Charon

ripvanwormer's picture

Charon, more properly known as Cerlic, is oftentimes referred to as the 'Boatman of the Styx', an epithet that he most commonly receives from worshippers of the Greek Pantheon, but which also rather well describes his position within the heirarchy of the Lower Planes. He typically manifests as a tall, gaunt, skeletal figure cloaked in a dark, hooded robe, holding a long staff, sometimes topped with a hanging signal lantern. His true form may be considerably different, but the tales generally omit this.

Many of those same common legends about him also conveniently omit the fact that he is one of the altraloths of the Yugoloth race and the taskmaster of the marraenaloth subtype of yugoloths. Cerlic owes his current position to a bargain made with a powerful cabal of Night Hags eons ago, but to whom he still apparently owes the perpetual favor of free and (relatively) safe travel upon the Styx.

Sources: 
Dragon Annual #2
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