[[Recruitment tape transcripts. XX/XX/1922]]

Hanged Man: Are you sure about him, Director?

Empress: The man is a genius. He has already discovered a rudimentary way to transcend our dimension. Just imagine what he can accomplish with our resources.

Empress: Yes…

Hanged Man: Director… You did read the Psychological Report conducted by Agent Strength, yes?

Empress: Yes! What a prodigy.

Hanged Man: And you have read the Intel report on the North Bank incident, yes?

Empress: Of course…

Hanged Man: And you want to… hire him?

Empress: A great mind is a terrible thing to lock away…

[[ The recording ends there.]]

[[Psychological Analysis of Dr. Norman Escher. XX/XX/1922]]

1. Identifying Information:

Subject: Doctor Norman Escher Ph.D

Date of Birth: XX/XX/1897

Sex: Male

Occupation: Professor of Theoretical Mathematics at[[REDACTED]]

Address: [[REDACTED]]

2. Referral Question: Determine the viability of Doctor Escher as the newly established Agent Moon. Determine measures, if any, to ensure subject cooperation with Bureau Arcana protocol, and safety of other agents.

3. Background Information: Norman Escher was born in the state of [[REDACTED]]. He was the only child of parents [[REDACTED]] and [[REDACTED]]. He grew up in a wealthy household where he received an excellent private education. He was admitted to [[REDACTED]] University at age 15, and earned his Ph.D in Theoretical Mathematics by age 20.

During the War he worked as a military scientist, but it has been hard to establish his exact role as many records of that time have been significantly redacted. Interviews with Doctor Escher regarding that time yielded no new information.

After the war, he became a professor at [[REDACTED]] where he became obsessed with dimensional mathematics, which led to the events detailed in the North Bank Vanishings report.

4. Examination Summary: Doctor Escher presents himself as well groomed, perhaps overly fixated on his appearance. He seemed well aware of his surroundings, and well aware of his circumstances. Doctor Escher started our session obstinate and uncooperative, but opened up over games of chess. He seemed to revel in his victories, often stalling the game and giving up easy wins just to pick off my pieces.

When asked about his interest in chess, he exhibited an obsession with light and dark.

When questioned about his role in the North Bank Vanishings, he displayed no remorse, and seemed to smile, going into great detail into the method used to create his “works of art.” He expressed excitement in the possibilities Bureau Resources could provide to his research, as if his appointment to the position was already certain.

5. Risk Assessment: High. Doctor Escher has a distinct lack of empathy and an inflated sense of self importance. He explicitly intends to continue his research despite its overt danger to others.

6. Recommendations: Refer matter to criminal court. Doctor Escher is uncooperative, dismissive of authority, and unconcerned with the safety of others. DO NOT HIRE.

[[END REPORT]]

[[Anomaly Report: The North Bank Vanishings. XX/XX/1922]]

Agents Assigned: The Hermit. The Hanged Man.

Location: [[REDACTED]]

Background: There is a popular urban legend amongst the students of [[REDACTED]]. Legend goes that any student who wanders the halls of the mathematics department just before midnight, they will end up in a hallway that isn't on any map. If you keep going, legend says you will get lost along a path of infinite hallways, never to return.

 After an influx of missing persons reports, local law enforcement connected the cases to students who partook in the urban legend, but could not find any validity to the urban legend. That is when we were assigned to investigate.

Findings: Upon arrival at MIT, we were quickly approached by a Dr. Escher who immediately knew why we were here. He was a professor in the Mathematics wing who was tired of this urban legend scaring people off from his department.

 Over the next few weeks, we investigated the Mathematics wing, mapping it out in detail and cross referencing it with blueprints provided by the university. Most nights they matched exactly. One night there definitely was a hallway that was not there before. We followed the Anomaly Investigation Procedure Handbook to ensure we would be able to escape if things got dangerous. At the end of a twisting maze of corridors, we found what seemed to be an art gallery, a long hallway with a chessboard pattern tile floor lined with grotesque paintings. At first glance, they appeared to be abstract, but upon closer examination, they appeared to be animals, but every piece of the animal was on display. The front, the back, the outsides… and the insides, as if every possible cell of the creature was on display. Flesh unraveled into viscera, unraveled into bone. Veins and arteries spiderwebbed across the canvas, intestines unspooled and unwoven

 The first few paintings were messy and haphazardly painted. As we traversed further and further down the hall, the paintings seemed to get far better organized, if no less grotesque, like the method of depicting the whole of an animal on a flat surface slowly got more expertly disassembled.

 Soon, the paintings were no longer just animals. We recognized human faces and anatomy. Faces that seemed unnervingly familiar. The subjects were those who were reported missing. All of them meticulously deconstructed, cell by cell.

Then the paintings blinked.

They were alive. Their flat fleshy masses writhing, jittering, convulsing. We drew our weapons and ran down the hall to find Doctor Escher, looking up at one of the paintings but… the hands were still three dimensional, thrashing and grasping for anything to grab onto before… They too went flat.

We apprehended Doctor Escher who during question simply said, “I have found the door between three dimensional and two dimensional.”

We transported Doctor Escher back to Bureau Arcana headquarters and currently have him in a holding cell.

[[End Report]]

[[Researcher’s log #01 XX/XX/1922]]

They are calling me The Moon. They told me I could either work for them or be locked up in a black site never to be seen again. Seemed like an easy choice to me. The facilities here are exceptional; far more advanced than anything I could get my hands on at [[REDACTED]]. It would be exquisite… but every night, the door to my quarters is locked from the outside. Every day I am escorted to my lab by the two meatheads who found me in [[REDACTED]]. I insisted they bring me my paintings and was flatly refused, but I convinced them I could undo what I have done. Maybe I can.

[[Researcher’s log #02 XX/XX/1922]]

They are certainly watching me. My lab has a frosted glass window that I see silhouettes moving behind every day. The way the texture makes the figures moves… The way it makes the flat shadows appear almost 3d… Much like light through a prism spreads pure white into its spectrums, I wonder if the same can be done with darkness… What are the spectrums of darkness? Can you refract the human soul?

[[Researcher’s log #03 XX/XX/1922]]

I called the experiment successful. The Hanged Man called it an abomination. I did what I promised, I managed to take one of my paintings and return them to our three dimensional form. They just weren’t… perfectly reconstructed.

[[Researcher’s log #04 XX/XX/1923]]

I have run out of paintings to test on. They refused to let me make more. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. A shame, I was so close to perfectly bringing the 2d back into 3d. I wonder. I wonder if we are in a painting of sorts. I wonder if we can be refracted into 4d perhaps?

[[Researcher’s log #05 XX/XX/1923]]

I had to make do with testing on my chess pieces. The testing was slow and frustrating. The pieces are just vanishing.

[[Researcher’s log #06 XX/XX/1924]]

I was playing a game of chess with myself when I discovered something incredible. Sometimes when I would make a move, the chess piece I used would shift texture. My marble pawn would shiver and turn to a metal pawn, just like one of the sets I tested on. I held the pawn in front of me, examining it closely. As I turned it around in my hand, it would change texture, Metal to wood, wood to ceramic, shifting and morphing between the various sets I thought had vanished. Looking closer, the pieces had a dark haze about them that reminded me of the refracted shadows of the observation window.

[[Researcher’s log #07 XX/XX/1924]]

I demanded a recon crew go through my tests to see what was on the other side. They refuse to see the possibilities my tests could provide. THEY REFUSE. It’s driving me mad. I am so close… but nothing I can do will let me see what it's like on the other side. Heh… Maybe some old tricks can help me here.

[[Security Report XX/XX/1924]]

The door to Dr. Escher’s lab is gone. We have lost contact with The Hanged Man. The Bureau is on high alert.

[[Archivists Report #01 XX/XX/1934]]

A Log book appeared on my desk today. It seems to be a collection of reports from or about a Dr. Escher, a former Agent Moon. I asked around. Any mention of him seems to cause a distressed look upon my colleagues who were here at around the dates listed in the log book. They tell me all they can remember is a fuzzy silhouette of a memory…

[[Archivists Report #02 XX/XX/1934]]

Every day the Escher log has more and more entries added to it. No one has had access to this book but me. I have not written these.

[[Archivists Report #03 XX/XX/1934]]

The Escher Log is no longer being added to. I will continue to monitor it before filing it away in the archive.

[[Archivists Report #04 XX/XX/1934]]

One final page has been added to the Escher Log. It seems to appear and disappear depending on the day. It is hard to read, but I will do my best to transcribe it.

[[Researcher’s log (as found in the Hierophant's “Escher Log”) #XX XX/XX/XXXX]]

I H A V E D O N E I T

[[Researcher’s Log XX/XX/1974]]

The door to my lab is gone. The hallway it was in seems longer than it was before. Much longer.

[[Executive session meeting minutes XX/XX/1974]]

Quorum in attendance. Only Absence is Director of Research agent Moon.

Motion to seal off the research wing and reconstruct it elsewhere.

Seconded.

Vote was unanimous.

[[Text log between Hanged Man and Hermit. XX/XX/2024]]

(9:30 AM) Hanged man: Hey there Big, Tall, and Silent! There’s a door that wasn’t here before. Dr. Greyson and I are Exploring. He insisted I text someone.

(9:31 AM) Hermit: ???

(9:32 AM) Hermit: door?

(9:33 AM) Hermit: ?????

(9:40 AM) Hermit: OMW

(9:50 AM) Hermit: there is no door…