Play the bell tower stair: shields, and what they cost

Two officers, identical kit — riot shield, stab vest, 12 hp, Shield 65% — and one
difference: one holds the shield up, one keeps it slung and shoots. Raised it is most
of their armour (torso 5, arms 3 against torso 2, arms 0 with it down).

Four ordinary blows turned aside cost the shield nothing, which is the right call: at a
point per parry a 5-wear riot shield would have been kindling before the fight started.
Round 8 a CRITICAL halberd was parried, dragged down one step, and the shield took 2
wear for absorbing it while the reduced blow still landed on the covered arm for 7.

Both officers were killed through the gaps a riot shield does not cover — one through
both legs, one through the head for 10 against a location maximum of 5, dead outright
rather than dying (R-227 holding).

The ranged penalty then decided it. Shield up, the survivor shot at 65% less 20% and
rolled 93, 89, 73, 65. That last number is the rule in one figure: 65 hits at 65% and
misses at 45%. The redcap was on 3 of 13 and walked away.

Nothing needed tuning. Full log in docs/REVIEW_LOG.md.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/REVIEW_LOG.md

@@ -4570,3 +4570,50 @@ went 0 → 2 → 4 → broken in three absorbed blows.
 
 Both were mine, both were introduced in this change, and both were found by driving the
 real functions rather than by reading the diff.
+
+## THE BELL TOWER STAIR — shields, and what they cost
+
+Two officers, identical kit — riot shield, stab vest, 12 hit points, Shield 65% — and
+one difference: the **Warden** holds the shield up on the stair, the **Marksman** keeps
+it slung and shoots. A redcap with an 80% halberd.
+
+**Raised, the shield is most of your armour.** Warden with it up: torso 5, arms 3.
+Marksman with it slung: torso 2, arms 0. The same item, the same character.
+
+**An ordinary blow turned aside costs a shield nothing, and that is the right call.**
+Rounds 1 to 5 the Warden parried four halberd blows on the shield and it finished
+without a mark. Had every parry cost a point, a 5-wear riot shield would have been
+kindling before the fight was properly started.
+
+**Round 8 is the rule working.** A **critical** halberd; the shield parry succeeded,
+which under graded defences drags a critical down one step rather than stopping it. The
+shield **took 2 wear for the blow it absorbed** and the reduced blow still landed — on
+the left arm, where the shield's 3 points were, for 7. Warden 8 → 1. That is a shield
+doing exactly what shields do: it did not save him, it made the difference between a
+wound and a killing.
+
+**Both officers were killed through the gaps.** A riot shield covers torso and arms.
+Every wound in the fight landed somewhere it does not reach:
+
+* Warden — right leg 4, left leg 10, and down at zero, dying.
+* Marksman — **head, 10 damage against a location maximum of 5.** Destroyed. Dead
+  outright, not dying, which is R-227's fix holding.
+
+**And the ranged penalty decided the fight.** With the Warden down, the Marksman raised
+the shield and kept shooting — at 65% less 20%, so 45%. Four shots: **93, 89, 73, 65.**
+That last one is the whole rule in a single number. **65 is a hit at 65% and a miss at
+45%.** The redcap was on 3 hit points of 13 and the shield cost the Marksman the kill,
+and then the fight, and then his life.
+
+The redcap finished on 3 and walked away.
+
+**What this says about the design.** The trade is real and it is legible at the table:
+the shield roughly doubled the torso armour of both agents and turned aside five blows
+between them, and it also cost a marksman a creature that was one hit from dead. Wear
+is paced correctly — 2 of 5 on the Warden's shield after a critical and four ordinary
+parries, so a shield lasts a fight and not a campaign. Nothing needed tuning after the
+two defects found while building it.
+
+Worth noting for anyone issuing shields: a riot shield is `torsoArms`, and in melee
+**legs and head are 10 of 20**. A shield is not a suit of armour and this fight is what
+that sentence costs.