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Trigger warning — this fiend description contains themes of crowd stampedes, so if you have concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this creature a miss
Penqual Sahkil
The Crowd that Walks as One (CR 15); agoraphobia — fear of being trapped; enochlophobia — fear of crowds
A writhing mass of at least twenty interconnected humanoid figures, the penqual is perhaps the most bizarre manifestation of social terror by any sahkil. The mob of individuals have disturbing faces with dead black eyes, no noses or mouths, and fingers and toes that terminate in long talons, and are pressed together in a crush. But horrifyingly, these seemingly separate entities are in fact a single creature held together by thin fleshy appendages resembling umbilical cords—a grotesque parody of human connection. The penqual mob moves as one, and when it wishes to, its multiple forms can create the illusion of a mundane group that can blend seamlessly into crowds at festivals, markets, and other gatherings without drawing suspicion.
The penqual is a manifestation of collective oppression—the belief that groups inherently consume individual identity and that excessive proximity leads to social suffocation. They play upon the fear of suffocation felt by many mortals, and the common anxiety that cutters may feel when immersed in a crowd. While most sahkils exploit solitary fears, penquals believe that because mortals are fundamentally social creatures, their greatest vulnerabilities emerge when surrounded by others who might judge, scrutinize, or overwhelm them. They particularly savour the deindividuation process of crowds, where cutters lose their sense of personal responsibility and become susceptible to collective behaviour that violates their own values. Penquals view social gatherings as an opportunity to feed on the fear created when peer pressure transforms usually rational bashers into an irrational mob.
Unfortunately, penqual prefer to lurk in plain sight, hunting in crowded marketplaces, streets and festivals. They target religious celebrations, sporting events and political gatherings in agora, where their multiple forms can masquerade as excited attendees while they identify victims who show signs of crowd-related discomfort. They can use their ability to generate mob rushes and crowd surges to cause deadly stampedes and crushes. Most dangerously, the most patient of penquals will employ weeks of psychological preparation using nightmare and antipathy spells to stoke social tensions before scheduled mass gatherings, ensuring maximum terror when they finally abandon subtlety for bloody violence.
Planewalkers should watch for warning signs including unusual crowd density, where individuals lose control over their own movement, crushing sensations without obvious physical cause, and mass gatherings where attendees display uncharacteristic aggressive behaviour or sudden panic responses. The ultimate danger occurs when penqual coordinate a mass stampede with a simultaneous ambush, thereby elevating the panic to deliciously deadly effect.
Penqual attacks in Sigil are mercifully uncommon, thanks in part to the vigilance of Harmonium patrols who have been trained to recognise the warning signs and have developed magics to detect such sahkil in high risk locations like the Great Bazaar. The same cannot be said for some of the gate towns, however, and planewalkers should be cautious, especially in crowded Lower Planar burgs.
Source and Stats: The Creature Codex [PF1e] conversion here; Ruins of the Radiant Siege [PF2e] p84.
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.