fractions rework

storylines/order-of-mending.md

@@ -12,28 +12,48 @@ She calls this **The Opening**.
 
 **The worst part:** She might not be wrong about the history. The planes *might* have been one, once. The separation *might* have been artificial. But "the world was once different" doesn't mean "the world should be that way again."
 
+### Nessa and Dalla — The Living Prototype
+
+Four years ago, six-year-old **Nessa** manifested an innate sorcerous gift during a fever. Her uncontrolled projection should have carried her consciousness into the Astral Plane and returned it along a silver cord. At the same time, Mother Vyre's early **E–III experiment** created an artificial pull toward the Border Ethereal. It dragged Nessa sideways, then closed around her silver cord. Her body has remained unconscious and unaging ever since; her projected self is stranded in the Border Ethereal somewhere outside the Nether Inn.
+
+Vyre found Dalla by tracing the damage from her own experiment. She could have attempted Nessa's reintegration months ago. Instead, she preserved the separation because it produces an unusually stable transplanar gradient:
+
+- **Nessa is the anchor** — a living consciousness held across a planar boundary.
+- **Dalla is the maternal conduit** — her blood relationship gives the Order a route to Nessa's trapped vitality.
+- **The monthly blood rituals are extraction** — presented as building a road home, actually drawing energy through Dalla for the Opening.
+- **Xarrul's binding is a field test** — one secondary use of the same harvested energy.
+
+Vyre's promise remains technically true: if the Opening destroys every boundary, nothing will keep Nessa from Dalla. Nessa's release is not the purpose, however. It is an incidental result expected only after both mother and daughter have ceased to be useful.
+
 ---
 
-## Phase One: The Fiend Test
+## Phase One: The Acquisition Test
 
 Tonight's events are the result of Phase One — a proof of concept.
 
+The Order does not hate the House. It exploits it. Dace's stolen dossiers turn planned assassinations into an acquisition network: the Order knows which targets possess planar relics, unusual blood, true-name records, or memories of other worlds; it knows when the warning will be served, who will strike, and when the House's seal will make further investigation stop. The cult lets the assassins create access and then harvests the scene.
+
+The greatest required object is the **Severance Nail**, a black iron spike revered by the House as its founding weapon. Mother Vyre knows it once pinned a planar breach shut and believes reversing or destroying it could stabilize Phase Two. The House does not understand what it owns and would never surrender its founding relic.
+
 **The plan:**
-1. Summon and bind a fiend (Xarrul) using components from Tallow, blood from Dalla, and a name from Mother Vyre's research.
-2. Send the bound fiend to assassinate Sevra — eliminate the guild's leadership and demonstrate that planar entities can be controlled as weapons.
-3. Retrieve the fiend afterward and study the binding's performance.
-4. Use the data to prepare Phase Two.
+1. Summon and bind Xarrul using components acquired through Haddon's dead drops, a name from Mother Vyre's research, and planar energy siphoned from Nessa through Dalla's blood.
+2. Send it through the House's security using stolen voices, altered memories, and Dace's intelligence.
+3. Make the archive custodians remove the Severance Nail and sincerely remember an authorized transfer. Killing is permitted only if necessary.
+4. Retrieve Xarrul and the Nail, then use both the relic and the binding data for Phase Two.
 
 **What went wrong:**
-1. The guild intercepted Xarrul during transit to Sevra.
-2. The assassins broke the binding, thinking it would dismiss the fiend.
-3. Xarrul, now unbound, decided to stay.
-4. It anchored to the thin point beneath the tavern and began its own game.
+1. Xarrul reached the inner archive but was discovered before it could remove the Nail.
+2. The archive's **Final Closure** activated automatically. Built to protect assassins against possession and compulsion, it severs every supernatural claim crossing its threshold: one exact cut through the hand holding the chain.
+3. The ward severed the Order's command binding. Most summoned beings would snap home; Xarrul shifted into the Border Ethereal at that instant and caught itself there.
+4. The House saw it dissolve, assumed it banished, and interpreted the injured and confused custodians as survivors of a failed assassination.
+5. Xarrul remained free, found the Nether Inn on the Order's thin-point map, and began its own crossing.
 
 **What the cultists know now:**
-- The binding failed. The fiend is loose.
-- They *cannot* admit this without revealing they summoned it — which reveals they're a cult, not scholars.
-- Haddon is pretending everything is under control. It is not.
+- Their instruments still register Xarrul and the vitality invested in it, but commands receive no answer.
+- Rennt believes the weapon remains bound and silently operational. Dalla felt the command cord pull free but accepts Haddon's explanation that it merely "settled at a distance."
+- Haddon strongly suspects control is lost, but hides behind the technically true phrase *the connection persists*.
+- Essek alone has compared the blank return clause, dead command sigils, and continuing outward flow: **"It isn't bound. We're still feeding it."**
+- None of them begins the night knowing Xarrul is beneath the tavern.
 
 ---
 
@@ -43,9 +63,10 @@ Phase Two is beyond the scope of this session, but its existence adds weight:
 
 - Mother Vyre plans to summon something **far more powerful** than Xarrul at a major thin point — a nexus where multiple planar boundaries converge.
 - The summoning requires components that Phase One was meant to test: binding techniques, blood sacrifice potency, and control duration.
-- The Nether Inn was chosen as a test site because of its natural thin point — the tavern sits on one of the locations Mother Vyre has mapped.
+- Dalla and Nessa are intended to power the final stabilization. Vyre expects the Opening either to consume what remains of them or release Nessa incidentally once no boundary remains.
+- The Nether Inn is one candidate on Mother Vyre's map of thin points. It was not Xarrul's assigned destination; after gaining freedom, the fiend chose the old worked breach for itself. Haddon is using tonight's meeting to study the site and diagnose the lost connection without realizing his former servant is directly below him.
 - Haddon's journal contains references to Phase Two. Essek has seen Mother Vyre's private correspondence about it.
-- Even if players resolve everything tonight, Phase Two is still in motion somewhere. The Opening hasn't stopped — it's just lost one test site.
+- Even if players resolve everything tonight, Phase Two is still in motion somewhere. The Opening has lost its controlled fiend and perhaps one candidate site, but not Mother Vyre's design.
 
 ---
 
@@ -56,9 +77,9 @@ Phase Two is beyond the scope of this session, but its existence adds weight:
 | Topic | What He Knows | What He Tells Himself |
 |-------|--------------|----------------------|
 | The Opening | It's a real plan with a timeline | "We're exploring a theoretical framework" |
-| The summoning | He organized it, chose the target | "A controlled experiment in planar mechanics" |
-| Dalla's sacrifice | He watched her bleed monthly | "A voluntary contribution to research" |
-| The fiend's escape | The binding failed completely | "A temporary setback. We'll recapture it." |
+| The summoning | He organized the Severance Nail heist and memory manipulation | "Recovery of a historically misidentified instrument" |
+| Dalla and Nessa | He knows the Order caused the dislocation, could attempt reintegration, and instead drains both through the maternal conduit | "Preserving a unique research state until the work is complete" |
+| The fiend's escape | Commands are dead although energy remains; he strongly suspects freedom | "The connection persists. Control is an imprecise layman's term." |
 | Phase Two | He's planning logistics | "Future research directions" |
 | Mother Vyre | Regular contact via dreams and dead drops | "A visionary colleague" |
 
@@ -66,11 +87,11 @@ Phase Two is beyond the scope of this session, but its existence adds weight:
 
 | Topic | What She Knows | What She Feels |
 |-------|---------------|---------------|
-| The Opening | Vague — "the planes will merge and the broken will be healed" | Doesn't care as long as Lístek is fixed |
-| Her sacrifice | 8 months of blood draws, her vitality draining | Rage that it was wasted |
+| The Opening | Vague — "the planes will merge and the broken will be healed" | Doesn't care as long as Nessa is fixed |
+| Her sacrifice | 8 months of blood draws, supposedly constructing a path home | Desperation; later rage that every draw fed on Nessa too |
 | The summoning | She knows a fiend was bound. She provided the blood. | Guilt, buried deep |
-| Her daughter | Lístek is frozen at age 3, caught between planes | Desperation beyond measure |
-| Haddon | He promised the summoning would help | She's starting to hate him |
+| Her daughter | Nessa's body is in suspended animation; her projected self is trapped in the Border Ethereal | Desperation beyond measure |
+| Haddon | He promised the summoning would help | Trusts him because she cannot afford not to—until the notes surface |
 | Mother Vyre | The woman who promised to save her child | The only person she hasn't lost faith in — yet |
 
 ### Rennt — Knows the Ideology, Not the Details
@@ -79,7 +100,7 @@ Phase Two is beyond the scope of this session, but its existence adds weight:
 |-------|--------------|-----------------|
 | The Opening | "The planes will merge and everything will be equal" | It's revolution — cosmic, beautiful, necessary |
 | The summoning | He set up the circle, handled components | "We summoned a tool for the cause" |
-| The binding failure | "The assassins broke it" | "Their fault. Their blood." |
+| The lost contact | Commands stopped after the House ward fired | "The weapon is still pursuing its assignment autonomously." |
 | Mother Vyre | The visionary who gave him purpose | She can do no wrong |
 | Dalla's sacrifice | Vague — "she gave something for the cause" | Doesn't want to know more |
 | Phase Two | Doesn't know details | "Whatever she needs, I'll do it" |
@@ -90,15 +111,28 @@ Phase Two is beyond the scope of this session, but its existence adds weight:
 |-------|---------------|---------------|
 | The Opening | It's real, it's planned, it will dissolve ALL boundaries | Terror |
 | Mother Vyre's notes | He's read her private correspondence — the merged world isn't paradise, it's annihilation of all barriers including the ones that keep fiends from walking the streets | "I've read what she actually wrote. It's not what they told us." |
-| The summoning | Full details — who, how, what went wrong | Guilt by association |
-| Dalla's sacrifice | Knows about the blood rituals and Lístek | Pity, horror |
+| The summoning | Full details; the Final Closure severed command but not the energy feed | "It isn't bound. We're still feeding it." |
+| Dalla's sacrifice | Knows about the blood rituals and Nessa | Pity, horror |
 | Phase Two | Knows it exists and is bigger | This is what keeps him up at night |
-| His brand | Burns when he considers betrayal. He doesn't know if it can detect thoughts or just intent. | Trapped |
+| His brand | The Unmooring Brand requires monthly stabilization; Haddon reads strong activations through a brass indicator | Trapped, watching for allies who can be relied upon rather than merely trusted |
 
 ---
 
 ## Entry Points for Players
 
+### Haddon's Missing Research Folio
+
+Haddon brought two restricted research extracts to the meeting because he expected to discuss the Xarrul binding after the tavern closed. They are the only documents in the room that connect Dalla and Nessa directly to the Order's energy extraction—and the only local record admitting that Mother Vyre's earlier experiment caused Nessa's condition.
+
+During Essek's gust in the opening brawl, Haddon's folio bursts open and its papers scatter. In Rennt's blackout, Xarrul partially manifests beneath the cultist table and takes both extracts. Haddon assumes they were lost in the brawl and searches the floor with increasingly visible panic. Xarrul keeps them because the truth inside is better leverage than any invented accusation.
+
+Use the extracts as two paced discoveries rather than one exposition dump:
+
+1. **Maternal-conduit extract** — [print handout](../prints/vyre-zaznam-matersky-konduit.md). Xarrul plants this first, after whispering to Dalla in Haddon's voice. Good locations: beneath the cellar stairs, folded into Haddon's displaced book, or pushed from the Ethereal Plane into Dalla's reach. It identifies Dalla but hides the meaning behind clinical terminology. DC 14 Arcana, Medicine, or a direct explanation from Haddon/Essek establishes that a *maternal conduit* is a blood-relative used to reach and drain Nessa across planes.
+2. **Dislocation-event extract** — [print handout](../prints/vyre-zaznam-dislocacni-udalost.md). Xarrul withholds this until the players can understand its value. Good locations: beside the thin point, in the Deep Cellar near Xarrul's worksite, or offered during negotiation. DC 16 Arcana translates the argument: Nessa's projection was healthy enough to return until experiment E–III diverted it into the Border Ethereal and trapped her silver cord. The phrase *iatrogenic transplanar dislocation* means the researchers caused the condition they later claimed to treat.
+
+Neither handout names Xarrul or explains the conclusion plainly. Let the players ask what the terms mean. Haddon initially calls them preliminary models taken out of context; Essek recognizes Mother Vyre's approval mark and can interpret both.
+
 ### Through Haddon (Intellectual)
 Haddon loves to talk. His ego is the crack in his armor.
 
@@ -108,13 +142,14 @@ Haddon loves to talk. His ego is the crack in his armor.
 - **Trap:** If players present contradicting evidence calmly and academically, Haddon will try to explain it away. Each explanation requires a Deception check (his +5 vs. player Insight). After three failed deceptions, his composure cracks.
 
 ### Through Dalla (Emotional — But She's Loyal)
-Dalla is approachable but she's not a crack in the cult's armor — not yet. She's a believer. Kindness gets her talking about Lístek, but she frames everything within the Order's worldview.
+Dalla is approachable but she's not a crack in the cult's armor — not yet. She's a believer. Kindness gets her talking about Nessa, but she frames everything within the Order's worldview.
 
-- Show genuine concern → she talks about Lístek freely, but as proof of why the Order's work matters: "My daughter is caught between planes. The Opening will make her whole."
+- Show genuine concern → she talks about Nessa freely, but as proof of why the Order's work matters: "My daughter is caught between planes. The Opening will make her whole."
 - Ask about the Order's activities → she's open about the mission (as she understands it): healing the world, restoring the planes to unity
-- Question the Order → she pushes back: "You don't know what it's like. To watch your child stare through you at something you can't see. Mother Vyre is the only one who offered help."
+- Question the Order → she pushes back: "You don't know what it's like. Her heart beats, but she hasn't opened her eyes in four years. Mother Vyre is the only one who offered help."
 - Suggest the summoning was wrong → "We did what we had to. And we'll fix it. Haddon says the binding can be restored."
-- **She becomes a different NPC only after learning the truth about The Opening** — see Dalla's Breakdown below
+- Show her the conduit extract → she stops defending Haddon and demands that someone explain *maternal conduit*
+- Give her a viable offer from Xarrul → she will consider helping the fiend before she will gamble Nessa on another cult ritual
 
 ### Through Rennt (Provocative)
 Rennt is proud and passionate. He'll argue the cause with anyone.
@@ -162,39 +197,65 @@ Essek is the hardest to reach but the most valuable source. See [Cultists NPC fi
 - **Sevra** (assassin leader): Cold fury. "You sent a *fiend* to kill me? And you sit at my table with wine and books?"
 - **Mags:** "You brought this into my house. Into *his* house." — This is when Mags stops being a neutral investigator and becomes a very dangerous woman with a very specific target list.
 
-### Dalla's Breakdown (Requires Learning the True Nature of The Opening)
-This is **not** triggered by the summoning being exposed, or the fiend being discovered, or even Dalla being confronted about her sacrifice. Dalla can absorb all of that and stay loyal — she believes in the cause.
+### Xarrul Opens the Wound
 
-**The trigger:** Dalla learns that The Opening doesn't mean healing. It means fiends in the streets, the dead walking, every planar horror bleeding into the world her daughter lives in. The "wholeness" Mother Vyre promised would make Lístek's condition universal — not cured but *normalized in a world of nightmares*.
+Once Xarrul has stolen Haddon's folio, it approaches Dalla with truths rather than a command. Using **Voice Thief**, it places Haddon's voice just behind her shoulder while the real Haddon is plainly visible elsewhere:
 
-**Sources that can break her:**
-- Essek's testimony about Mother Vyre's private writings (the most likely path)
-- Haddon's journal, deciphered and explained (requires DC 18 INT to decode + someone to walk Dalla through it)
-- A player who has taken Veil Dust and can describe what the Ethereal Plane actually looks like — not beautiful wholeness, but hungry entities, parasites like Skein, and a fiend that murders for amusement
-- Witnessing the momentary veil-tear from the dual-plane kill and understanding viscerally what that looks like at scale
-
-**When it hits:**
-> "She told me... she told me it would fix her. That the world would be whole and Lístek would be whole with it." Dalla's voice is flat, empty. "But this... this is what 'whole' means? *This* is what I bled for?"
+> **Haddonův hlas:** „Mohla ji zachránit už před měsíci."
 >
-> She looks at her scarred forearms. Then at Haddon.
->
-> "You knew. You knew and you let me believe."
+> „Zeptej se ho, co krmila tvoje krev."
 
-After the breakdown, Dalla turns against the Order completely. She provides full details of the summoning, the cult's operations, and becomes the players' strongest ally in pursuing the dual-plane kill. The cure for Lístek only exists for players who earned this moment.
+Further whispers should be questions whose answers are hidden in the two extracts: *„Zeptej se ho, proč na tom byla Nessa po každé oběti hůř.”* *„Zeptej se ho, co znamená mateřský konduit.”* *„Zeptej se, jestli tě Vyre našla předtím, nebo až potom, co se dozvěděla o té nehodě.”* Xarrul then plants the conduit extract where Dalla or the players can find it.
+
+This is manipulation, but not deception. Xarrul knows the binding from inside and has read the stolen notes. It never claims more than it knows.
+
+### Dalla's Fracture — Two Revelations
+
+Dalla can absorb the exposed summoning and remain loyal: she believes it served the cure. What breaks her is learning that the cure was deliberately withheld.
+
+**First revelation — the conduit extract:** Dalla learns that her blood did not build a road to Nessa. It allowed the Order to reach through her and drain Nessa into the binding. She turns on Haddon, refuses further blood, and becomes willing to hear Xarrul's offer. She may still cling to the belief that Mother Vyre did not know.
+
+> „Každý měsíc jsi říkal, že je blíž. Každý měsíc byla tišší."
+>
+> Dalla looks from the page to her scarred arms.
+>
+> „My ji nepřiváděli domů. My ji tam drželi."
+
+**Let the confrontation become ugly.** Haddon first calls the extract an incomplete technical model. If anyone explains *maternal conduit*, Dalla asks him one direct question: *„Mohli jste ji přivést zpátky?”* He cannot comfortably lie with the report in front of him. His answer—*„Předčasná reintegrace by zničila jediný stabilní gradient, který jsme kdy zaznamenali”*—is academically accurate and emotionally monstrous. Dalla crosses the table for him. Rennt restrains her and calls Nessa's suffering a necessary sacrifice; Essek finally blurts, *„On to věděl, Dallo. Celou dobu.”* Unless the players intervene, the cultist table becomes a grapple, shattered glass, and Dalla trying to reach Haddon with whatever is in her hand.
+
+**Second revelation — the E–III extract:** Dalla learns that Vyre's experiment caused the dislocation, classified it as useful, and ordered reintegration postponed. This destroys her loyalty to the Order completely.
+
+> „Nenašla nás proto, že mohla Nessu zachránit."
+>
+> Her voice goes flat.
+>
+> „Našla nás, protože už věděla, co udělala."
+
+Essek's testimony or Vyre's correspondence can add the final horror: the Opening would release Nessa only by abolishing the world she could return to. After either full proof or proof plus Essek's explanation, Dalla shares everything she knows and openly opposes Haddon. But she does **not** automatically support the dual-plane kill; Xarrul now offers what sounds like the safer rescue.
+
+### Xarrul's Offer to Dalla
+
+Xarrul can perceive Nessa through the energy wound tied into its binding. It knows where her projection is caught and believes it can unwind the scar and guide her home without an Opening. It cannot do so tonight: Nessa is elsewhere in the Border Ethereal, while the Nether Inn's lockdown seals this building across every plane. Xarrul must first become real or escape when the lockdown ends.
+
+Its promise is exact:
+
+> „Otevři tento dům. Nech mě odejít. Půjdu na místo, kde chytili tvou dceru, rozpletu to, co uvázali kolem jejího vlákna, a přivedu ji domů."
+
+Nessa is intentionally not present in the inn. Neither Dalla nor the players can verify the promise tonight. They must judge Xarrul by its demonstrated honesty and accept that fulfilling the promise also frees Orenn's murderer.
 
 ---
 
 ## Resolution Paths
 
 ### The Rebinding (Cultist Solution)
-If players never uncover the truth about The Opening — or if they side with the cult — Haddon proposes rebinding Xarrul. Dalla supports this enthusiastically.
+If players never uncover the two research extracts—or if they side with the cult—Haddon proposes rebinding Xarrul. A still-loyal Dalla supports this enthusiastically. Once the conduit extract is explained, she refuses another blood draw; Haddon must abandon the plan, coerce her, or find a much weaker substitute.
 
-- Requires new binding components from Tallow (he'll sell them, ~50 gp total)
-- Requires Dalla's blood (she rolls up her sleeves without hesitation)
+- Requires the complete summoner's binding coffer from the [Deep Cellar Workroom](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-workroom-laboratory)
+- Requires Dalla's blood (she gives it without hesitation only while loyal; after the conduit extract, she refuses)
 - Requires the binding circle in the cellar (DC 16 Arcana to adapt the summoners' circle)
 - Haddon leads the ritual, Rennt assists, takes 10 minutes
 
-**If it succeeds:** Xarrul is bound again. The cult has their weapon back. Dalla's connection stabilizes — Lístek stops getting worse but doesn't improve. The child stays frozen. The cult continues toward Phase Two. Dalla tells herself this is progress. Players leave having "solved" the murder by rebinding the weapon, but they've handed the cult exactly what it wanted.
+**If it succeeds:** Xarrul is bound again. The cult has their weapon back. Dalla's connection stabilizes — Nessa stops getting worse but doesn't improve. Her body remains suspended. The cult continues toward Phase Two. Dalla tells herself this is progress. Players leave having "solved" the murder by rebinding the weapon, but they've handed the cult exactly what it wanted.
 
 **If it fails** (Xarrul breaks free mid-ritual, DC 17 CHA save): Combat. The cellar. Xarrul is furious at being bound twice. This is the worst-case scenario — a fight with no preparation and the cultists caught in the crossfire.
 
@@ -202,28 +263,37 @@ If players never uncover the truth about The Opening — or if they side with th
 
 ### The Cult Fractures (Requires Truth)
 Only happens if players uncover the real nature of The Opening and share it:
-- Dalla breaks (see Dalla's Breakdown above) — this is the key domino
+- Dalla turns on Haddon when the extraction is explained; the E–III report destroys her remaining faith in Vyre
 - Essek follows if he feels protected — he's been waiting for someone to give him permission to speak
 - Haddon tries to hold the group, but losing Dalla and Essek guts his authority
-- Rennt is the last holdout — he doesn't care what The Opening actually means, he believes regardless. May need to be restrained.
+- Rennt is the last holdout — he calls the notes necessary sacrifices and opposes any plan that destroys Xarrul or wastes the harvested energy. He may need to be restrained.
 - **Result:** The Order of Mending's local cell collapses. Mother Vyre's network survives, but she's lost her people in this area.
 
 ### The Cult Is Exposed to the Assassins
-If the assassins learn the cult summoned a fiend to kill Sevra:
+If the assassins learn the cult sent a bound fiend into their archive to steal the Severance Nail and overwrite their custodians' memories:
 - Sevra wants blood. Kael definitely wants blood.
 - Players must mediate or a lethal fight breaks out in the tavern.
 - **DC 17 Persuasion** (advantage if players can prove the fiend is the real threat) to convince Sevra that killing the cultists now is less important than dealing with the fiend.
 - Mags backs the players on this — she wants the fiend dead first. "Kill each other after. Kill the thing that killed him first."
 - **Note:** Dalla is on the cultist side of this confrontation unless she's already broken. A loyal Dalla defends the Order. A broken Dalla steps aside — or actively helps the players mediate.
 
-### Dalla's Choice (Requires Breakdown)
-The dual-plane kill as a cure for Lístek is **only available** if Dalla has broken from the Order. A loyal Dalla would never consider destroying the fiend over rebinding it — rebinding serves the cause, destruction doesn't.
+### Dalla's Choice (Requires the Notes)
 
-After the breakdown:
-- She'll do anything to help. She becomes the players' strongest NPC ally.
-- She turns on Haddon without hesitation.
-- She provides full details of the summoning, the binding, everything.
-- She also provides the most emotionally compelling argument *for* going through with the risky ritual — "My daughter has been frozen for four years. Four *years*. If there's a chance, I don't care what it costs."
-- Counterpoint: Essek warns that the ritual validates The Opening's theory. "You save one child and hand Mother Vyre proof that her plan works."
+Deep investigation does not make Dalla the mouthpiece for one correct ending. It gives her three terrible options:
 
-**This is the reward for deep investigation.** Players who only scratch the surface get the rebinding — functional but hollow. Players who dig deep enough to shatter Dalla's faith earn the real choice: the dual-plane kill, the cure, the moral dilemma. The central tension of the module is gated behind doing the work to find it.
+- **Rebinding:** before the conduit extract, she supports it because Haddon calls it progress. Afterward, she knows it reconnects the extraction and refuses to give blood willingly.
+- **The dual-plane kill:** destroying both halves of Xarrul should release the harvested vitality back along Nessa's silver cord. It might pull her home; a violent recoil might also damage the cord. No one in the inn has tested it. Dalla wants the possibility but fears gambling Nessa when another route exists.
+- **The Open Door:** Xarrul claims it can guide Nessa back after the lockdown ends. Dalla becomes this option's strongest advocate because it is the only offer made by someone who both understands the binding and has not yet lied to her.
+
+Her argument is not that Xarrul is good:
+
+> „Vím, koho to zabilo. Vím, co to je. Ale Haddon ji využil. Vyre ji tam nechala. A tahle věc je jediná v tomhle domě, která mi řekla pravdu."
+
+The opposing voices become clean and strong:
+
+- **Rennt and Haddon:** rebind Xarrul; preserve the work and the only "proven" path to the Opening.
+- **Dalla:** free Xarrul and make it keep its promise.
+- **Essek:** attempt the dual-plane kill; end the extraction now rather than trust a fiend later.
+- **Mags:** destroy Xarrul by whatever method does not loose it into the world; Nessa cannot erase Orenn.
+
+The central choice is earned by finding the notes. Players who only scratch the surface receive Haddon's rebinding plan and think they have found the safe answer. Players who learn what Dalla and Nessa really are must decide which dangerous witness deserves their trust.