I heard about one DM who had a deaf person come running out of the prison screaming "the heads! The heads! Can't you see them?" Before being dragged back, assumed to be insane
I'm thinking this would be an awesome way to introduce a new character to a campaign. After the players defeat the false hydra, they cut it open, and find someone who hasn't been fully digested. They heal that person, and find out that they were a member of the party that had been eaten and they all forgot about it.
This is pure genius, and instead of cutting it open (because some PCs might not think that far ahead) you could have the thing either fall apart on its own or disintegrate in some way.
I'm introducing a new PC that way right now. She's still in the process of getting eaten, so the party is only getting fragments of memories about her. Once they kill it and stabilize her, they'll get a montage of highlights from the campaign so far, snippets of adventures and what she was doing alongside them.
Just had an encounter with this thing as a player today, and oh boy was it intense. Our DM had it so that it sort of lived in a mirror dimension, where you could only see it through a mirror reflection, and everything in the mirror dimension was different. So like a window being perfectly fine, might be smashed in the mirror dimension, showing that something had passed through there. It was rather intense.
Lol! I want one player or npc who keeps succeeding in seeing the thing but no one will listen just for laughs. "No really. It's right there." Okay. How many groups have that one comedy relief character that could very well be pretending to fight invisible monsters? This is pure gold. I gotta try it.
I have been wanting to do an encounter with this thing for a while. I'm thinking of doing a one shot with a local well-off merchant/lord having recently purchased a rather large mansion that has been left uninhabited for a while. Its framed as a ghost hunting mission: the owner claims that he has had trouble with things going bump in the night and he's convinced that the house may be a tad haunted, which is why his staff and the people he hired to come fix up the place keep "running off" unannounced. His wife and daughter have also gone missing, but when asked about his wife he insists he never had one. He remembers his daughter though. (who is deaf and is trying to hide from the hydra in the walls/attic since no one would believe her.) And the house is *actually* haunted of course...by the recently departed staff. If the party puts forth the extra effort to lay them to rest properly instead of just straight up killing them, they can be asked questions about how they died. (and if they do just kill them they can find notes/track down the girl) the memories of the dearly departed are a tad fuzzy, but over time a cleaner picture begins to point towards the garden...
I learned about these things when Lullaby of the False Hydra came out. Shoutout EmpathP. I'm fully in love with them now and I'm 100% gonna throw one at my group. Thanks for the advice and all the stats and stuff you're a badass and I've got this saved so I can look back on it when I get to writing the encounter.
It's a crime that the false hydra isn't in the MM. I love the FH; it's really fun to make players (especially those who don't take notes) doubt their own actions and thoughts about everything.
What would be an interesting way to run this would be to having 1 PC be deafened for some reason or another before encountering the false hydra's town/village. Have the one player pick up on things that the rest of the party doesn't notice, which could lead to an interesting way of discovering the beast. Make sure to talk it over in some detail (something along the lines of, yes, you'll be deaf for a bit, but it will be a temporary thing that lends itself to the plot) with the PC who is deafened beforehand.
I just thought of a nice evolution of false hydra - reality hydra! This evolved version can not only alter the memory of the adventurer, it can alter the reality itself! Inside its own little bubble where it builds its nest, this hydra has a limited reality shaping abilities. That combined with memory manipulation, makes this enemy very difficult to defeat.
@@SkullSplitter Haha, yeah. I only played vs beholders in Baldur's gate 2 on PC and they weren't that much different from a regular critter. I know in lore they are supposed to be a Lovecraftian reality bending monster. I had an idea when I heard about the false hydra for a short campaign where every time it kills a hero (player) and the player makes a new character, that character is actually the soul of the hydra's previous victims, reality shifted into a new body with new memories. So the player character gets flashbacks of the hydra from time to time without knowing why and that continues until the party finally kills the villain.
I've been running a campaign where I plan on using this and have already been sewing the seeds. Every day I give the players a bardic inspiration dice or an occasional cutting words, and occasionally will hear about an NPC in a different town that people will forget about etc...
I'll be giving my players a deaf old man who sees the Hydra, and has been waiting for someone to help the town. I'll also be using the mirror route, and giving them hints in the houses they investigate. As in they can see the False Hydra through mirrors while affected by the song.
Just a heads up, I saw the False Hydra on TikTok today and some guy just whole sale stole your description of it. I tried to find it again but I couldn't.
What about giving it extra heads, capturing each player individually and scurrying off after 1 head is destroyed or just before delivering the final blow (for whatever reason you come up with) only to find, seperate and fight the next player, no one knows why or how they got where they are, what happened or how they got hurt if they are hurt, but they find each other after their battles (player 1 finds player 2 after player 2's fight, they then find player 3 after their fight and so on) their new objective is to find out what happened to them, this leads them on an adventure that leads to the mythical beast as an end game enemy, introduce the beast at or near the start, and only reintroduce it at or near the end, make it a master of a mob army, HAIL HYDRA
"Don't be that DM" What does that mean? You don't think monsters will have a desire to live or a fight or flight response? OF COURSE they are going to run when they realize that if they stay they are going to die. The adventurers are fighting the false hydra, after they chop two of three heads off, the false hydra realizes it cannot win the battle. So it begins to burrow and fucking leaves. It is intelligent enough to know that there are other towns out there to which to feed. Its not a dragon defending its hoard, or an undead mindlessly throttling anything that moves. It wants to live, so it will do what it can to stay alive.
I've heard absolute horror stories about this critter from people who have fought it. With that being said I can't wait to inflict it upon my players. Bwhahahaaa... LOL
If the PCs manage to Raise Dead or Reincarnate some of the dead, do everyone's erased memories of them return? Or would they stay erased? How would you handle that?
Well, when we ran it here, we ruled that the souls were GONE. As in eaten, forever beyond the reach of those spells. But really, it could be up to the DM/players. Depends on the tone you want to set (we were running grim dark style campaign).
![D&D Story: The False False-Hydra [Dragon Fangs Part 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TKTXqvIMHvQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I heard about one DM who had a deaf person come running out of the prison screaming "the heads! The heads! Can't you see them?" Before being dragged back, assumed to be insane
I'm thinking this would be an awesome way to introduce a new character to a campaign. After the players defeat the false hydra, they cut it open, and find someone who hasn't been fully digested. They heal that person, and find out that they were a member of the party that had been eaten and they all forgot about it.
A way to get the PCs to cut it open would be to inform them somehow that one of the organs is valuable to alchemists or wizards as a reagent.
This is pure genius, and instead of cutting it open (because some PCs might not think that far ahead) you could have the thing either fall apart on its own or disintegrate in some way.
I'm introducing a new PC that way right now. She's still in the process of getting eaten, so the party is only getting fragments of memories about her. Once they kill it and stabilize her, they'll get a montage of highlights from the campaign so far, snippets of adventures and what she was doing alongside them.
Just had an encounter with this thing as a player today, and oh boy was it intense. Our DM had it so that it sort of lived in a mirror dimension, where you could only see it through a mirror reflection, and everything in the mirror dimension was different. So like a window being perfectly fine, might be smashed in the mirror dimension, showing that something had passed through there. It was rather intense.
Sounds like fun!
Lol! I want one player or npc who keeps succeeding in seeing the thing but no one will listen just for laughs. "No really. It's right there." Okay. How many groups have that one comedy relief character that could very well be pretending to fight invisible monsters? This is pure gold. I gotta try it.
All fae are immune to mindeffecting abilities in 3.5
I mean thats actually fantastic for horror as well if you play it up like that character is just going insane...
Have them be hard of hearing, say?
I have been wanting to do an encounter with this thing for a while. I'm thinking of doing a one shot with a local well-off merchant/lord having recently purchased a rather large mansion that has been left uninhabited for a while. Its framed as a ghost hunting mission: the owner claims that he has had trouble with things going bump in the night and he's convinced that the house may be a tad haunted, which is why his staff and the people he hired to come fix up the place keep "running off" unannounced. His wife and daughter have also gone missing, but when asked about his wife he insists he never had one. He remembers his daughter though. (who is deaf and is trying to hide from the hydra in the walls/attic since no one would believe her.) And the house is *actually* haunted of course...by the recently departed staff. If the party puts forth the extra effort to lay them to rest properly instead of just straight up killing them, they can be asked questions about how they died. (and if they do just kill them they can find notes/track down the girl) the memories of the dearly departed are a tad fuzzy, but over time a cleaner picture begins to point towards the garden...
I learned about these things when Lullaby of the False Hydra came out. Shoutout EmpathP. I'm fully in love with them now and I'm 100% gonna throw one at my group. Thanks for the advice and all the stats and stuff you're a badass and I've got this saved so I can look back on it when I get to writing the encounter.
It's a crime that the false hydra isn't in the MM. I love the FH; it's really fun to make players (especially those who don't take notes) doubt their own actions and thoughts about everything.
Mostly because of IP issues we'd think. The False Hydra is a special kind of terror. =D
Omg I’m DMing today, this is so helpful and I can’t wait to see how it plays out, I promise i won’t play keep away 😂
HOW DID IT GO?
What would be an interesting way to run this would be to having 1 PC be deafened for some reason or another before encountering the false hydra's town/village. Have the one player pick up on things that the rest of the party doesn't notice, which could lead to an interesting way of discovering the beast. Make sure to talk it over in some detail (something along the lines of, yes, you'll be deaf for a bit, but it will be a temporary thing that lends itself to the plot) with the PC who is deafened beforehand.
Oh man, I cannot wait to use this thing in one of my one shots
One of the most interesting 5e Tips videos of all. Kudos
I just thought of a nice evolution of false hydra - reality hydra! This evolved version can not only alter the memory of the adventurer, it can alter the reality itself! Inside its own little bubble where it builds its nest, this hydra has a limited reality shaping abilities. That combined with memory manipulation, makes this enemy very difficult to defeat.
Maybe it ate too many beholders?
@@SkullSplitter Haha, yeah. I only played vs beholders in Baldur's gate 2 on PC and they weren't that much different from a regular critter. I know in lore they are supposed to be a Lovecraftian reality bending monster. I had an idea when I heard about the false hydra for a short campaign where every time it kills a hero (player) and the player makes a new character, that character is actually the soul of the hydra's previous victims, reality shifted into a new body with new memories. So the player character gets flashbacks of the hydra from time to time without knowing why and that continues until the party finally kills the villain.
Thank you for this really good description. I haven't played dnd since I was younger (lost touch with friends) and never heard of this thing. Love it
I've been running a campaign where I plan on using this and have already been sewing the seeds. Every day I give the players a bardic inspiration dice or an occasional cutting words, and occasionally will hear about an NPC in a different town that people will forget about etc...
I'll be giving my players a deaf old man who sees the Hydra, and has been waiting for someone to help the town. I'll also be using the mirror route, and giving them hints in the houses they investigate. As in they can see the False Hydra through mirrors while affected by the song.
love the plugged ears idea. gave me an idea to have a crazed guy yelling about it in the beginning
Yea. Have you seen Twelve Monkeys? That's the vibe we're going for.
3:31 in. You want the NPC to seem like this. ruclips.net/video/_whrQX6DL1E/видео.html
@@SkullSplitter yup yup ran the one shot today and thats exactly what i went for
players loved it
I prefer gmbinder or dndbeyond version of it. Slightly nerfing it to suit a cr 11 or 12 encounter for a party of 4 lvl 8 pcs. Still a nice video.
"Gaslighting", the encounter.
YOU"RE NOT WRONG
This is going straight on my next stream story
Cone of silence is a classic.
Just a heads up, I saw the False Hydra on TikTok today and some guy just whole sale stole your description of it. I tried to find it again but I couldn't.
What about giving it extra heads, capturing each player individually and scurrying off after 1 head is destroyed or just before delivering the final blow (for whatever reason you come up with) only to find, seperate and fight the next player, no one knows why or how they got where they are, what happened or how they got hurt if they are hurt, but they find each other after their battles (player 1 finds player 2 after player 2's fight, they then find player 3 after their fight and so on) their new objective is to find out what happened to them, this leads them on an adventure that leads to the mythical beast as an end game enemy, introduce the beast at or near the start, and only reintroduce it at or near the end, make it a master of a mob army, HAIL HYDRA
We fought this guy today, it was terrifying.
I wont show my DM. I don't want to meet it. Im new and ...
You're not new, you just can't remember any of your campaigns because the false hydra wiped your party members ;p
I’m planning to use an elder oblex in the campaign I’m running, there a a few npcs my players have really bonded with 😈I
That's evil. So of course we love it =D
@@SkullSplitter thank you, I think they’re underused but have such potential
I am sorry thank you for the information.
"Don't be that DM"
What does that mean? You don't think monsters will have a desire to live or a fight or flight response? OF COURSE they are going to run when they realize that if they stay they are going to die.
The adventurers are fighting the false hydra, after they chop two of three heads off, the false hydra realizes it cannot win the battle. So it begins to burrow and fucking leaves. It is intelligent enough to know that there are other towns out there to which to feed. Its not a dragon defending its hoard, or an undead mindlessly throttling anything that moves. It wants to live, so it will do what it can to stay alive.
I feel like someone will just cast silence on it.
It kinda reminds me of Pennywise the clown from the book IT.
I've heard absolute horror stories about this critter from people who have fought it. With that being said I can't wait to inflict it upon my players. Bwhahahaaa... LOL
Exactly!
I think our dm is throwing this against us... and we're level 3....
So... it's gaslighting monsterified then.
You are not wrong!
If the PCs manage to Raise Dead or Reincarnate some of the dead, do everyone's erased memories of them return? Or would they stay erased? How would you handle that?
Well, when we ran it here, we ruled that the souls were GONE. As in eaten, forever beyond the reach of those spells. But really, it could be up to the DM/players. Depends on the tone you want to set (we were running grim dark style campaign).
If a dm is gonna be this "evil" I'ma just walk out and find a new dm.