Document #8366
©1999 Jacob Busby

To all cells: The following communique was found by accident by a
friendly during an financial audit on CHT Scientific Equipment. CHT
Scientific Equipment is a subsidiary of a larger consortium, whose main
shareholder is NWI, an organisation believed by some to have links to the
Mythos.

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Title:  Preliminary notes regarding object 318JB/Request for 
        additional funding.

File:   1654/W76/AS1

Author: T. Merrick

Analysis Follows

  Object 318JB is a belt made of a substance not dissimilar to
hardened bladderack treated with plastic coating. The buckle is made of
an unknown alloy, similar in many respects to electrum. From its size it
is clear that it would only fit the largest of humans. Our benefactor
was imprecise about its exact origins beyond "a small island in the
Pacific Ocean"
  Both belt and buckle appear to have curved grooves centring around the
front. The grooves would appear to be some variety of language, bearing
symbols from a bastardised almalgam of Ancient Mayan and Egyptian. Quite
how segments from these two quite different languages should have been
found together has yet to be discerned. Of greater significance, whilst
translating these languages one of the researchers happened to murmur
some of the text aloud which caused the belt to produce unexplainable
vibrations. The belt itself has no input device and it has yet to be
determined precisely why and how these effects occur.
  Whilst in this state the belt shows an odd chemical reaction with
sea-water, desalinating it and leaving a colourless and analytically
unrecognisable chemical pollutant, composed of Chlorine, Carbon and at
least two unknown elements. Current tests would estimate that it absorbs
Sodium, Hydrogen, Oxygen (and possibly several other elements) from salt
water at a rate of 1:4:8 molar units per inch of belt per hour, producing
the molar equivalent in pollutant. Each "ignition" of the belt lasts for
a varying period of time (on average about 10 1/2 hours) but demonstrates
a strong correlation between the length of time and the person who uses
the audio input. Test have been performed, recording the phrase and
playing it in front of the belt, but have no discernible effect. It's
almost as if the device is sentient and that it prefers certain users to
others.
  Further analysis proves that the odd chemical reaction is a by-product
of the belt's main effect - a jamming device. Whilst reverberating the
belt caused interference in the use of laboratory oscilloscopes, X-ray
machines, even the stereo we had tuned to the local radio station. This
is a localised effect, centred on the belt, which radiates to a variable
distance, no more than thirty metres. Obviously the ramifications of
this and its uses are both widespread and profitable.
  We have not been fully able to test the strength of the belt at
present due to a flu epidemic leaving the facility short-staffed. We are
therefore forced to request additional manpower funding to investigate
this highly lucrative device within current timescales.

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Simulation Data:
The belt is a device which creates a field that makes the wearer invisible to sonar whilst in salt water. The invocation costs no SAN but 7 MP to use and lasts for a period of time equal to the user's POW in hours. The field has a range of POW * 2 metres. As a side-effect of the "pollutant," humans using the belt or in its vicinity lose 1D6 CON, which are recovered at a rate of one per day.
      The belt was developed by Deep Ones for their raiding party. Larger such devices can be found adorned on Deep One cities. Theoretically the belt could be used to jam radar and radio waves, provided one could keep it completely immersed in salt water for the period. The SAN loss for probing the secrets of the belt is 1/1D4.