Basilisk

The basilisk is a rare beast. An altered version of a natural beast, combined and reinforced by a vengeful goddess of old.  

Appearance

But we should start in the beginning. What does a Basilisk look like? A Basilisk resembles a giant snake. But there is a lot more to it. They keep growing throughout their very long life, though their growth slows down over the years. Tales speak of Basilisks of more then 30 meters lenght, but the biggest specimen known to men reached 21 meters. Its bones are stored in a bunch of crates in one of the many basements underneath the arcaneum. At this size its body reaches the diameter of a huge wine barrel so it can swallow a whole cow without to much struggle. Their scales are of an alien green, shimmering in all colours of the natural spectrum, ranging from an earthlike brown green on the back to a light lime-tone on their bellies. But this beauty shouldnt mask the enormous danger of these beasts. Their skin is hard to penetrate, one would need a very shark and very heavy axe or a truly sharp sword and a powerful arm to cut the bony scales and leathery skin of the serpent. And even then you would be faced by the stonelike muscles that give the Basilisk its agility and power.   But the real danger is the head of the basilisk. Not only are there few venoms from our realm that could match the one of the Basilisk, but it also posesses some uncomfortably long fangs and its paralysing gaze.  

Abbilities

Ok, but what can they do? As itself a giant serpent is pretty damn dangerous. Its fast, strong, has incredibly senses in terms of smell and heat detection and can choose between poisening you or crushing you to death in its bonebreaking embrace. Basilisks have all these traits, but they have one other big ace up their proverbial sleeves. Their paralysing gaze from two glowing bright golden snake eyes. Scholars havent really figured out how it works, but when a Basilisk makes eye contact with its prey, said prey will be paralysed on the spot, unable to move. Older Basilisks seem to develop that power further and turn their prey into stone. How they feed on solid stone isnt known but there obviously must be a way. The petrifying gaze has only been ovserved in specimens above 20 meters which makes it unimaginable rare considering the requirements for a basilisk to be born.  

Origins

Where do they come from is a question that is asked quite often when the topic of these creatures comes up. Now, there are as many myths about that as you will find thieves in badly secured vault. I want to give some wrong examples first though. One common misconception is, that humans hit by a deadly curse gone wrong that come back in the from of a serpent to haunt the people who cursed them. Another one is that they are normal snakes, manipulated by a wizard or necromancer. Or, some folks like to believe that the basilsik is a god that roams the earth and every time hes been killed he comes back stronger in the form of an even bigger basilisk. Well, they are all wrong.   The birth of a basilisk is as unlikely as a rooster mating with a snake. In terms of that, yes, this is how a basilisk is born. We need to add a little more context here.  

The first basilisk

To set the scene, once, in the vast planes of central Andaahr there was a group of people that were split into four clans that each worshiped one of their four gods and goddesses. The names of these gods were long forgotten but there were four. Two gods and two goddesses. One god and one goddess where representing the morale and upright features of the clan, the other two were representing the sinister sides of men and women. The two clans that followed the upright side of their pantheon ruled the lands and had a blooming civilisation, while the other two clans were living as secluded semi nomads in hard to reach parts of their lands. The clans of the "good" side never realised it, but it was the delicate balance between order and chaos that kept their civilisation alive. This all shifted when one day the daughter of the general of the city of the male god of light was slain in an ambush by the people that followed the goddess of darkness. The death of the girl and her protectors was the small stone that started the avalanche that burried and destroyed the entire civilisation and the four clans on its way. The general, uppon getting the news, became fixed on the idea to eradicate the two clans that didnt followed the teachings of his god and to purge the earth from all ill meaning filth that hid in the mountains, forests and plains of their territory.    

The build up

He began to build an army which rose a lot of questions from the other rulers of the city. At one point, blind with rage he gathered his most loyal troops and murdered the counsil that ruled the city and made himself the voice of god. The sistercity that folled the female mirror of their god didnt liked that at all but since their teachings were the ways of the word and diplomacy that couldnt offer much resistance when the armies of their former brothers came to purge the "traitors and blinded ones" from existance. Now that he was the only ruler in these lands the general could finally focus on his main goal, to annihilate the remaining two clans to bring peace to his land and quench his thirst for revenge.   I nearly forgot, all the four gods had an avatar from the animal kingdom. The male god of the light side, the god the general followed was represented by a rooster, carrying the rays of the sun in its tail. The sister goddess chose the dove as a symbol for peace and debate. The two darker gods chose the fox in the case of the male god and the goddess chose the snake as her symbol.   Now the general bega to wipe out the fox-clan. It took a while to find all the hidden settlements but he focussed all his power and thinking on it and after a decade he finally succeded, the head of the last memeber of the fox clan had been impaled on a spike in front of one of his military camps.   Now only the snake clan was left. After watching their brothers being slaughtered for over a decade they builded up their defenses but against the cold calculating hatred and wrath of the general there was nothing they could to. Even though his numbers were dwindeling, town after town, family after family, the snake clan was killed. Until there only was one group left that hid in the sacred temple underneath a mountain in a deep forest. Here the last worshippers of the snake goddess hid from the world and the ever watching eye of the general.   At some point he felt the weight of his years and doubled his efforts to find the last stronghold of his hated enemies. And on a cold spring morning he should succeed. A scout of the snake clan was caught near the forest and the general began to search the next day for his hiding place. The snake goddess knew her last hour had begun so she prepared herself for a terrible revenge, even if it meant her death. In a dream she spoke to the daughter of her highest priestess and told her to cath a snake from the forest and to bring it to the shrine that her worshippers hid in cave. The daughter obliged without question and brought a snake to altar deep underneath the mountain.   The goddess, weak due to her lack of followers used her last force to channel herself into the snake and become fully mortal with this. The last words from the goddess that the daughter and infact everyone else in this world shoul hear were:  

"Bring this snake to the nearest camp of our enemy, sneak me in the camp and into their shrine where they keep their rooster. I will reveal my true powers and their worst nightmares and will write my name into the history of the world with their blood and the blood of those to come after them."

  After that the serpent turned silent and began to sleep. The daughter without thinking put it into a basket and made her way to the camp of the general who had set up his basecamp at the edge of the forest. His priests felt that the goddess of the snake clan had died so they held a big celebration in their temporary temple - and with that left the holy rooster they brought with them unattended. Just as the girl had snug in the snake and released it into the rooster pen she was caught and publicly executed by the general.  

The conception

While all attention was fixed on the execution nobody saw the snake and rooster mating. The simultanious act of conception and execution should be the foundation stone for the terrible beast that is the basilisk. After mating with the rooster the snake disappeared into a nearby cave, washed out by the river flowing through the camp. The next morning the general set out and wiped the last hideout of the snake clan from existance. In memory to that act he granted the camp city rights.  

The birth of the monster

For two years the city grew without any incidents. The rats and mice, cats and dogs, and later horses and cattle going missing were blamed on wild animals from the forests and thieves, but when suddently humans started to go missing, the people grew cautious. And it werent any humans, it were allways people who were in some way related either to the temple or the general. He first sended investigators, but when the disappearances didnt stop, he himself came to town.   And on one faithful night he encountered the beast. A vicious voice filled his head: "You shall now feel my pain, your kin will never be safe from your children. As long as there are roosters and snakes, my children will be lurking and feeding on your haughty descendants." With that the serpents petrifying gaze hit the general and turned him to stone.   The serpent continued to haunt the city, now freely feeding on everyone who dared to leave the saftey of a group. Over time more and more people moved away from the city and "Basilika" became a ghost town. Over the millenia the buildings crumbled and only occasionaly nomads saw the ruins, without knowing their history after the folk of the general faded over time and the history of all that went down was forgotten, only conserved in some tomes, hidden in libraries.   The only thing the nomads and other folk remembered was the name basilisk that described the lurking horror underneath the ruins that feasts on unvary travelers that dare to roam too close to the ruins that penertrate the sky like the sharp fangs of the serpent beneath.  

The aftermath

From this time originate the first tales of basilisks appearing throughout the world

Biology

Whenever a rooster mates with a snake, the snake will lay one big egg from which a basilisk will hatch. After growing fast for the first few years, it will reach a lenght of around ten meters after four years. Now its growth will slow down, but since they can reach ages of multiple hundret years they will continue to grow to enormous sizes. The basilisk cant mate, even if two would cross ways, the only way for a basilisk to be born is when a rooster and a snake mate.  

Behaviour

Basilisk are very territorial. Normaly they stay in their territory and dont leave it. Even if there is hardly any prey, they can go for long periods without food or even fall into some kind of dormancy.   But equipped with the excellent senses of a serpent they can detect body heat, smell excellently and have in addition to that a tremendious eyesight. Combined with their aggressive nature it makes them a deadly threat to everyone that wanders unknowingly into their turf.  

Ways to fight a basilisk

Since the smaller ones can paralyse you with a single stare and the bigger ones even turn you to stone the most important thing is to never. look. into. its. eyes! This way youre 99.9% sure to get killed and eaten. The few lucky bastards who survived a basilisk attack or even managed to kill one were using big shields and fokused on heavy crossbows to pierce the beasts skin. One wizard supposedly blinded the beast temporarilly with a flash to make it close its eyes so he could strike but not everybody is able to cast spells. Your safest bet would be to turn around and run for all thats worth.  

Weaknesses

The only known true weakness is the blood of a rooster. Dip your crossbow-bolts into the blood of a rooster and it will have the effekt of an extremly strong acid on the beast. But it only works if the blood is extracted before it gets in contact with the basilisk. If it eats a rooster nothing happens, but if you kill the rooster and dip your weapon into its blood, it turns into a basilisk killer.