[Channel Teaser]
How The DM Sowed Seeds Of Deception To Completely Fool The Party
I’ve been plotting to run a False Hydra for months.
False Hydra is basically The Silence from Doctor Who except if it eats you everyone
forgets you ever existed.
And I implore you; if you’re planning on running one, don’t just throw it at your
players with a few sessions’ prep.
Take your time, plan things out and the payoff will be substantial.
​Here’s how I ran my False Hydra: I plant Seeds.
Firstly, my PC’s backstories are important to pepper with events you can manipulate.
I ran a one shot for two of my players, a halfling Druid & half-orc Paladin, and a couple
friends new to D&D.
I told them it was fine that they use their characters they’re playing as in the campaign
as it was a one shot and it didn’t matter.
I began telling them that the Druid & Paladin had been traveling together for some time.
I said they’d become known as “The Holy Trio,” as two halves made a “(w)hole”;
they’re religious characters and the Druid had a pet mouse, so there’s 3 of them.
​The Holy Trio.
They liked it.
The game played out as expected, and at the end, the Druid & Paladin are knocked out and
I end the session with the same words I began our very first session with.
It’s at this point the Druid & Paladin say “Oooooh!
This is a prequel!”
And they brought this new knowledge into the campaign game and began playing as old friends
traveling together.
Was lovely.
That’s Seed One.
Months and months ago the PCs of my campaign took out a bandit camp that was threatening
Nashkel, a nearby village.
They succeeded in their endeavor and found a map indicating that another village nearby
is next to be attacked.
The bandit leader told them there was another group of bandits to the north.
Upon finding out this info the players killed the leader off.
The map itself has a giant “X” on it with the word “NEXT” scrawled on it right on
top of a village called Gullykin.
I like giving my players physical copies of items so I printed this out and handed it
to them, complete with wear and tear.
This is Seed Two.
The players generally don’t think ahead with encounters and tend to almost get themselves
killed nearly every occasion.
This is fine, as they tend to find quite a few health potions on the enemies' bodies;
you would never guess, but these have even been known to find them inside the stomachs
of wyverns.
They don’t think much of this and assume it’s the DM throwing them a bone.
It’s not.
It’s Seed Three.
Things occur and the players don’t immediately head off to save the village.
They’d rather head down into some mines and help solve a mining crisis.
This is fine because there’s no real time limit on the village about to be attacked
because it's not really about to be attacked.​
Down in the mines, they get distracted, blow some things up and find themselves crawling
through a caving system and fighting for their lives.
They’re very close to the Underdark and want to get out but they blow up the main
route back.
After a week or so (in game) of searching they finally emerge into the sunshine.
It’s at this point that a few players have some commitment issues and can’t make it
for a few games.
The players that can make the next few sessions are the Druid & Paladin and also the Ranger.
Perfect, I think.
They have a chat and discuss their options.
They’ve surfaced quite close to Gullykin, the village that’s under threat from bandit
attack, and want to at least warn them of what’s going to happen.
But they’ve also got an NPC who’s trapped in a permanent hold spell.
Best course of action, they decide, is for the Druid, Paladin & Ranger to make their
way over to Gullykin to warn them whilst the rest of the PCs take the NPC back to Nashkel
where they know she can get healed.
The next session the Druid, Paladin & Ranger head to Gullykin and I let the seeds grow.
When they arrive it’s late and although there are a few people wandering around, the
town seems quite empty.
I describe them walking up a main street where they can see a tavern, a church, various houses
& a grand looking home.
They stop someone in the street to ask where the mayor lives, thinking the best course
of action is to warn him directly.​
Ranger: “Hello there.
Where does the mayor live?”​
Villager: “Mayor?
Haha.
Why we’ve never had a mayor here in Gullykin!”
Ranger: “Is that so?
So what’s that grand looking building over there?”
Villager: “That?
Oh, well…
That’s the mayoral home…
But we’ve never had a mayor?”
Ranger: “So who lives there?”
Villager: (flustered) “I don’t know.
Nobody.”
Paladin: “DM, can I insight check him?”
DM: “Sure.
He appears to be telling the truth?”
Paladin: “What?
That doesn’t make sense.”
Villager: “We’ve never had a mayor.
I’m sorry I have to go.”
The villager runs into the tavern to get away.
At this point the party are highly suspicious and think everyone in the village has been
charmed.
Half right.
They head over to the mayor’s house and begin investigating.
The doors aren’t locked and there’s a layer of dust everywhere.
The inside looks quite lived in, though not for some time.
There are personal effects and items pertaining to a mayor’s position.
Upstairs, there are two bedrooms, a child’s bedroom and a larger one.
Inside the larger bedroom is a small painting of a family.
Someone definitely lived here.
The party are confused and trying to work out why the villager is lying.
I tell them it’s getting late, what would they like to do?
Tavern for sleep.
They enter the tavern and speak with the two bartenders.
They’ve apparently run the tavern together for 25 years, they’re a married couple and
very much in love.
Whilst the husband is off making the party’s supper the Ranger begins a terrible line of
questioning to the wife - hinting and indicating that the village is going to be attacked by
bandits.
Obviously, this terrifies her and she asks for proof, how could they possibly know this?
The Ranger says they defeated a group of bandits a week or so ago and found a map, and that
the map had this village marked off on it.
He hands it over to the wife and the player gives the physical map to me, the DM.
A seed now sprouts.
What the players don’t know is that I made two copies of their map and ripped and wore
them down in the exact same way.
They’re identical in every way except the one I have has the bandit’s camp marked
with an X.
There’s no X over Gullykin.
When the player passed me their copy, I look at it and pause.
Then slowly, in character, I ask him if this was some kind of joke.
​Ranger: “What?”
Wife: “I said is this some kind of joke?
There’s no marking on Gullykin and the bandit camp is on the other side of the country!”
Ranger: “No, it just…”
I stealthily switch the two maps and hand back the updated version.
There’s silence at the table as they all look down at a map that has an X marked in
a completely different location to where they are.
Ranger: “Wait.
What?”
​Paladin: “Something weird is happening here.”
​Druid: “I don’t like this.”
The players begin to look at one another in confusion.
Why are they here?
Why has the map changed?
In a huff, the wife refuses to serve the party anymore.
The husband comes out with their meals and berates them for playing games with his poor
wife.
He says they can eat their supper and then had probably think about going straight to
bed.
The party hastily agree.
The party have two rooms rented out but, given the circumstances, decide they’re probably
best all sleeping in the same room and keeping watch.
A sensible decision.
Nothing strange occurs in the night and when they wake in the morning they feel rested,
if a bit paranoid.
They collect their belongings and a seed sprouts.
DM: “There’s another bag in the room you don’t recognise.”
Players: “What?”
DM: “There’s another bag in the room that doesn’t belong to any of you.”
Druid: “Was it there the night before?”
DM: “No.”
Ranger: “So did anyone come in our room at night?”
DM: “No, you didn’t see anyone.
And you kept watch.”
Ranger: “So where’s this bag come from?”
DM: “I don’t know, you’ll have to open it and find out.”
The Paladin and Druid stand well back and the Ranger approaches the bag.
Ranger: “It’s going to be another mimic, I know it.”
I explain that the Ranger opens the bag and find it belongs to an adventurer.
It’s got basic supplies in.
Looks like it belongs to a Cleric, maybe?
There’s bits of holy material in there, some religious books.
As he searches he finds some letters.
DM: “The letters are addressed to the Druid and someone else.
You don’t recognise the other name.”
Druid: “They’re letters for me?”
​DM: “You and someone else, there’s two names on the letter.
Someone called Sophia.”
Paladin: “Do you know a Sophia?”
Druid: “Do I?
No, I’ve never heard of Sophia.
Who’s Sophia?”
DM: “Maybe you can read the letters and find out.”
There’s 5 letters total.
I’ve created them too.
I split them up and hand them out to the players.
I also tell the Paladin she found a drawing and hand her that.
The letters seem to be from a mother & father writing to their two children, one of which
appears to be the Druid.
Every letter is signed off with “Mum & Dad.”
The Druid is very confused at this point because her backstory says she’s an orphan who grew
up on the streets of Baldur’s Gate.
But as the letter progresses, the players discover that there are various inconsistencies.
People who were once spoken about aren’t mentioned again.
A lady had two sons but now only has one.
In the next letter she never had any children.
Finally, the last letter is signed off with just “Mum.”
There’s silence round the table.
​Druid: “Oh my god.
Do I have an entire family and I’ve just forgotten them?”
Ranger: “I have no idea what’s going on.”
The Paladin opens up the drawing and looks at it.
It shows a Half-Orc and two halflings.
It seems to be crudely drawn by someone much younger.
Each figure is labeled with the names of Druid & the Paladin.
Underneath the other halfling is “Sophia.”
Written at the top of the drawing are the words “THE HOLY TRIO.”
More silence.
Druid: "Can I check my own bag to see if I have any letters?"
DM: "Sure, you open up your bag and see a single letter addressed to yourself and Sophia.
You open it."
I hand the Druid's player one final letter.
Written on it in shakey scrawled handwriting is, "HELP.
IT'S EATING US."
Druid: "Oh god."
And, let me tell you, at this point I am holding back the joyous laughter.
THIS is what it is to run a False Hydra!
The party are aghast and confused and questioning everything, everyone and everywhere.
They want to know what’s going on, they’re re-reading the letters.
Checking their character sheets.
Talking it through with one another.
They don’t understand.
They head downstairs and are greeted cheerfully by the barman from the night before.
The players want to speak to him about what’s going on in town; they have many questions,
but they first apologise again for upsetting his wife the night before.
Barman: “What are you talking about?
I’ve never been married?”
Players: “WHAT?”
DM: “And I think we’ll end it there for tonight.”
A long video, wasn’t it?!
But that was just Part 1!
The game was an absolute joy to run.
One told me it was her favorite she’s played; another said he just wanted to keep playing.
What they’re beginning to realise is that they’ve had a Cleric in the party the whole
time.
The third seed, those extra potions they keep finding on the enemies.
That’s Sophia the Cleric casting her spells, or at least how they’re rationalising it
now that she’s gone.
It’s ridiculous to think that enemies wouldn’t just drink the potions themselves when in
a battle, and why would wyverns have health potions in their stomachs, come on now!
​Are you guys as excited and as satisfied as the players?
Well, hold your beer because in the next session there will be a few more mysteries, a home
with the Druid’s surname on, more questions etc...
When the players make their way back to Nashkel and meet the rest of the party I’m going
to have the other players ask about Sophia.
They’re going to remember her.
Should be great!
Thanks for staying on board this video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it a fraction of the amount I did.
Stay tuned for the next part and of course, comment your reactions and suggestions in
the comment section below.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel, All Things DnD for more amazing Dungeons & Dragons
content.