Hoffmann Institute (NowhereMash)

## Hoffmann Institute

Founded in 1917, the Hoffmann Institute for the Advancement of Humanity is an independent "think-tank" organization ostensibly devoted to developing alternative, non-polluting energy sources.

Beneath this veneer, however, the Hoffmann Institute is dedicated to the investigation of Shadow phenomena and extraterrestrial activity and preparing humanity for the major cosmic shift that it believes will occur as a result of increasing paranormal activity on Earth.

## Divisions and Resources

The Hoffmann Institute hierarchy is organized into five primary divisions, each responsible for a different aspect of the Institute's overall goals.

### Administrative Division

Members of the Administrative Division make policy, assign agents to specific cases, and authorize the use of force in difficult cases, as well as keeping the other four divisions on track and under budget.

**Facilities and Accounts:** Director of the Budget William Overstreet oversees dozens of offices, labs, warehouses, and remote testing facilities owned or leased by the Institute. The same department oversees payroll, disbursements, expense reports, and all other financial minutiae of modern business.

**Legal:** The Institute does not maintain a large internal legal department; instead, it retains the small but aggressive firm of Marshall, Wickham, and Vanderdossen to supply its legal counsel. Based in Baltimore, the firm also has branches in New York, Houston, and Los Angeles.

**Personnel:** Responsible for recruiting new staff from all areas of society, Personnel performs background checks, psychological and physical testing, and surveillance to determine who is mentally and physically capable of performing the unusual work required by the Institute. Less well publicized is its role in assessing its current employees for loyalty, performance, and mental health. Problem staff members are referred to Security.

**Security:** The Security department of the Hoffmann Institute is responsible for the safety and security of Institute employees and property. The Institute prefers to keep its business "in-house", so all break-ins, security breaches, firefights, murders, and other disturbances occurring on Institute property are investigated entirely by Institute staff. Unlike the other Administrative Division departments, Security uses the same title hierarchy used by the Intelligence and Special Divisions.

**Training:** The Training department keeps Institute members current on research and technology trends. Additionally, the Training department is responsible for keeping Institute operatives fresh. Toward this end, it often sends burned-out researchers or Special Division operatives on "training vacations" to warm, tropical locations where they can learn scuba diving and enjoy some much-needed relaxation.

### Analytical Division

A mix of pure research and applied or engineering-oriented analysts make up the Analytical Division. The division has different strengths at different campuses, but the primary labs are based in Flagstaff, Arizona.

**Ballistics:** The Ballistics department does not have the vast firearms databases common to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms or the FBU, but it does know the patterns of most common firearms and can match a weapon o a particular bullet if both the weapon and bullet are available for study. The ballistics department also has some familiarity with advanced firearms and their effects.

**Biological and Chemical:** A small group of researchers performs the Institute's sample collecting, DNA analysis, and genetic research. They can match a genetic sample given a 24-hour turnaround and can identify individuals by blood type, semen, and even DNA samples taken from hair or saliva. Finally, they can perform a full toxicology report from a small blood, hair, or urine sample. Given enough time, the Biological and Chemical department can provide a detailed chemical breakdown of any sample material, and can provide the likely source of fibers, the origin of particular forms of plastics or metals, and even a guess at the likely site of soil samples. The department's chemical analysts can also use gunpowder residue to determine whether weapons were discharged in a given room and can trace fingerprints even on rough surfaces.

**Computing Resources:** The CR staff installs and services the Institute's computers and networks, and is responsible for maintaining the OSIRS operating system.

**Engineering and Fabrication:** The E&F staff is a mix of engineers and former white-collar criminals. The department conducts reverse engineering of alien technology, but it also provides forged documents and specialized equipment for use by the Intelligence and Special Divisions. Their work includes hidden weapons, tracking devices, surveillance gear, fake passports, and other unusual tools.

### Archives Division

Institute archivists control all the data, research reports, patents, and classified information produced by the entire organization. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the Archives Division keeps many of its records stored in a proprietary format using the OSIRS operating system developed within the Institute to provide maximum security.

The Archives Division itself is split into two departments: Documentation and Antiquities. Archives oversees a wide-ranging collection of human and alien artifacts, deliberately scattered over numerous sites for security purposes. Four of the most important of these locations are the Case Report Server (electronic copies of case files), the New York Rare Book Depositor (maps and books), and the Barcelona Antiquities Office (books and antiquities). Smaller collections of machines, archaeological finds, and other nontextual materials are kept in disparate locations, from Paris to New Orleans and Jakarta to Cairo.

**Antiquities:** This department has the most complete set of data on current and historical events in the entirety of the Institute, and better firsthand knowledge of alien artifacts and unfamiliar technology than perhaps anyone else on Earth.

**Documentation:** Institute researchers turn over recovered items to the Department of Antiquities for storage, but all letters, reports, case files, and photographs from agents eventually wind up in the Department of Documentation. Here, the files are scanned and compressed, then encrypted for storage on the Institute's OSIRS computer network.

### Intelligence Division

The "spooks of the Intelligence Division operate out of Washington D.C. They include code-breakers and burglars as well as the more traditional cloak-and-camera spies.

**Directorate:** The Directorate of the Intelligence Division operates almost entirely from a secure compound allegedly located somewhere in the Scottish Highlands. Its twelve members keep dossiers on Institute employees and enemies alike and file weekly intelligence reports and policy recommendations based on the information provided to them by the rest of the division.

**Image Acquisition:** Though technically part of the Washington group, IA staffers also operate from remote sites across the world. They are primarily hackers and satellite communications engineers; they buy, beg, borrow, or steal images from national satellites as they are transmitted to receiving stations on the ground.

The "eye-spies" are joined by a small staff of Signal Intelligence Officers, usually recruited from the U.S. Army Signal Corps or the NSA. They concentrate on intercepting, decrypting, and translating TV, radio, digital, and telephone signals from around the world.

**Observation:** The Observation Department specializes in cultivating human contacts from other groups (what they refer to as "resources in position") and in placing their own deep-cover agents in other groups. As a result, they are widely scattered, with field directors running operatives in almost every city where the Institute has a presence, monitoring world events both public and covert.

**Information Retrieval:** The Information Retrieval Department is small, mobile, and rarely mentioned by Institute members. Its members are believed to be ex-CIA and ex-DEA interrogators with experience in extracting information from drug lords, terrorists, and other hardened criminals.

### Special Division

The Institute makes no effort to publicize the existence of the Special Division. The Institute's officers and supervisors don't acknowledge it, and its members never appear on an organizational chart or other records. Many Special Division members are passed off as members of the Administration Division's security teams or as special researchers or spooks.

## Institute Arsenal

The Hoffmann Institute has developed specialized tools or kits for handling the sort of threats their investigations often encounter.

Hoffmann Institute Standard Issue

Anti-Etoile Nanites

Fiend Hunter's Kit

Psi-Blockers

Vampire Hunter's Kit

Vampiric Essence

Werewolf Hunter's Kit

Wolfsbane Serum