Spyder-fiend

Spyder-fiends were a thankfully rare subtype of tanar'ri demon that served the demon lord Miska and, on occasion, Cyric the Mad God.

Description
All of the spyder-fiends looked like some variation of a giant spider with a wolf-like head. The smallest spyder-fiends, the kakkuu, were about the size of a pony, being long and weighing about, while the largest spyder-fiends, the raklupis, were  long and weighed about. Some of the spyder-fiends possessed arms in addition to their eight legs, including the phisarazu, lycosidilith, and the raklupis; spithriku possessed pedipalps. They were typically covered in coarse, dark or sandy brown hair with splotches of other colors, while the fur on the head was grey.

The fur of phisarazu was largely black, some with a blue or green tint, and swirled, striped, and/or spotted with different shades of blue, green, or grey. Lycosidiliths, by contrast, were largely hairless, instead being covered in green or blue chitin with speckles, spots, and/or rings of black, orange, and yellow. Raklupis also lacked fur on their spider bodies, but had a triple row of sharp spines on their back and black or grey fur on the head; the chitin and spines could be almost any color and were always vividly marked with swirls, bands, and spots of contrasting colors.

Abilities
The spyder-fiends had several abilities in common, including infravision, a venomous bite, and the ability to produce silk, with which they could do several things, including binding opponents and catching themselves while falling. They possessed two spell-like abilities, darkness 15' radius and teleport without error. They were completely immune to damage caused by poison, electricity, and nonmagical fire, and were resistant to that cause by magical fire, cold, and poisonous gas.

With the exception of the kakkuu, the spyder-fiends could communicate with telepathy, and the phisarazu, lycosidilith, and raklupis could speak most languages.

Personality
Spyder-fiends were tanar'ri who combined the worst aspects of spiders and wolves. The less intelligent had all the charm of rabid, bloodthirsty wolves, while the more intelligent were manipulative and even eloquent. All were cunning and cruel.

Society
The spyder-fiends were the servants of Miska the Wolf Spider, the second Prince of Demons, and by extension they served his lover, the Queen of Chaos. In fact, some sages speculated that the original spyder-fiends were the offspring of those two. They continued to serve the Queen of Chaos even after their master was locked away.

Spyder-fiends were almost always found only on the 14 layer of the Abyss, the Steaming Fen. If found outside of that hellish place, it was on an errand for their mistress.

History
Circa 1362 DR, several spyder-fiends were under command of Cyric who tasked the creatures to nightly torment Kaverin Ebonhand as part of the payment for his resurrection. The sulfurous demons visited the leader of the Cult of Frost as he fell asleep and whispered horrors of torture eternal into his ears giving him restless sleep filled with nightmares. The creatures glade accepted "gifts" of dead bodies, dragging them to Cyric's realm for some nefarious reason. After Kaverin's second death at the hands of Artus Cimber, Cyric's spyder-fiends arrived to he Prime Material Plane for the last time, to claim Ebonhand's body and should, dragging him towards his eternal torture.

In 1371 DR, spyder-fiends were among the army of fiends that flooded the streets of Eldrinpar of Doegan in attempt to seize one of the Utter Easts bloodforges, shortly after the death of Aetheric III, the emperor of Doegan at the hands of Artemis Entreri.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Ring of Winter &bull; Conspiracy