That is a very cool setting.
And it confirms my suspicions on how the game would go. It feels very swingy right now: a few failures early on will cause a very quick death spiral, while a few successes can quickly solve a mystery. That is part of the reason for the devil's bargain mechanic, to give a player a way to escape the death spiral but at a cost. Over multiple mysteries, I hope it would work out to an interesting punctuated rhythm of play.