Basilisk

The basilisk, sometimes called the cockatrice, is a reptile often hailed as the King of the Serpents. Its long, scaly body rests on eight short legs, and it is known for its fearsome powers and the ruin it leaves behind. Any creature that meets its gaze turns to stone, and the basilisk is not immune to its own stare, so a polished mirror is often the best weapon against it. Its breath and the touch of its body are deadly too; where it passes, plants wither, animals are frozen into stone and the ground behind it splits open.

It is not evil by nature. Too dim to understand the harm it does, it simply destroys. In ancient basilisks the blood is so venomous that it can run up a spear or sword into the person holding it, often killing them, so the only reliable ways to slay one are magic or turning its own power against it. Anyone facing a basilisk within 10 feet must save vs WILL every round or turn to stone, and its touch kills anyone who fails a save vs CON. No venom or poison affects it. Its eyes have magical and alchemical uses and are eagerly sought in some regions.

Basilisks live long and alone, since even their own kind is dangerous to them. They may mate only two or three times in fifty years, meeting in darkness and parting at once. The female lays up to three eggs in the nests of other reptiles, and the surrogate that hatches them months later usually dies when the young emerge. Chiron the Wise's claim that the weasel is immune to the gaze and can wear one down is mostly dismissed as an old wives' tale. A much rarer flying species is also reported.