The Old Lady's Lair

As the party discusses, and the group stretches into more of a line, a series of sussurating cries rise, one to the left, one to the right, and one further down the road.  It rises and falls, like overlapping sirens, or the shrill sounds of insects.

As Izzy and Lilybeth approach a scrubby juniper, something in dull shades of jade and copper darts out from beneath it, settles itself in the road, and screams. The shrill sound gets louder and more urgent, several different notes rising into one as seven sharp-toothed mouths gape threateningly, and seven pairs of jewel-bright ruby eyes glare from constantly-weaving heads.

The hydra is about three feet long, with four heavy, claw-tipped legs and a low, squat body.  Each head perches atop a long, thin neck, and sharp barbs run down its spine all the way to the tip of its thrashing tail.

It looks hungry.

Three of the hydra’s heads lunge in Eve’s direction, twisting on long necks to try and snap at her, but the body remains facing the rest of the party, four heads straining and snapping at Izzy and Lilybeth’s retreating forms. The hydra shifts in place, its tail thrashing and its scream becoming discordant and harsh.

Lilybeth reaches, sensing for water in the snarling creature before her- and feels none. For an instant, she feels something- but it is not water. It calls to the very core of her, hollow and hungry and achingly lonely- and then the sensation is gone, leaving only a disquieting echo of something unknown and yet familiar.

As the first hydra’s cry fractures, the other two grow louder, and movement flashes. From the left, a hydra colored like steel and bronze feints at Riesy, rising up on two legs for a moment to posture. From the right, a slightly larger, gold-and-blue hydra moves more slowly into view, two heads watching Tanner’s bat, the rest each focused on a different member of the party.

The heads which had been focused on Eve snap back around, and all draw back in unison stretching up into a series of graceful arches. The cry becomes unified again and rises in pitch, then cuts off abruptly. The hydra launches itself at the meat, heads snapping in a repeating sequence as it tears into the offered food. Its tail continues to thrash, but it pays no mind to anything but its meal.