Asterius, the Minotaur
Scenerio Seed for Call of Cthulhu/Delta Green

From: Morrigan (aj_hide11@hotmail.com)
Date: Saturday, December 20th , 2003
 
Description: The Minotaur appears to be a massive humanoid over seven feet tall. He has the head and tail of a bull but the body of a massively muscled human male. His sex organs are also spectacularly large. Although the Minotaur has the head of a bull, he does not have a herbivore's teeth. The Minotaur is a carnivore, and has teeth like a shark's, to allow it to tear out the gobbets of flesh it eats.
 
Asterius is the product of an unholy and unnatural union between Queen Pasiphae of Crete and a divine white bull sent by Poseidon. There is the possibility that it was not Poseidon who sent the bull, but another powerful "divine" being associated with the sea (perhaps entombed beneath it, in a vast corpse city of unnatural geometry...), and that it was not literally this bull, but the energy or generative power of this other being which caused Queen Pasiphae to birth the monstrous Asterius. The Athenian architect Daedalus was involved in the Minotaur's conception. Daedalus would have connections to Athenian mystery religions, since science and religion were more closely connected in his times. It is possible that he summoned or in some other way facilitated the entrance of the generative power of this "sea god" into the queen. Asterius delights in violence and has an insatiable appetite for raw flesh. His enormous strength, minimal intelligence, and vicious, depraved mentality makes him horrifying to encounter. King Minos of Crete was forced to confine the monstrous being in the Labyrinth because the Minotaur had the horrifying habit of going berserk, attacking and killing anything and everything in sight. While Asterius is not what you would call intelligent, he does have self-awareness, the power of speech, rudimentary problem solving powers, and enough "smarts" to use weapons in battle. He is not a dumb animal, but an unholy combination of man and beast.
 
Some Keepers will not feel a supernatural/ mythical origin for the Minotaur is appropriate. The Minotaur could easily be the product of some particularly loathsome biotechnology experiments, along the lines of the cat men and goat men of Fortean urban legend. For example, megalomaniacal tycoon Augustus Clarke's biotechnology conglomerate, Clarke Biochem, does this sort of experimentation. Clarke and his firm are interested in things that are big and dangerous, which the Minotaur, of course, is. The mythological Minotaur is a savage, bloodthirsty monster unworthy of sympathy and essentially an engine of destruction bent on killing and destroying as much as it can get away with. The Minotaur eats humans because he is hungry, to get back at a world that has ostracized him, and because he doesn't know any better. While a Minotaur which is the product of biotechnology would have the same proclivities, it could also be much more sympathetic figure, especially if it is not a created being, but a human that has been changed.
 
STATS
STR
21 EDU 2
DEX 13 POW 7
CON 25 HIT POINTS 22
APP 4
SIZ 19
INT 8
 
Move: 6
 
Damage Bonus: + 1D6
 
Armor: 5 points from a thick hide and 6 points of armor on his head
 
Attacks:
  • Punch/ strike with hand 40%, 2d6
  • Bite 35% (must grapple first), 2d6
  • Charge 40%, 4d6
  • Gore with horns 35%, 3d6
  • Two-handed weapon (axe, mace, etc.) 30%, 1d10 + 2d6
 
 
Blood Lust: Asterius is subject to blood lust. Normally, he is a savage, if reasonably restrained fighter. When blood is drawn or an opponent is clearly injured, things change. Then, a will power check, represented by rolling POW or lesson 1d100, must be made or else he will go BERSERK and only attack the bleeding opponent, to the exclusion of all others. If that opponent is ever knocked to the ground, he will start eating the still-living opponent. He gains 2 armor points and a point of DEX, and does another 1d6 points of damage in close combat, but is also + 15% to hit, because of his preoccupation with a single victim.
 
Spells: Asterius does not have the patience to use spells.
 
Sanity: seeing: 1/1d8, witnessing blood lust: 1d4/ 1d8 + 2
 
 
Hooks:
 
1. In the typical setting of CoC/ DG games, the Minotaur makes a fine inhabitant of a modern sewer, replacing the more "mundane" albino alligators. The Minotaur is a brute, an engine of destruction to thin the ranks of PCs.
 
2. Since it is possible that the Minotaur is the result of one of the denizens of R'Lyeh impregnating Queen Pasiphae, the Minotaur could be their spawn, and be a much more horrible entity than the results of a bestial union between human and bull. This fact could add to the horror of game play.
 
3. Exploration of a peculiarly elaborate set of ancient ruins could lead to a less ruined portion, with a brutish inhabitant...
 
4. As mentioned above, the Minotaur could be the product of modern biotechnological experimentation, and tied into an adventure concerning biotechnology and/ or illegal human or animal experimentation.
 
5. It is Nyarlathotep's avowed goal to spread madness and insanity. It is possible that he may feel that this goal is best served by turning the actual, mythological Minotaur loose in some modern setting...like a shopping center, office building, or the Pentagon.
 
6. A very straight forward, police procedural type adventure could be played, as the PCs investigate a very brutal, bloody-minded serial killer. The real horror comes at the finale, when the killer is revealed to be the Minotaur...
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