This is a review for the book Monstrous Lair #46: Basilisk’s Den. It's a 8 page book. Four pages are cover pages, patreon and so on. There is also the obligatory OGL that every supplement of this nature has to have.

The real meat of the document is to be found on the middle pages. It’s here you will find everything you need to create a truly unique lair each and every time you create one for your group. There are 7 tables in total! Each one takes you from outside the lair right up to and including the treasure in the lair.

I have included the author's reason for that table's inclusion and 1 example from each of the tables. That way you can see for yourself why I think these supplements will quickly become essential for you as the DM. Usually there is also a very nice line art drawing of the monster that the lair belongs to.

As with any tables you can just read the list and take the one you like the most or you can roll each table. As a tip when I use an entry, I make a notation for which party I used it with so I don’t use it again with them.

The Tables. The tables themselves provide you with a strong creative spark to add to your descriptions of each scene. There have been times where the table entry has provided me with the full narrative needed for that section of the lair.
You will quickly see from each example, the entries have been crafted by a gifted wordsmith, that or laboured over lovingly with dictionaries and a thesaurus. Either way you won’t find trite descriptions or generic throwaways here.

Table 1. Outside the Lair - Determine notable features outside the lair, using this list.

1. Tall trees have wrapped themselves around a massive statue of a towering barbarian. The thick moss and vines growing over it cannot conceal the look of surprise and confusion on the man’s face

Table 2. What's Going On? - Use this list, to determine what’s happening when the characters arrive.

1. With a rattle like a small landslide the basilisk defecates gravel-like faeces that stinks like rotten eggs.

Table 3. Major Lair Features - Use this list, to determine the lair’s major feature(s).

1. A tangle of petrified people petrified while fleeing fills a narrow corridor, making progress difficult

Table 4. Minor Lair Features - Use this list, to determine the lair's minor feature(s).

1. Petrified in front of a small statue of a halfling holding a mirror is a young basilisk caught by its own gaze

Table 5. Basilisk's Appearance - Use this list, to generate the monster’s appearance and other characteristics.

1. Black and white stripes—like a tiger’s—cover this basilisk’s entire body. One of the creature’s eyes is blue while the other burns red.

Table 6. Treasure - Use these lists [tables 6 & 7], to add interesting incidental items to the lair’s hoard.

1. These four arrows tipped with basilisk teeth encase their targets in stone for a short amount of time.

Table 7. Trinkets & Trash -

1. A heavy stone shield, with its wielder’s arm still attached to the inside, lies against the wall.

   Great descriptions both detailed and rich. It’s going to take you a number of campaigns / one shots to fully plumb the depths of this resource. Honestly, anything that allows me to prep less and enjoy more is a boon and that makes this [and many of the Raging Swan supplements] supplement a 'literal' gold mine.

At £0.62 [at time of writing] this is an absolute solid 5 stars from me.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Monstrous Lairs-pdfs clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Sometimes, you just need a bit of dressing for a wayside encounter – or something specific to a monster type. Finding appropriate entries can be rough, and so, this series attempts to remedy this shortcoming on 2 pages, with a total of 7 d10-tables.

So, outside of the lair, we can find massive barbarian statues, around which thick moss and vines have grown, massive lizard-tracks, and e.g. statues impaled on rocks or branches – in short, there is a savagery, a randomness and bestial quality to the dressing, which sets the basilisks properly apart from e.g. the medusa. Well done! As for what’s going on, we can witness a basilisk defecating gravel-like substance that stinks of rotten eggs, we can find them in the process of doffing furrows with for their eggs…and what about using a petrified elk’s head as a kind of chew-toy? There is a general sense of fantastic plausibility for these creatures here, which is a good start indeed.

As for major lair features, we obviously have the obligatory petrified beings, and there is a focus on those, but much to my joy, there also are, for example, petrified mice as a tripping hazard, fragile spider carvings on the wall and the like – while these could have been a bit more varied, the petrification-angle has been executed rather well. As for minor lair features,, we have a young basilisk petrified by inadvertently gazing into a halfling statuette’s mirror, weaponry gripped in hands of stone, grisly piles of stone body parts, or broken basilisk teeth around a petrified dwarf-head, proving that the stout folk’s fabled thickheadedness is retained in stony death.

As for the different basilisk appearances, we can find scales of different colors, basilisks that have seen their fair share of combat, sporting blotches and missing horns, heterochromia, and the like – these not only allow for different contexts regarding biomes, their respective execution also drives home the unnatural nature of these beings. Treasures suggested include cured basilisk hide, gore-covered, reflective shields, figurines that can create essentially basilisk-y mounts and the like – and what about cloaks that let you merge with stones, or the cultist’s chalice that fills with basilisk blood on command? Rather cool array! As for the less useful miscellanea/trash that may be found in those lairs, we have broken swords, stone mice peeking from cracks in the wall, broken weapon and armor, with petrified limbs still attached – all in all, a cool array.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no serious hiccups. Layout adheres to Raging Swan Press’ elegant two-column b/w-standard, and we get a nice piece of b/w-artwork. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, in spite of its brevity (kudos!) and is included in two versions – one optimized for screen-use, and one for the printer.

Steve Hood’s take on basilisks is a well-crafted, versatile dressing file. While the bestial basilisks obviously are essentially animals, and as such, there are a lot of petrification-themed components, and the pdf manages to retains the sense of the fantastic and retain some groundedness. While not as versatile as the excellent hydra-dressing, this still remains a great, inexpensive little dressing file. As such, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.