Desert Basilisc
Source: Adapted and expanded from CoTD:South pp.156-157
The Desert Basilisc, or Basilisk, is a strange and monstrous creature native to the far Southern edges of Creation and the most inhospitable reaches of the Southern deserts. Most savants agree that it is surely not a natural creature, but a beast twisted by the energies of the Wyld or the machinations of the Solar Anathema.
A Desert Basilisc is not a large creature, roughly the size of a Peafowl. It has head, wings, and four clawed legs of that bird, feathered in iridescent purples with touches of green and blue, but its body and long tail are those of a thick, rough-scaled serpent, and its beak is long and sharp, long forked tongue capable of stabbing through flesh and delivering a deadly toxin. The Desert Basilisc cannot fly despite its wings, but it can run at great speeds, easily able to outpace a Desert Horse or Austrech.
At the center of a Desert Basilisc’s head is located a bright red gemstone, a Basilisc Stone, which surrounds the creature in a corona of searing blue flame. That burns anything which touches it. These stones are much sought by artificers in need of for their work. Amongst those Dynasts who enjoy the hunt, the Dessert Basilisc is also much-sought prey, considered (along with the Abacasteri, Furnace Rhino, Simhata and Lion Folk) to be one of the Five Trophies of the Southern Hunt.
Desert Basiliscs are rare, solitary creatures, gripped with a seething hatred for all living things (including the Abyssal Exalted and other basiliscs, but excluding spirits and the animated dead). A basilisk encountering a living creature will attempt to hunt and kill it, pursuing their quarries tenaciously, though they employ intelligence and are far from suicidal. Only when encountering other basiliscs does their hatred overcome them: such encounters are always fought to the death. The reproduction of basiliscs, or if they are born into Creation by some other means, remains unknown to the scholars of the present age. Basiliscs will eat the prey they encounter, as well as devouring carcasses and even sand.
Stories exist, dating from the Golden Age, of Desert basiliscs tamed by the Exalted, trained to respond to simple commands. Under the censors of the Shogunate, and later the Realm, many such tales were preserved for use as propaganda, painting the hatred and unnatural nature of the basilisk as a reflection of those evils in their creators and masters amongst the Anathema. Exactly how the creatures were tamed or created has, however, been lost from such tales, attributed only to the most vile and undetailable magics.
Desert Basilisc Essence: 2 Essence Pool: - Special: --- Basilisc Stone --- Basilisc Skull Sconce: A Basilisc bearing a Basilisc Stone gains access to all its listed powers, as if it were mounted in a hearthstone socket. Additionally, the corona of flame the stone produces intensifies around the basilisk, causing anyone who touches it to suffer 2 dice of Lethal damage for every 5 ticks they remain in contact. A basilisc dies when its stone is removed, but if it perishes before the stone is taken out the stone in its Sconce will quickly cool and shatter, becoming useless.
