Leapleech

Name: Leapleech

Troupe: Parasite

Archetypes: Jester, Converter

Description: Endure a brutal beating from the crew before unleashing a proportionally-terrifying slew of leeches.

Objectives: None.

Masquerade notes: N/A

Every punch... makes me stronger. Every leech... makes me leaper.

Concept

The leapleech is a parasite mask that is focused on being injured by other people in order to grow in strength. Depending on how much it has been harmed before death, it will have a larger slew of leeches burst from it upon death.

Abilities

While alive, the leapleech tracks an outwardly hidden 'memory' counter. Whenever someone does sufficient damage to the leepleach, their memory will increment. Note that this only occurs once per person, encouraging them to pick multiple fights or engagements with multiple opponents.

Upon death, the mask will explode into a cluster of individual leapleech parasites. The number of leeches spawned corresponds to the memory counter (the number of people who have attacked this person). The leechs will then seek out uninfected players, jumping at them. If they land on someone, they will latch onto them before burrowing in and converting them into a parasite.

Gameplay

The leapleech incorporates many elements of the removed daredevil mask to create a jester which does not necessarily appear as one. Since their ability is something which necessitates a lot of buildup and combat, the mask differentiates itself from the other parasites by an initial aversion to death. Healing up, fighting multiple people, and ultimately trying to get injured give the leapleech a cover of normality while it slowly grows in strength.

Once it dies and its ability is active, the leech becomes a terrifying swarm with high visibility yet equally-high potential for conversion. The individual leeches, though able to be killed with proper planning, are more than capable of catching unsuspecting players off guard (especially in low visibility areas). This adds an extra dimension to the mask's planning, since they'll likely want to perish in a location where their leech nest can attack and prey on unsuspecting passerby.