Walkthrough: Act 4, The Heart Pane

Where the act starts Open page

Acts 1–3 were written at the same time as this one (VEL-55, VEL-56, VEL-57). VEL-63 reconciled the acts, so Act 4 starts where Act 3 leaves the player.

At the end of Act 3 the player:

• has undone the stilling of Corran with Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake), threading an Evane spell into a Facet spell in one stroke;
• knows Pavilion Wake (pavilion_wake), "the Corran glyph" (asymmetric, split), traced with Aske at Corran's well from her hourglass half and the player's low-wave half;
• has read Keeper Hale's sealed records at the Hour Stair, and knows that both sides caused the Breaking;
• has seen Aske face Prelate Ondine over the Corran order, and cast once, for the first time in twenty years (Brace, across the warp, at the Unstilling);
• knows Repel and Coil (Prologue) and Gale and Facet Seal (Act 2); most players also know Brace and Mend (Act 1, both optional), and more from the Spell Set, depending on what they chose to learn;
• has threaded composites, including at least one cross-side thread;
• may be on the evil path, and may have found the Undermere.

What this file assumes from earlier acts

These are the flags and ids Act 4 reads. VEL-63 renamed them here to match the earlier acts.

The act at a glance Open page

(Idea) Both rites need the player. Ondine's chorus needs a flawless mirrored voice to sing its last note; Iver's cut needs hands that can hold two different shapes without drifting. That is the even pair (Story Bible section 3): the one thing each side has always wanted from the protagonist. Neither rite can finish without the player, so both camps wait at the Pane's rim until the player arrives, and the player's choice decides the act. When the player refuses a side, that side tries to finish anyway, which is why the player has to fight it.

The three paths, chosen in scene 4.13:

Chapter A: The Summons Open page

Corran, the morning after

• Where: Corran, the town well (Mark_well). Corran's location and markers come from Act 3; this scene adds Mark_well if Act 3 hasn't.
• When: act3.done = 1 and act4.stage = 0. The act4 quest starts here.
• Who: the player, Aske, Brin (Hollis's daughter, the Corran girl who pressed the shard into Aske's hand, met in Act 3; unstilled and still about nine (Idea)), her mother Hollis, Corran townsfolk.
• What happens: The first morning Corran has had in twenty years. Its people are confused and cold, and keep checking that their feet move. Brin sits on the well's rim with Hollis, tracing the Corran glyph on the stone while her mother corrects her thumbs: the lesson the glass interrupted. On the horizon, where the Shardfield's centre should be, the sky shows twice, one above the other: the Heart Pane, lit from both sides at once. Aske stayed the night in Corran and has not slept. She says what it means: both sides have gone to the Pane.
• Player does: talk (Aske, Brin, three townsfolk barks); move.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Corran_Morning (entry, a trigger on arrival), Act4_Corran_Brin, Act4_Corran_Townsfolk (barks; they change after 4.2). No new flag: met.brin is already set in Act 3. No stage change.
• Art and audio: Corran unstilled: the same streets as Act 3, glass gone, people in old-fashioned clothes (twenty years out of date) (Idea). Brin and Hollis models from Act 3 (Brin: mismatched sleeves; a half-sigil on her collar). VFX: the doubled-sky glow on the eastern horizon, visible from every Shardfield location for the rest of the act. Music: a quiet variant of the Corran theme with the glass harmonics removed.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Two summons

• Where: Corran, the town gate (Mark_gate).
• When: after Act4_Corran_Morning; act4.stage = 0.
• Who: the player, Aske, Tamsin Vale, Rook.
• What happens: The letters come within minutes of each other, from opposite roads. Rook, who left for Lanternfall the night of the wake, walks back in with an amber one. Tamsin brings the pale blue one: if she stayed with the player (act3.records 2 or 4), a Warden courier finds her at the gate with it; if she went back to Twinhold, she walks in with it herself. Tamsin's has a pale blue seal: Prelate Ondine asks the player to the Pane to sing the last note of the second Great Mending. Rook's has amber: Iver the Cutter asks the player to draw the last cut. (Idea) It is the send-off reversed: Aske once gave the player two letters, to Ondine and to Iver (Act 2), and now those two write back. Aske reads neither. She says she'll keep a fire at the rim of the Pane, where anyone may sit, because carrying anyone is the only rule she still keeps, and a fire is the nearest thing to a ferry out there. Tamsin and Rook will both walk in with the player and both know why the other is there.
• Player does: talk; choose how to answer each letter (accept, refuse, or "I'll hear them both"). The answers move trust, not the plot: every path stays open until 4.13.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Corran_Summons. Flags: act4.letter_ondine = 1, act4.letter_iver = 1, tamsin.trust / rook.trust +1 for "I'll hear them both", act4.stage = 1. Items: two letters, quest items with no use, readable in the item list (Idea): Ondine's, "Come and finish what Corran started. I ask it knowing what Corran cost," and Iver's, "Come and end it. Nobody's hands get sealed again."
• Art and audio: Tamsin and Rook models (from Acts 1–2). Letter props with the two seals (the Prologue's letter prop, reused). Music: the two themes, Evane and Facet, played one after the other, never together (they meet only in the hold, scene 4.17).
• Screens used: dialogue box; item list (read the letters).

Chapter B: The Inner Shardfield Open page

The walk in

• Where: the Shardfield, inner ring (an area of the Act 2 shardfield location, or a new shardfield_inner location if the Shardfield scene grows too big). Spawn Spawn_inner_ring_west from Corran; exit Exit_heart_pane east.
• When: act4.stage = 1.
• Who: the player, Tamsin, Rook (both travel with the player). Aske, at the start only: she goes ahead with a handcart and is not seen again until 4.5.
• What happens: Aske sets off first, pushing a handcart with her stools and kettle. At the first bend she stops, turns round and waves. In the Prologue she didn't wave (Idea). The shards grow taller towards the centre, and every one reflects a sky a little closer to the Pane's doubled one. Fresh warps flicker along the path, because both rites are already straining the Pane from its rim. Tamsin and Rook argue: whether the Hour Stair records change anything, whose fault the warps are, and whether it is "Shattered" or "Facets" (the name choice from Story Bible section 2). The player's answers move trust.
• Player does: move; talk (two banter stops); fight (glint packs at two warps on the path).
• Content to make: a short cutscene beat for Aske's wave at the first bend. Yarn Act4_Inner_Banter1, Act4_Inner_Banter2 (triggers along the path; each has one choice that moves tamsin.trust or rook.trust). Encounters inner_glints (×2, a glint pack; see section 12). No stage change.
• Art and audio: inner-ring shards (taller, cleaner glass than the outer Shardfield, reflecting the doubled sky). VFX: warp flicker on shard faces; glints peel off the shards. Music: Shardfield exploration theme, with a slow low pulse that quickens as the player nears the Pane (Idea).
• Screens used: dialogue box; battle HUD.

The Undercrack (evil path only) Open page

• Where: the Undermere, a new tunnel undercrack that climbs from the Undermere to the underside of the Heart Pane. Spawn Spawn_undercrack_foot; exit Exit_pane_underside up to the Pane's south rim.
• When: act4.stage = 1 and the player is refused at the inner-ring picket: Warden pickets turn back players whose morality is below the gate threshold, that is −20 or lower (Fallen; Codex section 7). (Idea) undermere.stage ≥ 1 also opens the tunnel to anyone who wants it as a shortcut.
• Who: the player; Rook, if rook.trust ≥ 2 (Tamsin won't take the outlaws' road and meets the player at the rim); an Undermere smuggler.
• What happens: (Idea) A crack under the Shardfield climbs to the Pane's underside, where the Undermere's upside-down reflection of the world (Story Bible section 6) meets the Pane's real one. From below the player sees what neither camp can: the Pane is already cracked from underneath, and both rites are pulling on the same crack. Outlaws of both sides are camped at the top, waiting to loot whatever is left. This is the evil path's way to the act. It is not a punishment: all three paths stay open from here.
• Player does: move; talk; fight (outlaw casters at the climb, optional to avoid by talking).
• Content to make: location undercrack; Yarn Act4_Undercrack_Smuggler, Act4_Undercrack_Underside. Encounter undercrack_outlaws (an Evane outlaw, forsworn_mender, then a Facet outlaw, hollow_cut; see the bestiary). Flag act4.saw_underside = 1. No stage change here; arriving at the rim (4.5) sets act4.stage = 2.
• Art and audio: tunnel kit (reuse the Undermere kit); the Pane's underside as a ceiling of glass with the sky behind it and the camps' lights as blurred shapes. Music: Undermere theme.
• Screens used: dialogue box; battle HUD.

The Rim

• Where: the Heart Pane location (heart_pane), south rim (Spawn_rim_south; Spawn_rim_underside arriving from 4.4). Overlook camera Cam_rim_overlook.
• When: act4.stage = 1, on arrival.
• Who: the player, Tamsin, Rook, Aske.
• What happens: The player reaches the edge. The Heart Pane is a flat mirror a few hundred metres across, with the sky above and the same sky below, and the player stands at its rim as if at the edge of the world. On the west rim the Evane camp is pale stone banners and a circle of four standing stones: the chorus circle. On the east rim, the Facets' lantern line and the Culet cut's glass picks. Aske has already lit a fire on the south rim, between the two, and put four stools round it. "Anyone sits. That's the rule."
• Player does: move (cutscene, then free); talk to Aske.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Rim_Arrival (cutscene node: <<camera rim_overlook 2>>, the camps, back to Aske). Sets act4.stage = 2. Unlocks the two camps (4.6, 4.8).
• Art and audio: the Heart Pane location (see section 10). VFX: the Pane's surface, a true mirror of the sky with no visible edge between real and reflected; a faint hairline crack runs from the west rim towards the centre (from the chorus) and another from the east (from the cut) (Idea). Music: the Pane theme's first statement: one unaccompanied line, then the same line again inverted, like a reflection.
• Screens used: dialogue box (cutscene).

Chapter C: Two Rites Open page

The two camps can be visited in either order, as Twinhold and Lanternfall can in Act 2. The chapter ends when both have been heard.

The Evane camp: the second Great Mending

• Where: heart_pane, west rim, the chorus circle (Mark_chorus_circle) and Ondine's tent (Mark_ondine_tent).
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2.
• Who: Prelate Ondine Ash; Tamsin; Mother Bramble (Tenders); Keeper Hale (Keepers of the Hour); Choirmistress Wen (Still Choir); Warden menders.
• What happens: Ondine explains the rite. Four voices, one for each mirrored faction, sing the Pane still; the last note, sung by a flawless mirror, makes the stillness permanent. The warps close everywhere, and asymmetric glyphs will never take hold again. She says plainly what it costs: Lanternfall goes dark and the Facets lose their magic. She has done the sum and believes fewer people die this way, and she doesn't pretend Corran didn't happen; she says she will pay her own share. (Idea) The Waymakers are not in the circle. Dace refused, and that is why the chorus is four mirrored voices: the "mirrored chorus". Tamsin is to sing the Wardens' voice in Ondine's place, because Ondine conducts.
• Player does: talk (Ondine; then each faction head, one short exchange each); choose a reply to Ondine (agree, challenge her with the Hour Stair records, or say nothing).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_EvaneCamp_Ondine, Act4_EvaneCamp_Bramble, Act4_EvaneCamp_Hale, Act4_EvaneCamp_Wen, Act4_EvaneCamp_Tamsin. Flags: act4.heard_ondine = 1; act4.challenged_ondine = 1 if the player raises the records. (Idea) Each faction head's stance is set by earlier acts and read here: Wen signs that she will sing only if no one else will (her letters to the Facets, Act 2); Hale sings because the records are already out (Act 3), and says nothing more can be hidden. VEL-63 decides which earlier flags these read.
• Art and audio: Evane camp kit (pale stone banners, silver, mirrored tents); the chorus circle of four standing stones, each lit in its faction's colour (Wardens pale blue, Tenders violet, Keepers and Still Choir as their colours are decided). Models: Ondine, Bramble, Hale, Wen (from Acts 2–3). Music: the mirrored chorus theme, a four-voice canon in which each voice is the one before it, mirrored.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

The rehearsal

• Where: heart_pane, west rim, a crack at the edge of the Pane (Event_rehearsal_crack), with a Facet lantern beside it on the shore.
• When: after Act4_EvaneCamp_Ondine.
• Who: Tamsin, three menders, the player; Ondine watching.
• What happens: The chorus rehearses on a small crack at the rim, and Tamsin asks the player to sing the last note: to draw one mirrored spell as precisely as they can. The crack closes and the Glass goes perfectly flat. The Facet lantern on the shore beside it goes dark and will not relight. Tamsin sees it too and says nothing. This scene teaches the Pane rule for mirrored spells (section 7) before the finale needs it.
• Player does: cast (a forced mirrored cast; the best-scoring mirrored spell the player knows is offered, Repel if none other).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_EvaneCamp_Rehearsal with <<prompt_cast repel>> (or a new <<prompt_cast_style mirrored>> command that accepts any learned mirrored spell (Idea)). Flag act4.rehearsed = 1. Optional: skip the rehearsal and the scene is narrated.
• Art and audio: VFX: a mending in miniature (a crack sealing in a ripple of pale light, then a mirror-flat patch); the lantern going dark, amber fading to grey. Audio: the chorus's last note, a pure tone; the lantern's glass cooling with a tick.
• Screens used: dialogue box; field cast.

The Facet camp: the last cut

• Where: heart_pane, east rim, the lantern line (Mark_lantern_line) and the cut line (Mark_cut_line), where the Culet cut's picks are driven into the Pane's edge.
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2.
• Who: Iver Kest, "the Cutter"; Rook; the Culet cut (Iver's cut; Culet is one of the Story Bible's cut names, section 2, and the culet is the bottom point of a gem, where a stone is cut last (Idea)); Lanternfall Facets who came to watch.
• What happens: Iver shows the player his hands. The seals from his un-teaching as a boy are still there as pale lines across his palms (Idea: sealed by a Twinhold court under Ondine's authority). He explains the cut: two different shapes drawn at once on the Pane's centre, held without drifting, until the last unbroken piece of the Mere gives way. Every glyph it holds is freed at once, and with no Pane left to mend from, no Warden court can ever seal a spell again. He admits warps will open everywhere. He says people will learn to live with glints the way they live with weather, and that this is the price of no one being un-taught again. Rook stands with him but answers for him less than he used to.
• Player does: talk (Iver; Rook; two cutters); choose a reply to Iver (agree; ask who pays for the warps; show him Lio, if 4.9 is done first).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_FacetCamp_Iver, Act4_FacetCamp_Rook, Act4_FacetCamp_Cutters. Flags: act4.heard_iver = 1; act4.asked_cost = 1.
• Art and audio: Facet camp kit (salvaged shard tents, amber lanterns, mismatched cloth); the cut line, a row of glass picks with each cutter's personal sigil on the handle. Model: Iver (new, see section 11). Music: the asymmetric shattering theme, two melodies in different metres that only line up every few bars.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Lio at the lantern line

• Where: heart_pane, east rim, the end of the lantern line (Mark_lio).
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2; optional, but marked on the quest log while act4.stage < 3.
• Who: Lio; Rook (if he walks over).
• What happens: Lio, the child from Lanternfall who was handed a glyph too early (Act 2), has come with her family. She heard about the Mending and wants it: if asymmetric magic ends, her hands will go quiet, and she will never hurt anyone with them again. She asks the player whether that is wrong. Rook can't answer her, which is the first time the player has seen him without an answer. (Idea) This is the act's hardest moment for the Facet side, as the lantern going dark (4.7) is for the Evane side: the player sees each rite cost someone who isn't a soldier.
• Player does: talk; choose (tell her it isn't wrong; tell her hands can learn; say nothing).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_FacetCamp_Lio. Flag act4.lio_heard = 1; "hands can learn" sets act4.lio_hope = 1, which the epilogues read.
• Art and audio: Lio model (from Act 2). Music: none; wind over the Pane.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Dace's caravans

• Where: heart_pane, north rim, the Waymaker wagons (Mark_caravans).
• When: act4.stage ≥ 2; optional.
• Who: Caravan-master Dace; Waymaker drivers; Evane and Facet families loading wagons.
• What happens: Dace refused Ondine and isn't helping Iver. The Waymakers are doing what they always do: moving people. Wagons are taking Lanternfall families north in case the Mending darkens their city, and Shardfield hamlets west in case the cut opens warps there. Dace says the Endless Caravan legend (Story Bible section 1) was always about this: when the Mere is in trouble, you keep people moving. Dace offers a job: escort one wagon to the edge of the inner ring and back before dawn.
• Player does: talk; optional escort (move, fight).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Caravans_Dace. Side quest act4_side_last_wagon (one stage; encounter inner_glints on the road; reward: one step of 5 each on rep.evane, rep.facets and rep.waymakers (Idea)). Flag act4.wagon_escorted = 1.
• Art and audio: Waymaker wagons with pale green sail-lamps (from the Long Road kit). Music: Long Road theme, quiet.
• Screens used: dialogue box; battle HUD; quest log.

When both act4.heard_ondine and act4.heard_iver are 1, the next conversation with Aske at her fire (Yarn Act4_Fire_Aske) sets act4.stage = 3, night falls, and 4.11 begins.

Chapter D: The Night and the Dawn Open page

Aske's fire

• Where: heart_pane, south rim, Aske's fire (Event_aske_fire).
• When: act4.stage = 3, at night (the location's lighting is night while the stage is 3).
• Who: Aske, Tamsin, Rook; Lio, if act4.lio_heard = 1 and she followed the player.
• What happens: Everyone ends up at the fire, because it is the only place at the Pane where both sides can sit. Tamsin says what she will do when the chorus sings, and Rook says what he will do when Iver cuts. What they say depends on trust: at tamsin.trust ≥ 3 Tamsin admits she doesn't know whether she can sing; at rook.trust ≥ 3 Rook admits he doesn't want to see the cut. Aske speaks last, briefly. She cast once, at Corran, and she is done; she won't sing, cut or hold. "It's your hands they want. Don't let either of them tell you what that means."
• Player does: talk (a conversation with three companions; choices move trust once more). No choice of path yet.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Fire_Aske (talking to Aske at her fire; from stage 2 she has a few idle lines, and once both camps are heard it sets act4.stage = 3 and starts the night), Act4_Fire_Night (one long node with branches for Tamsin, Rook and Lio, ending with Aske's last word). Flags: tamsin.trust, rook.trust (+1 for the reply each companion needs to hear); act4.stage = 4 at the end of Act4_Fire_Night, and the lighting turns to dawn.
• Art and audio: night version of the rim: the Pane reflects the stars, so the fire seems to float in space (Idea). Props: Aske's handcart, four stools, a kettle. Music: a solo instrument playing the Prologue's Sallowbank theme slowly.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

The Pane at dawn: the First Pair

• Where: heart_pane, the Pane's surface just off the south rim (Spawn_pane_dawn; the glyph at Event_first_pair). Camera Cam_pane_dawn.
• When: act4.stage = 4, at dawn.
• Who: the player alone (the companions are asleep); Aske waking at the end.
• What happens: (Idea) The player walks out onto the Pane before anyone is awake. In the dawn reflection, and only there, a glyph shows under the surface: a reflected glyph (Story Bible section 3), older than either side. It is the First Pair's glyph from the legend, and it is a thread: a mirrored half flowing into an asymmetric half in one stroke. The lake-folk drew both kinds together before there were sides. Tracing it teaches the First Pair, a named composite. It also tells the player that the Pane can be held rather than mended or broken. If the player knows both Brace and Facet Seal, they learn the thread. If not, the glyph still shows them that any thread joining an Evane spell to a Facet spell will hold the Pane, more weakly.
• Player does: move (onto the Pane); learn (trace the reflected glyph, no breath limit, as with any fragment).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Pane_Dawn with a new <<learn_composite first_pair>> command (tracing a composite's glyph unlocks its named recipe; both parts must already be learned). Composite data Data/Composites/first_pair.json: Brace into Facet Seal (section 13). Flags composite.known.first_pair = 1 (if learned), act4.saw_first_pair = 1, act4.stage = 5.
• Art and audio: VFX: the reflected glyph, drawn in white light under the surface, with the mirrored half on the reflection's side and the asymmetric half on the world's side, meeting at the line between them; it fades as the sun clears the rim. Music: the Pane theme played as a duet, the first time two lines sound together.
• Screens used: learn (trace) screen; dialogue box.

The choice

• Where: heart_pane, the south rim at the Pane's edge (Mark_choice), with the camera framing the chorus circle to the west and the cut line to the east.
• When: act4.stage = 5. Sunrise: both rites begin at once.
• Who: the player; Ondine and Iver (each walks out to the edge on their side); Tamsin and Rook (each going to their rite); Aske at the fire.
• What happens: The chorus starts singing and the cutters set their picks; the hairline cracks from 4.5 begin to glow. Ondine calls the player to the circle and Iver calls them to the cut, each once, in a line or two. The player chooses: they name a side out loud, to both leaders, or they choose neither by walking out onto the Pane between them. There is no going back.
• Player does: choose (three choices):
  • "Ondine. Sing it still." → act4.path = 1.
  • "Iver. Cut it free." → act4.path = 2.
  • Walk onto the Pane. "Neither of you." → act4.path = 3. (Idea) Shown only if act4.saw_first_pair = 1, which it always is by this point; the condition keeps the choice tied to the reason for it.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Choice (and Act4_Choice_Ondine, Act4_Choice_Iver, Act4_Choice_Neither, one short node each, jumping to the finale). Flags act4.path, act4.stage = 6. Reputation: none yet; it moves at the outcome (scene 4.18).
• Art and audio: VFX: both cracks glowing, pale blue from the west, amber from the east. Music: the chorus theme and the shattering theme at the same time, clashing.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Chapter E: The Finale on the Pane Open page

The finale is fought on the Pane's surface with the sky above and below (battle arena arena_heart_pane). It has two phases on every path: phase one is Ondine's mirrored chorus, and phase two is Iver's asymmetric shattering. What changes from path to path is whether the player is with each rite or against it.

There is no "with both" path, because the two rites undo each other.

Losing. Every finale battle can be lost (canLose: true, allowFlee: false). A loss restarts that phase from its start with a short line from Aske ("Again. Slower."). The story never branches on a loss (Idea).

The Pane rule

(Idea) On the Pane's surface the reflection answers every cast, and it answers each drawing tier differently. This is how both phases use the tiers. The rule holds for the whole finale, and the battle HUD shows it as the Pane gauge: a bar from Still (−100, left) to Shattered (+100, right), starting at 0.

At −100 (Still) the Pane freezes: asymmetric casts fizzle until the gauge comes back above −80. At +100 (Shattered) a crack bursts: two glints climb out and the gauge drops back to +70. Each rite pushes the gauge its own way every few seconds, so the player is always working against one of them.

Phase one: the mirrored chorus

• Where: arena_heart_pane. The chorus stands in a half-ring at the west edge of the stage (upper middle of the screen); Ondine conducts behind them.
• When: act4.stage = 6, straight after the choice.
• Who: Ondine (conducting, not targetable in phase one); the four voices: Tamsin (Wardens), Mother Bramble (Tenders), Keeper Hale (Keepers), Choirmistress Wen (Still Choir), or a mender in any head's place who sits the finale out (section 12); on the Ondine path, Culet cutters.
• What happens:
  • Against it (Iver and Stop-both paths): the chorus fights as one enemy with four voices. Each chorus beat (every 6 s) hits the player and pushes the gauge 8 towards Still. Each voice adds its faction's answer (section 12). A mirrored cast at 85% or better "sings over" the voice it targets and cancels that voice's next ability: the chorus can be beaten at its own game by precise mirrored drawing. Asymmetric casts hit harder but push the gauge towards Shattered, which helps the chorus by making it cast to compensate. When a voice breaks, that faction head steps out of the circle and kneels. (Idea) At tamsin.trust ≥ 3, Tamsin steps out on her own when the Wardens' voice drops below half, and the voice ends there.
  • With it (Ondine path): the player stands at the centre of the circle, inside the four stones. The chorus is an ally with its own HP bar; three Culet cutters come one after another and attack the chorus, not the player. The player kills the cutters and keeps the gauge below 0: every mirrored cast at 80% or better is also a note in the chorus. If the chorus's bar empties, the phase restarts.
• Player does: fight (cast); on the Ondine path, protect an ally.
• Content to make: Encounters pane_chorus_break (enemy mirrored_chorus), pane_chorus_guard (ally mirrored_chorus_ally, enemies culet_cutter ×3 in waves). Yarn Act4_Finale_ChorusIntro (two lines before the battle, per path), Act4_Finale_TamsinStepsOut (a mid-battle bark, if the battle system allows lines during a fight; otherwise after it). Flags act4.phase = 1 on a win; tamsin.stepped_out = 1.
• Art and audio: arena arena_heart_pane (section 10). Chorus voices: the four faction-head models in a ring, each with a glyph band glowing in their colour; Ondine in silver behind them. Cutters: Facet models with glass picks. VFX: chorus beats as a ring of pale light rolling across the Pane; "sung over" as the voice's glow inverting for a moment; the gauge's pull shown in the arena itself, with frost creeping in from the edges as it nears Still. Music: the mirrored chorus theme, building a voice at a time; a voice drops out as it breaks.
• Screens used: battle HUD with the Pane gauge and, on the Ondine path, an ally bar (both new); spell book (pause).

Interlude: the companions

• Where: arena_heart_pane between the phases (a cutscene in the arena, not the location).
• When: act4.phase = 1.
• Who: Tamsin, Rook, Ondine, Iver, the player.
• What happens: The chorus is broken, or holding, and Iver takes his moment: the cutters start the shattering. Rook is on the cut line. At rook.trust ≥ 3, he looks at the player, sets his pick down, and walks off the line to stand behind them. On the Ondine path he does it anyway and says why ("Lio wanted this. I didn't ask her before. I'm asking now."). On the Iver path he stays, uneasy. Tamsin, if she stepped out in phase one, stands beside him (she can step out only on the Iver and Stop-both paths, so both stand together only on the Stop-both path). Whoever stepped out stands at the player's back for phase two: they don't fight (the battle has one player), but they speak, and each gives one boon (Idea): Tamsin's Brace at the start of the fight; Rook's Facet Seal once, at half HP.
• Player does: watch; one choice ("Stay back." / "Stand with me.") if a companion stepped out.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Finale_Interlude. Flags rook.stepped_out = 1; act4.boon_tamsin, act4.boon_rook (read by the phase-two encounter).
• Art and audio: cutscene in the arena; a camera that turns over so the sky below is on top for a moment (Idea). Music: both themes stop; just the wind.
• Screens used: dialogue box.

Phase two: the asymmetric shattering

• Where: arena_heart_pane. Iver and the cut line at the east edge of the stage.
• When: act4.phase = 1.
• Who: Iver Kest (and the cutters as part of his pattern); on the Iver path, Prelate Ondine alone.
• What happens:
  • Against it (Ondine and Stop-both paths): Iver fights with the Culet cut behind him. Every 5 s a cut pushes the gauge 12 towards Shattered and opens a crack under the player, which deals damage every second until a mirrored cast at 70% or better seals it, or a parallel cast pushes it off the Pane. Iver's own spells are Facet: Bevel Lash ignores shields, so Brace and Facet Seal don't stop it, but Drift dodges it. Every third attack he draws Crown Surge, paying in his own blood, and his next cut lands for 40: Hush silences him through it, or Prism Snare stops it. At half HP he pulls his sleeves back and the player sees his sealed palms in close-up (a short cut-in), and his casting speeds up.
  • With it (Iver path): Ondine, alone now that the chorus is broken, holds the last ward over the Pane's centre. The cutters work beside the player, and every 6 s a cut hurts her and pushes the gauge towards Shattered. Ondine is a Warden of Measure: her ward agrees with mirrored spells, so they do a quarter of their damage to her, and she hits back with a third of the biggest hit she took in the last 6 s. Parallel and asymmetric spells are the way through. She stays in her ward until the gauge reaches +100, then the ward breaks.
• Player does: fight (cast), managing the gauge and the cracks.
• Content to make: Encounters pane_shatter_stop (enemy iver_kest), pane_shatter_join (enemy prelate_ondine, allied cuts as an encounter script). Yarn Act4_Finale_IverHands (the cut-in at half HP), Act4_Finale_OndineWard. Flag act4.phase = 2 on a win.
• Art and audio: Iver battle model with a sleeve-pull animation; cracks as decals on the arena floor with the sky showing through them; VFX for Iver's cuts (two different shapes at once, in amber, slashing the floor). Ondine battle model, with her ward as a dome of pale blue measuring lines. Music: the shattering theme; on the Iver path, the chorus theme under it in one thinning voice.
• Screens used: battle HUD with the Pane gauge.

The hold (Stop-both path only)

• Where: arena_heart_pane, the Pane's centre (Mark_heart); a field-cast sequence, not a battle.
• When: act4.path = 3 and act4.phase = 2.
• Who: the player at the centre; everyone else at the rims, watching. Aske at the south rim.
• What happens: With both rites stopped halfway, the strain they put into the Pane comes back at once. The Pane swings between still and shattered, pulled one way by the chorus's unfinished stillness and the other by the cut's unfinished break. The player holds it by threading Evane into Facet, over and over, in the one stroke the First Pair showed them. Each good thread steadies the swing; the gauge narrows towards 0 and the surface goes calm in rings from the centre. When the hold takes, the Pane is cracked from rim to rim but standing, and the First Pair glyph shows under the surface in daylight for the first time.
• Player does: cast threads (five good cross-side threads with the gauge in the middle band, −30 to +30). Misses cost nothing but time, as with <<prompt_cast>>. The First Pair counts double. Without it, any cross-side thread works, including Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake) from Act 3.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Finale_Hold with a new <<hold_pane>> command (a field-cast sequence: the gauge swings on its own, the player threads composites, and a cross-side thread at 60% or better steadies it). Flags act4.phase = 3.
• Art and audio: VFX: the swing (frost sweeping in from the west, cracks sweeping in from the east, meeting at the player); each good thread sends a calm ring outwards; the First Pair glyph lighting under the whole Pane at the end. Music: the hold theme, where the chorus theme and the shattering theme play together in counterpoint for the first time, in agreement.
• Screens used: field cast (threading, with the Pane gauge).

The last note, the last cut, the hold: the outcome

• Where: heart_pane (back in the location): the Pane's centre, then the south rim.
• When: act4.phase = 2 (paths 1 and 2) or 3 (path 3).
• Who: everyone.
• What happens:
  • Mended (path 1): the player sings the last note, a forced mirrored cast at the centre. The Pane goes still all the way down, and across the Shardfield every shard's reflected sky turns into the same sky. On the east rim the lantern line goes dark lamp by lamp. Ondine lowers her hands and finds she cannot lift them to cast again (Idea: the Measure takes its cost from the one who asked for it). She accepts it.
  • Shattered (path 2): the player and Iver draw the last cut together, an asymmetric forced cast. The Pane breaks with a sound that every caster in Velan hears, as they heard the first Repel. Its pieces lift into the air and every glyph that was held in it scatters as light over the Shardfield. Iver's palms are clean. On the west rim the menders' glyph bands flicker.
  • Held (path 3): the Pane stands. The two camps look at each other across a cracked mirror. Nobody cheers. Ondine and Iver each walk to the centre and stop well apart; neither says the other was right. Aske pours the kettle out on the fire.
• Player does: cast (paths 1 and 2: a forced cast); watch; talk to Aske at the rim.
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Outcome_Mended (<<prompt_cast_style mirrored>>), Act4_Outcome_Shattered (<<prompt_cast pavilion_wake>> or any learned asymmetric spell), Act4_Outcome_Held, Act4_Outcome_Aske. Flags: act4.outcome = 1, 2 or 3; act4.stage = 7. Reputation (section 9): Mended rep.evane +20, rep.facets −20; Shattered the reverse (rep.evane −20, rep.facets +20); Held +10 with each side, and morality +5 if both companions stepped out.
• Art and audio: three outcome VFX sets: the Pane stilling (a wave of flatness across the whole Shardfield), shattering (pieces rising, glyph-light scattering), holding (rim-to-rim cracks frozen in place, the First Pair glyph lit). Music: each outcome gets its own resolution of the Pane theme: in unison (Mended), split into fragments (Shattered), or two lines ending on different notes that still agree (Held).
• Screens used: field cast; dialogue box.

Chapter F: Epilogues Open page

Epilogue cards

• Where: epilogue screen (over a still of each place).
• When: act4.stage = 7, after Act4_Outcome_Aske.
• Who: narration only.
• What happens: (Idea) Six illustrated cards, one each for the Pane, Sallowbank, Twinhold, Lanternfall, the companions and the antagonists, each a short paragraph chosen by act4.outcome with a line or two that changes with trust and earlier choices. The text is in the table below. The cards say what happened, not whether it was right. Then a black screen with one line, the same on every path: "The Glass is quiet tonight. It won't be tomorrow."
• Player does: tap through (tap to advance; the pause menu works).
• Content to make: a new <<epilogue act4>> command that shows the cards, with the card text as data (Data/Epilogues/act4.json (Idea), keyed by outcome and by flag variants), or one Yarn node per card if the dialogue box can carry a full-screen image. Yarn Act4_Epilogue calls it.
• Art and audio: 18 card illustrations (6 cards × 3 outcomes), painted stills in the Art Direction style; the Pane card uses each outcome's final VFX frame. Music: the Pane theme's resolution for the outcome, carried through the cards.
• Screens used: epilogue cards (new).

Home

• Where: Sallowbank, the farm (Spawn_farm_bed, then Event_farm_door).
• When: act4.stage = 7, after the epilogue cards.
• Who: the player; Fenn; Marra; Aske at the ferry (Mended and Held) or on the river with a full boat (Shattered).
• What happens: The player wakes in their own bed, as at the start of the Prologue. The goat and the hens are where Marra left them. At the farm door the player puts a thumb on each door-mark, as they have every night since childhood, and they are warm, as they always were. Fenn comes up the lane with chalk and asks to be shown properly. The game shows "The world goes on" and hands the player back the open world.
• Player does: move; talk; trace the door-mark (an optional <<prompt_cast repel>> at the door, which does nothing but warm the marks (Idea)).
• Content to make: Yarn Act4_Home_Wake, Act4_Home_FarmDoor, Act4_Home_Fenn (one variant per outcome), plus new villager barks for every outcome (Act4_Villager_Tobin, Act4_Villager_Marra). Flag act4.stage = 8. The act4 path quest completes here.
• Art and audio: Sallowbank, unchanged except per outcome: low clear river (Mended); warp-light on the water at night (Shattered); envoy tents by the ferry (Held). Music: the Sallowbank theme, full.
• Screens used: dialogue box; field cast; a one-line banner (the "The world goes on" title card, which can reuse the Prologue's location title).

The world after Open page

There is no endgame (Codex section 1). After scene 4.20 nothing locks and nothing ends: every location stays open, Act 4's outcome becomes the world's state for the rest of that save, and four systems keep the game going. (Idea) The outcome is permanent per save; a player who wants another outcome starts a new game.

Warp-born glyphs

Warp-born glyphs (Story Bible section 3) are the Living Spell Library's main channel after Act 4: new spells reach players by discovery, never by announcement (Codex section 6).

• (Idea) How a warp-born glyph appears: a fresh warp opens at a named site for a set window (first guess: 7 days of real time), shown on bulletin boards as a rumour ("light on the water at the Drowned Steps"). The player goes there, Listen (overworld spell) shows the fragment, a guardian (a glint pack or something stronger) has to be beaten, and the glyph is traced as usual. When the window closes, the warp seals and the glyph is gone until it surfaces again, months later, somewhere else.
• (Idea) Data: each window is a file (Data/Warps/<id>.json: site, spell, guardian encounter, start and end dates) delivered from the server, so new glyphs need no app update (Codex section 11).
• The outcome changes the cadence (Idea):

Reputation

• Standing with each side and personal morality (rep.evane, rep.facets, morality) carry on from the act (Codex section 7). Act 4's outcome moves them once (scene 4.18), and the world reacts: gate guards, shop prices, which side's jobs appear on bulletin boards, and whether a Warden court can try the player.
• (Idea) A player liked by both sides (both rep.evane and rep.facets Trusted, 25 or more) earns the title Even-handed. It is shown on their profile and opens jobs that only come from both sides at once: carrying letters between the courts, judging disputes at Halfway. It is the "liked by both sides" of Codex section 7, made visible.
• (Idea) Un-teaching after the act: after Mended and Held it works as before (Story Bible section 2). After Shattered no court can seal a spell, and every spell the player had sealed is restored when the act ends.
• Redemption stays open on every path, and still gets exponentially harder the further the player has fallen (Story Bible section 8).

The Proving Ring

Halfway's PvP arena (Codex section 10) becomes the main place to measure mastery after the act: PvP only there, no co-op, scheduled tournaments with a leaderboard.

• (Idea) The Pane floor: a new Proving Ring floor, a slab of mirror salvaged from (or modelled on) the Heart Pane, where the Pane rule applies (section 7). It rewards precise mirrored drawing and makes asymmetric power a risk, so it suits players who've mastered every tier. It opens after Act 4 on every outcome.
• (Idea) Seasons: quarterly tournaments on alternating floors, with the leaderboard reset each season so a new player can always reach the top of something. The server checks that input looks human, as section 6 of the Codex already plans.

Side quests

Side quests are the large library of Codex section 8, available from town centres and bulletin boards at any time. After Act 4 the boards fill with jobs that follow from the outcome, and every earlier side quest stays available. The hooks are in section 15.

Locations

The Heart Pane (`heart_pane`) Open page

• Scene: HeartPane. Camera: town style for the rim, with a wider overlook for cutscenes.
• What it is: the last unbroken piece of the Mere, at the centre of the Shardfield. A flat mirror a few hundred metres across, sky above and below (Story Bible section 6).
• Spawns: Spawn_rim_south (from the inner ring), Spawn_rim_underside (from the Undercrack), Spawn_pane_dawn (scene 4.12).
• Exits: Exit_inner_ring (south-west, back to the Shardfield); Exit_undercrack (south, the Undercrack, once found).
• Markers: Event_aske_fire, Mark_chorus_circle, Mark_ondine_tent, Event_rehearsal_crack, Mark_lantern_line, Mark_cut_line, Mark_lio, Mark_caravans, Event_first_pair, Mark_choice, Mark_heart. Cameras Cam_rim_overlook, Cam_pane_dawn, Cam_choice.
• Landmarks: the chorus circle's four standing stones (west); the lantern line and the cut line (east); Aske's fire (south); the Waymaker wagons (north); the two hairline cracks running in towards the centre.
• States: day (stage 2), night (stage 3), dawn (stage 4), day again from sunrise (stage 5 on); after the act, one state per outcome (stilled, shattered into a ring of standing pieces, cracked and held).
• Rough layout:

                    N  Waymaker wagons (Mark_caravans)
                 .-----------------------------.
   Evane camp   /                               \   Facet camp
 chorus circle |  ~ ~ ~   THE HEART PANE   ~ ~ ~ |  lantern line
 Ondine's tent |  crack ---->  (Mark_heart) <--- |  cut line, Lio
   (west rim)   \        mirror, sky below      /   (east rim)
                 '-----------------------------'
              Exit_inner_ring    S  Aske's fire (Event_aske_fire)
                                    Spawn_rim_south / Undercrack

The player can walk on the Pane itself everywhere inside the rim. The rim is a ring path about 2 m wide where the camps stand on stone and shard.

The Pane arena (`arena_heart_pane`) Open page

The battle arena for the finale: a circle of the Pane's surface with the sky above and below and nothing at the horizon, so the stage seems to float. The rim camps show as distant lights. It keeps the upper middle of the screen open for the enemies (the chorus ring, Iver's cut line, Ondine's ward), per the Art Direction rules. It has three variants, one for each outcome's after-state, reused by the Proving Ring's Pane floor.

Other locations used Open page

Characters Open page

Encounters Open page

HP follows the bestiary's totals. The other numbers are first guesses, sized against the Training Golem (120 HP, 12 damage every 6 s) like the Spell Set's; where the bestiary gives a number, the bestiary wins. Player HP isn't defined yet. Each enemy is a Data/Enemies file and each encounter a Data/Encounters file.

The chorus's voices (Idea). Breaking a voice (350 HP each) removes its ability. A faction head who sits the finale out (VEL-63 decides which flags say so) is replaced by a Warden mender with the same ability at half strength.

On the hold (4.17) there is no enemy: the swing of the Pane is the opponent, and the player cannot lose.

Spells gained Open page

Act 4 is about mastery, not new spells. By now the player has every tier, and the finale tests all of them together. Act 4 adds one named composite and the field-cast forms the story needs.

Composite data, as the existing bulwark.json:

{
  "id": "first_pair",
  "name": "The First Pair",
  "parts": ["brace", "facet_seal"],
  "color": "#FFFFFF",
  "description": "The oldest glyph on the Mere, older than either side: a mirrored half flowing into an asymmetric half in one stroke. Two shields, Evane and Facet, holding together.",
  "effect": {
    "shield": 40,
    "reflectNextAttackSeconds": 4
  }
}

reflectNextAttackSeconds is a new effect (section 14). White is the colour of no faction, for a glyph from before the factions (Idea). #FFFFFF is kept on purpose: it is a deliberate exception to the roadmap's cross-side colour, #FFE08A.

After the act, new spells come from warp-born glyphs (section 9).

Quests Open page

The act4 quest runs from Corran to the choice. Then one of three path quests starts, by act4.path. Progress is worked out from flags, as for the Prologue. act4.stage counts the main beats (0 Corran, 1 summons answered, 2 at the rim, 3 both camps heard, 4 the fire, 5 the dawn glyph, 6 chosen, 7 outcome, 8 home); act4.phase counts the finale (1 phase one won, 2 phase two won, 3 held).

Data/Quests/act4.json:

{
  "id": "act4",
  "title": "The Heart Pane",
  "description": "Both sides have gone to the last unbroken piece of the Mere. Ondine means to sing it still. Iver means to cut it free. Each of them wants your hands to finish it.",
  "startWhen": { "flag": "act3.done", "op": "!=", "value": 0 },
  "stages": [
    {
      "id": "summons",
      "text": "Read the two letters that came to Corran.",
      "completeWhen": { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 1 }
    },
    {
      "id": "inner_ring",
      "text": "Cross the inner Shardfield to the Heart Pane.",
      "completeWhen": { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 2 }
    },
    {
      "id": "two_rites",
      "text": "Hear out both camps at the Pane's rim.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.heard_ondine", "op": "!=", "value": 0 },
          { "flag": "act4.heard_iver", "op": "!=", "value": 0 },
          { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 3 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "aske_fire",
      "text": "Sit at Aske's fire.",
      "completeWhen": { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 4 }
    },
    {
      "id": "pane_dawn",
      "text": "Walk out onto the Pane at dawn.",
      "completeWhen": { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 5 }
    },
    {
      "id": "choose",
      "text": "Choose: sing it still, cut it free, or neither.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 6 },
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "!=", "value": 0 }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Data/Quests/act4_mending.json:

{
  "id": "act4_mending",
  "title": "The Last Note",
  "description": "You chose Ondine. Keep the chorus singing, stop the Cutter, and sing the last note.",
  "startWhen": { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 1 },
  "stages": [
    {
      "id": "guard_chorus",
      "text": "Guard the mirrored chorus from the Culet cut.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 1 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 1 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "stop_iver",
      "text": "Stop Iver's shattering.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 1 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 2 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "last_note",
      "text": "Sing the last note.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 1 },
          { "flag": "act4.outcome", "op": "==", "value": 1 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "home",
      "text": "Go home to Sallowbank.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 1 },
          { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 8 }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Data/Quests/act4_shattering.json:

{
  "id": "act4_shattering",
  "title": "The Last Cut",
  "description": "You chose Iver. Break the chorus, then cut the Pane free with him.",
  "startWhen": { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 2 },
  "stages": [
    {
      "id": "break_chorus",
      "text": "Break Ondine's mirrored chorus.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 2 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 1 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "break_ward",
      "text": "Break the Prelate's last ward.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 2 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 2 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "last_cut",
      "text": "Draw the last cut with Iver.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 2 },
          { "flag": "act4.outcome", "op": "==", "value": 2 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "home",
      "text": "Go home to Sallowbank.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 2 },
          { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 8 }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Data/Quests/act4_hold.json:

{
  "id": "act4_hold",
  "title": "The First Pair",
  "description": "You chose neither. Stop the chorus, stop the cut, and hold the Pane the way the First Pair drew it.",
  "startWhen": { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 3 },
  "stages": [
    {
      "id": "break_chorus",
      "text": "Break Ondine's mirrored chorus.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 3 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 1 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "stop_iver",
      "text": "Stop Iver's shattering.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 3 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 2 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "hold_pane",
      "text": "Hold the Pane with a thread from both sides.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 3 },
          { "flag": "act4.phase", "op": ">=", "value": 3 },
          { "flag": "act4.outcome", "op": "==", "value": 3 }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "home",
      "text": "Go home to Sallowbank.",
      "completeWhen": {
        "all": [
          { "flag": "act4.path", "op": "==", "value": 3 },
          { "flag": "act4.stage", "op": ">=", "value": 8 }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Side quest act4_side_last_wagon (scene 4.10) is a one-stage quest: start when act4.stage ≥ 2, complete when act4.wagon_escorted = 1.

New flags

What the code would need

Act 4 asks for more new game code than any earlier act. Each item is a separate ticket.

• Battle: enemies with several parts that break one at a time (the chorus's voices); an allied HP bar to protect (pane_chorus_guard); encounters with waves; floor hazards (cracks); effects on the player (shorter breath, silence); enemy effects (reflect damage, a ward that resists one drawing tier); battle barks between attacks; per-encounter rules such as the Pane rule and its gauge.
• Spells: recognising a cast's drawing tier and whether a composite is cross-side; the composite effect reflectNextAttackSeconds; a recognizer check, because the First Pair's stroke overlaps Thornshield (Coil into Facet Seal) at 0.55.
• Dialogue commands: <<learn_composite id>>, <<prompt_cast_style mirrored|parallel|asymmetric>>, <<hold_pane>>, <<epilogue id>>.
• Locations: lighting states by flag (day, night, dawn; one per outcome after the act).
• Screens: the epilogue cards; the Pane gauge and the ally bar on the battle HUD.

Hooks for side content Open page

(Idea) Each hook is a side quest or arc that grows out of Act 4. The outcome column says where it applies.

Open questions for Ray Open page

Each question has a recommendation.

• Does the Mending stop the player's own Facet spells? The Story Bible says it ends asymmetric magic "for good". Taken literally, every Facet spell the player knows (Facet Seal, Bevel Lash, Prism Snare, Pavilion Wake, the First Pair's second half) would fizzle from then on, and the Mended world would lock content away. Recommendation: no asymmetric glyph surfaces again and Facet NPCs lose their casting, but the player's even pair keeps what it already holds. The cost then shows in the world (Lanternfall dark, Lio's hands quiet), not as a penalty to the player's kit.
• Does the Shattered ending end un-teaching? Recommendation: yes. Iver's whole reason is that no one can be un-taught again, so that should be true in the world he gets: courts can't seal, and the player's sealed spells come back.
• Both rites need the player. Is it right that Ondine needs a flawless mirror for the last note and Iver needs an even pair for the last cut, and that this is why both wait for the player? Recommendation: yes. It explains why the act waits for the player, makes the choice decisive, and follows from the even pair already in the Story Bible.
• The finale's structure. The Story Bible says phase one is "against" Ondine's chorus and phase two "against" Iver's shattering. This file keeps the two phases in that order on every path, but on the Ondine path the player guards the chorus, and on the Iver path they cut with Iver against Ondine. Recommendation: keep this, since it is the only way the two-phase finale fits all three paths. Settled: the finale follows this file on every tab (VEL-63).
• A fourth choice: walk away? Recommendation: no fourth path at the Pane. The open world already lets a player leave the summons unanswered for as long as they like; the rites wait.
• Is the outcome permanent? Recommendation: yes, one outcome per save. Another outcome means a new game. Letting the player redo it would make the choice weigh nothing.
• Ondine's cost in the Mended ending: her hands go still. Recommendation: keep it. It is the Wardens' rule (every spell has a cost) applied to its loudest speaker, and it stops the Mended ending from reading as the Evane simply winning.
• The First Pair. A new named composite, Brace into Facet Seal, learned from a reflected glyph that shows the Still Age drew both kinds together. Recommendation: keep it. It makes the Stop-both path something the player discovers rather than something they're offered, and it puts the theme (no side is right) into the oldest glyph in the world. The fallback (any cross-side thread) means no player is locked out of the path. Settled: the First Pair replaces the spell roadmap's Stillhold (Facet Seal into Linger), and keeps #FFFFFF on purpose instead of the cross-side #FFE08A (VEL-63).
• Companions stepping out. Tamsin leaves the chorus and Rook leaves the cut at trust 3 or more. Recommendation: keep it, and have Acts 1–3 award trust for choices where the player put the person ahead of the side. VEL-63 should check that earlier acts give enough chances to reach 3.
• Which faction heads sing. This file has Dace always refusing (so the chorus is four mirrored voices) and Wen and Hale's presence depending on earlier acts. Recommendation: keep Dace out for good; let VEL-63 decide the flags for Wen and Hale (still open after this pass). Settled: Dace refuses, and the chorus is four voices (Wardens/Tamsin, Tenders/Bramble, Keepers/Hale, Still Choir/Wen) (VEL-63).
• Epilogue form. Recommendation: six illustrated cards per outcome plus one played scene at home (4.20), not a played epilogue in every city. 18 painted stills are far cheaper than three versions of three towns, and the open world shows the rest.
• Warp-born windows in real time. Recommendation: 7-day windows, server-delivered, with an Undermere exception in the Mended world. Real time makes the world feel alive without daily login pressure, since a week is long enough not to miss one.
• New names in this file: the First Pair (composite), the Undercrack, the Pane gauge, Even-handed. Recommendation: keep them as working names. Settled: the Corran girl is Brin, Hollis's daughter, from Act 3 (not a new name, and no longer Seli), and Culet is already a Story Bible cut name, so the Culet cut is not new either (VEL-63).

Open questions for Ray, all tabs Open page

Taken from the open-questions sections and inline mentions in the four walkthroughs, the Bestiary, the Spell Roadmap, Items and Economy, Game Screens and Story Bible § 8, plus the Story Bible updates the VEL-63 continuity pass implies.

Story and cast

• 1. Who Aske's letters are addressed to. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. The Story Bible leaves the names open. Every tab now assumes the Twinhold letter goes to Prelate Ondine Ash and the Lanternfall letter to Iver Kest. Recommendation: Ondine and Iver. The two people who make the midpoint asks are the two Aske wrote to, which gives "Believe neither until you've met both" its weight. Approve Iver's "one crossing" backstory (Aske ferried him after his un-teaching), and write the names into Story Bible § 3 (the send-off) and § 8. Sources: story-bible.md § 3 The Mentor, § 8 Still open 4; walkthrough-act-1.md Q5; walkthrough-act-2.md Q1; items-and-economy.md § 3.4 letter rows, § 9 Q11; screens.md § 4.
• 2. Rook as the one-armed gateway. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Is Rook the one-armed gateway to the Facets, or should it be a new character? Recommendation (new): Rook. Every act already writes him that way: he shows his one-handed Facet Seal in Act 1 and gives the circle in Lanternfall in Act 2. Close the question in Story Bible § 8. Sources: story-bible.md § 2 Facet culture, § 8 Still open 1; walkthrough-act-1.md § 12.
• 3. History dates. Is the Evening about 5,000 years ago and the Breaking about 2,000? Recommendation (new): yes. No tab contradicts them, and nothing in the walkthroughs depends on the exact years. Sources: story-bible.md § 1 History, § 8 Still open 3.
• 4. Asymmetric glyphs before the Breaking. Act 3's records show lake-folk drawing asymmetric glyphs before the Breaking, and Act 4's First Pair shows the Still Age drawing both kinds together. Story Bible § 1 says the Still Age cast only mirrored glyphs and the Facets found asymmetric glyphs among the shards after the Breaking. Which is right? Recommendation (new): keep the walkthroughs and update § 1. Asymmetric glyphs are older than the sides; after the Breaking they surface most in the Shardfield, which is where the Facets learned them. The legend of the girl with the circle and the square already fits. Sources: story-bible.md § 1 History 1 and 4; walkthrough-act-3.md scene 3.3; walkthrough-act-4.md scene 4.12, § 16 Q8.
• 5. How the Sallow warp opened. The tabs say Facet glyph-hunters widened a crack upstream, then a first Warden mending, unguarded, tore it open the night before the glints came to the farm door. The mending the player guards at the Act 2 midpoint is a second one, Ondine's. Story Bible § 4 says only "torn open by a Warden mending". Recommendation (new): add the first mending, its night, and the second mending to § 4 (Act 3), so no one reads the midpoint mending as the one that opened the warp. Sources: story-bible.md § 4 Act 3; walkthrough-act-1.md § 12; walkthrough-act-2.md Continuity Notes for VEL-63; walkthrough-act-3.md scene 3.4; bestiary.md Outlaw casters and Facet scavengers.
• 6. Did ringing the Glass wake the Wyrm? Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Recommendation: yes, lightly. Tamsin says things in the Glass hear when it rings, and the protagonist carries a little of the blame. It stays a hint; nobody in Act 1 knows for sure. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q10, § 12.
• 7. Is Halfway on the Sallow? The concepts show a walled town at a river crossing. Recommendation: yes, at the stone bridge where the Sallow Road crosses the river. The Wyrm stopping the barges then hurts Halfway's market, so both sides in town have a stake in the fight. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q7.
• 8. Going home during Act 1. Can the player walk back to Sallowbank in Act 1? The Story Bible has the player walk on alone while Aske turns back for home. Recommendation: yes. Exits stay open, the villagers get Act 1 lines, and Aske is back at the ferry, where she teaches Brace (entry 29). Home stays a place, not a cutscene. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q6; story-bible.md § 4 Prologue and Act 1.
• 9. Aske after Act 3. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. The Story Bible says only that she joins neither side afterwards. Recommendation: she stays the night in Corran. In Act 4 she goes ahead to the Heart Pane's rim and keeps a fire where both camps can sit, joins neither side, then goes home to the ferry. Her wave at the bend moves to Act 4 (4.3), when she sets off with the handcart. Add this to the Arc in Story Bible § 3. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q11; walkthrough-act-4.md scene 4.3; story-bible.md § 3 The Mentor.
• 10. The Corran girl and her mother. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. The Story Bible leaves them unnamed. Act 3 names the girl Brin and her mother Hollis of the Girdle cut, and Act 4's "Seli" is now Brin. Recommendation: keep Brin and Hollis, and add both to Story Bible § 3 (the shard) and § 5. The roadmap's idea that Keepers stood in Aske's five-person seal (Recall) can stay open until Corran's dialogue needs it (new). Sources: story-bible.md § 3 The Mentor; walkthrough-act-3.md scene 5.3, § 18 Q12; walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q13; spell-roadmap.md Recall.
• 11. Ondine knew the truth of the Breaking. Did she know all along? Recommendation: yes. It makes her sincere rather than ignorant, which fits "sincerely believes it saves more lives". Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q10; story-bible.md § 5.
• 12. Fenn walks to Halfway. Act 2 has Fenn carry Aske's message to Halfway. Recommendation: keep it, with a Waymaker caravan bringing Fenn. It brings Sallowbank into the act without bringing Aske back early. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q15.
• 13. Both rites need the player. Ondine needs a flawless mirror for the last note and Iver needs an even pair for the last cut, so both camps wait for the player. Is that right? Recommendation: yes. It explains why the act waits, makes the choice decisive, and follows from the even pair. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 2, § 16 Q3.
• 14. The finale in the Story Bible. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Story Bible § 4 says Ondine leads all five factions, and the finale is two phases fought against her chorus and then against Iver's shattering. The tabs keep both phases on every path, but the player is for or against each rite depending on the path, and the chorus is four voices because Dace refuses. Recommendation: keep the tabs. Help Ondine guards the chorus, then stops the shattering. Help Iver breaks the chorus, then joins the cut. Stop both breaks the chorus, stops the cut, then holds the Pane. Update § 4 (Act 4) to say four factions and path-dependent phases. Sources: story-bible.md § 4 Act 4; walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q4 and Q10; bestiary.md Open questions Q9.
• 15. Whether Wen and Hale sing. Act 4 says each head's stance comes from earlier acts, but no flag decides it yet. A head who sits out is replaced by a Warden mender at half strength. Recommendation (new): Hale sings on every path, because the records are out after Act 3. Wen sits out if the player delivered her letter to the Facets in Act 2 (wen_letter.delivered = 1); otherwise she sings. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md scene 4.6, § 12, § 16 Q10.
• 16. The Mending and the player's Facet spells. The Story Bible says the Mending ends asymmetric magic "for good". Do the player's own Facet spells stop working? Recommendation: no asymmetric glyph surfaces again and Facet NPCs lose their casting, but the player keeps what they already hold. The cost shows in the world (Lanternfall dark, Lio's hands quiet), not in the player's kit. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q1; story-bible.md § 4 Act 4.
• 17. The Shattered ending and un-teaching. Does the Shattered ending end un-teaching? Recommendation: yes. Courts can't seal any more, and the player's sealed spells come back. That is Iver's whole reason. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 9, § 16 Q2.
• 18. Ondine's cost in the Mended ending. Her hands go still. Recommendation: keep it. It is the Wardens' own rule (every spell has a cost) applied to its loudest speaker, and it stops the Mended ending reading as the Evane simply winning. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q7.
• 19. A fourth choice at the Pane. Can the player walk away? Recommendation: no fourth path. The open world already lets a player leave the summons unanswered as long as they like; the rites wait. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q5.
• 20. One outcome per save. Is the ending permanent? Recommendation: yes. Another outcome means a new game; a redo would make the choice weigh nothing. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 9, § 16 Q6.
• 21. Epilogue form. Played epilogues in every city, or something cheaper? Recommendation: six illustrated cards per outcome plus one played scene at home (4.20). Eighteen painted stills cost far less than three versions of three towns. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 8, § 16 Q11.
• 22. Tobin and the Drowned Choir. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Is a side quest where Tobin hears the choristers worth it? Recommendation: yes. The drowned choristers drop hymn_page, a page of the Drowned Choir's hymn, for Tobin's side quest. Sources: bestiary.md Reflections, Open questions Q12.
• 23. New character and place names. Act 2 adds Pell, Brother Fallow, Novice Tull, Sister Ise, Ness, Garnet, Cass, Sorrel, Bryn and Oda. Act 3 adds Sabe, Old Pim, Mott, Vey, the twelve Stilled and the Girdle cut. Act 4 adds the Undercrack, the Pane gauge and Even-handed. Recommendation: keep them as working names. Pell, Ness and Sorrel stay named characters because they come back; the rest stay roles until needed. Brin and Hollis are entry 10; clashes are entry 24. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q14; walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q12; walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q13.
• 24. Names that clashed across acts. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Pim, Mott and Pell each named two different people, and Act 2's Bryn sat next to Act 3's Brin. Recommendation: the renames this pass made: Act 1's drover is Jory, its Amber Row glyph-giver Nell and its gate Facet Wren; Act 2's glyph-hunter is Rusk; Act 3's Stilled child and cart-driver are Pip and Teg. Pim (the bell-ringer), Mott (the Undermere door) and Pell (the sealed runner) keep their names. An alternative worth a thought: make the Halfway gate's Facet the Pell who is sealed in Act 2, so the un-teaching seals a face the player knows. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md § 12; walkthrough-act-2.md Q14; walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q12.

Spells and casting

• 25. The Story Bible's spell lines. Story Bible § 4 lists Coil for Act 1; Gale, Facet Seal and first composites for Act 2; and the Corran glyph for Act 3. The roadmap now has 27 spells and 10 named threads: Act 1 adds Brace and Mend, Act 2 has 14 spells and 5 threads, Act 3 has 9 spells and 4 threads, and Act 4 has the First Pair. Recommendation (new): rewrite the § 4 Spells lines from the roadmap's act table, main-line spells first. Sources: story-bible.md § 4; spell-roadmap.md At a glance.
• 26. Threads have names. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Story Bible § 7 says a thread is named by its parts ("Repel into Gale"). Game data already has Bulwark and Tempest, and the tabs name every thread: Headwind, Tempest, Bulwark, Thornshield, Wellspring, Blight, Thaw, Rebound, Deep Cut and the First Pair. Recommendation: one-word names in data and the Spell Book (Repel into Gale is headwind, flag composite.known.headwind), with the parts shown underneath. Update § 7 to match. Sources: story-bible.md § 7 Composites; walkthrough-act-2.md Q5; spell-roadmap.md Composites: named threads.
• 27. "Gale into Coil" is Tempest. Story Bible § 7 says the wind throws the vine so Coil hits from range. The data file makes Gale into Coil Tempest, a storm. Recommendation: the data wins; rewrite the § 7 example as Tempest. Sources: story-bible.md § 7 Composites; spell-roadmap.md Composites: named threads.
• 28. The naming lists. Story Bible § 7 gives Veil (Still Choir), Slip (Waymakers), Crown Ward and Culet Spike (Facets) as examples. The roadmap uses none of them: the Choir has Hush, Echo, Calm and Listen; the Waymakers Gale, Drift, Squall and Tailwind; the Facets Facet Seal, Bevel Lash, Prism Snare, Crown Surge, Table Mend, Girdle Gate and Pavilion Wake. Recommendation (new): swap the § 7 examples for roadmap spells, and keep Veil, Slip, Crown Ward and Culet Spike as spare names for later warp-born glyphs. Sources: story-bible.md § 7 Naming future spells; spell-roadmap.md At a glance.
• 29. Brace from Aske in Act 1. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. An earlier roadmap draft had Tamsin teach Brace at Halfway. Recommendation: Aske, hand over hand at the Sallowbank ferry (quest aske_brace). She traces and doesn't cast, so her twenty years without casting hold until the Unstilling. Add Brace, and Mend from Sister Orla, to Story Bible § 4 (Act 1). This needs entry 8. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q4, Changes from the Spell Set tab; walkthrough-act-1.md Q6; story-bible.md § 4 Act 1.
• 30. The Long Road between the courts. Should the caravan job always come between Halfway and the first court? Recommendation: yes; the caravan carries the player to whichever city they pick. Gale then always comes before Facet Seal in either letter order, and threading always comes after Gale. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q2; spell-roadmap.md Q1, The difficulty curve.
• 31. Who teaches threading. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. The Story Bible says "Rook (or Dace)". Recommendation: Rook in Lanternfall on route A, Dace at the wind-pass summit on route B. Both teach the same thread, Headwind. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q3; story-bible.md § 4 Act 2.
• 32. Locking threads until the lesson. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. The code lets any two learned spells chain today. Act 1 locks chains behind thread.taught, which Act 2's lesson sets; Act 2's own question says don't lock. Recommendation: lock them, as Act 1 says. The Wyrm is fought with Repel, then Coil, and threading arrives as the story's reveal. Keep chains open in development builds. Act 2's Q4 now recommends the same. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q2, § 9; walkthrough-act-2.md Q4.
• 33. The Corran glyph's name. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. "Girdle Thaw" (Act 3) or Pavilion Wake (roadmap)? Recommendation: Pavilion Wake (pavilion_wake, hourglass and low wave) in the Spell Book; "the Corran glyph" is what people call it. The Girdle cut and the Girdle house keep their names. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q4; spell-roadmap.md Q9; story-bible.md § 4 Act 3.
• 34. The thread that undoes the stilling. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Which Evane spell threads into the Corran glyph? Recommendation: Repel. The thread is Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake), because Repel can never be sealed and every player has it. The alternative, Hasten, ties it to the Keepers but makes a much harder thread. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q1; spell-roadmap.md Composites: named threads.
• 35. Aske's one cast. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. What does Aske cast at the Unstilling? Recommendation: Brace, across the warp, at the moment the player casts Thaw. It pays off the Act 1 lesson, and it holds rather than attacks. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q2; story-bible.md § 3 The Mentor.
• 36. Thaw's breath. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Is 1,360 ms too long for an unlevelled player? Recommendation: keep 0.85 × (600 + 1,000) = 1,360 ms. Hasten is taught on the main line right before and gives about 1,904 ms for 12 s, and the cast has no fail state. Check it on the device. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 9, § 18 Q5.
• 37. Missing the Act 2 half. What if the player never picked up the wave half in Act 2? Recommendation: make it unmissable in Act 2 (VEL-56), and keep the fallback in Act 3 (Sabe's glyph-hunters dug a copy) as a safety net. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md scene 1.3, § 18 Q3.
• 38. The First Pair. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Keep a new named thread, Brace into Facet Seal, from a reflected glyph in the Pane at dawn? Recommendation: keep it. It replaces the roadmap's Stillhold, keeps #FFFFFF on purpose instead of the cross-side #FFE08A, and any cross-side thread is the fallback, so no player is locked out of Stop both. Its overlap with Thornshield (0.55) needs a recognizer check. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q8; spell-roadmap.md Composites: named threads.
• 39. Crown Surge as warp-born. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Should a main-list spell be time-limited? Recommendation: yes, as the first taste of warp-born glyphs. It surfaces at the Sallow warp, fades at act3.stage 10, resurfaces at fresh warps later, and a stolen copy sells at the Undermere fence, so it can't be missed for good. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q8.
• 40. Keeper and Still Choir colours. The Story Bible leaves both open. VEL-51 lit their guardians brass-gold and moonlight silver, and Act 3 has brass-gold Hasten; the roadmap gives their spells dusk rose #FF8FA3 and frost white #E4ECFF. Recommendation: the roadmap's colours, which are clear of the other four. Brass and silver can stay as construct materials, with the glyph light in the faction colour (new). Art Direction may nudge the white so it reads against pale Evane stone. Fill in Story Bible § 2. Sources: story-bible.md § 2 The five Evane factions; spell-roadmap.md Q5; bestiary.md Faction guardians and enforcers, Open questions Q6; walkthrough-act-3.md scene 3.2; walkthrough-act-4.md scene 4.6.
• 41. Choir threads. Fix the composer so it scores each half, or keep Choir spells out of threads (overlap C2)? Recommendation: fix the composer. Until then, no named Choir threads, so Knell stays on hold. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q2.
• 42. Self-chains. Drop chains of a straight stroke into itself (overlap C1)? Recommendation: yes; drop any self-chain whose joint isn't a corner. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q3.
• 43. Weigh in conversations. Is a spell that shows whether a speaker believes their own claim a good fit, or too strong? Recommendation: keep it, one claim per conversation. It shows belief, not truth, so people who are wrong but sincere still pass. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q6.
• 44. Hasten and Recall. Keep them as a deliberate near-reverse pair? Recommendation: keep them and test on the device. If players mix them up, change Recall to a single loop drawn twice. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q7.
• 45. Shape changes. Accept the new Squall, Echo, Tailwind, Root and Hasten shapes, and update the Spell Set tab? Recommendation: yes, since the old shapes collide. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q10.
• 46. Facet power. Should Facet spells hit harder because they are harder to draw? Recommendation: slightly, about 1.2× an Evane spell of the same role, and always with a cost or condition attached, as Crown Surge has. Sources: spell-roadmap.md Q11.
• 47. Tracing a split glyph. Is there a half-trace mode? Recommendation: no. The circle half is a carried lens; the player traces the whole spell in the storm, lens on the left and the reflected square on the right. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q10.
• 48. Un-teaching in Act 2. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Can the player be un-taught in Act 2? Recommendation: yes, but only by a Warden court after a crime, and the court seals the one spell used. Caught casting a Facet spell in the Vault: a court sits the next morning. Table Mend in Greenvault's hall: an Act 3 summons. Repel can never be sealed. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q11; story-bible.md § 2.
• 49. Left-handed mirroring. May a player swap which thumb draws which shape in asymmetric spells? It changes scoring and matters for tournaments. Recommendation (new): yes, as an accessibility setting that tournaments also allow, since the shapes and their difficulty don't change. Keep the toggle hidden until the scorer accepts the swapped pair. Sources: screens.md § 6, § 13 Q5.

Battle and enemies

• 50. Player HP. Player HP isn't defined, and every damage, heal and Recall number depends on it. Recommendation (new): 100, which the battle code uses today and every tab already assumes. Sources: bestiary.md How to read an entry, Open questions Q1; spell-roadmap.md Q12; items-and-economy.md intro.
• 51. HP between battles. Should HP carry over? Today every battle starts at full HP, so food raises max HP for the next battle instead of healing. Recommendation (new): no, not yet. Keep full HP per battle and food as a buff; revisit with the defeat rules (entry 52). Sources: items-and-economy.md § 2 Consumables, § 9 Q4.
• 52. What defeat costs. Copper, back to the last save, or waking at an inn or with Aske? Recommendation (new): wake at the last rest place (an inn, or Aske's ferry early on) with full HP and nothing lost but the fight. Sources: screens.md § 9 Battle results: defeat, § 13 Q9.
• 53. The Glass counter rules. Do the five rules feel right? Rule 3 has Evane constructs take half damage from mirrored spells, so an Evane-only player meets a wall in Twinhold. Recommendation (new): keep rule 3. With the Long Road first (entry 30), every player reaches Twinhold with Gale, and Headwind once threading is taught. Sources: bestiary.md How to read an entry, Regions and encounters, Open questions Q2.
• 54. Multi-enemy battles. Packs as one enemy with a count, or true multi-target battles? Recommendation (new): one enemy with a count for now. Multi-target is a bigger battle-code job and harder to read on a phone. Sources: bestiary.md Open questions Q3.
• 55. Companions in battle. Do Tamsin and Rook fight alongside the player? Recommendation: not through Act 3. They travel and talk, and fight only in scripted moments (Tamsin in the Ring and the Vault). Companions in battle needs a systems design first. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q1; walkthrough-act-2.md Q12; walkthrough-act-3.md § 5, § 18 Q6.
• 56. The Wyrm's plates. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Add a guard rule so Coil is weak until the Wyrm is staggered? Recommendation: no guard field. The Wyrm uses the bestiary's plated shield (40 points, opened by a stagger) and three phases, plus a Battle HUD cue for open and closed plates that every plated enemy can reuse. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q4; bestiary.md Bosses.
• 57. Optional fights in old regions. Should they scale up with the player, or stay at their act's numbers? Recommendation: scale them, as the bestiary proposes: optional fights in an earlier region rise to the player's level, and story fights stay at their act's numbers. Sources: bestiary.md Regions and encounters, Open questions Q10.
• 58. An Undermere boss. Should it have one, or stay a place you never finish? Recommendation (new): no boss. The three duels are its peak, and an unfinished underworld fits "no endgame". Sources: bestiary.md Open questions Q11.
• 59. Live PvP in Act 1. The Story Bible introduces the Proving Ring as the PvP arena in Act 1. Is it live? Recommendation: no. Act 1 has the story bout with Tamsin and an optional NPC Ring Card. Player bouts open once the server, matchmaking and anti-bot checks exist. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q3; story-bible.md § 4 Act 1.
• 60. The glint's look. Is VEL-51's pick (the newt body with the spoon-head's blank mirror head) the one, so VEL-66 can do sheets? Recommendation: yes, VEL-51's pick. Sources: bestiary.md Glints, Open questions Q4.
• 61. Regional glint variants. Six variants from one model with material swaps: enough, or do some need their own mesh? Recommendation (new): material swaps for all six now; give a variant its own mesh only if its silhouette doesn't read on the VEL-66 sheets. Sources: bestiary.md Open questions Q5.
• 62. New creature and place names. Sallow Fen, the Upside Market, lamplighters, hollow cuts, forsworn menders, the drowned choristers, the sky shoal and the mirror double. Recommendation (new): keep them as working names. Sources: bestiary.md Open questions Q13.

Items and economy

• 63. One currency. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. One currency, or a coin for each side? Recommendation: one currency, copper. Evane silver (evane_silver) and Facet glass tokens (facet_token) are valuables the token-changer buys for 50 copper each. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q8; items-and-economy.md § 9 Q1.
• 64. Drops use catalogue ids. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Recommendation: drops use the items tab's ids (glint_quicksilver, mirror_grit, river_reeds, raw_amber, evane_silver, facet_token, marble_chips, still_water). Glints, golems, constructs and wildlife drop no copper; humans who yield drop a valuable or a little copper. ring_token is gone. Sources: bestiary.md Open questions Q14; items-and-economy.md § 3.6.
• 65. Fixed gear or random rolls. Fixed named gear now, Diablo-style random rolls later? Recommendation (new): fixed gear now. Random rolls wait for their own save shape (one record per item instead of stacks). Sources: items-and-economy.md § 2 Gear, § 9 Q2.
• 66. Staffs. The VEL-51 sheet has them, but casting takes both hands. Cut them, make them cosmetic, or give them a slot? Recommendation (new): cosmetic, carried on the back. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 9 Q3.
• 67. Items in battle. Can consumables be used in battle? Recommendation: yes, through the belt the items tab proposes: three items, one every 4 s, never mid-stroke. It needs space on the crowded battle HUD, so it gets its own Lead ticket. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 2 Consumables, § 8, § 9 Q5; screens.md § 13 Q14.
• 68. Breaking the seals on Aske's letters. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. May the player read the letters, and what does it cost? Recommendation: yes, behind a warning in Aske's words ("Don't read them."). Each recipient notices the broken seal: Ondine takes it badly (−5 rep.wardens) and Iver approves. Opening either letter costs 1 aske.trust when she joins the player in Act 3 (scene 1.2). Sources: items-and-economy.md § 2 Key items, § 8 Letters viewer, § 9 Q6; screens.md § 13 Q15; walkthrough-act-2.md scene 0.2.
• 69. No glyph for sale. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Is a glyph ever sold? Recommendation: no honest shop sells one. The Undermere fence is the one exception: stolen fragments of Hasten and Crown Surge, for fallen players only, and they still have to be traced. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 4 The Undermere fence, § 9 Q7.
• 70. The Lanternfall Giving Table. Is it worth building, and should leaving items raise Facet standing? Recommendation (new): yes, as a small interactable. Each gift is +5 rep.facets, capped per act so it can't be farmed. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 9 Q8.
• 71. Real money. None for gear or copper is assumed. Cosmetics only later, or nothing? Recommendation (new): nothing for now; cosmetics only, if ever. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 9 Q9.
• 72. Gear caps. Breath +50%, sync grace +60 ms, power +25%, guard 6: right ballpark? Recommendation (new): yes as starting caps; tune them in the first playtest. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 9 Q10.
• 73. What the Sentinel Glyph teaches. The Vault's third door drops a sealed Warden glyph that can't be traced until Act 3, and nothing says what it is. Recommendation (new): make it the line half of Bevel Lash, a Facet fragment the Wardens confiscated, which the spell schedule already puts in the Vault haul. Its triangle half lies past the Corran road, so it completes in Act 3. Sources: items-and-economy.md § 3.6; bestiary.md Golems and Evane drill constructs.

Reputation and morality

• 74. What "falls to one side" means. Deeper into evil, deeper into one side's camp, or both? Recommendation: keep them separate. Personal morality decides the Undermere; standing with each side is its own track. Falling deep into one side's camp should feel like zealotry, not outlawry. Sources: story-bible.md § 8 Still open 2; walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q7.
• 75. The exponential way back. Doubling bands with a flat +5 per atonement deed. Recommendation: keep it. It is simple data, and the quest log can show the exact count. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 11, § 18 Q8.
• 76. The Undermere for unfallen players. Is it closed to them? Recommendation: closed as a hub, but its diggings (6.4) can be reached from Corran's north edge once Corran wakes, so everyone can learn about the quicksilver trade. Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q9.
• 77. Reputation numbers. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Recommendation: integer flags from −100 to 100, starting at 0 and moving in steps of 5, set by an add_flag command. Side and faction standing are separate from morality. Companion trust (<name>.trust) runs 0 to 5. The amounts are still first guesses. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q8.
• 78. Both midpoint jobs. Can the player guard the mending and rob the Vault? Recommendation: yes, in one order only (guard the dawn circle, then the Vault on the second night), with the "two-faced" scene as the cost. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q6.
• 79. Declining the midpoint. Does declining both have costs? Recommendation: yes. Both jobs happen anyway and go worse; otherwise "neither" is the free safe choice. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q7.
• 80. The drawing profile. What decides how the factions court the player? Recommendation: the three draws at the Measuring for now, which is cheap and makes the courting easy to follow. Feed it from the whole cast history later. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q9.
• 81. Companions stepping out. Tamsin leaves the chorus and Rook leaves the cut at trust 3 or more. Recommendation: keep it, and have Acts 1–3 award trust when the player puts the person ahead of the side. Still to check: do the earlier acts give enough chances to reach 3? Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 16 Q9.
• 82. Wildlife sympathy. The Glass-touched animals are hurt, not evil. Is beating them a morality choice or just a fight? Recommendation (new): just a fight by default, with a small morality reward (+5) for sparing one or healing it with Mend afterwards. Never a penalty for winning. Sources: bestiary.md Open questions Q7.
• 83. Humans who yield. Do humans always yield, and does what the player does next move morality? Recommendation (new): yes, humans always yield. Letting them go is +5 morality, handing them to their side's authorities moves that faction's standing, and taking their fragments is −5 morality. Sources: bestiary.md Outlaw casters and Facet scavengers, Open questions Q8.

Screens and UI

• 84. Name entry. Free text or a list, a default name, and renaming later? Recommendation (new): free text (1 to 12 characters, with a word filter) plus a random-name button that fills the default. No renaming for now. Sources: screens.md § 4, § 5 New game: name, § 13 Q1.
• 85. Body type labels. "Male" and "Female", or neutral labels with pronouns chosen separately? Recommendation (new): keep Male and Female for now, as the Story Bible has the player pick one; revisit if pronouns become a setting. Sources: screens.md § 5 New game: body type, § 13 Q2; story-bible.md § 3.
• 86. Save slots. One autosaved slot, several slots, or a manual save too? Recommendation (new): one autosaved slot, as built. It fits one outcome per save (entry 20). Sources: screens.md § 13 Q3.
• 87. Practice battle on the title. Keep it for players, or make it development-only? Recommendation (new): development-only, now that Practice is in the spell book. Sources: screens.md § 13 Q4.
• 88. The map. Fast travel between visited places? A fogged world map or a full one? Local maps for towns only? Recommendation (new): fast travel between visited towns and Long Road stops, through a Travel button on a visited place's card. Draw the world map in full with unvisited places hidden, and give local maps to towns only. Sources: screens.md § 8 Map, § 11 Variants, § 13 Q6.
• 89. Toasts. Tap through to the related screen, or passive only? Recommendation (new): tap-through, as specced. Sources: screens.md § 7 Toasts, § 13 Q7.
• 90. The Halfway Market screen. Settled for now by VEL-63, confirm. Is the player Market its own screen beyond the Shop? Recommendation: no. It is a Notice board that reuses the Shop's purchase panel. Sources: screens.md § 11 Notice boards, § 13 Q8.
• 91. Cast feedback. Full score breakdown in battle, or only the quality word? Recommendation (new): the quality word in battle, the full breakdown in Practice, as specced. Sources: screens.md § 13 Q10.
• 92. Pausing battles. Can a battle be paused, given the breath timer and tournaments? Recommendation (new): yes in story battles (Pause top-right, as specced), never in PvP or tournaments. Sources: screens.md § 8 Pause, § 13 Q11.
• 93. Failed quests. Can quests fail or be missed? The journal has no Failed tab because QuestStatus has no such state. Recommendation (new): no failure state for now. Add a Missed state only when time-limited side content needs one. Sources: screens.md § 13 Q12.
• 94. Haptics. On or off, or a strength setting too? Recommendation (new): on or off for now. Sources: screens.md § 13 Q13.

Tech and production

• 95. Gating exits and scene changes by stage. Act 1 wants Halfway's gates shut until stage 7 and the river high at stage 5; VEL-53 leaves exit gating out. Recommendation: give exits the same when as triggers, and add a when on named scene objects for variants like high water. Both are small generic features. Placed Road_ triggers stand in for random encounters until those are designed. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q9.
• 96. One overworld scene or one per region. Recommendation: one Overworld scene for the Sallow valley (Sallowbank to Halfway), and a new overworld scene per region from Act 2 (the Long Road, the Shardfield), so scene ownership stays one ticket at a time. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md Q11.
• 97. How much optional magic ships in Act 2. The roadmap puts twelve optional spells there. Recommendation: main line plus Tally, Drift, Table Mend, Root and Hush first; the rest later. VEL-60 decides. Sources: walkthrough-act-2.md Q13.
• 98. Warp-born windows in real time. Recommendation: 7-day windows for hunts the server delivers; hunts the game rolls itself use the Side Quests tab's in-game clock (world.day, six days a warp), delivered by the server, with an Undermere exception in the Mended world. A week is long enough not to miss one, so there's no daily login pressure. Sources: walkthrough-act-4.md § 9, § 16 Q12.
• 99. The new tabs in the doc and site. The walkthroughs, Bestiary, Spell Roadmap, Items and Economy, Game Screens and Side Quests are drafts, not yet doc tabs or site pages. Recommendation (new): add them once approved, in the order their front matter now gives (walkthroughs 5–8, Side Quests 9, Bestiary 10, Spell Roadmap 11, Items and Economy 12, Game Screens 13). Sources: walkthrough-act-3.md § 18 Q13.
• 100. New quest fields for side content. The Side Quests tab needs four fields the quest loader doesn't have: board and postWhen (a notice shows on a board before it is taken), "repeatable": true (caravan jobs, The Next Wagon) and "category": "hunt". Caravan runs also reset their own run flags when a new run is taken, the one exception to "flags never go backwards". Recommendation (new): accept all four in one Velan.Story ticket, and limit the reset to the four caravan.* run flags so the rule stays simple. Sources: side-quests.md How to read a quest, Caravan jobs.
• 101. Nell's chalk copies. Act 1's hook says someone traced one of the Amber Row's chalk copies over a real fragment and it worked. Every Facet glyph is split, taught, reflected or warp-born, so there is no whole Facet fragment for a copy to lie over. Recommendation (new): drop the twist, as the Side Quests tab does; the copies stay a lesson that a shape is not a spell. Sources: walkthrough-act-1.md § 12; side-quests.md region 3, Chalk on the Far Hand.
• 102. Side doors into the Undermere. The Side Quests tab lets an unfallen player reach parts of the Undermere: the flooded nave from the Drowned Steps (Tobin's quest) and the deep tunnels through a Shardfield back door (undermere.backdoor), never the den. Recommendation (new): keep both, since the Story Bible only says the Undermere is for evil players, not that it is sealed; let undermere.backdoor also open Act 4's Undercrack. Sources: side-quests.md regions 1, 5 and 7; walkthrough-act-4.md 4.4.

Continuity notes Open page

(Idea) VEL-63 read the four walkthroughs, the Bestiary, the Spell Roadmap, Items and Economy, Game Screens and the new Side Quests tab against the Story Bible and each other, and made them agree. This section records how conflicts were settled, what is now the same everywhere, and every change, file by file. Nothing here is approved by Ray; the open questions in section 17 list what Ray needs to decide.

How conflicts were settled

1. The Story Bible wins over every other tab. It was not edited in this pass, so where a tab still has to differ from it, the difference is an open question in section 17.
2. Game data in Assets/StreamingAssets/Data wins over the Codex. That is why threads have names (Bulwark and Tempest are named composites in data).
3. What a spell is (name, id, faction, shape, numbers, colour) comes from the Spell Roadmap. Where, when and from whom it is learned comes from the walkthrough of that act, because the walkthrough owns the scene; the roadmap's "Learned" lines now follow the walkthroughs.
4. What an enemy is (id, stats, behaviour, counters, drops) comes from the Bestiary. Which fight happens where, and its encounter id, comes from the walkthrough; the Bestiary's encounter tables now use the walkthroughs' ids.
5. What an item is (id, name, price, effect) and the currency come from Items and Economy.
6. Screen names come from Game Screens. Section 12 there maps every name the walkthroughs use to a screen.

What is now the same everywhere

Spells. Repel and Coil in the Prologue. Brace (Aske at the Sallowbank ferry, hand over hand; she traces and does not cast) and Mend (Sister Orla in Halfway) in Act 1, both optional. Act 2: Gale (Dace) and Facet Seal (circle from Rook at the Giving Steps, square on a storm shard) on the main line, Weigh on every midpoint path, and the faction and Waymaker spells as options. Act 3: Pavilion Wake and Hasten on the main line, then Linger, Toll, Recall, Prism Snare, Girdle Gate, Crown Surge and Bevel Lash. Act 4 adds no spell. The roadmap's full schedule is in its act table.

The Corran glyph is Pavilion Wake (pavilion_wake): Aske's hourglass shard on the left thumb (corran_half_hourglass) and the low-wave shard the player picks up in the Shardfield in Act 2 on the right (corran_half_wave), traced together at Corran's well. It replaces Act 3's Girdle Thaw and Act 4's placeholder corran_glyph. The Girdle cut and the Girdle house keep their names.

Threads. Headwind (Repel into Gale) is the first, taught by Rook or Dace in Act 2; Tempest (Gale into Coil) and Bulwark (Repel into Facet Seal) follow the lesson; Thornshield (Coil into Facet Seal) and Wellspring (Mend into Root) are Act 2's other named threads. Thaw (Repel into Pavilion Wake, 1,360 ms) undoes the stilling of Corran in Act 3; the scene is still called the Unstilling, and Aske casts Brace across the warp at the same moment. The First Pair (Brace into Facet Seal, #FFFFFF) is Act 4's reflected thread and replaces the roadmap's Stillhold. Knell stays on hold.

Flags.

Reputation. Side standing rep.evane and rep.facets; faction standing rep.wardens, rep.tenders, rep.keepers, rep.choir, rep.waymakers; personal morality. All run from −100 to 100, start at 0 and move in steps of 5.

Act 4's outcome moves standing once: Mended rep.evane +20 and rep.facets −20, Shattered the reverse, Held +10 with each side (and morality +5 if both companions stepped out).

Items and currency. One currency, copper. Battles never pay copper: glints, golems, constructs and wildlife drop the catalogue's materials, and a human who yields may leave a valuable (evane_silver, facet_token) or a little copper. The Bestiary's thirty placeholder drop ids now map onto the catalogue's eight materials. Key and quest items the walkthroughs need are listed in the items tab's section 3.6.

Enemies. The Bestiary has an entry for every enemy the walkthroughs field, including the Windglass Kite, the storm glint, the bramble and echo glints, practice targets and named opponents (Tamsin twice, Iver, Ondine, the culet cutters). The walkthroughs' encounter tables quote the Bestiary's numbers. The finale follows Act 4: Help Ondine is pane_chorus_guard then pane_shatter_stop; Help Iver is pane_chorus_break then pane_shatter_join; Stop both is pane_chorus_break then pane_shatter_stop, then the hold. The chorus is four voices because Dace refuses.

Story.

• The Sallow warp. Facet glyph-hunters widened the crack. A first Warden mending, unguarded, tore it open the night before the glints reached the farm door. The mending the player guards in Act 2 is Ondine's second. Act 1 only hints that the Glass ringing woke the Wyrm.
• Aske was a captain under Ondine. She never promises to go back to Twinhold. In Act 3 the player goes to Corran and she comes with them, and she casts once there (Brace). At the end of Act 3 she stays the night in Corran. In Act 4 she keeps a fire at the Pane's rim where both camps can sit, and her wave at the bend comes when she sets off with the handcart.
• The Corran girl is Brin; her mother is Hollis.
• The letters. Every tab assumes Aske's letters go to Ondine (Twinhold) and Iver (Lanternfall).
• Rook is the one-armed gateway. He shows Facet Seal in Act 1 and gives the circle in Act 2.
• Un-teaching is a Warden court's act, the morning after a crime, and never touches Repel. Enemy bindings are temporary and read "Your hands won't answer …".
• Halfway. The Proving Ring sits inside Halfway's truce stones, and the market's rows are the Pale Row, the Amber Row and the Middle Market.
• Names. Characters who shared a name across acts were renamed: Act 1's gate Facet is Wren, its glyph-giver Nell and its drover Jory; Act 2's hunter is Rusk; two of Act 3's Stilled are Pip and Teg.

Front matter. Every tab this pass touched now has the same header: tab, order, section, source, rev, exported. The walkthroughs are "Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1" and "Walkthrough: Act N". The draft tabs say source: VEL-n draft, not yet in the doc and rev: 0 until the Lead publishes them. Their order follows the story: the walkthroughs 5–8, Side Quests 9, Bestiary 10, Spell Roadmap 11, Items and Economy 12, Game Screens 13.

Change log

Every change, one line each, grouped by file.

walkthrough-act-1.md

• Section 3 intro: "while both recruiters watch" became "while whichever recruiters came watch from the bank" (scene 5.1 lets the player bring neither)
• Section 3 stage table: stage 8's setter notes that Act1_Gates_Choose also sets act1.done 1 (VEL-63 act-end flag)
• Scene 2.1: removed "The quest log updates" (the scene sets no flag, so no quest stage can change)
• Scene 2.2: the road glint is a pack of three (road_glint = 3 glint), text and Who updated (bestiary owns the enemy; VEL-63 enemy map)
• Scene 2.3: Pim "won't take a coin" became "won't take a copper" (one currency, copper)
• Scene 3.2: Mott's chalk copy moves rep.facets +5, not +1 (rep moves in steps of 5)
• Scene 3.3: "coin-changer" became "token-changer" (matches section 4; no "coin" currency)
• Scene 3.5: healing_tonic x3 became 3 mend_tonic given by Orla and taken by Dorrit (<<give_item>>/<<take_item>>), art line says Mend Tonics; rep.evane +5 (catalogue id; quest copies no longer share a shop item loosely; rep steps of 5)
• Scene 4.3: Rook's scene also sets hid.glass 1 on a denial (the flag table says Tamsin or Rook; only 4.2 set it)
• Scene 4.4: the letter names are Ondine Ash and Iver Kest, as Act 2 has them, still pointing at question 5 (VEL-63 letter assumption)
• Scene 4.5: Where names Tamsin's and Rook's Ring markers Mark_tamsin_ring, Mark_rook_ring (the halfway.json sketch now places them at stage 4)
• Scene 5.2: Tamsin repeats the Wardens' line that the Facets did it, Rook blames a Warden mending, neither knows the whole story; "fight one glint" became "fight a glint pack" (VEL-63: Tamsin's doubts start in Act 3; road_glint is 3 glint)
• Scene 5.3: Player does adds Brace for the surges and Mend between phases; Content swaps the guard rule for the bestiary's plated shield and three phases; the item grant moved out (plate given once, in 5.4); Screens shows the plates open or closed (bestiary Wyrm wins; wyrm_plate granted once)
• Scene 5.4: wyrm_scale became wyrm_plate (key item, given once, here) in text, Player does, Content and Art (catalogue id)
• Scene 6.1: Reeve's reward is 60 copper; rep.evane and rep.facets +5 each (one currency; rep steps of 5)
• Scene 6.2: wyrm scale/cut scale/still-water amulet became wyrm_plate cut by Quill for 20 copper and set by Harl into a still_water_locket (charm: breath +8%) for 25 copper; nodes renamed Act1_Quill_Plate, Act1_Harl_Plate (VEL-63 item map and catalogue effect)
• Scene 6.4: sets act1.done 1 with act1.stage 8 (VEL-63 act-end flag)
• Section 4 The truce: "every coin is taken" became "every customer is served" (one currency; matches the items tab's Halfway rule)
• Section 4 Districts: the token-changer moved from the Amber Row to the Middle Market (scene 3.3 places it there; the items tab's weigh-house is in the Middle)
• Section 4 layout: the Proving Ring is in the old quarry inside the walls and the truce stones, not outside the wall (VEL-63 decision; the truce rules already said casting is allowed only in the Ring inside the walls)
• Section 4 People: Harl sets and Quill cuts the wyrm plate, not scale (catalogue id)
• Section 4 Shops intro: prices in copper, the one currency; silver and tokens are valuables; ids, effects and prices follow the items tab, and the four quest props are named as such (VEL-63 currency and item rules)
• Section 4 Shops table: Hob sells honey_bread 6 (+10 max HP next battle), herb_salve 15 and copper_band 45 instead of healing_tonic; Orla sells mend_tonic 18 (heal 20) and herb_salve 15 instead of healing_tonic/salve; Harl's glyph_bands row became copper_band at Hob (the catalogue sells it in the Middle) and his setting service makes the still_water_locket; Quill's sigil_pendant takes the catalogue effect and price 170; shard_charm became the shard_cuff commission (90 copper and 3 mirror_grit); Quill cuts the plate; the token-changer buys evane_silver and facet_token at 50 each (catalogue ids, effects and prices)
• Section 4 income: 60 copper from the Reeve; glints pay glint_quicksilver (sold at 4), never copper; notes the items tab's proposed 20 copper send-off purse (VEL-63: glints never drop copper)
• Section 5 still_water quest JSON: stage texts say wyrm plate / cut plate set in a locket (catalogue id)
• Section 6 halfway.json sketch: intro documents that an actor's marker drops the Mark_ prefix as built sallowbank.json does; Reeve actor named "Reeve Hollin Tace"; Tamsin and Rook gain actors at the Ring (stage 4) and the Split Loaf table (stages 5–6) (inventory slips 8 and 11; game data keeps the unprefixed actor marker)
• Section 8 Encounters: intro says stats, behaviour and drops are the bestiary's; road_glint is 3 glint at 14 HP each, 5 damage every 4 s, first attack 5 s, Repel staggers the pack 3.75 s, 10 XP, drops glint_quicksilver not coin; sallow_wyrm is 600 HP, colour #5FA8A0, first attack 8 s, plated 40-point shield opened by a stagger, three phases, 120 XP, drops 3 still_water not copper (bestiary wins on enemies; region-1 XP table)
• Section 8 Wyrm paragraph: the guard 0.25 rule and the old fight maths and stretch phase replaced by the bestiary's plates and three phases (VEL-63 replaces guard with the plates)
• Section 9 composites: names Headwind and says question 2 settles chains behind thread.taught (VEL-63 threading flag)
• Section 10 Flags: added act1.done; tamsin.trust/rook.trust range 0–5 with Act 1 raising each to 3; rep.evane/rep.facets −100 to 100, steps of 5, Act 1 moves each by 10 at most (VEL-63 flag names and ranges)
• Section 11 Ring Card: garbled Waymaker line fixed to "casts only Gale and won't teach it to anyone"; "small prizes" became "standing and a ladder place, never copper" (VEL-63: the Ring pays only standing and a ladder place)
• Section 12 Notes: Act 1 ends with act1.done 1; composites wait for thread.taught; Rook's Facet Seal "shown, not given; the circle is given in Lanternfall in Act 2" (was "the circle half shown"); the Wyrm's cause is only hinted and the warp's history follows VEL-63 (Tamsin repeats the Wardens' line); collision line says copper, catalogue item ids and bestiary enemy ids (VEL-63 story facts)
• Section 13 Q2: recommendation uses thread.taught set by Act 2's lesson, ends (VEL-63) (VEL-63 replaces skill.threading)
• Section 13 Q4: recommendation is no guard field, the bestiary's plated shield and phases plus the HUD cue, ends (VEL-63) (settled by the bestiary)
• Section 13 Q5: recommendation points at Act 2's Ondine Ash and Iver Kest as the working assumption, question left open, ends (VEL-63) (VEL-63 letters)
• Section 13 Q8: recommendation is one currency, copper, with evane_silver and facet_token as valuables at 50 copper, ends (VEL-63) (settled by the items tab)
• Section 13 Q10: recommendation adds that nobody in Act 1 knows for sure, ends (VEL-63) (VEL-63: Act 1 hints, never states)
• Cast: the Halfway gate's Facet Pell is now Wren (Mark_wren), the Amber Row's glyph-giver Mott is now Nell (Act1_Halfway_Nell), and the Waymaker drover Pim is now Jory (Act1_Road_Jory, met.jory) (Pell, Mott and Pim are other people in Acts 2 and 3)

walkthrough-act-2.md

• Starting state: "is being written ... reconciles" now "was written ... has reconciled" (VEL-63 is done for this tab)
• Starting state: Brace now Aske hand over hand at the Sallowbank ferry (quest aske_brace, traces, doesn't cast), Mend now Sister Orla at Halfway (quest mend_lesson), both optional (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• Starting state: act1.done line says Act 1 sets it in scene 6.4 and that VEL-63 renamed everything that differed (VEL-63 flags)
• Act-wide systems: reputation moves in steps of 5; trust.tamsin/trust.rook renamed tamsin.trust/rook.trust, 0–5, never below 0 (VEL-63 flags)
• Act-wide systems: "the Shattered" -2 rep.facets and "Facets" -1 rep.wardens now -5 each (VEL-63: steps of 5)
• Order of play: route A Rook meets you at the Sand Gate, route B Tamsin meets you at the Far Gate (internal slip A/B: the caravan arrives by those gates)
• 0.1: "two weeks' walk" now "days away" (internal slip C: matched nothing on the map)
• 0.1: note that each guide meets the player at the gate the caravan comes in by (internal slip A/B)
• 0.2: Aske's Twinhold letter no longer promises she'll come back to Twinhold; now "Keep them out of your mending circles. You know why." (VEL-63: Aske never promises to go back)
• Chapter 1 intro and 1.1: route B arrival is the Far Gate; 1.1 renamed "At the gate" and covers both gates (internal slip A)
• 1.2: measure.facet +3 rep.choir, +2 rep.keepers now +5 each (VEL-63: steps of 5)
• 1.3: "gives a token" now "offers something" (internal slip L: Wardens and Dace give offers, not items)
• 1.3: Still Choir courting token is now 2 × still_water, not the reed collar (VEL-63 item map)
• 1.3: Dace offers the Waymaker side quests (Tailwind and Squall; side quests tab) (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 1.4: -1 trust.tamsin now -1 tamsin.trust; telling Pell +2 morality now +5 (VEL-63 flags, steps of 5)
• 1.5: Ondine pays 100 copper for the letter; asks after Aske as a commander after a captain who left (items tab letter pay; VEL-63: Aske served under Ondine)
• 1.6: Measure golem now Warden golem (warden_golem); the Corran shelf is seen through the inner door's ward, not in the antechamber (VEL-63 enemy map; internal slip M)
• 1.6: Yarn Act2_Vault_Drain renamed Act2_Vault_Grate (internal slip M: title was used twice, also in 5.3)
• 1.7: drill_spar enemy training_golem now warden_golem (VEL-63 enemy map)
• 2.1: item caravan_pass now caravan_seal (VEL-63 item map)
• 2.3: +3 rep.waymakers now +5 (VEL-63: steps of 5)
• 2.4: raiders are forsworn_mender and hollow_cut at 160 HP each; binding line "Your hands won't answer Coil." (never Repel); outlaws drop a little copper (VEL-63 enemy map, un-teaching vs bindings, currency rule 5)
• 2.5: kite glints now winged glints (winged_glint) with the bestiary's flying rule (Coil half in the air, Gale knocks down); Windglass Kite keeps its Gale-only airborne state (VEL-63 enemy map; bestiary owns behaviour)
• 2.6: Dace pays 120 copper (80 if a wagon was lost); Rook waits at the Sand Gate in A; Waymaker side quests give Tailwind (Dace, after the first job) and Squall (fragment_squall at the Endless Caravan's last camp) (VEL-63 currency and spell schedule; internal slip B)
• Chapter 3 intro and 3.1: route A arrival is the Sand Gate; 3.1 renamed "At the gate" and covers both gates (internal slip B)
• 3.2: item amber_circle now fragment_facet_seal_circle (VEL-63 item map)
• 3.3: lio.met now met.lio (twice); +1 trust.rook now rook.trust (VEL-63 flags)
• 3.4: Iver's hands carry the mark of one old seal and he retraced the one sealed glyph (VEL-63: a court seals one spell)
• 3.4: Iver gives sigil_pendant as the letter's gift instead of pay (items tab: Lanternfall pays in an item)
• 3.5: unbinder fee is 200 copper (items tab)
• 3.6: square half is "shown the way a reflected glyph is" within a split glyph; key item fragment_facet_seal_square added as its record (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 3.6: Corran shard is key item corran_half_wave (a low-wave half), flag item.corran_half_wave replaces item.corran_shard (VEL-63 item map, Pavilion Wake)
• Chapter 4 / 4.1: thread named Headwind; data headwind.json, 30 damage, 4 s stagger, 1,020 ms; flag composite.known.headwind; VFX and Spell Book text renamed (VEL-63 thread table)
• 5.1: "together for the first time since Halfway" scoped to route B (internal slip D)
• 5.1: declining one job sets its outcome to 2 and sends its news to 5.4; quests start only for jobs accepted (internal slip G)
• 5.1, 5.2a, OQ15: Fenn's "him"/"he" replaced with the name (VEL-63: Fenn has no stated gender)
• 5.2: Tamsin guards the menders' backs instead of fighting beside the player (internal slip K vs OQ12)
• 5.2: glint brood now glint brute (glint_brute, Shed at 66%/33%) in prose, content and art (VEL-63 enemy map)
• 5.2: the seal closes at dawn and the menders hold it three nights while it sets (internal slip F)
• 5.2: Ondine teaches Weigh hand over hand as the reward for guarding (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 5.2: +1 trust.tamsin / -1 trust.rook now tamsin.trust / rook.trust (VEL-63 flags)
• 5.3: When is "the second night of the mending", matching the timing note and quest text (internal slip E)
• 5.3: guards are two warden_golem (vault_golem_1, _2) and a warden_sentinel (vault_golem_3); the wards carry the "won't take the same spell twice in a row" rule (VEL-63 enemy map)
• 5.3: Tamsin is "back from the warp" for the night watch (internal slip E: she was at the warp at dawn)
• 5.3: Iver's crew find Weigh cut into the inner Vault wall, behind the shelves; <<learn_spell weigh>> (VEL-63 spell schedule: not on the inner door)
• 5.3: being caught now means held overnight and a Warden court seals the spell used next morning, never Repel; no instant seal (VEL-63 un-teaching rule)
• 5.3: item.corran_seal_seen renamed vault.corran_shelf_seen (VEL-63: item.* flags are for held items only)
• 5.3: trust.tamsin/trust.rook now tamsin.trust/rook.trust in the talk-down gate and the rep list (VEL-63 flags)
• 5.3a: stopping the boy -2 rep.facets now -5 (VEL-63: steps of 5)
• 5.4: Tamsin teaches Weigh as the player leaves Twinhold if neither job was taken; Yarn Act2_Tamsin_Weigh (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 6.1: Bloom removed; Root's field effect opens vine-locked doors; Wither is key item fragment_wither (item.fragment_wither) (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 6.1: bramble glint is strengthened by Coil, Mend and Root, matching the Encounters table (internal slip P)
• 6.2: Bramble shows Wellspring (Mend into Root) if the player knows both, flag composite.known.wellspring (VEL-63 thread table)
• 6.4: Wen's reward still_water_amulet (+100 ms) now reed_collar (+80 ms, items tab); Wen's letter +3 rep.facets now +5 (VEL-63 item map; steps of 5)
• Quests act2_twinhold: added stage leave (twinhold.stage >= 6) (internal slip H: 1.8 says the quest completes on leaving)
• Locations, Twinhold: asymmetry list now includes the Vault entry and the recruits' yard (internal slip N)
• Characters: Wen teaches Calm, Listen, Hush and Echo; Dace shows Tempest, Headwind in route B, Tailwind; Ondine teaches Weigh if guarded (internal slip O; VEL-63 spell schedule)
• Encounters: intro says the bestiary's numbers are used, and the enemies it is still adding keep first guesses (VEL-63 rule 4)
• Encounters: road_glints 3 glint at 14 HP / 5 dmg; drill_spar warden_golem 220 HP, Normal; road_raiders forsworn_mender + hollow_cut 160 HP, Facet Seal counter marked route B only (VEL-63 enemy map; internal slip J)
• Encounters: pass_kites_* winged_glint 50 HP flying; warp_brood glint_brute 220 HP; vault_golem_1/_2 warden_golem, vault_golem_3 warden_sentinel 450 HP (new row); tamsin_spar enemy id; practice counter "Headwind" (VEL-63 enemy map)
• Spells Gained: Repel into Gale row now Headwind; Weigh added (main, every path); Bloom removed; Wither shows fragment_wither; Squall and Tailwind split (Squall whole from fragment_squall, Tailwind taught by Dace; side quests tab); Facet Seal row names both fragment items (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• Spells Gained: threads Tempest, Bulwark, Thornshield, Wellspring added; paragraph now says Gale into Coil is Tempest and Coil into Facet Seal is Thornshield (VEL-63 thread table)
• Hooks: Lio's door rook.trust; Waymaker jobs give Tailwind then the Squall fragment; Corran shard named corran_half_wave and tied to Aske's hourglass half (VEL-63 flags, spell schedule, Pavilion Wake)
• Content and Code: Vault wards own the same-spell rule; flying vs airborne states split; data list adds weigh, drops bloom, composites headwind, thornshield, wellspring; creature and VFX lists renamed (VEL-63 enemy map and thread table)
• Open Questions 3: settled, Rook in route A, Dace in route B, both teach Headwind (VEL-63)
• Open Questions 5: settled, id headwind, shown as Headwind, flag composite.known.headwind (VEL-63)
• Open Questions 8: settled, -100 to 100, start 0, steps of 5; companion trust 0–5 (VEL-63)
• Open Questions 11: settled, only a Warden court after a crime seals the one spell used; the Vault court sits next morning (VEL-63)
• Continuity Notes: Act 1 sets act1.done in 6.4; the first Warden mending was unguarded, the night before the farm-door glints, and Ondine's is the second; Corran shard named corran_half_wave (VEL-63 story facts)
• 5.4 and Spells Gained: Tamsin teaches Weigh when the midpoint closes, wherever the player is (a route A player who declines both jobs may never return to Twinhold)
• Encounters: road_raiders counter is Drift (Bevel Lash ignores shields); storm_glint's Gale counter only on the Twinhold-first route; bramble_glint's Wither only after the stump is traced; echo_glint's counter is Calm (Hush is taught after it) (match the bestiary and the spell schedule)
• Cast: the glyph-hunter Bryn is now Rusk (too close to Brin, the Corran girl)
• Open question 4: recommends locking threads behind thread.taught until the 4.1 lesson, as Act 1 does (the two acts disagreed)

walkthrough-act-3.md

• Intro: "section 4 lists every flag" → "section 16" (wrong cross-reference)
• 1 (act at a glance): chapter 5 spells now Pavilion Wake (the Corran glyph) and Thaw (thread), cast at the Unstilling (VEL-63 renames Girdle Thaw / unstilling)
• 1 (act at a glance): added Girdle Gate (ch. 1) and Recall (ch. 2) as optional reflected glyphs (VEL-63 spell schedule puts them in Act 3)
• 1.1: act2.complete → act2.done = 1 (VEL-63 flag name)
• 1.2: the player goes upstream and asks Aske along; she doesn't offer, says yes too quickly (VEL-63 decision/Story Bible: she follows the player)
• 1.2: line "if the player says 'I'm coming'" → "'Come with me'" (player asks her, not the reverse)
• 1.2: aske.party → companion.aske (VEL-63 companion flags)
• 1.3: fallback flag item.corran_half_crescent → item.corran_half_wave, "crescent shard" → "wave shard" (VEL-63 item rename)
• 1.4: random encounters road_glints, road_winged_glints → sallow_road_glints, sallow_road_winged (Act 2 already uses road_glints)
• 1.4: added optional Girdle Gate (reflected, glass storm, Shardfield road) and the Bevel Lash triangle half past the Corran road (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 2.3: added optional Recall in Corran's clear glass at dawn, spell.learned.recall (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• 2.3: Aske's line "She was a captain then. So was I." → "She was my commander then." (VEL-63: Aske was a captain under Ondine)
• 2.4: corran_half_diamond → corran_half_hourglass, corran_half_crescent → corran_half_wave, "crescent" → "wave shard" (VEL-63 item ids)
• 2.5: slate shows "an hourglass and a wave" and names the glyph Pavilion Wake (VEL-63 glyph)
• 3.1: tamsin.party → companion.tamsin (VEL-63 companion flags)
• 3.2: hale.trust +1 only for keeping the hour, not on the writ route (makes the 3.4 trust check well defined)
• 3.4: Sallow warp ledger: first Warden mending, unguarded, tore it open the night before the farm door; Ondine's Act 2 mending recorded below it as the second (VEL-63 Sallow warp timeline)
• 3.4: records option 3 no longer "through Rook": the player carries the copy and gives it to Rook in 5.3 (Rook isn't there until 5.3)
• 3.4: option 4 needs hale.trust ≥ 1 (kept the hour or brought the shards), was ≥ 2 (unreachable with one +1)
• 3.4: handing Hale the hunters' shards gives hale.trust +1; added to the flags line (second trust source)
• 3.5: flags now set side.ringer.asked = 1 when Pim asks (the quest's startWhen flag was never set)
• 4.2: colossus phases rewritten to the bestiary's The Mass / The Crack / The Pull (sweep, chest crack and Warp Pulse, 40 s pull timer) (VEL-63 enemy map)
• 4.2: a glass figure cracks when The Pull's timer runs out, and the fight goes on; corran.cracked_figure set then (VEL-63: keep Act 3's consequence)
• 4.2: Hush counter marked "if learned in Act 2"; art note now chest-crack and pulling animation instead of plating and reaching (Hush never taught in Act 3; phases changed)
• 5.1: trace is Pavilion Wake, hourglass under the left thumb, wave under the right; girdle_thaw → pavilion_wake, spell.learned.pavilion_wake (VEL-63 glyph)
• 5.1: Aske asks for her shard back after the trace, item.corran_half_hourglass = 0 (so Brin can press it into her hand in 5.3 and Aske can give it to Hollis in 5.4)
• 5.2: thread is Thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake, cast at the same moment as Aske's Brace; <<prompt_cast unstilling>> → <<prompt_cast thaw>>; composite unstilling → thaw; VFX hourglass and wave (VEL-63 thread)
• 5.3: Brin presses the hourglass shard into Aske's held-out hand; if act3.records = 3 the player gives Rook the copy (shard custody; records option 3)
• 5.4: retitled "Aske stays the night"; she stays the night in Corran, won't stand with either side at the Pane, will keep a fire at the rim where both can sit, then home to the ferry (VEL-63 Aske)
• 5.4: wave at the bend removed, noted as moved to Act 4 (4.3) with the handcart; art note changed (VEL-63: wave moves to Act 4)
• 5.4: act3.complete → act3.done; aske.party/tamsin.party → companion.aske/companion.tamsin (VEL-63 flags)
• 6.2: fence sells stolen fragments for copper; beaten outlaws pay a little copper (VEL-63 currency and drops)
• 6.3: Tamsin is already in the archive on the fallen route and joins there, companion.tamsin = 1 (no scene set it on the fallen route)
• 6.4: "colossus fight starts at phase 2" → "at its second phase, The Crack" (bestiary phase names)
• 6.5: When line: quest appears at morality ≤ −20 (board in the den), deeds count until Clean; dropped "any time ≤ −10" (contradicted the same line and the den gate)
• 8 (quest act3): description and stages: go upstream, Aske comes with you; "Follow Aske to Corran" → "Go to Corran; Aske comes with you" (VEL-63 quest text)
• 8 (quest act3): startWhen act2.complete → act2.done; final stage act3.complete → act3.done; spell.learned.girdle_thaw → spell.learned.pavilion_wake (VEL-63 flags)
• 8 (long_way_up): stage texts now "one deed, plus one per 5 below −80" / 8 / 4 / two more, matching the > thresholds (old counts were a band off)
• 8 (long_way_up note): band bottoms given (−15, −35, −75) and the count formula fixed to floor((threshold − morality) / 5) + 1 (strict > made ceil one short)
• 9 (table): Crown Surge note: resurfaces at fresh warps, stolen copy at the Undermere fence for copper (VEL-63 schedule; currency)
• 9 (table): added Girdle Gate, Bevel Lash (triangle half, Act 2 or 3) and Recall rows (VEL-63 schedule)
• 9 (table): Girdle Thaw → Pavilion Wake (split); Unstilling composite → Thaw (thread); Hasten note "including Thaw" (VEL-63 names)
• 9 (Pavilion Wake): data block rewritten from the roadmap: hourglass left (corran_half_hourglass), low wave right (corran_half_wave), 30 mm, 1,000 ms, 25 damage, any shield, frees from stagger/slow/silence, double vs glass, field effect (VEL-63 glyph)
• 9 (Thaw): section rewritten: thaw, parts repel + pavilion_wake, #FFE08A, 1,360 ms (Hasten about 1,904 ms), 40 damage, 3 s stagger, every shield, every harmful effect, double vs glass, undoes a stilling; Aske's Brace at the same moment (VEL-63 thread)
• 9 (Thaw lore): "second named composite to mix sides, after Bulwark" → mixes sides like Bulwark and Thornshield (Thornshield is also a cross-side Act 2 thread)
• 9 (other threads): Bulwark suggested for The Crack, not the third phase; added Blight, Rebound, Deep Cut as roadmap threads found in Act 3 (colossus phases; VEL-63 thread list)
• 10: intro notes −100 to 100 in steps of 5 and 0–5 trust (VEL-63 reputation); checked every move is a step of 5
• 10 (table): "(Keepers)" → rep.keepers −5, "(leaders)" → rep.wardens −5, "Tamsin/Rook trust +1" → tamsin.trust/rook.trust +1 (VEL-63 flag names)
• 10 (table): "Let the colossus's reaching blow land" → "Let The Pull's timer run out (a glass figure cracks)", same −5; 5.3 row moved before 6.x rows (phases changed; table order)
• 11: deed counts from the bottom of each band: 2 / 4 / 8, plus one from −80 and one per 5 below (old 1/2/4/8 were a band off; totals 15 and 3 unchanged)
• 13: Aske row adds "stays the night in Corran" (VEL-63 Aske)
• 13 (Stilled): added the man halfway through a word (Abel) as the twelfth named Stilled (list had 11 names; he is in 2.2)
• 14 (intro): enemy ids, stats and behaviour follow the bestiary; encounter ids are the walkthrough's (VEL-63 rule 4)
• 14 (table): glints 40 → 14 HP, 5 every 4 s; winged glint 60 → 50 HP, dive every 3.5 s; brute adds Shed; encounter ids sallow_road_glints, sallow_road_winged (bestiary; VEL-63 rename)
• 14 (table): glyph-hunters ×3, bestiary stats (Bevel Lash 15 every 5 s ignoring shields, flee at 30%), counters Repel, Drift if learned in Act 2 (bestiary)
• 14 (table): hour_trial hour sentinel 320 → 500 HP, Toll 30 every 10 s, Hundred-Year Hour, mirrored resistance; Hush and Drift marked "if learned in Act 2" (VEL-63 map; Hush not taught in Act 3)
• 14 (table): corran_colossus 900 → 1,400 HP, The Mass / The Crack / The Pull, 24 every 7 s then 5 s, Warp Pulse, timer; counters per bestiary (VEL-63 map)
• 14 (table): Undermere duels and diggers are undermere_outlaw (300 HP, Bulwark or Tempest every 6 s); diggers ×2 as the digger kit, difficulty Hard (VEL-63 map; bestiary stats)
• 14 (code needs): enemy shields now the outlaws' Bulwark; added fleeing enemies; "attack aimed at scenery" → "timer aimed at scenery (The Pull)" (encounters changed)
• 15 (Crown Surge hook): after fading it resurfaces at fresh warps or as a stolen copy at the fence (VEL-63 schedule)
• 16: act2.complete → act2.done; item.corran_half_crescent → item.corran_half_wave (VEL-63 flags)
• 16: Brace row names quest aske_brace (optional); Bevel Lash split into its own row, late Act 2 or Act 3 (VEL-63 schedule)
• 16: added spell.learned.hush, spell.learned.drift row (Act 2 optional; read as "if learned in Act 2")
• 16: act2.mending_guarded, act2.vault_robbed → mending.outcome == 1, vault.outcome == 1; variant line tells the first mending's cracked ring from the second's stones (VEL-63 flags and timeline)
• 17: split glyphs "(Prism Snare, Pavilion Wake)"; <<prompt_cast unstilling>> → <<prompt_cast thaw>> (VEL-63 names)
• 18 Q1: settled Repel, thread Thaw (thaw), ending (VEL-63) (VEL-63 thread)
• 18 Q2: settled Brace, at the same moment as Thaw, her one cast, ending (VEL-63) (VEL-63 thread notes)
• 18 Q4: recommendation now Pavilion Wake (pavilion_wake), Girdle cut and house keep their names, ending (VEL-63) (VEL-63 glyph)
• 18 Q5: retitled Thaw breath (1,360 ms); Hasten gives about 1,904 ms; ending (VEL-63) (VEL-63 breath)
• 18 Q11: settled answer: stays the night in Corran, fire at the Pane rim in Act 4, neither side, then the ferry; wave moves to Act 4 (4.3), ending (VEL-63) (VEL-63 Aske)
• Section 15 encounters: duels at 200/250/300 HP and diggers at 120 HP with a digger kit (match the bestiary's outlaw scaling)
• 5.4: Tamsin and Rook's whereabouts set up Act 4 4.2 (Rook goes to Lanternfall that night; Tamsin returns with Ondine's letter)
• The twelve Stilled: the racing child Pell is now Pip and the cart-driver Hob is now Teg (Pell and Hob are Act 1 and Act 2 people)
• 3.4: stealing the Prism Snare half sets act3.stole_half (the side quest that returns it needs to know)
• 1.2: aske.trust −1 if either letter was opened in Act 2 (Act 2 promised the drop, Act 3 never applied it)

walkthrough-act-4.md

• Section 1: "being written at the same time … VEL-63 reconciles afterwards" now says the acts were reconciled and Act 4 starts where Act 3 leaves the player (the pass is done)
• Section 1: the Corran undoing is now Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake), and the Corran glyph is Pavilion Wake (pavilion_wake, split: Aske's hourglass half + the player's low-wave half, traced at the well) (VEL-63 spell schedule and threads)
• Section 1: Aske's one cast named as Brace across the warp at the Unstilling (VEL-63: her one cast)
• Section 1: Brace and Mend marked optional (Act 1); only Repel, Coil, Gale, Facet Seal are certain (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• Section 1 assumed flags: spell.learned.corran_glyph → spell.learned.pavilion_wake (VEL-63 id)
• Section 1 assumed flags: act3.done "stands in for Act 3's last quest stage" → "set by Act 3's last scene" (VEL-63 act-end flags)
• Section 1 assumed flags: rep.morality → morality; range −100..100, start 0, steps of 5 added (VEL-63 reputation)
• Section 1 assumed flags: new row rep.waymakers (read by 4.10's reward; VEL-63 faction standing)
• Section 1 assumed flags: act2.mending_guarded, act2.vault_stolen → mending.outcome == 1, vault.outcome == 1 (Act 2's own flags)
• Section 1 assumed flags: undermere.found = 1 → undermere.stage ≥ 1 (Act 3's flag)
• 4.1: Seli → Brin, Hollis's daughter from Act 3; Hollis added at the well; Yarn Act4_Corran_Seli → Act4_Corran_Brin; met.seli dropped since met.brin is set in Act 3; Brin and Hollis models reused from Act 3 (VEL-63: the Corran girl is Brin)
• 4.1: Brin now traces the Corran glyph with Hollis correcting her (not "the two halves", which Aske and the player already combined in Act 3) (Story Bible: halves found in Acts 2 and 3)
• 4.1: Aske "stayed the night in Corran and has not slept" (VEL-63: she stays the night at the end of Act 3)
• 4.2: send-off reversed now names the letters' addressees, Ondine and Iver (Act 2) (VEL-63 working assumption on the letters)
• 4.3: Aske sets off ahead with the handcart and waves at the first bend, the wave the Prologue didn't have; cutscene beat added to Content to make (VEL-63: the wave moves to Act 4 4.3)
• 4.4: picket gate is morality −20 or lower (Fallen) instead of rep.morality "below the gate threshold" (VEL-63 morality bands)
• 4.4: undermere.found = 1 → undermere.stage ≥ 1 (Act 3's flag)
• 4.4: undercrack_outlaws named as forsworn_mender then hollow_cut; "arriving at the rim sets it" made explicit as act4.stage = 2 (VEL-63 enemy map; ambiguous "it")
• 4.7: Pane rule cross-reference section 12 → section 7 (the Pane rule is in section 7)
• 4.8: the Culet cut no longer an Idea-new name; notes Culet is a Story Bible cut name (section 2); the gem-term gloss stays (Idea) (Culet is in the Story Bible)
• 4.10: side-quest reward "reputation with both sides and Waymaker standing" → one step of 5 each on rep.evane, rep.facets, rep.waymakers (Idea) (VEL-63 reputation ids and steps)
• End of chapter C: the stage-3 setter is now named: talking to Aske at her fire, Yarn Act4_Fire_Aske (missing setter)
• 4.11: lighting is night only at stage 3 (was "3 or 4"); Act4_Fire_Aske described as the stage-3 trigger, Act4_Fire_Night ends with Aske's word and sets stage 4, lighting turns to dawn (stage/lighting overlap)
• Section 10 Heart Pane states: day (stage 2), night (3), dawn (4), day from sunrise (5 on), replacing overlapping "day 2–3, night 3–4, dawn 4–5" (stage/lighting overlap)
• 4.14: Ondine path player stands "at the centre of the circle, inside the four stones" instead of "the circle's empty fifth place" (the circle has four stones)
• 4.15: says Tamsin can step out only on the Iver and Stop-both paths (both together only on Stop-both), and "whoever stepped out" gives a boon instead of "if both stepped out" (the Ondine-path boon could never happen otherwise)
• 4.17: "the Corran thread from Act 3" → Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake) (VEL-63 thread)
• 4.18: <<prompt_cast corran_glyph>> → <<prompt_cast pavilion_wake>> (VEL-63 id)
• 4.18: outcome reputation Mended rep.evane +20 / rep.facets −20, Shattered the reverse, Held +10 each, morality +5 if both stepped out (was +3/−3, +1, rep.morality +1) (VEL-63 outcome moves)
• 4.19 companions card, Mended: Tamsin's "if she stepped out" → "at tamsin.trust ≥ 3" (she can't step out on the Ondine path)
• 4.19 companions card, Mended: Rook's "if he stepped out / if not" → "at rook.trust ≥ 3 / otherwise" (on the Ondine path he always steps out, so the Undermere branch could never happen)
• 4.19 companions card, Shattered: Rook's "if he stepped out" → "at rook.trust ≥ 3" (on the Iver path he never steps out)
• 4.19 Ondine and Iver card: trial side quest cross-reference section 9 → section 15 (the hook is in section 15)
• Section 9 Reputation: names the tracks rep.evane, rep.facets, morality (VEL-63 ids)
• Section 9 Reputation: Even-handed needs both sides Trusted (25 or more) instead of "high" (VEL-63 standing bands)
• Section 11: Seli row → Brin (Idea), "Hollis's daughter, the Corran girl from Act 3"; line now "Mam says I was halfway through a word. She's going to make me finish it." (VEL-63 Brin; Act 3 has her say "Mam"; old line implied she didn't know the glyph)
• Section 11: Culet cutters marker "(Idea, new)" → "(Idea)" (Culet is in the Story Bible)
• Section 12: intro says HP follows the bestiary's totals and the bestiary wins on numbers (VEL-63 rule 4)
• Section 12: undercrack_outlaws enemies → forsworn_mender then hollow_cut, behaviour and counters re-worded to the bestiary's (Repel/Tally; Bevel Lash/Hoard) (VEL-63 enemy map; bestiary owns behaviour)
• Section 12: mirrored_chorus four voices × 100 (400) → × 350 (1,400); voice note 100 → 350 HP (VEL-63 finale HP)
• Section 12: iver_kest 260 → 700 HP; prelate_ondine 220 → 600 HP (VEL-63 finale HP)
• Section 13: First Pair notes add Brace optional, flag composite.known.first_pair, and that it replaces the roadmap's Stillhold (stillhold, Facet Seal into Linger) (VEL-63 threads)
• Section 13: cross-side thread row "the Corran thread" → Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake) (VEL-63 thread)
• Section 13: #FFFFFF noted as kept on purpose, a deliberate exception to the cross-side #FFE08A (VEL-63 First Pair)
• Section 14 New flags: met.seli row removed (met.brin is set in Act 3)
• Section 14 code needs: recognizer check for the First Pair's overlap with Thornshield at 0.55 (VEL-63 First Pair note)
• Section 15 hooks: "Seli's word" → "Brin's word": Hollis finishes Brin's lesson in the Corran glyph with the player tracing alongside; outcome decides whether Brin's hands take it (old hook had an unfound half, contradicting the Story Bible)
• Section 15 hooks: Fenn's chalk "his chalk marks" → "Fenn's chalk marks" (Fenn has no stated gender)
• Section 16 Q1: "the Corran glyph" in the Facet spell list → Pavilion Wake (VEL-63 id)
• Section 16 finale structure: settled, the finale follows this file on every tab (VEL-63) (VEL-63 finale)
• Section 16 First Pair: settled, replaces the roadmap's Stillhold and keeps #FFFFFF on purpose (VEL-63) (VEL-63 First Pair)
• Section 16 faction heads: Dace out and four voices settled (VEL-63); Wen and Hale flags marked still open (VEL-63 finale; VEL-63 does not name the flags)
• Section 16 new names: Seli and the Culet cut removed from the list; settled note that Brin is from Act 3 and Culet is a Story Bible cut name (VEL-63) (VEL-63 Brin; Story Bible section 2)
• 4.2: Rook comes back from Lanternfall and Tamsin brings or receives Ondine's letter depending on act3.records (Act 3 ends with Rook in Corran and Tamsin either with the player or in Twinhold)

bestiary.md

• Intro: a creature without (Idea) may now also be "placed by a walkthrough" (the new walkthrough enemies come from the acts, not Story Bible or VEL-51)
• Stats band table: damage bands made non-overlapping (Low 6–10, Mid 11–15, High 16–24) (labels like toad 10 "mid" and thorn warden 16 sat on two bands)
• Roster: VEL-66 list grows to 18 with hollow_cut (it now appears in Act 2's Long Road raid); reuse sentence lists the six Act 2 glint swaps, the Windglass Kite, Tamsin and the props; glass_storm dropped from the Prologue–Act 2 sentence (it is Act 3 now)
• Roster table: added tamsin_ring, windglass_kite, practice targets, tamsin_spar, bramble_glint, echo_glint, storm_glint, mirrored_chorus_ally, culet_cutter, iver_kest, prelate_ondine; removed ivers_shattering; glass_storm first act → Act 3; forsworn_mender/hollow_cut → Act 2 (Long Road); region fixes for glint_brute, winged_glint, glyph_hunter (walkthrough fights and VEL-63 enemy map)
• Roster: "36 entries" → "46 entries" with the new category counts (roster changes above)
• Regions intro: "each with 3–5 kinds of enemy plus its boss" → three regions have a boss, the others a set piece or none; walkthrough ids are used where a walkthrough places a fight, other fights are optional wild encounters (only three regions have bosses)
• Region 1 (the Sallow): riverbank_glints → road_glint, wyrm_rising → sallow_wyrm, sallowbank_warp → sallowbank_glints + sallowbank_brute; added ring_tamsin, Act 2 road_glints, warp_glints_1–_3, warp_brood, Act 3 sallow_glyph_hunters, sallow_road_glints, sallow_road_winged; ring_rank_* marked as the recurring ladder (VEL-63 encounter id map)
• Region 1: Brace and Mend marked optional; "dodge the boar's charge" → "stagger" (Drift is Act 2); the Ring named as the one place inside the truce stones where casting is allowed (VEL-63 spell schedule, Proving Ring fact)
• Region 1: note that the Act 2 menders at the warp are the casters the player guards, with no fight against the mending (lore fix; replaces mending_guard)
• Region 2 (Long Road): added road_raiders, pass_kites_1/_2, pass_windglass, thread_practice_dace; caravan_defence kept as Dace's recurring caravan-job fight (side activity, side-quests tab); roster adds windglass_kite, raiders; Gale learned on the ridge, Drift from Ness (Act 2 walkthrough)
• Region 3 (Twinhold/Greenvault): twinhold_drill → drill_spar; vault_break_in → vault_golem_1, _2 (warden_golem) + vault_golem_3 (warden_sentinel); added bramble_glint, tamsin_spar; removed mending_guard (moved to region 1 as warp_glints_* + warp_brood); added "The Vault's wards" rule (won't take the same spell twice in a row) (VEL-63 enemy map)
• Region 3: "Bevel Lash, Facet Seal or a Gale-led thread" reordered with Headwind named and Bevel Lash "if both halves are found" (Bevel Lash is Act 2 only if learned)
• Region 4: stair_sentinel → hour_trial at the bell court (scene 3.2, after Hale teaches Hasten, about 3 minutes); added echo_glint (Act 3 walkthrough id; Act 2 6.4 fight)
• Region 5 (Shardfield): glass_storm Act 2 set piece replaced by storm_glint; the square half of Facet Seal shows on a standing shard in the field, not in a battle; glass_storm row moved to Acts 3–4 with no glyph; added thread_practice_rook (VEL-63: storm glint is the Act 2 storm fight)
• Region 6 (Corran): colossus → corran_colossus; Sallowbank lead-in now names sallowbank_glints, sallowbank_brute (VEL-63 id map)
• Region 7 (Undermere): outlaw_duel → undermere_duel_1, _2, _3 (Evane, Facet, thread kits); added undermere_diggers; outlaw_band → undercrack_outlaws (Act 4 scene 4.4); "un-taught Wardens" → forsworn menders; "coin" → "a little copper" (VEL-63 id map, currency)
• Region 8 (Heart Pane): chorus/shattering → pane_chorus_break, pane_chorus_guard, pane_shatter_stop, pane_shatter_join; added inner_glints (Act 4 encounter ids)
• "The finale and the open ending": rewritten to Act 4's two phases on every path, with a path → encounter table, the hold as a no-enemy field cast, the Pane gauge and the loss rule (VEL-63 finale)
• "How difficulty climbs": Act 1 tools marked optional; Act 2 row set to the VEL-63 schedule (Gale, Facet Seal, Weigh main; optional set; Tailwind, Squall side; Bevel Lash only if both halves; threads Headwind, Tempest, Bulwark, Thornshield, Wellspring); Act 3 row (Linger, Hasten, Pavilion Wake main; Crown Surge fades; Toll, Recall, Prism Snare, Girdle Gate optional; Thaw, Blight, Rebound, Deep Cut); Act 4 "no new spell, only the First Pair"; typical ranges widened for the new easy fights (VEL-63 spell schedule)
• Glint: counters gate Squall/Wither to Act 2; drops quicksilver_bead → glint_quicksilver, coin removed, still-water amulet tie removed; Where lists road_glint, road_glints, warp_glints_*, sallowbank_glints, sallow_road_glints (drop map, id map)
• Dust/frost/shard/stilled/roof glints: drops mapped to glint_quicksilver/mirror_grit; shard glint's Bevel Lash moved last and gated "once both halves are found"; shard glint Where adds inner_glints (drop map, spell schedule)
• Glint_brute: region adds the Sallow warp; counters now Repel, Gale, Headwind, Brace/Facet Seal, Tailwind into Bevel Lash "later"; drops glint_quicksilver x3, mirror_grit, no coin; Where names warp_brood (Act 2's glint brood), caravan_defence, sallowbank_brute (VEL-63 enemy map, drop map)
• Winged_glint: region adds the Sallow (Act 3); drops mapped; Where names pass_kites_1/_2 (Act 2's kite glints), sallow_road_winged, and drops the mending guard (VEL-63 enemy map)
• New entry windglass_kite (Long Road boss: 180 HP, 15 every 5 s, airborne until Gale, grounded 4 s) (Act 2 walkthrough pass_windglass)
• New entry storm_glint (Act 2 storm set piece: 200 HP, 18 every 7 s, 22 volley every third attack that Facet Seal takes) (Act 2 walkthrough scene 3.6)
• New entry bramble_glint (Greenvault: 150 HP, healed by Coil, Mend and Root; Gale and Repel first, Wither's fragment is on its stump) (Act 2 walkthrough scene 6.1)
• New entry echo_glint (Hushfold: 120 HP, recasts the player's last spell; Calm and timing, since Hush is taught after the fight) (Act 2 walkthrough scene 6.4)
• Glint_colossus: The Pull's timer running out now lands the reaching blow and cracks one Stilled figure (rep.facets −5, corran.cracked_figure) and the fight goes on, not a loss; Repel/Bulwark turn the blow; Prism Snare stops re-plating; damage label boss → high; drops glint_quicksilver x10, no coin; post-fight scene now Pavilion Wake (corran_half_hourglass + corran_half_wave) and Thaw with Aske's Brace; Where names corran_colossus and the shortened/skipped phase 1 hooks (Lead note, VEL-63 spell/thread names)
• Ring_golem: Act 1 counters now Brace and Repel's stagger (Facet Seal and Bevel Lash only on a later return); drops "coin and ring_token" → none, the Ring pays a ladder place and standing; Where names ring_rank_1–_3 as a recurring activity (spell schedule, drop map)
• New entry "Practice targets" cut_glass_dummy, sail_dummy (100 HP, no attack, Headwind lesson, canLose: false) (Act 2 walkthrough scene 4.1)
• Warden_golem: Prism Snare removed; counters Gale/Squall, Headwind, Facet Seal, Bevel Lash if found, Tally, plus the Vault wards rule; drops measure_silver → evane_silver (Vault only), coin removed; Where names drill_spar, vault_golem_1, _2 (Act 2's Measure golem) (spell schedule, VEL-63 enemy map)
• Warden_sentinel: Prism Snare moved to "from Act 3"; added Gale/Headwind, Facet Seal (risks the alarm), Vault wards rule; drops evane_silver x3, sentinel_glyph now "a sealed glyph from the Vault's shelves", coin removed; Where names vault_golem_3 (spell schedule, drop map, "Wardens carry no fragments" fix)
• Thorn_warden: Bevel Lash gated "if both halves are found"; drops living_vine, violet_blossom → evane_silver x2, coin removed; "overworld spell Bloom" → Root's field effect, no Bloom spell (VEL-63 drop map, Bloom folded into Root)
• Hushed_one: Hasten moved to "From Act 3"; drops still_veil → evane_silver, coin removed (spell schedule, drop map)
• Hour_sentinel: counters now Linger (seventh bell frame), Hush (silences the bell, cancels the Hundred-Year Hour), Brace, Drift, Hasten (Hale, before the trial); Prism Snare removed (not whole before Corran); drops hour_brass → evane_silver, bell_shard → marble_chips, coin removed; Where → the bell court, hour_trial (spell schedule, Act 3 walkthrough)
• Shard_sentinel: drops amber_seam → raw_amber, sky_pane → mirror_grit (drop map)
• Warden_menders: Binding text "Your hands have forgotten …" → "Your hands won't answer …", wears off, can never bind Repel; Prism Snare gated to Act 3; drops coin + mender_band → evane_silver; "Wardens don't carry fragments" explained (the Vault keeps every glyph); removed the Act 2 "enemies if they stop the mending" line (menders are the casters the player guards); added Act 4 stand-in role (VEL-63 bindings fact, drop map, Act 2/Act 4 walkthroughs)
• Lamplighter: Bevel Lash gated "if both halves are found"; drops coin + amber_wick → facet_token, raw_amber (drop map, humans drop a valuable)
• Wildlife intro: glass_splinter → mirror_grit, bought by Sister Orla, the Tender healer at Halfway (drop map, VEL-63 names)
• Mirebelly_toad (Act 1): Wither counter → Coil at full strength, Wither "from Act 2"; damage label mid → low; drops → mirror_grit x2, river_reeds (spell schedule, band fix, drop map)
• Shardback_boar, gale_hound, glasshorn_stag, shardshell_crab, echo_owl: drops mapped to mirror_grit (stag's rare coin removed); crab's Bevel Lash moved last and gated; hound Where names caravan_defence (drop map, spell schedule)
• Reflections intro: the mirror double is the exception to Glass rule 1 (it copies mirrored spells) (internal contradiction)
• Drowned_chorister: damage label "low" → "mid in total, low per tick"; drop drowned_hymn → hymn_page (key item for Tobin's side quest), which also ends the clash with the drowned_hymn encounter id (VEL-63 drop map)
• Sky_shoal: drops sky_pane, quicksilver_bead → mirror_grit, glint_quicksilver (drop map)
• Mirror_double: parallel spells now fizzle like asymmetric ones (a mirror never shows parallel hands, Story Bible section 1); only mirrored spells are copied; a thread copies only its mirrored half (Story Bible section 1 contradiction)
• Hazard: the glass storm: new intro (Act 2 storm is a field set piece then storm_glint; from Act 3 the storm is a hazard boss with no glyph); glass_storm loses its reflected-glyph Eye and "square half" drop; counters use Facet Seal (whole since Act 2) and Linger (Act 3); damage/speed labels fixed (low then high; fast then normal); drops → mirror_grit x5; Where → Acts 3–4 (VEL-63: storm_glint is Act 2's storm fight)
• Glyph_hunter: region adds the Sallow warp (Act 3); Pick steals copper; adds the Act 3 Facet Seal (22 every 15 s); Prism Snare gated to Act 3; drops coin → facet_token; "Iver's people widened the Sallow warp" → Facet glyph-hunters widened the crack (some sold to Rook), then an unguarded Warden mending tore it open; Where names sallow_glyph_hunters (VEL-63 Sallow warp fact, Act 3 walkthrough)
• Forsworn_mender: region and first act → Long Road (Act 2) + Undermere; backstory "un-taught" → sealed by a court for one spell (Repel never goes) or fled; Sell the Seal uses "Your hands won't answer …", never Repel; new Long Road kit (160 HP, Repel and Brace, telegraphed) with its own data line; damage label mid → low; drops coin + cut_band + sealed Warden fragment → a little copper + evane_silver, no fragment; Where names road_raiders, forsworn_toll, undercrack_outlaws (VEL-63 enemy map, un-teaching fact, drop map)
• Hollow_cut: region and first act → Long Road (Act 2) + Undermere; new Long Road kit (160 HP, Bevel Lash only, telegraphed) with data line; counters say its Lash ignores shields (Drift, Repel interrupt); drops coin → a little copper; Where names road_raiders, hoard_raid, undercrack_outlaws; model note now asks VEL-66 for its sheet (VEL-63 enemy map)
• Undermere_outlaw: added kit scaling (duel 1 Evane kit 200 HP, duel 2 Facet kit 250 HP, duel 3 thread kit 300 HP) and a digger kit (picks and thrown quicksilver, 10 every 5 s, no threads, 120 HP, Coil/Gale) with data lines; drops coin → a little copper; Where names undermere_duel_1–_3 and undermere_diggers (Lead note, Act 3 walkthrough)
• New section "Named opponents" with tamsin_ring (100 HP, 10 every 5 s, Act 1 Ring), tamsin_spar (140 HP, Repel and Brace, losing = capture), culet_cutter (70 HP, 9 every 5 s at the chorus), mirrored_chorus_ally (300 HP ally); Iver and Ondine pointed to Bosses (VEL-63 finale numbers, Act 1/2/4 walkthroughs)
• Sallow_wyrm: drops coin removed, wyrm_plate granted once, Sister Orla named, Harl's still_water_locket (25 copper) added; Where notes Act 1 now uses this design (600 HP, plates instead of guard 0.25, three phases, 120 XP) and encounter sallow_wyrm (VEL-63 enemy map, item map)
• Mirrored_chorus: rewritten to Act 4's design: four voices (Tamsin, Bramble, Hale, Wen; Dace refuses; Ondine conducts, untargetable), 4 × 350 = 1,400 HP, beat every 6 s for 10 and gauge 8 towards Still, the four voice abilities and answers from Act 4 4.14, sing-over, the Pane rule, mender stand-ins; Where → pane_chorus_break (VEL-63 finale)
• ivers_shattering replaced by iver_kest (700 HP, cut every 5 s with cracks, Bevel Lash 18 every 6 s, Crown Surge then a 40 cut, faster at half HP, companion boons; Where pane_shatter_stop) (VEL-63 finale)
• New entry prelate_ondine (600 HP; mirrored ward ×0.25, Measure throw-back, stagger every 8 s, allied cuts; ward breaks at gauge +100; Where pane_shatter_join) (VEL-63 finale)
• What the code would need: Bevel Lash note moved to Act 2; added enemy cast telegraphs (Act 1), airborne, protect objective, recast-last-spell, effect-type weakness, Vault immunity (Act 2), bindings "never Repel"; removed the mid-battle reflected glyph; Act 3 timer now aims a blow at scenery; Act 4 now voices, ally HP bar, Pane gauge and cracks, and the hold as a field cast instead of a scripted finishing thread (new fights and finale)
• Open questions, Keeper and Still Choir colours: note added that the roadmap gives Keeper spells #FF8FA3 and Still Choir #E4ECFF, so the hour sentinel's #C9A44C no longer matches (roadmap owns spell colours)
• Open questions, the finale and the ending: settled to Act 4's structure (VEL-63) (VEL-63 finale)
• Open questions, Tobin and the Drowned Choir: settled yes, choristers drop hymn_page for Tobin's side quest (VEL-63) (VEL-63 drop map)
• Open questions, drops and items: settled, done, with the catalogue ids, key items, ring_token gone and the copper rule (VEL-63) (VEL-63 drop map)
• Named opponents: the six Ring Card challengers from the Side Quests tab's Proving Ring ladder (ids, encounters, HP and kits), so every ladder bout has a bestiary entry

spell-roadmap.md

• Intro: "26 spells ... eleven named threads" → 27 spells (20 Evane, 6 Facet, the Corran glyph) and ten named threads, Knell on hold and not counted (the old count was ambiguous and counted Knell)
• At a glance, act table: Bevel Lash moved from the Act 2 row to the Act 3 row ("sometimes late Act 2"); Knell marked on hold; Act 4 thread Stillhold → the First Pair; added a totals line (2 + 2 + 14 + 9 = 27 spells, 10 threads) (VEL-63 schedule; Bevel Lash is usually whole in Act 3)
• The difficulty curve: Bevel Lash moved from the Act 2 Lanternfall row to the Act 3 row; "faction visits" row renamed "faction visits and the midpoint" (Weigh comes from the midpoint); climax row marks Knell on hold; Act 4 row Stillhold 1,360 ms → the First Pair 1,190 ms (VEL-63 threads)
• Hasten paragraph: Hasten is taught by Hale before the hour trial on the main path (fallen road: stolen fragment at the Undermere fence), so every player has it before Thaw and Deep Cut (fixes "Hasten optional but Thaw needs its breath")
• Main path paragraph: rewritten: Repel, Coil, Gale, Headwind, Facet Seal, Hasten, Pavilion Wake, Thaw; Brace and Mend optional; Recall dropped (now optional); Linger noted as on the way with the trial built around it; Stillhold → the First Pair, shown to every player, learned if Brace and Facet Seal are known (Thaw is now Repel into Pavilion Wake, which fixes "Thaw needs Brace but Brace isn't required")
• Brace: Learned Tamsin at Halfway → Aske, hand over hand at the Sallowbank ferry (quest aske_brace), she traces without casting, optional but recommended; Act 1 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule; Act 1 walkthrough owns the scene)
• Tally: glyph kind taught → whole; Learned → whole glyph on the drill stone in the Twinhold recruits' yard after the Wardens' offer; Act 2 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Weigh: Field no longer opens the Measure Vault's inner door (the Vault's wards open to a mirrored draw, per Act 2); Learned robbed route → found by Iver's crew cut inside the Vault, not on the inner door; added "every player leaves Act 2 with Weigh" (fixes Weigh's circularity; VEL-63 schedule)
• Mend: Learned unnamed healer → Sister Orla at her Pale Row stall, quest mend_lesson, optional; Act 1 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Wither: glyph kind taught → whole; Learned Mother Bramble → whole glyph on a dead stump on Greenvault's decay terrace (key item fragment_wither) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Root: Learned "vine roof of the hall" → a whole glyph cut in a living vine; field line says there is no Bloom spell (VEL-63 schedule)
• Recall: the five-person-seal Keepers line marked (Idea) with a note that the Story Bible doesn't say who stood in the seal; Act 3 → Act 3 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule; lore not in Story Bible)
• Toll: glyph kind whole → taught; Learned bell lip → Old Pim at the third bell after the bell-ringing errand; Act 3 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Linger: Learned sundial at the top of the stair → whole glyph cut into the seventh bell's frame; "on the main path" → on the way up, the hour trial is built around it (VEL-63 schedule; Act 3 says not main line)
• Hasten: Learned "after reading the sealed records" → Hale hand over hand before the hour trial; fallen road a stolen fragment from the Undermere fence; Act 3 (main path) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Hush: Learned → Wen hand over hand, in signs, after the echo glint fight (VEL-63 schedule)
• Calm: Learned "the monks of the abbey" → Wen at the listening stone (VEL-63 schedule)
• Echo: glyph kind reflected → taught; Learned still pool → Wen hand over hand with Hush after the echo glint fight (VEL-63 schedule: taught, not reflected)
• Listen: glyph kind whole → taught; Learned the never-rung bell → Wen at the listening stone (VEL-63 schedule)
• Gale: Learned adds the windmill ridge (VEL-63 schedule)
• Drift: glyph kind whole → taught; Learned waystone → Ness at the Long Road camp for the three lost ribbons; Act 2 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Tailwind: Learned points at the side quests tab (VEL-63 schedule)
• Squall: Learned storm shrine → sail-patch fragment (fragment_squall) at the Endless Caravan's last known camp, Waymaker side quest (VEL-63 schedule)
• Facet Seal: Learned → circle given by Rook at the Giving Steps (fragment_facet_seal_circle); square on one standing shard shown only while the glass storm blows (fragment_facet_seal_square is its record) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Table Mend: Learned "any Facet" → a Facet healer in Lanternfall's healers' lane, to anyone who asks; Act 2 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Bevel Lash: Learned halves swapped and moved: line in the Vault haul or near Lanternfall, triangle deep in the Shardfield past the Corran road, usually whole in Act 3; Act → Act 2–3 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Prism Snare: Learned glass-cutter's shop + Rook's courier → square in the Girdle house (prism_snare_half_square), triangle on the Keepers' confiscated shelf (prism_snare_half_triangle); Act 3 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Girdle Gate: Act 3 → Act 3 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Crown Surge: Learned "fresh warp near Sallowbank, fades in days" → lip of the Sallow warp, fades at act3.stage 10, resurfaces at fresh warps (glyph hunts), stolen copy at the Undermere fence; Act 3 (optional) (VEL-63 schedule)
• Pavilion Wake: Learned names the halves (hourglass = Aske's shard corran_half_hourglass, wave = corran_half_wave), the well, flag spell.learned.pavilion_wake, and that it replaces girdle_thaw / corran_glyph; Field names Thaw's parts (VEL-63 schedule)
• Composites, Headwind: Discovered "whoever the player meets first" → scene 4.1, Rook in Lanternfall (route A) or Dace at the wind-pass summit (route B) (VEL-63 threads)
• Composites, Thornshield: look-alike "Brace into Facet Seal" → "The First Pair (Brace into Facet Seal)" (that chain is now a named thread)
• Composites, Knell: added "not counted as a named thread until C2 is fixed" (VEL-63 threads)
• Composites, Thaw: Brace into Pavilion Wake → Repel into Pavilion Wake; effect adds 3 s stagger; breath 1,360 ms kept (0.85 × 1,600); Discovered names the Unstilling, why Repel, and Aske's Brace cast; look-alike → "Not checked yet (Repel into Pavilion Wake is new)" (VEL-63 threads; replaces Act 3's unstilling)
• Composites: Stillhold row replaced by the First Pair (Brace into Facet Seal, shield 40 + reflect next attack within 4 s, 1,190 ms, #FFFFFF, Act 4 scene 4.12, look-alike Thornshield 0.55 needing a recognizer check) (VEL-63 threads)
• Composites notes: cross-side colour note drops Stillhold and explains the First Pair's #FFFFFF exception; new note on the First Pair / Thornshield 0.55 overlap (VEL-63 threads)
• Changes from the Spell Set tab: new-spells bullet explains the 20 + 6 + 1 = 27 count; new Echo bullet (14 → 12 mm; still taught by Wen); Brace bullet → Aske at the ferry, settled; Acts bullet → Bevel Lash usually Act 3 (Echo change was missing; Brace settled)
• What the code would need: Reflect adds the First Pair (new thread reflects)
• Open question 4 (Brace's teacher): recommendation → Aske at the Sallowbank ferry, traces without casting; "Settled as Aske (VEL-63)" (VEL-63 decision)
• Open question 8 (Crown Surge): recommendation updated to the VEL-63 fade/resurface/fence route, marked (VEL-63) (VEL-63 schedule settles it)
• Open question 9 (Corran glyph's name): recommendation adds pavilion_wake, replaces "Girdle Thaw", Girdle cut/house keep their names, marked (VEL-63) (VEL-63 schedule settles it)
• Composites, Tempest: Discovered "the Long Road wind pass during the caravan defence; Dace shows it" → "after the thread lesson: Dace names it the first time the player threads Gale into Coil (or shows it on the Long Road if threading is already taught)" (Lead note: no thread before the scene 4.1 lesson)
• Composites, Bulwark: Discovered → "Rook shows it once Facet Seal is whole and threading is taught" (Lead note: no thread before the lesson)
• Weigh: third route "Tamsin teaches it as the player leaves Twinhold" → "Otherwise Tamsin teaches it hand over hand when the midpoint closes, wherever the player is" (Lead note)

items-and-economy.md

• Intro, rule 1: "No shop ... ever sells a glyph fragment" → "No honest shop"; added the Undermere fence as the one exception, outside the law, and the fragments still have to be traced (the Act 3 fence sells stolen fragments)
• 1. Currency: "Halfway copper is the coin both sides accept" → "the money both sides accept" (VEL-63: never "coin" as a currency name)
• 1. Where copper comes from, side quests: added a pointer to the side quests tab (side-quests.md) (quests and rewards now live there)
• 1. Where copper comes from, letters: "an item, not coin" → "not copper"; "The Warden pays ... the Facet gives" → "Ondine pays ... Iver gives" (VEL-63 currency word; VEL-63 letter recipients)
• 1. Where copper comes from, selling: "Glints carry no coin" → "no copper" (VEL-63 currency word)
• 1. battle-pay paragraph: glints, golems, constructs and wildlife pay materials, never copper; humans who yield drop a Silver Measure / Glass Token, outlaws a little copper (VEL-63 rule 5)
• 1. Where copper goes, unbinder: 200 → "200 (150 with Rook's Sigil Chit)" (the chit now has a real use)
• 2. Key items, glyph fragments: added that stolen copies from the Undermere fence are the one item for a taught or warp-born glyph (fence stock needs items)
• 2. Key items, seals and passes: "open a place or a service" → "or change its price" (the chit lowers prices, opens nothing)
• 3.1 Breath Tonic row: added Twinhold (shop row: Hall of Measure outfitter sells it)
• 3.1 Herb Salve row: added Halfway Evane Row (the Tender's Stall) and Greenvault (shop rows sell it there)
• 3.1 Eel Pie row: added the Long Road (shop row: caravan quartermaster sells it)
• 3.2 Still-Water Locket row: added Harl setting the Wyrm Plate into one for 25 copper in Act 1 (VEL-63 item map for still_water_amulet)
• 3.2 Reed Collar row: added Choirmistress Wen's reward, Act 2 (VEL-63 item map)
• 3.3 Mirror Grit row: source → glints, other glass creatures and wildlife, the Shardfield (VEL-63 maps the bestiary's placeholder drops to mirror_grit)
• 3.4 Letter to Twinhold / Letter to Lanternfall rows: recipients → Prelate Ondine / Iver, marked as the working assumption (VEL-63 letters)
• 3.4 Wither Fragment row: flavour and source → the dead stump on Greenvault's decay terrace (VEL-63 schedule)
• 3.4 Squall Fragment row: flavour, source and icon → sail-patch from the Endless Caravan's last known camp, Waymaker side quest, lightning-bolt mark instead of two peaks (VEL-63 schedule; Squall is now a bolt in the roadmap)
• 3.4 corran_half_glyph "Broken Glyph Tile" → corran_half_wave "Corran Shard: the Wave", the right-thumb half of Pavilion Wake, completes Aske's shard in Act 3; flavour and icon brief now a shard with a wave (VEL-63 item map)
• 3.4 Rook's Sigil Chit row: flavour drops "Lanternfall doors open for it"; effect → unbinder 150 instead of 200 and Facet Row prices one standing band better (chosen over cutting it: Lanternfall never refuses anyone, so a door-opening chit did nothing)
• New 3.6 "Key and quest items the walkthroughs add": table (name, id, from, act, use) for wyrm_plate, sentinel_glyph, seed_charm, hale_note, waymaker_ribbon, waymaker_ribbon_worn, vault_map, wen_letter, corran_half_hourglass, prism_snare_half_square, prism_snare_half_triangle, colossus_heart, hymn_page, fragment_hasten, fragment_crown_surge, letter_ondine, letter_iver, rope, lamp_oil, dry_boots, twinhold_road_map, and unique gear amber_goggles (Charm: learning bar 50% for split glyphs, independent sync grace +20 ms) and split_glyph_band (band: counts as Evane and Facet, so Even-handed; threads +40 ms breath); outside the 48-item icon sheets for now (VEL-63 item map; waymaker_ribbon_worn and the two stolen fragments added because Act 2 and the fence need them)
• 4. heading: "Shops: Acts 1–2" → "Shops: Acts 1–2 and the Undermere" (new Act 3 fence subsection)
• 4. Halfway, the Tender's Stall: unnamed healer → Sister Orla teaches Mend for a small job (quest mend_lesson) (VEL-63 schedule)
• 4. Sallowbank: "No shops" reworded → no shops and no shop screens; two neighbours, Marra and Tobin, sell from the door in conversation (removes the "no shops but they sell" contradiction)
• 4. Act 2, unbinder row: added "or 150 with Rook's Sigil Chit" (chit use)
• 4. Standing and service outside Halfway: names the track rep.evane; adds that the chit opens no door and only lowers prices (VEL-63 track names; chit reconciled with "Lanternfall never refuses anyone")
• 4. new "Act 3: the Undermere fence": Vey's fence in Mott's den, fallen players only, shop id undermere_fence; stolen fragments of Hasten and Crown Surge at 300 copper each (first guess), Mend Tonic, Herb Salve and Amber Cordial at catalogue +50% (VEL-63 schedule: fence sells stolen Hasten and Crown Surge)
• 5. Uniques bullet: added the Amber Goggles and the Split Glyph Band (new unique gear)
• 6. price table: added a track-value column with the VEL-63 bands (Trusted 25 or more, Neutral −24 to 24, Distrusted −25 to −59, Shunned −60 or less) and track names rep.evane / rep.facets; note on range −100 to 100, start 0, steps of 5, and the chit's one-band bonus (VEL-63 standing bands)
• 9. Open question "One currency": recommendation added, one currency copper, (VEL-63) (VEL-63 rule 5)
• 9. Open question "no glyph for sale, including the Undermere": recommendation added, no honest shop; the fence is the one exception (VEL-63) (VEL-63 schedule)
• 9. Open question "Who are the letters addressed to?": recommendation added, Ondine and Iver as the working assumption until the Story Bible settles it (VEL-63) (VEL-63 letters)
• Section 4, Halfway: rows renamed the Pale Row and the Amber Row and the Middle Market, and the stalls named and keepered as Act 1 has them (Hob's Sundries, Sister Orla's Remedies, Harl, the Measure Post, Quill's Cut Glass, Mott's table, the token-changer); Hob keeps the Market Board and sells the Copper Band (two tabs named the same market differently)
• Catalogue: Sigil Pendant also sold at Quill's Cut Glass in Halfway (Act 1 sells it there for the sigil hook)
• Halfway: Mott's table is Nell's table (Act 1's glyph-giver was renamed; Mott is Act 3's Undermere door)
• 3.6: points at the Side Quests tab for the quest props its quests add (one list, not two)

screens.md

• Shop: copper instead of coins; Buy, Sell and Buy back tabs; prices after the standing modifier on the Pale and Amber Rows; commissions show their materials; <<open_shop id>>; no "Bag full" state, since overflow is sold (the Items and Economy tab's shop and satchel rules)
• Pause: tiles named Journal, Map, Spell book and Inventory everywhere, plus a Standing tile (four labels for two screens before)
• Spell book: faction filter chips, the 27-spell count, a "Half found" state for split glyphs, a sealed state, threads listed by name and parts (the spell roadmap and Act 2's half-found Facet Seal)
• Spell practice and learning: the sealed ("Your hands have forgotten …") and bound ("Your hands won't answer …") fizzle reasons; split glyphs show one fragment per thumb (Story Bible un-teaching; bestiary bindings)
• Inventory: chips are the items tab's four categories; purse in copper; Trace for fragments; use reasons follow the items tab (belt, before battle, at a fragment)
• Letters and documents: Break the seal behind a Confirm dialog; writes letter.*.opened (the items tab and Act 2 already assume the seals can be broken)
• Battle HUD: variants the walkthroughs need (plated shield bar, wagon bar, storm timer, fight timer, Pane gauge, ally bar)
• Battle results and section 4: battles pay XP and drops, never copper; the coins encounter field is gone (the items tab's rule)
• New section 11: Standing, Notice boards (Truce Board, Market Board, bulletin boards, caravan board, Ring Card), Cutscene, Measuring card, Epilogue cards, and variants of Dialogue, Field-cast, Map and Toasts (screens the walkthroughs list that the spec lacked)
• New section 12: a table mapping every screen name the walkthroughs use to a screen in the spec (VEL-63 comment 12183: check every "Screens used" is covered)
• Open questions: renumbered as section 13; 8 (Market) answered by Notice boards and 15 (sealed letters) by the items tab, both "(VEL-63)"; "independent spells" now "asymmetric spells" (the Story Bible's word)

side-quests.md

• New tab: 58 side quests across the Bestiary's eight regions (7 or 8 per region, Corran 5 plus its twelve woken errands), the Proving Ring ladder, caravan jobs and warp-born glyph hunts. Quests a walkthrough already specified keep their ids and point at their scene (the ticket's part 2).