HIA Professions
Professions
Marginal Operative
"I wasn't here. That's not my face on your camera. The door was unlocked when I arrived. I suggest you examine your hiring practices."
Role: The HIA's primary field agents, specialists who use Marginal Harmonics to bypass physical and electronic security, disappear from hostile attention, and extract themselves from situations that should have ended their mission. The Marginal Operative is the profession that most fully embodies Halfling operational doctrine: minimum profile, maximum outcome, no evidence of cause.
| Favored Save | Speed, escape and evasion; physical reaction to situations that resolved unexpectedly; the operational reality that a Marginal Operative who has been detected is in a foot chase |
| Power Access | Marginal Harmonics at 1D free, Nudge and Obscurement are the primary operational Disciplines; Signal-Read develops as a natural extension of field awareness; Marginal Prediction is the senior practitioner's operating mode |
| Key Talents | Attunement (Wit), Stealth (Speed), Notice (Wit) |
| Signature Focus | The "Lucky" Coin, the Loaded Die in cover identity. Appears to be an ordinary pocket coin, worn smooth, the kind a person carries for sentimental reasons. Is not. Each coin is a unique Marginal Harmonic instrument inscribed across every face and keyed to its owner, a non-practitioner handling it perceives only a coin. +2D to Nudge and Obscurement rolls. Once per scene as a Free Action, force a re-roll of any single die, own or another's, with no roll required. The die simply comes up differently. HIA issue only, to graduates of the Term of Observation. A non-Halfling practitioner who acquires one must attune it with a Marginal Harmonics roll vs Threshold 2 before the mechanical benefit applies. (Full rules: AX.GIL.08.01, Marginal Harmonics Foci, The Loaded Die) |
Progression Track
| Stage | Perk | Source | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harmonic Attunement | Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Harmonic Support | Always active |
| 2 | Shadow-Census Pull | Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Faction Authority | Long Rest |
| 3 | Faction Pull | AX.C.09.02, Organizational | Full Rest |
Stage 1, Harmonic Attunement: When Stressed, attempt to ground harmonics as a Minor Action rather than a Primary Action. Roll unchanged: Governing Attribute + Resolve vs Threshold 3. On failure, remains Stressed and may not attempt again until next rest. No per-use cap, available whenever Stressed. For a Marginal Operative conducting extended operations requiring multiple Nudge and Obscurement rolls, this represents the difference between maintaining Marginal Prediction and losing it to Friction mid-mission.
Stage 2, Shadow-Census Pull: Request a targeted HIA intelligence package on a specific named individual or organization through secure Hearth-Net channels. Within 24 hours (or by next session), the GM provides one of: known financial connections and flagged irregularities; current physical location and movement pattern; most significant assessable vulnerability as identified by HIA analysts. Information is accurate as of last HIA update, may be weeks old for low-priority targets. Requesting a package on a Halfling national or an HIA operative triggers an internal flag. Requires active HIA standing. Once per Long Rest.
Stage 3, Faction Pull: Call in a significant HIA organizational resource, additional field operative support for a complex exfiltration, emergency extraction via Logistics Ghost channels, a targeted Shadow-Census deep-pull that goes beyond the standard package, or an HIA-authorized information leak that changes the political situation of the current scene. The agency notes this was called in, and the nature of what was requested. Once per Full Rest.
Roleplay Notes
The Marginal Operative's defining professional characteristic is the gap between what they appear to be doing and what they are doing. In social situations, they seem like an attentive, slightly lucky professional. In operational situations, they seem like a careful, slightly lucky field agent. Neither characterization is wrong; neither is complete.
The Attunement investment is diagnostic, a Marginal Operative who can read harmonic signatures can detect when another practitioner is active, when a location has seen recent Marginal use, and critically, when someone else is running a Nudge that affects their own probability field. In an HIA context, the ability to detect hostile Marginal Harmonics is as valuable as the ability to deploy them.
The Sovereign Edge Lineage Perk (AX.GIL.06.04) provides +2 Defense vs Medium+ size attackers and Stealth Advantage in scouted environments. Combined with Obscurement, a senior Marginal Operative in a location they have surveilled is extraordinarily difficult to engage effectively, Advantage on the Stealth roll, Obscurement suppressing passive detection, and the Loaded Die available to redirect any roll that breaks through.
Halfling Lineage Interaction: A Halfling Marginal Operative with the Marginal Harmonics Cultural Talent (Tactical Intelligence Focus) and Profession access receives Tradition access from both sources. Per the duplicate access rule (AX.GIL.08.01), they receive Marginal Harmonics at 2D at no Talent budget cost, the highest starting Tradition pool available to a Halfling character.
Unaffiliated Template
Off-Grid: The most natural unaffiliated expression for a Marginal Operative. An operative who has removed themselves from HIA records entirely, or was removed by the agency, but retains full Marginal Harmonics capability. Data Shadow at Stage 1 complements Obscurement directly: the operational invisibility the Tradition provides is reinforced by the information-systems invisibility of the template. The Void at Stage 3 represents the integration of Marginal Harmonics and Off-Grid technique into total situational disappearance.
Outcast: A field operative whose cover was burned, by the HIA, by a foreign org, or by an operational failure. The HIA's burned-cover protocol means their real identity, biometrics, and known field techniques are on record. Ghost Credentials on older Hearth-Net authentication nodes may still function. Institutional Memory covers the operational protocols, personnel patterns, and field infrastructure of the region they worked.
Signal Scryer
"They think the channel is secure. It is. It's also monitored."
Role: HIA signals intelligence specialists who monitor air-gaps, encrypted foreign communications, and anomalous network activity across the IL's information infrastructure. The Signal Scryer sits at the intersection of technical signals work and Marginal Harmonics, using probability-read to extract signal from noise in communications that were designed to be unreadable.
| Favored Save | Wit, extended surveillance concentration; resist the specific cognitive pressure of information overload; maintain analytical clarity when monitoring multiple simultaneous channels |
| Power Access | Marginal Harmonics at 1D free, Signal-Read is the primary professional Discipline (perceiving the probability shape of a communications environment identifies anomalous traffic patterns that technical analysis alone cannot isolate); Nudge supports the Signal Scryer's ability to create the "coincidental" conditions under which encrypted systems briefly expose readable content |
| Key Talents | Notice (Wit), Technical (Wit), Signal Intelligence Focus, Lore (Wit) |
| Signature Focus | Hearth-Net Deck, a proprietary HIA terminal that interfaces with the Hearth-Net's private data-dark communications infrastructure while maintaining passive monitoring access to foreign network traffic. The Deck does not use NTC Runic-Silicon; it runs on a Halfling-developed alternative harmonic substrate that NTC monitoring cannot read. +2D on Technical rolls involving signals analysis, encrypted communications assessment, and foreign network monitoring. Additionally: the Deck maintains a passive baseline read on all non-Hearth-Net signals within Far range, the Signal Scryer always knows the general shape of local network traffic without making a roll, updated once per scene. Active monitoring of specific channels or encrypted content still requires a roll. |
Progression Track
| Stage | Perk | Source | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resonance Read | Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Harmonic Support | Short Rest |
| 2 | Shadow-Census Pull | Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Faction Authority | Long Rest |
| 3 | Mastery (Notice) | AX.C.09.02, Expertise | Full Rest |
Stage 1, Resonance Read: As a Free Action, roll Wit + Attunement vs Threshold 2. Detect whether any Harmonic Tradition was used within Near range in the last 24 hours. On 3+ successes: which Tradition. On 5+ successes: approximate intensity. For a Signal Scryer, Resonance Read is the capability that catches Marginal Harmonics use by other parties, the HIA's own practitioners leave signatures that the Scryer can identify, which is how the agency audits its own field personnel as much as it audits foreign threats. Dead Zones increase Threshold to 4, which the Signal Scryer can detect as meaningful absence information. Once per Short Rest.
Stage 2, Shadow-Census Pull: Request a targeted HIA intelligence package on a specific named individual or organization. Within 24 hours (or next session), GM provides one of: financial connections and flagged irregularities; current location and movement pattern; most significant assessable vulnerability. Information currency depends on target priority in HIA files. Requesting a package on a Halfling national or HIA operative triggers internal flag. Requires active HIA standing. Once per Long Rest.
Stage 3, Mastery (Notice): Once per Full Rest, after making a Notice roll, reroll any dice in the pool showing 1, 2, or 3. Keep new results. Wild Die may be rerolled this way. For a Signal Scryer, this most often applies to the sustained monitoring rolls that define their profession, the long-duration Notice checks that separate a trained analyst from a well-equipped one.
Roleplay Notes
The Signal Scryer's professional experience is a constant low-level awareness of information flow that other characters don't have. The Hearth-Net Deck's passive baseline read means they always know, in rough terms, whether this room's network traffic is normal, elevated, or anomalous, before they decide whether to investigate further. This is the signals equivalent of the Seismic Engineer's passive structural awareness.
Their Lore investment covers the information domain, not just technical knowledge of communications systems but the historical and organizational context that makes raw signals intelligible. Knowing that a specific encrypted channel spiked at 0200 is data. Knowing that the last time that channel spiked at 0200 was the night before the Accord negotiation collapsed is intelligence.
The Signal Scryer's Marginal Harmonics use is among the subtlest in the setting. Signal-Read applied to communications analysis doesn't look like magic; it looks like an analyst with exceptionally good instincts for which channels to monitor and when. The probability-read capability that identifies the moment an encrypted system is most likely to produce a legible artifact is indistinguishable from pattern recognition to any external observer.
Unaffiliated Template
Freelance: A Freelance Signal Scryer is an independent signals intelligence consultant, hired by organizations that need communications monitoring without the HIA's knowledge that they are being monitored. This is a delicate commercial position. The HIA tracks Freelance signals professionals carefully; a Signal Scryer who takes clients the HIA disapproves of will eventually receive an uncomfortable conversation. Open Market Standing reflects independent certification; Jurisdictional Ambiguity at Stage 3 is the professional protection that makes independent practice viable.
Mercenary: A signals specialist who takes contracts across the full market spectrum, including clients who are adversarial to each other. The ethical constraints are significant, a Signal Scryer who monitors Org A for Client B, then accepts a contract from Org A, is in a position that most professional standards bodies would consider a conflict of interest. The Reputation Ledger tracks these decisions as part of the record.
Shadow Liaison
"I've been in their Monday planning meetings for fourteen months. I know their Q3 strategy better than their own board does."
Role: Deep-cover sleeper agents embedded in foreign corporations, government bodies, and org structures, HIA personnel operating under complete false identity for months or years, positioned to observe, report, and occasionally nudge the decisions of the organizations they have infiltrated. The Shadow Liaison is not a spy who infiltrates; they are a professional who genuinely holds a position in the target organization, whose intelligence function is entirely invisible from the outside.
| Favored Save | Wit, cover identity maintenance under pressure; resist detection during interviews, security reviews, and the specific cognitive strain of maintaining a false professional history across years of embedded operation |
| Power Access | Marginal Harmonics at 1D free, Nudge supports the subtle social manipulation that keeps a cover identity viable and nudges organizational decisions toward HIA-favorable outcomes; Obscurement supports the cover's ambient social invisibility (the Shadow Liaison is present and known, but never quite interesting enough to scrutinize carefully) |
| Key Talents | Persuade (Wit), Deceive (Wit), Notice (Wit) |
| Signature Focus | Encrypted Comms-Jewelry, physically unremarkable jewelry containing a high-compression Hearth-Net transmitter with a burst-transmission capability: it stores communications for up to 72 hours, then transmits a compressed encrypted burst through a Halfling-substrate channel in 0.3 seconds, a duration too brief for standard monitoring to capture. +1D to Deceive rolls made to maintain cover identity or deflect scrutiny (the jewelry serves as a subtle harmonic grounding instrument, helping the wearer maintain their constructed emotional state under pressure). Additionally, once per scene, activate a silent pre-loaded response protocol: for one Deceive or Persuade roll this scene, the character may reroll the Wild Die if it shows an Implosion (1), keeping the better result, representing HIA cover-maintenance training kicking in at a critical moment. |
Progression Track
| Stage | Perk | Source | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Specialist (Deceive) | AX.C.09.02, Expertise | Always active |
| 2 | Shadow-Census Pull | Setting AX.GIL.08.02, Faction Authority | Long Rest |
| 3 | Faction Pull | AX.C.09.02, Organizational | Full Rest |
Stage 1, Specialist (Deceive): When using Deceive in a context directly related to cover identity maintenance, deflecting scrutiny, or managing false professional credentials, treat dice showing 4, 5, or 6 as successes (rather than 5–6 only). This does not affect the Wild Die. For a Shadow Liaison, "profession context" encompasses nearly any Deceive roll made within their embedded cover assignment, they are always performing a professional function, even when the performance is the function.
Stage 2, Shadow-Census Pull: Request a targeted HIA intelligence package on a specific named individual or organization. The Shadow Liaison's use of this perk is often directed at personnel within their embedded organization, requesting a package on a colleague who has begun behaving suspiciously, a superior whose decisions have become inexplicably adversarial, or a new hire whose background doesn't fully cohere. Within 24 hours (or next session), GM provides one of the three standard package types. Requires active HIA standing and current clearance. Once per Long Rest.
Stage 3, Faction Pull: Call in a significant HIA organizational resource, emergency extraction from a blown cover (a Logistics Ghost routing the Liaison out before the target org makes the identification official), a Shadow-Census deep-pull on a specific decision-maker who is about to take an action that requires intervention, a coordinated HIA-authorized influence operation that supplements the Liaison's individual work with broader systemic pressure. The agency notes what was called in and the exposure it created. Once per Full Rest.
Roleplay Notes
The Shadow Liaison's professional identity has layers, and the layers have been maintained long enough to be internally consistent. Their cover has a history, professional relationships, and a reputation that exists independently of their HIA identity. The most experienced Shadow Liaisons sometimes report that the cover has become easier to inhabit than their original identity, which the HIA's psychological services treats as a mixed finding.
Their Nudge use is the subtlest operational application of Marginal Harmonics in the setting. A Shadow Liaison doesn't change a director's decision, they make it marginally more probable that the director notices the information that would lead them to the decision the HIA wants. The coincidence that the quarterly report landed on the right desk, that the meeting scheduled for Thursday got pushed to a day when the adversarial party wasn't present, that the new infrastructure contract went to BVHI instead of the Human competitor, these are the outcomes a Shadow Liaison produces. None of them look like espionage.
Obscurement supports the cover not by making the Liaison invisible, but by making them statistically uninteresting to scrutinize. They are present in every meeting, visible in every corridor, and consistently just unremarkable enough that the security review that should have caught their false credentials keeps finding more interesting discrepancies in someone else's file.
Unaffiliated Template
Outcast: The most significant unaffiliated expression for a Shadow Liaison. An operative whose cover was burned or whose relationship with the HIA fractured while embedded. They may still be inside the target organization, maintaining a cover that the HIA no longer backs, for reasons that are now entirely personal. Ghost Credentials reflect the false identity infrastructure they built; Institutional Memory covers the internal politics, personnel, and decision patterns of the organization they have spent years inside. The Burned File is the most dangerous it gets: a Shadow Liaison turned Outcast holds the intimate internal information of both their former employer and their years-long embedded target.
Freelance: A Freelance Shadow Liaison is an independent deep-cover specialist, hired to establish and maintain embedded positions in target organizations on behalf of clients who cannot formally run the operation. This is the most ethically complicated freelance position in the setting. Their Jurisdictional Ambiguity at Stage 3 is their primary legal protection, given that what they do is illegal in most jurisdictions and they know it.
Logistics Ghost
"The cargo arrived. There is no record of the cargo. There was no cargo. You have a good evening."
Role: Covert logistics specialists who move people, equipment, and information across borders, between org territories, and through monitored corridors without leaving a physical or digital trace. The Logistics Ghost is operational support infrastructure; they are the reason HIA field operatives can disappear when they need to and reappear somewhere they shouldn't be.
| Favored Save | Speed, physical evasion; extraction from compromised routes; the operational reality that when a Logistics Ghost's route is compromised, the response is immediate and physical |
| Power Access | None, the Logistics Ghost's operational capability is technical and physical; their invisibility is the product of planning, route expertise, and equipment, not Harmonic practice |
| Key Talents | Pilot (Speed), Stealth (Speed), Athletics (Body) |
| Signature Focus | Silent-Running Drone / Vehicle, a dual-mode operational platform available in two configurations depending on cargo and mission profile. The Drone configuration is a high-altitude, low-signature unmanned platform for small cargo and surveillance support, passive: Stealth rolls for the Drone are made at +2D; it broadcasts no readable NTC network signature. The Vehicle configuration is a ground or sea transport with full harmonic shielding, the same Halfling-substrate construction as the Hearth-Net Deck, invisible to NTC Network Presence reads and Tectonic Deep-Read structural ping. Passive: while operating within the Vehicle, the character and any cargo are treated as absent from NTC monitoring systems, Network Presence checks to locate the Vehicle or its occupants automatically fail unless the checker is within Close visual range. The Drone provides +2D to Pilot rolls for precision operation; the Vehicle's shielding provides the monitoring-absence effect. Characters choose their configuration at the start of a mission; switching requires access to a logistics cache (HIA-designated resupply point). |
Progression Track
| Stage | Perk | Source | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steady Under Fire | AX.C.09.02, Defensive | Scene |
| 2 | Coordinate | AX.C.09.02, Team | Scene |
| 3 | Last Stand | AX.C.09.02, Defensive | Full Rest |
Stage 1, Steady Under Fire: Ignore the first instance of Disadvantage imposed each scene from any source. The Disadvantage is not applied on that first instance; subsequent instances apply normally. For a Logistics Ghost, this most often represents operational composure when a route degrades unexpectedly, the first complication doesn't break the execution, even when it should.
Stage 2, Coordinate: Once per scene, before an ally within Near range makes a roll, declare Coordinate. That ally gains +2D on that roll. Must be declared before dice are rolled. For a Logistics Ghost, Coordinate represents the route intelligence and situation briefing they provide to the team, a Ghost who has run this corridor before, who has identified the timing window, who says "now" at precisely the right moment, gives every party member a measurably better chance of clearing the obstacle.
Stage 3, Last Stand: When the character would be reduced to 0 Health, instead drop to 1 Health and become Stunned until the end of the next Turn. Normal 0-Health rules apply if further damage is taken after that Turn. Once per Full Rest. Does not trigger against Overkill damage. For a Logistics Ghost, the fiction is the HIA's extreme conditioning for route compromise, the operational imperative that cargo and personnel complete their movement even if the Ghost does not. Last Stand is the Ghost refusing to let the route fail.
Roleplay Notes
The Logistics Ghost is the HIA's most logistically focused profession and the one most often taken for granted until the routes stop working. They are the character who knows where the gap in the satellite coverage is, which BVHI tunnel has a maintenance crew and which doesn't, and what time the automated border system does its nightly reset. This knowledge is precise, current, and routinely updated, a Ghost who is operating on outdated route intelligence is a Ghost who is in trouble.
Their Athletics investment reflects the operational reality that not every route is drivable. Subterranean passages, vertical access points, and maritime crossings all require physical capability that pure vehicle operation doesn't provide. The Ghost is the person who can drive the vehicle, then get out and carry the cargo through the part where there is no vehicle.
The Silent-Running Vehicle's monitoring-absence effect interacts directly with the NTC Network Presence Discipline and BVHI's Deep-Read ping capability. This makes the HIA's logistics infrastructure the only org's operational support system that is genuinely invisible to the other orgs' detection methods, not difficult to detect, absent from detection. Other orgs know HIA logistics exists; they have very limited ability to track it in real time.
Unaffiliated Template
Off-Grid: The natural template for a Logistics Ghost operating outside HIA standing. Their routes, contacts, and operational knowledge are identical; their institutional backing is gone. Grey Space Access at Stage 2 represents the off-network logistics infrastructure they continue to use without HIA support, the same physical routes, the same off-net contacts, now accessed commercially rather than through agency channels.
Mercenary: A Logistics Ghost who takes commercial contracts for covert movement work. The client base ranges from NVS grey-market operators to corporate entities moving assets through jurisdictions where official channels would create complications. Scope of Engagement at Stage 2 formalizes the per-contract authority that replaces HIA backing.
Counter-Surveillance Tech
"The satellite doesn't know this building exists. Neither does the NTC's monitoring system. Neither does anyone else's. That's not an accident."
Role: Technical specialists who maintain the Halfling Burrow-States' data-dark infrastructure, the Axiomatic white-noise systems, satellite-suppression installations, and Hearth-Net signal isolation that make Halfling sovereign territory functionally invisible to external monitoring. The Counter-Surveillance Tech is the profession that makes everything else the HIA does possible by maintaining the sanctuary that all HIA personnel can retreat to.
| Favored Save | Wit, technical concentration during precision counter-surveillance installation; resist electronic intrusion attempts against systems they are actively maintaining |
| Power Access | None, the Counter-Surveillance Tech's work is applied Halfling engineering, not Harmonic practice; the Axiomatic white-noise generation uses pre-inscribed harmonic substrates that a technician operates and maintains without requiring Tradition access |
| Key Talents | Notice (Wit), Craft (Body), Technical (Wit), Counter-Surveillance Focus |
| Signature Focus | Axiomatic White Noise Generator, a portable field version of the permanent counter-surveillance installations that protect Burrow-State territory. The Generator projects a suppression field within Close range (expandable to Near range with a Technical roll vs Threshold 2, sustained as a Minor Action per Turn). Within the active field: NTC Network Presence checks are made at Threshold +2; Resonance Read rolls to detect Harmonic activity return clean results regardless of actual activity; BVHI Deep-Read structural pings cannot penetrate the field boundary; and HIA Marginal Harmonics use within the field does not produce the Kinetic Effect (audible to Marginal practitioners within Far range) that a non-Halfling's Kinetic Implosion would normally generate. The Generator runs on a 4-hour power cell; resetting a depleted cell requires 10 minutes and access to HIA-issue power components. It is not a weapon. It has been used as a bludgeon in at least three documented incidents. |
Progression Track
| Stage | Perk | Source | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Specialist (Technical) | AX.C.09.02, Expertise | Always active |
| 2 | Deep Knowledge | AX.C.09.02, Expertise | Scene |
| 3 | Dead Zone Projection | Custom, see below | Full Rest |
Stage 1, Specialist (Technical): When using Technical in a context directly related to counter-surveillance system installation, maintenance, signal analysis, or suppression field calibration, treat dice showing 4, 5, or 6 as successes (rather than 5–6 only). Does not affect the Wild Die. For a Counter-Surveillance Tech, professional context encompasses the full range of their field work, from deploying the Generator in a new location to diagnosing why a permanent Burrow-State installation is bleeding signal at an unexpected frequency.
Stage 2, Deep Knowledge: Once per scene, before making a Talent roll, ask the GM one specific, direct question about the task, target, or environment. The GM answers honestly based on professional expertise. For a Counter-Surveillance Tech, Deep Knowledge most often precedes a Technical roll assessing a hostile surveillance system: "What monitoring infrastructure is actively covering this location?" or "Is this building's current NTC network signature consistent with a standard commercial installation?", information that makes the subsequent counter-installation decision precise.
Stage 3, Dead Zone Projection (Custom Perk):
Dead Zone Projection | Setting Expertise | Stage 3 | Primary Action | Near range | Full Rest
The character establishes a temporary localized Dead Zone, a suppression field equivalent to Halfling Burrow-State permanent installations, projected into a non-Burrow-State location for the duration of the scene.
As a Primary Action, roll Wit + Technical vs Threshold 3. On success, establish a Dead Zone anchored to the character's current position, covering a Near-range radius. While active:
- All effects of the Axiomatic White Noise Generator (see Focus) apply within the Dead Zone at no additional concentration cost, the Generator's Close/Near distinction collapses to the full Dead Zone radius automatically.
- Shadow-Census Pull targeting any entity within the Dead Zone returns no result for the scene, HIA files show the target's last known position as outside the Dead Zone's location.
- Resonance Read rolls within the Dead Zone automatically fail, no Harmonic Tradition activity registers as detectable, regardless of what actually occurs within the field.
- Any NTC network infrastructure within the Dead Zone's radius goes dark, disconnected from the broader network for the scene's duration. Physical devices cease to transmit or receive. This includes Neural-Jacks; practitioners with Neural-Jacks within the Dead Zone cannot use them for Plane-Walking or hardware-free Technomancy during the scene.
- The Dead Zone is perceptible as a region of total signal absence, competent signals analysts will notice within one scene. It announces presence by its absence.
The Dead Zone dissolves at scene end or if the character becomes Incapacitated. It cannot be maintained across scenes without a new activation roll.
On a failed roll: a partial field forms, Generator effects only, no broader Dead Zone properties. On Critical Failure (Wild Die Implosion, zero total successes): the suppression field emits a detectable harmonic spike before collapsing, any Marginal Harmonics practitioner within Far range perceives it, and NTC monitoring systems log an anomalous signal event at the character's location.
Limit: Once per Full Rest.
Roleplay Notes
The Counter-Surveillance Tech is the HIA's infrastructure professional, the person who builds and maintains the environment that makes covert operations possible rather than the person who conducts them. In a party, they are the character who is most useful in the hour before an operation begins and the hour after it ends, when the locations need to be clean and the routes need to be re-secured.
Their Notice investment is the professional tool that matters most in their day-to-day work: identifying the surveillance infrastructure of a new location before deploying counter-measures, detecting anomalies in existing systems that indicate tampering or upgrade, and recognizing the specific signatures of foreign monitoring systems that indicate which org is watching and with what capability.
The Generator's documented history of bludgeon use is a function of the profession's physical reality: they work in secure locations that sometimes become insecure, and the heaviest thing on their person is usually the Generator. This is not tactical; it is pragmatic.
Dead Zone Projection at Stage 3 is the Counter-Surveillance Tech's most significant operational capability and the one that makes them a genuine force-multiplier for any HIA-aligned operation. A scene with an active Dead Zone changes the tactical equation entirely, Plane-Runners cannot operate, Shadow-Census Pulls fail, Resonance Reads produce nothing. The cost is that the Dead Zone's signal-absence signature is itself detectable. Using it is a decision to accept that something happened in this location, while ensuring that what happened remains invisible.
Unaffiliated Template
Freelance: A Freelance Counter-Surveillance Tech sells counter-monitoring capability to organizations that need operations to be invisible to external scrutiny. Their client base is necessarily self-selecting, organizations that need this service are organizations that have something they want invisible, which means the Counter-Surveillance Tech's commercial practice requires careful client vetting. The Generator works the same for a Freelance professional; they simply cannot rely on HIA infrastructure for resupply or technical support. Provisional Engagement at Stage 2 formalizes the per-operation authority of each engagement.
Off-Grid: A Counter-Surveillance Tech operating Off-Grid has deliberately removed themselves from HIA systems, which, given that they built and maintain the systems that make Off-Grid status possible for others, is an act of significant institutional knowledge. Data Shadow at Stage 1 reflects their ability to suppress their own monitoring signature using the tools they designed for exactly that purpose. The Void at Stage 3 represents Dead Zone Projection turned inward, using their full technical capability to disappear entirely for a scene.