Del Geery Del Geery was a human farmer in the town of Thunderstone in Cormyr in the mid – 14th century DR . He was notably prosperous and enterprising , particularly in the hydra trade . History . In the late 1340s DR , Geery increased the yields of his crops of carrots and clover , but his fertile fields attracted hordes of rabbit s . These were followed by a variety of predators , like badger s and wolves . Normal means of controlling such pests , like traps and poison , failed to curb their numbers — for every animal trapped or killed , it seemed two more arrived . At a loss , Geery consulted his neighbor , the explorer Hadley Erridge , who proposed that Geery get a hydra . A hydra , Erridge claimed , would devour or scare off the pests then depart when there were no more prey . The damage to the farm would be more than outweighed by the benefits of getting rid of the burgeoning pest population , Erridge thought . Despite his skepticism , Geery agreed to finance Erridge with 20 , 000 gold piece s for an expedition into the Vast Swamp to capture a live hydra . Erridge and his thirty - man expedition ventured into the feared swamp . Two months later , they emerged , successful , with an adult hydra in a cage of iron . Geery gave each member of the expedition a bonus of 100 gp before they were dismissed . Geery based himself in a local cave while Erridge released the hydra . It rampaged about the farm , scaring away all the animals within a few days . However , despite what Erridge said about the hydra returning to the swamp , it instead stuck around and began building a nest by the pond . The hydra was , in fact , pregnant . Outraged , Geery gave Erridge the sack , then , for 15 , 000 gp , hired a group of warriors to slay the hydra , at which they at least were successful . Geery was down 38 , 000 gp and had a dead hydra on his hands . Determined to recoup his losses , he spent some 40 , 000 gp hiring the best ranger s and wizard s of the realm to help him discover the uses to which one could put the carcass of a hydra . He intended to use every part of the beast , and wring out every coin he could . He was so successful at this new trade that he began to fund new hydra - hunting expeditions in the Vast Swamp . By 1367 DR , he ' d earned a reputation in hydra trade , and projected that his profits from hydra products would , in a few years , outweigh those of his crops . Activities . Del Geery conducted pioneering agricultural research . He was able to improve the yields of his carrot and clover crops and increase the output of his cornfields threefold . He was also able to grow wheat in soil so poor it wouldn ' t sprout ragweed . However , the harvesting , making , and selling of hydra - based products was just as profitable . Geery was able to extract a great variety of useful wares from the corpse of a hydra . The teeth could be used to fashion almost - unbreakable blades for hoes , plows , and saws ; the skin could be dried to make warming covers for plants ; the dried tongues could be used to predict the weather ; ground hydra bones were an excellent desiccant ; hydra fat was an oddly useful rat poison ; and finally the head would scare away birds and small mammals . Thanks to his hard work and enterprising nature , Geery was prosperous and enormously wealthy , his fortune thought to be in the thousands or millions of gold pieces . Lands . Geery ' s farmland extended from the edge of the Vast Swamp to the foothills of the Thunder Peaks .