The Velan Codex

Story

Open Questions for Ray

  1. Who are the two letters addressed to? (Story Bible section 8, still open.) Recommend: Ondine Ash in Twinhold and Iver Kest in Lanternfall. 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. Iver's "one crossing" (Aske ferried him after his un-teaching) is new backstory to approve.
  2. Is the Long Road the route between the two courts? Recommend: yes. It makes Gale come between the two letters in either order, and threading always comes after Gale.
  3. Does the threading teacher depend on the order (Rook in route A, Dace in route B)? The Story Bible says "Rook (or Dace)". Recommend: yes: Rook in Lanternfall in route A, Dace at the wind pass summit in route B. Both teach the same thread, Headwind. (VEL-63)
  4. Should threading be locked until the lesson? The code lets any two learned spells chain today. Recommend: lock it behind thread.taught, which the lesson in 4.1 sets, as Act 1's question 2 proposes, so threading arrives as the story's reveal; keep chains open in development builds (VEL-63).
  5. How is Repel into Gale named in data? The Story Bible names threads by their parts; the Codex has named composites (Tempest, Bulwark). Recommend: a one-word name, like Tempest and Bulwark: id headwind, shown as Headwind, flag composite.known.headwind. The Spell Book can still show its parts, "Repel into Gale". (VEL-63)
  6. Can the player do both midpoint jobs? Recommend: yes, in one order only (guard the dawn circle, then the Vault on the second night), with the "two-faced" scene as its cost.
  7. Does declining have costs? Recommend: yes: both jobs happen anyway and go worse. Otherwise "neither" is the free safe choice.
  8. Reputation numbers. Recommend: integer flags from -100 to 100, starting at 0 and moving in steps of 5; side and faction standing apart from morality; changed by an add_flag command. Companion trust (tamsin.trust, rook.trust) runs 0 to 5, like aske.trust. The amounts here are still first guesses. (VEL-63)
  9. Where does the drawing profile come from? Recommend: the three draws at the Measuring for now, which is cheap and makes the courting legible. Feed it from the whole cast history later.
  10. How is a split glyph traced? Recommend: no half-trace mode. The circle half is a carried lens; the player traces the whole spell in the storm, with the lens on the left and the reflected square on the right.
  11. Can the player be un-taught in Act 2? Recommend: 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 after the alarm: a court sits the next morning. Casting Table Mend in Greenvault's hall: an Act 3 summons. Repel can never be sealed, and the unbinder or retracing always gets the spell back. (VEL-63)
  12. Do Tamsin and Rook fight alongside the player? The Codex leaves it open. Recommend: not yet. They travel and talk, and fight only in scripted moments (Tamsin as an opponent in the Vault).
  13. How much optional magic ships in Act 2? The Spell Set tab puts twelve optional spells here. Recommend: main line plus Tally, Drift, Table Mend, Root and Hush first; the rest later. VEL-60 decides.
  14. New named characters. Pell, Brother Fallow, Novice Tull, Sister Ise, Ness, Garnet, Cass, Sorrel, Rusk and Oda. Recommend: keep Pell, Ness and Sorrel as named characters, since they come back; the rest can stay as roles until they're needed.
  15. Fenn walking to Halfway alone to carry Aske's message. Recommend: keep it, with a Waymaker caravan bringing Fenn; it brings Sallowbank into the act without bringing Aske back early.

From Walkthrough: Act 2 › Open Questions for Ray