I present to you Richard Fox, or, as he prefers to call himself, Aurelius the Terrible, Master of Conjuration, Hunter of Magical Beasts and Magister of the Order of Shambala.
Aurelius the Terrible is quite a famous person which is no wonder considering that he is no simple circus magician, but a true wizard who is not afraid to use his power in the interests of common man for a nice enough reward. The truth, however, is far more insidious than it seems.
Richard Fox was born in a small circus traveling around United States of America. Son of a circus magician, he seemed a natural-born for that kind of job and soon outperformed his father. But Richard felt his position too limited: surely, with his kind of skill he could be on the stages of New York and Boston, and not in some dusty s***-hole in the middle of America. Of course, to fruitful his dream he would need money, large sums of money, and he had to get it somewhere. And then he got caught. After a scandal - it was found out that when performing his tricks he simultaneously cleaned audience' purses - he was kicked out from the circus. So he had to start his own two-man show, traveling around with his faithful retainer, Boris.
In Whitepine, a small mining town, after a performance he was approached by a local townspeople who were looking for help. The abandoned watermill near the town was rumored to be haunted - the daughter of a local blacksmith have even seen a ghost there once, and two citizens who went to investigate disappeared without trace. Richard was low on money, so out of desperation he agreed to look into the case. That night, trembling of fear, he went to the mill. He found nothing supernatural there, just old sacks, barrels and rusty equipment. Then, Fox had an idea: if there wasn't any haunting he would create it. With the help of some chemical supplies and his retainer he put an illusion of cleansing ritual believable enough for folks of Whitepine to pay him a hefty sum of money. That's how Aurelius the Magister was born. Since then, both his skills in deceit and the scope of his plans had grown considerably.
After his latest crime, the "disappearance" of a train transporting the gold to Fort Knox, was foiled by members of a Century Club, Richard decided to lay down for a while, doing small cons here and there and devising a new master plan. Although solving "mystical" occurrences of his own making is his favorite modus operandi, Richard Fox never misses a chance to put his hand into some wealthy fool's pockets. He conducts false seances with the dead, using hired goons to collect information about his victims, and then using that information to blackmail his clients, sells various "wonder potions" which are simply colored water and exorcises spirits who never were there in the first place.
Aspects
"Oh my God, it's alive! Run for your lives!"
Charlatan
Master of Superstition
Boris, Faithful Retainer
Art of the Con
Strange Names and Long Titles
Vanish Without Trace
Mystic Mumbo-Jumbo
"Witness the Art of Aurelius!"
Cowardice is not a Vice
Skills
Superb: Sleight of Hand
Great: Deceit, Rapport
Good: Stealth, Resources, Empathy
Fair: Art, Engineering, Gambling, Weapons
Average: Alertness, Contacting, Drive, Leadership, Resolve
Stunts
Contacting - Contact (Boris)
Deceit - Con Man, The Fix is In, Clever Disguise, Mimicry
Engineering - Universal Gadget
Sleight of Hand - Stage Magic, Legedermain, Mastery of Illusions
Stealth - Quick Exit
Gadgets
Richard employs variety of gadgets to make others believe in his "magical abilities". He creates them personally by using his Engineering skill, so they're not very advanced and it usually takes just a little knowledge of sciences to uncover his "mysticism" for the fraud it is. Of course, if Richard found a companion with Weird or Mad science skills, it could take his cons to a whole new level.
