fractions rework

npc/mags.md

@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ If a table needs a bigger fight on the join path, add **Sevra** at Mags's side r
 - The Oil of Etherealness in the bedroom
 
 **Will never volunteer — but the players may find it themselves (and probably will, if they explore):**
-- The **[concealed door](../location/cellar.md#the-concealed-door)** in the cellar and everything behind it — the **[Deep Cellar](../location/deep-cellar.md)**: the Vault, the laboratory, the caged **[Guest](the-guest.md)**, the corpse in the second cell, and the failing rift. This is the couple's real, ongoing operation, and Mags assumes no one alive but her knows it exists. If the players surface any of it — the fortune, the prisoner, the trophies implicating patrons upstairs — she doesn't lie, but she goes very still, and what she says next is some of the rawest honesty in the module (see Relationships). In the direst circumstances she may *send* them down for the [Fiendbane Salt](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-fixers-arsenal) or silvervein root, handing over the black key with the flat instruction: *"Take what you need. Don't touch the cages. And whatever you find down there — it doesn't change tonight."*
+- The **[concealed door](../location/cellar.md#the-concealed-door)** in the cellar and everything behind it — the **[Deep Cellar](../location/deep-cellar.md)**: the Vault, the laboratory, the caged **[Guest](the-guest.md)**, the corpse in the second cell, and the failing rift. This is the couple's real, ongoing operation, and Mags assumes no one alive but her knows it exists. If the players surface any of it — the fortune, the prisoner, the trophies implicating patrons upstairs — she doesn't lie, but she goes very still, and what she says next is some of the rawest honesty in the module (see Relationships). In the direst circumstances she may *send* them down for the [Veilhook Salt](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-fixers-arsenal) or silvervein root, handing over the black key with the flat instruction: *"Take what you need. Don't touch the cages. And whatever you find down there — it doesn't change tonight."*
 
 ## Her Role in the Session
 
@@ -146,13 +146,15 @@ She will not fight alongside the players unless the fiend manifests in the Mater
 
 **If the players side *with* the fiend:** she becomes the obstacle between them and its crossing — see [The Warden's Mark](#the-wardens-mark-dm) for how to run that fight so the *players*, not Mags, decide the night.
 
+**If the [Vacancy](../storylines/the-reckoning.md#scenario-g-the-vacancy-the-guests-gambit) resolves:** Mags initiates the aftermath in either branch. If Xarrul takes the changeling body, she attacks Orenn's murderer before it can leave, even while the new spectral Host turns the Inn's wards against her. If the Guest destroys Xarrul and returns empowered, she refuses its demand for the Inn. She will confess the cage, pay restitution, or let it walk; she will not hand it another cage with everyone upstairs inside.
+
 **If the players fail or choose not to confront the fiend:** Mags will hunt it herself after the session ends. She'll probably die. She doesn't care.
 
 ## Relationships
 
 - **Orenn:** The one person she let close. They understood each other without needing to explain. Their relationship wasn't romantic in any conventional sense — it was deeper than that, forged in shared trauma and mutual competence. They were partners in every way that mattered.
-- **Tallow:** She tolerates him. He's useful and she knows it. She despises his neutrality but respects his survival instinct.
 - **Bren:** She's been feeding him and keeping him safe for months. She suspects something is wrong beyond madness but hasn't had time to investigate.
-- **Sevra:** Professional respect, mutual wariness. Mags knows what the guild does and doesn't approve, but Sevra has always respected the rules of the house.
-- **Haddon:** She doesn't trust him. Never has. Can't articulate why — just a feeling. (Her instinct is correct.)
-- **The [Guest](the-guest.md):** The prisoner she's fed twice a day for eleven years and never once called by a name. If the players confront her about it, she doesn't defend it and she doesn't flinch: *"He was a tool. A person-shaped tool. Orenn always said we'd let him go eventually. We never did. That's the whole of it. That's who we are."* If they freed it, she's grimly unsurprised. If they killed it in its cage, she doesn't recoil — she *recognizes* the choice, and that recognition is its own quiet verdict on them. The Guest is the clearest mirror of what "fixer" really meant, and Mags will not pretend otherwise once it's in the open.
+- **Sevra:** Grey Quay made the respect personal. A shared employer tried to burn Sevra, Orenn, and Mags after using them to kill a blackmailer and recover his ledger. They discovered the betrayal, escaped together, and closed the debt. Corren's signet is still the bottle opener beneath the bar. Mags knows Sevra returns for people when abandoning them would be profitable; Sevra trusts evidence Orenn and Mags put their names behind.
+- **Thera:** Mags respects her control but never shared Orenn's complete faith in it. Orenn called Thera safe because she never killed emotionally; Mags answered, *"That makes her careful. It isn't the same thing."* She nevertheless honoured his judgment and expects Thera to help avenge him.
+- **Haddon:** Fifteen years ago Haddon entered a collapsing circle, took its binding from Orenn, and saved his life at terrible cost. Orenn treated that sacrifice as proof Haddon could still choose better; Mags believes one good night does not buy a lifetime. Orenn was the only reason she still admitted him. She calls him **Professor** when she wants him to remember Bren.
+- **The [Guest](the-guest.md):** The prisoner she's fed twice a day for eleven years and never once called by a name. If the players confront her about it, she doesn't defend it and she doesn't flinch: *"He was a tool. A person-shaped tool. Orenn always said we'd let him go eventually. We never did. That's the whole of it. That's who we are."* If they freed it, she's grimly unsurprised. If they killed it in its cage, she doesn't recoil—she *recognizes* the choice. But claiming the Inn is different: Mags believes restitution can be owed without handing a wounded spymaster control of every secret and person under the roof. The Guest calls that one final refusal to pay. It is the clearest mirror of what "fixer" really meant, and Mags will not pretend otherwise once it's in the open.