Mato frowns. Hamington is laying it on too thick given the circumstances. It's understandable that he's upset but why this big dressing down right here, right now, in front of all the guests? And the mercenary was being diplomatic, not defensive.

Mato knows that Hamington has a reputation for being "ruthless and efficient" but this seems like a major breech of decorum. Of course, someone who was disqualified from Desert Wars for "gross brutality and violation of basic combat etiquette" probably doesn't stand on ceremony. Mato understands that Hamington is probably on edge, especially with a giant rock like the Blue Admiral in the room, but the merc is right: this is uncalled for. Mato needs to make sure that the situation doesn't escalate, that Hamington doesn't trigger an encounter between the Chaussers and MET2K just because Hamington has his knickers in a twist.

He tries to make subtle eye contact with Brad to see how he's reacting to this. Brad is probably used to Hamington's tirades, so if this one registers and warrants a response then maybe there's something else going on.

Maybe he's grumpy that his hounds haven't gotten to maul any young girls recently, Mato thinks charitably.

Brad was displaying a nearly perfect poker face, but Mato noticed the slight frown at his boss' behavior. But at least the mercenary didn't seem to be inclined to make a fuss and just left.
Hamington turned to his two Chasseurs: "That's that then. You can go back to your posts then - and by that I mean keep watch, not dancing."
Already one of the maids had fetched a brush and dustpan and was cleaning away the vase.
But it seemed as if the Duchess didn't intend to stay any longer anyways. Pike began to lead her out while the remaining guests used the pause to drink some champaign.
Chan looked over to Mato, smiling.

"Yessir," Mato confirms with a nod and a slight bow.

He spins to return to his post. When his back is turned to Hamington, he gives a sly smile to Chan. His right hand gives his left hand a little slap to convey his verbal reprimand. Hopefully that would give him cover to decline any additional dancing.

He comms Brad via DNI: <<Does this scan?>>

AM obeys and makes her way to the cellar - she notifies Trouble that she's going to look for van der Bloom there and that the cellar is the last known location. Hopefully, the cat spirit will him before her, and report, saving AM from possible danger.

She texts Cunningham >> Alright, I'll go look for him. I take it the spells should be on the ring? If not, then I'll have someone dispell them and see what happens. She texts the team >> going to the cellar to check on my boss, sent Trouble before me so he'll warn me if anything is amiss there.

The next thing she checks on the way is if the Agent in the Library is still dormant. (if she can without physically being there).

Jawsey instructs his spirit to Astrally follow the duchess until she comes to a ward, and to report if any spells or astral forms approach her.

Then he messages McElroy <<Looks like the party is breaking up. What is next for us?>>

Brad replied: <<Don't know. The Big Ham always had a jingoistic streak - and the clashes with the MET2K in the desert wars aren't likely to have improved his disposition to them. But he is usually more reasonable - and enjoys throwing around acerbic remarks for longer than that. But it looks like this idiot managed to end the party prematurely. Half the guests are already gone and I don't think the remaining ones are likely to stay any longer.
Look on the bright side: At least none of us will have gate duty as long as the MET2K are here.>>

Trouble made its way down into the cellar with great haste.
'The door is slightly open and I hear snoring. Yes, the human is sleeping in his chair and has spilled a bit of wine on himself. But the cheese tray looks nice. I think I'll have a taste.'

AM meanwhile looked into the house matrix, searching the library system - but there was no sign that the dormant program was active.
Cunningham replied: <<I was not informed about any spells. Do you think they could harm Sir Pike or the Duchess? Otherwise leave it till morning. I don't think they want to be disturbed right now.>>

Jawsey received McElroy's answer: <<Make sure the family members reach their chambers safely and then enjoy the rest of your night off. Seems you lucked out and going about it as long as they could. I'll be in my office - there's a disturbance that I have to follow up on at the outer perimeter - likely the mercenary mage inadvertently knocking out one of my watchers.>>

Mato nods along with Brad's description of things. He wonders how much of the responsibility for the party breaking up lies with the mercenary (some, certainly) and how much lies with The Big Ham's response.

AM leaves to check on her boss. It seems like Jawsey is on his way out soon too.

Mato checks up on Harabia to see if she's still dancing. He also checks in with Mona, the maid, to see if their charge needs anything.

AM responds >> There is no way to determine what magic they do without examining the ring, but I am just worried that someone replaced the original ring with an enchanted copy. Just learning that it is enchanted was very tricky.

Once she arrives to the room, AM asks Trouble for help with a spell and then augments her logic. Then AM makes her way to the room very quietly, while Trouble observes the man to make sure he does not begin to stir and warn her for anything that she may accidentally touch to make noise. AM tries to enter the room without waking up van der Bloom so that she can observe his deck, and see why it is offline. She fantasize about hacking it, and peeking inside but she is mainly curious right now.

McElroy may not think that a missing watcher was a big deal, but combined with the fuss Hamington had raised with the MET2000 mercs, that was two of their principles who had something anomalous going on, and that was worrying.

He replied to McElroy <<Pike and the Duchess have already left, a minute ago maybe? I have a small spirit following them astrally, ordered to tell me if any magic or astral forms come at them, at this point I don't think I can catch up to them physically>>

Jawsey messages the others <<McElroy reports that one of his perimeter watchers is out. Do either of you have the ability to get technological eyes around the edge? Don't send Trouble, McElroy might fry it before realizing it is yours. And are either of you seeing anything else anomalous? Anyone out of place or out of commission? Windows open? Anything at all? I could be jumping at shadows ... but I feel jumpy. >>

Then he started moving, although he wasn't quite sure where to just yet. Step one, get out of this barn of a room, and get ready to head to magic central, the ground floor doors, or family quarters I guess.

Harabia seemed to be dissappointed that the party was already winding down so early, but her heart apparently wasn't in it anymore either.
Appearing rather more male in her mannerisms, she lead Jenny out of the room, waving to Chan.
Mona seemed pleased on the other hand: "Sucks for them, but I wasn't looking forward to cleaning up here until dawn. I might even get into bed before midnight if we hurry." She threw Mato a sidelong glance that included Chan: "And maybe you'll be in bed even earlier - even if it's not your own. I'm only glad the Russian bastard went away earlier. That guy is such a creep."

AM found her boss slightly snoring in his seat. His deck was on but had logged him out apparently after his brain waves had indicated him being asleep. Am moved silently enough not to wake him up. The smell of slightly warm cheese and red wine perfused the air.

McElroy answered Jawsey: <<Good. I'll make sure to send them a stronger one as well. And don't even think about physically engaging anyone. That's what the Chasseurs are for. Get up to my office and we'll do a full astral sweep together.>>

AM assenses van der Bloom to see if there is any sign of a spell, or magical influence.

Mato isn't sure how lines of communication work here, but with so few Chasseurs he figures he should take the initiative. He comms Brad:

<<There's a watcher down on the perimeter. Maybe something, maybe nothing. Who has tabs on the sensor net? Is it Van Der Bloom? Because he's offline right now; someone is going to check on him. With MET2K on the perimeter, are the dogs in or out?>>

Then, he updates the team:

<<You saw the exchange over the broken vase. The Big Ham sent the MET2K mercs outside to guard the perimeter so that they couldn't break anything else. Or, if they do, it won't be a priceless antique. I'll stay alert.>>

He largely ignores Mona's insinuations. He understands them but it doesn't seem helpful to engage, and he still can't quite envision himself as an object of desire. What about the cyberlimbs? he keeps thinking to himself. Cold, hard, not exactly sexy. Muscle toner, I could understand. Then there's still a component of flesh and blood. But titanium and carbon fiber? It just doesn't scan.

Still, he can't help but imagine being called to duty in flagrante delicto and being required to charge through the house with a Walther and a cyberspur in his underwear. It would probably get him killed, but the thought amuses him. Plus he'd probably live forever in housekeeping lore.

AM texts >>Van der Bloom is drunk, to the very least. I'll need some detox Jawsey. Send a spirit because we have no matrix security.

With McElroy sending a better spirit to cover the newly-engaged couple, Jawsey dismissed Red Jacket Boy, then called him up in a new configuration with the detox spell. At least he attempted to, but imagining Red Jacket Boy as a healer didn't go well, and he didn't connect with the spirit. Perhaps one of the Hunter Brothers? But that didn't go well either.

Jawsey took a moment to think, finally. He was used to spells that manipulated the world, and he typically called up spirits who were good at that. For healing perhaps he needed to reach out to something different? But who? His existing spirits he'd met originally in dreams, or possibly in astral excursions, but he'd just come to know them before he ever tried to explicitly summon them. He'd read a bit about the modern theories of how you summon spirits, but hadn't really implemented it much, but one thing stuck in his mind -- you needed to have a resonant thought something that spoke to the nature of the spirit.

What would resonate for a healing spirit? Although, detox wasn't strictly speaking healing, but more like a purification. A distant memory came to him, from the desperate days of his youth back on Haida Gwai. His aunt boiling water in a copper, explaining that the water was fouled but that both boiling and copper could help purify the water. Jawsey knew that science backed that up, but was it also something traditional? His ancestors had used copper, some, mostly as ornaments. Still, it was worth a try.

He stilled his mind and reached out to the spirit realms, thinking of that copper pot, and of the purifying nature of copper, and almost immediately he felt a connection, and a voice seemed to say "At last, child." The spirit seemed to step into the astral, face covered by a copper mask, with smaller masks sewn onto her coat, giving the impression of flashing in sunlight. The spirit didn't wait for orders, but first stated and then asked "I am copper woman, and you have much to learn from me and about me. But today I'm here to treat whatever man -- for it usually seems to be a man -- needs it. Where is the man who ate the wrong foods or drank the wrong or indulged in alcohol and suffers for it?"

Jawsey explained where it she should go, that she'd know the room by Ana Maka's presence -- Jawsey shared his impressions of her aura -- and that the the man that Copper Woman would find in the same room needed the purification.

Brad replied: <<Damn, why are people always so stupid just because it's christmas? Thanks, I'll look into that too. Dogs are not out - you are on point about the reason.>>

AM took a good look in the astral: Van der Bloom was indeed intoxicated. The red wine had to be quite strong - but at least it didn't look like he was suffering from anything worse then strong intoxication and strong cheese. There were no spells on him or other magical influences that she could make out. Still, something about this whole thing stank - and not just because of the cheese.

Hacking the deck would be tricky. Not only would she have to establish a direct connection, but the deck was high powered and would resist hacking attempts just as much as if her boss had been conscious. Not to mention, there was the small matter of the drone that acted as van der Bloom's external conscience. That certainly would record what it saw here.

And then the whole thing became rather moot as a spirit materialized beside her, looking also at van der Bloom: "You mortals partake without thinking of the consequences, don't you? Let me see what I can do about his drunkeness."
The copper faced spirit touched the intoxicated man's forehead and just a moment later, the deep, resonant snoring changed, into a much lighter snoring, although he was apparently still asleep. Just a much lighter sleep.

AM tries to wake up Kurt, nudging him slightly "Kurt... wake up. Something bad is happening"

Once Jawsey had dispatched the spirit to help Ana, he hurried to his room to grab his sword-cane, then on to meet up with McElroy. He wasn't sure that his boss would appreciate the detour, but on the other hand if they did end up fighting astral forces he would definitely want it.

Mato wants to frown but his professionalism tells him not to, not while guests and other employees are around.

<<AM, what's the situation down there? Does anyone have eyes on the sensors? Do you have MARKs on the system to tap into the sensor net? I'd like to figure out if this perimeter situation as soon as possible.>>

<<If it looks like he ate or drank something funny - like if his drink was spiked - bring it up. I'll use my chemsniffer ring to see if anything has been contaminated.>>

He doesn't like the thought. It food is tainted then it implies that there's someone on the inside.

Bloom was intoxicated and asleep. Likely drunk but a chemsnifer may help. Jawsey took care to him with the detox, and I am waking him up as we speak. I have no marks on the visual system.

Van der Bloom woke with a start: "What, what's going on?" He looked around confused: "Something bad? Let me check."
His eyes unfocused for a few seconds then he came back: "Alright, doesn't look like there was an intrusion. The MET2K are at their posts. There was a short glitch at the northern end though. I'll tell them to check it out."
He looked at the food and wine: "Damn, I think I'm getting old. Looks like I can't hold my liquer any more."

Jawsey reached the office, where McElroy already waited: "The family is safe and sound in their quarters. I checked the watcher. As far as I can tell it must have run afool of a dual natured critter or a wild spirit. But we better venture out there in the astral and check. It's likely nothing, but we better check.
Lock the door down though. It wouldn't do if our bodies were attacked while we are out."

Mato found himself now alone in the hall. The maids had taken away the remains of the feast and everyone else had left - and it was barely midnight.

Sweet when the boss wants you to do something you are actually qualified for! Jawsey locked the door, checked with AM that Copper Woman had handled the detox, awakened the magic in his sword cane, and reclined. "I'm ready, see you in the astral -- unless you want to give any instructions first?"

Movint to the astral was a relief, as always, and satisfaction rippled through his astral form. A small corner of him kept track that this was his third jaunt today; he could likely manage at least another 90 minutes, but that would run out quickly if they needed to patrol.

Mato is a bit unsure what to do with himself. Assisting AM seems like a high priority but he suspects that Chan might be waiting in ambush. While the prospect of an amorous encounter is not unpleasant, he knows from her legal history that she doesn't always take 'no' for an answer. And, given her physicality, she might try to enforce it. He briefly contemplates departure via the French windows before deciding that he'll have to take his chances in the hallways. Perhaps he can slink along; his skimmers can sometimes subtly cushion his footsteps.

<<AM, I'm coming your way. Let me know when we have eyes outside.>>

With that, he slips out of the Great Hall and heads toward AM's location, ready to use his chemsniffer ring.

AM responds "Tell me about it, I get drunk just from smelling booze."
She then becomes serious and speaks calmly and confidently
"Too many coincidences, one of the MET2K broke an expensive vase, the party disbanded, there is a missing watcher spirit, the engagement ring is enchanted, Invictus behaving very strange hiding in plain sight in the dining hall before all the others, then disappearing when we discover him.
You passing out on the same critical moment. I am telling you, something is a miss... I am not sure what happens but it is better to be paranoid than to be jobless. Can I look with you? I have keen eyes for details, I never been on the defensive side of things before." She watches Kurt's reaction closely, still a bit suspicious of the man but in confident enough to actually hack him given is vastly superior equipment.

When she sees Mato's text she responds >>> Alright. and to Kurt, she says >> there is a guy going here to check for chemicals in case it was more than alcohol they detoxicated you from.

McElroy beckoned Jawsey to join him in the astral: 'It's likely nothing, but we still act like it was a full scale assault - so don't take risks and strike first.'
Jawsey noticed that McElroy wielded a sword in the astral not unlike his own focus. Moving through the wards felt like moving through cold showers in rapid succession. Then they were over the grounds. The lush nature around them teemed with life despite the winter time.
The watchers were the brightest spots around, being dual natured they were easy to make out.
'I'll keep watch, you investigate that patch over there, where the watcher expired. Afterwards I'll check it and you keep watch.'



Van der Bloom frowned: "Sure, log yourself in and check the sensors."

Mato arrived and saw the wine glass as well as the cheese.
Van der Bloom nodded at him: "Knock yourself out."

While he's walking, Mato wonders what rounds he should have loaded in his Walther. Currently there are purple rounds. He decides to leave them be, as a spirit might materialize suddenly and unexpectedly. In theory he should have warning of physical intrusions, which should give him plenty of warning to swap magazines if he needs to.

He wonders if there's any connection between Invictus in the kitchen and Van der Bloom's state. Presumably Invictus wouldn't be able to do much himself (itself?), but maybe his (its) presence could be enough to influence a lesser mind, either through coercion or some of that subliminal drek that spirits do.

Arriving in Van der Bloom's office, Mato gives an semi-formal bow. Maybe he's getting a bit carried away, but lots of folks around here seem to prefer a certain amount of pomp and circumstance. Then he gets to work on the wine and cheese, sampling them with the chemsniffer ring. He waits for the results readout to appear on his PAN.

AM logs in and lets her body grows numb, feeling comfortable that Trouble will protect her. She observes the matrix for a while and then moves to the sensors trying to find some intruder. "I should have asked Iktomi for wits rather than brains." she thinks at Trouble, understanding that she has the wrong gift for the task at hand.

Mato comms with his findings.

<<There was an antihistamine in the wine. Older antihistamines promote drowsiness and make you more susceptible to the depressant effects of alcohol. Unless Van der Bloom is having allergies in late December - and treating them with medications from 100 years ago - then we should assume this was done intentionally to knock him out.>>

He reports the same to Brad, Hamington, and Cunningham. The latter if only to retroactively justify the expense of the chemsniffer ring.

To Van der Bloom he says, "Sir, your cheese has been laced with diphenhydramine. It's a first-generation allergy medicine that promotes drowsiness and reduces the body's ability to metabolize alcohol. Diphenhydramine was even used to treat insomnia. We should consider putting the system into active alert."

Keeping his blade handy, Jawsey went to investigate the indicated area. They were more interested in finding intruders and scaring them off than in sneaking up on them, so he started off high, looking down. The plan was then to work his way down to see under anything he couldn't see past from above. And finally he'd actually work his way through any vegetation that could be hiding something.

Van der Bloom looked apalled: "What? Someone tried to dose me? Damn right, I'll get to the bottom of that. Keep an eye on me while I dive."
The IT-admin leaned back and went slack as he went into VR.

AM meanwhile had searched through the logs and found the sensor in question. It was on the northernmost point of the estate, watching over a long stretch of wall.
Looking through the recording, she nearly missed the short glitch, but once she found it, enhanced the image and had a good look with an integrity probe, she noticed that for about three seconds, the sensor had been looped. AM was pretty sure that it had been no normal hack, for that would have been a much cleaner edit. It looked more like someone had used a cheap looper round to get past the sensor.

Meanwhile Jawsey found the place - and was surprised: There was nothing there - literally nothing. Someone had gone to the trouble of wiping away all signatures around the incident site. Noticing this absense was a lot harder than finding a faint trace, but their mistake had been to also erase the signature of the destroyed watcher. And another thing struck him as curious: The watcher had not raised an alarm when the attack happened. So it either hadn't noticed something sneaking up on it, or it had dismissed the entity as harmless.

AM shows the images to Van der Bloom, and texts >> Looper round. Northmost part of the estate. she also notifies the team.

>> one of the sensors was hacked with a looper round, be vigilant someone entered the perimeter. To Van der Bloom she then asks >> who brought you the cheese?

Mato updates Brad, Hamington, and Cunningham.

<<In addition to Van der Bloom being drugged, we have a potential perimeter breech: a camera along the wall was hit with a looper round. I understand that we'll be reluctant to disturb our guests, especially given the emotional significance of the evening to the Sir Pike and the Duchess. Should we alert MET2K about the possible intrusion?>>

Per instructions, Jawsey moves back to cover and lets McElroy go look. But he as he pulls back he makes sure to emote that he is worried.

Finding and reporting the lopped sensor, AM knows approximately when and where to look. So she checks nearby sensors that may have overlapped with the looped sensor and hopefully caught a glimpse at what happened. Next, she attempts to track the possible courses of the attacker by searching for more looped sensors within a temporal proximity of the one she discovered. She also takes another look in the matrix for possible intruders, or unwanted marks on important devices like maglocks, doors and windows.

AM carefully searched all available sensors around the looped one, but couldn't find anything... except for one of the microphones from a sensor array a bit to the west that cought a few seconds of a high pitched wirring noise. Besides that, there were no MARKs or other manipulated sensors.
Van der Bloom answered: <<I don't know, I'm trying to find out. The food was there when I came back to my shift - about an hour before the dinner started. There. Location data suggests that Masha brought the food from the kitchen. The signal from her link is congruent with the movement sensors along the corridors.>>

Hamington replied to Mato: <<Good catch, I'm instructing the Boche to get their asses into gear and search the grounds. You boys go out too and look for the intruders too - the Krauts don't know the area. Except you, Red. You stay in reserve and patrol the corridors inside. Wouldn't do if we were outflanked. And everyone: Make sure your biomonitors transmit and you check in every 10 minutes. Can't take an intrusion lightly.>>

Jawsey looked around on the astral until McElroy returned: 'Nothing - everything wiped clean - something intelligent and dual natured was here and tidied up behind itself. We could be facing a practicioner here - or a spirit.'

<<Yessir!>> Mato comms in response.

So he's on patrol duty. That likely sets him up for an ambush - by Chan, most likely. Maybe he'll get lucky and find Invictus up to no good. Maybe he'll get unlucky and offend Komarova somehow. Well, only one way to find out!

He comms AM and Jawsey: <<My instructions are to patrol the hallways. I'll be nearby if you need me.>>

With that, he heads out into the hallways, regularly sweeping with his sensors to detect anything amiss.

AM shares the noise to the team asking "Anyone recognizes that?" She also shares with Kurt to see if he has anything to do with the pitch like filtering it or cleaning it.

Jawsey heads back to his body along with McElroy, so that they can report their findings. Jawsey quickly informs the team of their findings, does his best to identify the sound that AM sent, then he mentions to McElroy as well as the team "We can't be sure if it was someone breaking in or breaking out. Breaking in the bigger immediate threat so we focus on that. But maybe we start the process of seeing if anyone or anything is missing?"

Then he asks Copper Woman to go find Mato, and to defend him astrally and to let Jawsey know if she needs to do so.

Listening to the recording closely, the team quickly determined that it must have come from a small to mid sized flying drone

Mato comms AM and Jawsey.

<<Sounds like a drone. Maybe they used it to snipe the cameras.>>

He then decides to bounce some ideas off of them.

<<These could all be distractions or diversions rather than a straight-forward intrusion. Jawsey, like you said, if the watcher got popped without sending up an alarm then either it didn't see it coming or it didn't think the entity was hostile.>>

<<There's plenty of evidence to suggest an inside job. Van der Bloom getting drugged, the MET2K merc knocking over a vase - and looking surprised by it - even Hamington overreacting to the vase. All of these could be the product of magical influence. Knock out a camera, pop a watcher, get the MET2K mercs outside, long story short: draw resources and attention away from the main building.>>

Mato pads around the hallway.

<<I think the ring is the most likely target. Anything draconic is going to attract attention. I'll head that direction.>>

>> Good catch, and let's secure the ring. Trouble, please look for the ring again.
AM sifts through to the data and tries to sees if one of the guests seems overly eager to get out.

Jawsey mentions to McElroy "Invictus left the party early. Assuming it didn't do this, it could have noticed something. Do you have any good way of contacting it?"

Mato paced through the silent hallways, protected by Jawsey's spirit on the astral. He reached the family quarters. The doors were closed and no sound could be heard from behind them.
Trouble quickly reported back to AM: 'Can't get to the ring. The family quarters are warded extra hard and have awakened stuff in the walls. You'd have to send me away, step through the doors and call me again for me to be able to go in there.'

McElroy didn't answer immediately, apparently he was rather distracted. Finally he said: "Unfortunately no. He is a free spirit and can materialize or dematerialize at will. Also he is authorized for the outer wards of the building and the fence. We'll have to wait until me makes his appearance again."

Mato certainly isn't going to try the door nor is he even going to knock.

Instead, he tries his radar sensors, wondering if he can see through the door to get a sense of what's happening on the other side.

Mato's radar sensor penetrated the outer wall and registered another wall about half a meter in, creating a closed crawlspace inside the walls. The inner wall appeared to be shielded with a Farraday cage setup. Someone had gone to quite some effort to shield the family's private life from any kind of surveillance. The doors had been shielded, too.
For just a second he thought he could make out a humanoid silhouette inside the wall, but when he looked closer it was gone. In any case the image had been to brief and indistinct to tell if it was a person or a spirit.

Mato frowns, not liking what he's seeing. He shoots off a comm to AM and Jawsey, plus the security team (Cunningham, Hamington, and Brad).

<<I'm outside the family quarters. Sensors indicate a humanoid silhouette inside the utility crawlspace. I'm requesting permission to investigate, plus astral support.>>

Usually he'd just go do it without asking, but he's feeling sensitive about the nature of the evening, given the young couple's engagement.

Cunningham replied: <<Don't enter. I'll go there myself now and see what's going on there. Stay where you are for the moment and keep an eye on things.>>
True to his word, Cunningham came jogging along only a minute later, entered the first set of doors, closed them - and entered the crawlspace as Mato's radar sensor showed.
Cunningham reported back: <<There is no-one in there. I just walked around the whole perimeter. Are you sure you heard someone in there?>>

Mato tries to indicate where he had detected the presence, either via ARO or just knocking on the wall.

<<Radar sensor, sir. There was humanoid silhouette inside the wall right about here. It was brief and I thought it might be a spirit materializing or dematerializing, hence my request for astral support. I know there are Awakened plants and bacteria back there that have to be maintained. It is possible to create a gap or an opening in the defenses that would allow for astral intrusion?>>

He realizes that Cunningham might be the wrong person to ask, but Mato doesn't know either. It seems like a weak defense if a spirit could just materialize, move some plants aside, and then pass through astrally, but maybe that is what the bacteria is for. But who knows what it takes to maintain that, and if a portion might be defeated (or simply released/dispersed) by conventional means.

He figures he'll ask AM and Jawsey separately: <<Any vulnerabilities to Awakened plants and bacteria preventing astral trespassing? Are there common ways to defeat them that we might need to investigate?>>

Cunningham relplied: <<It's a layered defense. A strong ward protects the plants and seals the bacteria in between another ward. Any dual natured creature forcing its way through both would get a nasty astral infection - and leave a visible outline even in spirit form. As far as I can tell, the lichen has not been disturbed - it's radiated with UV light to also ward against HMHVV creatures that can turn into smoke as well as keep the plants growing. But I'll have McElroy and your partner examine the barrier and plants momentarily.>>

Indeed, McElroy and Jawsey came down shortly after, having been called by Cunningham.

AM meanwhile found no sign that someone had tried to leave the estate - the sensors showed the twenty mercenaries patroling outside and doing a reasonably good job at keeping each other and the environment in sight. The staff had - insofar as they weren't still cleaning up - retired, leaving the corridors empty.

Jawsey replied to Mato <<Not something I've had the opportunity to learn about yet. Can't say that I'm eager to meet such defenses, but I suppose that is what will happen next>> Indeed he was soon headed down -- sword returned to its can form -- and hearing the details of the set up from McElroy.

Once there he learned that they were to go in physically. Well, that was probably better than risking his astral form getting stuck in the defenses. So in he went, and only once he was sure of where he was positioned did he open his astral senses and look around.