Cockatrice

c chickatrice
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d2, Petrification

c chickatrice
Difficulty	7
Attacks	Bite 1d2, Petrification
Base level	4
Base experience	136
Speed	4
Base AC	8
Base MR	30
Alignment	0
Frequency (by normal mechanisms)	Very rare, normally appears in small groups
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	10
Nutritional value	10
Size	tiny
Resistances	poison, petrification
Resistances conveyed	poison

c cockatrice
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Bite 1d3, Petrification

c cockatrice
Difficulty	8
Attacks	Bite 1d3, Petrification
Base level	5
Base experience	149
Speed	6
Base AC	6
Base MR	30
Alignment	0
Frequency (by normal mechanisms)	Common
Genocidable	Yes
Weight	30
Nutritional value	30
Size	small
Resistances	poison, petrification
Resistances conveyed	poison

Generally considered to be a real nuisance, the cockatrice, c, is one of the more complex creatures in the game. It can turn you to stone instantaneously if you touch it with your bare hands. If, however, you are wearing gloves, you can pick its corpse up and wield it as a weapon, turning enemies to stone instantaneously. Be sure to unwield it before descending stairways or when around traps, as falling down/into these will cause you to touch the corpse. Some creatures are immune to stoning, so have a different weapon ready to use.

The baby version of a cockatrice is a chickatrice, c, and is similarly dangerous, though much weaker and rarer.

The cockatrice corpse has been nicknamed the rubber chicken by the players who like to wield it and use it as a weapon.

Hissing attack

If you hear the cockatrice's hissing, there is a chance that you may begin turning to stone. If you immediately act to counter this process, you can save your life; but any intrinsic speed will be lost. The hissing attack always succeeds at new moon unless you are carrying a lizard corpse.

History

Before Hack 1.0.3, a successful hissing attack was an instadeath; the only safe way to fight a cockatrice was with ranged weapons. The effect of the new moon first appeared in Hack 1.0.2.

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.
[ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
  and other sources ]