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   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

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