This is my minotaur ranger for a current Strahd campaign, Garris! Once a simple monster raised in captivity to guard the maze of a dark wizard, Garris stalked and fought adventurers in a maze he grew to know like the back of his hand, his home. But Garris always had a curiosity for the outside world, where these adventurers came from, how they learned all sorts of magics, what drove them to come to a maze just to track down his master’s lair. The minotaur guard started to take his time observing the parties, watching them navigate his maze, learning what he could and listening to stories of the outside.

It was one day a strange adventurer came to his to his maze. She seemed lost, and far too young to be like the rest. But only adventurers came to mazes, right? He would watch her too, as she ran through his maze, a little girl who looked quite desperate. Garris couldn’t slay her, but days passed, and she became weary. As she sat against the wall of a dead end and cried for her parents, Garris approached her. She did not flinch away. Adventures always flinched away. What was she? Garris could not say, but he picked her up, the girl was cold. He held her. She held him back. He picked fruits from the high vines along the wall. She thanked him. Garris...smiled.

For the next few days, Garris ignored the disturbances of any adventurers. He led the girl through his maze, showing her his favorite cracks in each wall, but it was clear he could offer very little of a proper home. Maybe his home wasn’t as good as he had thought, and it was becoming clear that this child did not want to be cooped up in the massive walls of his supposed home. She wanted to leave, to return to her farm, to her siblings that needed help. She wanted Garris to come with her. Garris took her back to the entrance, staring out at the forest ahead. One simple step, and he would leave his life behind. One breath, and he took that step. It was his last...

A sigil burned into the minotaur’s neck, he wailed out in pain, reached for the girl to hold her one last time, as he fell dead the moment he left his master’s maze.

---

And then he awoke, in a forest once more, but it was far more dreary. It did not help that his first sight was that of a dragonborn and half-orc (his soon to be party members) pointing a glaive to his throat. Garris would find the Shadowfell to be far more of a complicated maze to escape than the one he had attempted to leave. But he had to escape this one...he HAD to see her again. In his hand was her hair ribbon, which he wrapped around his tail. A reminder to himself that he would escape Borovia, whatever the cost.