Dr. Miriam Schalk — The Lantern Index
Professor Emerita, Comparative Religion, University of Chicago
She has translated manuscripts that no other living person can read, and she's done sending less-qualified people into the field in her place.
Dr. Miriam Schalk
Composure Initiative: 3 Corruption: 0 Magical Tier: 1
Faction: The Lantern Index Passive: The Older Version (once per scene, after successful knowledge check on the current supernatural subject: ask what did the oldest source get right that later sources got wrong?)
Background
Dr. Miriam Schalk spent thirty-one years at the University of Chicago teaching comparative religion and medieval manuscript studies: four books, nineteen doctoral theses, and a paper on a ninth-century Carolingian demonological text that reached the Lantern Index three years before her retirement.
Fieldwork at sixty-three was never the plan. Then she went into the field with the team's previous scholar, found an inscription the briefing materials had missed, recognized it, and kept the team from doing something catastrophically wrong. The Lantern Index started asking her along more often; she agreed on the condition that someone else carries the heavy equipment.
The inscription says do not proceed past the threshold. I realize no one here reads medieval Syriac, but I am telling you anyway. Dr. Miriam Schalk, The Hollow
Build
Background: Academic Career: Scholar Faction: The Lantern Index
| Skill | Rank | Skill | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research ★ | 3 | Perception ★ | 1 |
| Dead Languages ★ | 2 | Rare Texts ★ [HG] | 1 |
| Occult Lore ★ | 2 | Negotiation ★ | 1 |
| Index Access ★ [HG] | 2 | Technology ★ | 1 |
| Composure | 1 | Peer Review ★ [HG] | 1 |
Starting XP Spent: 110 / 110
Free Talent (Core): Supernatural Perception (Occult Sight Tree 1): Perceive supernatural entities, active Wound sites, and ongoing rites without a roll; perceive spiritual residue on objects and persons with a Willpower check. (Uses her Magical Tier 1 access, unlocked for Occult Sight.)
Faction Starting Talent: Citation Trail (Scholar Tree 1): When a topic has any written record, reduce the time required for a Research check (from hours to minutes, from days to hours).
Equipment
- Research materials — personal archive on tablet and backup drive, offline; two physical reference texts she will not travel without; one text she carries because it is irreplaceable and she does not trust the Index to keep it safe
- Index Access credentials — physical RFID card and digital certificate; opens the Index's restricted catalog, interlibrary network with seventeen institutional archives, and classified case-file database
- Translation kit — reference grammar guides, a magnifier, photograph capability for inscriptions; she works with physical media because digital capture often distorts aged texts
- Small Tier 1 focus object — a sealed bone-box the Index loaned her for field use; she is still learning how to use it without her hands shaking
What I Bring
Her Research and Dead Languages training means the team usually learns what the oldest source got right, which is often different from what the briefing materials say. She is the reason the team finds out they are dealing with a dybbuk rather than a demon before anyone attempts the wrong procedure.
Index Access opens the Lantern Index archive for remote research: if it has been written about, she can find it.
She is not built for combat, and fieldwork puts her exactly where the danger is. Keeping her alive out there is the team's job; without her, fieldwork does not go well.