full
Vellum Lurker
Medium aberration
AC 15 / HP 66 / CR 4
A predator that folds itself flat between the pages of unattended books. Vulnerable to fire; regenerates in libraries.
Grimoire.Who is the Black Spider?
Scroll to watch Grimoire find the answer.
SCROLL ↓
Lost Mine of Phandelver, p.50 · Wizards of the Coast · excerpt shown for demonstration
19. TEMPLE OF DUMATHOIN
A full-page illustration of Nezznar, the Black Spider. He is a tall, slender drow with pale skin and long, thin limbs. He wears a dark, flowing robe with a red lining and a long, dark cape. He holds a long, thin staff in his right hand, whi
TREASURE
TREASURE
Nezznar carries a potion of healing and a spider staff. In addition, the drow carries an iron key with a head shaped like an anvil. This key unlocks the door to area 20.
Nezznar's exploration of Wave Echo Cave has yielded some tr
AWARDING EXPERIENCE POINTS
AWARDING EXPERIENCE POINTS
If Nezznar is captured alive and delivered to Sildar Hallwinter or Townmaster Wester in Phandalin, award the party double his XP value.
20. PRIESTS' QUARTERS
20. PRIESTS' QUARTERS
The door to this room is locked, requiring thieves' tools and a successful DC 15 Dexterity check to open. Nezznar (area 19) carries the key.
Unless the characters are being stealthy, any activity at the door attracts
DEVELOPMENTS
DEVELOPMENTS
Nundro is grateful if the adventurers rescue him, and he offers to tag along for the duration of their stay in Wave Echo Cave. Nundro doesn't know any more about the layout than the characters, so he hasn't much to offer in th
ROLEPLAYING NEZZNAR
ROLEPLAYING NEZZNAR
Even though he intends to kill the characters, Nezznar is curious about them. Given the chance, he quizzes the characters at length regarding their identities, allegiances, interests, and goals. He files it all away in
DEVELOPMENTS
DEVELOPMENTS
The creatures in area 18 can hear sounds of combat in this room. If they haven't already been dealt with, they arrive after 3 rounds and act immediately after Nezznar's giant spiders in the initiative count.
If the characters
Unearthed from this page
22 text blocks / 7 passages / 21 people and places / 42 relationships
The entire compendium contains
0
books
0
passages
0
people and places
0
relationships
location 10,017npc 6,052item 4,689creature 3,555table 2,184faction 1,782spell 1,501class_feature 1,267rule 636
Ask the Grimoire.
Every claim shows what it drew on. Click one to see it on the page.
Who is the Black Spider, and what does he actually want?
The Black Spider is Nezznar, a cunning drow wizard who travels in black leather armor and robes while clutching a black staff topped with a carved spider. He's openly pulling the strings behind the Cragmaw goblins and the Redbrands to keep Wave Echo Cave his tightly guarded secret. His actual goal is to reach the Forge of Spells inside that cave. He doesn't truly want your cooperation, even if he'll offer false surrender or promise to help clear out other monsters to keep you moving toward the entrance. He's deeply curious about your identities, allegiances, and objectives, and he files every answer away for potential future use. Don't let his chatter fool you: he intends to kill you the moment you outlive whatever usefulness you have to his plan.
GROUNDED IN
Grimoire.Who is the Black Spider?
The answer is buried in this page of Lost Mine of Phandelver. Grimoire digs it out below.
1 / Reading the page. The scan gets picked apart into headers, columns, asides and art.
Lost Mine of Phandelver, p.50 · Wizards of the Coast · excerpt shown for demonstration
2 / Broken into passages. The page becomes readable passages in the right order, each tagged with the section it came from.
19. TEMPLE OF DUMATHOIN
A full-page illustration of Nezznar, the Black Spider. He is a tall, slender drow with pale skin and long, thin limbs. He wears a dark, flowing robe with a red lining and a long, dark cape. He holds a long, thin staff in his right hand, whi
TREASURE
TREASURE
Nezznar carries a potion of healing and a spider staff. In addition, the drow carries an iron key with a head shaped like an anvil. This key unlocks the door to area 20.
Nezznar's exploration of Wave Echo Cave has yielded some tr
AWARDING EXPERIENCE POINTS
AWARDING EXPERIENCE POINTS
If Nezznar is captured alive and delivered to Sildar Hallwinter or Townmaster Wester in Phandalin, award the party double his XP value.
20. PRIESTS' QUARTERS
20. PRIESTS' QUARTERS
The door to this room is locked, requiring thieves' tools and a successful DC 15 Dexterity check to open. Nezznar (area 19) carries the key.
Unless the characters are being stealthy, any activity at the door attracts
DEVELOPMENTS
DEVELOPMENTS
Nundro is grateful if the adventurers rescue him, and he offers to tag along for the duration of their stay in Wave Echo Cave. Nundro doesn't know any more about the layout than the characters, so he hasn't much to offer in th
ROLEPLAYING NEZZNAR
ROLEPLAYING NEZZNAR
Even though he intends to kill the characters, Nezznar is curious about them. Given the chance, he quizzes the characters at length regarding their identities, allegiances, interests, and goals. He files it all away in
DEVELOPMENTS
DEVELOPMENTS
The creatures in area 18 can hear sounds of combat in this room. If they haven't already been dealt with, they arrive after 3 rounds and act immediately after Nezznar's giant spiders in the initiative count.
If the characters
3 / Who and what is on the page. Every character, place and item gets picked out, along with how they connect.
- Black Spider
- Cragmaw goblins
- Dumathoin's Temple
- Dwarven Ale Mug
- Forge of Spells
- Halia Thornton
- Iron Key
- Lords' Alliance
- Neverwinter
- Nezznar
- Nundro
- Phandalin
- Potion of Healing
- Priests' Quarters
- Redbrands
- Rockseeker brothers
- Sildar Hallwinter
- Spider Staff
- Temple of Dumathoin
- Wave Echo Cave
- Zhentarim
4 / Every book in the library gets the same treatment. In total:
33
books
40,514
passages
33,792
people and places
45,401
relationships
location 10,017npc 6,052item 4,689creature 3,555table 2,184faction 1,782spell 1,501class_feature 1,267rule 636
5 / Grounded answers. Every claim shows what it drew on.
Who is the Black Spider, and what does he actually want?
The Black Spider is Nezznar, a cunning drow wizard who travels in black leather armor and robes while clutching a black staff topped with a carved spider. He's openly pulling the strings behind the Cragmaw goblins and the Redbrands to keep Wave Echo Cave his tightly guarded secret. His actual goal is to reach the Forge of Spells inside that cave. He doesn't truly want your cooperation, even if he'll offer false surrender or promise to help clear out other monsters to keep you moving toward the entrance. He's deeply curious about your identities, allegiances, and objectives, and he files every answer away for potential future use. Don't let his chatter fool you: he intends to kill you the moment you outlive whatever usefulness you have to his plan.
GROUNDED IN NezznarBlack SpiderSpider StaffWave Echo Cave
At the table
demoEach player sees the same creature differently, depending on how much their DM has shared. The creature below is made up for this demo; real ones work the same way.
partial
Vellum Lurker
Medium aberration
AC ▌▌ / HP ▌▌ / CR ▌▌
A predator that folds itself flat between the pages of unattended books. ▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌
name only
Vellum Lurker
You recognise the name. Nothing more.
Roadmap
- Planned Evidence-grounded verification Every stat gets re-checked against the passage it came from, and fixed or removed if it does not match.
- Planned Alias merge Split-name twins ("Gundren" and "Gundren Rockseeker") get merged into one, with a person approving every pair.
- Designed One search everywhere One search box that finds a name as you type, and also finds the passages that describe it.
- Designed Live-play tools Notes and a live view to run a session from.
- Long term Loom migration Move the library onto Loom, so campaign data lives in one place with a record of every change.
The library is free to browse. The interactive tools sit behind a quick human check to keep bots out.