[Channel Teaser How The Shrewd DM Lured Clueless Party To
Destroy A Town The HOLY TRIO rides again. Last game the players were tricked into questioning
everything. The only thing one should expect from yours
truly as DM is that anything is possible, and to expect the unexpected. This time, more mysteries will be revealed! Make sure you watch part 1 if you haven’t
yet! The link is in the description below. So I genuinely think I nailed the last session
and was super excited to run this one. HOWEVER, the latest session did not end at
all like I thought it would. I assumed it would be more fact finding, which
is what happened. But they also ended up burning down the entire
town. Seriously. Here’s what happened. A quick side-note, top tips for this session
was having a playlist with key moment building songs programmed in and allowing the players
full reign of the narrative. I didn’t try to railroad them into doing
what I thought was best; I left it up to them. So, at the beginning of my sessions I usually
ask, “Ok, team. What the *bleep* happened last game?” And then let the players explain to one another
what they remember about the last session. I find this really useful for two reasons; 1. to see just what their interpretation of
what happened the last session was and make adjustments to my own game if needed. 2. to make sure they didn’t forget anything
crucial that I might need to remind them of. So they immediately begin suppositioning about
what the heck was going on in this town. Mentions of the fabric of reality messing
up, possible dream related monsters being around and potential lingering magical effects
of previous adventures were discussed. I usually just put on generic fantasy music
when playing games, most frequently the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. However, this week I set up a playlist for
this game. Whilst this was going on I played my first
song on the playlist, something I wanted to use to set the scene. It was an orchestral version of the Lavendar
Town song. It worked quite well, I thought. One thing I didn’t mention in my last story
was one other item that the Ranger found in Sophia’s backpack. He’d found one half of a set of sending
stones. For those who don’t know, sending stones
are a pair of magically linked stones that can be used once per day to communicate 25
words or less between each other. Essentially a mobile phone with limited minutes. The letters found in Sophia’s backpack had
indicated that the sending stones had been used regularly for the parents to communicate
with the sisters. Basically I was weaving in that the Druid
and her sister were quite close to her parents and would regularly chat on the sending stones. So, after listening to the lavender town song
and getting thoroughly creeped out, we begin the game. The Ranger immediately pipes up and says “I’m
going to use ‘locate object’ to find the other half of the sending stone.” Literally perfect. I immediately put on the 28 Days Later theme
and describe their journey through the town. It’s morning, overcast; the townsfolk are
going about their day but it doesn’t seem like a very busy town for its size. As they walk through the streets they see
that many shops aren’t open. A glance through the windows confirms it:
the shops seem empty and derelict. I’m paraphrasing my descriptions here, but
eventually they take a left and I describe 3 small homes in the hillside. Imagine Hobbiton but with square doors. Each door is painted a bold colour, red, yellow
& blue. The Locate Object spell indicates that the
other half of the sending stone is behind the yellow door and as they look at the garden
it’s messy, overgrown and apparently abandoned. At this point in the song we’re reaching
the part where the guitar begins to kick in, something which I have always adored. It really conveys a sense of “oh shit everything’s
gone wrong.” As the guitar plays and the music swells I
describe them walking through the garden and seeing a name next to the door. It’s the Druid’s surname. At this point the Paladin asks me to put a
different song on because 28 Days Later is beginning to put her on edge. I comply and put on Koyaanisqatsi because
it’s dark and foreboding and over an hour long so I don’t have to worry about it for
a while. Anytime I’m not playing a specific song
I pop this back on. The party opt to explore the house. Obviously the door is unlocked. Inside is a large room. There’s a kitchen, living area, a fireplace,
stairs: what you imagine you might find in a small person’s home. Nothing is out of the ordinary except there’s
a layer of dust everywhere and food has gone mouldy. It’s clear nobody has lived here for some
time. The Ranger is told that the spell leads up
upstairs, which is where he goes. The Paladin & Druid investigate downstairs. The Druid finds some scarves that had been
knitted; one has her name on, and on the other is Sophia’s name. The Paladin looks at a picture on top of the
fireplace. It’s a painting of a family. Two halfling parents with twin children. Both of the children look like the druid. Paladin: Do you have a twin? Druid: I think that’s Sophia. Cut to upstairs. The Ranger finds two bedrooms. Inside the main bedroom are a bed, wardrobe,
bedside tables, a vanity mirror with a handheld mirror and bits of costume jewellery on it. Just normal everyday bedroom furniture. The bed is left unmade though, like someone
was going to come back to it but never did. The spell leads the Ranger to one of the bedside
tables. Inside is the other sending stone. Further inspection of the room reveals writing
paper. The same paper used in the letters found in
Sophia’s backpack. Cut to downstairs. The Druid’s background is an Urchin. She’s got a token to remember her parents
by. This was in the form of a locket with a picture
in it that she assumed was her father’s face, but according to her she never knew
him. She holds up the locket to the picture on
the fireplace. Druid: Is this the same man? DM: Yep. Druid: (sighing) Brilliant. Let’s see what the Ranger is doing. The pair join the Ranger upstairs and they
explore the second room together. It’s different from the first room. There are two single beds in it. It’s decorated with pictures of animals,
trees and wildlife. There are also a few religious books dotted
about. But everything seems to be “on display”
like the room has never been lived in. Druid: Well, that would make sense since my
parents apparently only recently moved to Gullykin. My sister and I didn’t come to stay yet. We should leave. Not knowing what to do, the party feel the
need to get out of dodge. Druid: Can we just leave? Everyone seems happy enough. I think we should just go. Ranger: But we need to find out what’s happening
in this town. Paladin: We could speak to the next-door neighbour? Ranger: What’s my bear doing at this point? DM: Your what? Ranger: My bear… companion? DM: You’ve never had a bear companion dude. Ranger: Oh for *bleep*’s sake. Then begins a conversation in which everyone
at the table explains to me about the Ranger’s companion that he had and I keep making out
I have no idea what they’re talking about. Out of character, the Ranger asks if this
was something he’s forgotten as a character and I, myself out of character, told him I
had no idea what he was talking about - when did he ever have a bear companion? I did this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I’m a dickhead. Secondly, because I wanted to keep up the
sense of strangeness we had at the end of our last session. Ultimately, the best thing about any terror
or suspense is the not knowing part. The brain comes up with more terrifying things
than a writer ever could and I knew that in a session that would potentially give a lot
of answers, I’d have to do something to step up that weird factor. So at some point during the game the Ranger’s
companion got eaten and I chose to forget him just like a character would, in game. Eventually, the players stop questioning it
and get down to solving the mystery. They chat to the next-door neighbour who confirms
what they suspected, that she thinks nobody had ever lived next door for as long as she’s
lived there. Paladin: We should go to the church. The local priest might have answers or could
tell us about who’s missing in the town. The party head back to town to try and find
answers. I put on the Resident Evil movie theme and
describe them approaching town. They notice people milling around going about
their day, but I tell them they do notice that occasionally they’ll see someone about
to enter a shop and then stop and look confused, like they were wondering how they got there,
before wandering away. They arrive at the church and speak with Father
Procraster the local priest. They ask him questions about the population,
if anything strange was occurring. Other than Farmer Jack’s oversized cabbages
the priest said he couldn’t help them. Gullykin is a small town and not a lot happens
there. Suddenly the Paladin has an idea. Paladin: Do you have a town census? Procraster: Why yes, I suppose we do. But that’ll be over in the town hall. Paladin: (to party) If we can find a written
record of everyone in the town we can prove to everyone that there are people missing! This was an excellent idea that I hadn’t
factored in at all. And it led the game down a very different
path and, ultimately, the complete destruction of Gullykin. They find and enter the town hall. It’s near the centre of town, bunched in
amongst other residential buildings and shops. The party enter and are greeted by Diadora
who I describe as wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a haircut that made them feel like if
she were eating out at a restaurant she’d almost certainly ask to see the manager for
some arbitrary reason. However, smooth as anything, my party win
Diadora’s stern nature over and ask if they could view the town census. She gives them directions down a corridor
and then first door on their left. As they walk down the long corridor lit by
low candlelight, they pass by many rooms and some offices. Most are completely empty, completely abandoned. There’s a few people working away but they
seem completely unaware at how empty the building seems to be. In the records room the party rush to find
the census report. It’s packed with names of people who ought
to be living in Gullykin. There are far more names in this report than
the party have seen in town. They work out that there are dozens and dozens
of missing people. The final blow is finding the Druid’s parentss
names listed as the most recent people to move to town. Ranger: Wait. Can I use Primeval Awareness to see if there’s
something in this town doing this? DM: Wait, what? What does that do again? Ranger: I can sense whether any aberrations,
celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends or undead are present within one mile of me. DM: YES! You can absolutely do that! Ranger: What do I find? DM: There’s an aberration in this town. The party are quiet. There’s something doing this but they don’t
know what, and they don’t know where. At this point I’m playing the Sunshine theme
because they’re doing well. But I press pause for a moment and explain
something to them. This is the first time there's not been any
music playing in the background and I think it adds to the moment. DM: Suddenly you can hear a loud silence. It’s a sudden profound silence that makes
you feel like noise has recently stopped. Deafening silence, as they say. But you don’t remember hearing anything. Druid: So, like the background noise of everyone
in the building has stopped? DM: No, more like a sound you weren’t even
aware of, that you’d completely normalised, that has ceased for a moment. Druid: I think everyone in the building has
disappeared. I then begin playing the music again and ask
the party what they want to do. I am now completely ignoring the momentary
silence I described. The silence was, of course, the False Hydra
eating someone new. I was also hoping that it would help hint
that whatever this thing was, the power it had was sound based. The party want to learn more about the history
of the town. They begin looking through newspapers and
records but can’t find anything untoward; for all intents and purposes, this is a small
town with not a lot going on. The latest newspaper’s headline is “FARMER
JACK CONFIDENT ABOUT HIS CABBAGES.” They decide they want to find a library, something
that might have information of something that might have happened in the town. I put on Requiem for a Dream and the party
exit the records room and head back down the corridor. At one point they stick their head into one
of the occupied offices. Where’s the library? There’s one upstairs? Fortuitous! They rush back to the reception and ask Diadora
the way to the library. DM: There’s never been anyone working at
the reception desk. Party: *Bleep*’s sake. DM: There’s a set of stairs to the left,
though. They lead downstairs to the basement level
and also upstairs to the top floor. Brilliant. The party race upstairs and find the library. I describe what sections they see: History,
Bestiary, Mythology, Fiction. The party jump on the historical records and
can’t find anything. There are no records of anything strange happening
in this town. They’re at a loss. Ranger: There must be something that can help
us work out what this creature is. DM: I know, if only there was another section
you could read through or something. The party are quiet for a moment whilst it
sinks in. Suddenly they are scrambling through the bestiary
and mythology sections of the library. I ask them what they’re specifically looking
for because they don’t know the name of this creature. They explain they’re looking for the symptoms
of the town: people under a thrall, memory manipulation, that kind of thing. Great. After a few successful rolls they find an
entry entitled “False Hydra.” I tell them it sounds exactly like what they’re
looking for. I pop on the Watchmen Trailer version of Smashing
Pumpkins – The Beginning is the End is the Beginning and literally read the first few
lines of the monster stat block and of the Goblin Punch article. “Common wisdom holds that false hydras come
from the ground. They spontaneously originate as undifferentiated
masses of flesh. Potatoes that sprout from no seed. Supposedly, they germinate in response to
lies, and that each falsehood causes a false hydra to swell larger. The false hydra enters a town through a humble
enough method. Fattened on worms, it has been growing upwards
these last few days (weeks? years?), but has only now broken through the soil. It emerges in a basement, from behind the
jars of fruit preserve. Or pushes its face up through a broken cobblestone. And then it begins to sing. While it sings, it is ignored. It just creates gaps in your attention and
then slips through them. It is subtler than invisibility, and more
reliable. But of course, none of this is noticed. While it sings, the hydra exists in our blind
spot. The lair of a false hydra always lies underneath
the city it chooses to feed on. The hydra burrows underground, sprouting its
head like a plant typically under buildings or in their lower floors. It frequently moves creating large cavernous
areas prone to collapsing. It only surfaces if the city can no longer
feed it, and only long enough to move to its next target.” Paladin: We could put our fingers in our ears. Ranger: Yes, that’s all well and good but
is there anything in there about how to kill it? DM: I dunno dude, that’s a lot of info. Roll to see if you find another book. Natural 20. DM: *Bleep*’s sake. Ok. Hang on. “The song is closer to charm, suggestion
or even phantasmal force than anything else. Anti-charm magic might affect it. None of this is proven, there aren’t even
any pictures on it but the False Hydra might be visible in mirrors. The added degree of separation could work.” Paladin: We could put our fingers in our ears
to fight it maybe? DM: Could be an idea. Ranger & Druid: How would we fight it with
no hands? We wouldn’t be able to hear each other…
etc Paladin: OK. The party decide they’re going to find mirrors
to fight it. The Ranger immediately runs into the bathroom
and smashes up a mirror in there. He comes out with bleeding hands holding the
largest shard up. The druid takes a look at him and decides
they should run back to her family home to pick up the hand mirror and the vanity mirror
they saw in there. Druid: I think we need safe mirrors. Back they go. I put on a remix of Nightmare on Elm Street
because things are heating up. Whilst they’re running out of the town hall
I tell the Ranger that as he’s glancing through the mirror he sees that the town hall
is actually quite dilapidated; there are holes and breaks in it everywhere. He takes note of this but does nothing. They get to the Druid’s home, grab the mirrors
and return to the centre of town. Now that they’re all armed with a mirror,
they look through them and ask what they see. I describe the town hall again as looking
broken and dilapidated. It has holes in it like something has been
bursting out. It’s the only building in town that looks
like this. They race back inside. As they look around the reception they look
through the mirrors and see a hole in the floor next to the desk. There’s blood around it, as if someone has
been dragged through. Druid: That’ll be the receptionist we don’t
remember. DM: Who? Then the party begin talking about how they
should just set the entire building on fire and leave. This would be problematic. I explain they can’t just solve their problems
with fire. They ask why, and I explain that fire doesn’t
go down, if the Hydra was on the top floor, then sure, but they’ve got evidence of it
being underneath them. This doesn’t deter them, though. The gang’s motto is generally “if in doubt
set it on fire” and it appears this is no exception. DM: Druid, make a wisdom check. Druid: Shit. 13. DM: Suddenly you feel compelled to walk down
the stairs to the basement. Nothing you can do will stop you from doing
this action. You begin walking down the stairs. Druid: Uuuh, help? Paladin: What!? I grapple her to the ground. I have the Paladin’s strength vs. the Druid’s
dexterity and luckily the Paladin wins and pins the Druid to the ground. The Ranger looks into the mirror and can see
one of the faces of the False Hydra staring at them. He asks to attack it but I tell him if he’s
not looking at the Hydra in the mirror, he forgets it’s there. Right, fine. He attacks it at disadvantage and is lucky
enough to hit. The Hydra lets out an ear-piercing screech
and I tell the Druid the spell has been dropped. There’s also a deathly silence again and
for a moment they can see all the holes in the building. Paladin: We should plug our ears and fight
it! Druid: No! We’re setting this place on fire! We can run up to the library and records room
and get loads of paper. Ranger: Yeah we can plug it down the holes
and burn the building down! Paladin: OK. DM: Wait, that’s ridiculous. You’d need a better accelerant to properly
light the wood. Druid: The paper is an accelerant. Look, there are probably some lovely curtains
we can use to make a fire. We’re doing it. DM: Fine. Give me some high rolls. 15, 17 & 21. Shit. Fine. The party raise the alarm and tell everyone
in the building there’s a fire. They make sure the place is empty before setting
fire to the entire building. With those rolls the entire place goes up. I now roll some dice. DM: The town hall goes up spectacularly. It gets bigger and bigger and more fierce
as it begins to consume everything inside the building. The Town Hall is made of wood, of course,
so it begins to roar with flames. Party: Yay! Did we kill it? I roll some more dice. DM: You watch as the flames grow larger. And you realise the building next to the town
hall is now on fire. Party: Oh? Rolls dice. DM: The building on the other side catches
fire. Dice roll. DM: You watch as within a matter of minutes
most of the buildings in front of you are on fire. The fire is growing larger and larger and
is beginning to spread throughout the whole town. Party: Shit. What followed was the party attempting to
evacuate the entire town of Gullykin. They raise the alarm, work with the townsfolk,
help people leave. People are panicking as they pick up what
belongings they can before fleeing the raging fire. Some of the townsfolk aren’t so lucky, I
describe halfling people running in the streets burning and on fire. As the party look upon the burning desolation
of what was once the town of Gullykin they realise they may have gone overboard. The priest they’d spoken to that morning
walks up to them, his face blackened with soot and ash, tears streaming down his cheeks. He utters one word. “Why?” Ranger: Look, just be safe in the knowledge
that we saved all of your lives. Paladin: I think we’d better leave. ... And that's the story of how my party defeated
a False Hydra and caused the mass evacuation of Gullykin. As they galloped away back to Nashkel I described
them being hit with a blast of psychic energy as they hear an almighty scream coming from
the town. I describe their memories becoming scrambled
and they remember certain things like the Ranger's companion and the Barman's wife. But they still don't remember Sophia. Thanks for the time, everyone. I hope it was as fun watching as it was playing
for me. And sorry again for the wall of text! Wow! I was on the edge of my seat! Do you incorporate music into your games? Have you ever tricked your players like this
downright devious DM? Were the party the most gullible players in
the world or what? They didn’t have an inkling as to what was
transpiring! Then again, with a DM like that, better and
smarter men could try and better and smarter men would fail. Comment your reactions and suggestions in
the comment section below. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel,
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