Minotaur Island

This is a scenario set off the shore of Cardolan on a small island. This presents the party with the rumour of a mighty Artifact of great antiquity . In the quest to find it there is opportunity for a naval action - perhaps against the Corsairs of Umbar. This could be resolved using Sea Law.
In my campaign the party hired a boat and crew in Tharbad. Thus was introduced Captain Rimnus - an occasional NPC. This adventure also launched the parties maritime Empire, using a ship they captured .

Introduction The Party are in Tharbad . In my campaign the mages were researching in the Library. One of them came across a report about the

Legend of Minotaur Island


In the days when Melkor was the master of darkness , when Sauron was but his Servant many denizens of evil were created.

From these times date the first Dragons , the  Balrogs, The Great Spiders, and worse. Also Melkor created Minotaurs. though

not as powerful as Balrogs they were still mighty compared to men.


In the War of Wrath the valar assaulted and destroyed Melkor and many of his Servants. However some survived.


It is said that Minotaurs were buried under the earth during the great cataclysam that occured five millenia ago.


Ages past . Late in the secound age Numenoreans came to Minotaur Island - then called Teeth Rock due to the numerous spike 

like projections around it . These men were sent to build a fortress on the island. During the construction they released a minotaur buried under the island.

Released the Minotaur soon subdued the Numenoreans and became Lord of Minotaur Island. The Numenoreans were planning to send an army

 to deal with the threat but Numenor itself was destroyed by floods at the wrath of the Valar.


Minotaur Island passed into legend. Now only occasional sailors report terrifying adventures on the island.One of these features finding a great 

artifact - The Trident of The Mighty Sea  on the island. However this sailor was forced to leave it as he fled for his life.

That should wet the appetite. Searching a little more ( i use the administration stat) will find the following brief report on the

Trident of The Mighty Sea


Before the First Age of the Sun Ulmo master of the waves created the Trident of the Mighty Sea. It was

 created to protect the waters from evil. The Trident is a powerful artifact. A mighty weapon but also of arcane power and intelligent. During the 

War of wrath Ulmo may have lost it and it fell from history during the disasters the ended the first age.

The Party will also find some maps showing the location of the island (I have not put this on this site- so you will have to make it up but I drew a few scraps of coast line copied from a ICE map. I allowed the party to look at there own collection of maps and eventually they matched it all together)along with notes commenting on the possible location of a ruined castle. These clues should enable them to travel to the castle.
Encounter at sea. This bit is optional . The party will need to hire a ship to get them to Minotaur Island.My party did this in Tharbad. They then sailed down the river to the sea . Just off coast a pirate vessel from Umbar (the Corsairs) attacked them . I made each ship a medium sized caravel type vessel and had about 30 fighting crew. The Corsair vessel tried to board the party ship but eventually the enemy vessel was captured.

Minotaur Island Minotaur Island is 5 Miles long by 11/2 miles wide . It is sheer cliffs apart from the SW which had a gravel beach enabling a boat to put down. The party will then need to climb a steep path up the cliffs. (Perhaps a hard maneuver with the risk of falling onto the rocks below. Once the top of the cliffs is reached it will be necessary to walk about 3 miles along a worn and faint path to the tumbled down ruins perched on the wind swept eastern cliff. The party will have to explore the ruined towers and battlements to find a door down to the lower floors. If they inspect the tower too hard there is a chance of part of them collapsing causing a C crush crit.

The following is a map of the dungeons of minotaur castle:

The castle

1.The corridor leads to a stairs down to the remaining rooms of the castle. In this corridor is a 10ft x 10ft pit trap. This is hard to detect.failure to avoid it leads to a fall 20 ft on to spikes 1d3 C puncture crits plus fall damage. If the party detect it and jump over it they find that they land on wafer thin wood on the far side. This leads to a 40 ft fall on to spikes 1d6 C puncture crits plus fall damage. A nasty one this. The stairs lead into room 1.
2.This was an old store room and there are still crates in this room. The far west door is trapped . It is hard to detect. If opened the ceiling collapses causing a D crush crit for any one in the room.
3. The door to this room is locked and on it in Adunaic is written "Beware spiders". The door is hard to pick. The room beyound is filled with thick webs. To cut through 5 ft takes one turn . If characters choose not to they can maneuver through as a hard maneuver but there is a 50% chance of getting entangled. The room is damp and dark.
4.This room is also filled with webs. In it are 3 giant spiders (they will hide in the shadows)

Name	Level	OB	DB 	HITS	MM

Spider1	12	140	40	140	25

Spider2	12	140	40	140	25

Spider3	12	140	40	140	25

Notes: any crit caused - roll a 12th level paralysis poison attack.

5. This room is also filled with webs . If any thing they are denser webs in here than in the other room. A Great Spider lives here. She knows all evil magician/essence spells to 20th level. Can use dark vision and can cast Utterdark at will.

Name 		Level	OB	DB	HITS	MM

Great Spider	20	200	50	200	20

6. This room is the spides larder . Bound mammals are here. A crack in the ceiling leads upwards. There is a glimpse of light beyound.
7.This room is the root through to the futher reaches of the dungeons.This room is trapped. The floor is made of 20 tiles. Each has a letter on.

		far side		



S	P	R	M	O

A	N	E	H	I

G	B	Q	D	J	

F	T	C	K	L



		Near side

On the wall of the chamber is written

My First is a tale , false or true ?

My second is a welcoming or a barrier.

My Third is a refelction of what went before.

My Final is half or quarter , Silver or black.

The idea is the first letter of the answer is the tile to tred on. The answers are Legend, Door, Echo and Moon. If the tiles are trodden in order far door will open. Levitating accross the room and trying to open the door will set of a death cloud attack. The first wrong tile trodden on causes Torment loose 90% hits. The second wrong tile trodden on causes trait erosion V The third wrong tile causes a fireball to ignite. The fourth causes a death cloud.

To be continued: