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When a False Hydra Broke a Ranger’s Heart & Mind
Hi everyone.
All Things DnD is back with another story.
One of the most terrifying creatures in DnD, the False Hydra.
But in order to make the False Hydra work the DM has to commit, and boy did this DM.
Tell us about your False Hydra encounter after listening to this:
For anyone unfamiliar with what a False Hydra is, it is a horrific monster.
It hides itself by singing - its terrible song makes people forget things, including
the false hydra itself and its victims.
Their brains are forced to do mental gymnastics and invent things in order to cover for the
victim's disappearance - you could be married to someone for thirty years, but after the
false hydra eats your husband and resumes its song, you will fervently believe you've
always been single.
On the way to the big city for the first time, the party stopped off at Cirra the druid's
home village, Hillside, a gnome settlement on the coast.
There they spent some time with Cirra’s daughter Nori and her family: her husband
and their three small children.
While Cirra dined with her family and shared stories of her grand adventures so far the
rest of the party had to eat her son-in-law’s leather workshop attached to the house on
account of them not being gnome sized.
They ate a lovely meal, Nori and her husband were very charming, and the party went back
to Cirra's house to sleep.
They all had weird dreams, but an otherwise uneventful night came and went.
However, as they were preparing to leave the next morning, the wizard's imp familiar was
looking over the portraits on Cirra’s mantel.
"Who's this lady?"
The Imp asked.
"My daughter, Nori.
We met her last night."
"Who's this?"
"My son, Hurry."
Cirra answered with a small smile.
"Who's this guy next to Nori?"
"That's---"
But I interrupted her.
"You've never seen this man in your life."
Cirra's player hesitated.
"Isn't he my son-in-law?"
"You must be confused.
You never had a son-in-law.
Nori was always a single mother."
The imp also complained about the druid's noisy neighbours who kept him up all night
with "their damned singing", but nobody else heard a thing.
They chalked it up to imp weirdness.
On their way out of town, they noticed a soldier from Kingsport looking very puzzled at a document,
and at Nori's house.
She was there to pick up an order of leather armour from that workshop, but according to
everyone in town, the workshop has been empty for years, just an unused space in the local
teacher's house.
The party went to investigate, and found a large assortment of freshly-made goods, including
the armour in the order, but Nori insisted she had no part in its manufacture.
However, if the city wanted to buy it, she'd be happy for them to take it off her hands
- as a single mom she could use the money.
Nonetheless, the paladin quizzed her:
"Yes, the shop has been empty since I bought the house help us about twelve years ago."
"Wait a minute," said the paladin.
"What did you say?"
"I said the shop was empty when I bought the place."
"No, you said 'help us'."
Nori looked at him, puzzled.
"What are you talking about?"
The players were getting pretty uncomfortable at this point, but they helped out with the
transaction and went on their way.
About a week and a lot of adventures later, they were sent back to the village of Hillside
to look into a strange phenomenon.
People were disappearing, but nobody in the town seemed to remember them ever existing.
So they went to investigate.
On arrival, they found the town half-empty, with an air of gloom hanging over it - definitely
not the busy, cheerful village they remembered.
They stopped at the town hall to check in on the mayor, who was an acquaintance of Cirra's,
but found the office door locked.
The clerk was perplexed at their confusion: "The mayor?
This town hasn't had a mayor for years.
That office?
Oh, no one goes in there."
Cirra was sure she knew the mayor - but no, wait, of course she didn't.
The last mayor died 30 years ago and they never replaced him.
Silly that they would bother visiting the town hall.
They went in anyway, and found the office looking like someone had just left it, with
documents, signed and dated just two days prior.
Something odd was happening, but what?
They checked on Cirra's son, Hurry, and he still existed, but he was very busy as a chef
with only one server in his restaurant.
They had a glance at his books and found that there were several names in there that Hurry
didn't recognize, but he dismissed that: "I'm not a very good accountant.
Must have been a mistake."
They went to the tavern, which Cirra knew had been abandoned years ago.
Yet when they investigated the kitchen, there was fresh food in the pantry, and much to
the monk's delight there was cool beer in the casks behind the bar.
He was so preoccupied drinking he almost didn't notice the words "IT'S KILLING US" scratched
into the bartop.
Before going to bed, they had a very clever idea: they made a list of names for everyone
in the town that they could remember, and, separately, a list of everyone in their adventuring
party.
They kept watch in shifts, but noticed nothing much out of the ordinary, and got up in the
morning ready to carry on their investigation.
As they dressed, they noticed that they all had fresh cuts, bruises, and wounds that they
did not remember getting.
So they paused to review their surroundings.
They began by checking their lists, and found something odd... under the party members,
there was a name that they were certain they hadn't written down: Kipo.
And there was more.
A crumpled paper under the table: "STOP THE SINGING".
Another note in the same handwriting next to the bed: "Heard a noise, stepped outside
to check on it.
Back soon" with a red lip imprint.
A sixth backpack full of provisions and equipment, and a sketchbook containing, among other things,
images of the party on their more recent adventures, accompanied by a female half-orc bard they'd
never seen before.
And in particular, lots of lovingly-detailed drawings of Baeric, the ranger.
Baeric's player was at first perplexed, but when he checked his own bag and found a small
box containing a gold ring, he started to feel sad.
Baeric was always a gruff, asocial person - he didn't get along with people, was uncharismatic,
and not well-liked by NPCs.
Here was evidence that, despite his flaws, someone had loved him, and he had loved her
back -- and he had no memory at all of this person.
They eventually found the False Hydra purely by accident.
They were traveling through an alley where they found some personal effects.
A greataxe and a lute being the most noteworthy.
After this discovery they basically tripped over the thing.
Surprised the hydra stopped singing.
It swung a grotesque head full of blood stained teeth down on the party.
The ranger managed to narrowly roll out of the way of the gnashing teeth.
Frustrated the false hydra started singing again.
After all it’s easier to eat things if they don’t know you are there.
But I allowed a Wisdom saving throw.
Those that failed it forgot they had ever seen the monster, while the others fought
to keep their oblivious friends safe.
It was a long and difficult battle, with the hydra flashing in and out of people's perception,
but in the end they prevailed.
And they eventually figured out that they had been hunting the creature for a whole
week, always finding it and fighting it, but then forgetting about the encounter and starting
anew the next morning.
Only this time, after it took Kipo in the night, did they finally beat it for good.
The party was relieved and, to some extent, joyful.
But Baeric was strangely melancholy.
He, both player and character couldn't get this mysterious Kipo out of his head.
From the self-portraits in her sketchbook he learned that the greataxe and the lute
belonged to her, and he took them for his own.
He tried playing her lute, and realized that he was not unfamiliar with it - as if he had
begun learning at some point in the past.
The memory of Kipo, or rather the lack thereof, has haunted Baeric ever since.
When they returned to the city, they found more evidence of Kipo's presence in their
lives.
There were hand-drawn posters on the tavern where they were staying advertising her nightly
performances.
Although the party remembered all rooming together, Baeric found that he had his own
room, and a key for it, with both his and a woman's personal effects.
The innkeeper was heartbroken when he learned Kipo had died, but offered Baeric his most
heartfelt condolences.
Other NPCs also recalled how close the pair were, and were sincerely sad for the ranger.
As both a player and a character, Baeric was sad to know that there was this person who
loved him, and whom he had loved in return, but whom he couldn't remember.
It perturbed him.
He has taken it upon himself to learn to play her lute, and carries her greataxe.
There have been many clues to her identity, but the memories have never returned.
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Jazza does a fantastic job taking you through the steps of taking an idea, to a sketch,
to a colored work of art.
From someone that could barely draw a stick figure I can honestly say that I’ve learned
a lot and if I can learn how to draw then for sure you can too.
Sign up, listen and use what you learn to bring those images in your imagination to
life.
And if you do I would love to see what you create.
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Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?
Or is it way worse if you know you loved someone but can’t remember anything about them at
all.
Poor Baedric, I hope you learn that lute and find some peace.
Please let us know what you think and comment below!
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