Is this sentence grammatically correct and natural enough?
▪ After dinner, the artful counselor told the campers that there was a madman loose in the woods, thus causing them to lie quietly in the tent.
I don’t understand what an “artful” counselor would mean. “Causing” doesn’t seem right. What caused them to lie quietly? Their fear? The orders of the counselor? If “cause” is the word you want to use, then make it a verb and give it a subject. (“Causing” is an adjective and I cannot figure out which noun it modifies.)