Minotaurs in my 4th ed. game

Minotaurs

Minotaurs are half-bull, half-human. They are a mostly evil race usually associated with strong beliefs in honor and the sea due to their nation being located on the Blood Sea Isles. The Minotaur Empire now expanded to the mainland of Ansalon with the new territory of Ambeon.
Minotaurs that are from Ambeon are the only surviving successful descendants of that city, it was destroyed in countless wars of the years and all the survivors were taken to Silvanesti as slaves.
Minotaurs on this Continent are dwindling with the race thriving many leagues away on the Isles of Mithas and Kothas.
These Minotaurs found here are tribal and use the primal animal totem powers to try and survive in captivity.

MINOTAURS EMBODY the tension between civilization and savagery—discipline and madness—because
the minotaurs stand in two worlds. Tugged toward wanton violence but bound by conscience, numerous minotaurs are driven to rise above their dark impulses.
Such a minotaur walks the labyrinthine pathways of introspection, seeking the balance between the monstrous and refined. Like a deadly maze, this personal journey has hazards and traps aplenty. Innumerable minotaurs succumb to the wicked temptations staining
their souls, whereupon they find themselves thralls to the dread Baphomet, the Horned King. Minotaurs
must struggle to become more than the beasts they resemble or succumb to demonic brutality.

Physical Qualities
Minotaurs combine the features of human and bull,having the build and musculature of a hulking humanoid,but with the cloven hooves, a bovine tail, and,their most distinctive feature of all, a bull’s head. Fur covers their upper bodies, coarse and thick on their heads and necks, and it gradually thins around their shoulders until it becomes normal hair over their arms and upper torso. The thick hair turns shaggy once more at the waist and thickens around their loins and legs, with tufts at the end of their tails and around their powerful hooves. Minotaurs take pride in their horns, and sharpness, size, and color speak to the minotaur’s power and place within its society. Fur and skin coloring runs from albino white to coal black, and everything between, though most have red or brown
fur and hair, with lighter tones underneath.

Labyrinthine patterns are important to minotaurs and such decoration appears on minotaur clothing,
armor, weapons, and sometimes, on their hides. Each pattern is particular to a clan, and its size and complexity helps minotaurs identify family allegiance and caste.
The patterns evolve through the generations, growing more expansive based on its members’ deeds and the clan’s history, each knot remarking on a signature event.
Minotaurs live as long as humans do.

Playing a Minotaur

The minotaurs’ preference for labyrinths is legendary,but their connection to mazes is more than a
quirk. It is central to their beliefs and how they see the world around them. The labyrinth is the physical
representation of the spiritual and psychological journey each minotaur must undertake to make
peace with its conflicted nature.
Each minotaur must navigate the perils of the self to transcend bestial impulses. One minotaur
might achieve this easily. Another might wander the corridors of his or her mind and soul for an entire
lifetime, trapped within the circuitous passages of self-deception and monstrous desires. Those who fail
might descend into depravity, becoming the thralls of the Horned King, whose presence darkens every
minotaur community like a looming specter.
Minotaur society is similarly complex, stratified into discrete, merit-based castes. A minotaur
can move in social rank through aptitude, as well as great deeds or terrible crimes. Among civilized
minotaurs, duty and traditions reinforce the caste structure. Social class is a restriction and a weapon
among corrupted minotaurs.
Priests occupy the highest caste. Minotaurs look to holy ones for leadership, so priests command the
respect and accord of all the people. They define laws, pass judgment, and keep histories and traditions.
The caste can include a variety of mystics, shamans, holy warriors, and clerics. Minotaurs who
have escaped Baphomet’s depravity look to priests professing faith in Erathis, Moradin, Pelor, and
Bahamut, or some subset of these. Cabalists spread Baphomet’s wickedness among the minotaur settlements under their control. Although the priest caste holds the greatest power
and influence, the warrior caste is very powerful.

Battle prowess a high ideal, and many minotaurs strive to master combat training and join the warrior
caste. To wield a weapon with skill is important,but to know when to use a weapon is of far greater
value. Minotaurs who revere the gods also admire discipline and the judicious use of battle prowess.
For Baphomet’s minotaurs, weapon skill is a tool for acquiring power and defiling the world.
Artisans, scholars, hedge mages, and other skilled workers form the commoner caste of minotaur
society. Beneath these are the slaves. In civilized communities, the slave caste consists the corrupted
and the criminal. Evil minotaur societies enslave any whom they conquer, and any slave can be
sacrificed to Baphomet at any moment. Magicians, such as wizards, defy the norm in
minotaur culture. One wizard might have only enough skill to be considered a commoner, while
another mage is considered a warrior for her great destructive power. A highly educated and pious
mage could even be considered a priest. Station informs a minotaur’s outlook. Even those
who leave their secluded communities find it hard to escape caste expectations. A minotaur adventurer
might show deference to a priest. Similarly, minotaur rogues and other ne’er-do-wells might affect meekness around those whom they see as their betters.
Though many minotaurs are civilized, they suffer suspicion and hatred from other races. Animosity
stems not only from monstrous appearance, but also from infamy. Wicked minotaurs are remorseless
raiders and killers, and these are often the only minotaurs known in a given area.

MINOTAUR ORIGIN
Civilization’s wreckage litters the world, and in these ruins, one can divine the secrets of fallen empires that even time has forgotten. The empire of Ruul is one of these lost civilizations, brought low through moral corruption. Minotaurs once tamed themselves and Ruul's lands. Evil shattered all they created.

The demon lord Baphomet was once a great primordial with strong ties to the natural world. He can
rightly claim minotaurs, for it is he who raised them as soldiers to claim nature for him in place of Melora, his most hated deific foe. In the Dawn War, minotaurs fought against the gods on the side of Baphomet. But Baphomet was defeated. One myth says the Horned King hurled himself into the Abyss ratherthan face the final judgment of the gods.

In defeat, minotaurs were without direction in the world. Acting quicker than Melora, Erathis claimed
the minotaurs for herself, teaching them language and law. She called on Moradin to instruct them in
crafts. In the name of their new guardians, minotaurs founded the city of Ruul on a southern archipelago.

From its first founding, Ruul was destined for greatness. Erathis blessed Ruul’s people, and they
benefited from a close kinship with the lord of artisans. Legends hold that Erathis’s servants walked
among the minotaurs of Ruul, advising them and giving them the tools they needed to spread across the islands and beyond.

Baphomet, however, endured in the Abyss. Numerous minotaurs, in Ruul and elsewhere, still revered
the Horned King and could feel his influence on their souls. Eventually, Baphomet responded to their rites. He offered unbridled freedom and conquest. Corruption wormed its way into Erathis’s grand experiment.

Cultists of Baphomet secretly influenced Ruul’s policies. What began as Ruul’s peaceful expansion
became an adventure of subjugation. The folk of Ruul became cruel. They spread their beliefs by fire and sword, slaughtering those who stood against them and enslaving the rest.

Although some minotaurs clung to the ways of the gods, wealth and conquest blinded most of Ruul’s
folk to their traditions. As Ruul swelled in size, it also swelled in corruption. Decadent nobles committed
unholy acts in the darkness of their homes. False priests spread through the land, inviting others
into mysteries best left alone or put to the sword. Baphomet’s blood cults rose, poisoning the civilization with their wickedness. Eventually, the Horned King became the spiritual master of Ruul, his followers bold enough to show themselves in the streets.
Conquest quickly turned to desecration.

Its fall complete, Ruul's wickedness was something the gods could no longer abide. With Erathis’s allowance, Melora visited volcanic devastation on Ruul.
Kord aided her with storms the likes of which the southern seas have not again seen. In the end, Ruul
was no more. Its center destroyed, the empire's remnant fell into civil war and eventual dissolution. Its
survivors—some of whom, for their loyalty to the gods, received warning—scattered across the world.

Minotaurs developed an abiding fear of divine reprisals and a passionate attitude—love or hate—
toward the world’s deities. Although the destruction drove countless minotaurs to serve Baphomet more fervently, it made others repent or continue to serve the gods with more zeal. In the early days after Ruul’s fall, even good-hearted minotaurs held the empire’s
destruction against Melora and Kord. They revered the old gods of their people, Erathis and Moradin, and took up allegiance with Pelor and Bahamut to guard them against the reemergence of iniquity. In time,these preferences became traditions.

Minotaurs are products of a tragic history. Ruul’s bones are scattered on a volcanic archipelago in the
southern seas, and across the world. Baphomet’s blood lust and butchery run in minotaurs’ veins, a
tainted birthright. But a similar yet righteous ardor allows some to hold to civilization and better ways.

4TH Edition World Building

The Races of Kyrnn,

Mountain Dwarves

The mountain dwarves exist largely apart from the rest of the world, they have not been scene since the cataclysm. They come from the clans of Hylar (The oldest and most noble of the clans.), Daewar (Highly respected clan known for fighting skill.), Neidar (craftsmen and adaptable) and Klar (introverted but very well respected for reasoning).


Hill Dwarves

The hill dwarves are dwarves that have been ignore and left to die from the underground dwarven lands to live in and trade with the world at large. They are described as more accepting of the other races. They all belong to the same clans at the original Mountain Dwarves Neidar, Hylar, Daewar and Klar , and have a feud with the mountain dwarves, whom they accuse of having blocked them from entering the mountain kingdom after the Cataclysm.


Qualinesti elves

The Qualinesti elves are ones who decided to follow Kith-Kanan, the younger of Silvanos' grandsons, to a new land with the promise of social equality and more interaction with the outer world. The turning point for this event came with the Kinslayer Wars, where elves of Silvanesti fought humans and elves in service of the Emperor of Ergoth, to expel Ergothian forces from Silvanesti's western border lands. After the war, Kith-Kanan decided to leave for the western lands, followed by his closest friends.

Kith-Kanan founded the Qualinesti realm based on the premise of freedom and equality, naming himself the Speaker of the Suns, founding a Tower of the Sun in the capital city of Qualinesti, Qualinost.

The Qualinesti elves prefer not modifying the trees in which they live. Instead, they construct buildings based on the form of the trees, giving their cities a slightly twisted look. The qualinesti have a broader contact with other races, including trading agreement with the hill dwarves of the plains, humans of Ergoth, Tarsis and Istar (before the Cataclysm).



Kagonesti elves

Also known as wild elves; elves that are attuned to nature, and considered barbarians by the Qualinesti and Silvanesti. They sport tattoos in different parts of the body, including the face, usually symbolizing their close relationship with nature.

Contrary to the Silvanesti and the Qualinesti elves, the Kagonesti prefer living in the natural caves and trees, and never build unless the situation forces them to. In addition, they dismantle anything that is unused, in an attempt leaving the land as they had found.

The Kagonesti are considered slaves by the Qualinesti elves. However, the Silvanesti consider them belonging to House Servitor, the lowest class of social status.



Eladrin or Silvanesti elves

In the beginning of time the original elves, fearing the mountains where the evil ogres lived and the plains where the short tempered humans were settling, decided to adopt the woods as home. After battling the evil dragons with the help of the gods of magic, the realm of Silvanesti was founded and named for Silvanos, the first leader of the elves.

As time developed, the Silvanesti elves became more secluded, stopping contact with the other races. Their society divided into different castes, creating a social discrimination that ultimately led to the division of their realm into the Silvanesti and the Qualinesti elves. By the leaving this realm ages ago and learned to live in harmony in the Feywild. They have never been scene since, till 300 years ago.

After the Cataclysm Eladrin could enter are realm, some stayed others left. By the time the Qualinesti Elves were about to wipe out hundres of thousadns of humans,Dwarves,Halflings,gnomes the Eladrin used the opportunity to bring trade from the Feywild in food and seeds to stop the Age of Strife

The main building is the Tower of the Stars where the king of the Silvanesti, known as the Speaker of the Stars, lives. It is settled in Silvanost, the capital of Silvanesti.

The Silvanesti elves believe themselves the Firstborn of the gods. Using their magical powers, they twist the trees in the region to shape them into structures of marble and silver.




Other races,
-Minotaurs
-Warforged
-Humans
-Halfling
-Gnome
-Goliath

Pathfinder Carrion Crown book 5

So we are in Ashes at Dawn Book 5 of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path series.

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8lv2?Pathfinder-Adventure-Path-47-Ashes-at-Dawn


I ran Books 1 thru 4 and the saga is coming to an end, with Brett taking up the mantel with GMing are group.

Alisster, 12 level Halfling Wizard, Evocation.
Hamoot, 12 level Dwarf Cleric
Davor, 12 level, Half Orc, Paladin
Jacob, Human, 1st level Bard, 1st level Barbarian, 10th level Inquisitor
Quinn, 12 level, half elf Rogue
Urik, Dwarf, 12 level Ranger


We have only one item that see invisible creatures and finally got to cast Invisibility purge, on a bone devil that has been following use for a few sessions.

We are assaulting a stronghold in this City we are in looking for Vampires when wall of fire and another one of Ice appear on the nest turn, pain in the ass.

An anti- gravity field traps 3 of are party members, the Ranger,Wizard and Cleric.
The Wizard gets stunned the following turn.

 

 

The Wizard we are battling turns in t a Glberazu,

The Cleric Teleports (Travel Domain) into the room the rest of the party is in behind the wall of fire.

The Inquisitor and Paladin try and damage the Demon!

When we finally find the Demon again it or something else  Poly-morphs the Cleric into a rabbit,  :)

The Paladin is going to die, the Rogue is in the room fighting the Demon so I need to help out the Paladin, I pull down my wrestling mask and bull rush the paladin out of the doorway.

The water elemental is really a air elemental, created via a gem of elemental summoning.

A Witch is in this room on a flying broom I activate my Celestial Armour and grapple her off the broom for questioning.

The model I could have used too pictured below,

  

Thoughts of the day.......

Mike BH if you read this sorry about you not getting that message its on my phone but perhaps never sent? either way sorry its all on me.

5e game was cancelled today due to illness, get better Jay.

Purchased set 5,8 and 10 from fat dragon games and brought them to staples for printing.
Now I will have tombs, barrels, chests, tables, beds, book cases, chairs, stooles bar counter. What you need for a good dungeon crawl my 4th ed. group will do soon, but will use it with my pathfinder group as well.

Glued together 2 crypts and look sharp, will post pics soon.

Printed up the nentir vale map and resized to form a 36 page map that I will be using in my 4th ed. group.
Just so you know I do this for every group I run, I printed up maps for allthe encounters in the first 4 books ofthe Carrion Crown Adventure Path, now I stepped down from GMing as I hate running pathfinder (3.5 ed) after 10th level, too much work.
We are still in book 5 and will wrap it up shortly but may condense book 6 to just a big boss fight?

Got a good job at work so at first I will be tired till I get used to it but it is less stress on the body then my other job, looking forward to finally taking it easy, 6 day work weeks really sucks.

Need to send a trade off that I made on Bartertown for D&D minis tomorrow and I'm highly allergic to animal hair, my nose did not stop running untill I closed the box up and took a shower so will have to wash those minis up later.

Thoughts of the Day

Purchased the Cemetery and set 9 from Fat Dragon games and 4 day's last week went to Micheals on my way to work to pick up card stock 110 lbs. paper for my 3d terrain for the games I'm in and run.

I had to go in the next day as Staples called me and I had to prove purchase of said copy righted material, which I did.

So have 6 Mausoleums and 10 or so tombs I need to cut out and assemble for Thursday's game which I will not get done, but I may get 2 to 4 pieces done? maybe.


I purchased all the pathfinder skull and shackles pirate models still missing                   Isabella Locke
and

Arronax Endymion         Will get them soon.....

Tonight I will sit down and wright up 2 encounters for Thursday game and maybe assembled 2 tombs for those encounters?

Next up my Pathfinder game on September 14th

Horde of the Dragons Queen 5e

September 7th

Stopped off at Costco picked up snacks and toed along a cooler full of drinks.

Showed up 20 mins late but brought drinks and snacks, so that counts right?

Can't discount Brett he also brought a snack for all of us too!

Brett, Elf Monk
Adam, Elf Wizard
Mike, Elf Rogue
Chris (me), Human that is 4'6" tall with full beard (look like a Dwarf) Cleric

One player was missing, so we could use a Fighting class character, so get on it!!

I'm really enjoying the 5th edition rules set it's simple, quick and the math (crunch) is taken out.

Simple and to the point I like it. advantage roll 2 dice take the best result, disadvantage same but take the lowest. Easy, simple and quick, love it.

Start off going through the town that is partial on fire and towns people are running around screaming. When 3 children, a man and women come between the houses, the man is injured.

 Are DM's screen and are character pictures.

 An awesome way to make conditions, this marks Inspiration, which is a great mechanic, you get 1d4 to add to a roll if you play your character well.

Below,
Kobolds jump out and try and ignore use to go after the man, women and children. We put a stop to it quickly cutting them down.  

Below,
We find more people on are way and are group gets larger and larger as we make are way to the Castle to find Sanctuary.

Below,
Now both are Rogue and Monk are down after the ally fight., we get the rogue back into fighting strength but the monk is no more, Mr. Green has past away.

Are Monk is down and failed 3 saves vs death, wonder what Elf tastes like?

We get 11 people to safety and discus what to do next with the Mayor, they need us to take out a few know cultists directing the looters in the Town, so next session it's time to kill some looters!!!

War of the Lance 4th edition game

The wind in your hair, flying above the earth towards the ruins of Fastermel on the backs of  amazing animals that legions speak of, the beautiful and graceful Pegasus.

The Mythical creatures bypassed the Ruins that were swarming with Reptile men and goblins, they also saw troops marching towards Fallcrest.

The group saw 2 ships docked, one on fire and another fighting for their lives against goblins, women and children are on the pier trying to get on the ships but are held back by wolf rider goblins.

The Pegasus streak down to the group, why? goblin riding wyverns attack from the direction of the sun.
The Party lands on the larger ship that the crew is engaged in combat with goblins, in the end one crew dies a few wyverns die and 2 Pegasuses perish.

more to come