Lyngbakr
Lyngbakr — The Encounter
The Heather-Whale, false island that drowns trusting sailors · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Lyngbakr
The Heather-Whale is the eldest of the false islands, named for the moss and heather that root in the stone of its back. For ages it has drifted the cold northern seas, lying still upon the surface until storm-beaten crews spy what looks like deliverance: a shore, a place to anchor, a hearth-fire's hope. They make fast their lines and step ashore. They light their fire. And the warmth on its hide tells the Lyngbakr its prey has come. Then the island sinks. Lines snap, sails vanish beneath black water, and the great mouth opens below to take what the cold has not. Old skalds warn that no map marks the Lyngbakr twice, for it never surfaces in the same water, and the only sailors who learn its name are those it spares to carry the warning. It does not hunt from hunger alone. It hunts trust.
Run Lyngbakr in Sixty Seconds
- Hold the bluff. Keep the Lyngbakr motionless and let the False Island trait do the work — the party should land, anchor, or light a fire before they ever roll initiative. The reveal IS the encounter's open.
- Open with the water. First round, Capsize the vessel or submerge from under the party so most PCs start the real fight in the sea, prone and swimming. Land-built tactics fall apart instantly.
- Kill-priority: isolate and swallow. Bite-grapple the lightest-armored caster, swallow next turn, then Sounding Dive to drag them away. Rescuers must reach 25 damage from inside or chase it down.
- When bloodied, sound and dive. Below 103 HP it stops trading blows — lead Sound the Deep to frighten the healers, then Sounding Dive to break line of sight and pick off stragglers in the dark.
- Three ways to run it: as a lone leviathan boss with all legendary actions; as a moving terrain hazard the party must cross; or downscaled to a calf-sized lure for a low-tier coastal scare.
Lyngbakr
Gargantuan monstrosity (titan), neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEFalse Island. While the Lyngbakr floats motionless at the surface, its barnacle-crusted back reads as solid land. A creature must succeed on a DC 16 Intelligence (Nature) check to recognize the deception. Creatures who anchor, land, or build a fire on its back wake the titan; on its next turn it submerges, and each creature on its back must succeed on a DC 16 Strength (Athletics) check or be cast into the water and pulled 30 ft. down with it.
Hold Breath. The Lyngbakr can hold its breath for 1 hour. It is at home in the deep and cannot drown.
Siege Monster. The Lyngbakr deals double damage to objects and structures, including ships, hulls, and rigging.
Actions
Multiattack. The Lyngbakr makes two attacks: one with its Bite and one with its Tail. It can use Capsize in place of the Tail attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 27 (4d10+5) piercing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 16) and swallowed on the Lyngbakr's next turn. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, takes 14 (4d6) acid damage at the start of each of the Lyngbakr's turns, and can be regurgitated if the titan takes 25 damage in a single turn from inside.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 21 (3d8+8) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength save or be knocked prone and pushed 15 ft.
Capsize. The Lyngbakr surges beneath a ship or vessel within 15 ft. that is Huge or smaller. Creatures aboard must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity save or be thrown overboard, falling prone in the water. The vessel takes 28 (8d6) bludgeoning damage (doubled by Siege Monster) and is capsized on a failed crew check.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Sound the Deep. The Lyngbakr lets out a hull-shuddering moan. Each creature within 30 ft. that can hear it must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom save or be frightened until the end of its next turn.
Tail (costs 2 actions). The Lyngbakr makes one Tail attack.
Sounding Dive (costs 2 actions). The Lyngbakr submerges and moves up to its swim speed without provoking opportunity attacks, dragging one grappled or swallowed creature with it into the dark water.
A whale the size of a coastline breaches with a maw of jagged, layered teeth, its back so crusted with barnacle, weed, and stone that weary sailors mistake it for blessed dry land.
Lyngbakr, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINELure of Land (signature). While the calf floats still, a creature must succeed on a DC 14 Intelligence (Nature) check to tell it from a low reef. It has advantage on attacks against any creature that has touched its back this turn.
Actions
Gnashing Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 17 (3d8+4) piercing damage, and a Medium or smaller target is grappled (escape DC 14).
Reactions
Undertow. When a creature within 10 ft. hits the calf, the calf may submerge, forcing that creature to succeed on a DC 14 Strength save or be pulled 10 ft. into the water.
A young false-island, no larger than a longship, that practices the deep dive its elder has perfected.
Guideline numbers — formula-tuned and read from the miniature's design, not yet table-proven. Tell us how it ran in the comments.
How It Fights — by Tier
Same creature, scaled threat. The traits never change; only the numbers move.
Run it as a single calf-sized lure: hold still as terrain, then submerge to scatter a clustered party into the water. Open with Capsize if there is a vessel, otherwise Bite the swimmer nearest the edge. Kill-priority is whoever fell in; drowning does the work the teeth cannot.
A coastal terror but not yet the titan. Open by capsizing or sundering the ship to put the party in the water, then Multiattack the most isolated swimmer. If clustered on a deck, lead with the Tail push to spill them overboard. Pair it with reef hazards or a kraken-scale flagship to keep pressure on.
The home tier and a true solo boss. Open with False Island and Capsize to dump the party into the water, then Bite-and-swallow the squishiest spellcaster and use Sounding Dive to drag them into the dark before allies can cut them free. Spend legendary actions on Sound the Deep to frighten healers and on Tail to keep melee prone; kill-priority is the swallowed PC's rescuers.
Put Lyngbakr on the table
Download the presupported STL and run the fight tonight — the model, and the encounter that comes with it.
Get the STL on MyMiniFactory →Clay Cyanide Companion Rules v1
How a bound creature acts
- A companion acts on its owner's initiative, immediately after the owner.
- It uses the Companion block above — roughly ×0.6 HP and damage, no recharge abilities, and at most one reaction trait.
- It moves freely; it takes its Action only while its owner is conscious.
- At 0 HP a companion is broken, not dead — restored on a long rest unless your table rules otherwise.
Original Clay Cyanide material © Clay Cyanide LLC — explicitly not the non-SRD official sidekick rules.
Questions, Asked at the Table
What CR is Lyngbakr?
Natively CR 11 (Tier 3, levels 11-15) as a solo leviathan boss, with legendary actions letting it carry a fight against a full party. Scale it down to the Tier 1 or Tier 2 statlines for a smaller false-island encounter.
Can Lyngbakr be a companion or ally?
Not the titan itself, but a Barnacle Drifter calf (AC 14, 124 HP) can serve as a lure-beast ally — it disguises as terrain and drags foes into the water for a deep-diving party or a sea-witch's pact.
How do I keep the False Island reveal from feeling like a gotcha?
Seed clues: barnacle 'rocks' that twitch, no birds on the 'shore', weed that breathes. A DC 16 Nature check spots it, so reward the suspicious PC rather than punishing the whole table blindly.
Tell Us How It Ran
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
Clay Cyanide Miniatures is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This content is compatible with the fifth edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Companion rules, lore, names, and original mechanics © Clay Cyanide LLC.
Technical Specifications
32mm, 75mm
STL, Pre-supported STL
Standard or ABS-like resin, 0.05mm layer height
Yes — ready to print, optimized supports included
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