Hmm… I’m gonna guess… Thorn didn’t neutralize the RECORDING SPELLGEM in Leif’s shoe.

Damage mitigation: Lief was most likely not wearing his shoes when he saw The Thing, absolutely was not wearing shoes when Thorn told him “you didn’t see anything you weren’t supposed to. In fact… You didn’t see anything that memorable at all.”

We don’t know the quality of the recording gem. Did it pick up Thorn’s assessment, or did they just get a low-quality bootleg of Kolpovision because that was louder? Better yet, did it even record anything at all?

If it DID record something, is it going to be able to replay it after Goldenrod and Magus Percil were anywhere near it while they’re handling a black book operation?

I’m envisioning an utterly unsubtle “Oh, hi there, spy. Enjoy listening to [Ceannic equivalent of Lambchop and Sheri Lewis singing The Song That Never Ends] on loop until this gem is completely scrubbed.

I saw the explanation. I still don’t understand.

The shoes were presumably removed when they arrived, and were not put back on until they left. They didn’t hang around the shoes. Unless the spell gem can see through walls, it recorded nothing of vital importance.

If Sønheim knows enough about Kudzu to recognize that “he” attended, then they will get that. The vast majority of what they get was not particularly useful.

It feels to me like this particular spell gem was fairly well neutralized, just not necessarily in the way you would’ve preferred. Instead, it was neutralized in the *best* way, as it was evaded without discussion, simply by custom, and without Leif even being aware it was evaded.