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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BOZ" data-source="post: 936585" data-attributes="member: 1241">a bit more from Dragon's "Ecology Of..."Dragon 81: BasiliskMages and alchemists have found two parts of a basilisk eye particularly useful: the internal pupil, lens, and fluid of its eye which are used as ingredients in potions, spell inks, and the making of items (such as eyes of petrification) concerned with petrifying creatures; and the inner membrane or eyelid of the creature, used likewise in magic concerned with protection against petrification. Other parts of the basilisk are sometimes tried for such purposes, but with little or dubious success. An intact eye might bring as much as 1,000 gp from an alchemist; parts of it, such as the eyelid or fluid, up to 400 gp each. Prices vary with demand, of course, as with all rarities, and have been known to reach ten times these amounts.Dragon 84: TrapperSpeaking of gold pieces, adventurers who are victorious over a trapper will be rewarded if they think to recover some of its pigmentation liquid. It will fetch a handsome price (about 6 gp per pint) in quarters where it is known as an ingredient in the making of a robe of blending, and as an alternative ingredient in the manufacture of various spell inks (such as that for Bigby’s crushing hand). Any portion of trapper flesh (the underside) can be used in the making of a rug of smothering, rug of welcome, or net of entrapment. Some magical practitioners have claimed, in writing, that intact trapper brains (preserved in vessels of nutrient liquids) can be linked to doors, pit traps, deadfalls, treasure niches, and the like so as to control their operation, but details of such arrangements and the process of establishing them (if they do indeed exist) are unknown to most magic-users at the present time.Dragon 86: Slithering TrackerA tracker feeds by first paralyzing an opponent with a fluid produced by its body cells, forcing this liquid into the victim through the pores of its skin, and then using a second fluid to actually erode the hide or skin of its victim, so that the creature can absorb the plasma from the victim’s blood. Both the paralyzing substance and the fluid which effects the draining of the victim are produced automatically within the creature’s body from any meal the creature consumes, the remainder of its fare being converted to energy for bodily activity, and sometimes being used to make itself stronger or larger. I know of no alchemists who can duplicate either of the tracker’s fluids in the laboratory, but they eagerly make use of the former as an ingredient in the inks for the scribing of the paralyzation, hold person, and slow spells. Assassins, and alchemists in their employ, prize the skin-eating substance for use in the manufacture of caustic poison mixtures. These substances are present in each and every cell of the creature, and not collected in specific areas or organs; however, they do readily settle and separate one from the other if a trapper’s fluids are collected.</blockquote>

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