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Trigger warning — this fiend description contains themes of being buried alive and suffocation, so if you have concerns about content like that, I suggest you give this creature a miss
Tumblak Sahkil
The Coffin Fever (CR 18) claustrophobia — fear of enclosed spaces; taphophobia — fear of being buried alive
Tumblak sahkil manifest as a floating, translucent mass of bodies with limbs interlocked and necks bent in unnatural angles. This fiendish abomination appears as if a dozen people were compressed in a coffin together and became inextricably tangled, their forms forced into a vaguely rectangular shape that foreshadows the terror of confined burial.
The many eyes of the tumblak are blank and white, and its mouths are contorted into silent screams as if suffocating. Unfortunately, the tumblak manifests a deadly gasping aura, which literally draws the breath from victims’ lungs, as if they too were buried alive. The tumblak can phase through solid walls, and it uses this ability to lurk out of sight, before surprising its victims when they are already struggling for breath.
Tumblak believe that all mortal existence is merely a temporary reprieve from the crushing confinement that awaits every living being after their inevitable deaths. Claustrophobia is a common fear among mortals, the these sahkil take every advantage of it in their attacks—both the fear of suffocation and the fear of constriction. By exploiting two fears at once, the tumblak achieve even more devastating levels of fear in their victims, which makes it all the more delicious for them.
These sahkils typically establish lairs in crypts, mausoleums, graveyards, and collapsed buildings where their incorporeality allows them to drift through narrow hallways and locked doors. Meanwhile their gasping aura causes victims to begin suffocating before the tumblak has even engaged with them. However, a favourite tactic of the tumblak is to stalk its victims for days before it first confronts them, learning their habits. When its would-be victims are asleep, the tumblak can inflict magically horrifying nightmares of being buried alive, which is both terrifyingly prescient but also serves to fatigue them. A victim so afflicted can be struck down by the tumblak’s other dangerous ability more easily. Tumblaks view every enclosed space as a potential tomb, and they are able to inflict this perception on their victims using magic or physical attacks. Once affected by the tumblaks entombing echo, victims feel as if they have been buried alive and are literally immobilized with fear.
Planewalkers who suspect tumblak activity should be extremely careful, as these sahkil are truly deadly if you’re unprepared to face one. Cutters should watch for warning signs including difficulty breathing in areas that should have adequate ventilation. Truly canny bloods will ensure they have the ability to function without needing to breathe at all. They should also be aware that methods to ward off undead may inexplicably be useful—as tumblaks paradoxically respond to many rituals despite not being undead themselves.
Sources ans Stats: Night of the Gray Death [PF2e] p71; Creature Codex conversion [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.