Poison Face

Poison Face

Plant a visible toxic fixture that makes one lane or resting spot costly to occupy.

What This Skill Does

Use Poison Face when Hermes should emplace a stationary poison source on the field: a bounded, persistent hazard that immediately taxes presence in one valuable lane, panel cluster, or holding pattern. Unlike Time Bomb, it is not waiting for a delayed detonation; unlike Killer Eye, it is not watching for a crossing; unlike Anti Damage, it does not need to be hit first. Poison Face is for making a known position steadily worse until the target leaves, reroutes, or accepts attrition. In this chip pack, Poison Face is treated as a hybrid battle-chip procedure with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Poison Face. Hermes shelf: Traps and Obstacles.

When To Use

• The target keeps camping, stalling, or operating from one especially valuable spot.
• You need immediate ongoing positional pressure instead of a delayed trigger or a one-time shove.
• A visible hazard is acceptable because the point is to make staying put expensive, not to surprise the target.

Prerequisites

• Name which part of this move is real tool use versus battle-chip framing before you act.
• These procedures rely on the normal tools already present in the active Hermes runtime; this repo does not ship a separate integration layer.

Operator Inputs

• Name the exact lane, panel cluster, queue, role, or resting spot that should become costly to occupy.
• State what behavior you want the poison to force: vacating, shortening dwell time, rerouting, or giving up a comfortable hold.
• Describe which allies, operators, or follow-up actions still need safe tiles or safe approach lanes nearby.
• Say how you will tell the poison changed the board: less camping, less stalling, a forced move, or a newly exposed opening.

Procedure

1. Restate the target, success condition, and no-touch boundaries before you spend the chip.
2. Collect the operator inputs below so the chip lands on the right panel.
3. Name the exact lane, standing zone, or resting pattern that should become poisonous to hold.
4. Place one bounded hazard source there and define who must still be able to route around it safely.
5. Exploit the forced movement, reduced comfort, or shortened dwell time the poison creates.
6. Package the result with concrete evidence, what stayed untouched, and the next recommended chip only if follow-up is truly needed.

Deliverables

• One visible, stationary hazard source that creates continuous pressure in a bounded zone.
• A short note describing what position is now costly to hold and what safe route or follow-up lane remains.

Output Contract

• One bounded, persistent hazard source placed on a clearly named position or holding pattern.
• An explanation of the continuous cost of staying there, including what behavior the poison is intended to discourage.
• A clear note on the safe lane, escape lane, or follow-up action Hermes expects to exploit once the target moves.
• No claim that the poison is hidden, delayed, or reactive; the output must present it as immediate positional attrition.

Do Not Use For

• Delayed actions that need an explicit future trigger time or scheduled detonation; that is Time Bomb.
• Threshold watches or lane sensors where the valuable event is detection rather than attrition; that is Killer Eye.
• Counters that should fire only after the next incoming hostile hit; that is Anti Damage.
• Broad terrain conversion where a larger zone should become hazardous rather than one anchored poison source; that is closer to Lava Stage.

Pair With

• Poison Face + Panel Grab: poison the comfortable tile, then claim the one safe tile that still matters.
• Poison Face + Air Shot: make the resting lane painful first, then shove the target through the bad route or off the last comfortable square.
• Poison Face + Rock Cube: anchor poison on the important lane and use a blocker to make the remaining exits worse.
• Poison Face + Killer Eye: watch the escape lane after the poison forces movement, instead of confusing the poison source itself for a monitor.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the theatrical framing, but name the concrete mechanism that makes the chip useful right now.
• Poison Face is a persistent occupancy tax, not a delayed bomb, hidden tripwire, or reactive counter.
• Do not poison a panel cluster your own side still needs to stand on, traverse, or hold.
• If the target is not position-dependent, poisoning the ground is theater; use a different chip.
• Keep the chip metaphor anchored to a real operating move; do not let flavor substitute for procedure.

Verification

• Check that the response includes every promised deliverable and leaves an inspectable audit trail.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and proposed follow-up are visibly separated.
• Confirm the draft creates immediate continuous positional pressure rather than a delayed trigger, alert, or reactive counter.
• Confirm the poisoned zone is bounded and specific enough that an operator can point to where holding position became expensive.
• Confirm the response names the safe lane or follow-up move Hermes intends to exploit once the target abandons the poisoned ground.
• Check which parts are concrete actions versus framing, so the operator can tell what is real now.

Example Invocation

Use Poison Face on this workflow: make the current comfortable holding zone steadily expensive to stay in, but leave us one clear route to exploit when the team has to move.
Use Poison Face here to poison exactly one high-value lane so stalling on that spot stops being cheap, and tell me what opening that should create next.