The crossing, the first sight of the column, and Ivy at the stump — placed in
their acts rather than collected in a section, so the GM meets each one where
it is needed. Four sentences, three and three.
The notes around them carry more than the prose does. The crossing must not say
nuclear, 1962 or ash: the Geiger says the first, Bhattacharya says the second,
and ash is a word a player should reach for unaided. The column's six at the
back are the hollow men and are one item in a list, not a pause. Ivy's question
is reported rather than quoted so it survives both branches, and she does not
argue, plead or bargain — anything that makes her pitiable cheapens a decision
that has to be taken by people who respect her.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
