I saw that, and instantly thought "How does a hydra go 'rogue'? Aren't they 'rogue' and untamed by nature?". Brent thought the same thing, so we played with the terms. I think my "rogue" part of the entry was pretty weak - the only "rogue" part about it was how it was heading toward the main town on a warpath. But that was as close as I could get.
I should have gone into more detail on this one, but forgot until after I hit Submit, and then wasn't going to go back and edit. Wik your rogue hydra
was kind of weak, but I gave you brownie points for the idea of the three women combining their pets into the form of a hydra. the dictionary definition I put into the judgement had the scoundrel listed there (and I'm sure is the basis for the rogue class as well), but there are other definitions about be twisty and sneaky, and your story gave me an interesting visual. So you got a "not really roguish but a really cool idea!" vote on that one.
but you really have hit on the reason I wasn't as impressed by Brent's rampaging hydra. yes it's a hurricane force of nature headed towards civilization, but how would that be any different from any other hydra that managed to get that big? other than being out of control, I just didn't feel that the Chaos Hydra was all that different from what a commonplace hydra would be doing in the same situation.
another side of the same item, why did it
HAVE TO BE a hydra, rogue or otherwise? why did it have to be THAT potion, instead of some other fire-based weapon? why a dry well and not a cave or some other hole in the ground? etc. this is something all the judges look at to one extent or another. Brent's rampaging monster could have been replaced with any other type of rampaging monster and the players would have been none the wiser. your hydra was a combination of the pets and the women, which logically became the form of a hydra and it would have been difficult to justify it becoming something else without a lot more exposition.
that's why I considered your's to be the stronger ingredient.
Turns out, when the judge thought of the ingredients, he was thinking along the lines of "rogue as a character class" hydra.
actually, no I was just giving that as an example to try and get you guys to think a little more out of the box. I wouldn't honestly have expected anyone to come up with that interpretation. I did want to see what you DID come up with to make the monster a "rogue". the answer was, neither of you did that well, but at least yours was twisty in a wierd way.
There was no personal problem with the interpretation or anything. I knew my hydra was weak as a "rogue", but it was one of those ingredients that really confused me. (Which is a good thing for this competition!) For the life of me, I couldn't think of a way a hydra could be "rogue" unless it broke loose from something - which is sort of their default nature.
