#I JUST DID OCEANS BOUNTY I DO NOT NEED TO DO 20 MORE RITUALS TO PROVE MY GODHOOD IM PRETTY SURE THE CULT KNOWS 😭

[oneofthosenightbees]

Some new cotl ocs based off a recent save of mine

#cult of the lamb #cult of the lamb oc #I REALLY DO MEAN IT WHEN I SAY CHEL HAS BEEF WITH MINI-BOSSES #everytime i come back she’s trying to fight someone or is CONSTANTLY coming up to me with ‘Can you pleaseeeee perform x ritual🥺’ #I JUST DID OCEANS BOUNTY I DO NOT NEED TO DO 20 MORE RITUALS TO PROVE MY GODHOOD IM PRETTY SURE THE CULT KNOWS 😭 #I appreciate the support though shout out to Chel #also i passed the title of loyalty enforcer onto Frea in that save too cause Chel was not doing jack #The most Frea did was ask me to sacrifice her when I first got her which is probably nothing #sweeps it under the rug

[helenarlett-rex]

Want to use an eldritch horror in your D&D game? Why not Mother Hydra?

I already covered the oh so wonderful Shub-Niggurath in my last post about using eldritch horrors in D&D, so let’s take a look at another sinfully under-used lady of the eldritch world. Good ol’ Mother Hydra. Who is so under used I could hardly find any info on her at all...

So we all know what a Deep One is, right? They’re an ocean-dwelling race of fish people who kind of have the hots for humans. Seriously, Deep Ones love banging humans. They’ve done it so much that some people believe they’ve now reached the point where their genes are so weak that mating with humans is the only way they can still reproduce anymore. But if you’re a poor fishing village on the brink, you may actually find this appealing, because the Deep Ones are kind of like the shepherds of the sea. Only instead of herding sheep they’re herding fish. And they can herd those fish right into your fishing nets... In addition to that, they also seem to have a vast supply of gold artifacts of unearthly design which they are also willing to share.

So... Poor fishing, can’t sustain itself, people have nowhere to go and no way to survive? Problem solved! All you have to do is have sex with fish people and they will provide you with bountiful catches and gold treasures. And don’t think that it’s just a bunch of fish out there in the ocean viewing you as their prostitutes either... They’ll even stick around and join your village and help care for your women after they’ve knocked them all up. How nice! Although if it’s the other way around and you’re a guy who knocked up a fish lady it’s more like a shotgun wedding at that point, but hey... At least she’s got loads of gold, right?

And once the Deep Ones have set up camp in your village they will even let you join their religion. And by let you join, I mean that it’s mandatory... They’re going to tare down your churches and replace them with the Esoteric Order of Dagon, where they will teach you how to worship the true god, Father Dagon.

You know Father Dagon, right?

He’s the deity who presides over the Deep Ones. Some say he’s a Great Old One, but it’s more likely that Dagon is an enormous specimen of Deep One. While apparently immortal, his longevity may be attributable to his fraternization with the Star Spawn, who sometimes select formidable specimens from a given species to protect, nurture, and empower for reasons known only to them. So in reality you are probably just worshiping a really big fish warlock who is in turn getting his power from someone like Cthulhu.

But before you go thinking this deal is just getting worse all the time, let me point out that it’s not bad for everyone. Because Father Dagon is going to need a consort. Which means if you’re a hot little piece of fish girl ass and you are deeply devoted to the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and you follow all the rites and rituals and sacrifice enough of the unbelievers, Dagon may just decide to empower you the same way he himself is being empowered by definitely not Cthulhu but probably Cthulhu. Then you too can become a giant fish monster of enormous size and power and be worshiped by all the other Deep Ones as their new goddess, Mother Hydra. Sure, you’ve got to take Dagon as your Pact of the Great Old One patron, and then you’ve got to become his mate... but you’re already a fish girl so that probably doesn’t sound so bad... and you’ve just obtained godhood! Sort of... Not really... You have no supernatural power outside of what any other warlock would have... But who can tell the difference?! You’re fifty feet tall now and worshiped by your people! If anyone wants to argue that you aren’t actually a goddess, you can just eat them. You and your new hubby are sitting at the foot of Cthulhu’s throne. Who’s going to argue with that?

Now as a DM I don’t know if I would allow a PC to actually go through this transformation, but it is doable. Both Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are just titles passed on to the greatest of the Deep Ones if the old Father Dagon and Mother Hydra die. If I did allow a PC to go through the transformation into becoming Mother Hydra that would probably be the entire campaign and once the PC had become Mother Hydra it would end and I would take their character sheet to be used in future campaigns. Sort of a way of letting the players create the gods of their world they are playing in.

If the PC was a warlock who wanted to take Mother Hydra as their patron I wouldn’t do it all that much differently than other Pact of the Great Old One warlocks. Unlike some of the eldritch horrors that could be used, Mother Hydra isn’t all that powerful. She doesn’t have any extra supernatural abilities to grant to PCs the way someone like Shub-Niggurath does. If you wanted to be really realistic about it, you could actually make the PC roll with disadvantage when using magic on account of the fact that their patron is just a more powerful warlock, getting her power from an even more powerful warlock, getting his power from an actual Star Spawn. So if you wanted you could say the warlock’s power is not coming directly from the source and is being diluted twice before it gets to him. Not exactly great for a PC but that is something you could do if you wanted a group of warlocks for a low level party to fight without too much trouble. Just have them fight warlocks of Mother Hydra who all roll with disadvantage.

As for using Mother Hydra herself as a monster in combat, I would probably use something like this...

Mother Hydra

Huge monstrosity (deep one), neutral evil

Armor Class 20 (natural armour) Hit Points 337 (25d12 + 175) Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.

STR 25 (+7) DEX 14 (+2) CON 25 (+7) INT 14 (+2) WIS 18 (+4) CHA 20 (+5)

Saving Throws Str +13, Dex +8, Int +8, Wis +10 Damage Vulnerabilities lightning Damage Resistances poison; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, poisoned Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 14 Languages Deep Speech, Common Challenge 20 (25,000 XP) 

Amphibious. Mother Hydra can breathe both air and water.

Aquatic. While in water, Mother Hydra has advantage on attack rolls against non-aquatic creatures.

Magic Resistance. Mother Hydra has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Magic Weapons. Mother Hydra's weapon attacks are magical.

Matriarch's Sacrifice. When a deep one within a range of 60 feet of Mother Hydra takes damage, Mother Hydra can chose to take this damage instead of the deep one.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. Mother Hydra makes three attacks: one with her bite, one with her claw and one with her mind grasp.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 23 (3d10 + 7) piercing damage. 

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 25 (4d8 + 7) slashing damage. 

Mind Grasp. Ranged Spell Attack: +11 to hit, range 120 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d10 + 5) psychic damage. 

Matriarch's Blessing. Hydra chooses a deep one within 120 feet of her. This deep one regains 27 (4d10 + 5) hit points. Hydra cannot target herself with this ability.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

Mother Hydra can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. Mother Hydra regains spent legendary actions at the start of her turn.

Attack. Mother Hydra makes one bite attack or one claw attack. Matriarch's Blessing (Costs 2 Actions). Mother Hydra uses Matriarch's Blessing. Matriarch's Curse (Costs 3 Actions). Mother Hydra targets one creature that she can see within 30 feet of her. That creature must succeed on a DC 19 Charisma saving throw or be cursed for 1 hour. While cursed in this way, the target has disadvantage on attack rolls made against deep ones and on saving throws made against spells or effects created by deep ones.

As a variant on this you may also want to add a small spell list to Mother Hydra’s arsenal. If you actually allowed a player to create your Mother Hydra through turning a warlock PC into her as mentioned above, you could just use whatever spells that PC had at the time of her transformation. If you didn’t go that route but you still want your Mother Hydra to be a spell slinger, I would remember to keep the spells limited and not too powerful (choosing only from the Warlock’s spell list) because Mother Hydra isn’t intended to be anything more than a CR 20 monster.