Chickatrice
c chickatrice 
| |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 7 |
| Attacks |
Bite 1d2, touch 0d0 stoning, passive 0d0 stoning |
| Base level | 4 |
| Base experience | 136 |
| Speed | 4 |
| Base AC | 8 |
| Base MR | 30 |
| Alignment | 0 (neutral) |
| Frequency (by normal means) | 1 (Very rare) |
| Genocidable | Yes |
| Weight | 10 |
| Nutritional value | 10 |
| Size | tiny |
| Resistances | poison, stoning |
| Resistances conveyed | poison (27%) |
|
A chickatrice:
| |
| Reference | monst.c#line170 |
A chickatrice, c, is a type of monster that appears in NetHack. It is an omnivorous animal that can be seen via infravision, and is the weakest member of the cockatrice monster class. The cockatrice and chickatrice, collectively referred to as footrices, are among the more complex creatures in Nethack and one of the more threatening to the average hero: both can inflict stoning upon heroes and other monsters alike.
A chickatrice has a bite attack, a passive attack that causes instant stoning on skin contact, and a touch attack that can initiate delayed stoning: for a hero to be turned to stone, the chickatrice's touch attack must land, and there is a 1⁄3 chance of the chickatrice hissing afterwards if it is not cancelled - if hissing occurs and the hero lacks stoning resistance, there is a 1⁄10 chance that they will begin turning to stone. This effect is a delayed instadeath, removes intrinsic speed, and will always occur on a new moon unless the hero is carrying a lizard corpse in open inventory; the hero has a limited amount of time to cure the stoning before it turns them into a lifeless statue.
Chickatrices possess poison resistance and stoning resistance. Eating a chickatrice corpse or tin will instantly turn the eater to stone unless they have stoning resistance - if eaten by a hero with stoning resistance, YAFM is printed and the meat has a roughly 4⁄15 chance (27%) of granting poison resistance.
Chickatrice meat is defined as granting stoning resistance, but there is currently no implemented feature that reads the flag in question.[1]
The following information pertains to an upcoming version (3.7.0). If this version is now released, please verify that the information below is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate it.
Lizard corpses in the hero's inventory no longer have any effect on the stoning attacks of cockatrices during a new moon.
Temporary stoning resistance is implemented and can be obtained from eating corpses, but stoning resistance is required to safely finish a cockatrice corpse or tin to begin with. Monsters can gain extrinsics from eating corpses, allowing a monster with stoning resistance to gain poison resistance from eating a chickatrice corpse or tin.Generation
Randomly-generated chickatrices are always hostile, and may appear in small groups. A chickatrice can grow up into a cockatrice, and a cockatrice egg will hatch into a chickatrice.
Strategy
Both the chickatrice and cockatrice are considered serious nuisances, since they are often the source of many YASDs. While chickatrices may appear earlier than cockatrices, they are weaker and much less common: a chickatrice is also much slower at 4 speed, and is much less likely to leave a corpse.
Magic cancellation will not protect against any of the stoning attack's stages, but good AC will prevent the touch attack from landing, and cancellation will prevent the chickatrice from hissing - note that it does not cancel any of the other stoning qualities of a chickatrice or its corpse, including the stoning caused by bare-skin contact. See the article linked above for a more in-depth look at methods of dealing with footrices, footrice meat and footrice eggs, which also applies to chickatrices.
Lizard corpses are among the most reliable cures for sudden stoning; the potion of acid (particularly for vegetarians and vegans) and the corpse or tin of an acidic monster will also cure stoning, but there is no guarantee of being able to grab the item quickly enough. Heroes can also prepare for the speed loss ahead of time by applying a tinning kit to create a quantum mechanic tin, or keeping a charged wand of speed monster in a bag or other container.
When wishing for a footrice corpse, partly eaten chickatrice corpses are preferred as the lightest possible stoning implement that can be wielded and used repeatedly.
History
The chickatrice first appears in NetHack-- 3.0.10, and makes its vanilla debut in NetHack 3.3.0.
Chickatrices are subject to a few bugs:
- Smashing a wielded potion of polymorph over a monster while not wearing gloves will stone the hero if the monster is turned into a footrice as a result. This is bug #C343-31, and is fixed May 2004.
- Jabberwocks can wield things and hit monsters with them, but secondary effects will not trigger: footrice corpses will not petrify monsters, silver weapons do not deal extra damage to silver-haters, and so on. These are bugs #UNL343-080 and #UNL343-081, and are fixed in 2011 via commit 164f498a and commit 8dfb62a9.
Origin
A chickatrice is a younger form of cockatrice, a mythical beast that features prominently in medieval bestiaries and English folklore, and is first mentioned in the 14th century John Wycliffe translation of the Bible, with the word used for the translation of various Hebrew words for "asp" and "adder" in the Book of Isaiah. The cockatrice appears as a two-legged serpentine creature with a rooster's head and bat wings; it is said to hatch from a rooster's egg, especially one incubated by a serpent or toad. and is reputed to be capable of killing with as little as a look, touch or breath.
The cockatrice has significant overlap with the mythical snake known as the basilisk: basilisks are said to be so full of venom that they leave a wide trail of deadly venom in their wake, and can similarly kill with a gaze; medieval bestiaries attribute chicken-like traits to the basilisk and popularized the idea of them being born from a chicken hatching the egg of a serpent or toad, which is the reverse of the cockatrice. Both also share a weakness to "weasels" (likely the mongoose, which had some immunity to snake venom) as well as their own reflected gazes and the crowing of roosters, and are likely based off the Nile crocodile - as a result, the basilisk and cockatrice referred to interchangeably (for example, the encyclopedia entry that both share in variants of NetHack), and many languages still translate the term "cockatrice" as "basilisk" in some form.
Modern incarnations of the basilisk and cockatrice, such as those seen in Dungeons & Dragons and various other fantasy media, characterize the creatures' lethal venoms as a petrifying substance that turned victims to stone, and later works portray them as distinct creatures: the modern cockatrice is a somewhat more bird-like creature as opposed to the fully lizard-like or serpentine basilisk. The cockatrice of Dungeons & Dragons debuts in the original 1974 white box as a weaker form of basilisk with a stoning touch and the ability to fly, and is further differentiated in later editions.
Cockatrices can be found in almost any region, and typically prefer temperate or tropical regions, where they reside either underground or above ground in plains; some scattered numbers of cockatrices could be found in the Elemental Plane of Earth. Their beaks inflicted minor damage, but their bite could permanently turn creatures to stone - for a time, the petrifying aura could penetrate the Astral and Ethereal planes, much like basilisk gazes. Cockatrices are immune to their own petrifying bite and that of other cockatrices, but they are not immune to petrification through other means unlike in NetHack. A cockatrice is very territorial and ferociously attacks perceived threats; flocks of cockatrices often attempt to overwhelm or confuse their opponents, and frequently fly at their faces.
Messages
- The chickatrice touches you!
- A chickatrice landed its touch attack.
- You hear the chickatrice's hissing!
- This follows the above with a 1⁄3 chance; this will always cause gradual stoning to begin on a new moon if you are not carrying a lizard corpse, and otherwise has a 1⁄10 chance to trigger it.
- You hear a cough from the chickatrice!
- As above, but the chickatrice is cancelled, and nothing happens.
- This tastes just like chicken!
- You ate a chickatrice corpse with stoning resistance.
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.
