> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # Amulet of the Arachnid Queen > [![[Codex/Assets/Items/Amulet_of_the_Arachnid_Queen_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](Codex/Assets/Items/Amulet_of_the_Arachnid_Queen.webp) > ###### Basic Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Item | > ###### Item Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Item Type | Wondrous Item (Amulet) | > Owner | [[The Bloody Nails]] | > Origin | Ancient Underdark make | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Active | The **Amulet of the Arachnid Queen** is a spider-shaped wondrous item of ancient Underdark make, prized for the easy dominion it grants over arachnids and the way it lets its bearer walk sheer stone and ceilings as though they were level ground. Beautiful and faintly sinister in equal measure, it is the kind of pretty, watchful thing that seems to belong to the deep places of the world rather than the surface — and how it came to be there at all remains a mystery. ## Description #### Appearance The amulet is a spider wrought in dark, antique gold, poised above a large glowing magenta gem that forms its swollen abdomen, with teardrop-cut purple gemstones set around the body like a cluster of secondary eyes. It hangs from a plain black cord, an unassuming setting for so striking a piece. The purple "eyes" catch and hold the light, and the whole of it carries a beauty that sits just on the wrong side of comfortable. ## Properties Those who have worn the amulet describe its gifts plainly. While it is worn, the bearer can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and along ceilings without using their hands, climbing as swiftly as they walk. They can also exchange simple, basic messages with ordinary spiders. Once a day, the wearer can call on a deeper power: for an hour, lesser arachnids in the area will heed and obey their commands. > [!example] ***In Game Item Text:*** > An amulet shaped in the form of a spider. > > Provides the following passive benefits: > - You can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and along ceilings, while leaving your hands free. You have a Climb Speed equal to your Speed. > - Can communicate basic messages to spiders > > Can be activated once per day to gain one of the following benefits: > - Command lesser arachnids for 1 hour ## History The amulet's origins are visibly ancient and bound up with the Underdark, the lightless world beneath Elandis. When the party brought it before Archivist Elrohir at the Confluence of the Seven, he recognised it on sight as old Underdark construction, the work of some spider-revering power of the deep — though nothing has yet confirmed who made it, and the piece keeps its secrets close. How such a relic came to rest in the depths beneath [[The Ruby Falls Goldmine]], in the keeping of the ancient drider [[Nelfandriss the Banished]], is unknown. She held it for a very long time before it ever passed to mortal hands. ## Current Owner The amulet now belongs to [[The Bloody Nails]]. It was given to them by [[Nelfandriss the Banished]] as a token of goodwill, sealing the treaty they struck with her over the goldmine, and it has since become one of the party's most relied-upon tools. ### [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 24 - Nelfandriss The Banished]] Deep beneath [[The Ruby Falls Goldmine]], rather than fight the immense, ancient drider they found guarding the depths, the party chose diplomacy. [[Nelfandriss the Banished]] revealed she was only defending her home from the [[Empress Morganna Eventide|Empire's]] intrusion, and a treaty was struck: the party would report the mine inaccessible, and she would let their allies work it quietly. As a token of the alliance, Nelfandriss gifted them the amulet and shared disturbing lore about [[Empress Morganna Eventide|Empress Morganna]]. #### [[Session 28 - The Underrun]] Battered and covered in sludge after a gruelling passage through the flooded tunnels beneath the city — surviving brown mould and a swarm of corrosive Black Puddings — the party used the amulet together with a *Rope of Climbing* to escape through a fissure in the cavern ceiling, emerging into the fresh air of the wintry grasslands north of the city. #### [[Session 47 - Confluence of the Seven]] At the Confluence of the Seven, [[Eryndor]] produced the amulet and Archivist Elrohir identified it immediately as ancient Underdark work. It surfaced alongside the party's recollection of the four planar rifts they had encountered — among them the Arachnid Queen's cave — drawing a quiet line between the trinket and far stranger things. ## Trivia - The amulet's name comes from its form and its gifts rather than any inscription — the identity of the "Arachnid Queen" it honours is unknown, and a matter of uneasy speculation among those who have studied it. - Its violet gemstone "eyes" are arranged in a deliberate cluster, echoing the many-eyed heads of the spiders it commands.