The forest does not want a train going through it. Stagman is very much not a fan of it. When the mountains appear, the train stays on the edge of the mountains and forest, which is much better. Jericho talks to Julian about Stagman and other disturbances in Arden. He explains that whole companies have disappeared when they've gone exploring.
Brigid has decided she may offer to be a consultant (Level 2) to Bastiano. As such, she is under an NDA and expected to be available most any time, the same as they are for her. No assignment has been given yet since she's still onboarding. HR walks with her and makes sure she's got everything she needs, including an indelible lapel badge.
Bree checks on the Ascension notes and asks Gerhardt to help scan through shadow. She heard Merlin might also be able to help, but she'll need Gerhardt to introduce them.
Gerhardt is riding his horse through Arden to check on the progress laying the track. Investigating further, he finds that Arden really isn't behaving like a shadow. It's part of Amber, but at the edge it diffuses outward and blends with other shadows. You can shadow walk and change things, but it is always still Arden. Gerhardt will talk to Julian eventually, but right now he's working on Shadow Path tricks.
Bree has set up something (a clone?) to trigger to wake upon her death. She trumps Gerhardt. He answers and they discuss the shadow scanning. He heads into Stroheim(?).
Jericho and Savak track down the remnants of Julian's troops, but no bodies or body parts. There are a few structures reminiscent of the Green. He trumps Isabelle. It is definitely similar, but it's unclear if it's the same thing. She suggests he look for the face hugger to get more info. She's not touching it.
Jericho investigates further and finds multiple people enveloped in full-body pods. He cuts one down and the person inside bursts out of the liquid-filled trap. At the same time the other captives wake, gagging and drowning in their pods. He hears something coming and turns to see two giant cat-shaped… plants? They catch up to him and start unraveling, capturing him in their vines. Isabelle yanks him and the freed soldier through the trump contact. Vine segments wriggle and try to burrow into Jericho's skin. The soldier is green and slimy. Perhaps he can still be saved.
According to the notes Bree is reading, Osric was aware that someone was coming to kill him.
Brigid goes back to Amber and practices her lute.
Isabelle cleanses Jericho from the poison, but it is too late to save the soldier. Jericho trumps Brigid to see if she can hear the song of the plants. She happily leaves her sparring session with Natasha to check it out. After listening to its song, it sounds very pretty, well composed and structured. It is harmonious and could grow quite well here.
Gerhard talks to Merlin.
Bree hears that the Abyss is seeded and the growth covers a portal to hell. Over the course of the past few years, the nearest city has been infested. She also hears about "The Sixy Six", an important group in the area.
stuff i can't hear "Why is Luke looking at her like he knows her?" Naida(?) asks Gerhardt. She moves on and asks if he knows about pattern ghosts. Gerhardt explains that Dworkin warned him not to look into that. Apparently if you give a pattern ghost blood, it can live. Rinaldo is a stable magical construct — not a real person. It turns out Naida died and her body has been possessed by a demon that helped Rinaldo out.
The experiments continue on the plants. It turns out the plants are hardy but can be killed with traditional means. Jericho decides to touch one to make psychic contact. There's not a lot there. It's just trying to remain calm. Jericho pushes through and talks to it again. Having clearly established it has no intention of backing off, the group tries to deal with it.
The plan is for Brigid to try and shrink it, and if that fails Isabelle will blast her. If that fails, Natasha will handle things… Brigid begins her work and moments later things are, of course, going very wrong. She starts floating and emanating an intensely terrifying song. Vine cats, vine bear…
Brigid wakes up with a metallic taste in her mouth. She aches from head to toe. They successfully warded it off, so they continue to different spots to help there.
Gerhardt finds that they have done about 80 spikes. He tells the engineers that the project is to be put on hold. They show him a map of what has been done so far.
Elodie gets the report back on shadow path usage. It has been very erratic and never at Osric's base.
Brigid has a scar that keeps growing every time she uses the corrupted song. She answers a trump from the shower and goes through to see a sample of the Green. Let's assume she got clothes or at least a towel first. Apparently this was locked away long ago until someone let it free.