I was perusing the spell wiki appearence post, when I reread the 8-legged kiss spell. Basically it creates a Diameter black widow that bites the enemy causing a medium wound. One would assume that this is because of the venom, not because the spider opens a fist-sized hole in the poor fellow's entrails
Now, the venom would disappwear as well after the spell ends right?
Is the damage kept or would the crippling damage recede as well? In general it would seem from application and design that the damage would be still there, but does the RAW support this?
I believe the spell says that the wounds will disappear.
As for the RAW, I'm not sure. While the venom will disappear, it's damage may last - much like the effects of a Perdo spell. Serf's parma, but I don't think the RAW speaks on this.
I would assume that, since the effects of magically created alcohol vanish with the spell, so would the effects of venom from a magically created spider.
So suddenly you are healthy again? Or would the damage persist?
In other words: what kind of damage causes venom? An imbalance of the humours, I would guess (my knowledge of medieval medicine is nil, mind you): do the humours stay imbalanced when the venom disappears?
A poison is a substance which is extremely hot, cold, moist, or dry (all four exist), so that tissue is damaged on contact with it. Thus the effects of a poison are wounds, not disease symptoms. I would consider this equivalent of being stabbed by a magically-created dagger. The consequences of the dagger remain long after the dagger has disappeared.
On another note, the black widow common in the States is not the same beast as the one found in Europe. The European species (the karakurt) has thirteen red spots on a black field, is only found around the Mediterranean, and is rarely fatal. It is probably the spider responsible for the tarentella myth - that is, the wild frenetic dance was probably a result of ergotism, but it was believed to be transmitted by the spiders who bit the farmers harvesting the crops. Of course, in Mythic Europe, tarentism is spread by faerie spiders (see City & Guild).
I'd say the answer to this question isn't a simple "yes" or "no". Sure, any damage done by the poison while it was existed should remain - but in case of a spider's bite this is probably less than the damage usually done by such a bite. The medium wound abstracts from the fact that the poison does the damage over a period of time, and so the medium wound caused by a black widow represents the complete damage done for a period of time that begins with the bite and ends with the moment when the poison is dissolved in the body. So if the spider were dispelled a combat round or two after the bite, i'd asume that there is no relevant damage at all, and if it only lasts for diameter duration, i'd assume that within these two minutes it might already have done a light wound.
