Tiamat Created Hyena Homunculi to Weaponize Their Conspiracies

After the radiant saint Ra'Coszcatl invaded the City of the Dragon Wives, a number of other saints wished to replicate their success. Knowing that their numbers were few and their methods unique, they took  a cackle of hyenas and an unborn child and smelted them together in a forge of dragon breath and draconic radiance. Thus was born the first Hyena Ka.

The saints paint them with radiance to look human.

The Hyena Ka looks in all ways the same as a human does. They are incredibly intelligent, to the point of surpassing genius intellect. Each has a poison-laced silver tongue. They are sociopaths, and dragons their tribes. Their DNA is too radiant to identify with human or hyena. Tiamat and her consorts can, at any time, arrest their thoughts and control them directly, but normally the Hyena Ka are left to act on their own.

With the powers of a goddess behind them, they are inserted into City culture. They get a job, find love, have a family. Their laugh is seductive and can interfere with your memories. They make conspiracies. They sabotage. They are sleeper agents waiting to bring down the city in one violent motion. They convert false friends and lied-to loved ones to dragon-worshiping cults. They poison wells and introduce radiation to butchered drake-meat. They go into gardens and piss on the tree roots and carve nasty words into the bark.

They are sly. You don't know who is a Hyena Ka and who is not. The idea that hyena-people have entered the city is lunacy. You're a saboteur yourself for thinking it; you're trying to cover up your own evil; you're going to be executed for committing these crimes. Xoco was never in the market last night; Xoco was seen with his husband; Xoco is a loyal scribe and would never change the text of the Handless rants. You are a liar. You are a slanderer. You are exiled into the Bless'd lands; may Annihilation find you swiftly.

You did not surprise them. They expected that you or something like you would appear and create this problem. The Gatekeeper still draws breath and so foreign variables are always being added to the equation. They account for this. Imagine a puzzle cube. Try to solve it. The polished sides give no hint to the way in. After years, with your obsession claiming you, you finally open it, just to find  another puzzle deeper in. This is both the common response to discovering the Hyena Ka and how the mind of the Hyena Ka works.

Their laughs can be heard as cackles in your dreams. The more you know, the more violent they are.

REALIZING THE CONSPIRACY

Every day that the party is in the City of the Dragon Wives, the Game Master should roll a d20 and not explain what it is for. On a 20, the party sees one of the following things, initiating them into the conspiracy. If a large amount of time passes without play inside the city, roll 1d20. An 18-20 triggers the encounter.

Roll 1d6 on the following table or make your own.

Hyena Conspiracy Initiation Table

d6	Odd Sign
1	An individual is seen pouring something strange into a well.
2	An individual is seen leading others into a small building. They are constantly looking behind them.
3	An individual is following the party. When looked at, they laugh and walk away. They always return.
4	An individual is sticking their fingers into their mouth and rubbing the fingers on unattended butcher's meat.
5	An individual has been watching an important building for 12 hours straight.
6	An individual walks into the gardens and walks out a moment later with blood on their hands.

Should the party follow up on these encounters and investigate, they are now in Level 1 of the Hyena Conspiracy. The levels are described below. The players rise through the levels by triggering rolls on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table.

Levels

Level 1: The individual you followed is normal. They live a good life. They have many friends and their relationships are strong. They look at you. They look you in your eyes. You hear soft laughing when you sleep. They introduce themselves. They show you their life. They make you happy because they are happy. After 1 week of following, roll on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table.

Level 2: Something is different. You never find them alone. Their whole group whispers when you walk by. You see them more often. They are your butcher. They are your painter. They are your room-provider. They are your merchant. Sometimes, your belongings are moved around in your bag. When you sleep, something wakes you up, and the floor creaks, but you are alone. Golden eyes can be seen in alleyways. You hear cackling when you sleep. Roll on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table after you thoroughly investigate.

Level 3: You receive an encoded message in the form of a painting. Your draconic radiance increases by +1. Dragon Wives start looking at you with hostility, even if you are one. Everyone seems to be talking about you, whispering--you never catch what they say. People won't serve you. Everywhere you go, something is broken. Everywhere you go, something bad happens. Children fall and die, merchant stalls break, scribes break down into tears. You are watched. Everyone has golden eyes. No one else sees them. You hear a cackle of hyenas all cackling in your nightmares. Roll three times on the Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table.

Hyena Conspiracy Encounter Table

Roll 1d20. If an option is rerolled, roll again or make your own. Will be a 1d100 in the final book.

d20	Encounter
1	A dead, butchered drake bites off the butcher's hand. You see someone flee the scene.
2	A scribe falls from his perch and dies with a broken neck. Someone laughs.
3	Children surround you and sing about hyenas. Someone sings with them.
4	Someone approaches someone else, hands them an obsidian dagger, and looks at you.
5	Someone is attacked by someone else viciously. The victim has a hyena's shadow.
6	An old mural-message depcits dragon wives being eaten by hyenas. Someone with paint-stained hands is leaving.
7	Someone screams and a building collapses. Someone laughs and leaves.
8	A gatherer gives the party their equipment. The equipment belongs to someone else.
9	A merchant sells the party something at a discount. The thing(s) are fakes.
10	A crier is speaking news. The news is about the party, and it is fake.
11	The party recieves an invitation to the God's Pyramid. The invitation is meant for a Dragon Wife.
12	The party recieves an invitation to the Dragon Wife temple. It makes them appear as if they are draconic.
13	A state is placed into the party's room as they sleep. It is shaped like a hyena fucking a dragon.
14	Someone is running away from someone else. A spectator has golden eyes.
15	A judge puts out a warrant for the party's arrest. The judge disappears after the arrest and the party is cleared.
16	People begin to choke and die after drinking from a well. Someone with golden eyes stands back up and stumbles away.
17	A Hope of Women are found dead. A painter with golden eyes discovers the party's belongings on the scene.
18	A ravished individual stumbles out of an alleyway. They pin the crime on the party. The individual has golden eyes.
19	Something important to the gods has gone missing. An individual bumps into the party. That thing is now in the party's belongings.
20	Someone is sleeping in the party's room. The person, when woken, vomits, stumbles out, and says another individual gave them this bed to sleep in.

OSR Stats for Hyena Ka

Hyena Ka

HD 2 (10) SPEED 1.5x that of Standard Human

ARMOR As Studded Leather (unnaturally tough skin)

MORALE 6 normally

ATTACK

• Tecpatl: +4 to hit 1d4hp.

SPECIAL

• If touched by a Dragon Wife, the Hyena Ka will have the eyes of a hyena for 24 hours.
• The Hyena Ka can smell Dragon Wives.
• The Hyena Ka automatically succeeds on any check that would require intelligence.
• The Hyena Ka can increase the intensity of their laugh in someone's dreams. Save vs Magic or lose the ability to rest until a save is passed.
• The Hyena Ka can never tell the full truth, and never a full lie, but only half-truths.
• The Hyena Ka can shapeshift into a spotted hyena.
• The Hyena Ka can communicate through dreams with fellow Hyena Ka.
• If a Hyena Ka loses its radiation, it turns into a featureless thing, gaining 10 hit points, +2 to AC, and +5 to damage.