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. Full manifest: 4 Rare + 5 Uncommon + 6 Common. One harvest check per character; see Monster Harvesting for the rules.
| Component | Tool column | Rarity | Status (S50 + 2026-09 retro pass) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undying Heartblood | Poisoner's / Alchemist's | Very Rare (above ceiling — nat 20 or ceiling DC +10 only) | Recovered (Shade, 26) |
| Regrowing Hydra Flesh (signature) | Cook's / Herbalism / Poisoner's (toxic tissue) | Rare | Recovered |
| Regenerative Marrow | Herbalism | Rare | Recovered |
| Neck-Sinew Bundles | Leatherworker's | Rare | Recovered (Keyleth, 15) |
| Hydra Heart-Cluster | Alchemist's | Rare | Left on the carcass |
| Hydra Bile | Alchemist's / Poisoner's | Uncommon | Recovered ×2 |
| Many-layered Hide | Leatherworker's | Uncommon | Recovered |
| Regrowth Nodules | Herbalism | Uncommon | Recovered (Karma) |
| Swamp-Oil Glands | Alchemist's | Uncommon | Recovered (Xanphina) |
| Skull-Plates | Smith's | Uncommon | Left on the carcass |
| Vital Ichor | Alchemist's | Common | Recovered |
| Hydra Blood | Alchemist's / Poisoner's | Common | Recovered |
| Hydra Fangs | Smith's | Common | Recovered |
| Neck Vertebrae | Smith's | Common | Recovered (Baelgrum) |
| Hydra Meat | Cook's | Common | Left on the carcass |
| Hide Scraps | Leatherworker's | Common | Recovered |
The regrowing flesh, marrow, and heartblood 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, with additional recoveries on the 2026-09 retro pass — see the Harvested Materials ledger.