Ferryman Fiend [Lesser Mercenary]

A ferryman fiend is a thin, gray humanoid with pale eyes, a skeletal face, and a dark hooded robe. When angered its eyes burn red. Cold and mercenary like all its kin, it speaks every language, is telepathic, and stays in constant mental contact with every other member of its race.

It is a poor fighter, biting only with bony fangs. When roused, its blazing red gaze forces anyone facing it to save vs. spell or suffer as from a fear spell, after which it calls in help: it can gate in 1d6 water fiends with a 75% chance. It has the full set of mercenary fiend powers, usable at will.

Its magic resistance is 80% against 1st-level spells and drops 5% per spell level above that, down to 50% against 7th-level magic. Poison, fire, and acid cannot hurt it, and gases deal only half damage, but cold is its great weakness, dealing double damage.

Unlike other mercenary fiends, these have one fixed calling: they steer little boats across the dark flow of the river of the underworld, and nothing else. They can cross between planes without arousing suspicion, which makes other fiends eager to use them as spies in the war, but ferrymen care only about their passengers. They know every turn of the river and never get lost unless it suits them. They can steer through the Astral Plane to the edge of the Prime Material Plane and even step onto the Prime, but must leave their boats to do so; without its craft a ferryman is lost and useless, so it rarely strays far. Sometimes one is summoned or sent to carry someone between the Prime and the lower planes, by means of a unique plane shift usable only for that errand.

They carry people, never cargo, and demand payment up front, unless a greater fiend simply compels service: a magic item, ten platinum pieces in a pouch, or two gems worth at least 50 gp each. An unpaid ferryman blocks the would-be rider from its boat and teleports away with it at the first chance. Even when paid (rather than sent by some greater evil), there is a 15% chance of betrayal: 85% of the time it delivers the passenger to the wrong place or plane, and 15% of the time it leads its summoner into an ambush. Each extra payment of the sizes above lowers that chance by 5%.

Because every ferryman knows what any other knows, anyone who cheats or harms one is marked by all. They will not rescue each other, which would show concern, but the offender faces higher fares and much greater risk of treachery from then on. Only a fitting offering to the whole race, such as rare gems or several unique magic items presented with ceremony and contrition, restores good standing; the DM decides the exact price.

These may be the most neutral of evil fiends, living only to collect fares and avoiding the endless war between demons and devils entirely. Demons and devils both need their services, so they put up with this neutrality; any infernal lord who enslaved them would break what makes them useful, and a ferryman without its boat is worthless even as a foot soldier. Still, both sides may use them as unwitting pawns in subtler schemes.