murder-mystery-oneshot/storylines/the-reckoning.md

# The Reckoning — Endgame

## Overview

The Reckoning is whatever happens once the players understand enough of the murder, the Order and the cellar to act. It is not one encounter. It is a collision between three questions:

- What happens to Xarrul: bind it, destroy it in the Ethereal Plane, or let it leave?
- Who controls the room long enough to do that?
- What price is acceptable for Nessa, the Guest and everyone trapped upstairs?

For the unattended sequence and a branch-by-branch outcome map, use [Natural Progression](natural-progression.md). This file supplies the playable resolution mechanics.

## Reaching the Endgame

Players can reach the Reckoning through the ethereal trail, Bren's testimony, Essek's confession, Orenn's preparations, the Deep Cellar, the Guest's intelligence or direct deduction. There is no required order. The available endings depend on what they learned and whom they can persuade.

## The Clock

Mags's ward-crystal pulled power from the Inn's internal planar seals and threw it into an exterior shell around every version of the building. That trade admitted Xarrul fully to the Material interior and restored Ethereal Jaunt inside the cage, but nothing can cross the exterior physically, Ethereally, by teleportation, or as an Astral projection. The shell cannot be breached during the session and is not a resolution path.

At midnight the shell lapses and power begins returning to the internal containment. That transition creates the only three-round window in which the Guest can be delivered Astral before the tear reseals. The Vacancy cannot begin or advance before midnight. The falling shell does not itself free Xarrul: until it takes a vessel, its old planar tether still prevents it from crossing the Inn's footprint on either plane.

Use the clock as escalating pressure:

1. Xarrul supplies precise whispers that turn existing suspicions into accusations.
2. It uses Waking Dream to alter only the last minute of a target's experience.
3. By late evening, accusations and violence keep the room divided unless the players interrupt them. The compact prevents Xarrul from killing again before the exchange, except in direct defense against binding, banishment, or destruction; it does not protect patrons from one another.
4. Before midnight, Xarrul opens Cell One from the Ethereal side and brings the willing Guest to the tear in the Old Work.
5. As the shell lapses, the three-round Vacancy begins. If nobody intervenes, Xarrul takes the changeling body and strands the Guest in the Astral Plane.
6. The compact has now ended. If witnesses saw the transfer and can identify or bind the new vessel, Xarrul removes them; if the transfer remained secret, it leaves quietly in a borrowed face.

This is Xarrul's preferred passive strategy: keep armed mortals divided until the protected transfer, then choose concealment or cleanup according to what they witnessed.

## Shared Planar Rules

### Seeing and Targeting Xarrul

A Material creature cannot target an Ethereal Xarrul merely by guessing its square.

- A creature in the Ethereal Plane, most commonly under Oil of Etherealness, sees and targets it normally.
- The iron bell reveals Xarrul's outline to everyone for 1 minute but does not make it Material.
- Veilhook Salt can anchor it after it manifests. Restored sigils and the binding circle can hold it.

Seeing across the boundary never allows an attack to cross it. A creature can affect Xarrul only from the same plane unless a specific spell or feature explicitly says otherwise.

### Oil of Etherealness Economy

There are **five doses at most** in the Inn:

1. The storage-room hidden compartment.
2. Orenn and Mags's bedroom arsenal.
3. The Deep Cellar Workroom drawer.
4. Mags's concealed personal reserve.
5. Haddon's concealed ritual reserve.

The first three are field supplies the party can discover through investigation and exploration. The last two are failsafes: they require Mags's trust, a bargain or break with Haddon, theft, or taking the vial from a defeated holder. Every dose takes **10 uninterrupted minutes to apply** and grants the effect of *Etherealness* for 1 hour.

For a three-PC party, the planar pincer normally needs only **one Ethereal attacker and two Material attackers**. A second prepared oil-user provides redundancy; a third is luxury. The attackers do not need synchronized final blows: they cover both planes so Xarrul cannot escape pressure by jaunting. Holding actions, voluntarily delaying turns or fixing allied initiative order is allowed; initiative bookkeeping is not the puzzle. The faded scrolls normally provide a separate resource for confronting Skein. If those are missed, destroyed or saved for Xarrul, spending oil on Skein still creates pressure without locking away the final solution, while the two NPC reserves protect against lost, wasted or inaccessible field doses.

### Faded Scrolls of Etherealness

The Deep Cellar contains **two [Faded Scrolls of Etherealness](../prints/faded-scroll-of-etherealness.md)**: one in the Workroom's locked emergency drawer and one in the Vault arsenal. None are stored upstairs. Any creature that can read a written language can activate one as an action to gain the effect of *Etherealness* for 1 minute. The scroll then crumbles.

They are intended as the quick route to confronting Skein without consuming the oils. Once discovered, however, they are portable and can be saved for Xarrul. That is legitimate late-game counterplay earned by reaching the Deep Cellar, at the cost of leaving Bren enslaved or finding another way to help him.

### Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum

The Nether Inn's [room-bound wards](../location/tavern-overview.md#room-bound-area-wards) prevent *Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum* from spanning multiple rooms. It can protect the Main Hall, the upper cellar, the Old Work or another single chamber, but never all of them with one casting.

The spell's divination protection does **not** suppress Voice Thief, telepathy, Visions of Spite, Waking Dream or Xarrul's inherent cross-planar sight. These are fiendish traits and actions, not divination spells or magical sensors.

Its prohibition on planar travel does block **Ethereal Jaunt** and **Slip Between** while Xarrul is spatially inside the sanctum. Xarrul remains on whichever plane it currently occupies, but may leave the protected room by ordinary movement on that plane and resume shifting once outside. A sanctum completed inside the Old Work also prevents the Vacancy or Hollowing from beginning or advancing while it lasts; it suppresses use of the tear rather than closing or repairing it. Completing the ten-minute casting in Xarrul's lair should be treated as an earned containment plan, not an uncontested pause.

The upper-cellar circle's **true-name Recall** is older than the room wards and keyed into them. It is an authorized inward route: it can draw Xarrul Material into an upper-cellar sanctum, but does not give Xarrul permission to jaunt or leave afterward.

### One Pool, One Place of Death

Xarrul has one 78 HP pool shared across both planes. Damage follows it whenever it shifts; there are no Material and Ethereal halves. At the start of each of its turns on the Ethereal Plane, it regains 1d4 HP.

Xarrul cannot die on the Material Plane. If it would die or reach 0 HP there, Deathless Slip leaves it at 1 HP and shifts it Ethereal even through Veilhook Salt, restored sigils, *Private Sanctum* or any other effect that blocks planar travel. At 0 HP on the Ethereal Plane, it is permanently destroyed and the vitality tied to Nessa normally recoils along her tether. The waiting changeling body during the Vacancy is the one exception: it captures that collapse instead.

The *Banishment* spell recognizes the Border Ethereal as Xarrul's native plane. Rather than removing it from the encounter, the spell shifts it to the corresponding point in the Ethereal interior and prevents it from returning to the Material Plane while concentration lasts. If Xarrul is already Ethereal, it remains there and cannot jaunt Material for the duration. This can complete the Ethereal side of a pincer, but it is not an ending by itself.

## Resolution Scenarios

### Scenario A: Direct Assault

The party confronts Xarrul anywhere in the Inn. While the lockdown holds, the whole house counts as its lair for lair actions even though its physical nest is at the tear.

Useful tools:

- **Veilhook Salt:** a creature within 5 feet expends one dose and an action to anchor Xarrul automatically to its current plane until the start of that creature's next turn. A readied application when Xarrul manifests prevents Slip Between without preventing its attack. Maintaining the lock costs another action and dose each round.
- **Binding circle:** once Xarrul is inside it, a failed DC 17 Charisma save holds it while the circle remains intact.
- **Iron bell:** reveals Xarrul and activates restored foundation sigils for 1 minute.
- **Protection from Evil and Good:** blocks possession and grants its normal defenses.

Without a way to threaten both planes, Xarrul alternates attacks with Ethereal Jaunt until the party is exhausted. Material-only attackers can drive it to 1 HP, but Deathless Slip carries it Ethereal and it begins healing. Ethereal-only attackers drive it Material. A direct assault becomes a real destruction attempt only when the party establishes the planar pincer in Scenario C, or becomes a binding attempt through Scenario B or the bell-and-sigils seal.

### Scenario B: The Rebinding

Haddon proposes restoring the Order's original control. Rennt supports him. Dalla supports it only before she learns that she and Nessa were used as a conduit.

Requirements:

1. The complete binding coffer from the Deep Cellar Workroom.
2. Dalla's blood. After the conduit truth, she will not give it willingly.
3. The upper-cellar binding circle, adapted with a DC 16 Arcana check.
4. The two leaves of the [Litany of the Averted Step](../prints/litanie-odvraceneho-kroku.md).
5. A way to keep Xarrul Material long enough to drive it into the circle: *Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum*, repeated Veilhook Salt, or comparable planar anchoring.

#### Preparation — Ten Minutes, Not Initiative

Haddon, Dalla and Rennt spend ten minutes adapting the circle, laying Dalla's blood into the four threshold marks and closing the first four of the seven knots. Xarrul does not need to be present. If it attacks, the preparation pauses; do not run one hundred rounds of chanting.

Once primed, the circle remains ready until midnight unless someone breaks a line or removes the true-name strip. The old binding scar now gives the ritual one **true-name Recall**. Invoking it draws Xarrul bodily into an open space at the outer edge of the upper cellar, never directly into the circle. This Recall is an authorized inward path through the Inn's wards and works even if the room is under *Private Sanctum*.

Xarrul recognizes the first preparation as a direct attempt to enslave it. The compact's self-defense exception applies: it may attack the people, litany leaves and anchoring tools involved.

#### Capture — The Litany of the Averted Step

The single silver-threaded scroll separates into two matched leaves. Each leaf needs a different reader. Before invoking the Recall, let both readers choose their positions and begin reading. If Xarrul appears within range and perception, both prohibitions apply immediately. Then place Xarrul and roll initiative; preparation, not an initiative coin flip, establishes the opening containment.

**Read a leaf.** A creature holding one leaf may move normally and use its action to read directly from it. Until the start of that reader's next turn, a Material Xarrul that the reader can perceive within 30 feet **cannot willingly enter a space closer to that reader**. It may remain at the same distance, move laterally where the distance does not decrease, or move away. Forced movement is unaffected.

The effect ends immediately if the reader drops or closes the leaf, cannot see its shifting writing, cannot speak, becomes incapacitated, loses perception of Xarrul, or uses another action. Casting a spell with a verbal component also interrupts that leaf. A reader damaged while chanting makes a **DC 14 Constitution save**; on a failure they lose their place and the effect ends until they use another action to begin again. The text rearranges in response to Xarrul's binding scar, so memorized recitation and mundane copies do nothing.

One active reader creates a direction Xarrul can sidestep. Two readers positioned apart behind it create an overlapping wedge: retreat approaches both, and most lateral routes approach one. Xarrul may still stand still, attack, or move toward the circle. The readers must move and continually rebuild the angle as it moves.

**Drive the bound.** While both leaves affect Xarrul, a creature that hits it with a melee attack may forgo all of that attack's damage to push it **5 feet** into an unoccupied space. This is forced movement. Ordinary shoves, grapples and spell-based forced movement remain valid.

The Litany controls direction, not planar state. Without *Private Sanctum*, Xarrul can still use Ethereal Jaunt as soon as a Veilhook dose expires. Once Material Xarrul enters the circle, it makes the circle's **DC 17 Charisma save**. On a success it is not caught and can be driven through again; on a failure the salt-packed circle holds it Material and the final ritual begins.

#### Binding — The Final Three Knots

Once the adapted circle accepts Xarrul, its salt-and-name matrix blocks its movement, planar shifting and fresh hostile effects across the boundary. Xarrul can still communicate, use Voice Thief, and use Visions of Spite or Waking Dream through a Brand placed before the circle closed. Its primary weapon here is bargaining: it tells the truth until one of the three cultists releases the chain.

The last three knots require **Haddon, Dalla and Rennt** at separate stations. Each must use their action every round and maintain concentration. Damage forces the usual **DC 14 Constitution save** for this ritual.

At the end of each round, count active stations:

| Active ritualists | Result |
|---|---|
| **Three** | Close one knot; progress +1. |
| **Two** | Opposed forces balance; no change. |
| **One** | One closed knot reopens; progress −1, minimum 0. |
| **None** | The ritual collapses, the prepared components burn out and the adapted circle releases Xarrul. |

Three progress restores the command binding.

**Breaking a station.** If a station ends without a completed handoff — whether its ritualist chooses to stop, becomes incapacitated or loses concentration — each of the other ritualists who is still active immediately takes **2d6 psychic damage** and makes the DC 14 concentration save. A failure breaks that second station and can cause another backlash against whoever remains. This is ritual recoil, not an attack by Xarrul.

**Taking over.** A character adjacent to a station may use an action and make a **DC 18 Arcana, Religion or spellcasting-ability check** to assume it. On a success the station counts as active that round; on later rounds the replacement must use their action and maintain concentration like any other ritualist. Taking over an already empty station cannot undo backlash that occurred. A coordinated handoff made before the cultist releases their station avoids backlash. Dalla's blood remains the conduit even if someone else speaks her responses; replacing her after she withdraws consent is still using her and should be treated as coercion.

**Countering Xarrul.** Do not reduce the bargaining to three generic saving throws. Use what the players learned upstairs. A PC may spend an action healing, removing a Brand, helping a ritualist survive concentration, taking over a station, or making a relevant Persuasion, Deception or Intimidation check to give someone a reason to hold. Concrete knowledge and a truthful argument should matter more than the raw roll:

- **Dalla:** Xarrul names Nessa and explains that the restored binding resumes the drain. She stops if she understands the conduit evidence unless the party convinces or coerces her that preserving the connection is worth the cost.
- **Haddon:** Xarrul names Bren, repeats *the living weight comes first*, and makes him face the contradiction between saving Orenn once and feeding people into Vyre's work now. Pride and fear of losing the asset normally keep him chanting.
- **Rennt:** Xarrul reveals that Haddon knew the command line was dead and let Rennt defend a lie. Rennt normally holds through ideology, but Dalla's rejection, Haddon's confession or a PC he respects can turn certainty into rupture.

If the ritual completes, Xarrul is bound and everyone can survive. The Order regains its weapon. Nessa remains suspended, but the connection is intact: a future Opening could pull her home, at the price of everything the Opening entails. If Dalla is coerced, call the result what it is.

### Scenario C: Ethereal Destruction

This is the only reliable deliberate method of destroying Xarrul and returning Nessa tonight.

Requirements and usual setup:

1. At least one attacker able to affect Xarrul in the Ethereal Plane.
2. Xarrul uses its normal 78 HP pool across both planes. No particular room, circle or planar fault is required.
3. Reduce Xarrul to 0 HP while it is on the Ethereal Plane.
4. Usually, leave at least one attacker Material so Xarrul cannot evade the Ethereal hunter simply by jaunting away. A spell or ward that holds it Ethereal can replace this side of the pincer.

The two groups do not need to deal equal damage or land final blows in the same round. They form a pincer: when Xarrul dodges Material attackers by slipping Ethereal, someone is waiting there; when it flees the Ethereal hunter, the Material group resumes pressure. Characters may ready actions, delay voluntarily or fix their allied initiative order. If Material damage would reduce Xarrul to 0, Deathless Slip deposits it Ethereal at 1 HP, where any further damage destroys it. Xarrul also dies if the Ethereal attacker reduces it from any higher total to 0 before it can jaunt away.

At death, Xarrul collapses in its native plane and cannot return. The harvested vitality recoils along Dalla's conduit and Nessa's silver cord. Dalla's weakness lifts; Nessa's projection is pulled home and she wakes.

The party cannot know with certainty beforehand that Nessa will survive the recoil. They can establish only that this is the one ending that sends the stored vitality back along her tether.

### Scenario D: Conventional Negotiation

When cornered, Xarrul offers genuine information, the stolen extracts, the truth about Nessa, and exact knowledge of the Order. It wants freedom and a body. The Guest's compact restrains Xarrul's own killing only until the exchange finishes; the party may bargain for protection afterward.

An agreement with Xarrul is literal, not friendly. Require the players to name the terms aloud: who must live, whether Nessa must be returned, whether the Guest is included, and when Xarrul may leave. Xarrul repeats the terms exactly before witnesses. It will keep those words and exploit everything omitted.

Mags will not permit Orenn's murderer to leave merely because it promised something. Negotiation therefore leads into Scenario F unless the party abandons the bargain.

### Scenario E: The Upstairs Pressure Cooker

This is the default pressure behind every ending, not a separate optional finale. Xarrul's whispers turn the cultists and assassins against one another by midnight unless the players produce a stronger common threat or control the room. Faction war is the compact's loophole: Xarrul cannot kill again before the exchange, but can expose real grievances, corrupt fresh memories, and steal voices until mortals choose to kill one another. If the Guest dies, the exchange becomes impossible and this restraint ends immediately.

Likely first violence:

- Kael attacks Rennt or Haddon.
- Rennt answers lethally once blood is drawn.
- Sevra protects Kael but redirects toward Xarrul if shown convincing evidence.
- Mags tries to halt the fight and preserve witnesses.
- Dalla changes sides when the conduit evidence becomes undeniable.
- Essek supports ending Xarrul, but his eldritch blast needs someone to track the Ethereal target.

Without intervention, Kael and Rennt are the likely first faction casualties, while Dalla and Essek remain at grave risk. None of those deaths is Xarrul's direct act, though it benefits from the division. If the Vacancy is exposed, Haddon or Essek recognizes Xarrul's signature in the new vessel and the room finally understands that the same creature killed Orenn and used their feud as cover. Once the exchange finishes, Xarrul itself is free to become lethal.

If the party supplies anti-Xarrul defenses but no political agreement, the argument becomes **rebind versus destroy**. Haddon and Rennt attempt to preserve the asset; Mags, Sevra and the unaffiliated want it gone. Dalla joins the latter after learning the conduit truth. The disagreement can cause casualties and, if allowed to consume the room, give Xarrul the win.

### Scenario F: Deliberately Side with Xarrul

This ending works because Xarrul does not need to conquer the room. With the Guest's body it can become anyone and walk out when the lockdown ends. The compact already prevents Xarrul from killing anyone except Orenn until the exchange finishes; a separate bargain is needed to restrain it afterward.

The obstacle is Mags. She will not release a known murderer, and attacking her openly turns the room against the party. The players need one of four workable routes:

- **Frame another culprit:** give Mags evidence strong enough to make someone else actionable until midnight. The frame must explain Orenn's inaccessible soul and the fiendish brand; a loose dagger is not enough.
- **Expose a real accomplice:** prove the Guest selected Orenn and persuade Mags that containing the Guest takes priority while Xarrul departs. This buys time, not forgiveness.
- **Quietly neutralize Mags:** isolate, restrain, drug or imprison her without the main hall seeing an attack. Her Warden's Mark can create an opening, but Xarrul triggering it in public reveals the alliance.
- **Bypass her authority:** win Sevra and enough of the room to a witnessed bargain so Mags cannot start a fight without standing alone.

Once Mags is contained, prepare the Old Work and wait for the shell to lapse. At midnight, run the Vacancy and protect Xarrul for three rounds. Xarrul takes the changeling body, the Guest is stranded Astral, and Xarrul chooses an innocuous face and leaves by the front door. It keeps every explicit post-exchange no-killing and Nessa promise. The horror is that the bargain succeeds.

#### Building a Frame

Mags's Fixer's Read defeats a convenient single clue. A workable frame needs a **hand**, a **motive** and an explanation for the fiendish evidence.

- **Haddon** is the strongest principal: his journal proves he summoned Xarrul, he hid the loss of control, and he has a motive to remove Orenn. The party can claim the fiend acted under his order. Haddon can disprove continuing control if allowed to demonstrate the dead command line.
- **Rennt** caused the blackout and handled the binding components. He is an easy visible culprit but a poor mastermind; Sevra accepts him faster than Mags does.
- **Dace** supplied the Order with dossiers and his poisoned dagger lay near the body. This proves conspiracy, not the brand or missing soul. Pairing him with Haddon makes the story stronger.
- **Thera** understands missing souls and can explain why Revivify failed. Her magic does not match the ethereal claw marks. Framing her works only if the party also suppresses the crime-scene comparison.
- **The Guest** truly selected Orenn and predicted Mags's response. Presenting it as the architect gives Mags an actionable accomplice below, but does not erase Xarrul as the hand that killed him.

Xarrul can move objects, imitate voices and alter one branded witness's memory of only the **last minute**. It cannot manufacture an earlier blackout memory or speak a false accusation itself. Have the party assemble and voice the lie. Use a DC 18 group Deception check, reduced to DC 16 with two independent pieces of real evidence; Mags's Fixer's Read gives her advantage on her opposed read. Failure makes her test the weakest physical claim immediately.

#### Quietly Removing Mags

- **Drug her:** Essence of Ether or feyspitter venom works if hidden in something she accepts from a trusted person. Her Fixer's Read spots nervous handling; discovery exposes the alliance.
- **Use the Warden's Mark:** Xarrul can freeze her for a round while PCs move her out of sight. Triggering it in the hall recreates Orenn's murder in public and turns Sevra against them.
- **Put her in Cell One:** the black key, Grey Step or a successful ambush can bypass the ward. Twinkle reacts to violence in its territory, and an uncaptured Mags knows every escape weakness below.
- **Impersonate authority:** after the Vacancy, changeling-bodied Xarrul can copy Mags, but the real Mags must first be isolated. Orenn's voice can lure her below; a missing black key, wrong private memory or shapechanger detection exposes the replacement.
- **Replace her politically:** a witnessed bargain plus Sevra's support can make the room refuse Mags's order to attack. Mags survives and remembers exactly who overruled her.

### Scenario G: The Vacancy

The Vacancy is the negotiated exchange between the Guest and Xarrul. It requires the exposed tear and takes place inside the failing containment circle in the [Old Work](../location/deep-cellar.md#the-old-work). The upper-cellar binding circle cannot substitute for the breach. The lockdown prevents the Guest's Astral release, so the ritual cannot begin or advance before the exterior shell lapses at midnight. Returning ward-power then begins resealing the tear, making the ritual's three rounds the whole available transfer window.

The Guest devised the useful part of the plan: a mutable body lets Xarrul leave unnoticed, while the transfer creates a moment in which outsiders can destroy it. Xarrul understands the risk but believes the Guest cannot recruit enough capable hands. The Guest is the sharper conspirator; Xarrul is still dangerous and pragmatic.

The Guest willingly leaves its body. Xarrul projects into the opening. The body, Guest and Xarrul become separate targets.

**Vacant body:** AC 10, 52 HP, unconscious, automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saves. Damage remains after occupation. If it dies, the Guest's cord snaps, Xarrul is expelled Ethereal at its current Vacancy HP, and the planar fight resumes.

**Projected Guest:** AC 14, 26 HP, fly 30 ft. (hover), resistance to nonmagical damage, cannot move more than 15 feet from the body. It may speak, Read Thoughts and Help, but cannot damage Xarrul without forfeiting its claim. Xarrul never targets it: the original promise not to kill the Guest remains unconditional even during and after the exchange. At 0 HP from another source, its spirit is destroyed and Xarrul takes the body immediately.

**Vacancy Xarrul:** AC 15, 39 HP maximum, fly 30 ft. (hover), normal resistances and immunities, cannot move more than 15 feet from the body. The transfer exposes its Ethereal essence and temporarily lowers its hit point maximum to 39; if its current HP is higher, reduce it to 39, otherwise keep its current total. This is still the same pool, not a second form or a simultaneous pool. It cannot use Ethereal Restoration, Ethereal Jaunt, Slip Between, Deathless Slip, Multiattack or Waking Dream. It may use one Claw, Voice Thief, Whisper of Ruin or Visions of Spite. At 0 HP it is permanently destroyed because it is exposed on its native plane.

The iron bell plus the active ward lattice makes Vacancy Xarrul tangible to all attacks even at the bottom of the Deep Cellar. *Protection from Evil and Good* on the body before the Vacancy prevents it; cast after the ritual begins, it grants advantage against Xarrul.

#### Vacancy Outcomes

**Nobody interferes:** At the end of round 3 Xarrul takes the changeling body. The Guest's former silver cord is severed from its body and its coherent spirit is projected into the Astral Plane. It is alive but bodiless and cannot return tonight. A future *Plane Shift*, astral expedition and new vessel could recover it. It does not become the Inn or control its wards.

The original compact—Xarrul may kill Orenn but nobody else until the exchange is finished—expires at this moment. If the transfer was witnessed, Xarrul may attack those able to identify or bind its new body. If it remained secret, disguise and a quiet departure are safer. Any separate promise made to the party still binds it.

**The party destroys Xarrul:** Its planar imprint and stolen vitality collapse into the waiting body; the Guest reclaims it. The suppressant burns out. It gains Ethereal Jaunt, Shadow Cloak and Voice Thief and fragments of Xarrul's memories. Nessa remains stranded because the vitality entered the Guest instead of recoiling along her tether.

**The party destroys the projected Guest:** Xarrul takes the body immediately. The Guest's death makes the exchange impossible and ends the temporary restraint at once, so changeling-bodied Xarrul may turn lethally on the party in the same encounter. Killing the Guest is a plainly bad choice unless the party values the contract above every consequence.

**The party destroys the body:** The Guest dies, the temporary restraint ends, and Xarrul is expelled Ethereal into a planar fight with no remaining limit on whom it may kill. If Xarrul survives or wins, it proceeds to the Hollowing.

#### The Empowered Guest's Quiet Succession

The Guest does not demand the Inn in front of armed witnesses. It goes upstairs wearing a harmless face, uses Orenn's stolen voice to tell Mags that the cellar has opened, and lures her below alone. It ambushes her, locks her in Cell One, takes her appearance and returns to the bar as Mags. It keeps the Inn by letting everyone believe the old proprietor survived the night.

Counterplay should remain possible:

- A PC follows Mags or refuses to let her go alone.
- Twinkle or the lower alarm reacts to the wrong scent and movement.
- The false Mags may fail to take Mags's matching black key; Orenn's copy may also remain in a PC's known possession. It may instead get a private memory wrong or handle Orenn's body without genuine grief.
- Mags escapes Cell One or leaves a message in the scratched door.
- A PC with truesight, Moonbeam or comparable shapechanger detection exposes it.

If caught, the Guest bargains from strength. If not, the Inn has a new keeper before dawn and almost nobody knows.

### Scenario H: The Hollowing

The Hollowing is Xarrul's forced substitute when the Guest is dead, repudiates the exchange, becomes unreachable, or the changeling body is destroyed. Xarrul's unconditional promise not to kill the Guest prevents using the Hollowing on it: forced separation destroys the projected spirit. If the Guest itself repudiates the bargain, or another hand makes the exchange impossible, the temporary restraint on Xarrul's killing dissolves immediately. It may kill directly and abduct an ordinary replacement, preferring the person responsible for killing or denying the Guest. Like the Vacancy, the Hollowing can function only at the tear inside the Old Work's containment circle, but there is no exchange and no promised return. Because it destroys the victim's spirit locally instead of projecting it Astral, it can begin during lockdown; a completed vessel still cannot cross the exterior shell before midnight.

**Target priority:** the PC most responsible for killing or denying the Guest; otherwise a vulnerable humanoid with a useful identity; otherwise a cultist Xarrul can isolate.

The victim is dragged into the Deep Cellar and down toward the Old Work. Twinkle's webs and the disturbed ward alert Mags. Haddon recognizes the direction and understands that Xarrul needs a vessel, but Mags bars the cultists from her secret level and goes alone. Unless followed, she reaches the tear before the ritual and Xarrul kills her. The Hollowing then begins inside the containment circle.

Roll initiative. It completes at the end of round 3.

**Victim's body:** use the victim's AC and current HP; it is unconscious and automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saves. Damage persists.

**Projected victim:** AC 12, HP equal to half the victim's maximum, fly 20 ft. (hover), tethered within 15 feet. On its turn it can speak, Help, or make a DC 15 Wisdom or Charisma save to delay the next ritual step until the following round. Each creature can cause only one delay.

**Hollowing Xarrul:** AC 15, 39 HP, same restrictions as Vacancy Xarrul. Its essence is exposed Ethereally; reducing it to 0 permanently destroys Xarrul, returns the victim to the body and sends the stolen vitality recoiling toward Nessa.

At the end of round 1, Xarrul pins the victim's cord. At the end of round 2, it begins severing the spirit from the flesh. At the end of round 3, it destroys the spirit, keeps the body and all hope of restoring that victim ends. If the projected victim reaches 0 HP, round 3 resolves immediately.

*Protection from Evil and Good* cast before the ritual prevents it. Cast during it, the spell gives the projected victim advantage on its delay save and attacks against Xarrul advantage. Destroying the body kills the victim and aborts the ritual; Xarrul returns Ethereal and the planar fight resumes.

The resulting ordinary vessel cannot shapechange. Xarrul can still imitate voices and use magic, but it cannot simply become Mags and walk away. This is worse for the abducted victim and tactically worse for Xarrul than obtaining the Guest.

## The Bell-and-Sigils Seal

This is an alternative to rebinding, not an exterior breach.

Requirements:

1. Restore the cellar foundation sigils with the Workroom materials and a DC 16 Arcana check.
2. Drive Xarrul into the binding circle.
3. Ring the iron bell correctly while the circle remains intact.

The bell reveals Xarrul; the sigils prevent Ethereal Jaunt inside the circle; the circle closes around both of its planar states. Xarrul becomes sealed consciously **between** planes. It cannot act, bargain beyond whispers, or be moved without reopening the working.

This preserves rather than breaks the conduit. Nessa remains lost tonight, but can potentially be recovered by a future Opening or by slower research into her silver cord. The option avoids returning Xarrul to the Order while keeping the dangerous connection available.

## Nessa Outcome Reference

| Ending | Xarrul | Nessa |
|---|---|---|
| Rebinding | Bound to the Order | Lost; connection stable; Opening could return her |
| Bell-and-sigils seal | Trapped between planes | Lost; connection preserved for future rescue |
| Ethereal destruction | Permanently destroyed | Wakes immediately |
| Xarrul destroyed in Vacancy | Destroyed; imprint enters Guest | Lost; vitality remains in empowered Guest |
| Xarrul destroyed in Hollowing | Destroyed; victim restored | Wakes immediately |
| Xarrul leaves under bargain | Free in changeling body | Returned only if the promise was stated explicitly |
| Dalla dies | Any | Remains suspended and stable, but the easiest conduit is gone; recovery becomes much harder |

## After the Reckoning

At midnight the exterior shell lapses and the three-round Vacancy window opens. What leaves the Inn afterward depends on the chosen ending: survivors, a bound weapon, an empowered changeling wearing Mags, or Xarrul wearing anyone.

The local Order may collapse, but Mother Vyre and Phase Two remain. If Nessa is still suspended, her body does not age or fail tonight. If the Guest carries Xarrul's vitality, safely extracting that power is a new ritual or a future adventure—not a spell cast before breakfast.

Use the exact branch consequences in [Natural Progression](natural-progression.md) and the pressure beats in the [Complication Toolkit](complication-toolkit.md).