PANOPTICON

Panopticon is a massive conglomerate that started with the merging of a data analytics firm and an insurance company. One of the few true megacorporations of the modern age, their internal structure and scope is so wide and varied that many portions of itself operate without the knowledge of what the other divisions are doing.

Due to a clever insurance adjuster’s astute investigation in the early 1900s, Panopticon was able to discern the existence of Resonant Artifacts and other strange incursions. Keeping it a closely guarded internal secret, they used this knowledge to grow, acquiring a wide range of businesses in order to leverage the opportunities offered by harnessing the strange. Their research has allowed them to reverse engineer a small fraction of the power of the Artifacts, leading to the creation of cutting edge innovations.

GOALS

Panopticon’s primary goal is profit stabilization and growth, with many departments harnessing Resonant Artifacts and other paranormal forces. Their approach to these resources is through a lens of them being manifestations of scientific concepts not yet fully understood. They believe they are the only ones with the resources and understanding to safely use these unstable-variables. Many employees leverage the opportunities for their own personal gains and pursuits, often in opposition of their peers.

Each department and division functions as its own entity in service of benefiting the whole. While opinions on exactly what is beneficial to the entire organization often varies, the entire operation must bend to the will of the Board of Directors.

KEY PERSONNEL

Samantha Palmer. Director of Operations and Chairperson of the Board. The true decision maker in the company.
Nicholas Allen. Research and Development. Coordinates progress across all subsidiaries towards a common goal.
Matthew Kim. Mergers and Acquisitions Director. Has an eye for potential.
Ryan Segal. HR Coordinator. Struggles to coordinate the HR managers across all divisions.
Beth Allen. Comms director. Secretly a devout member of the Church of Celestial Science.
Winston Neff. Heads the legacy insurance division. Works closely with data analytics to comb claims for signs of potential assets.
Kay Brake. Pharmaceutical division head. Functionally immortal.

HEADQUARTERS

While Panopticon was initially founded in New York, in 1918 they built their West Coast operations hub in Seattle, Washington. By 1972 a majority of their administrative capacities officially shifted to a new facility at the Apeiron Campus. The hub is a massive state-of-the-art campus that has grown significantly over the years, with a majority of divisions having offices kept on the main campus. Their headquarters is always expanding, both up and down, in order to accommodate the need for growth. A world renowned research lab and archive is housed there.

Given the scale and number of acquisitions in recent years, most major cities and towns in the US have an office, research lab, or distribution hub for Panopticon or one of its subsidiaries in their borders, and they’ve begun expanding significantly overseas in the last decades.

RESOURCES & METHODS

Panopticon’s size and scope allows them to shift financial assets under the table without regulators catching wind, giving them access to a variety of off the books resources. They also have massive influence in governments across the globe that allow them access to extra-judicial opportunities for action.

They maintain strict compartmentalization in order to keep information from leaking out to the public by means of spreading through the different departments. This means that most departments are unaware of what their counterparts are working on, but has also spurred intense competition between department heads on who can achieve their corporate milestones. As a result, many of the middle and upper managers have their own unique goals, interests, and ideas that drive their pursuits.

While Panopticon has their hands in everything from federal security to e-commerce, the attention of the Board is most focused on their technologies department and their research into Resonant Artifacts. The work has hit a period of stagnation as of late, so in order to meet growth metrics, the company has begun financing fringe groups, unorthodox scientists, and cults in order to increase the likelihood of a breakthrough.

ALLIES

Many department managers prefer to use para-military sub-contracts, as it allows them to keep operations off the books. Panopticon has been known to enter into co-ventures with both the Devotees of Bael and The Barrons.

ADVERSARIES

Panopticon is often in direct opposition to the Bureau, believing that paranatural resources are best left in the hands of the private sector. Panopticon typically resorts to using proxies to interfere with Bureau affairs. Another group that is a constant thorn in the side of Panopticon are the Knights of Amelioration (link). There is also an almost universal disdain and confounding when the entity labeled the Archivist (link) comes into play.

CONTRACTS

Panopticon’s wide array of departments, internal goals, and needs means there is ample opportunity for contract work. The pervasive culture of success and growth by any means often puts departments at odds with each other. Due to their internal struggles, coupes, acquisitions, and vendettas mean that outside proxies are often needed in order to operate in secret.

The most common contracts revolve around either asset recovery or information acquisition. Panopticon has ample resources and will pay handsomely after events in order to obtain what they need. No approach is off the table, so when money does not work, another form of payment or leverage may be used.

Below are some common contract types:

Resonant Artifact acquisition.
Information gathering.
Containment and delivery of interdimensional beings.

FACTION STAT BLOCKS

JUNIOR EXECUTIVE
STR: 10 DEX: 10 CTRL: 12
HP: 3 Armor: 1
Pistol (d6, discreet)
Future middle managers, the Junior Executives are Panopticon’s eyes on the ground. Often wearing clothing appropriate to the situation, but well tailored as to denote an almost chameleon like uniform, one of the primary roles of a Junior Executives is to act as a department liaison for field operations. This level of autonomy and lack of direct oversight makes a perfect opportunity for Junior Executives to make bold plays in order to drive their careers.

UPPER MANAGEMENT
STR: 10 DEX: 10 CTRL: 14
HP: 5 Armor: 2
Silenced Pistol (d6, discreet)
Dressed in tailored best, or what is currently fashionable for the corporate elite, Upper Management personnel take their positions as department or subdivision heads seriously. With resources and teams at their disposal, they will not hesitate to leverage their position to get what they want.

BOONS
Most people who have achieved this high position in the company have come in contact with Resonant Artifacts or other dimensional anomalies. Their proximity to the strange has gifted them boons that they use to maintain their position. These assets vary, and are one of the cruxes of their positions.

d6 Assets
1. Resonant Artifact 2. Rituals 3. Fallout 4. Contained Lesser Horror 5. Contained Greater Horror 6. Pact

ANALYST
STR: 11 DEX: 14 CTRL: 14
HP: 8 Armor: 1
Sonic Amplifier (d6, blast, nonlethal)
The true backbone of Panopticon, Analysts are the technicians, engineers, and scientists that research and develop the company’s products. More laid back than management, Analysts are often far more interested in their paychecks or personal research than having blind corporate loyalty.

PROTOTYPES
Analysts are typically found in the field if they are testing a new prototype. Some of the projects result in unfortunate side effects, resulting in a variety of Fallout for those that have been with the company for an extended period of time.

ASSETS
Growth is progress, and Panoption’s ever expanding nature gives it a plethora of assets with which to work with. From fiscal, material, human, and otherworldly resources, each part of the business serves the goal of expansion.

HUMAN
Given the size and scope of the Panopticon portfolio, the company and its subsidiaries have access to a wide range of employees with a variety of skills.

Researcher STR: 9 DEX: 12 CTRL: 12 HP: 3
IT STR: 11 DEX: 9 CTRL: 10 HP: 3
Warehouse: STR: 13 DEX: 12 CTRL: 8 HP: 4
Scientist: STR: 10 DEX: 12 CTRL: 14 HP: 4
Office Worker: STR: 10 DEX: 12 CTRL: 14 HP: 4
Receptionist: STR: 10 DEX: 12 CTRL: 14 HP: 4

OTHERWORLDLY
Panopticon strives to harness and replicate objects and beings associated with dimensional bleed. They will harvest them for parts, utilizing every bit possible in the name of progress. Panopticon views human collateral damage as an acceptable cost of harnessing otherworldly assets.
› Resonant Artifacts: The two primary approaches are using Resonant Artifacts for corporate gain and attempted artificial replication of Resonant abilities.
› Horrors: Researchers use a variety of approaches in order to learn from, replicate, and modify horrors to make them usable assets. One approach currently in vogue is Algorithmization, merging lobotomized horrors with a server farm in order to create an Artificial Interdimensional Intelligence.
› Fallouts: Deliberate exposure of employees to dimensional bleed is used in order to facilitate fallout acquisition and study their potential use.