Jack O'The Lantern

**General:**

Jack O'The Lantern, once known as Stingy Jack, Jack the Giant Killer and a host of other folk names, is a neutral evil fey created by an Archdevil's curse. He is known for his penchant for trickery and he possesses the ability to steal souls and then place them within pumpkins to create plant monsters. He can also place captured souls within himself and gain some mental influence over the people they belonged to, experiencing what they experience and using them to steal from and trick others as well as drive themselves to depths of alcoholism and drug abuse. He never ventures forth in daylight and is most commonly encountered in his haunted pumpkin patch in Mournwood forest. The mere sight of him has proven capable of paralyzing people with fear.

**Appearance:**

Jack O'The Lantern resembles a tall, emaciated figure dressed in tattered clothes and carries a hand sickle and a lantern on a long pole. His limbs end in long claws and seem comprised of magical darkness. In place of a head, he has a large pumpkin carved to resemble a grinning skeleton. Within the pumpkin is a candle which burns eternally with the light of captured souls. When he runs, he skitters along the ground like a spider and has been shown to be fast and capable of jumping great distances as well as unraveling his vines and slithering into people's bodies like a tapeworm.

However, he needs to inhabit a living pumpkin or its vines in order to have a physical body. Thus, during the winter, his soul is trapped in the rotting pumpkin he last inhabited and unable to move or speak. This is particularly agonizing for him.

**Personality:**

Jack O'The Lantern takes great joy in deceiving others and outwitting them. He has been known to allow those he could have easily killed to challenge him to high stakes games of chance - only to rig them in his favor.

**Goals:**

Jack's goals were, for the longest time, to re-live his own downward spiral of drunkenness, alcohol abuse and thievery through living hosts whom he has trapped the souls of. He also seemed to enjoy spreading his legend and fear of his name.

Once the party gained possession of one of the seven silver keys which was given to the party by Midnight Black, The Nightmare King, obtaining it became his goal. Now that it is in his possession, he seeks to exploit his tie to the material plane and become more powerful than The Nightmare King, ultimately overthrowing him and using the key to both lure people into the Nightmare world and call forth waking nightmares into the real world from the dream world.

Having reclaimed his castle in the clouds, he told the party that he hopes to travel the realms looking for a way to break his curse and once more become the folk hero he once was. But, does he sincerely seek redemption or does he only wish to further his previous goal of becoming the new Nightmare King?

**History:**

Jack was the son of a woman who fell in love with a fey noble who lived in a castle in the clouds on the astral plane. As a baby, his father was killed when an evil cloud giant and his kindly but submissive wife took over the castle. Jack's mother escaped with him to the material plane where they lived as poor farmers. Growing up, Jack knew nothing of his fey blood or his origins, only that his father had died. One day, his mother told him to take their cow to the market and sell her and on the way he encountered a man who offered to trade the cow for a magic bean.

Jack agreed and although his mother believed he had been swindled, the bean was actually magical. It created a giant beanstalk that led to the castle in the clouds. Jack climbed it and was shown kindness by the giant's wife, who fed him and hid him from her evil husband who ate children. Jack saw that the giant possessed many treasures including a goose that laid a golden egg. With each visit, he stole a bit more of the treasure and returned to make his mother wealthier.

Eventually, the cloud giant caught on and spotted Jack when he tried to steal a talking magic harp that called out to its master. Jack barely escaped from the castle and beat the cloud giant down the beanstalk. He then cut the beanstalk while the giant was still on it, causing it to fall to its death. The man who sold him the beans then revealed himself to be a friend of his father. With the help of Day Court fey, Jack reclaimed all of his family's treasures and made the giantess drink poison.

Jack returned to his mother on the material plane and they lived as wealthy nobles with Jack becoming the subject of legends and tales throughout the land as "Jack the Giant Killer" and other poems and rhymes. But, after his mother's untimely death from a sickness, Jack fell into a despair and debauchery, living off his fame and recklessly drinking and gambling away most of his treasures. Little did he know, that he lost most of them to the "Leprechaun" Dughall who was actually Loki's reincarnation assuming various forms and slowly taking his magical items to further his own plans. Jack eventually learned from these deceptions and returned to his old trickster ways. He was bitter about what had befallen him and was determined to con his way back into wealth and fortune.

In his old age, his greatest achievement was to trick an archdevil that he had arranged to meet and drink with. He deceived the devil into turning himself into a coin so that he could avoid paying for the drink and then trapped the devil in a bag with a blessed holy symbol that prevented him from regaining his original form. The archdevil was released only when he arranged for Jack to never enter hell when he died - thus avoiding punishment for his life of sin. However, when Jack died, he was instead transformed into his current, monstrous incarnation. Another detail of his curse is that he can never mention the name of the archdevil he tricked as his tongue inevitably twists and spouts jibberish.

The party encountered Jack after going to his pumpkin patch to retrieve seeds from his pumpkin monsters that could be used to kill abyssal parasites implanted within them by Vornir.

Jack said that he could claim the group's souls to replace the three pumpkins they destroyed. He soon paralyzed all but Ren with his fear aura. Ren then offered to play a game, with Jack going away for three days if he lost and with Jack getting to steal Ren's body for three days if he won. Ren revealed then that his body would die before then if he lost, at which Jack said he was a fool to reveal what could have been his trump card. He then began the game of "Trick or Treat."

Ren was temporarily rendered blind and surrounded by six pumpkins. He would have to put his hand in three of their mouths in order to win - but one was a monster and would bite off his hand. This game of roulette was made more difficult by the fact that Jack was cheating by moving the pumpkins around after Ren guessed right the first time. Ren was about to choose the wrong pumpkin when Rikka's fear paralysis wore off. The kobold shouted out Jack's trickery, which to Jack "ruined the game."

 Jack was prepared to just kill them all when Rikka told him about Vornir and his plot to freeze the world. If he succeeded, Jack's legend would be forgotten and his pumpkins would die. He asked that Jack let them go free in exchange for his soul, which he said was part dragon and thus worth more. Jack smelled Rikka's soul and confirmed this was true, pulling it out of his body and swallowing it. Rikka caught sight of his soul as a burning light atop a multi-wicked candle within his pumpkin head.

 He was still alive but felt empty inside. Jack then let them go.

 That night, Rikka found that while Jack owned his soul, he was able to influence him and experience what he did. Jack convinced him to pick pocket another low ranking guild member to buy enough alcohol to drink himself stupid. He then convinced Furt, to provide him with free dream mist drugs in exchange for the party that he "employed" saving him. Rikka was quickly addicted and though he tried to demand another dose from Furt, which would have caused him to overdose, Jack held him back, not wanting to lose his new toy so soon.

Jack allowed Rikka to be mostly autonomous except when the opportunity arose to experience indulgent activities or to steal something valuable or to play someone for a fool. When such a chance arose, he tried to take control (will save). In order to fulfill these desires, Jack could enhance Rikka's stealth and charismatic abilities by whispering tips to him. However, ultimately, Rikka's strong will was able to resist most of Jack's temptation. He fought off the drug addiction and convinced Jack to reluctantly agree to return his soul when faced with the alternative of Fafnir being unleashed upon the forest and destroying everything.

The party later returned to Jack to convince him to join them in fighting off Vornir. He was pleased to hear that Rikka had been killed. He agreed on the condition that Momiji become his new host for 30 days, able to possess him at night. Momiji would also be able to call forth Jack from his body to fight when needed. Jack used his influence to convince the party to explore the dark heart of the woods that ultimately led to a weak space between dimensions and the realm of The Nightmare King.

The party was made to compete in The Nightmare King's carnival games. They would have failed and been trapped in his circus forever were it not for Jack's intervention. The Nightmare King insulted Jack by saying that although he was a frightening boogeyman on the mortal world he was but a side act here. He nonetheless allowed Jack to compete and win a demented version of the strongman game. This allowed the party to leave The Nightmare King's realm and win his grand prize: one of the seven silver keys and a wish.

Jack wished to possess the key to the nightmare realm for himself. Though the party is hesitant to give it to him, he saw his opportunity when they entered the Day Court on the Astral Plane.

Jack O’ The Lantern emerged from Momiji, causing the faerie festival to grow dark and hushed. Jack told the party that the forces of the Day Court would not be enough to repel Vornir’s army and they could only emerge to fight during the day. He suggested that, as a creature of darkness but also one who was tied to the material plane, he could broker an alliance with the Night Court who could fight at night. However, to do so, he demanded the silver key from the Nightmare King. If the group were to refuse, he promised to hide in Fantasia and spread seeds of darkness until it was slowly corrupted.

The group ultimately agreed, at which point Jack took the key and vanished, freeing Momiji from his influence, having used him to achieve his desired end. He revealed that with the key he will have the power to lure victims from the material plane into the nightmare world. He explained that his plan was to surpass and replace the Nightmare King and then have the power to call waking nightmares into the physical world.

Following Vornir's defeat, the party traveled to Jack’s pumpkin patch which had been covered in a strange mist. The group asked him to speak to the Night Court and have them call off their attack, which was originally intended to fight Vornir’s forces. They were only to attack his remaining ogres who had scattered into the forest and hadn’t surrendered. Jack said that it would be difficult to persuade the Night Court to do so, since they had been promised blood, but agreed, on the condition that someone among the party agree to help him test out what he referred to as his Nightmare Mist. Vera fearlessly agreed and dropped down off of Klaus’ back into the fog.

Jack’s pumpkins appeared to be replaced with twisted demonic heads. The color appeared to have been drained from the landscape and everything was distorted. Jack explained that he was using the nightmare key to create waking nightmares from the greatest fears of the souls trapped in his pumpkins. The nightmare mist attacked Vera with her greatest fear, producing the effect of a phantasmal killer. Vera failed the will save and saw the forest burning, people running and screaming as molten napalm like substance clung to their bodies, her father dead and broken by Fafnir’s claws and teeth and her own draconic limbs rotting away until she could only wriggle and writhe helplessly -half of a human instead of a half-human.

However, she was able to make her fortitude save and endured the physical shock of encountering this fear. The illusions faded and she found herself standing, whole in the pumpkin patch as it had appeared before. Jack said that she would only become a stronger hero for facing her greatest fear. So, in a way, he was helping her on her journey. Vera left the mist filled pumpkin patch and returned silently to the group, not speaking of what she saw.

Later, Jack encountered the group in the Castle in the Sky in the Astral Plane. He helped them to make the Bifrost bridge there large enough to transport their whole army across it to face Loki. However, in exchange, he would reclaim his ancestral castle and the bridge to serve his own purposes after. Jack planned to use the bridge to travel the realms, searching for a way to break the curse placed upon him. He said that so long as the party remained on his good side they could still use it as well.