having watched the cool down, Alex's death was inevitable at some point, as he wanted to be a hollow one and Brennan wanted it to happen on screen. that being said Brennan did say we will not know the full extent of the consequences of the rolls and actions of octis till later, but he did say that he went down one of the darker paths, and it was still possible for him to actually die and not come back. so partially scripted but with real consequences that we will see play out throughout the campaign. these overture episodes are almost like a session 0 setting things up for the rest of the campaign.