Name: Harper Spiders (Also go by Harpoon legs, gentleman spiders, and anything else you want to call them so long as it is friendly and pertains to them being spiders.)

Race: Beast

Sub-race: Insect

Place on the Pyramid of Power (PPP): Predator (cannot do magic without talents, or direction. Not super smart, but committed to their purpose)

World: Xentos

Habitat: Cities, towns, villages, much less common in the wild. Harpers are typically found in the kingdom of Eclipse, but small groups have made their way to the Northern Kingdom, and Kingdom of Light. While the kingdom of Fire has not accepted them, the pirates of the sea have. They can be found in villages on the border between the kingdoms.

Concept: The males are generally cat sized, while the females are typically kitten sized. The Don Harper, aka the Queen, is merely the biggest of the three sitting around the size of a small dog.

It is important to note, that Harpers will generally reflect their surroundings. A Harper gang in the city will typically have little black bumps on their heads to reflect caps. Their fur or chitin will reflect their surroundings, in that they will be the most abundant color in their area. Harpers living in a winter village will typically be white and blue with silk caps and fuzz attached to their bumps. Harpers living in a barn will be more yellow or green depending on the crops. Some of them will even carry tiny little pieces of grass or straw in their fangs to reflect the farmers they are around. Don't expect every Harper gang to be the same, make them different if a key figure in the community is different. Harpers should be like a mirror to reflect the best parts of the area your characters are going into.

You can have an entire Harper gang missing a single eye, because the local fisherman that runs the show only has one eye. They will likely help give each other those scars, because they are like parrots in that sense. Instead of repeating words and sounds they hear, they try to endear themselves to the perceived leader of the area. The slum Harpers don't really have a leader to reflect, because the slum leaders are all in the Underground. Thus they copy the general idea that people want to go to bars, collect coin, and party when they have the chance. The key thing is that they should be little helpers, that add flavor to an area.

At best, Harpers should have the intelligence of children. If they live in a library, they can have little monocles and top hats, but they cannot actually read. They cannot write, but they can express themselves through song. They can play music with their strings, and are attracted to people that can sing or play different instruments. They will happily join in street performances, offering a sense of free ambiance. If asked questions the Don might direct the other Harpers to reply with the appropriate tone, and notes. Though they cannot offer anything very meaningful.

If you have someone in the party that can talk to bugs, or creatures. I'd say let them be able to talk to the Harpers. Though their answers should be appropriately silly, and slightly unhelpful. Like say there was a guy running away from the guards. They would describe him just as a guy carrying a large egg sac. It would take some very clever questioning to get more details.

Player: "Did he have any distinguishing features?"

Harper: "Yes, he had features. Pretty sure it was a he." Scratches head.

P: "How about a cape?"

H: "He fluttered, but couldn't fly." (You get the idea.)

The most important thing is to have fun with the Harpers. They are supposed to be comic relief in a game, as well as hinting at who might be leading an area. They can even be around a bad guy's lair, to suggest he might not be so bad after all. Harpers are never to be evil outright, and they genuinely don't like hurting things bigger than them.

Biology: Honestly, better to read the spoiler for this one. A typically Harper will take two months to mature to their adult form. During this time, they will take on the local colors, and imprint on the behaviors of the local race.

Male Harpers are completely covered in bristle hair, much like a tarantula. With a different shade for their fangs to make it appear as if they have a mustache. All Harper males lack venom sacks, but make up for it with powerful fangs that can bite into bone. The male Harper has hollow fangs, that will allow them to drain the blood of whatever they bite into. Though they typically only do this to their prey. They will not attack people with this method, unless they are actively harming a child or disabled. The males are typically darker than the females.

Unlike female Harpers, the males cannot spin webs too well. That said, they are able to rapidly expel their threads in a large clump to bind prey, or enemies for up to five minutes. Their webs are extremely sticky to the point that water will not wash it away. The males can only do this once per day, and the amount is enough to engulf a person's fist. They tend to not do this inside their homes, since it is messy and a hassle to clean up.

Female Harpers are sleek, and smaller than the males. They have softer bristles at the end of their legs, kind of like wisps of fur. This essentially makes it look like they have pom poms on their feet. The females are typically lighter in color compared to their male counterparts. They also have smooth silk for their webs, and can change the stickiness, durability and so on. This is slightly better than a real life spider's webbing. Females will work in groups to build the actual nests of these spiders. These nests are typically elevated, or located in the roof of a building. Harpers sleep in small cubbies, in pairs.

The females also take care of the cleaning that is required. Often they can be seen picking dirt and debris from their webs, fixing frayed bits here and there. They will set up traps as directed by their don, but otherwise are content to just roam around the area tidying up everything. They are compulsive cleaners, and will even clean people if they hold out a hand for them to crawl on. Typically the females are just a little smarter than the males. Females also have paralyzing venom sacks. A bite can make a person feel numb, with the affected limb becoming difficult to move.

The Don is essentially the alpha female of the gang. They grow to be the biggest, and smartest of the group. The don will most accurately reflect the leader of the community, and might even follow them around to copy their habits. There will always be a don, where there are 20 Harpers in an area. The largest an individual gang will get is 100 of them. After that, they break up and split apart to spread out as different gangs.

As for the process of a female becoming a Don, it boils down to an elaborate dance and song competition. Essentially the female in question has to play the best song, to gather the support of the males. The dance is to gather support from the other females. The one that wins will gain their 'crown' over the course of three days. They will eat more, and start to molt and grow bigger over the course of weeks.

The Don has many jobs to do, from guiding females to setting traps, to directing how food is split among the group. If a Don is unable to perform their task anymore, they will retreat into the wild on their own. Even if they grow old, they will simply disappear from the gang after telling a few females they won't be coming back. The Don has a more potent venom, that can paralyze a healthy person with one bite. It will not harm them, but as with other females they can only do this once or twice a day.

Diet: Carnivore (Pests, strays, very rarely terrible people)

Relationships: Harpers should not be aligned with any specific faction, as they are unable to critically think about the future. They serve as a neutral faction themselves, that merely exists to safeguard the youth and disabled of a population. Naturally this serves to put them in the good graces of any faction they come across. It means less currency is needed to properly police a population, since these spiders will handily take care of certain issues.

They also serve as a form of pest control, since Harpers will only eat small creatures, and avoid eating pets. That said, they will eat strays which helps to keep that population down as well. Because of this, they are most likely to be found in cities.

Harpers will form individual gangs, and they will fight over territory or resources. That said, these 'brawls' will typically consist of their respective Queens 'fighting' each other. They get a set number of each type of Harper, and move as a unit to 'assassinate' the enemy Queen. To onlookers this will appear like a crude form of chess mixed with American football. The enemy queen is considered 'assassinated' when the other Queen and a male, or two females are able to pounce on them. Naturally no actual injury is given to either party.

These same gangs will recognize one another, and if one is in trouble, they will move into their territory to help each other out. After all, to Harpers, it is better to have more friends than enemies. If there is a famine, or some sort of resource deficiency in an area. Gangs will have another brawl. The loser will be forced to move out, and find a new place to stay. Which works both ways, since there are some cases where it is a bigger benefit to move on. In either instance, both gangs will exchange their members with an understand on how many could reasonably stay in the worst case. This often ends up with the 'victor' getting a much smaller gang at half it's original size.

Harpers have a life span of five years for males, six for females, and ten for the Don. They do not live long, but will imprint on people that treat them well. It is not uncommon for gangs without a Don, to follow around a child that feeds them or otherwise provides them with care. They will also follow adults, or others that treat them well, provided they are not completely evil in nature.

Romance: Bashful males, and gentle females. The Harper cannot reproduce with other races, or beasts. There are exceptions with certain monsters that kind of overlook certain issues however. That said, the mating ritual of the Harper involves the male offering something precious to it, to the female he wishes to court. This offering can be anything from a piece of glass, to their favorite blade of leaf.

The female will either reject it by gently nudging it back towards their suitor, or accept it. They will spend a night together in the same cubbie, before asking the Don to accept their union. Harpers only have a single mate in their short life spans, and will only mate when the Don plays a love song. This is the signal that they will accept to breed, with their partners, and move as a gang to lay their eggs somewhere secure.

Depending on the location, or nature of the community. The Harper's may either choose to protect their eggs until they are a day away from hatching, or trust the locals to protect them. Unlike other species of insects, the Harper will not die after laying their clusters of eggs. Each Harper female will lay up to 10 small eggs, and wrap them in webbing together. These new Harpers will work together to eat their way out of the webbing, bonding with each other as family members.

Young Harpers will move as a single family to join another family to create a small gang. This small gang will seek out another older gang for guidance.

Creation: Harpers were created with the death of a man named Bo'chi. Bo'chi himself was a man with the talent known as ascension. He became a spirit, rapidly rising to the level of a lesser god. He chose to use the powers he gained, to create a new race known as the Harper spiders. Due to the hardships Bo'chi had in life, he decided to become a spirit of protection. He sought to help those like him, with his creation. Yet, because he was a young god he used all of his strength on this task. Now the Harpers follow their purpose, and seek to restore enough faith in Bo'chi to help him finish ascending.

Purpose: Due to their creator being abused as a child, to the point that he himself became disable. Harpers seek to rid the world of such plight. Due to this desire on their creator's part, all Harpers will work together to keep children and the disabled safe. If their creator ascends further, it is likely they will also be gifted with more power to protect others better. They wish for guidance from their creator, and so they strum songs on their strings asking for such. Yet, Bo'chi is asleep, and so they carry out the order he gave them. One day, they hope their creator shall awake and guide them.

Lore: Harpers are very common in Eclipse, given that they are protected by the law to some extent. It is not uncommon for nobles to pay Entomancers to guide new families of Harpers to their homes. This is because they are seen as a sort of status symbol among the more reputable noble families. Given how impressionable Harpers are, and how easy it is for them to adapt to most locations, you can see a large variety of them.

The King of Eclipse uses Harpers as a gauge to know what nobles he can really trust to at least be decent. He especially watches those that have tried to acquire Harpers, but those same spiders either died or left the estate. Given that the King considered himself a friend of Bo'chi, he allows the Harpers mostly free reign over the city, and they have since spread out because of this. The Harpers have been around since the founding of Eclipse, after the fall of Dark Fell.

While it is rare, Harpers can be found in the wild. These groups are typically pushed out due to other gangs, or were passengers aboard a caravan that dropped them off. It is equally likely that they were discovered as egg sacks and just left out in the forest, or wherever they were discovered given the fact that they are spider eggs. It is not impossible for these Harpers to be raised by wolves, trolls, or other such creatures and act more tribal in a sense. Though the iron clad rule of not hurting children or the disable still remains within them.

Fun Ideas: Pirate Harpers, enough said.

Subtle plot twist that bad guy is actually really nice guy.

Cowboy Harpers using little lasso threads.

Fisherman Harpers that help an old fisherman come to terms with his wife passing on.

Feel free to use them to write your own stories, or even in campaigns! You can change them as you want, since they are supposed to be versatile. Though they aren't Harpers if they don't protect the children and disabled!