Jack the Jack-o'-Lantern
Jack the Jack-o'-Lantern
A spooky column on using folklore in tabletop RPGs
The nights are getting darker. The barrier between our world and the next is thinning. Have you carved a face into a turnip or pumpkin to keep the evil spirits at bay?
While you avoid contact with the afterlife, however, there’s someone who would do anything to reach it. This Halloween, you might even see his light in the far distance. Just make sure you don’t follow it.
The Tale of Stingy Jack
Under normal circumstances, it’s hard to see how tricking the Devil into not taking your soul could be a bad thing. And yet, we have the Irish folktale of Stingy Jack. The stories vary, but they all concern the contemptible Jack, barred from both heaven and hell, cursed to wander the earth with naught but a burning ember.
How did Jack end up in such a predicament? Well, in at least one version, the curmudgeonly Jack has a momentary lapse of hard-heartedness and helps an old man who is actually an angel in disguise1. As a reward, the angel grants Jack three wishes. He makes all three on the spot, each a variation on “Don’t let people touch my stuff!”. Thoroughly unimpressed, the angel grants his wishes and leaves. Unbeknownst to Jack, his selfishness has now barred him from heaven.
Jack, none the wiser, goes on to live out the rest of his life, until one day a servant of the Devil shows up on his door. It’s come to drag him to hell. Jack may not be nice, but he is clever, and he manages to trick and trap not just the Devil’s servants, but eventually the Devil himself. Jack makes the Devil relinquish any claim on his soul; if he lets him go, Jack never has to go to hell.
The Devil beaten, Jack happily goes on to die—and finally finds out he’s been barred from heaven for his selfish and sinful lifestyle. In a panic, he rushes down to hell and asks to be let in. Unfortunately, the Devil is a man(?) of his word and can’t take him either. Out of pity, he sends Jack off with an ember to light his way2.
Then since Jack is unfit for heaven,
And hell won’t give him room,
His ghost is forced to walk the earth,
Until the day of doom:
A lantern in his hand he bears,
The way by night to show;
And, from its flame, he’s got the name
Of Jack O’ Lantern now.
— “The Romance of Jack O’ Lantern” (1851)
Older portrayals of Jack have him lighting his way with the flame inside a hollowed vegetable (a turnip, then a pumpkin). Newer portrayals, however, have his jack-o’-lantern sitting firmly atop his head.
Jack-o’-Lanterns
Before we wrap up, it’d be remiss to end this Halloween tale without speaking about jack-o’-lanterns. Now the term for spookily-carved pumpkins, jack-o’-lantern was once another term for will-o’-the-wisps. These ghost lights were often seen ‘dancing’ by travellers at night, especially over swamps and marshes. Though we now know these lights are a natural phenomenon, it’d have been a shocking sight to see one glowing in the dark a millennia ago. Folklore across the world associates them with ghosts, fairies, and dark spirits, often ones intending to lead the unwary astray (and, of course, to their deaths).
This is all relevant to our tale today because some stories merge Stingy Jack with jack-o’-lanterns and will-o’-the-wisps3. In this version, Jack now lurks in marshes and bogs, his hobby now luring travellers into danger and death with his ghostly light. And if that really is how Jack’s decided his eternity, can’t say I blame God or the Devil for turfing him out.
Using Stingy Jack in Your Game
So now you know the story, how can you use it in your game?
A Sinister Threat
Taking inspiration from Jack as a jack-o’-lantern, we can imagine him as a malevolent spirit with nothing to lose. If he’s turned to luring hapless travellers to their doom, we have to ask: what for? Cruel pleasures? Or has Jack figured out how to trap the souls of those he kills? And if so, what terrible purpose does he intend to use them for?
Even if you don’t use the old-school D&D write-up below, have a look at its spirit lantern and spirit fire abilities for inspiration. A foe that traps souls in its lantern and burns them for fuel, denying resurrection and eternal rest in your setting’s heaven, is likely to terrify your players!
A Desperate Client
Stingy Jack might be barred from heaven and hell, but that doesn’t mean he’s lost his cunning. If he tricked his way out of an afterlife, surely he can trick his way into one too, right?
In an urban fantasy setting, Jack might approach the PC’s as a client, hiring them to engage in part of his elaborate schemes. In a fantasy setting, if a marauding Jack can’t be defeated using conventional means, perhaps the party can strike a deal with him. He’ll do anything to escape his current purgatory, something the PCs can take advantage of. As long as they’re careful, of course—Jack’s more than willing to burn everything down if he realises he’s tricked.
Halloween Night
Every American kid looks forward to Halloween, especially ones who are the PCs in a ‘kids on bikes’ game (Kids on Bikes, Tales from the Loop, etc). But this year, a concerned parents group has got the whole thing banned. It’s inappropriate, blasphemous, and ne'er-do-wells are putting hard drugs in your kid’s candy!
And yet, Halloween was started for a reason. Jack is only a spectre most nights of the year, but Halloween’s different. For decades, your small town’s Halloween celebrations have kept him at bay, but now, without kids in costumes and jack-o’-lanterns, there’s nothing to scare him away. Unless your party of kids can stop him, there’ll be a record harvest.
Stingy Jack Statistics (Old-School)
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Hit Dice: 7** (31 hp)
Attacks: 1 x sword (1d6 or by weapon) or 1 x breath
THAC0: 13 [+6]
Move: 120’ (40’)
Save As: Fighter 8
Morale: 8▶ Undead: Make no noise, until they attack. Immune to effects that affect living creatures (e.g. poison). Immune to mind-affecting or mind-reading spells (e.g. charm, hold, sleep).
▶ Immunities: Can only be harmed by magical attacks. Unharmed by fire. Cannot be turned while holding his lantern.
▶ Conditional invisibility: Invisible to anyone more than 30’ away. This does not include the fire within his lantern.▶ Spirit lantern: When a humanoid dies within 30’, their soul is absorbed into Jack’s lantern (note it’s HD). These souls can be consumed to power Jack’s spirit fire. Trapped or consumed souls cannot be resurrected.
▶ Spirit fire: 15’ long cone of fire. All caught in the area suffer Xd6 damage, where X is the total HD of souls Jack chooses to consume (up to a maximum of 10 HD at a time). Save versus breath for half damage.If reduced to 0 HP, Jack’s soul risks destruction, so he will attempt to trick, flee, or bargain before this happens. For example, he might keep an important soul trapped in his lantern rather than consuming it for spirit fire—just in case he needs to use it to barter for his freedom.
And that’s it for Stingy Jack!
If you celebrate it, I hope you have a very spooky Halloween! Mythoi will be back again soon with another piece of fantastical folklore.
Penny for your thoughts: Have you ever had Halloween, or a version of it, show up in one of your tabletop games?
~ A.C. Luke
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Banner Image by Daniel Lincoln on Unsplash.
Ellis, Hercules. 1851. The Rhyme Book. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans: London.
Bachelor, Blane. “The twisted transatlantic tale of American jack-o’-lanterns”. National Geographic. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
Club, Belfast Naturalists’ Field. 1894. Annual Report and Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists Field Club, 1887 to 1893. Belfast.