Patch 08-08

• NEW: three strangers, one word. The Stranger stakes your run on that number around R7–13. Merrit falls in step at R25, asks who your favourite is, and takes them — you walk short-handed for four rounds. And the late hill you already knew now hands out a gift twice the size (×3 → ×6, and the day-after training block is gone). All three wear CROSSROADS: once you have learned what that word can cost, exactly one of them just pays.
• Guessing wrong leaves the only once-ever deed in the game. a short road. Even the shortest run leaves a mark in The Road Behind.
• NEW: the shop makes offers. 50–80% off, rolled fresh every visit, and only on stock you left standing last time. Holding a card buys another roll, never a promise — the price is gone at the next delivery. Worth about 110 gold across a run, against the duplicate discount's 10.
• NEW: the road asks what it should drop. From your second run: normal, or fire-heavy. Fire gear turns up much more often — and fire resistance does nothing for all fifty rounds, so it is a harder road that seals a card built for the dungeons. The screen tells you that before you pick.
• Run 2's opening chest is a guaranteed Epic (was Rare).

For this test build, all three strangers appear on every run so the whole tier can be tested. Their normal encounter odds arrive in the next patch.