Item:Biomechanical tarantula

<metal> biomechanical tarantula
Look:	This spider is the size and approximate shape of a large tarantula, though the similarities quickly end there. The spider's abdomen, fangs, and two mismatched pair of legs have been replaced with articulated <metal> parts. The abdomen in particular is covered with a profusion of tiny levers, buttons, and dials with no immediately apparent purpose. Perhaps owing to the seamless inclusion of mechanical parts, the spider appears largely inert. It is warm to the touch and heavy for its size, but bears a stronger resemblance to a taxidermy piece than a living being.
Weight:	30 stones
Metal:	Unknown
Appraised Cost:	Unknown
Properties:	This item is magical. This item is worn in a generic slot. This item has more than normal or unusual verbs.
Dimensions:	1 length x 1 width x 1 height
Sources:	Source is Hollow Eve Festival 432

Overview

• This item was the gift during the Hollow Eve Festival 432 (2019) event, and was found in a metal-reinforced gift trunk in the center of the Baby Spider section of the festival.
• Special appraisal line indicating a soulbond:

You sense a deep connection with the biomechanical tarantula, as if it will be with you always.

Verbs

• FOCUS:

You focus your magical senses on a steel biomechanical tarantula.

There is... something there, but it's hard to put into words. The tarantula is not magical in the technical sense, but there is a shadow of some psychic force that tingles at your magical senses.

While an examination of its magical nature is not very informative, you are certain you could study the biomechanical tarantula with more effectiveness.

• STUDY:

As you examine the biomechanical tarantula, intuitive knowledge of its function and mechanics spring into your short-term memory. You are unable to capture the great majority of the information, but are able to concentrate on the broad strokes.

The biomechanical tarantula is imbued with an unknown psychic power that is concentrated in its venom and can be adjusted by TURNing the various dials and levers along its mechanical abdomen. RUBing the spider will aggitate it to strike, injecting yourself with its psychic venom. The exact nature of the venom and its physiological effects are vastly too complex for this transfer of knowledge to encompass, but it will do something to your mind to consume a portion of your memories and transform it into artifical memories that can be applied more broadly to like-skills.

In addition to this, you can tell that the tarantula can indulge in metallophagia. If SHAKEn with forging metal in the other hand, the tarantula will consume it and somehow change its mechanical components to mirror its meal.

[The biomechanical tarantula is bonded to you without charges.]

Usage

• TURN TARANTULA TO <SKILL>:

You fiddle with the tiny levers and dials of the tarantula's mechanical abdomen. The process is complex, but you feel an intuitive grasp of the mechanism from the moment you touch it.

With a *click*, your changes snap into place. The biomechanical tarantula will now consume <skill> knowledge.

• RUB TARANTULA:

The tarantula comes alive in your hand! It skitters to the top of your spine, moving with far more agility than its metallic heaviness should allow. A sharp stab of pain erupts at the base of your neck as it injects venom into your nervous system!

It is mere moments afterward that you feel an itching, tingling, and crawling sensation all across the inside of your skull. In a mind-wracking flurry of sensation, you find yourself forgetting your recent progress on <skill>, but somehow unbidden knowledge into other <skillset> tasks are mapped into your psyche.