Conférence Z
| Conférence Z | |
|---|---|
| (Organisation) | |
Source: Occult Mysteries, pg(s). 20 |
Conference Z efforts and discoveries. Each venture keeps its own staff Issued in 4652 AR, Aspis Consortium Inter-Branch Directive 1111 reads as follows: "Research department heads, electrum agents: Aspis Building, Ostenso. Dawn, 8-24. Conference Z."
Inter-Branch Directive 1111 remains the only publicly leaked reference to Conference Z. This directive was compromised only when a group of Pathfinder Society members ambushed an Aspis Consortium messenger en route to an undisclosed location in Molthune. Since then, few verifiable details have been uncovered regarding Conference Z and its agents, operations, or purpose. However, Pathfinder Society field reports have linked the group to the brutal interrogation of an Isgeri necromancer, an inexplicable encounter with Aspis agents amid the Crown of the World's Lustral Spires, and the discovery of a caravel wrecked in the Thuvian desert, miles from water.
Only Professor Tantis Mais, the current executor of Conference Z, has full knowledge oflnter-Branch Directive 1111. In this centuries-old directive, Jhandorage Alexayn, one of the Aspis Consortium's three founders, ordered the organization's most brilliant minds to discuss radical new avenues for business and expansion. Supposedly, Alexayn judged the conference such a success that he secretly dedicated a percentage of the consortium's yearly funds to backing the think tank, a practice that has continued.
From its inception, Conference Z has been clandestine, intended to free participants from the shackles of convention and taboo. Over the decades, its mystery has only deepened as a march of obsessive executors have burrowed the suborganization into the depths of the Consortium. Currently, only one of the Consortium's executives, A. X. Adris, knows of Conference Z's existence, and in return, she keeps the work of Professor Tantis Mais and his far-flung electrum agents a closely guarded secret.
From laboratories hidden in a secret series of subbasements beneath the Aspis Building in Ostenso, Professor Mais conducts his own top-level research while monitoring Conference Z operations across Golarion. Although he has been executor for over 40 years, even he is unaware ofthe objectives of some operations that began before his tenure. While the full scope of Conference Z remains a mystery, over the past decade, a small number of Pathfinder agents and unwitting adventurers have stumbled across stronghold laboratories researching bizarre topics such as alien languages, biological hypnosis, elder sciences, enhanced cryptozoology, geothermic industry, immortality, interplanar economics, mass teleportation, psychic enrichment, revivified prophecy, and temporal redundancy. Yet other investigations have been officially suspended over the years; curiously, these suspended programs receive only slightly less funding than active projects.
Scholars funded by Conference Z make regular reports to Ostenso, keeping Professor Mais apprised of their and security; most assistants and guards are unaware that the Aspis Consortium funds their work and never hear the name Conference Z. Every electrum agent does, however, possess documents necessary to appropriate Consortium agents and supplies in an emergency. Perhaps the most sinister aspect of the shadow organization is the cabal of nearly identical, black-clad agents who report directly to Mais, silently carrying out his orders, monitoring underperforming ventures, and hunting those who learn too much about Conference Z. As only a handful of individuals know of the existence of Conference Z, and even fewer are actual members, the following details a group ofinvestigators who unwittingly serve Conference Z.
Bureau of Criers: The Criers investigate reports of bizarre phenomena, unexplained events, and supposed impossibilities, documenting their occurrence and confiscating evidence for scholarly consideration and the public good. Originally named the "Bureau of lnquirers," decades of malapropism eventually altered the name of these privately funded investigators. Public records and internal files report that the organization is funded by a philanthropic brotherhood of international scholarsperhaps even the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. Only Chief Crier Byron Lanter knows that the group works for the Aspis Consortium and that all of their discoveries are sent to Mais's agents. Criers-whether individually, in small teams, or with groups of reliable freelancerscollect accounts of strange events, investigate their causes, and provide detailed reports to the Bureau of Criers in Ostenso or to their field office in Thrushmoor (little more than a basement desk in the Sleepless Building).[1]
BUREAU OF CRIERS[1]
These mercenary investigators seek out strange and paranormal activity to report to their mysterious, anonymous superiors.
Location Ostenso (Cheliax) and Thrushmoor (Ustalav)
REQUIREMENTS
Initiation Fee must have had an encounter with a creature or phenomenon that defies rational explanation
Initiation Exam Knowledge (any) or Perception DC 20
Offerings 200 gp/service period
MEMBERSHIP
Obeisance Check Bluff, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth Service Period 3 months
Excommunication 3 consecutive failed Obeisance checks
TASKS
Fund Research (+1 Fame) Once per service period, you can sponsor a fellow Crier's ongoing investigations by paying her offering for that service period (200 gp). You can sponsor a peer only once per year, and even then only if your Fame score exceeds 20.
Investigate an Event (+2 Fame) Once per service period, you can undertake a mission for your superiors. You gain fame only if you successfully reveal the reason behind some unexplained event.
Take Evidence (+1 Fame) Once per service period, you can confiscate a unique item relevant to your investigations and submit it to your superiors for further research and documentation. The item must be unique and worth 1,000 gp per point of Fame you possess. The value of such an item often comes from its rarity or unusual nature, not from its magical properties or component materials.
AWARDS
Academically Prepared (5 PP) You've spent a day reviewing reports of events similar to one you're about to investigate. Choose a Knowledge skill. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on that skill and a +2 circumstance bonus on Will saving throws to resist fear effects for the duration of one mission (maximum duration of 1 week).
Memory Purge (50 Fame, 10 PP) You can request a team of Crier magic-users to wipe the memory of a 24-hour period from an individual. You must know where the target is, and she must either be willing to undergo the wipe or be unprepared for it. The person you wish to affect must be of a character level equal to or less than yours. The 24-hour period does not need to be the last 24 hours, and Crier magic-users typically fulfill their work within 3 days of the request being made. While some targets might escape Crier agents, the bureau's success rate is quite good. You can choose yourself as the target of a memory purge.
Restricted Access (20 Fame, 2 PP) You can request additional information relating to your investigation from your superiors. Whileyou can't request specific materials, what you receive proves useful to your work. Support typically takes the form of some rare book or esoteric manuscript that, when referenced, grants a +2 circumstance bonus on all Knowledge checks related to your investigation. Occasionally, though, this might be an unusual magic item with a value less than 1,000 gp * your current Fame or a strangely specific mundane item. Any materials granted to you are delivered anonymously within 1 week of the request, and you are expected to return them at the end of your missi within 1 month (whichever is shorter). Failure to return items decreases your Fame score by 5.
Using Conference Z[1]
Conference Z is a perfect international conspiracy to either oppose PCs or fund their exploits (via the Criers), potentially even hiring them in order to point them away from larger Conference Z endeavors. Cells funded by Conference Z engage in all manner of bizarre studies, resulting in everything from amoral experiments and monster-gonewild plots to near-apocalypses. A few of Conference Z's known initiatives include the following.
Extraplanar Travel: The non-humanoid Professor Ro charts planar connections across Golarion. During certain planar conjunctions, his cavernous compound on the coast of Molthune connects with tunnels beneath Axis.
Extraplanetary Studies: From his observatory in Manaket, Professor Calacazari seeks methods to study, contact, and travel between the worlds in Golarion's solar system. He believes he's recently made contact with a scholar on Verces. Necrotic Enrichment: Professor Galuzo's agents are among the only living creatures allowed near Finder's Gulch in Isger, and study the union of disease and necromancy. Supernatural Meteorology: The floating laboratory of Professor Omor monitors the magical storms off the coast of the Spellscar Desert.
Temporal Anomalies: From an abandoned cliff dwelling in the Calphiak Mountains, Professor Ilosiel studies irregularities in the flow of time. Translocation, Radical: Professor Nuis studies methods of linking or overlaying disparate locations. Her labfortress, Castle Penatha, is currently missing.