A magical construct designed to provide information on all aspects of the Planescape D&D multiverse
Sahkil, Kinverletz
Sahkil, Kinverletz

Sahkil, Kinverletz

[ Sahkil ] [ Impostors | Lurkers | Stalkers | Tormentors ]
[ Ichkoh | Kalona | Kimenhul | Kinverletz | Kwevencha | Nucol | Pakalchi | Pazanbuul | Phikkik | Tuchulcha | Vlogar | Wihsaak | Ximtal ]

Trigger warning â€” this fiend description contains child injury, so if you have concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this creature a miss

Kinverletz Sahkil

The Cankerwight (CR 10); apotemnophobia — fear of amputation

Home Planes: Ethereal / Xibalba; Nether

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Better cross the room and get into bed quickly, berk, for the kinverletz [KIN-ver-lets] sahkil haunts the spaces no child wants to ponder, the dark corners of the bedroom, or the crawlspace under the bed. These horrid monsters are the embodiment of the fear of amputation and mutilation, and especially preying on children who’re toiling in dangerous conditions, or stuck in sickbeds. They lurk in the shadowy corners of mines and factories, seeking to isolate, grab, and mangle. They’ll make it look like an accident of course: hooks and saws chop off fingers or limbs, leaving their victims maimed. What’s more, the bite of a kinverletz spreads a ghastly fungal disease that peels the skin away, adding insult to injury. But it gets even worse.

Once their victim is wounded, the kinverletz follows them to their home, or hospital (if they’re lucky). There they find themselves a nice dark corner to hide, while they wait patiently, watching their quarry. They have a supernatural ability to suppress the healing of beings within their wicked aura, preventing their victim from getting better no matter what medicine or magic is used. The distress and fear that this creates in the victim, and those who care for them—that is what this sahkil feeds upon. They turn families into wells of terror and despair.

When exposed to the light, kinverletz look like nightmares of twisted limbs and raw, ruined flesh. Looming at nine feet tall, these hulking bogey are wrapped in thick mats of fungal hyphae, which mask a warped, vaguely humanoid form. Their faces are a grotesque collection of too many eyes wedged above a mouth filled with scissoring mandibles and ringed with grasping tentacles. Its arms drag to the ground, terminating in gnarled paws bristling with hooks and saw teeth. A kinverletz secretes a damp, pungent reek of mold and infected wounds; its arrival is often presaged by a sickly wet rustle or a sound eerily like bones grinding beneath the skin, accompanied by the stifling stench of rot.

The kinverletz’s philosophy is that fear cuts deepest where loss is permanent and prominent—the dull ache of a missing limb or a ruined future. Their niche in is as monsters of deprivation, thriving wherever pain lingers and healing falters.

Source: The Creature Codex [PF1e] here

Other Sources: Jon Winter-Holt. Canonwatch: The sahkil are a fabulously horrid type of fiend from Pathfinder lore, who make a great addition to the Ethereal Plane and Planescape lore generally. The Creature Codex has done an awesome job of expanding the number of sahkil massively too, and I’ve included all their creations here. Organising the sahkil into three sub-types based on their hunting style was my idea, because the list was unwieldy and their names are (deliberately) hard to remember, and this splits them up into bite-sized chunks.

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