For some reason Itch wouldn't let me post the image in that message so anyway here is the image of the softlock.
Thank you very much for this detailed error report! And thanks for trying out the game! I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to get as far as you did! ✨
I'll note down all these issues and update the game once I've got them fixed. 💻
I found it too but I managed to fix it after opening the item list (or the to do list I can't remember)
Ah, good thinking! That probably caused them to respawn.
I just added a fix for this glitch; it will be in the next build!
Finally fixed this issue -- will be in the next update!