ECOLOGY

Environment any
Organization solitary, pair, or gang (3–6)
Treasure standard (+1 greataxe, other treasure)

Labyrinth minotaurs are the elite guards and favored servitors of Baphomet. They are thicker and taller than mortal minotaurs, and possess skill in metalcraft that they use to forge armor, weapons, and their personalized and iconic bronze masks. Labyrinth minotaurs eagerly charge intruders, trampling smaller opponents and knocking back larger foes. As they are perceptive, tireless, and incapable of becoming lost, labyrinth minotaurs make excellent guardians of Baphomet's bewildering maze of a domain, the Ivory Labyrinth. Labyrinth minotaurs stand about 11 feet tall and weigh 1,200 pounds.

Minotaur Encounters

Source PCS:ISMC

Minotaur marauders are much more nimble and confident on the slopes than their bulk would suggest. They are most often encountered stalking prey, including humanoids, in the wilds. Raiding parties of two or more marauders surround their prey, braying and stamping from all sides to confuse, frighten, and scatter. If they occupy higher ground, these minotaurs prefer to attack with their bows, but they are equally competent in melee if a foe survives long enough to engage toe-to-hoof.

Resistant as they are to spells, energy, and physical damage, labyrinth guardians' closest thing to a weakness is their single-mindedness. Most are tied to the mazes or tombs in which they dwell and will not chase foes out into the light. Tangle tenders hold similar sway over their lairs, but act more with cunning than with brute force. These devious trapsmiths delight in building wicked mechanical devices to harm those that dare intrude on their mazes.

Minotaur prophets are much more brutal than humanoid cultists. Through fear, manipulation, and reverence, the prophets command disproportionate respect from the Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth, a secret cabal of the demon lord's most devious worshipers. The prophets wield their clout in the same ways that they wield their brass glaives of office—by striking from a distance.

Ecology

Labyrinth minotaurs resemble their mortal counterparts, as each has the form of a massive, burly humanoid with thick fur on the chest and legs and a horned, bovine head. The hairless skin of a labyrinth minotaur's head is thin and stretched so tightly over the bone that the beast appears to have just a skull atop its neck. This tight skin makes the creature's sharp eyes bulge from their sockets.

Unlike mortal minotaurs, labyrinth minotaurs have no need to eat or sleep and consider the need for either activity a weakness. Labyrinth minotaurs don't age as mortal creatures do; over the centuries of their existence as guardians and enforcers, they instead accumulate masses of battle scars, which they wear with arrogant pride.

Labyrinth minotaurs speak little, but make a lot of noise. They breathe in great snorts, bang their weapons against their armor, and stomp their steel-shod hooves on the ground as they walk. Labyrinth minotaurs seethe with anger and energy, constantly moving about and shifting from hoof to hoof when required to stand in place for more than a few minutes. A labyrinth minotaur prefers to range throughout the narrow, turning corridors of its maze-like hunting grounds, even into dead ends and back, searching for hints of intruders upon which it can vent its bestial fury.

Habitat & Society

After becoming a demon lord, Baphomet collected the souls of primal minotaurs and forged them into labyrinth minotaurs, paragons of their kind and Baphomet's favored servants. The labyrinth minotaurs constantly patrol the twisting pathways of the Ivory Labyrinth to enforce Baphomet's will on lesser denizens of the domain (such as mortal minotaurs and cultists) and to challenge intruders.

Labyrinth minotaurs are as bestial as their mortal kin and prone to outbursts of violent rage, but their high status in Baphomet's service makes them haughty and given to boasting. They feel contemptuous disdain for all mortal creatures but are particularly derisive of mortal creatures lost or confounded by mazes. Like mortal minotaurs, labyrinth minotaurs are perfectly at home in mazes of any kind and are incapable of becoming lost. This affinity for mazes applies to their thinking as well—despite their brutish demeanors, labyrinth minotaurs are good with puzzles and are keen tactical thinkers. When labyrinth minotaurs meet in peace, they sometimes exchange inscrutable riddles or short descriptive puzzles (such as, “How would you drink a drop of blood inside a severed eyeball while it's in an iron coffer sunk to the bottom of a well without getting wet or being seen by the eye?”).

Labyrinth minotaurs prefer gear and armor made of bronze and steel, as few other materials are sufficiently sturdy for them to use over a long period of time. In addition to their steel shoes, heavy armor, and massive greataxes, all labyrinth minotaurs wear heavy bronze masks. Each labyrinth minotaur makes its own mask, and some spend weeks or even months obsessively shaping and reshaping the bronze over hot forges. At first glance, each of these bronze masks might seem superficially similar, but upon closer inspection a viewer can clearly see the subtle embellishments built in by the individual labyrinth minotaur. These flourishes communicate the minotaur's status and history to other servants of Baphomet. A labyrinth minotaur often adds an embellishment to its mask when it accomplishes an important task on Baphomet's behalf or kills a particularly powerful intruder. A labyrinth minotaur's obsession makes its mask more than mere ornamentation— each is mystically connected to its mask.

Labyrinth minotaurs prefer to patrol alone or in small gangs. They maintain a central communal headquarters that's usually crewed by about six members, with the fiercest labyrinth minotaur commanding the others through bullying and intimidation. This headquarters is concealed deep within a maze and serves as a safe storage area, a locus for discussing strategy, and the site of the gang's forge and metalworking tools.

When labyrinth minotaurs meet others of their kind while out patrolling a maze, they usually share a short exchange of riddles or boasts. Occasionally, labyrinth minotaurs recognize each other as being on opposite sides of sprawling, ancient rivalries. In such cases, the first labyrinth minotaur to recognize the other as an enemy surges forward with murderous fury, hoping to catch its rival off guard. Large congregations of labyrinth minotaurs are rare—even when large groups don't engage in these feuds, labyrinth minotaurs fall into divisive boasting that frequently erupts into bloodshed anyway.

Labyrinth minotaurs are rarely encountered outside of the Ivory Labyrinth, and therefore have little interaction with other races beyond visitors to their master's realm.

Labyrinth minotaurs display grudging respect for glabrezu and vilsteth demons and undisguised contempt for mortal minotaurs and cultists of Baphomet. Their arrogance precludes true camaraderie with anyone other than those of their own kind.