Look, there’s no sugar coating this, but one day we’re all going to die. Especially you. Especially here. Ashenfall is a violent and dangerous place, where even the chickens want you dead.
When your Hitpoints reaches zero, that’s it, you’re dead. Fortunately, unless you’re particularly hardcore, you’ll find that death isn’t the end you expect. For some reason, your soul is preserved, and rather than journeying to the world beyond, you’ll wake up again with only your dignity suffering any permanent damage.
If you’ve claimed a bed for yourself, you’ll return to there on your death. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself back at the old Saradomin temple.
Sadly, whatever mysterious force saves you from eternity, appears to have a bad back and whilst they’re happy to lug you all the way to safety, your stuff is another matter. When you die, you’ll keep your runes, quest items and the clothes you have equipped, but everything else will be kept in a gravestone awaiting your return.
If you can make your way back to your gravestone, you’ll be able to reclaim all your lost equipment and resources, and continue your journey.
In hard mode, you can only have one gravestone at a time. So, if you die a second time, before reclaiming your gear, you’ll lose everything your first grave was protecting.