fixing item placement

npc/assassins.md

@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ If the players bring her **proof of the rot** (the soulcoin, a marked victim, Th
 ### Actions
 
 **Shortsword.** +6 to hit, 1d6+3 piercing.
-**Dagger (concealed).** +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing. Coated with **Essence of Ether** (DC 13 CON save or fall unconscious for 1 minute).
+**Dagger (concealed).** +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing. Coated with **Essence of Ether** (DC 13 CON save or fall unconscious for 1 minute). Dace began the night with two: his ritual-marked belt dagger was torn loose and kicked near Orenn's body during the brawl; he retains a smaller sleeve blade with the same poison. If he recovers the first, it is the one he draws openly.
 
 ### Appearance & Personality
 

npc/mags.md

@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@
 
 **Emergency reserve.** A flat metal vial beneath Mags's apron holds **one dose of Oil of Etherealness**. This is not part of the three field doses. She kept it on her for an extraction that never came and will surrender it only after accepting that the threat is Ethereal and that a specific person needs to cross. Applying it still takes 10 minutes, so neither Mags nor a looter can turn it into a reaction after Xarrul appears.
 
+**Lower key.** A heavy **black iron key** hangs on a cord beside the reserve vial. It is the mate of Orenn's and is the master key for the concealed Deep Cellar door, Vault, and lower cells. The paired lower alarm makes both keys turn cold when Cell One's threshold is breached.
+
 ### Reactions
 
 **Parry.** Mags adds 3 to her AC against one melee attack that would hit her.
@@ -153,9 +155,9 @@ She will not fight alongside the players unless the fiend manifests in the Mater
 
 When the exterior shell lapses, Mags still physically bars the front door until somebody has been made answerable for Orenn. Ordinary patrons may leave only after she accepts a culprit or the room overwhelms her authority. She never knowingly releases Xarrul; this is why an allied party must frame someone, isolate her or replace her authority rather than merely wait for midnight.
 
-**If someone disappears:** the disturbed lower ward and Twinkle's web make the black key go cold against Mags's hip. Haddon can tell that Xarrul is seeking a vessel, but Mags will not admit the Deep Cellar exists or allow the cultists into it. She takes the key and goes alone. Unless the party follows or stops her, Xarrul kills her before beginning the Hollowing.
+**If someone disappears:** the disturbed lower ward and Twinkle's web make Mags's matching black key go cold against her hip (and do the same to Orenn's key wherever it is). Haddon can tell that Xarrul is seeking a vessel, but Mags will not admit the Deep Cellar exists or allow the cultists into it. She takes her key and goes alone. Unless the party follows or stops her, Xarrul kills her before beginning the Hollowing.
 
-**If the [Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy) resolves:** if Xarrul takes the changeling body in front of her, Mags attacks Orenn's murderer. If the Guest returns empowered, it avoids that confrontation: it uses Orenn's voice to lure her to the cellar, ambushes her, puts her in Cell One and goes upstairs wearing her face. PCs can expose the false Mags by following, noticing the missing black key, testing a private memory or revealing a shapechanger.
+**If the [Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy) resolves:** if Xarrul takes the changeling body in front of her, Mags attacks Orenn's murderer. If the Guest returns empowered, it avoids that confrontation: it uses Orenn's voice to lure her to the cellar, ambushes her, puts her in Cell One and goes upstairs wearing her face. PCs can expose the false Mags by following, noticing that it failed to take Mags's matching black key, checking who still holds Orenn's copy, testing a private memory or revealing a shapechanger.
 
 **If Xarrul is destroyed Ethereally:** Mags sees the Brand of Spite finally leave Orenn's body. If Xarrul is bound instead, she treats the surviving brand as proof that containment is not justice and watches whoever controls the chains.
 

npc/orenn.md

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ He believed in rules not because he was lawful but because rules were the only t
 - Remembered every face and every debt
 - Treated Mags as an equal in every sense
 - Was investigating the Order of Mending quietly — he suspected they were more than scholars but hadn't uncovered the truth
-- Kept the previous owners' gear and the old seal in the cellar in some kind of order — re-traced the chalk out of closed-case habit, never really understanding it
+- Kept the previous owners' gear and the **upper-cellar binding circle** in some kind of order out of closed-case habit, without understanding the craft. He left the barred Old Work untouched and never monitored the sealed rift behind it.
 - Had a dry sense of humor that surfaced rarely and always caught people off guard
 
 ## Background
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ He didn't know about Xarrul, and he never connected any of it to the sealed rift
 ## Items on His Person
 
 - A set of **tavern keys** (all rooms, cellar trapdoor, front door)
-- A **plain black iron key**, heavier than the rest, that fits nothing upstairs. It opens the **[concealed door](../location/cellar.md#the-concealed-door)** to the Deep Cellar and the Arcane-locked [Vault](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-vault-treasure-room) below. Anyone who searches the body (DC 12 Investigation, or automatic if they loot him) finds it; recognizing what it opens is the mystery. The Guest, if reached, will happily point at it.
+- A **plain black iron key**, heavier than the rest, that fits nothing upstairs. It is one of a matched pair and opens the **[concealed door](../location/cellar.md#the-concealed-door)** to the Deep Cellar, the Arcane-locked [Vault](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-vault-treasure-room), and the lower cells. Mags carries its mate. Anyone who searches the body (DC 12 Investigation, or automatic if they loot him) finds it; recognizing what it opens is the mystery. The Guest, if reached, will happily point at it.
 - A **silver ring** (plain, matches one in the lockbox upstairs)
 - 12 gp, 8 sp in a belt pouch
 - [**Orenn's silver mirror**](#orenns-silver-mirror), kept in his breast pocket