Players non-lethally took down the Faceless Stalker masquerading as Aldern Foxglove before he could escape the townhouse. I gotta decide what he can reveal to them. He's been reporting to Ironbriar, so he would almost certainly know about the Seven's Sawmill. But I don't see why he wouldn't know about the Shadow Clock either, so a party could potentially skip the Sawmill-- or at least do it out of order.
It is possible that the Stalker's been kept intentionally in the dark about its mistiness's true location. I'm also not entirely clear if the thing has been charmed like the ones in the clocktower were, which could certainly impact what it shares. The thing does try to flee the city rather than return to Xanesha a failure though, so there's obviously a limitation to how much of a puppet he is. I'm sort of leaning towards him being charmed as a way of foreshadowing Justice Ironbriar being charmed. Give some creepy hypnotic dialogue hinting at being charmed yet still fleeing from her. "To know the Mistress of the Seven is to love her. To love the Mistress of the Seven is to fear her."
I'd also like to drop evidence that the escaped Nualia has visited the Brotherhood of the Seven recently per the book's suggestion, and think the Faceless Stalker might be the best opportunity to do that. The party's grudge against her would probably serve to get them to hit the Sawmill first, if nothing else. Not entirely sure what that should look like, though. It could be as simple as mentioning that the last time the Stalker reported in there was an Aasimar Woman with a demonic arm.
Even if the Stalker can reveal the Shadow Clock's significance, I lean against him being able to reveal its defenses. He might be able to provide some insight into the Sawmill's though, which could further encourage the party to stop there first.
Having the Stalker report the Saw Mill is a good way to point the players in the right direction. Hinting at Nualia (mentioning "a transforming priest of Lamashtu" or "a fallen angel" or what not) will probably get their attention.
The Stalker could know of the Clock, but Xanesha is pretty secretive; I think you could justify it either not knowing or simply knowing the neighborhood.
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I made a bit of a spreadsheet for Book 2 to note which creatures were charmed by Xanesha and which were opposing the party for other reasons. I took all of the Faceless Stalkers to be working for Xanesha directly, given two factors:
1) The 3 Faceless Stalkers in the Shadow Clock and
2) This line from Xanesha's note to Aldern: "My agents shall contact you there soon - no need to bother the Brothers further." Both the wording My agents and the separation from the Brothers indicates to me that she, at best, has put them on loan with the Brothers at some point, but they are based out of the Shadow Clock.
Here's the information I'd say they have with that in mind:
1) The location of the Shadow Clock and the presence of the Scarecrow within it, but no effective description of the Shadow Clock or Scarecrow's qualities (terrible stair, bell trap, being a golem, etc). After all, the Faceless Stalker would be in the best spot of the PCs are murdered before ever making it to Xanesha.
2) Nualia likely did not know exactly where to go in Magnimar, but was contacted by a Faceless Stalker or Cultist and brought to either the Sawmill or Shadowclock. I personally would go with 'she was brought to the Shadow Clock and met Xanesha, but the Faceless Stalker being questioned only saw her as she left - an inhuman girl with silver hair and a taloned black hand.'
3) The Faceless Stalker has likely attended one of the Sidhedron rituals in the Sawmill however, and might think of the Skinsaw Cult as the grunts/spies of Xanesha's forces. As such, if the party doesn't deal with it, they a) won't actually stop the murders in Magnimar, and b) they risk them showing up as reinforcements/tipping Xanesha off. Being helpful is the Faceless Stalker's best chance of survival, so it could straight-up give this advice.
Personally, I think non-lethal takedowns plus effective interrogations (charm person, diplomacy or intimidate checks, hypnotism, etc.) should be rewarded with information, and giving clear flags of where to go will really speed things up in Magnimar. I personally have found the typically connections between the Townhouse, the Mill, and the Clock to be . . . wanting.
Yeah, the Stalkers definitely reported to Xanesha at some point, and are only on loan from Ironbriar. I suppose if they are charmed they'd be more willing to sell him out than Xanesha, and if they break the charm he can probably tell them where to find her. He can then probably enumerate on some of the personnel swaps-- Faceless Stalkers being traded for whatever the Scarecrow is, and Nualia being put back in touch with Xanesha.
Nualia has worked with the Brotherhood before to find Delek, so I think having her stop in on them, meet up with Xanesha, and then get sent on to Lucretia or her Stone Giant leader. I feel like Xanesha would be loath to send a pawn to her hated sister, but doing so would let me drop a mention of her in Lucretia's sister so I might handwave it as the easiest way to get her passed up the chain of command.
@Captain Morgan: Xanesha doesn't have to send Nualia to Lucretia for her to show up in Lucretia's journal. It's quite possible that Nualia could be travelling through Turtleback Ferry on the way NE to get to the Storval Stairs and eventually make her way to Mokmurian. It could even be an unforeseen thing that Xanesha doesn't know about. Or if you're giving Xanesha a diary or something similar, it could be a worry or idle thought of her's that Nualia might run into her sister.
Womp, meant Lucretia's letter to Xanesha, brain fart. I was just thinking it might be nice if there's a trail of bread crumbs for the party to follow in regards to her, even if she doesn't show up until much later. She murdered their wizard after all.
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Captain,
While I'm quite certain you've run across this information at least once ... Xanesha's got more than a couple TPK's to her name. You know your party best, but ... in most scenario's, skipping the Mill to fast track to the big finish, is a recipe for a wipe.
You may want to play up the red flags on the Murderous Death Lady if your party is leaning towards bee-lining to their deaths. Something perhaps like:
"Our Lady has unleashed the murderous Seven upon Magnimar, expanding their horizons of death, to do the Great Work. Those full of Sin will reap what has been sown." ... "What Sin do you cleave to? I smell Wrath, and yes more than a little Greed. My Lady would love to harvest you lot. She waits at Noon under the Darkened Sky, unless she's hosting a party here in the Overworld, fattening up the idle rich for their own culling."
Captain,
While I'm quite certain you've run across this information at least once ... Xanesha's got more than a couple TPK's to her name. You know your party best, but ... in most scenario's, skipping the Mill to fast track to the big finish, is a recipe for a wipe.
You may want to play up the red flags on the Murderous Death Lady if your party is leaning towards bee-lining to their deaths. Something perhaps like:
"Our Lady has unleashed the murderous Seven upon Magnimar, expanding their horizons of death, to do the Great Work. Those full of Sin will reap what has been sown." ... "What Sin do you cleave to? I smell Wrath, and yes more than a little Greed. My Lady would love to harvest you lot. She waits at Noon under the Darkened Sky, unless she's hosting a party here in the Overworld, fattening up the idle rich for their own culling."
Well, a couple of things.
1) I'm using the Anniversary edition statblock and tactics. (Well, converting that to the 2e playtest rules, but still.) So she's a little lower CR wise and won't have haste, for example.
2)The party just hit level 7 and won't hit 8 before the clock tower, so they are as ready as they'll ever be minus gearing up with the Sawmill's loot.
3) As written there's no backup coming coming from the Sawmill. I can hint at that as a danger, but the party could reasonably ask why Xanesha couldn't just show up to back up the forces at the Sawmill. So there's risks either way.
That said, I like where your head is at for the ominous red flags. I think I can give them some hints to nudge them in the direction of hitting the Sawmill first. I think my best bet would be the idea that Ironbriar could be charmed himself, and releasing him from Xanesha's thrall would be helpful to the party. I think really playing up the juxtaposition of the charmed vs not charmed Faceless Stalker will be in my favor here.