xarrul rework

storylines/murder-mystery.md

@@ -3,28 +3,61 @@
 ## Timeline of Events
 
 ### Before the Session
-- **Weeks ago:** Xarrul, summoned and bound by the Lambent Order, is sent to kill Sevra. The House of Scales intercepts the fiend during transit, breaks the binding (not knowing how to rebind it), and the fiend goes free.
-- **Weeks ago:** Xarrul, now unbound, anchors itself to the thin point beneath the Burnt Tongue. It begins weakening the ward-sigils from the Ethereal Plane, scratching at them night after night.
-- **Days ago:** Orenn notices the wards failing. He increases his checks, purchases holy water and ward supplies, and writes the contingency letter he puts in Mags's apron.
+- **Weeks ago:** Xarrul, summoned and bound by the Order of Mending, is sent to kill Sevra. The House of Scales intercepts the fiend during transit, breaks the binding (not knowing how to rebind it), and the fiend goes free.
+- **Weeks ago:** Xarrul, now unbound, finds this thin point on the cult's map — a fault already worked thin by the summoners who once denned here — and anchors to it. In the hidden deepest chamber it begins prying open the old, sealed tear from the Ethereal side, night after night, siphoning the summoners' leftover sigils to do it.
+- **Days ago:** Orenn's surveillance turns up a district-wide wrongness he reads as an *underworld* problem — deaths that don't add up, the Order stirring. Uneasy, he buys holy water and ward supplies as insurance and writes the contingency letter he tucks in Mags's apron. He never once suspects the sealed rift under his own floor; that case is closed.
 - **Tonight, before the party arrives:** Tension between the factions is at a breaking point. Kael has evidence that the Merchant Quarter kill — a guild contract — was done by someone else with ritual marks. He's ready to confront the cultists.
 
 ### During the Session
 
-**Act 1 — The Tavern (before brawl)**
-- Players arrive, meet Orenn, explore the room
-- Faction tension is palpable but contained
-- Bren mutters in his corner, Vetch fidgets near the stairs, Tallow watches from his booth
+#### Act 1 — The Table (calm)
+- The PCs, strangers to each other and to Orenn, share the only free table. Orenn works them personally — business or pleasure, the house rules, the carrot of "references in high places."
+- Faction tension is palpable but contained: Kael glaring at the cultists, Thera still as a chapel, the cultists half-arguing over texts.
+- Bren mutters in his corner, Vetch fidgets near the stairs, Tallow watches from his booth.
+- Orenn steps down to storage for supplies. His absence is what lets the next beat run unchecked.
 
-**Act 2 — The Brawl**
-- **Trigger:** Kael confronts Haddon about the Merchant Quarter kill. Haddon deflects. Kael calls him a liar. Rennt stands up. A cultist pushes Kael. Sevra tries to intervene. Someone throws a punch. Chaos.
-- **The brawl lasts 3-5 rounds.** No one uses lethal force — the rules hold. It's fists, bottles, furniture.
-- **During the brawl:** Xarrul uses the noise and distraction to jaunt partially into the Material Plane behind the bar. It brands Orenn with the Brand of Spite. Orenn dies instantly. Xarrul retreats to the Ethereal Plane. Total exposure: less than 6 seconds.
-- **Only witness:** Bren. He saw a shape reach through the air behind the bar. Skein forces him to stay silent.
+#### Act 2 — The Spark
 
-**Act 3 — Discovery**
-- The brawl ends. Someone looks behind the bar. Orenn is dead.
-- Mags emerges, sees the body, and locks the tavern down.
-- Both factions immediately blame each other.
+*The trigger.* When the table talk dwindles, Kael can't hold it any longer and confronts Haddon about the Merchant Quarter (Kupecká čtvrť) kill. Play it cold, then let a cultist's laugh be the match:
+
+> **Kael** *(vstane, ještě klidně, ale hlas jako brus):* „Kupecká čtvrť. Před třemi dny. Šlechtic s vyříznutým srdcem — a vaše čmáranice na podlaze. Ten kontrakt byl náš. Zaplacený. Zpečetěný. Tak kdo ho dodělal místo nás — a nechal po sobě takovej svinčík?"
+>
+> **Haddon** *(nezvedne oči od knihy):* „Pletete si mě s někým, příteli. My jsme učenci, ne řezníci." *(pak tišeji, znuděně)* „A jestli někdo napodobuje vaši... pečlivost, stěžujte si doma. Ne každá krysa ve vašich řadách nosí náš odznak."
+>
+> **Kael** *(o krok blíž):* „Ještě jednou řekni 'řady', učenče."
+>
+> **Rennt** *(opře se, krátký ostrý smích — tohle je ta jiskra):* „Nech ho, Haddone. Koukni na něj — celej se klepe vzteky, protože neuhlídají ani vlastního zrádce. Tihle si myslí, že jim patří celé město. A neuchrání ani jednu jedinou zpečetěnou smrt."
+>
+> **Sevra** *(tiše, varovně — o půl vteřiny pozdě):* „Kaeli. Dost."
+>
+> *(Read-aloud)* „Kael neodpoví. Popadne okraj stolu a převrhne ho i s Renntem pozadu na zem. Sklenice tříští o trám. A v tu chvíli se celá místnost — plná lidí, kteří na tenhle výbuch čekali — dá do pohybu."
+
+*(The laugh is real, but if you want to preserve the "was the brawl engineered?" clue, Xarrul layers a whisper only Kael hears under it — Voice Thief, a fabricated confession. See [red herrings](#red-herrings-deliberate).)*
+
+- **The brawl lasts 3–5 rounds. Non-lethal — the rules hold.** Fists, bottles, furniture, and shove/gust/thunderclap *throws* that fling PCs around (use them to pull the party in and to position them for the reveal). NPCs keep their lethal kits holstered; save the assassins' real danger for the finale. If a PC would drop, they're knocked out at 1 HP, not killed. (See the [Brawl Toolkit](#the-brawl-toolkit).)
+- **The blackout.** A few rounds in, pressed in the scrum, **Rennt casts Thunderwave** — a legitimate knockback move that also snuffs every candle at once. The room goes black. It looks damning for the cult (they blacked out the room the instant Orenn died) — and they're innocent of the murder. Perfect misdirection.
+- **The murder, under cover of the dark.** Orenn, back from storage, wades in to quell the brawl and takes a knock (a bottle, a chair) — so he's already bruised and bleeding, alive. In the blackout, Xarrul jaunts partially into the Material Plane behind the bar, brands him (Brand of Spite), freezes him (Visions of Spite), and strikes. Xarrul retreats to the Ethereal. Total exposure: seconds. The mundane knock is a **decoy wound** (see the crime scene).
+- **Only witness:** Bren. He saw a shape reach through the air behind the bar. Skein forces him to stay silent. (Kael also saw Bren go rigid, staring at the bar rather than the fight.)
+- **Mags brings order.** She storms from the kitchen, cleaver up, and quiets the room with her voice. She relights the candles with a ward-focus — and behind her is Orenn's body. What follows — the forced heal, the forced **Revivify** with the diamond from her own necklace (both failing), 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)**.
+- Both factions immediately blame each other. Mags, for show, blames the strangers (see her two-layer accusation in the same section).
+
+> **DM — the murder is the plan, not the start of the mystery.** Xarrul didn't kill Orenn for spite or to frame anyone (those are bonuses). It killed him to make **Mags seal the house.** A killing in the Nether Inn is what triggers the lockdown, and the lockstone she shatters is the closed cross-planar vessel Xarrul needs to finish crossing (see [the ward-crystal's true nature](../location/tavern-overview.md#the-enchanted-door)). It chose *Orenn* — the calm one — so that the *grieving* one would be left holding the stone and would use it on protocol. The whole "who killed the barkeep" question is the fiend's smokescreen: the answer (a fiend) comes cheap and early, and the real question is what it's *doing* with the sealed house.
+
+#### The Brawl Toolkit
+
+Don't restat the room. Hand any NPC these non-lethal moves and narrate fast. All damage is bludgeoning and non-lethal — a PC reduced to 0 is unconscious (treat as 1 HP), never dying.
+
+- **Haymaker.** +4 to hit, 1d4+2 bludgeoning; target briefly off-balance.
+- **Bottle / crockery.** Thrown 10 ft or swung: 1d6 bludgeoning, DC 12 DEX save for half. Shatters into difficult terrain.
+- **Chair / stool.** 1d6+2 bludgeoning plus a Shove (STR save DC 13 or knocked 5 ft / prone). The classic "flying chair" that drags a PC into the fray.
+- **Shove / grapple.** STR (Athletics) contest — move them, prone them, pin them to the bar.
+- **Table-flip.** Kael's opener: instant cover, a ramp of difficult terrain, and a body or two knocked back.
+- **Signature casts (non-lethal-flavored):**
+  - **Rennt — Thunderwave** (the blackout, on cue a few rounds in): 2d8 thunder, DC 13 CON for half, pushed 10 ft; snuffs the candles.
+  - **A cultist / Essek — *gust of wind* effect:** no damage, just throws people, papers, and flame.
+  - **A blade — disarming shove or a flung tankard:** reposition, don't wound.
+
+Roll initiative only if your table wants dice; otherwise run it as a narrated montage with a decision point or two, and cut it off with the Thunderwave.
 
 ---
 
@@ -34,14 +67,15 @@
 - **Position:** On his back behind the bar. He fell backward.
 - **Expression:** Surprise. Not fear, not pain.
 - **The Brand:** A black mark on his chest, hand-shaped, visible through his shirt. The shirt is not burned — the damage is beneath the skin.
-- **No other injuries.** He was not struck, stabbed, or poisoned.
-- **Time of death:** During the brawl. Within the last 10 minutes.
+- **A mundane knock (decoy).** He's bruised and bleeding from a blow he took wading into the brawl — a split scalp, a cracked rib from a bottle or chair. It *looks* like the brawl killed him. It didn't (DC 14 Medicine): the injury is survivable; the fatal damage is internal, and it has no external wound to explain it.
+- **No killing blow.** Beyond the decoy knock, nothing — he was not stabbed, run through, or poisoned. The brand did all the real work.
+- **Time of death:** During the brawl, in the blackout. Within the last 10 minutes.
 
 ### Examination DCs
 
 | Check | DC | Result |
 |-------|-----|--------|
-| Medicine 10 | Easy | He's dead. Cause: massive internal damage to the heart and surrounding tissue. No external wound. |
+| Medicine 10 | Easy | He's dead. There's a brawl knock (bruising, a scalp cut) — but the killing damage is massive internal trauma to the heart, with no external wound to explain it. |
 | Medicine 14 | Medium | The damage radiates *outward* from the heart, as if something ignited inside him. Not natural, not any poison known to the examiner. |
 | Arcana 12 | Easy | The brand radiates faint necrotic energy. This is magical damage. |
 | Arcana 15 | Medium | Fiendish signature. The necrotic energy pattern is consistent with fiend-origin abilities, not mortal spellcasting. No one at the cultist table could have done this. |
@@ -80,11 +114,11 @@ The clues are designed to point at both factions while the truth (the fiend) hid
 |------|----------|----|----------------|
 | Claw marks behind bar | Bar floor | Investigation 16 | Something partially manifested here |
 | Bren's testimony | Bren (agitated state) | Persuasion/patience | "A hand that wasn't a hand, reaching through the thin place" |
-| Cracked ward-sigils | Cellar foundation | Arcana 13–15 | Something has been breaking the wards from the Ethereal Plane |
+| Siphoned foundation sigils | Cellar foundation | Arcana 13–15 | Something ethereal has been feeding on the summoners' old work here — points *down* |
 | Vetch's observations | Vetch (if given dust or befriended) | — | Something dark and hungry in the Ethereal Plane |
 | Ethereal trail (timed) | Behind bar → cellar | Detect Magic within 30 min | The killer went *down* — toward the thin point |
 | Partial manifestation scratches | Private room table | Investigation 14 + Arcana 16 | Someone mapped the wards to *break* them |
-| Orenn's preparations | Storage compartment, bedroom | Investigation 15+ | Orenn was preparing for something fiendish |
+| Orenn's preparations | Storage compartment, bedroom | Investigation 15+ | Orenn feared something not-human was moving — and hedged |
 | Orenn's letter | Mags's apron | — | "If something happens to me in the bar, it came from between." |
 
 ---
@@ -95,7 +129,7 @@ The clues are designed to point at both factions while the truth (the fiend) hid
 Players will likely:
 - Examine the body → learn it's magical/fiendish damage
 - Question both factions → get conflicting accusations
-- Talk to eyewitnesses → nobody saw anything (they were brawling)
+- Talk to eyewitnesses → nobody saw anything (they were brawling, and the room was black)
 
 **Expected result:** Confusion. Both sides have motive. The evidence is contradictory.
 
@@ -110,9 +144,9 @@ As players dig deeper:
 
 ### Late Phase (60+ minutes)
 If players pursue the fiend angle:
-- Ward-sigils in the cellar confirm long-term ethereal interference
+- The siphoned sigils and the failing seal below confirm long-term ethereal interference
 - Veil Dust trip reveals Xarrul (and Skein, and the thin point)
-- Orenn's letter and bestiary confirm he knew something was coming
+- Orenn's letter and bestiary confirm he feared something not-human was moving — though he never knew it was under his own floor
 - Essek (if gotten alone) reveals the summoning
 
 **Expected result:** Players understand what happened. Now they have to decide what to do about it.
@@ -123,11 +157,11 @@ If players pursue the fiend angle:
 
 These are Xarrul's work — the fiend actively planted or encouraged these:
 
-1. **Xarrul whispered to Kael** (using Voice Thief, mimicking a cultist's voice) that the cultists were laughing about taking guild contracts. This is what pushed Kael over the edge into starting the brawl. The brawl was engineered.
+1. **Xarrul engineered the brawl.** Kael's confrontation with Haddon was real and his anger genuine — but the *laugh* that tipped him over (Rennt's) was amplified in his ears by Xarrul (Voice Thief), which layered a fabricated cultist "confession" under it that only Kael heard. Understanding this requires asking Kael *exactly* what set him off ("One of them laughed and said the noble squealed. Clear as day." — Rennt laughed, but never said that). The brawl gave Xarrul its cover.
 
 2. **A cultist component pouch** was left near the bar (Xarrul moved it from the table during the chaos). It contains ritual chalk and dried blood. DC 17 Investigation to realize the pouch was placed deliberately — the blood is old and doesn't match the murder.
 
-3. **An assassin's dagger** under a barstool near Orenn's body. It fell during the brawl — genuinely accidental, not planted by Xarrul — but its proximity to the body is suspicious.
+3. **Dace's dagger** under a barstool near Orenn's body. It fell during the brawl — genuinely accidental, not planted by Xarrul — but it's a nasty red herring in its own right: a quality piece with a Scales-guild hilt *and* ritual sigils etched down the blade, so it reads as both an assassin's sidearm and a cultist ritual knife. It's still coated in **Essence of Ether** (a PC who handles it roughly makes a DC 13 CON save or drops unconscious for 1 minute). Its proximity to the body implicates *both* factions and, for anyone who digs, points at Dace himself — the blade's sigils match the second cultist pin hidden in his boot (DC 14 Investigation of his person). A productive dead-end: it cracks open the traitor, not the murder.
 
 ---