Critical Role’s Brutal Twist — Occtis Has His Heart Ripped Out Live, Then Returns as a Revenant
In episode #4 of Critical Role Campaign 4 — the final episode of the overture that introduces the new world of Aramán — one of the thirteen player characters appeared to die and then returned to play later in the same episode. The scene involved open dice rolls by the Dungeon Master and a planned resurrection tied to a published character option.
Occtis’ death
During the fight with undead forces of House Tachonis, Occtis Tachonis (played by Alexander Ward) was killed when his brother Ethrand landed a critical hit that ripped his heart from his chest. The attack was part of a larger encounter led by Ethrand and their father Primus.
Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan warned the players ahead of the scene: “This world is not necessarily balanced in each and every instance. It contains a verisimilitude, and I wish for you to walk on the light of that truth.” Mulligan also rolled openly at the table during the encounter, and his dice resulted in that critical hit which caused sufficient damage to kill Occtis on the spot.
How the party fared
The fight was violent and sudden. During the same sequence, Thaisha Lloy (played by Aabria Iyengar) was also downed and rolled a 1 on her first Death Save.
Dream sequence and return
After the in‑combat death, Mulligan ran a dreamlike scene in which Occtis’ spirit encountered Thaisha. According to the episode, Ward made choices in that sequence that led Mulligan to declare, “That’s the last we’ll see of you. Please leave the table.”
However, later in the episode the party recovered Occtis’ body and the artifact known as the Stone of Nightsong was extracted from him. Bolaire (Taliesin Jaffe) and Murray Mag’Nesson (Marisha Ray) removed the stone, and Marisha used a natural 20 she had rolled earlier with her diviner wizard Portent ability to enable the extraction. That sequence returned Occtis as a revenant rather than a normal living character.
DM planning and rules background
On the Cooldown show following the episode, Mulligan said the resurrection was planned from the start. Alexander Ward had initially proposed his character concept as a Hollow One, a “supernatural blessing” option published in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount that describes characters resurrected through strange necromantic magic.
Mulligan explained that although Occtis’ eventual return was planned, the exact method and timing of the character’s death had not been set and could have occurred later in the campaign. Thus, the on‑table death and dream sequence were shaped by both the prearranged character concept and the live dice outcomes during the episode.
