fixing plotholes, streamlining

handouts/character-secrets.md

@@ -65,16 +65,16 @@ Each has four parts: **Boon** (an asset you have now) · **Goal** (your secret o
 >
 > **Payoff — *immediate, and powerful.*** The countersign buys **one face, not loyalty**. Once before dawn the Guest will become anyone you name—walk past a locked door as Mags, alibi you, whisper a lie in a rival's voice—or stand beside you during the Reckoning as a full ally (CR 3). It honors that one favor exactly. It does not agree that this makes it your handler's property.
 >
-> **The Catch — CROSS / ALIGN.** Someone else was sent for the Guest too—but *not* to free it. If they reach the cell first, your asset is a corpse and your payoff is gone. If you rescue it, the conflict changes: it means to use Xarrul's transfer to claim the Inn, not follow you out. During [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy-the-guests-gambit), you may have to defend its projected spirit from your own companion and then decide whether extraction means dragging a newly empowered person away from the home it claims.
+> **The Catch — CROSS / ALIGN.** Someone else was sent for the Guest too—but *not* to free it. If they reach the cell first, your asset is a corpse and your payoff is gone. If you rescue it, the conflict changes: it means to use Xarrul's transfer to claim the Inn, not follow you out. During [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy), you may have to defend its projected spirit from your own companion. If Xarrul wins, your asset remains alive but bodiless in the Astral Plane; if the Guest wins, it plans to take Mags's form and keep the Inn.
 
 ### 4. The Executioner
 > **Boon — Cold Hands.** You've done ugly work in dark rooms. You have **advantage on saving throws against being frightened**, and the horrors below rattle you less than they should.
 >
-> **Goal — Silence the Guest.** A patron paid you to make sure the thing in the cellar never speaks again—kill it, ensure it stays caged when this place burns, or sever its projected spirit during [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy-the-guests-gambit). It knows too much about someone who's paying to stay unknown, and a Guest that inherits Xarrul will be almost impossible to reach afterward.
+> **Goal — Silence the Guest.** A patron paid you to make sure the thing in the cellar never speaks again—kill it, ensure it stays caged when this place burns, or sever its projected spirit during [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy). It knows too much about someone who's paying to stay unknown, and a Guest that inherits Xarrul will be almost impossible to reach afterward.
 >
 > **Payoff — *immediate, and vicious.*** From the Guest you take a **vial of face-oil** — a shapeshifter's keepsake. Once before dawn, **read one creature's surface thoughts as *detect thoughts* (no save)** — including a fellow PC's. Learn a secret. Use it however you like. Also: your fee is stashed behind a loose stone near the cellar stairs — **50 gp and a *Potion of Heroism*, findable now.**
 >
-> **The Catch — CROSS.** Someone at this table wants that thing freed and believes they are rescuing it. They are working against you, whether they've said a word or not. A second person needs it alive long enough to *ask it a question*. During the Vacancy, the Guest and Xarrul become separate targets for three rounds: the cleanest shot you will ever receive, in front of everyone who wants it protected.
+> **The Catch — CROSS.** Someone at this table wants that thing freed and believes they are rescuing it. They are working against you, whether they've said a word or not. A second person needs it alive long enough to *ask it a question*. During the Vacancy, the Guest and Xarrul become separate targets for three rounds: the cleanest shot you will ever receive. But the Guest's survival is also the leash on Xarrul: killing it ends the compact's restraint, lets Xarrul kill directly, and makes the Executioner its first-choice replacement for the Hollowing. The Guest says so plainly. The contract can be completed and still make the night much worse.
 
 ### 5. The Recruit
 > **Boon — The Order's Regard.** You carry a hidden **Order of Mending pin**. Shown to a cultist, it marks you as one of the faithful — they speak candidly, and treat you as a promising prospect.

handouts/the-conversion.md

@@ -86,6 +86,6 @@ Killing or binding Xarrul does **not** auto-free them either. The object of thei
 
 ## Hooks
 
-- **Scenario F engine.** A pre-converted PC arguing for [The Open Door](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-f-the-open-door-joining-xarrul) from *inside* the party is the single best on-ramp to that ending — especially with six players, where one persuasive convert can genuinely swing the table.
-- **The dual-plane irony.** The [dual-plane kill](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-c-the-dual-plane-kill) needs someone on the Ethereal Plane — and the convert's Grey Step is a free ticket there. Except they *believe Xarrul shouldn't die.* Do they lend the Step to the kill, withhold it, or use it to shield the fiend? The whole endgame tension, living in one player.
-- **It collides with the [character secrets](character-secrets.md).** A converted **Handler's Agent** frees the Guest and enables [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy-the-guests-gambit), then has reason to protect Xarrul's side of the exchange. A converted **Executioner** must decide which projected spirit to strike. A converted **Mourner** stops wanting the couple's killers answered for. Deal the conversion onto a PC already carrying a dossier and the night detonates.
+- **Scenario F engine.** A pre-converted PC arguing to [side deliberately with Xarrul](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-f-deliberately-side-with-xarrul) from *inside* the party is the single best on-ramp to that ending — especially with six players, where one persuasive convert can genuinely swing the table.
+- **The Ethereal irony.** [Destroying Xarrul](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-c-ethereal-destruction) needs someone waiting on the Ethereal Plane — and the convert's Grey Step is a free ticket there. Except they *believe Xarrul shouldn't die.* Do they lend the Step to the pursuit, withhold it, or use it to shield the fiend? The whole endgame tension, living in one player.
+- **It collides with the [character secrets](character-secrets.md).** A converted **Handler's Agent** frees the Guest and enables [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy), then has reason to protect Xarrul's side of the exchange. A converted **Executioner** must decide which projected spirit to strike. A converted **Mourner** stops wanting the couple's killers answered for. Deal the conversion onto a PC already carrying a dossier and the night detonates.