The Longest Journey[]
- "I can pull a rabbit out of a hat."
"I can pull a hat out of a rabbit. What is your point?" - ―April Ryan and Roper Klacks[src]
Roper Klacks is an Alchemist who lives north of Riverwood in a floating castle. April first hears about him from Captain Horatio Nebevay, who tells her Klacks has captured the wind, so no ships can travel. Though several attempts have been made to defeat him, none of them have succeeded. To free the wind so she can get to Alais, April travels through the woods to find the Alchemist.
From Lorhan, one of Klacks' victims, April learns the Alchemist has been capturing everyone sent against him. Using his magic, he has been trapping his attackers in stone and then stealing their souls, keeping them in a large crystal called a Soulstone. This Soulstone gives him immense power. However, before she can help Klacks' captives, April has to negotiate the interior of Klacks' castle which is an elaborate labyrinth complete with gargoyles, shifting staircases and paving stones, and a strange mirror that shows April a dark 'mirror universe' version of herself. Getting through the castle is made harder by Klacks' disembodied voice teasing April most of the way: she gets annoyed and describes him as sounding like 'Richard III on crack'.
As a child, Klacks was his neighbourhood hopscotch champion 3 years running. He studied at the Alchemist's Academy, where he was a member of the tic-tac-toe club for 5 years running. His secret passions are spelling and cooking.
Klacks loves his calculator
Klacks himself is a flamboyant, dramatic character who loves taunting his victims. He even decides to amuse himself when April arrives by letting her challenge him to a series of contests - including a spelling bee, a cooking contest and a game of hopscotch. He also teases April by saying that their encounter is a 'Kodak moment' - he knows a lot about Stark and is later revealed to be a Vanguard agent, although he as good as admitted he was planning to betray them once Stark and Arcadia was united. It isn't clear if his capture of the winds is part of some greater masterplan or if he's just doing it to show off.
While speaking to April, Klacks mentions that he knows something about her parents, but doesn't elaborate.
Finally, April challenges Klacks to a mathematical test - his mighty intellect against her pocket calculator. When she keeps beating him, Klacks gets angry and demands to look at the calculator, quickly becoming fascinated by it. After he starts playing with the buttons, a strange blue light emerges from the calculator and sucks him inside it. Exactly what happened to him is not known.
Dreamfall[]
- "I don't believe in judging people by their appearance, but that guy looks a bit evil. Ish."
- ―Zoë Castillo[src]
Now a reformed character, Roper Klacks turns up in Marcuria's Magic Ghetto, running a market stall called Roper's Spells & Philtres which sells potions and magical ingredients. April Ryan is surprised and a little apprehensive at the sight of her old nemesis, but he assures her that he is now completely rehabilitated, with the help of WWWA. In fact, he is grateful to April: she defeated him so soundly that he started to reexamine his life.
In answer to the question we're all asking, Klacks claims that he had to learn advanced trigonometry and multiply the square root of pi by the volume of his 'mathematical prison' to escape the calculator, but we still don't have an explanation as to how he got in there in the first place. He was trapped in there for five years.
Klacks has written a book - Farewell to My Wizardin' Days - about his experiences as an evil wizard, including sections such as '10 reasons not to build a flying castle' (on p.42). However, there was a slight problem: during the printing process, a charm got caught on page 108, and whenever that page was read, the book exploded. Klacks now has the last copy in existence, de-charmed and safe for reading, which April uses to barter passage to the Dark People's Library.
In gratitude for her help in turning his life around, Klacks also gives April free alchemical merchandise from his stall, such as acid, a smoke bomb and a sleeping potion if she asks for one. However, he does tease April about a certain pamphlet that was popular in Marcuria for a while after her adventure, entitled 'April Rye-bread and the Rod of Joie'. As an aside he confesses that at one point he tried to trap a Dark Person in stone back when he was evil. We can only guess what happened, as he simply concludes: "Not the best idea I've ever had..."
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“Where have you gone to, Dreamer. Whose dreams are you dreaming?” — Spoilers for Dreamfall Chapters follow. |
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Dreamfall Chapters[]
- "Why? Why does everyone wants to talk about April Ryan? She was just a weak little human who stumbled onto things she didn't-- No, no, no, no, I must apologize, You see, April and I had some...disagreements in the past. I'm past that now. I'm a different person."
- ―Roper Klacks
Roper in Dreamfall Chapters
Dreamfall Chapters is the first game to significantly delve into Roper Klack's past. Like the Gribbler, Klacks was once a servant of the Yaga. Powerful in ways he is not in the present—thanks in part to the soul-stone he had stolen from Lux—he was known all over Arcadia as the Necromancer King of Ge'en—“the very symbol of dark magic,” according to Kian Alvane. Then, at least ninety years before his meeting with April Ryan—at least, if Klacks is to be believed—he abandoned Ge’en. Along with the Gribbler, he continued serving the Yaga, until he was imprisoned inside the calculator by April.
It is further revealed that Klacks was freed from his calculator prison by the Prophet, who asked for his loyalty and his assistance with two matters. The first involved becoming the vessel for the Undreaming, which the Prophet traps inside a shard of the soul-stone. The second involved using the knowledge gleaned during his time in the calculator to design a massive calculating engine which would allow the Prophet to reshape reality.
The Present[]
Klacks, now an entertainer, can be seen around Marcuria in his cart, from which he puts on a puppet show of his own creation called The Fingerlings. One day, before the show is about to begin, he is found by Zoë Castillo, who is following a lead on the soul-stone. He answers that he did indeed own the stone, “in another life” before he reformed, and that it is now on the hands of the Yaga. Satisfied with this answer, Zoë leaves, and Klacks begins his show. However, in the middle of his story about the kindly old wizard and the evil sorceress from a distant land, he is arrested by Commander Vamon (on a tip from Onor Hileriss) for violating the law against teachings of occult magic.
After being imprisoned, Klacks is freed by the Prophet and set to work operating the Calculating Engine. It is there that he is found and knocked unconscious by Kian Alvane. After awakening, he is told by the Prophet to join him for the final step of their plan.
As the Prophet is about to execute the final step of his plan, using the Silver Spear of Gorimon to pierce the Well of Dreams and gain the power to shape reality, he and Klacks are interrupted by an arriving Kian. Although the warlock attempts to use his magic to dispose of the former Apostle, Kian is eventually able to wrest the Spear from the Prophet, and uses it to impale Klacks, killing him.