Hey guys,

I have a storyline involving basilisks and I'm not 100% on their petrification power.

"Petrification (Paranormal)
Type: P • Action: Complex • Range: LOS • Duration: Sustained
Critters with the deadly Petrification power can harden flesh into thick stone with a glance. For every net hit on an Opposed Test between the critter’s Magic + Willpower and the target’s Body, the target takes a temporary –1 to Agility and Reaction. When a target’s Agility and Reaction are both reduced to zero, the target is turned to stone. If the critter’s Magic rating is higher than the target’s (augmented) Body, the change can be made permanent. While turned to stone, the victim has a barrier Armor rating equal to the critter’s Magic."

How can a runner protect themselves from the power?
It is an eye contact thing or does the basilisk just have to see you?
Do ze goggles do anything or do you actually need blinders?
I'd imagine the power wouldn't work on drones since they're not fleshy.

I only see them mentioned in Running Wild and there's a lot of gray area.
Any ideas?

Ze goggle, dey do nahzing!

As written, the basilisk needs to see you, you don't need to see the basilisk. Goggles or closing your eyes will do nothing. However, if you are invisible or it otherwise can't detect you, no problem.

So would blindfolding the basilisk work?
Additionally, they list "their own gaze" as a vulnerability, so how do they mate?
If all a basilisk has to do is see a target...how do they not kill their mates and their young just be being around them?

Is petrification an activated power or is it always on?

The female probably lays the eggs in a nest and the male trundles along later and fertilizes them.

As its a sustained power, i would say you have to activate it against a target.

Why blindfold when you could just kill it?

Or, if you're 'Running for PETA or PETP, Narcojet.

They're worth 40k alive...

MUAHAHAHAHA....

LOL

Yeah, it's like magicians - they have to "see" stuff to use it. So blindfolds, darkness, etc will work.

Trolls make good Basilisk hunters.

I'd imagine you just need to send out a decoy and sneak up behind where they can't see you.
I'm not 100% if they can use their ability on multiple targets at once.

If you can throw a tarp over it while it's staring at you, you should be fine.

so you want a troll in a ruthenium suit with a bag full of smoke grenades...their perception dice pool is only 5. so a F5 Concealment works aswell

Ideally, or a drone with a Snuggie.

Well...
In this case, a nissan doberman with a LMG and narcojet will do the trick.

Couldn't you just advance towards one with a big ol' one-way see-through shield between you and it?

I don't know about you, but gazing at myself in the mirror is not generally required for me to mate... I would assume it's the same for basilisks.

Damn there goes any reasoning for the mirrored ceiling I was planning

You were planning a mirrored ceiling for your basilisk bordello?

Hot!

Paper bags over their heads.

Worst case of "Butterface" ever.

"For many centuries, magicians and scholars puzzled
over how basilisks reproduce. A creature that kills anything it looks at can hardly be expected to mate in any normal way and would most likely kill any baby basilisks it managed to spawn. The answer to this puzzle is that the basilisk does not mate, but splits. Every so often in a basilisk’s life, its tail begins to grow thicker and takes on the appearance of a second head. After several
weeks, both heads look exactly the same, and the creature splits in half. The two halves begin to grow new tails, and within days there are two basilisks instead of one."

Of course that is the ED explanation from Vasdenjas the Great Dragon and he sometimes seems to like to travestite the truth a bit...

How and what do they eat?
Stone? Or are they vegetarians?

Who knows but they look a bit like chickens... and they may be just an awakened chicken and not a species that mates.

Running Wild says they are awakened komodo dragons.
Since the petrification power is channeled, the basilisk has to sustain it.
It takes a complex action, so it's not always active.

Theoretically, once the basilisk stops channeling the power, whatever they are petrifying has suffocated and returns to deliciously edible flesh.

Additionally, basilisks can hold their breath for up to 8 minutes.
In a basilisk fight, whoever holds their breath longer wins.

Komodo dragon makes sense when you think about how they are drawn in things like D&D and Magic the Gathering.

As an interesting factoid, basilisks are actually a real world genus of lizard named after the mythical beast because they have an unusual ridge on their head that looks, from profile, a little like a crown. They are the genus of lizards that can run on water with their hind legs for about 14 feet before needing to swim. The so called Jesus lizard.

thought i recalled earlier editions of basilisks eating the shattered stone remains of the victims of their petrification power, could be wrong though. so petrified flesh, i guess.

They are amazonian lizards by the way.