The machinery wakes the concourse. About forty shambling patients spill from two wards across the central lane. A dozen faster creatures descend marked maintenance stairs in flanking groups; more silhouettes press behind ward glass. The player's later-game **Storm Choir** has automatic Projector fire, impact-powered arcs and a charge store, but begins this trip without its temporary transformations. Its short electrical chains help without dominating the space.
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At the first junction the crowd thickens. The player stays near the packed centre so each arc can continue through adjacent bodies, then cuts aside when the fast group arrives. The ward release is finite and visibly runs out. Clearing its committed crowd earns a choice under the stage reward rule. In the paused journal the player chooses **Echoing Arc**: each accepted Arc action gains two further finite branch routes at a heat cost. It resumes the same danger when the journal closes.
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At the first junction the crowd thickens. The player stays near the packed centre so each arc can continue through adjacent bodies, then cuts aside when the fast group arrives. The ward release is finite and visibly runs out. Fighting this crowd supplies regular temporary growth. The example assumes an earned choice; its exact threshold is still to be designed. In the paused journal the player chooses **Echoing Arc**: each accepted Arc action gains two further finite branch routes at a heat cost. It resumes the same danger when the journal closes.
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At the next junction, the carriage trips a second marked ward release. Resolving it offers **Thunderhead**, adding a manual full-store burst to the same rig. Ordinary Projector impacts charge the store. Each Arc discharge spends its supplied charge; the extra jumps add heat. These two releases prepare the build for the final optional scan. At either junction the player can stop the carriage and leave by the walking route.
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At the next junction, the carriage trips a second marked ward release. The example next uses **Thunderhead**, adding a manual full-store burst to the same rig after a major horde milestone; which milestone supplies it here remains to be designed. Ordinary Projector impacts charge the store. Each Arc discharge spends its supplied charge; the extra jumps add heat. The growth and milestone mapping for these two releases must prepare the build for the final optional scan. At either junction the player can stop the carriage and leave by the walking route.
The final ward doors open ahead. Roughly one hundred enemies fill the concourse, with more flowing from announced sources. A tide closes from behind while fast groups cross the carriage's path. The player risks the dense middle, finishes charging and presses Thunderhead. Stored charge discharges through three chain heads and one penetrating pressure lance, then charging restores automatically. **The intended climax** is blue-white branching light breaking roughly forty well-packed ordinary bodies while the lance cuts a traversable slot. Survivors, flankers and special bodies may still move. The carriage surges through because the player chose the dense line and the release moment, not because the special deleted the room.
@@ 35,11 35,11 @@
3. **Crest.** Two or three movement patterns overlap. The player must choose the dense line that rewards the build, the safer line that protects condition, or a costly retreat that spends oxygen. A moving objective continues through the space rather than turning into a defence circle.
4. **Break.** The player clears the finite release or completes a physical seal at its source. Sealing stops arrivals; creatures already inside still need clearing or safe separation before investigation. Music, enemy flow and the room's silhouette release together. The resulting lull belongs to inspection, salvage, route choice and discovery.
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Killing faster than a source can feed buys room to move while it is still active. Outrunning the crowd buys escape. A resolved release stays spent in the current station arrangement; returning to the same source does not make it pay again. Further releases need their own announced physical source. A powerful build is allowed to erase an ordinary crest and enjoy the silence it bought. [Fighting the Horde](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) explains sources, stage rewards and the difference between a cleared lane and a quiet room.
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Killing faster than a source can feed buys room to move while it is still active. Outrunning the crowd buys escape. Regular fighting supplies growth before the release is fully resolved. Leaving and re-entering its room does not start a new expedition. Further releases need their own announced physical source. A powerful build is allowed to erase an ordinary crest and enjoy the silence it bought. [Fighting the Horde](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) explains sources, combat growth and the difference between a cleared lane and a quiet room.
Combat stays regular because exploration crosses inhabited volumes and because movement, machinery and fighting can wake adjacent source areas. Quiet rooms and earned breaks remain essential; without them, clues become visual noise and a climax has no shape.
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An expedition ends aboard, whether the astronaut walks back or revives. **Every temporary combat upgrade and every unchosen upgrade offer ends then.** A living return preserves the current arrangement, cleared local populations and spent stages; occupied places remain threatening. The next climb starts at an unresolved source beyond that cleared ground. Major encounters also need an approach that works at starting power. Death rearranges the station and can connect different source areas to familiar rooms, while selected permanent doors and connections remain changed.
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An expedition ends aboard, whether the astronaut walks back or revives. **Every temporary combat upgrade and every unchosen upgrade offer ends then.** Each new expedition renews combat populations and growth opportunities after living return or revival. A living return keeps room arrangement and permanent changes; new crowds must use sources and routes consistent with them. Major encounters also need an approach that works at starting power. Death rearranges the station and can connect different source areas to familiar rooms, while selected permanent doors and connections remain changed.
## Power during one sortie and across many
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Temporary transformations create a survivorslike rise from “barely holds a lane” to “breaks the crest it prepared.” Echoing Arc grows finite chain routes, Rebound Disc makes architecture part of a shot, Inward Draft makes running shape the crowd, and the three final transformations turn stored charge into a climax. The pleasure should come from deciding what this expedition's machine will become, then seeing that decision reshape the next crowd.
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The rule used by the moving scan awards one choice for clearing a finite, announced release or sealing its access after it begins, including an early victory. Closing the source beforehand instead buys safety and access without an upgrade choice. The alternative is regular growth from defeated enemies with larger milestone transformations. Neither should reward delaying a harmless last enemy. [Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules) explains temporary effects and growth choices; [Fighting the Horde](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) explains how a sourced horde is resolved.
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Regular fighting supplies temporary growth, with larger transformations at major horde milestones. Exact cadence, thresholds and milestone conditions remain open; the moving scan still needs that mapping. Sealing a source prevents its incoming pressure and preserves completed work, while any additional reward for avoiding the fight remains to be designed. [Build Rules](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Build%20Rules) explains temporary effects; [Fighting the Horde](/Hold%20The%20Flood/Combat%20Rules) owns growth, renewal and source resolution.
Each expedition gets a fresh rise in power; delivering a survivor, following a new clue and preparing another combination give that rise a purpose beyond its last spectacular clear. A living return must leave a useful route to that next rise, rather than make death the efficient way to find fresh crowds.
