False Hydra of Broadford

The **False Hydra of Broadford** was a large false hydra that burrowed beneath the town hall in Broadford, Enisti and slowly grew to terrorise the town.

## Biography

### Early Life

Like all false hydra, the hydra of Broadford's origins are mysterious, which is befitting given its mind-altering capabilities. It is known that they form underground and this hydra grew beneath the town for some time before emerging from under the town hall. Common understandings suggest false hydra somehow germinate in response to lies and negativity and that falsehoods can cause a false hydra to grow even larger. However, whether this was the case in Broadford is unconfirmed.

As the hydra grew, it began to leave the town hall and feed on residents, using its song to erase any record of its victims from the residents' memories. What was once a profitable port town slowly began to dwindle in population and the accumulating paranoia and cognitive dissonance among the confused relatives created the perfect feeding grounds for the hydra.

### ICA Intervention

When a team of four ICA agents arrived in Broadford, the hydra's song affected their memories and all four forgot the original purpose of their mission. They came to believe they had in fact arrived with a fifth agent and became fixated on finding a man for reasons they could not agree on. Only by leaving and reentering the town's borders did they become aware of the hydra's influence. Their search for answers led them to the witch Granny Ragna, who provided the agents with a bestiary that identified the hydra and detailed the abilities of the creature. With one agent being killed along the way, the team returned to Broadford with a new associate in search of the hydra.

Locating its lair, the agents evacuated much of the town and recruited what remained of the town's militia to take on the hydra, armed with reflective surfaces in order to be able to see it without forgetting. The hydra, however, was able to overpower all involved and killed the vast majority of the soldiers, including the ICA agents' new associate, with another agent barely escaping with her life.

### Death and Aftermath

Knowing they didn't have long to act before the hydra's song erased their memories again, the agents chose to burn the town to the ground immediately after the battle and evacuate the remaining survivors, which ended up killing the hydra. The surviving residents of Broadford would leave to form a small community of refugees, before moving on in search of new homes.

## Abilities

The hydra is a large beast with multiple heads, each of which have long flexible necks and large mouths that allow it to easily eat humanoid creatures whole. It can enter homes and move through tight spaces and maintains residence in a burrow beneath the town. It is physically strong and is able to use its powerful claws as well as teeth in combat. It is also resilient and durable in accordance with its size.

However, the hydra's most devastating ability was its 'blind song', which each head is able to emit in order to make all in audible range forget both the hydra itself and anyone it has eaten. When faced with evidence of a forgotten person's existence, the cognitive dissonance this causes leaves a residual air of frustrated confusion and paranoia in those who hear the song and Broadford residents lived in this state constantly due to the vast majority of people falling victim to the hydra. Additionally, anyone who saw the hydra would forget its existence entirely as soon as it left their field of vision, which helped to quell any panic and allowed it to move around the town freely to feed.

As such, the false hydra's only known weaknesses are auditory protection to defend against its song, reflective surfaces like mirrors (since the degree of separation allows a person to see and remember the hydra) and sufficient magical protection to fight the hydra's memory-altering abilities.

## Trivia

* Judging by the size of the hydra and its multitude of heads, it was at least several decades old.