If I was going to put the Horrible Goose in a D&D game, I wouldnât make it some big high-CR threat â itâd just be a regular goose thatâs capable of regular goose stuff, with three significant exceptions:
1. It can show up anywhere, even if thereâs no reasonable way for it to have gotten there.
2. It seems to have limited ontological intertia. If the players imprison it, it vanishes from its prison when theyâre not looking. If they kill it, another goose shows up eventually. Itâd be impossible to prove that itâs always the same goose, save for the third notable traitâŚ
3. âŚnamely, that it doesnât show up in divinations. Like, at all. Predictions donât take it into account. Scrying on its location reveals an empty room. Spells that would detect it or read its mind act like thereâs no valid target present. If the cleric communes with their god and asks about it, their god has no idea what the cleric is talking about. It might take some doing to arrange for the players to become aware of this property, so donât force it â the opportunity will arise!
There we go. No goofy boss monster tricks, yet itâs guaranteed to drive your players nuts â not even by harassing them, necessarily, but just by existing as they try to figure out what it means, particularly once they learn of the third trait discussed above.
I hate it. Itâs going in every game I run forever
Youâre absolutely right, I gotta keep it fresh. Itâs now a shapeshifter, a different small innocuous animal form in each game. The players are mystified until finally one realizes âis this that fucking goose againâ and they finally end my existence
