Jack Masters

Name: Jack Masters
Nickname: JJ (Jack, Junior)
Age: 29
Weight: 170 lbs
Height: Six feet

Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Brown
Race: Magus
Residence: Librium
Nationality: American with Polish ancestry

Play by: Eric Szmanda



Appearance:
Jack is six feet tall. He likes loud clothes. Band shirts, tie dye, and a lab coat to clash. Just about anything to make him stand out. He highlights his light brown hair and grows it out every which way.

Personality:
Jack is happy go lucky and never sweats under stress. He’s quick with a joke to lighten the mood. He also thinks quick on his feet.

Abilities:
Snakeblood: Although Jack doesn’t really have the blood of a snake coursing through his veins, he did learn alchemy the old fashioned way. He nibbled an ingredient here and sipped a new potion there. This method of experimentation has given Jack a learned tolerance to most toxins and poisons. He also recognizes the symptoms and can identify the correct antitoxin.

Mending: This is one of two spells that Jack can actually cast without the need of an enchanted object. It does minor repair work to objects: fusing chains together, restitch a seam, etc. It will weld broken metallic objects such as a ring, a chain link, a medallion, or a slender dagger, providing but one break exists.

Prestidigitation: Prestidigitations are minor tricks that used for practice. Since it is such a basic spell, Jack can perform simple magical effects for 1 hour. The effects are minor and have severe limitations. A prestidigitation can slowly lift 1 pound of material. It can color, clean, or soil items in a 1-foot cube every six seconds. It can chill, warm, or flavor 1 pound of nonliving material. It cannot deal damage or affect the concentration of spellcasters. Prestidigitation can create small objects, but they look crude and artificial. The materials created by a prestidigitation spell are extremely fragile, and they cannot be used as tools, weapons, or spell components. Finally, a prestidigitation lacks the power to duplicate any other spell effects. Any actual change to an object (beyond just moving, cleaning, or soiling it) persists only 1 hour.

Imbue with Spell: Jack learned this advanced spell from his father. What is so special about it is that the target object does not hold any other spell permanently but retains its ability to hold spells after use. Since he doesn't know any offensive spells, Jack can have another mage cast a fireball (for example) into the Imbued object. Jack can later discharge the fireball at a later date. The object loses the ability to generate another fireball until he goes back to that mage. On the other hand, Jack could decide to store a completely different spell in its place.

Secret Compartment: This is another spell Jack learned from his father, and he uses it all the time. Jacket can take any pre-made pocket or compartment and increase the volume it can hold without changing the dimensions (a magical exception to the basic laws of nature). Another beauty of the spell is that this magical pocket dimension drastically cuts down the weight of the stored objects while stored. A filled twenty pound pocket will weigh only five pounds.

Shrink: Jack can shrink any hand held object up to twenty pounds to one-sixteenth its normal size and weight. It is great for quickly hiding items or making them just easier to move. The object remains shrunk for as long as he holds it. When he lets it go, the object returns to its normal size and weight.

Detect Magic: Jack has worked so long with magical items that he can just tell if something has been enchanted after a moment of inspecting it. If he continues to study the object, Jack can determine what school of magic and how strong the imbued spell is.

Identify: This spell determines all magic properties of a single magic item, including how to activate those functions (if appropriate), and how many charges are left (if any). Jack must consume a concoction of wine with owl feathers for this to work.


For an unknown reason, Jack cannot directly cast any other spells. It is as though there is some sort of block in the outflow of magic. He can circumvent this block by imbuing (or enchanting) spells onto everyday objects. The following are spells he does know for enchanting. Any object he makes with other spells must have come from a scroll or another caster.

Shocking: Jack feels that fire and ice are stereotypical elements for casters. He decided to learn how electrical magic worked. A blade with this enchantment crackles with electricity and blue-white arcs lick across the surface. If stun guns could stab, that's probably the amount of damage it would do.

Ward: An item with the Ward spell can absorb all types of attacks but shrinks as its energy is discharged. It is not airtight, so gaseous attacks can still penetrate the barrier. It can withstand ten shots from a pistol, three shot gun blasts at close range, or a single grenade blast before dissipating. To recharge the spell, Jack must cast it again into the item.

Animate Rope: One never knows when they are going to need a rope to get somewhere, and it fastens itself. So long as one hand is kept on the rope, the free end will travel in any direction the holder wishes via mental commands. The rope also responds to commands like 'coil', 'knot', and 'tie'.

Spider Climb: When triggered mentally, this spell allows the recipient to walk on any surface whether horizontal, vertical, or inverted regardless of texture. All the appendages of the spell bearer are capable of anchoring to surfaces. The adhering is magical and controlled by the mental will of the user, so there is no sticky residue, unintended immobility, or anchoring. A typical casting of this spell lasts 10 minutes each day. Jack likes to place this in a jacket or a vest so that hand and foot gear are available for other spells.

Levitate: In the event that the wearer of a Spider Climb garment uses up his/her ten minutes, Levitate is a failsafe to move up or down up to another twenty-five feet. The user can push off a wall to move laterally, but the spell will not do it for them. This is typically a boot enchantment.

Nightvision: A popular favorite of law enforcement, this spell imbued into a pair of very dark sunglasses allows the wearer to see at night. Vision is limited to black and white and does not work in magical darkness. Still, it's better than nothing.

Perception filter: This is not a favorite of law enforcement. The enchanted item gives off a low level telepathic pulse that causes people to look away from the wearer. People seem not to notice the wearer no matter what he/she does. However, the pulse may not work on a person who is actively searching for the wearer. If the searching person manages to overcome the effects of the filter, a new pulse will have no effect until he/she gives up the search.




Skills:
Alchemy: Jack uses modern day chemistry equipment to refine ancient potion recipes. The elixirs are more potent because he can purify the extracts of the ingredients. He produces everything from healing potions to ability boosting ones. He also brews on the opposite end of the spectrum (poisons, magical debuffs, etc.).

Item Crafting: Jack gets bored very easily while waiting for the potions to brew. He spends the time making all sorts of other magical goods. Even though he cannot cast spells himself, his talent could be called magical transcription. Jack can transplant the magic from one place where it is inscribed to another. During this act he can use his inscription to bend the magic to a specific effect, but it must remain similar to the intent of the original spell. The easiest way to do this is to utilize spell scrolls, pieces of paper written by a mage on how can cast the spell. To create them they literally imbue the magic into the script on the paper using special inks and a effort. That is why a scroll is consumed when the magic is released from it. Jack must go out and acquire these scrolls from his suppliers, which increases the production time and costs.

Stylized transcription: Fireball example: With a magical scroll that allows the user to cast a fireball spell, the artificer could use it in a number of ways. One way is to inscribe the spell on to a ring creating a single use item that a non spell caster could use to create a fireball. Other magics would be necessary to make the ring a reusable item. The limitation on such items would be one use per 24 hour period. Use the ring to cast a fireball, and wait 24 hours for it to recharge. Another way to use the fireball spell would be to transcribe the magics on to a sword blade in such a way that the release of the magic is controlled and done slowly. The blade of the sword can be covered in a flame that will continually burn because its flame is nowhere near as powerful or destructive as a fireball. In essence the fireball is acting as a source of flame, a battery. Again, some other magic will need to be added to the item to ensure that 'the battery is recharging' so that it doesn't cease to work when the original spell's power is expended.

Potion to Enchantment: Jack can sometimes use a potion in place of a scroll. The desired benefit from the potion can carry over but will lose some of its potency in the transcription process. He can combat the loss by using a stronger potion, but that increases the construction costs. The average loss is twenty percent; however, a potential customer may agree to the increased costs in place of a temporary potion. Potions allow Jack to save money on buying scrolls or finding friendly magi to cast the desired spell for him. However, scrolls are more stable for crafting.

Craft Homunculus: A homunculus is the mechanical counterpart to a familiar. Jack's father created a great many of these as prototypes for New Dawn and handed down the construction process to his son. They can fulfill a variety of uses, such as providing an extra set of hands in the forge or just around the house. A homunculus is shaped from a mixture of clay, ashes, mandrake root, spring water, and one pint of the creator’s own blood but can be customized for other purposes with other materials. After the body is sculpted, it is animated through an extended magical ritual that requires a specially prepared laboratory or workroom. The ritual embodies the homunculus with a semblance of life, but it is really just an extension of its creator. Jack can make upgrades to the homunculus after its construction, but the homunculus functions better if everything was built in before the ritual.



History:
Jack Masters, Junior is the son of Jack and Mary Masters and was born in 193 AC. Jack never went to public school. His parents took care of all his education. Senior was a magical tinkerer in the new products research and development department for New Dawn in Bastion. JJ peeked at some of the plans and scribbled in some of his own notes. Ever since, father and son worked together on the new projects. JJ has notebooks full of tips and tricks he learned in his ‘apprenticeship’ to his father. Mary believed in holistic medicine over pharmaceuticals and came from a long line of apothecaries also in Bastion. She met Senior while ringing up a post operative painkiller script for him. They started dating and the birds met the bees. When Jack showed an aptitude for chemistry, Mary showed him how to brew all sorts of healing potions. Many of these ingredients are typically toxic by nature and so he can also produce very potent toxins. However, some toxic substances have medicinal uses in small doses. Under Mary’s supervision, Jack would sample all sorts of ingredients to learn for himself what the benefits or consequences of each potion/poison were and how to produce the appropriate anti-toxin.

When the war between Humans and Others came to an end, New Dawn set up a branch office in the newly developed peace city of Librium. They relocated the Masters family. Mary supplemented the income by starting up her own apothecary. Jack helped her with the potion making. Both of the elder Masters are currently retired. Jack took over and combined his parents’ businesses. The apothecary also serves as a magical goods general store. He has an alchemy lab and forge in the basement with an apartment upstairs. The fact that he was never classically trained in an academy has hurt some of his business dealings. However, he is one of the go-to guys outside of the major companies for magical goods. He also keeps it secret that he learned his enchanting skills from New Dawn projects for legal reasons.

Notes:
Items typically carried
Handy Backpack: Mary Poppin’s carpet bag has nothing on this, nor does Dora the Explorer’s. This backpack always weighs five pounds and is always the size of a normal backpack. It has two small side pouches that can hold two cubic feet, much more than normal, or 20 pounds of material, while the larger central portion can hold 8 cubic feet (0.23 m3) or 80 pounds. The advantage of this bag is that any item placed inside will be "handy", that is, located on top when intentionally sought. For example, if one were to place a dagger inside the sack and cover it with a load of paper, upon searching for the dagger it would magically appear above the paper.

Belt of hidden pockets: Since it would be ridiculous to carry a backpack all the time, Jack fashioned this stylish yet functional broad belt. It works on similar principles as the backpack but on a much smaller scale. There are five pockets on each side of the buckle. Each pocket appears to only hold a couple coins but can in fact hold a full potion.

Warding ring: Jack’s ring can produce a magical barrier that completely surrounds him. It can absorb all types of attacks but shrinks as its energy is discharged. It is not airtight, so gaseous attacks can still penetrate the barrier. It was mainly designed so he could make quick getaways and not for sustained use. It can withstand ten shots from a pistol, three shot gun blasts at close range, or a single grenade blast before dissipating. Once the charges are depleted, Jack must transcribe another protection spell into it.

Storm staff: This is a specially designed quarterstaff. One end has a thunderstone embedded on it. A thunderstone is a flashbang grenade with less flash and more bang. (He remembers to wear earplugs.) The opposite end of the staff has a switchblade with a shocking enchantment. The entire staff collapses into a dagger sized cylinder when not in use.

Shrinking gloves: These fingerless gloves are enchanted with both Shrink and Secret Compartment. On command, one item held in the hand wearing the glove disappears. The item can weigh no more than 20 pounds and must be able to be held in one hand. While stored, the item has negligible weight. With a snap of the fingers wearing the glove, the item reappears. A glove can only store one item at a time.

Homunculi
Jack used to have to have two of them, but they are currently just piles of clay in his shop.

Note: any times or custom equipment that you make for yourself or another character that imparts, magic, enhancement, or ability, must be submitted for approval in the staff help area and then added to the owner's sheet before it can be used in story.

Retcon Approved

Retcon Approved. The following not still does apply when creating an item or selling an item to another player.


Note: any times or custom equipment that you make for yourself or another character that imparts, magic, enhancement, or ability, must be submitted for approval in the staff help area and then added to the owner's sheet before it can be used in story.