Monsters, resumed

Apologies for the confused order.   I really wasn’t expecting time to blog today, so I canned the earlier post.  With time left over, let me continue detailing the monsters in the mansion.

As said, there should be about 8 Hydes at the most.  The Servants, who are custom monsters created just for this module, should be more numerous, maybe about 12 or 16 at the most.  These servants are scattered to keep them from ganging up on the PCs.  They are all unarmed, though instinct is strong enough to allow them to toss weapons or obstacles in the way, for instance, while fleeing.  They will not attack while hiding.  They have normal healing, but the scope of the adventure is a couple of hours, so it won’t matter.

Appearance

Hydes appear as humans.  They are wrong, but PCs will never be able to say exactly how they are wrong.  All PCs witnessing a Hyde should be struck immediately by how much they hate them, as though odiousness radiated from them.  Hydes dress much as they always did, with Baron Larksley wearing finery under his stud leather, and most the others wearing Victorian suits topped by livery, the typical overcoat of the serving class.  Dawson Richter will be wearing a proper gentleman’s suit, but it will be old and worn, as though much more than 3 weeks of shabby wear has gone into it.  If the PCs start undressing them (ew), they would find suspenders, dark trousers, and white shirts.  These clothes will be stained, as though not properly cared for in 3 weeks and permanent blood, drool, and potion stains mar them, though mostly visible on the white shirts.

The Servants still appear as humans, despite being classified as humanoids.  Maids still wear full dresses of dark blues and purples, and stained white hair kerchiefs.  Gents are dressed in ill kempt white linen shirts and dark trousers, with suspenders keeping them up, smocks are common too.  Clothes are much less well cared for, and here and there the DM should be encouraged to throw in the odd indecency, such as a gent with his pants around his ankles, or a lady with a torn dress, the further away from the pubic zones the better. Focus should be placed not on making these characters sexy, but horrifying and pitiful, so a maid who can’t lift her head because her hair is caught in her still-intact corset remains my favorite advice.  

While they are all identifiably human in shape, they have much more than your typical three weeks beard growth.  The clue to the PCs that this hair is not normal or a useful indicator is that the women all have wild hair and beards too.  The hair growing on their palms doesn’t help.  Wild curling-in nails are also common.  Eyes are glassy, at least until wounded, and shoes or ill-kept or missing.  

How the Hydes use the Servants

If the PCs had time to observe, say weeks or even months, they could see the dynamic between the Hydes and the Servants play out.  The servants react to pain, so the Hydes attempt to bully them into obedience.  Their intimidate bonus does them nothing though, as the Servants seem incapable of seeing or hearing them.  The cains, chairs, and other improvised weapons, however, always produce a sharp response, usually fear.  The Hydes have grown adept at corralling the Servants with three weeks of experimentation, but it still laughably inexact.  They need to make a DC 25 handle animal check to drive the Servants where they want, and even with success the Servant can fail a morale check and run past the target.

With up to 16 of them at their disposal, the Hydes have the resources to keep trying.  They will continue to whip the Servants, trying to drive them into the PCs, but will find their own traps and locked doors standing in their way.  For the PCs, good things never come fighting the servants (except XP), but killing a Hyde is a sure fire way to obtain the keys required to advance.  The key to the hidden underground smuggling bay, however, is in the possession of only the Baron of Larksley Manor.

Exact positioning of the servants would have to done on the floor plan, while the Hydes should be left mobile.  It might still be an idea to include Hyde weapon and tool stashes for the PCs to find, and roll randomly if the Hyde is home when the PCs find it, but otherwise the Hydes should be a random encounter rolled once every 15 minutes of game time.  GMs should, quite obviously, keep the PCs guessing when the next attack is coming.