So I'm scanning for collectibles and something unusual catches my eye.

Highlight: There is a glint of something white on the ground. "Wha..?" Peering closer, I see a skeleton lying spreadeagled on the ground. "How'd that get there?" Turns out it's my favorite fella and budding scientist, Atoi. I'm guessing that an exploding potion had some rather nasty side-effect that went unnoticed... who'd a thunk? o.O

Hello KittyHawk... know how you feel

Highlight:
My first (an only so far) death was a master scientist who got blown up once too often.. finally figured out that anyone with adept scientist can do a potion, so if one blows up, I rotate through a couple to make a restore potion. This way I can fix them without chancing another death.

I share your sorrow ladies. I too lost one of my original settlers in one of those unfortunate "lab accidents." I do want to point out a couple of things. First, all adults, not just adept scientists, can make potions. Once Alchemy is fully researched, it at least won't kill them outright.

Second, once you "clear the leaves" you will find a large tombstone that contains a roster of the dead. It tells you who died, how they died, age at death, and, what their specialty was.

Good Luck with the rest of your game(s)!

Oh! Thanks for the info CaliLilac! Atoi was only 22, and one of my first villagers.

:: hopes Rockmower will pen a lament ::

Hmmm. Mine did something a little different: The Chief carried the bones to the grassy field below the orchard and a headstone appeared with his name, etc.

I think LDW have fixed it so that exploding potions won't kill a villager on their own. The sight of a villager suddenly turning into a skeleton might take away the "all ages" certificate of which they are rightly proud. However, the villager will quite possibly have a health bar registering 0.0001% - any further accidents or sickness will tip the villager over the line.

As suggested, if any villager who gets blown up it's worthwhile to brew a restorative potion straight away.

Thanks Arnie!

Yeah, it was some time later that he died. I restarted from a save point and could see that his health bar was waaaaaaaay down. I hadn't thought to check it after the explosion though... of course now I know better!

I had three explosions in a row! So I couldn't brew a restorative potion. I fed and refed my weakened villager back to health. I didn't even know there were explosions. I just kept coming back and seeing no potion so kept the same villager trying to make more.

Isla, did you see what Rockmower said (up above) about who is able to brew a potion? So someone else could brew a potion for him. Hopefully the remedy wouldn't explode!