"The Serpent of the Styx".

Ferryman Campaign plot. "The Serpent of the Styx".

 

There was a sailor who was so infamous for his bad luck, his fellow shipmates joked he was more of a threat than any sea-monster. The only reason he wasn’t kicked off was due to his hard work and skill (when it didn’t go wrong). One fateful night, his bad luck piled up. A storm blew them off course. Then the navigator came down with fever and delirium; resulting in them sailing deeper into the storm despite the best attempts to avoid it. Then ropes were discovered to be rotten, snapping in the storm leaving the ship and crew to be tossed by the storm. As the crew’s frustration grew, they began to curse the sailor’s name. When the ship sank, the sailor blamed himself for everything that had happened. A ghost ship only occurs when the crew is united in regret so the sailor was the sole crewman to become a ghost, wandering across the seas as though they were rolling hills. Overtime he began to blame his crewmates for that disastrous night, and all of his former “bad luck” was now a conspiracy they had set-up to cover for their own errors (at least, so he thought). He turned from ghost to phantom (in this setting ghosts look like they did when alive, but the longer they spend on the mortal plane the crazier they go and their appearance warps), gradually taking a monstrous appearance looking like an amalgamation of all the horrors sailors would tell each other. He began attacking anyone he thought might be his former crew. The “Phantom of the West Seas” became infamous for scuttling ships, and sailors are a suspicious lot. Despite assurances the Phantom was a mere tale exaggerating bad storms, trade began to dwindle in the nearby port towns. Desperate, the port towns and the mercantile guilds pooled their resources and hired mighty exorcists. Rather than admit there was a mighty phantom (and most likely scaring off all trade from their ports forever in fear of any storm being mistaken for another phantom), the exorcists were sent out in secret. After a long and bloody battle, the ritual was complete, and the sailor was sent into the afterlife. The sailor (now appearing as a human) was chained by the Ferryman. He kicked and screamed and yelled, but to no avail. As he felt the boat rock back and forth on the river styx (or some equivalent), memories of his sea-fairing days came back to him. Then his painful memories. Then his days as the “Phantom of the West Seas”. It is a rarity for a phantom to regain their power in the underworld, but it is disastrous when they do. The sailor broke the magical chains, and threw himself into the river. The sailor met many other spirits who had thrown themselves off the boat, all victims of others and blamed for everything (so they said). So the sailor decided to condemn all who crossed the river, those who claim to be good while pushing down others for their own errors. The sailor became the “Serpent of the Styx”.

 

The River of Styx ferryman refused to ferry the dead to the other side. This results in the spirits becoming restless, and becoming ghosts, zombies, etc in the real world. The Ferryman can’t do his job because a powerful restless spirit has taken over the river, and any souls “killed” in the underworld are obliterated or cast to the bottom of the river becoming more restless.

 

All this shit was prior to the campaign.

 

You begin with basic shit, and it escalates. Bandits/Goblins/low level nuisance has been raiding local towns. When you stop them, you discover they have been pushed out of their own territory by hauntings. Then after dealing with various areas and tracking down the origins of the haunting, you find a necromancer who shouldn’t be strong enough to summon this many undead. Indeed, the necromancer was merely drawn here, wanting to also know why the dead are rising. In exchange for his life/freedom he explains the only way this is happening is if the land of the dead has issues. He points you to a more powerful Necromancer to the north (where necromancy is more commonly worshipped, peacefully for the most part). The powerful Necromancer is content with studying the dead and praying to death deities (that don’t want everything dead and just serve as an “inevitability”). He says the only way to get to the land of the dead (and come back) will need a ritual, and would need a powerful necromantic artefact. He points you toward a low-level Lich who might have made one in his recent transformation. After this, the Necromancer sends you to the land of the dead. The ferrymen gives exposition to events prior to the campaign. A particularly powerful phantom was banished; not peacefully put to rest. These spirits are dragged kicking and screaming across the river. This spirit took the form of a great sea monster and now resides in the river as “The Serpent of the Styx”. Lost souls live in the lake, and they claw at spirits who try to cross over out of jealousy and spite. Usually they are harmless, but with the help of the sailor’s twisted spirit they can now mount proper offensives. The ferryman couldn’t risk taking any spirits across, and he posses no divine power to deal with it. Worse yet, the gods often avoid going into the underworld unless the situation turns dire, and they usually opt for "all or nothing" tactics, surely meaning the obliteration of many souls. So the Ferryman can do nothing, except wait for a god to destroy the souls of thousands. It’s happened once or twice in the past, but this time he has living people to help (you). As you are alive, your soul has more power, and in this realm you can harm souls as you would living flesh. You are rowed out into the middle of the river and fight the hordes of lost souls. After dealing with the Giant Phantom Sea-serpent abomination, you awaken back in the real world. The Necromancer confirms that the dead is now in balance. While most of the people of the world think the story of you going to the underworld is a tall tale, your group has earned the nickname of the “stykmen”.