As the lights flicker aboard the derelict Metronome Station, you kneel by the Rift-scarred security console. Its casing is etched in looping chronal glyphs, pulsing with a low, unnatural thrum. With practiced intent, you invoke Oddity Identification—catching a flash of the console’s true timeline, its anomalous memory, and the warning hidden beneath star-corrupted code. The party’s fate may rest on your next words…
The Detector’s Edge
"From the depths of shattered Rift-Burgs to the haunted corridors of temporal installations, Starfall’s frontier breeds oddities that defy mundane reason. Detectors—those skilled in Oddity Identification—walk the edge of cosmic sanity, able to sniff out the truth behind glitches in reality, whispered anomalies, and artifacts bearing the marks of ancient disaster."
Detectors are called to identify failed magitech, Rift-grafts, anomalous relics, and creatures warped by temporal storms.
Factions and guilds (especially the Chronologists) prize such expertise during expedition launches, anomaly containment, or diplomatic missions involving unstable artifacts.
Local lore claims that the most famous Detectors can “hear the hum” of time unraveling or catch psychic echoes from objects left by dead civilizations.
Oddity Identification Feat 1
Source Player Core pg. 224
Prerequisites: trained in Occultism
When you become aware of a magical effect or see a spell being cast, you can immediately determine if it twists minds (with the mental trait), fights against fortune (with the fortune or misfortune trait), or reveals secrets (with the detection, prediction, revelation, or scrying traits). At the GM's discretion, similar effects can also fall into these categories. When you Identify Magic or Recall Knowledge to learn more about these effects, you can always use Occultism without penalty and gain a +2 circumstance bonus.
Adventure Applications & Hooks
Entering a Rift zone, a Detector’s quick scan can reveal whether a pulsing obelisk is a gateway, a bomb, or a psychic trap.
On ruined starships, identifying a malfunctioning device may unearth a hidden guild signature, a message-in-time, or an outbreak vector.
Cults and criminal syndicates both seek Detectors to “vet” dangerous finds, rooting out black market artifacts or suppressing forbidden knowledge.
A party’s Detector may gain renown for solving mysteries others dare not approach, earning cross-factional respect and access to rare boons.
Oddity Identification unlocks a powerful, quick-draw tool for Starfall heroes living on the edge of cosmic anomaly, providing both a mechanical edge and narrative recognition in a galaxy where reality itself is a fluid, haunted thing.
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