Rothulk

At a glance: playable prototype / infiltration platformer (Mario-like) · climb a living Scourge bio-hulk to its breach-core, ignite it, sever the local node · current build tests the lone Pyre saboteur climb · the CANON §6 win condition as a level — node isolation from the inside, the Pyre creed made playable.

Burn it from the inside. A lone Pyre saboteur platforms up through a living Scourge bio-hulk — a crashed breach-ship grown into the ground — to reach its breach-core, ignite it, and sever the local node from the Choir. “Rothulk” is the Pyre’s name for one of these beached breach-ships: a mountain of rotting host-flesh and dead-world machinery with a heartbeat.

Canon role

The infiltration front, and the CANON §6 win condition rendered as a level: get inside, kill the repeaters, and the surrounding horde goes feral — blind, dumb, instinct-only. Where Scourge-Survivors is a frantic gunfight room-to-room and Deadlane holds the lanes from outside, Rothulk is the quiet climb up the spine of the nest to the core that keeps it connected. Tonally the Pyre creed made playable: to hold is to die slowly; the only cure is fire. (See Premise, The Descent.)

Warline operation — Breach Sabotage: A Pyre saboteur climbs a beached breach-hulk to ignite its core and sever the local node — one sabotaged nest goes feral and blind on the board.

The hook — platform up a living nest

The bio-hulk is the level and the enemy. You ascend chambers of pulsing host-flesh, ride spore-geysers, ride and crush living platforms, and route around the Choir’s sight by staying outside its massed clusters — because while the breach-core is lit and connected, the whole hulk knows where you are (CANON §5). Reach the core, ignite it, then platform back out ahead of the collapse as the severed node turns feral around you.

Core Loop

Tight, readable single-saboteur platforming on the shared Survivors-Loop frame: infiltrate → climb the bio-hulk’s chambers chaining jumps, swings, and crushed enemies → collect salvage/XP → draft movement and sabotage-charge upgrades → reach and ignite the breach-core → escape the collapsing, now-severed hulk (or get caught in the spawn). Each hulk is a self-contained nest-vertical; lighting the core fragments the Choir locally and hands the cleared lane back to the war.

Enemy shape

A breach turned into a tower: walls of grafted host-flesh, Graft-Breacher growths that seal your route, spore-traps, and the breach-core itself — the repeater-heart that has to be reached and burned. Mass-clusters glow with Choir-coordination; the gaps between them are your path.

First Sprite Roster

• Human saboteur identity: Pyre-Saboteur.
• Shared Scourge pressure: Graft-Breacher, Swarm-Spitter, Breach-Boss.

Status

Playable prototype — current build tests the platforming/sabotage verb with generic Scourge pressure. Named enemy variants, richer hulk ecology, and final roster expression are provisional until the climb, core-ignite, and escape loop prove themselves. Shares horde, rules, Timeline, and the look.