Containing anomalies can prove impossible without the proper tools. Throughout the decades, the FBC has pushed the known bounds of science to develop new techniques and technologies to control paranatural anomalies. While these efforts have certainly aided the Bureau, we have only been able to introduce incremental improvements into containment procedures.

For the past decade, our research staff has attempted to recreate what the SCP Foundation calls “Scranton Reality Anchors” (SRAs). These devices are capable of “anchoring” a specific location or space to our reality. However, we discovered that the real means by which this is achieved proved highly dangerous. Functionally, Scranton Reality Anchors create a dimensional opening into another reality. This alternate reality or extradimensional space is, for all intents and purposes, “dead.” By all scientific measures, it does not exude any signs of life or hume levels. In fact, this extradimensional space accessed through SRAs actually absorbs hume frequencies and energy like a dimensional black hole, which functionally renders paranatural anomalies “normal,” stabilizing the affected area.

Endeavors to reproduce these devices proved extremely difficult and resulted in the accidental loss of ███ Bureau employees. Researchers returned to further develop accepted containment measures. That is, until we discovered Black Rock.

History

Black Rock is a substance that has lead to the creation of countless containment technologies. It was first encountered after the discovery of a Threshold deep within the Oldest House, now known as the Black Rock quarry. Investigative teams were dispatched to ascertain the nature of this anomaly.

The threshold opened into a massive expanse. Once entering this threshold, the team noted that they were able to visually observe what appeared to be a “sky” and “stars” above them, although research staff has not been able to confirm that the stars correlate to any known systems. It is possible that the threshold space known as the Black Rock quarry does not bear any connection to a physical location in our known universe.

The “ground” in the quarry is composed of massive cuboidal shapes made entirely of what we call Black Rock. The Black Rock in the threshold appeared to bear some resemblance to the “ground” encountered in excursions into the Astral Plane.

Nature

Unlike SRAs, Black Rock does not function by opening doorways to dangerous extradimensional spaces. However, Black Rock does appear to interact with hume in ways not entirely dissimilar to SRAs. Although Black Rock is incredibly dense, it acts surprisingly well conductor of certain frequencies, including hume. In layman’s terms, Black Rock absorbs paranormal energies and frequencies like suspension on a vehicle. It is somehow able to reverse the polarities or vectors of the energies that it absorbs before redirecting/repelling that energy outward.

Due to the nature of Black Rock, its effectiveness as a means of containment depends almost entirely on how it is sculpted and built to house anomalies, as there are limits to its capabilities. Lin Salvador, the FBC’s Chief Security Officer, was the first to successfully plan and construct a functioning Black Rock containment chamber from the ground up. Since the completion of this first chamber in 1998, Protective Studies researchers have continued to build upon our knowledge of Black Rock and its potential applications.

Some researchers have hypothesized that it is possible for Black Rock to actually amplify the effects of paranatural anomalies. If these theories are true, it would mean that Black Rock could potentially be a highly-dangerous substance — not simply a means of containment. Protective Studies staff are currently examining and testing these theories, and the FBC has taken measures to integrate normal control measures as a backup or failsafe for containment.