Professor Jackanapes

John Napeson

John Napeson was a mediocre writer, teacher, and academic but an excellent practitioner of the dark arts. After several failed attempts at publishing and teaching at various universities, Napeson moved his focus from traditional mythology and folklore to more forbidden subjects. Here he excelled, quickly learning various spells and rituals. Unsatisfied with personal magicks, he began to look elsewhere for more power. Turning to various stolen texts about lost gods, demons, and extradimensional beings, he became obsessed with contacting such beings. He studied for years in seclusion, learning arcane secrets with only his pet monkey, Mr. Scribbles, as a companion.
After several failed attempts he finally met with success. He managed to contact Those Who Sleep Beyond the Veil, part of the ancient race of god-things known as the Old Ones now imprisoned outside reality. The beings promised him power and unearthly glory if he would free them and bring them to Earth’s dimension. Not fully considering the potential downsides or the price of failure, Napeson agreed. Gathering the necessary materials and sacrifices, he prepared to open a portal to his masters’ prison and bring the twisted alien god-tyrants to our dimension.
Napeson’s attempt to open a portal for his new masters didn’t end well. He was stopped by cadre of heroic occultists and virtually disintegrated by his own failed ritual. However, Napeson’s masters weren’t done with him yet. Seizing Napeson’s soul and what was left of his body they simultaneously punished him for his failure and rewarded him for his continued service. His body and consciousness were merged with the body of Mr. Scribbles. Those Beyond the Veil then granted their servant a fraction of the power he desired but locked him inside the twisted monkey-man body and told him that he would be restored only when they were freed. Driven a bit mad by his experiences, he took inspiration from the monkeys leashed to old-fashioned organ grinders; now Professor Jackanapes seeks to fulfill his bargain. Gathering a loose collection of cultists, impressionable young academics, and hired goons, he searches for a way to free his masters from their imprisonment, thereby freeing himself from his own furry prison.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Professor Jackanapes is a skilled sorcerer able to call upon dark eldritch forces to terrify, injure, and harass his foes. He is an expert in occult rituals and the manufacture of arcane objects. In his current body he is small, agile, yet surprisingly strong for his size. The ancient dark powers which trapped him in that body also enhanced its durability, making him partially immortal and somewhat resistant to harm.

Specialized Equipment

Professor Jackanapes prefers to avoid direct confrontations with heroes, instead throwing minions and servants at them to soften them up. However, his mystic powers make him more than capable of taking part in combat. His mind-altering effects are potent and he uses them on targets who prove resistant to his other attacks. If things look bleak, he flees using the Teleport power of his swordcane. He generally avoids using the sword or other close combat attacks on all but defenseless foes, preferring instead to use it to dispatch ineffective minions and threaten bystanders.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Professor Jackanapes is greedy, moody, obsessive, mad, and more than a little bitter—which isn’t very different from before, but being trapped in the body of a monkeyman makes it worse. He wants power and freedom and doesn’t much care how he gets it. Since serving his masters currently seems like the best way to get a human body and an immortal life of unearthly pleasures he’s content to follow them for now, but he’d gladly jump ship for a better deal.

Social

Contacts & Relations

In addition to a small army of cultists and henchmen, Professor Jackanapes often uses summoning rituals to call upon otherworldly servants of his dark masters, Those Who Sleep Beyond the Veil. The Old Ones themselves might not qualify as allies in the traditional sense, but he serves them in return for promises of power and freedom.
Professor Jackanapes would gladly flay alive the group of occultists who foiled his first attempt at summoning his masters.