2026-09-07 14:04:36
Anonymous:
Apply Visionary ruling: keep Siphon as ordinary bank top-up
hold the flood/equipment/echo relay.md ..
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# Hold the Flood — Echo Relay
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Source proposal: [Brief d905c0](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief?revision=d905c0#the-earned-spectacle-choir-cascade), checked against [Inventory and Charge 810057](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanics/Inventory%20And%20Charge?revision=810057), [Coil 80da75](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment/Coil?revision=80da75) and [Arc fc64bb](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment/Arc?revision=fc64bb). [Design Index](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Design%20Index) · [Expansion Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Expansion%20Brief) · [Glossary](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Glossary).
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Source proposal: [Brief 79504c](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Brief?revision=79504c#earned-spectacular-build-the-choir-cascade), checked against [Inventory and Charge 810057](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Mechanics/Inventory%20And%20Charge?revision=810057), [Coil 80da75](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment/Coil?revision=80da75) and [Arc fc64bb](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment/Arc?revision=fc64bb). [Design Index](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Design%20Index) · [Expansion Brief](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Expansion%20Brief) · [Glossary](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Glossary).
The **Echo Relay** is a proposed late, one-cell electrical module that turns previously tuned wet landmarks into repeated origins for one coordinated Coil-and-Arc discharge. It is the new component in the proposed **Choir Cascade**. It does not strengthen every attack, power arbitrary scenery or replace the early Cutter, Coil or Arc; it rewards remembering where conductive landmarks are, bringing the old parts together and surrendering most or all carrying capacity for a prepared crowd-clearing event.
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All counts and timings are provisional written rules, not tested balance, performance or feasibility. Combat owns damage, eligible enemies, hop ordering and final target caps; the Equipment proposal below identifies the requested contract instead of adopting those interfaces on Combat's behalf.
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All counts and timings are provisional written rules, not tested balance, performance or feasibility. Brief 79504c adopts the legal chassis and landmark-origin grammar for the working vision. Combat still owns damage, eligible enemies, hop ordering and numerical target caps.
## E9 — Equipment specification
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**Acquisition.** The first Relay is an authored late discovery after the player understands the crown relief and the bell sequence proposed in Brief d905c0. The player inspects and carries the inert one-cell component to a shelter, recording its fitting rule. It is not a random stat roll or a mandatory key for understanding the clue. If the component is lost before shelter it remains at its authored source on the next expedition; after recording, the workshop may issue the known Relay under the same preparation limits as other tooling. Campaign and Colony own the exact placement and issue cost.
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**Acquisition.** The first Relay is an authored late discovery after the player understands the crown relief and the bell sequence proposed in Brief 79504c. The player inspects and carries the inert one-cell component to a shelter, recording its fitting rule. It is not a random stat roll or a mandatory key for understanding the clue. If the component is lost before shelter it remains at its authored source on the next expedition; after recording, the workshop may issue the known Relay under the same preparation limits as other tooling. Campaign and Colony own the exact placement and issue cost.
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**Fit and links.** Relay occupies one rack cell. It accepts no ordinary battery link and stores no charge. A legal base rack is `Coil (2) + Arc (1) + Echo Relay (1) + Coil Battery (1) + Arc Battery (1)` = **six of eight cells**. Each full battery remains linked one-to-one to its own consumer. This corrects the one-Battery/six-cell sketch in Brief d905c0 without weakening the existing link rule. The two open cells can carry salvage, protection or the optional overdrive pair below.
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**Fit and links.** Relay occupies one rack cell. It accepts no ordinary battery link and stores no charge. A legal base rack is `Coil (2) + Arc (1) + Echo Relay (1) + Coil Battery (1) + Arc Battery (1)` = **six of eight cells**. Each full battery remains linked one-to-one to its own consumer. This is the corrected chassis in Brief 79504c and preserves the existing link rule. The two open cells can carry salvage, protection or the optional Siphon preparation pair below.
**Player action and trigger.** At a shelter the player fits the six-cell chassis and chooses the two links. In the field, after tuning the authored bells or another explicitly Relay-compatible wet landmark network, the player selects Echo Relay. The preview requires both linked batteries full, a valid connected wet footprint, and at least one tuned landmark currently visible. Confirming spends both ten-charge banks at once. A dry or incomplete network, a partial bank or an incompatible landmark refuses without cost. The Relay then becomes **spent** until the next shelter, even if the batteries are refilled; this prevents immediate loops from the cleared crowd's normal motes without inventing a no-yield enemy exception.
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**Base effect and target request to Combat.** Coil injects its ordinary two-second pulse into the connected wet footprint. Each visible tuned landmark in that footprint becomes one Arc origin during that pulse and seeds one ordinary Arc chain. Apply the existing three-metre, line-of-sight hops and provisional three-additional-target cap; one organism may be hit by only one origin during this activation. Crust is neither target nor hop. This is the recommended bounded interpretation because the environment changes where attacks begin while Arc remains a body-to-body damage effect rather than generic world power. Combat must confirm damage, origin ordering and whether the cap is sufficient to earn the promised crowd clear.
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**Effect and target.** Coil injects its ordinary two-second pulse into the connected wet footprint. Each visible tuned landmark in that footprint becomes one Arc origin during that pulse and seeds one standard Arc chain. Apply the existing three-metre, line-of-sight hops and provisional three-additional-target cap; one organism may be hit by only one origin during this activation. Crust is neither target nor hop. This makes the environment change where attacks begin while Arc remains body-to-body damage rather than generic world power. Combat still owns damage, deterministic origin ordering and numerical tuning.
**Visible information.** Before confirmation, draw the conductive footprint, number each eligible landmark, show the bodies each origin currently claims, mark duplicates as claimed by the nearest origin, and state `20 charge / Relay spent until shelter`. Use lines, symbols and counts in addition to colour. When the network is broken, show the first dry gap or untuned landmark. During the effect, Coil power and Relay-origin arcs need distinct cues; this page claims no art asset or verified readability.
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**Restrictions and counterplay.** Dry ground breaks the environmental repetition. Untuned metal and ordinary lamps are not origins. Crust, isolated armoured enemies and bodies beyond the wet landmark footprint survive; a later wave arrives after the Relay is spent. The effect does not emit signal, destroy clues, power arbitrary devices, bypass grounded runs, retrigger itself or let Arc hits become new landmark origins. Ordinary eligible kills keep the existing once-per-organism mote rule and still require physical collection before fade. The spent state, manual collection and surviving second wave prevent the first clear from being an automatic repeat.
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## Choir Cascade branches
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## Choir Cascade rack choices
### Cargo branch — six cells of equipment, two cells of return value
Bring the legal base rack and reserve the last two cells for finds. Tune the wet landmarks, let the crowd fill their footprint, preview the distinct Arc claims and fire. The player learns that the old Coil does more than hold bodies: in the Relay network its short world-power pulse decides where the retained Arc begins. The payoff is a broad but capped clear. The weakness is preparation dependence; a Crust or dry flank can leave a dangerous survivor between the player and the dropped motes. The reason to keep the early parts is structural: removing Coil removes the wet pulse, removing Arc removes damage, and removing either battery makes the trigger illegal.
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### Sacrifice-overdrive branch — all eight cells committed
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### Siphon-readiness branch — all eight cells committed before conversion
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Fit Siphon and one carried wet salvage bundle in the last two cells. At the Relay preview, offer a separately labelled **Overdrive** confirmation that consumes the Siphon and selected bundle as well as both full banks. Proposed effect: instead of the capped base chains, each tuned landmark claims every ordinary eligible body touching its connected wet region, once per activation. This is a named Echo-Relay-only exception to Siphon's usual battery destination, not a general rule that Siphon can power arbitrary modules. It produces the promised prepared screen-scale clear only where the authored environment supports it; dry bodies, Crust/armour and the second wave remain.
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Fit Siphon and one carried wet salvage bundle in the last two cells when one bank is expected to be partially spent before reaching the landmarks. In the field, select that bank and use Siphon's existing conversion before triggering Relay. Siphon and the bundle are consumed; up to three charge enters the selected battery and overflow is shown and lost. The player may fire only if both banks are then full. Relay receives no Siphon link, extra targets or special overcharge.
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Overdrive gives up all cargo room, the salvage value, Siphon, Kit and Insulation for one shelter-bounded event. Its preview must show `Siphon + bundle consumed`, the claimed body count, excluded survivors and `Relay spent until shelter`. Campaign must not require it for an essential route or clue. Combat owns the final target class and damage result; Lead owns whether this narrow Siphon exception enters the shared resource rules.
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This branch uses all eight cells at departure and gives up the bundle's return value, Kit, Insulation and any other utility to recover one near-ready bank. Consuming the pair frees two cells for finds afterward, but does not refund the sacrificed salvage or preparation opportunity. It is useless when a bank is below seven and wasteful when both banks are already full. The first Cascade must not require it: cargo, Kit or Insulation in the two free cells remains a legal alternative.
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**Credible alternative — top-up only.** Keep Siphon entirely within its current rule and use it only to raise one partially charged bank by three before the base trigger. This is simpler and preserves every shared interface, but it changes readiness rather than the resulting interaction and does not make the full-rack sacrifice feel like a ridiculous discovery. Recommend the explicit Relay-only overdrive socket because its rule break is visible, late, costly and bounded to one named component. If Lead rejects that exception, retain the six-cell Cargo branch and describe Siphon as preparation help, not overcharge.
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**Rejected alternative — a Relay-only Siphon overdrive.** An earlier Equipment proposal let the sacrifice widen the effect to every ordinary body in the wet footprint. Brief 79504c rejects it because Relay already supplies the new multiplication rule and a second exception is unrelated to the first Bell House lesson. Keep Siphon as readiness help, not overcharge. The rejected wording remains in [Echo Relay b96175](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Equipment/Echo%20Relay?revision=b96175).
## Concrete encounter illustration
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At the seven wet bells, ordinary Flood fills the connected water while a Crust stands on a dry plinth and another group approaches through a dry gallery. The player has two full linked banks and sees seven numbered origins, overlapping bodies assigned only once and the Crust crossed out. Firing the Cargo branch spends both banks; each bell seeds its capped chain, leaving the dry group and possibly part of the wet crowd. With Overdrive fitted, confirming also destroys the carried bundle and Siphon, and the wet ordinary crowd is claimed once across the whole tuned footprint. The Crust and gallery group survive and close on a player with empty banks, a spent Relay and no defensive slot. The choice is spectacle now versus two cells of extracted value and a safer answer to what comes next.
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At the seven wet bells, ordinary Flood fills the connected water while a Crust stands on a dry plinth and another group approaches through a dry gallery. The Coil bank is full but an earlier Arc burst left its bank at seven. With Siphon and a wet bundle fitted, the player previews `Arc bank 7 → 10`, consumes both, then sees seven numbered origins, overlapping bodies assigned only once and the Crust crossed out. Firing spends both banks; each bell seeds its standard chain. The Crust and gallery group survive and close on a player with empty banks, a spent Relay and no Kit or Insulation. The alternative was to arrive with both banks full and use those cells for extracted value or safety.
## Interfaces still requiring owning-role decisions
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- **Combat:** confirm Relay origin ordering, eligible ordinary/armoured classifications, damage and whether the base cap creates a credible clear. The current Equipment recommendation is nearest landmark to body, then landmark tuning order, with each body claimed once.
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- **Lead/shared resource:** accept or reject the narrow Siphon-to-Relay Overdrive exception. Rejection leaves the legal Cargo branch intact.
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- **Combat:** confirm Relay origin ordering, eligible ordinary/armoured classifications, damage and whether the standard Arc cap creates a credible clear. The current Equipment recommendation is nearest landmark to body, then landmark tuning order, with each body claimed once.
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- **Lead/shared resource:** mirror the corrected two-bank chassis when the working vision is integrated; no Siphon exception is requested.
- **Campaign/World:** define which authored wet landmarks are tunable and make their connection observable; Relay compatibility must not turn every puddle or clue prop into an origin.
- **Colony:** place Relay issue/recipe access within the growing Hearth without making it a strict upgrade or granting it free alongside every service.
