Maze of the Minotaur

PDM's mini, from 0:05 in the video 

Continuing on my PDM inspired, update of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, I'm doing a nearly direct rip-off of the Professor's method for Cave I: Caves of the Minotaur. 

Rather than, meticulously time-tracking and mapping through a maze (a process that many, including me, find tedious), he abstracted the maze with random movement between points of interest. Despite the simple mechanics, I had to pause and re-watch several times so I wrote it up for myself (and anyone else who wants to run it).

The Setup

High up on the wall of the ravine a cave entrance is visible surrounded by vivid flowers. The rough track leading up is also lined with floral vines and wildflowers. As you proceed up the track, you see, mixed amongst the foliage, little sculptures, twisted together with sticks and hair. At first they look innocuous, like something a child might make, but as you go further they become more sinister. Now the structures are filled with bones… stained with blood. Motifs emerge, cages, suggestions of twisted bodies, abstract screaming faces. This is not a good place. 

PDM suggests a human pretending to be an animal headed monster is even more awful than an enraged half-beast. So my minotaur is Erol Childress (from True Detective season 1) in a bull mask and his maze is Childress' Carcosa.

Major spoilers for the show in this clip:

Childress, or "Old Jim" as my players know him, has already appeared around town in my game. He's a horribly scarred man (rumor has it he was abandoned to be savaged by wolves) meekly selling flowers (once to the PCs for a fallen comrade's funeral). No one suspect he's a psychotic cannibal, gleefully executing a campaign of revenge on a society that mistreats and belittles him. 

Navigating the Labyrinth

Upon entering the labyrinth, characters will encounter a hallucinogenic mist and quickly become disoriented. Unless characters immediately leave, they must each make a saving throw (whatever's appropriate in your system, probably Poison in BX/OSE or Constitution in 5e):

• All players that fail are separated from the other players. 
• If they aren't carrying a light source, it will be a scramble to get one going. Every turn without a light, they will roll a random encounter.
• Players that succeed can pick who they want to go with. 
• Each group then rolls a d6 to discover where they end up.
• On future turns, players who are not intoxicated can make a check to return to a room they've visited before (on a failure they roll randomly). 
• If two groups roll the same room (except #4), they are reunited and can proceed as one group going forward.

There are six major areas of interest: 

1. Entrance: If players find themselves at the entrance, they can choose whether to flee or dive back in.
2. Stirge Cave: A desiccated corpse (a rival adventurer that's known to the party) lies next to a fetid pool. Disturbing the corpse, making noise or lingering, will draw d10 stirges (BX/OSE / 5e) from a rock chimney above. They'll attack anyone holding light.
3. Fire Beetles: d4 fire beetles (BX/OSE / 5e) devouring a dead brugor (from Cave B). If you leave them be, they won't attack. If you try to interfere, they'll defend their prize fiercely. The brugor corpse has a potion of Enlarge Self, a mostly empty growler of rotgut and a pruning knife.
4. Dead End: A dead end or empty room. Different each time re-rolled. If characters linger, roll a random encounter.
5. Treasure Chamber: A large stone slab requires characters with cumulative strength scores of >20 to move. Behind the slab is the Minotaur's treasure (see below). 
6. The Minotaur: The minotaur (BX/OSE / 5e) leaps out from hiding (always gets a surprise round) and attacks with advantage. If he wins initiative in the next round, he'll attack again then flee. If he loses, he'll receive whatever attacks the PCs make and then disengage. If the characters retreat instead of attacking he won't pursue. 

Throughout the labyrinth, the walls and passages are covered in bones, grotesque sculptures, scarecrows, and mangled dolls. Every rock and bare patch shows intricate, primitive symbols, densely scrawled, clearly the work of an unhinged mind. The smell is overwhelming, with a sickly-sweet overtones from the mind-warping mist and undertones of rot and body-odor.

True Detective S1E8

Treasure of the Minotaur:

The first time the Treasure Chamber is opened, players will find the following: 

• Locked Chest, poison-needle trap: Contains 950 GP & 310 Electrum
• Coffer: Contains three potions -- Gaseous Form, Healing & Haste
• Jewelry box: Contains three pieces: Platinum tiara (1600GP), emerald bracelet (900GP) and diamond pendant (600GP)
• Complete set of plate armor
• Snuff box: filled with Berserker Salts 

If they don't take all of the stuff, the next time they come back, it will have all been plundered by rival adventurers (I'll be using Felix Longworm's newest ne'er-do-wells). One will have fallen afoul of the poison needle trap and been left to die.

Random Encounters: 

1. Hungry Fire Beetle: It's light gland will be visible approaching in the dark, lumbering forward to taste these soft-skinned intruders. Not very fast and can be easily fled, but it'll follow along the scent trail and catch-up if the fugitives pause anywhere. 
2. Minotaur Ambush:  Appears in a flash of light and a burst of manic laughter, throws a javelin and disappears.
3. IT'S A TRAP! 
1. Spike juts from the wall - Resolve as basic attack (d6 damage).
2. Falling crockeries of feces - Gross and will attract a random encounter next turn
3. Chute opens up: The front-most adventurer in the group tumbles away into the dark and is separated from the group. The chute collapses behind and it's impossible to follow.
4. Choking spores released - Automatically lose initiative in your next encounter
4. Rival Adventurer: Separated from their friends and willing to join up, but will side with their original gang if they're ever re-united. 

Commentary

My allegiance is definitely towards more traditional dungeons and I wouldn't want to abstract them regularly, but I think this is a fun little mini-game to add variety in an otherwise slightly-samey Caves of Chaos. 

This seems like a structure that could be easily adapted for use elsewhere if you need a quick & dirty one shot adventure. You just have to come up with ~6 set-piece room encounters and a couple quick wandering encounters and in 15 minutes of prep, you've got enough dungeon to run for an evening. So long as the narrative can accommodate the hallucinogen in the premise, it'll fit just about anywhere.