Aaaaaand we’re back. For those wondering the video was pulled from TH-cam due to a copyright issue, but I have removed the problem stuff and taken steps to hopefully avoid this kind of thing in the future. If this is your first time, welcome! If you’ve already watched this video, thanks for watching it again! I took the opportunity to add some new edits and stuff so let me know what you think! 😄
Are you sure you didn't just do this as an illustration of the False Hydra vanishing from the minds and memories of those who've seen it by taking the video down for a while? What if it was still up there the whole time but blocking our mental ability to see it?
We once played a false hydra plot online. We kept out collective notes on an online whiteboard. Inbetween sessions our GM went there and edited our notes to erase people, we've forgotten, or added paragraphs which our characters have written while asleep. It took us almost 3 Months before we noticed the changes. Our paranoia was real and every session we would start by reviewing our "memories" whether something has changed or didn't add up. Greatest application of gaslighting I have ever witnessed.
Was there ever a before and after reveal? Would be interesting to see the comparison of all the information secretly added and removed Vs what it would've been like if left alone.
*you get attacked by a banshee *You cast silence *Your surroundings slowly reveal everything covered in blood and gore, giant white pilliars with discobfigured faces staring directly into your soul as they tower over the entire town, absolute silence.... The spell ends and everything returns to normal.
*You cast Silence *The DM gets up, uses the restroom, comes back, and congratulates you on defeating the banshee *Doesn't elaborate further The best way to play a False Hydra is to only describe what the characters remember. Let them cook.
When I ran the False Hydra the barbarian solved the problem on accident. The other characters were arguing about what to do and he was getting frustrated and wanted to move on, so he announced that he was tying a pillow over his ears so he could start his long rest without having to listen to them. That one threw me for a loop.
Please tell me you said "As you cover your ears, you notice that you can focus on random objects much easier than before you also see a white face with sockets that don't have eyes moving its mouth too wide for someone of its size to manage."
Only thing more evil than the False Hydra is that one farmer who is deaf and living on the outskirts of town, knows full and well there is some strange flesh-monster is eating all of the people and causing strange gaps in memory, he also remembers being mocked by many of those townsfolk for being deaf. He has made a fortune off of merely taking the belongings of the devoured, has secured considerable political and real power by merely stepping in for consumed. And the only thing worse is if the party kills the False Hydra, you may have a guy who has risen to power on so many lies that everywhere he goes, he springs yet more False Hydras, and always becomes yet more powerful. He could even be the person who originally informed the party of the False Hydra, knowing that this particular crop of false hydra has outgrown it's usefulness and needed to be harvested.
When I ran a False Hydra for my party, I had them come across the town blacksmith, trying to console his elderly dog, who was howling madly in the town square. When the party tried to help him comfort her, he thanked them, but explained that she couldn't hear their comforting words, as she was getting on in years and was now deaf.
I think the point is the dog is deaf so he's the only one in the town that can see the false hydra making him freak out seemingly for no reason to everyone else
The best use I heard was after about 7 sessions. The party kept finding healing potions after battle, had a house in Waterdeep and even had a party portrait done in real life of the three of them. Then they finish a false hydra quest and they find the damaged journal of a cleric. The cleric's journal seems to follow their adventures. Then they get home and see the portrait of the four of them. A fighter, a barbarian, a wizard, and a cleric. The fact the DM commissioned 2 portraits really sold it.
@@tiph3802 Their memory and the real portrait. The real portrait had all 4 but the fake/memory portrait with only three was the one that the DM showed them in real life. He set this up well in advance.
@@d1rachir It is a drastic cut above average. That is legendary GMing. Please, if you decide to play, do not consider this the norm. That GM shelled out over $150 as part of the set up.
Fuckin chills bro. I couldn’t imagine the level of mindfuck the party was experiencing with that kind of cognitive dissonance. Would make a crazy good horror story.
So basically, the false hydras song turns you into a Skyrim NPC when confronted with a stealth archer. Just forgetting you had a friend, while he lays on the ground with 2 arrows in his head. " Must've been the wind"
An interesting play on the deaf character could be someone who lost their hearing due to an accident while the False Hydra is growing. Suddenly aware of what is happening, maybe even figuring out that hearing is the key, they become an accidental antagonist as they try to kidnap and deafen other townspeople to make them see the beast. What seems like a psychopath mutilating people in the night reveals itself to be so much worse.
"In one short second, he dexterously grabs a hold of your head and quickly inserts the instrument into your left ear, surgically as to completely deafen it without doing further damage. Immense pain runs through you, and for a second you can't hear anything around you as your body adjusts to the physical trauma. You focus in on his panicked face, but behind it... tentacles. No, not quite tentacles but tall, thick white sprouts emerging from the gravel path, with pale white faces attached on top, quite like terrifying tent-" "What?" "The pain is immense, but you regain your senses." "You were describing something! Finish what you were saying!" "Describing what, exactly?"
I have a PC kinda like this- born deaf, grew up in a town with a false hydra and the only one who really knew it existed. Everyone treated them like they were either lying or mad, and eventually they started to believe that they were just seeing things. Then the monster attacked them, they managed to fight it off long enough to escape simply because it wasn't used to any resistance whatsoever. Now convinced it was at least somewhat real, they snuck on the first boat out of town to GTFO. Actually ended up staying on the boat and becoming a navigator and cartographer for many years. (abherrent mind sorcerer btw, may or may not take levels in goolock- apparently living many years in close proximity to a horror from the outer realms and being the only person who knows it exists can give you strange psyonic abilities. They probably don't actually know why they're the only one who can see it too) main character flaw is that they rarely open up about anything below surface level cause they think people will just think they're making it up even when they aren't. This is somewhat worsened by them being a changeling and people often seeing them as innately untrustworthy once they find out. Also, they have a massive fear of forgetting something or someone and will somewhat obsessively write down absolutely everything and sketch the faces and names of everyone they meet (might take keen mind feat- it also makes sense with navigator background and if I end up doing 3 levels in warlock the book where they write stuff is their tome). thanks for reading lol didnt expect this to go so long
The stomach drop moment for my players was finding the drawings of a deaf child. We took a break as I spread the drawings over the table and changed the music to unsettling. It was amazing and their reactions genuine.
Personally, I've never been a fan of the page being empty cause the song messes with one's memory, not physical notes/drawings. To me, it's like having adhd and you read something and you know you read the thing but you can't for the life of you remember what the thing said. You can see the words right there on the page, but your brain just refuses to process it
"The deaf man, frustrated that all other attempts at communication have failed, retrieves a pen and paper, quickly scrawls out a note, and hands it to you. You look at it, and the words are just an incomprehensible jumble of nonsense words." "I really try to focus on the words and make them out" "Okay, that'll be a DC 25 Wisdom save. You passed? Okay. You manage to really bear down and focus on the words. While the sequence still feels like gibberish to say, you are able to momentarily make out the string of shakily written nonsense: "The song is blinding you. A monster is killing us all. Help. Dear God Please Help". As you stop to ponder what it could mean, the words slowly shift back to incomprehensible nonsense, and all thoughts of any meaning slip away"
@@littlelemonaide4223but if it’s changing your perception of the world, then it can make the page look empty. It isn’t actually empty, and the false hydra is right in front of your but you don’t see it
@@OctagonalSquare Oh, yeah, I can see how someone could get to that interpretation. My issue isn't that it doesn't make sense and more that it's not as satisfying to me. The blank page feels a lot more like the hand-wavy sort of magic which is perfectly fine if that's what the dm wants to go with. It's a minor thing which wouldn't break immersion But I like to overthink things and the blank page seems like it should draw more questions about why you're being handed a blank page. Contrast that to a page that your brain interprets as too dull or nonsensical to parse and it doesn't offer much incentive to continue this interaction. And that seems like something the spell would lean towards more, ending the conversation as quickly as possible
I like the idea of the dm going “you start by walking into the town squar- you exit the inn” and just doing this sporadically and not telling the players why
Imagine DMing a party and having a few NPCs too, and at some point you just stop talking about what a specific NPC is doing; the party would have to figure out when the NPC vanished, and they'd ask "Hey wait, where did >guy< go?" And then you get to say "Huh? Who's that guy?"
When I ran the false hydra I planted the seed early on that there was a secret 5th member of the party. If they returned to the scene of a fight, they would notice a few of the enemies burned despite none of them having access to fire damage. When the druid tried tracking using smell there was always an extra scent that they couldn't quite place. When they finally encountered the hydra the first time, they found the headless body of a fallen combatant that they don't remember fighting with them.
Based on the original blog post, clerks would probably be the first to go insane, as their reason rebelled against trying to rationalize all these receipts, documents, and complaint letters from people who don't exist on a daily basis.
Imagine playing a character who used to be the county clerk but went mad when a false hydra popped up in their town. They escape before it gets too bad thanks to their meticulous records: births, taxes, marriage certificates, property records of all these people who seemingly vanished from the mind and existence. They leave, become an adventurer…and then years later, it happens again.
"They all called me crazy, just a desk jockey. Whose laughing now assholes, i got receipts on that thing! . . . probably shouldn't have said that out lou- AH!" Mob ensues, and forget why they were even gathered at the clerks home to begin with
I like the idea of a wizard casting silence to play a joke or something on the other players only to accidentally reveal a false hydra has been been infecting their favorite or main village hub for the entire time they been playing that universe.
Honestly I think the best way to do a false hydra isn't as an adventure, but just a side gag that happens if the party decides to cast silence in the middle of a town. Descriptions of blood, white pillars with ghostly faces, decaying corpses all around. Spell ends, adventure continues as normal as if nothing ever happened.
The bard goes to use a new pick-up line on the barmaid. Wizard casts silence half way through hoping the bard will get slapped. Instead, the barmaid breaks down sobbing. Wizard ends the spell to ask the barmaid why she was crying. She says she doesn’t know.
Remember, the party also won’t remember anything they see. I ran one once with a group a friends right when I saw this video. The wizard silenced a harpy… only for the fight to suddenly and mysteriously be over.
I saw an account where the party were dealing with one of the 'dsturbed' npcs and the Bard cast the spell 'Calm Emotions' with the idea that removing the man's ability to be frightened would make it easier to question him. But the spell ALSO removed the charmed condition from everyone in the AoE (20' radius) so suddenly the party could remember all the missing people and see the False Hydra staring in their window.
False hydra dominates minions into starting a traveling carnival/circus to feed it. The devil's chord as a perfect overlay for it's song. "Kids running away to join the circus"
@@dyefield2712 Ladies and gentlemen Boys and ghouls! Step right up Behind this curtain lies a ghastly concoction of Delight, Horror, Fantasy and terror Your every wish is our command! Your every whimsical desire brought to life But I'm warning you There's always a price Welcome to the greatest show unearthed!
Honestly, the idea of that son of a gun hiding under a big top scares the jeepers out of me. I love it! The only thing to make it worse would be adding clown hair and noses to its heads.
Idea: In the city there's a "town madman." You know, one of those dishevelled "the end is near" types. He runs around trying to warn people and is constantly cowering from threats he's seemingly imagined. Only if the players actually interact with this madman and don't simply ignore him, they'll find out he's deaf. I like it as a plot hook, if nothing else.
We did this. The party killed him because one of them has the first reaction to stab when a seemingly mad person is screaming and running at him (though he was running away from the hydra). One of the party members at least had the sense to talk to the guy who was bleeding out and ended up stuffing their ears with wax, then passed a check to not shit their pants upon seeing a hydra head staring at them. Funnily enough after they managed to kill it (that's a whole other story including "Operation: Find The Arse") they managed to make a lot of money through the property market because there's suddenly a lot of empty houses where as far as anyone's aware no one owns because at that point the hydra had eaten almost everyone in that area of the town
I imagine the "You are not alone" shirt was made with it being a motivational quote in mind, but in the context of this video, it takes a whole new meaning
I like to describe it very lovecraftian like. “You know that you witnessed something horrible… truly horrible… nearly nightmarish in description…. But that’s just it. You are unable to describe it. You are unable to remember.”
or mess with the players directly. Describe one scene but the moment you would describe the false hydra abruptly start describing them waking up with an uneasy feeling regarding the gap in their memory.
I imagined it like this DM: You see multiple people running from it, They stumble past you Player: What are they running from? DM: Running from what? Player: The people DM: What People?
I think a great way you could start tipping your players off to something happening is to not have the hydra start with people but with animals, that way you'll see things like a cat collar in the street or a completely empty cow pen
Another good starting point for identifying there is something wrong, but being much more sly/subtle about it is to put a deaf child in the town who is constantly drawing pictures of people who have gone missing. She tries to hand them out to adventurers who arrive in the town, but whenever they ask an adult about who the picture is of, they don't recognize them at all. Then give a different story of who the person is from each adult that is asked. Have the child draw one of the false hydra's head as well. Everyone sees it as a blank sheet of paper. You can ramp up her earnestness with trying to communicate and cover her ears to show she is deaf to the players. One of them will most certainly mimic the behavior and they can see the monster on the blank sheet. Then, when they drop their hands from their ears, the image fades to blankness again. OR maybe it's not blank, but a naga. They have a similar appearance. Either way. Using a child's imagination as a weapon against the players is loads of fun.
At the very start of my campaign I introduced my players to another group of adventurers one of which was deaf and they stayed friendly after the two parties worked together to rescue a village from pirates. Wayyyy later they received a psychic message from a wizard in the park begging for help because the deaf fighter had gone mad and is claiming that a beast was manipulating the entire kingdom and was going to destroy everything and the plot went as you expect from there
Very true, I do love brennan's comedic campaigns, but if he did a calamity-style mystery horror with a false hydra, it could break the dnd fandom for real.
I ran the false hydra as a trap. Since one of the origins is a town full of liars and falsehoods, I played into that. To cut down on murder-hobo play styles I focused more on sleuthing, gathering clues and questioning locals, but the city was filled with cagey people who had no reason to trust these outsiders so they'd lead them astray or just try to tell them whatever to make the party go away. Every failed attempt to get the truth made the hydra grow stronger. There were other clues too, the druid stumbled on one real early on. As stated here, animals could still perceive the false hydra and basically fled with all speed. The druid of the party went to speak with animals and I asked which animal they'd like to speak to. He thought for a bit, remembered that I never mentioned any specifically so went looking for a local pet. No one seems to own any dogs or cats. There's no live animals, all the meat is imported. When I told him that there's not even a single rat in the whole city that's when the party tipped into full suspicion, like something is definitely not right in this city.
@lordfelidae4505 had a hint similar to this and figured out what's me and my party is facing. Of course we're supposed to be solving a case to get some gear but we rolled our way out of that one.
Another idea: What if the players stumble upon a massive island or a continent where there clearly was human habitation, but it's completely deserted now. There are notes written in a dead language, with parts that seem erratic. Though time has worn many structures, there are clear signs of unrepaired damage from many battles. This branches out to a number of ideas. Maybe when the false hydra dies after maturing, it spreads spores. Most spores have died by now, but one manages to cling to the party as they leave. Alternatively (and my favorite), maybe they and the ship's crew were shipwrecked on the island, and while the ship's crew goes about building a new boat, the false hydra sprouts. If you go this route, it might be good to have the ship's captain brag about the crew compliment, the officer count, etc. Have him make mention of the number of survivors. And as the number dwindles, the information changes, but very subtly at first. Make sure to have notes to show the players to "prove" that they're misremembering. If someone takes notes and calls attention to the difference, insist that they wrote it down wrong. Basically gaslight your players at every opportunity. The ship is taking longer than planned. Must have been some setbacks. There are quite a few more bunks than crew members. Well, what if you stumble on a group of survivors? You were the ones that insisted on it, after all! The planned ship is too big to crew with only a couple dozen crew and only a quartermaster for an officer. You were supposed to help crew it with magic and you wanted to make sure there was enough space for all the weird clues you were finding. There's a weird captain's log the captain found, written in the common tongue. That captain had the same name as your captain, and the ship was the same name, too. But the crew compliment was ten times his! He only had a small skiff with a dozen crew members, not even enough for a quartermaster or first mate. A captain? But your party had rented the boat and just hired a few shiphands to man it. What crew? You were the only survivors of the shipwreck.
I just thought of this: what about a setting where a kingdom has an urgency against a goblin blight under their city, but the longer the story goes on, the less of a threat the goblins seemed to have posed in the first place, until the kingdom can’t recall why they hired you and neither can you
If memories return while the hydra eats/ stops singing that means the memories can resurface in the viewers seemingly at random. Leading to unexpected fits of hysteria followed by the person then having that "had a thought but I lost it" feeling with a strong aura of dread.
If memories return while the hydra stops singing, does it mean that anyone who travels 5 miles away for some reason, you know, merchants, mercenaries, patrols remember all and go to report to the authorities of the kingdom or empire? False-Hydra detected and slayed They definitely have to send some very serious dudes to ensure it gets destroyed because if the authorities do not have any measures to counter such a continental threat that can arise in any city, then I do not understand how they survived to this moment
@@Монс-й1ь The thing is, the hydra's power with its song is so strong that people will find a bizarre reason to not leave the 5 mile radius, even if they were originally just travelling through on their way to the capital. "You know, this village is so idyllic. Everything is so peaceful here, I think I may just stay for a while... Oh look! There's a job opening as a tavernkeeper... I heard them talking about how the former tavernkeeper went off to live on a farm. Wow, I cannot believe my luck."
@@Монс-й1ь your assuming they even know how the people died they might not have seen the false hydra, and even if they did they wouldn’t know it’s abilities so if help did arrive such as knights or wizards they would likely fall under the hydras spell as well. Eventually with some luck they might kill it but it might be after much of the city is already eaten. It’s entirely possible and probable that the king simple believed a serial killer or some necromancer or other nonsense is happening. A false hydra is likely to just be a myth at best in most if not all nations.
Our dm threw us against this once, the barbarian saw some slight plashes in the water, swung at random, got a nat20 and it shocked the Hydra enough that it stopped singing for a few seconds, the wizard knew what was gonna happen and casted deafness on the party (the dm let him roll to see if he knew what the Hydra could do) after a long fight the barbarain did some nuts damage and cut it in two
A friend of mine told me of a campaign he was apart of where the DM had time constantly move forward in the world (so quests would change in different areas if the party didn’t go there). His party kept ignoring requests to check out a town with strange letters constantly coming from it, and even an official request from the kingdom when the continued to receive letters but no proof when it sent knights to investigate. After they ignored it for about 2 years in game time focusing on the ‘main quest,’ the GM told them they had received an emergency summons from the Kingdom. Scouts had told them of a giant undead like monstrosity with multiple heads being carried by enthralled citizens being slowly carrier towards the Capital. The party has ignored the side quest for so long, it’s cause (the false hydra) turned into a potential cataclysmic event. This event actually ended up ending their campaign as half of their party ended up being dominated by the false hydra as it destroyed the def new force mustered to defeat it and devoured half of the continent before the BBEG ended its apocalyptic course. They ended up rolling new characters in a campaign taking place after these events and the BBEG’s plan coming to fruition.
@@Zalfuse If I’m remember correctly, the BBEG had succeeded in turning himself and his conspirators into artificial Aasimar. The BBEG had somehow imprisoned a few deities from the divine realm and the BBEG himself had siphoned some of their power for his groups’ ascension. He effectively made himself a divine being with a loyal army of aasimars and established himself as the overseer of the continent which all the surviving nation swore fealty and paid tribute to (Think the HRE’s relationship with its client states). The new campaign was about finding a way to free the imprisoned deities (end game) and running missions to hinder the progress the BBEG was making in establishing an invasion force to invade other continents (sabotaging docks, crippling internal trade lines, assassinating generals, ect).
@@thedbdentity2102 The false hydra became the cataclysmic event. It grew to the point of becoming so strong it either destroyed or enslaved anyone that crossed its path.
An important thing to note about your version of the false hydra. Since it's singing is a form of charm, there's a special interaction that is has with other creatures. Anything immune to charm can hear the song but still see and remember the false hydra. This means that if the players get stuck you can always use one of these creatures as a hook. Perhaps the players find a lone fey or minor celestial concerned over the monster, perhaps they run into a devil or demon that is trying to determine if the false hydra could be used in the blood war, an advanced automaton trying to communicate how it's creator has gone missing, or perhaps the local gang of doppelgangers approach the party for help since they can't steal from a bunch of maniacs. Anothr thing to note is that temporary deafness can be used. A loud noise like an explosion, cannon or thunder could cut off the hydra's song for just a moment, allowing someone to see glimpses of the monster.
I was thinking that if I DM'd a campaign like this, the party gets into a brawl and one of them is hit so hard in the head their ears are ringing, and they see things are all messed up cuz of the False Hydra, but as they continue to stare, their hearing returns, they blink... And find nothings happened. Except for a vague feeling that something is...not quite right.
@@nullpoint3346 Warforged are humanoids and elves are *resistant* but not immune to charms as they just have a fey ancestry Note: Not all constructs+fey are immune to charm effects, most must are.
When I first heard about the False Hydra, I was intrigued. I have a passion for DM'ing psychological horror campaigns. I was so amazed by this creature that takes all of my favourite horror aspects and puts them in one creature. The possibilities are absolutely endless. I still salivate over the idea of putting one in a campaign.
When my party ran this, the DM had our necromancers undead be able to see the false hydra. It led to a lot of initially funny moments where it looked like a bunch of zombies were having a dance party after a fight only for us to realize later why the hydra was missing a head and had bite marks.
Imagine you write an online book where when you get to a certain page, one character sudden disappears, you go back a few pages to see what happened but they aren't there either In fact they aren't anywhere They have been deleted and the book rewrote itself to compensate Freak out a lot of people at least
A fun mechanic for this could be that whenever it stops singing your players have a chance of getting their memories back of momentarily if they pass a wisdom saving that gets harder the longer they’re exposed to the song.
I know many people usually have a secret Cleric that the party forget for the False Hydra scenario, and it has a lot of easy ways to make it work, but what about a secret Ranger? Imagine it, Beast master Rangers aren't one of the more commonly played classes, but there's a world of utility that can be added by one that could make a stark difference if they were to disappear. From the start of the campaign the party never gets lost when traveling, never has to worry about food or water, never has to do anything to set up camp when they rest, never has to set a watch, and really early on, they get a friendly animal mascot that seems surprisingly loyal and resilient for a wild animal. Until one day the friendly wolf the party loves to bits is acting like a different animal, snarling at them, keeping its distance, acting like it doesn't like them before leaving the party for no reason. Suddenly the party is getting lost in that forest they've been through a hundred times, and has to keep track of food and water, and has this weird thing where they keep forgetting to do a certain task like lighting the campfire while setting up camp, and gets ambushed at night when no one bothers to keep watch. All of a sudden all the little things that make up the survival benefits of a Ranger that can EASILY go unheeded in the background of a campaign are being jammed into the forefront, like the rules have suddenly changed, like something is missing.
And then, evidence starts piling up about the implied presence of a False Hydra, and slowly but surely, the party pieces together that a False Hydra managed to snatch up a party member that they forgot about, and prepare as much as they can with what little they have left to fight the thing to ensure safe passage to an inn to recuperate.
A great idea I've seen for this monster: Invent a new party member that the players never had before. Then when they get into town there's suddenly weird discrepancies they notice where it seems like they had someone with them who's gone, but of course the players in and out of character have no recollection of this mysterious party member. Turns out the false hydra had a victim, and because the PCs forgot, the players in a meta sense had to never have the information to begin with in order to match.
I remember one story of a party fighting a false hydra revealing later that the partys lost member was a cleric and had been married to one of the other party members, they found the forgotten party members torn and bloody pack containing a partial journal, wedding ring in a keepsake box, and some drawings of the forgotten cleric and the surviving party member together with a sweet caption written underneath. The entire party, especially the former husband, were deeply affected by this reveal.
My dm did this with our party. It was a year of real life time into the campaign, and he had sprinkled in so many details that made the payoff hit so much harder. For example, my character picked up a “magic” journal that would update at the end of every day written seemingly from the journals perspective. At one point it even seemed like the journal had a crush on our rogue which we all thought was funny. Less funny was learning we had a 5th party member who was actually the owner of the journal and our rogue’s girlfriend and that no one has any memory of her other than knowing she existed. Such a cool ass monster
I heard about a party that commissioned an artist to paint a picture of them upon arriving in town, then on returning the next day for the finished piece realized there was an extra person in the photo they didn't recognize, and whom the artist didn't remember painting. If memory serves the DM actually had a drawing ready for the session of all the PCs and their victim comrade.
I definitely have to use this in a campaign sometime. I did have an idea though, in regards to its origins: It may *grow* from lies, but it cannot be *born* of them; it needs a soul. That soul comes from a murder victim, who's killer lied to escape justice, and the victim's hunger for revenge is twisted into a hunger for flesh as a false hydra grows from their corpse. If the players get a bit too murder hoboey, rob/kill the local shopkeep, and blame the bandits they were payed to kill, then voila: false hydra. During the creepy "something isn't right" phase and the investigation, the players don't know its origins, save for vague rumors about it being born from lies, or possibly being some extraplanar horror. It's only when they finally confront it that it reveals the truth. They go from thinking they're the heroes, hunting some abomination which should not be, to suddenly being confronted with the weight of their own sins: _As you see the creature before you, one of its heads turns to face you, and as its eyeless sockets fix yours it begins to... smile. The silence of your deafness is broken as words begin to worm themselves into your mind, telepathic communication that sounds somehow both melodious and like nails on a chalkboard, a voice which _*_should not be._*_ As it looks into you, the twisted smile still on its face, it speaks one word: "Fa...ther..."_ (Yes, I am a sadist, but murderhobos are bad and they should feel bad).
I had a really fun game with false hydra once where I dmed; one of players became deaf and, therefore, suddenly became very aware of the smiling creature in the town. The rest decided to treat them as "shell shocked" until the plot kicked off properly. Like gaslighting my friends.
I can imagine someone leaving town on a business trip or to visit relatives having a complete mental breakdown sometime after they can't hear the song and someone or something triggers their memories, such as someone asking about a relative who was eaten and whom they expected to see. Could be a good plot hook. I could also see certain animal species that are immune to the song just being completely absent from town as they fled when the trouble started.
My GM ran this in what was quite frankly the most amazing and actually terrifying way possible. See, in the beginning of the campaign, our GM, a known lover of music would always play a song or two whenever we have to either travel somewhere and we indicated we were in a hurry or stumbled into combat or found creative ways around problems to name a few things. We didn't really think much of it, the music was atmospheric and helped us to get in the zone, and while we had some suspicions regarding why certain combat encounters were easier or why some NPCs freely gave us information regarding certain investigations and the like, we honestly didn't question it. The bastard made everything as natural as he could, having us pin the inconsistancies on any number of things including our backstories. Then we came across a certain village. Again it was so natural, we had a combat enounter involving some decently strong opponents, so we had to heal and rest up, then we came across the village and spent the night there in the inn. The next morning we found that the door had been forced open, the framing broken, and a bed completely shattered apart along with a pack next to it. To this day, I'm still feel a little sick at just how quickly we looted the pack, we gave the excuse that it was to find the identity of the owner, but it was free loot... That was how the creepiest DnD session I've ever been to started and from start to finish, there was absolutely no music playing at all, there was some ambient sounds of people and/or nature depending, but even that was taken away towards the end of the session and the absolute silence (dude actually had sound mufflers for us we had to wear). It turned out that for the entire game, there was one other member of the party, a Bard who was the twin sister of the sorceress of the party...who had left her home in search of her mother, because she desperately wanted her family together again. I remember that the sorceress' player had to leave the table for a bit after the stunned silence at the reveal, we played it as her character sort of shutting down and going catatonic before we dragged her and the village alchemist who had been helping us (and created the potion of deafness), who was just as catatonic because he remembered that he had a wife and son, outside the village bonds so that we could plan in some piece...the hydra had grown too fat and comfortable to leave the dry well in the village center. Let me tell you, walking back into that village deaf and actually able to not only see the hydra's heads and all the old and fresh blood stains and small amounts of gore from its meals were terrifying enough, but then one of the heads came real close to us and we had to continue on our way without acknowledging it or the fact that it left to pick up the kind innkeeper's daughter as a snack...we _had_ to ignore it all to get to the alchemist's home because it had an underground passage to the main body. Then, while deaf, we had to navigate the tunnel to the main body and then, again, in silence, we fought the strongest enemy we've had to date. Then things got worse when he revealed that the mufflers were bluetooth headphones and simulated our hearing slowly returning, because he's a sadist. Suffice to say, it was the most amazing session ever, but holy crap, I don't any of us really recovered after that insanity...and I'm pretty certain that the dude has already laid down hints for the next Impossible Hunt that we doing for Artemis.
Yknow this is a super horrifying concept for a monster i must say. Especially the part where you just forget it exists. There was an older man in my town who was ranting about something kind of like this before he moved away, but noone paid him much mind. That would be wacky if it was real though, would explain this weird faint humming i hear all the time..
Because I've talked about the False Hydra to friends of mine it wouldn't be a big reveal I feel to use it, so I have thought of a different idea to incorporate it into the world without using it as an encounter. A small island town hasn't been heard of in a few weeks, and the mayor of a port city would send the party to check out what's wrong. They go there, find a bunch of messed up monsters, corpses and ghosts, with writings of "BLOCK YOUR EARS" "IT SINGS" and "IT ATE THEM BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER" etc. on the walls and eventually they find multiple long, fleshy tubes having risen from the ground, laying on top of trees and dilapidated buildings, with massive white faces on them all over the town, emancipated and dead, some heads having attempted to eat the other ones. It couldn't get off the island so it died, but its killing spree spawned other horrors, like the Sorrowsworn from the feelings its victims had but the False Hydra couldn't feel, gibbering mouthers from the flesh of the parts bit off by other heads and more. Someone with a high enough arcana or history check would know what the creature was and what caused this, from legends written from ages past. Regardless, all they could report was what happened and be glad the thing spawned where it did.
So, neat idea. But nobody writes shit like that on walls. Just... kinda comes off cringy rather than scary lol. It's one of the dumbest tropes in games.
@@HiddenRealm Well it is literally done subconsciously on paper by the people who see the False Hydra. And your opinion on it is that it's cringey, others don't think that, so you do you. I don't know if I ever get to actually use the idea anyway.
One of the characters in my campaign is deaf and this chapter of their story is either going to last like 20 minutes because they go and kill it or the other characters are going to think they’re insane
I know it's late for this, and you've probably already run this adventure, but if not, then have the deaf character be hit hard in the adventure beforehand. Maybe literally, or perhaps affected by a powerful charm or illusion spell, or just have a really terrifying encounter with another monster. Then, when you get to the false hydra adventure, the party will have more reason to suspect that they're poor deaf party member is seeing things. Maybe that player will believe it's not real. At first th at is.
I was today years old when I learned the false hydra exists. this came up in my reccomendations, and i'm so happy I clicked this video. my players are going to have a fun surprise this halloween.
This creature is straight up an amalgamation of Doctor Who plot devices Like I just see it like this… the party questions someone why they have kids toys and the person simply says “Oh a friend dropped them off so I could hand them out at work… (or whatever),” but as the person is talking a tear rolls down their cheek.
@@ComradeVenus Glad to know I'm not the only one who that almost immediately came to mind for, recently saw the episodes with them so it was pretty fresh in the brain, the two songs together are pretty much The Silence's abilities summed up.
I remember using this monster once, the only thing I changed about it was its origin story/end, instead of being carried to another town it simply starts vomiting out a bunch of white blobs until it's merely a deflated nightmarish skin, after that, the blobs get carried to different towns where there placed in some sewer or something like that, and then it all starts again.
That’s honestly more logical than the default monster. Also allows you to run an Invasion of the Body Snatchers climax where the party are the only sane people in a town turned into worker drones, loading hydra grubs onto wagons and ships to be spread to the neighboring settlements.
I had an idea for a couple changes to it that would make it more interesting and could provide even more plot hooks. 1.) every so often a different version of one is born 2.) this different version doesn't need to eat but is driven to, growing stronger as it does 3.) this different version isn't initially sentient, doing everything it does out of a kind of instinct alone 4.) as it consumes people it eventually gains sentience 5.) this different version of it has access to all the knowledge every person it has ever eaten possessed 6.) it has an imprint of the personality of every person it has ever eaten, manifesting perhaps as twisted versions of the people eaten 7.) it will eventually reach a critical mass when it eats enough and will have a sort of mental shift as it realizes the full extent of what it is and the implications of it 8.) it may at this point decide to attempt a sort of "ascendancy" where it's goal now shifts to the consumption of all sentient beings, as it sees itself as a repository of their knowledge and themselves, or a sort of flesh god. 9.) at this point if it isn't stopped it will continue to consume, adding personalities and knowledge to itself until it is stopped.
On the other hand, it can also become an actual living repository maintained by a sect or something where the decrepit members may choose to "retire" by feeding themselves to the hydra, essentially living forever with their knowledge and experiences kept in the monstrosity. *And* the monstrosity gets to be taken care of, which is nice. After all, if it gained enough sapience, I'm sure it can work something out.
Played a campaign with this as our monster we fought. Ended up suiting us thematically pretty well as we were a full fey party but…sorta the edging on unsettling type (chaos magic, mad scientist inventor, deal making toy maker). Honestly it was pretty hefty for a party consisting of a circle of dreams druid, a wild magic sorcerer, and a battle smith artificer. But thematic! We ended up realizing we were losing memories so we opted for sewing secret journals into our clothes and crafting toy figurines of each other that had “friend” written on them. I also had my druid sew a plush doll that was a rough approximation of the description we had gotten only from a select few. On the doll was stitched the word “enemy.” Honestly we ended up questioning the creepy forest (flesh eating, I had to feed it some blood in compensation) for information which gave us the location that we had to go to and confront this thing. We also heard rumors that the town crazy was seen wearing earmuffs which I promptly made for the party. Once there we ended up taking down this thing but honestly we did need some help as the dm realized the challenge rating was way too high for the level and number of people we had in our party. But we did take out a good chunk of it with some smart tactics, luck on some rolls, and just being good about being in sync with each other.
One time my party accidentally beat a false hydra because our artificer had an experimental bomb go off during calibration, temporarily deafening the whole party lmao Edit: our healer was rendered useless because she couldn't reliably cast verbal spells but we had a few potions on hand. It was still a tough fight with nerfed casters though, my rogue kinda carried us
Maybe I'm stupid, but would the shell-shocked effects of the bomb wear off, and the hydras song be applied again? Like surely the bomb wasnt that powerful
@@UncleMerlin Even if it does, by that time the False Hydra might be locked in the fight and not find the time to resume singing without losing a head.
I ran my group through a false hydra last game. The hotel keeper had knotches on the door frame at the ages marked for the height of a daughter they didn't remember. They found packs in the room for party members they never remembered meeting. A deaf man in the town who was considered crazy was found hung in his home with insane notes and drawings of the false Hydra. I added equipment items to thier inventory in beyond that they started to find like notes in thier own hand writing like "don't forget" or "it's under the town. It ate them...". The players were freaked the f*ck out. Thanks for the write up
Having any Light Drow on the team makes this a cakewalk. Also it’s thematically awesome, since Eilistraee is a goddess of song and her children can be immune to mind-altering effects.
This definitely feels like something you leave in adolescence, not saying you don’t have a timer or anything, but it’s just so much more creepier with it being sneaky and having its forget me song
Imagine walking into a home to talk to someone about what is going on, and elsewhere the hydra begins eating someone. The moment the hydra starts eating, the characters start looking around the room and see countless crudely drawn images of the hydra with ominous text. Maybe one that says put wax in your ears and they notice an empty box of bee's wax in the corner. Meaning the inhabitant they are talking too has long run out of their defense against the song attack. The townsperson is now ranting and raving about what is going on and the players have to quickly choose to do something about their hearing or listening to the man.
The blind/deafness spell suddenly has new uses unique to this circumstance, considering such deafness might block out useful noises, well it's a compromise.
Not to mention, real deaf people actually exist. If the false hydra was real and sprouted in a city Im sure there would be somebody noticing AND remembering afterwards because they cant hear the song. But those few people may be deemed insane. I dont think blind spell would be useful, its the sound that makes you forget
@@zakosist Also remember that the false hydra is an intelligent being that plans. So it would likely target the deaf people if it became aware of their existence and immunity.
@@jaydeejay4166 it's quite a smart creature. At the very least as smart as any humanoid. The only difference being that it hunts humanoids as well. Everything that needs to eat will go after something, living creature or not. So yeah it'd be just as smart as any other person. The only difference being it's potent abilities to make people forget it and imperceive it
@@psycophantic Yeah, no. Unless there's an extra level of bullshit to the tryhard lore where they're born aware of what deaf people are (because reasons and "fiction," I guess), why would false hydra have any reason to go "oh, probably shouldn't assume the same thing that happens to literally everyone else won't work on you" should they encounter a deaf person? How would they know to differentiate between how hearing vs deaf people react to seeing it when they'd be virtually identical outside the hydra directly observing that the song didn't work when resumed, which would need to happen every single time for the monster to ensure survival. Plus the deaf who haven't had any direct contact would still be aware of the real story with every society wide narrative restructuring à la Westworld and would know where evidence would exist like, say, names on documents, pictures/paintings, etc.
This would be a FANTASTIC Role Playing opportunity for a party with a character who has been rendered deaf either before the game or in play. Disability in Adventurers is probably rarely explored, but would be fairly likely considering what they risk day in & day out.
I have a fallen aasimar warlock/rogue who is deaf, and I talked about this very creature encounter wise with a friend!! In another campaign where I play a druid, we encountered one though OO;
I have a Crystal Dragonborn/RS Aasamar Sun-soul Monk who got his powers by "winning" a staring contest with the sun and going 100% blind but is SO Radiant AF that he has Daredevil-esq blindsight via a "Radiant Sonar". Edit: I forgot the best part: his name is Sol'air Escanor or Sol(as in earths sun) for short who had relentlessly sunny disposition.
Im using this creature while playing The Caretaker's musics on the background as the Hydra's song. My players are freaking out and loving it! Although they are a bit lost at the moment, things are developing in a great way. The thing is: the city being affected by the False Hydra is one that they visited a few times and know a lot of people there. Well, KNEW, they were eaten and now they are running in circles trying to understand what is happening
I like the idea of using Detect Thoughts for some other unrelated reason, and the spell starts picking up broken fragments of people's terrified, repressed memories of the Hydra - which can't be erased from the players' memories because it's not originally THEIR memories. You have to pick up enough fragments in order to piece together what's going on.
This is horrible I can already think of so many ways this could be hinted to the players A young crying orphan lives in the village, everyone things shes gone mad. She is actually the daughter of the mayor, who has been deaf from birth and can SEE THE FALSE HYDRA The party enters the house of a farmer, who has a bunch of women's clothes despite never being married. The party cleric stands in the middle of the street, feeling an intense feeling of... wrong. He is actually standing directly next to the Hydra's head A friend of the party is consumed and everybody insists they have never existed at all
I love how in your version of the game, a farmer who secretly has a stash of women's clothes is more likely to be a sign of an abomination than of the farmer just being kinky or queer
I mentioned both of these in a few previous comments, but I have run one of these before. I've also had a DM hint at a false hydra for me before. My Wizard had damaged his hearing when his fireball exploded in his hand from a counterspell. The blast made a loud bang and damaged his hearing. We got to a new town, and the DM passed me a note. _"Something is very, very wrong. You hear something trying to work it's way into your ears. And you can see something moving, just beyond your vision. It's like an outline, a translucent figure that nobody else notices. You don't know what it is, and you don't know what you hear. Just that something is there."_ He was called crazy for three sessions before he decided to just start exploding things to get people's attentions on the creature.
@@tiph3802 The party won't remember the person or notice they're missing, but it's a great opportunity to reveal to the *players* that something is wrong. DM: "Tobias the armorsmith takes your gold and scratches his beard. 'meet me tomorrow afternoon with the other half of the payment, and I'll have your new bracers ready.' he says." Next day Player: "Okay, it's afternoon, let's go see Tobias." DM: "Who?" Player: "Tobias, the smith." DM: ^rummages through notes^ "I don't have any NPCs here by that name. There's not even an a smith in town. Sure you're not thinking of something else?"
The False Hydra was the first adventure I ever ran for my long-term D&D campaign to bring the group together. It was the second adventure I ever ran as a DM. I know I can do better now, but my old players LOVED it. They never trusted me again and were always waiting for some kind of twist with the monsters or NPC’s, but “What *person/place/thing*? Make a wisdom save.” became a meme in our group.
My biggest-ever reddit post was a recounting of the time I ran a False Hydra and the players discovered remnants of an extra party member that had been eaten and forgotten Enough time has gone by, I'd love to try and run it again with proper foreshadowing this time
By any chance, was one of your party members named Tsurf and did you give everyone “ear mufflers” to simulate using potions of deafness that were actually Bluetooth headphones that gradually played sounds in them as the characters’ hearing slowly returned?
@@Somerandomjingleberry No, that must've been some other genius. My party clogged their ears with wax and used the (optional) weakness where you can see False Hydras in mirrors to take it down
@@NotThatSarahLevy Ah, alright. Just mentioning that cuz that's the story that another commenter had that I saw and I was like "oh hey this is quite similar", but it sounds like a number of people have done an idea like this which is very very cool
I would imagine a country/kingdom who had been terrorised by a False Hydra before, (thus having the chance to study it) would have a policy of having a squadron of deaf guards in every major populated city, just to make sure that no big accidents happen again. That would be an amazing tool to use as a DM, since it could help develop worldbuilding and setup the idea that the False Hydra is a creature your party can encounter in this world. And since the False Hydra is an intelligent monster, it could be a nice touch to have it eliminate the specialised guard unit first, thereby signalling to your party that they are under the influence of it's song, without spelling it out.
I had this one character who was a robot that didn’t actually hear, but instead received audio to interpret as verbal language. He couldn’t be affected by sound based damage/effects, so they’d be a blessing in a fight against a false hydra.
I saw a suggestion I absolutely loved, which is to ask your players for saves, tell them to roll initiative-and then they blink, and they’re standing there with their weapons out, possibly injured, people staring warily at them, maybe even in a different location because they chased the head… but it’s singing again, so they don’t remember what or why they were fighting. Or have them turn a corner or look behind some abandoned street cart and make a save not to shriek in horror. Someone runs up to ask what’s wrong, they look away from the torn off, mutilated limb just laying on the ground (or hydra head leering back at them,) and don’t even remember screaming. You *do not* tell them what they saved against. You *do not* tell them what they saw. Or, since some physical clues may be overlooked, having a player slip suddenly on a puddle they didn’t notice until it was too late. They fall down, get covered in muddy water, everyone has a good laugh, and then when they go to wash up, they see the water is… *very* red. When they pick up their pants, it looks like they sat down in a slaughterhouse. They may or may not even make the connection with the puddle they fell in earlier (especially if you’re a GM who likes to incorporate little slapstick bits like that into your games.) If you want to *ensure* your party gets covered in gore, maybe a speeding wagon splashes a puddle over them, and they *all* have to make Dex saves, in which case they’ll have the follow up realization of: “That’s a *lot* of blood, isn’t it?” A bloody puddle, sure, maybe someone had to put down an animal earlier & it also rained last night; that can be explained. But a puddle big enough to splash the entire party? That’s *several liters* of blood just pooling in the street. And why did it take several hours for them to realize they all looked like extras in a horror movie?
Another cool idea: since the song makes victims forget encounters with the false hydra, maybe in the "first" encounter with the false hydra, there could be some hints that the party has encountered the false hydra before. Like, maybe the hydra has a massive burn on it's body that was likely thanks to the party's spellcaster.
To all DMs, For parties without a rogue, you could do the “healing potions everywhere” trick with rogue abilities instead. Very rarely do they encounter locked doors. Tell players about nearby enemies without them scouting, Boss monsters start the encounters wounded, etc.
@@hariman7727 The idea is that there's a secret extra member of the party. (Usually a cleric but in this case a rogue.) You're playing with the player's perceptions by using this extra member to solve problems and not telling the players about it since eventually, when the players encounter the false hydra, that extra member will be killed. It's all part of a setup for a false hydra mystery around someone that the PC's and players don't remember has always been there. I think it's harder to pull off than people think since per lore, a person only forget things while under the effect of the song, so the players will be operating with either too much or too little information depending on whether they're under the song, and/or when you the DM do the post-mortem reveal of info about the dead party member that the PC's should know about (when free of song).
@@hariman7727 Locked doors were unlocked by the rogue. The rogue went ahead to scout, came back and told the other players. The rogue initiated combat with a backstab.
@@lamphobic I don't understand, why would they not know the rogue is there? He hasn't been eaten yet so they would remember him. The false hydra's song only works for the hydra itself. What am I missing?
Didn't know the complete story around this creature, but the psychological implicantions (which remind me of irl spatial neglect) are awesomes. Definitely using this in a horror one shot. Thanks
the false hydra is most definitely one of the greatest horrors ever conceptualised. i can vividly imagine lovecraft himself being like, "holy carp, even i couldn't make this sick shit up!" and proceeding trying to get anesthetically drunk, before this cognito hazard haunts his dreams forever.
@@UcceahI’d assume even if it could be communicated with, it’d be reasonable to rule that it never views humanoids as anything other than food, and therefor could not be reasoned with. That being said, rules are made for DMs to break them. Some of the most memorable NPCs I’ve ran have been monsters I decided to run as social encounters.
Yes, in fact a False False Hydra's ability is directly opposed to the False Hydra's ability, showing their connection. People who look at False Hydras forget about what they saw. People who look at False False Hydras remember what they saw. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
As I see it, a False False Hydra refers to the DM hinting at a False Hydra only to reveal another explanation (like Mindflayers with an army of ghouls plotting to destroy the town from within), usually in response to a metagaming player guessing it's a False Hydra well before it can be properly set up. This nullifies a lot of anti-False Hydra tactics while preserving the experience. Revealing a second False Hydra manipulating the first is another twist I've seen to throw off metagaming.
Or a false false hydra could also be the opposite of a false hydra where if you enter 5 miles and they’re singing you see them everywhere but only if you are deaf and can you see the true one
I love the idea of having any enemies or players hit with thunder damage briefly having a moment of intense panic as the ringing in their ears blocks out the song just long enough for them to get a glimpse of the creature, but then the ringing fades and their perception and memory goes away…
Похожие эффекты будут при использовании пиротехники Представь себе праздничные гуляния фейерверк заглушает песнь всего на долю секунды но весь город видит гидру по окончании фейерверка вместо радости все чувствуют первобытный парализующий ужас парадоксальная ситуация разгар праздника нужно веселиться и отдыхать а тебе хочется только одного убраться из этого проклятого места
“An Artificer created a device that could create pictures, and took a picture of himself to send to one of his old friends the next town over. But what is that long building… is that a face up there?” - Cause I’m sure some dwarven mad lad or other started working on recording realistic pictures to replace hand drawn images somewhere
I think for something like this, avoiding meta gaming is absolutely essential. Some people have suggested this "have the monster be revealed for a split second due to an explosion" but I think that's just a terrible idea. The entire appeal of the monster is mystery-horror, once the players know what it is, how it looks like, what it does and so on it loses all mystery and all horror due to having to play pretend. I think it would be best to go into this as a mystery, where the players need to figure out what is happening. Due to this, I would focus much more on "is in your blindspot" rather than "manipulates your memories". So for example, you wouldnt be able to see it, smell it or anything but you would be able to see some after effects of what it did. Clues could be this: 1. random fog on some windows (breath of the hydra). You could subtly include this when describing a room or a shop when it's not morning 2. no animals in the town (all animals ran away). You could involve pet bowls in your descriptions, but point players towards noticing there are no animals 3. conflicting backstories: Instead of all memories of a person disappearing, it might be better for people to make up their own reasons why a person is not where he should be. These NPCs would always accept explanations said by other people but if you questioned others in isolation, they might give a confident different explanation 4. slipping on blood stains: the DM might tell them it's been a dry period and it hasn't rained in 3 days some time before doing a "slipping" encounter. At that point, he would tell them they slipped on water and make it have some slight effect on the player as a red herring. If they didn't catch this clue, you would point out a fleeting iron-y smell (coming from the clothes, they wouldn't know this) sometime later on when the characters change 5. empty houses with unlocked doors- self explanatory 6. loss of hearing depending on distance from centre- the hydra's song would overpower other sounds. The DM could hint this by NPC's mentioning the player is talking too quietly when in the centre of the city. The difference in volume could be investigated 7. include a person quickly walking out of the city when the players arrive- this person is deaf and would not react to the players, he can't write and even if communicated with, would lie, knowing he wouldn't be believed anyway 8. include king crimson like segments that only skip maybe 1-2 seconds. Pepper these in and just make it so that a person skips a step in doing something, like skip a "hello" from the npc when starting conversation, have the character skip opening a door and already be inside and such. Let's imagine the hydra withdraws from obvious places while it's not singing but it still deletes memory of the period after for insurance. Make the characters have several of these but only once alert to a PC feeling incredible stressed, not knowing why, after the skip (logic being he saw the hydra). 9. have a person subtly stalking PCs. If spotted, the person would play dumb and another NPC would step in to explain the stalker is deaf. If enough time has passed and the players haven't figured it out yet, you could make this character approach the PCs with a note to visit them later on in the evening. If the players do this, they would find his house deserted but would find notes detailing what the deaf man saw and could deduce to try to shut off all sound. If even this failed, you could have the deaf dude try to kidnap your PCs and stuff their ears with wax or something. You should set up that the missing people are almost always either physically weak. The elderly, children and then women for example. This would then explain why the hydra didn't target the PCs. The hydra should be smart and not be in places where the characters could bump into them on accident, it should lay on trees and rooftops as this would too obvious of a clue. If the characters learn about the hydra, makes it look like it's inspecting people to see if anyone is not under it's spell, this would explain the cautiousness of the stalker. As for all the "forgotten party member" stuff... meh I don't really like it. Gaslighting players runs a high risk of them getting frustrated instead of immersed and it could cause the players to notice the discrepancies and investigate them at a time when they shouldn't. Stuff like this also may seem like a retcon which would pull immersion. Ultimately I don't think it's needed if other stuff is done well
Cognitohazards, of all kind, are scary as hell. A monster that comes after you when you learn it exists. - Idea Hazard A monster you cannot remember when you stop looking at it... Wait, what was I talking about? - AntiMeme (Information that does not want to be known) A person that feels like it belongs right where it is, like a dungeon you are exploring, the bar you're visiting, or the room you are sleeping in. He's supposed to be here. - Information Asymmetry Hazard? A thing that kills anything that draws attention to it. Dont talk about it dont look at it dont think about it dont turn around - Recognition Hazard For the same reason I'd argue that Enchantment magic is way way WAY more morally abhorent than Necromancy ever could be.
Personally I think it's too powerful that the Domination Dirge lasts indefinitely and doesn't offer any immunity once you've passed the save. As I understand it, once you fail a single save, you're permanently out of the fight (or rather, permanently on the Hydra's side) unless the Hydra attacks with all of its heads, which it has no obligation to do. The Mythic ability is cinematic, but feels like in practice it would just instantly result in a TPK as soon as it hits phase 2. Still, the monster concept is great.
An idea I have about the false hydra’s origin relates to its name. If it is a hydra who’s saying it wasn’t created by lernaea the mother of Hydras? When killed by Tiamat her rage was immense and unmatched “How could I let this happen?” She thought. “I’ll never let it happen again. With the last ounce of my power I create a beast that will appear in any place run by your cult of lies! It will appear unseen and be undetected until it’s strong enough to take on one of your dragons!” And thus Lernaea created the first False Hydra right in the middle of the capital city of the cult of Tiamat.
I had a terrible idea, use all versions of the False Hydra in the same world(possibly the same encounter if you're insane), so they are all very similar just slightly different. It would mess with the party so much.
Great to see this horrific crime against nature back up. I actually had an idea for the False Hydra that was sorta a long con wherein the False Hydra is the big bad of a story arc. I'm sorta notorious in the group I DM'ed for, for being really, really generous with the loot. The way I would want to do this is if the party doesn't have a dedicated healer, just keep giving health potions and healer's kits as loot. At the beginning of the adventure arc, I would describe the home base, preferably a large city, as a bustling metropolis, but mention every time they return that places look abandoned, there are homeless children, and so on. This would go on until they meet their patron, who would have a group portrait of the party. Plus one member, a person in clerical vestments, proudly wearing the holy symbol of a Life deity. The plot twist, and I know this has probably been done before, is that early on, the cleric was the False Hydra's first victim, and things gradually went downhill for the city since then.
I feel like this monster could be a really good metaphor for how abusers hide & convince others to ignore or excuse their behavior. Like I imagine rather than appearing spontaneously, a false hydra is born when an abuser dies w/ their misdeeds never having been revealed. The hydra is a manifestation of their good reputation living on while the consequences of their abuse are still affecting the victims. Or maybe the abuser isn't even dead. Maybe they create the false hydra, intentionally or inadvertantly. Maybe they control it, or another person controls it on their behalf (the way enablers will cover for abuse bc it benefits them &/or to maintain the status quo). Maybe they create it only to learn it can't actually *be* controlled? However it happens, the point is that people turn a blind eye to the predatory behavior of the abuser, just as they do the literal monster preying upon them. & the only way to defeat it is to reveal the truth.
I ran false hydra in its late state to teach my players importance of notetaking. My players have sorta just stopped taking notes in hopes i'll just tell what they've done before, but False hydra gave me lore-reason to stop doing that. They faced the hydra but had to run away leaving it alive while investigating mystery 50 years in the past (long story) and now at meta-level they know this thing had 50 years to grow but cant remember a thing. Everytime they forget something that they have not written down, i play this horror-choir music i used to indicate the hydras precence.
@@you_are_being_judged in lore it took 50 years but i see where you're coming from. Im wondering when the players start to realise that ocean levels are rising and moons phases are more rapid from it being pulled closer and closer
Having a first session with a DMPC traveling with the party into the town, having them disappear, and seeing how long it takes the players to realize they're missing a person none of them are playing, and that first time asking "where is npc?" and getting to go "who?" is one of the funniest things one can experience from the DM side and horrifying for a player. Edit: I believe the false hydra should get more intelligent as it grows, becoming as intelligent as an elder dragon.
I remember hearing about this monster a few years ago and making a character who had one in her backstory; she a tiefling who was adopted by a human couple and had two kids adopted alongside her, a wood elf girl and a deaf halfling boy.... deaf halfling being, of course, vital to the backstory. After living with the family for a few years, I began writing her backstory as if she had only had one parent... then it turned into a "well the three of us left the orphanage together of course and bought this house together!", all the while her halfling brother was desperately trying to convince her they *had* parents and why was no-one mentioning the strange snake-like being that kept skulking around alley ways because it was getting bigger and bigger... there was an adventuring party who came through and took care of the beast, too late for her parents ofc, but early enough to save the town overall. She became an adventurer herself after, in an attempt to save people from the pain she inadvertently caused her brother, to save people from a similar fate of her town... and to regain her memories of her parents, if she could. It's such an interesting monster. We've been getting hints at one being in another settlement in the campaign and I'm both extremely excited and utterly terrified; we are *so* going to get tpked if we go now haha because we're only level 6! But that's what she's trying to convince the party to do. Thankfully the dm is great and has been able to kind of veer her elsewhere for now but woof-- scared of what will happen when we reach that place fr
Imagine setting up a hub town that the party are essentially based out of. They're sent on missions over time, grow to know the members of the small city, maybe even start calling it 'home'... When in secret it's been the home of a False Hydra all along. After a few other quests, leveling up a bit, have one of their favorite NPCs just... disappear from the town -AND- their memories. And then continue from there.
Making it a charmed condition opens up an awesome concept you can do if you have a devotion paladin in the party, make the party reach level 7 while in the town and suddenly the paladin has an aura that pulls people out of the effect of the False Hydra as long as they stay close.
Imagine a player plugs his ears and does the “I can’t hear you” shtick but sees a giant monster walking past him and it stares right at him and when he drops his arms to draw his weapon everything is normal again
So my biggest advice for running one mechanically is to nerf its ability very slightly, in a way that adds to the tension potentially. Instead of forgetting everything about it, you forget any experience you had with it directly involved, but if you already know there's a monster there, you don't just forget that fact, and miscellaneous clues like signs of a struggle or evidence left behind by a victim will still remain in your memory. I would also make it so the rate of forgetting is not instant, it's based on your Wisdom, and it takes x amount of exposure (say, 10 minutes at base, double it for every point of your Wisdom modifier for a maximum of 5 hours and 20 minutes) to the song for you to fully forget everything. This gives you as a player a lot more room to be active, and gives you as the DM more room to throw the players a bone and feed them clues.
Thank you for this. For the entire video, I was thinking “having to roleplay complete amnesia about the monster after the players discover it would be such a pain”
Yeah. It makes a better story than a mechanic, so it NEEDS to have a way to have an out, like having memories come back if you're out of range and stay back, or you can resist it if you have some kind of clue or suspicion, and stay immune.
@Hariman I think it should be run more like a mystery and less like a Lovecraft story. It's way easier to actually make the thing scary when you can dish out meaningful clues and buildup that the players can interact with and work off of. It's much easier to scare them as they're slowly putting the pieces together than it is while they're just fumbling in the dark
@@HiddenRealm there's a comment under one of the top comments that said theyre playing it as if the false hydra is a backround element until the final battle The DM is running a 4 person party, but keeps mentioning a 5th, with payouts that would include a 5th player and NPC's acting as if someone else was there......and when they go to fight the beast, the extra player's equipment will be on the ground as theyre being eaten Im too lazy to go back and try to find it, but they also mentioned things like when the party goes to a previous battleground, they'll see signs of a weapon/element the party isnt running having been used during the previous battle. It sounds more like this is a tedious as shit task for the DM more than the players if it's done right
I don’t think it’s too hard to run. You just put people on edge in the town and increase tension. Give them a note while they’re outside town that references the monster but when they read it in town the monster bit is gone. Once they’re in town they’re sent back out to combat the monsters outside town. No one who leaves is coming back. Once the party leaves they learn the truth and can strategize a solution. The conceit ignores the problems. Largely that people travel often into and out of town. People outside would know about it but inside would not. Lack of supplies should happen. Superstition and distrust should be rampant.
While watching this video I had a neat idea for a story hook involving a player character. What if you had a warlock in your party whose patron was actually an ancient false hydra and the player doesn't even know it? A player could unwittingly be assisting a false hydra eat more people or even assist it in spreading its spawn to a new hunting ground. The possibilities are near endless and would make for a very memorable campaign if done right. I don't know if I'm DM material but it would be fun to try a story like that.
The False Hydra reminds me of The Silence from Dr. Who, with the pallid flesh, dark, sunken faces, and the ability to make anyone who sees them..Forget they ever saw them. Complete with the danger of repeated exposure to their presence (and repeated forgetting of ever having seen them) resulting in madness.
One of my favorite hooks to use for a false hydra is to introduce your party to a local artist in the town square doing a portrait. Something strange interrupts the painting halfway through and the party goes to check it out, but mo one can find anything or anyone that made the scream they heard. When they return to the painter who had continued the painting from memory while they were away, a random character is painted alongside the party. No one knows who this person is, the artist can't remember why they added them into the painting. It's as if they never actually existed.
Picture the false hydra squirming over to the beggar known as Deaf Dave, writes Dave a note "they'll never believe you" before compressing itself back into the sewar.
If i was Dungeon Master, i would ask them "at random" to roll dice without telling them why, they will wonder why, and after rolls are done i would tell them that your characters are exhausted without telling them that they Briefly fought giant amnesia-singing monstrosity, they would be as clueless as there characters.
I think you'd need to add in some more direct clues as time goes on, like: "Following the directions of the innkeeper, you leave the establishment and walk out into the bright morning sun to make for the local temple to find the priest who requested an audience with your group. The cobbled square is already abuzz with activity - street vendors plying their trades at their stalls, children darting around among the carts in a frantic game of tag. The exotic scents and sounds of the morning market seem more full and pleasantly alluring than the day before, as though begging for your attention." "Rounding the street corner that leads in the direction of the temple, the sweet scent of still-warm baked pastries reaches your nose as you spot an open bakery to your right, with fresh meat pies cooling in the open windows. Recalling that your group hasn't yet broke their morning fast, and not seeing any other nearby food establishments, the group stops to discuss whether to stop and eat before heading to the temple." As the DM - allow player roleplay to start. While the players are mid sentence in the decision making process, interrupt them with: "Your hearts are racing and the hairs on your arms and neck are standing on end. Sweat is beading up on your faces, and you realize that your weapons are drawn in white knuckled grips even though you do not recall ever drawing them. Your senses are screaming that something terrible has happened, but none of you can say why. The nearby people in the busy street seem slightly disturbed, perhaps by your heavily armed presence, but they continue to go about their business." Allow more roleplay to start. If the party decides to purchase some food from the bakery, remark that the establishment owner appears nowhere to be found despite the presence of the fresh baking. Perhaps have one of the players make an easy low DC spot check to notice that one of the other players is bleeding from a superficial wound on their arm or leg. Really play up the horror aspect.
I like the idea of having the friend that invites the party be a painter and send them a painting along with the letter that is of the false hydra or just have the players find it alongside a note reading, "I saw it eat them, I cannot remember it, though it remembers me."
I just thought of a great NPC to use with the False Hydra. A young deaf girl who can’t hear it’s horrible song and has seen dozens been consumed. The first time she is Terrified and screams to her parents concern not understanding why she would be so panicked on such a calm and fine day. Being young she simply says she is scared of “the monster”. Her parents assume she just has an overactive imagination, but it only gets worse. As she watches more get consumed her parents only get more and more concerned as one minute she is coming with them to the store and the next cowering behind the bushes. Or in other incidents trying to point out the monster and trying to make her parents run away. Eventually she locks hers In her room.The parties member could see these events and also be confused. The party will eventually realize she might know something about the weird events in town and they come to her to see what she knows only for the false hydra to break into her room and to her to point out the monster right behind them!
Had a friend who was planning on running a false hydra campaign until session zero messed everything up. It was an online campaign so no one had met before and he hadn’t said anything about it being a false hydra campaign. Three of the 5 players had independently decided to make deaf characters. A Mozart inspired older bard, a monk who was slowly removing his senses one at a time in pursuit of enlightenment, and an artificer with a passion for explosives who had blown out his ear drums. Needless to say, he redesigned the whole campaign between session zero and one
Aaaaaand we’re back. For those wondering the video was pulled from TH-cam due to a copyright issue, but I have removed the problem stuff and taken steps to hopefully avoid this kind of thing in the future. If this is your first time, welcome! If you’ve already watched this video, thanks for watching it again! I took the opportunity to add some new edits and stuff so let me know what you think! 😄
Are you sure you didn't just do this as an illustration of the False Hydra vanishing from the minds and memories of those who've seen it by taking the video down for a while? What if it was still up there the whole time but blocking our mental ability to see it?
I recall there be a Doctor Who season that.... What was I saying?
The initial video is what brought me to your channel, as I just completed having a false hydra for the campaign I was running!
Still sending love and care your way
That's weird. I could have sworn I've seen this one before... weird. ;)
We once played a false hydra plot online. We kept out collective notes on an online whiteboard. Inbetween sessions our GM went there and edited our notes to erase people, we've forgotten, or added paragraphs which our characters have written while asleep.
It took us almost 3 Months before we noticed the changes. Our paranoia was real and every session we would start by reviewing our "memories" whether something has changed or didn't add up. Greatest application of gaslighting I have ever witnessed.
Was there ever a before and after reveal? Would be interesting to see the comparison of all the information secretly added and removed Vs what it would've been like if left alone.
That is the most delightfully evil and smart thing I've ever heard
Fantastic idea
This is genius! I love it!
What a genius way to play a false hydra plot line
*you get attacked by a banshee
*You cast silence
*Your surroundings slowly reveal everything covered in blood and gore, giant white pilliars with discobfigured faces staring directly into your soul as they tower over the entire town, absolute silence.... The spell ends and everything returns to normal.
you be like "man I had too much funky magic beer today"
everything returns to normal... to be attak by a banshee while the false hydra watches.
yea she was not a alusination, doble team FTW
*You cast Silence
*The DM gets up, uses the restroom, comes back, and congratulates you on defeating the banshee
*Doesn't elaborate further
The best way to play a False Hydra is to only describe what the characters remember. Let them cook.
@@rabureta this.... I'm sending this to my dm
Reading this feels like a short scene of the Eclipse from the Anime "Berserk"
When I ran the False Hydra the barbarian solved the problem on accident. The other characters were arguing about what to do and he was getting frustrated and wanted to move on, so he announced that he was tying a pillow over his ears so he could start his long rest without having to listen to them. That one threw me for a loop.
When I fist started reading this, I thought the Barb was going to swing his weapon randomly and hit the hydra on accident
Ah Barbarians. Surprisingly smarter than we give them credit for.
@@arnowisp6244 Anyone whose read Conan or Kull knows Barbarians are crafty
Please tell me you said "As you cover your ears, you notice that you can focus on random objects much easier than before you also see a white face with sockets that don't have eyes moving its mouth too wide for someone of its size to manage."
Only thing more evil than the False Hydra is that one farmer who is deaf and living on the outskirts of town, knows full and well there is some strange flesh-monster is eating all of the people and causing strange gaps in memory, he also remembers being mocked by many of those townsfolk for being deaf. He has made a fortune off of merely taking the belongings of the devoured, has secured considerable political and real power by merely stepping in for consumed. And the only thing worse is if the party kills the False Hydra, you may have a guy who has risen to power on so many lies that everywhere he goes, he springs yet more False Hydras, and always becomes yet more powerful.
He could even be the person who originally informed the party of the False Hydra, knowing that this particular crop of false hydra has outgrown it's usefulness and needed to be harvested.
When I ran a False Hydra for my party, I had them come across the town blacksmith, trying to console his elderly dog, who was howling madly in the town square. When the party tried to help him comfort her, he thanked them, but explained that she couldn't hear their comforting words, as she was getting on in years and was now deaf.
Cast speak with animal.
While doggo can't hear the players, at least they'd know🤔
@@withedoter6277 they cant, they're hearing the song, so they'll repress any knowledge about the Hydra
@@jeanmarc6517 But they can know other things, right?
Like the air smells like blood to the dog but not to them?
I think the point is the dog is deaf so he's the only one in the town that can see the false hydra making him freak out seemingly for no reason to everyone else
@@Dragonlord982exactly. The dog is deaf, not hearing the song, thus freaking out constantly at the giant monster eating people it likes
The best use I heard was after about 7 sessions. The party kept finding healing potions after battle, had a house in Waterdeep and even had a party portrait done in real life of the three of them. Then they finish a false hydra quest and they find the damaged journal of a cleric. The cleric's journal seems to follow their adventures. Then they get home and see the portrait of the four of them. A fighter, a barbarian, a wizard, and a cleric.
The fact the DM commissioned 2 portraits really sold it.
@@tiph3802 Their memory and the real portrait. The real portrait had all 4 but the fake/memory portrait with only three was the one that the DM showed them in real life. He set this up well in advance.
That is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard
this is actually pretty fucking cool" :o I never played anyform of D&D but it sure sounds pretty interesting!
@@d1rachir It is a drastic cut above average. That is legendary GMing. Please, if you decide to play, do not consider this the norm. That GM shelled out over $150 as part of the set up.
Fuckin chills bro. I couldn’t imagine the level of mindfuck the party was experiencing with that kind of cognitive dissonance. Would make a crazy good horror story.
So basically, the false hydras song turns you into a Skyrim NPC when confronted with a stealth archer. Just forgetting you had a friend, while he lays on the ground with 2 arrows in his head. " Must've been the wind"
Are..... are we fake Hydras? :(
yes@@BEETSSOLOyes we are
This one knows to much dragon brothers we must silence him
An interesting play on the deaf character could be someone who lost their hearing due to an accident while the False Hydra is growing. Suddenly aware of what is happening, maybe even figuring out that hearing is the key, they become an accidental antagonist as they try to kidnap and deafen other townspeople to make them see the beast. What seems like a psychopath mutilating people in the night reveals itself to be so much worse.
There are night owls who wear earplugs while sleeping in the day...
"In one short second, he dexterously grabs a hold of your head and quickly inserts the instrument into your left ear, surgically as to completely deafen it without doing further damage. Immense pain runs through you, and for a second you can't hear anything around you as your body adjusts to the physical trauma. You focus in on his panicked face, but behind it... tentacles. No, not quite tentacles but tall, thick white sprouts emerging from the gravel path, with pale white faces attached on top, quite like terrifying tent-"
"What?"
"The pain is immense, but you regain your senses."
"You were describing something! Finish what you were saying!"
"Describing what, exactly?"
I have a PC kinda like this- born deaf, grew up in a town with a false hydra and the only one who really knew it existed. Everyone treated them like they were either lying or mad, and eventually they started to believe that they were just seeing things. Then the monster attacked them, they managed to fight it off long enough to escape simply because it wasn't used to any resistance whatsoever. Now convinced it was at least somewhat real, they snuck on the first boat out of town to GTFO. Actually ended up staying on the boat and becoming a navigator and cartographer for many years.
(abherrent mind sorcerer btw, may or may not take levels in goolock- apparently living many years in close proximity to a horror from the outer realms and being the only person who knows it exists can give you strange psyonic abilities. They probably don't actually know why they're the only one who can see it too)
main character flaw is that they rarely open up about anything below surface level cause they think people will just think they're making it up even when they aren't. This is somewhat worsened by them being a changeling and people often seeing them as innately untrustworthy once they find out. Also, they have a massive fear of forgetting something or someone and will somewhat obsessively write down absolutely everything and sketch the faces and names of everyone they meet (might take keen mind feat- it also makes sense with navigator background and if I end up doing 3 levels in warlock the book where they write stuff is their tome).
thanks for reading lol didnt expect this to go so long
Yummy.... That's good plot hook.
Awwwww shhhhhiiii......
Theres something darkly ironic about a video about monster that makes you forget about it suddenly disappearing. Glad to see it back
I thought the same! Someone at TH-cam has a sense of humor lol
Yea it spooked me a bit
What video?
That's not irony. It's a coincidence.
see what back?
The stomach drop moment for my players was finding the drawings of a deaf child. We took a break as I spread the drawings over the table and changed the music to unsettling. It was amazing and their reactions genuine.
What music?
@@Salamander10 one hour "Requiem for a dream"
I gave them very little context as they sifted through a child's terrifying depictions of the monster outside her window that eventually came for her.
@@Salamander10 I also used the Marilyn Manson theme from the first resident evil movie.
an extremely cool idea, good work on it my dude 👍
"The deaf person quickly scribes something on a piece of paper and hands it to you. The note is empty."
Personally, I've never been a fan of the page being empty cause the song messes with one's memory, not physical notes/drawings. To me, it's like having adhd and you read something and you know you read the thing but you can't for the life of you remember what the thing said. You can see the words right there on the page, but your brain just refuses to process it
"The deaf man, frustrated that all other attempts at communication have failed, retrieves a pen and paper, quickly scrawls out a note, and hands it to you. You look at it, and the words are just an incomprehensible jumble of nonsense words."
"I really try to focus on the words and make them out"
"Okay, that'll be a DC 25 Wisdom save. You passed? Okay. You manage to really bear down and focus on the words. While the sequence still feels like gibberish to say, you are able to momentarily make out the string of shakily written nonsense: "The song is blinding you. A monster is killing us all. Help. Dear God Please Help". As you stop to ponder what it could mean, the words slowly shift back to incomprehensible nonsense, and all thoughts of any meaning slip away"
@@littlelemonaide4223but if it’s changing your perception of the world, then it can make the page look empty. It isn’t actually empty, and the false hydra is right in front of your but you don’t see it
Perhaps the deaf person has tried this before and this time, the note simply reads "plug your ears"
@@OctagonalSquare Oh, yeah, I can see how someone could get to that interpretation. My issue isn't that it doesn't make sense and more that it's not as satisfying to me. The blank page feels a lot more like the hand-wavy sort of magic which is perfectly fine if that's what the dm wants to go with. It's a minor thing which wouldn't break immersion
But I like to overthink things and the blank page seems like it should draw more questions about why you're being handed a blank page. Contrast that to a page that your brain interprets as too dull or nonsensical to parse and it doesn't offer much incentive to continue this interaction. And that seems like something the spell would lean towards more, ending the conversation as quickly as possible
I like the idea of the dm going “you start by walking into the town squar- you exit the inn” and just doing this sporadically and not telling the players why
King Crimson.
ohhhhh I'm definitely doing this
That’s evil I love it
I know for a fact I would lose my shit with paranoia instantly
Imagine DMing a party and having a few NPCs too, and at some point you just stop talking about what a specific NPC is doing; the party would have to figure out when the NPC vanished, and they'd ask "Hey wait, where did >guy< go?"
And then you get to say "Huh? Who's that guy?"
When I ran the false hydra I planted the seed early on that there was a secret 5th member of the party. If they returned to the scene of a fight, they would notice a few of the enemies burned despite none of them having access to fire damage. When the druid tried tracking using smell there was always an extra scent that they couldn't quite place. When they finally encountered the hydra the first time, they found the headless body of a fallen combatant that they don't remember fighting with them.
So you essentially made a believable "you forgot their existence" scenario? That's pretty damn clever.
This is so cool!!
So kind of like ForgetMeNot from X-men
That's amazing...
OMG this is 1000 iq move, may i use it on my campaign?
"Why do we need to keep written records? This is why!"
-How the census clerk saved the city
Based on the original blog post, clerks would probably be the first to go insane, as their reason rebelled against trying to rationalize all these receipts, documents, and complaint letters from people who don't exist on a daily basis.
Imagine playing a character who used to be the county clerk but went mad when a false hydra popped up in their town. They escape before it gets too bad thanks to their meticulous records: births, taxes, marriage certificates, property records of all these people who seemingly vanished from the mind and existence.
They leave, become an adventurer…and then years later, it happens again.
"They all called me crazy, just a desk jockey. Whose laughing now assholes, i got receipts on that thing! . . . probably shouldn't have said that out lou- AH!"
Mob ensues, and forget why they were even gathered at the clerks home to begin with
I like the idea of a wizard casting silence to play a joke or something on the other players only to accidentally reveal a false hydra has been been infecting their favorite or main village hub for the entire time they been playing that universe.
No speaking in the library! *accidentally reveals eldritch horror*
Honestly I think the best way to do a false hydra isn't as an adventure, but just a side gag that happens if the party decides to cast silence in the middle of a town. Descriptions of blood, white pillars with ghostly faces, decaying corpses all around. Spell ends, adventure continues as normal as if nothing ever happened.
The bard goes to use a new pick-up line on the barmaid. Wizard casts silence half way through hoping the bard will get slapped. Instead, the barmaid breaks down sobbing. Wizard ends the spell to ask the barmaid why she was crying. She says she doesn’t know.
Remember, the party also won’t remember anything they see. I ran one once with a group a friends right when I saw this video. The wizard silenced a harpy… only for the fight to suddenly and mysteriously be over.
I saw an account where the party were dealing with one of the 'dsturbed' npcs and the Bard cast the spell 'Calm Emotions' with the idea that removing the man's ability to be frightened would make it easier to question him. But the spell ALSO removed the charmed condition from everyone in the AoE (20' radius) so suddenly the party could remember all the missing people and see the False Hydra staring in their window.
False hydra dominates minions into starting a traveling carnival/circus to feed it. The devil's chord as a perfect overlay for it's song. "Kids running away to join the circus"
Rather odd to hold a carnival only a few days before Halloween. Makes you think something wicked's coming our way.
@@dyefield2712
Ladies and gentlemen
Boys and ghouls!
Step right up
Behind this curtain lies a ghastly concoction of
Delight, Horror, Fantasy and terror
Your every wish is our command!
Your every whimsical desire brought to life
But I'm warning you
There's always a price
Welcome to the greatest show unearthed!
Honestly, the idea of that son of a gun hiding under a big top scares the jeepers out of me. I love it! The only thing to make it worse would be adding clown hair and noses to its heads.
Idea: In the city there's a "town madman." You know, one of those dishevelled "the end is near" types. He runs around trying to warn people and is constantly cowering from threats he's seemingly imagined.
Only if the players actually interact with this madman and don't simply ignore him, they'll find out he's deaf.
I like it as a plot hook, if nothing else.
We did this. The party killed him because one of them has the first reaction to stab when a seemingly mad person is screaming and running at him (though he was running away from the hydra). One of the party members at least had the sense to talk to the guy who was bleeding out and ended up stuffing their ears with wax, then passed a check to not shit their pants upon seeing a hydra head staring at them. Funnily enough after they managed to kill it (that's a whole other story including "Operation: Find The Arse") they managed to make a lot of money through the property market because there's suddenly a lot of empty houses where as far as anyone's aware no one owns because at that point the hydra had eaten almost everyone in that area of the town
That's so good
thats brilliant!
"THE FALSE HYDRA IS REAL! I SAW IT!" False Hydra: "NO I'M NOT!"
@@zeehero7280 "NUH UH"
I imagine the "You are not alone" shirt was made with it being a motivational quote in mind, but in the context of this video, it takes a whole new meaning
Wow, you deserve a like for that one 😂
YANA
Why is there a burrow hole in my living room?
yeah, it makes me think of the Silence of Dr.Who and I like it XD
Came here just to see if someone else noticed
I like to describe it very lovecraftian like.
“You know that you witnessed something horrible… truly horrible… nearly nightmarish in description…. But that’s just it. You are unable to describe it. You are unable to remember.”
or mess with the players directly. Describe one scene but the moment you would describe the false hydra abruptly start describing them waking up with an uneasy feeling regarding the gap in their memory.
@@lexibyday9504 I love that
Just finished Magnus and all I could this was 'this is just Not-Sahsa but worse..... Really glad Johnny never used this.' 😰
I imagined it like this
DM: You see multiple people running from it, They stumble past you
Player: What are they running from?
DM: Running from what?
Player: The people
DM: What People?
@@Epicvibes999 good god that would freak everyone out! I'm definitely using it!
I think a great way you could start tipping your players off to something happening is to not have the hydra start with people but with animals, that way you'll see things like a cat collar in the street or a completely empty cow pen
Another good starting point for identifying there is something wrong, but being much more sly/subtle about it is to put a deaf child in the town who is constantly drawing pictures of people who have gone missing. She tries to hand them out to adventurers who arrive in the town, but whenever they ask an adult about who the picture is of, they don't recognize them at all. Then give a different story of who the person is from each adult that is asked. Have the child draw one of the false hydra's head as well. Everyone sees it as a blank sheet of paper. You can ramp up her earnestness with trying to communicate and cover her ears to show she is deaf to the players. One of them will most certainly mimic the behavior and they can see the monster on the blank sheet. Then, when they drop their hands from their ears, the image fades to blankness again. OR maybe it's not blank, but a naga. They have a similar appearance. Either way. Using a child's imagination as a weapon against the players is loads of fun.
At the very start of my campaign I introduced my players to another group of adventurers one of which was deaf and they stayed friendly after the two parties worked together to rescue a village from pirates. Wayyyy later they received a psychic message from a wizard in the park begging for help because the deaf fighter had gone mad and is claiming that a beast was manipulating the entire kingdom and was going to destroy everything and the plot went as you expect from there
NONONO I WANT TO HEAR THE PLOT
PLEASE GIVE US THE PLOT PLEASE!!
we require more
O LORD
GIVE
LORE
@@shamefulaccount4892EEYYYY
I’d give anything to see Brennen Lee Mulligan run one of these, it would be terrifying to see how he DMed this
Very true, I do love brennan's comedic campaigns, but if he did a calamity-style mystery horror with a false hydra, it could break the dnd fandom for real.
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!
His players would just pull some obscure spell or lucky nat20 out of their ass before the Hydra is properly established lol
Reminds me a bit of a certain romance partner from the Barronnies
How do we petition him?
I ran the false hydra as a trap. Since one of the origins is a town full of liars and falsehoods, I played into that. To cut down on murder-hobo play styles I focused more on sleuthing, gathering clues and questioning locals, but the city was filled with cagey people who had no reason to trust these outsiders so they'd lead them astray or just try to tell them whatever to make the party go away. Every failed attempt to get the truth made the hydra grow stronger.
There were other clues too, the druid stumbled on one real early on. As stated here, animals could still perceive the false hydra and basically fled with all speed. The druid of the party went to speak with animals and I asked which animal they'd like to speak to. He thought for a bit, remembered that I never mentioned any specifically so went looking for a local pet. No one seems to own any dogs or cats. There's no live animals, all the meat is imported. When I told him that there's not even a single rat in the whole city that's when the party tipped into full suspicion, like something is definitely not right in this city.
“No rats in the city”
DEFCON 1, RED ALERT, SITUATION FUBAR, GET THE FLAMETHROWER, SOMETHING IS VERY, *VERY* WRONG.
THIS AINT ALBERTA, SON!
@lordfelidae4505 had a hint similar to this and figured out what's me and my party is facing. Of course we're supposed to be solving a case to get some gear but we rolled our way out of that one.
"There's no rats in the city"
"...So I cast wish and want to summon a nuclear bomb on the town. It's fucked and that's the only option"
I like that idea. "You notice there are no rats or pigeons or bugs of any kind in this city.
Another idea: What if the players stumble upon a massive island or a continent where there clearly was human habitation, but it's completely deserted now. There are notes written in a dead language, with parts that seem erratic. Though time has worn many structures, there are clear signs of unrepaired damage from many battles.
This branches out to a number of ideas. Maybe when the false hydra dies after maturing, it spreads spores. Most spores have died by now, but one manages to cling to the party as they leave.
Alternatively (and my favorite), maybe they and the ship's crew were shipwrecked on the island, and while the ship's crew goes about building a new boat, the false hydra sprouts. If you go this route, it might be good to have the ship's captain brag about the crew compliment, the officer count, etc. Have him make mention of the number of survivors. And as the number dwindles, the information changes, but very subtly at first. Make sure to have notes to show the players to "prove" that they're misremembering. If someone takes notes and calls attention to the difference, insist that they wrote it down wrong. Basically gaslight your players at every opportunity. The ship is taking longer than planned. Must have been some setbacks. There are quite a few more bunks than crew members. Well, what if you stumble on a group of survivors? You were the ones that insisted on it, after all! The planned ship is too big to crew with only a couple dozen crew and only a quartermaster for an officer. You were supposed to help crew it with magic and you wanted to make sure there was enough space for all the weird clues you were finding. There's a weird captain's log the captain found, written in the common tongue. That captain had the same name as your captain, and the ship was the same name, too. But the crew compliment was ten times his! He only had a small skiff with a dozen crew members, not even enough for a quartermaster or first mate. A captain? But your party had rented the boat and just hired a few shiphands to man it. What crew? You were the only survivors of the shipwreck.
I just thought of this: what about a setting where a kingdom has an urgency against a goblin blight under their city, but the longer the story goes on, the less of a threat the goblins seemed to have posed in the first place, until the kingdom can’t recall why they hired you and neither can you
You go to deal with an encampment of goblins under the city only to find it's completely empty. They must have run off. Wait, what goblins?
If memories return while the hydra eats/ stops singing that means the memories can resurface in the viewers seemingly at random. Leading to unexpected fits of hysteria followed by the person then having that "had a thought but I lost it" feeling with a strong aura of dread.
Everybody help I forgot what I was shouting and panicking about
Perfect for asking about a characters stats and rolling behind the screen with 0 effects in the middle of a scene
If memories return while the hydra stops singing, does it mean that anyone who travels 5 miles away for some reason, you know, merchants, mercenaries, patrols remember all and go to report to the authorities of the kingdom or empire? False-Hydra detected and slayed
They definitely have to send some very serious dudes to ensure it gets destroyed
because if the authorities do not have any measures to counter such a continental threat that can arise in any city, then I do not understand how they survived to this moment
@@Монс-й1ь The thing is, the hydra's power with its song is so strong that people will find a bizarre reason to not leave the 5 mile radius, even if they were originally just travelling through on their way to the capital.
"You know, this village is so idyllic. Everything is so peaceful here, I think I may just stay for a while... Oh look! There's a job opening as a tavernkeeper... I heard them talking about how the former tavernkeeper went off to live on a farm. Wow, I cannot believe my luck."
@@Монс-й1ь your assuming they even know how the people died they might not have seen the false hydra, and even if they did they wouldn’t know it’s abilities so if help did arrive such as knights or wizards they would likely fall under the hydras spell as well. Eventually with some luck they might kill it but it might be after much of the city is already eaten. It’s entirely possible and probable that the king simple believed a serial killer or some necromancer or other nonsense is happening. A false hydra is likely to just be a myth at best in most if not all nations.
Our dm threw us against this once, the barbarian saw some slight plashes in the water, swung at random, got a nat20 and it shocked the Hydra enough that it stopped singing for a few seconds, the wizard knew what was gonna happen and casted deafness on the party (the dm let him roll to see if he knew what the Hydra could do) after a long fight the barbarain did some nuts damage and cut it in two
Sounds like the barbarian was the MVP. I hope the townspeople built him a state or something.
"I roll to swing at a blind a big ass sword in hopes it stabs the hydra"
*nat20*
Common barbarian activities
@@biancasawbridgeworth1386 Invisible threats are common enough that randomly attacking empty space is actually a good idea.
its all fun and games for the false hydra till it makes a mistake around an observant barbarian
A friend of mine told me of a campaign he was apart of where the DM had time constantly move forward in the world (so quests would change in different areas if the party didn’t go there). His party kept ignoring requests to check out a town with strange letters constantly coming from it, and even an official request from the kingdom when the continued to receive letters but no proof when it sent knights to investigate.
After they ignored it for about 2 years in game time focusing on the ‘main quest,’ the GM told them they had received an emergency summons from the Kingdom. Scouts had told them of a giant undead like monstrosity with multiple heads being carried by enthralled citizens being slowly carrier towards the Capital. The party has ignored the side quest for so long, it’s cause (the false hydra) turned into a potential cataclysmic event. This event actually ended up ending their campaign as half of their party ended up being dominated by the false hydra as it destroyed the def new force mustered to defeat it and devoured half of the continent before the BBEG ended its apocalyptic course. They ended up rolling new characters in a campaign taking place after these events and the BBEG’s plan coming to fruition.
Love that the BBEG had to make a move against it. What was the BBEG's end goal prior to having to deal with the false hydra?
@@Zalfuse If I’m remember correctly, the BBEG had succeeded in turning himself and his conspirators into artificial Aasimar. The BBEG had somehow imprisoned a few deities from the divine realm and the BBEG himself had siphoned some of their power for his groups’ ascension. He effectively made himself a divine being with a loyal army of aasimars and established himself as the overseer of the continent which all the surviving nation swore fealty and paid tribute to (Think the HRE’s relationship with its client states).
The new campaign was about finding a way to free the imprisoned deities (end game) and running missions to hinder the progress the BBEG was making in establishing an invasion force to invade other continents (sabotaging docks, crippling internal trade lines, assassinating generals, ect).
Interesting but I don’t get one thing what was the main threat what was the cataclysmic event
@@thedbdentity2102 The false hydra became the cataclysmic event. It grew to the point of becoming so strong it either destroyed or enslaved anyone that crossed its path.
@@Demedich1 what is a “false Hydra”?
An important thing to note about your version of the false hydra. Since it's singing is a form of charm, there's a special interaction that is has with other creatures. Anything immune to charm can hear the song but still see and remember the false hydra. This means that if the players get stuck you can always use one of these creatures as a hook. Perhaps the players find a lone fey or minor celestial concerned over the monster, perhaps they run into a devil or demon that is trying to determine if the false hydra could be used in the blood war, an advanced automaton trying to communicate how it's creator has gone missing, or perhaps the local gang of doppelgangers approach the party for help since they can't steal from a bunch of maniacs.
Anothr thing to note is that temporary deafness can be used. A loud noise like an explosion, cannon or thunder could cut off the hydra's song for just a moment, allowing someone to see glimpses of the monster.
I was thinking that if I DM'd a campaign like this, the party gets into a brawl and one of them is hit so hard in the head their ears are ringing, and they see things are all messed up cuz of the False Hydra, but as they continue to stare, their hearing returns, they blink...
And find nothings happened. Except for a vague feeling that something is...not quite right.
Aren't fey and constructs immune to charm?
@@nullpoint3346 Yes. That's the point.
@@RayPoreon (Clears throat) Warforged and Elves.
@@nullpoint3346 Warforged are humanoids and elves are *resistant* but not immune to charms as they just have a fey ancestry
Note: Not all constructs+fey are immune to charm effects, most must are.
When I first heard about the False Hydra, I was intrigued. I have a passion for DM'ing psychological horror campaigns. I was so amazed by this creature that takes all of my favourite horror aspects and puts them in one creature. The possibilities are absolutely endless. I still salivate over the idea of putting one in a campaign.
The horror of the unknown
Wanna DM Star Trek Adventures based on this?
th-cam.com/video/JRitqARLhOM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=BRsVsdbSv-rsOASp
When my party ran this, the DM had our necromancers undead be able to see the false hydra. It led to a lot of initially funny moments where it looked like a bunch of zombies were having a dance party after a fight only for us to realize later why the hydra was missing a head and had bite marks.
Oh that’s what the zombies were doing they were fighting the false… What was I talking about again?
@@thedbdentity2102 Why were your zombies attacking a false king? Did he not pay you for the job you did?
@@connortobin3775 he didn’t pay up
Undead a best. Golems too.
Be very interesting in an evil campaign with a vampire or lich or something
@@connortobin3775 v. B b. Bb v v v
Imagine you write an online book where when you get to a certain page, one character sudden disappears, you go back a few pages to see what happened but they aren't there either
In fact they aren't anywhere
They have been deleted and the book rewrote itself to compensate
Freak out a lot of people at least
almost reminds me of DDLC in a way
Sounds easy enough to code, maybe I'll try it someday
@@dollzo I'd love to see it, keep me posted if you want :)
Literally John Dies at the End.
@@digidragon1 I need to check this out, tell me more please
False Hydra: Bullshit memory powers
my deaf PC: I'm boutta do what's called a pro gamer move.
Deaf Death Cleric: You have forfeited your life privilege
@@Loldino897 deaf and mute assassin:
You’ll just look completely insane until you’re eaten and forgotten
@@AgentK83 not if they bring proof
Imagine a deaf character hurriedly signing about a colossal monster eating people, but no one believes them 😮
This monster is one of those that actually dusts off a Bard's COUNTERSONG ability in certain editions.
Battle of the bands
A fun mechanic for this could be that whenever it stops singing your players have a chance of getting their memories back of momentarily if they pass a wisdom saving that gets harder the longer they’re exposed to the song.
I know many people usually have a secret Cleric that the party forget for the False Hydra scenario, and it has a lot of easy ways to make it work, but what about a secret Ranger?
Imagine it, Beast master Rangers aren't one of the more commonly played classes, but there's a world of utility that can be added by one that could make a stark difference if they were to disappear.
From the start of the campaign the party never gets lost when traveling, never has to worry about food or water, never has to do anything to set up camp when they rest, never has to set a watch, and really early on, they get a friendly animal mascot that seems surprisingly loyal and resilient for a wild animal.
Until one day the friendly wolf the party loves to bits is acting like a different animal, snarling at them, keeping its distance, acting like it doesn't like them before leaving the party for no reason. Suddenly the party is getting lost in that forest they've been through a hundred times, and has to keep track of food and water, and has this weird thing where they keep forgetting to do a certain task like lighting the campfire while setting up camp, and gets ambushed at night when no one bothers to keep watch.
All of a sudden all the little things that make up the survival benefits of a Ranger that can EASILY go unheeded in the background of a campaign are being jammed into the forefront, like the rules have suddenly changed, like something is missing.
My dude, this is the greatest "false hydra twist" I have ever read
My guy
you just gave me an Idea
Hope you don't mind if i write this down for later
@@craigstorteboom5332 my bad
Honestly genius, I'm keeping this.
And then, evidence starts piling up about the implied presence of a False Hydra, and slowly but surely, the party pieces together that a False Hydra managed to snatch up a party member that they forgot about, and prepare as much as they can with what little they have left to fight the thing to ensure safe passage to an inn to recuperate.
A great idea I've seen for this monster: Invent a new party member that the players never had before. Then when they get into town there's suddenly weird discrepancies they notice where it seems like they had someone with them who's gone, but of course the players in and out of character have no recollection of this mysterious party member. Turns out the false hydra had a victim, and because the PCs forgot, the players in a meta sense had to never have the information to begin with in order to match.
This... Is imcredibly awesome and creepy. You can even play with the backstory of your players to make their dead companion more interesting
I remember one story of a party fighting a false hydra revealing later that the partys lost member was a cleric and had been married to one of the other party members, they found the forgotten party members torn and bloody pack containing a partial journal, wedding ring in a keepsake box, and some drawings of the forgotten cleric and the surviving party member together with a sweet caption written underneath. The entire party, especially the former husband, were deeply affected by this reveal.
My dm did this with our party. It was a year of real life time into the campaign, and he had sprinkled in so many details that made the payoff hit so much harder. For example, my character picked up a “magic” journal that would update at the end of every day written seemingly from the journals perspective. At one point it even seemed like the journal had a crush on our rogue which we all thought was funny. Less funny was learning we had a 5th party member who was actually the owner of the journal and our rogue’s girlfriend and that no one has any memory of her other than knowing she existed. Such a cool ass monster
I heard about a party that commissioned an artist to paint a picture of them upon arriving in town, then on returning the next day for the finished piece realized there was an extra person in the photo they didn't recognize, and whom the artist didn't remember painting. If memory serves the DM actually had a drawing ready for the session of all the PCs and their victim comrade.
This is the way to do it. The players should know as much as their characters do for best effect.
I definitely have to use this in a campaign sometime. I did have an idea though, in regards to its origins: It may *grow* from lies, but it cannot be *born* of them; it needs a soul. That soul comes from a murder victim, who's killer lied to escape justice, and the victim's hunger for revenge is twisted into a hunger for flesh as a false hydra grows from their corpse. If the players get a bit too murder hoboey, rob/kill the local shopkeep, and blame the bandits they were payed to kill, then voila: false hydra.
During the creepy "something isn't right" phase and the investigation, the players don't know its origins, save for vague rumors about it being born from lies, or possibly being some extraplanar horror. It's only when they finally confront it that it reveals the truth. They go from thinking they're the heroes, hunting some abomination which should not be, to suddenly being confronted with the weight of their own sins:
_As you see the creature before you, one of its heads turns to face you, and as its eyeless sockets fix yours it begins to... smile. The silence of your deafness is broken as words begin to worm themselves into your mind, telepathic communication that sounds somehow both melodious and like nails on a chalkboard, a voice which _*_should not be._*_ As it looks into you, the twisted smile still on its face, it speaks one word: "Fa...ther..."_
(Yes, I am a sadist, but murderhobos are bad and they should feel bad).
hot DAYUM thats insane
"I am a monument..... to all your sins."
I had a really fun game with false hydra once where I dmed; one of players became deaf and, therefore, suddenly became very aware of the smiling creature in the town. The rest decided to treat them as "shell shocked" until the plot kicked off properly. Like gaslighting my friends.
I can imagine someone leaving town on a business trip or to visit relatives having a complete mental breakdown sometime after they can't hear the song and someone or something triggers their memories, such as someone asking about a relative who was eaten and whom they expected to see. Could be a good plot hook. I could also see certain animal species that are immune to the song just being completely absent from town as they fled when the trouble started.
My GM ran this in what was quite frankly the most amazing and actually terrifying way possible.
See, in the beginning of the campaign, our GM, a known lover of music would always play a song or two whenever we have to either travel somewhere and we indicated we were in a hurry or stumbled into combat or found creative ways around problems to name a few things. We didn't really think much of it, the music was atmospheric and helped us to get in the zone, and while we had some suspicions regarding why certain combat encounters were easier or why some NPCs freely gave us information regarding certain investigations and the like, we honestly didn't question it. The bastard made everything as natural as he could, having us pin the inconsistancies on any number of things including our backstories.
Then we came across a certain village.
Again it was so natural, we had a combat enounter involving some decently strong opponents, so we had to heal and rest up, then we came across the village and spent the night there in the inn. The next morning we found that the door had been forced open, the framing broken, and a bed completely shattered apart along with a pack next to it. To this day, I'm still feel a little sick at just how quickly we looted the pack, we gave the excuse that it was to find the identity of the owner, but it was free loot...
That was how the creepiest DnD session I've ever been to started and from start to finish, there was absolutely no music playing at all, there was some ambient sounds of people and/or nature depending, but even that was taken away towards the end of the session and the absolute silence (dude actually had sound mufflers for us we had to wear).
It turned out that for the entire game, there was one other member of the party, a Bard who was the twin sister of the sorceress of the party...who had left her home in search of her mother, because she desperately wanted her family together again. I remember that the sorceress' player had to leave the table for a bit after the stunned silence at the reveal, we played it as her character sort of shutting down and going catatonic before we dragged her and the village alchemist who had been helping us (and created the potion of deafness), who was just as catatonic because he remembered that he had a wife and son, outside the village bonds so that we could plan in some piece...the hydra had grown too fat and comfortable to leave the dry well in the village center.
Let me tell you, walking back into that village deaf and actually able to not only see the hydra's heads and all the old and fresh blood stains and small amounts of gore from its meals were terrifying enough, but then one of the heads came real close to us and we had to continue on our way without acknowledging it or the fact that it left to pick up the kind innkeeper's daughter as a snack...we _had_ to ignore it all to get to the alchemist's home because it had an underground passage to the main body. Then, while deaf, we had to navigate the tunnel to the main body and then, again, in silence, we fought the strongest enemy we've had to date. Then things got worse when he revealed that the mufflers were bluetooth headphones and simulated our hearing slowly returning, because he's a sadist.
Suffice to say, it was the most amazing session ever, but holy crap, I don't any of us really recovered after that insanity...and I'm pretty certain that the dude has already laid down hints for the next Impossible Hunt that we doing for Artemis.
That sounds amazing and I would read that entire session written-out as a horror story.
This is truly inspiring! Cheers for sharing
Your GM sounds like he kills you IRL if your character dies
Your DM is an unrepentant piece of shit in the best possible way.
Dude that’s so well thought out
Yknow this is a super horrifying concept for a monster i must say. Especially the part where you just forget it exists. There was an older man in my town who was ranting about something kind of like this before he moved away, but noone paid him much mind. That would be wacky if it was real though, would explain this weird faint humming i hear all the time..
Tinnitus, my guy
thats just jeff, dont mind him hes in your walls
Just gonna assume OP was eaten, RIP OP. 😢
Oh so that's what tinnitus is.
ya cool idea but it kinda gave my brother the chills when i told him oh wait i forgot
i don't have a brother
Because I've talked about the False Hydra to friends of mine it wouldn't be a big reveal I feel to use it, so I have thought of a different idea to incorporate it into the world without using it as an encounter.
A small island town hasn't been heard of in a few weeks, and the mayor of a port city would send the party to check out what's wrong. They go there, find a bunch of messed up monsters, corpses and ghosts, with writings of "BLOCK YOUR EARS" "IT SINGS" and "IT ATE THEM BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER" etc. on the walls and eventually they find multiple long, fleshy tubes having risen from the ground, laying on top of trees and dilapidated buildings, with massive white faces on them all over the town, emancipated and dead, some heads having attempted to eat the other ones.
It couldn't get off the island so it died, but its killing spree spawned other horrors, like the Sorrowsworn from the feelings its victims had but the False Hydra couldn't feel, gibbering mouthers from the flesh of the parts bit off by other heads and more.
Someone with a high enough arcana or history check would know what the creature was and what caused this, from legends written from ages past. Regardless, all they could report was what happened and be glad the thing spawned where it did.
Cast silence so you will not hear. Cast silence and you will see. Deafen self and see what is really there.
This, actually, is pretty brilliant
Yeah im honestly surprised more people don't do more aftermaths of a false hydras rampage.
So, neat idea.
But nobody writes shit like that on walls.
Just... kinda comes off cringy rather than scary lol.
It's one of the dumbest tropes in games.
@@HiddenRealm Well it is literally done subconsciously on paper by the people who see the False Hydra. And your opinion on it is that it's cringey, others don't think that, so you do you. I don't know if I ever get to actually use the idea anyway.
One of the characters in my campaign is deaf and this chapter of their story is either going to last like 20 minutes because they go and kill it or the other characters are going to think they’re insane
I know it's late for this, and you've probably already run this adventure, but if not, then have the deaf character be hit hard in the adventure beforehand. Maybe literally, or perhaps affected by a powerful charm or illusion spell, or just have a really terrifying encounter with another monster. Then, when you get to the false hydra adventure, the party will have more reason to suspect that they're poor deaf party member is seeing things. Maybe that player will believe it's not real. At first th at is.
I was today years old when I learned the false hydra exists. this came up in my reccomendations, and i'm so happy I clicked this video. my players are going to have a fun surprise this halloween.
I first learned about it from the EmpathP song "Lullaby of a false hydra" and it led me down a rabbit hole
this is so much scarier than an actual hydra
True
This creature is straight up an amalgamation of Doctor Who plot devices
Like I just see it like this… the party questions someone why they have kids toys and the person simply says “Oh a friend dropped them off so I could hand them out at work… (or whatever),” but as the person is talking a tear rolls down their cheek.
The false hydra makes me think of the silence
and they don’t even know why they are crying
@@ComradeVenus Glad to know I'm not the only one who that almost immediately came to mind for, recently saw the episodes with them so it was pretty fresh in the brain, the two songs together are pretty much The Silence's abilities summed up.
I think Skibidi Toilet is heavily inspired by the False Hydra... in which case Titan Camera Man solos
I remember using this monster once, the only thing I changed about it was its origin story/end, instead of being carried to another town it simply starts vomiting out a bunch of white blobs until it's merely a deflated nightmarish skin, after that, the blobs get carried to different towns where there placed in some sewer or something like that, and then it all starts again.
This is kinda how mimics work actually and I like it way more.
That’s honestly more logical than the default monster. Also allows you to run an Invasion of the Body Snatchers climax where the party are the only sane people in a town turned into worker drones, loading hydra grubs onto wagons and ships to be spread to the neighboring settlements.
I had an idea for a couple changes to it that would make it more interesting and could provide even more plot hooks.
1.) every so often a different version of one is born
2.) this different version doesn't need to eat but is driven to, growing stronger as it does
3.) this different version isn't initially sentient, doing everything it does out of a kind of instinct alone
4.) as it consumes people it eventually gains sentience
5.) this different version of it has access to all the knowledge every person it has ever eaten possessed
6.) it has an imprint of the personality of every person it has ever eaten, manifesting perhaps as twisted versions of the people eaten
7.) it will eventually reach a critical mass when it eats enough and will have a sort of mental shift as it realizes the full extent of what it is and the implications of it
8.) it may at this point decide to attempt a sort of "ascendancy" where it's goal now shifts to the consumption of all sentient beings, as it sees itself as a repository of their knowledge and themselves, or a sort of flesh god.
9.) at this point if it isn't stopped it will continue to consume, adding personalities and knowledge to itself until it is stopped.
On the other hand, it can also become an actual living repository maintained by a sect or something where the decrepit members may choose to "retire" by feeding themselves to the hydra, essentially living forever with their knowledge and experiences kept in the monstrosity.
*And* the monstrosity gets to be taken care of, which is nice. After all, if it gained enough sapience, I'm sure it can work something out.
@@crowdemon_archives Neat.
Played a campaign with this as our monster we fought. Ended up suiting us thematically pretty well as we were a full fey party but…sorta the edging on unsettling type (chaos magic, mad scientist inventor, deal making toy maker). Honestly it was pretty hefty for a party consisting of a circle of dreams druid, a wild magic sorcerer, and a battle smith artificer. But thematic! We ended up realizing we were losing memories so we opted for sewing secret journals into our clothes and crafting toy figurines of each other that had “friend” written on them. I also had my druid sew a plush doll that was a rough approximation of the description we had gotten only from a select few. On the doll was stitched the word “enemy.” Honestly we ended up questioning the creepy forest (flesh eating, I had to feed it some blood in compensation) for information which gave us the location that we had to go to and confront this thing. We also heard rumors that the town crazy was seen wearing earmuffs which I promptly made for the party. Once there we ended up taking down this thing but honestly we did need some help as the dm realized the challenge rating was way too high for the level and number of people we had in our party. But we did take out a good chunk of it with some smart tactics, luck on some rolls, and just being good about being in sync with each other.
This is the perfect monster to gaslight your players with
You are walking down the street but then you see heads flying… And then you see a town bazaar which would you like to buy from
@@thedbdentity2102 "heads flying?"
"Heads flying? What are you talking about?"
I couldn’t agree more😂
It’s even better when a player knows what’s going on and plays along
Might work if gaslighting was real. Gaslighting doesn't exist, stop being stupid.
One time my party accidentally beat a false hydra because our artificer had an experimental bomb go off during calibration, temporarily deafening the whole party lmao
Edit: our healer was rendered useless because she couldn't reliably cast verbal spells but we had a few potions on hand. It was still a tough fight with nerfed casters though, my rogue kinda carried us
Maybe I'm stupid, but would the shell-shocked effects of the bomb wear off, and the hydras song be applied again? Like surely the bomb wasnt that powerful
@@acid9033 tinnitus doesn't go away in the time a dnd encounter occurs
@@UncleMerlin Even if it does, by that time the False Hydra might be locked in the fight and not find the time to resume singing without losing a head.
I ran my group through a false hydra last game. The hotel keeper had knotches on the door frame at the ages marked for the height of a daughter they didn't remember. They found packs in the room for party members they never remembered meeting. A deaf man in the town who was considered crazy was found hung in his home with insane notes and drawings of the false Hydra. I added equipment items to thier inventory in beyond that they started to find like notes in thier own hand writing like "don't forget" or "it's under the town. It ate them...". The players were freaked the f*ck out. Thanks for the write up
One of them has “baby stand” carved into their arm.
That is genius having a deaf man that's "insane" but is the only one not being tricked
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick heck yeah jojo reference
Oooo that's good. Gives me shivers.
Having any Light Drow on the team makes this a cakewalk. Also it’s thematically awesome, since Eilistraee is a goddess of song and her children can be immune to mind-altering effects.
It'd be fucking sick to have a rockstar battle against the false hydra-make enough noise to drown out the song!
This definitely feels like something you leave in adolescence, not saying you don’t have a timer or anything, but it’s just so much more creepier with it being sneaky and having its forget me song
Imagine walking into a home to talk to someone about what is going on, and elsewhere the hydra begins eating someone. The moment the hydra starts eating, the characters start looking around the room and see countless crudely drawn images of the hydra with ominous text. Maybe one that says put wax in your ears and they notice an empty box of bee's wax in the corner. Meaning the inhabitant they are talking too has long run out of their defense against the song attack.
The townsperson is now ranting and raving about what is going on and the players have to quickly choose to do something about their hearing or listening to the man.
The blind/deafness spell suddenly has new uses unique to this circumstance, considering such deafness might block out useful noises, well it's a compromise.
Not to mention, real deaf people actually exist. If the false hydra was real and sprouted in a city Im sure there would be somebody noticing AND remembering afterwards because they cant hear the song. But those few people may be deemed insane. I dont think blind spell would be useful, its the sound that makes you forget
@@zakosist Also remember that the false hydra is an intelligent being that plans. So it would likely target the deaf people if it became aware of their existence and immunity.
@@psycophantic I would like to imagine the false hydra as being surprisingly stupid with an intelligence of 1+the number of heads
@@jaydeejay4166 it's quite a smart creature. At the very least as smart as any humanoid. The only difference being that it hunts humanoids as well. Everything that needs to eat will go after something, living creature or not. So yeah it'd be just as smart as any other person. The only difference being it's potent abilities to make people forget it and imperceive it
@@psycophantic Yeah, no. Unless there's an extra level of bullshit to the tryhard lore where they're born aware of what deaf people are (because reasons and "fiction," I guess), why would false hydra have any reason to go "oh, probably shouldn't assume the same thing that happens to literally everyone else won't work on you" should they encounter a deaf person? How would they know to differentiate between how hearing vs deaf people react to seeing it when they'd be virtually identical outside the hydra directly observing that the song didn't work when resumed, which would need to happen every single time for the monster to ensure survival. Plus the deaf who haven't had any direct contact would still be aware of the real story with every society wide narrative restructuring à la Westworld and would know where evidence would exist like, say, names on documents, pictures/paintings, etc.
This would be a FANTASTIC Role Playing opportunity for a party with a character who has been rendered deaf either before the game or in play. Disability in Adventurers is probably rarely explored, but would be fairly likely considering what they risk day in & day out.
You know, I really didn't think about it that way but you are VERY right~ Thank you for new inspiration~
I have a fallen aasimar warlock/rogue who is deaf, and I talked about this very creature encounter wise with a friend!! In another campaign where I play a druid, we encountered one though OO;
I have a Crystal Dragonborn/RS Aasamar Sun-soul Monk who got his powers by "winning" a staring contest with the sun and going 100% blind but is SO Radiant AF that he has Daredevil-esq blindsight via a "Radiant Sonar".
Edit: I forgot the best part: his name is Sol'air Escanor or Sol(as in earths sun) for short who had relentlessly sunny disposition.
Was playing a blind archer when we encountered a false hydra. So close, yet so far
*casts remove deafness*
Im using this creature while playing The Caretaker's musics on the background as the Hydra's song. My players are freaking out and loving it! Although they are a bit lost at the moment, things are developing in a great way.
The thing is: the city being affected by the False Hydra is one that they visited a few times and know a lot of people there. Well, KNEW, they were eaten and now they are running in circles trying to understand what is happening
Thank you for the idea!
There is a false hydra song on YT, but yea Caretaker is more fitting as ambiance 🤔👌🏼🌟
I like the idea of using Detect Thoughts for some other unrelated reason, and the spell starts picking up broken fragments of people's terrified, repressed memories of the Hydra - which can't be erased from the players' memories because it's not originally THEIR memories. You have to pick up enough fragments in order to piece together what's going on.
This is horrible I can already think of so many ways this could be hinted to the players
A young crying orphan lives in the village, everyone things shes gone mad. She is actually the daughter of the mayor, who has been deaf from birth and can SEE THE FALSE HYDRA
The party enters the house of a farmer, who has a bunch of women's clothes despite never being married.
The party cleric stands in the middle of the street, feeling an intense feeling of... wrong. He is actually standing directly next to the Hydra's head
A friend of the party is consumed and everybody insists they have never existed at all
I love how in your version of the game, a farmer who secretly has a stash of women's clothes is more likely to be a sign of an abomination than of the farmer just being kinky or queer
I mentioned both of these in a few previous comments, but I have run one of these before. I've also had a DM hint at a false hydra for me before.
My Wizard had damaged his hearing when his fireball exploded in his hand from a counterspell. The blast made a loud bang and damaged his hearing.
We got to a new town, and the DM passed me a note. _"Something is very, very wrong. You hear something trying to work it's way into your ears. And you can see something moving, just beyond your vision. It's like an outline, a translucent figure that nobody else notices. You don't know what it is, and you don't know what you hear. Just that something is there."_
He was called crazy for three sessions before he decided to just start exploding things to get people's attentions on the creature.
I like the idea of having one of your players trip on its tail, only to look back and find nothing to trip on
I already commented this somewhere else lol but one of my PCs backstories is essentially that they were in the same situation as the young orphan.
@@tiph3802 The party won't remember the person or notice they're missing, but it's a great opportunity to reveal to the *players* that something is wrong.
DM: "Tobias the armorsmith takes your gold and scratches his beard. 'meet me tomorrow afternoon with the other half of the payment, and I'll have your new bracers ready.' he says."
Next day
Player: "Okay, it's afternoon, let's go see Tobias."
DM: "Who?"
Player: "Tobias, the smith."
DM: ^rummages through notes^ "I don't have any NPCs here by that name. There's not even an a smith in town. Sure you're not thinking of something else?"
The False Hydra was the first adventure I ever ran for my long-term D&D campaign to bring the group together. It was the second adventure I ever ran as a DM. I know I can do better now, but my old players LOVED it. They never trusted me again and were always waiting for some kind of twist with the monsters or NPC’s, but “What *person/place/thing*? Make a wisdom save.” became a meme in our group.
My biggest-ever reddit post was a recounting of the time I ran a False Hydra and the players discovered remnants of an extra party member that had been eaten and forgotten
Enough time has gone by, I'd love to try and run it again with proper foreshadowing this time
By any chance, was one of your party members named Tsurf and did you give everyone “ear mufflers” to simulate using potions of deafness that were actually Bluetooth headphones that gradually played sounds in them as the characters’ hearing slowly returned?
@@Somerandomjingleberry No, that must've been some other genius.
My party clogged their ears with wax and used the (optional) weakness where you can see False Hydras in mirrors to take it down
@@NotThatSarahLevy Ah, alright. Just mentioning that cuz that's the story that another commenter had that I saw and I was like "oh hey this is quite similar", but it sounds like a number of people have done an idea like this which is very very cool
I would imagine a country/kingdom who had been terrorised by a False Hydra before, (thus having the chance to study it) would have a policy of having a squadron of deaf guards in every major populated city, just to make sure that no big accidents happen again.
That would be an amazing tool to use as a DM, since it could help develop worldbuilding and setup the idea that the False Hydra is a creature your party can encounter in this world.
And since the False Hydra is an intelligent monster, it could be a nice touch to have it eliminate the specialised guard unit first, thereby signalling to your party that they are under the influence of it's song, without spelling it out.
I had this one character who was a robot that didn’t actually hear, but instead received audio to interpret as verbal language. He couldn’t be affected by sound based damage/effects, so they’d be a blessing in a fight against a false hydra.
I saw a suggestion I absolutely loved, which is to ask your players for saves, tell them to roll initiative-and then they blink, and they’re standing there with their weapons out, possibly injured, people staring warily at them, maybe even in a different location because they chased the head… but it’s singing again, so they don’t remember what or why they were fighting.
Or have them turn a corner or look behind some abandoned street cart and make a save not to shriek in horror. Someone runs up to ask what’s wrong, they look away from the torn off, mutilated limb just laying on the ground (or hydra head leering back at them,) and don’t even remember screaming. You *do not* tell them what they saved against. You *do not* tell them what they saw.
Or, since some physical clues may be overlooked, having a player slip suddenly on a puddle they didn’t notice until it was too late. They fall down, get covered in muddy water, everyone has a good laugh, and then when they go to wash up, they see the water is… *very* red. When they pick up their pants, it looks like they sat down in a slaughterhouse. They may or may not even make the connection with the puddle they fell in earlier (especially if you’re a GM who likes to incorporate little slapstick bits like that into your games.) If you want to *ensure* your party gets covered in gore, maybe a speeding wagon splashes a puddle over them, and they *all* have to make Dex saves, in which case they’ll have the follow up realization of: “That’s a *lot* of blood, isn’t it?” A bloody puddle, sure, maybe someone had to put down an animal earlier & it also rained last night; that can be explained. But a puddle big enough to splash the entire party? That’s *several liters* of blood just pooling in the street. And why did it take several hours for them to realize they all looked like extras in a horror movie?
Another cool idea: since the song makes victims forget encounters with the false hydra, maybe in the "first" encounter with the false hydra, there could be some hints that the party has encountered the false hydra before. Like, maybe the hydra has a massive burn on it's body that was likely thanks to the party's spellcaster.
Best one I've seen was the hydra had lost a head because the dm rolled the attack and Vorpaled it
To all DMs, For parties without a rogue, you could do the “healing potions everywhere” trick with rogue abilities instead. Very rarely do they encounter locked doors. Tell players about nearby enemies without them scouting, Boss monsters start the encounters wounded, etc.
Wut? This makes no sense because I'm not sure what you mean.
@@hariman7727
The idea is that there's a secret extra member of the party. (Usually a cleric but in this case a rogue.) You're playing with the player's perceptions by using this extra member to solve problems and not telling the players about it since eventually, when the players encounter the false hydra, that extra member will be killed.
It's all part of a setup for a false hydra mystery around someone that the PC's and players don't remember has always been there.
I think it's harder to pull off than people think since per lore, a person only forget things while under the effect of the song, so the players will be operating with either too much or too little information depending on whether they're under the song, and/or when you the DM do the post-mortem reveal of info about the dead party member that the PC's should know about (when free of song).
@@hariman7727 Locked doors were unlocked by the rogue. The rogue went ahead to scout, came back and told the other players. The rogue initiated combat with a backstab.
@@lamphobic I don't understand, why would they not know the rogue is there? He hasn't been eaten yet so they would remember him. The false hydra's song only works for the hydra itself. What am I missing?
@@Miggy19779 The dm planning in advance to run the false hydra, is setting up the confusion by setting the stage beforehand.
Didn't know the complete story around this creature, but the psychological implicantions (which remind me of irl spatial neglect) are awesomes. Definitely using this in a horror one shot. Thanks
the false hydra is most definitely one of the greatest horrors ever conceptualised. i can vividly imagine lovecraft himself being like, "holy carp, even i couldn't make this sick shit up!" and proceeding trying to get anesthetically drunk, before this cognito hazard haunts his dreams forever.
one afterthought: is communication with an FH possible, or is that ungodly thing beyond reason?
@@UcceahI’d assume even if it could be communicated with, it’d be reasonable to rule that it never views humanoids as anything other than food, and therefor could not be reasoned with.
That being said, rules are made for DMs to break them. Some of the most memorable NPCs I’ve ran have been monsters I decided to run as social encounters.
Is a real Hydra a False False Hydra? Is a Double Negative Hydra only hurt by positive energy?
Yes, in fact a False False Hydra's ability is directly opposed to the False Hydra's ability, showing their connection. People who look at False Hydras forget about what they saw. People who look at False False Hydras remember what they saw. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
@@lr- You could never forget their faces...
As I see it, a False False Hydra refers to the DM hinting at a False Hydra only to reveal another explanation (like Mindflayers with an army of ghouls plotting to destroy the town from within), usually in response to a metagaming player guessing it's a False Hydra well before it can be properly set up. This nullifies a lot of anti-False Hydra tactics while preserving the experience.
Revealing a second False Hydra manipulating the first is another twist I've seen to throw off metagaming.
Or a false false hydra could also be the opposite of a false hydra where if you enter 5 miles and they’re singing you see them everywhere but only if you are deaf and can you see the true one
I love the idea of having any enemies or players hit with thunder damage briefly having a moment of intense panic as the ringing in their ears blocks out the song just long enough for them to get a glimpse of the creature, but then the ringing fades and their perception and memory goes away…
Похожие эффекты будут при использовании пиротехники
Представь себе праздничные гуляния фейерверк заглушает песнь всего на долю секунды но весь город видит гидру по окончании фейерверка вместо радости все чувствуют первобытный парализующий ужас парадоксальная ситуация разгар праздника нужно веселиться и отдыхать а тебе хочется только одного убраться из этого проклятого места
“An Artificer created a device that could create pictures, and took a picture of himself to send to one of his old friends the next town over. But what is that long building… is that a face up there?” - Cause I’m sure some dwarven mad lad or other started working on recording realistic pictures to replace hand drawn images somewhere
Or maybe a scrying spell reveals it, cast by someone far away
Get some character art done for one of your characters and just have a head towering over a building in the background
A GREAT IDEA:
A caring house(establishment) for deaf people which is completely empty because the hydra chomped them down as it is smart.
I think for something like this, avoiding meta gaming is absolutely essential. Some people have suggested this "have the monster be revealed for a split second due to an explosion" but I think that's just a terrible idea. The entire appeal of the monster is mystery-horror, once the players know what it is, how it looks like, what it does and so on it loses all mystery and all horror due to having to play pretend. I think it would be best to go into this as a mystery, where the players need to figure out what is happening. Due to this, I would focus much more on "is in your blindspot"
rather than "manipulates your memories".
So for example, you wouldnt be able to see it, smell it or anything but you would be able to see some after effects of what it did. Clues could be this:
1. random fog on some windows (breath of the hydra). You could subtly include this when describing a room or a shop when it's not morning
2. no animals in the town (all animals ran away). You could involve pet bowls in your descriptions, but point players towards noticing there are no animals
3. conflicting backstories: Instead of all memories of a person disappearing, it might be better for people to make up their own reasons why a person is not where he should be. These NPCs would always accept explanations said by other people but if you questioned others in isolation, they might give a confident different explanation
4. slipping on blood stains: the DM might tell them it's been a dry period and it hasn't rained in 3 days some time before doing a "slipping" encounter. At that point, he would tell them they slipped on water and make it have some slight effect on the player as a red herring. If they didn't catch this clue, you would point out a fleeting iron-y smell (coming from the clothes, they wouldn't know this) sometime later on when the characters change
5. empty houses with unlocked doors- self explanatory
6. loss of hearing depending on distance from centre- the hydra's song would overpower other sounds. The DM could hint this by NPC's mentioning the player is talking too quietly when in the centre of the city. The difference in volume could be investigated
7. include a person quickly walking out of the city when the players arrive- this person is deaf and would not react to the players, he can't write and even if communicated with, would lie, knowing he wouldn't be believed anyway
8. include king crimson like segments that only skip maybe 1-2 seconds. Pepper these in and just make it so that a person skips a step in doing something, like skip a "hello" from the npc when starting conversation, have the character skip opening a door and already be inside and such. Let's imagine the hydra withdraws from obvious places while it's not singing but it still deletes memory of the period after for insurance. Make the characters have several of these but only once alert to a PC feeling incredible stressed, not knowing why, after the skip (logic being he saw the hydra).
9. have a person subtly stalking PCs. If spotted, the person would play dumb and another NPC would step in to explain the stalker is deaf. If enough time has passed and the players haven't figured it out yet, you could make this character approach the PCs with a note to visit them later on in the evening. If the players do this, they would find his house deserted but would find notes detailing what the deaf man saw and could deduce to try to shut off all sound. If even this failed, you could have the deaf dude try to kidnap your PCs and stuff their ears with wax or something.
You should set up that the missing people are almost always either physically weak. The elderly, children and then women for example. This would then explain why the hydra didn't target the PCs. The hydra should be smart and not be in places where the characters could bump into them on accident, it should lay on trees and rooftops as this would too obvious of a clue. If the characters learn about the hydra, makes it look like it's inspecting people to see if anyone is not under it's spell, this would explain the cautiousness of the stalker.
As for all the "forgotten party member" stuff... meh I don't really like it. Gaslighting players runs a high risk of them getting frustrated instead of immersed and it could cause the players to notice the discrepancies and investigate them at a time when they shouldn't. Stuff like this also may seem like a retcon which would pull immersion. Ultimately I don't think it's needed if other stuff is done well
I’m getting the weirdest case of deja vu here
Me too what were we talking about again though?
Cognitohazards, of all kind, are scary as hell.
A monster that comes after you when you learn it exists.
- Idea Hazard
A monster you cannot remember when you stop looking at it... Wait, what was I talking about?
- AntiMeme (Information that does not want to be known)
A person that feels like it belongs right where it is, like a dungeon you are exploring, the bar you're visiting, or the room you are sleeping in. He's supposed to be here.
- Information Asymmetry Hazard?
A thing that kills anything that draws attention to it. Dont talk about it dont look at it dont think about it dont turn around
- Recognition Hazard
For the same reason I'd argue that Enchantment magic is way way WAY more morally abhorent than Necromancy ever could be.
Yeah, like the SCP "Where's Waldo?" Which teleports to you and kills you the instant you become aware of it's exact location by any means.
@@michaeledmunds7056 im pretty sure it does something worse than JUST killing you but i forgot what it was lol
@@justyouraveragemartian783 I wasn't specific, but it teleports inside you and crawls out of your mouth.
@@michaeledmunds7056 ohhh right... thank you lol
Depends how you use the magic. Most enchanters are neutral and many use it for pacifism while the average necromancer is evil
My DM ran a false hydra story for our group the past 2 weeks. It was brilliant. He made us so paranoid.
I really shouldn't be watching this at midnight while home alone, especially with how creepy the start is
Personally I think it's too powerful that the Domination Dirge lasts indefinitely and doesn't offer any immunity once you've passed the save. As I understand it, once you fail a single save, you're permanently out of the fight (or rather, permanently on the Hydra's side) unless the Hydra attacks with all of its heads, which it has no obligation to do. The Mythic ability is cinematic, but feels like in practice it would just instantly result in a TPK as soon as it hits phase 2. Still, the monster concept is great.
An idea I have about the false hydra’s origin relates to its name. If it is a hydra who’s saying it wasn’t created by lernaea the mother of Hydras? When killed by Tiamat her rage was immense and unmatched “How could I let this happen?” She thought. “I’ll never let it happen again. With the last ounce of my power I create a beast that will appear in any place run by your cult of lies! It will appear unseen and be undetected until it’s strong enough to take on one of your dragons!” And thus Lernaea created the first False Hydra right in the middle of the capital city of the cult of Tiamat.
So it’s actually a corrupted John Cena with such horrible singing abilities that everybody represses even the memories of anybody it takes
@@thedbdentity2102 oh.
OH MY gOD!
Combine lernaea with the dragon goddess of orange, purple, yellow, etc. Dragons
I had a terrible idea, use all versions of the False Hydra in the same world(possibly the same encounter if you're insane), so they are all very similar just slightly different.
It would mess with the party so much.
Great to see this horrific crime against nature back up.
I actually had an idea for the False Hydra that was sorta a long con wherein the False Hydra is the big bad of a story arc. I'm sorta notorious in the group I DM'ed for, for being really, really generous with the loot. The way I would want to do this is if the party doesn't have a dedicated healer, just keep giving health potions and healer's kits as loot. At the beginning of the adventure arc, I would describe the home base, preferably a large city, as a bustling metropolis, but mention every time they return that places look abandoned, there are homeless children, and so on. This would go on until they meet their patron, who would have a group portrait of the party. Plus one member, a person in clerical vestments, proudly wearing the holy symbol of a Life deity. The plot twist, and I know this has probably been done before, is that early on, the cleric was the False Hydra's first victim, and things gradually went downhill for the city since then.
I really like this idea, and I will partially steal this for my campaign lol
This is a fantastic twist on the usual.
But what was he the first victim of?
@@thedbdentity2102 some kind of monster or trap, could be cool to make up one that hasn't been done before!
I feel like this monster could be a really good metaphor for how abusers hide & convince others to ignore or excuse their behavior. Like I imagine rather than appearing spontaneously, a false hydra is born when an abuser dies w/ their misdeeds never having been revealed. The hydra is a manifestation of their good reputation living on while the consequences of their abuse are still affecting the victims. Or maybe the abuser isn't even dead. Maybe they create the false hydra, intentionally or inadvertantly. Maybe they control it, or another person controls it on their behalf (the way enablers will cover for abuse bc it benefits them &/or to maintain the status quo). Maybe they create it only to learn it can't actually *be* controlled?
However it happens, the point is that people turn a blind eye to the predatory behavior of the abuser, just as they do the literal monster preying upon them. & the only way to defeat it is to reveal the truth.
I knew someone was going to post this here. I'm surprised there aren't more comments suggesting the same idea.
I ran false hydra in its late state to teach my players importance of notetaking. My players have sorta just stopped taking notes in hopes i'll just tell what they've done before, but False hydra gave me lore-reason to stop doing that. They faced the hydra but had to run away leaving it alive while investigating mystery 50 years in the past (long story) and now at meta-level they know this thing had 50 years to grow but cant remember a thing. Everytime they forget something that they have not written down, i play this horror-choir music i used to indicate the hydras precence.
Update: The hydra has grown to be sentient part of the planet that slowly starts to devour the moon
@@hugazaka5127lmao
@@hugazaka5127 damn that escalated quickly
@@you_are_being_judged in lore it took 50 years but i see where you're coming from. Im wondering when the players start to realise that ocean levels are rising and moons phases are more rapid from it being pulled closer and closer
@@hugazaka5127 Keep us updated!
Having a first session with a DMPC traveling with the party into the town, having them disappear, and seeing how long it takes the players to realize they're missing a person none of them are playing, and that first time asking "where is npc?" and getting to go "who?" is one of the funniest things one can experience from the DM side and horrifying for a player.
Edit: I believe the false hydra should get more intelligent as it grows, becoming as intelligent as an elder dragon.
I remember hearing about this monster a few years ago and making a character who had one in her backstory; she a tiefling who was adopted by a human couple and had two kids adopted alongside her, a wood elf girl and a deaf halfling boy.... deaf halfling being, of course, vital to the backstory. After living with the family for a few years, I began writing her backstory as if she had only had one parent... then it turned into a "well the three of us left the orphanage together of course and bought this house together!", all the while her halfling brother was desperately trying to convince her they *had* parents and why was no-one mentioning the strange snake-like being that kept skulking around alley ways because it was getting bigger and bigger... there was an adventuring party who came through and took care of the beast, too late for her parents ofc, but early enough to save the town overall. She became an adventurer herself after, in an attempt to save people from the pain she inadvertently caused her brother, to save people from a similar fate of her town... and to regain her memories of her parents, if she could.
It's such an interesting monster. We've been getting hints at one being in another settlement in the campaign and I'm both extremely excited and utterly terrified; we are *so* going to get tpked if we go now haha because we're only level 6! But that's what she's trying to convince the party to do. Thankfully the dm is great and has been able to kind of veer her elsewhere for now but woof-- scared of what will happen when we reach that place fr
Imagine setting up a hub town that the party are essentially based out of. They're sent on missions over time, grow to know the members of the small city, maybe even start calling it 'home'... When in secret it's been the home of a False Hydra all along. After a few other quests, leveling up a bit, have one of their favorite NPCs just... disappear from the town -AND- their memories. And then continue from there.
Making it a charmed condition opens up an awesome concept you can do if you have a devotion paladin in the party, make the party reach level 7 while in the town and suddenly the paladin has an aura that pulls people out of the effect of the False Hydra as long as they stay close.
Imagine a player plugs his ears and does the “I can’t hear you” shtick but sees a giant monster walking past him and it stares right at him and when he drops his arms to draw his weapon everything is normal again
So my biggest advice for running one mechanically is to nerf its ability very slightly, in a way that adds to the tension potentially. Instead of forgetting everything about it, you forget any experience you had with it directly involved, but if you already know there's a monster there, you don't just forget that fact, and miscellaneous clues like signs of a struggle or evidence left behind by a victim will still remain in your memory. I would also make it so the rate of forgetting is not instant, it's based on your Wisdom, and it takes x amount of exposure (say, 10 minutes at base, double it for every point of your Wisdom modifier for a maximum of 5 hours and 20 minutes) to the song for you to fully forget everything. This gives you as a player a lot more room to be active, and gives you as the DM more room to throw the players a bone and feed them clues.
Thank you for this. For the entire video, I was thinking “having to roleplay complete amnesia about the monster after the players discover it would be such a pain”
Yeah. It makes a better story than a mechanic, so it NEEDS to have a way to have an out, like having memories come back if you're out of range and stay back, or you can resist it if you have some kind of clue or suspicion, and stay immune.
@Hariman I think it should be run more like a mystery and less like a Lovecraft story. It's way easier to actually make the thing scary when you can dish out meaningful clues and buildup that the players can interact with and work off of. It's much easier to scare them as they're slowly putting the pieces together than it is while they're just fumbling in the dark
@@HiddenRealm there's a comment under one of the top comments that said theyre playing it as if the false hydra is a backround element until the final battle
The DM is running a 4 person party, but keeps mentioning a 5th, with payouts that would include a 5th player and NPC's acting as if someone else was there......and when they go to fight the beast, the extra player's equipment will be on the ground as theyre being eaten
Im too lazy to go back and try to find it, but they also mentioned things like when the party goes to a previous battleground, they'll see signs of a weapon/element the party isnt running having been used during the previous battle.
It sounds more like this is a tedious as shit task for the DM more than the players if it's done right
I don’t think it’s too hard to run. You just put people on edge in the town and increase tension.
Give them a note while they’re outside town that references the monster but when they read it in town the monster bit is gone.
Once they’re in town they’re sent back out to combat the monsters outside town. No one who leaves is coming back. Once the party leaves they learn the truth and can strategize a solution.
The conceit ignores the problems. Largely that people travel often into and out of town. People outside would know about it but inside would not. Lack of supplies should happen. Superstition and distrust should be rampant.
While watching this video I had a neat idea for a story hook involving a player character. What if you had a warlock in your party whose patron was actually an ancient false hydra and the player doesn't even know it? A player could unwittingly be assisting a false hydra eat more people or even assist it in spreading its spawn to a new hunting ground. The possibilities are near endless and would make for a very memorable campaign if done right. I don't know if I'm DM material but it would be fun to try a story like that.
The False Hydra reminds me of The Silence from Dr. Who, with the pallid flesh, dark, sunken faces, and the ability to make anyone who sees them..Forget they ever saw them. Complete with the danger of repeated exposure to their presence (and repeated forgetting of ever having seen them) resulting in madness.
Honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was the inspiration.
I thought the same thing, if the silence could make you forget everyone they killed and had a better singing voice it'd be a false hydra.
@@whydontyouhandledeez It really is just a combo of the Silence and Dead Hand from Ocarina of Time.
One of my favorite hooks to use for a false hydra is to introduce your party to a local artist in the town square doing a portrait. Something strange interrupts the painting halfway through and the party goes to check it out, but mo one can find anything or anyone that made the scream they heard. When they return to the painter who had continued the painting from memory while they were away, a random character is painted alongside the party. No one knows who this person is, the artist can't remember why they added them into the painting. It's as if they never actually existed.
Picture the false hydra squirming over to the beggar known as Deaf Dave, writes Dave a note "they'll never believe you" before compressing itself back into the sewar.
If i was Dungeon Master, i would ask them "at random" to roll dice without telling them why, they will wonder why, and after rolls are done i would tell them that your characters are exhausted without telling them that they Briefly fought giant amnesia-singing monstrosity, they would be as clueless as there characters.
I think you'd need to add in some more direct clues as time goes on, like:
"Following the directions of the innkeeper, you leave the establishment and walk out into the bright morning sun to make for the local temple to find the priest who requested an audience with your group. The cobbled square is already abuzz with activity - street vendors plying their trades at their stalls, children darting around among the carts in a frantic game of tag. The exotic scents and sounds of the morning market seem more full and pleasantly alluring than the day before, as though begging for your attention."
"Rounding the street corner that leads in the direction of the temple, the sweet scent of still-warm baked pastries reaches your nose as you spot an open bakery to your right, with fresh meat pies cooling in the open windows. Recalling that your group hasn't yet broke their morning fast, and not seeing any other nearby food establishments, the group stops to discuss whether to stop and eat before heading to the temple."
As the DM - allow player roleplay to start. While the players are mid sentence in the decision making process, interrupt them with:
"Your hearts are racing and the hairs on your arms and neck are standing on end. Sweat is beading up on your faces, and you realize that your weapons are drawn in white knuckled grips even though you do not recall ever drawing them. Your senses are screaming that something terrible has happened, but none of you can say why. The nearby people in the busy street seem slightly disturbed, perhaps by your heavily armed presence, but they continue to go about their business."
Allow more roleplay to start. If the party decides to purchase some food from the bakery, remark that the establishment owner appears nowhere to be found despite the presence of the fresh baking. Perhaps have one of the players make an easy low DC spot check to notice that one of the other players is bleeding from a superficial wound on their arm or leg. Really play up the horror aspect.
I would find that extremely frustrating as a player.
@@tannerarmstrong1496 Yes, if it's first time playing with grup, if it's second or third long campaign you can get experimental.
I like the idea of having the friend that invites the party be a painter and send them a painting along with the letter that is of the false hydra or just have the players find it alongside a note reading, "I saw it eat them, I cannot remember it, though it remembers me."
I just thought of a great NPC to use with the False Hydra.
A young deaf girl who can’t hear it’s horrible song and has seen dozens been consumed.
The first time she is Terrified and screams to her parents concern not understanding why she would be so panicked on such a calm and fine day. Being young she simply says she is scared of “the monster”.
Her parents assume she just has an overactive imagination, but it only gets worse. As she watches more get consumed her parents only get more and more concerned as one minute she is coming with them to the store and the next cowering behind the bushes. Or in other incidents trying to point out the monster and trying to make her parents run away. Eventually she locks hers In her room.The parties member could see these events and also be confused.
The party will eventually realize she might know something about the weird events in town and they come to her to see what she knows only for the false hydra to break into her room and to her to point out the monster right behind them!
Had a friend who was planning on running a false hydra campaign until session zero messed everything up. It was an online campaign so no one had met before and he hadn’t said anything about it being a false hydra campaign. Three of the 5 players had independently decided to make deaf characters. A Mozart inspired older bard, a monk who was slowly removing his senses one at a time in pursuit of enlightenment, and an artificer with a passion for explosives who had blown out his ear drums. Needless to say, he redesigned the whole campaign between session zero and one