Random Showcase - The Odyssey

Adventurers who explore the oceans of their world to their farthest reaches will eventually discover the Maelstrom: a terrifying region of hurricanes, whirlpools, and jagged rocks. Drunken sailors often boast of death-defying encounters within the Maelstrom, but none who have sailed its waters have ever returned. Adventurers who brave the Maelstrom must spend days battling storms, skirting whirlpools, and navigating through treacherous shoals. The passage is so intense that the crew is likely to be rendered unconscious. Lucky adventurers will awaken in calmer waters, under a cloudless sky—a glittering green expanse known as the Forgotten Sea.

Minotaurs are not born, they are created by powerful curses. They are usually treated very poorly in cities.

Legend of the Minotaurs

Over a thousand years ago, a tribe of humans washed ashore in Thylea and came to live in the southern hills of the Aresian peninsula. Here, they laid foundations for a city and called it Minos. But not one man or woman among them had the strength to till the hard, rocky soil. As fate would have it, they discovered a magnificent bull that could pull a plow through any terrain for days without resting. Using the bull’s great strength, they were able to produce bountiful crops with which to survive the first winter.

Over time, the people of the tribe began to venerate the bull, crowning him as the god of the harvest. When Sydon learned of this, he was furious. He threw curses down upon the settlers and transformed them into bulls, in mockery of their insolence. Each of them was harnessed to a plow and forced to tread the same winding, geometric path, until that path became a deep, labyrinthian gorge. Eventually, the plows broke, and the people of Minos slowly began to stand upright again—but their faces had been forever changed by the curse. The people of the tribe came to be called minotaurs— the bulls of Minos—and they have never fully shed their bull-like demeanours. Some of them merely have horns and a snout-like nose, while others have the entire upper torso of a bull. Some continued to dwell in the labyrinth, while others left to explore the far reaches of Thylea. Over the centuries, they have come to view their own cursed existence as the will of the Fates.

Warrior Bulls

Minotaurs possess uncommon strength, making them excellent warriors. The curse infuses their bodies with the power of a bull at all times, and their muscles seldom relax, even when they are drunk or asleep. In battle, minotaurs sometimes lose control of their emotions and fly into a rage. When this happens, the curse takes over, transforming them back into a full-fledged bull for a short period of time.

Oathbound Slaves

Minotaurs are widely shunned, because they are believed to be unthinking brutes who have been cursed by the gods. Most minotaurs gather together to form small farming or fishing communities, far from civilization. The only way that most minotaurs can find work in cities and villages is to swear oaths of service that effectively reduce them to the status of slaves. Many bear this humiliation with stoic grit, but others resort to banditry rather than submit to the unreasonable demands of cowardly superstition.

Volkan is an extremely muscular and wide man who works as a blacksmith. He claims knowledge of the Mithral Forge but then again he also claims to be the God Volkan.

He can come across as unbalanced, forgetful, and myopic. He provides blacksmithing services to Estoria and all the farming communities in The Heartlands. He can usually be found at his anvil, grumbling about all the work to be done. Volkan is assisted by a gangly teenaged boy named Theo, who minds the stables and runs errands in town. Theo has claimed he is aiming to become the best mortal smith in the whole world.

He apparently gets extremely drunk once a month and becomes extremely irritable.

Stimfay are clockwork birds of prey that are created by and used by the Amazons for a variety of things from stalking quarry, messaging one another, combat support and even administrating aid to the fallen. Every huntress learns to build and repair these mechanical birds when they are young, often forming deep and lasting bonds with the strange creatures. Stimfay come in a variety of shapes, although always avian. The most common forms seen are eagle, harrier, hawk, kite, osprey, and owls but more forms abound even ones as exotic as an archaeopteryx. They can comprehend instructions in any language but only respond in a series of clicks and squawks that only Amazons seem to understand. No matter the chosen form they always have a keen sight that allows them to be master scouts.

How the stimfay was created has been lost in time, with only the High Amazon priestess being allowed to know about such matters. What little that has been gleaned by observation is that a stimfay needs an Amazon to activate it and it will immediately bond to that Amazon alone. Euryale, noted wizard, noticed a powerful beam of magic emenating from the clockwork bird into the skies when witnessing Aella, The Whirlwind activating hers. She surmised that it was some sort of communication spell but could not desipher the destination.

The common form of stimfay have a variety of functions. Amongst their arsenal of weapons most notably are the sharp talons that can pierce armour with ease. An enemy is struck by them from all angles making them incapable of launching a counterattack. Additionally, they can launch metallic feathers from theor body as a stealthy ranged attack or even emit a piercing screech that can deafen an opponent. Another important function of the stimfay is their healing capabilities. If an ally has been grievously wounded and bleeding out it can deploy a mist that can stabilise them, thus avoiding death. For more concentrated healing they also have a holder where a single potion (Typically a healing poultice) can be placed. The Stimfay is then able to administrate the potion to a willing or unconscious creature.

Finally, stimfay seem to be upgradable. There have been tales of Stimfay strong enough to allow an Amazon to glide for a short distance, others equiped with grappling hooks and even heavily armoured versions that can withstand a warriors blade. To the reader I say beware, for if you see one or more such cretures, The Amazons are never far behind.