Town guardian question (spoiler)

[Lojaan]

Hi all, I only have the first book in the AP so could someone tell me if it is narratively important for Ugly Cute to be a giant stone spider? Is there a a larger spider theme that gets more developed later in the AP or something?

I would like to swap it out for another animal and I am wondering if that will mess up things that are supposed to happen later on, like if I changed it to a giant toad, or a two headed tanuki or something?

Thanks!

[Sibelius Eos Owm]

I haven't started with Season of Ghosts myself, yet, but speaking generally, Shenmen is kind of the "Spiders and Ghosts" country in Tian Xia. Giant spiders in the country are said to occupy an ecological niche similar to wolves as a common mid-sized predator. Spiders in general are likewise viewed in the country as wards against evil and disease. Furthermore, though this is explicitly after the time of the AP, present day Shenmen is ruled by shapeshifting spider-people called jorogumo who came down from the mountains when Lung Wa collapsed, to my understanding.

If Shenmen is known for one thing, it's ghosts, but if it's known for two things, it's spiders and ghosts.

All that said, the SoG Player's Guide seems to imply that jorogumo are not a major running theme of the AP, so while there may be some appearance of the jorogumo, the actual themes feature more heavily around reincarnation and the 'ghosts' part of 'spiders and ghosts'.

Again, speaking as someone who isn't privy to the latter books either, and is making a judgement call based on what generally I've heard. Personally I'm excited to present Ugly Cute as a 'friendly' spider to illustrate that spiders even in Shenmen aren't inherently a symbol of evil.

[James Jacobs]

Spiders are a recurring theme in Shenmen, and thus in Season of Ghosts. If you want to change Ugly Cute, that's fine—but I suggest picking a thematic animal to replace all of the spider themed and spider shaped creatures in the Adventure Path and presenting that version of Shenmen to your PCs as your table's canon... assuming that you're looking to do so to address an arachnophobia situation in your group.