Issue 7 February 2010 MINOTAUR The Official, Irregular Webzine of the Mazes & Minotaurs Revival Celebrating Three Years of Free M&M Coverage LONG LIVE THE MINOTAUR ! Two Scenarios, New Creatures & Mythic Items, Official Background Material, Rule Variants, Inspiration for Maze Masters and more ! TABLE OF CONTENTS Issue 7 February 2010 Mythika Gazetteer : Midia, Land of Southern Promise 4 Midia, land of exotic wonders, many-colored cities and queens named Dido Bonus Feature : Intrigue & Adventure in Midia 27 Five scenario synopses for heroic adventuring in the exotic south Griffin Archives : When Gods Walk the Earth 31 Behold, mortals ! Here comes an ancient article of divine wisdom ! Adventure : The Green Minotaur 35 A village, a forest, a monster… and a big misunderstanding Maze Master’s Lore : Mythic Secrets of the Minotaurs 41 Everything you wanted to know but were to afraid to ask… and more. Mythic Bestiary : More Minotaurs ! 45 You can never have too many Minotaurs, can you ? A Twist in the Maze : Minotaur Mania ! 47 In the dark labyrinth lurks a terrible monster : the Compulsive Rule Tweaker… Pandora’s Box : Minotaurian Marvels 49 Once again, Pandora opens her box and goes all thematic on us … Adventure : The Secret of Zerzura (Part Three) 51 The thrilling conclusion to our three-part Desert Kingdom epic quest ! Almanac of Mythika : Mythikan Calendars 75 A fascinating (if slightly pedantic) study of the Mythikan calendar Muse’s Corner : Graphic Epics 81 What happens when Achilles and Hercules become comic book heroes ? Play Nymph : Pandora 82 What’s in the box ? What’s in the box ? WHAT’S IN THE BOX ? 2 MINOTAUR n° 7 A Word from the Editor HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISTER MINOTAUR ! Biggest Issue Ever Greetings, heroic readers, and welcome to the seventh issue of the Minotaur – which is also our biggest issue so far, with 80 pages of Mazes & Minotaurs goodness ! That’s right, folks : eighty pages of free M&M stuff ! When our friend Andrew Pearce, who wrote the monumental Desert Kingdom Gazetteer we published in issue 5, told me he felt like writing some stuff about Midia , the pseudo-Carthage of Mythika, I knew we would be going over our usual page count of 48 or so. And here we are, with this mega-sized, very special issue of the Minotaur . In addition to Andrew’s Mythika Gazetteer on Midia (which also comes with a bonus article presenting five scenario synopses set in the exotic south), this issue Regimental Roster also brings you two complete adventures - the third and final part of our Secret of Zerzura Desert Kingdom epic Armchair General : Olivier Legrand. and The Green Minotaur. Field Commander : Andrew Pearce. And speaking of Minotaurs , our iconic monster seems to be this issue’s guest of honor, rearing its ugly head in Unsung Hero : Igor A. Rivendell. no less than four of our regular columns : Mythic Bestiary , Pandora’s Box , Maze Master’s Lore and Irregular Unit : Luke G. Reynard. even poor old Luke G. Reynard’s A Twist in the Maze . Battlefield Artists : Emmanuel Roudier, George F. The Griffin Archives and Muse’s Corner columns Watts (cover), Pahko, Willy Pogany, V.A. Poirson and manage to escape the Minotaur-mania, with a Maze various anonymous illustrators. Mastering advice article on Divine Intervention and a quick look at two inspirational comic books. Ordnance Survey Maps : Tim Hartin & Andrew Pearce Rounding up this already hefty issue is the first Some illustrations © copyright Clipart.com instalment of a new three-part column, the Alamanac of Mythika , written by the erudite and ubiquitous All game material included in this webzine uses the Revised M&M rules (1987 edition). Andrew Pearce, who tells you everything you could possibly want to know about the calendars of Mythika. All text contents included in this webzine are the property of A few paragraphs ago, I mentioned that this issue was the respective authors and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without their direct permission. not only mega-sized but “very special” as well... Why “very special”, you ask ? Because our little webzine is The Manticore illustration on p 37 and the monster illustration celebrating its third year of existence – that’s right, on p 67 were found on Wikimedia Commons and are used three whole years of free M&M stuff ! according to the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ This issue is dedicated to all the people who have supported Mazes & Minotaurs since its first appearance The illustrations by Emmanuel Roudier on p 30, 35, 36, 39 and on the web. Shield wall, comrades ! 44 are part of the Mazes & Minotaurs private illustration bank and cannot be reproduced elsewhere without the artist’s direct permission. All the other illustrations used in this webzine are LONG LIVE THE MINOTAUR ! either public domain or were purchased from Clipart.com. Olivier Legrand (2010) PS : I did mention the Play Nymph, didn’t I ? 3 MythIKA GAZETTEER MIDIA LAND OF SOUTHERN PROMISE Written by Camilco of Solus; translated by Andrew Pearce The southern shore of the Middle Sea is dominated by the nation of Midia and its capital Solus , a centre of trade with a cosmopolitan population of merchants, sailors and thieves. Maze Masters Guide , p 8 Introduction from our history have in no way lessened our love of learning, our spirit of adventure, and our boundless zest for new, enriching experiences. Midia – the ‘Land of the South’ as most Mineans know it – is home to one of the great civilisations of Mythika. There are, of course, many misconceptions about my Yes, as a Midian myself, I know you’d expect me to say homeland that I hope to address in this dissertation. that. Nevertheless, it’s true. Some have accused Midians of being ‘a dissolute and licentious people, lacking any sense of moral compass’, Unlike some nations – the inscrutable Khettim of the to quote from the scurrilous Midia Exposed! (to which Desert Kingdom, the dour Warlords of Umbria, the my good friend and mentor Anagnosis briefly refers in proud Sea Princes of Tritonis – Midia has always been his kind foreword to my humble offering). I am not an open and enlightened society, seeking to learn from aware that Cleonthides of Argos has ever visited my other civilisations, and in turn to share what it has homeland, so perhaps it will come as no surprise that I learned with others. That we have been subjected to will make only one further reference to his lurid, more unwarranted invasions than any other nation is rambling and error-riddled essay – when I come to the price we have repeatedly had to pay for that examine the persistent myth that we Midians indulge in openness. Yet such is the resilience, and the forgiving child-sacrifice. I will give careful attention to refuting this nature, of the Midian people that these harsh lessons heinous blood-libel later in my dissertation. 4 Three Cities to the north. Nevertheless, it receives Some Words of Recommendation sufficient rain for the growing of olives, citrus fruits, nuts, dates, grapes and above all wheat in abundance. I was delighted to be invited to pen some words of Only in the south-east corner do the rains become so recommendation for this work by a young but intermittent as to make agriculture difficult, as the promising Midian scholar, Camilco of Solus. Based on scrub-lands of Midia gradually give way to the harsh his recent guest lecture on Midian culture and history wastelands of the Great Desert. at the Akademia of Thena (that I was very happy to co-sponsor alongside Anaximander of Cresos), Midia is bounded to the west by the lush jungles of Camilco’s thesis provides an absorbing introduction Charybdis; to the south by the forbidding mountains of for anyone interested in his fascinating yet often the Stygian Empire; and to the east by the hot sands of misunderstood homeland. Too many in the Three the Desert Kingdom. However, Midia’s longest and Cities are content to dismiss Midia simply as ‘the Land most important frontier is to the north – the vast waters of the South’, or, worse, ‘the Land of Baby-killers’. of the Middle Sea. The nation of Midia was founded six Midia deserves to be better known than that, and centuries ago by mariners and merchants from the young Camilco has given us a worthy dissertation – Land of the Sun, and, more than any other nation – with certainly far superior to the ridiculous and the possible exception of the Tritonians – Midia’s whole sensationalist monograph “Midia Exposed!” published history and culture has revolved around its relationship by that third-rate hack Cleonthides of Argos last year. I most assuredly commend Camilco’s masterful essay with the sea. to your attention. In the centre of Midia lies the wild and little-explored Anagnosis of Thena Woodland of Samera , the remnants of what was once a much wider forested expanse. The abode of many Let me conclude my introductory remarks with this dangerous beasts, it is also rumoured that various dark warm invitation. If you doubt anything you read in the cults operate from hidden sanctuaries within this words that follow – come to Midia, and you will see the uninviting woodland. truth about my people for yourselves! Although there are many villages and hamlets scattered across Midia, and particularly along its lengthy coast, a The Land of the Ten Cities high proportion of the population lives in one or other of the ten cities of Midia. Such is the importance of these cities that in recent years, a new name for Midia has Geography increasingly entered the public consciousness: the Land of the Decapolis – literally ‘Ten Cities’ in Minean.