Laggards

Laggards drop Frozen Thought: you inhale it for notes of the Stillness, the Memory Vessel stands on it, and no automaton's thought can be quickened without it. A Laggard freezes mid-step, and a pale double walks ahead of him toward you: where the double stops, there he will rush — three times as fast as a zombie. Strike while he stands, and do not stand where the double stopped.

TempoStill

His touch drags time: for two seconds you are slowed. By day he does not burn but stands twice as long, and after a minute of light time catches up with him — he crumbles into rime and leaves nothing. A Laggard drops a Frozen Thought two times in five; Looting adds a tenth per level.

A Laggard Brute froze longer than any: he roams the Stagnant Backwater by night and the Midstep Outskirts at any hour. Every blow shakes time back into him — he stands shorter, rushes farther and faster, his cracks burn brighter, the rime crust on his shoulder falls away; up to five times, and without blows he falls behind again, once every six seconds. Let him stand, and strike when you mean to finish. He always drops a Frozen Thought, and now and then a Still Memory.

Everything in the world is a frozen current. The Stillness leaks into the world, and now and then a man falls behind his own moment: he stands while time moves on, and then rushes after it. He cannot catch it — time is always a step ahead, and only the morning brings them together.