MIKE’S FREE

ENCOUNTER #74
T(ENTACLE)-REX

MICHAEL LABOSSIERE
CREDITS Template: Simple Microsoft Word Template by Laura Hirsbrunner
Cover Image/Art: Michael LaBossiere, Midjourney

Designer: Dr. Michael LaBossiere

Cartographer: Dr. Michael LaBossiere

Contents
Credits..................................................................................................1
Contents................................................................................................1
Introduction.........................................................................................2
History/Background............................................................................2
Getting the PCs Involved.....................................................................2
Map Key...............................................................................................2
Encounter.............................................................................................2
Conclusion............................................................................................3
Hooks?..................................................................................................3
Free Stuff!..............................................................................................4
Free Map Collections...........................................................................4
Free Rules.............................................................................................4
Free Encounters...................................................................................4
Free Encounters Collections................................................................4
Free Character Options.......................................................................4
Stuff to Buy!.........................................................................................4
Adventures...........................................................................................4
Class & Character Options.................................................................5
Karabeth Series....................................................................................5
About the Author.................................................................................6
Map.......................................................................................................7

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product names,
and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries.

This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for
Dungeon Masters Guild.

1
INTRODUCTION
This is the 74th in an ongoing series aimed to provide the overworked
DM with ready-to run encounters. The PCs are gripped by the horror of
the T(entacle)-Rex.
A single T-Rex is CR 8. The encounter can easily be modified by
increasing the number of foes.
It includes a history/background for the encounter, a map, and
monster stats. The companion ZIP file contains JPEG versions of the
maps (with and without grid), the Word file of the encounter, and a
Fantasy Grounds Unity Module file.
HISTORY/BACKGROUND
In many realities, the first mortal people were the Dersatti. Though
they possessed great power, the Dersatti lacked souls and, as such, the
GETTING THE PCS
INVOLVED
There are a variety of ways the PCs can encounter a T(entacle)-Rex.
One way is a random encounter in the same areas that would allow for a
random encounter with a T-Rex; simply swap in the tentacled version.
Another option is for the PCs to encounter one through time-travel;
for an unknown reason T(entacle)-Rexes are often oddly sensitive to
time travel and can be drawn to areas where it occurs.
A third option is that a wizard has recreated the creature and it has
escaped. In this case, the wizard might hire the PCs to re-capture their
lost creation. Or perhaps the creator has intentionally it to rampage. In
this case, the PCs might be hired by the local authorities to deal with
the threat.

MAP KEY
death of Dersatti’s physical body marked the end of that Dersatti.
When the world was young, the lack of souls did not trouble the
Dersatti. Their might was such that they had no fear of disease or
accident, and their benevolence precluded any violence between them.
They were also blessed with near immortality—time touched them but
lightly.
As the gods matured, they created new races to populate the world
and imbued them with souls. Perhaps to assuage the Dersatti, these races
were not crafted as finely as the first people.
While a less benevolent people might have greeted the new people
with contempt or violence, the Dersatti acted with kindness and
generosity. They taught the younger peoples and served as benign
guides. Such was their wisdom that they did not cripple them by taking
all their burdens (including the burden of liberty) from them—they
knew that strength and maturity could only arise in the face of real
challenges.
For eons the Dersatti acted as benevolent agents and were generally
beloved by the younger peoples. But then the Dersatti began to feel the
touch of time—the first among them could feel they were weakening,
and death would claim them, perhaps in a thousand centuries.
Knowing that death would be their true destruction, the Dersatti set
out to find a solution. Some attempted to manipulate their biology and
extend their lifespans indefinitely. Among these researchers was the
young (for a Dersatti) Pesh-Hy-Rial.
Pesh-Hy-Rial was both brilliant and reckless, which served him both
well and badly. He made many astonishing breakthroughs in biology but
This map shows the sort of jungle area where a T(entacle)-Rex might be
radically changed his own brain through a series of experiments.
countered in the wild.
Because of these changes and his focus on life, Pesh-Hy-Rial was
utterly unaware of the Dersatti Civil war that erupted as one faction, led
by Dur-A-Akor, attempted to transform the Dersatti into undead. The
war raged and ended, all the while Pesh-Hy-Rial continued his
experiments. It is believed that he was among the last living Dersatti,
though scholars admit that his fate is unknown.
ENCOUNTER
T(entacle)-Rexes are even more aggressive than their unmodified
Pesh-Hy-Rial’s self-modification resulted in odd distortions to his brethren and will generally attack anything that seems worth eating.
benevolence. He felt sorry for creatures he believed had been treated They are more intelligent and have stronger personalities than their
unfairly by the gods or chance and set out to correct this unfairness. One unmodified fellows, this does present the possibility of training one.
of his early projects in this vein was the modification of the
tyrannosaurus rex. Pesh-Hy-Rial believed that the creature had been
unfairly given ludicrously small arms and he set out to correct this error.
He thought about simply increasing the size of the arms, but he got T(entacle) Rex
sidetracked by his interest in cephalopods and fixated on tentacles. Huge monstrosity, unaligned
Using magical and scientific means, he blended the standard
tyrannosaurus with a cephalopod and was pleased with the resulting Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
T(entacle) Rex. He created several breeding pairs and released them,
Hit Points 149 (13d12+65)
then set about on his next project.
While the T(entacle) Rex went extinct in some realities, it generally Speed 50 ft.
survived in worlds which also saw the survival of the dinosaurs.
Wizards have also recreated the creature in some realities, often by STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
chance. 26 (+8) 10 (+0) 20 (+5) 3 (-4) 12 (+1) 10 (+0)

Skills Perception +4
Senses passive Perception 14

2
Languages
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

ACTIONS
Multiattack. The tentacle rex makes three attacks. one
with its bite, one with its tail and one with its tentacles.
It cannot make a bite and tail attack against the same
target.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one

creature. Hit: 34 (4d12+8) piercing damage. Reach 10
feet. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is
grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the
target is restrained, and the rex can't bite another target

Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one

creature. Hit: 21 (3d8+8) bludgeoning damage. Reach 10
feet

Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft.,

one creature. Hit: 15 (2d6+8) bludgeoning damage.
Reach 15 feet. If the target is a creature, it is Grappled
(escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the target is
Restrained, and the rex can't use its tentacles on
another target.

Description: This creature is a somewhat nightmarish

combination of T-Rex and cephalopod. It is, however,
viable as a species and can reproduce.

CONCLUSION
The encounter ends when the PCs resolve their interaction with
T(entacle)-Rex. If they win, they will get any promised rewards. If they
flee, they can return and try again. If they are killed, it is time for new
characters or raise dead.

HOOKS?
This encounter could lead to additional adventure. If the T(entacle)-
Rex was released by a wizard, the PCs might have a follow up
adventure with the wizard or their other creatures.
If the T(entacle)-Rex arrived by time travel or the PCs did, then they
might encounter the Clock Dogs or Chronocats next.

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FREE STUFF!
I regularly make free D&D stuff available, including map
collections and encounters.
FREE MAP COLLECTIONS
Mike's Free Maps Collection #1
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Mike’s Free Maps Collection #14
Mike’s Free Maps Collection #15
Mike’s Free Maps Collection #16
FREE RULES
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FREE ENCOUNTERS
Mike's Free Encounter #1: Necromancer's Stash
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Mike’s Free Encounter #14: Bad Mercenaries
Mike’s Free Encounter #15: Dwarven Guard Post
Mike’s Free Encounter #16 Necrolossi
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Mike’s Free Encounter #24:Dividuicorporis
Mike’s Free Encounter #25: Frostcursed Queen
Mike’s Free Encounter #26: Cult of the Bat
Mike’s Free Encounter #27: Burning Beasts
Mike’s Free Encounter #28: Sting of Drenlak
Mike’s Free Encounter #29: Sand Gnark Horse
Mike’s Free Encounter #30 Ghul Caravan
Mike’s Free Encounter #31 Fallen Desert Outpost
Mike’s Free Encounter #32: Ancient Aqueduct
Mike’s Free Encounter #33: Tomb of the Desiccated
Mike's Free Encounter #34: The Bath of Pelthonus
4
Mike’s Free Encounter #35: Windchime
Mike’s Free Encounter #36: Molodus
Mike’s Free Encounter #37: The Pool of Pelthonus
Mike’s Free Encounter #38: Sea Tiger Island
Mike’s Free Encounter #39: Sanguinem Volant
Mike’s Free Encounter #40: Gladiomortuus
Mike’s Free Encounter #41: A Princess Met on the Road
Mike’s Free Encounter #42: College of the Damned
Mike’s Free Encounter #43: Necrokyrie
Mike’s Free Encounter #44: Cornu Umbra
Mike’s Free Enounter #45 Serutani Tomb
Mike’s Free Encounter #46: Tiger Canon
Mike’s Free Encounter #47: The Deluded Djinni
Mike’s Free Encounter #48: Druid of the Moonlit Web
Mike’s Free Encounter #49: Quillbones
Mike’s Free Encounter #50: Bonerunners
Mike’s Free Encounter #51: Welg
Mike’s Free Encounter #52: Osfranger
Mike’s Free Encounter #53 Cross Cat
Mike's Free Encounter #54: Musiksalskare
Mike’s Free Encounter #55: Truthsayer
Mike’s Free Encounter #56: Warewolf
Mike’s Free Encounter #57 Ghost of Water
Mike’s Free Encounter #58 Bone Shaper
Mike’s Free Encounter #59 Legacy of Medusa
Mike’s Free Ecounter #60: Calsh Stoneworks
Mike’s Free Encounter #61: Sleeper in the Well
Mike’s Free Encounter #62: Krympt Jätte
Mike’s Free Encounter #63: Ghost Tears
Mike’s Free Encounter #64: Rebel Mummy
Mike’s Free Encounter #65: Dealing Doppelganger
Mike’s Free Encounter #66: Of Sheers, Weagles and Spakes
Mike’s Free Encounter #67: Sky Piercer
Mike’s Free Encounter #68: Skeletal Scholar
Mike’s Free Encounter #69: Will & Theo’s Lost Lute
Mike’s Free Encounter #70: Puddle Lurker
Mike’s Free Encounter #71: Ghoul Town
Mike’s Free Encounter #72: Clock Dogs
Mike’s Free Encounter #73: Chronocats
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ADVENTURES
Arrogo's Tomb
Belmey (pay what you want)
Broken Mine 5E
 Dragon Hunt
Tower of Zakelana

CLASS & CHARACTER

OPTIONS
Boot Dagger Booter (pay what you want)
Circle of Ash (pay what you want)
Flame Touched (pay what you want)
Legacy of the Frostcursed (pay what you want)

KARABETH SERIES
K1 Trip to Town (pay what you want)
K1.5 Where the Dead Speak (pay what you want)
K2 Lelathon Village (Pay what you want)

5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Michael LaBossiere is a gamer/runner from Maine who went to
school in Ohio and ended up a philosophy professor in Florida.
While acquiring his doctorate in philosophy at Ohio State University,
he earned his ramen noodle money by writing for Chaosium, GDW, R.
Talsorian Games, and TSR. After graduate school, he became a
philosophy professor at Florida
A&M University. His first
philosophy book, What Don't
You Know?, was published in
2008. He continues to write
philosophy and gaming material.
He is also a blogger, but these
days who isn't?
When not writing, he enjoys
running, gaming and the martial
arts. Thanks to a quadriceps
tendon tear in 2009, he was out
of running for a while, but
returned to the trails and wrote a book about it, Of Tendon & Trail. He
can be contacted at ontologist@aol.com.

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7
MAP

8
 MIKE’S FREE ENCOUNTER
#74: T(ENTACLE)-REX
T HIS IS THE 74 TH IN AN ONGOING SERIES AIMED
TO PROVIDE THE OVERWORKED DM WITH READY -

TO RUN ENCOUNTERS . T HE PC S ARE GRIPPED BY

THE HORROR OF THE T( ENTACLE )-R EX .

A SINGLE T-R EX IS CR 8. T HE ENCOUNTER CAN

EASILY BE MODIFIED BY INCREASING THE NUMBER

OF FOES .

I T INCLUDES A HISTORY / BACKGROUND FOR THE

ENCOUNTER , A MAP , AND MONSTER STATS . T HE

COMPANION ZIP FILE CONTAINS JPEG VERSIONS

OF THE MAPS ( WITH AND WITHOUT GRID ), THE

W ORD FILE OF THE ENCOUNTER , AND A F ANTASY

G ROUNDS U NITY M ODULE FILE .