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.

Bonus Pool Mechanics

• When rubbed, this item will remove all field experience from the skill it has been turned to. This Experience will be converted into bonus pool bits for the skill's Skillset [Armor, Weapon, Survival, Magic, and Lore].
• It is mildly inefficient, insofar as you lose a small number of bits in the transfer process.
• It can be used once every 10 minutes (subject to tweaking).
• You cannot use the same skillset twice in a row. You need to vary it up a little bit each time (you can jump back and forth though, so Armor Magic Armor Magic is valid, but Magic Magic isn't).
• EXP BONUS to check the current levels of your various bonus pools.
• EXP BONUS TOGGLE ARMOR | WEAPON | SURVIVAL | MAGIC | LORE will turn your bonus on and off. You MUST have some bits already in the specific experience bonus pool before you can toggle it off. In addition to messaging you receive when you do a toggle, if you check your pools again with an EXP BONUS, there will be additional messaging at the end of the line(s) if that skill pool is turned off, additionally there is a limit to a single skill you can boost into at once:

Your Lore pool could fill one empty skill to <number> ranks. This pool is currently turned off.

Your Survival pool could fill 1 empty skill to 200 ranks and one empty skill to 145 ranks. This pool is currently turned off.

• If you do not have any experience in a bonus pool type, it will not display in EXP BONUS.

Appearance Alteration

• If you have something that's a valid metal for the forging system, you can feed it to your tarantula to change its metallic components.
• This is cosmetic only, but it's neat and should work with any metal present or future.
• Doing so will consume the entire source of metal, be it 1 volume or 100. Use small ingots.
• You can recycle some weapons/armors this way, depending on how they're set up with respect to our metallurgy system. However, items that are bonded, registered, or flagged internally as do-not-delete cannot be eaten this way.
• Tarantula alterations: The item must remain a type of spider, but noun changes are totally ok within that limitation (see this post for details, including approved nouns). It also must remain largely constructed of metal, but may have other materials added as embellishments. Once altered, it will no longer eat metals to change its appearance.

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Additional Information

• steel biomechanical harvester spider: variant of this item sold in the Sleeping Dragon Corn Maze.