PARANORMAL SCIENCE AND INVESTIGATION AGENCY

Since the 1950s, various branches of the U.S. government have been experimenting with different permutations of and uses for mental powers. From CIA attempts to create "invisible" spies to Army experiments using psychotropic pharmaceuticals to FDA investigations into psychic healing, they've all come up with nothing.

Or have they?

What the public does not know is that all the information (and many of the personnel) from these different attempts have all been transferred to a secret organization whose existence is buried between line items in the national budget. The Paranormal Science and Investigation Agency (PSI for short) has been working behind the scenes for several decades.

PSI's charter is to protect the country from supernatural threats both domestic and foreign. As their acronym suggests, the Agency focuses mainly on psionic threats (particularly since the increasing number of "supernatural" incidents caused by the rise of Shadow would tax their resources beyond capacity). They are the organization that takes the lead in cases concerning the Mindwreckers, the Enlightenment, and the Silent Walkers.

Agents of PSI do not seek outside aid unless they have no choice whatsoever. Their agency has been completely covert for decades, and they want to keep it that way. However, if they come across an individual who manifests psychic abilities (or shows great potential to) they will approach him or her about joining the Agency.

Heroes will usually run into agents of PSI when they are unknowingly working on the same case. The agents will try to convince heroes to drop the matter and leave it to the "Pros from Dover," but will grudgingly work with them if the heroes are persistent enough.

Whether PSI is an agency of highly trained mundane agents who deal with delusional groups that claim to be psychic, a group of spies who themselves are delusional about having mental powers, or are actual psionicists protecting the country from mentalist terrorists depends entirely on the GM's stance on psionics in the campaign. Whatever the decision, the Paranormal Science and Investigation Agency can be a source of well-trained help when the heroes face opponents who pose serious threats to national security. While heroes with psionic powers certainly could belong to PSI, the organization's secretive nature would make it difficult for them to team up with heroes from outside the agency.

All investigative agents are taught that one of the best ways to stay safe in the field is to be sure that your target never sees you coming. This is difficult for the agents of PSI. They have to not only be invisible but also mentally undetectable. To this end, the agency has developed a discipline that allows their operatives to completely shield their thoughts for a limited period of time. All PSI Telepaths have access to the following psionic power: