>> We found Invictus, Trouble thinks he is up on the roof where the big glashouse is. Jawsey you want to chat with him with your projection? Trouble can watch out for you.


AM notifies them, and repeats what Trouble said.

Jawsey started his reply <Of course I can, if you'll keep an eye on my body.>> Then he stopped and asked himself "And what would I say to him?
"

So then he asked the team <Assuming I find him, and he is willing to talk, are we asking what he saw? Or if he has had a hand in any part of what has gone down? I can play it either way, but they have different implications. I want to make sure we are agreement first. Also, order Trouble to alert you of any signs of magic or violence as the priority -- he is stronger than me, if I do anger him I can't promise I get a warning out.>

While he waited for a response, he called on a spirit that he seldom summoned, Elder Wood Shaper.



Jawsey winced at the sudden stabbing headache, but bore down and demanded that the cantankerous spirit come help.



He shakes his head and calls again, adding your project will wait, I need you to craft me a shielf like nobody else could do.' Perhaps flattery of its abilities would help.



That finally did the trick. Jawsey instructed the gnarled humanoid -- it was hard to say anything more than 'humanoid' about the spirit's gender or race -- to "cast an astral shield about me, and maintain it until I am unconcious, the sun rises in the morning, or I release you."

>> I am on route to the camera to look for physical evidence. I can send Tatanka, or just lock the door when you project? You can also go there physically if you insist, I thought you'll project because it is faster. It is just a roof... Invictus is in contact with humanity for a millennia so whatever you say is fine I guess. I can't imagine how etiquette changed since the Romans. Be polite, and non confrontational and tell him that something very strange is going on and that we need his help to clarify things.

"Cheers, chummer," Mato says, toasting the merc with his cocoa. "Tomorrow will be a better day."

He goes to walk and talk with Jawsey. <<I can watch your body>> he comms, <<but let's get you inside first, somewhere logical.>>

Mato supposes he could sling Jawsey over his shoulder while walking with AM to the perimeter to check out the camera, but that seems a little suspicious.

<<I think it's safe to say that Invictus is involved, but at this point I couldn't say whether it is on offense or defense. In terms of the conversation, since Invictus is a guest, we must go in with the assumption of innocence. We know Invictus is arrogant, so we should play to its ego. Ask for its expertise, what it saw, what it knows that we mere mortals don't understand.>>

<<One thing I don't grasp is whether the magic on the ring was placed there by a third party, or is somehow connected to the ring itself. Remember that the Blue Admiral came from the horde of Alamais. Cunningham called it 'an absolutely priceless artifact'. I don't know if dragons collect pretty trinkets for their mundane merits, but it wouldn't surprise me if the ring itself were magical, or somehow influenced by its time in Alamais' possession.>>

<<Invictus may know more about the Blue Admiral, either by reputation or through direct experience, given the spirit's extreme age.>>

AM comms >> He might also be very strange by our standards. So the magic tricks part may be a red herring. Let's just uncover what we can and avoid assumptions until we can connect the dots. Remember our memory molester contact - green toes was it? I agree, be non confrontational also because he is a guest.

Driving back to the Pike Manor took Jawsey a few minutes and some pretty fridgid air. Entering again through the back entrance he had the choice of taking the elevator to McElroy's office - the most secure and comfortable place to stash his body, or just find a quiet cupboard to flop down - less comfortable but faster.

Meanwhile, AM and Mato made their way to the looped camera. A close look revealed the residue of the looper round on the casing, suggesting that the shot must have come from high above, certainly not from the ground. The hard, frozen ground revealed no traces of anyone climbing the fence, though the dim light certainly didn't help with the investigation.

Mato looks up, trying to see if there are any trees that would provide a suitable angle for someone to tag the looped camera. He strongly suspects that the whirring they heard from the video was a quadcopter or similar drone that plunked the camera, but he wants to cross any other possibilities off the list.

He has a low-light flashlight that he uses to enhance his metahuman low-light vision (and AM's too).

He also spends a moment activating his sensors, mostly to look for things which are out-of-place. He's not expecting a hit on his radar sensors or his cyberware (a.k.a. millimeter wave) scanner, but maybe he'll get lucky.

"This hard ground is garbage for tracking," he says, scuffing the frozen ground with his foot. "Might as well try to find a footprint on pavement."

Jawsey thinks about going up to McElroy's office. The wonderful chairs are one draw, but telling McElroy what he is doing is another reason. On the other hand he's exhausted from the day and he doesn't know how critical time is.

So when he notices the cupboard used for storing rain gear for guests he squeezes in, settles himself down to the floor, grips his sword, then goes astral.

From there he flies free, heading out the door then shooting up. Hopefully in the manner of someone seeking altitude in order to get a better view. Once at a good height he scans the grounds quickly for anything obviously out of place. Then, presuming that he doesn't see anything else which is calling for attention and that he does see Invictus, he makes his way to the spirit.

He approaches at a slight angle to make it clear that he is not charging the spirit, and stops at a moderate distance. He bows to the spirit, then says "Good evening. Merry Christmas I suppose, or perhaps happy Saturnalia? Anyway there are a few things which have been odd tonight, and we were wondering if you would be willing to compare observations and conclusions on the night's happenings."

AM frowns, Feels like another dead end, so a rotor drone shot a camera to help someone get in or out. The only rotor drone here is Kurt's which was sleeping. Can you check if any of the guards saw any form of flying drone in this time frame? Perhaps it did not look suspicious at the time, a pizza delivery drone or something."
She says and then scans the area for traces of spells.

AM looked in the astral, but found no trace of anything - not even the departed watcher - just like Jawsey had done before her at this location.

Jawsey meanwhile had entered the glas house - or rather green house. The glas pavillion was filled with exotic plants of all kinds and appeared in a riot of colors on the astral, bursting with life and energy. Some of the plants were even awakened. Jawsey found Invictus standing there, apparently admiring the plants.
He was manifested and turned around with a condescending smile, though that changed into a surprised frown:
'What are you doing here?'
Upon hearing the question, he appeared angry: 'Quite impertinent. In my time you'd have received 20 lashes for such an insolent request.' The spirit sighed and visibly got himself back under control:
In a loud, clear voice he said: "What is it then that you want to know? And make it quick, you are already going on my nerves."

Mato nods to AM's suggestion. While out of earshot of any of the others, he reminds AM: "Cunningham hired us because he was concerned about conflicts of interest at the larger firms. Not to say that this is some giant conspiracy, but let's keep that in mind as we navigate things."

Then he starts the long trek back to the house. As they cross the grounds, he keeps an eye open for Zeus and the hell hounds. He's not sure if the hounds are out while MET2K is here, nor how long MET2K is staying.

Once he crosses paths with the nearest MET2K patrol, he gives a slight bow - his uniform seems to make him do it - and asks, "We are investigating a whirring noise on the outer perimeter. Has anyone seen or heard any small- or medium-sized drones, especially rotodrones?"

The two mercs looked at each other and shrugged: "Not me, but I can ask the team."
A few seconds went past, while the man looked inward, then he answered: "No, no drone sightings or hearings since we arrived with the cargo or since we took position outside. Our own drones are currently not in operation as requested by the security consultant."
The merc nodded indicated a salut and continued his round with his colleague.

"Thank you. Much obliged." Mato gives another bow in lieu of a salute, and then exchanges a look with AM.

<<When did the looping take place? Before or after the mercs arrived?>>

Then he leads the way back to the Hall to reunite with Jawsey once he's back in his mortal coil.

Jawsey assumed that the spirit could read him easily enough, but he did his best to present an unconcerned aura.

"Simple enough. There have been signs of magic used at several places tonight where there should have been no magic used. We are aware of spells on the wedding ring, magic which had been used on the mercenary who carried the ring, magic along the perimeter fence -- where a camera was also tampered with -- and magic used just outside the duke's bedroom, in the adjoining crawlspace. We wonder first if you observed any other magic where you would not have expected any, second if you were the source of any of that magic, and third if you otherwise know about any of those magics. As a guest of the Duke we assume your motives are beyond reproach, but we don't want to spend time investigating something which you caused in all innocence, nor spend time chasing after information which you might have and be willing to share."


He took a moment to indulge in a thought about his own state of being [color="#00FFFF"]Thank goodness you can't sweat astrally or I'd be dropping my focus by now. And then he tried to carefully present the possibly saving point of his questions, hoping that the spirit wouldn't be insulted at the concept of being paid. "Of course, it would not be fair to expect you to volunteer everything for free, after all we simply work here, we are not directly your host. I'm willing to discuss fair value for these answers."

Invictus had a good pokerface, but his aura flickered for a moment.
"You want to make a deal?" Yes, it definitely was a flicker of greed. His voice was now a lot lower than the previous sentence he had spoken.
"Yes, I can see you already have made deals with my kind. Curious. Yes, I think I can help you. But not right now. There are certain bonds and proprieties that must be observed first. I'll meet you in an hour in your chamber. Make sure to lower your ward. And now, if I may, depart from here at haste if you do not want to lose your immortal soul."

Jawsey was curious about what Invictus could possibly mean, and he didn't think he had a soul, immortal or not. But he did have a life, and he did value that. It took him only a moment to decide. "In an hour then." He bowed, emoted respect as best as he could, then fled the greenhouse.

Once he was back in his body he took a moment to battle a sense of deep fear, then contacted the other two. <<Something is definitely up with Invictus, and I think something is about to go down in the greenhouse. But, well, look here is the whole conversation as best as I can describe it.>> and he recounted the brief encounter.

<<After that I fled with all the dignity of whipped cur. There was something about his words that I believed. I don't think try to eavesdrop through spiritual means is apt to be a good idea. But technological, I doubt he's strong on that front. AM, are there eyes and ears up in the greenhouse? If not, is there any way you could hijack a drone to watch?>> He wish they'd brought the good camera with them, they might have been able to position it somewhere from where it could zoom in to watch. The camera on a link would have to be a lot closer to record anything, which would make planting it more likely to get caught. They really needed to invest in a few spy drones ... as soon as debts were cleared enough. Let's survive to collect on this job, and then we'll see.

"I'll go," Mato says simply once Jawsey is done recounting the situation.

"I'll go up to the roof, see what I can see, hear what I can hear. I've spent most of my soul so I'm not that worried about what's left of it. If Invictus wants to dig around in my pockets, there might be some lint, but there's not much to risk."

He looks to AM and Jawsey. "Can something provide astral overwatch? At a distance is fine. Let's just see if Invictus is conducting a meeting. I presume the greenhouse is to help prevent astral snooping, but maybe you can catch someone or something coming or going."

He waits to hear if AM or Jawsey have any refinements to the plan. If not, he makes sure that his Walther is loaded with the purple rounds and then heads to the roof. The plan is to approach quietly, with as much stealth as he can muster while simultaneously maintaining an air of authority and propriety.

AM says "I have no drones, but the greenhouse is no problem for me because while it blocks the astral line of sight, it does not block passive detection spells, and I mastered the Astral Clairvoyance spell for the detective job. I should not be detected as long as I am out of an astral line of sight. "

If nobody objects, AM would seek a relatively hidden place in relative proximity to the greenhouse where she may not be detected with her spell.

Just as AM was about to cast her spell, she remembered that she wasn't cleared for most of the wards around the house. Finding a spot outside was uncomfortable and took another precious minute.
Just as she was about to project she received a call from van der Bloom: <<Three of the sensors outside just picked up a muffled noise that the computer tells me could have been a silenced shot. Get your Chasseur buddy and take a look at it. Triangulation puts the source at the greenhouse.>>

AM sends Troubles to sneak to the greenhouse to tell her what is going on. She'll follow Mato to inspect.

Mato gives a nod to AM. It's more formal than usual; the uniform seems to have that effect on him.

He leads the way to the roof. He no longer feels the need to be quite so stealthy. His approach is somewhere between being in investigation mode and crisis response. He's not going to sprint in but he wants to move quickly before the situation evolves too much further. He'll keep his eyes and ears open to see if he can learn anything before anyone or anything is alerted to his presence.

As the two investigators turned the corner, Mato became aware of another figure in the corridor through his radar, although his eyes hadn't yet spotted it.
In front of their eyes, the bodyguard Katya decloaked. Her face was stony and alert. Mato saw her hand twich towards her hip, where she most likely was wearing a weapon. Though she seemed to have great selfcontrol as she relaxed, apparently having recognized their uniforms.
"You heard the shot too? Give me cover, I'm going to check this out." Her voice was as gruff and raspy as before and her Russian accent was clearly audible.

Mato wanted astral oversight, but Invictus had asked him to leave.... but that was inside the greenhouse, and the greenhouse would block asensing. So he could go topside and watch over Mato while Mato used his sensors through the glass. The only thing was that he was approaching astral exhaustion, he likely wouldn't be able to manage the full hour. He'd have to provide periodic coverage, and perhaps Trouble could provide the rest.

He gave his team mate a minute to get close to the roof, then projected out the side of the house and then up to about twice the height of the house. From there he had a good downward view.

Mato gives an automatic nod to Katya.

He thinks it's suspicious that she 'heard' the shot. Sure, she was a cybernetic monster like himself, but how could she have heard the shot - which van der Bloom said was a muffled noise like a silenced shot - from down here in the house, in the corridor? That seemed like a stretch.

But she wants to investigate rather than interfere, and this isn't a time to measure cybernetic capabilities, so he lets her take the lead. He'll provide cover as requested, while simultaneously trying to figure out what's going on himself.

"Is her Grace safe?" AM asks quietly, as Katya is the personal bodyguard of the Duchess.
As a trickster follower, she observes carefully the reaction of the bodyguard with all her senses.

"As safe as she can be in this place."
AM couldn't make much out in her aura, which was riddled with essence holes, but this statement at least felt to be truthful.

Katya moved fast and sure, cloaking herself again, but gave Nato an ARO, so he could track her position.

Entering the greenhouse meant leaving the wards of the building, moving a few meters across the open roof and entering the large greenhouse.
The lights were out and only dim emergency lights showed the scenery.
As before, the place was a riot of colour on the astral.
Katya moved through the place, checking for hidden gunmen.
Her method was thorough and professional, but didn't uncover anything.

Mato does his own sweep. He looks for shell casings (unlikely, given the prevalence of caseless ammunition) but also viable targets to shoot. Cameras, like on the perimeter? Other sensors?

"What's up here in terms of sensors?" he asks AM. "If there are cameras, can we tell if any of them got plunked with looper rounds?"

He scans the skies for drones using both his eyes and his radar sensors. He checks for angles that a sharpshooter might able to use to exploit cover.

He also follows his nose, sniffing along with his olfactory boosters. From Jawsey, Mato knows that Invictus was just here. Is there a scent of olive oil lingering in the air, or any gunpowder residue that might suggest what was shot or where shots were taken?

Apparently at least where his nose was concerned, Mato beat Katya with his cybernetics.
Besides a plethora of plant smells, he could detect the same olive oil smell as well as the sharp tang of cordite or one of its cousins. But there was something else as well. Crouching, he found splatters of a pinkish substance. Another deep breath reminded him where he had smelled it before. In fact he carried the source of the smell with him. His own gun smelled of the stuff - Blight rounds.
And now that he knew where to look, he saw a disturbance in a patch of flowers - a hand print large enough that it could have been Invictus'.

There was no sign of a drone around.

AM found no cameras or other sensors inside the Greenhouse - a perfect blindspot or more romantically expressed: The perfect place for a tryst.

Once up above the building, Jawsey kept look for anything living, trusting Mato's mundane senses to look for drones.

Looking around, Jawsey couldn't make out anything suspicious outside the mansion, though he was aware that he had lots of blind spots from his current position.

Mato frowns.

"Invictus was here a minute ago," he tells Katya.

"Where was Invictus standing?" Mato asks Jawsey. "There's a handprint here," he says, pointing to the disturbance in the patch of flowers. "And it smells like Blight. Did Invictus take a Blight round, or was Invictus standing somewhere else?"

A disturbing thought. Presumably Jawsey would have noticed a shooter on the astral. That suggests a drone at work, or something else that wouldn't be seen on the astral. He looks to see if it's feasible for a drone to enter and exit the greenhouse. If not, it might suggest that the drone is still here, although he would presume that Katya would have found it by now... unless she has her own motivations to not find it.

<<Same olive oil smell>> he comms to AM and Jawsey. <<I wonder if there was a clue when Invictus said 'immortal soul'. Hopefully we don't have Infected running around.>>

He tries to give Katya a subtle sniff. He'd be surprised if she smelled like anything, but the only way to find out is to try and catch a whiff.

Katya frowned, not looking happy at the news: "That damn spirit is nothing but trouble. But Blight is hard to come by. We need to make an audit of the armory and see if any rounds are missing there. Get to it. I'll keep looking for an intruder."

The gruff, Russian woman turned around, cloaking herself again.

Iktomi willing, and a cute black cat by her leg, the short skinny elf follows the invisible killing machine, and Mato into the greenhouse. Her senses still augmented Iktomi's blessing, she carefully examines the scene.

To her astral senses, the Blight appears like a luminescent black void. Having not yet experienced what the stuff does, AM has still a good inkling that it certainly isn't good for an awakened being.
But she also recognizes an echo of Invictus - and his violent disruption. Whatever happened here, the free spirit had met a very ugly egress from the mortal plane.

Mato is circumspect about his sniffing. It goes almost as well as before. Mato wonders if the greenhouse, being an environmentally-controlled area, effectively traps scents.


Mato doesn't openly disagree with Katya, but he drags his feet a bit before moving to leave.

<<Could Blight rounds explain the 'nothingness' you found on the astral?>> he asks AM and Jawsey. <<Like that emptiness where the watcher popped?>>

>> I think that Invictus is disrupted... meaning he won't meet us in an hour. Meaning that someone did not want him to talk to us.

In the lab? There was nothing awakened, here there is something, something bad.

Katya didn't smell like she had fired a weapon, but she now smelled a lot like the greenhouse after having moved through the whole thing after checking everywhere. Including the traces of blight that Mato could smell on himself too.

AM examines the greenhouse for the ballistic of a proposed silenced shot, looking for a hole in the glass, or at least to understand if the offender is the invisible drone - or is it a person?

There was no damage to the greenhouse and no casing lying around.
So either the shot came through the open door, or was fired inside the greenhouse.

Mato is glad that it doesn't seem like Katya was the shooter, since that would complicate things, but he's also annoyed that she doesn't seem to be the shooter because having a shooter still on the loose also complicates things.

"I can do the audit," he says, "but the armory is hardly the only source of Blight in the world."

It did suggest that someone intended to shoot Invictus specifically. It also suggested that they knew where he would be.

<<AM, speaking of audits, are there any records you can access about the use of household weapons? Does the system record shots from chasseurs, for example?>>

Before leaving, Mato takes a moment to look out the greenhouse door to see if there are any potential shooting positions along the trajectory of the open door and Invictus' last known position.

He also looks around the roof to see if there are any ways down or off it (rather than, say, jumping off it with hydraulic jacks, like Mato would do) other than the way up that the team took.

As he leaves, he tries to track any of the foreign scents - cordite, olive oil - to see if there were any additional traces of them, or if the scents might have left a path leading away from the scene.

The three up in the green house didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave, and Jawsey had a limited view from a static position. So he did an astral outside circle of the mansion, once again looking for any out of place astral spoor.

Then he returned to his body, letting the team know <off astral overwatch for the moment. I'm running low on astral jaunting time until I get some rest, so I'm popping in and out. Let me know when you are moving out of the greenhouse or anything comes up and I'll get back on guard. >

Then he caught up on the messages, and asks for an update on the finding from the greenhouse. After getting that news he thought for a minute and asked <How did Invictus leave a handprint in a flowerbed? Just in the soil? Or did he do something to the plants? A spirit shouldn't need to lean on anything so he must have had a reason for putting his hand down there. Have you checked that handprint carefully?>

<<I think the shot was taken inside the greenhouse>> Mato reports. <<The scent of propellant is strong in here. But that raises the question of where the shooter went. Katya doesn't smell like a triggerman. I'm guessing it was a drone, maybe the same drone that plunked the perimeter camera.>>

<<One imagines that Invictus was ambushed. The spirit's reputation for self-preservation makes me think that it would just dematerialize if threatened. I take this handprint to mean that it was surprised and was forced to take a knee under the assault. Thus the handprint in the dirt.>>

Mato leaves to conduct the audit. He waits to make sure AM accompanies him as he doesn't want to leave her alone with Katya.

The team left the greenhouse and Mato went to the armory. Lt. Fines was on duty here. Mato hadn't spoken to him before, but he seemed to be easy going enough.
When Mato told him about the potential spiricide he nodded: "Hell of a thing. Alright, we'll do the audit and check each other's work. Cameras are life and record everything."
He opened the weapons locker and took out the purple capsule rounds. Each was stacked in a neat 10x10 blister with 10 blisters total. All in the 9 mm autopistol caliber. None seemed to be missing, except for the last blister, which only conained four bullets.
"Alright there are no bullets unaccounted here. All us chasseurs got one magazine with 24 bullets each. I haven't fired mine..." He took out his service pistol, removed the magazine as well as the bullet in the chamber and counted out 24 bullets.
"Now you. I'll call the others to bring their weapons here for the audit. But the system didn't register anyone firing them, so unless someone has a backup gun hidden, they can't have been the ones."
10 minutes later, Brad and Corporal Varis arrived.
They too counted out their bullets into the blister, until it was completely full again.

"So, what now?" Brad asked Mato.

"This isn't a surprise," Mato says. "This armory isn't the only source of Blight in the world. It just means they brought it with them.

"We heard a buzzing sound on the perimeter, and then a camera was plunked with a looper round. Now Invictus gets drilled by an unknown shooter that left no trace. Odds are the shooter is the same drone.

"It means whoever is doing this knows what they're doing. They're prepared and informed and executing quite precisely so far.

"It also suggests that Invictus was a threat to their plans. The same goes for the watcher that was popped on the perimeter. That suggests that astral surveillance is a concern of theirs."

He looks to Brad.

"Are the hell hounds trained to alert us to astral threats, or are they only trained to attack? Is there anything they've been trained to identify as non-threatening? I'm just wondering what the gaps are."

Jawsey hadn't found anything outside that would show up on the astral as remarkable. All the violence must have happened inside the greenhouse.

Brad answered Mato:

"True. Cunningham for example gets his bullets handmade and sent directy to him, in his capacity as bodyguard of course. Not that I think it was him - unless he tought Invictus was a threat.

Though with the breached perimeter it sounds like someone from outside infiltrated this place.
The hellhounds are currently a non-issue. Since Hammington made the MET2K go outside, they couldn't be released without getting mauled by the hounds. Quite a bit of luck for the intruder."

Mato rubs his chin while he thinks. It's an old habit from when his fingers had skin and were soft. Now that they're hard and metal it feels strange, but he keeps doing it anyway.

Mato didn't suspect Cunningham. And, even if he did, Cunningham was technically the team's employer. If he's up to no good, the team's loyalties might still reside with him rather than anyone else in Pike Hall. Such was biz.

"Yes, luck..."

But what about Hammington? Mato doesn't know what his motivation would be, but he was the one who overreacted and sent MET2K outside. Did he do so intentionally to prevent the hell hounds from being released, thus freeing the way for an astral intruder. Or is someone manipulating Hammington, knowing how he would react?

He comms AM and Jawsey: <<We know there's an inside agent, to the degree that Van Der Bloom's meal was tainted. Someone knew where Invictus was and how to ambush a free spirit.>>

<<But, in true paranoid style, we need to wonder if Van Der Bloom drugged himself, possibly as an alibi. Did you notice if his drone has a weapon mount and could be used for these attacks? Is there anything we can do to track the drone's movements, or Van Der Bloom's activity? This may fall on your skills, AM, with Trouble's assistance...>>

Back to the physical world.

"Are there breach protocols?" he asks Brad. "Short of an active intrusion and herding guests into safe rooms. What are we responsible for in terms of chain of command and decision-making?"

"Nothing more than we already did - the familiy is safe behind their wards. The guests should be too, as long as they stay in their rooms. Can't really do anything about them if they don't want to.
Otherwise, we patrol and search. If we don't find anything... Well, we'll discuss it tomorrow with Lord Pike. For tonight we do what we can.
Maybe this whole thing was about Invictus anyway. Though I wonder what he was doing in the greenhouse."

Brad replied with a shrug.

After all the checking of cameras and bullets and astral signatures, all that Jawsey can think to do is summarize the data to see if he's neglecting something.

<<OK, would you two cross check me on this?>>

<<There is magic on the ring, although we don't know the purpose, the caster, or when it was applied. Or for that matter if the ring is authentic, or just made to look that way by spells>>

<<We have one of the MET2K guys likely hit by manipulation magic of some sort before trashing the vase, which should mean someone in the room at the time. But we saw no signs of casting. Alternate explanation is that the 'sounds like magic' story was made up to cover something else, but we didn't think he was lying.>>

<<Van Der Bloom was asleep, and had ingested antihistamines. We are assuming that they went up with his snack, but don't know that, and have anyway not found any point where anyone was noticed doing anything to the cheese tray>>

<<Someone hit the perimeter camera with a looper round, and took out a watcher spirit -- possibly with blight. Any magical trace was scrubbed from the site.>>

<<Invictus wanted me out of the greenhouse, and implied that he'd be available to talk in an hour's time. Very shortly afterward he was apparently shot with a blight round, and we have no trace on who or what shot the round, and where they are now.>>

<<anything else? Oh right, the figure in the passageway by the Pike's bedroom. Which might have been Invictus, based on the olive oil smell? But we can't be sure.>>

<<Perhaps we could put together a timeline, just to see if it rules anything out, but I doubt it>>

<<Any other ideas of what we do next?>>

>> Just one thing to add, blight cannot effect watcher spirits it is physical.