Ive learned three things in my adventures. 1. Not all dragons are evil. Some act as guardians for villages. 2. Some gods are best left lost to time. 3. The deaf madman always knows
i was an artificer and got taken by this in my campaign, the only reason my party remembered me is because my construct was "desperately looking for its father"
@knightpal1545 the moment a false hydra eats a person, memory of said person disappears when in range of the the hydras song, that's what makes this home-brew monster so well known and terrifying, that it could kill someone and when it starts singing again their existence is no more
Okay, that is really unnerving to realise to Automaton if he is fully intelligent Your creator disappeared Only you could remember him, and probably no one would believe you that few days before-he was in team, all good memories with him vanish(or most of them, sometimes it is just reason why he is disappeared being covered by some reason, like meeting parents in other country)
that fucking gave me chills and that rarely happens holy fuck (granted the song kicked in right as I read "because my construct was 'desperately looking for its father'")
Players enter town that seems oddly empty and they all make a WIS Save. The druid succeeds: He sees lots of sceletons on the ground, but as soon as he blinks everything is back to normal. The DM starting to hum this song: Your character (druid) has this humming in his head, but no matter how hard you try you don´t recall the lyrics. They talk to a tavern lady and he starts humming the melody cause he feels like it. The tavern lady starts crying not knowing why. (The hydra has eaten her husband in front of her eyes and even though she couldn´t remember the humming triggered the ptsd) This monster is perfect to emotionally kill your characters (and players).
Night comes, a mother sings to her baby and waits for her family at their house in outskirts of town. The son comes back with food and his sister. The father comes back with freshly cut wood. A mother sings to her baby. The father comes back with freshly cut wood, their son brings the food A mother sings to her baby, the father comes back with some food A mother sings to her baby, realizing she forgot to get wood and food from the market A woman sings to a doll on her arms, sitting a bed too small for her, in a house too big for only one person... ...... An abandoned cabin in the outskirts of town, many say it's haunted and swear they hear someone singing from the woods, no one's ever been brave enough to go investigate, no one that they can remember
Honestly that was the idea, countless families having suddenly lost family members, having the feeling of something being missing, but never able to pin down what it is. By the time a false hydra is full, several homes are empty
that is the point but also false hydra cannot sing while they eat it is one of the only ways to encounter them and physicly see them they interestingly are one of only a few creatures that can bypass true sight as the song isn't making them invisible as much as its just making you oblivious to their presence
He makes it home, the family are thrilled to see him but don't push him too hard on his stories. Later that night there was a crash and a scream. The husband rushes in a panic hearing "Our son, he got our son!" He turns to his wife staring at the renovated room and asks "what son?". The crazed lady then wakes up from her fantasy of having a family and looks at her empty house.
“There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, *when your name is spoken for the last time.”* - David M. Eagleman.
I'd like to use this comment section to share the story of Nikolai, from a game I ran. This was a Curse of Strahd campaign, and if you're familiar with the book you'll know it leaves one of three magic seeds for a sidequest completely out of the book, so that the DM can determine a location for it. Well I gave my party the hint through Esmerelda, a very reliable ally in the book, that the seed was in the hands of a fellow monster hunter named Nikolai, who was hiding out in a townstead on the western end of the map. When the party got to town, they found a village in the process of a slow death. While the town wasn't large, it was clearly meant to hold more people than were wandering the streets. Several homes appeared recently abandoned, market stalls had food left out that were rotting for days, the street lamps were only lit halfway down the street. The party asked several townspeople about Nikolai, but they only ever replied "who is Nikolai?" They asked the bartender in the half-swept tavern, he just shrugged and asked "who is Nikolai?" They asked the lone merchant in the "Muller Brothers Supply Shop", and again he shrugged: "Who is Nikolai?" I kept this charade going with every NPC they tried to speak to, and eventually the players in real life got frustrated and looked to me out of character. "Ok, do we have any more specific information about Nikolai? Like his description or something? These guys don't know anything." I looked them straight in the eyes with the best poker face I could, and asked "Who is Nikolai?" The players kept asking me over and over again, I'm an absent minded man so I may have genuinely spaced out, but I just kept repeating "Who is Nikolai?" until the players started getting horrified looks on their faces. I completely stopped mentioning Nikolai for the rest of the game. And if any of them mentioned Nikolai, I would ignore it. They caught on and started playing up their own characters forgetting why they were in the town in the first place, and instead investigated the apparent disappearances in the town. Of course, they gradually realized that there was an infestation of a False Hydra, which was eating villagers and singing its lullaby to make the townsfolk forget what happened to it. And when they finally killed the beast, which they could only observe through a reflection and attack with disadvantage, they found the green, glowing, pinecone shaped seed of a magic tree. Which they had completely forgotten they were after, but were pleasantly surprised to have found in this town that had nothing to do with that quest. When they returned to Esmerelda and showed her the magic seed she responded "ah, I see you got the treasure you were looking for from my old friend. How is Nikolai faring?" And in my proudest moment as a DM, my players looked at me and said almost in unison: "Who is Nikolai?"
Do you perhaps know of any sites where dms or any people release dnd campaign happening in story format or just straight up release stories which can also be used for dnd runs ?
You act like we don't do that anyways. Word of warning, if you think somethings wrong 9/10 it's perfectly fine. And if everything seems perfectly fine, it's 9/10 not.
Already on it. PCs return from a quest to a questgiver they've befriended. NPC: "Where's Gabriel?" PC: "Who?" NPC: "My brother?" PC: "You have a brother?" NPC: "Don't joke about this. If something happened to him, you need to tell me." PC: "Look, if he was there, I don't know if I saw him." NPC: "He literally left with you! You've been adventuring together for months now!" PC: "What are you talking about?" Me, the DM: goes to the s sketchbook and pulls up a page with an illustration of an adventurer-looking guy* NPC: "You drew this of him!" Artistic character's player: "Did I?" Me the DM: "No. It looks kinda like your style, but you never drew that and you don't know who tf that is." NPC, now crying: "This isn't funny. Where is my brother..?"
Considering I made a campaign before where the main bad guy was a extremely skilled illusionist.. ( Well, he was not really a bad guy, but his illusions where messing with a LOT of people in bad ways. The real villain was using his stuff to their advantage. Basically the illusionist was just a trickster who went a bit too far to say the least. ) Yea I do not think I need a false hydra as the excuse. :P ( Though the players did not fully like that one due to how often they got messed over by the illusions.. They did like a campaign I made later that had a "living" dungeon that was centered around undead beings and an ancient forgotten god basically. There was also a demon cult in there too and that was what they where supposed to deal with first but you know how players are, they like to go where they want to. It made everything more interesting though. )
One of my players expertly ran a one-shot for us. About half way through i realized what was happening, and i was the only person other than hin that knew. What started as a one shot where we had made kinda silly characters became a thriller drama as it progressed. When we discovered that a gnome bard had been in our party, our monk took his guitar. When we needed to calm a rowdy group of townsfolk, that my character was riling up because of his feistration at logical inconsistencies in the town, the monk rolled a performance, got a nat 20, and played a song he didnt even remember... Man, that was a great game.
Imagine you're walking around this town and you and party start to hear this song. It's catchy, you guys start humming it after the session, then you hop on youtube and find this in your recommended
@@kodainogema8145 Maybe they invited a new player to join the campaign next session? Though I feel like they'd tell us about something like that beforehand.
Okay this is just horrifying it gives the idea that not only does the False Hydra erase the memory of people but it also sings in the voices of those it consumes in order to make you forget them or as a way to lure you in.
Imagine the feeling of heard in the distant, your mother and loved ones singing, with something weird but sweet in their voices you can't put in words, an inviting lullaby song that calls you (really something wynorrific)
That's literally what it does, each head is shaped like the face of one of its victims, and that head's voice sounds like said victim. It's really morbid and fucked up actually. XD
@@genomagala8246 I've never actually heard that be stated, i know each head has the face that vaguely resembles a victim (minus the first), but... I'm pretty sure nothing said it sings in their voice.
I like how since it's in latin you have to look at he subtitles to understand, thus ignoring the hydra in front of you singing it. Just like the real thing
I just want to say, this song just became the canon song in a dnd campaign I play in and I AM SHOOK. We're going up against a false hydra and people in town are humming the tune without realizing it or remembering where they heard it
Yeah It's horrifiying imagine if it's singing in the voice of the first person it ate... a mother whom's child doesn't know why their alone or... maybe the only person who even knows the hydra is there.
@@craytherlaygaming2852 I was the only one who knew about it because I knew this song, and showed it to the dm. Next session he said this was the melody the townspeople were singing and I will never recover
Hehe… I just had this thing thrown at me in a small group 2 person campaign and the process of working it out was horrifying, like some kind of SCP cognito hazard kinda thing. Long story short we finally encounter it after figuring out the gimmick and as it rolled initiative, the dm set this playing on the roll20. The fact it’s so out of place for a boss fight song only made it so much more creepy lmao We also discovered there were 2 other party members the whole time. Down right terrifying
@@Leoric. Yeah, we learned we had an extra party member as well. Woke up the second day to a whole extra set of gear in our room, which also had an extra bed :) Our kid character was very attached to the new gear but couldn't tell why, anyways we thought he was an orphan and well... Now he really is
"Sir? Why are you making statues?" "A memorial for the victims of a town east from here" "A town? I don't recall a town ever existing east of here and forgive me for asking but why are your statues are faceless" "That's the point now would you please leave and stop humming that damn song" "... Sir?" "What" "What song?" "... shit"
"I guess this town is next in line for the lord of lost's endless hunger, luring anyone into endless oblivion and eventual fate to be forgotten for all time. Well, it was nice while it lasted, farewell everyone, just know I'm in a better place outside memories. " - Someone not important enough to be remembered
I completely remembered this song, and when the pary entered the town that the hydra was occupying occasionally, I would hum it when they were planning shopping trips and such. Eventually they caught kn that there was less people than there should be to which I started to sing the song under my breath. When they started to fight it I played this and in-between rounds would sing with the music. They loved it when they realised I had been singing it
This sounds like the song you hear at the end of a game, after defeating the false Hydra and leaving the forgotten town, look back at the town, the nightmare is finally over though the surviving towns folk may not know what happened or the strange faces of people they've never met. Our heroes will never forget the dark horrors that once consumed the town, the tale of a young couple wrongly accused of crimes they have never committed, rumors spreading and seeding fear in the towns folk. And the injustice preformed on the innocent couple bound together by lies and deception until those rumors turned into truth. As the town slowly disappears into the mist once again our hero thinks to themselves. "Some stories are better left forgotten."
@@izzyv830 It's my interpretation of how a false hydra is created, basically a person who is accused of something that is a obvious lie and is punished for said lie then left to be forgotten. Now filled with vengeance they are reborn from the lies people made of them and become a false hydra, consuming everyone, erasing and altering peoples memories.
I've been wanting to run a one shot with a false hydra since like 2018 (or whenever it started spreading around the net) and next week I finally get to run it with a group who loves D&D and has never heard of a false hydra.
The False Hydra is one of my favorite D&D concepts but I never considered it’s song being weirdly beautiful instead of an Eldridge horror call. I think it actually adds another layer of mystery and confusion to the creature that makes it more compelling.
@@Jamlord2061 Totally. I think what makes the False Hydra so creepy as an eldritch horror is how weirdly human like some of its features are. However, it’s not in a way that makes me think it is human in origin. It feels almost coincidental which is somehow way more upsetting and confusing. I feel that the song gives a similar eerie feeling.
This does introduce an interesting angle to the horrifying glut. I never considered that it might be harboring maternal instincts or that it's motives could be anything other than mindless consumption. It is alien, but it is intelligent too; just because it destroys does not mean it is not capable of creation as well. What if the Hydra doesn't just consume people, it consumes the entire town? It grows larger and larger, sending its song out further and further until neighboring countries and kingdoms can hear it, forcing all to forget the town it ate when the hydra inevitably collapses from its own weight. But its death grinds away all evidence of the town, its mass breaks down and fertilizes the foundations of the once-populated land; and it leave behind a seed, a child of the Hydra, its infant wailing attracts the attention of travelers and merchants, subconsciously luring them in to a place once forgotten to re-pave overgrown roads, dig brick from soil and rebuild unseen walls. In a hundred years or so, a city stands where all trace was wiped away, founded on a faint memory, and from the depths beneath the town a song begins again.
We need a ten-hour loop of this, fading in and never-quite-out of audibility, along with the sounds of an outdoor market. Birds chirping, dogs barking, children playing, footsteps on cobblestones, the squeaky wheel of a cart rolling past, the rustle of the wind through the trees and grass, the background din of conversation. . . and this. It would be perfect for DMs to play as 'background atmosphere' in campaigns that involve a false hydra.
@@TheBonesMalone There's an acapella version of it, unless we're considering the possibility that only two heads are singing while the rest are mimicking musical instruments.
Imagine a deaf person finding their way to stand before this being, this horrible mass of pale flesh that writhes in the darkness below their home, they cannot hear the Siren song and instead followed someone who they see have their neck broken by the creature, the beast almost tenderly removing their clothes and effects before setting them off to a side before devouring them, tears leaking from eyeless sockets as it gorges itself till nothing remains. Maybe it is a gasp, or perhaps a cry of shock at what they have seen that alerts the hydra to their presence, the being looking in their direction and resuming its song, a sad smile upon its face as it opens its arms as though to embrace them, only for it to notice that the person before it is not effected by its melody and is instead looking at in silence, too petrified to scream as the beast advances to reach out a hand and brush away a tear from their cheek. Perhaps it understands their desperate attempts at sign language, perhaps they manage to choke out the words, or perhaps it is able to read their lips, but the beast is able to understand that the one before it is asking why it has been doing this, why it has been devouring their friends and family and the friends and families of all others within the village, why it has been erasing them from memory. The beast pauses, before it gently lifts the person to their feet before it beckons for them to leave, reaching into one of the piles of clothes to hand them an unfamiliar pair of rings and a full purse before withdrawing back into the darkness, the person confused and terrified taking the hint to flee, never hearing the beasts reply. For from innumerable mouths there comes a single word, one woven into a lullaby that beckoned all to join with the beast. "Loneliness." Aside from that, I also have the image of one of these beings acting as a form of angel of death that prays on those that are suicidal, allowing them to leave behind the world and the pain of it, while letting none have to be burdened with grief from their passing, the beast showing a twisted love and empathy as it grants these despondent and hopeless people the gift of oblivion and slumber eternal in exchange for them merging with it in death.
Deaf person: "Why do this" 😭 False Hydra: "your loved ones simply suffered from a skill issue" 🗿 Jokes aside I actually love this as a idea. A lonely monster who does it in a attempt for... something. Something else that could be done with this is maybe the false hydra is a twisted soul of a mother who lost her children and she longs to be a care taker again. But cursed with a eternal hunger she always kills and eats those she tries to care for. UNTIL THE F*CKING BARD SHOWS UP AND SOME HOW ROLLS A 48 AND BREAKS THE CURSE WITH AMAZING DANCE MOVES BECAUSE BARDS BE LIKE THAT!
An amusing thought for a false hydra appearance vs the party. The DM has background music as a constant theme, but it's usually cheerful. Then they run into a town with this music as the background music on loop, just barely. At times, the DM stops playing the song during the night, and plays regular night music. At these times the party is given the option to explore if they wish, or settle in for the night. Either option leads to an npc having vanished, as usual. The twist is, they eventually find and slay the false hydra, and the music ceases, replaced with cheerful/somber town music... until they are being sent off to continue their journey. With the farewell ceremony, the music of the town fades, and the lullaby resumes.
I love how the voice is so calming and peaceful like a mother singing to you, but there is still something off with it, It's still wrong but it's hard to pin down.
The female voice has a male voice underneath, providing the eerie distortion....almost like all it's victims voices strung along to form its own voice...
It's a sorrowful song with happy notes and beautiful chords that symbolize hope. It's the musical equivalent of being lost in a mist of insanity so thick that misery becomes your joy.
The false hydra snatches one of your party members and sings its song, all but one of the remaining members fail their wisdom roll "We need to save her" "Save who?" "Our cleric, Sidney" "Who's Sidney? We never had a cleric."
A false hydra appeared and whisked away one of our strongest PCs recently in a campaign I'm apart of. The sound of realization from one of our players when this music started playing was priceless lmao
There is an instrumental version of this song as well now with almost no views/subs. It is a violin instrumental, so you can just play it occasionally while the party is adventuring in town mixed in with the rest of the soundtrack. Then you can play this when they actually fight the thing and have them only connect the dots at that point. Creep factor through the roof. The title of it is: EmpathP Lullaby of the False Hydra Original Fan Song Instrumental
You know, it's strange and mysterious how the background is just a red light faintly illuminating darkness. Not to mention the name "Lullaby of the False Hydra" is just so thought provoking on what a "False Hydra" is.
False hydras are a fan made dnd monster who sing, and whoever hears the song is forced to forget about a false hydra. The false hydra eat people and the more it eats the bigger and more heads it has and anyone eaten by the false hydra is also forgotten when it sings.
If anyone is curious, the often uncredited creator of the False Hydra is Arnold K of the blog goblinpunch. Lot of really creative writing on that blog. Great scenarios, lore, and indie RPG mechanics.
Fun fact: this song was recommended to me by a TH-cam mix list called “Children’s music”. I feel like TH-cam is that old grandpa who says all anime is for kids with that one hahaha
Grandpa TH-cam: "hmm young jimmy will love this cartoon, it looks so childish" Jimmy: "Hey grandpa what is this you gifted me" Grandpa TH-cam: "Made in Abyss"
This is so chilling. Sung in a dead language that no one alive can remember and pass it down like normal languages, a vocaloid singer with an unhuman ability to sing in two different tones at the same time, the chilling lyrics, and the most terrifying thing of all: This is such a beautiful song with a wonderful melody, and it represents something the complete opposite. Your death won't be met with a haunting screech, but a melody you and everyone around you will fail to remember after they've heard it.
I've been wanting to hit my players with a False Hydra for the *longest* time. And the lyrics of this song are actually very reminiscent of how the main "villain" of my own campaign is portrayed - a being that believes itself benevolent in devouring everything, so that no one will suffer any longer. For if nothing remains, suffering will not either. It gave me an idea for a deaf spellcaster who cannot hear the False Hydra's song, but sings with it as it never harmed them, knowing its song has no sway over those who cannot hear it. There's a deaf singer who has the voice of an angel, which is part of the inspiration behind the spellcaster. Perhaps the spellcaster's mother was consumed by the False Hydra and so it knows this is her child, and her own memory holds strong over the creature, which is part of why it doesn't harm them.
Do you know of the Borg from Star Trek? They're basically space zombies, an ultra intelligent hive mind which seeks to incorporate all into its "unity", and seeks "perfection" by assimilating the biological and technological distinctivness of all its victims, stripping away their individuality until it is all but a mindless husk under its control, like a puppet on a string. After all, everyone is equal and there is no war, hate, or famine, when everyone's equally a slave to the system, which serves none but its own expansion to bring their mercy on to all in the universe. Nobody controls the system. There is no beginning, there is no end. They simply... Are.
Yesterday. My party fought this thing. My character, a Paladin. Told them all to run. With his ears burnt off, his greatsword in hand. He fought the hydra alone. He killed it. But, he also died in the process. Leaving only his sword behind as his legacy. A legacy no one will probably remember.
I'm going to use this song when my players finally kill the hydra. The wizard npc who I had investigating the hydra will have had it recorded on a magic music box, they will find what's left of him in the Hydra's lair his mangled hand still clutching it.
That sounds awesome. I have an adoration with Music Boxes and my own campaign has them as a background quest, 151 Music Boxes total, spread out over 3 continents (50 to each) and the last is the reward for finding them all. The False Hydra in my own campaign drops one upon defeat, and how it'll happen is the last head (the other two, either cut off or just fallen limp as it gets lowered in HP depends how Players handle it) will begin to gag heavily and it'll cough up the Music Box. Hope your campaign works out well! As I said that sounds awesome, and wish you luck in your story!
I'm planning an encounter where the mind reading wizard tries to get info out of someone who had their mind wiped by the false hydra and they only get this song and nothing else.
@@credibleorca1075 Campaign is over now, Concept was Spelljammer With False Hydra's spread across the universe. The False Hydra being the BBEG but their are multiples of them of different sizes. The players found their first False hydra on a planet of dwarves that were Waring with some sea elves. The hydra only had one head and made the poor choice of trying to eat a PC as it's first victim. Cornered the Jedi character in the bathroom in a very WTF moment. As the attack was completely outof the blue and none of the dwarves could explain the strange dead creature after it was killed. PC's still know nothing of flase hydras. The Second False Hydra the PC's encounter when they are being pursued by a Mind Flayer Nautiloid. We ended a session on that note, then I started the next session with the players having "missing time" somehow they escaped the Nautiloid, refueled their air Envelope, and recruited a new gnome and autognome crewman... thier are no known planets nearby, but they remember stopping and the gnome helping with shit repairs and fighting off mind flayers with them... but they cannot remember where. PC's try reading gnomes mind and get the false hydra song, first hint at the false hydra. So this is what happened between sessions. I advanced the false hydra lore to even bigger proportions, planet devouring levels, they landed on such a planet and are too low of level to do anything about it. So I just assumed they escaped and picked up the new crewmen. The way I run the false hydra is if they eat a planet, the heads turn on themselves. and when it self devours it eliminates all memories of everything it ate permanently. With a Normal false hydra I ruled that they got their memories back whenever the false hydra stopped singing, or you left its singing aura. causing mass panic when it attacks and towns folk suddenly remember everything. PC's currently believe that they someone how found a hidden gnome planet that was helpful to them but is capable of hiding itself from the world and wiped their memories. I move on to run Light of Xarsis 5E spelljammer adventure, throught that adventure I kept leaving hints of the missing planet, they meet another gnome from there with no memories they find old star charts that list a planet near where they picked up their gnome crewman. When leaving Xaryxis space and that adventure completed they meet up with friendly space clowns who just want to entertain the party as they take a respite on their planet. Now this made the party paranoid as the knowledge of the fiendish space clowns is known to the group out of character. And then the party starts learning that people are going missing on the planet they used to entertain some factions of clowns are blaming others for stealing people away. but no one can prove anything because this is where the first real false hydra for the party is. a 5 headed city threat. So they start interrogating the towns folk and clowns with detect thoughts and get the false hydras song once again. After much clown shenanigans they find the false hydras tunnels and enter its lair still completely unaware of the threat. but a confrontation with the false hydra and the players manage to brute force their way through the encounter. All it took was a silence spell once the players put two and two together that this creature was the source of the song they kept finding in the minds of others. So the PC's have encountered 3 flase hydras by this time but this is the only one the players know of in and out of character. The next false hydra I place on the wizards homeworld. Another World Threat, all the PC's can do is grab people and evacuate what they can. They completely forgot they picked up a scroll of Tarrasque summoning in an earlier adventure... it could of stopped the false hydra. So all they could do is write a message to themselves explaining the situation for them to know what happened later on. Their next false hydra encounter is much later when the PC's are hunting a group of Neogi, they finally reach their lair, and in it they find a cult worshiping oblivion itself, they are the source of many of the false hydras found on other planets and I jump them with a handful of 1,2 and 3 headed false hydras. The final false hydra is the level 20 adventure according to the lore a false hydra with 7 heads can dominate all those that hear its song. Such and impossible circumstance, I decided not to run it until lv 20 and to have one party member having an immunity to charm item, just in case. So guarding the final mcguffin of the campaign is an ancient dragon polymoprhed into a human king and his kingdome is being eaten by a 7 headed false hydra, not a world eater but is preparing to move from town to town to devour everything. The dragon has tried to fight the false hydra before but has always failed and fell victim to its song. Dragon is too powerful for the false hydra to beat at the moment. Pc's approach the castle but find it is filled with children with 8ft tall plush golems as guardians. These are the false hydras dominated army. The golems are designed to attack anything that harms a child, thus the false hydra has never eaten a child here. After the Pc's bumble around the castle and fight off several attacks from the false hydra, being whittled down and forgetful song every time afterwards (for some reason players forgot to use silence this time) they learn from soldiers the king has sent into the kingdom that the king has fled to a nearby town. The soldiers get eaten PC's forget about them and al they have is a map drawn by one saying where the king is, Pc's fallow strange map. Meet the king who refuses to give up mcguffin, wizard cast suggestion on dragon and since I ban legendary resistance a nat one on the dragon forces him to hand over mcguffin, but this leads directly into a fight with pissed off dragon, who dominates the party leader and takes his other mcguffin, in which both mcguffins are used to open a treasure planet sort of portal, much chaos ensues and PC's reach the goal while luckily avoiding a direct confrontation with the big false hydra, not their planet not their problem they leave the dragon to his demise.
See, I'd have the mind reading work as usual, but have them roll perception, a success meaning they pick up the tune running subconsciously through their head, and afterwards noticing it in other people in town
D&d session ran into a deserted town except for a lone bard dressed as a jester playing this tune on a lute sitting on a destroyed fountain, we had run into this guy in a previous encounter several sessions ago, he was actually a legendary jester whose charms couldn't be beat and could bring a smile to anyone or anything and used fireworks and throwing knives as weapons. But he was alone, no party or friends, not even a group of children that would flock to him like birds. Turns out there was a false hydra under the city and his friends didn't believe him, nor did anyone else, his resistance for magic of any kind was so high, he could hear the tune, see the creature, but not be hypnotized by it, but unfortunately it was too fast for him, so he was forced to desperately try to save each victim but failed miserably, it killed the gaurds, soldiers, townspeople and even the lord, then his fellow adventurers and eventually it started taking out the children and the poor guy was at the end of his rope. The fighter of his party had a vorpal shortsword and had dropped it on his was to the sewer (the day he disappeared), which the jester took in hand and followed the tune through the labyrinth and tore the creature to pieces. But at that point who would care? There was no one to save. No one to congratulate him. No one to share the victory with. A lone Jester, with magic weapons, tools, tricks, and other fun goodies he had bought, found, or created to make people happy and laugh. What's a jester without an audience? So there he sits with the remains of the town he thought him and his friends thought they'd have fun in, only to find out-no never find out that this was their journeys end. Now to a few 3rd level players this scared the absolute crap out of us, i know it was Halloween but geez DM...
As your party embarks on a journey through the quiet woods, they come across a small village that no one remembers being on the map. The hunter points on an empty patch of woods that is was a shortcut. Clearly he needs to work on his mapping, as an entire village is here! People twirling in place, dancing to a song unheard, lipping speachless words. Song hums escape their inmoving lips, gaped slightly ajar. The song is foriegn yet familiar to the party... Maybe some bedtime song sung to you as a child. Markets stalls are filled with mixed goods and spoiled food. The paladin starts off in one direction, the wizard another, the hunter pells back to the entrace to scope out your surrounding. The cleric stays where he is, examining the town square closely. Something is... not right. The cleric examines the disheveled landscape more closely. He cast Detect Evil: The people, evil. The ground, evil. The houses, evil. The trees, evil. He cries out in horrified surprise and starts to flee the scene. He trips into what seems like a rumpled robe lain carelessly on the ground. A few rings lay nearby with a staff, but no time to get them. Why would someone leave that behind? Why didnt he notice these before when he was walking? Such questions fill his mind as the cleric starts to run once more, leaping over some white shield and mace left in the middle of the road. As the cleric swiftly moved underneath the village entrance sign, he couldnt help but notice an extremely fine-looking bow just laying against its post, full quiver of arrows. "Good thing I went alone," he thought, "it would have been bad if I brought others."
Damn, he was right. It would have been horrible if he had brought others. Luckily, I'm sure the barbarian will know what to do, he's said he's been through this before...
My party was investigating some "kidnappings" in a small village, I'll spare you the details but as soon as we were figuring out that lots of things didn't add up, the DM told us to roll a wisdom saving throw, I was the only one that succeeded with a nat 20, I was sooo happy. Then this song started playing. Next day, the party was preparing to leave town after another succesful mission, feeling that something was missing, but probably nothing too important. Rest in peace, Veleryn. No one will remember you, but at least you died with your spear in hand and your shield on your shoulder. You will finally be reunited with your lover Klorian...
Can still use the song but no matter how they search "there is nothing wrong around here". Just play it when you whant, don't change anything about your setup and sorry and let just paranoïa do the work for you ^^
Yah, you didn't use a false hydra... False hydras don't exist.... But people are still disappearing... And no one seems to remember them... And when they fight the false hydra, and they come at you, you know what you say? You couldn't have known... It's how the false hydra works... It makes you forget it ever existed... Dulcis puer, mater vanatibus
I'm not a Latin scholar, but I am a guy who has been studying Latin for fun for three years now. I'm impressed how intellegible the lyrics are despite the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors! I found the song deeply sad and beautiful, and understanding the lyrics helps a lot. Just for fun I'll rewrite the lyrics how I feel they should be, but take it with a grain of salt. I'm just some guy! Also these lyrics might not even fit the meter, but let's pretend like they do, haha. Ubi occultas? Mi dulcis puer, dulcis puer. Cur nocte trepidas? Dulcis puer. Adsum. Penitus dormite liberi, mater venatur. Audite et sequimini ad oblivium. Nunc in tenebris, mi dulcis puer, dulcis puer. Manum extendam, dulcis puer. Esurio. Penitus dormite liberi, mater venatur. Audite et sequimini ad oblivium. Ne oculos aperiatis, nam mater vigilat. Audite et sequimini ad infinitum. Now an English translation: Where are you hiding? My sweet boy, sweet boy. Why do you tremble at night? Sweet boy. I am here. Sleep deeply children, mother hunts. Listen and follow towards oblivion. Now in darkness, my sweet boy, sweet boy. I will extend my hand, sweet boy. I hunger. Sleep deeply children, mother hunts. Listen and follow towards oblivion. Do not open your eyes, for mother is watching. Listen and follow towards infinity.
I know the song is not made to be like what i just thought of, and the author would like to write it correctly. But having a nearly forgotten language spoken incorrectly as a way to relate to the slow dissapearance of memories might also be a cool way to interpret it
@@eduardop2111or the False Hydra could only replicate the words like how a raven mimicking a person but not knowing the underlying meaning. The Hydra could only replicate and steal from others for the purpose of luring and tricking prey, it's alien mind uncomprehending that the song was incorrectly made, only that singing a lullaby would ease the stress of a child (aka smaller prey.) It gives a sense of uneasiness that only those who know the language would feel, because it is only a mockery, a tool to trap people.
when I talk about cosmic horror, the false hydra is the sort of thing I mean. A horror right under your nose that you embrace without knowing. Being one of the few that know that horror and no one else believing you because they've unwittingly fallen prey to it. The only clues to something going wrong being plausible gaps in memory. Haunting.
this song sounds like the perfect end credits to a melancolic fantasy horror story Castlevania-style, where the great evil is banished but at a great and traumatizing cost of life, and I can imagine this visage is what the conquering hero sees many years later in their deepest nightmares.
so. This song is powerful. Firstly, the word choice. I took like 3 or 4 years of latin because haha was raised catholic, so... Dulcis Puer. The word order doesn't matter THAT much in latin, you can mix and match however you want, it could be puer dulcis or dulcis puer, but the word DULCIS is the issue. It's sweet, sure, but "my sweet boy" is not in reference to how kind and gentle he is.. Dulcis eventually becomes the spanish "Dulce", which means Candy. Sweet is in terms of TASTE. My delicious boy is what it means. Puella vs. Puer is arguable, and in latin, using the masc puer is the same as gender-neutral anyways, since masculine is "default" for many speaking tenses, so my delicious child is fine there too. but it's not the word choice that's the only issue... the word PRONUNCIATION is off. The accentuation is clumsy, as if mimicked. It could be just a lack of latin pronunciation knowledge, but with how much music and language EmpathP has under their belt, I imagine they did so *purposefully*. They don't say "PuER", pwair, like it is casually said. The hydra sings it as if it doesn't even understand its lyrics, pooAAAIIRRR. PU-er. Again, it happens under the line "Penitus somnum liberos, mater venatibus" (which I think verbs always go at the end, so it should be penitus et liberos somnum, or even because it's second person and an active command, somneas, but writing a SONG in a dead language is rough, so I won't criticize, but also it adds on to my point. Plus it's been so long, I also could be wrong on it.). The way they pronounce Venatibus isn't veh-NAH-TI-bus. There's a LOT of focus and sharpness on the "BUS" of venatibus, which, in english, is if it's like I said the word, "pronunciaTION." with HEAVY emphasis on TION. it just... it sounds like I don't know what I'm saying, I'm just copying what I heard someone say. it sounds... like a monster pretending to be a holy mother. A twisted devil consuming souls by pretending to be Sancta Maria. It heard that you say things like "mother" and "sweet boy" and "sleep well, close your eyes" to calm people down, and it just stole that as a way to control people.
Slightly random question. I'm in the process of learning latin and have heard that church latin and casual speaking latin are slightly different with things like pronunciation, is that true?
I would assume that the song itself isn’t the magic part, but the hydra is what imbues the song with the magic to force people to forget and erase memories, aswell as force others the not acknowledge it’s existence. This songs magic isn’t indiscriminate either, it targets certain memories specifically and only certain things can acknowledge it, such as animals, but the owners are forced to not acknowledge their animals behavior. Maybe an item that is a piece of a false hydra, like the tongue, an eye, or a bone of some kind allows you to sing the song and anyone that hears it is tranced into forgetting whatever you wish and allowing you to choose those who are allowed to acknowledge you. Of course this is to a lesser extent and tied to a performance check to see if you got the song right in the first place and maybe a wisdom saving throw with a DC 22. And before anyone says that’s a little too high, this is a false hydra, a being capable of tearing down entire civilizations and erasing them from history, it having a lesser effect doesn’t mean it’s bad, cause you have to kill one to get the item and know the specific song to use it, that’s why it would be considered a legendary item.
The most intriguing part of this song to me is that, false hydras are intelligent enough to speak and think, so this song can either be interpreted as a siren song to lure a village to it's death, or that the hydra actually has pity for the poor people that happen to be it's food, singing them a final lullaby as it gives them peace in death, ending it all before their suffering can become greater. though, my favorite interpretation of a false hydra is one that uses it's song to be unseen by the villagers, but allows them to have the memories of it's actions, molding the village into one that worships it like a god, their "Mother" protecting them in exchange for food that the villagers hunt for it, only eating villagers when they become elderly and seek it for release from the mortal plane, making the village sustain it indefinitely.
I am SHOOKETH. Aight, so to clarify: my party went up against a False Hydra about 5- levels ago. The massive thing had settled into a town that the rest of the nation we are currently in was slowly forgetting; we were sent by the head of our Adventurers' Guild to investigate.... something, I physically don't recall what (this was at least a year ago, I think). Something about how Antium (the town) was unable to be seen on some maps. I run a tabaxi Stars Druid, wis 18+, with the observant feat. *I spotted one of the FH's heads as we were approaching the village.* I was able to remember, as well, through multiple wis saves to remember. I don't recall if anyone else was able to. Our DM kinda traumatized the entire party a little bit with that. Anyway! Well done!
I love that the false hydra was a fan made monster who's design was originally based off the dead hand in OoT, and everyone just agreed immediately that this is the canon design because it fits so well. And the music is beautiful ❤️
This song makes me feel like the false hydra has a warped sense of lonliness. It has unsatiable hunger that it cant control. It doesnt want to kill, but its biology has forced it to be a monster. The lullaby could also be the somber song sung by the echoes of the people the hydra devours, and is sung by the new head.
Hearing this song has got me thinking in a brand new light. Imagine if the false hydra was not a vicious creature with a bloodlust, but instead a creature that takes in those that are outcasted and have no one? A child, lost in the night, abandoned by the ones they called family, beckoned sweetly by a motherly creature, somewhere where they'll be safe and taken care of. Beckoning them to "follow into infinity", meaning follow to their new home, where they will be loved and protected. "Why dost thou tremble as the night?" "Where are you hiding?", "I am here", "My hand extends unto thee", "Sleep deeply and free". Comforting words from a creature that wants to mother the lost.
it's more of a lull into a false sense of security to lure you into its lair so it may consume all that you are, all that you have been, and all that you will be
@@dabestorkposta....... But..... Imagine if that was how a false hydra bred..... It would lull the lost ones into their new home (drag them into its lair), and take them in (devour them), helping them get ready for their new lives (recycling their flesh to birth a new one)?
@@SnowHoof000 it sort of is, iirc they gain a new head for every person they eat and if the head isn't burned then it will turn into a Young False Hydra
I mean in the description,the creator thought of the false hydra leaving its territory and attacking villages. Doesn’t seem like your correct more like your wishing for a happier meaning behind a monster. Otherwise the hydra wouldn’t attack random people,especially those already living happy lives in villages.
"Such terrible things are spoken so sweetly, so softly" This is beyond amazing. A monster so awful and gross has such calm vocals. It being Latin makes it so much softer and creepier. I am in love with all of this.
The false hydra has got to be one my favorite monsters in dnd, even if it's non-canon. It's more than just a physical threat, but also a psychological and emotional one. It makes the party roleplay, especially if it takes place in a party member's village. The greatest aspect of it is what it represents. The false hydra is a personification of memories. Memories that are fading into a single rhythm, lost to time as we are none the wiser. Traumatic memories that are supressed and ignored, but still hurts us in ways we can't immediately notice. Either way the monster challenges players to look at the past and acknowledge it. To dropped the ignorance we try to shield ourselves with and accept the world for what it is. Only then are the good memories kept and the bad ones fall silent.
I never really looked into the false hydras lore before but now I want to make a character that survived the false hydras attack and managed to remember it devoured his entire village now devoting his life to revenge against the monster only to break down crying in the final encounter with the monster as it faces him wearing the faces of his family and friends
Just had possibly a *baby* version of one of these appear in a campaign, nothing like panicking for 9 hours because of knowing about what these were. Had to come and listen to this again afterward.
Even knowing the meta when I'm just listening to it passively my favorite part is "Manus extendem, Dulcis puer, esurio" It just sounds so cheerful. I can't wait for that part to come again.
This feels very different to cosmic or eldritch horror... Something about the twisting of an innocent thing like a mother's love makes this so intimate and personal. Whether it is deliberately using it as a shroud for its intentions or is deluded, it's a terrifying thing.
that is very weird. because i don't picture myself an apex predator when i hear this. or perhaps i do... but in the most uncanny way. i imagine a sort of otherwordly being, like a Fey creature or a creature from the deep beyond, a sort of motherly creature representing sorrow or grief, singing this song. and her song absolutely obliterating everything it reaches in the calmest and most gentle way. buildings crumble into sand, plants wither up and die, and living creatures fall into a deep sleep they'll never wake up from, and disappear. no one alive has heard about how the city of my youth came to disappear. except for madmen, warning me about their Mother.
so this song inspired a secret backstory for my DND character Elyria. A satyr survivor of a false hydra that sang this song as it devoured her village. this song is the ONLY THING SHE REMEMBERS, but misremembers it as something her mother sang to her as a lullaby. she sings it herself. and I cant wait for the party to go on her origin mission when its her turn for her character arc. me and the DM have been planning to make it as fucked up and as traumatizingly heart wrenching as possible. I'm aiming to make the others actually cry.
Ayo hol up,i read the description and DAMN,that is the most saddistic,disgusting and most effective hunting strategy of any fictional monster i have ever seen.
So this song came across my feed just yesterday and immediately made me switch gears HARD on what the next session will kick off. This is for a Pathfinder 1E campaign so I'm having to make a new statblock for this creature. My party are a rather large group trying to get into the various guilds of Deltora (picture Ravnica basically just not quite AS fantastic). One of them is joining Iomedae's Blades, a guild that cares for the weak and poor with their hospital/church, hunts rogue mages/witches (rogue in this context is those who utilize magic to harm society. Death sentences are only for those who do it specifically to harm society and not as a side effect of things). They also specialize in hunting aberrations and undead. When it comes to enforcing the law a Blade is Officer, Detective, Judge, and Executioner. The guild is the jury. So a Blade has to collect evidence and submit a report before enacting justice unless the threat is so ominous that inaction begets more harm. During the entrance exams the exam participants are often accompanied by a higher ranking member of the guild (typically a 1-3 sword rank). In this case they are being accompanied by a rivaling party and a 3 sword rank. The exam participants and this 3 Sword Rank are being sent to investigate a mysterious letter that arrived at the guild alongside the suspicious circumstances that lead to the hanging of three "harmful witches." When the party arrives there they will have a week before it is just them against the beast to determine WHAT is going on. The letter speaks of a creature tearing the townsfolk to shreds in the late evening hours. They will also encounter a little deaf girl who, if they catch onto things and get her alone, will tell her about the creature who looms over the "soiled well" and watches the townsfolk as if a beast hungrily eying up its next meal. One by one the members of the other exam team and, if they're not particularly perceptive, the exam leader will disappear leaving only what they left in their rooms when they disappeared. I'm eager to see how they handle the whole situation. Note: Their exam isn't to defeat the creature. The 3-Sword will take on that task, sending them in a hurry back to the guild to alert them. However... if they do manage to kill it than the one in charge of the exam might see fit to have Argel, the exam student, immediately promoted to a 2 Sword rank... if he survived.
*You sense a hand trying to reach out from beyond a heavy blizzard right behind you* *You turn* *There was no blizzard and there was no hand* *There was no you*
Never played dnd (unfortunately) but i feel like this must be one of the monsters thats the most satisfying to kill. No villain with complex motivation, no misunderstood creature, just completly twisted and cruel scum that needs to be erased from the earth
It a creature that almost entirely undetectable it sings a song that make people forget and not notice it the only time it stops and can be detected easily is when it eating once it done eating it starts to sing again and whatever it ate is completely forgotten by everyone a person could have a family with a child one of that family gets eaten and then it like they never existed even if their signs they once did
@@Colin-gx8jnthe only real great chance at stopping it is when it’s in its “baby” state. Once more heads pop up then the difficulty skyrockets in trying to find it I’d say.
When I first listened to this I did not know about the False Hydra or how it works. After some googling and TH-cam videos, I can safely say this takes on a terrifying new lighting that I do not want to think about for too long.
Imagine a False hydra being in a town and as it sings bards that enter the town suddenly start to sing this song. Despite them knowing other songs they are commpeld to sing this by their subconcious.
Having a wandering bard npc sing this song despite it not seemingly being on the list of songs they where going to sing that day wuld make for a nice little bit of foreshadowing if can catch it
Can I just point out how much I adore the use of Dulcis? I'm unsure of the latin origin used here, but from what I know of Spanish, the word Dulce refers to sweet, but specifically *food* Dulce de leche being a common use english speakers know dessert wise. Unsure if it carries to the root latin, but if it does, it's that much further of a delightfully eerie touch to the wording of the hydra. Not sweet as in kind, but sweet like a dessert, gotta love that sort of subtle yet blatent touch, just like the hydra, hiding in plain sight!
The illustration of this thing is just astounding, perfectly capturing the very nature of a false hydra. Also, it is extremely creepy and chilling how calming and moving the song is, knowing just what this thing does. We humans are very emotional creatures, so being able to emotionally effect us like this makes the false hydra one of the more dangerous creatures in D&D. But what I like most about this, is the over all motherly tone, as if this false hydra was borne of a mother who was wronged horribly, and now cries out her despair for her child now abandoned or worse. But of course, her lullaby meant for her child goes heard yet ignored, thus deepening her anguish and anger. Thus the false hydra grows, its hunger soon to consume the town and all its people whom the mother scorns. Damn this thing is creepy indeed.
My dungeon master has used this song in his dnd campaign for creating a wonderful and terrifyng atmosphere for some attacks by a false hydra, those encounters where so scary and immersive that they are stuck in my mind. Also i'm a good friend of this dm and he passed me the sheet of the false hydra asking me to use this monster in the future for my campaign, a thing i will surely do, of course i will use this song
False Hydra's are only scary until you realize that the average group of pensioners and some of the local disabled kids are immune to half of it's gimmick. False Hydra: *Sings* Old Couple: "WHAT?!" False Hyrda: *Sings louder* Old Couple: "SPEAK UP SONNY I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I KNOW YOU AREN'T SO CONFIDENT WITH THAT AWFUL APPEARANCE BUT YOU CAN AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH SMARTS TO LEARN TO SPEAK PROPERLY!" False Hydra: *Takes 60d10 Emotional Damage*
This was absolutely bewitching. The entire time i was listening i could picture it being one the last two of its kind, saying a final goodbye to the only other one its kind. This was amazing, not only for a song but outstanding potential for a story to follow it. Truly well done
Man, I ran a False Hydra in one of my campaigns and I brought it back for a Halloween oneshots I wrote. If i KNEW this song existed when i ran that one shot, damn, this would have been the perfect close for it. But now... this miiiight have sprouted a little idea i intend to use, so... Thank you, you wonderful person. Now I can torture my players a bit more! :D
I know this is for a horrifying monster, but this song legit makes me cry….like even through the horror this song makes my heart feel such sorrow and pain….makes me wonder why a monster would sing at all. Why ANY solitary creature sings….what is loneliness but a painful, insatiable hunger, hiding in the darkest or ‘deepest’ parts of society, begging to be heard and seen…the Latin was a beautiful choice, reminded me of Bloodborne and OST💕💯👌
Necro-comment: While not expressly detailed by the creator of the False Hydra, Arnold K., the creature is eventually described as being a "wailing, fleshy siege engine" towards the apex of its power--and ultimately, nearing the end of its sustainable life. While a singing magical horror is definitely a great and terrible idea, we can remove pretty much ALL sympathy from the creature by describing the actual sound as just that: Wailing. Shrieking. Empty and unintelligible bellowing, with some awful magic behind it. It's pretty easy to imagine that as a False Hydra gets larger, its voice changes to match that condition--while it might begin as a recognizable sort of voice, some foul mimicry of human identity, it inevitably becomes a reflection of the horrific and gargantuan monstrosity that it truly is: gargling and gnashing, voracious howling that demands to be given everything while returning nothing.
"I'm an empath, but ... hypotheticaly I could make a lullaby that makes all of you enter a false sense of security and bliss, as you inevitably fall within the grasp of an unholy horror ... hypotheticaly of course"
What would make it better is if the different singers didn’t sing in harmony, to really go for that feeling that something doesn’t really understand rhythm of singing
God I hope so. I'm going to do my first campaign soon(ish) and want to include a side quest where the party investigates a village under control by a false hydra. Would love to include that.
Been playing this during sessions, they don't know the creature, they hate me XD and they love the song. It legitimately made them forget they had a full five party and someone went missing, great job ^^
An old withered book you found in the forgotten toom had partially legible text that looked as if it was from a dead language. After bringing the book to an ancient spirit, the spirit read what it could. The cover mentioned monsters. What little text started describing a false Hydra. The pages were to worn to make out most of what it said. But near the end of the book, sperts of text read, "Creature......re..ing life cycle......waiting....technology.....tu...home."
Okay, I know that it's a D&D monster, but when I saw that thumbnail, the first thing that popped into my head was _"Oh god, it's some kind of higher form of Dead Hand from Ocarina of Time!"_ ...which I think I might keep as a kind of joking headcanon. Dead Hand is a beginning False Hydra, and Young Link only stays partially unaffected by its abilities due to having the Lens of Truth on him. It's why the dead in the well are "forgotten", why nobody knows that there's an entire torture dungeon in the well, why the only people who _do_ know of its existence all have some kind of powerful artifact or status to let them (Triforce pieces, Lens of Truth, being the Sage of Shadows) ...ok, that's enough nerding and fanwanking for this, I'll just see myself out...
It don't need to be a headcanon because the false hydra take direct inspiration from it (the early representation of the FH is even some images from zelda).
This is one of the most gorgeous and tragically haunting songs I have ever heard. You earned my sub wholeheartedly, I hope to see more horror content from ya.
That . . . _T H I N G_ . Unhinged and unholy creature, from the nightmarish visions of a broken mind ! This song, and those words ! Beyond its beautiful composition and sadden tone, like a lullaby from your childhood, you know to well by the sound of this voice we're dealing with a cthulhian level of pure _"f**k that, nuke the all d*mn place, and burry the remains in the sea !"_ . . . I want to keep listening to this, and at the same time it make my skin crawl back ! I want to say bravo for the creation of this piece of Art, that was brilliant... As for the hydra ? Never heard of it before tonight, but now, I'm gonna personally point it to the Godskins of Elden Ring, and tell them : _"You wanna do somethin' great on cosmic levels... ? Then f**k that sh*t up, and make some slippers with it ! So we can all sleep at night, the mind in peace !"_
You see the problem with your grandiose plan is that anyone within a five mile radius can't perceive this ungodly thing. Even if it's right in front of you, munching on your friends and family (who as far as you're concerned, never existed, also due to this song)
@@sebastianb.3978 It doesn't exist... until you can't hear it. An adventuring party tracks a bandit crew down into the town's sewers. The bandits have a sorcerer who's been slinging spells left and right, giving the party trouble, and so the bard casts Silence on the sorcerer. The barbarian, who was closing in to finish the spellcaster, happens to fall in the range of the spell. Suddenly, the sorcerer's eyes go wide with horror, and he starts screaming, the sound swallowed up by the spell. He is looking right towards the door. The party pauses, confused. Is this a ploy? The barbarian chances a look behind herself, and in the doorway, she sees it. A bulbous head, a too-wide mouth with too-long teeth, two colorless voids where the eyes should be. All thoughts of the sorcerer forgotten, this... *thing* is heading for the bard, the ranger doesn't see it, and so the barbarian sprints out and... Huh. Why was she running? The sounds of the cowering, sniveling sorcerer are the only thing filling the room. The barbarian goes back and kills the spellcaster with a quick blow from her axe. At least, the bandits won't bother the village anymore. On the way out, the barbarian almost trips on a discarded lute. She picks it up with a strange sense of amusement. Who just leaves lutes on the floor like that? she jokes with the ranger, heading back out of the sewers. Three sets of footprints entered the room. Only two left it.
Man, some time ago I thought about an adventure with a false hydra and I was searching for a song to be its theme and this fits perfectly, the backstory ( in a short way) is about a town that a long time ago was trying an alliance between humans and elves, one day the elf representative got trapped underground after an experiment went wrong, the humans some time after then betrayed and killed the elves and took the city, but the elf remained trapped until humans were exploring the underground centuries later, the elf got out without anyone knowing and discovered about the massacre, outraged he took the bones of the elves that were hidden underground and made the hydra, the lullaby was supposed to be his wife's lullaby to their children, but distorted.
Oddly enough, this song feels more like something of mournful lament, of a creature who never wanted to live the way they do. A creature whose very existence spells doom for any chance of real companionship - and perhaps even, a creature who does not understand why. I don't know how the False Hydra operates as of writing this comment, but it feels almost as though people consumed by the monster add to its number, and that perhaps the beast can recall the memories of the people it has consumed, further adding to its tragic existence. In fact, because I've just looked it up, and there really isn't too much information on it, I think it makes for a base to create something significantly more haunting. Perhaps a creature created by a spell gone awry, an accidental chimera of sorts, and somewhere, amidst that jumble of bodies, is the tragic source, a lonely individual who turned to magic to try to quell their mental and social troubles (never a good idea), only for it to backfire. Of course, the older the creature is (and thus, potentially, the larger it is), the more tragic you can make it - the idea that if anything, even sharing bodies with so many other creatures, it still feels unfathomably lonely, and thus continues to search for more. The eerie wailing song could even be the spell itself - ever on repeat because the creature no longer remembers anything else. It remembers everyone else's memories (and perhaps each individual maybe acts as though it was still itself), but can't remember its own. I know there's a lot of people who just really hate the idea of a monster not just being a monster, and in fact being a tragic tortured soul, but the evil that humanity can do, being disguised by a monstrous form to justify killing it, is really annoying to me, so I quite like giving monsters some level of sympathy, some kind of story that isn't just plain old 'monster is evil, kill it'. Pardon this incredibly long waffle 😅
In my word the false hydra was created by a mad scientist and to mix all those people together causes them alot of pain, and they now crave flesh being a abomination, so this song works really well. They hats they have to eat humans to survive and long for the lives they uses to have.
That was amazing! Beautiful and enticing despite the creature's horrific appearance and despite the translation of the song, as one would expect from a creature that relies on deception. (Fittingly, I completely forgot about false hydras being a thing until this video) The only thing I can think of that would improve it would be having the different voices sing the lines differently or in overlapping ways rather than match each other the whole time, basically taking advantage of the multiple heads of the hydra to perform something similarly to a choir. It's hard to describe what I'm thinking of since I don't know musical terms, but back when I was in choir class I learned this song called The Snow Begins to Fall (Andy Beck) which does what I'm thinking of, especially around 50 seconds (section starts with "See it float") and 1:30 seconds into the song (section starts with "Now the river frozen") I think having different heads singing in parts that overlap each other or diverge before coming back together to sing parts in the same way would take this already amazing song to the next level.
![[Hollow Knight Song] To The King](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fhS83VEUB5Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![ประสบการณ์ จ้าง Developer ที่ผมจะไม่มีวันลืม [ภาค2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pZbsSDRrmXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Ive learned three things in my adventures.
1. Not all dragons are evil. Some act as guardians for villages.
2. Some gods are best left lost to time.
3. The deaf madman always knows
And the mute madman know better then speak of what he has seen
I'm interested on point 2
@@personal9372let’s just say not every god birth is pleasant for anyone not even the god it’s self.
"not even the god it’s self"
>interest overflowing
*speak further, Lorebearer*
@@Volti-Vagra Imagine why a god of revenge exists and how they would be born.
i was an artificer and got taken by this in my campaign, the only reason my party remembered me is because my construct was "desperately looking for its father"
Did you character die? Or did your construct save the day?
@knightpal1545 the moment a false hydra eats a person, memory of said person disappears when in range of the the hydras song, that's what makes this home-brew monster so well known and terrifying, that it could kill someone and when it starts singing again their existence is no more
Okay, that is really unnerving to realise to Automaton if he is fully intelligent
Your creator disappeared
Only you could remember him, and probably no one would believe you that few days before-he was in team, all good memories with him vanish(or most of them, sometimes it is just reason why he is disappeared being covered by some reason, like meeting parents in other country)
that fucking gave me chills and that rarely happens holy fuck (granted the song kicked in right as I read "because my construct was 'desperately looking for its father'")
@@Stolen_skeleton_tf2 I didn't expect to be crying today over an artificer of all classes :(
Players enter town that seems oddly empty and they all make a WIS Save.
The druid succeeds: He sees lots of sceletons on the ground, but as soon as he blinks everything is back to normal.
The DM starting to hum this song: Your character (druid) has this humming in his head, but no matter how hard you try you don´t recall the lyrics.
They talk to a tavern lady and he starts humming the melody cause he feels like it.
The tavern lady starts crying not knowing why. (The hydra has eaten her husband in front of her eyes and even though she couldn´t remember the humming triggered the ptsd)
This monster is perfect to emotionally kill your characters (and players).
Night comes, a mother sings to her baby and waits for her family at their house in outskirts of town.
The son comes back with food and his sister.
The father comes back with freshly cut wood.
A mother sings to her baby. The father comes back with freshly cut wood, their son brings the food
A mother sings to her baby, the father comes back with some food
A mother sings to her baby, realizing she forgot to get wood and food from the market
A woman sings to a doll on her arms, sitting a bed too small for her, in a house too big for only one person...
......
An abandoned cabin in the outskirts of town, many say it's haunted and swear they hear someone singing from the woods, no one's ever been brave enough to go investigate, no one that they can remember
Damn, spooky-scary as hell-hell! No song now. Yes yes.....
super creepy, I love it
This is way more depressing then creepy
Honestly that was the idea, countless families having suddenly lost family members, having the feeling of something being missing, but never able to pin down what it is. By the time a false hydra is full, several homes are empty
Damn, that is gut wrenching. I love it!
I think the most terrifying aspect of this is how calming it is
Sounds is a sort of neurotoxin, for this thing
Soothes you into easing your own devouring
You can almost hear the munchin noises while the other heads keep singing
@@diegoalfredovelasquezascuy3016yikes, a chilling thought. I love it!
that is the point
but also false hydra cannot sing while they eat it is one of the only ways to encounter them and physicly see them
they interestingly are one of only a few creatures that can bypass true sight as the song isn't making them invisible as much as its just making you oblivious to their presence
@@diegoalfredovelasquezascuy3016WHY DID YOU SAID THAT NOW IM IVEN MORE TRAUMATIZED
AMD WHY IS THIS SOOO GOOD TO SLEEP
IM SCARED
Imagine a soldier returning from a war deaf but he notices people disappearing when no one else does
My friend... this really nightmare fuel...
and only he sees it attacking people, but he does nothing, because to him, he sees it as a warped memory, and that this thing, isn’t real.
He makes it home, the family are thrilled to see him but don't push him too hard on his stories.
Later that night there was a crash and a scream. The husband rushes in a panic hearing "Our son, he got our son!" He turns to his wife staring at the renovated room and asks "what son?".
The crazed lady then wakes up from her fantasy of having a family and looks at her empty house.
“There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, *when your name is spoken for the last time.”*
- David M. Eagleman.
There is a secret 4rth death: Being devoured by a False Hydra
@@Florjb0rjTheFloorboard And a secret rebirth: the dying scream of the monster, as your own voice cries your name into a brightening sky
@@theradioactiveplayer3461 That actually goes so hard
@@Florjb0rjTheFloorboardthats just all of them
@@Florjb0rjTheFloorboard a what? There's never been a creature by that name
I'd like to use this comment section to share the story of Nikolai, from a game I ran. This was a Curse of Strahd campaign, and if you're familiar with the book you'll know it leaves one of three magic seeds for a sidequest completely out of the book, so that the DM can determine a location for it. Well I gave my party the hint through Esmerelda, a very reliable ally in the book, that the seed was in the hands of a fellow monster hunter named Nikolai, who was hiding out in a townstead on the western end of the map. When the party got to town, they found a village in the process of a slow death. While the town wasn't large, it was clearly meant to hold more people than were wandering the streets. Several homes appeared recently abandoned, market stalls had food left out that were rotting for days, the street lamps were only lit halfway down the street. The party asked several townspeople about Nikolai, but they only ever replied "who is Nikolai?" They asked the bartender in the half-swept tavern, he just shrugged and asked "who is Nikolai?" They asked the lone merchant in the "Muller Brothers Supply Shop", and again he shrugged: "Who is Nikolai?" I kept this charade going with every NPC they tried to speak to, and eventually the players in real life got frustrated and looked to me out of character. "Ok, do we have any more specific information about Nikolai? Like his description or something? These guys don't know anything." I looked them straight in the eyes with the best poker face I could, and asked "Who is Nikolai?"
The players kept asking me over and over again, I'm an absent minded man so I may have genuinely spaced out, but I just kept repeating "Who is Nikolai?" until the players started getting horrified looks on their faces. I completely stopped mentioning Nikolai for the rest of the game. And if any of them mentioned Nikolai, I would ignore it. They caught on and started playing up their own characters forgetting why they were in the town in the first place, and instead investigated the apparent disappearances in the town. Of course, they gradually realized that there was an infestation of a False Hydra, which was eating villagers and singing its lullaby to make the townsfolk forget what happened to it. And when they finally killed the beast, which they could only observe through a reflection and attack with disadvantage, they found the green, glowing, pinecone shaped seed of a magic tree. Which they had completely forgotten they were after, but were pleasantly surprised to have found in this town that had nothing to do with that quest.
When they returned to Esmerelda and showed her the magic seed she responded "ah, I see you got the treasure you were looking for from my old friend. How is Nikolai faring?"
And in my proudest moment as a DM, my players looked at me and said almost in unison: "Who is Nikolai?"
Your group is lucky to have a DM like you to have this kinda story play out this perfectly. Well done!
I noticed that "lone merchant of the muller BROTHERS supply shop" detail. you sound like a great dm
I love that!
Do you perhaps know of any sites where dms or any people release dnd campaign happening in story format or just straight up release stories which can also be used for dnd runs ?
The _lone_ merchant in the Muller _Brothers_ Supply Shop, took me a moment :O
Ah, yes, the false hydra. Also known as the DM's excuse to gaslight their players
As if we needed an excuse to do that
You act like we don't do that anyways. Word of warning, if you think somethings wrong 9/10 it's perfectly fine. And if everything seems perfectly fine, it's 9/10 not.
Already on it.
PCs return from a quest to a questgiver they've befriended.
NPC: "Where's Gabriel?"
PC: "Who?"
NPC: "My brother?"
PC: "You have a brother?"
NPC: "Don't joke about this. If something happened to him, you need to tell me."
PC: "Look, if he was there, I don't know if I saw him."
NPC: "He literally left with you! You've been adventuring together for months now!"
PC: "What are you talking about?"
Me, the DM: goes to the s sketchbook and pulls up a page with an illustration of an adventurer-looking guy*
NPC: "You drew this of him!"
Artistic character's player: "Did I?"
Me the DM: "No. It looks kinda like your style, but you never drew that and you don't know who tf that is."
NPC, now crying: "This isn't funny. Where is my brother..?"
Imposible to gaslight a deaf character. Pretty neat if your whole party has sign language as a language too.
Considering I made a campaign before where the main bad guy was a extremely skilled illusionist.. ( Well, he was not really a bad guy, but his illusions where messing with a LOT of people in bad ways. The real villain was using his stuff to their advantage. Basically the illusionist was just a trickster who went a bit too far to say the least. ) Yea I do not think I need a false hydra as the excuse. :P
( Though the players did not fully like that one due to how often they got messed over by the illusions.. They did like a campaign I made later that had a "living" dungeon that was centered around undead beings and an ancient forgotten god basically. There was also a demon cult in there too and that was what they where supposed to deal with first but you know how players are, they like to go where they want to. It made everything more interesting though. )
One of my players expertly ran a one-shot for us. About half way through i realized what was happening, and i was the only person other than hin that knew. What started as a one shot where we had made kinda silly characters became a thriller drama as it progressed.
When we discovered that a gnome bard had been in our party, our monk took his guitar. When we needed to calm a rowdy group of townsfolk, that my character was riling up because of his feistration at logical inconsistencies in the town, the monk rolled a performance, got a nat 20, and played a song he didnt even remember... Man, that was a great game.
"It just came to me, yet it seemed so familar?"
"Ummm... why are you crying?"
Imagine you're walking around this town and you and party start to hear this song. It's catchy, you guys start humming it after the session, then you hop on youtube and find this in your recommended
Then next session when everyone sits down there's one open seat left
@@roulette8299 Of course there's one open seat left, that seat has always been left open!
Yeah, why wouldn’t it be empty? Also, what’s with the druid player sheet in front of it? Since when did we have a Druid?
@@kingshocker4754 Must have been the DM planning a Druid encounter for us, which is odd since I thought they hated Druids?
@@kodainogema8145 Maybe they invited a new player to join the campaign next session? Though I feel like they'd tell us about something like that beforehand.
Okay this is just horrifying it gives the idea that not only does the False Hydra erase the memory of people but it also sings in the voices of those it consumes in order to make you forget them or as a way to lure you in.
Imagine the feeling of heard in the distant, your mother and loved ones singing, with something weird but sweet in their voices you can't put in words, an inviting lullaby song that calls you (really something wynorrific)
@@omv9008 So the false hydra sings in Yandere and the listener is into it... Oh how pitiable...
That's literally what it does, each head is shaped like the face of one of its victims, and that head's voice sounds like said victim. It's really morbid and fucked up actually. XD
@@genomagala8246 I've never actually heard that be stated, i know each head has the face that vaguely resembles a victim (minus the first), but... I'm pretty sure nothing said it sings in their voice.
headcannon acquired
I like how since it's in latin you have to look at he subtitles to understand, thus ignoring the hydra in front of you singing it. Just like the real thing
Wow i never thought about that.😧. Freaky
And then when the song pauses, you are faced with the creature until it starts singing again.
Holy shit...
That’s a really creepy yet true way to put it
Thanks I hate it! /j (kinda)
I just want to say, this song just became the canon song in a dnd campaign I play in and I AM SHOOK. We're going up against a false hydra and people in town are humming the tune without realizing it or remembering where they heard it
Yeah It's horrifiying
imagine if it's singing in the voice of the first person it ate... a mother whom's child doesn't know why their alone or... maybe the only person who even knows the hydra is there.
@@craytherlaygaming2852 I was the only one who knew about it because I knew this song, and showed it to the dm. Next session he said this was the melody the townspeople were singing and I will never recover
@@aaronthot3050 yep... horrifying
Hehe… I just had this thing thrown at me in a small group 2 person campaign and the process of working it out was horrifying, like some kind of SCP cognito hazard kinda thing. Long story short we finally encounter it after figuring out the gimmick and as it rolled initiative, the dm set this playing on the roll20. The fact it’s so out of place for a boss fight song only made it so much more creepy lmao
We also discovered there were 2 other party members the whole time. Down right terrifying
@@Leoric. Yeah, we learned we had an extra party member as well. Woke up the second day to a whole extra set of gear in our room, which also had an extra bed :)
Our kid character was very attached to the new gear but couldn't tell why, anyways we thought he was an orphan and well... Now he really is
Friend: "Dnd can't be scary."
False Hydra: "Hold my Intelligence Score."
what friend and what intelligence?
Don't was wisdon?
Me: I have missed the last 7 sessions, I don't know what's going on.
The table: Neither do we!
If you play it at 1.25 it sounds distorted and somewhat fits thr monster
"Sir? Why are you making statues?"
"A memorial for the victims of a town east from here"
"A town? I don't recall a town ever existing east of here and forgive me for asking but why are your statues are faceless"
"That's the point now would you please leave and stop humming that damn song"
"... Sir?"
"What"
"What song?"
"... shit"
Guess I’m dead
"I guess this town is next in line for the lord of lost's endless hunger, luring anyone into endless oblivion and eventual fate to be forgotten for all time. Well, it was nice while it lasted, farewell everyone, just know I'm in a better place outside memories. "
- Someone not important enough to be remembered
That's actually terrifying because that means the false hydra already became mobile and is moving towards other towns.
This is easily the most underrated comment on this video.
*...Fuck
I completely remembered this song, and when the pary entered the town that the hydra was occupying occasionally, I would hum it when they were planning shopping trips and such. Eventually they caught kn that there was less people than there should be to which I started to sing the song under my breath. When they started to fight it I played this and in-between rounds would sing with the music. They loved it when they realised I had been singing it
That's so goddamn good man, great experience I imagine. Foreshadowing at it's best.
I'd do that with my party, but I can't seem to remember the song for very long...
What song
@@Mylifeisalie979there is no song
What Song..?
This sounds like the song you hear at the end of a game, after defeating the false Hydra and leaving the forgotten town, look back at the town, the nightmare is finally over though the surviving towns folk may not know what happened or the strange faces of people they've never met. Our heroes will never forget the dark horrors that once consumed the town, the tale of a young couple wrongly accused of crimes they have never committed, rumors spreading and seeding fear in the towns folk. And the injustice preformed on the innocent couple bound together by lies and deception until those rumors turned into truth. As the town slowly disappears into the mist once again our hero thinks to themselves. "Some stories are better left forgotten."
Mate i don't know how but that makes me cry in joy just from thinking it like it is really over you know?
Wait why would innocent be accused? the false hydra erases all memory of its victims existence, so there would be no missing people to look for.
@@izzyv830 It's my interpretation of how a false hydra is created, basically a person who is accused of something that is a obvious lie and is punished for said lie then left to be forgotten. Now filled with vengeance they are reborn from the lies people made of them and become a false hydra, consuming everyone, erasing and altering peoples memories.
@@shadeskitsune7830 ah I see
I've been wanting to run a one shot with a false hydra since like 2018 (or whenever it started spreading around the net) and next week I finally get to run it with a group who loves D&D and has never heard of a false hydra.
The False Hydra is one of my favorite D&D concepts but I never considered it’s song being weirdly beautiful instead of an Eldridge horror call. I think it actually adds another layer of mystery and confusion to the creature that makes it more compelling.
it is an eldritch horror call but in an unsettlingly settle way
@@Jamlord2061 Totally. I think what makes the False Hydra so creepy as an eldritch horror is how weirdly human like some of its features are. However, it’s not in a way that makes me think it is human in origin. It feels almost coincidental which is somehow way more upsetting and confusing. I feel that the song gives a similar eerie feeling.
Imagine hearing *that* in the middle of the night.
@@MilkyLeakyCarton Roll for initiative
Wait... Is the Furby Organ actually a False Hydra? Oh my god, who has it taken from my life? *I CAN'T REMEMBER MISSING ANYBODY!*
This does introduce an interesting angle to the horrifying glut. I never considered that it might be harboring maternal instincts or that it's motives could be anything other than mindless consumption. It is alien, but it is intelligent too; just because it destroys does not mean it is not capable of creation as well. What if the Hydra doesn't just consume people, it consumes the entire town? It grows larger and larger, sending its song out further and further until neighboring countries and kingdoms can hear it, forcing all to forget the town it ate when the hydra inevitably collapses from its own weight. But its death grinds away all evidence of the town, its mass breaks down and fertilizes the foundations of the once-populated land; and it leave behind a seed, a child of the Hydra, its infant wailing attracts the attention of travelers and merchants, subconsciously luring them in to a place once forgotten to re-pave overgrown roads, dig brick from soil and rebuild unseen walls. In a hundred years or so, a city stands where all trace was wiped away, founded on a faint memory, and from the depths beneath the town a song begins again.
That’s awesome!
That's actually an incredible interpretation of the creature
yoink. I have a campaign in the wilds going, this is perfect.
what hydra and what city?
Fairly accurate for some types of biology we see in the world. Very good ecology prompt. You've weaving a good story there!
We need a ten-hour loop of this, fading in and never-quite-out of audibility, along with the sounds of an outdoor market. Birds chirping, dogs barking, children playing, footsteps on cobblestones, the squeaky wheel of a cart rolling past, the rustle of the wind through the trees and grass, the background din of conversation. . . and this. It would be perfect for DMs to play as 'background atmosphere' in campaigns that involve a false hydra.
That's literally what I was thinking
100%
Someone should, nay, *must* do this
@@TheBonesMalone There's an acapella version of it, unless we're considering the possibility that only two heads are singing while the rest are mimicking musical instruments.
And gradually the background noise of people start to dwindle one by one. And every time one goes quiet the hydra becomes just ever so slightly louder
Imagine a deaf person finding their way to stand before this being, this horrible mass of pale flesh that writhes in the darkness below their home, they cannot hear the Siren song and instead followed someone who they see have their neck broken by the creature, the beast almost tenderly removing their clothes and effects before setting them off to a side before devouring them, tears leaking from eyeless sockets as it gorges itself till nothing remains.
Maybe it is a gasp, or perhaps a cry of shock at what they have seen that alerts the hydra to their presence, the being looking in their direction and resuming its song, a sad smile upon its face as it opens its arms as though to embrace them, only for it to notice that the person before it is not effected by its melody and is instead looking at in silence, too petrified to scream as the beast advances to reach out a hand and brush away a tear from their cheek.
Perhaps it understands their desperate attempts at sign language, perhaps they manage to choke out the words, or perhaps it is able to read their lips, but the beast is able to understand that the one before it is asking why it has been doing this, why it has been devouring their friends and family and the friends and families of all others within the village, why it has been erasing them from memory.
The beast pauses, before it gently lifts the person to their feet before it beckons for them to leave, reaching into one of the piles of clothes to hand them an unfamiliar pair of rings and a full purse before withdrawing back into the darkness, the person confused and terrified taking the hint to flee, never hearing the beasts reply.
For from innumerable mouths there comes a single word, one woven into a lullaby that beckoned all to join with the beast.
"Loneliness."
Aside from that, I also have the image of one of these beings acting as a form of angel of death that prays on those that are suicidal, allowing them to leave behind the world and the pain of it, while letting none have to be burdened with grief from their passing, the beast showing a twisted love and empathy as it grants these despondent and hopeless people the gift of oblivion and slumber eternal in exchange for them merging with it in death.
Oh...
Deaf person: "Why do this" 😭
False Hydra: "your loved ones simply suffered from a skill issue" 🗿
Jokes aside I actually love this as a idea. A lonely monster who does it in a attempt for... something.
Something else that could be done with this is maybe the false hydra is a twisted soul of a mother who lost her children and she longs to be a care taker again. But cursed with a eternal hunger she always kills and eats those she tries to care for. UNTIL THE F*CKING BARD SHOWS UP AND SOME HOW ROLLS A 48 AND BREAKS THE CURSE WITH AMAZING DANCE MOVES BECAUSE BARDS BE LIKE THAT!
@@knightpal1545
Damn. I know bard thing is a common gag for now, but man. I don't know if any SANE person would actually hit a false hydra..
@@tory4777that's why you grab the warlock instead.
Definitely need to keep this idea in mind, for a future campaign where I may run a False Hydra.
An amusing thought for a false hydra appearance vs the party. The DM has background music as a constant theme, but it's usually cheerful. Then they run into a town with this music as the background music on loop, just barely.
At times, the DM stops playing the song during the night, and plays regular night music. At these times the party is given the option to explore if they wish, or settle in for the night. Either option leads to an npc having vanished, as usual.
The twist is, they eventually find and slay the false hydra, and the music ceases, replaced with cheerful/somber town music... until they are being sent off to continue their journey. With the farewell ceremony, the music of the town fades, and the lullaby resumes.
Damn that's evil lol
I love how the voice is so calming and peaceful like a mother singing to you, but there is still something off with it, It's still wrong but it's hard to pin down.
The female voice has a male voice underneath, providing the eerie distortion....almost like all it's victims voices strung along to form its own voice...
@@goldenarrow7134which fits even better
rude
It's a sorrowful song with happy notes and beautiful chords that symbolize hope. It's the musical equivalent of being lost in a mist of insanity so thick that misery becomes your joy.
There is a trollge videos for the false hydra
The false hydra snatches one of your party members and sings its song, all but one of the remaining members fail their wisdom roll
"We need to save her"
"Save who?"
"Our cleric, Sidney"
"Who's Sidney? We never had a cleric."
A false hydra appeared and whisked away one of our strongest PCs recently in a campaign I'm apart of. The sound of realization from one of our players when this music started playing was priceless lmao
What a wonderful song. Wonder why the singer had to leave not too long ago. What was their name again? I can't remember.
I see what you did there 😆
There was a singer? I remember this being an instrumental
what song?
who was the singer?
Singer? What singer? This song was purely instrumental.... wait, what song are we talking bout again?
There is an instrumental version of this song as well now with almost no views/subs. It is a violin instrumental, so you can just play it occasionally while the party is adventuring in town mixed in with the rest of the soundtrack. Then you can play this when they actually fight the thing and have them only connect the dots at that point. Creep factor through the roof. The title of it is: EmpathP Lullaby of the False Hydra Original Fan Song Instrumental
Thank you for this
What do you mean this song was always instrumental...wait what song?
You know, it's strange and mysterious how the background is just a red light faintly illuminating darkness. Not to mention the name "Lullaby of the False Hydra" is just so thought provoking on what a "False Hydra" is.
False hydras are a fan made dnd monster who sing, and whoever hears the song is forced to forget about a false hydra. The false hydra eat people and the more it eats the bigger and more heads it has and anyone eaten by the false hydra is also forgotten when it sings.
TH-cam claims there is a reply here. However I have found none other than myself.
It’s a D&D monster
the joke was that if you hear the song, you dont acknowledge the monster@@KekrisTheBetrayer
@@scoundral2995 It does not remove academic knowledge of the monster. It erases itself as an individual from your memory, and its victims
If anyone is curious, the often uncredited creator of the False Hydra is Arnold K of the blog goblinpunch. Lot of really creative writing on that blog. Great scenarios, lore, and indie RPG mechanics.
I don't know what you're talking about..... I don't even know what you mean by a false hydra..... And who's this Arnold K? Your DM?
Fun fact: this song was recommended to me by a TH-cam mix list called “Children’s music”. I feel like TH-cam is that old grandpa who says all anime is for kids with that one hahaha
Maybe someone...or something was hungry
Grandpa TH-cam: "hmm young jimmy will love this cartoon, it looks so childish"
Jimmy: "Hey grandpa what is this you gifted me"
Grandpa TH-cam: "Made in Abyss"
to be fair, it is soothing to listen to. just don't let the kid look at the screen
I also found this under children's music,I thought it's a threat to my potential future child
The old grandpa who misheard his grandson and, instead of Minecraft, got him Mein Kampf.
I'm not making that one up.
This is so chilling. Sung in a dead language that no one alive can remember and pass it down like normal languages, a vocaloid singer with an unhuman ability to sing in two different tones at the same time, the chilling lyrics, and the most terrifying thing of all:
This is such a beautiful song with a wonderful melody, and it represents something the complete opposite. Your death won't be met with a haunting screech, but a melody you and everyone around you will fail to remember after they've heard it.
I've been wanting to hit my players with a False Hydra for the *longest* time. And the lyrics of this song are actually very reminiscent of how the main "villain" of my own campaign is portrayed - a being that believes itself benevolent in devouring everything, so that no one will suffer any longer. For if nothing remains, suffering will not either.
It gave me an idea for a deaf spellcaster who cannot hear the False Hydra's song, but sings with it as it never harmed them, knowing its song has no sway over those who cannot hear it. There's a deaf singer who has the voice of an angel, which is part of the inspiration behind the spellcaster. Perhaps the spellcaster's mother was consumed by the False Hydra and so it knows this is her child, and her own memory holds strong over the creature, which is part of why it doesn't harm them.
Great,imma steal this.
@@hopelessdoodles4444 Feel free! I love when I'm able to give people a little inspiration ^v^
Do you know of the Borg from Star Trek? They're basically space zombies, an ultra intelligent hive mind which seeks to incorporate all into its "unity", and seeks "perfection" by assimilating the biological and technological distinctivness of all its victims, stripping away their individuality until it is all but a mindless husk under its control, like a puppet on a string.
After all, everyone is equal and there is no war, hate, or famine, when everyone's equally a slave to the system, which serves none but its own expansion to bring their mercy on to all in the universe. Nobody controls the system. There is no beginning, there is no end. They simply... Are.
Yesterday. My party fought this thing. My character, a Paladin. Told them all to run. With his ears burnt off, his greatsword in hand. He fought the hydra alone. He killed it. But, he also died in the process. Leaving only his sword behind as his legacy. A legacy no one will probably remember.
The fact that you managed to implement an almost hypnotic aspect to a song about the False Hydra by designing it like a lullaby is *fucking brilliant*
This is horrendously terrifying and yet so sorrowfully painful to hear. I’m memorizing this song no matter what. ❤
Good luck. It’s a song to forget.
song? what song?
Who was I talking to?
.......... There's a song here?
I wonder who could have left these comments behind. Wait, what comments? There are no comments.
I'm going to use this song when my players finally kill the hydra. The wizard npc who I had investigating the hydra will have had it recorded on a magic music box, they will find what's left of him in the Hydra's lair his mangled hand still clutching it.
Dark af
That sounds awesome. I have an adoration with Music Boxes and my own campaign has them as a background quest, 151 Music Boxes total, spread out over 3 continents (50 to each) and the last is the reward for finding them all. The False Hydra in my own campaign drops one upon defeat, and how it'll happen is the last head (the other two, either cut off or just fallen limp as it gets lowered in HP depends how Players handle it) will begin to gag heavily and it'll cough up the Music Box. Hope your campaign works out well! As I said that sounds awesome, and wish you luck in your story!
Its actually kinda ominous as if implying the false hydra was't truly defeated and could return if you're not careful.
@@DuceJX Thats D&D, and it's why we love it.
And they will find a way to weponize it
I'm planning an encounter where the mind reading wizard tries to get info out of someone who had their mind wiped by the false hydra and they only get this song and nothing else.
Update please?
@@credibleorca1075 Campaign is over now, Concept was Spelljammer With False Hydra's spread across the universe. The False Hydra being the BBEG but their are multiples of them of different sizes.
The players found their first False hydra on a planet of dwarves that were Waring with some sea elves. The hydra only had one head and made the poor choice of trying to eat a PC as it's first victim. Cornered the Jedi character in the bathroom in a very WTF moment. As the attack was completely outof the blue and none of the dwarves could explain the strange dead creature after it was killed. PC's still know nothing of flase hydras.
The Second False Hydra the PC's encounter when they are being pursued by a Mind Flayer Nautiloid. We ended a session on that note, then I started the next session with the players having "missing time" somehow they escaped the Nautiloid, refueled their air Envelope, and recruited a new gnome and autognome crewman... thier are no known planets nearby, but they remember stopping and the gnome helping with shit repairs and fighting off mind flayers with them... but they cannot remember where.
PC's try reading gnomes mind and get the false hydra song, first hint at the false hydra.
So this is what happened between sessions. I advanced the false hydra lore to even bigger proportions, planet devouring levels, they landed on such a planet and are too low of level to do anything about it. So I just assumed they escaped and picked up the new crewmen.
The way I run the false hydra is if they eat a planet, the heads turn on themselves. and when it self devours it eliminates all memories of everything it ate permanently.
With a Normal false hydra I ruled that they got their memories back whenever the false hydra stopped singing, or you left its singing aura. causing mass panic when it attacks and towns folk suddenly remember everything.
PC's currently believe that they someone how found a hidden gnome planet that was helpful to them but is capable of hiding itself from the world and wiped their memories.
I move on to run Light of Xarsis 5E spelljammer adventure, throught that adventure I kept leaving hints of the missing planet, they meet another gnome from there with no memories they find old star charts that list a planet near where they picked up their gnome crewman.
When leaving Xaryxis space and that adventure completed they meet up with friendly space clowns who just want to entertain the party as they take a respite on their planet. Now this made the party paranoid as the knowledge of the fiendish space clowns is known to the group out of character. And then the party starts learning that people are going missing on the planet they used to entertain some factions of clowns are blaming others for stealing people away. but no one can prove anything because this is where the first real false hydra for the party is. a 5 headed city threat. So they start interrogating the towns folk and clowns with detect thoughts and get the false hydras song once again.
After much clown shenanigans they find the false hydras tunnels and enter its lair still completely unaware of the threat. but a confrontation with the false hydra and the players manage to brute force their way through the encounter. All it took was a silence spell once the players put two and two together that this creature was the source of the song they kept finding in the minds of others.
So the PC's have encountered 3 flase hydras by this time but this is the only one the players know of in and out of character.
The next false hydra I place on the wizards homeworld. Another World Threat, all the PC's can do is grab people and evacuate what they can. They completely forgot they picked up a scroll of Tarrasque summoning in an earlier adventure... it could of stopped the false hydra. So all they could do is write a message to themselves explaining the situation for them to know what happened later on.
Their next false hydra encounter is much later when the PC's are hunting a group of Neogi, they finally reach their lair, and in it they find a cult worshiping oblivion itself, they are the source of many of the false hydras found on other planets and I jump them with a handful of 1,2 and 3 headed false hydras.
The final false hydra is the level 20 adventure according to the lore a false hydra with 7 heads can dominate all those that hear its song. Such and impossible circumstance, I decided not to run it until lv 20 and to have one party member having an immunity to charm item, just in case.
So guarding the final mcguffin of the campaign is an ancient dragon polymoprhed into a human king and his kingdome is being eaten by a 7 headed false hydra, not a world eater but is preparing to move from town to town to devour everything. The dragon has tried to fight the false hydra before but has always failed and fell victim to its song. Dragon is too powerful for the false hydra to beat at the moment. Pc's approach the castle but find it is filled with children with 8ft tall plush golems as guardians. These are the false hydras dominated army. The golems are designed to attack anything that harms a child, thus the false hydra has never eaten a child here.
After the Pc's bumble around the castle and fight off several attacks from the false hydra, being whittled down and forgetful song every time afterwards (for some reason players forgot to use silence this time) they learn from soldiers the king has sent into the kingdom that the king has fled to a nearby town. The soldiers get eaten PC's forget about them and al they have is a map drawn by one saying where the king is, Pc's fallow strange map. Meet the king who refuses to give up mcguffin, wizard cast suggestion on dragon and since I ban legendary resistance a nat one on the dragon forces him to hand over mcguffin, but this leads directly into a fight with pissed off dragon, who dominates the party leader and takes his other mcguffin, in which both mcguffins are used to open a treasure planet sort of portal, much chaos ensues and PC's reach the goal while luckily avoiding a direct confrontation with the big false hydra, not their planet not their problem they leave the dragon to his demise.
How'd the encounter go?
@@noneofyourbusiness2437 look up in the comments section I just left a long form detail of multiple false hydra encounters.
See, I'd have the mind reading work as usual, but have them roll perception, a success meaning they pick up the tune running subconsciously through their head, and afterwards noticing it in other people in town
D&d session ran into a deserted town except for a lone bard dressed as a jester playing this tune on a lute sitting on a destroyed fountain, we had run into this guy in a previous encounter several sessions ago, he was actually a legendary jester whose charms couldn't be beat and could bring a smile to anyone or anything and used fireworks and throwing knives as weapons. But he was alone, no party or friends, not even a group of children that would flock to him like birds.
Turns out there was a false hydra under the city and his friends didn't believe him, nor did anyone else, his resistance for magic of any kind was so high, he could hear the tune, see the creature, but not be hypnotized by it, but unfortunately it was too fast for him, so he was forced to desperately try to save each victim but failed miserably, it killed the gaurds, soldiers, townspeople and even the lord, then his fellow adventurers and eventually it started taking out the children and the poor guy was at the end of his rope. The fighter of his party had a vorpal shortsword and had dropped it on his was to the sewer (the day he disappeared), which the jester took in hand and followed the tune through the labyrinth and tore the creature to pieces.
But at that point who would care? There was no one to save. No one to congratulate him. No one to share the victory with.
A lone Jester, with magic weapons, tools, tricks, and other fun goodies he had bought, found, or created to make people happy and laugh. What's a jester without an audience? So there he sits with the remains of the town he thought him and his friends thought they'd have fun in, only to find out-no never find out that this was their journeys end.
Now to a few 3rd level players this scared the absolute crap out of us, i know it was Halloween but geez DM...
And that’s how you traumatize your players with a False Hydra without even using it. Bravo to the Dm.
As your party embarks on a journey through the quiet woods, they come across a small village that no one remembers being on the map. The hunter points on an empty patch of woods that is was a shortcut. Clearly he needs to work on his mapping, as an entire village is here! People twirling in place, dancing to a song unheard, lipping speachless words. Song hums escape their inmoving lips, gaped slightly ajar. The song is foriegn yet familiar to the party... Maybe some bedtime song sung to you as a child. Markets stalls are filled with mixed goods and spoiled food. The paladin starts off in one direction, the wizard another, the hunter pells back to the entrace to scope out your surrounding. The cleric stays where he is, examining the town square closely.
Something is... not right.
The cleric examines the disheveled landscape more closely. He cast Detect Evil: The people, evil. The ground, evil. The houses, evil. The trees, evil. He cries out in horrified surprise and starts to flee the scene.
He trips into what seems like a rumpled robe lain carelessly on the ground. A few rings lay nearby with a staff, but no time to get them. Why would someone leave that behind? Why didnt he notice these before when he was walking? Such questions fill his mind as the cleric starts to run once more, leaping over some white shield and mace left in the middle of the road. As the cleric swiftly moved underneath the village entrance sign, he couldnt help but notice an extremely fine-looking bow just laying against its post, full quiver of arrows.
"Good thing I went alone," he thought, "it would have been bad if I brought others."
Damn, he was right. It would have been horrible if he had brought others. Luckily, I'm sure the barbarian will know what to do, he's said he's been through this before...
My party was investigating some "kidnappings" in a small village, I'll spare you the details but as soon as we were figuring out that lots of things didn't add up, the DM told us to roll a wisdom saving throw, I was the only one that succeeded with a nat 20, I was sooo happy.
Then this song started playing.
Next day, the party was preparing to leave town after another succesful mission, feeling that something was missing, but probably nothing too important.
Rest in peace, Veleryn. No one will remember you, but at least you died with your spear in hand and your shield on your shoulder. You will finally be reunited with your lover Klorian...
I swore to my players I wouldn't use a false hydra on them, but this song makes me want to
How about you conveniently “forget” about that promise? That’s what the Hyrda does after all.
Hey you may have sworn not to use a false Hydra in this campaign, but maybe you should keep this song in your back pocket for next campaign.
Can still use the song but no matter how they search "there is nothing wrong around here". Just play it when you whant, don't change anything about your setup and sorry and let just paranoïa do the work for you ^^
Yah, you didn't use a false hydra... False hydras don't exist....
But people are still disappearing... And no one seems to remember them...
And when they fight the false hydra, and they come at you, you know what you say?
You couldn't have known... It's how the false hydra works... It makes you forget it ever existed...
Dulcis puer, mater vanatibus
@@heraut That is diabolical and I love it.
I'm not a Latin scholar, but I am a guy who has been studying Latin for fun for three years now. I'm impressed how intellegible the lyrics are despite the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors! I found the song deeply sad and beautiful, and understanding the lyrics helps a lot. Just for fun I'll rewrite the lyrics how I feel they should be, but take it with a grain of salt. I'm just some guy! Also these lyrics might not even fit the meter, but let's pretend like they do, haha.
Ubi occultas? Mi dulcis puer, dulcis puer. Cur nocte trepidas? Dulcis puer. Adsum. Penitus dormite liberi, mater venatur.
Audite et sequimini ad oblivium. Nunc in tenebris, mi dulcis puer, dulcis puer. Manum extendam, dulcis puer. Esurio. Penitus dormite liberi, mater venatur.
Audite et sequimini ad oblivium. Ne oculos aperiatis, nam mater vigilat. Audite et sequimini ad infinitum.
Now an English translation:
Where are you hiding? My sweet boy, sweet boy. Why do you tremble at night? Sweet boy. I am here. Sleep deeply children, mother hunts.
Listen and follow towards oblivion. Now in darkness, my sweet boy, sweet boy. I will extend my hand, sweet boy. I hunger.
Sleep deeply children, mother hunts. Listen and follow towards oblivion. Do not open your eyes, for mother is watching. Listen and follow towards infinity.
I know the song is not made to be like what i just thought of, and the author would like to write it correctly.
But having a nearly forgotten language spoken incorrectly as a way to relate to the slow dissapearance of memories might also be a cool way to interpret it
@@eduardop2111or the False Hydra could only replicate the words like how a raven mimicking a person but not knowing the underlying meaning. The Hydra could only replicate and steal from others for the purpose of luring and tricking prey, it's alien mind uncomprehending that the song was incorrectly made, only that singing a lullaby would ease the stress of a child (aka smaller prey.) It gives a sense of uneasiness that only those who know the language would feel, because it is only a mockery, a tool to trap people.
@@Vtech869 did you copy a coment?
@@eduardop2111 i think they a false hydra too
@@FlintsForge6931 considering the current world and political state, i wouldn't be too surprised one was made -_-
when I talk about cosmic horror, the false hydra is the sort of thing I mean. A horror right under your nose that you embrace without knowing. Being one of the few that know that horror and no one else believing you because they've unwittingly fallen prey to it. The only clues to something going wrong being plausible gaps in memory. Haunting.
this song sounds like the perfect end credits to a melancolic fantasy horror story Castlevania-style, where the great evil is banished but at a great and traumatizing cost of life, and I can imagine this visage is what the conquering hero sees many years later in their deepest nightmares.
so. This song is powerful.
Firstly, the word choice. I took like 3 or 4 years of latin because haha was raised catholic, so... Dulcis Puer. The word order doesn't matter THAT much in latin, you can mix and match however you want, it could be puer dulcis or dulcis puer, but the word DULCIS is the issue. It's sweet, sure, but "my sweet boy" is not in reference to how kind and gentle he is.. Dulcis eventually becomes the spanish "Dulce", which means Candy. Sweet is in terms of TASTE. My delicious boy is what it means. Puella vs. Puer is arguable, and in latin, using the masc puer is the same as gender-neutral anyways, since masculine is "default" for many speaking tenses, so my delicious child is fine there too.
but it's not the word choice that's the only issue... the word PRONUNCIATION is off. The accentuation is clumsy, as if mimicked. It could be just a lack of latin pronunciation knowledge, but with how much music and language EmpathP has under their belt, I imagine they did so *purposefully*. They don't say "PuER", pwair, like it is casually said. The hydra sings it as if it doesn't even understand its lyrics, pooAAAIIRRR. PU-er. Again, it happens under the line "Penitus somnum liberos, mater venatibus" (which I think verbs always go at the end, so it should be penitus et liberos somnum, or even because it's second person and an active command, somneas, but writing a SONG in a dead language is rough, so I won't criticize, but also it adds on to my point. Plus it's been so long, I also could be wrong on it.). The way they pronounce Venatibus isn't veh-NAH-TI-bus. There's a LOT of focus and sharpness on the "BUS" of venatibus, which, in english, is if it's like I said the word, "pronunciaTION." with HEAVY emphasis on TION. it just... it sounds like I don't know what I'm saying, I'm just copying what I heard someone say.
it sounds... like a monster pretending to be a holy mother. A twisted devil consuming souls by pretending to be Sancta Maria. It heard that you say things like "mother" and "sweet boy" and "sleep well, close your eyes" to calm people down, and it just stole that as a way to control people.
I know nothing of Latin but I really like your interpretation of song ^^
That actually makes so much sense, I absolutely love your interpretation and I will definitely hold onto this one.
Slightly random question. I'm in the process of learning latin and have heard that church latin and casual speaking latin are slightly different with things like pronunciation, is that true?
Alternatively...the false hydra is singing about the taste of a child
That it ate
I think it's even more terrifying that it's "words of comfort" are actually it describing how delicious you are to it.
Having recently learned what a False Hydra was, I really liked this song.
What song, this video was 3:04 of pure silence and no visual
@@researcherchameleon4602 what video
why is youtube telling me there are two comments under the original ? I'm now the first one....right ?
False Hydra? Is this a Pathfinder thing I'm too DnD to understand?
Because if there was a False Hydra in DnD I definitely wouldn't forget about it.
My friend,@@overforest1195
It is indeed from DnD...
My DM let me learn the song since im a kenku and I use mimicry. My party members fear me now :)
How does one remember a song to forget?
@@Grinningswen Dude is Immune to Mind Spells i assume
A kenku who knows the song of a false hydra dangerous indeed
I would assume that the song itself isn’t the magic part, but the hydra is what imbues the song with the magic to force people to forget and erase memories, aswell as force others the not acknowledge it’s existence. This songs magic isn’t indiscriminate either, it targets certain memories specifically and only certain things can acknowledge it, such as animals, but the owners are forced to not acknowledge their animals behavior. Maybe an item that is a piece of a false hydra, like the tongue, an eye, or a bone of some kind allows you to sing the song and anyone that hears it is tranced into forgetting whatever you wish and allowing you to choose those who are allowed to acknowledge you. Of course this is to a lesser extent and tied to a performance check to see if you got the song right in the first place and maybe a wisdom saving throw with a DC 22. And before anyone says that’s a little too high, this is a false hydra, a being capable of tearing down entire civilizations and erasing them from history, it having a lesser effect doesn’t mean it’s bad, cause you have to kill one to get the item and know the specific song to use it, that’s why it would be considered a legendary item.
On a similar note, in a campain I was in at one point, the DM let the Kenku mimic a Banshee scream. Which is also a pretty terrifying prospect.
The most intriguing part of this song to me is that, false hydras are intelligent enough to speak and think, so this song can either be interpreted as a siren song to lure a village to it's death, or that the hydra actually has pity for the poor people that happen to be it's food, singing them a final lullaby as it gives them peace in death, ending it all before their suffering can become greater.
though, my favorite interpretation of a false hydra is one that uses it's song to be unseen by the villagers, but allows them to have the memories of it's actions, molding the village into one that worships it like a god, their "Mother" protecting them in exchange for food that the villagers hunt for it, only eating villagers when they become elderly and seek it for release from the mortal plane, making the village sustain it indefinitely.
I am SHOOKETH.
Aight, so to clarify: my party went up against a False Hydra about 5- levels ago. The massive thing had settled into a town that the rest of the nation we are currently in was slowly forgetting; we were sent by the head of our Adventurers' Guild to investigate.... something, I physically don't recall what (this was at least a year ago, I think). Something about how Antium (the town) was unable to be seen on some maps.
I run a tabaxi Stars Druid, wis 18+, with the observant feat. *I spotted one of the FH's heads as we were approaching the village.* I was able to remember, as well, through multiple wis saves to remember. I don't recall if anyone else was able to. Our DM kinda traumatized the entire party a little bit with that.
Anyway! Well done!
I love that the false hydra was a fan made monster who's design was originally based off the dead hand in OoT, and everyone just agreed immediately that this is the canon design because it fits so well. And the music is beautiful ❤️
This song makes me feel like the false hydra has a warped sense of lonliness. It has unsatiable hunger that it cant control. It doesnt want to kill, but its biology has forced it to be a monster. The lullaby could also be the somber song sung by the echoes of the people the hydra devours, and is sung by the new head.
Hearing this song has got me thinking in a brand new light. Imagine if the false hydra was not a vicious creature with a bloodlust, but instead a creature that takes in those that are outcasted and have no one? A child, lost in the night, abandoned by the ones they called family, beckoned sweetly by a motherly creature, somewhere where they'll be safe and taken care of.
Beckoning them to "follow into infinity", meaning follow to their new home, where they will be loved and protected. "Why dost thou tremble as the night?" "Where are you hiding?", "I am here", "My hand extends unto thee", "Sleep deeply and free". Comforting words from a creature that wants to mother the lost.
it's more of a lull into a false sense of security to lure you into its lair so it may consume all that you are, all that you have been, and all that you will be
@@dabestorkposta....... But..... Imagine if that was how a false hydra bred..... It would lull the lost ones into their new home (drag them into its lair), and take them in (devour them), helping them get ready for their new lives (recycling their flesh to birth a new one)?
@@SnowHoof000 it sort of is, iirc they gain a new head for every person they eat and if the head isn't burned then it will turn into a Young False Hydra
@@dabestorkposta huh. Sounds like a pretty cool creature, good for you!
I mean in the description,the creator thought of the false hydra leaving its territory and attacking villages.
Doesn’t seem like your correct more like your wishing for a happier meaning behind a monster.
Otherwise the hydra wouldn’t attack random people,especially those already living happy lives in villages.
"Such terrible things are spoken so sweetly, so softly"
This is beyond amazing. A monster so awful and gross has such calm vocals. It being Latin makes it so much softer and creepier. I am in love with all of this.
The false hydra has got to be one my favorite monsters in dnd, even if it's non-canon.
It's more than just a physical threat, but also a psychological and emotional one. It makes the party roleplay, especially if it takes place in a party member's village.
The greatest aspect of it is what it represents. The false hydra is a personification of memories.
Memories that are fading into a single rhythm, lost to time as we are none the wiser.
Traumatic memories that are supressed and ignored, but still hurts us in ways we can't immediately notice.
Either way the monster challenges players to look at the past and acknowledge it. To dropped the ignorance we try to shield ourselves with and accept the world for what it is. Only then are the good memories kept and the bad ones fall silent.
I never really looked into the false hydras lore before but now I want to make a character that survived the false hydras attack and managed to remember it devoured his entire village now devoting his life to revenge against the monster only to break down crying in the final encounter with the monster as it faces him wearing the faces of his family and friends
The fact this is sung in Latin and almost sounds like church music makes the ten times more unsettling.
Fantastic work
Imagine trying to sing along and you just summon the false hydra
What false hydra
There was a song and a false hydra??
@@randomperson5289 It Sounds Familiar, But No, I Dont Know
Maybe you did, and you don't remember.
Summoned what now?
Just had possibly a *baby* version of one of these appear in a campaign, nothing like panicking for 9 hours because of knowing about what these were.
Had to come and listen to this again afterward.
Even knowing the meta when I'm just listening to it passively my favorite part is "Manus extendem, Dulcis puer, esurio" It just sounds so cheerful. I can't wait for that part to come again.
It's all monster slaying and campaigns until you pause it and still hear the song
This ... This is one of the most spine chilling song that I've ever heard in my live ... It's perfect for the False Hydra! I give this a 100/10
This feels very different to cosmic or eldritch horror... Something about the twisting of an innocent thing like a mother's love makes this so intimate and personal. Whether it is deliberately using it as a shroud for its intentions or is deluded, it's a terrifying thing.
that is very weird. because i don't picture myself an apex predator when i hear this. or perhaps i do... but in the most uncanny way.
i imagine a sort of otherwordly being, like a Fey creature or a creature from the deep beyond, a sort of motherly creature representing sorrow or grief, singing this song. and her song absolutely obliterating everything it reaches in the calmest and most gentle way. buildings crumble into sand, plants wither up and die, and living creatures fall into a deep sleep they'll never wake up from, and disappear.
no one alive has heard about how the city of my youth came to disappear. except for madmen, warning me about their Mother.
so this song inspired a secret backstory for my DND character Elyria. A satyr survivor of a false hydra that sang this song as it devoured her village. this song is the ONLY THING SHE REMEMBERS, but misremembers it as something her mother sang to her as a lullaby. she sings it herself. and I cant wait for the party to go on her origin mission when its her turn for her character arc. me and the DM have been planning to make it as fucked up and as traumatizingly heart wrenching as possible. I'm aiming to make the others actually cry.
boy does that sound awesome
How’d it go?
Ayo hol up,i read the description and DAMN,that is the most saddistic,disgusting and most effective hunting strategy of any fictional monster i have ever seen.
So this song came across my feed just yesterday and immediately made me switch gears HARD on what the next session will kick off.
This is for a Pathfinder 1E campaign so I'm having to make a new statblock for this creature.
My party are a rather large group trying to get into the various guilds of Deltora (picture Ravnica basically just not quite AS fantastic). One of them is joining Iomedae's Blades, a guild that cares for the weak and poor with their hospital/church, hunts rogue mages/witches (rogue in this context is those who utilize magic to harm society. Death sentences are only for those who do it specifically to harm society and not as a side effect of things). They also specialize in hunting aberrations and undead. When it comes to enforcing the law a Blade is Officer, Detective, Judge, and Executioner. The guild is the jury. So a Blade has to collect evidence and submit a report before enacting justice unless the threat is so ominous that inaction begets more harm.
During the entrance exams the exam participants are often accompanied by a higher ranking member of the guild (typically a 1-3 sword rank). In this case they are being accompanied by a rivaling party and a 3 sword rank. The exam participants and this 3 Sword Rank are being sent to investigate a mysterious letter that arrived at the guild alongside the suspicious circumstances that lead to the hanging of three "harmful witches." When the party arrives there they will have a week before it is just them against the beast to determine WHAT is going on. The letter speaks of a creature tearing the townsfolk to shreds in the late evening hours. They will also encounter a little deaf girl who, if they catch onto things and get her alone, will tell her about the creature who looms over the "soiled well" and watches the townsfolk as if a beast hungrily eying up its next meal.
One by one the members of the other exam team and, if they're not particularly perceptive, the exam leader will disappear leaving only what they left in their rooms when they disappeared. I'm eager to see how they handle the whole situation.
Note: Their exam isn't to defeat the creature. The 3-Sword will take on that task, sending them in a hurry back to the guild to alert them. However... if they do manage to kill it than the one in charge of the exam might see fit to have Argel, the exam student, immediately promoted to a 2 Sword rank... if he survived.
*You sense a hand trying to reach out from beyond a heavy blizzard right behind you*
*You turn*
*There was no blizzard and there was no hand*
*There was no you*
Never played dnd (unfortunately) but i feel like this must be one of the monsters thats the most satisfying to kill. No villain with complex motivation, no misunderstood creature, just completly twisted and cruel scum that needs to be erased from the earth
It a creature that almost entirely undetectable it sings a song that make people forget and not notice it the only time it stops and can be detected easily is when it eating once it done eating it starts to sing again and whatever it ate is completely forgotten by everyone a person could have a family with a child one of that family gets eaten and then it like they never existed even if their signs they once did
@@michaelliggett1622the problem is that once it has multiple heads then it does not need to stop it song to eat
@@Colin-gx8jnthe only real great chance at stopping it is when it’s in its “baby” state. Once more heads pop up then the difficulty skyrockets in trying to find it I’d say.
When I first listened to this I did not know about the False Hydra or how it works. After some googling and TH-cam videos, I can safely say this takes on a terrifying new lighting that I do not want to think about for too long.
Imagine a False hydra being in a town and as it sings bards that enter the town suddenly start to sing this song. Despite them knowing other songs they are commpeld to sing this by their subconcious.
Having a wandering bard npc sing this song despite it not seemingly being on the list of songs they where going to sing that day wuld make for a nice little bit of foreshadowing if can catch it
Can I just point out how much I adore the use of Dulcis?
I'm unsure of the latin origin used here, but from what I know of Spanish, the word Dulce refers to sweet, but specifically *food*
Dulce de leche being a common use english speakers know dessert wise.
Unsure if it carries to the root latin, but if it does, it's that much further of a delightfully eerie touch to the wording of the hydra.
Not sweet as in kind, but sweet like a dessert, gotta love that sort of subtle yet blatent touch, just like the hydra, hiding in plain sight!
It's Latin
@@dirk1998they know
@@averagedumbproto except they didn't
@@dirk1998 "I'm unsure of the latin origin used here"
@@averagedumbproto and the origin for the word comes from the Latin language, this being the origin.
The illustration of this thing is just astounding, perfectly capturing the very nature of a false hydra. Also, it is extremely creepy and chilling how calming and moving the song is, knowing just what this thing does. We humans are very emotional creatures, so being able to emotionally effect us like this makes the false hydra one of the more dangerous creatures in D&D. But what I like most about this, is the over all motherly tone, as if this false hydra was borne of a mother who was wronged horribly, and now cries out her despair for her child now abandoned or worse. But of course, her lullaby meant for her child goes heard yet ignored, thus deepening her anguish and anger. Thus the false hydra grows, its hunger soon to consume the town and all its people whom the mother scorns. Damn this thing is creepy indeed.
I love the idea of horror music being more somber and sorrowful in addition to being simply eerie. Would love to hear more music like that.
My dungeon master has used this song in his dnd campaign for creating a wonderful and terrifyng atmosphere for some attacks by a false hydra, those encounters where so scary and immersive that they are stuck in my mind. Also i'm a good friend of this dm and he passed me the sheet of the false hydra asking me to use this monster in the future for my campaign, a thing i will surely do, of course i will use this song
I like how the trade for such a beings existence is having a voice like this.
False Hydra's are only scary until you realize that the average group of pensioners and some of the local disabled kids are immune to half of it's gimmick.
False Hydra: *Sings*
Old Couple: "WHAT?!"
False Hyrda: *Sings louder*
Old Couple: "SPEAK UP SONNY I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I KNOW YOU AREN'T SO CONFIDENT WITH THAT AWFUL APPEARANCE BUT YOU CAN AT LEAST HAVE ENOUGH SMARTS TO LEARN TO SPEAK PROPERLY!"
False Hydra: *Takes 60d10 Emotional Damage*
This was absolutely bewitching. The entire time i was listening i could picture it being one the last two of its kind, saying a final goodbye to the only other one its kind. This was amazing, not only for a song but outstanding potential for a story to follow it. Truly well done
Man, I ran a False Hydra in one of my campaigns and I brought it back for a Halloween oneshots I wrote. If i KNEW this song existed when i ran that one shot, damn, this would have been the perfect close for it.
But now... this miiiight have sprouted a little idea i intend to use, so... Thank you, you wonderful person. Now I can torture my players a bit more! :D
I know this is for a horrifying monster, but this song legit makes me cry….like even through the horror this song makes my heart feel such sorrow and pain….makes me wonder why a monster would sing at all. Why ANY solitary creature sings….what is loneliness but a painful, insatiable hunger, hiding in the darkest or ‘deepest’ parts of society, begging to be heard and seen…the Latin was a beautiful choice, reminded me of Bloodborne and OST💕💯👌
It sings because it has magic music that makes you forget it and ignore it like how your brain ignores your nose
Necro-comment: While not expressly detailed by the creator of the False Hydra, Arnold K., the creature is eventually described as being a "wailing, fleshy siege engine" towards the apex of its power--and ultimately, nearing the end of its sustainable life.
While a singing magical horror is definitely a great and terrible idea, we can remove pretty much ALL sympathy from the creature by describing the actual sound as just that: Wailing. Shrieking. Empty and unintelligible bellowing, with some awful magic behind it. It's pretty easy to imagine that as a False Hydra gets larger, its voice changes to match that condition--while it might begin as a recognizable sort of voice, some foul mimicry of human identity, it inevitably becomes a reflection of the horrific and gargantuan monstrosity that it truly is: gargling and gnashing, voracious howling that demands to be given everything while returning nothing.
"I'm an empath, but ... hypotheticaly I could make a lullaby that makes all of you enter a false sense of security and bliss, as you inevitably fall within the grasp of an unholy horror ... hypotheticaly of course"
Is there a chance to have this be an acapella too? I think just the voices would definitely drive up the creep factor!
What would make it better is if the different singers didn’t sing in harmony, to really go for that feeling that something doesn’t really understand rhythm of singing
God I hope so. I'm going to do my first campaign soon(ish) and want to include a side quest where the party investigates a village under control by a false hydra. Would love to include that.
@@glendawe2597 To be fair, you could do a whole campaign arc around just a false hydra.
@@glendawe2597 by the way if it's not too late or if you didn't find out yet there's an acapella version in the google drive in the description
@@Steal_Your_Stuff r/meetsatan
It's all fun and games until you take your headphones off and this song is still playing
Been playing this during sessions, they don't know the creature, they hate me XD and they love the song. It legitimately made them forget they had a full five party and someone went missing, great job ^^
My party may have been forgotten to history. But at least this monster won’t hurt anyone ever again. (We sacrificed ourselves to seal it)
An old withered book you found in the forgotten toom had partially legible text that looked as if it was from a dead language. After bringing the book to an ancient spirit, the spirit read what it could. The cover mentioned monsters. What little text started describing a false Hydra. The pages were to worn to make out most of what it said. But near the end of the book, sperts of text read, "Creature......re..ing life cycle......waiting....technology.....tu...home."
Ima sing this lullaby to my baby and never explain it when they’re older
diabolical
@@redstinger0966you know how it is.
this gonna be a classic in 30,000
Oh you're absolutely evil
I wholeheartedly support this move
Okay, I know that it's a D&D monster, but when I saw that thumbnail, the first thing that popped into my head was _"Oh god, it's some kind of higher form of Dead Hand from Ocarina of Time!"_
...which I think I might keep as a kind of joking headcanon. Dead Hand is a beginning False Hydra, and Young Link only stays partially unaffected by its abilities due to having the Lens of Truth on him. It's why the dead in the well are "forgotten", why nobody knows that there's an entire torture dungeon in the well, why the only people who _do_ know of its existence all have some kind of powerful artifact or status to let them (Triforce pieces, Lens of Truth, being the Sage of Shadows)
...ok, that's enough nerding and fanwanking for this, I'll just see myself out...
It don't need to be a headcanon because the false hydra take direct inspiration from it (the early representation of the FH is even some images from zelda).
A beautiful and incredibly haunting masterpiece. To think such a sweet lullaby could be sung by such a horrifying creature...Wonderfully done!
I always imagined the "song" as being more of a constant hum. the idea that it's words makes it more terrifying than before.
This is one of the most gorgeous and tragically haunting songs I have ever heard. You earned my sub wholeheartedly, I hope to see more horror content from ya.
That . . . _T H I N G_ . Unhinged and unholy creature, from the nightmarish visions of a broken mind ! This song, and those words ! Beyond its beautiful composition and sadden tone, like a lullaby from your childhood, you know to well by the sound of this voice we're dealing with a cthulhian level of pure _"f**k that, nuke the all d*mn place, and burry the remains in the sea !"_ . . . I want to keep listening to this, and at the same time it make my skin crawl back !
I want to say bravo for the creation of this piece of Art, that was brilliant...
As for the hydra ? Never heard of it before tonight, but now, I'm gonna personally point it to the Godskins of Elden Ring, and tell them :
_"You wanna do somethin' great on cosmic levels... ? Then f**k that sh*t up, and make some slippers with it ! So we can all sleep at night, the mind in peace !"_
You see the problem with your grandiose plan is that anyone within a five mile radius can't perceive this ungodly thing. Even if it's right in front of you, munching on your friends and family (who as far as you're concerned, never existed, also due to this song)
@@sebastianb.3978 It doesn't exist... until you can't hear it.
An adventuring party tracks a bandit crew down into the town's sewers. The bandits have a sorcerer who's been slinging spells left and right, giving the party trouble, and so the bard casts Silence on the sorcerer. The barbarian, who was closing in to finish the spellcaster, happens to fall in the range of the spell.
Suddenly, the sorcerer's eyes go wide with horror, and he starts screaming, the sound swallowed up by the spell. He is looking right towards the door. The party pauses, confused. Is this a ploy?
The barbarian chances a look behind herself, and in the doorway, she sees it. A bulbous head, a too-wide mouth with too-long teeth, two colorless voids where the eyes should be. All thoughts of the sorcerer forgotten, this... *thing* is heading for the bard, the ranger doesn't see it, and so the barbarian sprints out and...
Huh.
Why was she running?
The sounds of the cowering, sniveling sorcerer are the only thing filling the room. The barbarian goes back and kills the spellcaster with a quick blow from her axe.
At least, the bandits won't bother the village anymore.
On the way out, the barbarian almost trips on a discarded lute. She picks it up with a strange sense of amusement.
Who just leaves lutes on the floor like that? she jokes with the ranger, heading back out of the sewers.
Three sets of footprints entered the room.
Only two left it.
Man, some time ago I thought about an adventure with a false hydra and I was searching for a song to be its theme and this fits perfectly, the backstory ( in a short way) is about a town that a long time ago was trying an alliance between humans and elves, one day the elf representative got trapped underground after an experiment went wrong, the humans some time after then betrayed and killed the elves and took the city, but the elf remained trapped until humans were exploring the underground centuries later, the elf got out without anyone knowing and discovered about the massacre, outraged he took the bones of the elves that were hidden underground and made the hydra, the lullaby was supposed to be his wife's lullaby to their children, but distorted.
Oddly enough, this song feels more like something of mournful lament, of a creature who never wanted to live the way they do. A creature whose very existence spells doom for any chance of real companionship - and perhaps even, a creature who does not understand why. I don't know how the False Hydra operates as of writing this comment, but it feels almost as though people consumed by the monster add to its number, and that perhaps the beast can recall the memories of the people it has consumed, further adding to its tragic existence.
In fact, because I've just looked it up, and there really isn't too much information on it, I think it makes for a base to create something significantly more haunting. Perhaps a creature created by a spell gone awry, an accidental chimera of sorts, and somewhere, amidst that jumble of bodies, is the tragic source, a lonely individual who turned to magic to try to quell their mental and social troubles (never a good idea), only for it to backfire. Of course, the older the creature is (and thus, potentially, the larger it is), the more tragic you can make it - the idea that if anything, even sharing bodies with so many other creatures, it still feels unfathomably lonely, and thus continues to search for more. The eerie wailing song could even be the spell itself - ever on repeat because the creature no longer remembers anything else. It remembers everyone else's memories (and perhaps each individual maybe acts as though it was still itself), but can't remember its own.
I know there's a lot of people who just really hate the idea of a monster not just being a monster, and in fact being a tragic tortured soul, but the evil that humanity can do, being disguised by a monstrous form to justify killing it, is really annoying to me, so I quite like giving monsters some level of sympathy, some kind of story that isn't just plain old 'monster is evil, kill it'.
Pardon this incredibly long waffle 😅
That's evil😭🥺
I'm gonna use that premise when my party faces this monster.
That's amazing. Can I use this for a dnd game.
In my word the false hydra was created by a mad scientist and to mix all those people together causes them alot of pain, and they now crave flesh being a abomination, so this song works really well. They hats they have to eat humans to survive and long for the lives they uses to have.
@@johnallencrist.delosreyes9491 Sorry X'D The song just sounds super tragic, so this is how it made me feel ^^;
You're just handing out the Acapella? Just like that?
How very pog.
Can't wait to tinker!
While listening to this I subconsciously shed three tears, and when wiping them thought: Eh? Why am I crying? And then got instant chills.
Just imagine hearing this in the pitch black night.
It's calming, welcoming, inviting
Yet eerie...
Look Voldemort! It’s your family!!
Where? I don't see anything.
Never played D&D, but this is super cool, I’m especially fond of the art used
You SHOULD play dnd.
That was amazing! Beautiful and enticing despite the creature's horrific appearance and despite the translation of the song, as one would expect from a creature that relies on deception.
(Fittingly, I completely forgot about false hydras being a thing until this video)
The only thing I can think of that would improve it would be having the different voices sing the lines differently or in overlapping ways rather than match each other the whole time, basically taking advantage of the multiple heads of the hydra to perform something similarly to a choir. It's hard to describe what I'm thinking of since I don't know musical terms, but back when I was in choir class I learned this song called The Snow Begins to Fall (Andy Beck) which does what I'm thinking of, especially around 50 seconds (section starts with "See it float") and 1:30 seconds into the song (section starts with "Now the river frozen")
I think having different heads singing in parts that overlap each other or diverge before coming back together to sing parts in the same way would take this already amazing song to the next level.