Te Wheke a Mutarangi
Te Wheke a Mutarangi — The Encounter
The Great Octopus Kupe Chased Across the Sea · a boss your table can run with almost no prep. SRD 5.1-compatible.
Who Is Te Wheke a Mutarangi
In the old tellings of the great ocean, Muturangi kept a pet octopus that stole bait from the lines of every fisher who dared the open water. The wronged voyager Kupe gave chase in his canoe, and the beast fled south across the world's largest sea, leaving whirlpools and drowned crews in its wake. They say it was cornered at last in a strait of churning tide and cleft in two, yet sailors still swear a shadow eight-armed and patient waits where the currents knot. Te Wheke a Mutarangi is no mindless brute. It remembers the hands that have wronged it and the taste of the canoe that hunted it, and it holds grudges across generations of sailors. It drags the bold beneath the swell not from hunger alone but from a long, cold spite — a wronged servant grown into a god of drowning, forever finishing the chase that another beast began.
Run Te Wheke a Mutarangi in Sixty Seconds
- It grapples four. Te Wheke can hold four creatures at once and its Beak gets advantage against anything it's grappling — open by snaring your two front-liners, not the casters.
- Kill-priority is mobility. The threat isn't damage, it's being dragged underwater. Tell players the cleric/wizard who can free or teleport allies is the real target it hunts.
- When bloodied, it goes to deep water. Recharge Ink Cloud + the Surge of the Deep legendary to relocate the brawl offshore, where non-swimmers start making death saves.
- Three ways to run it: shoreline ambush (it drags PCs off the rocks), open-sea boss (drown threat is real), or lair set-piece (Ink Cloud blinds the deck while Hawere holds the rail).
- Punish meleers. Tidal Recoil hits the first character who closes — remind front-liners that standing in reach means an extra 2d8 and a 10-foot shove every round.
Te Wheke a Mutarangi
Huge monstrosity, neutral evil
CR 11 · 7,200 XP · GUIDELINEAmphibious. Te Wheke can breathe air and water.
Forest of Tentacles. Signature. Te Wheke has eight tentacles and can have up to four creatures grappled at once. While a creature is grappled by a tentacle, that tentacle can't attack another target, but Te Wheke does not lose other tentacle actions. When it takes 25 or more damage from a single attack, it must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution save or release one grappled creature (it chooses which).
Water Breathing Curse. A creature grappled by Te Wheke can choose to gain the benefits of being able to breathe water until the grapple ends, but while it does it has disadvantage on saves against the creature's effects.
Actions
Multiattack. Te Wheke makes one Beak attack and two Tentacle attacks.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 18 (3d8 + 5) piercing damage. If the target is a creature grappled by Te Wheke, the attack is made with advantage.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 17). Te Wheke can drag a grappled creature up to 15 feet toward it as part of this attack.
Ink Cloud (Recharge 6). A 30-foot-radius cloud of black ink extends from Te Wheke while underwater. The area is heavily obscured for 1 minute, though a significant current can disperse it. Each creature other than Te Wheke that ends its turn in the cloud must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution save or be poisoned until the end of its next turn. Te Wheke can then use the Dash action as a bonus action.
Bonus Actions & Reactions
Tidal Recoil. Reaction. When a creature Te Wheke can see hits it with a melee attack from within 15 feet, Te Wheke can lash out with a free tentacle, dealing 9 (2d8) bludgeoning damage to the attacker and pushing it 10 feet.
Legendary Actions (3/Round)
Tentacle Lash. Te Wheke makes one Tentacle attack.
Crushing Coils (Costs 2 Actions). Each creature grappled by Te Wheke takes 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage as the coils tighten. A creature reduced to 0 hit points this way is dragged beneath the waves.
Surge of the Deep (Costs 2 Actions). Te Wheke moves up to its swim speed without provoking opportunity attacks, carrying all grappled creatures with it, then may make one Beak attack.
A house-sized octopus rears from the surf, its tall scaled mantle crowned like a war-helm and eight barbed arms fanning wide above a grinding black beak. It is the monster of the deep that fled a hero across the whole ocean, and was never truly slain.
Te Wheke a Mutarangi, Bound
Companion · acts on your initiative
Bound · GUIDELINEReef-Kin (signature). Te Wheke a Mutarangi, a lesser octopus sworn to the deep, can have up to two creatures grappled at once and ignores difficult terrain made of water or rubble.
Actions
Barbed Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 14).
Reactions
Pull Under. When an ally within 15 feet is hit by an attack, Te Wheke a Mutarangi can use its reaction to yank a grappled creature in the way, forcing the attacker to reroll the attack against the grappled creature instead.
A smaller, scarred octopus that trails the great one like a remora trails a shark, content to hold prey still for the beak that follows.
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.
Open by lashing the two closest characters into grapples and dragging them apart from the party. Kill-priority is whoever frees its grappled victims (a Strength-heavy fighter); ignore ranged poke until it is bloodied. At this size pair it with a kraken-cult shaman, never run it solo against a low-level party.
Open with Tentacle on the two squishiest casters and use Tidal Recoil to punish the first melee striker. If three or more PCs cluster within 15 feet, save Ink Cloud for that beat, then Dash to reposition over a grappled victim. Kill-priority is the highest-AC anchor who keeps breaking grapples; pair it with reef minions to lock down the back line.
Run it solo as a boss: open by grappling two front-liners and dragging them into the water, then spend legendary Crushing Coils every round on whoever has the lowest HP. When bloodied, Ink Cloud + Surge of the Deep to relocate the fight into deep water where land-bound PCs drown. Kill-priority is the party's mobility/escape caster; force them to choose between freeing friends and fighting.
Put Te Wheke a Mutarangi 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 Te Wheke a Mutarangi?
Its home sheet is CR 11 (Tier 3, levels 11-15, 7,200 XP). Because it carries a full legendary action kit and a punishing reaction, it is solo-capable and plays up a CR or two as a true boss. Scaled-down CR 2 and CR 6 builds are provided for lower-tier tables, where it should be paired with minions rather than run alone.
Can Te Wheke a Mutarangi be a companion or ally?
The great octopus itself is a boss-scale adversary, but its bound lesser octopus, Hawere, is a ready-made ally or summon — AC 14, 90 HP, a 15-foot grappling tentacle, and a Pull Under reaction that body-blocks attacks with a held victim. Use Hawere as a player's deep-sea companion or as the adversary's right hand.
How do I keep the drowning threat fair?
Telegraph it. Let players see Te Wheke drag NPCs or chum under before it targets them, and allow a Strength or Athletics check (DC equal to its escape DC) to break free. The Water Breathing Curse trait gives grappled PCs a choice — breathe water but fight at disadvantage — so the danger is a real decision, not an instant kill.
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
Played Te Wheke a Mutarangi at your table? Log in with your Obsidian Tavern account to leave a balance note, a war story, or a file issue — the sharpest reports get the block revised.
Log in to comment