Chapters

The story of Pascal's Wager is told in chapters, one per region of the map. You play Terrence, a Courier (the Couriers search the Dark Mist for the legendary Colossal Grave, the last resting place of the Colossi) who is also hunting for his lost wife Teresa; each chapter takes him and his companions to a new Colossus, a new boss and a new piece of the truth. This page walks through the chapters in the order the in-game quest journal tells them, with the bosses, the party changes and what each chapter unlocks. For region details see the pages linked in each heading; for the cast see Terrence, Viola, Norwood, Benita, Elena, Jerold and Teresa.

Order of the chapters#

The data gives every region a chapter id (the "story id"). The quest journal, however, sorts regions in a different order for two of them.

The wiki's boss pages use the data chapter ids (so Edith is "chapter 4" and Katib "chapter 5"), but the story itself runs Exilium, then Katib, then Edith: the journal quest "Go to Katib" ends the Exilium chapter, "Go to Edith" ends the Katib chapter, and "Go to the Blessedland" ends the Edith chapter. The map does not force this order (both Katib's and Edith's first stops open when Benita joins), but Edith's own story quests wait for the end of Katib and Blessedland's entrance needs Edith's boss.

Every region also has optional side quest lines (for example "The Woman Looking for Her Child" in Heggem and "Find Andrew" in the Karst Cave); see Side Quests.

Heggem (chapter 1)#

Terrence and Viola arrive at the camp of the Colossus of Heggem as it begins to migrate. The Disciples of Solas who live here are gone, and the area swarms with the Marred, people changed by the Sendrils. The journal steps are: defeat the Marred, meet up with Viola, climb the mountain, and defeat the flagellant at the top. Viola has found an alchemy notebook written in the language of Blessedland, which Terrence recognises and does not want to discuss.

• Boss: the Maddened Ascetic, a flagellant who still swears to protect Heggem.
• Aftermath: a masked stranger saves Terrence once more, Terrence passes out, and he wakes up in the Carriage. The flagellant's note speaks of a red-haired Witch who left for Adamina; Terrence suspects it is Teresa.
• Unlocks: the boss's death (or, in later journeys, ringing the bell) opens Obscure Village West. The cutscene after the fight sends you to the Carriage (quest 13005), and a Carriage conversation then opens Raven's Path in Adamina.

Adamina (chapter 2)#

On the road to Adamina the party meets a girl besieged by the Marred. Her mother has been taken, her father fled. Viola is captured while trying to help. The masked man introduces himself as Norwood; he knows Adamina and says its "Holy Father" has been injecting Sendrils into his flock to keep the bloodline going.

Journey: save the girl, save the mother, find the Holy Father, find Elmar, open the dungeon exit with her key, get the Oracle Crystal, enter the Oracle Site, defeat the Holy Father.

• Bosses: Elmar (the Butcher) (a protector gone mad with Sendril contamination) and the Holy Father.
• Party: Norwood becomes available and joins right after the Butcher is defeated (quests 23005 and 23010). Quest 25042 (re)enables Viola in this chapter.
• Story beat: Teresa appears briefly and takes a treasure from the Holy Father. The chapter ends with Adamina's light fading.
• Unlocks: the Holy Father's death (quest 21006) opens Exilium and also adds the Adamina Herbs and the Bone Whistle to the Carriage vendor (Carriage supplies).

Exilium (chapter 3)#

Exilium, the old encampment of the War Gods, was wrecked by a scarlet meteor. Terrence goes to its seaside chapel, where Benita is. She is weighed down by guilt and does not believe Teresa is alive. The quest is to collect the fragments of the Scarlet Meteor from the head of the Colossus.

• Bosses: Jenny of Exilium, and an optional duel with Rosen Cavalier Patrick.
• Party: Benita asks to come with the party (quest 35022). This is also the moment Edith's and Katib's first stops open on the map.
• Story beat: after a farewell scene with a woman in a wedding dress, Benita rejoins the fragments into an object that matches the Church's holy relic, the Yekub Seal, which is said to be the key to the Colossal Grave. She suggests going to Katib.
• Dream stage: after the boss the game plays a cutscene and sends you to the dream stage The Home of Fear (stage 301) before returning to the Carriage (quests 33012 and 33017). See Timelines.
• Unlocks: two more bells (Stagnant Wind Vally and Backlight Canyon). The Exilium boss quest 31002 adds Distorting Vine and Trippy Flower to the Carriage vendor.

Katib (chapter 5 in the data)#

Katib is a toxic forest left by the vanished Marcion civilization. Its dark mist can only be crossed by understanding the Marcion belief in past, present and future. A talking plant that says it was once a Church priest guides the party.

Journey: investigate the forest, find the three Time Stones (Past, Present, Future), ask the plant for a hint, combine the stones into the Marcion Puzzle Ball, cross the mist to the Witch's Hut where Terrence sees Teresa's ghost, climb the Sacred Tower (fused with the Colossus of Katib), investigate its altar with the cracked Seal, find the lift key, and go to the bottom.

• Bosses: Terror Obsession (met in the field) and the Fused Sprenger beneath the tower. The journal says that at the bottom Terrence finds the Courier Drake, who is always looking for his hourglass, but the thing that speaks is made of many voices.
• Story beat: Teresa took the Seal not to open the Colossal Grave but to ruin the Blessedland and turn it into a second Katib.
• Respec: a dialog in Katib offers to reset your attributes for one Starry Honey Wine (quest 55045). See Leveling.
• Unlocks: Bloodmist Forest and Black Goat Ridge. The Katib boss quest 51001 adds Active Symbiote and Eroded Rock to the Carriage vendor. A "Yes" choice late in the story (quest 55032) triggers the secret-tunnel cutscene to the Karst Cave and opens the Secret Tunnel of Thanatos stop. The journal also starts the DLC quest line from here (quest 55091 shows the task "Proceed to the abandoned wharf of Edith").

Edith (chapter 4 in the data)#

Terrence cannot return to Blessedland as a Courier, so Norwood suggests going in through Edith, the city to which the Church once banished the Demiurges. Edith's sky glows pink, and its people have bound themselves to white dust from the Colossus in a Marcion ritual, giving strength at the cost of reason.

Journey: explore Edith, find the bell man, climb the bell tower, learn that the third bell will "show the truth", deal with Elena (who offers to open the gate in return for the bellman's death) and with Frollo, collect the gate key, and finally face the Colossus.

• Bosses: Frollo and Edith, the Colossus of the city, which falls once the white dust is gone and frees the revenge it had swallowed.
• Party: all three companions are removed from the party at the end of the last Edith cutscene (quest 43705 disables Viola, Benita and Norwood). They are brought back later by the quest system's "revert" mechanism (inferred).
• Unlocks: beating Edith's boss (quest 41001) opens the Rekindled Shore stop in Edith, the Passage of Redemption in Blessedland, and the Ichthyosauria stop. It also adds Glass Ball and Edith Moss to the Carriage vendor.

Blessedland (chapter 6)#

The holy city is under attack from Sendrils and from the Demiurges who followed Terrence in. Terrence chases Teresa towards the Trinity Yard, the heart of the Church, while Elena blocks his way.

Journey: enter Blessedland, catch up with Teresa, reach the Trinity Yard, find Proxy's hidden chamber, defeat his servant, and then head back to the foot of the Sacred Tower of Katib with a new key found by Benita.

• Bosses: Elena (first duel), Elena (second duel) and Proxy Higgins.
• Party: Viola and Norwood are disabled during the chapter (quest 63013).
• Unlocks: Flamel Sanctum stop; the Blessedland boss quest 61001 adds Twilight Weed to the Carriage vendor.

The Karst Cave (chapter 7)#

Under the Sacred Tower lies a vast underground ruin that links Katib and Blessedland. Terrence finds Viola imprisoned and in a coma under a strange red light, then follows Norwood and Teresa to the altar in the depths. A mad old man locked in a cage wants out; lowering his cage opens the way. At the altar Terrence learns that Norwood is a Marcion too, and the ritual endangers Teresa.

• Bosses: the Maddened Ascetic (rematch) and the Usurper.
• Dream stage: quest 73003 sends you to the dream stage The End of Nightmare (stage 302).
• Contracts: the Contract conversations with your companions start from here, as the Carriage and the cave share the same Viola, Norwood and Benita menus (see Carriage#Contracts).
• Unlocks: nothing new on the map. The Usurper's death completes quest 71003, which hides both Karst stops. The cutscene that follows completes quest 73002 (the condition of Relics of the Ancestors, which the hide quest overrides, so that stop never shows; see Maps#Stops and what unlocks them) and quest 73716, which removes all four heroes from the active party before the Colossal Grave. Terrence enters the Grave using the Scarlet Meteor fragments, since neither a Marcion nor the Yekub Seal is with him.

The Colossal Grave (chapter 8)#

The final stage has no stops on the map and only 27 monster placements (the fewest of any chapter; counts per chapter). It is a short, sharp run to the last boss, the First Messenger, Teresa after her transformation.

There are three different game-over quests that can end the game (quests 83008, 83009 and 83015, all pointing at ending trigger 85024), which is how the game's different Endings are reached (inferred). After the credits the game asks if you want to start a New Journey. Answering No sends you back to the Karst Cave, to the stage "right before the Final Battle" (point 4 of the Karst Cave), and the game warns that you can not enter the Colossal Grave again in that run. A New Journey is started with Glenn in the Carriage; see New Game Plus.

Ichthyosauria (DLC chapter 9)#

The Tides of Oblivion expansion starts when the stranger Jerold offers to carry the Scarlet Meteor to his homeland and rouse it. The voyage leaves from the abandoned wharf of Edith, and the party is lost in a storm. Terrence wakes up ashore.

Journey: find Glenn and Jerold, follow the Soul River to its source, catch up with a boy who saved them, break through the Wall of Silence, and climb the Tower of the Origin to find Lord Ebbinghaus. The land is the stomach of a giant sea beast, where the locals have formed a partnership with the creature, but its Soul River has dried up.

• Bosses: Guderian the Guardian, Treasure Thieves and The First Fallen: Handel.
• Party: Benita and Jerold are enabled by quest 95162 and Jerold joins the party with quest 95163; Viola and Norwood are enabled by quest 95231.
• Structure: six separate area scenes (scene layout) with 222 monster placements, the most of any chapter. See Tides of Oblivion.
• Requirement: the map only allows region 9 if you own the DLC, and the stop needs Jerold to have joined and the boss Edith to be dead.

Boss levels by journey#

Boss levels are stored per journey (the journey value is capped at 4). The chapter 1 boss is level 1 in the first run and level 40 in the second.

Hidden mechanics#

• The chapter order the data gives is not the order you play. Chapter ids 4 and 5 are swapped relative to the journal (see above). Stage ids put Edith (10004) before Adamina (10006), so Edith was probably planned earlier in development (inferred).
• Each chapter's boss quest unlocks vendor stock. The vendor in the Carriage sells a new plant per boss, so skipping a boss (when you can) delays alchemy supplies. See Carriage supplies and Alchemy.
• Companions leave and come back by "revert" quests. The game removes heroes with "disable hero" quest actions, and later quests list the earlier ones in a revert field; completing the later quest undoes the earlier one and re-enables the hero. If your active hero is disabled, the game switches you to the default hero.
• Jerold is gated. Quest actions that enable Jerold only work if the DLC join quest has been completed.
• Returning is a quest, too. The chapters are chained entirely by quest flags, such as "boss dead", "cutscene done" and "dialog choice", which is why the same bells open different stops in a New Game Plus run.

Sources#

• ES_UIQuest rows 10101 to 10901 (region headers) and 10102 to 10907 (main chain; QuestSort 10 to 96); English text from text/UIQuest.jsonl.
• ES_StoryData (StoryId, StageId), ES_StoryArea, ES_SiteInfo.
• ES_StoryMonster 5038 (Fused Sprenger), 7001 (Usurper completes 71003); ES_StoryMovie 88 (completes 73002, 73716).
• ES_StoryQuest rows 13005, 21006, 23005, 23010, 25042, 33004, 33012, 33017, 35022, 41001, 43705, 55032, 55045, 55091, 63013, 71003, 73002, 73003, 73716, 83008, 83009, 83015, 85024, 95162, 95163, 95231.
• ES_StoryMonster Level_1 to Level_4 and IsBoss rows per chapter; reports/bosses_and_enemies.md:33-52 (boss locations).
• controllerstorymode.lua:94-135 (quest action ids), 8958-8985 (enable and disable hero), 9385-9435 (revert), fs_savestory.lua:1969-1979 (loop cap), GameText UI_GAMEOVER_TEXT and UI_CONFIRM_CONTINUE_GAME.