A popular story concerns a young boy from the town of Haarlem, Netherlands, who notices a leak in the town's dike. The Spaarne River is flowing through a tiny hole in the barrier, threatening to flood the town. The young boy plugs the leak with his finger, and stays there all night. Adults find him the next morning and permanently repair the leak. Although first written about by an American (Mary Mapes Dodge, in her book Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates), the story is from the Netherlands. A biomass of hosts, for the purpose of utilizing their minds to form a collective intelligence. A Proto-Gravemind can grow into a Gravemind given enough time and host bodies. The described changes occur when the Flood has still yet to overwhelm any meaningful resistance in a given locale. When this has been accomplished, available organisms will no longer be used to create purpose-built combat forms but are instead used to create a Gravemind or simply broken down and processed into biomass for a Flood hive. [35] [64] Metaphysical and technological [ edit ] that Dr. Catherine Halsey created both the SPARTAN-II program and Cortana, who was built using a clone of her own brain? During the human-Forerunner wars, humanity (who at the time was a technologically advanced, spacefaring race) believed they had discovered another way to defeat the Flood. Using genetic engineering, a third of the human population was altered to carry a set of specially designed genes. This group of humans was then allowed to be infected by the Flood. Once the genes were exposed to Flood DNA, they triggered a cascade of cell destruction that spread throughout all Flood biomatter. The majority of the Flood died off as a result, although they would return in full force ten thousand years later. All information regarding this "cure" was destroyed by the humans as a final act of revenge against the Forerunners, leaving them unprepared for the second Flood strike. [80]

Things from the Flood is an Earth setting (ish) with mixed technology, and I think this mix of everything changing and the old world, the old wonders, falling apart is a dominant aspect of the game. Floods occur naturally. They are part of the water cycle, and the environment is adapted to flooding. Wetlands along river banks, lakes, and estuaries absorb flood waters. Wetland vegetation, such as trees, grasses, and sedges, slow the speed of flood waters and more evenly distribute their energy. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the wetlands along the Mississippi River once stored at least 60 days of flood water. (Today, Mississippi wetlands store only 12 days of flood water. Most wetlands have been filled or drained.) The Year Zero Engine is a dice pool system where, when you’re performing a task, you roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to your characters skill and associated attribute and any roll of a six is a success. Most tests only requires one success but exceptionally difficult ones might requires more. Any additional successes can then be used to buy additional effects depending on the skill being used. What sets the Year Zero engine apart from other dice pool systems is that if you’re not happy with a roll you can choose to “push” it. When pushing a roll you re-roll all dice that did not come up as a six, but you also take a condition. At first, I worried that the Mystery Landscape would create a situation where PCs could explore areas that were too dangerous for them early on or too easy for them later on. After testing the system, though, I can see why that won’t be the case. It’s up to the GM to toggle the difficulty level and decide whether to request dice rolls. Given how Things from the Flood’s mechanics work it ensure that no Trouble is easier or harder than the GM wants it to be. Things from the Flood artOnce a host of any organic/sentient species has been infected, they can develop into a combat form.

Flood combat forms have been sighted crudely operating Karo'etba-pattern Ghosts, Warthogs, Wraiths, and Scorpions in ground operations, although with slow deliberation and clumsy driving and accuracy. The assimilated crewmen of the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad were also able to initiate a Slipspace micro-jump for the frigate and perform rudimentary maneuvering of the In Amber Clad, navigating the frigate from the atmosphere of Delta Halo to High Charity and then crashing the vessel into a tower, releasing Pelican dropships to rain down upon the Covenant capital. Once the Flood has amassed enough bodies to create a Gravemind, it is capable of generating "pure" forms, which are created solely from assimilated nutrients and biomass. The pure forms observed during the outbreak in late 2552 were able to spontaneously mutate between three configurations: Stalker, Tank and Ranged forms, although in practice the true extent of their mutability is impossible to effectively catalog. [58] The] mix of science fiction and real world pop-culture nostalgia is instantly compelling, but there are layers to The Electric State that take the story beyond surface value. . . . In a way, it is an extremely American story, bringing together themes like the intersection of war and technology; fire-and-brimstone religion and its effect on LGBT youth; families separated by great physical distance while still being a part of the same country."— Los Angeles Times on The Electric State Floods are the second-most widespread natural disaster on Earth, after wildfires. All 50 states of the United States are vulnerable to flooding.

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Concrete banks also increase the amount of runoff flowing to nearby bodies of water. This increases the risk of coastal flooding. Venice, Italy, for instance, is frequently flooded as tides from the Adriatic Sea seep into the heavily developed islands on which the city rests. Everything came crashing down in the 90’s. It happened in Sweden first, brown sludge would flood the loop, appearing out of seemingly nowhere, and a lot of that sludge would flood up to the surface. The people who had been living over the loop had to be evacuated as their homes were ruined and the roads became unsafe. Not long thereafter the same thing happened under Boulder City culminating in the Hoover dam collapsing. If the collapse was caused by the events surrounding the loop is still unclear, but much like in Sweden large areas became uninhabitable. These areas are considered off limit to anyone who does not have official business there. A character is more defined by what motivates them to do what they do, and their relationships to others, than by their stats in Things from the Flood, and a fare bit of space is given to detail how this works, and the rare few times it might have some kind of mechanical impact. Flood combat forms can use vehicles, albeit clumsily, and are also able to board the player's vehicle; they will then proceed to melee the player character and pull them from the vehicle.

During these developments, the ring's Sentinels failed to effectively contain the Flood, and because of this, the Covenant and the UNSC sustained heavy losses. The Flood occupied areas of the ring formerly held by the Covenant, although Covenant and Flood forces continued to wage war on the massive ice plains of the ring. Although the Covenant had the benefit of Shade stationary plasma turrets and vehicular/aerial support, the Flood had captured both UNSC and Covenant weapons and because of this had significant numerical superiority.

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Trouble and mysteries are what keeps the Teens of Things from the Flood busy. Trouble are monster, enemies and encounters. Mysteries are scenarios. When floodwaters recede, affected areas are often blanketed in silt and mud. This sediment can be full of nutrients, benefiting farmers and agribusinesses in the area. Famously fertile flood plains like the Mississippi River valley in the American Midwest, the Nile River valley in Egypt, and the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East have supported agriculture for thou sands of years. Yearly flooding has left millions of tons of nutrient-rich soil behind. In August 2010, Pakistan experienced some of the worst floods of the century. The annual monsoon, on which Pakistani farmers and consumers rely, was unusually strong. Tons of water drenched the nation. The Indus River burst its banks. Because the river flows almost directly through the narrow country, almost all of Pakistan was affected by flooding. Returning to the world of Simon Stålenhag's art and stories of pastoral robots introduced in Tales From The Loop, Things From The Flood skips forward from the optimism of the 1980s to the cynicism and paranoia of the 1990s. It's time to roleplay in an era of Seattle grunge, The OJ Simpson trial, and the first fledgeling bulletin boards of the internet. As the blurb says