fixing plotholes, streamlining

npc/cultists.md

@@ -77,6 +77,10 @@ Haddon used to teach the same principle in different words: **the living weight
 
 Mags calls him **Professor** when she wants to hurt him, because that is what Bren calls him in lucid moments. She does not permit Haddon behind the bar, near Bren unsupervised, or into the cellar. Orenn was the only person who interrupted before she pushed harder. After the murder, Haddon may instinctively look toward Orenn's place when she confronts him and find it empty.
 
+Haddon knows the original summoners' containment extended below the upper cellar and can recognize a vessel-working or alarm moving in that direction. He has never seen the later cells, Vault, laboratory, Guest or Twinkle. Those belong to Orenn and Mags's private operation, built after the cleanup. When a Hollowing victim disappears, his warning is arcane inference—not proof that he knows what Mags kept below.
+
+Haddon's padded ritual case contains **one vial of Oil of Etherealness**, issued for observing or contacting Xarrul if the command binding failed at close range. This is a **reserve beyond the three field doses**. Applying it takes 10 minutes, so it is preparation rather than a reactive defense. Haddon hides the vial with the rest of the Order's involvement and surrenders it only as part of a credible plan to rebind or destroy Xarrul, after Essek turns him, or by force.
+
 ### What He Knows
 
 **Will share as "scholarly cooperation":**
@@ -89,7 +93,7 @@ Mags calls him **Professor** when she wants to hurt him, because that is what Br
 - That Xarrul was sent into the House archive to steal the Severance Nail and falsify the custodians' memories—not to assassinate Sevra.
 - That new commands have received no response since the House's Final Closure activated. The ritual still registers Xarrul and its stored energy, so Haddon insists the command binding is merely suffering "interference." He strongly suspects otherwise.
 - That The Opening is more than theory. That there's a timeline, a plan, and tonight was supposed to be a field test.
-- That the thin point in the cellar is on Mother Vyre's list of potential Opening sites.
+- That the thin point—the tear in the Deep Cellar's Old Work—is on Mother Vyre's list of potential Opening sites.
 - That Vyre's E–III experiment diverted Nessa into the Border Ethereal, and that the Order deliberately postponed a possible reintegration.
 - That Dalla is not merely a blood donor: she is the maternal conduit through which the Order drains Nessa's trapped vitality.
 
@@ -136,7 +140,7 @@ Dalla is the emotional core of the cultist group — but she is **loyal to the O
 - Single-minded about her child. Every conversation orbits back to Nessa.
 - Loyal to the Order and to Mother Vyre. She believes the summoning failure is a setback, not a sign that something is fundamentally wrong. Haddon tells her the binding can be fixed, and she believes him — she *needs* to believe him.
 - Will defend the Order against accusations. "You don't understand what we're trying to do. We're trying to *heal* the world."
-- The monthly blood sacrifice has left her physically weakened. She bruises easily, gets dizzy, and sometimes her hands shake (not unlike Vetch, for different reasons).
+- The monthly blood sacrifice has left her physically weakened. She bruises easily, gets dizzy, and sometimes her hands shake.
 - She will talk about Nessa with anyone who shows genuine interest, but she frames it within the Order's worldview: the separated planes are what's hurting her daughter, and The Opening is the cure.
 
 ### Dalla's Three States
@@ -168,7 +172,7 @@ Dalla learns that Vyre's experiment caused Nessa's condition and that reintegrat
 - When the Final Closure activated she felt a cord pull free inside her chest. Because some connection remains through Nessa's energy, Haddon convinced her the binding had merely settled at a distance. She does not know Xarrul is free.
 - That Mother Vyre has a "Phase Two" and Haddon is already planning the next summoning.
 - Where the cult's safehouse is (outside the tavern, but useful for after the session).
-- Everything she knows about the binding mechanics and blood schedule. She cannot derive the dual-plane kill herself, but her blood records let Essek or a PC arcanist trace the energy path back toward Nessa.
+- Everything she knows about the binding mechanics and blood schedule. She cannot derive Xarrul's Ethereal mortality herself, but her blood records let Essek or a PC arcanist trace the energy path back toward Nessa.
 
 ### The Rebinding (Cultist Solution)
 
@@ -176,7 +180,12 @@ Haddon's plan — and Dalla's hope while she's loyal — is to **recapture and r
 - Requires a complete set of binding components (the [Workroom](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-workroom-laboratory) contains one old summoner's coffer)
 - Requires Dalla's blood again (she'll give it without hesitation)
 - Requires the binding circle in the cellar (the summoners' circle could be repurposed — DC 16 Arcana to adapt it)
-- Haddon leads the ritual. Rennt assists.
+- Requires two readers to use the coffer's [Litany of the Averted Step](../prints/litanie-odvraceneho-kroku.md) while the party forces Xarrul into the circle
+- Haddon, Dalla and Rennt maintain three separate stations during the final three knots
+
+The litany is the capture tool. Two readers hold its shifting leaves and chant; Material Xarrul cannot willingly move closer to either reader, so separated readers can stand behind it and create a narrowing wedge toward the circle. A third character must still shove it, grapple it or forgo melee damage to drive it 5 feet at a time. The litany does not prevent Ethereal Jaunt. *Private Sanctum*, Veilhook Salt or another planar anchor is still necessary.
+
+Once the circle accepts Xarrul, Haddon maintains the true name, Dalla maintains the blood response and Rennt closes the command knots. Three active stations advance; two stall; one loses progress; none collapses the ritual. A broken station deals 2d6 psychic damage to each other active ritualist and can cascade. Xarrul cannot claw its way out of the adapted circle, so it bargains: it attacks Dalla with Nessa, Haddon with Bren and his abandoned maxim, and Rennt with Haddon's concealed certainty that control was already lost. PCs sustain the ritual socially and medically or take over a failing station. Full rules: [The Rebinding](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-b-the-rebinding).
 
 **If the rebinding succeeds:** Xarrul is bound again. The cult has its weapon back. Dalla's connection to the binding is restored — which means Nessa's condition might stabilize (stop getting worse) but won't improve. Her body remains suspended. Dalla tells herself this is progress. The cult continues toward Phase Two.
 
@@ -184,7 +193,7 @@ Haddon's plan — and Dalla's hope while she's loyal — is to **recapture and r
 
 ### The Competing Cures (Requires Truth)
 
-See [The Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md). The dual-plane kill — synchronized destruction in both the Material and Ethereal planes — releases the stolen vitality used to bind Xarrul. Since Dalla's blood was the conduit, the energy should snap back along the same path: to Dalla, and through her, to Nessa. Essek believes it will pull Nessa home. No one can guarantee the violent recoil will not damage her silver cord.
+See [The Reckoning](../storylines/the-reckoning.md). Destroying Xarrul in its native Ethereal Plane releases the stolen vitality used to bind it. Since Dalla's blood was the conduit, the energy should snap back along the same path: to Dalla, and through her, to Nessa. Material and Ethereal attackers are needed only to keep Xarrul from dodging the pursuit by shifting planes. Essek believes the recoil will pull Nessa home. No one can guarantee it will not damage her silver cord.
 
 Xarrul offers a second cure: once the all-plane lockdown ends and it can leave the inn, it knows where Nessa is caught and can unwind the scar directly. It promises to bring her home if the party helps it cross. Dalla favors this route after the notes surface—not because she mistakes Xarrul for good, but because it has demonstrated that it knows Nessa's binding and tells the truth.
 
@@ -249,9 +258,15 @@ Rennt is the most dangerous kind of extremist: one who's right about the problem
 
 A few rounds into the brawl, pressed by the assassins piling onto him, **Rennt casts *Thunderwave*** — a legitimate defensive knockback. It also snuffs every candle in the hall at once, and in that sudden dark [Xarrul](xarrul.md) kills Orenn behind the bar. Rennt has no idea he provided the cover; he'll deny the cult had anything to do with the murder, and he's *telling the truth* — which makes the cult look damning and be innocent. See **[Murder Mystery — Act 2](../storylines/murder-mystery.md#act-2--the-spark)**. If a PC later accuses him of blacking the room out on purpose, his baffled fury is genuine.
 
-### If the Dual-Plane Kill Is Proposed
+### If Ethereal Destruction Is Proposed
 
-Rennt is **violently opposed**. Destroying Xarrul would waste Dalla's sacrifice, erase Phase One's living proof, and betray Mother Vyre's work merely because a fiend offered a convenient truth. „Osm měsíců krvácela, a teď chcete výsledek spálit, protože vás ta zbraň vyděsila? Spoutejte ji. Dokončete, co jsme začali.” He will sabotage the dual-plane ritual or attack whoever moves to complete the kill. The fact that it would create a momentary planar tear does not tempt him; only Vyre has the right to perform the Opening, at the proper scale and under control.
+Rennt is **violently opposed**. Destroying Xarrul would waste Dalla's sacrifice, erase Phase One's living proof, and betray Mother Vyre's work merely because a fiend offered a convenient truth. „Osm měsíců krvácela, a teď chcete výsledek spálit, protože vás ta zbraň vyděsila? Spoutejte ji. Dokončete, co jsme začali.” He will attack the Ethereal hunter, ruin their means of crossing or sabotage whoever moves to complete the kill.
+
+### Cultists in the Endgame
+
+Xarrul's whispers are meant to turn the upstairs tension into faction war before midnight. Its compact with the Guest prevents Xarrul from killing anyone after Orenn until the exchange finishes, but does not protect cultists and assassins from one another. Haddon and Rennt try to rebind it; Essek favors permanent destruction; Dalla moves from rebinding to opposition once the conduit evidence is explained. If the party supplies tactical defenses without resolving that disagreement, the cult loyalists may attack the ritual or the people holding Xarrul, activating its self-defense exception.
+
+If changeling-bodied Xarrul enters the main hall after an unattended Vacancy, Haddon is the first to understand. The command binding is absent, the stolen vitality is moving in an alien body, and Orenn's brand matches Xarrul's signature. He says the crucial truth aloud: *„Není spoutaný. Nikdy od Archivu nebyl.”* Rennt's denial breaks a beat later. The surviving cultists turn on Xarrul, but Essek's sight and Rennt's magic cannot overcome Ethereal Jaunt: perception does not let an attack cross the planar boundary. Without ten minutes to apply their reserve oil or a coordinated salt ambush, they cannot keep it where their attacks can reach it.
 
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