Character: Master (Marcus) Payne
Character Sheet (Master (Marcus) Payne)
Combat Value: 5
You are Marcus Payne, Ringmaster of Master Payne's Circus of Adventure. And of all the bad months you've had (and there have been many), this is probably the worst.Your life has always been about pushing past adversity; indeed, it has been that way for generations before you. Once upon a time, a century ago, the Paynes were a prosperous merchant family. Your people weren't nobles, but there were times when being merchants was better than being noble: all the money, significantly fewer headaches. And then the Heterodynes came along.
The name still raises your blood pressure a little, you must admit: for all that your head has accepted that they're not all bad, your family history taught your heart otherwise. And a hundred years ago, the Heterodynes were evil through and through -- the worst of the Bad Sparks. They always prided themselves being outside the ordinary rules, the mad geniuses who rampaged as they saw fit. With their rampaging army of Jaegermonsters, they pillaged and killed their way across half the continent, and no one could stop them.
Certainly the Payne Estate couldn't. For all that your family didn't have a noble demesne, they still had a home, which had the money, servants and possessions. And then the Heterodynes came through, and -- well, some of them still had their lives. The rest of their comfortable merchant empire was gone forever.
To keep from utter penury, your family entered into service. They were well-suited to it: centuries of hob-nobbing with the nobility gave them deep knowledge of how the game was played. It took swallowing their pride, but your great-grandparents associated themselves with the Beetle clan, rulers of Beetleburg and hereditary headmaster of Transylvania Polygnostic Univesity.
The Beetles were good to the Paynes, and the relationship became hereditary. When you were born, it was made clear that you would be the personal man to Tarsus Beetle, heir to the family and a few years older than yourself. In practice, the two of you became friends. Noble circles tended to be isolated places, and neither of you had many associates your own age, so it was a natural evolution. In many ways, you were more like brothers than master and servant, and both of your fathers indulged the relationship, mirroring their own as it did.
You both broke through as Sparks in your late teens, and helped each other survive the experience intact. Beetle was the powerful Spark, of course, with a knack for machinery. His breakthrough came in the form of a rampaging giant Clank that would have torn through much of Beetleburg if you hadn't gathered a group of young men to band together and take it down. Yours was more surprising, since your family had never shown the talent, and it was subtler, but your illusions were enough to convince the villagers that you were some sort of witch, and you probably would have fallen prey to the pitchfork-wielding mob if Beetle hadn't misdirected them out of town.
The close relationship between you and Beetle began to loosen a bit when he was 20, and his father passed away. Oh, you were still inseparable, but things became more formal, as he assumed responsibility for Beetleburg and TPU. He was determined to rule both well, and that meant devoting his attention to them fully, and so you, inevitably, became more his background servant and a little less the close friend and confidant. Still, those were good years: Beetle was a talented administrator of both his charges, as well as growing into one of the world's great scholars (especially on the subject of the history of Sparks and their works), and assisting him was satisfying work. You would have been content to continue in that capacity permanently, if the Heterodynes hadn't come back.
In retrospect, the feud between Beetle and the Heterodyne Boys was a colossal misunderstanding. But you still think it was their own damned fault for starting it. Bill and Barry Heterodyne may have viewed themselves as adventuring heroes, but they can't have been that insensitive to their family's history and reputation. They came wandering into town, boasting about how they were going to make things right, and Beetle (with, admittedly, your encouragement) did the obvious thing: he sent a pair of giant Clanks after them. That should have been the end of it, but no: they decided, with their characteristic lack of subtlety, that Beetle was a Villain, and proceeded to chase him out of town!
The next few years were unpleasant. Oh, you and Beetle returned to Beetleburg soon enough, and continued running things normally. But both of you were deeply offended by the whole affair, and Beetle became obsessed with it as only a powerful Spark can obsess. The next time the Heterodynes came nearby, he took the opportunity to attack (you still think the Heterodyne Replica Clanks were a nice touch, even if they didn't last long), and when they got away from that he spent several years planning and executing new and different attacks.
Eventually, the Boys found an opportunity to simply sit down with him and talk. Those two had the most remarkably silver tongues -- by the end, they had him asking their forgiveness, and promising to ally with them from then on. It was for the best for everyone, you knew, but you couldn't stomach it: the Heterodynes still had too many bad connotations for you, and the whole matter had left a bad taste in your mouth. With the deepest of regrets, you told Beetle that you were going to have to leave his service and seek your own fortune. You packed a bag, set on out, and didn't look back.
You really didn't know what you were going to do -- it was a complete accident that you happened across the Circus of Adventure and fell in with it. They were a variety act, and their magician was very old, but you were utterly enraptured when you saw his act. You spent the entire night trading illusions with him, and by the next morning you were officially his protege, traveling with the show and learning the ropes. One of the great thrills of your life was the night, two years later, when he sponsored you into The International Brotherhood of Evil Magicians. Okay, the "Evil" part made you a little uneasy, but he assured you that that was mostly just to enhance the mystique of the whole thing. "The International Brotherhood of Usually But Not Always Nice Magicians" just didn't have the same ring. And, as you quickly learned, being a bit intimidating can be quite useful sometimes.
As it turned out, you were useful as more than merely the apprentice magician. Your years helping to run Beetleburg had taught you much about administration -- you knew about everything from bookkeeping to management, and all of it proved helpful. So when Master Francis, the owner of the Circus, fell in love with a townswoman and decided it was time for him to retire, everyone agreed that you were the right person to buy him out. And so it became formally "Master Payne's Circus of Adventure". Your home had been created, and you were proud of it.
The accumulation of Sparks was a more gradual and subtle thing. When you came to the Circus, there were only a few of you. But you accumulated more over the years. All were for pretty much the same reason: there was no place for minor Sparks in the world today. They were always perceived as dangerous by those around them, but weren't actually powerful enough to defend themselves from the inevitable mobs. So they would wind up on the run, and fall in with this band of travelers who were passing through town.
And you must admit, it's given you a new sense of family. You have people to protect, the people who are least understood to need that protection. Even today, the Circus isn't entirely made up of Sparks, but everyone understands the plight of the Spark, and you all work together to help each other. It's not an easy life, but it's a good one in its way.
Of course, one of the best parts has been your wife, Countess Marie. Most people assume that that's an affectation -- that she's simply another performer playing a role. But you know better.
You had been running the Circus for a few years when Marie literally came riding into it. Everyone was surprised to see this beautiful seventeen year old, dressed in a torn but obviously rich gown, utterly bedraggled from chasing the Circus through the Wilderness for three days. She explained that she was a Countess from the cadet line of Holfung-Borzoi (the Duchy you had recently left). She was in bad shape (although, really, unusually healthy for someone who had confronted not one but two of the creatures wandering through the Wilderness), and you all took her in until she could recover.
She wanted to join the Circus, which was clearly a non-starter: even if you were in the business of taking random (non-Spark) vagabonds in, it was simply too dangerous to have a runaway Noble. She offered the gold that she had with her, and you can't say it wasn't tempting, but it still wasn't right. To her immense disappointment, you turned around and headed back towards the Duchy.
The Construct attacked that night. It was a pretty bad one even by your usual standards, and secrets be damned: you needed to survive. Everyone pulled out their assorted defensive devices and attacked, but it was still making headway. The thing managed to grab you, and was pulling you in towards its mandibles -- you still smell its breath occasionally. And then a vial flew over your head, and into its mouth. It shuddered and died, and everyone looked to see who had thrown the poison: Countess Marie.
It turned out that secrets go both ways. She had left home for the same reason as most of you: she knew that her newly-discovered Spark would not be appreciated by her family. She was a chemist of no small skill: her breakthrough had involved love potions as well as poisons. So she changed the terms of the discussion, pointing out that she didn't just want to join with you, she was one of you. You couldn't argue with the logic. But you pointed out the price to her -- if she was going to travel with you, Holfung-Borzoi was henceforth off-limits. You would travel elsewhere, but couldn't be seen with a missing noblewoman. She accepted that she would not see her home again with equanimity, and set off with you.
It really didn't surprise anyone when the two of you fell in together. You'd been attracted to her from the beginning, and moreso as she showed a calm and strength of character that you quite admired. And she was a great beauty, moreso as she grew into a woman. The age difference gave you pause (you are far older than she), but she clearly didn't care. And so you proposed to her on her 22nd birthday, and (perhaps more significantly) accepted her as co-owner of the Circus.
Married life has treated you well. Oh, Marie is still prone to calling you a "commoner" (with the subtlest of smiles), and she wields a mean frying pan when annoyed, but she has made a fine partner. You aren't sure you could have managed so many years running the Circus without her.
Of course, there have been some disagreements. Probably the worst was when she decided that the Circus should become a Heterodyne show. Her arguments were, as always, impossible to contest -- Bill and Barry Heterodyne are almost worshipped throughout the land, and people wanted to see performances of their exploits. But it still stuck in your craw. You manage, and nowadays don't even usually think about it much. But sometimes, that old resentment of the Heterodyne family returns, and you have to stew for a while before calming yourself down. The other acts continue, of course (indeed, most of the Circus' actual money comes from acts like Olga's fortune-telling routine), but the headline today is the Heterodynes. Oh, well.
Things aren't quite as bad nowadays as they were in previous decades. Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach has been slowly conquering most of Europa, and while his techniques are heavy-handed (and often not terribly good for the ordinary villagers), he has at least reduced the strife a bit. You could wish for someone who cared more about the common people -- late at night, you still sometimes fantasize with Marie about how much good she could do if she somehow wound up on her throne again -- but he's better than the chaos that preceded him.
Your lives may have been a bit difficult, but they were at least straightforward until you began to cross paths with the Wulfenbachs. It began about three months ago, when young Balthazar brought in a girl he had found out in the Wilderness, with nothing but the clothes on her back, a talking cat, and a very large gun. Well, actually, she had found him, and brought him back to you. She explained that her name was Agatha Clay, and that she was on the run from the Baron.
That was not something you all wanted to hear. The Baron is the most powerful man in the land, and not to be crossed. You didn't want to leave her behind -- it breaks you heart a little every time you have to turn one of these children away, and moreso when they are being hunted. But while she might be a good person, you could not afford to be harboring a fugitive. It was simply too dangerous to the Circus and its people. So you turned her away.
And then she came back. Really, it was reminiscent of the day Marie joined. Not longer after turning her away, the Circus was attacked by a great Clank -- nasty even by the standards of the Wilderness. Agatha hadn't gone far, and came running back with that great weapon of hers. The fight was brief and fatal: Olga, your longtime fortune-teller, was killed by the Clank before it could be stopped. But Agatha did stop it, saving the Circus and showing herself to be a good person. You began to suspect then that she was a Spark, but couldn't be certain -- anyone could use a big gun.
The Wulfenbachs, as expected, tracked her down and came after her. Even by the standards of the Circus, that was a dicey moment -- you were used to lying to people by now (grifting is a standard part of Circus life), but pulling the wool over the eyes of the most powerful Sparks of the land was downright frightening. But you had little choice. Marie dressed Agatha as Olga: with the big black wig covering her blonde hair, she was almost impossible to recognize. And you all buried Olga's ashes in a grave marked as Agatha's. Marie insisted that Agatha toss in the ring she had been wearing: that wasn't easy for her, but it added just the bit of verisimilitude that the trick required. The illusionist in you admired your wife's excellent handiwork.
Fortunately, the Baron himself did not come down: even the nerviest Circus folk might have cracked at that sight. Instead, it was his son Gilgamesh. The poor lad was obviously in love with Agatha, and he was angry enough at the idea of her dying that you began to worry about needing to resort to extreme measures. But Pix and Abner did a fine job of convincing him that it was so, and took him off to the grave. You can't say you were sorry to see them go: his bodyguard, Bangladesh DuPree, was one of those sinister creatures who flock to the Baron in hopes of finding people to kill. A little longer, and someone surely would have slipped.
Miss Clay has traveled with you since then, helping with the Circus' various duties. And she wasn't the biggest surprise: in a town a few weeks later, you wound up acquiring a trio of wandering Jaegermonsters who wanted to join up. You were reluctant -- well, no, you were totally opposed -- but one doesn't say "no" to a creature with such large teeth. And in fact, they have made useful guards, and better clowns than you would have expected. They have a knack for unintentional comedy that is almost unparalleled.
Things have never been quite as grim as they are now, though. You are down to half-strength, and time is drawing short.
Three weeks ago, the Circus passed through the town of Middleburg. Once upon a time, it was a nice enough place: never impressive, but the sort of place where you could do a few acts, run a few grifts, and do decently well. You hadn't been there in many years -- it wasn't on your usual route any more -- but with the bridge at Passholdt out of commission (and you all having barely gotten away from the creatures there with your lives), it was the obvious way to go.
Middleburg, it turned out, was now run by a corrupt nobleman named Hugo von Markheim, a truly nasty piece of work. Having spent so much time with decent nobility like Beetle and Marie, you sometimes forget how bad the bad ones really are. He runs Middleburg as his own private little fief, and he makes up the rules arbitrarily. By all accounts, he is exceptionally harsh, and likes to extort from everyone who passes through.
So you and Marie were very clear with the members of the Circus: everyone was to stay strictly on the up-and-up. For all you know, they might have done so -- reports were very muddled. All you know for sure is that, late on that first night, a rider came from Middleburg, telling you that all the Circus members in town had been arrested, on the serious grounds of "theft". That was out of character, but you couldn't discount the possibility that it was true -- a bit of grifting is almost reflexive for some members of the show. You asked how to get them out of jail, and were cited a price that was clearly a bribe. A bribe far beyond the Circus' means.
You pleaded and begged -- everything but outright exposing your own Sparkiness to the herald. But he would hear none of it. Either the Circus coughed up the money within three weeks, or von Markheim would begin to execute members of the show. Finally, you asked whether fair exchange would be accepted, and the herald agreed that a gift of suitable value would be considered a proper bail.
Well, you clearly couldn't raise the money in Middleheim, and risk having more members of the Circus taken hostage. So you have spent the past two weeks on the road, doing everything you could to raise the funds. It has been hard, though, especially with half the group behind bars. As of a week ago, you were nowhere near having the needed money. But you did hear about one desperate option. The Hidden Castle of Amagog had recently reappeared.
It all tied into a famous local legend. Two centuries ago, the Great Spark Amagog had been terrorizing the countryside, with his "Perfect Construct" (some sort of monster -- accounts vary) by his side. Oh, he probably wasn't such a terror in reality -- Beetle had been a great fan of his, and always made Amagog out to be more a frustrated academic than anything else. But no Spark is viewed well by local villagers, so there probably were some real conflicts. And so, one day, he simply vanished: he, his monster, even his Castle, just disappeared one night. No one knew where they had gone, but the legend had it that he would return one day. And that day seems to be now -- a few weeks ago, the Castle reappeared, fully intact.
Of course, every adventurer in the region has been coming around and trying to enter the Castle, and none of them have come back out as far as you know. The Castle is fully functional, including all of its deathtraps. Frightening stuff, but it does imply that there are things of great value inside. Perhaps great enough to ransom back the Circus.
And so you all camped out here. Most of you aren't adventurers, but Embi is, and he told you that he would deal with the problem. You aren't sure precisely what he did, but he apparently has friends out in the forest, and the bunch of them went into the Castle several days ago. It clearly didn't go perfectly -- Marie tells you that she had to fix one of them up a couple of days ago -- but Embi seems to have come back, none the worse for wear.
Embi hasn't told you exactly what they found there, but when you ask about the ransom, he smiles and tells you that he has a plan. You hope he is right -- von Markheim's herald is supposed to rendezvous with you here tonight, and he expects you to be able to give him his money then. In the meantime, you all continue to raise what money you can in more conventional ways -- putting on shows, grifting a little, and generally scraping up what you can.
So your highest priority for now is figuring out how you are going to pay off von Markheim. Whatever Embi has might do it, but you aren't one to put all your eggs in one basket. The more ways you have to deal with the problem, the better...
Public Info
Personality
You are a good man, and you love your Circus, but one of these days the stress of the task is going to be your death. Trying to keep the people together and safe, trying to keep them all fed -- it wears on you. It's like having several dozen children, and being in charge of them every day. You keep it together, though, and try to always be the cool voice of sense in the group. It's made you a bit taciturn sometimes, and you do get angry occasionally, but you keep that away from your people.It's a good thing you have the show. Those moments on stage, or helping others get on stage, are what makes it all worthwhile. Life back in Beetleburg was safer and calmer, but it simply couldn't have been that much fun. You've found yourself as a showman: controlling the audience, getting them on your side, and simply entertaining them. Along with protecting your people, that's what keeps you going.
Some People You Know (Master (Marcus) Payne)
Countess Marie: Your wife, and co-owner of the Circus. Still lovely and vivacious, and quite a good partner in crime and other things. Her skill with all sorts of potions come in handy more frequently than you ever could have imagined.
Professor Tarsus Beetle: Your oldest friend, now dead. Beetle was a good man in his way -- occasionally a little headstrong, but someone who really cared about his town, his university and his people. Miss Clay tells you that he was killed several months back, when she was first taken from Beetleburg: she had been a student of his, she claims. You still don't know what to make of that, and have been meaning to press her for more details. She says that TPU has been taken over by Silas Merlot, who you have met a few times -- a rather intense fellow, but dedicated to his work. Hopefully he will do well by Beetle's legacy.
Bill and Barry Heterodyne: The first Heterodynes who were vaguely decent human beings. The family were downright evil until then, and destroyed your family a hundred years ago. Bill and Barry weren't bad, and you must admit that they helped a lot of people. But putting on shows extolling their virtues is still occasionally a bit painful.
Baron Klaus von Wulfenbach: The Heterodynes' onetime "sidekick", portrayed as something of a buffoon in the stories, but very much a powerful noble today. He rules most of Europa with an iron fist. Not someone to be treated lightly. Really, not someone to come near, if possible.
Agatha Clay: A powerful Spark, who joined the Circus several months ago. She has remarkable talents with everything from defensive devices to wagon machinery. And she turns out to be an actress of no small skill -- she has been slotted into the Heterodyne Show as Lucrezia Mongfish, the villainess who later married Bill Heterodyne, and she excels at it. But she doesn't talk much about her past, which always worries you a bit. You want to know what happened to Beetle, and whether she had anything to do with it.
Krosp: Miss Clay's pet cat. Her talking pet cat. A rather monomaniacal little bastard, but you're used to dealing with Sparks, so that's nothing unusual. He's proved himself useful and clever. Pity he can't sing, though -- you still haven't figured out how to make use of him in the show.
Gilgamesh von Wulfenbach: The Baron's son, a powerful Spark in his own right. You dealt with him the night that he came to fetch Agatha from you, and he did not take well the news that she was "dead". With any luck, you won't encounter him again -- he would not likely be happy about the Circus lying to him.
Bangladesh DuPree: Wulfenbach's bodyguard. A very dangerous woman, to be avoided at all costs.
Zeetha: A green-haired warrior princess who joined the Circus several years ago. She is not a Spark, but is one of the most dangerous fighters around, and quite enjoys combat, so she has become the Circus' unofficial bodyguard, as well as showing off her sword work on stage. She took Agatha on as some sort of student, and takes much glee in running the poor girl ragged.
Artie: A talking gerbil that Miss Clay apparently picked up a couple of days ago. How she gathers such creatures around her, you aren't sure -- perhaps it's a secret Spark skill that she hasn't otherwise told you about? He does seem a reasonable sort of beast, though, and frankly more personable than Krosp.
Dimo, Oggie and Maxim: Three Jaegermonsters you found hanging (literally) in a town a couple of months ago. They decided to attach themselves to the Circus, and, well, who is going to tell them otherwise? To your surprise, you've been finding them rather decent, despite their tendency to sneak around. You've particularly been finding Dimo to have a genuine sense of humor, if sometimes an odd one. They have some sort of connection to Miss Clay: you don't understand precisely in what way, but they keep leaping to her aid. For all that, though, they make you terribly nervous, and you can't say you really trust them. It was the Jaegermonster army, under the command of the Heterodynes, that destroyed your family. Can any Jaegers really be understood or trusted?
"Dingbot Prime": Agatha has a way with Clanks -- she has built several, which help her in various ways. But one seems to be almost a pet unto itself (another sentient pet!), rather intelligent for a Clank and quite devoted to her. It has shown itself to be helpful around the Circus, but you have a damnable time trying to figure out what motivates it.
Abner: Your assistant and second-in-command. He was captured with the others in town, but apparently talked his way out a couple of days ago, to come and help you raise the money. (Actually, you suspect that Pix talked him out of it -- that would be much more her style.)
Pix: Your best actress, a truly skilled young woman who usually plays the High Priestess now that Miss Clay is playing Lucrezia. She and Abner are quite obviously in love, and it is undoubtedly tearing him up that she is being held back in town, in mortal danger. You suspect the poor lad is beside himself, but the people-management is a bit more Marie's thing than yours.
Rivet: The Circus' mechanic, also captured. You have her wagon, with its remarkable collection of tools, but only Miss Clay has the skills to do much with it.
The Circus Cook: In all these years, you still don't know his name! He just prefers to be known as "Cook". Another victim of Middleburg. He traditionally plays Klaus von Wulfenbach in the Heterodyne Show, when he isn't making pies of all sorts as his Spark specialty. Marie has been fretting over the large collection of pies he left behind.
Embi: A curious little man who has been traveling with the Circus for a while now. He claims to be over a century old, an adventurer from a black Pygmy race somewhere in Africa. And who knows? He is brave enough, as well as a talented juggler, and you've heard stranger things than someone whose vow to see the entire world is keeping him alive immortally. If the Queen of England can be immortal, why not a four-foot African man?
Maria: A village girl from the nearby town, who ran off to the Circus about a week ago. Normally, you would immediately return her to her parents, and brook no argument, but with the Circus so short-handed you need all the help you can get. You'll convince her to return once the crisis is passed. She fancies herself some sort of Spark, but you suspect she's just over-interpreting a migraine.
Othar Tryggvassen: A legendary hero, if sometimes oddly buffoonish. And yet, you've always found him astonishingly approachable -- he is a great fan of the Circus, and always comes to your shows when your paths cross. His sanity is occasionally in question, but he's very good-hearted, and has helped you out of scrapes more than once. You caught a glimpse of him in the forest yesterday, and suspects he may have been part of Embi's group of adventurers.
Andre: The Circus' music-master, a minor Spark whose specialty is music. Also captured; fortunately, Miss Clay is really every bit as talented a musician as he is, especially when using the Silverodeon, the Circus' organ that she (rather remarkably) fixed up.
Balthazar and family: A young boy who travels with the Circus, and his parents. All minor Sparks, and all now in captivity.
Lars: The Circus' advance-man, who is not a Spark, but is quite resourceful. He is off scouting other sites for the Circus, though, and you aren't sure that he knows where you are: you left a message back at the encampment near Middleburg, but heaven only knows if he'll find it.
Moxana: A Clank who travels with the Circus, but a truly remarkable one. Moxana is strangely insightful: she can always tell a bit of what is going to happen. But she doesn't speak -- she communicates through the games that she plays. Interpreting those games is always a bit of an art.
Male Spark (Status: In Game)
Pictures
(v4, p21)
The back of Payne's coat can be seen on (v4, p22)
A really lovely shot (except for the lettering) is on (v4, p38).
A partial shot without his greatcoat can be seen on (v4, p90).
Plots:
The Circus Arrested (Circus Arrested)
The Succession of Holfung-Borzoi (Succession)
Family History (Family History)
Bluesheets:
Master Payne's Circus of Adventure (Circus Bluesheet)
Abilities and Disabilities
Pickpocket (Pickpocket) -- You are a skilled and subtle pickpocket. Up to once an hour, you may spend one Point to pick someone's pocket. If you know what you are looking for, you may ask a GM to obtain that item from the target player. If you want to go fishing, you may describe the sort of thing you would like to obtain to a GM; the GM will go through the target player's packet and choose what seems to be the most likely thing you would get on looking for that.
Illusion (Illusion) -- Your chief talent as a Spark is an extremely unusual one: you are an illusionist, a practiced member of the International Brotherhood of Evil Magicians.
As such, when you Spark, it is generally to set up an illusion. You get extremely focused, and must still spend a Point and do some construction, but you do it very privately and quietly, usually with at most one highly trusted assistant such as your wife. You do not publically rant and rave the way other Sparks do -- "control" is the watchword of the skilled magician. Your Sparking is always in the service of setting up a trick.
You will mainly enjoy success when setting up illusions and tricks. Examples of your work include: making small objects float in the air; devices to very briefly mask your movements with stealth so that you can trap people with chains; and clouds of smoke wherein you appear a hundred feet tall. None of these involve terribly complex science by Spark standards, but they are always conducted with a maximum of showmanship.
Insofar as you do Intimidation, it is always coupled with your Illusion work: you set up a trick to make yourself scarier to your mark. In rare cases, if you manage to do the right Illusion, with a very personal impact on the target, you may be able to Intimidate people who are not otherwise intimidatable.
Intimidation (Intimidation) -- You are a person with a powerful personality. As such, you have the practiced (and sometimes reflexive) ability to command others through intimidation.
To intimidate someone, show them this card and spend one Point. Rant at them with power and fury for at least one minute -- try to scare the hell out of them. You are powerful, and dangerous, and not someone to be crossed. You may then give them orders, which they must follow for at least ten minutes, until their nerves calm down a bit; until then, they are keyed up and scared.
There are limits to this ability. Other strong personalities, as well as certain others, are able to resist Intimidation; it works better on normal people and weak Sparks than it does on, eg, powerful Sparks. And you cannot order someone to do something that is counter to their own basic principles, such as (in most cases) kill someone -- if you try to do so, they may spend one Point to defy you.
You may not use this ability on any given player more than once, nor may you use it overall more than once an hour.
If you have this ability, and someone else tries to use it on you, you may counter by spending a Point and going into Intimidation mode yourself. This should result in a towering argument at top volume, but neither of you winds up scaring the other.
Merchant Knowledge (Merchant Knowledge) -- It may be a century since the Payne family was known throughout the lands as merchant kings, but the family knowledge still gets handed down through the generations. You are quite knowledgeable about the quality and value of various luxury merchant goods, including such things as textiles, fine wines, spices and high-quality power couplings.
Historical Background
The following were notes while the character was evolving. They do not necessarily represent the way it came out.
Front man for the Circus. Nominally the man in charge, but the realities are a bit more complex. According to the cast list, he is a member of the "International Brotherhood of Evil Magicians". He is often the calmest of the entire bunch (v4, p90).
Payne is very cautious about his people, and will not put them in danger if it is possible to avoid it (v4, p21). But he tries hard to be a good man, and balance concerns. Still, he prefers to pass dangerous problems on to the Baron whenever possible, rather than letting the troupe court trouble. As we see on (v5, p23), he also has an acute sense of how nasty things can get, and that it's not all happy endings; he threatens to boot Agatha out if she wants to go play hero.
Note that Payne has significant skill as a pickpocket, as shown in this page: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/ggmain.cgi?date=20061002 . That should figure as a special ability. He also has a bag of minor magic tricks, it appears (v5, p23).
His official pre-show spiel (which rather reminds one of the I Sebastiani leadin) can be found on (v4, p38).
Payne tends to level with Marie about almost everything (v5, p42), keeping himself reserved only when he is really worried.
As we see on [this page], Payne can be a scary sonuvabitch when he wants to be. Those cuffs should be a special ability, as should the illusion-casting. Indeed, think about making his abilities subtler and more powerful. Full-bore illusion, a la Princess Projectra? Invisibility, or distraction? (A "you can't see me" field, as in Niven?) This is a man with a serious Wizard of Oz fetish, which he should be allowed to indulge.
Darker: The cuffs are readily explainable as "sleight of hand" plus either invisibility or distraction; in some ways, I'd rather see the broader-scale abilities (which can be used in other ways by a creative player) than a cuff-specific version (though that strip can be used by GMs and Payne-players alike as reference for capabilities). Justin: I concur. I'm open to suggestions about the "generic" abilities implied here.
The name "Marcus" is interpolated here -- I need him to have a first name, so I'll just have to invent one.
Amount of Character Potential: Good (Needs more meat, but well tied into the story, and has a natural leadership position within it. A good middle-of-the-road character for someone who is more into plot than roleplaying.)