Post by Brad McDowell on Dec 11, 2010 1:10:04 GMT -5
Brad McDowell/Franz Regendorf
"Sometimes you got to take matters into your own hands, most of the time in fact."
"Sometimes you got to take matters into your own hands, most of the time in fact."
NICKNAMES: //[/color] Brad McDowell (alias), The Explorer
AGE: //[/color] 47
DATE OF BIRTH: //[/color] 27th August 1980
GENDER: //[/color] Male
ALIGNMENT: //[/color] Neutral Good
OCCUPATION: //[/color] Explorer, Magus, Archeologist
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Brad
Brad and his daughter.
HEIGHT: //[/color] 1.88 m
WEIGHT: //[/color] 84 kg
EYE COLOR: //[/color] Blue
HAIR COLOR: //[/color] Black
PIERCINGS: //[/color] N/A
TATTOOS: //[/color] Command spells located on right arm.
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: //[/color] His hat, he never left home without it.
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- Man of Action
- Brad’s life motto is ‘don’t say, do,’ and he pretty much live by this code. If there’s a problem that can be solved with action instead of words, you can bet he will be there, doing what’s right to solve it to the best of his ability. However, this doesn’t mean that he dislike passive, wordy solution. He understands that his forte lies in actions, but he will still think before his act, even in the middle of a battle or a car chase.
- Patient
- Contrary to popular belief, not every person who prefers action dislikes waiting; Brad is one of those people. His job as an archeologist and artifact dealer pretty much requires patience. Whether it’s in a digging site or bargaining a deal, patience is a wonderful virtue to have in this line of work. People who often works a deal with Brad know just how patient he is in negotiating a deal, and people who work with him on site knows just how patient he is when dealing with ancient objects.
- Friendly
- You would expect a professional, no nonsense archeologist (and a magus on top of it) like Brad would be somewhat of a lone wolf, but the truth is quite the opposite. Everyone who worked with Brad knows just how friendly he is, everyone from the diggers to the antique dealers know this. If people are put off upon meeting Brad, it must be because his intimidating posterior.
- Curious
- Brad is passionate about his job and this trait help reinforce the idea. He spent countless time slogging around ruins, tracking ancient artifacts from shady dealers, and identifying them with his magecraft is all in a day’s work for Brad, and they are all fueled by his curiosity. Most of the time, he can rein his curiosity to manageable level, but if he found himself among unsolved mysteries/miracles, he can’t help but to check the source. That’s why he feels compelled to stay and solve the Grail mystery until the end.
LIKES: //[/color]
• Exploring
• Artifacts
• Studying History
• Good drink
• Mysteries (He’s also a fan of detective novels.)
• His daughter
DISLIKES: //[/color]
• Idling around
• People who can’t be delicate while handling artifacts
• Bureaucracy
STRENGTHS: //[/color]
Brad is an all-rounder in combat, and he intends to use it to his advantage more often than not. He can withstand better punishments than most thanks to his reinforcement magecraft, and he will not hesitate to use whatever advantage the current terrain/place gave him.
However, his biggest advantage in this Grail war is the fact that he knows his stuff. To become an archeologist, one must be very knowledgeable about history and myth. With numerous historical and mythological servants present this advantage can become the key advantage for him.
WEAKNESSES: //[/color]
Because of the nature of his specialty magecraft, Brad has no offensive spells at all. His only threat at long range is his mystic code, and that will not cut it when faced with magi with long-range bombardment potential. He has to get to mid-short range to do some damage and some opponent might not let him do that.
The other weakness of his is his curiosity. While most of the time he can rein his curiosity to manageable standards, he can’t really help himself whenever a mystery rears its head. He’ll try to investigate something that piques his curiosity, even if he knows it’ll be dangerous.
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MY FAMILY LINE: //[/color]
The Regendorf family is an ‘average’ sized family with a history stretched back to 600 years ago, in the middle of the Renaissance era. The first head was a man named Karl Regendorf, noted historian and scribe even among magi. Karl’s specialty was information transfer magecraft, and he developed the sorcery trait of the family through his extensive research on how lingering ‘memories’ worked in an object. He also dabbled in runic knowledge and has a good grasp in it. The family’s still studying about rune magecraft to this day in order to honor his memory.
Because of this fact, their services were valued by the Clock Tower and the family was offered a position of power within the organization. That is, until 200 years ago, when the current head at the time, Gustav Regendorf, had a feud with the Clock Tower board of directors. The feud culminated in the family’s withdrawal from Clock Tower. Incensed, Gustav joined the Thule Society organization of the Sea of Estray, in hope to essentially get back on the board of directors. While the plan didn’t quite work out in the end, the partnership with the Thule Society turns out to be a good substitute for the Clock Towers, and the Regendorf family continues to flourish. However, that’ll soon come to an end at the first half of the 20th century.
Because of the rise of the Nazi party and World War 2, the Thule Society suffers numerous rumors towards their supposed support of the Nazi party. While this isn’t true, (The Thule society that contributes to the Nazi’s party’s rise was made of mortal occultist, though a few magi was said to participate in it) the Society’s reputation has been damaged. The Regendorf, being a German-based family, naturally suffers consequences for something that they don’t do (though rumors persist of a member of the family that orchestrated the mortal Thule society’s meetings). Even now, the Regendorf have to be careful with their dealings with of other magi, because the name ‘Regendorf’ have been synonymous with ‘untrustworthy’ ever since.
Because of the influence of their founder, the Regendorf family now specializes in information transfer magecraft, which is further supported by their sorcery trait. Their family’s sorcery trait, ‘Information Highway’, focuses on their identification spell and how they don’t need to spend prana in order to gain peripheral information on an object. Because of their connection to Thule Society (however strained it is these days), they also have a good aptitude for rune magic, though not on the level of some older families.
The Regendorf family boasts a good circuit quality of 8-11 prana per circuit, while quantity stays at about the teens range, quite impressive for a family of its age.
MY HISTORY: //[/color]
The 8th head of the Regendorf family was always a bit…eccentric. Since of a young age, Franz had exhibited various traits that were uncommon among the previous heads of the Regendorf family, namely the enthusiastic drive to explore the mysteries of the world with his own two eyes. Since the tradition of the Regendorf is to archive information, not actively looking for them, this understandably caused some tension between his father and Franz himself. Thankfully for Franz, he’s also the best talent of the family’s current generation at magecraft and possesses good amount of circuits, so the previous head relented and taught him the necessary basics of the family’s magecraft. His father completed the transfer of the family crest when Franz was 14 years old…just in time for his death one month later.
Following the death of his father, young Franz was lost. Since he’s technically the head of the family, he has to contend with a couple of problems. First, the Regendorf’s family fortune was dwindling. Though their magic circuit didn’t dwindle, their numbers are. Also, because of stigma of World War 2 and the Regendorf’s rumored involvement on the rise of the Nazi party, they’re still untrustworthy in the eyes of the magus families that suffer from the war. Second, because of that untrustworthiness, the Regendorf family risks to cut off their resources entirely. Historically, the Regendorf is always merchants, selling their services to the highest bidder in exchange of resources or favors. The loss of the trust of the magus community dealt a heavy blow to the family’s resources. Of course, being a 14 years old kid, Franz had no idea how to solve these problems at first despite the backing of his family. Finally, his uncle decided that Franz needed more tutelage of magecraft and called an old favor with a family friend.
Alfons Ahrends was a scion of a dying family of magus, and a very knowledgeable magus in his own right. The Ahrends, not to be confused with the older and similarly named English lineage Arend, was one of the Regendorf’s trusted friends, fellow members of the Thule Society, and it was rumored that Karl Regendorf was a friend of the Ahrends’ founder. The family was dying, unfortunately, and Alfons and his daughter Rosa possesses very little magic circuits. Nevertheless, Alfons was still very knowledgeable about magecraft, and he’ll gladly accept apprentice that can continue his research, especially one as talented as Franz.
Apprenticed to Alfons made Franz realized one thing, he never really have a family. His mother died at childbirth, and his father, while loved him, focuses too much on his magus training to be a ‘normal’ loving father. While Alfons is a strict teacher, he still manages to find time to treat his daughter and his apprentice like a normal ‘family’. During his training, Franz grew close to Rosa as well, and started to think as her as a weird hybrid of sister/friend/crush.
3 years into his training, Alfons approached Franz one day about his plan to restore prestige to both of their families. His plan involves tracking and recovering an artifact valued by the magus community (specifically the Thule Society, though he didn’t specify it at that time). Alfons have been contacting various sources in the magus community under a false identity and has found the highest bidder, one that will guarantee partnership and resources to both families. Alfons intended for this persona, ‘Brad McDowell’, to be the liaison between the magus community and the two families. He intends that while operating under the persona of ‘Brad McDowell’, the two of them can provide extra resources and favors in order to avoid the ruin of the families. Franz, realizing this can be his biggest chance to be recognized as the head of the Regendorf, immediately agrees to his mentor’s plan.
Using ‘trip to find rare material’ (…which isn’t that far from the truth, actually) as an excuse, the pair left the Ahrends’ estate under the care of Rosa (who relented after numerous promise of gifts) and searched for the artifact. After days of exploring the leads, they’ve stumbled into a mansion once owned by a Dark Apostle. The mansion was abandoned after the owner was killed in an ambush by the Church’s executioner and left to rot. No one wanted to bother with the mansion, not even the executioners, since it was a Dead Apostle lair and likely full of traps. The information they gained points at the mansion as the location of the artifact, so they geared up and explored the mansion.
They searched the mansion thoroughly, but still can’t seem to find the artifact. The lack of traps on the upper floor is disconcerting as well. That was when Franz discovered a door to the mansion’s basement. Overcome with curiosity, Franz convinced Alfons to at least explore the basement first. They explored the basement for a little while until they encounters the Dead Apostle’s workshop. After some careful searching, they’ve found the artifact tucked inside one of the tables. Unfortunately, seems like the Dead Apostle knows how much the Artifact’s worth, since removing the Artifact seems to trigger some sort of defense mechanism in the mansion and activates all the traps. After a grueling chase scene, Franz and Alfons managed to escape, but not before Alfons contracted a deadly poison from one of the poison darts trap…
Three days later, Franz told Rosa the bad news when he returns to the estate. On his last breath, Alfons entrusted the Ahrends’ estate to Rosa, and give her the permission to do whatever she wants with it. He also gave his blessing on Rosa to live as the way she wants, and therefore cease the Ahrends family’s existence as a magus family. Franz gave the offer to Rosa about sharing the resources he got in exchange with the artifact, but Rosa said no. Confused, Franz asked about her reason, and Rosa gave a statement that from now on the Ahrends family’s resources will be under the Regendorf. She still considers Franz as family, and prefers not to be separated again, and be left alone. Franz, still heavy with guilt over the fact that he feels somehow responsible for Alfons’ death, reluctantly accepts her proposal.
Over the course of next years, Franz maintained connection with the contact that his master built with his master’s pseudonym of ‘Brad McDowell’. Over time, Franz also grows accustomed to his new job, and studying about archeology come as a second nature for him. Because of the nature of his job and his natural element of earth, Franz also came to be proficient with reinforcement, and he’s also quite skilled at his family’s traditional runic magecraft. Along these years, Franz also marries Rosa, and their marriage comes to a good start…though not all good things last.
Indeed, because of the nature of his job, he has to be away from his wife most of the time. When Rosa was pregnant, Franz tried to spend more time with his wife, but he was delayed with his job when it was time for the delivery. When Franz got back, the doctor told him that Rosa had died from childbirth. Distraught, Franz decided to devote most of his time to raise his daughter Ursula.
Over time, Franz's method becomes even more familiar; he treats his daughter as his one chance of making up for his ‘negligence’ of his wife. Slowly but surely, he becomes just like his father, and people around him notices too. There are some tension between Franz and his cousins when Franz abruptly chooses Ursula as the next successor without family counsel. Luckily, Ursula is quite talented, and a lot of her cousins are still not quite old enough for the position, so the tension subsided somewhat. Still, there are murmurs that Franz is losing his grip in sanity like the previous head, and Franz deep down secretly fears that he’s putting too much pressure on his daughter, who is only 14.
Decided to let this matter cool down for this time, Franz decided to focus on his next request. A magus from the Fitzroy family requested an old leather jacket from the American continent; at least that was Franz can make up from the terrible handwriting from the letter of the request. Franz decided to track down one of the leather jacket that had allegedly existed as far as the frontier years. Now he just needs to deliver this jacket to Lucca, Italy…
MY GOALS: //[/color] he was here in Lucca for business reasons, but now that he’s wrapped in the Grail War he wish to see it ends and survive. He’ll admit that he feels curious about the Third Magic too.
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Lila Reben: Brad’s Mystic Code, a series of vine-like substance that are usually coiled on his right arm. It’s capable of extending itself and act as a whip controlled by Bard’s thought. The vines are as durable as a steel cable and a lot lighter, capable of moving to intercept bullets. For more detail, see the Lila Reben section of the spell list.
Reinforced Clothing (Shirt and Pants): Runic-reinforced clothing, it can be activated with the strengthen spell below in order to serve as an armor.
JK-model Jeep Wrangler: A 20-odd year old Jeep model built on 2009; it is Brad’s preferred method of transportation. It’s customized to last in a harsh environment, so most city-based obstacles isn’t going to hinder it.
Nice Hat: Never left home without it.
RANK: //[/color] None (he’s well respected within the Sea of Estray though)
ELEMENT: //[/color] Earth
EXPERTISE: // [/color]
Identification and Earth Magecraft:
Earth element magi are rarely the long-range offensive type and the magus from the Regendorf family are no exception. Befitting as their reputation of archivist and information broker, the Regendorf doesn’t really have long-range attack magic in their repertoire. Instead they specialize on what could be classified in the flowing/transferring of power classification, but for information instead of more ‘useful’ stuff like prana. Because of their sorcery trait, they can acquire basic information from objects without spending anything and can even gain more detailed information by spending a cheap prana cost. I the case of Brad, he also specializes in the reinforcement side of the Earth element side because of the nature of his job.
Tracking and Pathfinding:
Brad has spent a good portion of 20 or so years exploring for ruins and other sorts of dangerous terrains in search for artifacts and other objects of antiquity. In turn, this experience gave Brad an expertise in navigating wilderness and finding one’s way through a labyrinth so to speak. One of his spells also opens a way for him to spy remote locations, which makes Brad rarely caught off guard. He can also detect traps quite easily, for obvious reasons, even modern traps. He can notice when something’s not quite right in the vicinity.
Historical Expert:
Being an archeologist, this is expected of Brad. He knows a lot of different mythologies and histories around the world. While he can’t detect a phantasm or a hero at first glance, continuous observation will likely uncover some clues about the identity of the servant.
Ambiguous Nationality:
Not an expertise per se, but Brad is very good at masking his actual nationality and ethnicity. Most of the time, his clothes and manner of speech can pass him as an American, and he use this to his advantage in order to keep the ‘Brad McDowell’ persona intact.
MAGIC CIRCUITS: //[/color] 12 magic circuits with 11 Prc with a total of 132 prana. His family crest contains an additional 15 circuits with 165 prana, but he gave that up to his daughter.
SPELLS: //[/color]
Lila Reben (Mystic Code, Earth)
Rank: B
Cost: 45 Pr per duration of an operation, which last for an hour. The mystic code can also be repaired by spending 20 Pr over the course of 6 hours.
Range: max of about 10 m
Effect: Brad’s Mystic Code, whip-like vines that are usually coiled on Brad’s right arm. It’s a versatile mystic code that’s capable of acting as an extension of one’s arm. Upon activation, the vines will become animated, and can coil and uncoil around at a blindingly fast speed. Lila Reben is thought controlled, and capable of reacting to danger as long as Brad is aware of said danger.
The vines can be used in a variety of ways. One, it can deflect bullets as long as Brad’s aware of said bullet’s trajectory (which can be guessed on the guns’ position, or Brad can just spread the vines in one sweeping motion). Two, the vines can be used as a range grappling tool. It can be used to stop chants by targeting the opponent’s mouth, or it can disable one of the opponent’s limbs instead. Because of the nature of the vines’ controls, it requires no limb to operate, making it ideal for restriction in the middle of a combat. Brad can also use this function to use the vines as a sort of grappling hook. Three, the vines can also be used as a weapon, in this case a very dense whip. The vines are about as hard and sturdy as a steel cable, making it a lethal weapon to swing around. The vines also have enough precise control to swat weapons away, and it can also change direction mid-flight, confusing the opponent.
Uncoiled, the vines can reach a length of 10 m, because of the unknown materials that the whip was constructed; it’s relatively light for its mass. The original length can’t be altered by any way, and the mystic code can be repaired if it sustains damage during a combat. Repairing the mystic code requires an additional prana cost and about 6 hours. Activating the mystic code only requires a one-line incantation, making it a relatively fast tool in a fast-paced combat.
Identification (Power/Information Transfer, Earth)
Rank: E
Cost: 0 Pr, initially, 2 Pr for additional and more detailed information.
Range: Touch
Effect: A spell used to gain information on an item. Because of his lineage’s sorcery trait, Brad doesn’t have to spend prana to identify surface information because of his family’s sorcery trait. ‘Surface information’ in this case refers to general information that can be gained from the item in a hurry, such as: name, function and condition. To get specific detailed information, Brad has to spend an additional 2 prana. More detailed information can include the origin of the item, the previous owner of the item, or even the item’s true name. Additional bits of information may require an additional amount of prana spent.
This spell is a single-action spell.
Remote Consciousness (Power/Information Transfer, Earth)
Rank: C
Cost: 1 Pr/minute for the maximum of 30 minutes
Range: about 100 m
Effect: A variation of the consciousness transfer magecraft that are widely used among magus. This particular consciousness transfer did not play on the perspective of sharing consciousness, but rather possession of inanimate objects. With this spell, it’s possible to perform long range clairvoyance-esque remote viewing, but only within the confines of earth-based material. Brad must first scribe some sort of an ‘eye’ in the material, whether using knives, chisel, or similar tool, and then run his prana through the item. The ‘eye’ in the material can act as a remote visual tool, a kind of one-shot stationary and remote familiar that can be used for a clairvoyance beacon. When the spell is active, it’s possible to achieve a 360 degree vision of the surrounding location of the stationary familiar for the maximum duration of 30 minutes, or until Brad manually shut it down.
This spell is a three-line spell, reduced to a one-liner with the Regendorf crest, but the fact is irrelevant to Brad now.
Strengthen (Rune, Reinforcement, Earth)
Rank: C
Cost: 5 Pr per to activate, additional 1 Pr per minute to maintain. Maximum diameter of reinforced object is roughly as big as his jeep.
Range: Touch
Effect: Reinforcing objects with prana in order to boost their resistance and durability. Brad uses this spell to reinforce his clothing or other objects to use as armor or makeshift shield. The resultant object is strong enough to block mundane melee weapons and bullets. Armor piercing bullets, spells above C rank, or attacks from servants can pierce the shield with continuous attacks. Attacks stronger than that will have little trouble piercing the shield.
This spell has an activation chant of a single-action spell, though runic alphabet must be scribed first and takes at least 1 minute to scribe.
Full Potential (Reinforcement, Earth)
Rank: A
Cost: 50 Pr
Range: Self
Effect: A variation of full-body reinforcement developed by Brad himself, Full Potential reinforces everything from user’s body. This includes speed, reaction time, reflex sensitivity, and muscle durability, essentially every bodily function that’s relevant for combat. This spell enhances the body’s physical abilities to roughly at the same level as combat reinforcement. Unlike combat reinforcement however, this spell also reinforces the mental functions of the user. Sight, hearing, and even the speed of thought process can be reinforced by this spell. This can roughly enhances the sight range to about 500 m and range of hearing to be about a block away. The user can also see and devise a counter to a punch thrown at him in reinforcement speed once under the effect of this spell.
This spell can be taxing to the body, especially prolonged exposure to overworked brain functions, which is why this spell can only be maintained for 5 minutes at most. This is essentially a ‘super mode’ of sorts as multiple uses of this spell in a short period of time (more than once in an hour) can damage the body.
This spell is a three-line spell.
PLAYER'S NAME: //[/color] Pogo
FACE CLAIM: //[/color] Dandy J from Waku Waku 7
OTHER CHARACTERS: //[/color] Gaius Julius Caesar, Nico Vanzetti, Catherine Trandor, 19th Hassan, Hans
MISC. INFORMATION: //[/color] Talked about the catalyst delivery job with Bey and Aela.
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I actually meant as stated above that it does not cost enough prana. The upkeep should be more like rising towards or over 10Pr