Basilisk Poison

Hi all, I have a question about Basilisk Poison.

One of the consequences of getting poisoned by a Basilisk is having to make a Valour roll of TN 14 to shake the Poison off after combat.

Heart of the Wild wrote:If the roll succeeds, the poison wears off. Otherwise, the character is permanently frozen and will wither and die within a few months (Elrond Halfelven, the master of Rivendell, is said to know of an antidote).

How do you guys go about the being frozen part? Would a person poisoned by a Basilisk be petrified and unable to do anything or would that person still have some control over its body? Because how do you get to Elrond when frozen and unable to move? Also, how would you make being frozen interesting for a player, especially when one is not able to do anything?

Well other characters can move the frozen party. You could always give the frozen player a temp pc or even an npc ally to play during the journey to Rivendel.

The one time my players encountered a basilisk, they managed not to get frozen. I would say that if a frozen character needed to get healing from Elrond, there would be a couple of options. The rest of the company could carry him there, or he could be left in a safe place (in the care of a patron or friendly NPC) and the rest of the company could make a rushed journey to Rivendell and back.

To keep things interesting for the player...

Hmm, he might not be frozen all at once. I would start by increasing the TN of all physical skills. Or he could also lose skill levels while frozen. So walking might take an athletics test at TN 16 the first week, TN 18 the second week. If the player has an Athletics skill of 3, it might temporarily drop to 2 when poisoned, then to 1 as the freezing kicks in, and eventually to a 0.

Does that make sense or sound reasonable?

The cure is oddly specific. If the characters are in a Wilderland campaign and had never crossed over into Eriador, how would they know that Elrond has the cure? It could be managed, of course, but depending on how narrative arc, I might substitute Elrond with someone local, like Radagast.

Or Radagast could tell them, "I can't do anything for him. Elrond might have a cure. I can keep him alive while you seek aid in Rivendell..."

That'd work too.

Even Radagast isn't that local, given that the Wyrmholt is some 250 miles from Rhosgobel (Rivendell is strictly speaking closer though this requires crossing the Misty Mountains). It does mention Elrond in Rivendell specifically, but he need not be the only one who knows a cure. When my players past through the Wyrmholt on a diplomatic mission to the northern hillmen, the fought a nest of basilisk and one of them was poisoned and failed his Valour check.

He wanted the party to abandon the mission and return to Rhosgobel to have him cured, but a couple members of the Company argued (rightly, to my mind) that if there were locals in the area, they were likely to have a cure, or else they wouldn't be living near the Wyrmholt for very long... and it just so happens that Mab the Spinner lives at the edge of the Wyrmholt...

Mab seemed to me to be a prime person to know the cure and well placed besides, though with more enigmatic and less altruistic motives. I had her cure the character, though that character then reneged on the payment he had promised... but that's a story for another time...