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overview.md

@@ -11,16 +11,16 @@
 | **Players** | 3–5 |
 | **Level** | 4 |
 | **Duration** | 4–6 hours |
-| **Tone** | Dark, morally grey, socially driven |
-| **Genre** | Murder mystery / social intrigue |
+| **Tone** | Dark, morally grey, socially driven — with an optional exploration track for less socially-inclined tables |
+| **Genre** | Murder mystery / social intrigue / dungeon-under-the-floorboards |
 
 ## Premise
 
 The party finds themselves in **U Spáleného Jazyka** (The Burnt Tongue) — one of the city's most notorious establishments, neutral ground for the worst the underworld has to offer. The barkeep, **Orenn**, enforces a single rule: *no killing*. Tonight, that rule shatters.
 
-A brawl erupts between two rival factions — the **Guild of Knives** (professional assassins) and the **Lambent Order** (a cult masquerading as a scholarly mage guild). When the chaos subsides, Orenn lies dead behind his bar. **Mags**, his partner and the most dangerous person in the room, locks the doors. No one leaves until the killer is found.
+A brawl erupts between two rival factions — the **House of Scales** (the city's licensed assassins' guild) and the **Lambent Order** (a cult masquerading as a scholarly mage guild). When the chaos subsides, Orenn lies dead behind his bar. **Mags**, his partner and the most dangerous person in the room, locks the doors. No one leaves until the killer is found.
 
-The murder is a frame job by **Xarrul**, an ancient fiend the cultists summoned and the assassins accidentally unbound. But solving the murder is only one thread. Every patron in this tavern has a story, and the players can pull on any of them.
+The murder is a frame job by **Xarrul**, an ancient fiend the cultists summoned and the assassins accidentally unbound. But *who* killed Orenn is the easy question, answered early. The hard one curdles as the night goes on: **is the fiend actually the villain here?** Xarrul wants one thing — to stop being a summoned tool and become *real*, to cross the veil and live in the world — and it is the only thing in this building that never lies. As the players learn what the cult is building, and what the beloved barkeep kept caged beneath his own floor, the moral ground shifts under them. By dawn, *siding* with the murderer is a genuine option. Every patron has a story and the players can pull on any of them — but the deepest thread is Xarrul itself.
 
 ## Themes
 
@@ -29,6 +29,19 @@ The murder is a frame job by **Xarrul**, an ancient fiend the cultists summoned
 - **The Cost of Power** — Every faction has paid a price. Players will be asked to pay theirs.
 - **Ambiguity** — The right thing to do is never fully clear.
 
+## Two Ways to Play (Social vs. Explorative)
+
+The murder mystery is social by default — but not every table wants a night of talking. Beneath the tavern is a **[Deep Cellar](location/deep-cellar.md)**: a hidden, vast warren the players can sneak through, loot, and fight their way across, uncovering Orenn and Mags's dark history environmentally rather than through conversation. Run the balance to suit your group:
+
+- **Social-forward table:** keep the party upstairs among the patrons; the Deep Cellar is a bonus most groups only partly explore.
+- **Exploration-forward table:** lean on the Deep Cellar and the **[character secrets](handouts/character-secrets.md)** (below). Several secret goals *only* resolve down there, so the players generate their own pressure to go delving — no railroading required. There's stealth, loot, a haunting, a guardian, a caged prisoner, and a leaking rift, all optional and all self-contained.
+
+The two tracks run in **parallel** during the lockdown (Act 4): cut between PCs interrogating patrons above and PCs picking locks below. Both feed the same endgame.
+
+## Character Secrets (Hidden Boons & Goals)
+
+At the start of Act 1, deal each player a private **[secret dossier](handouts/character-secrets.md)** — a hidden mechanical *boon*, a secret *personal goal*, and an **immediate payoff** for completing it (a consumable, a reroll, an NPC's help, or a live ally in the finale — this is a oneshot; rewards land the same night). Crucially, the dossiers **interlock**: some goals align, some directly cross (a race to the same book, or the same prisoner — only one can win), and some *coerce* another PC into acting. Deal a connected set and the party spends the night quietly wondering who at the table is playing them. This turns the tavern into a place each of them came to *do something* in, and it's the cleanest engine for both exploration and paranoia. Fully optional; see the handout for the interaction web and recommended hands.
+
 ---
 
 ## Session Structure
@@ -37,6 +50,8 @@ The murder is a frame job by **Xarrul**, an ancient fiend the cultists summoned
 
 Players arrive, meet Orenn, soak in the atmosphere. Introduce the patrons organically — the cultists in their corner arguing over texts, the assassins drinking with cold discipline, Bren muttering in the corner, Vetch scratching at his arms. Let players choose who to approach first.
 
+**Before you begin:** deal each player their private **[secret dossier](handouts/character-secrets.md)** (hidden boon + personal goal). They walk in already carrying an agenda.
+
 **Goal:** Establish the feel. This is a dangerous place held together by one man's authority.
 
 ### Act 2: The Brawl (10–15 min)
@@ -63,16 +78,19 @@ The core of the session. Open-ended, player-driven. They can:
 - Help Bren (the possessed madman)
 - Take Veil Dust with Vetch (ethereal trip)
 - Trade with Tallow for information or items
-- Explore the tavern's hidden spaces
+- Explore the tavern's hidden spaces — including the **[Deep Cellar](location/deep-cellar.md)** behind the concealed door: sneak past the phase spider, crack the arcane-locked vault, meet the caged [Guest](npc/the-guest.md), brave the haunted trophy-hold, and find the failing rift. This is the exploration track — loot, environmental backstory, and combat for players who want it. It runs in parallel with the interrogations above; cut between the two groups.
+- Pursue their **[secret personal goals](handouts/character-secrets.md)** — several of which lead straight down into the Deep Cellar
 - Try to leave (Mags won't allow it; neither will the assassins or cultists, who don't want witnesses escaping)
 
 **Goal:** Let players breathe and explore. Follow their interests. Subplots feed back into the main mystery naturally.
 
 ### Act 5: The Reckoning (30–60 min)
 
-Depends entirely on what players uncovered:
-- **Fiend confrontation** — if they found Xarrul, a tense combat split across two planes
-- **The Choice** — destroying Xarrul in a way that saves Dalla's child but validates the cult's theory
+A **ward-clock** runs under the whole session: with Orenn dead, no one mends the wards, the thin point widens, and if the players never act, Xarrul crosses over for good. That pressure decides *when* the Reckoning happens; what they uncovered decides *which* one (see [The Reckoning](storylines/the-reckoning.md)):
+- **Fiend confrontation** — a tense combat split across two planes
+- **The dual-plane kill** — destroying Xarrul in a way that saves Dalla's child but validates the cult's theory
+- **The rebinding** — the easy, hollow answer: hand the cult back its leashed weapon
+- **The Open Door** — side *with* Xarrul: behead the Opening and cure the child, at the cost of Mags and a monster loosed on the world
 - **Faction war** — if tensions weren't managed, assassins and cultists go for blood, this time for real
 - **Quiet ending** — players leave with knowledge but no resolution, the fiend still out there
 
@@ -89,25 +107,33 @@ Depends entirely on what players uncovered:
 | **Tallow** | Fence / broker | Corner booth | Calculated, trades info for favors |
 | **Bren** | Possessed madman | Corner, floor | Lucid flashes, controlled by Skein |
 | **Vetch** | Drug addict | Near Tallow | Desperate, gateway to ethereal plane |
-| **Sevra** | Assassin leader (here) | Assassin table | Cold, professional, holding guild together |
-| **Dace** | Assassin (traitor) | Among assassins | Charming, likeable — secretly corrupted |
-| **Kael** | Assassin (hothead) | Among assassins | Wants war with cultists |
+| **Sevra** | Scales commander (here) — the loyalist | Assassin table | Codex-devout, holding the guild together; can be turned against the rot with proof |
+| **Dace** | Scales blade (traitor) — and secretly marked | Among assassins | Charming, likeable, sells kills to the cult; condemned by Thera and doesn't know it |
+| **Kael** | Scales blade (hothead) — the witness | Among assassins | Wants war with cultists; unknowingly holds the key to the rot |
+| **Thera "Even-Hand"** | Scales blade (the rot) — the Radical | Assassin table | Beloved, courteous, the guild's finest — and a soul-harvester hiding inside the codex |
 | **Haddon** | Cultist scholar | Cultist table | Composed facade, taking notes on everything |
 | **Dalla** | Cultist (desperate parent) | Cultist table | Will break ranks for her child |
 | **Rennt** | Cultist (true believer) | Cultist table | Passionate, dangerous idealism |
 | **Essek** | Cultist (doubter) | Edge of cultist group | Quiet, afraid of his own people |
-| **Xarrul** | The fiend | Ethereal Plane | Cunning, vindictive, framing both sides |
+| **Xarrul** | The fiend | Ethereal Plane → the tavern | Honest, patient; wants to be *real*; maybe not the villain |
+| **The Guest** | Caged changeling | Deep Cellar, Cell One | Charming, patient, a fluent liar; Orenn's secret cult-spy |
+| **Přástka** | Phase spider (pet) | Deep Cellar | Guardian across both planes; avoidable if unprovoked |
 
 ## DM Quick Reference — Subplots
 
 | Subplot | Entry Point | Connects To |
 |---------|-------------|-------------|
 | Murder mystery | Orenn's body, clues | Everything |
-| Assassin traitor | Sevra's suspicion, Kael's anger | Murder (framing), Tallow |
+| The Scales: the traitor | Sevra's suspicion, Kael's anger | Murder (framing), Tallow |
+| The Scales: the rot within | Kael's unease about Thera, the soulcoin, Dace's mark | The traitor floor, the tavern's thin point, the wider campaign |
 | The Opening | Cultist fractures, Dalla's desperation | Murder (fiend origin), Reckoning |
 | Possession | Bren's ravings, Skein | Murder (witness), Ethereal |
 | Ethereal trip | Vetch, Veil Dust, Tallow | Murder (see fiend), Possession (see Skein) |
 | Dalla's child | Dalla, Haddon's notes | The Reckoning (the choice) |
+| The Deep Cellar | Concealed door in the cellar | Orenn & Mags's dark history, loot for the Reckoning, the cult (via the Guest), the rift |
+| The Guest | Cell One in the Deep Cellar | Cult infiltration intel, moral choice, character secrets |
+| Character secrets | Dealt at Act 1 start | Drives exploration and inter-party tension; several lead to the Deep Cellar |
+| The Conversion | A lone PC isolated in the Deep Cellar | Xarrul (recruited from within), the Open Door ending |
 
 ## Starting Gold