When A False Hydra Almost Destroyed An Entire Town | Narrated D&D Story

Credits
Story Source (Reddit):
Video Editor: Shawn Kadian
Narration: MyLo (Twitter/VoMylo)

#dndstories #dnd #dungeonsanddragons

[rinkuraku]

That DM was incredibly kind. Normally a false hydra eats its victims immediately.

[TheMightyBattleSquid]

To be fair, when does a false hydra NOT almost destroy an entire town? Usually the players run into it only after it has gotten past the beginning growth stages of its development.

[Ahrpigi]

The party never left the cave. They succumbed to the song and perished fighting the hydra in the cave. Finding a convenient item to restore the people's memories, being celebrated, rebuilding, leaving to pursue a long career adventuring... All illusions and hallucinations before being eaten.

[Nintenja]

An amulet that restored their memories? Nah, my party had to leave that town scarred, damaged, but alive. There was one sole person with their memories intact, as they were immune to charm, that was left to try to fill in the blanks the town had, telling the stories of those who had fallen to the beast, including the party member the players don’t even remember.

[angrymike]

This ended a lot better than the first false Hydra story you did most definitely. That story definitely freaks me out to this day and it was pretty gnarly but still so fascinating to hear people using false hydras in their stories

[matthewshiers]

That was a suspiciously long-winded happy ending. I was waiting for it all to come crumbling down in a heart-stopping instant, as the last remaining PC suddenly saw through the illusion cast upon them by the false hydra, with the rest of the party having already been consumed by the beast after they'd been overwhelmed by its song. False hydras are no joke.

[georgesarreas]

Honestly... I might be a lil harsh but this felt a little like wasting the hydra.i like to plan ahead so that when it hits, it won't matter if they know about it or not. Its gonna be devastating either way

[thlittleleopard]

I ran a false hydra two-shot where the heroes were visiting a friend's home town for an RnR and got pulled into the mystery of the town. They thankfully managed to save the town before it was completely wiped out, but considering how many people had died already, the place was probably not going to last that much longer.

It was hiding in the library, which had been abandoned after the librarian disappeared. Fun times were had :D

[JDStone-jgcg]

Is it bad that i spent the entire second half of this video waiting for them to 'realize' that they had been caught by the false hydra and all their memories about being great hero's was a lie the hydra was feeding them while it held them in stasis until it was time to eat them . . .

[tysondennis]

The DM really wanted the party to win.

[SirFailsalot]

I was expecting a plot twist that turned the story on its head, like the party waking up after the celebration of their success and nobody remembering why they were celebrating because the False Hydra they had slain was just an offspring of the one lurking in the town's sewers, and killing the one they thought was the big threat was just the precursor to the awakening of the true monstrosity hiding right under their feet.

It'd be extra unsettling if the heads of a False Hydra could just break off and become a new one, splitting off from its parent and fleeing to somewhere it could not be cannibalised in order to hunt its own prey - that might make it a little too strong as it can always come back, but then it's like the actual hydra of myth, where cutting off it's main head and disposing of it would ultimately kill the beast - as long as one head survives, the False Hydra can always return.

[Anamnesis]

The second I heard "amulet of memory" I thought NAH.

[JaeIBe]

(My favorite version of the one that I run, feel free to use it)
The party found themselves staying in town longer than they thought they were going to. They had been there 4 weeks, when the plan was, originally, a few days to restock their caravan and get back on the road. The town was full of people who spoke in a mix of sign language and common, though none of those the party met seemed to be deaf. They investigated this and discovered that the town had a mayor, Crazy Jeffo. To all reports, he'd always been crazy and he'd always been deaf. They brushed this off as interesting trivia and wandered to the inn they'd been staying at.


(Note for any DMs who wanna try this, start describing the scene normally, then shift your voice to list-reading to make the party tune out. Their subconscious will hear the freaky part, but unlikely they will)

DM reading notes aloud:

You enter through the poorer section of town. You see people going about their daily business. Washing clothes, watching over children, yelling at the dog for pulling down the washing, shopping for dinner... You hear children's screams that break down into giggles as a little girl is tickled by an older boy who looks much like her. You smell something savory, and fishy, cooking.
As you continue walking through town, you see a well-dressed woman being grabbed by horrible heads on the end of many long necks, four guards rushing past you, there's shouting, children crying and a dog running away, yelping in fear.... The smell of well-cooked bread and meat kabobs is a harsh counterpoint to the scene.
***

(if challenged [which I never have been], read below like you're recapping/re-reading)
You see well-dressed people strolling the streets for their shopping. A pair of guards rush past you, headed to their empty posts. There are the calls of vendors in the streets, people chatting loudly with one another, children laughing, screaming and crying, dogs barking faintly in the distance. The smell of cooking foods waft on the breeze, bread mostly, scorched, some meat kabobs that smell quite appetizing.
Are you interested in shopping or something?
***

You climb the ladder into the window of the inn, go downstairs & greet the innkeeper of Billamy's Drinkery (best stop on the pilgrimage to the Worldtree), Bredda.

Bredda charged them 3 silver for the day (our sneaky double agent remembers it was 4, yesterday). (Unbeknownst to the party, currently, our double agent's twin sister was eaten by the hydra). (Wisdom save from the double agent, DC 30, he rolls a 22 and thinks he made whatever it was.) DM: You don't remember your sister and you feel like you're having to talk louder and louder to be heard.

(Cue party panic.)


The party decides to seek out the mayor as being the other obvious oddity. They ask around about him, and are eventually able to make it to his manor. No one's seen him in weeks, but his behaviour was escalatingly crazy in the time before that. People seemed to not want to think about him.


They arrive at his manor and this time the whole party has to make a DC 30 Wisdom save. Everyone fails, and I describe how the holes they first saw in the walls of the manner seem to slowly close up. I describe it happening a bit differently for each of them. One, I say: The walls and windows seem to stretch until it's as if they're unable to perceive the where the holes were, as if their mind rejected their very existence. The last one (a very creative PC) I let come up with her own reasoning, after hearing everyone else's. I said "Your mind is grasping at a reasonable explanation for how the holes could disappear but still be there". She said "Guys, it's just illusion magic, don't worry about it." & marched into the house confidently.


In the house, they glimpse horrible things for a moment (heads on long necks, people being eaten, music notes covering everything) and have to make another Wisdom save. Everyone fails, and I describe what looks like the ramblings and scribblings of a madman all over the walls and floor and windows.


Upstairs, in the mayor's room, they find caged demons and his notebooks. (Most parties slay or banish the demons, some try to interrogate them. The demons work for the mayor in very humane conditions, according to them.) They scour the notebooks for information on what's going on. The notebook gets more and more insane and disjointed. There's a repeated phrase, "It's in the ears!!" They find a sketch of the creature, which I show the players (terrifying, many-headed false hydra, ofc). Time for another Wisdom save! Two of our players succeed! They remember everything! Several of their caravan members are straight up missing and they *just* noticed! They see the image of the monster and the Players are *struggling* to figure out what to do, how to handle this.


They start trying to help the other party members remember. Seeing if they can push past the block, if they know it's there. Our creative player is determined. She heals herself, then tries to remember. Wisdom save, DC 30. Fail. Her nose starts bleeding as she takes psychic damage. A moment later the whole party is forced to do another Wisdom save. They all fail. DM: You forget your sister, and your missing caravan members. (to the creative player) You're struggling to remember why you're here, your brain is trying to fill in the gaps of anything connected to the monster with anything else.


The other Players are worrying about her PC and her nosebleed, unable to remember why she has it.


She decides to close her eyes and put her fingers in her ears, to just not be in the way.


This *saves them*. I describe how she suddenly remembers everything, everyone. She shouts "It's in the EARS!" and yellingly tells them to put their fingers in their ears. Ensues a conversation at high volume where they figure out how to keep their ears blocked. Now, they can hunt down the false hydra and not fall prey to it.

(I usually have two false hydras. One is stuck in the door of their inn. People are unable to perceive it, its heads are stuck inside the building. That's why they use the ladder and climb through the upstairs window of their inn, above. The second is tunneling under the city, popping out and eating people. They kill the tunneler (as it is actively hunting) and realize they only remember some of their missing peoples and can still hear singing. Track that back to their own inn and see the false hydra stuck in the doorjamb. This isn't really a battle scene so much as added anxiety followed by a funny moment to fully break all that tension.)


edited for: spacing, clarity and detail

[anarchylove]

Sounded a little too wholesome for a false hydra. Like if it was the wrong monster for this DM to use

[exect]

easy mode hydra, too many clues like hearing the singing and the town almost discovering it too, a true hydra its almost really almost undetectable.

[serpentinious]

My 3.5 character made it a point to cast Mind Blank on himself each day precisely to prevent things like this. It was part of his morning routine.

[alexanderjamesaustin]

Wait what? How did the people who died come back to life?

[liaml.e.]

That was uncharacteristically uplifting for a False Hydra story.

[themightybeercules]

wild, i started watching this an hour ago because im running it this weekend and didnt realize it was a brand new video lol. Great tale!

[shawnwalker]

Just ran a false hydra with my group of people, they injured it and instead of it retreating to a hole to hide and heal it started rapidly snapping people up off the street. In the end the only ones to get out of the town alive was my party and two villagers.
Then the false hydra ripped itself out of the ground and started crawling towards the next settlement.