Project Zero

Canon Facts

• A malfunctioning, early prototype dredger-bot guarding Watchtower Cay.
• An Atlas Group machine, built by Dr. Elias Thorne while he was working for Atlas. Both are true and not in tension: Thorne was Atlas’s own arcanist for five years, and Project Zero is his work from that period — company property, company authentication scheme, his hand. Its “RESEARCHER BADGE” logic is Thorne’s, which is why an Atlas credential-check answers to a raw Clarion shard.
• Constructed from a hodgepodge of mining equipment, ship parts, and TSL technology.
• Confronted the party, demanding a key or authentication.
• Bypassed cleanly when Oszchwald presented a resonating Clarion shard, which the construct recognized as a “RESEARCHER BADGE.”
• Still operational at Watchtower Cay as far as the party knows; it was bypassed, not destroyed.

Description

• Visuals: Massive construct hissing steam and leaking hydraulic fluid. Bears TSL symbols and old ship parts.
• Voice: Mechanical, grinding, glitchy.