Planar Bestiary
Ferries of ill repute ply the greasy fingers of the River Styx across the Lower Planes and into many worlds of the Material Plane. These riverboats can be guided by a menagerie of different fiends, though the most common pilot is a dead soul whose crimes in life left them halfway between salvation and eternal torment.
In life, Styx jacks may have been riverboat pilots, crew on a sailing craft, or captains of their own seafaring ship. However, previous marine experience is not a prerequisite for those who find themselves newly animated and with few options other than taking command of an enchanted ferry. Ferries on the Styx can be captained only by creatures with exactly the right balance of good and evil.
However the Styx jack originally earned their burden of guilt, the debt can one day be paid off if sufficient silver is saved up and delivered to a powerful duke of Hell or similar being in another of the Nine Hells or in Acheron, Gehenna, Hades, Carceri, the Abyss, or Pandemonium. If the payoff is accepted, the Styx jack is relieved of their watercraft and moved on to some other form of existence. This varies widely but usually involves resurrecting the jack as a living creature once more, albeit as some kind of fiend.
As an undead creature, a Styx jack doesn't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Motive: Earn sufficient silver—2 silver coins per ferry passenger—to pay off soul debt
Environment: The Lower Planes or worlds of the Material Plane where the River Styx runs, alone in their ferry or with one or more passengers
Health: 22
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (4 points)
Armor: 2
Movement: Short; short when swimming
Modifications: Resists mental influence and being pushed out of their own boat as level 7
Combat: The Styx jack attacks twice each round with their massive ferry oar. Targets suffer damage and on a failed Might defense task, are paralyzed with unbelievable pain, losing their next turn. Instead of causing pain, the jack can choose to knock a target that fails their Might defense task overboard into the Styx.
A Styx jack is immune to necrotic attacks and effects of falling into the River Styx.
Interaction: A Styx jack demands the payment of two silver coins for a ride in their ferry, using any of a number of common languages, or the languages of fiends. Those foolish enough to pay before the Styx jack provides passage to the agreed-upon location may find themselves turned out prematurely in a location not of their choosing, or simply dumped overboard. Otherwise, a trip takes several hours or days of quiet, menacing sculling by the Styx jack.
Use: The characters are looking for a specific soul that has information they need. Unfortunately, the only thing they have to go on is that the entity they seek has a soul debt to pay off, and they are doing so by serving as a ferry jack on the River Styx.
Loot: A Styx jack may retain a few valuables that passengers left behind that the jack finds interesting, such as a figurine that transforms the user into a specific kind of natural marine animal—such as a dolphin, shark, or ray—with that animal's stats and abilities (but retaining speech) for one hour (level 5; depletion: 1 in 1d10). They also have a hoard of silver cunningly hidden aboard their ferry, usually an expensive number of coins (3,000–4,000 silver pieces).
Ferry (open watercraft): level 3; moves a short distance each round Styx jack sculls; room for ten passengers
Contact with the River Styx: level 5; a creature who fails an Intellect defense task takes 10 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor), all their Intellect-based tasks are hindered by four steps, and they can't speak or understand language.
GM Intrusion (Group): The Styx jack causes their ferry to list so far to one side that it nearly capsizes. Passengers that fail a Might or Speed defense task (passengers' choice) fall into the River Styx. If a creature doesn't lose their mind from the water's touch, getting back into the boat requires a successful level 3 Might task, assuming the Styx jack doesn't row away.