Researcher

Dr. Davidyan grimaced and shook vis head. Maybe this case was above vis pay grade. Maybe ve should have just let the skippers have it. It had been three weeks since the U.I.U. had gotten wind of the paratech AR headsets being sold to Portlandsers, and it was quickly getting out of hand. Ve wasn’t sure what mechanism was being used to cause this, but people who used the headsets for longer than 3 hours invariably became “stuck”, intrinsically bonded to a golem roaming the streets. Without the ability to remove the headset and eat, drink, or take care of any other needs, the death toll was up to the hundreds. There was some debate over whether or not the remaining golems, seemingly still sapient and responsive, were truly the same people that had been controlling them before their original bodies had perished. Either way, something needed to be done.

So far in ver research, Dr. Davidyan had managed to determine that the headsets consistently spoke to a server somewhere on the Portlands intranet, receiving persistent patches and commands. Where the server, or servers, were located was anyone’s guess. Three Portlands’ geography is impermanent and fluid, finding the location might as well be like tossing a dart at a globe. If the servers were being hosted in a non-anchored building, ve could at least expect to see the IP block change in a few years, whenever its hosting location passed beyond the borders of the city. Unfortunately, ve didn’t have years to wait, and that also assumes that the address was operating out of a building which was not anchored.

“Ilkay? I have an update for you,” a voice called from the other end of the office. Dr. Davidyan’s assistant researcher was leaning to look past their screens over to vis desk.

“What’ve you got, Maddie?”

“Well, good news, bad news. The good news is, the IP block these headsets are talking to seems to belong to Deer college. Bad news is, Deer has no knowledge of any project like this.”

“So some student or staff is running this service under the table on their systems?”

“Something like that, but the team at Deer can’t seem to find any machines in their subnet that are actually using that address. It’s like a ghost.”

Ilkay frowned. A ghost process? That certainly adds a bit of extra complexity to the matter.

“Sounds like we need to make a trip to Deer’s nerd basement."

Researchers have a lifetime of study and knowledge of the anomalous to draw on. Experts in anomalous entities, paratechnology, paramedicine, and much more -- researchers are a vital tool in the arsenal of any group working closely with or on the anomalous. Play a researcher if you want some serious nerd cred, like the idea of playing an unhinged scientist, or you just really like writing long academic papers.

Modifier: Research

Proficiencies

Select two of the following proficiencies

History, Culture, and Religion

    You have a deep knowledge of anomalous history, from ancient anomalous objects, to whole socieites and religions, especially those founded around the anomalous

Applied Science and Medicine

    You've sat through lecture upon lecture, you've done the lab work, you have a deep scientific knowledge of the theories and ideas behind chemistry, biology, medicine, and their anomalous counterparts and companions.

Technology and Computing Systems

    It was really like any other computer science class, except, the computer was definitely at least partly sentient. You've studied technology far beyond the concepctions of the average person behind the veil.

Mechanics and Physics

    Practical sciences for a practical person, right? Your studies focussed on the hard science rather than the abstract. Your world is filled with complex equations and theorems and all of them relate to the fundamental building blocks of how the world, even the world beyond the veil, works.

Language

    You know there are entire anomalous languages? You had one class you weren't even allowed to speak out loud in, unless you wanted to summon some really, really nasty gheists. Oh, and there was the four years of foreign language class. That seemed a lot more practical at the time.

Mathematics

    Physicists like to say they're a pure science but you really can't get more pure than numbers. Especially nonexistent numbers. Foundation math class was really weird.