[MW Batch 2] Iron Drider - CR 8 Large Construct

Necrotic, Underdark, Construct, None

“Fear not the darkness; our eyes drink it and we hide in its shadows. Fear The Low’s sunrise, a pale magenta wash that heralds the walking coffin’s arrival. Hey—put out that light! What do you mean it’s not yo—”

— Last words of drow ranger, Zøm Beesün

The click clack of metal legs on The Low’s ceiling is often the last sound a creature remembers from its life, and the pink beam of light the final sight it sees before undeath becomes its master. Their origin is the iron drider, a spider-like construct whose abdomen is a necromantic oven of spikes and grasping, undead hands. Those who enter its kiln emerge as Undead minions, servants of the drider’s creator.

Nobody Crosses a Dwarf. What better insult for a duergar necromancer to lay at the feet of its drow nemeses than to create a blasphemous contraption in the shape of their arachnid queen? When Nakash the Doomladen, Bonemonger of the The Low, received a shipment of corpses from the dark elves of Gannaroth, he assumed a clerical error; there were but five, not the 1,030 for which he had paid. The drow Queen Mothari responded that they had promised “the bones of corpses, numbered one thousand and thirty”, and that, as each corpse contained 206 bones, they had fulfilled the contract. Seeking revenge, Nakash created the iron driders, whose sole purpose was to turn living Humanoids into his Undead servants. The moral? Always read the fine print.

Necromorphosis. Ah necromancy, so often it requires the whole process of finding a corpse before the fruits of its labours can be tasted. The drider fast tracks that a little: take a living creature, expose it to vast quantities of necromantic energy, and see the wonderful process of necromorphosis—becoming Undead—occur at exactly the point of death. No rituals necessary! As a bonus, when this occurs close enough to the necro-artificer that created the drider, the Undead falls under the necromancer’s sway. There’s no need to talk about the driders that range too far, leaving swathes of rotting corpses mindlessly bumbling through The Low.

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• Get the stats for this fearsome foe DOWN BELOW;

• Enjoy the gorgeous rendered art for it HERE;

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