The Ashmarch
Salt keeps the dead down. Hollowmere's salt came up the Old Road by cart, until Captain Vosk's riders took the carts and the carters with them. The jar is empty now, and three of the village's dead are laid in the cellar under the inn.
A grimdark roguelite you read. Plays in your browser.
No install. No subscription.
Carrion Sun
The sun is dying. So will you.
The first region is free for as long as you can stay alive in it. Pay once for the rest.
Three hundred years ago a god died in the sky. Its corpse hangs there still and eats half the sun. Nothing has come for the dead since. They stay, and some of them get up.
One life. No reloads.
Death is final and nothing is rolled twice. When you die the grave stays where you fell, the Chronicle keeps the story, and the next poor soul starts with what you left in the Ancestral Hall.
Every roll in the open
The odds are printed on each choice before you make it, and the full dice sum after: the d20, what was added, what it had to beat. A natural 1 backfires, for you and for the thing trying to kill you.
More road than you'll walk
1,000 rooms. 145 people with something to say. A road that changes each life. One region takes about ten hours to walk once. Then you die, and it goes differently.
Don't take our word for it
Play the first minute, right here
A real life, recorded from the game. Same words, same odds, same dice. Dashed choices were on offer too.
Click the text to hurry it.
No typing. No guessing the verb.
Every room asks what you'll do about it
- Swing the arms of the signpost so the camp road points into the thornsThe Fork, on the Old Road
- Sit on her stool and listen at the door as she doesThe Cellar Door, under the inn
- Ask the man coughing in the back room who pays VoskThe Wick & Tallow. 45% against DC 13
- Pull the riders' arrows out of the saintCrossroads Shrine
- Lie up off the road and watch who uses itThe Fork. 60% against DC 10
- Offer to read her the letterThe Candle Window, Hollowmere
- Toss a ration to the beastsChapel Ruin, with a grey wolf watching
- Cheap Shot the banditCrossroads Shrine. 55% against DC 13
Pick who dies this time
Nobody here is a hero by trade
How the road kills
Still being built. Each one opens in an update, and each is yours the day it does if you own the whole game.
What it costs
Start for nothing. Own it for $9.99.
One payment. Here is exactly what it buys: what is in the game today, and what is still being built and will be yours when it opens.
The whole game
$9.99once, not a subscription
Yours the moment you pay
- Saltmere, a second region: 515 rooms across the Harbour, the Scales, the Stilt Rows, the Brine Drains, the Tally House, the Salt Fen and the Salt Hall, with 84 people to talk to and its own villain and ending
- The border opens. Walk a life out of the Ashmarch by road or river and keep going
- 19 more starting kits for the Sellsword and Cutpurse, each unsealed by a deed: Grave Robber, Hedge Knight, Court Kin, Corpse-Salter and the rest
- Two more worlds. Three saves side by side, each with its own dead and its own history
- Every daily life, including the days it is set in Saltmere
Yours as each one opens, at no further charge
- 7 more classes: Hedge Witch, Inquisitor, Barber-Surgeon, Poacher, Arsonist, Flagellant, Ratcatcher
- 5 more races: Ashborn, Vharl, Deepwright, Hollowkin, Mirrorborn
- Their starting kits, every one made for a new class, however many that comes to
Side by sideFreeWhole game
RegionsThe AshmarchThe Ashmarch and Saltmere
Rooms4851,000
People to talk to62145
Classes22 now, 9 once all are open
Races11 now, 6 once all are open
Starting kits221 now, more with every new class
Worlds to keep13
LivesNo limitNo limit
At Saltmere's borderThe life waits thereWalk on
The daily lifeAshmarch daysEvery day
PriceNothing$9.99, once
Play free now
The world so far
Two marches, joined by road and river
With the whole game, a life walks out of one and into the other by the road or the river.
Saltmere
First Factor Brack holds the paper of everyone who buys salt, and everyone buys salt. Those who cannot pay go to the Tally House. Those who die there go into the fen without salt, to save the cost. They do not stay in it.
- rooms to walk
- 1,000
- people to talk to
- 145
- kinds of foe
- 35
- things to carry
- 118
- seals to break
- 82
Before you pay
Fair questions
Is the free part a demo with a timer?
No. The Ashmarch is a whole region with its own ending, and you can play it for as many lives as you like.
What happens at the edge of the free region?
The road and the river both run on into Saltmere. A free life is stopped at the border and waits there. Buy the whole game and the same life walks on.
Is $9.99 a subscription?
No. You pay once and keep it.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes, in any modern browser. You can add it to your home screen, and once it has loaded it plays with no signal at all.
Can I play on more than one device?
Yes. Sign in with Google and your records, the life you are in the middle of and your purchase follow you. You can also save a backup file whenever you like.
How hard is it?
Hard. Most lives end badly. The Sellsword is the forgiving one to start with.
Can I play it without sight, or without a mouse?
Yes. Every choice works from the keyboard, each picture is described in words for screen readers, and there is a high-contrast mode.
The village has scraped a purse together and has nobody to give it to.
You came in off the road an hour ago with a blade. That will do.