I am pretty sure Trace, as paranoid as he was has a built in failsafe in case of catastrophic failure. You know something he keeps in case Rose manages to break loose , detritus start playing with matches or the ritual is about to blow up. I imagine such failsafe turns detirtus into fertilizer purgersthe ritual vessel, in this case Maren, and decomissions Rose then reboots all manor systems and grant sole and direct control to Trace.Bellhead wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:53 amTo questions 2 and 3, Yes, and No. Trace was the Grand Templar for a reason. Not just his magical potential, but his skills as well. It's just that now, he's at the level of "slightly capable apprentice", and lost most of his memories.Dreamfox wrote: ↑Mon Aug 23, 2021 1:23 am Trace should have his own link into the estates magic. The backdoor worked for him and he had to allow the others to enter the estate to begin with.
The question is, can Trace muster the willpower to overpower Detritus?
Does he even realize that this might be possible?
As for that first one...
I personally think any part of that link that would be helpful here would have been an active part; one that he would have to manually trigger, or focus on specifically, which he kinda can't do in his current, good state.
The backdoor you mentioned (which I assume was when he used the gate key), seems to be a more passive connection. It seems that anyone he thinks is okay to enter, is okay to enter. Of course, since Group B entered the Estate through there and not through the front door, it's possible that it bypasses the security systems since it would only ever be activated by Trace and nobody else. Or it could be like the vampires in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and later Angel, where he only has to say it once, and that's that.
But either way, I'll put forth Rose's quote, "I still can't outright attack you", meaning that even Rose, with NO RESTRICTIONS, is incapable of using the security systems to cause harm. And that's DEFINITELY the Nora way of doing things, since she's probably one of the main architects of those magic systems. She was always more of a trickster than a killer, anyway, and I wouldn't put it past Old Trace to follow her rules to stay on her good side.
That being said as Gen. Bell points out given current Traces amnesiac state he would not be able to trigger it since he does not remember it exists, and if he were to remember, well then detritus an Clovis are the least of the party problems.
Also i think there are two layers of the manor security, 3 depending how you count. First you have Nora enchantment that turns any trespasses into a farm animals and Stoneward himself, this is dragon magic and is personally enchanted by Nora. Then on a separate "circuit" when have trace implementations: the broken golems, Rose and Detritus. I really doubt Nora has anything to do with Traces Necromantic experiments. Althought we really do not know what she did, or didn't do after Trace went [censored] insane. Again as you mention she is no killer so i doubt she helped Trace with all the coups, genocide and necromancy, on the other hand i doubt Trace was very communicative with her during that period.
What is the third? Oh normal enchantments like the beach room, stuff any normal mage puts in his home to show off.