Into the Minotaur's Den
Savage, bestial creatures of rage and violence—minotaurs are terrifying enemies. Often solitary beasts haunting labyrinthine dungeons, or similar locales, they delight in hunting and terrorising their prey.
Minotaurs are innately cunning—surprising given their bloodthirsty, atavistic tendencies—but employ simple, brutal battle tactics. Legends tell of their origins—of how the gods created them; most minotaurs, however, believe their roots to be more demonic.
Outside the Lair
Use this list, to determine what the characters find as they approach the lair.
Spots of dried blood lead towards the lair.
Deep grooves and scratches mar the walls.
The stub of a burnt-out torch lies on the ground.
Wisps of torn cobweb flutter on the faint breeze.
What’s Going On?
Use this list, to determine what is happening at the lair, when the characters arrive.
Loud snoring greets the characters—the minotaur is sleeping (or perhaps it sham sleeps).
The minotaur is elsewhere but returns as the characters search its lair.
Blood and gore coat the minotaur’s face, neck and chest; it is gorging itself on the remains of its last victim.
The minotaur is working out its homicidal rage on the corpse of a recent victim. Gore and body parts are scattered about its lair.
Major Lair Features
Use this list, to determine the lair’s major feature(s). These features are obvious to the characters.
A small field of red spotted mushrooms and fungus fills a yawning side-cavern. The minotaur fertilises its “garden” with the broken remains of its victims.
An iron-shafted spear driven deeply into the rock pins the mouldering corpse of a once-powerfully built human male upright against the wall.
A tapestry—depicting a fiendishly complex maze—decorates one wall.
A sinkhole pierces the floor. Two hundred feet deep, the sinkhole intersects with an otherwise inaccessible rubble- and trash-strewn cave.
Minor Lair Features
Use this list, to determine the lair’s minor feature(s). These features may, or may not, be obvious, to the characters.
Deep gouges in the rock show where the minotaur has hewn at the wall.
Bones and mouldering equipment cover the floor, throughout the lair.
A loose stone or brick in the floor hides a small, hard-to-spot storage niche.
Jammed into small niches in the walls, skulls leer down into the chamber. Several skulls are cracked or smashed—testimony to the minotaur’s strength.
Minotaur’s Appearance
Use this list, to generate a minotaur’s general appearance and other characteristics.
A thick mane of red hair grows half-way down the minotaur’s back.
The minotaur has but one horn; only a patch of terribly scarred hide remains where the other once grew.
The minotaur is missing the tip of one horn; only a jagged stump remains.
Partially healed burn marks on its legs and hips speak to the minotaur’s recent encounter with fire.
Treasure
Use this list, to add items of value to the minotaur’s hoard; determine the value of each item to suit your campaign.
These knee-high black leather boots are in good repair.
Securely wrapped in oilskin, and written in a beautiful flowing script, this book contains dozens of local recipes.
This pouch of spell components contains strange, exotic items suitable for low-level wizard spells. It hangs from a fragment of torn and bloody belt.
Missing the inlaid gems that decorated its rim, this goblet of tarnished silver was once much more valuable.
Trinkets & Trash
Use this list, to add items of interest, but little value, to the minotaur’s’ hoard.
Dried blood covers the back of this torn, shredded leather backpack.
Missing one leg this brass incense burner is also slightly squashed—probably from one mighty blow.
The fragments of a ripped and torn letter lie intermingled with the minotaur’s other treasures.
The settings in this squashed iron brooch wrought in the shape of a kingfisher yet hold cracked—now worthless—shards of translucent red stones.
Want More?
This is an extract from Monstrous Lair #06: Minotaur’s Den, a System Neutral resource by Creighton Broadhurst which appears in the Complete Monstrous Lair Collection.
Words Creighton Broadhurst Art Roderic Waibel