Open questions for Ray, all tabs

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.

From Walkthrough: Act 4 › Open questions for Ray, all tabs