Relic Hunters FAQ

So I've heard of this group calling themselves the Hunters Guild, who are you?

To put it simply, we are a secretive group within one of Num's factions. Our mission is to collect, analyze, and guard the more preternatural items found in Num, which we call Relics.

'''Preternatural? Isn't that just a more pretentious word for supernatural?'''

Not at all. Something supernatural disregards the laws of nature. On the other hand, something that's preternatural finds and exploits an edge case in those laws.

Think of it like a video game. Say there's a mountain that's too steep for you to climb. If you were to hack the game and make it so that you could just jump to the top in a single bound, that would be a supernatural act. If however, you exploit the edge geometry and find a way to slowly jump your way up, that would be preternatural. You didn't break any of the rules, you just found a way to exploit them to do something you weren't supposed to.

It's in a way similar to Clarkian Magic, just because we don't yet understand the scientific explanation of how it works yet doesn't mean there isn't one.

'''I get it now. So what do you guys do in a meta sense?'''

Right now, our main focus is rediscovering all of the relics left in the vault by the previous incarnation of the Guild and reconstructing their relic logs.

In the future we will be branching out into other activities such as recovering new relics, finding the other vaults, getting involved in stories, and offering our services to others (at a price of course).

'''Relic logs? What are those?'''

Relic logs are our standardized way of documenting relics. A good example can be seen here. They consist of a number of parts:

Relic #: The designation number for the relic, always in the form R-####

Safety class: α, β, Γ, Ω. Refers to how safe the relic is to use

Effect class: what class of effect does it display (physical, cognitive, memetic, etc). Formerly usage class, older logs are in the process of being updated to reflect the change.

Physical Description: detailed physical Description of the relic

Anomolous properties: what does it do?

Special Safety Notes: special procedures/warnings about using the relic safely

History: info about the relic before it came into the Guild's possession

Notable events (optional): any significant events after it came into our possession

Addendums (optional): anything we should know that doesn't fit into another category

'''What's with those safety classes? It all looks Greek to me.'''

If you're familiar with the SCP foundation, you kind of know the system. We use a variation of the classic box test.

α: a reasonable person could use the relic safely

β: specialized training is required to use the relic safely

Γ: even with specialized training, the relic is quite dangerous

Ω: don't even think of using the relic outside of an extreme emergency

Now that you bring them up, this does sound like it's all a riff on SCP.

You're right, we very much are inspired by the SCP Foundation and Warehouse 13. Where we differ is what we do after we collect the relics. Those two organizations seek to lock up the items and hide them from the public. While we also hide them, we aim to take what we have have learned and use it to improve the world, for a nominal fee of course.

Are there any limitations to what I can create?

For the most part no, but we do have a few guiding principles.

First, we focus on "things" and try to avoid creatures. There is no good reason we can come up with to take a creature out of the wild and lock it away simply because it's "weird"

Second, don't make anything too over powered. While big, world shattering items are fun, it's more fun to have to work around limitations.

Third, following from the last one, no relic on its own should be able to solve a major problem. Instead, the problem solving should come through a creative combination of relics.

'''This all sounds fun! How do I join?'''

Well, if you're reading this, you've already taken the first step. Now all that's left is to find the Guild Master and privately ask him to join. Enough clues to his identity have been left around Num that you should be able to easily find him if you're clever enough.