And after a bit of a wait, here’s our third dastardly member of the Checkmate Gang.
The Bishop
“You live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity! Allow me to reveal to you the truth of the cosmos!”
Alias: Professor Jeremiah Crawford
Approach: Dampening
Archetype: Inhibitor
Health: 35 + (
× 5)
Powers
Intuition 
Inventions
Radiant 
Qualities
Otherworldly Mythos
Prophet of Madness
Science
Technology
Status: Heroes with Penalties
3+ Heroes with at least one penalty
1-2 Heroes with at least one penalty
0 Heroes with at least one penalty 
Abilities
Babbling from Beyond (A): Attack using Otherworldly Mythos and use your Max die. Hinder each opponent that can see or hear the target of your Attack using your Min die.- Maddening Clarity (A): Attack using Radiant. Reduce all the target’s quality dice by one size until your next turn.
Strained Mind (R): When Attacked by someone with a penalty you created, Defend by rolling your single status die, and the attacker also suffers that much damage.- Tethered Radiance (A): Hinder using Radiant. That penalty is persistent and exclusive. As long as that penalty is in play, reduce damage dealt to you by 1 and whenever you are dealt damage, the target with this penalty takes 1 irreducible damage.
- (U) Aura of the Unknowable (I): While the scene is in the Green zone, all heroes’ quality dice at or above are reduced one size. In the Yellow zone, all heroes’ quality dice at or above are reduced two die sizes. In the Red zone, all heroes’ quality dice are treated as if they are
. (When using this upgrade, the Bishop has 10 additional Health.)
- Heroes may remove this ability with three Overcome successes. If a hero takes a minor twist, the hero must lose access to a quality entirely until this ability is removed. If a hero is knocked out while this ability is active, you may create a new minion using the hero’s highest power die to represent the maddened version of that hero.
(M) Master of the Unfathomable (I): If you are in a situation involving eldritch and disturbing forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to do the bidding of a being beyond human concerns.
The Bishop
Alias: Professor Jeremiah Crawford
Gender: Male
Age: 50s
Height: 5’5”
Eyes: Glowing white
Hair: Light grey
Skin: Pale
Build: Gaunt
Costume/Equipment: A white lab coat over white pants and a black shirt with a white chess bishop symbol on it.
Approach: Dampening
Archetype: Inhibitor
Biography
Prof. Jeremiah Crawford was a distinguished academic employed by the venerable Miskatonic University of Arkham, Massachusetts. An expert physicist, Prof. Crawford had achieved innumerable awards. But as the years grew on, he felt a gnawing feeling of unaccomplishement; there was still so much unknown about the workings of reality. Nonetheless, the professor continued with his work. His latest experiments concerned various optical anomalies; his research seemed to point to the conclusion that there existed something out there, beyond the visible spectra of light, beyond our notions of space and time. Crawford’s investigations culminated in his construction of a machine that he hoped would reveal to him the hidden secrets that he desired to uncover. But when he switched on the device, it made visible to him previously unseen spectra of light, colours that he had never seen before and that he ws unable to describe. The device opened up such terrifying vistas of reality, that he went mad from the revelation. Jeremiah Crawford’s mortal mind could not contain the breadth of knowledge that had been unveiled for him. There was only one thing that Professor Crawford could think of that would ease the mental agony that he then experienced—he would have to spread his madness to others.
And so Professor Crawford began to spread his madness to the other inhabitants of the ancient town of Arkham. His misdeeds were eventually uncovered by a professional investigator, though, and he was apprehended during a police raid on his Miskatonic University laboratory. The professor was jailed in the town’s sanitarium, and remained so incarcerated for several years. Then, one day, a group of five costumed individuals calling themselves the Checkmate Gang broke into the Arkham sanitarium and freed Crawford, on one stipulation: that he would join their gang. The professor agreed, and became the Bishop.
Capabilities and Motivations
Besides his not-inconsiderable scientific prowess, the Bishop’s exposure to his own strange machine filled his mind with arcane knowledge, and bestowed upon him the capability to release gouts of a maddening light whose colour is utterly alien and indescribable. This light fills those exposed to it with excesses of incomprehensible knowledge, harming their minds and impairing their actions.
The Bishop’s interactions with the rest of the Checkmate Gang are limited, as they usually leave him to his eerie tinkering anytime they don’t need him for a job. And when he does go out into the field, it takes considerable directing from the King and the others to keep him focused on their objective, and not simply go off the rails by spreading his maddening brilliance wantonly—although his chaotic style has been utilised intentionally by the King to cause a diversion more than once.
Upgrades
The Bishop’s strange light is truly infectious, and when he is at his strongest, he is able to emanate its mind-warping radiance so thoroughly that anyone who opposes him has a very difficult time thinking straight.
Editor’s Notes
Yeah, I know that there’s already a Marvel Bishop, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Marvel’s not going to sue me for this. : )
So, when I was first brainstorming what to do with the Bishop, I considered doing someone who’s actually religion-themed, but then decided to instead go the weird route and have him be associated with an indescribable, bizarre extradimensional entity/phenomenon. Speaking of which, I drew inspiration for this character from the H.P. Lovecraft short story “From Beyond,” and a bit from “The Colour Out of Space,” in addition to lifting a couple of lines from the opening of Lovecraft’s other story, “The Call of Cthulhu,” to be used for part of the Bishop’s quote and part of his bio.
If you’re using Prof. Crawford in the Sentinel Comics Universe, the strange light from which he draws power can be the realm of Clarity, whilst the investigator who stopped his first outing can be Thomas or Joe Diamond.