching a flurry of stabs against victims. When their target is sufficiently weakened, they then reach for their gob of silk-infused slime. The mass is slammed on top of their prey, and the Orb Thiever will use its arms to push prey deeper into the gooey orb. The thick sticky slime will hold victims fast, and asphyxiation is inevitable when they are submersed in it. Already weakened by injury, most prey cannot escape the orb's hold and they will perish within it. Once they expire (though technically it can begin before they die), the digestive properties of the slime will begin to breakdown their bodies, reducing it to juice that is absorbed by the goop.

This nutrient infused slime is then slurped up by the pumping mouth of the Orb Thiever, who has essentially turned this sphere of stolen slime and silk into an external stomach. This orb combines the cocooning and envenoming of prey that most spiders use to eat, and it is all in one convenient ball on their back. There is no worry of their catch being stolen, since they carry this orb at all times, and it allows them to live on the move, following prey and the changing seasons. Once these spiders get bigger and older, this sphere can play an even more direct roll. Since they can reach an impressive size, that means that their orb can get quite large too! With such mass, the slime ball becomes a powerful tool and a deadly weapon. Swinging this orb around can cause major damage, able to shatter bone and send foes flying. Holding it with either arms or a rope of silk, it can whip this thing around like a flail, capable of smashing through buildings and cracking the toughest armor. It can also slam this down with incredible force, the sheer weight of this orb squishing victims like bugs.

At a certain size, many Orb Thievers will change hunting tactics and position this orb in their front limbs. When they spot a gathering of potential prey, they will set the sphere on the ground and use their limbs to roll it, much like a dung beetle. Moving at a rapid pace, the spider will charge at prey with this tumbling mass, seeking to run them over with it. The speed and force tramples prey and the sticky slime will hold them fast, causing them to be embedded in the spinning sphere. The Orb Thiever will run with this tactic as far as it can until it can no longer see viable prey. Once it has sufficiently flattened the area and depleted the possible food, it will tend to its orb, shoving prey in deeper and removing pieces that are indigestible. It is a rather bizarre tactic, but one that works too well. Often this rolling slime ball will catch more prey than the spider anticipated, sucking up smaller insects and critters that the arachnid didn't even notice. And when going after a herd or group of prey species, it allows them to take down multiple meals with ease. Some find this strategy amusing, but these are often the people who never witnessed it first hand. While it sounds funny on paper, it is rather horrifying to watch, and usually that crushing sticky sphere is pointed in your direction, as these arachnids will go after anything that fits inside this orb of death.

While it is mainly used for hunting, fighting and eating, this payload of slime is also used during the breeding season. Females will bury their eggs within this orb, pushing them to the very center. There they will be protected from predators and parasites, while also bathing in the nutrient-rich slime. To prevent their eggs from being damaged, carrying mothers will kill prey before burying them in the goop ball. When a live one is affixed to the orb, a single fatal stab of their claw will finish them off. The mothers will be extra protective of their gooey bundle, spending more time tending to it and making sure nothing gets stuck in it that could harm their eggs. When the time comes, the wriggling of their eggs will alert them to the hatching. The mother will then tear open their orb and free their eggs before the spiderlings hatch. Once they are born, they will spend the first couple weeks of their lives clinging to their mother. They will ride on her body and on her slime ball, feeding on the nutrient goop whenever she gets a kill. Eventually they will grow large enough to strike off on their own, and the brood will scatter into the wild.

Orb Thievers are truly bizarre creatures, finding a rather strange way to take advantage of a Slime's composition. I haven't even mentioned that they drape their bodies with excess slime to protect them from parasites and harsh weather! They are fascinating spiders to study, but unfortunately they can be quite the danger. At a certain age, they can get as big as a person, and at that point they won't be so scared of people. If cornered or desperate for food, they won't hesitate to use their stabbing arms to drop a human or anything similar. Unfortunately, they don't stay that size for long. Orb Thievers can get quite big, big enough to start putting people on the menu. Farmers can find their herds or flocks decimated by an older spider, whose rolling ball tactic can scoop up numerous victims. Gatherings of people can also trigger the arachnids desire to hunt, as they see it as a cluster of food readying to be rolled over. I have certainly heard one story about a family picnic that went horribly wrong when one of these spiders showed up. They won't hesitate to try their luck in scooping up several targets, bowling through a platoon of soldiers and then just keeping on rolling on with several screaming prisoners in tow. When faced with threats of violence, these arachnids can respond with devastating force. That slime ball is seriously no joke, able to punch through walls and flatten enemies. Their slimy shroud also helps absorb damage and arrows, giving them more chances to roll you up and digest you for dinner. However, some people have succeeded in taking down these spiders. In fact, some folk hunt the younger ones to harvest them for their venom. Like I said, it isn't so good against meaty creatures, but it can do a number against Slimes. For those who want to kill Slimes (it better be for good reason) or take down a slimy abomination, anointing their weapons with this venom will give them a serious edge.

I have heard rumor of some Slimes actually making partnerships with Orb Thievers, serving as a living goop ball instead of being robbed. If this is true, then that would mean big new changes for these spiders! It would also mean some real problems for the rest of us. These things are already terrors enough when they are working alone...

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

-----------------------------------------------------

Nah, na na na na nah na- OH GOD RUN!

Been awhile since we got a species that interacts with Slimes. These are always fun to design and I feel that add a lot to the world. If you have a fantasy land that has such bizarre creatures such as Slimes, then you got have other critters that take advantage of that!