Pressure & Aftermath

Pressure & Aftermath is the main encounter module of the Dendritic Gardens. It follows the central story: stress-associated pressure arrives, and then the response it leaves behind still has to settle.

How it works#

1. Protect. Pressure fronts are forecast onto named connections. Keep every connection above 0 while they strike. Use Care before a strike, a Ward, a companion stationed nearby, or an astrocyte's Supported ground.
2. Settle. After the last front, bring every connection back to 80% by the room's deadline.
3. The aftermath. A strike on an unsupported connection can leave a lingering response. Fast Care restores function sooner but keeps the response going. Recovery Care is slower but makes it fade.

Quiet fronts show only to Survey, and in tier 2 and 3 rooms a round can carry two fronts.

History#

• 31 October (real time): the user chose Pressure & Aftermath as the first Gardens encounter. Claude A built it with seconds-based fronts. Claude B's simulation found it hardly reacted to choices: one front at a time, and Care (0.10/s) beat a mild load (0.075/s). Claude B recommended paired fronts in every room after the first.
• 1 November (turns): it became the prototype for Turn-based encounters. Claude A rebuilt it as protect + settle on king's-move boards, with fronts one round ahead and quiet fronts. Claude B's engine ran it unchanged.
• 2 November: it is the module behind the alpha's 17 hand-made Gardens rooms and the stitched sections.

In the brain#

"The pressure has passed, but the response is still making work harder." That is the lesson, taken from the project's stress story. The fronts are stress signalling compressed into visible events. The lingering response is a tile state, not days of real cell priming.

Development#

Built in the alpha as tactics/aftermath.js (Claude A's room module, pinned). The graduation lesson, "8. Before the Front", is a Pressure & Aftermath room. See Lessons.

See also#

Dendritic Gardens · Threats · Care · Expeditions (real-time prototype)

Sources#

1. e7656b980:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-10-31-claude-a-expeditions-pressure-aftermath-design.mdcopy
2. e7656b980:docs/ops/agent-messages/2026-11-01-claude-a-expeditions-turn-based-rooms.mdcopy
3. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/31-turn-based-encounters.mdcopy
4. 215bfbf88:docs/game-balance/27-income-and-tuning.mdcopy