diff --git a/tools/mj-queue.mjs b/tools/mj-queue.mjs
index a7d34c4..86e7f04 100644
--- a/tools/mj-queue.mjs
+++ b/tools/mj-queue.mjs
@@ -80,7 +80,12 @@ export const TOKENS = {
  * and twenty minutes of wondering whether the account is out of fast hours. Cheaper to
  * catch here than to sit through.
  */
-const BANNED = ["gore", "bust", "corpse", "mutilat", "blood-soaked"];
+/* Learned in production, one silent stall at a time. "bare" was added on 2026-09-23 after
+   the martlet failed three times over ninety minutes: the gryphon succeeded in the same
+   run, so it was not the service, and replacing that single word made the martlet return
+   immediately. A moderation refusal never appears in the channel, so this is the only
+   record that the word costs half an hour. */
+const BANNED = ["gore", "bust", "corpse", "mutilat", "blood-soaked", "bare"];
 
 /* ---------------------------------------------------------------- derivation */
 
@@ -116,7 +121,11 @@ const buildWords = ch => bandOf((Number(ch?.str) || 12) / (Number(ch?.siz) || 12
    armour to be left out, because a word choice is an argument and a --no is closer to a
    guarantee. */
 const armourWords = (n, era = "antique") => bandOf(Number(n) || 0, [
-  [0,  "bare, unprotected"],
+  /* NOT "bare". Midjourney's moderation refuses that word — it reads as nudity — and a
+     refusal is ephemeral, so the job simply never arrives. The martlet stalled for thirty
+     minutes three times; changing this one word and nothing else made it return. Thirteen
+     creatures carried it, every one of them a creature with no natural armour. */
+  [0,  "thin-skinned, nothing between it and a blow"],
   [3,  "tough hide"],
   [6,  "thick natural plating, part of the animal"],
   [99, era === "future" || era === "anomalous"
@@ -331,7 +340,17 @@ export function promptFor(spec, kind = "npc") {
       + `Steer in the prompt instead. Terms: ${negatives.join(", ")}`);
   }
 
+  /* REFUSE, rather than warn. These were returned as `warnings` for the caller to print,
+     and a warning in a log nobody reads is what let the martlet stall three times: the
+     failure it predicts is a job that never arrives, which is indistinguishable from the
+     service being slow. The negative cap above refuses for the same reason. */
   const warnings = BANNED.filter(b => prompt.toLowerCase().includes(b));
+  if (warnings.length) {
+    throw new Error(`${spec.key}: prompt contains ${warnings.map(w => `"${w}"`).join(", ")}, `
+      + `which Midjourney's moderation refuses even in innocent use. The refusal is ephemeral `
+      + `— the job never arrives and never fails — so this must not be sent. Reword the `
+      + `clause that produced it.`);
+  }
   return { prompt, token, warnings };
 }