Ebb Tide Arcs
The machinery beneath the Seep grinds to life. The black water begins to drain. The fog lifts. The creatures retreat into the deeper dark. Ebb Tide is not peace - it is a reprieve. Contamination still applies, hazard rolls still trigger, and battle scars still accumulate. And every gang knows the tide will turn again.
See The Tidal Cycle for the contamination recession schedule and mechanics.
Arc VI - The Homecoming (Cycles 26–30)
Backdrop: The Sprawl starts to breathe again. The waters recede, the fog thins, and the Flooded territories abandoned at peak contamination re-emerge - hab-blocks half-collapsed under the weight of standing water, corridors thick with mould and the residue of something that was growing in the dark. Every gang wants their old ground back. The problem is that something else got there first. Whatever nested in the abandoned sectors during peak contamination isn’t gone. It’s waiting.
Arc Climax Battle (end of Cycle 30): The Homecoming - A multi-gang scenario. A randomly determined Flooded territory - one that changed hands or was abandoned at peak contamination - has re-emerged. But something has made it its den. Roll D6 on the Nesting Horror table below to determine what the gangs find inside. All gangs may participate. Each round the Creature activates after all fighters, targeting the nearest visible model (applying any special rule from the table). The gang that scores the killing blow on the Creature claims the territory outright. Any gang that participated but didn’t land the killing blow may still roll on the Battle Scars table as if they won.
Nesting Horror (D6)
| D6 | Creature | Special Rule |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sumpkroc | The flood was its natural habitat. It ignores the movement penalty for standing water and gains a 5+ save against attacks from fighters not in base contact. |
| 2 | Ambull | It burrowed up during peak contamination and hasn’t left. Do not deploy it at setup - at the start of Round 2, place it in base contact with any wall, as if it just emerged. |
| 3 | Hive Spider | The territory is silk from floor to ceiling. Until the Hive Spider is killed, all fighters treat open ground as difficult terrain. |
| 4 | Sheen Bird | It nested in the high ground while the water rose. The Creature always deploys on the highest terrain piece and ignores cover penalties when making ranged attacks downward. |
| 5 | Phelynx | A breeding pair. Use two Phelynx models deployed together; both must be killed before any gang can claim the territory. |
| 6 | The Nestling | Something came up through the Seep and never went back down. Use an Ambull profile with Toughness 7 and the Fearsome special rule. Nobody knows what it is. |
Arc VII - The Assessor (Cycles 31–35)
Backdrop: The Drowned District sheds Pitch Black. Within cycles, Guilder survey teams are moving through the recovering zones, cataloguing what survived, what collapsed, and what’s worth taxing. The Assessor - a senior Guilder functionary with an armed escort and a very valuable ledger - is documenting every territory in Sump Sink-17. His findings will determine tax obligations for the next full cycle. Every gang in the Sink has an interest in what that ledger says. And in making sure it says the right things.
Arc Climax Battle (end of Cycle 35): The Assessor - A pursuit scenario. The Guilder Assessor must cross the board from one edge to an extraction point within 8 rounds. All participating gangs are trying to intercept him - and trying to stop each other from getting there first. The Assessor is accompanied by D3+1 Guilder Guards (run by the Arbitrator). The gang that takes the Assessor Out of Action or captures him claims his ledger: they may permanently adjust the income value of any one territory in the campaign by +/- 20 credits, and select one rival gang’s territory to have its income permanently reduced by 10 credits.
Arc VIII - The Debt (Cycles 36–40)
Backdrop: The contamination is nearly gone. With the existential pressure lifted, older business resurfaces. Five arcs of Flood Tide left marks on every gang - betrayals at the Caravan Run, alliances broken in the dark of the Vault, fighters lost to the water. Now, with nowhere left to hide from each other, those debts come due. The Seep-Wright has also become a problem. Whatever the Seep did to them, it shows. Bounty hunters are asking questions. Something in the underhive is very interested in finding them - and the title doesn’t protect a fighter who can’t protect themselves.
Arc Climax Battle (end of Cycle 40): The Debt - A hunt scenario. Before the battle, the Arbitrator (or the player group by vote) designates one gang as The Quarry - the gang that benefited most from the Flood Tide, or the gang whose fighter holds the Seep-Wright title. The Quarry deploys first, anywhere within 12” of the board centre. All other gangs deploy from board edges. The Quarry wins by getting at least one fighter off any board edge; all other gangs win by taking the Quarry’s leader Out of Action before that happens. If the Seep-Wright fighter is taken Out of Action, the capturing gang’s leader claims the title and its permanent +1 Toughness bonus.
Arc IX - The First Sign (Cycles 41–45)
Backdrop: Contamination is back to its starting values. The Sump sits at its baseline - still dangerous, always dangerous - and the Sprawl and District have dried out. For a moment, something like equilibrium exists. Then the first sign arrives: a dead lumen-strip pulses once in a corridor that hasn’t seen power in twenty cycles. A thin trickle of black water appears in a Sprawl hab-block, seeping up through the floor. The machinery beneath the Seep has completed its first full rotation. The next Flood Tide is not yet here - but it is no longer far away. Every gang knows what is coming. The only question is who will be best positioned when the tide turns.
Arc Climax Battle (end of Cycle 45): The First Sign - A multi-gang pitched battle for a key Sump territory. At the start of Round 4, the Arbitrator announces the harbinger: contamination in the Sump immediately rises to 2. All Contamination Level 1 and 2 effects activate for the remainder of the battle. The gang holding the most objectives when the battle ends claims the territory and earns the Flood-Ready bonus: one fighter of their choice gains +1 to all Cool checks permanently during Flood Tide phases. The tide has turned. The cycle begins again.
Nesting Horror Profiles
Reference profiles for the Nesting Horror table. Verify results 1–5 against your Necromunda sourcebooks. Result 6 is a custom profile.