fixing plotholes, streamlining

location/back-rooms.md

@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ A surprisingly clean workspace, considering the establishment. Mags runs a tight
 ### Details
 
 - **Mags's short sword** hangs among the kitchen implements. It's well-oiled and recently sharpened despite "retirement." This is a **+1 short sword** — Mags won't give it up willingly but might lend it if she trusts the players and believes they're hunting the real killer.
-- **Herb rack** — Among cooking herbs, DC 14 Nature or Herbalism Kit check identifies **dried nightwhisper** (a component in Veil Dust preparation) and **silvervein root** (a mild ward against fiendish influence — chewing it grants advantage on one saving throw against a fiend's ability within the next hour).
+- **Herb rack** — Among cooking herbs, DC 14 Nature or Herbalism Kit check identifies **silvervein root** (a mild ward against fiendish influence — chewing it grants advantage on one saving throw against a fiend's ability within the next hour). Cut stems and matching twine show that Orenn recently carried part of the bundle down to the hidden Workroom.
 - **Mags's apron pocket** — She carries a small iron key (opens the storage room's hidden compartment) and a folded piece of parchment: a letter from Orenn dated three months ago. *"If something happens to me in the bar, it came from between. Check the cellar wards. Don't trust what you see. Trust the bell."* — Mags hasn't read it yet. She will during the session if given time alone, or players can find it if she's incapacitated or if they pickpocket her (DC 19 Sleight of Hand — she's alert).
 
 ## Storage Room
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ A cramped room off the kitchen. Barrels of ale, crates of root vegetables, hangi
 - **Hidden compartment (DC 15 Investigation):** Behind a false barrel-back, a narrow shelf contains:
   - 4 vials of **Holy Water**
   - 1 vial of **Silversheen** (coat a weapon, treat it as silvered for 1 hour)
+  - 1 vial of **Oil of Etherealness**, wrapped in grey felt and labeled *"ten minutes—far side—one hour."* This is one of the Inn's **three normally discoverable field doses**.
   - A leather roll of **fine instruments** — the summoners' old diagnostic kit, kept and well-used by Orenn: something between thieves' tools and a surgeon's set. Grants advantage on Investigation checks related to the arcane or extraplanar if the user is proficient in either thieves' tools or arcana. Old, irreplaceable, and not originally theirs.
   - A **warding chalk** (3 uses) — can draw a 5-foot circle that functions as a Magic Circle against fiends for 10 minutes per use. Faster and cheaper than the spell, but the duration is limited.
 - **Floor trapdoor:** Leads to the cellar. Not hidden — just heavy and stiff. DC 12 Athletics to open quietly, or just yank it (noisy, everyone in the kitchen hears).
@@ -59,5 +60,5 @@ A small room with a lockable door, a table, two benches, and a single candle sco
 A modest room. A bed, a wardrobe, a desk. Everything is clean and ordered. Two people who learned to live in small spaces together.
 
 - **Desk:** Contains correspondence with a contact in the city watch — Orenn was feeding them information about the cult's activities, slowly and carefully. He suspected the Order of Mending was more than scholars. He didn't know about the fiend.
-- **Wardrobe:** Behind a false back (DC 14 Investigation), a small arsenal: 2 silvered daggers, a vial of **Oil of Etherealness** (1 dose — allows the user to enter the Ethereal Plane for 1 hour, as per the spell), and a **leather-bound bestiary** focused on fiends. Bookmarked pages describe entities matching Xarrul's type — Orenn was doing research. He was worried but hadn't figured out what was coming.
+- **Wardrobe:** Behind a false back (DC 14 Investigation), a small arsenal: 2 silvered daggers, one vial of **Oil of Etherealness**, and a **leather-bound bestiary** focused on fiends. Applying the oil takes 10 minutes; afterward the user gains the effect of the *Etherealness* spell for 1 hour. A bookmarked [entry on veil-stepping fiends](../prints/bestiar-dvojstini.md) describes entities matching Xarrul's type — Orenn was doing research. He was worried but hadn't figured out what was coming. This is one of the Inn's **three normally discoverable field doses**.
 - **Under the bed:** A lockbox (DC 16 Thieves' Tools). Contains 150 gp (their savings), a deed to the tavern, and two silver rings — simple, unadorned. Mags will quietly close the box if she sees this. It's not relevant to the investigation. It's just a life.

location/cellar.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Beneath the Nether Inn, accessed through the trapdoor in the storage room. The air changes immediately — colder, damper, and carrying a faint metallic tang that doesn't come from the pipes.
 
-> **DM note — this is the *upper* cellar.** Everything the endgame needs is here: the thin point, the summoners' binding circle, and the old foundation sigils. The [Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md) still plays out in this room, unchanged. But behind the barrel racks is a **[concealed door](#the-concealed-door)** down to the [Deep Cellar](deep-cellar.md) — the vast, hidden warren where Orenn and Mags kept the real secrets (their fortune, their prisoners, their laboratory, and a widening rift). The Deep Cellar is the module's exploration track and is entirely optional. Casual visitors to the cellar see only this room.
+> **DM note — this is the *upper* cellar.** Its occult centerpiece is the summoners' **binding circle**, supported by old foundation sigils. There is no thin point or tear in this room: both names refer to the single breach in the [Old Work](deep-cellar.md#the-old-work), far below. Behind the barrel racks is a **[concealed door](#the-concealed-door)** down to the [Deep Cellar](deep-cellar.md) — the vast, hidden warren where Orenn and Mags kept the real secrets (their fortune, their prisoners, their laboratory, and the breach). Casual visitors to the cellar see only this room.
 
 ## Read-Aloud: Descending
 
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ The cellar is a single irregular space carved into bedrock, roughly 10 meters by
 │ ╚══════╝     └──────────┘       │
 │  [Barrel                         │
 │   Racks]                         │
-│  [Old        [Thin Point]        │
+│  [Old                            │
 │   Crates]                        │
 │  [Orenn's                        │
 │   Circle]    ┌────┐              │
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Wine and spirits too good for the upstairs crowd. A few barrels are marked with
 - A stoppered clay jug of **Alchemist's Fire** (3 flasks worth)
 - A bundle of **iron nails inscribed with tiny runes** (10 nails). Hammering one into a surface creates a minor ward — any fiend crossing within 5 feet of it takes 1d4 radiant damage and the nail glows white-hot for 1 round, alerting anyone nearby. Single use per nail.
 
-### The Concealed Door (Behind the Barrel Racks, North Wall)
+### The Concealed Door
 
 What looks like raw bedrock behind the barrel racks is a **shell of stone facing an iron door**. This is the entrance to the [Deep Cellar](deep-cellar.md) — the hidden lower level, and the module's exploration track.
 
@@ -62,14 +62,15 @@ See **[deep-cellar.md](deep-cellar.md)** for the full lower level.
 
 Genuinely old supplies: moth-eaten cloth, rusted tools, empty bottles. Nothing useful — but the crates themselves are positioned to obscure the circle on the floor behind them. Someone (Orenn) arranged them this way deliberately.
 
-The crates and the whole west corner are furred with thick, greyed spider-silk — far more than a damp cellar earns. **(Foreshadowing:** something big webs the dark below; see [Twinkle](deep-cellar.md#encounter--the-guardian).) The silk thins to nothing at the barrel racks, which are swept clean by regular handling — a tell in its own right (see the [Concealed Door](#the-concealed-door-behind-the-barrel-racks-north-wall)).
+The crates and the whole west corner are furred with thick, greyed spider-silk — far more than a damp cellar earns. **(Foreshadowing:** something big webs the dark below; see [Twinkle](deep-cellar.md#encounter--the-guardian).) The silk thins to nothing at the barrel racks, which are swept clean by regular handling — a tell in its own right (see the [Concealed Door](#the-concealed-door)).
 
 ### The Binding Circle (South)
 
-Hidden behind the crates. A permanent **Magic Circle against fiends** etched into the bedrock with silver inlay — **master-level work, and not Orenn's.** It belonged to the summoners who ran this house before them: DC 16 Arcana identifies it as a **summoning-and-binding circle**, the kind a warlock calls a fiend *into* so the thing can't reach them while they bargain and bind it. Orenn and Mags left it where they found it and never had cause — or the craft — to use it. (This is exactly why the cult's own Haddon can work it in the [rebinding](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-b-the-rebinding): it's a summoner's tool, and he's a summoner.)
+Hidden behind the crates. A permanent **Magic Circle against fiends** etched into the bedrock with silver inlay packed with fine black salt — **master-level work, and not Orenn's.** The packing is the stable, geometric form of [Veilhook Salt](deep-cellar.md#the-fixers-arsenal): silver carries the prohibition while the circle sustains it, preventing a captured creature from escaping between planes. It belonged to the summoners who ran this house before them: DC 16 Arcana identifies it as a **summoning-and-binding circle**, the kind a warlock calls a fiend *into* so the thing can't reach them while they bargain and bind it. Orenn and Mags left it where they found it and never had cause — or the craft — to use it. (This is exactly why the cult's own Haddon can work it in the [rebinding](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-b-the-rebinding): it's a summoner's tool, and he's a summoner.)
 
-- The circle is **intact and functional**. If Xarrul can be lured here and trapped, the circle activates automatically — the fiend must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw or be contained.
-- **Limitation:** The circle only works on the Material Plane. If Xarrul is in the Ethereal Plane, it has no effect. Players must first drag Xarrul fully across with [Veilhook Salt](deep-cellar.md#the-fixers-arsenal), catch it during a voluntary manifestation, or pursue the dual-plane kill.
+- The circle is **intact and functional**. If Material Xarrul enters it, the circle activates automatically — the fiend must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw or be contained. On a failure, it cannot willingly cross the circle or change planes while the circle remains intact.
+- **Rebinding adaptation:** After the first four knots are prepared with the coffer, Dalla's blood and Xarrul's true name, a failed DC 17 save closes a stronger salt-and-name matrix. It suppresses Xarrul's movement and fresh hostile effects across the boundary while the final three knots are spoken. Existing Brand links remain live, and Xarrul can still speak, steal voices and bargain. See [The Rebinding](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-b-the-rebinding).
+- **Limitation:** By itself, the circle cannot perceive or catch an Ethereal creature in the corresponding space. Portable [Veilhook Salt](deep-cellar.md#the-fixers-arsenal), *Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum* or comparable magic must first keep Xarrul Material. The coffer's [Litany of the Averted Step](../prints/litanie-odvraceneho-kroku.md) then limits where it can retreat while the party supplies forced movement. Bell, restored sigils and circle instead close around both planar states and remove the need to anchor it first.
 
 ### Foundation Stones & the Old Sigils (Center, North)
 
@@ -77,29 +78,10 @@ The exposed foundation stones of the tavern above. Carved into them are **sigils
 
 **Current state:** the stone around a few of the sigils is **warm to the touch** despite the cellar's cold. **DC 13 Arcana** reveals the old work is being *drawn on* — something has been feeding on it from the Ethereal side for weeks. **DC 16 Arcana** identifies the influence as fiendish. (This is Xarrul, siphoning the leftover craft to help pry open the [Old Work](deep-cellar.md#the-old-work) far below — the upstairs symptom of the real damage downstairs. It is *not* a broken barrier; it's a breadcrumb pointing the players **down.**)
 
-- **Rekindling a sigil.** A character with the right knowledge (a book from the house, or the [Guest's](../npc/the-guest.md) coaching) plus **warding chalk** (from storage) and a **DC 15 Arcana** check can wake one sigil into a genuine local ward, drawing on the thin point: while it holds, **Xarrul has disadvantage on Ethereal Jaunt within the tavern.** Failure expends the chalk. This is the players *doing* the craft the owners never could.
-
-### The Thin Point (East)
-
-The air here is wrong. Not cold, not warm — *thin*. Characters standing here feel a sensation like vertigo even on solid ground. Hair stands on end. Sounds seem to come from slightly wrong directions.
-
-**DC 12 Arcana or Perception:** The boundary between the Material Plane and the Ethereal Plane is naturally weak at this exact spot. This isn't artificial — the tavern was built on top of it.
-
-**DC 15 Arcana:** This thin point is why the tavern attracted the clientele it did. Subconsciously, people attuned to the arcane or the extraplanar gravitate toward places like this. The cultists didn't choose this tavern randomly. The fiend didn't target it randomly. Everything leads back here.
-
-**If a player takes Veil Dust here:** The effect is *doubled*. Instead of 1 minute, the trip lasts 10 minutes, and the visions are vivid and controllable rather than hallucinatory. The user can interact with ethereal entities directly (including Skein and Xarrul) for the duration. This is the ideal location for the dual-plane kill.
-
-**If the warding chalk circle is drawn here:** It functions as a full Magic Circle (as the spell, 1 hour duration) rather than the reduced 10-minute version, powered by the thin point's natural energy.
+- **Restoring the lattice.** A character with the right knowledge (a summoner book, Haddon's help or the [Guest's](../npc/the-guest.md) coaching), one use of **warding chalk**, and a **DC 16 Arcana** check can reconnect the surviving sigils. Failure expends the chalk. Restored sigils glow but do nothing alone. While the [iron bell](main-hall.md#the-fireplace) is ringing, they prevent Xarrul from using Ethereal Jaunt while it is inside the binding circle. If Xarrul is driven into that circle while both effects are active, bell, sigils and circle seal it consciously between planes. This is the players *doing* the craft the owners never could.
 
 ## Ethereal Plane Overlay
 
-For the DM: in the Ethereal Plane, the cellar looks different. The stone walls glow faintly with the ghost-light of old wards. The summoners' sigils appear as faint lines being *drained* — thin threads of light bleeding away toward the thin point. The thin point is a *tear* — not metaphorical, a visible rip in the grey fabric of the Ethereal Plane, showing the Material Plane through it in muted color.
+For the DM: in the Ethereal Plane, the stone walls glow faintly with the ghost-light of old wards. The foundation sigils continue as thin silver lines through the floor and down into the hidden level. Most are dark or flickering; the surviving light is being drawn downward toward the Old Work.
 
-**Xarrul** uses the cellar as its lair when resting. Ethereal-plane observers might find:
-- Claw marks on the ethereal stone near the sigils (this is where it's been siphoning the old work)
-- A nest of sorts — shadows coiled into a shape suggesting something sleeps here
-- The faint, acrid smell of the Brand of Spite (the ability that killed Orenn)
-
-## Read-Aloud: The Thin Point
-
-> *Něco tu nesedí. Ne nebezpečného — nebo ne zjevně — ale prostě špatného. Vzduch je tu jiný. Není studený ani teplý, je tenký, jako by tu bylo o jednu vrstvu reality míň, než by mělo být. Cítíte lehké závratě, přestože stojíte na pevné zemi. Vlasy na rukou se vám zvedají. A zvuky — kroky, kapání vody, váš vlastní dech — přicházejí z lehce špatných směrů, jako ozvěny v místnosti, která by neměla mít ozvěnu.*
+The **binding circle** blazes with clean silver light. It is a cage, not a breach: there is no rip, window, nest, or thin place inside it. Xarrul may pass through this room while working elsewhere in the house, but it does not rest here and leaves no lair behind.

location/deep-cellar.md

@@ -6,13 +6,13 @@
 
 ## Purpose (For the DM)
 
-This level is the **exploration spine** of the module — the track for players who came to *do* things, not talk. It rewards sneaking, searching, lockpicking, and picking fights carefully. Everything here is optional. A party can solve the murder without ever finding the concealed door. But a party that goes down here finds:
+This level is the **exploration spine** of the module — the track for players who came to *do* things, not talk. It rewards sneaking, searching, lockpicking, and picking fights carefully. Finding and exploring it is optional for the party; Xarrul's unattended plan still uses its tear whether they discover the level or not. A party can solve the murder without ever finding the concealed door. But a party that goes down here finds:
 
 - **Useful things** — a scavenged anti-fiend kit, alchemy, coin, and one or two items that make the Reckoning easier.
 - **Backstory, told by the room** — the truth about who Orenn and Mags really were, discovered through what they kept, caged, and buried, without a single NPC having to explain it.
 - **A fight, on the party's terms** — a guardian, an infestation, a haunting, and a caged thing that might not stay caged.
 
-**This does NOT relocate the endgame.** The Reckoning still happens in the **[Upper Cellar](../location/cellar.md)** — the thin point, the summoners' binding circle, and the old foundation sigils are all up there and unchanged. The Deep Cellar is a *second, lower level* reached through a concealed door. Its own rift (the Old Work, below) is the same planar fault seen deeper and worse; it is a source of dread, backstory, and monsters — **not** the dual-plane-kill site. If in doubt, keep binding and killing Xarrul upstairs where the circle is.
+The two cellar levels serve different endgame functions. The **[Upper Cellar](../location/cellar.md)** holds the summoners' binding circle: a cage used for rebinding or sealing Xarrul. The **Old Work** at the bottom of this level holds the one true planar breach. “Thin point,” “tear,” and “rift” all describe that same place. The Vacancy can happen there only during the three-round resealing window when the lockdown lapses at midnight, because it must deliver the Guest Astral. The forced Hollowing also requires the tear but can begin during lockdown; its destroyed spirit never has to cross the exterior shell. Destroying Xarrul is different: it can be completed anywhere by reducing it to 0 HP on the Ethereal Plane; Material and Ethereal hunters cover both sides only to stop it dodging between them.
 
 ---
 
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ The only entrance is the **concealed iron door** in the Upper Cellar (see [cella
 - **DC 15 Investigation** on the north wall behind the barrel racks — the "living rock" there is a cleverly fitted iron door faced with a shell of real stone. A cold draft and a faint drag-scuff on the earth floor give it away.
 - **DC 15 Perception** — the same cold draft, plus the smell (copper, tallow, something animal underneath).
 - **Orenn's keys** (on his body) include a heavy, plain black iron key that fits nothing upstairs. It fits here.
-- **Vetch's lead:** if the players agree to recover his confiscated Veil Dust, he shows them the cold seam behind the northern racks. They find the door automatically, though they still need Orenn's key, *Knock*, or another way through its Arcane Lock.
 - **Mags** will only reveal it under the most extreme trust (see [mags.md](../npc/mags.md)) — and even then reluctantly. Players who *find it themselves* rob her of the choice, which is very much the point of this track.
 
 The door itself is locked (**Arcane Lock**, DC 20 to force, DC 25 Thieves' Tools; Orenn's black key or *Knock* bypasses it). Behind it: rough steps cut into bedrock, descending.
@@ -126,7 +125,8 @@ A low chamber sealed by a banded door under a permanent **Arcane Lock** (Orenn's
 ### The Fixers' Arsenal
 Rewards for going deep — none of it breaks the Reckoning, most of it *helps* it. Most of this is the **summoners' leftover safety kit** (you stock silver and holy water when you call up fiends for a living), topped up by the couple's own reactive buys from the handful of jobs that turned out not to be human:
 
-- **Veilhook Salt (4 doses).** As an action, throw a pinch at an extraplanar creature you can perceive within 10 ft. A target on the Ethereal Plane can be targeted only by someone able to see and interact across the boundary (such as a creature under Veil Dust). The target makes a DC 14 Charisma save. On a failure it is **dragged fully onto the Material Plane**, appearing in the corresponding space or the nearest unoccupied space, and cannot change planes until the end of its next turn. A target already on the Material Plane is simply anchored there for the duration. *This is the exploration reward that lets a Veil Dust user hook Xarrul across the boundary so the rest of the party can drive it into the binding circle.*
+- **[Veilhook Salt](../prints/veilhook-salt.md) (4 doses).** As an action, expend one dose by casting or pressing the salt onto a creature within 5 feet of you on your current plane. The salt takes hold automatically. Until the start of your next turn, the target cannot teleport or travel to another plane. Removing the grains does not end the effect. Maintaining the anchor therefore requires someone to remain adjacent, spend an action and consume another dose each round. *A Material character can Ready this action for the moment Xarrul manifests: it still completes its attack, but cannot answer the party's retaliation with Slip Between.*
+- **One [Faded Scroll of Etherealness](../prints/faded-scroll-of-etherealness.md).** Anyone who can read a written language can activate it as an action to gain the effect of *Etherealness* for 1 minute. A second copy is in the Workroom emergency kit.
 - A **quiver of 10 silvered crossbow bolts** and a **matched silvered hand crossbow** (well-kept, +0 but silvered).
 - 2 vials of **Holy Water**, 1 more vial of **Silversheen**, and a jar of **warding chalk (2 uses)** — stacks with the storage-room supplies for a party that hunts both caches.
 - A **Potion of Heroism** and a **Potion of Greater Healing** (×2) — the couple's "before the bad jobs" stash.
@@ -149,7 +149,9 @@ Two cells cut side by side, iron-barred, fitted with the runed nails and a warde
 
 **Occupied.** A changeling the couple has held for years and used as an off-book asset. Full write-up, stat block, leverage, and dialogue in **[npc/the-guest.md](../npc/the-guest.md)**.
 
-Short version for the DM: the Guest is the beating heart of "they still have something going on." It's alive, lucid, a fluent liar, and it knows more about Orenn, Mags, *and the Order of Mending* than anyone the players have met — because Orenn used it to spy on the cult. It has also spent weeks speaking to Xarrul through the walls, helped the fiend choose Orenn, and negotiated to exchange its body for spectral ownership of the Inn. It intends to betray that bargain with the party's help and take both Xarrul's power and the tavern. Freeing, killing or trusting it determines whether [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy-the-guests-gambit) is available. Read its file before running this room.
+Short version for the DM: the Guest is the beating heart of "they still have something going on." It's alive, lucid, a fluent liar, and it knows more about Orenn, Mags, *and the Order of Mending* than anyone the players have met — because Orenn used it to spy on the cult. It has also spent weeks speaking to Xarrul through the walls, helped the fiend choose Orenn, and proposed exchanging its body for Astral survival. Xarrul promised never to kill the Guest, making forced Hollowing of the changeling impossible, and accepted one further term: it may kill Orenn but nobody else until the exchange finishes. Xarrul answers that leash by provoking mortals to kill one another. If the Guest dies, the exchange becomes impossible, the restraint lifts, and its killer becomes Xarrul's first replacement target. The Guest intends to betray the bargain with the party's help, take Xarrul's power, lure Mags into Cell One and keep the Inn wearing her face. Freeing, killing or trusting it determines whether [the Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy) or [Hollowing](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-h-the-hollowing) occurs. Read its file before running this room.
+
+**The lower alarm.** The cell's runed nails, concealed-door ward and Twinkle's anchor web form a crude warning system keyed to the black iron key. Forced movement of a living creature across Cell One's threshold, or Xarrul opening the cell from the Ethereal side, turns the key cold against Mags's body and makes Twinkle hammer the Workroom wall with its forelegs. The alarm gives direction, not identity. Haddon can recognize it as the start of a vessel-working; Mags will not explain the level or allow the cultists below.
 
 > **Read-Aloud: Cell One**
 >
@@ -157,7 +159,7 @@ Short version for the DM: the Guest is the beating heart of "they still have som
 >
 > *"No konečně," řekne. "Začínal jsem mít strach, že na mě zapomněli."*
 
-**The conversation stain.** A character viewing the cell through Veil Dust, Oil of Etherealness or another Ethereal sight sees hair-thin amber lines caught around the bars, running down the corridor toward the thin point. They do not resemble claw marks or an attempted breach; they gather at head height, where two people might stand to speak. **DC 15 Arcana or Insight:** the fiend has visited this cell repeatedly, and the prisoner was not merely being hunted. They communicated. The Guest answers a direct question truthfully—*„Nabídl mi cestu, za kterou žádná klec nedosáhne”*—while omitting the bargain's terms.
+**The conversation stain.** A character physically present in the Ethereal Plane, under Oil of Etherealness or comparable planar travel, sees hair-thin amber lines caught around the bars, running down the corridor toward the thin point. They do not resemble claw marks or an attempted breach; they gather at head height, where two people might stand to speak. **DC 15 Arcana or Insight:** the fiend has visited this cell repeatedly, and the prisoner was not merely being hunted. They communicated. The Guest answers a direct question truthfully—*„Nabídl mi cestu, za kterou žádná klec nedosáhne”*—while omitting the bargain's terms.
 
 ### Cell Two — The Long Dead
 
@@ -186,13 +188,13 @@ A long, low chamber that smells of vinegar, sulphur, crushed herbs, and cold ash
 This is the other half of "still something going on." The couple never stopped brewing:
 
 - **Fiend-hunting alchemicals** — the source of the holy water, silversheen, alchemist's fire, and warding chalk found throughout the tavern. They supplied *themselves*.
-- **Veil Dust research.** A locked drawer (DC 14) holds **4 doses of Veil Dust** plus a notebook studying it—not as a drug but as a tool for watching the thin point. Three are Orenn and Mags's measured work doses; the fourth is still folded in Vetch's grubby academy-paper packet, confiscated after his collapse. **This connects to the [ethereal-trip](../storylines/ethereal-trip.md) subplot** and pays off Vetch's lead immediately: the Workroom is the first chamber beyond the concealed descent. The notebook confirms the couple brewed only small diagnostic batches and never sold them.
-- **The Veilhook recipe.** The same notebook contains Orenn's field formula: grind **1 sprig of silvervein root**, **one vial of Holy Water**, and **5 gp of powdered silver** into black salt over low heat. Ten minutes of work and a DC 13 Arcana check or DC 13 check with Alchemist's Supplies or a Herbalism Kit produces **2 doses of Veilhook Salt**; on a failure it produces only 1 dose. The bench has powdered silver for two batches (10 gp total). Orenn's margin note explains the name: *"It does not repel. It catches the far side and pulls."*
+- **Ethereal emergency kit.** A locked drawer (DC 14) holds **one vial of Oil of Etherealness** and **one [Faded Scroll of Etherealness](../prints/faded-scroll-of-etherealness.md)** wrapped separately in waxed cloth. The oil takes 10 minutes to apply and grants the effect of *Etherealness* for 1 hour; the scroll can be read as an action by anyone who can read a written language and grants the effect for 1 minute. Orenn marked the oil *"far-side access—do not waste on observation; use the mirror first"* and the scroll *"breach response—short window."* The oil is one of the Inn's **three normally discoverable field doses**. A second faded scroll is secured in the Vault arsenal; these are the only quick Ethereal access in the Inn, and none are stored upstairs.
+- **The [Veilhook recipe](../prints/veilhook-salt-recipe.md).** The same notebook identifies Veilhook as the loose, portable form of the **salt-and-silver packing worked into the old summoners' binding circle**. In the circle's grooves, geometry sustains the compound's prohibition on planar escape; thrown by hand, one dose holds for only a few heartbeats. Grind **1 sprig of silvervein root**, **one vial of Holy Water**, and **5 gp of powdered silver** into black salt over low heat. Ten minutes of work and a DC 13 Arcana check or DC 13 check with Alchemist's Supplies or a Herbalism Kit produces **2 doses of Veilhook Salt**; on a failure it produces only 1 dose. The bench has powdered silver for two batches (10 gp total). Orenn's margin note explains the name: *"It does not repel. It catches the feet between steps."*
 - **The Ledger (DC 12 to read):** entries for materia, ward maintenance, and — chillingly — line items for "the Guest": *"fed," "used — Order, 3 nights," "compliant," "trim dose"* (a suppressant they keep the Guest on; see [the-guest.md](../npc/the-guest.md)). If the players read this before meeting the Guest, they'll know it's been drugged into cooperation for years. A separate running column headed *"T."* tracks the pet as a resource: *"milked, 2 doses," "webbing spent — new batch," "bit M. again — she laughed."*
 
 ### Loot & Craft
 - **2 flasks of Alchemist's Fire**, **1 vial of Basic Poison** (×3 applications), **Antitoxin** (×2).
-- A sealed **summoner's binding coffer** containing silver wire, preserved lethe-marrow, ritual fat, grave salt, and a blank true-name strip—one complete set of components for [rebinding Xarrul](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-b-the-rebinding). Orenn kept it as evidence and an emergency measure, not merchandise.
+- A sealed **summoner's binding coffer** containing silver wire, preserved lethe-marrow, ritual fat, grave salt, a blank true-name strip, a folded page describing the [rebinding ritual](../prints/xarrul-obrad-opetovne-vazby.md), and the silver-threaded [Litany of the Averted Step](../prints/litanie-odvraceneho-kroku.md). The Litany unfolds into two matched leaves whose ink moves around Xarrul's old binding scar. Together, these are one complete set of components for [rebinding Xarrul](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-b-the-rebinding). Orenn kept it as evidence and an emergency measure, not merchandise.
 - **2 doses of harvested feyspitter venom** in stoppered vials on the milking rack — and more can be drawn from Twinkle (DC 13 with a poisoner's kit; safely from the living spider only if it's calmed or restrained, freely from a dead one). A proficient character can brew a dose during the lockdown (1 hour, DC 13) into **either**: a single-use **Blink Draught** (as a reaction when you take damage, teleport up to 15 ft. to a space you can see), **or** an **injury poison** (DC 14 CON save or 2d8 poison damage and the target is shunted 15 ft. to a random open space — the spider's own lurching venom, bottled).
 - A partially-finished batch of **warding chalk (1 use)** and enough materia for a proficient character (Herbalism Kit / Alchemist's Supplies / Poisoner's Kit) to brew **one more dose of any of the above during the lockdown** (1 hour, DC 13 with the right tools). Rewards a crafter PC with something to *do*.
 - **Silvervein root** (the ward-herb, ×4 sprigs) — matters for weakening [Skein](../storylines/possession.md) and helping Bren. A direct bridge from the exploration track into the possession subplot.
@@ -213,7 +215,7 @@ The largest room down here, and the worst-kept — because things in it don't li
 ### The Haunting — The False Refuge
 A party herded down the Cut spills through the warded arch into this room and, for a moment, believes it's safe: the spider won't follow, the air is still, nothing moves. It is haunted by a **Poltergeist** (specter variant, CR 2) — the untethered remnant of a job the couple could contain but never cleanse (it's on the chalk wall: a struck-through X, *"the Vresk house — never left"*) — and the crucial thing is that **it does not strike on sight.** It watches. It lets the living catch their breath. Give the party a real beat here to stop, argue, bind wounds, and work the problem: *how do we get back past the spider — and is this the only way out?* (It is. Dead end.)
 
-- **Then it turns.** Spring it when the tension peaks — a trophy is disturbed, someone reaches for the loot, the party commits to moving, or they've simply lingered too long in its domain. The cold deepens, the lights gutter, and the shelves come alive. **This is the answer to the riddle Twinkle set:** the party learns, viscerally, why an animal that can blink through walls will not put one leg past that arch. It's invisible (needs *See Invisibility* / Veil Dust / a lucky Perception vs. its Stealth to pin down), hurls objects (Telekinetic Thrust), and drops the lights.
+- **Then it turns.** Spring it when the tension peaks — a trophy is disturbed, someone reaches for the loot, the party commits to moving, or they've simply lingered too long in its domain. The cold deepens, the lights gutter, and the shelves come alive. **This is the answer to the riddle Twinkle set:** the party learns, viscerally, why an animal that can blink through walls will not put one leg past that arch. It's invisible (needs *See Invisibility*, Orenn's mirror, or a lucky Perception vs. its Stealth to pin down), hurls objects (Telekinetic Thrust), and drops the lights.
 - **The pincer.** Now the trap's shape is clear — the haunt in here, the spider up the Cut, and no third exit. This is the moment the party *chooses* its fight: push back up and deal with Twinkle, or settle the haunt first and loot in peace.
 - **Outs (once it's active):** it calms if the party stops disturbing the shelves and holds still, or if someone re-lights the room's **warding sconces** (DC 13 Arcana on the ward-candles bolted to the walls — this pins the poltergeist *and* firms the arch's quarantine). A cleric can turn or lay it to rest (it just wants the room quiet again).
 - **Scaling:** for 5 PCs, add **2 Shadows** (CR 1/2) that peel off the walls where the ward-light has failed — a bridge to the rift's influence.
@@ -227,7 +229,7 @@ Let players earn these by braving the haunting. Suggested shelf (pick to taste):
 
 ---
 
-## The Old Work (The Rift)
+## The Old Work
 
 The deepest chamber, a sealed cul-de-sac at the very bottom of the Cut — reached through [Deep Storage](#deep-storage-the-trophy-hold) and a heavy **barred, runed door** (the same runed iron nails as upstairs, barred from the storage side; cold radiates off it). This sealed rift is the closed case Orenn and Mags built their quiet life on top of — and the thing the hidden fifth rule means when it says *burn below and seal the door.* They believed it dead. It isn't.
 
@@ -238,24 +240,25 @@ The deepest chamber, a sealed cul-de-sac at the very bottom of the Cut — reach
 > *Něco se na druhé straně pohne. A pak ještě něco. Trhlina je čím dál větší — a poprvé za patnáct let ji nikdo nehlídá.*
 
 ### What It Is
-The planar fault beneath the tavern surfaces as the **thin point** upstairs; down here, at the lowest point, it has torn into an actual **rift** — a hand-thin tear that **was contained decades ago** with a **silver-and-salt containment circle** (the summoners' work, or the specialist who closed their mess; distinct from the *binding* circle upstairs). Orenn and Mags inherited it sealed and left it alone, re-tracing the chalk by rote without ever understanding it. The circle is **failing now** — Xarrul has spent weeks prying it open from the Ethereal side. This is the **source** of the ethereal bleed everyone's been feeling, and the reason the whole district around the house has felt *wrong.*
+This chamber is the tavern's **thin point**: the one place where the natural planar fault has torn into an actual **rift**. Thin point, tear, and rift are different descriptions of the same hand-thin breach. It **was contained decades ago** with a **silver-and-salt containment circle** (the summoners' work, or the specialist who closed their mess; distinct from the *binding* circle upstairs). Orenn and Mags inherited it sealed and left it alone, re-tracing the chalk by rote without ever understanding it. The circle is **failing now**—Xarrul spent weeks weakening it from the Ethereal side and charging the Stored Incursion used to kill Orenn. Once the lockdown begins, Xarrul has already crossed into the sealed Material interior; it does not need to tend progress here. The room matters because it contains the Guest, the countermeasures, the compact's evidence, and the single midnight site where Xarrul must surrender its Jaunt to become embodied. This is also the **source** of the ethereal bleed everyone's been feeling, and the reason the whole district around the house has felt *wrong.*
 
 - **DC 14 Arcana:** the containment circle is the same craft as the upstairs work but older, and it's being eroded from the ethereal side — the same claw-marks that are siphoning the sigils upstairs.
-- **DC 16 Arcana:** the rift and the upstairs thin point are one fault. Widening or "using" this rift would be catastrophically less controllable than the upstairs thin point. **This is not where you do the dual-plane kill.** (Explicit, so a clever party doesn't try to run the Reckoning down here and derail it.)
+- **DC 16 Arcana:** there is no second thin point upstairs. The ward-lines visible across both cellar levels all descend to this breach. The upper binding circle is a cage for a creature; this containment circle is the cork around the hole.
+- **Vessel workings:** both the [Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy) and the [Hollowing](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-h-the-hollowing) require the exposed breach and take place inside this containment circle. The Vacancy must wait for the shell to lapse because it sends the Guest Astral. The Hollowing destroys its victim's spirit locally and can begin during lockdown once the Guest's compact has dissolved.
 
 ### The Conversion (Optional — a lone explorer)
 
-If a *single* PC lingers here alone, this is where Xarrul can reach them — a ward-snare pins them, or an **Ethereal Pull** drags them partway into the grey, and the fiend simply *talks*. They rejoin the party changed: genuinely convinced Xarrul should go free, and carrying a shard of its nature. This is **not** a charm — it's a conversation that worked, and it's one of the best engines for [Scenario F](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-f-the-open-door-joining-xarrul) at a large table. Full scene, the player's note, the boon (the **Grey Step**), and the counterplay: [handouts/the-conversion.md](../handouts/the-conversion.md).
+If a *single* PC lingers here alone, this is where Xarrul can reach them — a ward-snare pins them, or an **Ethereal Pull** drags them partway into the grey, and the fiend simply *talks*. They rejoin the party changed: genuinely convinced Xarrul should go free, and carrying a shard of its nature. This is **not** a charm — it's a conversation that worked, and it's one of the best engines for [Scenario F](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-f-deliberately-side-with-xarrul) at a large table. Full scene, the player's note, the boon (the **Grey Step**), and the counterplay: [handouts/the-conversion.md](../handouts/the-conversion.md).
 
 ### Encounter — Creatures from the Rift
-This is where "Xarrul can have some creatures from there" pays off. Xarrul doesn't lair *in* the rift — it lairs in the ethereal cellar (upstairs overlay, per canon) — but it has learned to **loose the scavengers** that gather at the tear, herding them at intruders like dogs.
+This is Xarrul's true lair and intended transfer site. Before the lockdown it rested on the Ethereal side between periods of work; afterward it can move throughout both sealed interiors. It has learned to **loose the scavengers** that gather here, herding them at intruders like dogs. Until the Vacancy finishes, scavengers deliberately loosed by Xarrul steal, separate, frighten, and herd; they withdraw from a helpless target rather than turn Xarrul's command into a forbidden killing. Natural rift-creatures not acting under its direction remain uncontrolled. For lair-action mechanics, treat the **entire Nether Inn**—both cellar levels and every room above—as its lair while the lockdown holds.
 
 Deploy as a scaled encounter (tune to party size / how hurt they are):
 - **Baseline:** **3 Shadows** (CR 1/2) that pour out of the tear where the circle's light has thinned, plus **1 Ethereal Filcher** (CR 1) that darts in to *steal a valuable item* off a PC (DC 13 vs. Sleight-of-Hand-style grab) and flee back through the rift — a fantastic reason to chase, and a way to make loss of the vault's prize sting.
 - **Harder:** add a **Specter** (CR 1) or upgrade to a lone **ethereal-touched horror** of the DM's making. If Xarrul is *actively present* on the ethereal side (late game), it can spend a turn "opening the gate" as a lair-flavored action, adding 1 Shadow per round until the circle is restored.
 
-### Encounter — The Guardian (the pet)
-Denned in the **[Workroom](#the-workroom-laboratory)** at the stair-foot and prowling the length of the **Long Cut** — the Cells, the Vault, the working floor — is **the couple's pet**, a **feyspitter spider** they called **Twinkle**. It is *not* found past the warded arch: it won't set foot in [Deep Storage](#deep-storage-the-trophy-hold) (the poltergeist's ground) and it *can't* follow anything into [the Old Work](#the-old-work-the-rift). Its blink is a fey twitch *across* the Material Plane, never *out* of it — so when Xarrul's scavengers phase away at the tear, the pet is left snapping at empty air. That boundary is the one place in its home it fears.
+### Encounter — The Guardian
+Denned in the **[Workroom](#the-workroom-laboratory)** at the stair-foot and prowling the length of the **Long Cut** — the Cells, the Vault, the working floor — is **the couple's pet**, a **feyspitter spider** they called **Twinkle**. It is *not* found past the warded arch: it won't set foot in [Deep Storage](#deep-storage-the-trophy-hold) (the poltergeist's ground) and it *can't* follow anything into [the Old Work](#the-old-work). Its blink is a fey twitch *across* the Material Plane, never *out* of it — so when Xarrul's scavengers phase away at the tear, the pet is left snapping at empty air. That boundary is the one place in its home it fears.
 
 Full tactical block below — it's the "fight a bit" the party will remember. Its range is also a quiet barometer: it used to have the run of the whole level, and it's pulled tight into the Workroom now. The rift has been taking ground from it, the same way it's been taking the wards.
 
@@ -308,8 +311,8 @@ Full tactical block below — it's the "fight a bit" the party will remember. It
 
 **Threads back into the main game — surface at least one:**
 - The chalk wall / Guest / trophies reveal Orenn was investigating the **Order of Mending** → feeds the murder mystery and the [Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md).
-- The Workroom's **silvervein root** and Veil Dust → the [Possession](../storylines/possession.md) and [ethereal-trip](../storylines/ethereal-trip.md) subplots.
-- The **Veilhook Salt** and its Workroom recipe → the means to pull Xarrul onto the Material Plane and pin it.
+- The Deep Cellar's **silvervein root**, Oil of Etherealness and two short-lived Ethereal scrolls → the [Possession](../storylines/possession.md) subplot and limited routes into the Ethereal Plane.
+- The **Veilhook Salt** and its Workroom recipe → the means to anchor Xarrul after it manifests and deny Slip Between.
 - The vault **trophies** implicating both factions → a lit fuse if it ever reaches the main hall.
 
 **If the party burns it (the fifth rule):** Orenn's contingency — *"burn the cellar stores and seal the door"* — is a real option. Torching the Workroom and Deep Storage and collapsing the door denies the loot but also **cuts off the rift's bleed into the tavern** (the fire consumes the failing containment and the stores that feed the fault's attraction), giving a partial ward-restoration effect equivalent to repairing the sigils. It's a scorched-earth ending Mags respects. The Guest, if still caged, dies in the fire unless freed first — make the players sit with that.

location/main-hall.md

@@ -18,7 +18,11 @@ A massive slab of darkwood, scarred by decades of knife marks, spilled drinks, a
 
 ### The Fireplace
 
-Large stone hearth, fire burning low. The mantle holds a single iron bell that has never been rung — a relic left from the tavern's summoner days. **Mags knows the trick to ring it** (never what it truly does): the toll wakes the old foundation sigils. It was the summoners' last resort, meant to seal the building against ethereal intrusion. The sigils are half-dormant and being siphoned now, so the effect is partial at best (disadvantage on Xarrul's Ethereal Jaunt saves rather than preventing it outright).
+Large stone hearth, fire burning low. The mantle holds a single iron bell that has never been rung — a relic left from the tavern's summoner days. **Mags knows the trick to ring it** (never what it truly does): turn it mouth-down, strike the rim with bare iron, then let it toll without touching the clapper.
+
+The bell wakes the old foundation sigils for **1 minute**. During that minute, anyone inside the Inn sees Xarrul as a blurred outline even while it is Ethereal. This removes concealment, but not the planar boundary: seeing Xarrul does not allow a Material creature to affect it. Veilhook Salt cannot cross the boundary, but can anchor Xarrul if applied when it manifests.
+
+The bell alone does **not** trap or banish Xarrul. If the cellar sigils have been restored, its toll also prevents Xarrul from using Ethereal Jaunt while it is inside the binding circle. Bell, restored sigils and the circle together can seal it consciously between planes; see [The Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#the-bell-and-sigils-seal).
 
 ### Assassin Table (North-West)
 
@@ -32,9 +36,9 @@ Two other unnamed blades fill the rest of the table. They defer to Sevra complet
 
 A round table covered in papers, open books, and half-empty inkwells—maintaining the scholar facade. It is not merely the cultists' chosen seat: Haddon and Vyre used it as their worktable during the original cleanup fifteen years ago. Tiny catalogue numbers cut by Haddon remain along one edge, and regulars know not to take his chair. **Haddon** sits at the center, composed. **Dalla** is on his left, distracted and pale. **Rennt** is on his right, leaning forward with intense energy. **Essek** sits slightly apart, saying nothing.
 
-Beside it stands a narrow bookshelf containing the original summoners' volumes Haddon and Vyre classified as safe enough to keep upstairs. Early pages carry cautious notes in Haddon's left hand and responsible annotations from Vyre before doctrine consumed her. Later volumes contain Bren Aldara's precise corrections. Haddon now writes right-handed because the containment circle that saved Orenn ruined his left arm.
+Beside it stands a narrow bookshelf containing the original summoners' volumes Haddon and Vyre classified as safe enough to keep upstairs. Early pages carry cautious notes in Haddon's left hand and responsible annotations from Vyre before doctrine consumed her. Later volumes contain Bren Aldara's precise corrections. Three equally substantial bookmarked entries could plausibly explain his ordered "madness": **[On Ethereal Skeins](../prints/o-eterickem-predivu.md)**, **[On Mist Leeches](../prints/o-mlznych-pijavicich.md)** and **[On the Return Echo](../prints/o-navratove-ozvene.md)**. Bren annotated all three as **B. A.**, but only the first matches the selective silencing, stolen movement and six tendrils. Haddon now writes right-handed because the containment circle that saved Orenn ruined his left arm.
 
-**After the murder:** Haddon immediately begins constructing an alibi — "we were all engaged in discussion, none of us left the table." This is technically true but irrelevant (the fiend killed from the Ethereal Plane). Rennt is agitated and defensive. Dalla doesn't seem to care about the investigation at all — she's thinking about her child.
+**After the murder:** Haddon immediately begins constructing an alibi — "we were all engaged in discussion, none of us left the table." This is technically true but irrelevant: Xarrul briefly manifested behind the bar, killed Orenn and withdrew to the Ethereal Plane; no cultist had to leave the table. Rennt is agitated and defensive. Dalla doesn't seem to care about the investigation at all — she's thinking about her child.
 
 **On the table (DC 12 Investigation):** Among the scholarly papers, one diagram shows planar boundaries with annotations about "thinning points." Haddon will claim it's theoretical research. It's actually a map of potential Opening sites, and the Nether Inn is marked.
 
@@ -44,19 +48,13 @@ Beside it stands a narrow bookshelf containing the original summoners' volumes H
 
 ### Curtained Booth (South, near wall)
 
-A small booth with high-backed wooden seats and a moth-eaten curtain. It has a clear sightline to the bar, the entrance, and both faction tables while giving anyone seated inside a little privacy. Nobody claimed it before the brawl. During the investigation it is the obvious place to isolate Essek, question a witness, hide a frightened Vetch, or stage a conversation someone else wants to overhear.
+A small booth with high-backed wooden seats and a moth-eaten curtain. It has a clear sightline to the bar, the entrance, and both faction tables while giving anyone seated inside a little privacy. Nobody claimed it before the brawl. During the investigation it is the obvious place to isolate Essek, question a witness, protect a lucid Bren, or stage a conversation someone else wants to overhear.
 
 ### Bren's Corner (North-East, near bar)
 
 Not a seat — a spot on the floor between the bar and the wall. **Bren** sits here with his knees drawn up, rocking slightly, muttering to the air beside him. A wooden bowl with a few copper coins sits in front of him — the regulars toss him change out of habit or superstition.
 
-The space beside him where he talks to is **occupied** in the Ethereal Plane by **Skein**, a translucent, spider-like entity made of knotted threads. It's visible only via Veil Dust, See Invisibility, or similar effects.
-
-### Vetch's Spot (South-East, near cellar stairs)
-
-**Vetch** sits on a stool near the stairs that lead down to the cellar. He's not here by accident: two nights ago Orenn confiscated his last packet of Veil Dust and carried it below. Vetch followed far enough to find the cold seam behind the northern barrel racks, but not far enough to open it.
-
-He's jittery, sweating, picking at the skin on his forearms. He flinches when spoken to but warms up quickly if shown even basic kindness.
+The space beside him where he talks to is **occupied** in the Ethereal Plane by **Skein**, a translucent, spider-like entity made of knotted threads. *See Invisibility* reveals it directly; Orenn's silver mirror provides the same sight only within its reflection. Neither makes Skein Material or allows an ordinary attack to cross the planar boundary.
 
 ### Center Floor (Post-Brawl)
 
@@ -80,7 +78,7 @@ After the brawl, the center of the room is a mess:
 >
 > *Klapnutí závory na hlavních dveřích zní jako rozsudek.*
 
-*(DM: this is only her entrance. The full set-piece that follows — the forced heal, the failed* Revivify *with the diamond from her necklace, the shattered ward-crystal that seals the tavern until midnight, and the ultimatum — is scripted in [Mags — Act 2: The Reveal](../npc/mags.md#act-2--the-reveal-dm). The "bolt" the players hear is the ward-crystal discharging into every exit, not a simple latch.)*
+*(DM: this is only her entrance. The full set-piece that follows—the forced heal, the failed* Revivify *with the diamond from her necklace, the shattered ward-crystal that seals the tavern until midnight, and the ultimatum—is scripted in [Mags — Act 2: The Reveal](../npc/mags.md#act-2--the-reveal-dm). The "bolt" the players hear is the ward-crystal discharging into every exterior opening, not a simple latch; the cellar remains reachable from inside.)*
 
 ## Lighting & Atmosphere
 

location/tavern-overview.md

@@ -27,21 +27,27 @@ The only public way in is the heavy front door at the bottom of the entry steps.
 
 **If a PC leaves before the lockdown.** Nothing stops them physically — but Broath Got at night is not friendly, they forfeit whatever they came for (Orenn's references, their dossier goals), and the door **won't let them back in** without the password they don't have. Use it to *inconvenience*, not to trap: banging, bargaining through the door, or finding a regular to vouch gets them back. This is a soft social lock — the game's way of saying *take the hook.* Worst case, a player insists on walking their character out for good; hand them the pre-made **[Boarder](../npc/the-boarder.md)** — "Wick," a resident with a room upstairs, already inside, wired into the plot with local knowledge and a hook of their own — and carry on.
 
-**The midnight lockdown (Act 2).** When Orenn dies, Mags shatters a fist-sized **ward-crystal** kept on the shelf above the bar. It discharges the tavern's stored wards into every opening at once — front door, cellar trapdoor, shutters — all sealed under an **Arcane Lock until midnight**, when the charge lapses on its own:
+**The midnight lockdown (Act 2).** When Orenn dies, Mags shatters a fist-sized **ward-crystal** kept on the shelf above the bar. It discharges the tavern's stored wards into every exterior opening at once — front door, shutters and any other route outside — until midnight, when the charge lapses on its own.
 
-- Force a sealed exit: **DC 25 Strength**, or **DC 20 Thieves' Tools**; *Knock* or *Dispel Magic* vs. the ward's **DC 17** bypasses one opening.
-- Breaking the crystal is **one-way**. No password lifts it, and Mags herself cannot reopen the doors early — she's locked in with everyone else, on purpose.
-- The wards **bite**: anyone forcing a breach takes **2d6 force** and the discharge is loud enough that every NPC in the hall turns to look.
+- The mundane door can still be picked (**DC 20 Thieves' Tools**), forced (**DC 25 Strength**) or destroyed. Doing so only exposes the smooth, translucent planar shell behind it. *Knock* opens the physical lock; *Dispel Magic* suppresses the visible surface for a heartbeat. Neither permits passage.
+- The shell cannot be punctured or dispelled during the session. It blocks physical escape, Ethereal travel across the exterior, teleportation, and Astral projection alike. It is scenery, pressure and a deadline—not an alternate anti-Xarrul ending.
+- Breaking the crystal is **one-way**. No password lifts it, and Mags herself cannot reopen the Inn early. She is locked in with everyone else, on purpose.
+- The **cellar trapdoor remains physically locked but is not part of the exterior shell**. Mags intended to confine people to the building, not bar herself from her own cellar.
 
-Beating the lock early — or simply surviving until midnight — is a genuine Act 3 problem, not a formality.
+The party may spend resources proving that the physical exits are irrelevant, but resolving the night means dealing with what is inside.
 
-> **DM — what the crystal really is.** The "stored wards" are not Orenn and Mags's work; they are the **summoners' emergency containment device**, left with the building — an *oh-shit button.* If a calling ever punched a hole to a lower plane, breaking the crystal sealed the house in a resilient shell **on every plane at once** (it plane-shifts and lays a *resilient-sphere*-like seal over each plane's version of the building — sealing *within* a plane being far easier than sealing *between* them). Its purpose: contain a breach so that **only what is already inside the house, on some plane, can come through the hole — never the whole plane behind it.**
+### Room-Bound Area Wards
+
+The Inn's old containment craft treats every enclosed chamber as a separate ward-cell. An area spell that establishes a sustained magical boundary—most importantly *Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum*—cannot extend across a doorway, open arch, stair, trapdoor, concealed door, wall, floor or ceiling inside the building. Its caster may use the spell's full permitted dimensions, but only within the room where the casting is completed.
+
+The Main Hall is one room. The kitchen, storage room, private room, upper cellar, each chamber of the Deep Cellar and the Old Work are separate rooms; the Long Cut is one continuous corridor-cell. This restriction does not weaken the spell inside its chosen room. It prevents a single cube from blanketing the entire vertical complex.
+
+> **DM — what the crystal really is.** The "stored wards" are not Orenn and Mags's work; they are the **summoners' emergency containment device**, left with the building — an *oh-shit button.* If a calling ever punched a hole to another plane, breaking the crystal withdrew power from the internal seals and threw it into a resilient shell **around every planar version of the building at once**. The design deliberately trades a cork for a bottle: an intruder already at the fault may cross inside, but neither it nor the plane behind it can spread beyond the house.
 >
 > Mags knows none of this. To her it's the panic button that bolts the doors. In truth, shattering it is **the last thing [Xarrul](../npc/xarrul.md#the-nights-clock--presence--escalation) needed**, and it engineered Orenn's murder precisely to make her do it:
-> - **It builds the closed vessel Xarrul must have.** While the house bled freely across planes, the fiend's crossing dissipated — it could only jaunt *partway* (enough to kill Orenn, no more). Sealed, the house is a closed cross-planar vessel: Xarrul, already inside on the ethereal side, can now finish crossing through the tear, and the summoners' "limit the breach to one entity" safeguard *guarantees* that entity is *it*. The button built to protect the city is a bespoke door for exactly one guest.
+> - **It trades the inner barrier for an outer cage.** Before activation, Xarrul is held on the Ethereal side and can manage only one three-round **Stored Incursion** after a full night charging at the tear. It spends that charge killing Orenn. When Mags breaks the crystal, the internal planar seals lose their power; Xarrul crosses fully into the Material interior and regains Ethereal Jaunt, but the new exterior shell traps it on both planes with everyone else.
 > - **It cuts the diffusion.** Nothing bleeds out to the district anymore, nothing bleeds in. The wrongness that used to spread thin across the quarter — the reason Orenn never localized it — is now trapped and concentrated *inside*, with its source. From tonight, the players can finally trace it home.
-> - **The inversion (a real player lever).** The same breach rules above become an *anti-Xarrul* tactic once understood: puncturing the shell on a plane re-opens the boundary, the vessel goes leaky again, and the crossing destabilizes — Xarrul can't complete tonight (at worst it slips away ethereally to try later). The thing the party wanted to escape becomes the thing they smash on purpose.
-> - **The seal lapses at midnight**, and the lockdown timer *is* the night's clock (see [The Reckoning — The Clock](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#the-clock)).
+> - **The seal lapses at midnight.** Until then no creature or projected spirit can leave, so the Guest cannot be delivered to the Astral Plane and the Vacancy cannot begin. As the exterior shell falls, power returns to the internal containment and creates one three-round transfer window before the tear reseals. Xarrul's old tether still confines it to the Inn's footprint after the exterior opens; only embodiment lets it leave. The lockdown timer *is* the night's clock (see [The Reckoning — The Clock](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#the-clock)).
 
 ## Atmosphere
 
@@ -69,7 +75,7 @@ The noise level before the brawl is a low murmur punctuated by occasional harsh
 │   Table]       [Center tables,                  │            │
 │                 stools, debris]        ┌────────┴────────┐   │
 │  [Curtained                            │ Door to Kitchen │   │
-│   Booth]       [Vetch, near stairs]    └────────┬────────┘   │
+│   Booth]       [Cellar stairs]         └────────┬────────┘   │
 │                                                 │            │
 │  ┌──────┐                              ┌────────┴────────┐   │
 │  │ENTRY │                              │   BACK ROOMS    │   │
@@ -102,7 +108,7 @@ The noise level before the brawl is a low murmur punctuated by occasional harsh
 
 ## Secrets
 
-- The tavern is built on a **natural thin point** between the Material and Ethereal planes. Orenn and Mags know this — they cleaned a den of summoners off this fault years ago and believe they sealed what those summoners tore open. They do *not* monitor it; to them the danger is fifteen years dead. It also means Veil Dust is more potent here, and ethereal entities find it easier to manifest.
+- The tavern is built over a **natural thin point** between the Material and Ethereal planes: the same single place as the sealed tear in the Deep Cellar's [Old Work](deep-cellar.md#the-old-work). Orenn and Mags know this — they cleaned a den of summoners off the fault years ago and believe they sealed it. They do *not* monitor it; to them the danger is fifteen years dead. Ethereal entities nevertheless find the sealed house broadly easier to haunt.
 - The wooden plaque with the house rules has a **hidden fifth rule** on the back, in Orenn's handwriting: *"If the veil tears, burn the cellar stores and seal the door. We'll handle the rest."* — Mags can reveal this if pressed, but it will shake her.
 - The building's stone foundation carries **old sigils** — not Orenn and Mags's work, but the **summoners'** who ran this place before them: the upstairs remnant of the binding-and-containment craft that runs down into the [cellar](cellar.md). A character examining the foundation stones (DC 15 Investigation or Arcana) reads them as long-inert summoning-and-warding work and clocks that whoever built this house was working the thin point on purpose. It's a breadcrumb toward the house's occult past — *not* a barrier anyone maintained. The thing actively being torn open is far below, at the [Old Work](deep-cellar.md#the-old-work).
 - Behind the barrel racks in the cellar, a **[concealed door](cellar.md#the-concealed-door)** leads down to the **[Deep Cellar](deep-cellar.md)** — a hidden warren that is Orenn and Mags's real, ongoing workplace: a vault, a laboratory, two cells (one occupied), a trophy-hold, and a widening rift to the Ethereal Plane. "Retired" was always a story. This lower level is the module's optional exploration track — sneaking, looting, environmental backstory, and a fight or two — for players who'd rather *do* than talk. The fifth rule on the plaque (*"burn the cellar stores and seal the door"*) refers to it.