diff --git a/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md b/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md
index 5054ddc..53aded7 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/world-building/SKILL.md
@@ -98,8 +98,9 @@ contradict, and it carries the authoring rules that keep the war in tone
 - **Bible entries:** see `references/schema.md` for the full field-by-field
   contract, the id/namespace/type rules, the secrecy scale, and the knowledge-gate
   model. Match the **structure** of `content/lore/specimen.md` (the synthetic
-  disposition-gate specimen — a guarded-then-warm NPC with one earned reveal) and
-  the **voice** of the canon bodies in `content/lore/cosmology.md`.
+  disposition-gate specimen — a guarded-then-warm NPC with one reveal earned at
+  `warm` and a `never`-gated core no disposition unlocks) and the **voice** of the
+  canon bodies in `content/lore/cosmology.md`.
 - **Hand-authored JSON:** mirror the shape of the existing file in that folder
   (`references/schema.md` documents each). Keep ids stable and lowercase-snake.
 
diff --git a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md
index 4d58b5b..2ebea44 100644
--- a/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md
+++ b/.claude/skills/world-building/references/schema.md
@@ -139,7 +139,8 @@ build failure.
 
 ## Worked example
 
-A guarded fisherman who warms up and, if trusted, names who really owns the boats.
+A guarded fisherman who warms up and names the coin — and who holds one thing no
+disposition ever buys.
 
 ```yaml
 id: person.specimen-teague
@@ -163,12 +164,26 @@ body: >
   charter is buying the wharf's silence, a little at a time.
 ```
 
+```yaml
+id: secret.specimen-drowned-clerk
+type: secret
+status: canon
+secrecy: 4
+related: [place.specimen-wharf, person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin]
+body: >
+  The charter clerk who came asking after the coin went into the river in the
+  spring. Teague held his legs. He has not been out on the water since and tells
+  anyone who asks that it is his knees.
+```
+
 ```yaml
 id: npc.specimen-teague
 type: person
 status: canon
 start_disposition: cold
-related: [person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin]
+related:
+  [person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin,
+   secret.specimen-drowned-clerk]
 body: >
   Same man as person.specimen-teague; his interactive layer. Curt with strangers, not
   from malice but from a lifetime of watching talkers end up face-down in the
@@ -177,14 +192,22 @@ body: >
 
 knows:
   - {fact: fact.specimen-foreign-coin, gate: warm}
+  - {fact: secret.specimen-drowned-clerk, gate: never}
 
 disposition_notes: >
   Starts cold. Buying his catch, not his story, is what moves him. At warm he
-  names the coin; he never speculates aloud about who mints it.
+  names the coin; he never speculates aloud about who mints it. The clerk is the
+  one thing no rung buys — saying it aloud would hang him, and he knows it. He
+  reasons around it, steers off it, and takes it to the ground.
 ```
 
 Note: `person.specimen-teague` (secrecy 0, public) and `npc.specimen-teague` (the layer,
-persona server-only) are two entries. The fact is secrecy 2, gated at `warm`.
+persona server-only) are two entries. The chain ascends 2 → 4: the coin is gated at
+`warm` and the player earns it; the clerk is gated `never` and no disposition unlocks
+it. **That is what `never` is for.** Teague holds it — the Improviser may reason with
+it, and the player may infer it from what he *will* say — but he cannot be talked into
+saying it, because saying it would hang him. A `never` gate needs a reason like that:
+if any rung *should* buy the secret, gate it at `trusted` instead.
 
 ## Hand-authored JSON
 
diff --git a/content/lore/specimen.md b/content/lore/specimen.md
index a756dbc..e05a31e 100644
--- a/content/lore/specimen.md
+++ b/content/lore/specimen.md
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 # SPECIMEN — format example, NOT game canon
 
-> A synthetic disposition-gate specimen: the shape a guarded-then-warm NPC and a
-> single earned personal reveal take in the bible. Authored `status: candidate`,
-> so the build VALIDATES it (`--check` resolves its gate against the ladder) but
-> emits NOTHING to `content/world` or `content/server`. This is a teaching
-> example for the world-building skill, not part of the Margreave. Do not wire
-> real content to these ids.
+> A synthetic disposition-gate specimen: the shape a guarded-then-warm NPC takes
+> in the bible, with an ascending knowledge chain — one reveal the player earns at
+> `warm`, and a `never`-gated core the NPC knows and no disposition ever unlocks.
+> Authored `status: candidate`, so the build VALIDATES it (`--check` resolves its
+> gates against the ladder) but emits NOTHING to `content/world` or
+> `content/server`. This is a teaching example for the world-building skill, not
+> part of the Margreave. Do not wire real content to these ids.
 
 ```yaml
 id: place.specimen-wharf
@@ -40,13 +41,27 @@ body: >
   wharf's silence, a little at a time.
 ```
 
+```yaml
+id: secret.specimen-drowned-clerk
+type: secret
+status: candidate
+secrecy: 4
+related: [place.specimen-wharf, person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin]
+body: >
+  The charter clerk who came asking after the coin went into the river in the
+  spring. Teague held his legs. He has not been out on the water since and tells
+  anyone who asks that it is his knees.
+```
+
 ```yaml
 id: npc.specimen-teague
 type: person
 status: candidate
 secrecy: 0
 start_disposition: cold
-related: [person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin]
+related:
+  [person.specimen-teague, fact.specimen-foreign-coin,
+   secret.specimen-drowned-clerk]
 body: >
   Same man as person.specimen-teague; his interactive layer. Curt with strangers,
   not from malice but from a lifetime of watching talkers end up face-down in the
@@ -55,8 +70,11 @@ body: >
 
 knows:
   - {fact: fact.specimen-foreign-coin, gate: warm}
+  - {fact: secret.specimen-drowned-clerk, gate: never}
 
 disposition_notes: >
   Starts cold. Buying his catch, not his story, is what moves him. At warm he
-  names the coin; he never speculates aloud about who mints it.
+  names the coin; he never speculates aloud about who mints it. The clerk is the
+  one thing no rung buys — saying it aloud would hang him, and he knows it. He
+  reasons around it, steers off it, and takes it to the ground.
 ```