diff --git a/src/captives.lua b/src/captives.lua
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+++ b/src/captives.lua
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+-- Net-and-ransom: throwing a spare net at a wild monster too battered to
+-- keep fighting subdues it alive instead of finishing it off with a killing
+-- blow. A captured monster never runs through Game:awardKill at all - no
+-- xp, no essence, no quest or compendium credit, no faction kill penalty
+-- (see factions.lua's registerKill) and no corpse (corpses.lua) - it is
+-- simply dropped from level.entities the instant its hp hits zero here, and
+-- reborn as a captive: plain data on level.captives, exactly like a chest
+-- or a corpse, so it serializes with no special save-format handling.
+--
+-- A held captive can then be spent exactly one of three ways, each removing
+-- it from level.captives for good: ransomed back to its own kind for
+-- nothing but goodwill (Captives.ransom), sold off for gold at that same
+-- goodwill's expense (Captives.sell), or interrogated for whatever it knows
+-- instead of what it is worth (Captives.interrogate, which cashes in
+-- secrets.lua's own passive search early). None of the three is strictly
+-- better than the others - ransoming is the one move that can pull a
+-- tribal faction back from the brink of open hostility (see factions.lua's
+-- isWary), selling is the only one that pays gold, and interrogating is the
+-- only one that answers to the floor's own layout rather than to gold or
+-- reputation at all.
+--
+-- Capture is a gamble, not a guarantee: even a target already weak enough
+-- to try for can still thrash free, and the net itself is spent from the
+-- inventory either way, the same one-shot risk a lockpick's own gamble
+-- takes against a locked chest. A net never works at all on anything
+-- already spoken for by another escalation or special-case system - a
+-- boss, a mimic, a grave shade, a nemesis, or the shopkeeper (ai "vend",
+-- effectively unkillable loot rather than wild game to begin with).
+
+local Los = require("los")
+local Items = require("items")
+local Monsters = require("monsters")
+local Elites = require("elites")
+local Factions = require("factions")
+local Secrets = require("secrets")
+
+local Captives = {}
+
+Captives.RANGE = 4
+
+-- A target must be battered down to this fraction of its own max hp or
+-- lower before a net is even worth trying - full-health prey just shrugs a
+-- net off before Captives.resolve ever rolls the catch itself.
+Captives.HP_FRACTION_NUMERATOR = 3
+Captives.HP_FRACTION_DENOMINATOR = 10
+
+Captives.CATCH_NUMERATOR = 1
+Captives.CATCH_DENOMINATOR = 2
+
+Captives.RANSOM_REP_GAIN = 12
+Captives.SELL_REP_LOSS = 8
+Captives.INTERROGATE_ESSENCE_DIVISOR = 2
+
+-- Whether `target` is even worth throwing a net at: alive, an ordinary wild
+-- hostile (not a boss, mimic, grave shade or nemesis, and not the vending
+-- shopkeeper), and hurt down to HP_FRACTION_NUMERATOR/DENOMINATOR of its own
+-- max hp or less.
+function Captives.eligible(target)
+  return target ~= nil
+    and target:isAlive()
+    and target.kind == "monster"
+    and target.ai ~= "vend"
+    and not target.isBoss
+    and not target.mimic
+    and not target.grave
+    and not target.nemesis
+    and target.hp * Captives.HP_FRACTION_DENOMINATOR <= target.maxHp * Captives.HP_FRACTION_NUMERATOR
+end
+
+-- Same shape as throwing.lua's Throwing.canReach: a net flies no further
+-- than RANGE and needs an unbroken line of sight, same as any thrown weapon.
+function Captives.canReach(map, x1, y1, x2, y2)
+  local dist = math.max(math.abs(x1 - x2), math.abs(y1 - y2))
+  return dist <= Captives.RANGE and Los.clear(map, x1, y1, x2, y2)
+end
+
+-- Gold/essence baseline shared by every resolution below: the same xp a
+-- kill would have paid, elite-boosted the same way Game:awardKill's own xp
+-- is (see elites.lua), so a netted champion is worth visibly more than a
+-- netted rank-and-file of the same species.
+function Captives.valueOf(target)
+  local xp = Monsters.xpFor(target)
+  return xp + Elites.xpBonus(target, xp)
+end
+
+-- Resolves a net thrown from (thrower) at `target`. Returns (true, lines) if
+-- the net left the thrower's hand - whether it actually held anything or
+-- not - or (false, lines) if it never left the hand at all: the exact same
+-- two-outcome shape Throwing.resolve takes for a thrown weapon or potion.
+function Captives.resolve(game, thrower, item, target)
+  if not item or item.kind ~= Items.NET then
+    return false, { "that can't be thrown as a net" }
+  end
+  if not target or not target:isAlive() then
+    return false, { "no target" }
+  end
+  if not Captives.canReach(game.level.map, thrower.x, thrower.y, target.x, target.y) then
+    return false, { "you have no clear throw" }
+  end
+  if not Captives.eligible(target) then
+    return true, { target.name .. " is far too fierce to net while it can still fight like that" }
+  end
+  if not game.rng:chance(Captives.CATCH_NUMERATOR, Captives.CATCH_DENOMINATOR) then
+    return true, { target.name .. " thrashes free of the net" }
+  end
+  local captive = {
+    x = target.x, y = target.y,
+    species = target.species, faction = target.faction, name = target.name,
+    value = Captives.valueOf(target),
+  }
+  game.level.captives[#game.level.captives + 1] = captive
+  target.hp = 0
+  return true, { string.format("the net drops true - %s is bound and struggling", target.name) }
+end
+
+-- Drops `captive` off level.captives outright - shared by every way of
+-- spending one below, so a captive can never be resolved twice over.
+function Captives.remove(level, captive)
+  for i, candidate in ipairs(level.captives) do
+    if candidate == captive then
+      table.remove(level.captives, i)
+      return
+    end
+  end
+end
+
+-- Frees a held captive back to its own kind for nothing but goodwill: no
+-- gold changes hands, but its faction's standing warms by RANSOM_REP_GAIN -
+-- the mirror image of Factions.registerKill's penalty for finishing the
+-- same creature off outright, and the one resolution that can actually pull
+-- a tribal faction back out of Factions.isWary's hostile cutoff.
+function Captives.ransom(level, player, captive)
+  Captives.remove(level, captive)
+  return Factions.adjust(player, captive.faction, Captives.RANSOM_REP_GAIN)
+end
+
+-- Sells a held captive off for its own value in gold: word gets back to its
+-- kind either way, so standing sours by SELL_REP_LOSS even though - unlike
+-- an outright kill - nothing actually died to earn it.
+function Captives.sell(level, player, captive)
+  Captives.remove(level, captive)
+  player.gold = player.gold + captive.value
+  Factions.adjust(player, captive.faction, -Captives.SELL_REP_LOSS)
+  return captive.value
+end
+
+-- Interrogates a held captive instead of ransoming or selling it: no gold,
+-- no reputation swing either way, just whatever it gives up before its
+-- usefulness runs out - every currently-hidden secret door on this floor,
+-- found outright (see Secrets.revealAll), plus a trickle of essence for the
+-- trouble. Returns the doors this actually revealed, same as
+-- Secrets.revealAll itself.
+function Captives.interrogate(level, player, captive)
+  local revealed = Secrets.revealAll(level)
+  Captives.remove(level, captive)
+  player.essence = player.essence + math.max(1, captive.value // Captives.INTERROGATE_ESSENCE_DIVISOR)
+  return revealed
+end
+
+return Captives