Chef Damocles

[Prompt: A character who excels in manipulating others]
No idea where I'm going with this one
Damocles is one of the more memorable characters in a setting I created for a DnD mini-shot I DMed for strangers. She was the chef, and seemingly the person in charge, of the food tent in a camp the players "spawned" into.
But she wasn't just a chef.
Damocles was also the designated Exposition Giver for this region of the map. She handed out quests and leads, and would have handed out magic items, given the time. Among the items primed for giveway were Damocles' Pearls, a necklace of large pearls with a charm of a sword on the bottom. When a character was in dire need of good luck in the moment, they needed only tear the necklace off and throw it in the direction of their desired result, for instant advantage or success. Upon utilizing the pearls and gaining that luck, a character would find a spectral sword hanging over their head. The sword could fall at any time, at which point Bad Luck would plague them. In game terms, this meant the DM could impose disadvantage, or something slightly worse than the boon the player had gained, at any time of their choosing, with no option to escape the bad luck.
I never had the time to get to know Damocles well, but I know a few things. She definitely had a lot of knowledge and power of the campaign world. She absolutely benefited from Damocles' Pearls in some way, and she had multiple copies of the item available to hand out. And she was likable. Damocles was built to be trustable, well loved by (living) NPCs, and hopefully trusted by at least some of the PCs. She would then use her power to steer players around the map like pawns, toward some endgame I cannot yet fathom.
Maybe she's evil. Maybe she's a trickster, simply looking for entertainment.
But she's just the chef. Why would she ever want to hurt you?