| Class: | Traditional Myths |
| Hab: | Any |
| Fre: | Rare |
| Num: | 1d6 adults with 2d6 eggs or young each |
| Lair: | 80% chance on nest |
| Size: | Chicken or goose; 5-20 lb., by variety |
| Move: | Generally slow but brief charge = horse; usually a poor flyer |
| Def: | Tough hide and padding feathers = chain mail or better |
| Att: | Peck = Great Eagle or sword |
| Int: | Dull-witted beast |
| Spec: | Ossification, by touch |
| Posns: | Innumerable statues, some of high quality; parts useful for alchemy. |
While feared for its ability to ossify by touch, turning fleshy creatures or folk to stone, the "lesser cockatrice" is no larger that a big rooster of the ordinary sort; indeed, in poor lighting - very poor lighting - it could be mistaken for an ordinary barnyard fowl. Soon, however, it would be observed that its tongue, tail, and often body and back-crest, are those of a serpent, and its wings those of a dragon. Some have the serpent's hypnotic gaze. A few cockatrice are known to have more than one pair of legs; up to eight pair of legs have been reported.
The cockatrice is born of the egg of a rooster, hatched by a toad on a dung heap; this is obviously a bio-alchemical process. Unfortunately, once a cockatrice is born, it is able to reproduce normally, so there are established feral populations. Alternatively, a new line of cockatrice may be established by crossing a basilisk with a powerful bird; the bird would have to be one of power, or it would be ossified before the eggs could be fertilized.
The cockatrice has the special power of turning its victims to stone, ossifying by the merest touch. As the cockatrice is as aggressive and territorial as any rooster, its domain may be marked by many "statues," animals and Folk it has turned to stone. It is said that part of the cockatrice's bad temper is due to its very power of ossification; while its rooter-nature is satisfied by a vegetarian diet, its serpent-nature is frustrated that any food animal it might snap up turns to stone, which it cannot digest and so drops.
The "greater cockatrice," sometimes called a "king cockatrice," is the size of a pony. It has a great crown-like comb creating its head and daggar-like claws on its wing-joints.
SEE also Basilisk and Cockatrix; the three hybridize readily, as they are all similarly immune to ossification.
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