Stone Snake

This snake is built of granite-like mineral segments, which give it its excellent Armor Class. It ranges from eggshell to rose pink, veined with mauve or black like real granite.

It either rams with its blunt stone snout for 2d10 points of bludgeoning damage or bites for 1d8 and injects venom. A bitten victim saves vs. petrification at -6; failure means the body turns to stone over five rounds. Its hard shell resists most weapons, and anything edged or piercing deals just one-quarter damage.

Stone snakes live alone or in mated pairs. Each early autumn the female guards 1d6 eggs, 16 to 18 inches long and colored like the adults, while the male finds food. Hatchlings start white and gain their camouflage over six months, then get driven out. Yearlings run 10 to 12 feet, hunt small game like beetles and giant rats, and have weaker venom, with a save penalty of only -2.

Most minerals digest, but diamonds, garnets, tanzanite and zircons do not, so they turn up in lair refuse, along with any weapons or shields dropped by victims.

Stone snakes scavenge minerals, typically in crystal-filled caves, but most of all they love a meal they have petrified. It drags the stony victim home, swallows it whole, and digests it over several weeks depending on size, lying motionless in a near-hibernation that makes it far easier to kill. Its egg yolk is a prized ink ingredient for scribing a stoneskin scroll.