The Threat Codex (Preview)
The Threat Codex
“You can tell a lot about a man by what kills him. If it’s a bullet, he was slow. If it’s a knife, he was careless. If it’s something that drank his eyes and wore his skin… well, he was just unlucky.”
Doc “Sawbones” Holliday
The Frontier is an ecosystem of violence. Every shadow has teeth. Every silence has a pulse. The things that crawl out of the Veil are not random: they are symptoms of a wound that will not close, and each one fills a niche in a food chain that puts humanity somewhere in the middle.
This chapter provides the statistics for the enemies the players will face, from the mundane greed of a Consortium Enforcer to the cosmic horror of a Stormcaller. It also provides the Marshal with lore, behavioral patterns, and tactical guidance to make each encounter feel distinct and dangerous.
A word of advice: the best monsters are the ones the players remember. Give them voices. Give them habits. Let the Dust Vulture Raider beg for water before she dies. Let the Hollow Man wear the face of someone the party used to know. Numbers kill characters. Details haunt players.
In This Chapter
Reading a Stat Block and Using Threat Tiers: the format every entry follows, and how much of anything it takes to threaten a party.
The Factions: the Consortium, the Dust Vultures, the Redeemers, the Ironbrands, and the Circle of Ash, each from rank and file to leader, with how they fight as a unit.
Independent Operators: bandits, bounty hunters, duelists, prophets, and the brokers and deserters who work the spaces between the Powers.
Reading the Threats
Reading a Stat Block
Every NPC and creature in this book follows a standardized format:
- Tier: The threat level (Minion, Soldier, Elite, Boss). Determines baseline power and XP value.
- Attributes: The six core stats (IRON, GRIT, QUICK, SAVVY, SWAY, ECHO), listed only where they deviate from the Tier default or where a specific check is required.
- Vitals: Vitality (HP), Defense (TN to hit), Armor Rating (AR), Mettle, and Strain Cap where relevant.
- Attacks: Pre-calculated weapon stats including Pool, Weapon Rating (WR), Tempo, and special properties.
- Traits: Innate qualities that define the creature’s nature: immunities, vulnerabilities, and passive effects.
- Abilities: Active special rules, Psionic Talents, or triggered effects.
- Tactics: How this enemy fights. Read this before the session, not during.
Using Threat Tiers
Threat Tiers are shorthand for combat weight. They tell you at a glance how many of something it takes to threaten a party.
| Tier | HP | Pool | Defense | Mettle | AR | XP | Encounter Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minion | 6–8 | 3–4 | 7–9 | 0 | 0–1 | 1 | Fodder. Two Minions per PC is a fair fight. Three is dangerous. |
| Soldier | 8–10 | 5 | 8–10 | 0–1 | 1 | 2 | Backbone. One Soldier per PC is standard. They use tactics. |
| Elite | 10–14 | 6–7 | 9–11 | 1–2 | 1–2 | 3 | Threats. One Elite can anchor a Minion squad. Two Elites stress a party. |
| Boss | 18–24 | 8–10 | 10–12 | 3–5 | 2–3 | 5 | Climax. One Boss is a session-defining encounter. Add Minions for drama. |
Scaling Note: A starting PC has roughly 9–13 HP, Defense 9–12, and pools of 4–7 dice. The Threat Tiers are calibrated to this range. As PCs grow in power (sessions 9+), increase enemy Pools by +1 and HP by +2–3 per tier to maintain tension.
The Factions as Enemies
Humans are the most common enemy on the Frontier. They are smart, they use cover, they hold grudges, and they have families that will come looking for answers. Killing a Fen-Wraith is survival. Killing a Consortium Enforcer is politics.
Every faction entry includes a brief overview of how that faction fights as a unit, because no one on the Frontier works alone.
The Factions at a Glance
| Faction | Fights Like | Leader |
|---|---|---|
| Consortium Forces | Defensive: holds cover, calls reinforcements, and advances only behind superior firepower | Rail Baron Thaddeus Craine |
| Dust Vulture Clans | Hit-and-run ambush and psychological warfare; scatters when a fight turns | Khan Draven Ash-Blood |
| Redeemer Order | Zealous aggression in pairs, fire first and salt after; targets Psionics first | Grand Inquisitor Ezekiel Steiger |
| Ironbrand Mercenaries | Disciplined fire-and-maneuver, with a retreat planned before the first shot | Captain Beulah “Ironjaw” Stetzell |
| Circle of Ash | Rarely starts a fight; Guardians hold the line while the others escape or work rituals | Elder Rhun, Voice of the Veil |
The Bestiary
Everything in the previous chapter can be bargained with, bribed, outlasted, or shamed. Very little of what follows can. The Veil-Born do not want Scrip or territory or revenge. They want warmth, or memory, or simply to keep doing whatever the Current set them doing, and they will keep doing it long after the party has stopped being a problem.
That makes them a different kind of fight. Learning what a Veil-Born wants, and what holds it back, wins more encounters than any amount of lead. Every entry here tells you both.
In This Chapter
Veil-Born Entities: the Frontier’s best-known horrors, from the Hollow Man to the Red Mother’s Maw, and the traits they all share.
Newly Documented Manifestations: smaller, stranger things the Circle has only recently catalogued.
The Frontier’s Ecology: predators, constructs, and haunts that have settled into the land as if they belong there.
New Manifestations by Region: Veil-Born native to the Ash Belt, Scorchveil, and Stormrise, then the Graven Plain, the Fen, and beyond.
Older Than the Rupture: wildlife, machines, and things that were already strange before the sky broke.
Encounter Building and Threats by Tier: budgets, the golden rules of encounter design, and every threat in this book sorted by Tier.
Reading the Bestiary
Tier Qualifiers: a Tier in parentheses tells you how the threat behaves, not just how hard it hits.
Swarm: many small bodies acting as one. Area attacks hit them normally; single-target attacks have their damage reduced by 3.
Hazard: closer to dangerous terrain than an enemy. Often it cannot be killed, only avoided, endured, or switched off.
Environmental: a Boss-scale threat that is a place or a force. The party fights the situation, not a body.
Parasite and Mimic: threats that hide inside or behind someone else. Finding them is half the encounter.
Unclassifiable and Variable: the rules for these are written into the entry itself. Read it closely before play.
Building Encounters
Encounter Budget
Use the XP Value of enemies to gauge encounter difficulty for a party of 4 PCs:
| Difficulty | Total XP Budget | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 4–6 | 4 Minions or 2 Soldiers |
| Standard | 8–10 | 1 Elite + 4 Minions, or 2 Elites |
| Hard | 12–16 | 1 Boss + 4 Minions, or 3 Elites + 2 Soldiers |
| Deadly | 18+ | 1 Boss + 1 Elite + Soldiers, or 2 Bosses (if you hate your players) |
The Golden Rules of Encounter Design
Action Economy Wins: Four PCs acting against one Boss will overwhelm it through sheer volume. Always give a Boss 2–4 Minion or Soldier escorts to absorb actions and protect flanks.
Environment Matters: A Minion behind Hard Cover (+4 TN) is as hard to hit as an Elite in the open. Use terrain. Fights in featureless rooms are forgettable.
Tension is a Resource: Every combat adds to the Tension Pool. Long fights attract worse things. Time pressure makes every decision matter.
Scarcity Creates Drama: Track ammunition. Track Strain. Track Mettle. A party that enters a fight with full resources feels powerful. A party running low feels desperate. Both are good, but alternate them.
Make Enemies Human: Even the Veil-Born have behaviors, preferences, and weaknesses. An enemy that fights intelligently, using cover, targeting Psionics, retreating when wounded, is more memorable than a sack of HP that charges forward.
Sample Threats
A selection of stat blocks from both chapters is available in the Creatures section. The Threat Codex itself holds more than a hundred, from Consortium Enforcers to things older than the Rupture.