Special Equipment:

Flute, poisoned needles, daggars, other weapons.

Appearance:

Lin is a short, slender woman with long black hair in a braid down her back.  She looks like any other wandering minstrel, only she is constantly alert.

Background:

The Jiy family was once a noble and powerful clan, with much influence with the Divine Emperor.  Of course, they made enemies.  In time, the Jiy family became less.  But the enemies did not forget, nor did they forgive.  When the head of the Jiy family lost the last of his most powerful allies, a rival family set about assassinating the Jiy.  His assassins were very thourough, and soon the Jiy family was wiped out.  But the assassins were not thourough enough.  One member of the Jiy family escaped, so distantly related that no one connected her with the doomed line.  Her name is Lin.
Lin was only a child when the assassinations started happening.  Her parents went into hiding, and were later killed during a flood.  Perhaps a little irrationally, she blames the rival family with the deaths of her parents, not to mention the rest of her relatives.  She decided to use the enemy’s own methods against them.  She became an assassin, well versed in the art of killing men.  She learned poisons and perfumes and the skills of the blade.  She poses as a wandering musician, for a musician is usually no more than scenery.  The only other profession who could have a more unfettered path to a target would be a courtesean, but Lin does not walk that road. 
Lin is very, very good at what she does.  She takes other commissions, not just the members of the rival family that she has sworn to destroy.  The Nightingale, as she is known, is a very clever and much sought after assassin.  No one knows who she really is or what her cover is.

Roleplaying Notes:

Perhaps the members of the rival family suspect that the Nightingale is a lost member of the Jiy family, since she has a vendentta against them.  The head of the family might arrange to have some mercenaries attempt to find Lin, ostensibly because they are innocent victims.

Lin might have confused a PC or important NPC with a member of the rival family.  This is understandably going to cause some problems.

The party might be investigating an assassination that seems to be the work of the Nightingale.  Do they hunt down the assassin?  Will they connect Lin the musician to the notorious Nightingale?  Will they believe it if they figure it out?  Might it be a set up?

Lin might need help to carry out one of her commissions or part of her vendetta.  If the target in question is a nasty enough sort, the players might be persuaded to help her.

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