Hydra

Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra, Gustave Moreau, c. 1876 (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Hydra

Harper Field Dossier
Combat reference
Type	Many-headed reptilian horror; a writhing knot of necks and teeth
Vulnerabilities	Fire — only flame will keep a severed neck from sprouting anew
Resistances
Immunities
Condition Immunities
Strong Saves	A brute of flesh and stamina more than mind
Senses	Watches every quarter at once; near impossible to take unawares
Movement	Lumbers on land and swims well; will board a ship or wade ashore after prey
Notable Abilities	Strikes with every head at once, each a biting maw on a long neck, and snaps at any foe who slips past its guard. Cut off a head and two more may take its place unless the stump is seared shut
Provenance
Knowledge	Partial
First Encountered	Session 50, boarding a longship in the Sea of Moving Ice
Filed by	Agent Wren, of the Tellstone circle

The Harpers' Read

The hydra's terror is its heads — count them, for each one bites on its own, and woe to the warrior who tries to walk past that thicket of necks, for every head will snap at him as he goes. Hacking them off feels like progress and is a trap: a severed neck regrows, and worse, sprouts double, so that a careless butcher only makes the monster deadlier. The only honest way to take a head for good is to burn the stump shut — a torch, a flask of oil, a pixie of hellfire, anything that cauterises. Better still, forget the heads entirely and pour fire and raw destructive magic into the body until the whole thrashing mass goes still. Keep it off your decks if you can; in close quarters it will chew through your crew before you fell it.

Encounters of Record

• Session 50 — A six-headed hydra heaved itself aboard Deez Nuts' longship and killed a sailor before the company learned to cauterise its stumps with hellfire; Shade finished it with a chromatic orb.

Harvest Profile

CR 8 — rarity ceiling Rare. One harvest check per character; see Monster Harvesting for the rules.

Tool	Component	Rarity
Cook's Utensils / Herbalism Kit	Regrowing Hydra Flesh (signature)	Rare
Herbalism Kit	Regenerative Marrow	Rare
Alchemist's Supplies	Hydra Bile	Uncommon
Alchemist's Supplies	Vital Ichor	Common
Smith's Tools	Skull-Plates	Uncommon
Smith's Tools	Fangs (bundle)	Common
Leatherworker's Tools	Many-layered Hide	Uncommon

The regrowing flesh and marrow are restorative reagents prized for healing draughts; because the tissue regenerates, more than one viable Rare sample can be cut from a single corpse.

Recovered by the company in Session 50 — see the Harvested Materials ledger.