fixing plotholes, streamlining

storylines/ending-tree-revisit.md

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+# Ending Tree — Revisit List
+
+Resolved propagation checklist. The canonical outcome map is [Natural Progression](natural-progression.md); encounter mechanics are in [The Reckoning](the-reckoning.md).
+
+## Resolution Mechanics
+
+- [x] **Remove exterior breach.** The mundane door can be opened or destroyed, but the planar shell behind it cannot be punctured or dispelled before midnight and is not an anti-Xarrul solution.
+- [x] **Write the Hollowing.** It is a three-round forced transfer with a projected victim, vulnerable body, restricted Xarrul, delay saves and several interruption methods.
+- [x] **Choose Hollowing targets.** Prefer the PC most responsible for denying Xarrul the Guest, then a useful vulnerable humanoid, then an isolated cultist.
+- [x] **Define planar death.** Xarrul has one HP pool, regenerates Ethereally, cannot die Materially and is permanently destroyed at 0 HP in the Ethereal Plane.
+- [x] **Remove cross-plane force damage.** Force damage follows the ordinary planar boundary; seeing an Ethereal target does not allow an attack to cross.
+- [x] **Define the iron bell.** Alone it reveals Xarrul. With restored sigils it blocks Ethereal Jaunt inside the circle. All three seal Xarrul between planes.
+
+## Vacancy and Guest
+
+- [x] **Replace the spectral Host.** A completed Vacancy puts Xarrul in the changeling body and projects the Guest into the Astral Plane. House actions and spectral succession were removed.
+- [x] **Decide the Astral fate.** The Guest remains coherent and alive but bodiless. A future astral expedition and new vessel could recover it; it cannot return tonight.
+- [x] **Explain the unattended Vacancy.** Xarrul opens Cell One from the Ethereal side, triggers the lower alarm while Mags is occupied by the faction war, and escorts the willing Guest deeper to the tear in the Old Work.
+- [x] **Fix the Vacancy at midnight.** The lockdown blocks the Guest's Astral release; the shell's collapse opens the only three-round transfer window before internal containment returns.
+- [x] **Add the compact.** Xarrul first promises never to kill the Guest, preventing forced Hollowing of the changeling. Their later compact permits it to kill Orenn but nobody else until the exchange finishes, except direct self-defense; patrons remain dangerous to one another.
+- [x] **Make the Guest the leash.** If the Guest dies or repudiates the exchange, the temporary restraint lifts immediately. Xarrul can kill directly and selects the responsible character as its first Hollowing target.
+- [x] **Rewrite empowered-Guest succession.** It uses Orenn's voice to lure Mags below, imprisons her in Cell One, takes her form and returns as proprietor.
+- [x] **Add false-Mags counterplay.** Following Mags, the missing black key, Twinkle, private memories, cell messages and shapechanger detection can expose the Guest.
+- [x] **Recheck character secrets.** Handler's Agent and Executioner now state the Astral/Hollowing consequences. Mourner and Mercy's base secret remain compatible.
+- [x] **Recheck Mercy's gifts.** The Guest gift now explicitly requires striking Xarrul during the transfer; Xarrul's gift still requires allowing the transfer and remains its opposed route.
+
+## Xarrul's Character and Strategy
+
+- [x] **Reframe intelligence.** The Guest devised the superior disguise and quiet succession; Xarrul understands the magical risk but is not mastermind of every layer.
+- [x] **Make faction war the loophole.** Timed whispers, last-minute edits and true accusations push mortals to choose killing blows Xarrul is forbidden to deliver itself.
+- [x] **Make post-Vacancy cleanup conditional.** Once the Guest is delivered Astral, its protection expires. Xarrul removes witnesses only if the transfer was exposed; otherwise it leaves disguised.
+- [x] **Rewrite the deliberate-Xarrul finale.** Its obstacle is Mags's authority, not a holding-action boss fight.
+- [x] **Develop framing.** Haddon, Rennt, Dace, Thera and the Guest each supply part of a frame; a viable story needs hand, motive and fiendish evidence.
+- [x] **Develop quiet neutralization.** Drugging, the Warden's Mark, Cell One, impersonation and political replacement all have stated costs and tells.
+
+## Passive and Faction-War Timeline
+
+- [x] **Write timed escalation.** Natural Progression now has beats at T−90, T−60, T−30, T−10 and midnight.
+- [x] **Preserve witnesses.** Haddon or Essek remains able to identify Xarrul if the transfer is exposed.
+- [x] **Write recognition.** Haddon senses the absent command binding, alien vessel and matching brand; Rennt's denial breaks and the survivors unite.
+- [x] **Write cleanup priority.** After an exposed Vacancy, Xarrul targets Ethereal/salt users, bell and sigil operators, then witnesses able to identify the new vessel.
+- [x] **Reconcile casualties.** Orenn is Xarrul's only permitted pre-Vacancy victim; faction casualties can still occur by mortal hands, and Xarrul's later cleanup depends on exposure.
+
+## Mags and the Deep Cellar
+
+- [x] **Add the lower alarm.** Cell wards and Twinkle's anchor web turn Mags's black key cold and make Twinkle hammer the wall.
+- [x] **Clarify Haddon's knowledge.** He knows the original containment direction, not the later cells, Vault, laboratory, Guest or Twinkle.
+- [x] **Write Mags barring cultists.** She refuses to expose her private operation and takes the black key down alone.
+- [x] **Write Mags's death.** Unless followed, Xarrul kills her before committing to the Hollowing.
+- [x] **Clarify midnight.** The shell lapses automatically, but Mags physically bars departure until she accepts a culprit. She never knowingly releases Xarrul.
+
+## Nessa and the Remaining Connection
+
+- [x] **Bell-and-sigils outcome.** The seal preserves the connection and leaves Nessa recoverable later.
+- [x] **Rebinding outcome.** Nessa remains lost, but the Opening could return her at catastrophic cost.
+- [x] **Dalla's death.** Nessa remains stable and unaging; losing the maternal conduit makes recovery much harder, not immediately fatal.
+- [x] **Remove conventional banishment.** *Banishment* sends native Xarrul Ethereal and suppresses its Material return while maintained; it is setup, not an ending.
+- [x] **Empowered Guest.** It retains the stolen vitality; safe extraction requires a new ritual or later adventure.
+- [x] **Xarrul bargain.** Exact spoken terms before witnesses are the proof: name Nessa, safe return, protected lives and completion conditions. Xarrul honors wording, not implications.
+
+## Files Synchronized
+
+- [x] `storylines/the-reckoning.md`
+- [x] `storylines/murder-mystery.md`
+- [x] `storylines/order-of-mending.md`
+- [x] `storylines/natural-progression.md`
+- [x] `npc/xarrul.md`
+- [x] `npc/the-guest.md`
+- [x] `npc/mags.md`
+- [x] `npc/cultists.md`
+- [x] `npc/assassins.md`
+- [x] `location/tavern-overview.md`
+- [x] `location/main-hall.md`
+- [x] `location/cellar.md`
+- [x] `location/deep-cellar.md`
+- [x] `handouts/character-secrets.md`
+- [x] `handouts/the-conversion.md`
+- [x] `prints/secrets/3-handlers-agent.md`
+- [x] `prints/secrets/4-executioner.md`
+- [x] `prints/secrets/8-mourner.md` — reviewed; no change required.
+- [x] `prints/secrets/9-mercy.md` — reviewed; no change required.
+- [x] `prints/gifts/mercy-guest-cizi-kuze.md`
+- [x] `prints/gifts/mercy-xarrul-pruchod-sedi.md` — reviewed; already matches the Xarrul route.
+- [x] `overview.md`
+- [x] `Core Move.md`