Baron Jentham was of a sorcerous and scholarly bent, and devoted his considerable energy and talents to two things: the University at which he served, and the alchemical arts. Eventually, he succeeded upon a reagent that would bind one’s will and spirit to the minerals of their bones, in effect granting a sort of immortality. Always jealous of his secrets, Jentham kept no notes on his technique and in later years claimed to have forgotten it.

The concoction was successful, and Jentham continued to live even after the physical processes maintaining his body stopped. He most especially continued to attend meetings of the university board, pointing out that there was no requirement for members to be alive. His fellow trustees found this to be a most disagreeable state of events as Jentham’s body eventually began to putrify despite his attempts to stave off decay through a variety of oils and poultices.

As if the stench and its attendant vermin were not enough, the Baron’s form became more frail and immobile as his ligaments rotted away, and they soon found that he had settled into his chair in the trustees’ meeting room all but permanently. Speaking through clenched teeth, Baron Jentham gave orders that wax be applied to his skull and straw stuffed into his clothes to present a lifelike appearance, but all present recall the effect as, instead, deeply uncanny and unsettling. In addition, the Baron filibustered strenuously against many innovations, and would spend hours poring over objections to minor procedure.

Eventually, finding themselves quite stymied, the trustees resorted to locking Baron Jentham in a broom closet adjoining their meeting room. They padded it to muffle his protests, affixed his trustee nameplate above the door, and recorded him as “abstaining” for subsequent meetings. To this day he remains there, unloading a torrent of abuse upon anyone who opens the closet door.

High Inquisitor’s Note:
While Baron Jentham never married nor had children, his nephew had expected to inherit the barony upon his uncle’s decease. Said nephew’s descendants are now in their fourth generation, but thanks to their uncle’s will and the general lack of interest on behalf of the relevant Crown, the barony remains with its original holder–they merely administer it on his behalf.

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