Anomalies Signals Notes Locations DUST Timeline DUST Lore Protocol Goals Close [J]

ANOMALIES

NAME	TYPE	EFFECTS
Amber Veil	Atmospheric/Photonic	A thin orange mist rolls across dry lakebeds. Anything viewed through the haze flickers between present and future—footprints appear ahead of the walker, and shadows point the wrong way. Prolonged exposure leaves skin faintly luminescent for days.
Ash Bloom	Thermal/Organic	A patch of desert sand spontaneously combusts each dawn, sprouting ghostly, petal-shaped flames. They emit no heat but scorch all organic matter they touch to sterile white ash.
Astronaut Boulder	Petrification/Energetic	A sandstone monolith with glowing fissures encases the upper torso of a spacesuited figure.
Bellow Pit	Acoustic/Thermal	A deep borehole emits a rhythmic, bass-heavy groan. Each pulse translates into a shockwave of infrared energy, cooking soft tissue to bubbling fat while bones absorb vibration and resonate to failure.
Blood Clock	Temporal/Hematologic	A waist-high stone pillar exudes beads of crimson fluid that rise, hover, and arrange themselves into a perfect spiral ticking roughly one drop per second.
Boiler Halo	Thermal/Photonic	A shimmering ring of light roams the desert. Anything crossing its circumference flash-boils from the inside out, leaving only a puff of superheated steam and a faint rainbow arc.
Bone Orchard	Organic/Mineral	Spines, ribs, and vertebrae protrude upright from cracked soil, fused with salt crystals. They're warm to the touch.
Bone Press	Geologic/Mechanical	Two granite ridges face each other roughly a meter apart, motionless until living calcium is detected. They slam together with surgical precision, pulverizing skeletons while leaving surrounding flesh eerily intact.
Bone Spires	Osteo-Geological	Spindly columns of fused animal bone and desert silt jut from dry playas; they rattle whenever footsteps disturb the ground.
Burst Kernel	Pressure/Sonic	Jagged geodes litter the cracked earth, each humming at sub-audible frequencies. Disturb one and the cluster detonates outward at 20,000 psi, rupturing internal organs before the external blast can reach the ears.
Carbon Vein	Structural/Geochemical	A jagged crack in a dry riverbed leaks fine black dust. Any metal left near it overnight fuses into dense, weightless carbon blocks.
Chalk Phantom	Radiological/Photonic	Bleached silhouettes of animals and people linger on concrete walls like nuclear shadows. They peel free at night as two-dimensional cut-outs that siphon heat.
Choral Dust	Particulate/Visual	When disturbed, this silty substance rises into humanoid silhouettes that mimic the motions of anyone nearby with a three-second delay. They disperse when unobserved.
Cicada Gate	Acoustic/Spatial	At dusk a droning chord swells; anything passing through the hum vanishes for exactly nine minutes, reappearing coated in grey dust and vibrating at 13 Hz—enough to fracture metal tools or teeth.
Copper Spires	Metallic/Vegetative	Rust-red towers grow slowly from old mining slag. Their cores are hollow and filled with fine, coppery pollen. Exposure causes skin to develop a faint metallic sheen.
Coral Carapace	Biomineral/Accretive	A creeping shell of chalk-white nodules slowly overgrows abandoned vehicles and tents, knitting into reef-like armor.
Crush Wave	Kinetic/Atmospheric	Invisible domes of compressed air drift like jellyfish. When a living heartbeat enters the dome, atmospheric pressure spikes to deep-ocean levels, pancaking bodies flat against the ground before easing back to normal.
Cryo Vein	Hemodynamic/Cryogenic	Thin silver fissures snake through canyon walls, exuding vapor at –150 °C. Brief contact leaches heat directly from blood plasma, crystallizing circulatory systems into brittle sheaths that shatter on movement.
Crystal Mirage	Optical/Psychic	Polygonal prisms grow from the sand like ice flowers, refracting the horizon into shifting mosaics. Gazing too long induces “mirage bleed”: the mind superimposes impossible geometry onto real terrain.
Crystal Scar	Geological/Energetic	A long gouge in the rock face glows at night. Any object passed through it gains increased density and becomes nearly unmovable.
Detonator Spores	Fungal/Combustive	Pale puffballs release motes that lodge in sweat glands. A sudden fright or adrenaline surge oxidizes the spores, causing simultaneous micro-explosions under the skin.
Dowsing Halo	Electromagnetic/Psychological	A ring of flickering blue light orbits certain people unpredictably, inducing obsession and involuntary movement toward its center.
Drift Ash	Chemical/Aerostatic	Flakes of weightless soot hang in still air like motes in a sunbeam. Disturb them and gravity inverts inside the cloud; objects—and sometimes people—arc upward until the ash disperses.
Echo Spore	Acoustic/Biological	Powder-fine spores ride the wind in near-silent clouds. When they settle, they record the nearest sound and replay it hours later at weapon-grade volume.
Electric Storm	Atmospheric/Electrical	A solitary pillar of magenta lightning spears a cloudless sky for hours, lacing nearby sand with glassy fulgurites and flooding radios with white noise.
Ferric Lace	Electromagnetic	Strands of rust-red filament coil through abandoned fences like cobwebs. They cut steel as cleanly as wire garrotes but leave flesh unharmed.
Flash Lattice	Photonic/Temporal	Invisible to the eye but captured on film: a crystalline grid that overlays parts of the landscape. Crossing it slows time for 0.3 seconds.
Flux Root	Organic/Energetic	Thick roots exposed by erosion twitch subtly. Placing metal near them causes it to warm, then oscillate in weight and density.
Glassheart Mire	Chemical/Osmotic	An ankle-deep pool gleams with motile aldehydes. Skin exposure turns blood into expanding silica foam, rigidly encasing the cardiovascular system until cardiac shatter.
Glass Thread	Structural/Capillary	Hair-thin filaments of fused silica dangle from power-line stanchions, swaying when there’s no breeze. They drink moisture and knit into thicker cables overnight.
Grain Pulse	Vibrational/Soil	Seemingly normal sand vibrates at intervals, forming ridges like a heartbeat. Prolonged exposure causes vertigo and nosebleeds.
Gravity Stitch	Gravitational/Topological	Parallel lines of shimmering air stitch the landscape into misaligned layers. Walking across one can rend limbs or even swap them.
Gravity Well	Gravitational/Kinetic	An upended vehicle hovers ten meters above the ground as stones and debris orbit unpredictably, slinging outward in violent parabolic bursts.
Heat Mirage	Thermal/Optical	A towering, opaque wall of shimmering heat warps silhouettes and muffles sound; travelers emerging on the far side often find themselves miles off course.
Hollow Frame	Optical/Illusory	A rectangular hole in a fence line shows unfamiliar terrain beyond.
Hourglass Bloom	Temporal/Biological	Clusters of pale flowers erupt after rainfall, then rewind their growth in stuttering loops—sprouting, wilting, uncurling, and reseeding within the span of a heartbeat.
Iron Echo	Kinetic/Magnetic	Abandoned machinery replays the last violent impact it experienced.
Iron Lash	Kinetic/Metallic	Steel cables whip from nowhere, carving concentric scars into the sand. They vanish if approached.
Iron Maiden Storm	Metallic/Atmospheric	Local thunderstorms swap raindrops for needle-thin ferrous shards accelerated by electromagnetic pulses, stitching flesh with glowing rivets.
Iron Whistle	Magnetic/Metallic	Rusted rebar protruding from a collapsed bunker sings a piercing note whenever lightning strikes within twenty miles, magnetizing nearby metal.
Inverse Bloom	Botanical/Chemical	Black flowers grow where living things have recently died. Their petals release a vapor that hardens breath into glassy shards.
Jackrabbit Rift	Temporal/Spatial	A jagged fissure hangs mid-air like a rabbit silhouette. Anything passing through splits into future and past copies before violently reconverging.
Lantern Moth	Thermal/Photonic	Translucent insects the size of fists drift at night, glowing from an inner filament bright enough to read by, yet paradoxically cold.
Maul Field	Gravitational/Tectonic	Loose basalt plates hover inches above the ground, oscillating. Stepping between them triggers crushing slams that crack bone and stone alike.
Melt Sign	Temporal/Material	A traffic sign appears to sag and deform, dripping into the earth. It reforms at dusk each day with different letters and arrows.
Mercury Nest	Liquid/Temperature-Reactive	Pools of liquid metal remain frozen under desert heat—until touched, at which point they liquefy and scatter like startled prey.
Mirror Hail	Optical/Thermal	Shards of frozen vapor the size of birdshot fall silently near arroyos. Each reflects whatever it last touched before melting into light-absorbing pools.
Mirage Thread	Optical/Temporal	Thin strands stretch between rocks. Through them, distant objects appear days ahead or behind in time—depending on your angle.
Möbius Pool	Spatial/Biological	A mirror-smooth pond whose surface curves inward like a ribbon. Immersion inverts flesh outward while consciousness lingers on the exterior.
Neon Tempest	Electrostatic/Plasma	Miniature violet storms drift above the ground, crackling with arcs. Touching one charges the body like a capacitor, leaving glowing footprints.
Obsidian Fog	Geological/Corrosive	A black, glassy vapor seeps from fissures after tremors. It etches silicate materials while turning organic tissue brittle as charcoal.
Pale Gate	Structural/Quantum	A freestanding concrete doorframe glows faintly. Passing through does nothing until you look back and see a different desert.
Pitch Drip	Liquid/Material	A cave wall weeps thick, tarry resin. Collected samples dissolve glass but leave skin untouched.
Plasma Mist	Atmospheric/Energetic	At dusk a mauve fog creeps downhill, ionized to 30,000 K. Skin in contact bursts into luminous plasma and turns bones to char.
Pressure Gate	Spatial/Barometric	Two weathered posts outline a doorway of clear air. Crossing it inverts pressures, inflating bodies to bursting while dust compacts to statues.
Pulper Vines	Organic/Mechanical	Thick, veined tendrils coil over fence posts. Motion triggers a grinding peristalsis that extrudes red slurry and drags prey through knotted sphincters.
Pulsing Egg	Bio-Electrical/Resonant	A house-sized translucent orb rests in a salt pan, throbbing like a heartbeat while deep infrasonic tones vibrate the ground.
Quicksilver Echo	Fluidic/Resonant	Puddles of metallic liquid mimic nearby motion with a two-second delay. If broken, the whole pool convulses, releasing a concussive clap.
Rift Grinder	Rotational/Spatial	Spiraling fractures form a corkscrew corridor through sandstone. Passage triggers counter-rotation at drill speed, tearing travelers to ribbons.
Ripple Cage	Hydrodynamic/Kinetic	Circular waves ripple perpetually in empty stock tanks. Stepping in pins you while invisible forces rotate you before releasing.
Rumbleweeds	Electrostatic/Thermal	Tangles of desiccated brush crackle with blue-white corona as they roll; wherever they bounce, the sand vitrifies into smoky glass.
Sand Prism	Optical/Photonic	A three-sided pillar of compressed glass stands in open desert. Looking through it scrambles color perception for hours.
Scald Tangle	Botanical/Thermal	Leafless thorn bushes circulate superheated sap beneath transparent bark. Contact sprays 800 °C fluid in a fine mist.
Signal Tree	Radio/Botanical	A lone Joshua tree crowns itself with rusted antennas; although the circuits are dead, receivers within five miles hiss unintelligible messaging.
Silica Choir	Vibrational/Neurological	Glass wind chimes grow from telephone poles scorched by anomalies. Their notes are sub-audible but register painfully in dental fillings.
Silt Halo	Gravitational	A faint ring of levitating dust surrounds a low mesa. Crossing it multiplies mass tenfold—boots sink and bones groan; stepping back restores normal.
Sinker Pit	Gravitational/Anatomical	A crater ringed by calcified human arms flips gravity at its rim, flinging intruders skyward.
Spine Mill	Rotational/Tectonic	A sinkhole filled with magnetic dust spins at 180 rpm. Entering causes torsional forces that unscrew vertebrae like loose bolts.
Static Bloom	Electrical/Magnetic	Pale-white vines crackle with charge and grow toward devices, draining batteries of all power on contact.
Static Trench	Electromagnetic/Pressure	A shallow ditch crackles with radio snow. Step inside and atmospheric pressure spikes to deep-ocean levels—lungs collapse without a mask.
Tethered Stations	Structural/Electromagnetic	Abandoned prefab buildings float fifty meters up, anchored by steel cables that pulse violet light and broadcast wide-band static.
Threadfall	Structural/Aerostatic	Hair-thin threads descend from clear skies, bisecting objects and flesh without resistance. Wind never moves them.
Thunder Vein	Electrical/Seismic	Veins of quartz pulse blue-white like trapped lightning. Footfalls trigger sub-audible rumbles and flashes that fuse nearby metal.
Time Slip	Temporal/Perceptual	Within a thirty-meter circle, seconds stretch or repeat, provoking déjà vu and aging watches differently than actual time.
Twister Lens	Optical/Vacuum	A hovering lens-shaped distortion refracts scenery into spirals. Reflected objects are violently twisted along their axis.
Vortex Sinkhole	Aerodynamic/Mnemonic	A spiraling dust column funnels into a pit, stripping small objects from those too close.
Warden Post	Structural/Psychological	A dilapidated ranger tower reappears at different coordinates each week. Approaching gives a sensation of being watched, but it’s always empty.
Zephyr Loop	Aerodynamic/Temporal	A perpetual gust circles a six-meter clearing, scattering debris in an endless vortex. Objects tossed reappear sixteen minutes earlier on the opposite side.

SIGNAL INTERCEPTS

Play Recordings

FIELD NOTES

KNOWN LOCATIONS

• Hollow Mesa
  Type: Rock Formation
  Status: Echo-Compromised
  Notes: Voices heard in wind tunnels match missing persons reports from 1982–1989.


• Echo Line Relay
  Type: Radio Tower
  Status: Floating
  Notes: Tower levitates above desert floor. Tethered by wires to buried anchors.


• Splitwell Drain
  Type: Dry Creek
  Status: Contaminated
  Notes: Liquid rises instead of falling. Soil beneath buzzes faintly at night.


• Crate Span
  Type: Abandoned Overpass
  Status: Unstable
  Notes: Entire stretch sags unnaturally, despite structural integrity. Scattered cassette cases under girders.


• Silver Latch Depot
  Type: Rail Facility
  Status: Repeating
  Notes: Cargo manifests reset each day. Clocktower strikes 13 on even-numbered days.


• Needle Orchard
  Type: Joshua Tree Grove
  Status: Under Surveillance
  Notes: Trees exhibit synchronized movement during moonless nights. One archivist lost.


• Clay Bell Sink
  Type: Geological Depression
  Status: Breathing
  Notes: Entire basin rises and falls on a 7-hour cycle. Air pressure fluctuates dangerously.


• Red Ladder Pull-Off
  Type: Roadside Anomaly
  Status: Dormant
  Notes: A-frame ladder appears only during sunrise. Steps cannot be counted the same way twice.


• Wire Nest Hollow
  Type: Abandoned Substation
  Status: Reactive
  Notes: Tangled wires emit low tones. Flocks of birds form spiral patterns above it weekly.


• Chalk Spine Ridge
  Type: Ridge Formation
  Status: Restricted
  Notes: Rocks resemble fossilized vertebrae. Climbing paths shift orientation between visits.


• The Slab
  Type: Concrete Foundation
  Status: Unknown
  Notes: Foundation of an erased structure. Concrete surface stays cold in direct sunlight.


• Marrow Bend
  Type: Town (Lost)
  Status: Consumed
  Notes: Townsite now marked only by metal bones. Ambient screaming logged at 4:17 AM.


• Glow Nest Junction
  Type: Power Junction
  Status: Photoreactive
  Notes: Wires glow brighter when observed. Surveillance feed always six seconds delayed.


• Salt Crown Flat
  Type: Salt Basin
  Status: Geometric
  Notes: Salt crystals align into radial patterns each morning. Cracks whisper faint words.


• Iron Widow Fault
  Type: Tectonic Scar
  Status: Migratory
  Notes: Fault line shifts direction monthly. Rusted rebar found woven through juniper trees.

DUST PROTOCOL — TIMELINE

Origins (circa 1982)

• “Branch-6 Incident”
  A clandestine government lab tucked into the high desert — known only by its cover designation, Branch-6 — was experimenting with geophysical resonance in late 1982. An unconfirmed accident (some say a power spike in their Tesla-Array, others tell of a prototype antenna gone haywire) tore a small tear in reality.
• First Anomaly Bubble
  Within hours the ground near the lab’s sub-basement bubbled with strange living-quartz deposits and low humming. Lab animals went mad; several technicians vanished. The military stepped in, cordoning off a roughly one-square-mile perimeter.

Containment & Quiet Growth (1983–1989)

• Static Stalemate
  Over the next half-decade, the anomaly zone (“the DUST”) remained eerily stable. The lab’s scientists — joined by a small detachment of soldiers — monitored it night and day, logging bursts of static radio noise and occasional floating rocks.
• “Protocol” Coined
  In their field reports the original lab team began referring to their containment measures as “DUST Protocol.” It was never an official project name, just shorthand in inter-office memos… but it stuck.

Explosive Expansion (1990–1992)

• Trigger Event
  In spring of 1990 something snapped: a routine power-down drill went wrong, and for the first time the DUST boundary blistered outward — trees half-burned, animals fused with sand, radio signals warbling gibberish across half the spectrum.
• First Town “Keep Out” Signs
  The tiny desert town of Moon Dust (pop. 412) woke one morning to a pink-hued sky and bizarre tumbleweeds of crackling light rolling past their porches. Overnight, the “Keep Out” markers around their town became as real as the dust in their lungs.

The Network Forms (1992–1995)

• Loose Alliance
  A handful of local townsfolk (along with one former Branch-6 physicist and a discharged soldier) banded together — pooling field journals, radio scans, photographs, and sealed vials of anomalous material. When they spoke of their rag-tag coalition, they’d simply call it “the network”. But those who knew called it what it always was: DUST Protocol. United by a shared purpose, they patrolled the DUST’s edge to push back the creatures and horrors that seeped out, trading bullets and biology notes in equal measure. Learning that digital gear would inevitably corrupt in the DUST’s static, they kept everything analog: cassette tapes, radio broadcasts, film cameras, dot-matrix printouts and hand-written logs. Their mission wasn’t just containment — it was proof. Against every cover-up and dismissive government briefing, their records stood as irrefutable evidence that the DUST was real — and that someone had to fight it.

Into the Present (1995–)

• Cell Structure
  Over the next two decades the network splintered into loose cells across the Southwest — each maintaining a small perimeter around a fresh anomaly bloom.
• Unofficial, Unacknowledged
  No government agency ever claimed responsibility for the DUST; official briefings dismiss it as “mining-site accidents” or “high-voltage mishaps.”
• The Name Lives On
  Among the initiated, DUST Protocol still evokes those first fumbling containment efforts — and the unspoken promise that whatever tore open the earth can never be fully closed again.

DUST LORE

Play Lore

PROTOCOL GOALS

1. Document Anomalous Phenomena
   Meticulously record all anomalies—visual, auditory, spatial, psychic. The institutions won’t. They've redacted the truth. You make the record real.
2. Maintain the Archive
   Keep your journal close. Duplicate tapes. Trade notes. Every archivist is a node in a decentralized resistance. What you document may be all that survives.
3. Prevent Institutional Containment Failures
   Governments seal away the DUST behind wire fences and NDAs. It seeps through anyway. The network identifies and flags failed quarantines, misreported incidents, and deliberate disinformation.
4. Track and Map Zone Expansion
   No one admits the borders are shifting. You mark them anyway. Every echo, static bloom, and time-loop site is added to the Map. When the Zone eats a town, someone has to remember where it was.
5. Intercept and Decipher Forbidden Signals
   You listen where others refuse. Some signals are buried by jamming towers. Others are overwritten, looped, or inverted. We dig them back out. Even corrupted data leaves a trace.
6. Undermine the Cover-Up
   Institutions fail not through ignorance but intent. They erase victims. They rewrite events. The network exists to outlast their edits. You are the living contradiction in their narrative.
7. Preserve the Network
   We are scattered, but linked. If you hear another archivist’s codeword, respond. If you find their log, copy it. If they fall, their mission becomes yours.