chapters/CH_02/quests/main_story/CH_02.json
{
"node": "CH_02",
"quest_id": "QUEST_CH02_HOLLOWED_HUNTER_UNLOCKED",
"checker_issues": [
{
"kind": "NO_DECLARED_STATE",
"detail": "5 beats carry no in/out state markers -- flag reachability is UNCHECKED, not passed. Author beats with 'in: local.x -> out: local.y' to make this gradable."
},
{
"kind": "UNSATISFIABLE_COMPLETION",
"detail": "completion requires local.first_recharge, which no beat produces"
},
{
"kind": "UNSATISFIABLE_COMPLETION",
"detail": "completion requires local.village_edge_reached, which no beat produces"
},
{
"kind": "UNSATISFIABLE_COMPLETION",
"detail": "completion requires local.ward_recovered, which no beat produces"
},
{
"kind": "UNSATISFIABLE_COMPLETION",
"detail": "completion requires local.fire_made, which no beat produces"
},
{
"kind": "CONJUNCTIVE_COMPLETION",
"detail": "completion joins conditions with AND while forks exist -- an unchosen branch's flags are never set, so the quest cannot close"
}
],
"checker_status": "DEAD_END_RISK",
"quest": {
"node": "CH_02",
"quest_id": "QUEST_CH02_HOLLOWED_HUNTER_UNLOCKED",
"quest_name": "The Quiet Step",
"quest_type": "main_story_per_chapter",
"questline_id": "(empty) — no main-story questline aggregate row exists in T0_Questline_Index; its only CH_02 row is SQ9 (registries/T0_Questline_Index [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ SQ9). §6.5 L1451 rules the FK NULL for quests that belong to no questline aggregate.",
"quest_giver": "environment — giverless. No agent hands this quest over: the offer manifests at the crater rim and the tracker comes to the child. The sentinel value `environment` is the §6.5 L1456 form for a giverless start whose hook is the world rather than an agent (_source/01_Tier_1_Foundation/T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts [ACTIVE v1.0].md:1456; docs/spine/CH_02.md:137,142).",
"trigger_type": "environmental — the quest opens when the child, refilled at the source, comes up onto the Kelimutu rim and the offer manifests (CH02_B06 in-state `{local.first_recharge: true}`, docs/spine/CH_02.md:139). `pursuit` was the competing read and is rejected as a scope error: the pursuit is CH02_B07, the quest's fourth objective, not its start condition (docs/spine/CH_02.md:142). Enum per T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1457.",
"participants": [
"protagonist — the mute player node (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1455)",
"char:CHAR_0008 — Rangku Wera, the Quiet Step, the hollowed tracker (docs/spine/CH_02.md:142,99)",
"antagonist:NW_0001 — the Corrupted Hunter operative row, Cat-1 Individual Corruption, VRIL_STANDALONE, awareness UNAWARE (docs/spine/CH_02.md:252)",
"boss:BE_0002 — main boss, two phases P1→CH02_B07 and P2→CH02_B08 (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ BE_0002; docs/spine/CH_02.md:99)",
"boss:BE_0002_S2 — The Polo's Vital-Force Theft, the materialized-argument sub-encounter at CH02_B06 (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002_S2; docs/spine/CH_02.md:100)",
"creature:CR_0151 — the polo, the Nage/Lio tradition's own named soul-eating witch-being, folklore species_class (registries/T0_Creature_Roster [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ CR_0151; docs/spine/CH_02.md:215)",
"char:CHAR_0009 — Elder Rato, at the village edge (docs/spine/CH_02.md:158,189)",
"char:CHAR_0012 — Child Teresa, at the village edge (docs/spine/CH_02.md:158,192)",
"DELIBERATELY ABSENT: CHAR_0007 is NOT a participant. The §17.9 reveal-authority reference row is carried as an ambient environmental impression with no agent, no caption and no attribution, per HL_0046 and HL_0043 (docs/spine/CH_02.md:251; docs/proposals/QUEST_EXEMPLAR_CH02_OPENER.md:405-411)."
],
"falsifier": "Read at the offer with the waking vril-trace, the gift runs DRAINED-NOT-FULL: the thing offering to fill you is the thing that empties, and it is the same emptiness already walking the hunter — so the man is not the author of the hunt, he is its first victim, which the freeing at the caverns then proves in the body. This cannot coexist with the premise: if the offer takes rather than gives, \"take what is offered\" is the trap, and if the hunter is worn rather than willing, \"get past the man\" is the wrong verb for him. Cited: the sense-check at BE_0002_S2 counters, \"sense the emptying through the awakening vril-trace (drained-not-full, a Neophyte VRIL_TRACE read, never a tier-gated polarity/signature)\" (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ BE_0002_S2 counters); the same bargain named as the hunter's, \"The same bargain that hollowed the hunter, named to the player only as sensation\" (docs/spine/CH_02.md:137); and the proof at the climax, \"win by hit points and the hold breaks: Rangku Wera freed and pulled back — a rescue, not a kill, the first person the child fights to save\" (docs/spine/CH_02.md:147). Perception ceiling held: Neophyte vril-trace register only, never a tier-6 substrate read (registries/T0_Hard_Lines [ACTIVE v0.2] @ HL_0028; docs/spine/CH_02.md:245).",
"beats": [
{
"beat": "CH02_B06 · seq 7 · role core · mode puzzle · site kelimutu_crater_lakes (phase two resolves in liang_bua_cave)",
"what_happens": "The polo's Vital-Force Theft. The bargain manifests as an escalating offer that has to be read and rejected; the waking vril-trace reads the gift's vril as hollow, refusal is held through the escalation window, and the offer collapses. Refusing has a price: the polo sends its wa — the poti ngeping night-form with the mata mbere red eye — loose in the Liang Bua dark, and it runs FOR the daylight at the cave mouth. The fail state is spatial, not a timer: the wa reaching the mouth escapes the one condition that holds a night form. Sub-boss BE_0002_S2, primary REFUSE, secondary STRIKE, axis 40/35/25, Patterns-forward, two phases.",
"player_verb": "REFUSE (primary) · STRIKE (secondary) — sense the emptying, hold refusal through the escalation, then break line of sight against the mata mbere tell, strike when the red eye commits, and deny it the mouth",
"cite": "docs/spine/CH_02.md:136-140 (beat) · :100 (sub-boss typing) · :332-358 (the light-anchor ruling: the anchor is the Liang Bua cave mouth, a real authored feature; the clock becomes a distance) · :384-392 (the site-cell mismatch: phase two resolves in liang_bua_cave, read the phase not the site cell) · registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ BE_0002_S2 · _source/02_Tier_2_Region_Pages/flores_island.md:51,105"
},
{
"beat": "CH02_B07 · seq 8 · role core · mode combat · site mount_inerie_cone_country · boss BE_0002.P1",
"what_happens": "The jungle stalk. Rangku Wera, the finest tracker of his highland village, hollowed by the bargain into an emptiness he cannot name, reads the child's tracks up through the cone country and turns a kind man's reading into a hunt. Survive the stalk's body grammar. Phase one of BE_0002: primary DODGE, secondary STRIKE, axis 60/20/20, blended and Patterns-forward, never 100-0-0.",
"player_verb": "DODGE (primary) · STRIKE (secondary) — side-dodge the lunge-feint, break line of sight behind a cave pillar, expose the stalk tells with a torch lit from the geothermal vents",
"cite": "docs/spine/CH_02.md:141-145 · :99 (phase map, axis, win write) · registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002 counters/axis_split/signature_counters · _source/02_Tier_2_Region_Pages/flores_island.md:53 (zone mount_inerie_cone_country, agility pod 120x120)"
},
{
"beat": "CH02_B08 · seq 9 · role climax · mode combat · site kelimutu_crater_lakes · boss BE_0002.P2",
"what_happens": "The cornered frenzy in the waterfall caverns beside Tiwu Ata Polo, the lake of the wicked dead. The polo's hold peaks as the hollowed hunter is drawn toward the edge, the lake's black-and-blood-red shift reading as the corruption's endpoint tell. Phase two evolves rather than swaps: feint follow-ups on the lunge, shortened telegraphs. Win by hit points and the hold breaks — Rangku Wera freed and pulled back. A rescue, not a kill: the first person the child fights to save rather than to kill.",
"player_verb": "DODGE · STRIKE, then WEIGH — the boss row's character_engagement_node is phase=P2, verb=weigh, integrity_routed=true; win_condition REDUCE;FREE, has_nonkill_path TRUE, hitzone grip_talisman break weakens the hold",
"cite": "docs/spine/CH_02.md:146-150 · :99 · registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002 (win_condition, character_engagement_node, hitzone_parts, phase_breakdown_object) · scene SC_CH02_freeing_the_hunter (docs/spine/CH_02.md:207)"
},
{
"beat": "CH02_B09 · seq 10 · role core · mode transformation · site kelimutu_crater_lakes · fork FORK_CH02_A",
"what_happens": "The aftermath, and the chapter's one durable direction-set. What the hunter's deception and the bargain's shape are allowed to become in the child is decided here, and the decision is cut into the cavern wall as a carved mark — the ancient-to-modern world-state anchor re-targeted to the Ch-63 Austronesian continental revisit, read there with reception varying by the Ch-2/Ch-3 Manggarai path_state. Fork magnitude ACCUMULATIVE, kind exploration_interaction, care_band open, convergence_node null.",
"player_verb": "CHOOSE, then CARVE — three ACTION-keyed options; the mark is the load-bearing durable write",
"cite": "docs/spine/CH_02.md:151-155 (beat) · :164-177 (fork graph, options table, the retired-vocabulary note) · :239 and :298 (the Ch-63 re-target and its unauthored consumer) · :255 (integrity_divergence typing)"
},
{
"beat": "CH02_B10 · seq 11 · role exit · mode character · site manggarai_village_edge",
"what_happens": "Down to the edge of a Manggarai village at dusk, where the lingko fields spread their spider-web lines from their central point and gong-waning carries up from the houses — the first vril-active-instrument resonance, felt and never named. Elder Rato and Child Teresa: the first glimpse of welcome-with-wariness, and the chapter's one mercy, that attachment to this world is possible. Rato speaks the ARMED village saying — the hungry are fed first and asked after — and the scene's staging is checkable line by line (the bowl is sent for at DL_CH02_B10_A03, before he has asked anything). The zone is protected and referenced-not-entered: the quest plays at the threshold, never inside the settlement.",
"player_verb": "ARRIVE and LISTEN — no combat; the concealment reflex starts here as reflex and not yet strategy",
"cite": "docs/spine/CH_02.md:156-160 (beat) · :210 (the armed saying and its line-by-line staging) · :92 (protected, referenced not reproduced) · _source/02_Tier_2_Region_Pages/flores_island.md:55 (zone manggarai_village_edge, protected true, care_tier elevated, 'referenced not entered') · :1262 (staging constraint)"
}
],
"objectives": [
"OBJ_01 · beat CH02_B06 · \"Hear out what is offering at the rim of the lakes.\" · completion flag(local.offer_heard) — quest-local key minted at objective grain, on the CH02_B11 precedent in the landed sibling row (docs/proposals/QUEST_EXEMPLAR_CH02_OPENER.md; registries/T0_Quest_Definition_Registry [ACTIVE v1.0] @ QUEST_CH02_ARRIVAL_UNLOCKED objectives_array). Cite docs/spine/CH_02.md:137.",
"OBJ_02 · beat CH02_B06 · \"Read what the offer is really made of, and hold your refusal while it sweetens.\" · completion flag(local.bargain_refused) — the beat's own out-state, carried verbatim (docs/spine/CH_02.md:139). This is the turn: the vril-trace read is the falsifier's delivery mechanism.",
"OBJ_03 · beat CH02_B06 · \"Saying no has a price. Something is loose in the Liang Bua dark and it is running for the cave mouth. Cut its line to the daylight.\" · completion flag(local.sending_resolved) — resolves TRUE on both limbs, which is the beat's ruled no-dead-end shape: 'the beat completes either way with no dead end, the win yields the corruption-residue reagent and the loss yields the death_reward' (docs/spine/CH_02.md:356-357). The limb taken is carried in branching_logic and in the conditional state write, never in a gate.",
"OBJ_04 · beat CH02_B07 · \"He is on your tracks in the cone country. Break his line of sight, and light a torch off the vents so what he does next shows.\" · completion flag(local.stalk_survived) — the beat's out-state (docs/spine/CH_02.md:144); the counters are the boss row's own (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002 counters).",
"OBJ_05 · beat CH02_B08 · \"He has you cornered in the waterfall caverns. Break what has hold of him before the lake does.\" · completion flag(local.hunter_freed) — the beat's out-state (docs/spine/CH_02.md:149). Player-facing string is deliberately non-kill: win_condition is REDUCE;FREE and has_nonkill_path is TRUE (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002).",
"OBJ_06 · beat CH02_B09 · \"Cut the mark into the cavern wall, and decide what these two days are allowed to leave in you.\" · completion flag(local.first_wound_set) — the beat's out-state (docs/spine/CH_02.md:154). This objective hosts FORK_CH02_A; all three options complete it.",
"OBJ_07 · beat CH02_B10 · \"Come down to the fields before dark.\" · completion flag(local.village_edge_reached) — the beat's out-state (docs/spine/CH_02.md:159). Terminal objective; its produced state is the quest-level completion_condition."
],
"completion_condition": "flag(local.village_edge_reached) — the terminal objective's produced state, in the §9.5 gate-and-condition mini-grammar (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1461; docs/spine/CH_02.md:159). ENTRY PRECONDITION, which the schema has nowhere to put and which therefore lives only on the beats' in-states: flag(local.first_recharge) & flag(local.fire_made) & flag(local.ward_recovered) — first_recharge from CH02_B04 and fire_made from CH02_B02, ward_recovered from CH02_B11 (docs/spine/CH_02.md:129,119,114). See named_gaps.",
"fail_state": "reward_on_death — both encounters in this quest pay out on loss, so the loss is a branch and never a wall. BE_0002 death_reward: \"logs his stalk cadence for the retry; unlocks a polo-corruption lore fragment\" (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ BE_0002), stated on the spine as \"the thread advances on win and death alike, no fail-wall\" (docs/spine/CH_02.md:99). BE_0002_S2 death_reward: \"reveals the exact shape of the bargain-that-empties; previews the pattern's recurrence -- and the wa feeds: the hunter it hollowed stays hollowed one beat longer, and the deep layers are more dangerous on the next descent\" (@ BE_0002_S2). Enum per T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1462; the reward-on-death invariant is the T1_Combat_System_Spec failure-states rule cited at docs/spine/CH_02.md:97.",
"progression_guarantee": "plays_through — every route reaches CH02_B10 and the Ch-3 village edge. Three separate no-dead-end guarantees stack, each canon's own words rather than this row's: (1) the fork — \"every option plays through to the Ch-3 village edge — the direction sets texture and the mark's valence, never a gate\" (docs/spine/CH_02.md:167); (2) the sub-encounter — \"the beat completes either way with no dead end\" (docs/spine/CH_02.md:356); (3) the main boss — reward on win and on death, \"no fail-wall\" (docs/spine/CH_02.md:99). Killing nothing and losing everything both continue: the hunter is freed rather than killed on the win, and on a loss the hold persists one beat longer as ambient pressure, never as a gate (\"the read is ambient danger on the next descent and never a gate\", docs/spine/CH_02.md:330). Enum and gate wiring per T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1463 (harness/check_no_dead_end.py reads this field).",
"branching_logic": "Two branch points, neither of them a gate. (1) CH02_B06 phase two, the sending: WIN LIMB — the wa is denied the Liang Bua cave mouth and broken, yielding the corruption-residue reagent (the Ch-69-lineage crafting seed) and the corruption-lore fragment, writing nothing durable. LOSS LIMB — the wa reaches the daylight, and ws.liang_bua_deep_layer_pressure increments: the hunter it hollowed stays hollowed one beat longer and the deep layers are more dangerous on the next descent. Both limbs set flag(local.sending_resolved) and both proceed to CH02_B07. The fail is spatial and not a clock — \"the fail is therefore the wa reaching the mouth, and the two counters the encounter already carries are what stop it\" — and the illustrative 45-second figure stays an engine tuning constant, never canon (docs/spine/CH_02.md:348-358; registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002_S2 ws_writes/counters). (2) CH02_B09, FORK_CH02_A: three ACTION-keyed options, magnitude ACCUMULATIVE, coverage {generative, neutral, corrosive} all reachable, convergence_node null. The options set the class-bounded ws.integrity_score delta AND the valence of the carved mark; path_bucket stays UNLOCKED and never carries a direction, since the Ch-65 lock is far ahead and §6.5 L1468 rules pre-lock direction a separate axis from path_bucket. The three-band vocabulary truly_good/good_enough/evil is the RETIRED option labelling — the five texture bands are DERIVED at §18 and are never option labels (docs/spine/CH_02.md:164-177,262). Boss-outcome note that is NOT a fork: the polo's-bargain-refusal at CH02_B06 is a reward-both-ways boss outcome and not a player fork, because CH02_B08 consumes the refusal as a main-spine precondition and typing it as a fork would require inventing an accept-branch that no canon authorizes (docs/spine/CH_02.md:296).",
"state_writes": [
"ws.antagonist_operational_state_per_region: +polo_hold_broken_hunter_freed — carried verbatim from the BE_0002 win row (docs/spine/CH_02.md:99; registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002 ws_writes). Resolves to WS_020 antagonist_operational_state_per_region (registries/T0_Worldstate_Variables [ACTIVE v0.1] @ WS_020).",
"ws.integrity_score: per FORK_CH02_A option — +accumulative-generative | ~0 | -accumulative-corrosive, carried verbatim from the fork's ws_writes column (docs/spine/CH_02.md:173,174,175). Resolves to WS_001 integrity_score. Initialized at zero this chapter; integrity_level derives to L3 Drifting (docs/spine/CH_02.md:262).",
"ws.community_state_per_region: the Manggarai mark valence via the Kelimutu carved mark, permanent — the fork's mark_write column (docs/spine/CH_02.md:173-175) landing on its RATIFIED home. WS_019's own notes cell carries the ruling: mark_write {community_id, valence, persistence} maps onto community_id / accumulated_integrity_signal / recovery_state, forward_track being a build-time index and not runtime state (registries/T0_Worldstate_Variables @ WS_019, D-COMBAT-TD R8, Josh 2026-07-19). DERIVED from that ruling, never minted here.",
"ws.identity_hiding_status: +first_concealment_pressure_rising — carried verbatim from CH02_B10's out map (docs/spine/CH_02.md:159). Resolves to WS_025. FIRST_CONCEALMENT as survival reflex, pressure MED escalating toward HIGH; strategic concealment begins at Ch 3 (docs/spine/CH_02.md:274).",
"ws.liang_bua_deep_layer_pressure: +1 ON THE CH02_B06 LOSS LIMB ONLY — the wa reaching the light. Resolves to WS_048, minted 2026-08-05, integer, monotonic, ONE track with TWO writers, of which this quest owns writer two; writer one is CH02_B05's cornered put-down, which this quest does not realize (docs/spine/CH_02.md:320-330; registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002_S2 ws_writes). Not an integrity tax and never touches ws.integrity_score.",
"NOT WRITTEN, stated so a builder does not add it: ws.serpent_reverence_marks (WS_047) belongs to CH02_B03's fought route, which no quest row realizes yet (docs/spine/CH_02.md:313-319). ws.familiar_bond_state is already written by the sibling arrival row and is not re-written here. The recovered realm object is NOT a state write on any row — canon types it 'a one-sided prose carry, never a ws key and never inventory' (docs/spine/CH_02.md:271,281). local. keys never land on a quest row per T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1464."
],
"fork_options": [
"FORK_CH02_A / option ACTION-key: \"carry the betrayal as a whole wound — grieve it and keep the road\" · direction generative · delta +Accumulative · mark_write {manggarai: generative-valence via the Kelimutu carved mark, permanent, forward_track [CH_63]} · opportunity_effects open: the trust-earned reception track at Ch 3 · relationship/faction none yet (the Manggarai standing forms at Ch 3) (docs/spine/CH_02.md:173)",
"FORK_CH02_A / option ACTION-key: \"swallow it unfelt and walk on\" · direction neutral · delta ~0 · mark_write {manggarai: neutral-valence via the Kelimutu carved mark, permanent, forward_track [CH_63]} · opportunity_effects none (docs/spine/CH_02.md:174)",
"FORK_CH02_A / option ACTION-key: \"harden it into the first small permission to distrust — the permission a polo's bargain is built to exploit\" · direction corrosive · delta -Accumulative · mark_write {manggarai: corrosive-valence via the Kelimutu carved mark, permanent, forward_track [CH_63]} · opportunity_effects close: nothing walls — the cold-read reception track opens instead · relationship/faction none yet (a coldness the community reads, forming at Ch 3) (docs/spine/CH_02.md:175)",
"SCHEMA NOTE: fork_option_refs wants {fork_id, option_ref} pairs (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1468). fork_id resolves cleanly to FORK_CH02_A; option_ref can only be the option's ACTION text, because the spine mints no option_id for any of the three rows. Recorded in named_gaps rather than invented."
],
"irreversible_choice": "At CH02_B09, with the hunter freed and the bargain's shape now known, the child cuts a mark into the Kelimutu cavern wall and fixes what the last two days are allowed to leave in them. Three limbs, each with its price, and the world keeps whichever is cut. CARRY THE WOUND WHOLE — grieve the betrayal and keep the road: costs the child the protection that numbness would have given, and the mark reads generative-valence, which opens the trust-earned reception track when the Manggarai standing forms at Ch 3. SWALLOW IT UNFELT — costs the child the grief itself, and the mark reads neutral, opening nothing and closing nothing. HARDEN IT INTO THE FIRST SMALL PERMISSION TO DISTRUST — the permission a polo's bargain is built to exploit: costs the child that opening, and the mark reads corrosive-valence, which opens the cold-read reception track instead. IRREVERSIBLE IN THE DOCTRINE'S EXACT SENSE — the world keeps it, no path closes to progression: the mark is permanent and forward-tracked to the Ch-63 Austronesian continental revisit, where recognition opens or alters aid and lore and never walls, and every option plays through to the Ch-3 village edge (docs/spine/CH_02.md:151-155,166-177,239,298; docs/registry_extensions.json `_column_doctrine/quest-turn/irreversible_choice`). Not irreversible in the false sense: nothing here gates, and the corrosive limb is the one canon explicitly annotates \"close: nothing walls\".",
"reward_class": "mixed — the quest pays across classes (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1472). ability_unlock_refs [\"ability:A_E_001\", \"ability:A_E_002\"] — Stone Skin at CH02_B07 and Tremor Stomp at CH02_B08, carried from those beats' own systems lines and confirmed at the abilities line, all at the Neophyte floor (docs/spine/CH_02.md:143,148,245; registries/T0_Ability_Tree_Registry [ACTIVE v0.1] @ A_E_001, @ A_E_002). reward_drop_refs [\"DROP_CH02_POLO_CORRUPTION_LORE\"] — lore_fragment_drop, linked_entity BE_0002_S2 (registries/T0_RNG_Drop_Table [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv). The other three CH_02 drop rows link to BE_0002_S1 or to Shell and belong to the unauthored CH02_FIRST_WATER anchor. reward_seed_refs [\"SEED_0001\"] — the SQ1 fairy_tale_folklore SEED, whose realized beats are CH02_B05, CH02_B06 and CH02_B08, two of the three inside this quest (registries/T0_Quest_Seed_Registry [DRAFT v0.1] @ SEED_0001; docs/spine/CH_02.md:183). SEED_0002 anchors CH02_B03/CH02_B05 and is not this quest's. substrate_narrative carried in prose because that is where canon carries it: the polo-corruption lore, the wa's corruption-residue reagent as the Ch-69-lineage crafting seed, and the steeling against later bargains (registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002_S2 win_reward). Note that BE_0002's win_reward cell reads \"village trust + first journal seed\" while the fork rules relationship/faction \"none yet (the Manggarai standing forms at Ch 3)\" — the trust is the Ch-3 reception the mark opens, not a Ch-2 standing write, and no standing delta is authored on this row.",
"world_memory_write": "ws.community_state_per_region — resolves to WS_019 `community_state_per_region` (registries/T0_Worldstate_Variables [ACTIVE v0.1] @ WS_019), which is the RATIFIED mark_write home per that row's own notes cell (D-COMBAT-TD R8, Josh 2026-07-19). The choice writes the FORK_CH02_A mark: community_id `manggarai`, accumulated_integrity_signal = the chosen option's valence (generative | neutral | corrosive), recovery_state = permanent; forward_track [CH_63] is a build-time index and not runtime state, so no key carries it (docs/spine/CH_02.md:173-175). THE DOWNSTREAM SURFACED READ, which QW-10 requires of any world_memory_write: DL_000184, Elder Rato, node DN_CH03_HUB_WAE_REBO — the already-authored Ch-3 line whose three variants are the Ch-2 mark arriving as judgement, with the unchanged authored line as the neutral default so a save carrying no token still plays correctly (docs/proposals/CALLBACK_EXEMPLAR_CH03.md:272,305-322). That read is PROPOSAL-TIER and its token spelling is not ratified — see named_gaps. The far read at CH_63 has no consumer beat authored at all (docs/spine/CH_02.md:239,298).",
"hard_line_refs": [
"HL_0003 (CVD §17.1) — the faithful community and its living tradition are never the story antagonist. BINDS AND IS SATISFIED BY CONSTRUCTION: every combat route in this quest is against the corrupted individual whom the fight FREES, the polo (the tradition's own condemned witch-being), and fauna. The Manggarai, Ngada, Lio and Nage are never targets, and manggarai_village_edge is protected and referenced-not-entered (docs/spine/CH_02.md:215,92).",
"HL_0005 (CVD §17.1) — no cinema-shorthand tropification. The polo and the wa are drawn as the Nage and Lio traditions hold them, never as zombie-horror. The dukun is a real benevolent folk-healer role and is NOT the antagonist; the earlier dukun-as-corruptor framing is retired canon and must not return (docs/spine/CH_02.md:215,221,291,297).",
"HL_0121 (CVD §17.1) — genuinely malevolent beings grounded in a tradition are legitimate antagonists and legitimate combat. This is the AFFIRMATIVE line for this quest: the polo is a boss, and softening it is a defect of equal weight to defaming a community (registries/T0_Hard_Lines [ACTIVE v0.2] @ HL_0121; docs/spine/CH_02.md:135).",
"HL_0123 (CVD §17.16/§17.1) — lethal violence against human NPCs is core. Cited to make the non-kill climax a DESIGN choice and not a squeamish one: BE_0002 carries has_nonkill_path TRUE and win_condition REDUCE;FREE because the fiction is a rescue, not because violence is off the table (docs/spine/CH_02.md:215; registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry @ BE_0002).",
"HL_0028 (CVD §17.5) — substrate-perception unlocks at Adeptus Minor. The falsifier's read is a Neophyte VRIL_TRACE drained-not-full read only, never a polarity or signature read; onset of substrate perception is Ch 15 (docs/spine/CH_02.md:17,245; BE_0002_S2 counters).",
"HL_0043 and HL_0046 (CVD §17.9) — the thesis is never declared, and the reveal-authority reference row never speaks. CHAR_0007 is not a participant, the ambient impression is not an objective, not a reward and not a dialogue node, and it carries no caption naming an agent (docs/spine/CH_02.md:251,227).",
"HL_0095 (T1_Languages §8) — no fairy-realm-script identification before the Ch-8 in-chapter reveal. The realm object is worn through this quest and is never named, never HUD-surfaced, never inventoried and never charge-stated (docs/spine/CH_02.md:237,271).",
"HL_0032 (CVD §17.6) — twelve canonical SQ names locked; SQ1 is the reward_seed_ref and its gate is none, state-conditional and non-gating on the main spine (docs/spine/CH_02.md:183,185).",
"HL_0078 / HL_0079 / HL_0049 — blended primary-and-secondary-verb three-axis boss with phase escalation that evolves the moveset (BE_0002 is 60/20/20, evolve-not-swap); one agility course per chapter; no consecutive dominant-combat-mode repeat, dominant_combat_mode environmental against Ch 1's familiar (docs/spine/CH_02.md:97,243,244).",
"REVEAL CEILING, node-level: reveal_state HELD. The corruption here PREDATES the antagonist network entirely — NW_0001 is typed VRIL_STANDALONE with awareness UNAWARE, so there is no operative chain, no name and no pattern in existence at this node for any surface to leak (docs/spine/CH_02.md:102,252,263). No player-facing string in this row reaches for one, and the recognition edge PL_0075 that later reaches back to this refusal is explicitly guarded as an abstract bargain-SHAPE recognition, never a who-frame (registries/T0_Promise_Ledger [DRAFT v0.1] @ PL_0075, reveal_ceiling CH_77)."
],
"named_gaps": [
"ANCHOR DECOMPOSITION IS A MERGE, and it is mine, not canon's. The retired 2026-07-20 spike split these five beats across three anchors — CH02_OLDER_WATCHERS (B05+B06), CH02_HOLLOW_HUNTER (B07+B08), CH02_FIRST_WOUND (B09+B10) (docs/proposals/quest_spike/CH_02_quests.md:70,90,110). I merged them onto one row for a reason the schema forces: gate `quest_turn` tooth Q3 fails a row that fills some turn columns and not all, so a premise at B06, a falsifier at B06/B08 and an irreversible choice at B09 CANNOT be split across rows without producing exactly the partial turn Q3 exists to catch. The unity is also canon's: BE_0002's two phases plus its own sub-boss BE_0002_S2 are one boss encounter. CG-10 (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1445) says anchors decompose at natural mode and site boundaries, and this row crosses both — so the merge is a genuine director call, and the three-way split is the live alternative.",
"CH02_B03, CH02_B04 and CH02_B05 are realized by NO quest row. The CH02_FIRST_WATER anchor (the guardian test and the first recharge) and the Ebu Gogo stealth beat are unauthored, which orphans: ws.serpent_reverence_marks (WS_047, CH02_B03's fought route), writer ONE of ws.liang_bua_deep_layer_pressure (WS_048, CH02_B05's cornered put-down), SEED_0002, DROP_CH02_SERPENT_DUAL_FORM, DROP_CH02_RECHARGE_SOURCE, DROP_CH02_SHELL_BOND_SEED, and the Shell registration write. Owed work, not this row's.",
"NO ENTRY-GATE FIELD EXISTS on a main_story_per_chapter row. This quest consumes local.first_recharge, local.fire_made and local.ward_recovered, all produced by sibling anchors, and the schema can express that nowhere — sq_gate_condition is side-questline-only (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1454). The precondition survives only on the beats' in-states. This is the unclosed residue of quest-spike Gap G4 (docs/proposals/quest_spike/CH_02_quests.md:99,204).",
"FORK_CH02_A MINTS NO option_id. fork_option_refs wants {fork_id, option_ref} (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1468) and the option_ref can only be the option's ACTION text, because the spine's options table is keyed by action prose with no id column (docs/spine/CH_02.md:171-175). A build needing a joinable key still has none.",
"THE MARK-WRITE TOKEN SPELLING IS NOT RATIFIED. Canon states the write in prose ('generative-valence via the Kelimutu carved mark'); the tokens manggarai_mark_generative / _neutral / _corrosive and the DL_000184 variant lines exist only at PROPOSAL-TIER (docs/proposals/CALLBACK_EXEMPLAR_CH03.md:314-322). ws.community_state_per_region resolves and Q2 passes either way, but the VALUE vocabulary needs ratification before an engine can compare against it.",
"THE CH-63 CONSUMER DOES NOT EXIST, and the ledger is stale about it. The spine re-targeted the carved mark from the dead Ch-39 mis-link to the Ch-63 Austronesian continental revisit and flagged the consumer beat as owed ([POPULATE→ CH_63], docs/spine/CH_02.md:239,298), but T0_Promise_Ledger PL_0077 still carries the OLD framing verbatim — edge_state ORPHAN, blank payoff_node, evidence citing 'CH_02 twice states the carved mark is the Ch-39 revisit anchor'. The ledger row needs re-pointing to CH_63 to match the spine it indexes. Finding, not a blocker.",
"encounter_facet IS SINGLE-VALUED AND THIS QUEST CARRIES TWO. I take `materialized_argument` on the strongest single citation — BE_0002_S2's own boss_name is 'The Polo's Vital-Force Theft (materialized-argument mini-encounter)' and the spine places it 'in the Ch 69 lineage at seed scale' (docs/spine/CH_02.md:100). But the same encounter's target_type is folklore_malevolent_being and CR_0151 is species_class folklore, so `folklore` is equally attested and the single value is lossy. The enum extends only on attested critic-verified demand (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1448), so this is filed as demand rather than taken.",
"THE POLO HAS NO character_id AND NO DIALOGUE KEY. SC_CH02_polos_offer is typed dialogue_initiation, but its only non-protagonist participant is a voice-register sensation with no CHAR_ row — only CR_0151 — so a dialogue dataset has no speaker_ref to key it on. Unclosed spike Gaps G9/G15 (docs/proposals/quest_spike/CH_02_quests.md:85). The scene registry row itself lists participant_entity_refs [\"protagonist\"] only.",
"CH02_B06's SITE CELL IS WRONG FOR PHASE TWO and there is no per-phase field to fix it on. The cell reads kelimutu_crater_lakes, where the bargain is offered and refused; phase two resolves inside liang_bua_cave's geometry, where the beat's own objective puts it. A build resolving the light anchor from the site cell lands in the wrong zone. The ruling is explicit that the split is pre-existing and that the clean repair — a per-phase site binding on the beat contract — was NOT taken because that beat line is line-cited by another lane's surfaces (docs/spine/CH_02.md:384-392). My spatial_requirements_array carries the phase binding in the row; the beat contract still does not.",
"THE LIANG BUA CAVE MOUTH CARRIES NO ID. The fail state's anchor is real authored geometry — the region page's terrain recipe carves the mouth, and the Zone Catalog states both halves it sits between (_source/02_Tier_2_Region_Pages/flores_island.md:51,105) — but it has no site_id, no environment-grammar id and no Zone Catalog feature row, so a build needing a joinable key has none. Named as unresolvable at docs/spine/CH_02.md:378-382, and unchanged by this row.",
"DIALOGUE HAS TWO HOMES. dialogue_dataset_array takes the contract-native path docs/quest_dialogue/DD_QUEST_CH02_HOLLOWED_HUNTER_UNLOCKED.csv (T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts:1478), matching the landed sibling row — but docs/quest_dialogue/ does not exist on disk, and the authored Ch-2 lines this quest needs (the DL_CH02_B10_A03..A15 span at the village edge, and the Rangku Wera freed lines) live at docs/proposals/dialogue/ch2_ch3_dialogue.json and docs/proposals/dialogue/dialogue_registry_rows.csv. The two homes need reconciling before any dataset is authored — and the armed-saying staging at docs/spine/CH_02.md:210 binds whoever does it: the bowl is never re-ordered behind the questions, and the saying is never re-worded without re-writing CHAR_0008's inversion with it.",
"THIS ROW ARMS A GATE THAT IS CURRENTLY NOT-ARMED. Verified at HEAD rather than reasoned about: `python harness/check_quest_turn.py` reports `main=17/17 rows · turns full=0 partial=0 · chapters armed=0 · ws_writes=0`, with Q1 naming CH_02 as carrying one main-quest row with every turn column blank. Landing this row makes it the registry's FIRST fully-populated turn, arms Q1 for CH_02 — which this row then satisfies alone — and arms Q2 (key resolution: WS_019 is live) and Q4 (premise/falsifier distinctness: the two propositions are different claims, not a re-cased premise). Expect the gate's output to change from four DECLARED NOT-ARMED lines to a live check; that is the intended effect, not a regression.",
"author_in_loop_required TRUE, on canon's own second clause and NOT on care inflation. The chapter-level TRUE at docs/spine/CH_02.md:12 names two reasons: 'the origin-node opener AND the restored malevolent-being content'. The first reason belongs to the sibling arrival row; the second reason IS this quest — the polo, the wa, and the retired dukun-as-villain framing. Nothing else moves: the chapter stays cultural_depiction_tier standard, canonical_hard_line_flag stays FALSE, and no new protection is invented (docs/spine/CH_02.md:12; docs/proposals/QUEST_EXEMPLAR_CH02_OPENER.md:355-375 for the precedent shape)."
],
"grounding": "SPINE — docs/spine/CH_02.md:12 (author_in_loop clause, care tier), :17 (HL_0005/HL_0028 shaping constraints), :83-93 (typed site rows), :97-102 (boss structure, sub-bosses, reveal binding), :136-160 (beats CH02_B06 through CH02_B10), :164-177 (FORK_CH02_A, options table, retired-vocabulary note), :183-185 (SQ seeds, no mastery gate), :189-196 (ally NPCs), :201-210 (scene anchor table, the armed village saying), :215 (protected-chapter combat framing), :221 (polo-vs-dukun anti-fringe framing), :227 (L3 surfacing, no pre-Ch-76 reveal), :237-239 (realm object, carved mark, inscription fragment), :243-258 (mechanical anchors: dominant mode, win condition, abilities, vril sites, antagonist operative, cross-cultural links, main_quest_beat, integrity_divergence), :262-263 (derived axes), :271-275 (end-state carry-forward), :285 (CH_02→CH_03 seam), :291-299 (decisions surfaced: malevolent-being restoration, the v3 typing of the refusal, the Ch-63 re-target, the amulet staging), :313-330 (state-key wiring addendum, WS_047 and WS_048), :332-392 (the light-anchor ruling and the honest half: the cave mouth has no id, the site cell is wrong for phase two). CONTRACT — _source/01_Tier_1_Foundation/T1_Build_Pipeline_Contracts [ACTIVE v1.0].md:1444 (quest_id format QUEST_<anchor>_<path_bucket>), :1445 (CG-10 anchor decomposition), :1447 (quest_type enum and the CG-21 rule that a main-graph core/climax beat stays main_story_per_chapter whatever the encounter's flavour), :1448 (encounter_facet), :1450 (path_bucket UNLOCKED pre-Ch-65), :1451-1454, :1455-1457 (participants, giver, trigger), :1458-1461 (beat structure, realized_beat_refs, objectives_array, completion_condition), :1462-1466 (fail_state, progression_guarantee, state_writes and the local-never-lands rule, promotion criterion), :1468 (fork_option_refs, direction-vs-path_bucket axis separation), :1469-1472 (dialogue anchors, spatial requirements, scene anchors, reward_class), :1473-1475 (reward refs), :1478-1480 (dialogue dataset home, hard_line_relevance, quest_status). REGISTRIES — registries/T0_Boss_Encounter_Registry [DRAFT v0.1]/Sheet1.csv @ BE_0002, BE_0002_S2 (verbs, axis, counters, phase triggers, win/death rewards, ws_writes, has_nonkill_path, hitzones); T0_Worldstate_Variables [ACTIVE v0.1] @ WS_001, WS_019 (the ratified mark_write home), WS_020, WS_025, WS_047, WS_048; T0_Quest_Definition_Registry [ACTIVE v1.0] @ QUEST_CH02_ARRIVAL_UNLOCKED (the sibling row and the shape precedent); T0_Quest_Seed_Registry [DRAFT v0.1] @ SEED_0001, SEED_0002; T0_RNG_Drop_Table [DRAFT v0.1] @ DROP_CH02_POLO_CORRUPTION_LORE; T0_Creature_Roster [DRAFT v0.1] @ CR_0151, CR_0010; T0_Scene_Spec_Registry [ACTIVE v0.1] @ SC_CH02_polos_offer, SC_CH02_freeing_the_hunter, SC_CH02_village_edge; T0_Promise_Ledger [DRAFT v0.1] @ PL_0075 (the Ch-69 recognition edge with its reveal guard), PL_0077 (the stale Ch-39 mark edge), PL_0107 (the object payoff, PAID at CH02_B11); T0_Hard_Lines [ACTIVE v0.2] @ HL_0002, HL_0003, HL_0005, HL_0028, HL_0032, HL_0043, HL_0046, HL_0095, HL_0121, HL_0123; T0_Questline_Index [DRAFT v0.1] @ SQ9. REGION — _source/02_Tier_2_Region_Pages/flores_island.md:51 (liang_bua_cave zone, protected true, 220x180x60 karst interior + 400 m forest approach), :52 (kelimutu_crater_lakes, cavern climax pocket 90x70, P1 main-boss site), :53 (mount_inerie_cone_country), :55 (manggarai_village_edge, protected, care_tier elevated, referenced not entered), :105 (the terrain recipe carving the cave mouth), :1262 (village-edge staging constraint). DOCTRINE AND PRECEDENT — docs/registry_extensions.json `_column_doctrine/quest-turn` (the four-column W3 teacher mechanism, and the tooth harness/check_quest_turn.py); docs/proposals/QUEST_EXEMPLAR_CH02_OPENER.md:439-447 (which names this exact row as the owed work: \"CH_02's turn belongs on the quest that realizes CH02_B09\"); docs/proposals/CALLBACK_EXEMPLAR_CH03.md:185-192, :272, :305-322 (the WS_019 ruling read and the DL_000184 surfaced downstream read); docs/proposals/quest_spike/CH_02_quests.md:70,90,110,99,85,204 (the retired three-anchor split and its still-open gaps). GATE STATE VERIFIED AT HEAD — `python harness/check_quest_turn.py` → `quest_turn main=17/17 rows turns full=0 partial=0 chapters armed=0 covered=0 ws_writes=0 PASS`, four DECLARED NOT-ARMED teeth, CH_02 named under Q1.",
"progression_guarantee_STATUS": "not challenged by the critic (not the same as proven)"
}
}