#False hydra

[juice-enjoyer]

piece i did for a dnd horror campaign :) one of the pcs is an artist and found this in her sketchbook, despite not remembering having drawn it...how strange!

[theoutcastrogue]

I hesitate to spread this because if you don't know the False Hydra as a DM, you can learn it and run it, but if you don't know it as a player, it's a huge spoiler (assuming your DM will run it at some point), which is a shame.

But anyway, it's a horror mystery/puzzle/monster, tricky to pull off (shenanigans may be necessary, like messing with the players' IC / OOC knowledge), but if you make it work, it's brilliant. The premise is more or less system-agnostic and the stat block can be anything (plenty of homebrew False Hydras around), you just need a group that enjoys a good mindfuck.

The link above is an example from play (D&D 5e, I think, not that it matters much), the original idea is by Arnold K.

[cassandraxiv]

D&D Dungeon Masters, if you're planning to run a False Hydra, don't run a False Hydra. Run a Wind Fish.

For those who don't know, a False Hydra is a monster that creates illusions to hide itself. A campaign featuring a False Hydra would usually involve mysterious disappearances in a town of people that nobody seems to remember afterwards, with the False Hydra erasing memories about its victims and itself. This is gruesome and horrifying, but ultimately, the point of the adventure is to fight and defeat a big monster. We could torture our players more.

For those who don't know, the Wind Fish is from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Spoilers for that game here: the Wind Fish is a god-like creature whose dreams create the island of Koholint. If the Wind Fish were to wake up, Koholint would disappear. Spoilers end here. The setup for a campaign featuring a Wind Fish could be similar to one featuring a False Hydra. There's a town, people are disappearing and strange things are happening. Except instead of discovering the monster that is terrorizing the town, the players would slowly discover that the entire town isn't real, but instead a dream of the Wind Fish, and that the disappearances and strange happenings are the result of the Wind Fish waking up. The problem can't be solved by fighting the big scary monster. The entire town of people that they have hopefully grown to care about was never real to begin with, and they are all going to disappear when the Wind Fish wakes.

You could give the players things to fight. Nightmares invading the dreams of the Wind Fish. But ideally, they cannot avoid waking up the Wind Fish in the end. Perhaps they can't leave the town until the Wind Fish wakes up, or the nightmares are going to keep terrorizing the town unless the Wind Fish wakes up. The point is to make your players care about an entire town of fake people, then rip them away.

The worst part is that the Wind Fish can't even be blamed. It's not evil. It's not a monster causing the town harm. To it, the town is just a dream.

[worddevourer]

I think the perfect set up for a false hydra is actually a party of newer RPG players.

For the unfamiliar: A False Hydra is a monster with a very particular gimmick, namely that it makes itself, and its victims, be forgotten using an enchanting song.. It's essentially 'The DM gets to gaslight the players a bit, as a treat' the monster.

Usually, the setup is the players arrive in a town where things seem peaceful, if quiet, and steadily realize that people that should, by all rights exist, simply aren't there. The innkeeper has a child, but claims she doesn't even know the man in the family portrait. If you press the matter she gets upset. You eat fresh baked bread for dinner, but in the morning, there has simply 'never been' a baker. That kind of thing.

And of course, the classic of 'You wake up. There's an extra bedroll. you don't know why, but the fact that it's empty fills you with dread.'

But of course, implying you had another party member who just got eaten and forgotten kinda fucks over the story you've been telling this whole time. Shouldn't all those fights have gone differently? How are the players going to care about a character who literally exists only as a supposed hole in their memories?

That's why, for this to work, I recommend new players (or just act like you're running a slightly laxer table).

Essentially, figure out what basic utilitarian weaknesses the party has, and then, without any great fanfare, handwave them. Suppose they don't have a wizard. They find a magic item. You say, 'yeah, you get it identified, and it's a ...' Without particularly specifying how or with whom. They're in a dark cave, and the one human of the group is like 'hey, can I even see?' and you tell them, 'oh, yeah, don't worry about it, just pretend you had Darkvision cast on you.'

If they press the issue, you make up a joke, not-actually-real character, who you say is actually doing all this stuff. Blinzki the Narratively Convenient Wizard or whatever. Just a narrative construct, there to grease the wheels of gameplay. (Though, keep score a bit. Remember where things by all rights shouldn't have worked)

And then, they'll get to this town, and you'll feed them a potentially magical item, and they'll ask what it does, and if you're very, very lucky, you'll get an exchange to the tune of

'Do you know anybody who could identify it?'

'We've always been able to identify things before.'

'Yeah. You think about that, and shiver with a sense of wrongness.'

You find the corpse of a wizard. Her journal references people with your names, and she talks about how lucky she's felt to be traveling with you. She's not a great combatant, usually hiding when battle starts, but she's made herself useful with in other ways, casting darkvision on the fighter when they're in a dark cave, and enhancing abilities at opportune moments.

You don't know her.

You're crying at the sight of her corpse.

[piwiansminiatures]

[knives-in-the-dishwater]

Dungeon Master Tip:

if a player drops out of your campaign, instead of wasting time trying to elegantly write their character out of the story, tell your players that you're doing a lazy retcon and that they should roleplay as if that character had never existed.

meanwhile, quietly add a false hydra to the game world in the area where the missing character was before the player dropped out.

when next the players encounter a recurring NPC (ideally several sessions after the "retcon"), have that NPC ask where the missing party member is.

[ophipaints]

A friend asked me to paint a false hydra for an upcoming Halloween one-shot, and I was all too happy to oblige! This is a 3D printed model, which why it's so choppy in parts, but it was really fun to make it all gruesome and scary. The off-putting fleshy tones were also awesome to play with.

[mahoudylan]

Some MOCs I designed in Stud.io. A generic mech, an imp, a False Hydra, and a skrall with a badass robot arm. Wait. Is having a robot arm still cool in a universe where everything is already biomechanical?

[bluebladesnbread]

We fought a false hydra for halloween

Took this chance to try out experiment with my style ( ´∀｀ )b

[hexlorde]

Having some ThoughtsTM about False Hydras and tinnitus.

The False Hydra’s song alters a person’s perception of reality when they hear it, right? So what happens when that person doesn’t hear or process things the “normal” way? I’m picking on tinnitus because it’s what I have experience with, but any condition where there is a disconnect between what your brain “hears” and the actual sound waves should work.

Imagine the artificer who kept standing too close to loud machinery seeing flashes of white out of the corner of their eye. The ranger who never received proper treatment for a head wound having this subconscious awareness of where the False Hydra is, even if they don’t know what it is they’re avoiding. The fighter with constant tension headaches smelling rot as a breeze whispers past them.

Also, imagine the potential for magical interference! The warlock whose patron is constantly whispering in their ear sometimes seeing a pale face looming over them. The wizard using a constant translation spell hearing something horrifying without seeing the source. The sorcerer with wild magic humming through their veins and something else humming along.

[juice-enjoyer]

i am death and i am not alone

[transingthoseformers]

So does anybody know about how false hydras operate?

I'm having ideas about a similar situation but with Transformers and a select mnemosurgeon character of your choosing :)

[light-blooms]

An enemy utilized in Episode 9 of Rise of the Moon, the False Hydra! It is an amalgamation created by the Dark Forest of cats they have slain and spirits they have trapped beneath the city of Hopsfield, and the cats who have become apart of it are forgotten by the town.

As per DND lore, since the hydra has six heads, 70 cats have died for this form.

[lorekeeper-backset]

The False Hydra is the best D&D Homebrew monster. Absolutely horrifying and I love it.

[kalianos]

Context: So ages ago I ran a game in one of my custom worlds. It was a False Hydra game. Kept the players in the dark about it. Along the way I had kept some light notes pointing out bits here and there I felt were important. These eventually made it to the scene I am going to describe below.

As you walk along the town, the ropes tied around your waist. However everyone alive hear and feel the rope snap and sounds of heavy slapping. Along with the distinct chink of something small bouncing on the cobblestones.

Party starts to immediately asking who died, who they don't remember anymore. I calmly tell them that they are fine. Except the druid. I hear an exasperated groan from the player thinking he died since he was at the end of the rope. I tell him no, his character is still alive and as he looks back. He see's another length of rope behind him that wasn't there before. Leading to a mess of half-eaten green skin, bright armor and a book covered in blood on the ground.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon looking at the journal. They found this in the book. It's a bit lengthy.

1994 DR, 14th of Midwinter’s Torment

The adventurer’s guild has tasked us again. We are holding out a campaign against some rogue goblin elements outside of town. I have my doubts about the job. Acanthes is a chill human at least. He still smells like the swamp though. Somehow got saddled with a warrior from Chaton. Chaton! How the feth did he make it over the many fathoms?

Must have paid an orc ship all his coin to be taking work with the adventurers’ guild.

1994, 16th of Midwinter’s Torment

We made camp at the edge of the their base. It took a two days and a night to get here. By Moradin, The rogue we brought along has cheese. I suspect she is part of the “cheese makers” in more ways than one. She can be useful. Kai is a decent sort. Got too sharp of a tongue. Sharp dagger as well thankfully. In hindsight it was funny how well she threw a dagger into that goblin scouts skull. The tabaxi is being quiet.

1994DR, 17th of Midwinter’s Torment

We managed to break into the first barricades. The guards have been taken down. The patrols are aware of us now unfortunately. I have only a few vestiges of my power left. By Moradin I wish I was stronger to channel his divine will. Time. Time is all we need. They are banging on the doors.

1995DR, 4th of Summer Song

We have gone on for so long. We only had a few days rest from taking down the halfling raids to the north along the steppes. Those plains scare me. We passed by a few ghost towns. Ravaged by the halfling mongrels, taken down by Gnoll war bands. Or worse. Being consumed by the false hydras.

Since we have earned bronze rank over the last several months. We were warned that our jobs are now going to be “real” jobs. True monsters and terrors can now be assigned to us. It can’t be all bad right? I heard in the officer lounge while being debriefed that a blue dragon is potentially going to recruit some of us to acquire a rare gem for a courtship ritual. Apparently we would be guests of honor at the wedding if it goes well. I like weddings. Though I don’t think anyone knows how dwarves wed themselves. Buying themselves from their significant other’s parents, crushing gems under their iron boots. Growing up as a half-orc in the tunnels was interesting. Strangely did get a few interested lookers.

1995 DR, 11th of Summer’s rest

I am fuming now. I had slight hope we would get the deadly mission to help out the blue dragon, I could have worn a pretty formal chain-mail shirt or maybe plate armor. I had even looked into our major library to learn how blue dragons interacted and proper protocol.

All for nothing. Ackerson had come down pale and shaking after the letter flew in and he handed me the pack. I noticed it was much thicker than usual. Usually a manifest was just, “Supplies, guild resources rented, gold reward, gold reward deductions, and a small line for our major injury expenses to be compensated.” All on a single sheet of paper, then the outline written by a desk jockey with no legs. This was a full blown book in size. When I asked what it was about Ackerson just leaned up and whispered into my ear the one thing I didn’t want to hear ever in my existence.

“There is a report of a false hydra by guild watchdogs up in Ohmsford. Your team is the only one capable at the moment to handle it. We have taken measures and given you major bonuses to increase your chances of success. We need you to do this, and…I’m sorry. In case any of you fail, the stone of false hydra adventurers has already been carved upon so we will at least know you all in name and what your designations were in the grand library.”

I’m scared, no I’m terrified. Reading this book made by two wizards accounts is the most terrifying thing ever. These monsters are born from lies in folklore but we have no idea how they spring up? The drawings and the life-cycles of these things are downright horrific.

This is the most I’ve written in this thing in a long while but I can help but think; that I am sending us to the worst kind of death imaginable.

I took precautions just in case. I sent my adoptive father a memory stone explaining everything. Remarking that if he forgets his emerald treasure that its because she died fighting one of the most horrifying monsters of this world for their safety.

I’m going to tell the rest of the party later. Right now they are just going to be aware that its being caused by some cultists at the moment.

1995 DR 12th of Summer’s rest

We are having a last blow out party in the town. Drank myself silly. Kai brought in some amazing cheese. Had a fondue fountain and everything. We were only a little miffed when we found Acanthus floating a maple leaf boat through it. Claimed it would help give it more depth of flavor. I think he’s just being dumb. It does taste mapely though. Lucky bastard that I like maple syrup.

1995 DR, `13th of Summers Rest

Fucking potatoes, cabbage, farm lands and wheat for miles. I don’t want to eat ever again for as long as I live. Well except for pork. Never can give that up. Met some weird farmer named Perry. Claimed he had a scarecrow problem. Exorised it easily enough though Weevil got a small cut. After that a Slaad had erupted from the ground. How the hell this farmer survived with a Slaad on his land I will file into “most definitely an agent of chaos” column. Dispatched it well enough. Had to cast a spell of some power to cure Kai though. She got hit with the chaos disease. Was not interested in having to mercy kill my own party member at the start of the adventure.

We decided to make our way as fast as we could through the evening to the mountains. I knew a place that would give us a good deal on room.

Turns out I was right. The dwarf still remembers me from the good old days down in the caves. Got my friends set up in their own suite while I spent extra for my own private one.

I’ve never enjoyed a bath like this in so long. I’ll have to ask Harriet for a crystal. She finally perfected in making light crystals for the caves and it looks beautiful. I’m sure dad would like one. Who knows, if I managed to send it in time it’ll be a good marker for my memorial on the memory stone.

1995 Dr, 14th Summers rest

Bloody chilly, hellish sky whale. And those two idiots nearly drowned themselves trying to get light crystals when I told them that they were buyable. Claimed it was for the adventure of it and effort. I think they were just being stubborn.

Going into town, everything seemed off. We parked our mule and cart in the stables next to an inn. Ordered drinks as our Tabaxi went upstairs to do his ritual armor cleaning. The rogue managed to convince our druid to steal from an old man who looked like a banker. Greedy morons. Didn’t they see all the guards on high alert everywhere? They were caught by of all things another thief. Chatting with the bartender illuminated a lot. Whatever this is, it started in the northern-western area of town. I asked what the local authority here is. He could only shrug and tell me that it was the Captain of the Guard, Wilma; who runs things as usual. In a weird way it made sense. But it doesn’t make sense. I know there is a big mayoral estate here for a local authority.

1995 DR, 15th of Summers Rest

Dealt with a tailor who had been attacked. The halfling that sits in front of her shop is a creepy old hag of a woman. While here the tabaxi had claw daggers from the slaad start being made. On top of that I managed to convince them to make a nice maul in the old style but big enough for me. The dwarf was amenable when I spoke to him in the tongue of our fathers.

We talked with Leah for a bit. Our rogue tried to do some weird mind trickery that seemed to do something. It appears that not all memories can be completely erased I guess even by magic. The mind is a funny thing. While searching around, I found the picture of her husband and two children. It was hidden in the nightstand drawer. I think she didn’t know what to make of it and it disturbed her.

We met the local cheesemaker by accident. He had been ransacking the town since perfectly fine magic shops and alchemists were just there. Seeing as how the people who run them probably don’t exist anymore to the world. I am letting it slide. Moradin forgive me. Habbakuk and Zeboim as well to appease my sea orc ancestors.

We fought a troll. I burned so many spells and kept a wall between the troll and the everyone else. I got banged up pretty hard. Still that troll got a few lucky swipes on the druid and samurai. They’ve never seen a troll before and I hope they get to remember what happens. Felt prudent to spend most of my spells on healing. There is still a Troll colony here and they are completely feral apparently. I asked about trolls to the Town Captain who apparently has “always ran this town.”

She claims that Trolls are a very rare minor problem that only happened recently. This resort town can kiss my green ass.

Was told to investigate the retirement village for adventurers on the other side of this box canyon. I acquiesced to this request since we being paid. Paid to go and ask questions in that will help our initial investiagion no less. I love when the stars align to throw us a bone.

Met Gloria. She seemed nice. She had a love of ale that rivals some of the heavy drinkers back in the caves.

Acanthes got knocked out something fierce from a quarter shot. He came too and told me he had a weird dream. I suggested he follow his heart which he determined to mean go and meditate to the green father. What he told me afterwards is a puzzle of itself.

A shimmering pillar above the city? The singing I belive is from the false hydra. But this shimmering pillar? What does it mean?

We dealt with an Alemental. Talked to the Destroyers. A nice couple. Maybe I can find a strong man someday. Heh, will it be a man of the earth or a man of the sea like my ancestry wants?

The witch has a crazy love obsession with purple. Quisayle is a strange one to be honest. She seemed more fascinated than concerned about the false hydra.

Mentioned that there is an old tower to the northwest ohmsford that probably held a wizard of some report. She only mentions it because she has no memory of anyone living yet it’s a very nice tower. She is scary good at putting two and two together apparently.

1995 DR.

Had a nightmare. I was back at the inn room with some lady. A giant pale white face came in through the open window and gorged itself on her. As I tried to help another face and long neck came through and tried to eat me. I’m too strong and punched it back.

Woke up in a cold sweat over it. I’m writing this in the morning due to the oddness of this dream.

I clutch my holy symbol of Moradin. The warm glow of his forge comforts me through it. I run my finger over the engraving. If I am going to disappear this will be the one thing I will make sure to survive. It holds the needed identifier for the memory stone and for the guilds false hydra stone. Actually, I should keep this journal out and keep writing in it!

As long as I can see the thing in the moment, I can write about it! By the hammer fall! I can trust myself to keep a good record. I should share this with the group. I also devised that we can use a length of rope to keep us together slightly. This way we know if we have been attacked at least.

Itsafterusanditstryingtoeatmeohmoradinthisis bad. Its tailing us. Dropping its song to attack us!

Oh this is bad. I don’t know what do. If I had a decent mace on me I could beat the hell out of this thing. SHIT TH~

This journal is covered in blood. Inside is a portrait of a Large Half-Orc proudly displaying a Silver rank medal towering over the rest of you looking happy showing off your bronze medals.

A caption below it reads, “ The Squad”

So throughout the campaign they had encountered random weird oddities. Helpful people offering healing, random potions just...inside wolves. All explained away as just some weird quirk of a world they hadn't seen yet. When actually it was their Half-Orc Cleric they never knew they had. I had shamelessly stolen the idea from a D&D community when they were brainstorming about how to bring out a false hydra to be fair. But I think the execution was alright.

[meteorwitch]

so I have never played like a full campaign before but I like learning passively about d&d and something ive seen a lot about lately is something called a ‘false hydra’. Is this an actual monster with a stat block and design, or a general storytelling tool that can be adapted to different monsters? I’m curious because what I know about it is it consumes people and the memories of them are forgotten, would that make the Voidfish from The Adventure Zone kind of a reskinned False Hydra? I know some people have compared it to a Flumph, but story wise the way everything unfolded and the pace etc it seems like Fisher could be a False Hydra without necessarily needing to consume a person/body but could still eliminate their memory with just information about them.