Wakefall

Civilization

A city where everyone who dies wakes up in their own bed, and the only crime is breaking one.

At a glance

Kind of world	Civilization
Serum in the arrival Box	2 ampoules
Native Serum stand-in	None: bring spare Serum
Quests	Yes: see your Traveler's Guide

Screenshot comingwakefall-city

A grey moor at dusk, the upturned stepped city of Wakefall rising to the north, a resident stepping off the top terrace edge mid-fall

What happens when you arrive

Your Box sets you down on a grey moor at dusk. North of you, a city stands on its head: three terraces, each wider than the one below, with sheer drops and no railings. While you watch, a man steps off the top edge, waves, and falls. A bell rings somewhere below. A minute later he walks out of a long hall at the foot of the city, rubbing his neck.

In Wakefall, everyone who dies wakes up in their own bed. Everyone except you. You are the Mortal, the only person here with one life.

The rule: death is a nuisance

Four hundred years of waking up has built a strange city:

• No stairs down. People jump.
• No hospitals. The Mender has no patients.
• No graves. Nobody has ever needed one.
• Every bed is in one guarded hall, the Bedhall, at the foot of the city.
• Murder is a fine. The only capital crime is breaking a bed.

No monsters spawn here. The only dangers are the drops, and the people.

The law

You...	What happens
Kill a resident	They wake in their bed. You owe the Bedhall 3 Wake Marks, and your standing drops. Three unpaid deaths and the Bedwardens come to collect. Pay your fees to the Warden to clear it; your standing also recovers a little each dawn.
Break a bed someone sleeps in	Its sleeper never wakes again. You lose your own bed and your registration, so your next death in Wakefall is your last, and no fee pays it off. The city will not forget it.

Your first quest: Somewhere to Wake

Talk to Warden Hollis Crane, keeper of the Bedhall for 190 years. She registers you and gives you bed nineteen, a spare Waking Bed to set down anywhere, and 3 Wake Marks.

From then on, dying in Wakefall wakes you in your bed, whole, with everything you carried, while the Bedhall bell tolls once. Use any waking bed nobody else sleeps in to make it your bed instead. (A waking bed won't let you sleep the night away; using one only claims it.)

BWBWBW

➜

Waking Bed (Crafting Table)

Screenshot comingwakefall-bedhall

Inside the Bedhall: long rows of identical waking beds under a vaulted roof, the Warden's desk by the door

The people and their quests

Person	Who they are	Quest	Reward
Warden Hollis Crane	Keeper of the Bedhall.	Somewhere to Wake; The Bedbreaker	A Waking Bed, Wake Marks; see below
Pip Larkspur	A Faller: a courier who delivers by jumping.	The Quick Way Down	Faller's Feather and 4 Wake Marks
Corvin Ashby	The Settler: disputes in Wakefall end in his ring, with steel.	Settling	Settler's Blade
Tamsin Reed	Her brother Jory died a month ago and did not wake.	What Do You Do With the Body	6 Wake Marks
Elder Amaranth Vey	412 years old and has never died once.	Part of The Bedbreaker
Mender Sabine Hale	The only doctor in a city that has no use for one.	Part of The Bedbreaker

The Quick Way Down

Pip gives you a Sealed Parcel at the Faller's Leap. Get it to the Warden's desk before the wax sets: 20 seconds. The only way to make it is to jump. If the wax sets, ask Pip for another parcel.

You are the Mortal

Register with the Warden before you try this. A registered player who dies here wakes in their bed; an unregistered one simply dies.

Settling

Beat Corvin in his ring, once. Leave the ring and you forfeit, and have to challenge him again.

What Do You Do With the Body

Tamsin has carved a Grave Marker from the headboard of her brother's broken bed. Set it on the Quiet Plot, then bring her a flower for the grave. It is the first grave in Wakefall in four hundred years.

Screenshot comingwakefall-grave

A single grave marker on the Quiet Plot with a flower before it, the inverted city looming behind

The Bedbreaker

Lately, someone has been breaking beds. The Warden asks you to find out who.

Step	What to do
1	Read the three broken beds in the Bedhall (use each one).
2	Talk to Elder Amaranth Vey.
3	Talk to Mender Sabine Hale.
4	Tell the Warden who broke the beds, or lie for the Mender.

The choice (spoilers)

The beds were cut, not smashed, by someone who knew where the joints were. One has a clean bandage tied round the bedpost; one has fresh lavender under the pillow and the sheet folded back; one carries a note in its sleeper's hand: "Thank you. I was tired." The Mender has been giving rest to people who asked for it.

Choice	What happens	Reward
Name her to the Warden	The Bedhall breaks Sabine's bed, and she is gone for good.	Waking Charm
Lie for her	Sabine stays, and Elder Amaranth gets her spring.	Mender's Needle

What to bring home

Item	What it does
Faller's Feather	Carried, no fall can hurt you. Except in Wakefall, where falling is the point.
Waking Charm	Worn, it turns one death, in any world, into a waking. Then it crumbles.
Mender's Needle	Use it to stitch your wounds and draw out poison. Mends the slow way.
Settler's Blade	Corvin's sword. He lost it fair.
Wakestone, Dusk Planks	The city's grey stone and dark timber: Wakestone Bricks, Tiles, Carved Wakestone, Dusk Beams.

Serum and getting home

• The arrival Box's cache holds 2 Serum Ampoules.
• Wakefall has no native Serum ingredient. Bring your own.

Tips

• See the Warden first. Until you are registered, you have one life like anywhere else.
• Never break a waking bed, not even by accident. It is the one thing the city won't forgive.
• Keep a few Wake Marks spare to pay fees if a fight goes badly.
• The Faller's Feather is worth the parcel run alone: it makes fall damage a thing of the past everywhere else.

The traveler's tape

Every arrival Box has a chest by its door holding a cassette: the last traveler reading their journal of this world aloud. This is what they say. It gives a lot away.

Read the journal (spoilers)

The Box set me down on a grey moor at dusk, and in front of me a city stands on its head: three terraces, each wider than the one below, with sheer drops and no railings. While I watched, a man stepped off the top edge, waved, and fell. A bell rang somewhere below. A minute later he walked out of a long hall at the foot of the city, rubbing his neck. Here, everyone wakes up in their own bed. Every bed is in that hall, and the Warden at its door keeps the register. Killing someone costs a fee. Breaking a bed is the only crime they hang you for, and lately someone has been breaking them. I have no bed here. When you have seen enough, step back into the Box with the Serum still in you and shut the door.