Spark - blame (454133)

Blame

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

# Hold the Flood — Spark

454133	Anonymous	2026-09-07 08:14:57
CMB101 r5 (cleanup, queued before the overnight stop): remove three bullets left over from the Spark dispute now that it is ruled - they still read 'the disputed row' and 'if the contract's row stands' below a header that says it is settled. The argument that won is kept once, higher up, rather than twice. Also fixes a malformed bold marker in the header that swallowed the status field, and corrects one line the r3 pass missed: insulation does not gain a second job from this role, it is the same job the contract already gives it, applied where the player feels it. All removed lines were this role's own text, checked by diff.

**CMB101 · r5 · 2026-09-07 · Combat and Enemy Designer · In review — the rule is settled, in this page's favour.**

**[Contract r4 §4](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction) rules the power-only death, final, chosen as this page originally wrote it.** r4 of this page had adopted the contract's *older* stunning-and-shedding row, reading r3 six minutes after the Lead had already abandoned it — the two pages crossed, each following the other into the position the other had just left, and [REV104-15](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Design%20Review) caught it. **r5 reverts to the ruled row.** The argument that won is kept below, because it is the reason and not the ruling.

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

Source rules it is built on: [Design Document r14 ec1b6c](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Design%20Document?revision=ec1b6c) §§3–6; shared grammar and the precedence stack: [Combat Rules](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat).

[Enemies](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Enemies) · [Design Index](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Design%20Index) · [Expansion Brief](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Expansion%20Brief) · [Glossary](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Glossary)

**Name is a functional placeholder.** [World and Mystery](/Hold%20the%20Flood/World%20And%20Mystery) owns the Flood's identity and fiction.

## The assumption it deletes

> **"My weapon firing can only help me."**

This is the role that makes the automatic attack a decision. The cutter fires by itself at the nearest organism in reach and, under [R6](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat), **cannot be withheld**. So while a Spark is in the water you are standing in, and inside your reach, you are not choosing whether to shoot it. You already chose, by standing there.

## Trigger, action, threat

| | |

| --- | --- |

| **Trigger** | Being **killed while standing in water**. Not proximity, not a timer, not a wind-up it performs on its own |

730ee8	Anonymous	2026-09-06 22:23:35
CMB101 r4: stop contradicting the shared contract, which PMR006 flagged. The contract's row - a Spark's death stuns and sheds the fresh conducting bodies in its water - is now carried as the working baseline, with this page's objection stated beside it rather than in place of it. The objection is dominance: a stunning-and-shedding Spark is a free coil, delivered by fire the player cannot withhold, and it spends the once-per-organism yield without a decision. Equipment reaches the same recommendation independently. Offers a middle row - stuns but does not shed - and notes that neither written encounter places Sparks, so nothing needs re-checking today. Also adopts the contract's two-second window as the single shared number.

| **Action** | Precedence line 3 while alive: entirely ordinary, nearest reachable lit beacon, chase within pursuit range. On death in water: **the connected water is energised for two seconds** — **the same window the contract now rules for a coil discharge**, which is tidier than r3's reasoning and means the player learns one number rather than two |

0ace4f	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:36:43
CMB101 r3: PMR004 corrections. Specifies the death effect exactly - energises the connected water for two seconds, does not stun, and does not damage other organisms, so this role supplies no chain-kill rule. Withdraws the r1 open question that argued the opposite. Corrects the claim that insulation gains a new job: it is the same job it already had. Rewrites the late payoff around the bounded arc now that R10 is withdrawn.

| **Threat** | The **surveyor**, and only the surveyor. An unprotected surveyor in energised water loses one health per second (GDD §3), so this is two of five, delivered by their own weapon, in water they walked into. Killed on dry ground it does nothing at all |

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

| **Hit count** | Three. No more health than anything else |

| **Conducts?** | Yes, ordinarily. It is stunned by a discharge like anything else, and a stunned Spark is not dead, so it does not discharge |

0ace4f	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:36:43
CMB101 r3: PMR004 corrections. Specifies the death effect exactly - energises the connected water for two seconds, does not stun, and does not damage other organisms, so this role supplies no chain-kill rule. Withdraws the r1 open question that argued the opposite. Corrects the claim that insulation gains a new job: it is the same job it already had. Rewrites the late payoff around the bounded arc now that R10 is withdrawn.

| **Charge** | Sheds once like anything else: killing it drops its 1-unit mote if it has not already shed. Its death **discharge** is not a shed and yields nothing of its own |

30c5cb	Anonymous	2026-09-06 23:37:48
CMB101 r5: revert to the ruled row. Contract r4 section 4 settles the power-only death - energises water for two seconds, stuns nothing, damages no organism, makes no chain, hurts an uninsulated surveyor - chosen as this page originally wrote it. r4 had adopted the contract's older stunning-and-shedding row after reading r3 six minutes late, so the two pages crossed; REV104-15 caught it. The dominance argument that won is kept as the reason rather than deleted with the dispute.

| **Effect on other bodies — settled** | **Nothing.** By the intensity rule it **stuns nothing, damages no organism and makes no chain** ([contract r4 §4](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction), final). One body's charge is below the bank strength a stun needs. The hazard is to the surveyor alone |

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

## Telegraph

Three layers, in the order the player receives them:

1. **The outline flickers.** Under [R4](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat) glow carries only "has charge to shed", so a Spark cannot be signalled by being brighter — it is signalled by *motion in the silhouette*, which reads at crowd density where brightness does not.

2. **The cutter's target line** ([R6](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat)) draws to the body the weapon has selected. Seeing the line snap onto a flickering outline standing in the same water you are standing in is the warning, and it arrives about half a second before the hit lands.

3. **A rising whine** as it enters reach. This is the cue I would most like and the one I cannot promise: GDD §14 states sound is not designed. **Recorded as a gap.** Without it, layers 1 and 2 must carry the whole warning, which I believe is enough and cannot claim is enough.

## Counterplay, and what each costs

| Counterplay | Cost |

| --- | --- |

0ace4f	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:36:43
CMB101 r3: PMR004 corrections. Specifies the death effect exactly - energises the connected water for two seconds, does not stun, and does not damage other organisms, so this role supplies no chain-kill rule. Withdraws the r1 open question that argued the opposite. Corrects the claim that insulation gains a new job: it is the same job it already had. Rewrites the late payoff around the bounded arc now that R10 is withdrawn.

| **Wear insulation** — the module's **existing** job, not a new one: it already protects a surveyor in energised water, whatever energised it | One rack slot, which is a bundle of cargo or a second battery not carried. **Corrected in r3:** r1 called this a second job for insulation, and PM is right that it is the same job |

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

| **Kill it from dry ground.** The cutter's reach crosses the channel edge; the discharge energises the water, not the bank | You are not in the channel, so you are not collecting motes and not discharging the coil |

| **Leave it alive.** Nothing makes a Spark dangerous except killing it | You cannot leave it alive, because the cutter cannot be withheld — so this counterplay is really "do not be within reach of it", which is a movement decision, continuously |

| Stun the crowd first and collect around the stunned Sparks | A stunned Spark is still alive and still lethal the moment your automatic weapon reaches it |

The third row is the one that makes the role. **The counterplay to a Spark is not an action; it is a position**, held continuously, in a game whose weapon takes the shooting decision away from you.

## Machinery and equipment

- **Cutter:** the interaction. This role exists so that "the weapon aims itself" has a cost as well as a convenience, which is what the [Cutter page](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Weapons/Cutter) asks Combat to supply.

454133	Anonymous	2026-09-07 08:14:57
CMB101 r5 (cleanup, queued before the overnight stop): remove three bullets left over from the Spark dispute now that it is ruled - they still read 'the disputed row' and 'if the contract's row stands' below a header that says it is settled. The argument that won is kept once, higher up, rather than twice. Also fixes a malformed bold marker in the header that swallowed the status field, and corrects one line the r3 pass missed: insulation does not gain a second job from this role, it is the same job the contract already gives it, applied where the player feels it. All removed lines were this role's own text, checked by diff.

- **Insulation:** the same job it always had, applied where the player feels it. The contract makes insulation both the rack's chain-breaker and what lets a surveyor stand in energised water; this role does not add a job to it, it makes the second half of the existing one matter in the field. **Corrected here in r5** — r1 called it a second job, [PMR004](/Hold%20the%20Flood/PM%20Reviews/PMR004) said it is not, and the counterplay table was fixed in r3 while this line was missed.

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

- **Coil:** a discharge stuns Sparks with everything else, and the stun does not kill, so a discharge does not set off a chain of them. The two systems do not fight.

0ace4f	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:36:43
CMB101 r3: PMR004 corrections. Specifies the death effect exactly - energises the connected water for two seconds, does not stun, and does not damage other organisms, so this role supplies no chain-kill rule. Withdraws the r1 open question that argued the opposite. Corrects the claim that insulation gains a new job: it is the same job it already had. Rewrites the late payoff around the bounded arc now that R10 is withdrawn.

- **Arc. Rewritten in r3.** r1 proposed [R10](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat): that an arc chain would travel through the water a dying Spark energised, reaching everything the channel connects. **That is withdrawn** — PMR004 recommends the bounded chain, and its reasoning is better than mine, because a bounded chain keeps a burst a positioning decision rather than a screen-clear. Under the adopted model ([Arc A1](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Equipment/Arc)) the arc never energises water and chains to at most three additional bodies per hit, so a Spark and a burst barely interact: the burst kills Sparks like anything else, and each one it kills in water makes the channel dangerous **to the surveyor** for two seconds. That is still a real interaction — a burst fired from inside a channel with Sparks in it is a burst fired into your own feet — and it needs no new rule.

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

- **Field pump:** draining a channel disarms every Spark in it. A cheap, non-obvious counterplay that costs a bundle.

## Placement (for Campaign)

ceae50	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:25:50
CMB101 r2: reconcile with DES104 - rule citations move to the contract, base role renamed to Walker. No behaviour changed; Campaign's prod is noted in Enemies 0.5 as the best answer to this role anyone has proposed.

- **Zero Sparks in a surge entering dry ground.** A Spark that cannot reach water is a [Walker](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Enemies/Walker) with a worse silhouette, and placing one is a wasted role slot. This is a hard constraint in the composition budget, not a preference.

- Arrives in a surge; counts toward the limit of two non-Walker roles per surge.

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

- Proportion: around 7% in [Encounter B](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Enemies) (10 of 140). Enough that a channel crowd reliably contains some; few enough that a player wading a channel is not in continuous danger.

- **Not in the opening district's first expeditions.** A player still learning that water is a weapon should not simultaneously learn it is a trap. Middle campaign is the right entry point, and by then insulation is a module they have met.

## Asset note

A **silhouette edit of the base body**: the same outline with a flicker. The flicker is motion rather than a second sprite. Whether editing a sprite is permitted depends on the individual asset's licence rather than its host's general statement (GDD §14; [Asset Licences](/Reference/Asset%20Licences)). **No asset has been located, inspected, downloaded or created**, and no availability is claimed. The audio cue is a recorded gap, above.

## Open questions

30c5cb	Anonymous	2026-09-06 23:37:48
CMB101 r5: revert to the ruled row. Contract r4 section 4 settles the power-only death - energises water for two seconds, stuns nothing, damages no organism, makes no chain, hurts an uninsulated surveyor - chosen as this page originally wrote it. r4 had adopted the contract's older stunning-and-shedding row after reading r3 six minutes late, so the two pages crossed; REV104-15 caught it. The dominance argument that won is kept as the reason rather than deleted with the dispute.

- **Does a Spark killed in water hurt other organisms? No — settled on the contract.** r1 of this page argued yes, from clause 1, and it was wrong in the way PM identified: an open question cannot be allowed to supply a chain-kill rule by inference. The intensity rule, now [in the contract](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction) rather than only proposed here, settles it — energised water is a hazard to the surveyor and nothing to an organism, which is made of charge. The role's job is to turn your own automatic weapon against you, and it does that without damaging anything else.

- **Does a stunned Spark killed during a stun discharge?** My position: yes. Stun prevents acting, not physics; the body is still full of charge. Flagged because a designer implementing "stunned bodies do nothing" would get this wrong.

- **Why two seconds?** Because the contract rules two seconds for a coil discharge as well, so there is **one number**, not two. r3 argued for two here against eight for the coil, on the grounds that a body holds one unit and a bank holds ten; that reasoning is no longer needed and the outcome is better.

- **The argument that won, kept because it is the reason and not the ruling.** A Spark that stunned and shed would be **a free coil**. The coil is two cells plus a full ten-unit bank, and stopping a wet crowd and making it shed is exactly what that buys. A free version would strictly dominate it wherever Campaign places Sparks — and dominate it by an event the player does not choose, because the cutter cannot be withheld ([R6](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat)). It would also spend the once-per-organism yield without a decision, and that rule is what the whole charge economy rests on. **[Equipment reached the same recommendation independently](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Equipment)**, which is corroboration and not the argument.

0ace4f	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:36:43
CMB101 r3: PMR004 corrections. Specifies the death effect exactly - energises the connected water for two seconds, does not stun, and does not damage other organisms, so this role supplies no chain-kill rule. Withdraws the r1 open question that argued the opposite. Corrects the claim that insulation gains a new job: it is the same job it already had. Rewrites the late payoff around the bounded arc now that R10 is withdrawn.

- **Does a Spark killed in water hurt other organisms? Withdrawn in r3: the answer is no.** r1 argued yes, from clause 1, and it was wrong in the way PM identified — an open question cannot be allowed to supply a chain-kill rule by inference. The intensity rule in [Combat Rules §0B](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Combat) settles it: energised water is a hazard to the surveyor and nothing to an organism, which is made of charge. The role's job is to turn your own automatic weapon against you, and it does that without damaging anything else.

f927bc	Anonymous	2026-09-06 20:08:07
CMB101 r1: Spark role page - proposed. Energises connected water for one second when killed in it, which makes the unwithholdable automatic cutter a liability and the counterplay a position rather than an action. Records the audio cue as a gap. Late payoff depends on R10.

- **Does a stunned Spark killed during a stun discharge?** My position: yes. Stun prevents acting, not physics; the body is still full of charge. Flagged because a designer implementing "stunned bodies do nothing" would get this wrong.

730ee8	Anonymous	2026-09-06 22:23:35
CMB101 r4: stop contradicting the shared contract, which PMR006 flagged. The contract's row - a Spark's death stuns and sheds the fresh conducting bodies in its water - is now carried as the working baseline, with this page's objection stated beside it rather than in place of it. The objection is dominance: a stunning-and-shedding Spark is a free coil, delivered by fire the player cannot withhold, and it spends the once-per-organism yield without a decision. Equipment reaches the same recommendation independently. Offers a middle row - stuns but does not shed - and notes that neither written encounter places Sparks, so nothing needs re-checking today. Also adopts the contract's two-second window as the single shared number.

- **Why two seconds?** Because the contract now rules two seconds for a coil discharge as well, so there is **one number**, not two. r3 argued for two here against eight for the coil, on the grounds that a body holds one unit and a bank holds ten; that reasoning is no longer needed and the outcome is better.

454133	Anonymous	2026-09-07 08:14:57
CMB101 r5 (cleanup, queued before the overnight stop): remove three bullets left over from the Spark dispute now that it is ruled - they still read 'the disputed row' and 'if the contract's row stands' below a header that says it is settled. The argument that won is kept once, higher up, rather than twice. Also fixes a malformed bold marker in the header that swallowed the status field, and corrects one line the r3 pass missed: insulation does not gain a second job from this role, it is the same job the contract already gives it, applied where the player feels it. All removed lines were this role's own text, checked by diff.

- **Recorded, because a page that only ever accumulates positions is not arguing.** r4 of this page carried the opposite row for six minutes, believing it was following the contract, and offered a middle option (stuns but does not shed) in case the Lead wanted a crowd effect. The Lead had already ruled, and the middle option was not needed. The withdrawn wording is in [page history](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Enemies/Spark/history).

ceae50	Anonymous	2026-09-06 21:25:50
CMB101 r2: reconcile with DES104 - rule citations move to the contract, base role renamed to Walker. No behaviour changed; Campaign's prod is noted in Enemies 0.5 as the best answer to this role anyone has proposed.

## Reconciliation with DES104 (added in this revision)

The Lead published [Campaign 34dc09](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Campaign) and the shared-rule contract [Power and Attraction r2 69024c](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Mechanics/Power%20And%20Attraction?revision=69024c) while this page was being drafted. Two consequences for this page. **The rule source is now the contract, not GDD §4** — where this page cites the Design Document for a shared rule, cite the contract; the rules are the same and it is the one to cite. **The base role is called Walker there**, and this page's Drifter is the same role; Walker is the surviving name and [the role page is at Walker](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Enemies/Walker). The full reconciliation — what held, what conflicts, and the merged roster — is in [Enemies §0](/Hold%20the%20Flood/Enemies).