Pattern Spider

In the Classic World of Darkness, Pattern Spiders are the most basic kind of spider-shaped spirits working for the Weaver.

Classic World of Darkness[]

Pattern Spiders and variations thereof constitute the vast majority of spirits in service to the Weaver. They maintain the Pattern Web, and expand it by calcifying items, spirits, and people, then binding them into the Web. They may also be the origin of the Mula'Krante, Kilac'n, and Weaver-Spiders, but the former two are more closely associated with Cockroach's Brood and the Weaver-Spiders (or Weaver-Children) are quite mysterious. Pattern Spiders are not very self-aware and are implacable foes when they or the Pattern Web meet with resistance.

Subtypes[]

Pattern spiders serve numerous functions in the Umbra, as dictated by their seemingly infinite number of subtypes. A few of the more frequent - or at least understandable - pattern spiders follow.

• Drone: Perhaps the most common of the Weaver-spirits, drones are the 'basic' pattern spiders who spin the webs that form spiritual structure — left to spin infinitely, these pattern spiders would suspend the entirety of the Umbra in stasis. The term 'pattern spider' sometimes refers to drones specifically, despite technically encompassing all spider-esque Weaver spirits. Other subtypes of pattern spider, such as Net Spiders, Backdoor Spiders, Orb Weavers, Chaos Monitors, Nano Spiders, Channel Spiders, Guardian Spiders, Strand Spiders, Wolf Spiders, and Rail Spiders, are all believed to begin their existences as drones, if only for a few nanoseconds. Not to be confused with Weaver-possessed drones.
• Orb Weaver: As near as the Garou can figure it, Orb Weavers have something to do with how information travels among spirits, perhaps constructing and maintaining a sort of information network that can connect them.
• Guardian Spider: Camouflaged as part of the Umbral spirit-web itself, Guardian Spiders defend the vast structures constructed by the Weaver and its servants.
• Wolf Spider: Despite the name, Wolf Spiders bear no kinship to the Garou, and seem to serve the role of controlled destruction of the Weaver’s webs by tearing them down so that new structures can be built. At their simplest, they even resemble wolves and actual wolf-spiders, gnashing and tearing at the Weaver’s webs; at their most esoteric, Wolf Spiders are disinformation, controlled burn, and viruses.
• Strand Spider: These enormous creatures — as big as a car in the physical world — conquer and reclaim areas of the Umbra, according to Weaver directive, or places that other spiritual or Triatic entities have laid claim to.

Exalted[]

In Exalted, Pattern Spiders are the least members of the Bureau of Destiny and are charged with maintaining the Tapestry and the Loom of Fate. Sidereal Exalted often make deals with them in order to alter Fate to their advantage (or seeming advantage) in small ways.

Image[]

In the Umbra, to no one’s surprise, pattern spiders resemble spiders or silk-spinning insects of numerous forms, and they are often found weaving the webs that form the structural supports of the Umbra, or so it appears to Garou perception. Pattern spiders rarely have a need to possess something in the physical world, and not many even seem to be able to extend their influence across the Gauntlet to do so anyway. Such a thing occasionally occurs, though, often in the form of enhancing, upholding, or otherwise interfacing with machines of various complexity. An animal under a pattern spider’s possession would be a strange thing, indeed, and pattern spiders probably aren’t potent enough to possess humans. Probably.

Stats[]

Loom of Fate[]

• Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 1
• Abilities: Expression 2, Science 5
• Powers: Physical-Spiritual Ties (Spirit 1), Sense Weakness in Reality (Prime 1), Solidify Reality and Calcify (each Prime 2)
• Willpower: 6
• Arete: 6
• Health Levels: OK, -0, -1, -2, -5, Destroyed

5th Edition[]

• Power: 2–8
• Exceptional Dice Pools: Depending on type, various combinations of Brawl, Etiquette, Streetwise, Awareness, Science, and Technology at +2
• Enweb: Pattern spiders are able to cocoon an opponent, trapping them in their web or outright calcifying them (at least temporarily) for later processing, often by other, larger pattern spiders. Instead of attacking, a pattern spider can reduce the Dexterity of an opponent within reach by 1. If the opponent’s Dexterity reaches zero, the victim is completely immobilized for the rest of the scene. Breaking free (regaining all lost Dexterity) before that requires a successful Strength + Occult test against the combined Power of the pattern spiders participating in the cocooning.

References[]

• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Rulebook, p. 164-165
• MTAs: Loom of Fate, p. 62
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse Revised Edition, p. 283
• DAW: Dark Ages: Werewolf Rulebook, p. 225
• WTA: Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5th Edition, p. 254-256