D&D 5E Carrion Crawler Queen lair

[Quickleaf]

My party is gunning for the so-called "Carrion Crawler Queen", basically an enormous carrion crawler that has been breeding the carrion crawlers causing all the ruckus in their village, and making the carrion crawlers more aggressive than usual.

I'm looking at ways to make this showdown both fun and challenging!

The Scenario: Aquatic carrion crawlers (along with a host of other nasties) have come up from the Underdark and plague the surface world! The PCs are fighting back, and have killed 4 crawlers already that were haunting the village's waterways. Now they've tracked the crawlers down to a lair in a cave somewhere that borders a 25 mile long by 10 mile wide lake. There are multiple watery caves branching off this lake with varying levels of submersion vs. dryness. PCs are in exploration mode, hoping to find the crawler's cave soon. Note that this is a planned hunt, and the PCs plan to go into this fight as fresh as they can get, with full resources.

The Party: The party is six 2nd levels PCs (ranger, fighter/paladin, monk, rogue, cleric, sorcerer, monk/warlock). They've teamed up with a scout (CR 1/4) and a swanmay (CR 3) who they previously rescued, and the ranger PC has a "behind-the-scenes" immature giant badger (CR 1/4) companion -- control of these companions can be passed on to a player whose PC gets paralyzed during the fight, so that way no one is sitting on the sidelines for long.

The Opposition: 2 carrion crawlers (CR 2), 2 swarms of insects (centipedes, re-skinned as baby carrion crawlers) (CR 1/2), and the carrion crawler queen (CR 3?)

Carrion Crawler Queen: A souped-up huge carrion crawler with lair actions, essentially. Notable changes to the stat block include:
HP 76 (8d12+24)
Enduring Poison. Creatures suffer disadvantage on saving throws against her poison while grabbed by the Queen’s tentacles.
Multiattack. Make six attacks: five paralyzing tentacles (reach 15 ft.) and one bite. The same creature cannot be targeted by more than one paralyzing tentacle.
CR 3 (750 XP)

[SBLOCK=Lair Actions]
On initiative count 20 (losing all initiative ties), the Carrion Crawler Queen can use one of its lair action options. The Queen cannot use the same lair action in consecutive rounds.
Call the Young: The Queen screeches ear-piercingly. Elves and gnomes (and any with sensitive ears) within 30 feet must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be deafened for one minute. 2 swarms of insects (centipedes) burst forth from nearby egg sacks and act on their own initiative count to defend the Queen by attacking weakened or unconscious creatures. The Queen may only have 2 swarms defending it at a time, though it may call a total of up to 6.
Grasping Tentacles: The Queen makes two grab attacks up to 15 feet, and may immediately pull two grabbed creatures up to 15 feet toward it.
Threatening Reach: Until the start of its next turn, the Queen can make up to five opportunity attacks with its paralyzing tentacles against creatures that move any distance away from it, as long as they fall within its reach of 15 ft. Only one opportunity attack may be made per creature.[/SBLOCK]

[SBLOCK=Regional Effects]
Cairngorm’s Hollow is plagued by the following effects while the Carrion Crawler Queen is alive. If the Queen is killed, the following effects fade over 1d10 days.

• Carrion crawlers infest the waterways, feasting on corpses, carrion, and easy prey.
• Disease affects the livestock and other domesticated animals.
• Corpses left in the open attract carrion crawlers in 1d10 hours and are soon eaten.

[/SBLOCK]

Still need to work out treasure...but that's the gist of it.

Any thoughts? Advice? Crazy ideas?

 

[Dkase]

I'd include a 'swallow whole' style of attack. Cuts down on player actions and is pretty thematic for a gigantic monstrosity!

 

[Tanaka Chris]

Damage of each Tentacle? And the to Hit bonus?
lt seems the Queen can hit the entire Party every round with Multi attack, that does not let them ever heal up, and they're still squishy at level 2.

Drop the Multiattack to 3 or maybe even 2 attacks. That's what the summoned minions are for, to protect the Queen.

 

[Green1]

I second the whole "swallow whole" thing. Other than that, seems awesome.

For treasure, I would make one of the treasures a hazard I mean, they are Carrion Crawlers.

Maybe have on the battlemat a partially digested skeleton in 1 foot of rancid water they can not see (perception 20) still grasping a +1 longsword, keen. But- they could accidentally step on it for 1d8 +1 and half movement plus some kind of gangrene from having an open cut in the fetid water.

Another square could have a wand of Misty Step that is malfunctioning from being soaked in filthy water that teleports whoever activates it or steps on it (ignoring class spell list restrictions or spellcasting ability) 6 squares away in a random direction, but always prone.

 

[Dkase]

Damage of each Tentacle? And the to Hit bonus?
lt seems the Queen can hit the entire Party every round with Multi attack, that does not let them ever heal up, and they're still squishy at level 2.

Drop the Multiattack to 3 or maybe even 2 attacks. That's what the summoned minions are for, to protect the Queen.

Given the size of the party, and the amount of help their receiving, I don't think this is to far out of line when you also consider that each tentacle only targets 1 creature. Unless the DM is rolling hot, some of those tentacles will miss, leaving a good 3 pcs or so unhurt plus the three additional companions.

 

[Tanaka Chris]

Given the size of the party, and the amount of help their receiving, I don't think this is to far out of line when you also consider that each tentacle only targets 1 creature. Unless the DM is rolling hot, some of those tentacles will miss, leaving a good 3 pcs or so unhurt plus the three additional companions.

I'm assuming the party has to wade thru the liar and won't face the Carrion Queen unharmed. Only the Cleric and Paladin have healing options, and the Paladin is limited to 10 HP via Lay on Hands.
So unless a Long Rest is possible right before boss encounter (not likely in a Liar), or almost everyone is stocking multiple healing potions, might need to scale back the multi attack.


And yes, I agree the dice do control some of this, that's why I asked for the attack modifier for each tentacle, cause you probably want about 60% of them to miss if it's 6 strikes.
Also keep in mind the Queen will be calling reinforcements, so assume two reskinned Centipedes are harrassing the PCs, most notably the injured or dying PCs.

At higher levels with extra attack or Action Surge (no fighter in this party) I agree they can take the Queen down in 2 turns or less.
But at level 2, most of the Pcs have a max HP of maybe 17? So the damage each tentacle deals should be considered.

 

[MostlyDm]

Quickleaf posted in another thread about how much his party has been walking over encounters so far. So I'm going to assume the goal here is a serious challenge that could leave a few of the good guys dead.

Given that the protagonists have 9 independent turns between them (6 PCs plus 3 NPCs), if anything I think the queen isn't nearly tough enough. A bit of focused fire and she will be out before she has a chance to do much.

But I don't think boosting HP is the right move. Instead, this could be mitigated with positioning. Those 2 full sized crawlers should be able to break the party up and keep them from all bringing their bursts to bear on the queen. I think you want this setpiece to be awkward for the PCs. Lots of standing water causing difficult terrain, narrow walls for the crawlers to ignore said difficult terrain via spider climb. Maybe elevation changes too, to make it hard to reach the queen or to give her cover, depending on how many are ranged vs Melee.

It's fine if she dies to a bit of sustained burst, if it's hard for all of the PCs to engage simultaneously. It's dangerous for them to hit her solo or even in small groups due to the tentacles; they need that group burst.

If you want more complexity you could make the queens position really, extra, unfairly advantageous... and add an area full of immature egg sacs; if they think to attack the eggs she will could move out of her perfect hidey-hole/choke point into a more vulnerable position.

Just some ideas. A lot of this is predicated on the details of the party combat makeup, ranged attacks, mobility etc. Only you know those details though.

 

[dd.stevenson]

Not that it matters a lot, but why are those Lair Actions and not Legendary Actions?

 

[Dkase]

I'm assuming the party has to wade thru the liar and won't face the Carrion Queen unharmed. Only the Cleric and Paladin have healing options, and the Paladin is limited to 10 HP via Lay on Hands.
So unless a Long Rest is possible right before boss encounter (not likely in a Liar), or almost everyone is stocking multiple healing potions, might need to scale back the multi attack.

The OP's first post sort of implies that the PCs are going to go in to this encounter with as many resources as possible. So I do not think it's out of the question that they will take a long rest right before leaping into the fray.

And yes, I agree the dice do control some of this, that's why I asked for the attack modifier for each tentacle, cause you probably want about 60% of them to miss if it's 6 strikes.

It's five tentacle strikes, and one bite. The tentacles have a '15 reach, and the bite is probably vs an adjacent creature. I doubt that all the PCs will be with in reach, especially the warlock and the sorcerer, heck the cleric will probably also be hanging back. At any time, I think it likely that only half the party will be in danger of the tentacles.

Also keep in mind the Queen will be calling reinforcements, so assume two reskinned Centipedes are harrassing the PCs, most notably the injured or dying PCs. At higher levels with extra attack or Action Surge (no fighter in this party) I agree they can take the Queen down in 2 turns or less.
But at level 2, most of the Pcs have a max HP of maybe 17? So the damage each tentacle deals should be considered.

Calls re-enforcements as a lair action, which may or may not happen at the DM's discretion. You also have to take into account the the PCs have effectively three extra party members due to NPCs, which means more attacks and actions per round, and the scout even has a multi attack action if it's the standard MM version. I'm more worried about what would happen if everyone hits the queen on the first turn nova style. With a Bless spell from the cleric (cast pre-emptively if the party's plan to go in fresh pans out), it is likely that they will hit with most of their attacks, resulting in the queen's 76 hp vanishing pretty quickly.

 

[Dkase]

If you want more complexity you could make the queens position really, extra, unfairly advantageous... and add an area full of immature egg sacs; if they think to attack the eggs she will could move out of her perfect hidey-hole/choke point into a more vulnerable position.

I like this idea! Maybe have the encounter in a chamber riddled with narrow tunnels that she can pop out of, and have one of the lair actions take her from one hole to the next, giving the encounter a more dynamic element. PCs can try to block off tunnels, or they can follow her through them, and if you want to be really mean, you can make tunnels coated in her paralytic goo, so pursuers might end up paralyzed, though it they manager to make it through, they could catch the queen at a disadvantage.