Monster Monday - Cockatrice

I've missed a couple of weeks of Monster Monday because of Gamehole. It was an awesome time, and the Silver Bulette crew made a plan for the rest of the year. Expect to see Ian finish his Undying Orb series and then I will make it into a full blown adventure! But, that's not why you are here today. You are here to see cockatrices and how they can be an interesting encounter.

Image found on Wikimedia Commons

Cockatrices (cockatri?) trace their roots back to at least Roman times. They were said to be the result of a chicken egg incubated by a snake. Modern D&D mythology sees them as an amalgamation of the two. The description in the 1E Monster Manual reads "The serpentine tail of the cockatrice is yellow green, its feet and beak yellow, its wings are gray, its feathers are golden brown, and its wattles, comb, eyes, and tongue are red." Swords & Wizardry has the following description "A cockatrice resembles a bat-winged monster with a long, serpentine tail." The S&W stats (Monstrosities pg 70) are:

Cockatrice
Hit Dice: 5
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Attack: Bite (1d6 + turn to stone)
Save: 12
Special: Bite turns to stone
Move: 6/18 (flying)
Alignment: Neutral
Challenge Rating/XP: 8/800

According to D&D (1E) cockatrices are found in temperate to tropical regions, both above and below ground. S&W lists them in the dungeon, forest, grassland, and hills terrain tables. They aren't listed in the jungle table, surprisingly.

With that all said, here's a few ways that I have used or seen cockatrices.

A nest of cockatrices beds at a major crossroads between cities, preventing caravans from going through. The city guard hires adventurers to clean up the nest, but they find the mayor (or king) has already been there, and has been stoned. 

The ranking member of the church in the party's village was ambushed by a medusa. Now, the party needs to find cockatrice feathers to make the Stone to Flesh potion to turn him back.

An unkillable monster resides deep in a cavern. Sages say he can be defeated, though. All that is needed is to have him turn to stone. Capturing a few live cockatrices and sneaking them into the monster's lair can't be that hard, right?