xarrul rework

location/main-hall.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Main Hall
 
-The heart of the Burnt Tongue. A single large room with a low ceiling, stone floor, and the permanent smell of smoke and regret.
+The heart of the Nether Inn. A single large room with a low ceiling, stone floor, and the permanent smell of smoke and regret.
 
 ## Key Features
 
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ The heart of the Burnt Tongue. A single large room with a low ceiling, stone flo
 
 A massive slab of darkwood, scarred by decades of knife marks, spilled drinks, and at least one axe blow that's been sanded down but never quite disappeared. Behind it: shelves of unlabeled bottles, a few labeled ones nobody orders, and a collection of confiscated weapons mounted on the wall like trophies.
 
-**Orenn's body** lies behind the bar on the stone floor. He fell backward — whatever killed him came from the front, but nobody in the brawl was close enough. See [Murder Mystery](../storylines/murder-mystery.md) for details.
+**Orenn's body** lies behind the bar on the stone floor. He fell backward — whatever killed him came from the front, but nobody in the brawl was close enough, and the hall was black when it happened (Rennt's Thunderwave had just snuffed the candles). He's bruised and bleeding from a knock taken wading into the brawl — a **decoy**; that wound didn't kill him. See [Murder Mystery](../storylines/murder-mystery.md) for details.
 
 **Hidden:** Under the bar is a recessed shelf with:
 - A loaded hand crossbow (Orenn's insurance, DC 13 Investigation)
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ 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 from the tavern's founding. **Mags knows:** ringing the bell activates the ward-sigils in the foundation. It was a last resort, meant to seal the building against ethereal intrusion. The wards are cracked now, so the effect would be 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): 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).
 
 ### Assassin Table (North-West)
 
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ A round table covered in papers, open books, and half-empty inkwells — maintai
 
 **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.
 
-**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 Burnt Tongue is marked.
+**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.
 
 ### Tallow's Booth (South, near wall)
 
@@ -77,8 +77,10 @@ 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.)*
+
 ## Lighting & Atmosphere
 
 - **Before the brawl:** Dim candlelight, warm in a grimy way. Shadows dance.
-- **During the brawl:** Candles knocked over, intermittent darkness. Fire in the fireplace flickers wildly.
-- **After the murder:** Mags lights every candle and lantern she can find. The room is brighter than it's ever been and somehow that makes it worse — you can see every stain, every scar, every face that doesn't want to be seen.
+- **During the brawl:** Candles knocked over, intermittent darkness — then, on cue a few rounds in, **Rennt's Thunderwave snuffs every flame at once** and the hall goes pitch black. That blackout is the murder window. (Darkvision PCs/NPCs still see in it — use a glimpsed shape or cold spot near the bar as an early fiend clue, or make the dark linger unnaturally long as a "someone reinforced this" tell.)
+- **After the murder:** Mags relights every candle and lantern at once with a brass **ward-focus** behind the bar. The room is brighter than it's ever been and somehow that makes it worse — you can see every stain, every scar, every face that doesn't want to be seen.