The Thing That Wasn’t Hungry
It never asked to hunger. But now it must.
I arrived in Hollowfield on the tail of a rumor: children going missing, pets gone silent, and a widow who claimed her dog still scratched at the door each night—despite being buried two weeks prior.
The town was quiet. A little too quiet, as they say in poorly written plays and perfectly accurate field reports. Folk nodded, smiled, and went on sweeping porches they didn’t sit on anymore.
Everyone here knows each other. That’s the problem.
When something’s wrong, it shows in how little anyone says a damn thing.
“They say it started with a bark in the night. But I’ve walked enough roads to know—every myth begins with something small.
Something you loved, once.
Then it grows teeth.”
—Griswold Cain
The Setting
Hollowfield
A small rural hamlet nestled where the fungal groves meet mossed ravine rock. Population: ~100. Everything smells like churned earth and distant firewood. It’s the kind of place that should feel safe.
- The Battered Lantern: One-room inn and gossip hall. Cold stew. Empty chairs.
- Esselryn’s House: A fungal-warded tower with sealed windows and soft, glowing vines.
- The Orchard Rim: Where the first child vanished.
- The Ravine Well: Something drips. It isn’t water.
Drop-In Utility
This setting can be dropped into any TTRPG world as:
- A mystery interlude between major cities
- A moral dilemma after a player death
- A way to introduce arcane biotech gone wrong
- A slow-burn horror sidequest in a peaceful region
The Premise
Esselryn Vint was studying regenerative mycological acceleration on small mammalian subjects—specifically, a common shrew.
What began as a success turned quickly into something she couldn't contain.
She noticed it had begun eating spiders. Then slugs. Then other shrews.
When it grew to the size of a housecat, she panicked.
It escaped by digging through the soft mortar beside her sunken basement window—shattering the frame and fleeing beneath the house.
She tried to cover the hole with fungal lattice and a crumbling pot, but it’s clearly unnatural if anyone investigates. A trail of broken glass, dirt, and slime still stains the lab floor.
What once fit in the palm of her hand is now the size of a boar.
It doesn’t stop growing.
And it remembers what it eats.
The Creature
Type: Aberrant Amalgamate
Size: Variable (typically Medium to Huge)
Alignment: None (instinctive)
Armor Class: 12–16 (depending on size and stage)
Hit Points: 40–140 (scales with mass consumed)
Speed: 30 ft
Attacks:
- Slam (Melee): +4 to +7 to hit, 2d6 to 3d8 bludgeoning
- Maw Lash (Melee): +5 to +8 to hit, 1d8 to 2d10 piercing, DC 13–15 STR save or restrained
- Echo Moan (Action): DC 13–15 WIS save or become Frightened until end of next turn
Abilities:
- Feed to Grow: After consuming flesh or organic matter, the Thing swells rapidly—typically growing by the equivalent of 3x the mass consumed. A handful of spiders or rodents may make it bloated. Ten creatures later, it may be the size of a bear—or worse. Growth is nearly instant but stabilizes within the hour.
- Echo Memory: Can mimic the voice or vocal pattern of its last victim. Creatures hearing this must succeed on a DC 12–14 Insight check or become stunned for 1 round, overwhelmed by uncanny familiarity.
- Half-Hide: Resistance to non-magical slashing and piercing damage due to unstable hide mass
- Memory Residue: Spells that read thoughts return garbled impressions—half-finished sentences, emotional echoes, or other victims’ last thoughts
Scaling Notes:
- Small/Starved Form (early stage): AC 12, HP 40, Slam 2d6
- Bloated Form (after 5–6 small animals): AC 14, HP 80, Slam 2d8, Echo Moan DC 14
- Grotesque/Huge Form (after multiple humanoid victims): AC 16, HP 120–140, Slam 3d8, Echo Moan DC 15, gains secondary attack or lair effect if applicable
The Mood
Hollowfield has grown… still. Not peaceful—just still.
The orchard smells faintly like rot and syrup.
Someone swears they saw a dog outside their window last night. It was glowing. It had no eyes.
A child’s voice calls from the ravine. It isn’t any child still alive.
Even Esselryn’s vines recoil from something in the woods.
Story Hooks
The Widow’s Dog
Each night at sundown, Widow Harn sips broth and sets out a second bowl. She swears Bayn still barks beneath her window—though he was buried last month. Neighbors have started hearing it too.Orchard Chalkline A child’s drawing appears on the wall of the old mill: a squat, bloated animal with too many teeth, standing over a smaller shape labeled “me.” No one claims to have drawn it. It reappears in different places—even after scrubbing—and the handwriting always matches a child no longer living in town.
The Commissioned Cure
Esselryn received funding from a faceless patron—one who promised rare ingredients in exchange for results. She’s hiding the contract in a sealed box under the cellar stairs, next to her second subject. It still lives.The Boy Called Nemm
Nemm, age 9, vanished a week ago. Last night, his mother heard his voice calling her name outside the house. When she opened the door, the garden was still—but the air smelled like salt and decay.The Broken Bottle
A child finds a small glass vial near the ravine trail—half-buried, stoppered with wax, and still reeking faintly of rot. The glass bears a scratched mark: an inverted eye. If unsealed, the stopper hums softly, and animals nearby refuse to go near it.Meat That Knows You
While tracking a missing goat, players stumble upon a ragged clump of flesh near the orchard rim. It pulses faintly. If held, it grows warmer near grieving NPCs—and may whisper a single familiar word when alone.
Optional Paths
Investigation
- Players uncover the trail: slime, scratches, and half-eaten orchard fruit
- The cracked basement window—sealed with a patch of fungal mesh and a misplaced pot—raises suspicion
- Following the Thing’s pattern leads to the ravine, where it nests in an old fungal hollow
Confronting Esselryn
- She refuses to admit fault—unless proof is found (journal pages, spore canister, survivor testimony)
- She holds the failsafe: a spore vial that will unmake the Thing, but scorch the fungal ecosystem for miles
- If convinced, she’ll offer to help—but only if they agree to protect her work from outsiders
Showdown
- The Thing may speak using voices the players recognize
- A child’s laugh. A lover’s last word. A pet’s whine.
- It’s not malicious. It simply doesn’t know what not to be.
Resolutions
- Mercy: Use memory (a keepsake, voice recording, familiar scent) to calm it—then destroy or contain it
- Rage: Kill it. The final echo is a child's name
- Complicity: Protect Esselryn, save her research, and lie to the town
- Failure: The Thing escapes. It returns later. And much larger.
Residue and Relics
- Sloughflesh Sample — A pulsating scrap. If kept, it may whisper at night.
- Echo Vine — Found in Esselryn’s lab. When tied around the wrist, may allow a memory to be heard from nearby living beings.
- Spore Vial (Failsafe) — Can neutralize the Thing instantly. Also kills any mycelial magic in a 3-mile radius for decades.
“It grew not because it wanted more… but because someone told it it wasn’t enough.”