~Hauke

A card from a game called Battle Spirits, the HighEvo Cockatrice. "When your Life would be reduced by an opposing effect, if you control any "Contractor Uranus", by summoning this Mirage without paying the cost, during this turn, your Life would only be reduced by one by opposing effects."

That...doesn't sound quite as cool as I was hoping. This came to my attention due to an auction for the card, which has since closed. Golden wattles are an interesting choice! The mechanical spirit of Popla lives on.


I wish I could have checked out this special but apparently you can only watch Legends from Austria if you're actually in Austria. Sad bawwwwwwk. Kind of looks like a puppet in the ad, I might have to snoop around for more footage.

From TV Today:

“The Basilisk”

In medieval Vienna, the bakery fountain is haunted by a basilisk. The baker's family is at a loss until a brave apprentice is prepared to defeat the monster - on the condition that he can marry the baker's daughter. With the cunning of a mirror, he defeats the basilisk and wins the heart of his lover.


First of all, "haunting"? Well...all right. The mirror part is just disappointing. I get it: we're never going to live that down. Maybe we should try to set up a cottage industry geared towards defeating us to win someone's hand in marriage?

Looks like they're also showing the Pied Piper; there are a few other legends I hadn't heard of before.



A new novel in Lindsay Straube's "Split or Swallow" series: Kiss of the Basilisk ships out in February of 2025 but is available for pre-order now.

Twenty-year-old Temperance Verus has never been kissed. But that's what the basilisk is for. Spicy!

In late breaking news, an outfit named Quercus has picked up the publishing rights to the story which is great news for Ms. Straube!



In Basel, a collectable jersey patterned after their football (soccer) club was the prize in a scavenger hunt for Eier des Basilisken! (Basilisk eggs!)

At selected locations in the city, you can now find the hidden golden eggs of the basilisk and thus secure the new jersey!” writes the FCB on its own website. Don’t waste too much time and start looking. Follow the various clues and be one of the first to get access to the limited jersey.

Golden, huh? Must be some branch of the family I'm not too familiar with.

Pictures of the jersey are here at an article on SoccerBible.com.

Over the next few weeks, FC Basel, in conjunction with the Basel Tourism, will organize a special treasure hunt, with four gold footballs (symbolizing four golden eggs) hidden around the city. A series of clues for finding them will then be given on the social media profiles of FC Basel and Basel Tourismus.

There's a video about the legend (an old rooster laying an egg incubated by a snake), close-up photos of the patterning on the shirt, and a claim that the jersey is for sale at Macron.com (though I couldn't find it--maybe they're waiting for the scavenger hunt to be over?).



Jam out to a remix of Cockatrice by Centripidity (older version featured in a prior update). Does it count as a "remix" if you just toss in a few more synthesized guitar sounds?