Just because I find it interesting, I do want to do a bit of a close read of the circumstances surrounding Occtis's death, because I think it, among other things in the overture, are a great and pretty visible example of DM railroading in a way that moves the plot forward and supports what the players want to do.
We know a few things. We know that the table assignments were arranged in advance, so the overture needed to maneuver them all into a place where they were with those groups. We also know that Alex envisioned his character first as a Hollow One, rather than the human young man he played for most of the overture.
I mention these two items because you can see a lot of the former in episode three. Thimble doesn't go with Occtis to the palazzo because she needs to find Teor (because she has to leave with him before the overture is done). Vaelus goes with him instead because they are, more than likely, both ending up in the same place. Thaisha follows not only because she cares, but because she needs to get to that point as well. On top of that, you see a lot of player trust in the DM that the things they are being directed to do will lead them to where they are trying to end up. Julien goes and finds Occtis without question because that's what the DM, above table, has ushered him to do via Raimond and Aranessa. Occtis goes with him for the same reason. Teor lingers in the tailor shop because this is where he's been pointed, even in spite of numerous red flags.
It is also worth noting that, while the cast guess that Teor was the character most at risk of dying in that episode, Brennan specifies that it was Murray. Murray has several outs in that scene, both initially and as she gets herself in hotter water, and ultimately does take one, but only when Tallbarrel takes significant, pointed action to usher her out. (This is not a slight against Marisha for not picking up on it, I must be clear; in this case, it was extremely in character, and I suspect that Brennan underestimated the force of nature that is Murray's personality, since it's still early days! No one's fault, and great response from Brennan to make that more significant action to force her hand.) Teor, on the other hand, is not directed out in the same way, even though there are similar red flags.
This is a lot of why I, and likely several others, assumed that Occtis was not out of the picture for good, despite indication of such after the third and final death. Occtis getting to the palazzo was preempted by multiple players trusting that the DM's guidance was leading to where they needed to go. Of course, Alex didn't necessarily assume that this was coming so soon, but did not sound surprised to discover that it was.
Also note in this regard that there were no rolls associated with the Tachonises getting into the palazzo; Ethrand arrived at the door unimpeded, with an army of ghouls in tow. Even with Aranessa at a higher level, this is still extremely disparate in terms of action economy; Occtis is only level 3 and at a severe disadvantage from the jump, as a wizard under a Silence spell, Ethrand is likely of a similar if not higher level to Aranessa, any other help was at least a full round behind if not more, and there were six ghouls, a monster notorious for very easily killing a low-level player outright (just ask Matt). Even considering the rolls made during combat—while there was a chance that Occtis made it out alive (had he rolled better on initiative or had the ghouls rolled worse, for instance), the fact that Alex had laid this out as the plan in advance meant that it was skewed in favor of this outcome, in many respects. Comparing this to the bar fight, which had a contingency for it going so poorly in the form of Vaelus, this fight had far more constrained pre-conditions that limited when, where, and how characters could act.
I did find it a bit funny that Alex himself worried, upon the scattering of Occtis's soul, that he'd fucked up and did actually need to make a new character. The furious yell from the Tachonis house alone when he yanked out the stone made me suspect this was the "correct" course of action, as far as there is one—and Brennan himself confirms in Cooldown that it was. The reason I laughed, though, was because the unraveling of Occtis's soul in particular immediately drew my mind toward the Hollow One class—they are explicitly noted as having no soul but retaining a sense of self.
There is a lot of setup done in the this last episode and a half to lead to exactly the outcome desired by the player, in this case and others. Often this kind of scaffolding isn't nearly as visible and I suspect from now on it won't be, since it's interwoven over a longer scale of time and is usually not aiming for such specific outcomes rather than letting the dice do their work, so I just think it's really neat that, due to the nature of the overture and the intended starting conditions for the campaign, that scaffolding is far more blatantly on display.
