The Scientist's Research Notes
- Template
- Document
- Status
- Canon
- Kind
- Note
- Author
- A surviving D4 scientist
- Found In
- D4 — occupied research office
- Hazard
- None
1. Summary
The portal-research notes of the surviving scientist of The Last Shift, which grow from structured analysis into an obsessive search for an escape from existence itself.
2. Text
His early notes contain structured observations and scientific analysis. Later documents become progressively more obsessive.
He compares experimental findings against religious literature, Gnostic traditions, philosophical pessimism, and records of historical atrocities. He develops the theory that the world is malignant at its foundation—a place in which hostile metaphysical entities can torment conscious beings.
He becomes convinced that ordinary travel cannot save anyone. Fleeing Earth, the galaxy, or even the known universe would be insufficient. He wants a portal that can carry him outside the underlying structure of existence itself.
His notes say he urgently needs a particular body of portal-research documents stored on D6. He was unable to retrieve them because lethal supersoldier robots in D5 obstructed the passage and killed other scientists. He has no means to force his way through.
The scientist's private records show that he had turned to meditation and the study of consciousness while struggling with his fears.
3. Context
The scientist worked on portal research. He survived the catastrophe and still works feverishly among broken computers and stacks of papers, muttering calculations, consulting pages and scribbling incoherently, as though the research has never stopped.
He studies scientific portal research and written philosophical and religious sources. The phrase that recurs throughout his room and in his muttering is recorded with him.
See: Characters › The Portal Scientist
How Edmund and Hamish judge his state is part of the side quest.
4. Gameplay
The notes are found in the scientist's occupied research office in D4, where the Chapter Seven side quest The Last Shift begins.
They set its delayed objective, which continues on D6. The quest does not block Chapter Seven's main-quest conclusion.
See: Campaign › 7. A Question Of Trust
The private records are found in the adjoining room the scientist unlocks at the end of the quest, which is decorated with Buddhist art, inscriptions, and meditation materials.
See: In-World Documents › Portal Transit Research Assessment