Crawlerling

Crawlerling
The Crawlerling form is very hard to grasp. It resembles a swarm of small spiders. The number of spiders and their individual sizes vary, though the total mass is roughly equal to that in Pithus.

In Crawlerling the Ananasi can only speak the special language of the Ananasi, or communicate as regular spiders do, either with a single spider, or with many somewhat like a chorus.

This is considered breed form of Arachnid Ananasi,[I] and it is used for hiding, spying, escaping, stepping sideways to and from the Umbra, and in many other situations, but almost never in combat. It can spin enormous amounts of webs (without spending blood), but it is just regular spider webs.

Assign leaders: The Ananasi decide each time she shifts into this form which and how many spiders are leaders, and what memories are kept in which one. Most Ananasi have a default set of leaders with predetermined sets of memories. Any number from one to ten works just fine, but over this there is a +1 difficulty on all Perception and Willpower rolls for each extra leader, and a +1 difficulty on all Wits rolls for every two extra leaders. Spiders not assigned as leaders are referred to as "drones".

Taking damage: Once in Crawlerling form the Ananasi does not take health levels when damaged, but individual spiders are instead killed. Losing drones just cause loosing mass, but with enough mass lost the ability to shift form is lost. For each leader that dies, the memories stored in that one is lost forever. At the storyteller's discretion this might include Ability dots, Gifts, or even basic motor functions like how to control the bladder. If all leaders are killed, the Ananasi is reduced to a collection of spiders that will go their separate ways and live normal spider lives. What really is dangerous in this form are things that causes damage over a large area, and especially fire. Strong pesticides also causes serious problem (but not in the other forms, at least no more than for an ordinary human).

Ignore all effects of lost health levels while in Crawlerling. Even an Ananasi that would be Incapacitated or unconscious in her other forms will be just fine in her Crawlerling form.[I]

Gifts and Rites: Unless otherwise specified, an Ananasi in Crawlerling can use these just fine.[I]

Healing damage: An Ananasi in Crawlerling does not truly heal. But neither does an Ananasi in this form truly suffer from wounds taken in other forms (ignore wound penalties while in Crawlerling). The mass from lost drones are replaced by eating animal protein (usually insects, but especially spiders as that is far more effective). Once the spiders collectively have reached enough mass, the Ananasi can once again shift to other forms. An Ananasi can not spend blood points in this form to heal health levels in this form. Neither does she heal naturally, and she can't even be healed with Gifts. She will therefore be just as wounded when returning to another form as when shifted. She may however regain both lost Gnosis and Blood points, just as in other forms.

The Gift Replenishment of the Flesh can however be used to heal health levels while in Crawlerling.

Recovering from massive loss: As long as a single leader survives, the Ananasi still lives. Loosing most leaders can have more consequences that simply loss of some memories. The Ananasi who eventually reforms is likely to have at least somewhat changed personality (Nature and Demeanor), changed appearance in all her forms (including Homid).

Unconscious Archanids: If an Archanid Ananasi fall unconscious she will automatically assume this form, and have her usual set of leaders, with their usual assigned sets of memories. If she does not have a usual set of leader, there will be only one single leader (with all memories). In this form she will be completely aware and unharmed (some drones might be dead), but generally it a good idea is to escape. Note that Ananasi (like other shapeshifters) who simply fall asleep usually remain in the current form.[I]

An Arachid Ananasi who is killed in another form will assume Crawlerling for one final time. Her usual set of leaders (if any) will be dead, but her drones (some of them, most likely most of them) will be alive and scamper away and from this moment be just ordinary spiders.[I]

Combat: Crawlerling is not meant for combat. Just about any attack from any kind of weapon will instantly kill any spider (if necessary think of each spider as having a single health level, and not being able to soak). They can however use two kinds of attacks; engulf, and injection. The normal Bite attack do not really apply in this form. While the venom of each individual spider is weak, a lot of spiders can bite collectively injecting a large amount of venom. If as many spiders that can fit bite a single individual all inject, assume combined the potency to be comparable to the venom in Pithus form (counts as a having spent a dosage in the other forms).[I]

The engulf maneuver do Strength in lethal damage. This is however not the Strength 0 in the Crawlerling form, but the unmodified (Homid) level that is used for this purpose. An Ananasi who engage in this maneuver can't exactly dodge attacks, but the opponent can usually at most kill a few spiders per attack. A swarmed opponent are open for the injection maneuver, but unless the Ananasi spend a blood point for an extra action or split her actions for two attacks, the engulf maneuver is temporary broken, and the opponent can breath.[C]

Movement: The Crawlerling form can get trough very narrow openings, and independent of if the Ananasi have the Gifts to in other forms climb on walls and similar, she may do so in this form. The total mass of Crawlerling may be roughly equal to that of the Pithus form, but it is so spread out that most surfaces easily can bear it's weight. It is possible to move, a few spiders at the time, through small openings, such as a ventilation, or to spread out and hide each spider in places no one would look for a person or a monster, like in a flowerpot, behind some books, and on the underside of a table. Many obstacles can also be crossed with webs. All these attributes combined means that an Ananasi can get into most places with relative ease. This form is however not fast, and an Ananasi in it may at most move as fast as a human walks. Proportionally the jumping ability of an individual spider may be impressive, but it is still just a few inches at the most.[I]

Stepping sideways: Crawlerling is the only form that allows the Ananasi to step sideways into or from the Umbra. As this form is quite weak, it is not many things they could bring over with them the way other Fera can. Ananasi can be brought over through other means, and they can travel over moon bridges and similar the same way as other Fera.[I] Once in the Umbra, they can assume any form they wish, though most prefer to use only Crawlerling and Pithus there.

Partial transformation: It is possible for an Ananasi to partially transform into Crawlerling, just like to any other form, as per the usual rules. Just like other transformation to and from Crawlerling this induces full Delirium in humans, and it is very unsettling even for many supernatural creatures. This can for example be that an Ananasi transforms her arm into a number of spiders of a mass roughly equal to the mass of the arm, transform her jaw into a single quite large spider, or a bit of blood to a few small spiders. If this "mini Crawlerling" is to do something a bit more sophisticated a bit away or in another room, one or two leaders must also be created to coordinate the drones. Most (at least three quarters) of the Ananasi's consciousness and memories must remain in her main body. If most of the spiders that composes the limb are killed, it is in affect amputated, though it may be healed back as if it was aggravated damage. It is even possible to transform for the head, neck, torso or abdomen to Crawlerling in this way, though extremely risky, because if those most of those spiders should die, the Ananasi is most likely killed instantly, not to mention how hard it is to maneuver when missing the head or being "cut" in two parts like that.[I]

The other way around is also possible, that the Ananasi in Crawlerling manifest a hand, limb or even head from any of the other forms. At least one leader must be part of this transformation to control such body part. These manifested body parts are however quite useless, as the Crawlerling form is to weak to move it around. A manifested human mouth may however speak, or bite something that is placed between the jaws, a manifested hand might turn a knob, and a manifested head can pretend to be dead. If a manifested body part is destroyed, the spiders that composed it is killed, but the Ananasi may reform it from other spiders. That means that if a manifested head is "killed", the Ananasi is just fine (aside from the lost memories).[I]

Spread out: There is actually no theoretical limitation on how far away the different drones and leaders that constitutes the Crawlering form can be (except for those with the Merit Hive Mind). However, few Ananasi are willing to spread out their Crawlerling form very far, as that would mean that it would take more time to reform. If a few drones are unable to get to the rest, it is no big deal, as the Ananasi can reform without them (and by doing this "amputate" those drones so they would become normal spiders), but if to many of them or a leader or two are missing, the Ananasi is forced to do both a normal shifting and a partial transformation to leave for example a limb in Crawlerling to compensate for the missing mass. If either of these fail, the Ananasi is at the moment unable to change form from Crawlerling. If some leaders are missing but the Ananasi otherwise has enough mass she can opt to "amputate" them as she transform to another form. The memories in those leaders will be lost, and they will be ordinary spiders, but at the Storyteller's discretion the Ananasi might be able to regain them if she can manage to find those spiders and once again incorporate them.[I]

Downtime: If an Ananasi spreads out her consciousness through the entire mass of Crawlerling she will lose herself to the instincts and act like lots of individual spiders, with the only real difference that they will remain in the general area and will not attack one another. The Ananasi will reform when a simple rite wake her up, Queen Ananasa calls her to service, or she instinctively feels that her "vacation" is over. This downtime can be for as short as a few days or as long as several decades. About half of all Ananasi are slumbering like this at any given time. Even those with a true Hive Mind (a Merit) can do this.

A new start: An Ananasi who in Crawlerling has been reduced to just a few spiders have the option to try to eat her way into the brain of a living (preferable unconscious) human, and from there eat the body from the inside. If the process succeeds the Ananasi will assume the form of the human she ate as her new Homid form (including age, gender, etc), and she will even have the memories of the human she ate (though they are a bit muted and she usually can distinguish them from her own). The process costs the Ananasi one permanent dot of Gnosis. Queen Ananasa's blessing is required for this process to work, and she will deny it to those she feels abuses it (and to those who are not loyal to her).

Procreation: Despite the increased opportunities for procreation in the Crawlerling form, and the incredible vast number of offspring afterwards, the overall chances for having a single Ananasi as an offspring as a result is still roughly comparable to that of other Fera.[E][I]