Understanding is the key to discovery. With comprehension established, knowledge can be used — and it should be. The Rosetta Society can take any given piece of knowledge and cross-reference it against the Society’s vast academic resources — archives of papyrus and parchment stretching through dim caverns, thrumming databases woven into the heart of the internet, dreaming choirs of subconsciousnesses borrowed from sleeping academics and analysts, and more besides. All that incredible mental infrastructure is just aching to help bring each puzzle piece into its correct place.
An oracle of good standing can do more than just visit the strongholds of the Sworn and physically rifle through stacks of text; they can remotely access the colossal informational re- sources that the Rosetta Society possesses. Every possible step is taken to reduce the barriers between the Sworn agent and the knowledge they need, with almost no limitations placed on the depth or danger of topic that the member can delve into. Red tape and vetted clearance are the stifling chains that keep mortal endeavors held back. The Contagion doesn’t afford oracles the luxury of pausing to wonder about the risks when an urgent situation demands immediate answers.
A Renegade blinks in the specific pattern that hacks her own brain, opening the caches of memorized knowledge locked away in her altered lobes. A werewolf enunciates the symbolic truths that send a hundred petty spirits scurrying out across a dozen libraries to sift through texts for answers to his question. A demon whistles the digital code into the phone that implants her discovery into the network; her device chirrups, messages in binary bringing back the responses she needs.
System: The oracle can use this vector to create a temporary Library (•••) Merit pertaining to any given extended Mental Skill roll. Each activation of the vector grants the Merit’s benefits for all rolls of that extended action, and does not extend it across to any made afterwards. Once the action has completed, the temporary Merit is lost.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Requirement: Must be performing an extended Mental Skill roll.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Academics Action: Instant
Duration: One extended roll
Edges
Demons, Mages: All it takes a little tuning of the mind and a little self-inflicted psychic surgery to keep the drip-feed of the Society’s knowledge going all the time in the back of the subconscious. A character with this edge no longer suffers unskilled penalties for any Skill in which they have zero dots. This applies to extended rolls made for Scrutiny, despite those rolls not using Skills.
Hunters, Werewolves: The world is dangerous, and rarely pauses to let the hunter or the hunted take stock of their situation and ponder its mysteries. Life-saving information can’t wait. Characters with this edge treat the first interval on an extended Skill roll enhanced by this vector as reflexive, rather than whatever its usual interval is. Additionally, they can use the Library Merit to enhance extended Survival rolls.
Sin-Eaters, Vampires: A dead body tells a thousand stories, all bound up in its scars and bones. A character with this edge can treat a dead body as a Library (•••) for any research pertaining to it, its life, and its death. This does not cost any Willpower, and allows investigation that can reveal the dead character’s secrets and knowledge.
Mummies: The Arisen know better than anyone how the sands of time erode accumulated knowledge, their own memories ravaged with each descent into Duat. The great work of the Rosetta Society, its vast accumulated lore, calls to the Iremites as an expression of defiance against the same forces that tear at their recollection. An Arisen character with this edge also gains the Inspired Condition relating to the extended roll.
Beasts, Changelings: Some researchers misguidedly believe that understanding comes only from hard, cold certainties, from truths and facts laid bare. Those whose humanity has been taken apart and put back together again know that the myths and stories of the great libraries hold just as much insight. A character with this edge can also apply the Library Merit’s bonus to Empathy and Expression rolls being made as part of any social maneuver.
Deviants, Prometheans: Forget high-minded and lofty notions of academia; sometimes what matters is finding cover and protection. Learn the history of a city to figure out its hiding places and its nooks and its crannies; sift through the state records to learn who can be trusted and who can’t. A character with this edge can use the Library Merit with an extended Stealth or Streetwise roll.
Specializations:
Collectors: There are countless types of books in the world because there are countless types of people in the world. Collectors within the Society see no need to limit their temporary library to subjects concerning Mental Skills, allowing them to choose at the power’s outset whether the Library Merit is concerning Skills of a Mental, Physical, or Social nature.
Sesha-Hebsu: It’s no surprise the scribes of the Sesha- Hebsu feel a strong link to the Rosetta Society’s great quest for knowledge. A Sesha-Hebsu Arisen who engages in teamwork with at least one other faction member on an extended Mental Skill roll using the Library benefit from this vector, also bestows the rote action quality on the primary actor in the roll.