The spirit flies at the ring and bounces off, then resumes devouring your food supply.
"Is it really the case that no one has anything? If so, I will try to control it at my peril."
"I could try and make it physical - like sand or dirt. But not without crossing the circle to touch it."
Aetherius will cast a Wizard's Sidestep.
Unless someone interjects, Lares says this:
"Iām going to try to force it to become corporeal for a bit. Call the shield grogs here. When it appears, have them stab it. I may pass out doing this, so catch me if I do.ā
Having ensured thereās ample mundane manpower present, Lares will lifelink spont a control spell that makes the spirit don the corporeal veil.
ReMe for controlling spirit: : 3 sta + 7 me + 10 rego + 5 aura +2 gestures = 27, /2 is 13
5 base control spirit, +2 voice, +1 diam = level 20
He will shoot for penetration 15, and he has mentem penetration 2, so that means he needs to cast the spell at level 33 as a whole.
33-13=20, so will need either 4 or 5 fatigue levels to cast it depending on the roll. He might fall unconscious, in other words.
As the grogs file into the building to prepare for your casting the spirit descends through the floor again.
Argentius shakes his head in frustration. "When we find it again, I'll try to keep it talking while you do your work." He is looking among the others.
"Just to distract it long enough to do a working on it."
"It has to come up to eat our stuff, doesn't it. Keep an eye on where it goes, Albrecht."
Albrecht sighs, a pretty deliberate action when you don't need to breath, and departs. 2 hours later he approaches, telling you he has spotted the spirit draining a child's health in the Arab quarter.
Before we get that far, I'd like to try something. Aetherius will warn his colleagues "Be ready to make it physical once you see it."
Muto Terram base guideline 3: "Change dirt into a liquid or gas (with requisites)." with an auram requisite.
+1 magnitude for stone, +1 magnitude for touch, +1 part which brings up to a spell level 10. +1 size for good measure since I don't know exactly where it is which would affect up to 10 cubic paces of stone and dirt with a level 15. If the floor isn't stone, but packed dirt, then it's 100 cubic paces maximum, bearing in mind that I'm not trying to collapse a building, etc. so I can limit or shape the volume accordingly. The target will be centered on where he disappeared, and probably stretching outwards from there and towards the closest wall.
For a MuTe(Au) spontaneous spell, Aetherius has rolls d10+28, divided by 2, with a target of 15. In other words, the spell goes through for 1 stamina unless I botch. I can do this two or three times to locate the spirit if necessary.
The floor is natural stone, and holds up the shelves and baskets of food as well as the building. Additionally I'm not certain how you are planning- shape wise, to excavate the space you are searching- 100 cubic paces would be a cube 4.6 paces on a side, which is not really searching much space...
Argentius looks over at Aetherius. "What are you planning? The desert spirit is either moving to another store room or going after another child. It shouldn't be hard to track it own againā¦"
The artificer looks around the building for a moment.
"We're going to need a longer term solutionā¦"
"I was hoping to turn the floor into gas so we can see where it hides, but... nevermind."
(Missing a magnitude for duration. No point in doing in a cubic pace. I guess I'll have something to research at some point 
)
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"Apologies, Albrecht. I see that this is not the best use of your potential. We need to save the covenant, though."
"It wasn't a bad idea." Lares shrughs at Aetherius.
He spends the two hours casting Ring of Warding Against Spirits around the covenant's key locations - library, places with children or food, and such.
Once he gets news of the spirit's appearance, Lares has everyone rush to the location.
He first casts the ward around the magi, again.
"Grab the child and run", he instructs one of the grogs, and then casts the control spell to make the spirit don the corporeal veil.
You arrive and the spirit appears to be eating something from the child' stomach. As the child is removed it begins to purse until you try and force it to don the corporeal veil, at which point it pauses, before again sinking into the ground.
So the spell went off? Did Lares fall unconscious?
The spell went off and Lares took only 3 levels of fatigue (he rolled a 12)
"Any idea what just happened?"
Argentius shakes his head, looking back down at the ground.
"Perhaps it has some affinity with terram and can move through sand or stone regardless of its form." The artificer looks at Lares.
"Are you alright?"
Lares sits down on the ground heavily.
"Well balls. I suppose it's either too powerful or can't materialize. My money is on the latter."
He closes his eyes and rubs his scalp.
"I'm going to have to take a breather. If it appears again in the meantime, try whatever you can think of. Once I'm back on my feet, I can try again. Maybe I'll just send it away."
"Oh, and Albrecht... if I may ask?"
"Yes sir?"