• Headquarters: New Kourou, NE Public Services Ring Rd 7 (see: Headquarters of the OfSO)
• Founded: September 2626
• Founder: Ezrah Scherkenstein (former Last Frontier University biologist)
• Jurisdiction / Scope: Asari Region and Ralar Region (case-by-case assignments across settlements)
• Status: Officially dissolved 2631; informally active in the Gamma Age
• Core Mandate: Discreet private investigations: murders & cold cases, surveillance, fugitive tracking, protective escorts

A lean, ledger-driven private investigation bureau renowned for meticulous files and unusual botanical tradecraft (pollen traps, scent markers, seed-tagged dead-drops). While the OfSO held no formal badge, a small circle of Guarding Troopers quietly swapped leads with Ezrah in the Beta Age. In the Gamma Age, with private agencies shuttered, the network persists behind a Federal Library table and a “botany” sign.

• Mission: Provide confidential, ethically bounded investigation and protection services to settlers and guild clients when official channels are unwilling or overextended.
• Primary Functions: Case intake & triage · cold-case review · surveillance & route logging · fugitive location · protective escort
• Secondary Functions: Records research · courier‐trail audits · botanical forensics (trace pollen/seed transfer)

• 2626 (Sep): OfSO established in New Kourou; early caseload: missing couriers, warehouse arsons, and inheritance frauds.
• Develops signature botanical methods for scene control and clue tracing; builds a subcontractor pool (trackers, linguists, locksmiths).
• Quiet back-channel forms with motivated officers inside the Guarding Troopers Headquarters.

• War disruption spikes demand (refugee vetting, sabotage probes). Post-war consolidation outlaws private security agencies.
• 2631: OfSO license revoked; files “archived.” Ezrah publicly retires.

• Former clients and operatives reconnect through the Federal Library of New Kourou.
• Contact window: Wednesdays & Fridays, 09:00–11:00 — Ezrah “reads” at a fixed table; inquiries passed by note or code phrase.

• Leadership: Proprietor/Coordinator — Ezrah Scherkenstein (intake, triage, tasking)
• Operations: Subcontractor Operatives (surveillance, interviews, protection, courier shadowing)
• Liaisons (informal): Select Guarding Troopers who share tips off the books (Federal Sheriff Deputies in the Gamma Age)
• Ally Network: Archive clerks, couriers, saloon keepers, plant breeders
• Personal Ties: Ezrah is a long-time “platonic friend” of Alfred Romero (father of the Beta Age's General Trooper, Guarding Troopers HQ, New Kourou). She’s the General Trooper’s self-proclaimed “agnostic god-mother.” Despite his protests, this tie sometimes grants her deeper (unofficial) visibility into Guarding Troopers cases.

• Headquarters (Beta Age): Two-storey townhouse (office below, Ezrah’s flat above). Plant-filled interiors; tea-kitchen with hidden safe; guestroom/safe room; wall of notebooks & case ledgers; large meeting table and whiteboard; analog locks. Office mascot: “Bubi,” a tamed Croplight Lemur, with a branch construction behind Ezrah’s desk.
• Communications: Courier slips, ledger codes, dead-drop seed packets; Gamma Age library meet-ups.
• Equipment & Tradecraft: Field notebooks; map overlays; seed-tag markers & pollen traps; sketch pads; decoy files; cipher tabs.
• Personal Defense: Ezrah carries a Guarding Troopers Stun Gun (“prepared pacifist”: self-defense only).

• Intake / Tasking: Interview; build timeline on the whiteboard; open file & index cards; assign to vetted subcontractors.
• Chain-of-Custody: Numbered seals on envelopes & photos; witness initials; daily log sheets; end-of-shift sign-offs.
• Evidence Handling: Botanical traces bagged & labeled (location, wind conditions, exposure).
• Use-of-Force: Stun-first ethic; avoidance & documentation prioritized over confrontation.

• Eligibility: Clean ledger; two trade references; practical skill (tracking, interviews, locksmithing, cartography, botany, first-aid).
• Onboarding: 1–2 shadow runs; confidentiality oath; kit issue (notebooks, tags, ledgers).
• Status: Subcontractor basis (paid per brief); no standing salaries.

• Fair-Outcome Model: Full fee only on success. If unsuccessful: client pays travel expenses + 100 Kourou per operative.
• Negotiable Rates: Final fee negotiated per complexity and danger level; sliding scale for community cases and bereaved families.
• Retainers: Minimal retainer to open file; balance due on delivery of results.

• Beta Age (Office): 10:00–18:00 (appointments preferred); emergency bell accepted after hours.
• Gamma Age (Contact): Federal Library of New Kourou, Wednesdays & Fridays, 09:00–11:00 (table reservation; approach with book request code phrase). Off-window contact by trusted courier only.

• Adventure Hook — Tea Leaves & Bloodlines: A cold case flares when a new murder duplicates a 11 month-old signature — pollen traces from a cultivar that only Ezrah grows. The Guarding Troopers want quiet answers; a nervous clerk slips the PCs a referral to OfSO. Ezrah assigns them as “contract botanists”: audit the herbarium, trace where the cultivar could have spread (gifts, cuttings, market swaps), and follow the paper trail through old courier slips and guestroom logs. Did someone weaponize Ezrah’s hobby — or is the killer hiding among OfSO’s former subcontractors?

• Ezrah Scherkenstein — Proprietor/Coordinator; “prepared pacifist”; botanical sleuth.
• Alfred Romero — Old friend and confidant; father of the current General Trooper; occasional back-channel.
• General Trooper (New Kourou HQ) — Powerful, wary of Ezrah’s involvement; still tangled by old loyalties.
• Subcontractor Pool (var.) — Trackers, linguists, archivists, locksmiths, protective escorts.
• “The Tinkerer” (alias) — Rebuffed aspiring professor from Last Frontier University; brilliant DIY fabricator. Builds custom weapons, armor, and tools for OfSO teams; pioneers add-on tech for Ezrah’s botanical investigations (pollen aspirators, seed-tag launchers, Lumi trip-traps). Avoids electronics-heavy designs; prefers analog-first, low-signature builds.

• Headquarters of the OfSO
• Ezrah Scherkenstein · New Kourou
• Martin "The Tinkerer" Gagnon
• Federal Library of New Kourou
• Guarding Troopers Headquarters · Federal Sheriff (context, Gamma Age)
• Last Frontier University · Croplight Lemur

Known Freelancers of the Office for Special Operations:

• Lexa Rourke