Cockatrice Lair

**Cockatrice’s Lair** is a secret location in *Barony*, found midway in the Caves at the twenty-eighth floor behind a complex puzzle leading to its portal. Inside is a maze full of ladder systems, gate puzzles and plenty of Kobold Cultists, as well as the head attraction of the area, a battle head-on with an enhanced Cockatrice.

## Description

Upon entering the Cockatrice’s Lair, it is readily apparent that certain rules that the player typically follows in the dungeon have been altered significantly to limit the ways the player can move around this dungeon.

For starters, a message provided when entering reads: “The craftsmanship on the walls here is immaculate.”, which signifies that the player cannot use a Pickaxe or cast spells of Dig to mine their way through wall blocks in this level, and attempts to do so will yield nothing but decreasing the quality of one’s pickaxe and a message.

Levitation in any form (spells, from items or from potions) will have the player automatically grounded again before they can cross any pits. Spells of Open have also shown to be futile, ending up not working when cast on things such as gates or even chests. As such, having a Key or a Lockpick will be the only ways to access these locked chests.

Kobold Cultists readily populate the inside of the lair, being functionally similar to their normal counterparts, but show major distinctions:

* Most Kobold Cultists use either magic or crossbows at range to deal with enemies, with a distinct lack of a melee-type Kobold inside the lair.
* Magic casting Kobolds wield a crystal shard and wear a green cowl and cape, as well as casting offense spells at a distance rather than the spell of slow most Kobolds cast.

The lair holds an artifact, the Dragon’s Mail, inside one of its many rooms. It is found in-between the first puzzle using the floating crystal and the second one, behind a normal door inside a small room.

### Puzzles

The general layout of the lair is convoluted, often filled with closed gates which require either a lever or floating crystal to be toggled to allow passage. To further complicate things, this area presents a staggering six sets of ladder systems, which allows a player to travel from one predetermined point of the dungeon to another fixed point. Often these will lead to a small room which allows the player to flip a switch, but others can present a few new series of rooms, which can confuse the player.

#### Boulder-Gate Time Puzzles

A unique type of puzzle demonstrated exclusively in the lair are ones which drop multiple boulders along a path and open a gate near the end of said path. These “Boulder-Gate Time Puzzles” force the player to think and move quickly between safe areas from boulder strikes to enter the gate at the end before it closes after a period of time.

There are two variants found within the lair, one optional and simpler, with a second one required to access the Cockatrice and is far more complex, using several boulder traps at once with a longer time span for the player to get to the other end.

### Cockatrice Boss Arena

The final area of the level, the arena is home to several Kobold Cultists, a Cockatrice, and a slew of magic traps either from the ceiling or from the walls. Combating in such conditions can be quite challenging, as not only do the spells hamper movement throughout the fight, but holes in the arena will frequently limit movement for the player, but not the Cockatrice itself.

With any luck, getting the Kobolds and Cockatrice to fight can help a lot in dealing with the larger threat, as the Kobold can serve as a great distraction as the player wails away at the Cockatrice. The spells can also be times so they work in the player’s favor, chipping down the Cockatrice alongside the player’s damage.

## Trivia

* Due to the design of the lair, allies cannot enter areas containing the boulder traps or the Cockatrice’s Arena, since they cannot follow the player through mandatory ladder systems.
	+ The Conjurer is exempt from this, as they can cast their skeletons on subsequent rooms if needed. This can be abused to destroy falling boulders or to distract the Cockatrice during its battle.