The Beast Fears Fire - Money Spiders

Money Spiders [Want 2]
Impulse - Money Spiders gonna... Spide... Money?

Spiders are pretty self-sufficient creatures, and, generally speaking, the only two things they need are respect for their hunting grounds and what food they can catch off of same. Only one of these things relies on other spiders. They developed society as a response to encroachment on their territory, but an economy was kind of slow in following. Spider histories are pheromonal, and humans can't interpret them, but what we know of the development of spider economy is that it started with a lot of arrangements along the lines of "I'll let you eat this thing I caught so you don't eat me or drive me out of here."

The Spiders claim that a cannibalistic society is a polite society.

Spider economy, as it stands, is more of a labor-barter system, transferrable through pheromone tags and somewhat rudimentary, but there is a class among the spider population that has grasped onto the abstraction of economics, and, in spider fashion, has bound it up and tried to suck all the juices out of it. Sorry, been involved in a couple of deals with money spiders and come out a little sore. I'll stop editorializing.

Money spiders are a little bigger and stronger than most, a little hairier and with a thicker carapace. When you see them, they are usually carrying bundles of their wares harnessed to their abdomens or encased in webbing. Some of them in Crickton affect straw hats, held to their heads with silk, after the fashion of local peddlers. They have a rudimentary vocal system that allows them to sort of speak, a weird polyphonic sort of voice that isn't any more reassuring than the standard spider hollow hiss. Money Spiders enjoy talking, loudly, and they have the uncanny ability to speak entirely different conversations at one time, in multiple languages of the sea. Unlike most spiders, they enjoy making loud declarations in Pelagic while simultaneously cutting them down in Littoral or even Neretic (the last of which Cricks rarely speak or know more than 50 words).

Harm - 2/Peril [Poisoned or Sick] Money Spiders are bigger and usually better suited for martial pursuits than a lot of their brethren, this being mostly because their vocation puts them into contact with a lot of other species, and occasionally because banditry is not entirely beyond the money spider remit. People who study the spiders tend to hold that marauders are basically money spiders who aren't good at math. As such, their jaws and venom are fairly formidable, but they rarely go in for the less proven modifications that marauders prefer.

Money spiders are also quite adept at rhetoric and haggling, can hold multiple conversations at once and have such disorienting and disquieting vocal apparatus that their bargaining style almost counts as a martial adaptation. If you are bargaining with a money spider on anything, however mundane or well within your resources to just purchase, you must always face Want.

If you are a Money Spider, you have the ability to confuse other creatures (even other spiders) with your speaking style (hell, you're actually harder on other spiders, because you can use your palps and pheromones on them).

What Was I Saying?
When you want to confuse and browbeat someone into doing what you want or giving you a better deal, face Want.
On a Hit, you can choose one of the following (Sweeten the Deal | Unnerve or Dismay Target | Send them off Muttering and Confused | Make them Forget the Details)
On a Hard Hit, choose 2.
On a Miss, immediately roll a Walking Man's Road, -1 Hit Forward. You have totally unnerved your trading partner.

You can save that for the birds and bees
Money spiders understand the idea of trade as an intellectual construct, mostly, but they pursue it with the emotional content of a predator trying to get a meal. They are no one's favorite merchant, but they are the only game in town for most spider-made goods. Also, there are some unscrupulous characters who enjoy selling debt they own (or threatening to sell debt they own) to money spiders, as money spiders aren't upset or intimidated by collection negotiations. They upset. They intimidate. Selling debt to spiders (or anything that is not a physical good) is technically illegal in Crickton, but law enforcement is not what it once was, so it does happen.

Goblins find money spiders endlessly amusing, and some money spiders do tend stalls at goblin markets, but these spiders tend to be the ones down on their luck. Goblin amusement tends to be abusive and injurious in the long run, and spiders who make a habit out of interacting with goblins tend to end up worn down and basically enslaved.