{
  "schema": 2,
  "id": "LS_appendix",
  "name": "Appendix",
  "tagline": "The reservoir",
  "seed": 20260721,
  "par": { "time": 160, "score": 1600, "samples": 3 },
  "next": "L5_large_intestine",
  "design": {
    "owner": "Lane C",
    "identity": "The secret, and the campaign's verdict on you. Short, gold, and almost still - after L4's ten-minute maze this is a held breath. Whether it is a treasure room or the hardest fight in the game is decided by five levels of BIOME STANDING before you ever arrive (LANE_C_NOTES §Boss specs 4).",
    "anatomy": "A blind-ended pouch off the cecum, entered through the appendiceal orifice and a narrow neck - and the neck is the point: it is exactly why the real organ obstructs and inflames. Not vestigial. Modern immunology reads it as a BIOFILM RESERVOIR, a refuge where the gut's flora shelter from the torrent and re-seed the colon after a purge. The whole boss is that fact.",
    "entry": "Reached from L4's ileocecal valve, and only with the biome on your side: the valve carries `secretTo` + `secretNeed`, so high standing opens the appendiceal door and low standing walks you straight past it into the colon. The secret is not hidden behind a wall, it is hidden behind conduct.",
    "scale": "800 units, radius 7-16. The neck at 7 is the tightest non-boss lumen in the game after L4's terminal ileum; the reservoir opens to a 45-unit arena, which is small for a lair on purpose - a cul-de-sac should feel like one.",
    "flow": "Biome default is 2 u/s (a reservoir is defined by NOT flowing). Segments override to 4-6 so the approach is slow rather than glacial, and the lair is an arena anyway - in a room the current is irrelevant and your thrust is the only speed there is.",
    "no_gate_ritual": "The exit rejoins the colon at the cecum. L5 does not exist yet, so `next` dead-ends gracefully on the medal card (boot's chaining guard) rather than dumping the player into the stub.",
    "par_rationale": "160s, which is UNDER the 165s timid traversal the sim reports - and that is the design, not an oversight. The pacing sim measures travel and cannot see a boss, so on a level whose boss lasts 0-90s depending on your standing, par has to mean something the sim cannot express. It does: a player who arrives symbiotic gets the Communion, has no fight at all, and can beat 160 comfortably. A player who has to fight the Sovereign cannot. THE TIME MEDAL REWARDS THE SAME CONDUCT THE LEVEL IS ABOUT, which is the only par this level should have. par.score 1600 is likewise sized to the pacifist route (3 samples + the orb line), so neither medal requires killing anything in the gut's own seed bank."
  },
  "segments": [
    {
      "biome": "appendix",
      "name": "Appendiceal Orifice",
      "length": 200,
      "radius": { "base": 9, "wobble": 0.1 },
      "curviness": 0.25,
      "flow": 6,
      "note": "The door in the cecal wall. Gold rim light, almost no current, and the first quiet since the ileum - the level opens by taking the pressure OFF, because the fight at the end will be decided by whether the player is calm enough to hold fire."
    },
    {
      "biome": "appendix",
      "name": "The Neck",
      "length": 200,
      "radius": { "base": 7, "wobble": 0.12 },
      "curviness": 0.4,
      "flow": 5,
      "note": "The narrow lumen that makes appendicitis a thing: obstruct this and the pouch behind it has nowhere to drain. Tightest stretch in the level, and deliberately placed BEFORE the lair - you squeeze in, and on the way out you will know exactly how narrow the only exit is."
    },
    {
      "biome": "appendix",
      "name": "The Reservoir",
      "length": 400,
      "radius": { "base": 16, "wobble": 0.15 },
      "curviness": 0.2,
      "flow": 6,
      "note": "The pouch itself, opening into the lair arena. Lymphoid tissue everywhere, flora everywhere - this is where the gut keeps its seed stock. The Sovereign sits at 600 with the colonies it protects drifting around it, which is the whole trap: its bodyguards are the thing you must not shoot."
    }
  ],
  "arenas": [
    { "at": 600, "radius": 45, "biome": "appendix", "note": "The Sovereign's lair. Small for an arena on purpose - a cul-de-sac, not a hall. Spans s 555-645." }
  ],
  "events": [
    { "s": 20, "type": "checkpoint", "name": "Appendiceal Orifice" },
    { "s": 90, "type": "pickup", "kind": "nutrient_orb", "count": 3, "spread": 40, "note": "Gold on gold. The treasure-room read starts immediately (ART_BIBLE §Biome palettes: appendix = treasure)." },
    { "s": 140, "type": "spawn", "enemy": "faecali_beacon", "count": 2, "spread": 40, "rho": 0.6, "note": "The reward commensal, greeting you at the door. If you are arriving with high standing these are your welcome party; if you are not, they are the first thing a panicking player shoots." },
    { "s": 200, "type": "checkpoint", "name": "The Neck" },
    { "s": 260, "type": "pickup", "kind": "biopsy_sample", "count": 1, "theta": 1.57, "rho": 0.88, "note": "SAMPLE 1/3. Cheap by design - wall-pinned in the neck with nothing chasing you. The appendix is the one level that gives you a collectible for free, because its real cost is the fight at the end." },
    { "s": 340, "type": "checkpoint", "name": "Neck Exit" },
    { "s": 400, "type": "pickup", "kind": "antacid_ammo", "count": 3, "spread": 30, "note": "THE most important pickup in the level: the Sovereign's matrix is immune to the cannon and only antacid disperses it (LANE_C_NOTES §4 P1). A player who arrives dry has to farm the orbs mid-fight. Three, in plain sight, on the way in - the level arms you and then asks whether you can ration." },
    { "s": 480, "type": "checkpoint", "name": "Reservoir" },
    { "s": 520, "type": "spawn", "enemy": "bifido_colony", "count": 4, "spread": 60, "rho": 0.75, "note": "The lair's flora, seeded BEFORE the boss so they are already drifting when the fight starts. These are the Sovereign's difficulty dial: every one your stray fire kills re-armours a plate (boss.js flora:harmed). Off the racing line, but not out of the firing line." },
    { "s": 540, "type": "checkpoint", "name": "The Sovereign", "note": "The boss checkpoint, outside the arena (which starts at 555) - C's law: never respawn a player inside the encounter." },
    { "s": 560, "type": "pickup", "kind": "biopsy_sample", "count": 1, "theta": 4.71, "rho": 0.8, "note": "SAMPLE 2/3, at the lip of the lair. Take it now or take it with a boss awake." },
    { "s": 600, "type": "boss", "id": "appendix_sovereign", "note": "THE SECRET BOSS. Branches on BIOME STANDING read once on entry: >=70 the Communion (no fight, full coat, a permanent phage escort), >=30 the Toll (P1 only), below that the full three-phase Sovereign. Spec in LANE_C_NOTES §Boss specs 4." },
    { "s": 660, "type": "spawn", "enemy": "faecali_beacon", "count": 2, "spread": 40, "rho": 0.7, "note": "More flora INSIDE the arena, deliberately between you and the dome. The fight's signature: the correct move is regularly to stop shooting." },
    { "s": 720, "type": "checkpoint", "name": "Reservoir Floor" },
    { "s": 750, "type": "pickup", "kind": "biopsy_sample", "count": 1, "theta": 3.14, "rho": 0.85, "note": "SAMPLE 3/3, past the dome - only reachable once the Sovereign is settled one way or the other." },
    { "s": 800, "type": "gate", "id": "appendiceal_return", "to": "L5_large_intestine", "note": "Back out through the neck and into the colon, re-seeded. The way you came in is the only way out - which is what a blind-ended pouch means." }
  ]
}