fractions rework

overview.md

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ The PCs are **strangers** — to each other and to Orenn — sharing a table bec
 
 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.
 
-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.
+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, and **Vetch** scratching at his arms beside the cellar stairs. Let players choose who to approach first.
 
 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.**
 
@@ -80,7 +80,6 @@ The core of the session. Open-ended, player-driven. They can:
 - Engage with faction subplots (assassin traitor, cultist fractures)
 - 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 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 (the ward-lock holds until midnight; neither will the assassins or cultists let witnesses walk)
@@ -91,9 +90,9 @@ The core of the session. Open-ended, player-driven. They can:
 
 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 dual-plane kill** — gamble Nessa's silver cord to destroy Xarrul; it saves her, but the players cannot know that beforehand, and it 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
+- **The Open Door** — trust Xarrul to retrieve Nessa after the lockdown: behead the Opening 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
 
@@ -107,9 +106,8 @@ A **lockdown clock** runs under the whole session: the moment Mags sealed the ho
 |-----|------|----------|-----------|
 | **Orenn** | Barkeep (dead) | Behind bar | Calm authority, Charon-like |
 | **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 |
+| **Vetch** | Drug addict | Near cellar stairs | Desperate, gateway to the Deep Cellar and Ethereal Plane |
 | **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 |
@@ -119,7 +117,7 @@ A **lockdown clock** runs under the whole session: the moment Mags sealed the ho
 | **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 → 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 |
+| **The Guest** | Caged changeling / would-be Host | Deep Cellar, Cell One | Fluent liar; helped Xarrul choose Orenn, wants the Inn and the fiend's power |
 | **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
@@ -127,17 +125,17 @@ A **lockdown clock** runs under the whole session: the moment Mags sealed the ho
 | Subplot | Entry Point | Connects To |
 |---------|-------------|-------------|
 | Murder mystery | Orenn's body, clues | Everything |
-| The Scales: the traitor | Sevra's suspicion, Kael's anger | Murder (framing), Tallow |
+| The Scales: the traitor | Sevra's suspicion, Kael's anger, Haddon's journal | Murder (framing), the Order |
 | 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) |
+| Ethereal trip | Vetch's lead, Veil Dust in the Deep Cellar | Murder (see fiend), Possession (see Skein), exploration |
+| Nessa's projection | Dalla, Xarrul, Haddon's stolen 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 |
+| The Guest | Cell One in the Deep Cellar | Cult intel, Orenn's hidden accomplice, the Vacancy ending, succession fight with Mags |
 | 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
 
-Split **200 gp** among the party however they choose. This is their total budget for Tallow's lockdown-priced goods. Suggested: 50 gp per player in a 4-player party, adjusted as needed.
+No special shopping budget is required. The tools that open new routes during the lockdown are earned through investigation, trust, or exploration—most importantly in the storage rooms and Deep Cellar.