Eisbein-Style Cockatrice With Sauerkraut-Style Dryad Buds Leftovers

 Hey hey, Dungeon Meshi Maniacs.  Have you had a chance to schedule enough time to enjoy some Eisbein?  Or maybe you're trying to wait the eleven days it takes for real sauerkraut?  As for me I'm as sore as I can remember.  Why?  I got my COVID booster!  Who would have thought the best way to stick it to the man is to get a normal vaccine?  Anyway, the boosters have always smacked me around in different ways and this one has made me unbelievably sore.  One may even say I'm feeling petrified!  Of course I wasn't on the snake end of a Cockatrice bite so I'm just feeling petrified.  You remember our old friend the Cockatrice, don't you?

So roostery.  So looking exactly like a Basilisk. Which leads me to the biggest problem I have with this week's post.  If you remember way back nearly a year ago when we roasted a Basilisk I gave you the whole rundown of the difference between a Basilisk and a Cockatrice.  Granted I could just copy and paste that write-up and see how many keen eyed DMMs call me out on it.  My bet would be one!  But my soreness made me wonder if I should focus more on the petrification aspect instead?  Being turned to stone shows up in may myths and legends around the world.  So sit still like a stone and let's talk petrification!  Remember in the story it was Marcille that got stoned!

As I mentioned before, Marcille made me a fan of elves.  Well...this elf at least.  Marcille gets bit by the Cockatrice and turned to a statue.  Now what?  Why don't we turn to our world's history and see how they handled petrification!  The most famous was Medusa from ancient Greece.

With her cute face, stylish snake hairdo and vicious duster she could turn anyone she gazed at into stone.  Provided they weren't rock hard already (what?  I have a crush).  Problem is when you are turned to stone by Medusa's gaze that's it, DMMs!  You are dead, dead, dead.  You thought you were hot. Guess what, you're not!  So even if a hero comes along with a clockwork owl and kills Medusa you are still going to be an awesome statue.  Remember to not turn to stone with a look of revulsion over Medusa's look.  Pick something more dignified and maybe tastefully nude.

And you thought it was talented Grecian artists that made these statues!  Poor naive DMM's. But the Greeks weren't the only culture that told stories of stone people.  The Cherokee of what is now North Carolina tell a legend of a man turned to stone at Standing Indian Mountain.  Not a great name, I grant you.  The Cherokee name for the mountain is Yunwitsule-nunyi which translates to "where the man stood" or so I'm told through Google.  The story is of a warrior who was tasked to stand atop the mountain as a lookout for a winged serpent. It would come off the mountain and steal children for food and maybe because it was fun.  The locals found the lair of the beast and prayed for help.  Thunder and lightning rained down on the winged serpent killing it!  The warrior that was supposed to just stand around looking for the serpent got scared since lightning was striking all around him and ran.  The spirits didn't take kindly to the warrior abandoning his post and turned him to stone!  Let this be a less, DMM's.  Just like Scotty's nephew in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, stay at your post even if it means getting exploded!  But if you're feeling bold you can visit these mountains and see how you'd fare with lightening striking all around you!

That's it for this week, DMMs!  Thanks for sitting still and quiet like some sort of hardened carbon object and listening to my rambling.  We are back to cooking next week!  What, exactly?  Why that depends on the market.  Trust me, it will be delicious! In a dungeon!

Oh. And Marcille is fine.