diff --git a/scripts/repository.lic b/scripts/repository.lic
index 6c5cc62c4..f7c4782f9 100644
--- a/scripts/repository.lic
+++ b/scripts/repository.lic
@@ -10,9 +10,12 @@
           game: any
           tags: core
       required: Lich > 5.0.1
-       version: 2.72
+       version: 2.73
 
   changelog:
+    2.73 (2026-05-12):
+      Validate scripts and map databases for non-ASCII characters before upload
+      Aborts upload with a per-character report (line, column, codepoint) when found
     2.72 (2026-04-11):
       Fix to have DRT mapdb auto-update
     2.71 (2026-02-02):
@@ -1048,6 +1051,8 @@ module RepositoryTillmen
       filename, file_path = find_file(file)
       return false unless filename && file_path
 
+      return false unless check_non_ascii(file_path)
+
       md5sum = Digest::MD5.file(file_path).to_s
       comments = File.open(file_path, 'rb') { |f| CommentParser.extract_comments(f.read(20_000)) }
 
@@ -1087,6 +1092,8 @@ module RepositoryTillmen
         return false
       end
 
+      return false unless check_non_ascii(filename)
+
       author = @options.author || Char.name
       password = @options.password || Settings["password:#{author.downcase.gsub(/[^a-z]/, '')}"]
 
@@ -1264,6 +1271,48 @@ module RepositoryTillmen
       end
     end
 
+    # Scans a file for non-ASCII characters. Returns an Array of Hashes:
+    #   { line: Integer, col: Integer, char: String, codepoint: Integer }
+    # Reads line-by-line to keep memory bounded for large files (e.g. map JSON).
+    # Lines that aren't valid UTF-8 fall back to a byte-wise scan so the bad
+    # bytes are still reported rather than crashing the check.
+    def non_ascii_violations(file_path)
+      violations = []
+      File.open(file_path, 'rb') do |f|
+        f.each_line.with_index(1) do |line, line_no|
+          decoded = line.dup.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8)
+          if decoded.valid_encoding?
+            decoded.each_char.with_index(1) do |ch, col|
+              violations << { line: line_no, col: col, char: ch, codepoint: ch.ord } if ch.ord > 127
+            end
+          else
+            col = 0
+            line.each_byte do |b|
+              col += 1
+              violations << { line: line_no, col: col, char: b.chr, codepoint: b } if b > 127
+            end
+          end
+        end
+      end
+      violations
+    end
+
+    # Reports any non-ASCII characters found in file_path. Returns true when the
+    # file is clean (safe to upload), false when violations were found (caller
+    # should abort).
+    def check_non_ascii(file_path)
+      violations = non_ascii_violations(file_path)
+      return true if violations.empty?
+
+      noun = violations.size == 1 ? 'character' : 'characters'
+      echo "error: non-ASCII characters detected in #{file_path}"
+      echo "found #{violations.size} non-ASCII #{noun}; upload aborted"
+      violations.each do |v|
+        echo format('  line %d, col %d: %s (U+%04X)', v[:line], v[:col], v[:char], v[:codepoint])
+      end
+      false
+    end
+
     def determine_default_game
       if XMLData.game =~ /^GS/
         'gs'