Description

The discarded bodies of victims whose vocal cords have been extracted and integrated into the Harmonic_Engine. They should be dead — throats carved into red ruins, chests split where lungs were removed. But the Engine’s harmonic field has reanimated them. They stand in the tiered seating of the Sealed_Anatomical_Theatre, arranged in rows like a choir, mouths forced open, jaws surgically loosened to widen the aperture.

The Engine uses their dead bodies as resonating chambers. Sound flows backward through their ruined throats — the dead singing without vocal cords. The sound is not heard but felt: a sub-audible pressure in the chest, the jaw, the soft tissue of the brain.

Appearance

• Bodies in various states of surgical mutilation. Throats opened. Chests split. Dressed in the clothes they wore when taken — hospital gowns, street clothes, a nightgown.
• Eyes open, unfocused. Skin the colour of tallow. Mouths gaping.
• They stand with unnatural rigidity, weight distributed like instruments on stands.
• When they move, they move in unison — all turning at once, all stepping in time. Puppet-like: jerky, precise, inhuman.

Statistics

Stat	Value
STR	30
CON	—
SIZ	55-65 (varies)
DEX	25
INT	—
POW	— (channel Engine’s POW 80)
HP	5
Armor	None
MOV	4
DB	—
Attacks	None
SAN	1d3/1d6 (first sight)

Abilities

Harmonic Field: Anyone within 10 feet of 3+ Chorus Dead must make an opposed POW roll vs. Engine POW 80 each round. Failure = lost action (involuntary muscle contraction, vertigo, bleeding from nose and ears). Success = act normally but at penalty die.

Synchronized Movement: All Chorus Dead move in unison. They surround rather than attack individually — closing distance in synchronised rows.

Resonating Chamber: The Engine channels sound through their ruined throats, amplifying and directing the harmonic field.

Weaknesses

Fragile: One solid hit (any damage) collapses each body. Each destroyed body releases a burst of harmonic feedback — SAN 0/1.

Field-Dependent: Cannot function outside the Engine’s harmonic field. If removed from the theatre, they collapse.

Counter-Ritual Vulnerability: If the counter-ritual is active, Engine’s effective POW drops from 80 to 60 for field rolls. Clean shutdown collapses all Chorus Dead simultaneously.

Scaling

The Keeper decides how many are present. Minimum 4 (3+ needed for the harmonic field). Maximum 12 (fills the tiered seating). Suggest starting with enough to fill the lower tiers — the party realises there are more in the shadows above as their eyes adjust.

Encounters

The Chorus Dead are encountered only in the Sealed_Anatomical_Theatre during the assault on the University_of_Vienna. They activate when intruders breach the theatre and step down from the tiered seating in synchronised rows.

Appearances

Combat Procedure (Table Reference)

Round-by-Round

1. Activation: When intruders breach the theatre, all Chorus Dead step down from tiered seating simultaneously. First round: all begin moving (MOV 4). Second round: closest reach melee range of the rescue team.
2. Harmonic Field Check (each round): Any investigator within 10 feet of 3+ Chorus Dead → opposed POW vs. Engine POW 80 (or 60 if counter-ritual active).
   • Fail: Lose action. Nosebleed, vertigo, involuntary muscle contraction.
   • Success: Act normally but at penalty die.
3. Destruction: Any successful attack dealing any damage collapses the body. No HP tracking needed — one hit, one kill. Harmonic feedback on destruction: SAN 0/1 per body.
4. Movement: All Chorus Dead move simultaneously. They surround — closing distance in synchronised rows. They have no attacks. Their threat is the harmonic field and the time they cost.

Quick Reference Card

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  DIE CHOR-LEICHEN — THE CHORUS DEAD      │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  HP: 5 (one hit kills)  MOV: 4  Armor: 0│
│  STR: 30  DEX: 25  POW: — (Engine's 80) │
│  Attacks: NONE                           │
│                                          │
│  HARMONIC FIELD (3+ bodies within 10ft): │
│   → Opposed POW vs Engine POW 80         │
│   → Fail: lose action                    │
│   → Pass: penalty die on all actions     │
│   → Counter-ritual active: POW drops to 60│
│                                          │
│  SAN:                                    │
│   First sight: 1d3/1d6                   │
│   Each body destroyed: 0/1               │
│                                          │
│  SCALING: Min 4, Max 12 (Keeper decides) │
│  Clean shutdown = all collapse at once   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

Tactical Notes for Keeper

• The Chorus Dead are a time threat, not a military threat. Each round spent fighting through them is a round on the ritual clock.
• Destroying them is easy (one hit each). Reaching Caroline through them while the harmonic field pins you down is the problem.
• Start with enough to fill the lower tiers. As eyes adjust, reveal more in the shadows above.
• The Sardinians (POW 50 average, SAN ~46-49) are highly vulnerable to the harmonic field and the SAN cost. Mercenary panic is a realistic outcome when dead people start singing through surgical wounds.
• If the counter-ritual is active, the field weakens significantly (POW 60 vs 80). This makes the Chorus Dead less of an obstacle but does not destroy them — only clean shutdown or physical destruction does that.

Session 14 — Encountered and Destroyed (Pre-dawn, 12 August 1814)

The Chorus Dead appeared in the tiered seating of the Sealed_Anatomical_Theatre during the Session 14 assault on the University_of_Vienna.

Appearance in Play

The Chorus Dead stood in rows in the tiered stone seating — bodies with flayed throats and split chests, some missing lungs, some missing hands. The harmonic singing note poured from the holes in their bodies rather than their mouths, a sub-audible pressure that was felt in the chest and jaw rather than heard with the ears.

They moved in a slow, inexorable wave toward the assault teams once the breach was made. Synchronised, puppet-like, stepping down from the tiers in unison.

Effects on the Assault Teams

Close proximity caused nosebleeds, bleeding from the ears, and disorientation. Thomas suffered this directly — the harmonic field catching him as the Chorus Dead closed distance.

Destruction

The Chorus Dead became inert when the Harmonic_Engine was shut down by the counter-ritual (Georgiana’s Command_Tuning_Fork). The harmonic field that animated them collapsed, and they fell where they stood — returning to what they always were: the mutilated dead.

Status

• Status: DESTROYED (all instances)
• Mechanism of destruction: Clean shutdown of the Harmonic_Engine via counter-ritual
• Remains: Inert corpses in the wreckage of the Sealed_Anatomical_Theatre

Relationships

• Created by Harmonic Engine — Animated by the Engine's harmonic field; extensions of the machine, not independent creatures
• Created by Albin Herzfeld — Created from the discarded bodies of Herzfeld's victims after vocal cord extraction
• Located at Sealed Anatomical Theatre — Cannot exist outside the theatre's resonant field