Remember the Quintessons
from The Transformers: The Movie? (Of course you do. They were amazing.) Now imagine taking a giant Quintesson and
skinning it—alive. Now imagine that
after you peeled back its metal plates, you found not the circuitry you expected,
but instead shrieking organic skulls and tissue? With extra faces trying to pull away from its
body in terror? Scared and grossed out
yet? Now make that thing a former servant
of the goddess of death, only it rebelled to torment the souls of the living
with fear instead. And have it hang out
on the Ethereal Plane and make it really adapt at abducting victims.
Starting to get the
picture?
Oh, and make it CR
20.
That’s
right…kimenhuls are the pit fiends of fear.
And we’re talking serious
fear. Check out the Eternal Fear (Su)
ability. Once a character has proved
susceptible to a kimenhul’s eternal fear, it can telepathically communicate with
that creature once per day as long as they are anywhere on the same plane. Worse yet, after the initial encounter,
subsequent stressful situations can retrigger the fear, leaving the character
shaken—even after the kimenhul is
dead! Said stressful conversations
include any and all combat…not something a professional adventurer wants to
hear. (Oh, you want to cure it? Better have a wish or miracle handy.)
If that sounds like a horrific fantasy version of PTSD or
anxiety…well, that’s because it is. And
I’m not just hypothesizing that—I checked in with Adam Daigle (@thedaigle),
creator of the sahkils (along
with @wesschneider and John Compton), and
he’s the one who pointed that out. Other
sahkils embody specific fears; the kimenhul is, if not fear itself, certainly
the next best thing—the persistence of fear, the fear you live with day after day,
the anxiety attack that might be triggered at any moment. Kimenhuls are the fear that simply won’t let
go. Worse yet, they particularly focus
on hunting society’s strong and the powerful, humbling and incapacitating the
very cream of the crop of humanity…including high-level adventurers.
I doubt most campaigns will have kimenhuls as the Big Bad. The two scenarios that spring to mind are: 1)
campaigns very closely tied to the politics of the afterlife, where the rebel
sahkils are one of the main threats to orderly march of souls, and 2) a
campaign where fighting and defeating your fears is the main theme. (That could actually be pretty cathartic
actually.)
In most campaigns, though, a kimenhul is probably the
penultimate threat, the spoiler that must be defeated before the Ultimate Big
Bad can be brought down—a very nice story-beat.
Otherwise, the PCs risk being incapacitated or undermined just when they
need to be at their best—another great story option. And here’s a GM pro tip: If PCs do face their
fears and defeat the kimenhul, giving out, say, a morale bonus or ability score
boost instead of treasure might be a great way to both reward the PCs and
symbolize the renewed vigor with which they can now face their foes…
A ruler who was once
an adventuring party’s patron has grown secretive and remote. He has also grown terrified of mirrors,
stained glass, and snails. After some
investigation—possibly even a red herring involving vampires—adventurers
discover that a mirror in the king’s throne room leads to the Ethereal
Plane. There sits a mirror version of
the king’s palace staffed by sahkils, enslaved members of the snail-like
psychopomp race known as shokis, and rakshasas—all ruled over by a horrifying
sahkil high justice who has his hooks deep in the mortal king’s psyche.
A half-fiend cetus
of mythic proportions and abilities terrorizes a city. The citizens expect their god-hero Tynin to
drive off the beast, as he has done once a decade as far back as anyone can
remember. But in the past ten years, age
has begun to catch up to the nearly divine god-hero—and with it, fear of
mortality, failure, ridicule, and countless other pitfalls. This growing anxiety has been helped along in
no small part thanks to a run-in Tynin had with a kimenhul. With Tynin dragging his feet, it looks like
some out-of-town adventurers may have to face the sea monster…but their
initiative may not sit well with the hero-worshipping citizens, the well-heeled
clerical bureaucracy built up around god-hero worship, or Tynin himself, who
cannot afford to look weak on so large a stage.
Adventures have
declared war on the night hags, busting up their markets in Faerie and the
Dream Shore and harassing the soul trade in the Ether. Their efforts hit a snag when the hags suddenly
abandon the pursuit of souls for the harvesting of liquid fear, taking them
into territories like the Deep Dream and the Gray Lands that are much more
dangerous for the adventurers to pursue.
A kimenhul with aspirations of ascending to tormentor status has
declared dominion over the night hags and is pulling their strings.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 5
214–215
I had such an abysmal posting rate last week I thought I
better give you all some weekend love.
One last note from @thedaigle:
For
another behind the scenes tidbit, the word sahkil is from a Yucatec Maya
dialect and it means fear.
The more you know!
Oh snap, it’s Tuesday’s show! Nothing special to report, although I did get
a Tiny Tim request that will put a smile on y’all’s faces. (But you definitely want to tune in this
coming Tuesday…for reasons.)
Stream/download it here till tomorrow (Monday), 02/27/17, at
midnight. Bros, don’t panic as the
breastfeeding PSA comes up.
(Also, special apology to my Blogger readers, who never got
linked to last week’s show because I wasn’t able to post an entry. Message me if you feel left out and I’ll find
a way to get a copy to you.)
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