RingBRP/docs/BESTIARY.md

THE CUSTODIANS — bestiary

Generated by tools/bestiary.mjs. Do not edit: every number is derived from the statblock or read from the lethality baseline, so this cannot disagree with the game.

47 creatures. 10 of them are not human-shaped.

At a glance

Sorted by how much of a four-agent party each one puts on the floor, alone. Solo figures against one fixed party — compare creatures with each other, never read them as a prediction of your table. See the note at the foot.

	Creature	Essence	SIZ	Arm	HP	Attack	Down of 4
	Quarantine unit	Sent to contain the same thing you were, and it got here first	14	9	17	Unmaker 75%	3.69
	Long walker	It has been coming here for a very long time and is nearly arrived	22	10	24	Grasping limb 80%	3.32
	The stanchion	Something was driven through the floor here to keep the door from shutting	21	12	23	Grasping limb 45%	2.52
	The supporter	The winged beast off a borough coat of arms, come down off it	24	9	30	Grasping limb 75%	2.16
	Nuckelavee	It came up out of the firth and everything it breathes on dies	20	5	20	Grasping limb 85%	1.98
	The arrears	Something was borrowed from the far side in 1968 and this is the collection	19	7	20	Grasping limb 80%	1.98
	Surveyor	It is measuring the site and it will finish	13	8	16	Redaction lance 70%	1.56
	The apple tree man	The oldest tree in the orchard, and it has been owed a drink since 1961	19	8	22	Grasping limb 55%	1.37
	Lost property	It has been collecting for ninety years and it is not only umbrellas now	18	7	21	Grasping limb 60%	1.06
	Cuckoo array	A machine that has decided it is the site	20	7	22	Grasping limb 55%	1.02
V	The yield	It is here for the harvest and the harvest is annual	18	5	18	Grasping limb 75%	1.01
C	The relay	Cadence machinery holding one end of a crossing open	17	8	20	Grasping limb 55%	0.94
V	The courier	A Vesh carrying something across, and it will not put it down	16	6	18	Grasping limb 80%	0.80
	Redcap	The small old man in the ruin, and what he dyes his hat with	7	2	13	Halberd 80%	0.74
	Barghest	The black dog on the road out of the village	15	3	16	Grasping limb 75%	0.64
	Church grim	What was buried at the north door to keep the ground	14	5	17	Grasping limb 70%	0.49
	Spriggan	The small ugly thing guarding the barrow, until it is not small	16	4	17	Cudgel 55%	0.49
	Kelpie	The horse standing at the water that is not a horse	18	2	17	Grasping limb 65%	0.38
V	Precedent	A Vesh that has already attended the incident you are about to file	14	3	15	Grasping limb 60%	0.30
	The waiting room	You will be seen shortly	17	6	19	Grasping limb 40%	0.30
	Revenant	What is left when something comes through without a body to come through in	13	4	15	Grasping limb 65%	0.27
V	The census	A Vesh counting what is on this side, and it has got to you	13	4	15	Grasping limb 50%	0.27
C	The overwriter	It is correcting the record and it does not know the record is us	15	6	18	Grasping limb 35%	0.25
	Grindylow	What is in the still water at the bottom of the lock	11	3	14	Grasping limb 70%	0.24
	The auditor	It has read the file and it has questions	11	4	13	Service pistol 55%	0.17
	The night registry	The filing that gets done after everyone goes home	13	3	16	Grasping limb 50%	0.14
	The predecessor	Whoever had this desk before you never quite handed over	12	2	14	Service pistol 60%	0.13
	Cleaner (marksman)	The one holding the high ground	12	0	12	Marksman rifle 55%	0.11
	The carrion file	A case file that has been eating the cases filed next to it	9	6	16	Grasping limb 45%	0.11
	The locum	Covering a post that nobody appointed and nobody can close	12	1	13	Service pistol 50%	0.09
	Duplicate (of an agent)	The single most expensive thing a team can meet	12	0	13	Service pistol 50%	0.08
	The Keepers (waystation)	Scavengers who bury what comes through — and the only real information network on the far side	12	0	13	Utility knife 55%	0.06
	The understudy	It has been practising being you and it is nearly ready	12	2	13	Punch / kick 60%	0.05
V	The margin	It lives in the space around what was written down	8	2	11	Grasping limb 40%	0.05
	The Quiet Neighbours	Near-world locals who have lived beside the threshold for generations	8	0	10	Improvised spear 50%	0.04
	Cleaner (contractor)	Human, armed, and working for whoever got here first	12	0	12	Service pistol 45%	0.04
	Boggart	The thing in the house that was tolerable until it was not	5	0	9	Punch / kick 35%	0.00
	Hollow man	Somebody who crossed too often and came back thinner each time	12	1	13	Punch / kick 55%	0.00
	The tenant	What moved into the house while it was empty	10	0	11	Punch / kick 25%	0.00
C	The choir	Eleven people who all say the same thing a half second apart	11	1	12	Punch / kick 50%	0.00
	The washer at the ford	A woman washing clothes in the beck, and one of them is yours	9	0	11	Punch / kick 25%	0.00
	Lantern man	A light on the levels that wants you to follow it	5	0	8	Punch / kick 20%	0.00
C	Knockers	The tapping in the workings, which is either a warning or an invitation	6	2	11	Punch / kick 45%	0.00
	Hedley Kow	It is not dangerous and it will ruin your entire evening	10	1	12	Punch / kick 30%	0.00
C	The committee	It went into session in 1953 and has not risen	12	2	15	Punch / kick 30%	0.00
	The minutes	A faithful record of a meeting that has not been held	4	0	7	Punch / kick 10%	0.00
	The switchboard	It is still connecting calls and some of them are answered	14	4	17	Punch / kick 25%	0.00

V = Vesh, C = Cadence. Everything else is baseline-human anatomy, including several things that are plainly not human-shaped — see the note at the foot.

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Shooting at something that moves

A creature's Dodge is not a percentage it has all round. Every defence it spends costs it 30 points on the next one, and the whole thing resets when the round does. The median dodge in this book is 45%, which goes 45% → 15% → 1% and is down to the floor after 2 landing hits.

Across 47 creatures: 13 are stripped by 1 landing hit, 25 are stripped by 2 landing hits, 9 are stripped by 3 landing hits.

Two things follow:

• Only a hit spends a defence. A miss strips nothing, so a round in which the party misses twice is one where the creature meets the third shot at full value.
• Each landing hit makes the next one easier, in the same round only. The second agent to connect is worth more than the first, and against the heavy dodgers below the third is worth more still.

What you cannot do is choose who goes first. Reaction is re-rolled every round, so over a fight every agent takes the opening slot about equally often, and there is no rule for holding an action. Arranging the party so its best weapon fires last was measured in the simulator and came to nothing distinguishable from noise.

What you can do is kill them one at a time. Against a pack, every agent putting their attacks into the same creature beats spreading them — in 38 of the 38 packs in this book whose odds leave room for a difference to show, and by more than the measurement’s own noise in 36 of them. It is worth about 6 points of win rate against a pair and 10 points against three or more; the best case in the book is 3 × Kelpie, which goes 52.0% to 67.1%. Most of that is not the ladder above: a creature that is dead stops attacking, and one on half its hit points does not attack any less. Held at a fixed pack size the dodge ladder is worth a point or two.

(1000 fights × 3 seeds per arm, re-measured by check-focus on every build. A pack is measured when its spread-fire odds stand clear of 0% and 100% by more than its own noise, so a fight nobody could lose and a fight nobody could win are both left out.)

The ones that take the most stripping:

• The margin — dodge 80%, 3 landing hits to strip
• Redcap — dodge 75%, 3 landing hits to strip
• Lantern man — dodge 75%, 3 landing hits to strip
• Hedley Kow — dodge 70%, 3 landing hits to strip
• The courier — dodge 70%, 3 landing hits to strip

It runs the other way too: agents defend on the same ladder, which is why a second attacker in a round is worth so much more than the first, and why anything that gets two attacks in before the party acts is far more dangerous than its statblock reads.

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Folklore

Older than the department and largely uninterested in it. Most of these are arrangements rather than fights, and the arrangement is nearly always cheaper.

The supporter

The winged beast off a borough coat of arms, come down off it

Four-legged, winged — as the four-legged, plus wings. Disable either wing and it cannot fly, which is the fight the players can win. Wings are 6 faces of 20 at range and 2 in melee, and carry no hide at all. Once it is grounded the hide halves everywhere except the chest, which it keeps turned towards you.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
26	36	24	8	17	12	9	30	15	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 75%, 1d6+1 · dodges 35%

ARGENT AND GULES. While it stands on ground the borough holds, it takes half damage from anything the borough owns — which includes the department's vehicles and any weapon signed out of Stores. WING IT.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 2.16 of 4 down, 25.1% wiped, 9 rounds.

Nuckelavee

It came up out of the firth and everything it breathes on dies

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
24	20	20	8	19	14	5	20	10	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 85%, 1d6+1 · dodges 50%

THE BLIGHT. Everything within ten metres withers — crops, stock, and on a failed CONx5 each round, people, who take 1 point that armour does not stop. It will not cross running fresh water and it knows that about itself, which makes every stream on the map a tactical feature.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.98 of 4 down, 20.3% wiped, 7 rounds.

The apple tree man

The oldest tree in the orchard, and it has been owed a drink since 1961

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
19	24	19	12	20	4	8	22	11	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 55%, 1d6+1 · dodges 10%

THE RECKONING. It knows what is buried in its orchard, all of it, and will say so in exchange for the debt being paid — cider poured on the roots, and somebody has to sing. It cannot be made to answer any other way; threats bore it, being nineteen feet of apple wood.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.37 of 4 down, 3.7% wiped, 11 rounds.

Redcap

The small old man in the ruin, and what he dyes his hat with

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
17	18	7	11	14	19	2	13	7	7

Attacks with Halberd at 80%, 1d10+2 · dodges 75%

NOT TIRED. It ignores the cumulative defence penalty entirely — every parry it makes is at full skill. Scripture read aloud drives it off; the department keeps a laminated card and does not discuss why it works.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.74 of 4 down, 0.9% wiped, 4 rounds.

Barghest

The black dog on the road out of the village

Four-legged — four legs, no arms. The forequarters are the vital and take the most hits at range; the neck is worth aiming at and the head is hard to reach (1 face in melee).

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
18	16	15	5	16	17	3	16	8	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 75%, 1d6+1 · dodges 60%

THE SUMMONS. Anyone who meets its eyes must make a POWx5 roll or know, with certainty and no evidence, the manner of their own death; failure costs 1 Coherence and the knowledge does not go away. It attacks only when the person it is following is alone and has stopped being frightened.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.64 of 4 down, 0.7% wiped, 4 rounds.

Church grim

What was buried at the north door to keep the ground

Four-legged — four legs, no arms. The forequarters are the vital and take the most hits at range; the neck is worth aiming at and the head is hard to reach (1 face in melee).

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
16	20	14	7	19	11	5	17	9	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 70%, 1d6+1 · dodges 30%

THE GROUND IS MINE. Any agent who digs, opens, or removes something from its ground takes 1d6 with no roll to avoid and no armour, every round they continue. It has no interest in anybody who leaves.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.49 of 4 down, 0.4% wiped, 4 rounds.

Spriggan

The small ugly thing guarding the barrow, until it is not small

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
21	18	16	9	15	13	4	17	9	7

Attacks with Cudgel at 55%, 1d6+1 · dodges 45%

WHAT IT REALLY IS. The characteristics above are the LARGE form. Until the barrow is disturbed run it at SIZ 6 and STR 8, harmless and mostly comic; the change is one round and there is no roll to resist it.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.49 of 4 down, 0.3% wiped, 4 rounds.

Kelpie

The horse standing at the water that is not a horse

Four-legged — four legs, no arms. The forequarters are the vital and take the most hits at range; the neck is worth aiming at and the head is hard to reach (1 face in melee).

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
21	15	18	9	18	13	2	17	9	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 65%, 1d6+1 · dodges 45%

ADHESION. Anyone who touches it is stuck fast — a STRx5 roll to pull free, at −20% per round already stuck, and it walks into the water at a stroll. It does not fight; drowning is its whole method, so run the ASPHYXIA rules and not a combat.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.38 of 4 down, 0.1% wiped, 3 rounds.

Grindylow

What is in the still water at the bottom of the lock

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
17	16	11	7	12	15	3	14	7	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 70%, 1d6+1 · dodges 50%

THE PULL. Against a target in water it attacks at +40% and a hit means grappled, not damaged; a grappled target is under and rolling CONx5 each round to keep breathing. Out of water it is slow, half-blind and frankly pitiable — the entire fight is about whether anybody is standing where they should not be.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.24 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 3 rounds.

Boggart

The thing in the house that was tolerable until it was not

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
10	12	5	13	17	16	0	9	5	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 35%, 1d3 · dodges 65%

THE WRONG NAME. Once a scene it addresses an agent by a name that is not theirs but is on a document somewhere; that agent loses 1 Coherence and every roll against the boggart is at −20% for the rest of the scene, because it plainly knows something you do not. Naming it correctly ends it.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The washer at the ford

A woman washing clothes in the beck, and one of them is yours

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
8	12	9	15	22	11	0	11	6	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 25%, 1d3 · dodges 35%

THE COLLAR. Any agent who looks closely enough to read it learns, truthfully, how they die — not when. That agent takes −20% to every roll for the rest of the session and may not be talked out of it; the knowledge is correct.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 1 rounds.

Lantern man

A light on the levels that wants you to follow it

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
6	10	5	12	18	20	0	8	4	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 20%, 1d3 · dodges 75%

THE SHORTER WAY. Every ten minutes of following, each agent rolls Navigate; on a failure the party is one step further into water, bog or a drop they cannot see. Three failures and somebody is in it.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

Knockers

The tapping in the workings, which is either a warning or an invitation

Cadence — five bodies, no vital, no head. Cannot be dropped; each body lost costs it −10% to everything.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
9	15	6	13	14	16	2	11	6	5

Attacks with Punch / kick at 45%, 1d3 · dodges 55%

THE KNOCK. Once a round they tap on rock; every agent who hears it rolls Listen. On a success the tap is a warning and they learn one true fact about the workings — a bad roof, a flooded level, a way out.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

Hedley Kow

It is not dangerous and it will ruin your entire evening

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
12	13	10	16	17	18	1	12	6	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 30%, 1d3 · dodges 70%

THE SWAP. Once per scene it becomes an object or a person the party has already seen, and the party's own gear is what changes: a torch is a milk bottle, a warrant card is somebody else's, a set of keys is a handful of pebbles. Each swap is a genuine loss until found.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

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Horror

The department's own. Every one is a piece of administration that kept going after the reason for it stopped.

Lost property

It has been collecting for ninety years and it is not only umbrellas now

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
20	23	18	6	16	5	7	21	11	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 60%, 1d6+1 · dodges 10%

UNCLAIMED. Anything an agent sets down in the room is the room's after one round, and cannot be picked up again without a STR roll against STR 20. That includes a rifle put down to open a door, and it will include a person who sits down.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.06 of 4 down, 2.1% wiped, 8 rounds.

The waiting room

You will be seen shortly

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
15	21	17	11	22	6	6	19	10	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 40%, 1d6+1 · dodges 15%

SHORTLY. Every agent who sits down rolls POWx5 at the end of each scene; on a failure they do not want to leave yet, and will explain reasonably why not. Three failures and they are one of the four.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.30 of 4 down, 0.1% wiped, 6 rounds.

The night registry

The filing that gets done after everyone goes home

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
13	18	13	16	21	9	3	16	8	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 50%, 1d6+1 · dodges 25%

CORRECTLY FILED. Anything left in the building overnight is put where it belongs — which is not where anybody left it, and for a person means the personnel files. An agent who sleeps in the building rolls POWx5; on a failure they wake up on the record as staff from 1961, with that year's clearances and none of their own.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.14 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 3 rounds.

The predecessor

Whoever had this desk before you never quite handed over

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
13	15	12	17	20	13	2	14	7	7

Attacks with Service pistol at 60%, 1d8+2 · dodges 50%

HANDOVER. Once a round it performs a task that agent was about to perform, correctly and first. Mechanically that agent loses their action; the thing still gets done, which is what makes it hard to object to.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.13 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The carrion file

A case file that has been eating the cases filed next to it

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
14	22	9	14	21	6	6	16	8	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 45%, 1d6+1 · dodges 15%

AMENDMENT. Once a round it may amend one fact about one agent who has read from it — a qualification, a posting, a next of kin — and the amendment is TRUE. Mechanically: it removes one trained skill, or one talent, or one relationship, permanently, and the agent gets no roll.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.11 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 5 rounds.

The locum

Covering a post that nobody appointed and nobody can close

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
12	14	12	15	18	14	1	13	7	7

Attacks with Service pistol at 50%, 1d8+2 · dodges 55%

OF COURSE. It may assert one credential per scene and it is believed — by NPCs automatically, and by an agent unless they beat it on Insight against its Persuade. It is not hostile until challenged in front of witnesses, at which point it becomes extremely hostile and extremely plausible about it.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.09 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The understudy

It has been practising being you and it is nearly ready

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
13	14	12	14	15	15	2	13	7	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 60%, 1d3 · dodges 60%

REHEARSED. It always acts immediately before the agent it is copying in the reaction order, regardless of the roll, because it has already decided. Kill it and the copy is over; kill the original in front of it and it stops being a copy and becomes the only one, which is worse and is a campaign.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.05 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

Hollow man

Somebody who crossed too often and came back thinner each time

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
12	14	12	12	20	14	1	13	7	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 55%, 1d3 · dodges 55%

THE FILE IS YOURS NOW. Once per scene it may attempt to swap its own record with an agent's: opposed POWx5. If it wins, the agent loses 2 Coherence and the hollow man gains them; if the agent reaches 0 this way, the two are simply exchanged and the case has a new problem.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The tenant

What moved into the house while it was empty

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
8	11	10	16	18	9	0	11	6	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 25%, 1d3 · dodges 35%

TENANCY. Anybody who spends an hour under its roof must make a POWx5 roll or begin to agree that it lives there; on a failure they will argue the point with their own team. Removing it is a Borrowed Authority problem, not a combat, and the correct answer is to make the record say it never had the tenancy.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 1 rounds.

The choir

Eleven people who all say the same thing a half second apart

Cadence — five bodies, no vital, no head. Cannot be dropped; each body lost costs it −10% to everything.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
11	13	11	9	16	12	1	12	6	5

Attacks with Punch / kick at 50%, 1d3 · dodges 45%

ONE VOICE. Every round they are all still standing, every agent within earshot rolls POWx5 or loses 1 Coherence; the roll is at −10% per body still upright. Reducing the choir below six bodies ends the power for good.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The committee

It went into session in 1953 and has not risen

Cadence — five bodies, no vital, no head. Cannot be dropped; each body lost costs it −10% to everything.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
9	17	12	18	19	8	2	15	8	5

Attacks with Punch / kick at 30%, 1d3 · dodges 20%

RESOLVED. Once per scene the committee passes a motion about the party — that they are not cleared for this floor, that their warrant is withdrawn, that one of them was never appointed. The motion is TRUE from the moment it carries, and it carries unless an agent argues it down with Persuade or Status at −20%.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The minutes

A faithful record of a meeting that has not been held

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
3	10	4	20	23	12	0	7	4	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 10%, 1d3 · dodges 30%

AS AGREED. The minutes record decisions the party will make later in the session. When a recorded decision comes up, the agent may either take it — free, correct, and the minutes were right — or refuse it, and lose 1 Coherence for stepping outside the record.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 1 rounds.

The switchboard

It is still connecting calls and some of them are answered

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
10	19	14	14	24	16	4	17	9	7

Attacks with Punch / kick at 25%, 1d3 · dodges 35%

PUTTING YOU THROUGH. Any agent who picks up is connected to somebody who is dead, or somewhere that is not there, or to themselves earlier in the case. The information is always TRUE and always costs 1 Coherence to have heard.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.00 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 4 rounds.

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The far side

The far side, and what it sends. This is where the non-human anatomies are: a Vesh has no head to shoot off, a Cadence has no vital at all.

Quarantine unit

Sent to contain the same thing you were, and it got here first

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
18	19	14	13	11	16	9	17	9	7

Attacks with Unmaker at 75%, 1d10+30 · dodges 65%

STERILISATION ORDER. If the team refuses to withdraw, the unit begins a countdown the GM tracks openly — six rounds — after which the site is rendered, and everyone still in it is in a BLAST of 6d6 with a radius of the whole location. They can be argued down with a higher authorisation, which is a Borrowed Authority problem.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 3.69 of 4 down, 87.4% wiped, 7 rounds.

Long walker

It has been coming here for a very long time and is nearly arrived

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
24	25	22	11	24	8	10	24	12	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 80%, 1d6+1 · dodges 20%

DISTANCE MEANS NOTHING. It cannot be outrun on foot, ever; only a vehicle, a crossing, or a stepping disc breaks contact. Damage slows it and does not stop it: every 10 points it takes costs it one round of movement and nothing else.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 3.32 of 4 down, 68% wiped, 14 rounds.

The stanchion

Something was driven through the floor here to keep the door from shutting

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
22	25	21	4	21	2	12	23	12	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 45%, 1d6+1 · dodges 5%

DRIVEN. While it stands the crossing beside it cannot be closed by any means, including the Quiet Arts. It has 12 natural armour, so small arms do literally nothing and the party will need the cutter, the demolition charge, or an idea.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 2.52 of 4 down, 37.4% wiped, 19 rounds.

The arrears

Something was borrowed from the far side in 1968 and this is the collection

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
21	21	19	14	22	14	7	20	10	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 80%, 1d6+1 · dodges 55%

THE PRINCIPAL. It knows precisely what the department took and from whom; the debt is real and the file confirming it exists in the Registry. Settling it ends the encounter instantly and costs the department something the players will not want to give.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.98 of 4 down, 12.8% wiped, 12 rounds.

Surveyor

It is measuring the site and it will finish

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
15	18	13	17	12	14	8	16	8	7

Attacks with Redaction lance at 70%, 1d4+6 · dodges 50%

ALREADY SURVEYED. It knows the ground perfectly: no cover applies against it, and it may not be ambushed. Damaging its instrument makes it leave; damaging the body does not, because there are more bodies.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.56 of 4 down, 6.3% wiped, 11 rounds.

Cuckoo array

A machine that has decided it is the site

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
20	24	20	19	14	5	7	22	11	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 55%, 1d6+1 · dodges 5%

HOUSE RULES. Any device or vehicle brought into the building answers to it within one round unless it is mechanical, sealed, or older than the array — which is why the department still issues an oil lantern and a brass compass.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.02 of 4 down, 1.7% wiped, 8 rounds.

The yield

It is here for the harvest and the harvest is annual

Vesh — no head, so no killing shot; the sensory ridge is the vital and is hit on 3 of 20.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
20	18	18	10	16	15	5	18	9	6

Attacks with Grasping limb at 75%, 1d6+1 · dodges 60%

THE COUNT. It takes four. Not five, not three — if the party stops it taking a fourth it will keep working until it has one, and it will not leave without them.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 1.01 of 4 down, 2.9% wiped, 6 rounds.

The relay

Cadence machinery holding one end of a crossing open

Cadence — five bodies, no vital, no head. Cannot be dropped; each body lost costs it −10% to everything.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
14	22	17	16	23	10	8	20	10	5

Attacks with Grasping limb at 55%, 1d6+1 · dodges 25%

WHILE QUORATE. The crossing holds while three or more bodies stand. Take it to two and the crossing begins to close over a minute; take it to one and it closes now, with whatever is halfway through still halfway through.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.94 of 4 down, 1.4% wiped, 10 rounds.

The courier

A Vesh carrying something across, and it will not put it down

Vesh — no head, so no killing shot; the sensory ridge is the vital and is hit on 3 of 20.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
18	19	16	12	17	19	6	18	9	6

Attacks with Grasping limb at 80%, 1d6+1 · dodges 70%

THE CONSIGNMENT. Everything it carries is in the single grasp limb and it will not use that limb to fight while it is carrying — so it attacks with the brace limb at HALF the rating above until the consignment is taken from it. Disable the grasp limb and it drops the consignment and fights properly, at full rating and furious.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.80 of 4 down, 1% wiped, 9 rounds.

Precedent

A Vesh that has already attended the incident you are about to file

Vesh — no head, so no killing shot; the sensory ridge is the vital and is hit on 3 of 20.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
13	15	14	14	18	17	3	15	8	6

Attacks with Grasping limb at 60%, 1d6+1 · dodges 65%

COUNTERSIGNED. Any document an agent files about this scene is found to already bear a second signature, in the agent's own hand, dated earlier. The agent gets no roll; the paperwork is simply already done and already wrong.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.30 of 4 down, 0.1% wiped, 4 rounds.

The census

A Vesh counting what is on this side, and it has got to you

Vesh — no head, so no killing shot; the sensory ridge is the vital and is hit on 3 of 20.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
12	16	13	18	20	16	4	15	8	6

Attacks with Grasping limb at 50%, 1d6+1 · dodges 55%

ENUMERATED. When it counts an agent — one round, no roll, it simply looks — that agent is on a list on the far side. Thereafter anything from the far side knows where they are, permanently, and the department cannot get them off it.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.27 of 4 down, 0.1% wiped, 4 rounds.

The overwriter

It is correcting the record and it does not know the record is us

Cadence — five bodies, no vital, no head. Cannot be dropped; each body lost costs it −10% to everything.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
11	20	15	22	25	12	6	18	9	5

Attacks with Grasping limb at 35%, 1d6+1 · dodges 30%

THE CORRECTION. Once a round it corrects one FACT the party is relying on — an address, a name in a file, which door the key opens, who signed the warrant. The correction is retroactive and true, and no roll resists it; the party simply finds the world has always been slightly different.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.25 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 6 rounds.

The auditor

It has read the file and it has questions

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
11	14	11	21	20	12	4	13	7	7

Attacks with Service pistol at 55%, 1d8+2 · dodges 40%

THE DISCREPANCY. It names one thing an agent has actually done this case — a Quiet Art used in front of a witness, a credential stretched, a body left. That agent rolls POWx5; on a failure the discrepancy is entered and they lose 1 Coherence permanently to it, because it is now on the record and the record is real.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.17 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 3 rounds.

The margin

It lives in the space around what was written down

Vesh — no head, so no killing shot; the sensory ridge is the vital and is hit on 3 of 20.

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
9	13	8	19	24	21	2	11	6	6

Attacks with Grasping limb at 40%, 1d6+1 · dodges 80%

NOT MENTIONED. It can only be perceived by an agent who is NOT currently looking for it; anybody actively searching rolls Spot at −50%, and anybody who has stopped searching sees it immediately. It steals documents and it does not steal anything else.

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.05 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 3 rounds.

---

Uncategorised

People, mostly — contractors, locals, and the ones who were already here.

Revenant

What is left when something comes through without a body to come through in

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
16	16	13	8	17	14	4	15	8	7

Attacks with Grasping limb at 65%, 1d6+1 · dodges 40%

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.27 of 4 down, 0.1% wiped, 3 rounds.

Cleaner (marksman)

The one holding the high ground

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
14	12	12	11	14	12	0	12	6	7

Attacks with Marksman rifle at 55%, 1d10+2 · dodges 35%

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.11 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

Duplicate (of an agent)

The single most expensive thing a team can meet

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
12	13	12	14	13	14	0	13	7	7

Attacks with Service pistol at 50%, 1d8+2 · dodges 45%

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.08 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The Keepers (waystation)

Scavengers who bury what comes through — and the only real information network on the far side

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
13	14	12	13	12	13	0	13	7	7

Attacks with Utility knife at 55%, 1d4+2 · dodges 45%

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.06 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

The Quiet Neighbours

Near-world locals who have lived beside the threshold for generations

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
9	12	8	11	11	16	0	10	5	7

Attacks with Improvised spear at 50%, 1d8+1 · dodges 68%

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.04 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

Cleaner (contractor)

Human, armed, and working for whoever got here first

STR	CON	SIZ	INT	POW	DEX	Armour	HP	Major wound	Locations
13	12	12	11	10	12	0	12	6	7

Attacks with Service pistol at 45%, 1d8+2 · dodges 40%

Measured alone against the frozen party: 0.04 of 4 down, 0% wiped, 2 rounds.

---

Reading the measured column

Every figure comes from tools/lethality-baseline.json, measured over 2000 runs at seed 11, one sequence derived per creature so no two share a draw, against a frozen party of 4: holloway, okonkwo, nkemdirim, ferriby. check-lethality refuses the build if any of them drifts, so these cannot go stale.

They are solo figures and they are not a prediction. Two things move them hard:

• How many there are. One Keeper is nothing; six are a 36% chance of a wiped party.
• Who the players brought. This is the big one. The same fight measured across every party the duty roster can field runs from 0% to 100% wiped — Okonkwo alone is worth forty-three points. Run node tools/simulate.mjs --creature <key> --count N --spread before you decide a fight is survivable.

The harness models banding, graded defences, hit locations, major wounds and the dying clock. It does not model bleeding, panic, Coherence, cover, range bands or fire modes, and every one of those makes a fight worse for whoever is losing. Read all of it as a floor.

A known gap

22 creatures fight with nothing but their own bodies and still carry baseline-human anatomy. Some of those are people and that is fine. Several plainly are not — a black dog, a case file that eats the cases filed next to it, a machine that has decided it is the site — and all of them are hit-located as people, so you can shoot the barghest in the left arm and open the carrion file's chest.

The machinery to fix it exists, works, and is measured: see any Vesh or Cadence entry above. What is missing is the anatomy tables for the shapes those creatures actually are — a quadruped, an immobile object, a swarm — and the statblocks to go with them.

Private convention play materials — not for sale or distribution.