Mercury
"Dagdes Mercredi," Elemental Knight (NPC)

Non-Player Character

This guy is so not a PC. He has been on Earth and under cover for more time than Silicon, even. They began around the same time, but Mercury hasn't been absent as often or as long. The Principalities have set him to developing human chemical know-how, and he has had a lot to do with metalurgy and alchemy in China and India as well as Europe.

He has a strong resonnance with the mythic figures of Mercury, Hermes, Odin, Nebo, and Thoth, partly because he has helped build those figures – he just plain resonnates with the Trickster archetype, and sometimes in dark ways. Mercury is a poison, after all.

What he poisons is bad chemistry. There's only one of him on this planet, and he has to be careful not to tip his hand, but when he can, he sabotages the development of chemical evils – nerve gas, street drugs, pollutant additives, and the like. He is not above literal poisonning of criminal chemists, or arranging lab accidents. He has obviously not wiped out these misuses of chemistry, but he's done something to slow them down.

He has built up a detailed human persona:

Colors: scarlet, emerald green, violet – the colors of a mercury vapor lamp.
Valence: 2.

Usual entanglements:

The bag of tricks is a blotchy, neutral, matte gray and thus easy to hide. It usually contains:

Perfect Agility: (no roll) — Catch arrows? Juggle cats? Write with both hands on different topics? Cut diamonds while running? No problem. Cost: Variable amounts of Focus and Psi.
Sign: Never stumbles or fumbles (unless he's acting).

Gift of Tongues: (no roll) — Mercredi can talk with anyone. No cost.
Sign: Always speaks to you in your language and accent.

Alchemistry: 99% — He combines the powers of Alchemy with Mad Science chemistry, specializing in: elixirs, homunculi, nanoswarms, healing potions, poisons, antidotes, sleeping draughts, and performance enhancers. Costs: 3 Psi for magical Alchemy, variable for Mad Chemistry.
Sign: Often smells odd.

Flit: 85% — Just as in FuRPiG. Not quite teleportation, but he can get anywhere in the world that isn't hermetically sealed – which is a bit ironic, considering the etymology of "hermetic." Standard, unmodified Flits are to places he has been before. -30% to Flit using directions or a map; expect to zero in over several tries. +10% to +20% to Flit while in possession of a physical token of the destination, the exact value of the modifier depending upon the quality of the token. Cost: 3 Psi.
Sign: Carries loose change from everywhere.

Self-Seeming: 85% — He can look like anything or nothing. The distinction between Shapeshifting and Second-Order Glamour hardly applies to him. Cost: 3 Psi.
Sign: Always appears dressed to fit in.

Stage Magic: 99% — He mostly does coin, card, and rope tricks because they are readily portable. There is some magic involved, but not where you'd expect it: he can draw off and store psi from an appreciative audience, a very benign form of mass psychic vampirism. He stores the psi in illusory coins, then usually transfers it into elixirs.
Sign: Always carries coins, and often carries string or cards.

Acting: 80% — Between this and Self-Seeming, he can pass as anyone and lie very convincingly. He also uses this trait in his stage magic performances, of course.
Sign: Always seems at ease.

30-something Slavic man, 75 kg (165 lbs), 160 cm (6'), strength 135 kg (300 lbs)

Languages: all of them

Effort Pts: 30__________________________________________
x1= 30   x2= 60   x3= 90   x4= 120   x5= 150

Focus Pts: 30__________________________________________
x1= 30   x2= 60   x3= 90   x4= 120   x5= 150

Psi Pts: 30 __________________________________________
x1= 30   x2= 60   x3= 90   x4= 120   x5= 150