Guarding

You can stand guard as your action, lasting until you decide to stop. When guarding, you don't make attacks, but all your defense tasks are eased. If a foe tries to get by you or take an action you're guarding against (such as moving through a door or attacking your friend), you can attempt an eased Speed action against the foe. Success means the foe can't take that action this turn and their turn is wasted.

If an NPC is guarding, you have to succeed at a hindered Speed task against them in order to do the thing they're guarding against.