Dachzerul

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Dachzerul

Trigger warning — this sahkil involves the themes of malicious clowns and serial killers. If you or your table has concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this fiend a miss.

The Darkness Behind You; the Last Laugh (planar sahkil tormentor [they/them] / NE) †

Portfolio: Deadly pranks, stalkers, sudden death

Realm: Ethereal / Xibalba / The House of Fun; Wandering

Alignment: Neutral Evil

If you’re ever the victim of a cruel joke, you should remember the dark saying that’s whispered in the Hive Ward: “Laughter helps you live longer”. That’s not because a sense of humour is noble or anything like that, oh no. It’s because the cutter saying that to you is worrying about Dachzerul, the Darkness Behind You.

Dachzerul is a sahkil tormentor who feeds on the primal dread that something—or someone—is toying with you like a hellcat plays with its lemure prey. He eternally seeks the thrill of the moment when a cutter’s naive trust flips into the horrible realisation they’ve been betrayed. He is the hush that falls after a joke has gone terribly wrong.

Dachzerul delights in deadly pranks, hiding his malice behind merriment: Rigging a chandelier to collapse onto a crowded ballroom, sneaking into a trusted apothecary at night and swapping out healing potions for poisons, or perhaps creating illusions of children or animals in dangerous situations to trick cutters into ‘rescuing’ them. And if the victims don’t laugh hard enough when the prank is revealed, the fatal trickster acts offended, and is likely to shiv them as soon as their back is turned. If they survive that, his victims find themselves changed—perpetually on edge, flinching at the sound of laughter, fearful of childrens’ games, clowns, and friendly pats on the shoulder.

Dachzerul usually manifests as a human harlequin, although there’s something simian about his features. His skin is pale with white make-up, and his grin is much too wide for his face. His laugh is chilling and distinctive, like the braying of a mule crossed with the cackle of a crow. His teeth are yellowed and crooked, and when he smiles that cruel smile, you can see there’s no mirth in his eyes, only coldness. His moods are fickle, even for a sahkil, and he can violently swing from untrustworthy smile to murderous rage in a moment. The Darkness Behind You dresses in orange a white jester’s costume, and always has a knife hidden about him somewhere. He’s the patron of stalkers, obsessive pranksters, and a friend of serial killers, especially the theatrical ones who show a flare for the drama of a good killing.

Edicts: Keep secrets from everyone, obtain what you desire, pursue your passions above all else

Anathema: Choose safety over trickery, forewarn the target of a prank

Canonical Source: Book of the Damned [PF1e] p132; Divine Mysteries [PF2e] p229, 320-321.

Source: Jon Winter-Holt