I love me a petrification monster, and have often felt that you can't beat a good cockatrice for a dangerous encounter. In the early days of OSR blogging I read a hilarious story about a fight with a cockatrice; I couldn't find it when searching for it in preparation for this post, but there's one on reddit which is similar and may have been written by the same person (with less verve than the original telling).
I also made good use of a Peacockatrice (a concept which I think our old friend Melan may have come up with in an rpg.net post) in an old Yoon-Suin campaign - it had the ability to cause paralysis with hallucinogenic displays as well as petrification-by-pecking, and was found in an archmage's walled pleasure garden. The PCs killed it with slingstones, but not before one of them had been turned into a statue (which I seem to remember sparked off a lengthy discussion on how much a petrified PC would weigh in cn).
What other cockatrice variants could there be (other than the pyrolisk?). Some ideas that spring to mind (stats as cockatrice unless otherwise stated):
Swanatrice: has +1HD and the touch of its beak turns the victim into water rather than stone; he or she becomes in effect a water weird with none of its magical abilities (and could possibly be carried about in a bucket)
Turkeytrice - the touch of its beak turns the victim into clay, which crumbles easily and is dissolved by rain; the other PCs would need to get it to shelter very quickly if they wanted to find a "cure"
Emutrice - has +2HD and Move 180, and the touch of the beak turns the victim into a dried vegetal husk, like grass in the dry season somehow rendered into a human form
Kiwitrice - has -2HD and the touch of the beak turns the victim's mind into that of a beetle, with all the intelligence and ability to communicate that suggests
Secretary Bird-trice - has +1HD and the touch of the beak turns the victim into a dozen wriggling, squirming snakes who immediately flee in all directions
Quailatrice - has -2HD and the touch of the beak causes permanent incorporeality, such that even the victim's voice can no longer be heard, though a faint remnant of his visage remains visible
I was in a game run by Delta (http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/) this past weekend where he hit us with a roc-atrice. It had something like a 70' wingspan, and a nest full of babies that were each 12' tall.
ReplyDeleteWe thought it was just a normal roc until it started petrifying us (the lucky ones, one of our fighters got disemboweled by its huge talons too).
Terrifying. Simple, yet effective.
LIke it.
DeleteI've loved the idea of cockatrices since I first came across them a few years ago. I think a good one would be a Shriketrice (better name probably exists) who causes plant branches to explode out from their victims, imobilizing them.
ReplyDeleteYep. Birds are terrifying to begin with - something I've written about from time to time.
DeleteThe Quailatrice is lovely. I really like spells/traps/monsters that keep a PC in the game, albeit in a seriously altered way that negates their usual role, and maybe even makes them more useful in specific circumstances.
ReplyDeleteYou could also turn the *atrice on its head, for birds that do other, more benign stuff:
Unlockatrice - a chicken whose gaze that unlocks even magical doors.
Uncockatrice - a chicken whose gaze turns stone to flesh.
Cockatruce - a chicken whose gaze turns foes to friends.
Cockaslice - a chicken whose beak pecks holes in reality.
All monsters should have a variant that pecks holes in reality.
Yeah, I know what you mean - I like that too. Note sure if there is a term for it, but there ought to be.
DeleteThe pedant in me (often barely caged!) is always irked by the cockatrice's association with petrification. And the basilisk's: these monsters were traditionally poisoners rather than petrifiers.
ReplyDeleteI've often wondered why the petrificatione in D&D (and then in RuneQuest and even in Harry Potter). Recently, I came across a mention of a Poul Anderson book, Operation Chaos, as the likely source.
The thing is, D&D has a surfeit of petrifiers - not only "Medusas" (gorgons!) but "gorgons" too. But I'm not sure that the ultra-venomous nature of the traditional cockatrice/basilisk is as well represented. A monster that can kill you *because its venom will run up the spear you stab it with* seems to me a more interesting tactical challenge for adventurers. Imagine a velociraptor - a blur of brightly coloured feathers - that you can't risk piercing or cutting lest its poison overwhelms you. Yes, you can shoot it - but it's fast!
I confess that I also like the idea of an adventuring party carting a cageful of weasels around (just in case!).
All that said, these variants on the petrifier look a lot of fun. The 'magical carnivore' idea that (I presume) underscores some of these is very neat. It can't eat you *as you are*, but ...
I wonder if that's just because poison feels a bit boring, and it's relatively more easy to avoid its effects through magic and whatnot? I like your idea about the velociraptor though. Great stuff.
DeleteHawkatrice - Same as a regular cockatrice, but it attacks with lightning fast dive attacks.
ReplyDeleteMockatrice - Imprints the appearance of a humanoid, then every humanoid it pecks changes appearance to match the first, including voice, scent, etc... Memories and personality are unaffected.
Nice!
DeleteThe peacocktrice is from way back - it first appeared in a d20 module I published in print in 2003, and as a free English PDF somewhat later: http://fomalhaut.lfg.hu/2010/03/22/the-garden-of-al-astorion/ I think it was also featured in something written by Patrick Stuart, perhaps as a result of parallel evolution?
ReplyDeleteCastle Xyntillan has goatrices at multiple locations, which are pretty horrid - they jump. A friend of mine put puppytrices (adorable but deadly stone poodles) in a wizard's tower, and I am pretty sure that was a piss-take. Then again, so are goatrices.
Patrick S was in that Yoon-Suin game with the peacockatrice so maybe I'm the point of convergence...
DeleteWhat about a Moorcockatrice? It looks like a somewhat Falstaffian take on the conventional beast, with a bushy grey beard over its wattles. One peck, though, and you'll develop albinism, grow weary of the world and abdicate any throne you happen to occupy.
ReplyDeleteOh, and you'll have to make a saving throw every time you're near loved ones or accidentally kill them. The upside is that you'll gain some of their vitality in the process ...
Crocatrice - Feathered crocodile with a curved, beak-like snout. It's bite turns victims into salt, who in it's natural aquatic habitat will then sink below the depths and start to dissolve...
ReplyDeleteOooooh, I like it.
DeleteFor one adventure I made up a variant Figurine of Wondrous Power called the Anthracite Cockerel - upon activation it would become a cockatrice that would petrify its victims into coal (this was paired with a fire trap in the adventure it was found in). The Figurine was also very vulnerable to fire.
ReplyDelete