E6 Cult of the Horned King

[Blackhawk748]

So in my last session i introduced the above cult. The cult isn't tied to the main plot, its just a fun side quest that is tied to a random encounter the party got. The issue is, i dont have any real ideas for the cult.

The cult follows a Half-Fiend minotaur and is made up of more Minotaurs and Gnolls (the Gnolls are Mounstrous Humanoids now). The Minotaurs serve as lieutenants and the Gnolls are the grunts. They've taken over an old Orc garrison and have built up some of the defenses.

So other than that, i've got squat. The party is level 4 almost 5 and its E6. The party is about Tier 4 OP wise.

[ksbsnowowl]

What is the "Horned King?"

If you wanted to up the stakes, maybe when the party locates the cult's secret temple, the cult is in the latter stages of calling an aspect of their demon lord to help the cult achieve its goals. This involves some elaborate ritual (maybe based upon the incantations from Unearthed Arcana (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm)) that the PC's can disrupt to prevent it from occurring. The web enhancement for the Fiendish Codex I has the stats for a CR 7 Aspect of Baphomet. If you wanted to go all out, Heroes of Horror has a CR 25 Avatar of Cas, a moose-headed god of spite.

Baphomet and Cas are the first things to come to mind for the "Horned King," since I don't have any context for what that is supposed to be. Baphomet is exceptionally appropriate given your use of Minotaurs.

Given that they are minotaurs, a labyrinthine cult temple might be appropriate. Perhaps just base the hallways on a maze pattern from a puzzle book (I'm sure you can find or generate some on-line (http://www.mazegenerator.net)). When you run the adventure, don't ever draw more on the battle mat than the one room and hallway the PC's are in at any given time (what you immediately need for the combat at hand), then erase it, and only verbally describe the turns as the party continues through the tunnels. When they ask what way they have to go to get back to X room they saw before, reply, "I don't know; how do you get back there?" Then give them a DC 15, or 18, or 20 Intelligence check at each turn to remember and choose correctly.

If they are smart, they will start taking precautions to help them find their way (drawing their own map as you describe the halls, drawing chalk markers on the walls, etc.)

And remember that Minotaurs don't ever get lost in mazes, so a situation where the PC's have to retreat, but are getting lost in the maze along the way, can be quite a tense situation, as the Minotaurs can chase them, and some can circle around and ambush the party on their flight out of the maze temple.

Lastly, just a thought, but Goat Folk from the MM3 might be a better option in place of gnolls for the Medium underlings. The only potential disadvantage is EL calculations for your encounters, as Goat Folk are CR 2, as opposed to the Gnolls' CR of 1. If you haven't yet established the underlings as gnolls in particular, Goat Folk might serve your goals better.

Edit: I forgot you had mentioned they had taken over an old Orc garrison as their base when I started writing my maze idea, above. Is this old orc garrison a surface structure? Or is it underground or in a cave? In either case, maybe the minotaur cult took over the garrison, but then mined into the bedrock, carving out the maze that leads to their true temple, which is secretly hidden underground. Maybe the actual temple part is still under construction, or was only recently finished, and the cult needs to perform a ritual or sacrifice to properly consecrated it to the Horned King? They have captured some local peasants to sacrifice, etc, as an additional motivating plot point.

If you need a map for the garrison itself, there are a few items in published D&D material that would work well as a template for it.

Aboveground:
Exemplars of Evil, p. 40 has a map for a partially destroyed keep that orcs are using as a base. It's a pretty good map.
Red Hand of Doom, p. 25 has a map of a small keep. It might serve your purpose, but might be too small.

Underground:
The Forge of Fury, inside cover, has a map of a dwarven hall overrun by orcs. The first map would work well for your purposes:
http://dnd.sendric.com/adventures/core/htm/images-fof/image16.jpg

[Blackhawk748]

Thanks for the ideas.

Firstly the Half-Fiend Minotaur is the Horned King, and im going to edit that into the OP

Secondly a Maze is a wonderful idea, im going to do it.

Thirdly, Gnolls have already been established as the minions. Even if they hadnt been i couldnt use Goat Folk as they wouldnt make any sense there setting wise.

I do like the Baphomet idea though......

[Tvtyrant]

I use the sacrifice rules from the Book of Vile Darkness for my E6 high magic or cultist needs. Have pens full of slaves to be sacrificed, a few demons wandering around who have been lesser planar bound or planar bound, and a high priest who kills himself to summon an Aspect of (Demonlord) if the cult appears to be destroyed.

[ksbsnowowl]

Glad to be of help.

Make sure to see the info I edited into my previous post. Eh, here it is:


Edit: I forgot you had mentioned they had taken over an old Orc garrison as their base when I started writing my maze idea, above. Is this old orc garrison a surface structure? Or is it underground or in a cave? In either case, maybe the minotaur cult took over the garrison, but then mined into the bedrock, carving out the maze that leads to their true temple, which is secretly hidden underground. Maybe the actual temple part is still under construction, or was only recently finished, and the cult needs to perform a ritual or sacrifice to properly consecrated it to the Horned King? They have captured some local peasants to sacrifice, etc, as an additional motivating plot point.

If you need a map for the garrison itself, there are a few items in published D&D material that would work well as a template for it.

Aboveground:
Exemplars of Evil, p. 40 has a map for a partially destroyed keep that orcs are using as a base. It's a pretty good map.
Red Hand of Doom, p. 25 has a map of a small keep. It might serve your purpose, but might be too small.

Underground:
The Forge of Fury, inside cover, has a map of a dwarven hall overrun by orcs. The first map would work well for your purposes:
http://dnd.sendric.com/adventures/core/htm/images-fof/image16.jpg

[Blackhawk748]

Ah the Forge of Fury, i actually ran this group through it in another campaign, so that maps a no go. But yes, lots and lots of sacrifices, and the Leader killing himself to summon the Aspect is a great plan, i may adapt it slightly and instead have him turn into it,

The Garrison is above ground and it was a basic Motte and Bailey fort before the Orcs abandoned it, so its not exactly in the best condition, though the excavated tunnel is a great idea.

[ksbsnowowl]

Ah the Forge of Fury, i actually ran this group through it in another campaign, so that maps a no go. But yes, lots and lots of sacrifices, and the Leader killing himself to summon the Aspect is a great plan, i may adapt it slightly and instead have him turn into itThis is a great tension builder. I did this in a revamped take on Speaker In Dreams. I added a Blackguard of Hextor that was flagellating himself with his flail after every other cultist was dead. Effectively it was an incantation to summon an aspect of Hextor that would have arrived (either through the open gate to the lower planes, bursting out of the blackguard as he died, or a transformation of the blackguard) if he had finished. The last round before it culminated all the PC's failed to take out the Blackguard, until the final PC before the blackguard's turn succeeded in killing him. Then I pulled out the Aspect of Hextor mini so they could see what they had prevented from coming about.


The Garrison is above ground and it was a basic Motte and Bailey fort before the Orcs abandoned it, so its not exactly in the best condition, though the excavated tunnel is a great idea.
The map I mentioned from Red Hand of Doom is small enough, it should work as the top structure of a Motte and Bailey fortification.

[Gnorman]

Perhaps you could work in Yeenoghu somehow, and allow the party to convince the gnolls to turn on their minotaur masters in the name of their demonic lords' mutual hatred for one another?

[ShurikVch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWAq4w1h--M

Rules are in Dragon #340