Bestiary

Rust Spiders aren’t really a single variety of Bane. Instead, they’re the catch-all name that both Garou and Black Spiral Dancers use to refer to those cases where the spirit-servants of the Weaver — Pattern Spiders, Net Spiders, Chaos Monitors, and so on — are corrupted by the vile essence of the Wyrm, yet retain their basic shape and function.

Rust Spiders seem to serve two masters, rather than tumbling completely into the grasp of the Wyrm as most corrupted spirits do. That distinction is, in truth, what makes a Rust Spider a Rust Spider, rather than just another urban-conceptual Bane. A former Pattern Spider continues to weave according to the Weaver’s design. A former Net-Spider continues to herd data packets to and fro across the networks where it makes its lair. Corrupted guardian spirits, such as Hunter Spiders, show the greatest deviance in their behavior, for they always allow Wyrm-tainted spirits free passage, and never treat them as enemies.

Rust Spiders keep the traits they had prior to their corruption.

* Darkweaving: This Charm more than anything else defines a Rust Spider. Darkweaving’s effects are permanent, and stain the spirit’s every works with an indelible trace of Wyrm-taint. When a tainted Pattern Spider reinforces the Gauntlet, it weaves in blackly glistening, Wyrmish strands of spiritual effluvia, which Banes find it easier to pierce (–1 to the local Gauntlet for Wyrm spirits only). When they work on the great Pattern Webs that span cities, the strands they weave act as efficient superhighways for Banes. When a Hunter Spider scans for enemies in need of destruction, they heed the distress cries of Banes and treat them as a summons of the Weaver. When a Net-Spider ushers data packets from place to place, it subtly taints them, imparting a negative tone to digital communications, or promoting data loss or corruption in vital transactions. The individual effect of this Charm upon any action is small, but the cumulative result is a spirit that remakes Gaia into the Wyrm’s image as efficiently and tirelessly as its brothers and sisters calcify the world into the Weaver’s design.

Image: The average Rust Spider closely resembles a Pattern Spider, or whatever sort of spirit it was before its corruption. Indeed, from a distance it might even be mistaken for one. Upon closer inspection, the spirit’s altered nature is unmistakable; its shining body is cor-

roded and pitted, while unwholesome organic growths replace formerly mechanical elements. The overall first impression is that the spirit has contracted some form of biomechanical cancer, and its movements bear this out. They’re shuddering and jerky, lacking the elegant clock-work precision that is the usual hallmark of the Weaver.

Background

Some Rust Spiders are “naturally occurring,” appearing at the peripheries of blights, Pits, and other badly Wyrm-tainted areas of the Umbra. More often, Black Spiral Dancers create Rust Spiders through the Gift: Claws of Corrosion (see p. 121). This is often part of establishing an urban Pit, transforming the city’s spiritual antibodies into guardians and reinforcements for the spiritual power of the nascent Wyrm-caern. Because many Rust Spiders are non-aggressive if left alone, less-experienced Garou are sadly apt to overlook them, treating them almost as a background detail. Only those canny in the ways of the Wyrm are likely to recognize dense concentrations of Rust Spiders as a likely sign that a Pit is somewhere nearby.

Storytelling Notes: Rust Spiders work well as set pieces for urban stories, showing that the war for Gaia is bigger than a simple clash of Wyrm vs. Garou. Even the cold, terrible purity of the Weaver is a target for the Wyrm’s poisons as the Apocalypse looms. This is a particularly sobering threat for Glass Walker characters.