Department-7
Department-7 is a private institution that recruits talented individuals who are not only aware of the rise of Shadow, but are willing to act for the common good of both mundane and magical beings. Funding for the organization filters through a number of shell corporations, but research suggests that it all comes from a single benefactor. This person, however, has gone to great lengths (both mundane and magical) to ensure that the data trail becomes too confusing for even the most persistent investigator to follow.
The only person in the Department-7 infrastructure that the agents know of is Ms. Fellowes, a dark-haired, officious young woman with a slight British accent. Using arcane magic she occasionally projects her image or teleports necessary information and materials into a team’s base. She never, however, meets agents in person and no one knows where her office is located.
Department-7 asks its operatives to investigate new expressions of Shadow, manage and maintain relationships between the mundane world and various enclaves of Shadowkind, and to deal with violent or destructive creatures of Shadow (or to protect benevolent creatures of Shadow from hostile mundanes). In the absence of an assigned task, agents are free to do whatever they like, but Department-7 demands that they maintain an appropriate public profile (in other words, that they not do anything that would break the trust that the organization has in either mundane or Shadow circles).
It is completely appropriate for heroes to belong to Department-7.
Departmental GearDepartment-7 may not be the richest organization in the world, nor is it the best networked, but it does provide agents with some of the most unique equipment in the field. Besides having access to all publicly available mundane and magic items, members of Department-7 each receive the following:
Synchronicity Watch: A wrist or pocket watch that allows agents to move through crowds more easily than usual. Once per day, the watch can be used to activate a limited version of the synchronicity spell. It works exactly the same way as the spell except that the duration is only 10 rounds.
Type: Wondrous item (magic); Caster Level: 5th; Purchase DC: 32; Weight: —.
Secret Pockets: Each agent may choose one garment (pants, windbreaker, overcoat, etc.) and have up to two pockets of the garment function as described in the secret pocket spell.
Type: Wondrous item (magic); Caster Level: 5th; Purchase DC: 34; Weight: 1 lb.
Daylight Flares: Every agent receives six sticks that look very much like unsharpened pencils. When a stick is snapped in two, the tip of the bottom half glows as thought it was the target of a daylight spell. This effect lasts for 20 minutes.
Type: Wondrous item (magic); Caster Level: 2nd; Purchase DC: 27; Weight —.