xarrul rework

overview.md

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# U Spaleného Jazyka
+# Nether Inn
 
 ### A D&D 5e Oneshot — Level 4
 
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@
 
 ## 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.
+The party finds themselves in **Nether Inn** — 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 **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.
+A brawl erupts between two rival factions — the **House of Scales** (the city's licensed assassins' guild) and the **Order of Mending** (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 *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.
 
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ The murder mystery is social by default — but not every table wants a night of
 - **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.
+The two tracks run in **parallel** during the lockdown (Act 3): cut between PCs interrogating patrons above and PCs picking locks below. Both feed the same endgame.
 
 ## Character Secrets (Hidden Boons & Goals)
 
@@ -46,31 +46,34 @@ At the start of Act 1, deal each player a private **[secret dossier](handouts/ch
 
 ## Session Structure
 
-### Act 1: The Tavern (15–20 min)
+### Act 1: The Table
 
-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.
+The PCs are **strangers** — to each other and to Orenn — sharing a table because it was the only one free. They begin the night already inside; the front door is enchanted and password-warded (see **[the enchanted door](location/tavern-overview.md#the-enchanted-door)**), so getting *in* was never their problem — getting back in, if anyone wanders out, will be.
 
 **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.
+Orenn works the table personally, unfailingly polite, and asks each of them who they are and whether they're here on **business or pleasure**. Say "business" and he recites the [house rules](location/tavern-overview.md#the-rules-of-the-house). Let anyone hint at their trade and he dangles the hook: *earn his trust, and he can put in a word with people in high places.* He plays the perfect servant with a servant's access to the powerful — and that carrot is what makes his death, twenty minutes from now, a **loss** and not just a plot beat.
 
-### Act 2: The Brawl (10–15 min)
+Meanwhile, wide-shot the room and plant the tinder: the cultists arguing over texts with the odd bark of laughter, the assassins drinking with cold discipline (**Kael** simmering at the cult table, **Thera** unnervingly still), **Bren** muttering in his corner, **Vetch** scratching at his arms, **Tallow** watching from his booth. Let players choose who to approach first.
 
-Tension boils over. An assassin accuses a cultist of poaching contracts. Words become fists. The entire room erupts. This is chaotic but *non-lethal* — Orenn's rules hold even in violence. Players can:
-- Jump in on a side
-- Try to break it up (DC 16 Persuasion or Athletics)
-- Hide and observe
-- Use the chaos to steal, snoop, or grab something
+Orenn's last act is a quiet word to keep things civil — then he steps down to storage for supplies. **With him gone, the lid is off.**
 
-**Goal:** Controlled chaos. Everyone's distracted. The murder happens under this cover.
+**Goal:** Establish the feel, bond the party to Orenn, and plant the brawl. This is a dangerous place held together by one man — who is about to leave the room.
 
-### Act 3: The Body (5–10 min)
+### Act 2: The Spark
 
-The dust settles. Orenn is dead behind the bar. No blood. No wound. Just a black brand burned into his chest from the inside. Mags emerges from the kitchen, sees him, and the room goes cold. She bars the door. Lockdown.
+When the table talk starts to dwindle, light the fuse. **Kael confronts Haddon** about the Merchant Quarter kill; a cultist's laugh is the match. The full trigger dialogue and beat are in **[Murder Mystery — Act 2](storylines/murder-mystery.md#act-2--the-spark)**. The room erupts.
 
-**Goal:** Tonal shift. The party is over. Now it's a crime scene.
+- The brawl is **non-lethal spectacle**, not an encounter — the no-kill rule holds even in violence, and a level-4 party would not survive this room in earnest. Run it fast, with lots of *throws* (chairs, shoves, gusts) that pull the PCs in and let you move them around the floor. See the **[Brawl Toolkit](storylines/murder-mystery.md#the-brawl-toolkit)**. Players can still jump in, break it up, hide, or use the chaos to snoop and grab.
+- A few rounds in, **Rennt casts Thunderwave** — the candles die and the hall goes black. Under that cover, Xarrul finishes **Orenn** (back from storage, wading in to quell the brawl and already knocked about) behind the bar, unseen.
+- **Mags** comes out of the kitchen with a cleaver and brings the room to heel with her voice alone, relighting every candle at once with a ward-focus — and behind her lies Orenn, dead.
+- Her grief turns to rage: she drags a caster PC (or a cultist) to the body and demands a **heal** — it fails. She tears the diamond from her own necklace, presses it and a written rite into their hands (**Revivify**) — and it fails too, the stone crumbling to grey powder. The whole room watches resurrection *refuse* him.
+- She shatters the **ward-crystal** above the bar and the tavern seals: **Arcane Lock on every exit until midnight**, no exceptions — herself included.
+- **The ultimatum:** find her the killer by midnight, or they're all tomorrow's stew. Then she grieves. (Full set-piece, and her two-layer accusation, in **[Mags — Act 2: The Reveal](npc/mags.md#act-2--the-reveal-dm)**.)
 
-### Act 4: The Lockdown (90–150 min)
+**Goal:** Calm → chaos → horror → cage. The party is over, resurrection is off the table, and the PCs — the only neutral party in the room — are conscripted into finding the truth.
+
+### Act 3: The Lockdown
 
 The core of the session. Open-ended, player-driven. They can:
 - Investigate the murder (clues, interrogation)
@@ -78,15 +81,15 @@ 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 — 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.
+- Explore the tavern's hidden spaces — including the **[Deep Cellar](location/deep-cellar.md)** behind the concealed door: sneak past the 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)
+- Try to leave (the ward-lock holds until midnight; neither will the assassins or cultists let witnesses walk)
 
 **Goal:** Let players breathe and explore. Follow their interests. Subplots feed back into the main mystery naturally.
 
-### Act 5: The Reckoning (30–60 min)
+### Act 4: The Reckoning
 
-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)):
+A **lockdown clock** runs under the whole session: the moment Mags sealed the house in Act 2, she gave Xarrul the closed vessel it needed to finish crossing — it has until midnight, and if the players never act, it 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
@@ -103,7 +106,7 @@ A **ward-clock** runs under the whole session: with Orenn dead, no one mends the
 | NPC | Role | Location | Key Trait |
 |-----|------|----------|-----------|
 | **Orenn** | Barkeep (dead) | Behind bar | Calm authority, Charon-like |
-| **Mags** | Orenn's partner | Kitchen → main hall | Grieving rage, retired cleaner |
+| **Mags** | Orenn's partner | Kitchen → main hall | Grieving rage, retired fixer |
 | **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 |
@@ -117,7 +120,7 @@ A **ward-clock** runs under the whole session: with Orenn dead, no one mends the
 | **Essek** | Cultist (doubter) | Edge of cultist group | Quiet, afraid of his own people |
 | **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 |
+| **Twinkle** | Feyspitter spider (pet) | Deep Cellar | Guards the "living" wing; blinks & grapples but can't cross to the ethereal; avoidable if unprovoked |
 
 ## DM Quick Reference — Subplots