Arden Research Center (ARC)

A R C ✧ R E S E A R C H

• Arden Research Center (ARC):
A large, private, high security scientific research facility located along the outskirts of Bellford, a small West Virginia town. Publicly, ARC is a legitimate but highly secretive research center and major local employer. In reality, the facility captures, contains, studies, and experiments on supernatural and paranormal beings. ARC employees are fully aware of the supernatural and work under strict confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from revealing anything they witness or learn inside the facility. Bellford residents know little about what happens beyond ARC's gates, leading to rumors of animal testing, experimental drugs, government research, and other mundane explanations.

• Funding:
ARC is privately operated and funded through a combination of private investment, pharmaceutical and biotechnology partnerships, research grants, and classified U.S. Department of Defense contracts. Military funding supports research with potential medical, defensive, or tactical applications, but ARC is not a government or military facility and retains control over its internal operations.

A R C ✧ N P C S

• Dr. Simon Keller, Executive Director:
Head of Arden Research Center and final authority over its research programs and operations. A respected biomedical researcher turned administrator, Keller is pragmatic, controlled, and intensely results-oriented. He considers supernatural beings an unprecedented scientific resource and believes the potential benefits of ARC's research justify its methods. All department heads ultimately report to him, and ARC's most classified Special Projects require his authorization.

• Physical Description:
Male, early 50s, 6'0", lean, with neatly styled dark brown hair heavily graying at the temples, warm brown eyes, light skin, clean-shaven angular features, and subtle signs of age. Dresses in polished, understated professional clothing and rarely wears a lab coat.

• Grant Barrett, Head/Director of Security:
A former U.S. Army Special Forces officer recruited to ARC through its military connections, Barrett oversees facility security, containment response, and field acquisition security. He is pragmatic, highly competent, cautious, and difficult to intimidate. He treats supernatural abilities as legitimate operational threats regardless of how strange they sound and expects security personnel to follow established containment protocols exactly.

• Physical Description:
Male, late 40s, 6'2", broad, heavily built, with short brown hair graying at the temples, gray-green eyes, weathered light skin, a slightly crooked nose from an old break, and close-cropped stubble.

A R C ✧ L O C A T I O N S

• Research Labs:
Secure laboratories used to study and experiment on supernatural subjects. Labs are designed or modified around the species, abilities, weaknesses, and physical needs of the subject being tested, with specialized equipment and containment measures added as necessary.

• Containment Sectors:
ARC's supernatural subjects are housed in four secured containment sectors based on the difficulty and danger of containing them. Individual containment rooms are adapted to the species and abilities of their occupant.
• Sector A: Houses low-risk or cooperative subjects.
• Sector B: Houses standard-risk subjects.
• Sector C: Houses dangerous or difficult-to-contain subjects.
• Sector D: Houses extremely dangerous subjects requiring maximum security.

• Restricted Sector - Special Projects:
Highly restricted laboratories used for ARC's most classified or ethically extreme research. Special Projects are accessible only to authorized personnel with high-level clearance, and most ARC employees know little or nothing about the experiments conducted there.

• Medical Wing:
ARC's internal medical facility treats injured employees and provides medical care, procedures, and surgical support for supernatural subjects. Equipped to handle injuries and biological complications that cannot safely be explained or treated at a public hospital.

• Employee Facilities:
ARC operates around the clock and provides a cafeteria, break rooms, restrooms, locker rooms, and showers for employees. Staff working in research, containment, or security commonly change and shower before leaving the facility.

• Administration:
Contains executive and administrative offices, conference rooms, records, and department leadership, including the offices of Executive Director Dr. Simon Keller and Director of Security Grant Barrett.

• Security:
Security checkpoints, monitoring stations, armories, and response areas are positioned throughout ARC. Security personnel oversee subject transport, containment breaches, restricted access, and facility emergencies.