Time Bomb

Time Bomb

Plant a delayed effect that punishes inaction or careless proximity.

What This Skill Does

Use Time Bomb for deferred actions, scheduled checks, or payloads that should go off later instead of right now. In this chip pack, Time Bomb is treated as a hybrid battle-chip procedure with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Time Bomb. Hermes shelf: Traps and Obstacles.

When To Use

• The action should trigger after a delay or at a chosen checkpoint.
• You want the target to react to the presence of the payload.
• Immediate execution would be premature or noisy.

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 delayed effect, check, or payload you want to arm.
• State the trigger time, checkpoint, or condition that should make it fire.
• Identify who owns the bomb and who has authority to disarm it.
• Describe the blast radius if the action goes off as planned.

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. Pick the trigger time or condition.
4. Plant the payload with explicit cancellation rules.
5. Either disarm it on success or let it fire on schedule.
6. Package the result with concrete evidence, what stayed untouched, and the next recommended chip only if follow-up is truly needed.

Deliverables

• A scheduled task, delayed reminder, or conditional payload.
• A clear disarm condition.

Output Contract

• One delayed action with an explicit trigger, owner, and cancellation path.
• A description of what happens if it fires and what happens if it is safely disarmed.
• A payload proportionate to the named trigger and blast radius.
• Arming logic auditable enough that another operator can review it.

Do Not Use For

• Actions with unclear ownership or no disarm path.
• High-blast-radius payloads where the downstream impact cannot be named.
• Situations where immediate execution is clearer and safer than delay.

Pair With

• Time Bomb + Rock Cube: restrict movement so the target has fewer clean exits before detonation.
• Time Bomb + Killer Eye: watch the lane and arm the delayed response only when a real crossing occurs.
• Time Bomb + Anti Damage: pair a deferred consequence with a narrow immediate counter.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the theatrical framing, but name the concrete mechanism that makes the chip useful right now.
• Never plant a bomb without a known owner and cancel path.
• If the blast radius is unclear, do not arm it.
• 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 trigger condition is explicit and distinct from the disarm condition.
• Confirm a named owner is responsible for arming, monitoring, and canceling the payload.
• Confirm the blast radius is described concretely enough to judge proportionality.
• Check which parts are concrete actions versus framing, so the operator can tell what is real now.

Example Invocation

Use Time Bomb to design a delayed action for this checkpoint, with a named owner, a disarm rule, and no mystery blast radius.
Use Time Bomb here: define the trigger, the cancel path, and the exact payload before you arm it.