T-054 Porcelain Mask

Threshold Institute · Case file T-054

Number

T-054 in the catalogue

Kind

Object

Class

Class I: harmless while it is left alone

Found

Year 47, month 6, day 21

Where found

Beyond the rift (T-001), in a camp of the lost expedition, two days past the hollow (T-031)

Status

Contained

Now

At the lab and in the rift

Part

Part V: The widening

Containment procedures

The mask is kept in a sealed case in the object cells. No one puts it on without the head of research's leave, and never alone: whoever puts it on stays under watch until it comes off.

Description

A mask of a grey material that is not leather and not rubber, made to cover the mouth and nose, with no filter and no seam. In it polluted air does not poison. Once on, it will not come off for a while, however it is pulled; when it comes away at last, the skin under it is raw.

Discovery

Erik Halden, head of the response team since Okafor's retirement (T-052), led the team that went through the rift with the Directorate's order (T-053). The land had shifted under the old maps (T-017), and the team found the lost expedition's route by the things it had left behind. The hollow in Petr Lask's gear had stood near its start. Two days past it they found one of the expedition's camps, and in it the mask.

Addenda

Addendum T-054-1

Test log, Year 47, month 6, days 23 to 25

Supervised by Tomas Rehn.

Subject: Sami Lehto, response team, who put the mask on in the camp to see it better and could not take it off.

Day 23. Lehto in the Institute's yard, where the pollution reached the grounds in year 46. Two hours. No signs.

Day 24. Lehto in a sealed room filled with air from the launch site's hangar (T-047). One hour. No cough, no sweat, no shaking. Blood clean. Polluted air does not poison him.

Day 25. The mask came off at 11:20, on its own, a day and a half after he put it on. The skin under it is raw.

Addendum T-054-2

Interview with Sami Lehto, Year 47, month 6, day 24

Interviewer: Tomas Rehn.

Rehn: Why did you put it on?

Lehto: I didn't mean to. I held it up to see how it was made, and it was on. Like it fitted itself.

Rehn: Does it hurt?

Lehto: No. It's warm. I can breathe through it, but I can't feel anything come in. In the sealed room I could smell nothing. Not the metal, nothing.

Rehn: Did you see anything else in the camp?

Lehto: Bedrolls. A stove. Sund's page, under a stone. And tracks going further in, and none coming back.

Addendum T-054-3

From the lost expedition's log, a page found in the camp

In Anneli Sund's hand.

Petr is gone. We go on. What we came for lies further in, where the rest went. It is not the mask. It opens what is at the bottom.

Addendum T-054-4

Directive of the Directorate, Year 47, month 7, day 2

Widen the threshold, and turn what lies beyond it against the pollution's source.

Objection, entered under the directive by Tomas Rehn: the mask keeps the poison out. It does not kill it, and the source is still on the planet. Sund's page says what can reach it is further in. I ask for a second team to find it before anything is widened.

The Directorate's answer, the same day: the widening is given a date (T-055).

Previous fileT-053 Mutant sludgerPart IV: The planet and the pollution Next fileT-055 WardenPart V: The widening

In the file

• People: Tomas Rehn, Mara Okafor, Anneli Sund, Petr Lask, Erik Halden and Sami Lehto.
• Places: The cells, The land beyond the rift, The lost expedition’s camp and The launch site.
• In the journal: Chamber log, widening.

In the game

The note you find in the game:

Year 47, month 6, day 21. Found beyond T-001 by Erik Halden's team, sent through with the Directorate's order to look for anything against the pollution, in a camp of the lost expedition two days past the hollow in Petr Lask's gear; the land had shifted under the old maps, and the team found the expedition's route by the things it had left behind. It was the first proof that the rift holds an answer.

A smooth white porcelain face with no mouth and no filter. Worn, it breathes for its bearer: in the foulest air and standing in toxic sludge, no poison reaches the blood. It does nothing against thin air or radiation. Once on, it clings to the skin for 12 hours and will not come off, nor let a gas mask on in its place. The last bearer's came away only after his death, with the rest of his gear.

Held in a sealed cell, face down. Status: contained.

Today it is found at the lab and in the rift.

It is an item you can carry: Porcelain Mask.