Who doesn't love a good boss fight! Well, if you've ever played Elden Ring, or another Dark Souls game, then boss fights can be real torture! I have been running my players through a heavily modified version of the DDC adventure Shadow Under Devils Reef and at the end of last session, they were about to entre the chamber that would be the location for the final boss fight.
They ended the session at the entrance to the main chamber and, as we play once a month, they finally entered that chamber last Sunday. And this is what they saw.
The tentacle mass is a Star Spawn creature held captive by Deep Ones
Our gallant heroes arrive to see the earie scene before them
The crowd before the star spawn consisted of the survivors of the ship wreak the PC's were sent to rescue by their Baron (which included the Baron's new bride-to-be), and four angler-fish Lurker's, a creature inspired by the
Angler from Fallout 4's Far Harbour DLC. All these were mind controlled by the imprisoned Star Spawn and mesmerised by its presence. But they could not release it back into the sea where it could escape.
Enter our heroes... who all promptly became mesmerised by the Star Spawn, falling under its mind-control power.
Then, enter stage left, our main protagonists. The Deep Ones. Alerted by the activity in the chamber, they had been swimming to the underground "laboratory" (or temple, take your pick) when our heroes arrived. So the Deep Ones enter to a crowd gathered before the captured Star Spawn. They leap into action. The Star Spawn sends the Lurkers and our heroes to its defence. The rest of the crowd, being deck hands or the Baron's bride-to-be, were not capable fighters and so stay gathered around the glowing jewel that is the key to releasing the Star Spawn back into the ocean.
Conjure the Atronach!
Conjure the Sylph too!
The fight gets ugly as several critical's result on losses on both sides. Rorg, the dwarven barbarian, is nearly killed outright when he rolls a 98% on the critical hit table. Fortunately, he still had his five luck dice and promptly rolled them all, reducing the 98 down 13% to where he ended up with a broken leg and falling unconscious for several rounds. Also fortunately, his assailant was promptly killed the next combat round and falls on top of him. '
Fortunately' you say? You'll see!
Valkalyn's atronach gets reduced to zero hit points before its summoning ends after five rounds. When that happens, it explodes in a fireball of death for 3d6 damage. Rorg, being covered by the fallen Deep One, avoids any damage from the explosion, but Valkalyn doesn't, taking a meagre 12 points of damage and nocking her flat on her back, singing her white elven hair.
The brutality of the fight sees Rorg out cold and Getafix, the Druid, going toe-to-toe with one of the Deep Ones whilst the others fall back. Valkalyn running like a coward to shield behind the deck-hands she is supposed to protect. Only one Lurker remains in the fight also, being assailed by two other Deep Ones. The Deep Once Shaman keeps on pounding out magic missiles, which little Pherus, the halfling mage, amazingly manages to be able to dispel (mostly) round after round much to the Shaman's fury. For his hard labours Pherus fumbles a magic casting and ends up with a magical instability that means there's a 50-50 chance whenever he casts a spell, that a random spell will occur instead. This brings much amusement in a time of heavy fighting, including the fact that he grew in size to a normal human size. Not bad for a halfling.
Finally, the Deep Ones have had enough. With just two brutes and the Shaman left, they make for the water exit that they came through, cutting their losses. Getafix suddenly finds himself enthralled again by the Star Spawn, leaving Valkalyn and Pherus to take on the Spawn alone.
This isn't Elden Ring however, and so in its weakened state, they only need to destroy the crystal container holding the creature to cause it to rupture and drop the brute. Out of water, it will quickly desiccate and die. They only need to damage the crystal three times (just three hits, no need for hit point damage, three hits is it). They score one hit, then another. Then Pherus' magical instability causes him to fire off a repair spell that repairs the crystal container (idiot!!!). Meanwhile, they have to avoid being taken over again by the Spawn each combat round. No pressure lads (well lad and lass)!
Finally, just as Pherus is about to succumb to the Spawn's mind control, Getafix's breaks his mind free and both lads and Valkalyn manage to destroy the crystal container, dropping the Spawn unceremoniously to the floor where it quickly desiccates and dies. This causes everyone fully under its control to have a mental seizure and collapse unconscious.
Finally the crystal container breaks!
Getafix is able to mend Rorg's broken leg and they shove a few healing potions down his gob. He gets back to his feet, much relived to be alive. His character should have died twice in this adventure. It was only by using his
DM Scotty Luck Dice that he was able to survive. Got to love those Luck Dice. They come in very handy for the players.
Job done lads! Job done! The baron will be most happy with you all.
As an aside. I never tell the PC's what the creature is called. I just say 'these angler-fish headed looking creatures here charge the ugly frog/fish hybrid faced creatures that just emerged from the water.' For the Star Spawn, I just described it as a mass of tentacles with a single large eye. I let the PC's find suitable names for their enemies, such as 'fancy-pants' for the Deep One Shaman.
I thought the fight would only last at most two hours. This fight was action packed and lasted for three, giving us time to wrap up the adventure and the lads to be able to level-up. Twas a good boss fight.
