Basilisk

The basilisk is a squat, eight-legged reptilian horror with a heavy toothed head, dull brown hide, yellowish belly, and pale-green glowing eyes. Slow and ponderous from its sluggish metabolism, it relies not on speed but on a petrifying gaze that briefly locks any living thing meeting its eyes rigid as stone, unable to move for a few seconds. It lairs alone in caves and ruins, often ringed by the mossy statues of prey it caught long ago. A larger, fiercer cousin grows to twice the length, rakes with venom-tipped claws, exhales a poisonous breath, and is cunning enough to guard a hoard. The beast's one true weakness is its own reflected stare, which locks it up in turn under a bright, clear mirror.