Name:Nikolai Type:Daredevil Allegiance:Ponatowski Foundation Origin:Outlaw

Social: Disguise(6*) Savvy (2) Subterfuge (3) Etiquette (2) Perform (4)

Mental: Awareness (4) Investigation (2) Academics (2) Intrusion (3) Linguistics (3) Survival (3) Drive (3)

Additonal notes: Nikolai possesses an ability mastery in Disguise. (Which even allows superscientific advancements in disguise creations.) He also posseses the background enhancements Enigma and Stockpile.

Equipment: Carries a bewildering amount of weapons of all types. the only thing they tend to have in common is concealability. Also carries a small disguise kit at all times. Has created a machine in his sanctum which creates a liquid latex/cellulose compound for use in creating full face and body appliances. (just like the IM force masks.)

Appearance/Clothing Tendiencies: Nikolai appears to be a man of middling sized frame with light brown hair and brown eyes. his musculature appear unremarkable but it is very strong and flexable from isometric exercises. Nikolai's only revealing characteristic is that when he is impatient he fiddles with things in his hands. It is not known if any person has ever seen Nikolai's true form and lived to tell the tale.

House,Circle, Influence: Nikolai works alone, the rumors about him are many. That he is served by a small (false) army of cut-outs and go-betweens seems to be the way he takes on outside jobs. It is also rumored that he has never failed in a contract. He has a large home in Moscow which houses his truly frightening armory and his collection of props,costumes and make-up. His 1 major ally outside of his Ponatowski handler is Hercule Beachamp (for obvious reasons.)

What has gone Before: Nikolai is the Ponatowski Foundations most secret weapon. A product of the soviet secret police, He has become since his inspiration one of the most formidable assasins of the modern age. He is a master of nearly every type of weapon, his combat and survival skills are formidable and there are few others in the world who are capable of the mastery of disguise that he has acheived. In fact, Nikolai routinely sends messages to targets telling them the exact time he is going to kill them. The Foundation uses him to rid themselves of serious threats to their operations but they also use him to create massive distractions while they carry out a dozen seperate operations. Occasionally, he takes on interesting outside contracts and has been known to have an amused friendly rivalry with fellow assasins. The fellow assasins rarely are amused or friendly in return. Yoshida Himitsu and many others hate and fear him and would do much to be rid of him.

Story Uses: 

The Sword of Damoclese: The Foundation has decided to kill a certain person and the players find out about it and have to somehow stop him from doing it. The most likely method of doing this particular storyline is if the players are members of Branch 9 and they are told that they are to protect the President from this horrific threat.

The Master has entered the Field: Any sort of employer who is hiring large numbers of talented assasins for a particular target will find Nikolai seeking him out to enter the contest. The PC's will only know that a dozen assasins are killing themselves trying to kill them and finding that someone is quietly offing them as they go. Can the players escape Nikolai's clitches?

The Nikolai Gambit: Once Nikolai has developed a certain amount of professional respect for the players he will of course seek them out in order to play against them. This is doubly so if they are constantly screwing up the Foundations antics. Nikolai will contact the players by phone and inform them that he has secreted 10 cannisters of mustard gas, each with a time delay detonator in multiple locations around the city. The Players are free to stop them from detonating the cannisters if they can find them in time. Each cannister has a clue in ryhme to the next one. While the characters are tearing around trying to stop this holocaust from happening (with Nikolai watching them and pot-shooting at them occasionally) the Foundation will be hitting dozens of libraries and musuems to steal objects of interest to them. If the Player put 2 and 2 together they might figure out that Nikolai and the Foundation are working together. This of course will give them a place to start looking for him to exact revenge.