The Tortula is a spider that typically dwells in deep caves and holes. Their main source of food is the spiritual life force of other living creatures; it obtains this with the help of its unique webbing that's been called "soul web."

The soul web is woven along the walls and ceilings of its cave; as it sets, it gains a very elastic property. When prey reaches the right spot, the Tortula will trigger the soul web to spring onto the unsuspecting creature, and it will quickly weave even more web until the prey cannot hope to escape. As the prey struggles to break free, the soul web absorbs their life force, causing it to glow an eerie green. Later on, the Tortula will cut away the glowing soul web and eat it for the life force it has collected. Amazingly, the prey itself is never consumed, though its eventual fate may vary (more on that later).

If the situation occurs where the prey stops moving, either from exhaustion or defiance, the Tortula will utilize some method to encourage their prey to keep moving. Sometimes it just uses intimidating gestures to make the prey struggle again, but sometimes it will use its sharp retractable claws to painfully prod and scratch at the helpless prey. Worst-case scenario, it will bite the prey with its fangs, where its venom will cause all their muscles to spasm involuntarily. It gets the job done, but the venom dilutes the life force a lot. Plus Tortula seem to enjoy tormenting their prey.

Tortula have been seen in a wide range of sizes -- from as small as an average tarantula to roughly human size. Both ends of this range have advantages and drawbacks. Smaller Tortula have to take a lot more time end energy to make effective traps, but they don't require as much to satisfy their hunger, meaning most large captives are able to survive those Tortula encounters. The same can't be said for the larger Tortula; even though they can make traps in less than a few minutes, they often have to drain everything from their victims to get anywhere close to a satisfying amount of sustenance.

One other thing to mention about the Tortula... there are some that take their Spectral Force and apply it to attracting prey. Typically any prey that are fully drained of life force are usually just cast out for some other creature to eat. But every once in a while it will take a barely-living captive and string web strings around its limbs, channeling the consumed life force through the captive's body and controlling them like a puppet. The puppet-creature will then attempt to signal other creatures to follow it into the cave, where the clever, hungry Tortula will have a soul web trap waiting for them...