Field Researcher

You are the part of the Compact that goes outside. This is either a privilege or a warning, depending on who you ask.

Favored Save: Speed Save (+1D to Speed + Acrobatics rolls)

Power Access: Mediumship or Glamourist (optional). Field Researchers with tradition access find both traditions operationally useful: Mediumship for active phenomena investigation; Glamourist for assessment and passage through situations where being a recognizable Compact researcher is a liability.

Starting Resources: Compact research credentials, personal documentation kit (audio/visual recording equipment, specimen collection supplies, field notes format that will survive legal scrutiny), a standing relationship with at least one operational organization for field support access, and a sidearm that the researcher would prefer never to use.

Lineage Affinity: Faeborn, Haunt, Human. Field Researchers require both Wit capacity for the research function and enough resilience to operate in conditions the institution's other researchers are not exposed to.

Progression Track: Field Researcher

Stage 1 (10 XP), Field Qualified
  The Field Researcher has completed the Compact's supervised field
  program and demonstrated they can conduct research under conditions
  that don't cooperate.
  - Investigation Protocol: The Field Researcher has a systematic approach
    to active phenomena investigation. Given a scene to work a location,
    they can identify: what type of phenomenon occurred, roughly when, and
    what traces it left. A Wit + Lore or Governing Attribute + Tradition roll
    vs Threshold 2 surfaces the basic assessment. Threshold 3+ surfaces
    anomalous or variant details.
  - Operational Contact: The Field Researcher has a standing working
    relationship with one external operational organization (Network,
    Safe Harbor, or similar). That organization will provide field backup
    on Compact-sanctioned research operations when available.

Stage 2 (25 XP), Senior Field Researcher
  The Field Researcher has accumulated enough direct field experience
  to have opinions about what the institution's standard protocols don't
  fully account for.
  - Active Phenomena: The Field Researcher can conduct research on active
    phenomena, situations still in progress rather than after-the-fact
    documentation. This requires being present while something is happening,
    which is how the Field Researcher has learned most of what they know.
    In active situations, the researcher rolls at +1D on research-related
    Wit rolls and at standard on everything else.
  - Documentation Under Pressure: The Field Researcher can produce accurate
    documentation of what they observe even under adverse conditions,
    combat, environmental hazards, significant supernatural phenomena in
    progress. The documentation holds up to Compact archival standards and
    to legal scrutiny.

Stage 3 (50 XP), Principal Field Researcher
  The Field Researcher has become the person the Compact deploys when
  the situation requires someone who can both document what's happening
  and function while it's happening.
  - Independent Sanction: The Field Researcher has authority to initiate
    research operations without Compact approval when circumstances require
    immediate response. The research is sanctioned retroactively if conducted
    to standard; the Field Researcher's track record justifies the autonomy.
  - Cross-Specialty: The Field Researcher's broad field exposure has given
    them working knowledge of multiple research areas. They roll at +1D on
    Wit + Lore for any phenomenon they have previously personally investigated,
    regardless of specialty category. The direct experience provides a depth
    that secondary research cannot fully replicate.