Book Three · The Walkthrough · 7

The Opening

The long roads: the rooks come for him, and the world opens

Hic descendit per ignem.

NewcomerStreamerSpoiler-light; deeper secrets sealedskeleton · the pact is built; its move to this point, the cinematic and the new locks are designed

2 standing

The chalk giantIn-game, clean pixels, under the book's CRT

At a glance

When: the moment the King’s fate is set, killed or spared
Earns: the long roads: the flight above the land, the roosts, fast travel
Opens: the Wastes; the city both ways; the marsh (the High Priestess); the quarry (the Magician); the ferry’s marsh reach; the circus’s travels
Cinematic: the long roads (19 s) TBD: new
Next: the two houses left, in any order; then the finale

The long roads

CLIP W7-01phase B: to capture

Cinematic 14, the long roads (new): rooks landing along the hall’s sills; Wick coming apart, the flock lifting with the rooks around it, higher than the high road; the land seen whole, its roads lighting one by one as rooks settle on them; the Ring on the hill’s shoulder; the rooks wheeling down toward Rook Knoll. About 19 s.

As Wick walks out of the hall, rooks, not crows, line the high windows, dozens of them, silent. The flock lifts with the rooks around it and the whole land comes into view: the Gallows Downs and the chalk giant, the Spoil, the Tithe Fields, the Salt, the Wash, the marsh to the south, the circus’s wagons already on a far road. Control returns at the foot of the Hundred Steps, the objective line on her knoll.

Rook Knoll

The call. West past the court’s postern to the Gallows Downs. The rooks stop mobbing the stile; the corpse road’s hedge drops.
Rook Knoll. Up the knoll to the gibbet. Mother Carrion speaks through her rooks.
Her asks. Three things, said once. Remember them.
The hounds. The Downs’ pack comes. Her lesson: the flock is not for fighting.
The first long flight, round the chalk giant cut into the hill, whole only from the air.
The roosts. From now on, hold the crow key through the burst to rise to the region’s view, and fly between roosts you have walked to.

MOTHER CARRION

Those are a saint’s birds, dead boy. They know a cage and a garden. Mine know the roads.

carrion_saints_birds

MOTHER CARRION

They’re hungry. Let them eat from you, a little, every time, and they’ll carry you anywhere you’ve been.

carrion_ask_eat

MOTHER CARRION

They’re not for killing. They’re for leaving.

carrion_not_killing

SHOT W7-02phase B: to capture

Rook Knoll: the gibbet against the sky, the rooks on it, Wick at the foot of the knoll. Map: the Gallows Downs.

SHOT W7-03phase B: to capture

The region’s flight view over the Downs with the chalk giant whole and a roost marked. Play field only.

SCREEN 7-1The Downs from the airThe chalk giant and the roads, as the rooks show them.In-game, the flight view (scout capture), play field

What opens

Opens	What you see	Who says so
Rook Knoll and the long roads	the Downs’ rooks stop mobbing the stile	Mother Carrion
The Wastes: five regions, their gateways, the Anchorites, the Ring’s ground	the Quarry Road and the towpath unbarred; the Levy Road out of the Tower’s village	TBD
The city on the hill, both ways	the North Gate stays open; the watch stands aside	the watch
The South Bridge, to the High Priestess’s marsh	the drawspan comes down; the Hush is over for the year	the bridge-keeper, by signs only
The north-west road, to the Magician’s quarry	the guild’s cordon is lifted	a guild warden
The ferry’s marsh reach	Mardle will pole you into the marsh	Mardle
The circus travels	the playbills now name a pitch where the last house fell	the bill-stickers
The church	the great canonisation, on your next entry to the square	the bells

THE RULEEvery lock is a person, a story or a form

There are no invisible walls. Each shut way is something you can see, with a voice that says what will open it, and Ambry’s paid hint always names the open link. No form breaks a story lock.

What is required now

The High Priestess and the Magician, in either order: Walkthrough 9 and Walkthrough 10.
Then the finale: the Canonisation and the Bishop, then the descent.

What is optional

The Wastes and their five Anchorites; the circus at each new pitch; Ambry’s three hunts; Ambry himself, late; the mist and its rooms; the Ring before the end. See the open world and the optional content.

NOTEOld saves

A save that is already off the guided road (the Priestess or the Magician ended, the Empress before the Wheel, the pact made, or three or more houses ended) is treated as past the opening: Mother Carrion says one line in the haven, there is no cinematic, and nothing is taken away. A road Wick has already used is never locked again.

Secrets

Sealed · Mid-gameHer boyBreak the seal to read

Her second ask is about a boy the coach took in the frost year. Keep it in mind when you next see the hunter, if he lives.

MOTHER CARRION

The coach took my boy in the frost year. If you ever hear where, you tell the rooks.

carrion_ask_rooks

Stream notes

TIPFor streamers

The opening cinematic is the game’s “the world is yours” moment, after hours of a guided road. Make an occasion of it.
Tell your chat the order is yours from here. Poll the next house.