Wick has died once already. It did not keep him.
Death is a door that I have walked through before.
When his blood runs out he falls, and the voice below brings him back. It is not a game over. It is a short scene with three beats, and then he is on his feet at the last place he made his own.
The rule
- He returns to his last checkpoint: the haven’s throne, or the last crypt door he passed through.
- He returns with half his blood, less the blood he left where he fell (below).
- The world keeps what he did. The dead stay dead. Doors he opened stay open. Choices stay made.
- In a rite, the house prepares. The head heals a quarter of their wounds, and the fight comes back harder in one known way. Never reset from scratch.
The three beats
- The killing. Two to four seconds, in the engine, on the spot: how this thing killed him. The world slows and the panel fades.
- The remark. Over black and embers, one line from the voice below, chosen by what killed him.
- The return. The fire tunnel from the opening, shortened, and then the crypt stair he climbs out of, or the throne.
The first death of each kind plays in full. After that it is cut short, and any death can be skipped from its first frame.
The remarks teach
Every boss’s death remark names the move that killed him. It never instructs; it observes, and the observation is the lesson. Read it before you skip it.
| Killed by | The god says |
|---|---|
| Andrevel’s dive | “His shadow came first. You waited under it for him.” |
| Andrevel’s lunge | “He raised his wings on the ground. You stood in his line.” |
| Andrevel’s swarm | “The bats are slower than you. You stood among them.” |
| a crowd of ordinary men | “Common hands. They are not nothing.” |
| the risen dead | “The ground wants you back. It will not have you. Not yet.” |
| a fall | “You fell, and I caught you. Mind the edge.” |
| running water | “Running water will not carry the dead. Find a bridge.” |
| starving | “You must drink. That, I cannot do for you.” |
His eyes lit. He leapt at where you stood.
He counts, too. At three deaths, and at ten, he says so. A count he could not say because a move remark came first is kept and said at the next plain death.
Three times I have brought you back.
He never repeats a line within a short spell of real time: die three times in a minute to the same move and you will see the lesson as a caption, not hear it three times.
Blood left behind
Since the build of 1 October 2026, death costs blood, the game’s one resource. Wick never drops an item.
- What falls
- half of the most blood he carried in his last ten seconds.
- At least
- 0.05 of the orb. At most: 0.30.
- He rises with
- half an orb, less what fell, never below 0.20.
- Where it lies
- where he fell; or the last ground he stood on, if he fell into water or a pit.
- How long
- until he drinks it back, or dies again.
- Die. A dark pool with a slow pulse lies where he fell. He rises at the checkpoint with less blood than before.
- Walk away from the checkpoint first. The pool will not take him back if he respawned right beside it; it waits until he has left it.
- Walk back onto it. He drinks it back at once: a short cue, a spray of red, and the blood is his again.
- Die again before that, and it is gone. A new pool replaces the old one.
The pool keeps across rests and room changes, so a careful player loses almost nothing. Before a boss, rest, then walk to the door: the run-back from every boss’s checkpoint is designed to take about twenty seconds or less, and the pool will usually be in the arena, right where you need it.
When you die in a rite
The heads want to die by Wick’s hand, and the rite rewards them for bringing him near death first. When he falls instead, the household prepares: the head heals a quarter of their wounds, and one thing in the room is made harder, in a way the game tells you about.
| Rite | What the house does when you return |
|---|---|
| Andrevel | he flies home, heals three wounds, and drinks one robber. “He fed while you lay dead. He is stronger now.” |
| The Penitent | heals a quarter |
| The Earl | his sworn man is back at his post TBD: the full rule is being retuned |
| The Dream-reader | a chain is run under her high seat: a king pole needs two shoves, not one |
| The Prince of Coin | the chandelier is re-hung on a chain: its cleat takes two blows, not one |
| The Duchess | the cistern floods a step higher, for good |
| The Marchioness | rushes are laid on the dry flags, so steps ring wider |
| The Bishop | the church re-leads every light your beam broke; a spared head’s testimony stays |
| Father Fulcran | heals three wounds, and a porter waits at the stair |
He fed while you lay dead. He is stronger now.
Checkpoints
- The haven’s throne. Resting on it saves and restores him.
- Every church crypt he opens. Passing through a crypt door, down or up, opens it for good and makes it the checkpoint. Each crypt is a sealed door to the haven’s catacombs.
- A checkpoint near every boss, designed to be within about twenty seconds of the fight.
- The Wastes’ waystations: a barrow door, a charnel, a hold, each a crypt once opened.
A replayed boss entrance shows a SKIP tag in the top corner. Take it. The first retry drops from more than twenty seconds to about ten.
Sealed · Mid-gameThe one death the god stagesBreak the seal to read
On the road of the third house, the god takes Wick’s friend and puts a stake in his hand. If the stake lands, the lights die, the organ sign strikes hard, a second of silence, and a hand of embers pulls Wick back from the stake. It is the only death in the game the god arranges, and the only death remark Wick answers.
No. Not his hand. Not yet.
His hand. My will. You will understand, or you will not.
Two hands against me, then. Mine is enough.
Later stakes play the ordinary rule, with the second line alone and no answer.
Sealed · The endingThe last lifeBreak the seal to read
In one ending the god stops. Turn your back on the seat at the very end, and he says why, once, and lets Wick go. From there to the top of the stair, a death is final. The heads attack him on the stair, begging for the blow. He reaches the top without giving it, or he does not reach the top at all.
Ten. I will bring you back until it is finished, or until you refuse.