01 / Conflict
Starting a public fight
Where the target rules permit a public fight the Cortex can send one to six enforcers to defend the person attacked. They target the original attacker. After subduing that attacker they withdraw. They do not add wounds through this response and do not send the defeated attacker through the alarm-auction flow.
The attacker remains unconscious where they fell. The response does not heal them or guarantee safety from everyone else in the scene. Public-room and vehicle restrictions still exist outside the specific exceptions.
02 / Conflict
People can hear about it
Successfully starting an eligible public fight has a 25 percent chance to create a Town Gossip rumour naming the visible introductions of the attacker and victim and the location. Masks and transformed appearances follow the ordinary introduction rules.
The roll happens once at the beginning. Blocked attacks and private fights and sparring and nightmare combat do not produce that rumour through this mechanism.
03 / Conflict
Alarm arrests are different
A public alarm can summon the arrest response instead. Defeat in that flow can lead to a syndicate auction. Squad scaling is shared but the defeat outcomes are not. Do not tell a player that every Cortex encounter either harmlessly knocks them out or always sends them to auction.
An active dissent crowd in the relevant room suppresses arrivals. A State of Emergency suspends the broader enforcement effects documented for that scheme.
Source notes c5dfe60
Repository edition reviewed 2026-09-19. The running game may differ.