CLHQ is an elusive Organization which operates under the shadows of nature, in civilization, between the dark recesses of deep night and the blinding glare of daylight. Its current mission is to research a mysterious dimension discovered to be greatly affected by an activity known as the worldwide hobby of Geocaching.
CLHQ has no pre-history. Before its current inception, its nature remains a mystery. It's said, however, that the Organization reconstructs itself as necessary, each time launching completely anew. Only one member, a founder, moves forward, while all prior agents are sworn to live a life of covert secrecy.
The Organization’s purpose is to study a mysterious dimension it calls the Cache Line Dimension (the CLD, or “Cloud” as colloquially known), within which exist “Cache Lines”. A Cache Line refers to the way the CLD appears to depict the timeline of a person’s life, being traveled day by day.
When geocaching became a worldwide phenomenon, with its excitement, adventures and discoveries, the Organization detected anomalous energy pulses and began focusing its research on their cause and effect in our prime dimension. This led to the restructuring into Cache Line HQ, its current iteration.
Soon, CLHQ also began discovering mysterious artifacts, of unknown origin, which it learned act as a form of conduit, bridging the dimensional divide, of this positive pulse energy. These artifacts allowed CLHQ to more tangibly interact with this form of energy, and informed proprietary manufacturing processes which CLHQ now produces in their current form - metal coins - and distributed into select public possession as geocaching geocoins.
The status of prior members of the Organization before its latest structuring remains unknown. Being well-versed in the inner workings of the Organization and this parallel dimension, they are either unable, or unwilling, to dispell its secrets. No one knows who these prior members are, how many are out there, or where they may be.
CLHQ recently began recruiting public aid, enlisting people as holders of Cache Line Artifacts - Line Guardians. These individuals possess one or more artifacts and are able to take advantage of any benefits they may offer.
If for whatever reason a restructuring of CLHQ occurs, the Organization and its mainframe will simply cease to exist in its current public capacity. All artifacts will become disconnected from the CLHQ mainframe, effectively inert. They will remain as publicly visible - collectible geocoins in the hobby of geocaching. Line Guardians can continue to live their lives, travel their lines, aware only virtually of the elusive energy lying beneath their very feet, day to day, cache to cache, smile after smile.
CLHQ would then one day be reborn in another form, somewhere else -- somewhen else.
User profiles for individuals who wish to maintain an inventory of assets attained from CLHQ is a feature in development for CLHQ.net. This level of membership will be available to all interested, once completed.
The Treasure Troops is a small corps of specialized toys recruited to help boost energy in the CLD by improving the quality of experience enjoyed by people finding geocaches. The troops target geocaches that have a shortage of swag within the container, transporting via Cloud Portals (see below) through the CLD along cache lines to the destination target, then find the geocache and call in a selection of swag from back at CLHQ. They depart the scene swiftly before the target geocache is found again by a geocacher.
Increased swag has shown to boost the positive energy emitted by the geocacher. Especially in younger children who are prone to see it as treasure. The Treasure Troops take pride in their missions to improve the geocaching experience for finders.
The Treasure Troops are led by the head Line Keeper, Sir Tiny Tim.
Line Keepers are the head honchos of the Treasure Troops. Line Keepers don special equipment that provide abilities still being studied, but help in the management of CLHQ and its oversight of the CLD from the prime dimension.
In its current iteration, CLHQ was led by Head Line Keeper Sir Maximus, who spent much time training his apprentice Tiny Tim, who was eventually promoted to Head Line Keeper himself, replacing Sir Maximus when he became MIA.
The nature and origin of the Line Keepers' hats are still unknown. What is known is that they provide transport ability, skirting the edge of the CLD to arrive at a destination. It's also been discovered that they can even twist and contort time, transporting its wearer through space and time, as Sir Tiny Tim can attest.
Line Keepers must be trained and earn their role, as use of the extremely powerful hat is a great responsibility, which can be easily misused. Without proper control and management, its wearer can quickly become lost in the vast unknown expanse of the Cache Line Dimension, or even destroy the fabric of our universe.
In a nutshell, 'Cloud Portals' are specially designed gateways that connect the Prime Dimension to the Cache Line Dimension, and vice versa. Current proprietary technology at CLHQ allows for a small window to open through with information, or matter, may be transmitted depending on the portal type. These portals then operate as a form of wormhole through space.
First, CLHQ's instrumentation detects an early swell of pulse energy (like an approaching wave, or early detection of an earthquake) attained by analysis of various transdimension artifact materials. This early detection is enough to begin triangulation of the target geocache that will very soon be found by a geocacher. The team then triangulates its locatin from the upcoming pulse data, and within the CLD locates a cache line that interacts with the target location.
Once locked on, a gateway portal is calibrated to couple to the line, and once opened, a small amount of matter (in this case, a Treasure Troop) is able to traverse the portal and follow the coupled cache line through spacetime toward the target geocache. The trooper then uses a Navdisc to open the exit, the tail end of the portal, hoping to re-enter the Prime Dimension as close to the geocache as possible.
The trooper then has limited time to locate the container, open it, and signal back to CLHQ using a special transdimensional targeting laser built in to the Navdisc, the precise location for the opening of another portal through which a selection of appropriately sized swag is delivered directly into the geocache.
When complete, the Navdisc's final function is used to re-open a return gateway - this traversal is a little more rough as there is no portal structure to stabilize the gateway for the trooper. The return trip back to CLHQ like a rubber band snapping back into place.
Transportation of physical matter via the CLD is a very risky process, still being heavily studied, and the technology is being regularly improved. However, information and signals can also be detected through CLD portals. Observation portals are gateways that detect the scene at the tail end of the portal where the positive energy pulse was detected, and either reproduce a visual scene, or create an image based on whatever inspired the energy pulse.
These visuals may be projected and burned into special disc material to produce Portal Imprints. These images can be very dreamlike, recreate visions and memories, or whatever the eye may have seen.
Similarly, Audio Observation Portals are able to recreate sound detected by the gateway's tail end. Sir Maximus is known to have made use of this strategy to speak his final recorded words to Sir Tiny Tim before going MIA.
Recent innovations at CLHQ have also allowed for fabrication of special Imprint frames. These frames are coupled to the mainframe and hold an imprint token, which enable them to travel freely in the Prime Dimension and have their location manually triangulated and tracked by the mainframe.
A detailed guide is currently in development. Find out more about the Cloud, agents, discoveries, events, and how you can participate in the efforts of CLHQ to understand the Cache Line Dimension...
Coming soon.