Wandering Jack (Jack Errant)

 

Wandering Jack (Jack Errant)

Hit Dice: 25d12+125 (287 hp)
Initiative: +9
Speed: Fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 26 (+5 Dex, +11 deflection), touch 26, flat-footed 21
Base Attack/Grapple: +12/—
Attack: Incorporeal touch +17 melee (2d6 plus steal visage)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +17 melee (2d6 plus steal visage)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Aura of dread, steal visage, maddening reflection
Special Qualities: Incorporeal traits, undead traits, darkvision 60 ft., lifesense 120 ft., bound by the harvest, unmoored identity, turn resistance +4
Saves: Fort +8, Ref +13, Will +18
Abilities: Str —, Dex 20, Con —, Int 16, Wis 18, Cha 24
Skills: Bluff +32, Disguise +32 (+40 when mimicking a stolen visage), Hide +29, Intimidate +34, Listen +22, Spot +22, Sense Motive +22
Feats: Improved Initiative, Ability Focus (steal visage), Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Flyby Attack, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes
Environment: Any (especially urban areas during harvest season and festivals)
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 15
Treasure: None (but see below)
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: —
Level Adjustment: —

Special Abilities

Aura of Dread (Su):

Creatures within 30 ft. must succeed on a DC 24 Will save or become frightened for 1d6 rounds. A successful save grants immunity to this aura for 24 hours.

Steal Visage (Su):

A creature struck by Wandering Jack’s incorporeal touch must succeed on a DC 26 Will save or take 2d6 Charisma damage and be shaken for 1d4 rounds.

If a creature is reduced to 0 Charisma by this ability, it becomes a faceless husk (as feeblemind combined with blindness), while Jack may perfectly assume its appearance for 24 hours.

Maddening Reflection (Su):

If Wandering Jack is within 30 ft. of five or more visible depictions of his own likeness (such as carved faces, masks, or reflections), he must succeed on a DC 25 Will save or be confused for 1d6 rounds.

He is staggered for 1 round on a failed save if he sees even a single clear reflection of his own visage.

Bound by the Harvest (Su):

Wandering Jack can fully manifest only during the Night of Deuxième Récolte. Outside this time, he exists only as a partially manifested spirit and cannot use his steal visage ability.

Unmoored Identity (Su):

Jack cannot be targeted by effects that rely on knowing his true name or identity. Divination spells targeting him have a 50% chance to fail unless the caster has previously seen his true form without a mask.

LORE

• DC 10 (Common Knowledge):

On the Night of Deuxième Récolte, people wear masks and carve faces into gourds and pumpkins to keep Wandering Jack at bay. It is believed that Jack is confused, weakened, or repelled by seeing his own face repeated everywhere.

• DC 15:

Entire neighborhoods prepare for the night with lanterns, masks, and music. Silence, empty streets, or places without carved faces are considered unsafe - these are where Jack is most likely to appear.

• DC 20:

Jack does not simply fear his own image - he is compelled by it. The more his face is represented, the more unstable and weakened he becomes. Some older families claim that Jack can be driven away if his likeness surrounds him completely.

• DC 25:

Wandering Jack is bound by strange rules tied to identity. He cannot fully claim a victim if he cannot “understand” or perceive a stable face to copy. Masks and disguises don’t just hide people - they disrupt his ability to target and remember them.

It is also said that victims of Jack are not merely killed - something essential is taken.

• DC 30:

Those who lose their faces to Jack are not truly gone. Their bodies remain, but their identities are fractured and trapped within Jack himself.

If Wandering Jack is destroyed, there is a chance that:

• Lost identities may return
• Some victims may be restored to life (though often altered or incomplete)
• Others may awaken as hollow, changed beings with gaps in their memory
• However, doing so risks something far worse: Jack’s final destruction may release every identity he has ever stolen at once - unleashing a wave of confused, unstable spirits into the world. Some whisper that Jack is not just a monster… but a container.

• DC 35 (Forbidden Lore):

There are conflicting, dangerous truths about Wandering Jack’s origin, but most accounts agree on one thing: Jack was not always a spirit.

Long ago, he was a living man who learned too much about the nature of identity—how a “face” is not just flesh, but a name, a memory, and a soul bound together. He discovered (or was taught by something older and darker) how to sever those bonds and take what he called “faces” from others.

At some point, Jack attempted to transcend mortality entirely by shedding his own identity. But in doing so, he fractured it beyond repair. The result was not ascension, but punishment.

Now, Wandering Jack is both:

The thief of faces

And the last remnant of the man who tried to become something beyond himself

Further revelations at DC 35+:

Jack may have once made a pact with a powerful entity - possibly a loa, a forgotten spirit of identity, or something far older - that granted him his first power to steal faces. The pact turned against him when he tried to break free.

The masks and jack-o’-lanterns used in the festival are not just protections - they are part of a long-standing containment ritual. The tradition predates most modern settlements and may have been established by the same force that bound Jack.

There is a hidden truth whispered only in certain secretive circles:

If Jack ever becomes whole again - f he successfully collects enough identities to reconstruct himself - he will no longer be bound by the harvest, the masks, or the rules that weaken him.

Some scholars believe Jack is not just collecting identities… but trying to replace his own - again and again - searching for the one that will finally make him complete.

Final Warning (rarely spoken aloud):

Those who study Jack too deeply begin to notice unsettling side effects:

• Faces appearing in reflections that aren’t theirs
• Hearing their own name spoken in unfamiliar voices
• Dreams where they wear a mask they cannot remove.

And in the darkest interpretation of the legend:

Jack is not wandering the world to hunt the living. He is wandering because he has lost himself, and is trying to remember who he is.