[hider=Technically an Assassin]
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[b]Name:[/b] Spring-Heeled Jack

[b]Title(s):[/b] The Terror of London

[b]Class:[/b] Assassin

[b]Gender:[/b] Male

[b]Attribute:[/b] 

[b]Alignment:[/b] Chaotic Evil

[b]Personality:[/b] An enigmatic individual who hides his face behind a mask and his intentions behind a veneer of madness. At times a giggling madman whose thoughts only extend to how best to cause mischief and terror, unpredictable and wild, and at other times a man with a surprising amount of intelligence, cunning and intuition, someone capable of careful planning and trickery.

It is worth remembering that the individual known as “Spring-Heeled Jack” was just a costume and a mask, an invention of the newspapers and the populace. There was once a man under the mask with his own goals and motives, whose use of the costume was only to accomplish those goals. Whether Assassin takes on the guise of the myth, the man behind the myth or both seems to vary from moment to moment. Or perhaps it is all an act and Assassin’s true nature lays yet one layer deeper.

[b]Objective for the Grail:[/b] The Grail is less important than his own amusement. The Holy Grail War is the perfect playground.

[b]Biography:[/b] A mysterious individual that first appeared in England in the 19th century, “Spring-Heeled Jack” conducted a series of attacks over the course of several decades yet not much is known about him. The first sighting occurred in London but sightings were eventually reports all across the United Kingdom with most reports sharing common elements; a person able to leap incredible heights and distances, a demonic appearance often including glowing red eyes and a set of claws or the ability to breathe fire and leave people in a state of senselessness.

His identity, his true name or even whether or not he truly existed was never determined and the fantastical nature of his sightings led to much speculation as to whether or not he was even human. Some consider him to be the product of mass hysteria, an urban legend that took on a life of its own, or a single incident that went on to inspire several copy cats; the latter would help to explain how Spring-Heeled Jack could continue to appear over eighty years after the original incident. However others considered him to be supernatural in nature, an alien visiting our world or a demon summoned either on purpose or by accident to name just a few of the theories.

The truth of the matter is far more mundane than either demons or aliens, yet would be equally unbelievable to the average person. “Spring-Heeled Jack” was nothing more than the creation of a bored Magus with too much free time on their hands and a particular disdain for women; the glowing red eyes and devilish appearance common to many of the accounts were a simple illusion, the ability to leap over tall walls or buildings beyond human ability was a case of simple self-reinforcement and the blue fire that induced blindness and fit, though somewhat sinister, was also nothing but a minor curse produced via magecraft.

Originally a way for a man with a macabre sense of humour to amuse himself the story of “Spring-Heeled Jack” took on a life of its own; several of the attacks that were attributed to Jack were not conducted by the Magus at all, being either the actions of copy cats, unrelated incidents blamed on the phantom attacker, or complete fabrications. The legend of “Spring-Heeled Jack” was alive and well and survived longer than the man who created it, with new reports and sightings appearing long after the Magus had died.

[b]Weapon:[/b] Clawed hands

[b]Parameters:[/b]
STR: C
END: C
AGI: A
MGI: B
LCK: C

[b]Class Skills:[/b]
Presence Concealment C – The capability to hide one’s presence as a Servant. Assassin was not one for stealth and subterfuge, only concealing himself long enough to get close to his victim so that he could attack or surprise them in order to cause terror and mayhem; as such his rank in this skill is low for an Assassin.

[b]Personal Skills:[/b]
Disengage A – The ability to withdraw from the battlefield in the midst of combat or reset the battle conditions. Unlike most Servants that fall into this class, Assassin was known to terrify or harass his victims before fleeing rather than killing them, always escaping without harm or capture; his true identity was never discovered.

Protection From Arrows C – An increased defense against projectiles through exceptional means. Assassin’s supposed immunity to bullets, despite being fired upon by guards or soldiers multiple times, gave credence to the theory that he was a demon or super natural entity.

Spring-Heeled B – A skill that allows Assassin to easy surmount obstacles and barriers that would otherwise bar their way; can move while jumping over all kinds of obstacles on the field, including enemies, and can explosively improve his mobility by emitting magical power, raising his overall offensive power as a result. The very name by which Assassin is known, “Spring-Heeled Jack”, is a reference to the inhuman leaping ability that they displayed that allowed them to escape pursuers by jumping over walls and buildings.

[b]Noble Phantasm:[/b]

Name: Baleful Hellfire
Title: Madness Inducing Glimpse of Hell
Rank: C+
NP Type: Anti-Unit
Range: 1-15
Maximum Number of Targets: 1
Description: One of the key features of Assassin’s myth and one of the abilities most responsible for the theory that “Spring-Heeled Jack” was a demon; what was once a minor curse meant to disable and terrorise his victims had become truly demonic in nature. This Noble Phantasm grants Assassin the ability to breathe gouts of blue and white fire which, rather than burning whoever it touches, instead assaults them with a form of mental-interference effect; those touched by this flame are rendered temporarily blind and can suffer violent fits as their bodies are racked with seizures. Both of these effects can be resisted using the MGI stat, but the blindness is much harder to resist than the seizures.

The effects of this Noble Phantasm are increased when Assassin is using his “Terror of London” Noble Phantasm.

Name: Terror of London
Title: The Very Image of the Devil Himself
Rank: B
NP Type: Anti-Unit (Self)
Range: N/A
Maximum Number of Targets: N/A
Description: Once a man believed to be a demon, this Noble Phantasm allows Assassin to become a true demon in the sense of a Phantasmal Species; his eyes glow like balls of fire, the metal claws on his hands become a part of his body and his inhuman and grotesque mask becomes his real face; a man becoming the monster he portrays himself as. In this form his physical stats are greatly increased to the point where he can even contest a Servant of the Knight classes for a while, with STR ranking up twice to A and END ranking up once to B; meanwhile his “Baleful Hellfire” Noble Phantasm is also empowered, producing longer lasting effects and being harder to resist.
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[hider=Huang Lanfen - Gu Practitioner]
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Name: Huang Lanfen

Gender: Female

Age: 38

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Rank: 

Objective for the Grail: To increase the wealth and power of her family

Personality: Lanfen is a patient and methodical person, someone who understands the value of taking their time to ensure things are done properly, but this is due to a surplus of restraint rather than being her natural state; it is against her base nature to hold herself back and to take things slow but these are the values that she was taught and she has enough self-control to abide by them.

She is greedy, naturally avaricious and covetous, but not so much as to let it affect her actions. She is one to set her sights high and always aim for the biggest reward possible, but is able to let an opportunity pass if pursuing it would put herself at risk.

There is a cruel streak running through her that shows itself on occasion. Lanfen does not actively seek to do harm to others, but if she must harm others to reach her goal then she will not hesitate to do so and will even do so with a hint of eagerness at times. There is a mocking note to her personality that she is not always able to hide.

Biography: The Huang family has existed in some form or another for over 1000 years, although anti-sorcery purges and changes to the political climate in China mean that they have undergone several transitions during that time. Hailing from Southern China they are a group of Gu practitioners who used their abilities to quickly acquire a vast amount of wealth and power, using curses and poisons to eliminate rivals or prominent individuals and claim their fortunes as their own. However, such growth attracted attention and during one of China’s many purges of Gu practitioners and witches they were discovered and nearly eradicated; their work was destroyed, their members nearly wiped out and their fortune lost. Some of the family managed to survive, by luck or by design, and were able to rebuild from the ground up.

 This story repeated itself several times; a swift rise and an even more abrupt fall as Gu practitioners were hunted and eradicated by whoever was in power at the time and all eyes turned towards those families who had no good explanation for where or how they had obtained what they had. All progress lost and all fortune scattered as the Huang’s were left to pick up the pieces and start again. Hard lessons were learnt along the way and a subtler, more careful approach was adopted; a slower accumulation of wealth, less obvious grabs for power and a lot of care given to staying in the shadows and giving people no reason to notice them.

They learned the hard way that growing too fast tends to attract attention and all the power in the world meant nothing when the might of the Emperor was directed against them. Patience and a slow and steady solidifying of their foothold would mean that they would outlast any Emperor that sought to eradicate them, or any other threat for that matter. The last purge they fell victim to was 400 years ago and because of their new approach they were one of the last groups of Gu practitioners to be discovered, giving them the time they needed to hide and secure most of their assets and even avoid the destruction of the most powerful of the Gu creatures that they had been cultivating over the last 200 years, preventing the loss of their magecraft.

This is the Huang family as Lanfen was born into it; careful, methodical and subdued. They yearned for the wealth and power they once achieved at their height, though they were not lacking in either, but restrained themselves and focused on slowly and steadily cultivating both in a manner that would benefit future generations more than themselves. Always with an eye to the future, the Huang family grows and grows and grows without exposing themselves to the world at large. Even so, they could not resist the allure of the Holy Grail War; they know they are taking a risk in sending a representative and exposing themselves, but what they stand to gain if they claim the Grail is potentially greater than what they might lose. After all, it’s not like they haven’t rebuilt themselves several times before and the loss of a single Magus is hardly comparable to the purges of the past.

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Magic Circuit Switch: The image of a snake coiling around a rat

Number of Magic Circuits: A

Quality of Magic Circuits: C

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Elemental Affinity: Fire and Earth

Magecraft: Although she has never attended the Clocktower, Lanfen is as versed in the basics of General Magecraft as any graduate of the Clocktower would be, having received a comprehensive education from her family. Aside from this she has a strong foundation in formal craft and cursing technique, both of which are geared towards working with her family’s specialty of Gu magecraft.

Gu magecraft utilises the practice of sealing several venomous creatures, such as spiders, scorpions, snakes and so on, in a container and waiting for them to devour each other; the poisons and grudges of those creatures are concentrated into the surviving creature and this creature is then used as a source of power or as a charm to perform various acts. The creature can either be used in its entirety or its poison can be extracted and used instead, depending on how much power is required.

As a type of magecraft that is very well suited to cultivating magical energy into containers, which can then be used by any Magus and not just the one who cultivated it, Gu magecraft has a good synergy with Formal Craft. The magical energy produced through Gu is also inherently negative, meaning it is well suited for use in cursing techniques; Gu practitioners often use their art either to accumulate wealth, usually at the expense of others, or as a means of enacting revenge and are well acquainted with curses as a result.

Magic Crest: The Huang family does not possess a Magic Crest in the traditional sense; they instead pass their knowledge down through more traditional means and instead cultivate power in a different way from Western Mage families.

For the past 600 years the Huang family have invested significant time and resources into cultivating a single Gu creature, one whose poisons have fuelled their magecraft for generations. The efficacy of Gu magecraft greatly depends upon how much magical energy has been cultivated and as the focus of the Huang families efforts this particular creature has consumed tens of thousands of poisons and grudges. This creature, rather than a crest, is the backbone of their magecraft.

Equipment:
Concealing Umbrella – A mystic code capable of concealing the magical energies of a person by creating a weak effect not dissimilar to a bounded field. The effect does not reach very far, covering the person holding it and perhaps a couple of others standing in close proximity. The effect is more easily bypassed than that of a bounded field, but it works well at preventing detection from those who are not actively looking to find someone.

Magic Opium Pipe – A pipe used in order to spread poisonous vapours over a wide area. When packed with a form of solidified Gu poison and lit the smoke produced by this pipe can be controlled and directed by the Magus holding the pipe.

A dozen minor Gu creatures – While the Huang family may possess an extraordinarily powerful Gu creature, every Gu practitioner should regularly cultivate a number of their own creatures for their own use so as not to be tied to one location and so as not to be dependent on others. Lanfen has in her possession twelve minor Gu creatures that she keeps with her at all times to act as fuel for her magecraft when her family’s creature is not readily available. They are strong enough as to be able to shapeshift into different animals and Lanfen likes to have them take the form of blood-red butterflies, but they are able to take on more subtle forms if need be.

Exceptional Benefit: Superior Mystic Code
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