Basilisk (EvilHack)
c basilisk 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 16 |
| Attacks |
Bite 2d4, Touch 1d6 stoning, Touch 1d6 stoning, Claw 2d8, Passive stoning |
| Base level | 12 |
| Base experience | 469 |
| Speed | 12 |
| Base AC | -10 |
| Base MR | 70 |
| Alignment | -5 (chaotic) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 90 |
| Nutritional value | 50 |
| Size | Medium |
| Resistances | poison, sleep, petrification |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (+5%) |
|
A basilisk:
| |
| Reference | EvilHack 0.8.4 - monst.c, line 239 Hack'EM 1.3.2 - monst.c, line 489 |
- For the monster in other variants, see basilisk.
A basilisk, c, is a type of monster that appears in EvilHack and Hack'EM. The basilisk is a strong, thick-skinned and omnivorous cockatrice-like animal that is essentially a much faster, stronger and deadlier relative of the cockatrice. Like a cockatrice, basilisks have the ability to stone anyone that makes bare-skin contact with their body or corpse; they are strong, can be seen via infravision and are accurate with their attacks. In Hack'EM only, they are also oviparous and can lay eggs.
A basilisk has a normal bite attack, two touch attacks and a claw attack that can all induce delayed stoning, and a passive attack that causes delayed stoning. Basilisks possess poison resistance, sleep resistance and stoning resistance.
Eating a basilisk corpse or tin will turn the eater to stone unless they have stoning resistance, and basilisk eggs can also turn monsters that eat it or are hit by one to stone. A hero that eats a basilisk corpse or tin with stoning resistance gains 1⁄20 (+5%) additional poison resistance.
Generation
Randomly generated basilisks are always created hostile, and in Hack'EM basilisk eggs can hatch into basilisks.
A basilisk is randomly generated in the Hidden Dungeon at level creation.
The Wizard of Yendor may create a clone of himself in the guise of a basilisk via the Double Trouble monster spell.
Strategy
With a staggering AC of -10, the basilisk is a vicious late-game threat that can prove difficult to dispatch unless a hero is well-prepared, and they can prove a tempting target for a single-monster genocide. Yellow dragon-scaled armor can completely eliminate their stoning threat and weaken them with its passive acid damage.
Origin
A basilisk (from the Greek form βασιλίσκος, basilískos, Latin basiliscus, meaning "little king") is a mythological reptile first described in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder. The basilisk was a small snake reputed to be so venomous that it leaves a wide trail of deadly venom in its wake, and its gaze was just as lethal. Basilisks have a 'mitre' or crown-shaped crest adorning their head, suggesting that their description was based on various cobras, particularly the spitting cobra and king cobra. The basilisk and cockatrice are often referred to interchangeably, as seen in the encyclopedia entry that both share in variants of NetHack - many languages still translate the term "cockatrice" as "basilisk" in some form.
The basilisk's reputed weakness was the the odor of the "weasel", which is likely based on mongooses (such as the Egyptian mongoose) that possess immunity to snake venom and prey on the king cobra and some other Asiatic snakes. The basilisk was also a popular subject in medieval-era European bestiaries, which attributed it chicken-like traits and popularized the idea that a basilisk resulted from a chicken hatching the egg of a serpent or toad (the reverse of the cockatrice). Modern incarnations of the basilisk and cockatrice, such as those seen in Dungeons & Dragons and various other fantasy media, portray them as distinct creatures: the modern basilisk is usually a vicious low-slung creature that is either lizard-like or serpentine, as opposed to the typically more bird-like cockatrice.
The basilisk of Dungeons & Dragons is an eight-legged reptilian with a single row of bony spines on its back, and occasionally has a curved horn on its nose - they come in a variety of dark colors, with the most common color being a dull brown body with a yellowish underbelly. Despite their multiple legs, basilisks are sluggish and clumsy, though they were still often shrewd hunters. Basilisks make their lairs in dark underground caves with ready and easily accessible supplies of food and water. A basilisk's eyes glow with a pale green light that can non-lethally petrify any non-gaseous creature that makes eye contact, including other basilisks and even themselves if their gaze is reflected; basilisks were more than capable of eating and digesting petrified prey. The gaze is so potent that it can affect victims with better eyesight at much further ranges, with multiple reports of basilisk victims from "arcane eye" spells, crystal balls, and eyes of the eagle - basilisk gazes could even penetrate into the astral or ethereal planes with concentration.
Encyclopedia entry
Once in a great while, when the positions of the stars are
just right, a seven-year-old rooster will lay an egg. Then,
along will come a snake, to coil around the egg, or a toad,
to squat upon the egg, keeping it warm and helping it to
hatch. When it hatches, out comes a creature called basilisk,
or cockatrice, the most deadly of all creatures. A single
glance from its yellow, piercing toad's eyes will kill both
man and beast. Its power of destruction is said to be so
great that sometimes simply to hear its hiss can prove fatal.
Its breath is so venomous that it causes all vegetation
to wither.
There is, however, one creature which can withstand the
basilisk's deadly gaze, and this is the weasel. No one knows
why this is so, but although the fierce weasel can slay the
basilisk, it will itself be killed in the struggle. Perhaps
the weasel knows the basilisk's fatal weakness: if it ever
sees its own reflection in a mirror it will perish instantly.
But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that
merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
sicken and die.
and other sources ]
