Chapter 5: The Midpoint Choice

Prelate Ondine asks the player to guard a mending at the Sallow warp. Iver the Cutter asks the player to steal glyphs from the Measure Vault in Twinhold. The player can do either, both or neither, and each moves reputation with each side.

(Idea) Timing: the mending takes three nights. The circle forms at dawn on the first day, and the menders then hold the seal at the warp for three nights while it sets. With most of the Hall's menders away, the Vault is thinly guarded on those nights, which is why Iver wants it done then. So both is possible in one order only: guard the circle at dawn, then ride back for the Vault on the second night (Long Road caravans and the Halfway roads make it a day's travel with the ribbon). Neither is a real choice with real costs: both jobs happen without the player, and both go worse.

The warp widens

• Where: whichever court the player is in when the second letter is delivered and threading is learned: Twinhold (route B) or Lanternfall (route A); the news arrives at the city gate (marker Event_news).
• When: letter.twinhold == 2, letter.lanternfall == 2 and thread.taught != 0. Sets midpoint.open 1.
• Who: Tamsin and Rook (in route B, together for the first time since Halfway; in route A they have been together since Lanternfall); a Sallowbank message carried by Fenn (Idea), who walked to Halfway with a Waymaker caravan.
• What happens: the Sallow warp, upstream of the player's farm, has widened: glints on the river every night, the Drowned Steps' top stair gone mirror-bright. Ondine is marching menders to it. Fenn has a message from Aske, who won't come: "Tell them to stand further back than they think." Tamsin brings Ondine's formal request (guard the circle at dawn in three days). Rook brings Iver's (the Vault, the second night). Each knows what the other is carrying. They argue in front of the player, briefly and honestly, each right about one danger: Tamsin about the glints reaching Sallowbank, Rook about what the Vault keeps from people. If the player already said yes to either offer, this is the moment it becomes real.
• Player does: talk; accept or decline each job (both can be accepted).
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Midpoint_News, Act2_Midpoint_Fenn, Act2_Midpoint_Argue, Act2_Midpoint_Choose. Sets mending.accepted and vault.accepted (1 yes, 2 no). Declining a job sets its outcome to 2 at once (mending.outcome 2 or vault.outcome 2), and its news comes in scene 5.4. Declining both jumps straight to scene 5.4. Quest act2_mending or act2_vault starts for each job accepted.
• Art and audio: Fenn's model (Prologue villager, now with a travel pack too big for Fenn). The Sallowbank theme in a minor key under the argument.
• Screens used: Dialogue box with choices.

The mending guard at the Sallow warp

• Where: the Sallow warp, upstream of Sallowbank, a reed bend where the river runs over a glowing crack (scene SallowWarp; markers Event_circle, Event_hunters, Event_seal_line). The player passes through Sallowbank on the way (scene 5.2a).
• When: mending.accepted == 1. Sets mending.outcome 1 when done.
• Who: Ondine; five Warden menders; Tamsin; two Facet glyph-hunters (Idea), Rusk and Oda, working the crack for fresh warp-born glyphs; glints.
• What happens: at dawn the five menders take their places round the warp and begin a five-person mirrored seal, the same kind as Corran's. The player holds the line, with Tamsin guarding the menders' backs, while the warp throws glints at the circle: three waves, then a glint brute that sheds smaller glints as it breaks. Midway, the player sees the two Facet hunters still in the reeds inside the seal line (the hidden moral choice inside the job, Codex section 8). Ondine sees them too and orders the circle closed on time. The player chooses: hold the line and let the seal close (the hunters are stilled in glass where they stand), or break off, Repel the glints away from the hunters and drag them out (the seal closes late and weaker). Either way the circle closes the seal and the warp dims; the menders stay to hold it for three nights while it sets. A ring of reeds, a heron and Tobin's eel weir at the bend are left standing in clear glass. Ondine thanks the player sincerely and doesn't look at the glass. As a reward she teaches the player Weigh, a Warden glyph, hand over hand.
• Player does: fight three battles and a boss; choose; watch the seal close; learn Weigh (trace).
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Mending_Dawn, Act2_Mending_Hunters, Act2_Mending_Close, Act2_Mending_After. Encounters warp_glints_1, warp_glints_2, warp_glints_3 (enemy glint, 3–5 at a time), warp_brood (enemy glint_brute: at two-thirds and one-third HP it sheds two glints; Repel in its rear-up cancels the slam; Gale clears the shed glints; Headwind is the fast answer). <<learn_spell weigh>> (Ondine, after the seal). Sets mending.hunters (1 pulled out, 2 stilled), world.sallow_stilled 1. Reputation:
  • Guarding at all: +15 rep.evane, +10 rep.wardens, -10 rep.facets, +1 tamsin.trust, -1 rook.trust.
  • Pulling the hunters out: -5 rep.wardens, +5 rep.facets, +10 morality; Ondine: "Sentiment. It's how Corran nearly got away."
  • Letting them be stilled: -15 morality, -10 rep.facets more; Tamsin is silent all the way back.
• Art and audio: the reed bend at dawn; five menders in a ring, their mirrored glyphs joining into one pale-blue dome; the stilling VFX (the Corran look: clear glass spreading over reeds, water and the heron mid-step). Glint brute model: the bestiary's glint_brute. Music: Ondine's theme scored for choir as the seal builds, cutting out when it closes.
• Screens used: Battle; Dialogue box with choices.

5.2a Sallowbank on the way

• Where: Sallowbank, the square and the ferry landing.
• When: mending.accepted == 1, on the way to the warp.
• Who: Marra Hesk, Tobin, Fenn (if Fenn walked back); Aske's ferry, tied up on the far bank.
• What happens: the player's home, with the warp's glow on the water at night. Marra has been minding the hens and feeds the player. Tobin says the Drowned Choir has stopped humming. Aske's ferry is on the far bank and stays there; Aske doesn't come over. The player can walk to the landing and look across. (Idea) If the player shouts across, Aske answers with one line: "Further back than you think."
• Player does: move, talk.
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Sallowbank_Return, Act2_Ferry_Shout. Reuses the Prologue location sallowbank with new villager lines (Prologue's villagers.yarn grows an Act 2 branch).
• Art and audio: Sallowbank at night with the warp's glow on the river. The Prologue's Sallowbank theme, slower.
• Screens used: Dialogue box.

The Measure Vault break-in

• Where: Twinhold, the Hall of Measure: the east-pier drain, the Vault's ward corridors, the inner Vault (scene MeasureVault; markers Event_drain, Ward_1 to Ward_3, Event_tamsin_watch, Event_corran_shelf, Event_choose_glyph).
• When: vault.accepted == 1, on the second night of the mending (if both jobs are accepted, after mending.outcome == 1). Sets vault.outcome 1 when done.
• Who: Iver; two of Iver's cut; Rook keeping watch outside; two Warden golems and a Warden sentinel; Tamsin, back from the warp for the night watch (Idea).
• What happens: the player and Iver's crew go in through the east-pier drain. The wards are mirrored glyphs; an even pair can draw their reflection and open them without breaking them (a timed draw: the player casts the ward's own glyph, mirrored, inside one breath). Three wards, three guards: a Warden golem at each of the first two doors and a Warden sentinel at the third. The wards "weigh" every spell, so no guard here will take the same spell twice in a row, and the player has to vary their casts or thread. Casting a Facet spell in here is casting inside an Evane town: if any ward breaks instead of opening, the alarm rings, and the next Facet spell the player casts in the Vault is witnessed. In the inner Vault, Tamsin is on watch. The player chooses: talk Tamsin down (needs tamsin.trust >= 2), Repel Tamsin out of the way and run, or fight Tamsin properly. Iver's crew empties the shelves into sacks. Behind the shelves they find a whole Warden glyph cut into the wall: Weigh. The player can trace it while the sacks fill. The Corran, five-seal shelf is here; Iver doesn't care about it, but the player can look (an Act 3 hook). Iver lets the player keep one glyph of their choice from the haul (Idea): the straight-stroke half of Bevel Lash, a Warden Brace variant, or a Still Choir fragment of Listen.
• Player does: move quietly; open wards with timed draws; fight; choose how to get past Tamsin; learn Weigh (trace); choose a glyph.
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Vault_Drain, Act2_Vault_Ward, Act2_Vault_Tamsin, Act2_Vault_Corran, Act2_Vault_Choose, Act2_Vault_Out. Encounters vault_golem_1 and vault_golem_2 (enemy warden_golem), vault_golem_3 (enemy warden_sentinel); the Vault wards add a rule to all three: the guard won't take the same spell twice in a row (new code). tamsin_spar (enemy tamsin_spar: Tamsin casts Repel and Brace; canLose true; losing means capture). Ward opening uses <<prompt_cast>> with a ward glyph spell id (new data: ward_measure.json, not learnable). <<learn_spell weigh>> (whole glyph, inner Vault wall). Sets vault.tamsin (1 talked down, 2 Repelled, 3 fought), vault.alarm 1, vault.caught 1 if a Facet spell was cast after the alarm, vault.glyph (1–3), vault.corran_shelf_seen 1. If vault.caught is 1, the player is held overnight, and the next morning a Warden court sits on the Bridge Court and seals the spell used in the crime (<<seal_spell player <spell>>>, spell.sealed.<id> 1; never Repel). Reputation:
  • The theft: +15 rep.facets, -15 rep.evane, -20 rep.wardens, +1 rook.trust.
  • Tamsin talked down: -1 tamsin.trust. Repelled: -2 tamsin.trust. Fought: -3 tamsin.trust, -5 morality.
  • Caught and sealed: -10 rep.evane more; Iver, when the player is let go: "Welcome. Now you know."
• Art and audio: the drain (dark water, pier stone); ward corridors lit by pale-blue mirrored glyphs across each doorway; the inner Vault, shelves to the ceiling. Ward-opening VFX: the ward's glyph flips to its reflection and parts like a curtain. Sneaking music: plucked strings in the Twinhold canon, with the second voice dropping out when the alarm rings.
• Screens used: glyph prompt (Cast, for wards); Battle; Dialogue box with choices.

5.3a The giving

• Where: Lanternfall, the Giving Steps, the day after the theft.
• When: vault.outcome == 1.
• Who: Iver; a crowd; Lio; Rook.
• What happens: Iver gives the Vault's glyphs away on the steps, to anyone who asks, the way the Facets always have. The crowd is huge. A boy about Lio's age walks off with a split half nobody explained to him. Lio watches and says to the player, "That's what Rook did." Rook, beside the player, has nothing to say.
• Player does: watch; optionally stop the boy and explain the glyph (+5 morality, -5 rep.facets for the "not yet" Facets don't allow).
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Giving_Haul, Act2_Giving_Boy.
• Art and audio: the Giving Steps crowded, sacks of glyph-stones, pale-blue Warden fragments mixed with amber.
• Screens used: Dialogue box with choices.

Declining: what happens without you

• Where: wherever the player is when they decline; the results arrive as news at the next court or caravan yard.
• When: mending.outcome == 2 or vault.outcome == 2.
• Who: Tamsin or Rook, bringing the news.
• What happens: both jobs go ahead without the player, and both go worse (Idea):
  • Mending without a guard: the glints broke the circle twice before it closed, two menders were hurt, and the seal stilled a wider ring, up to the Drowned Steps' top stair. The Facet hunters weren't pulled out. Tamsin tells it without blame and is plainly hurt by the absence.
  • Vault without an even pair: Iver's crew broke a ward instead of opening it. Two got out, one was caught and publicly un-taught on the Bridge Court. Iver blames the player openly.
  • Weigh, if the player took neither job (mending.outcome == 2 and vault.outcome == 2): Tamsin teaches it hand over hand when the midpoint closes, wherever the player is (she has followed the news there, on either route). Nobody asked her to.
• Player does: talk; learn Weigh (trace) if neither job was taken.
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Mending_Without, Act2_Vault_Without, Act2_Tamsin_Weigh (<<learn_spell weigh>>). Sets world.sallow_stilled 2 (mending declined) and vault.crew_caught 1 (Vault declined). Reputation:
  • Declining the mending: -5 rep.evane, -5 rep.wardens.
  • Declining the Vault: -5 rep.facets.
  • Declining both: also +1 aske.trust for Act 3 (Aske stayed out too).
• Art and audio: no new scene art; the news is told in the court or yard where the player is. A short sting: Ondine's theme broken off (mending) or the Lanternfall percussion stopping dead (Vault).
• Screens used: Dialogue box.

Both: two-faced

• Where: the road back from the Vault (Halfway's crossroads stone again).
• When: mending.outcome == 1 and vault.outcome == 1.
• Who: Tamsin and Rook.
• What happens: each side learns the player worked for the other the same week. Tamsin and Rook confront the player together at the crossroads where the act began. Neither side can claim the player now, and both say so. (Idea) This is the first time the game names the unaligned path out loud: Rook calls the player "nobody's", and Tamsin, after a long pause, says "That might be allowed."
• Player does: talk; choose how to answer (defend it, apologise, or say nothing).
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_Both_Confront. Sets two_faced 1. Reputation: -5 rep.evane, -5 rep.facets on top of both jobs' moves; no morality change.
• Art and audio: Halfway's crossroads stone from scene 0.1, now at dusk. Tamsin's and Rook's themes played against each other, then one held note.
• Screens used: Dialogue box with choices.

Word from Sallowbank

• Where: the last place the player was when the midpoint resolves.
• When: mending.outcome != 0 and vault.outcome != 0. Sets act2.done 1.
• Who: a Waymaker rider with a letter from Marra Hesk.
• What happens: the mending held for six days, then the Sallow warp split. Glints came up the river to Sallowbank. Marra's letter: "The river's gone to glass at the ferry. Aske says don't come. Come." This hands over to Act 3, where the warps reach Sallowbank and Aske leaves the ferry (Story Bible section 4; VEL-57).
• Player does: read; travel (the act ends on the road home).
• Content to make: Yarn Act2_End_Letter. Quest act2 completes. A reputation summary shown once (Idea).
• Art and audio: Marra's letter prop (flour on the paper). The Sallowbank theme, broken off mid-phrase.
• Screens used: (Idea) Letter view; (Idea) Reputation panel.

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From Walkthrough: Act 2 › Chapter 5: The Midpoint Choice