RPC Authority

RECOVERY LOG 404-1
Agent ████'s PRIVATE LOG SUBMITTED BY AGENT ████ TO RESEARCHER FELLOWS, SITE-88 ON █/█/███ UNDER SECURITY MANDATE 02 FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES

<Begin Log>

Autumn, ███.

My team, Recovery Team-06, and I were just retasked from Site-███ ASF for an investigation/recovery mission in Northeastern Poland. We weren't exactly the best prepared for such an expedition, but to tell you the truth, recovery teams never really are. The Authority has a habit of commissioning more…expendable personnel to be on ground zero for lower-threat (possible) RPCs. So there we were, a bunch of Yanks in a country we've never been to on the other side of the Atlantic, wishing we were back on fucking security detail.

We dropped in Warsaw at 7:00 AM, on ██████, tired and hungry. We located the humvee stationed just outside Legionowo. All seven of us cramming in may have been uncomfortable, but at least it kept us warm as the Winter winds scourging the Polish countryside were growing colder. From Legionowo we took DK61 up through Puszcza Kurpiowska until we arrived in Gadomskie, the town our target was rumored to be in, at 9:30 AM. The small farm town was quiet this time of day, but we decided to keep a low profile regardless.

While most are quick to cast off fairy tales and folklore as bullshit, the Authority has a tendency to keep a close eye on them to spot anomalies. One such tale reached Authority ears a few months ago, even though it's been kept relatively obscure throughout the area for decades. According to this tale, a man was married to a fatally sick wife, who had a disease nobody could diagnose or treat. The man, desperate to save her, studied a bunch of alchemy and enchantment and whatnot. Philosopher's stone type shit. What he ended up doing was locking her up in a house and bound it with some sort of spell so that it, along with his wife, was frozen in time. His reasoning was that if she was frozen in time, she would one day be saved by someone in the future who could treat her. All a real classic yarn.

Funny thing though? The house is real.

We stopped off at the side of an unmarked road before the opening of a worn dirt trail, which we'd been informed by locals lead to this house. This trail led through a decrepit cornfield and into a dark crest of forest. We made our way through the rows of dead corn, the frozen dirt crunching beneath our feet. The forest itself was dense, with little light shining through the trees' red-orange leaves. Gave a bit of a dark tone to the whole thing, to be honest.

Finally, after what seemed like an hour, we arrived at the house. A rustic, 19th century wooded cabin, with no windows and a shingled roof. Three of us decided to investigate the outside perimeter of the house for any anomalous elements, while the other four entered the house. Being outside, I noticed a sign positioned at the side of the door. It seemed simple enough- old fashioned, made of cast iron, and came up to about my chest in height. What was on the sign was what intrigued me though. There was a bunch of really strange symbols, like sigils, covering much of the surface of the sign. Above it read a sentence in Polish, which ██████ told me it was an old Polish proverb. I walked past the sign and made for the door, and as I did, I started feeling pins and needles. It was weird, but I didn't really think much of it at the time.

Turns out the boys had had a bit of trouble opening the door- there was at least three different, ancient looking locks on it. Thank god Agent █████ brought wire cutters, and made clean work of the locks lickity split.

The interior of the house was pretty barren, but homely. One thing was noticeable right off the bat, and that was for a house that supposedly has existed for over a hundred years, it didn't seem to have been more than a few years old. The far left corner immediately caught my eye, as it seemed to have the most furniture in the comparatively sparse room. In it was a single bed, shrouded by a white veil, with a bedside table propped up beside it. After asking the guys if they'd checked out the bed yet, which they hadn't, I made my way over. As I approached I noticed something that caught me off guard; on the bedside table was a dim, yet still clearly lit wax candle. As I looked closer at the candle I noticed that the tiny flame atop the candle was completely still, not flickering, unmoving. It wasn't one of those fake, plug-in candles either. This was a real candle that was completely still.

After a minute of gawking like an idiot at a hunk of wax, I was able to turn my eyes to the bed. To tell you the truth, I was a bit afraid at what lay beyond its veil, but after the candle shit, I was too curious not to know. I brushed it aside.

A woman. I stepped back in shock, a movement that the guys caught onto quickly, and they rushed quickly over. A woman, couldn't be older than mid-40's, with brown bangs and a rosy face. Her eyes were closed like she was sleeping, but she was unnaturally still, like a corpse. ██████ instructed a handful of us to get her out of the house. Me though, I was made to go inform the guys outside of what we found.

I found the two men outside still inspecting the sign that we'd found upon arrival. I told them about the woman and that we had to escort her out of the house. ██████ suggested that we take the sign too, as he had a "symbology hobby" and wanted to study the unknown markings on the sign. I didn't see the problem in that, and I offered to help get it out of the ground.

██████, ███ and I worked for a good thirty seconds pulling on the sign every which way, noticing real fast how stuck the fucker was into the dirt. Finally, I got it out. As soon as I gave that last tug, a sudden crash all made us spin around.

I was still holding the sign, which was still perfectly intact. The team decided that, even though we hadn't collected anything from the inside of the house, we should at least bring something of note back to the Authority.

On the way back to Warsaw, I began thinking about the Polish legend again- about the man, about his wife, about his cabin and about the safeguard he had put around her. He'd thrown his love in the freezer, hoping she'd get thawed and saved by the men of the future. We just came to pull the plug instead.

<End Log>

EXPERIMENT LOG 404-C
OFFICIATED BY RESEARCHER FELLOWS AT SITE-88 ON █/█/███
CSD TESTING SANCTIONED BY [REDACTED] UNDER RESEARCH MANDATE 04

PROCEDURE OUTLINE
CSD-5773 (25, M) was instructed to step within the boundary of RPC-404-A within a minute of RPC-404 being placed. A timer was started by Authority staff on the outside of the stasis field as soon as CSD-5773's entire body was within the boundary. CSD-5773 was instructed to stand completely still in place for a undesignated period of time.

RESULTS

At 03:20 elapsed, after a time of near-total silence from both parties, CSD-5773 has began audibly complaining about general stiffness in his limbs. Subject is visibly uncomfortable.

At 06:32 elapsed, CSD-5773 reports what feels to be increasing stiffness. Discomfort continues.

At 09:57 elapsed, CSD-5773's complaints have become increasingly frequent. Subject expresses ever-growing stiffness, particularly in appendages and in the facial region. Subject is visibly distressed. It should be noted that Authority staff are finding it increasingly hard to understand CSD-5773, his voice reportedly sounding more and more muffled as time goes on.

At 12:12 elapsed, CSD-5773 has gone into a veritable panic, though his movements are slowing exponentially. CSD-5773 has become less responsive to Authority orders, though whether this is due to plain disregard or an anomalous effect is unclear. Conversely, staff find CSD-5773's speech to be barely audible at this point in time.

At 15:06 elapsed, CSD-5773 has become entirely still, devoid of even the subtlest of movements (blinking, breathing, etc.). Subject is completely unresponsive to staff, communication ceasing completely.

Two Authority HAZMAT Specialists were instructed to enter RPC-404-A, and were able to retrieve CSD-5773 without difficulty. As soon as CSD-5773 emerged from the boundary, he immediately unfroze, still in the exact same state he was in prior to going into total stasis. After admitting sedatives, the experiment was concluded at 5:09 PM, with the stopwatch reading 15:39.

ANALYSIS

The Authority is certainly learning more about RPC-404 ever since Recovery Log-404-1. RPC-404-A does in fact slowly "freeze" individuals that enter it over a period of time. What differs from the recovery and the results of this experiment however is that we can now rely on a verified fifteen minute time constraint Authority personnel have when entering RPC-404-A, especially if we do end up using RPC-404 for more practical…containment-oriented uses.

On top of this, we have noted RPC-404-A does seem to sever communication with the outside after the individual inside is "frozen". A goddamn two way, dead-end street. They never make it easy, do they? Ultimately though we still have little to no idea how RPC-404 exerts its effects, what the exact limitations are for the said effects, or even an inkling of its origin. Further research will be conducted in the following months but until we have a firm grasp on it's anomalous properties, it's unlikely we'll have authorization to mobilize it outside of testing purposes, let alone in containment.

That is unless, [REDACTED], you happen to change your mind.

Researcher Fellows