Custom Mission - Dinkle's Tower

Mouse Guard Missions
1

So I came up with this little mission as a decent introductory scenario for my regular gaming group, but I haven’t run it yet. I figured that while it’s waiting for our current game to end, I should share it with y’all and see if it gets some use in the meantime. Feel free to offer any feedback you might have, as since this hasn’t been run yet, I’m not sure where the real kinks might be.

Dinkle’s Tower
[i]It’s early Spring, a time when the land has begun to thaw and beasts have begun to awaken. Despite the optimism that a new spring can bring, it is a dangerous time for the mice of the Territories. Beasts of all manner awake from their winter slumbers with angry bellies. The melting snow can turn a well-traveled path into a raging river. Perhaps worse, a slow spring can lead to depleted stores, forcing untrained mice to risk venturing out into the unforgiving cold.

Early spring is a time when mice are at the mercy of the unpredictable weather, and it is because of this that the weather watchtower, manned by the humble scientist Dinkle, was originally erected outside of the town of Blackrock. Fitted with a powerful telescope, it is able to track weather patterns from the north, west, and spy the lakefront storms of the shore towns both to the south and north. It is this tower that provides to Lockhaven an early spring report, advising which areas might be in need of the most urgent assistance from the Guard.

Except no news has come yet this year, and the Matriarch fears the worst.[/i]

Assign the Mission: Venture to Blackrock and discover why the communications from Dinkle’s Tower have ceased.

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(Optional Obstacle:

  • If anyone in the patrol has an Instinct related to checking the weather, roll Weather Watcher Vs Spring 6. If failed, an early warm rain falls, expediting the melting of the snow and causing flooding during the Pathfinder test later on.)

Obstacle: Ob 3 Health

  • It is still very early in Spring, and while warm enough for the snow to begin melting, it is still quite cool, and made more treacherous by the water. Those that fail are made Tired on their march towards Blackrock.

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Upon reaching Blackrock, the patrol finds the town slowly waking from its hibernation, with some of the townsmice working on repairs here and there after the winter. Any mice the patrol asks about the Tower will direct the group towards the town clerk’s office for guidance.

The town clerk, Matteo, is an incredibly overworked archivist, or at least he believes himself to be. Despite being the only ones in the office, the patrol will find Matteo completely frantic, shuffling about papers everywhere and filing in a frenzy. If asked for news from Dinkle, he will reply that Dinkle is typically very well stocked for the winter months, so no one hears from him before the first few weeks of spring when he needs to restock and brings the weather report to be mailed to Lockhaven. When asked about how to get to the Tower, he will reply that he is very busy, giving the patrol hasty (and very confusing) directions to the whereabouts of Dinkle and the Tower outside of town to the northeast.

Matteo
Nature 3 ; Will 4 ; Resources 4 ; Health 3 ; Circles 3
Skills: Archivist 5 ; Administrator 2 ; Records-wise 3 ; Archive-wise 4 ; Cartographer 2
Traits: Hard-worker 1

Obstacle: Persuader/Deceiver vs Matteo Will 4

  • If successful, Matteo will produce a quick map that will provide the patrol with +1D tools for the Pathfinder test to locate the Tower. If failed, he will shoo the patrol out of his office due to his being “incredibly busy,” making the patrol Angry as a result.

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The primary path to the tower is flooded in some areas due to the melting snow, meaning that the patrol needs to find alternate passages in certain areas.

Obstacle: Pathfinder Ob 3

  • If failed, the invoke the Shrike Twist during the journey to the Tower
  • Special: If the patrol failed the optional Weather Watcher test prior to setting out, there is a large area of flooding that will not be passable with a mere Pathfinder test. In this case, the patrol will also need to make either an Ob 4 Health test to swim across the flooded area, or an Ob 3 Boatcrafter test to build a vessel that will carry the patrol across the water. If either failed, invoke Shrike Twist.

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Upon reaching the Tower and Dinkle, the scientist will be confused, claiming to have given his assistant Hennik the report a week ago to send to Lockhaven with the rest of Blackrock’s mail. He will assume that something terrible must have befallen Hennik, and will insist that the patrol find the poor young mouse.

Dinkle
Nature 2 ; Health 3 ; Will 6 ; Resources 7 ; Circles 4
Skills: Weather Watcher 5 ; Healer 3 ; Instructor 3 ; Loremouse 2 ; Star-wise 4
Traits: Curious 2 ; Oldfur 2

Obstacle: Scout Vs. Nature (Mouse) 5

  • A successful Scout test finds Hennik injured but otherwise fine (use standard Naturalist stats for Hennik). If failed, invoke the Shrike Twist.
  • Special: If Scout test is failed and Shrike Twist has already been invoked, Hennik has been killed by the Shrike. The patrol finds his body impaled in a thorn bush and partially eaten, but with the majority of the weather report in tact. The patrol will need to report this to Dinkle and get his confirmation of the weather report before departing Blackrock.

Obstacle: Pathfinder Ob 3 or Cartographer Ob 2

  • If found alive, Hennik is Injured and requires medical attention. The patrol must either hastily make for the quickest route back to town from where they’ve found him (Pathfinder), or use Matteo’s map to discern their direction back to the main path (Cartographer). A successful Healing Ob 3 test will reduce the Pathfinder/Cartographer Ob by 1, due to allowing Hennik a bit more mobility and comfort during the trip. If failed, Shrike Twist (if not used) or Conditions.

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Shrike Twist!
At multiple possible points during the mission, the patrol may be descended upon by a hungry Shrike. This bird is also responsible for the disappearance of Hennik, and depending on when the patrol encounters the beast they may find Hennik hiding beneath a thorn bush, trying to keep away from the hungry bird.

Use the standard Shrike stats for the animal.

Player’s Turn Suggestions:
Depending on how things play out, a number of possibilities exist for the patrol to explore during the PT. They may assist in healing Hennik, or they might buy/fashion some armor for the boy to keep him safe on future ventures back into Blackrock. If Hennik has been killed by the shrike during the mission, the patrol may try and find a new apprentice for Dinkle. If the shrike was not encountered during the mission, the patrol may hunt down the creature for its attack on Hennik.

1 Like
2

intrigued; gimme a few days to review and respond

3

Still writing. It turns out I’ve surpassed the allowable characters per response, so I’m going to link a shared google doc with two missions for Spring relating to your design.

4

I’ve completed the written reply, but it is large and comprises two missions.

Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xyV8tNEL2KKa9txcWbHrmgcNAVJq5ntiV3jqjBWbnTI/edit?usp=sharing

Please enjoy. I realize the length of this two-mission document will take some time to garner responses.

5

Hi,

thanks for the mission. I played it today, but added a player’s turn to Dawnrock after the group had got the map from Matteo.

6

Oh, tell me more please! How did things go with the mission obstacles. I’m really curious about how the players took the town meeting, the swollen stream, the whole shrike thing, and the Spring mating urge.

I’m planning to run this dual-mission (with a bit of editing for time) during Virtuacon '15. So, any feedback about how players addressed certain obstacles or faced Player Turn choices would be really beneficial.

7

I played the game two times a row. One time with half-strangers who were familiar with rpgs but not the MG and one time with 3 of my friends, two of which had never played RPGs before : ) In the first game I used the player’s turn in the Dawnrock and in the Lockhaven when they arrived home after the mission. In the second game I removed the player’s turns and gave the players fate points in place of checks. I did this on the second time because one of my friend, who had played MG before didn’t like the Player turn-GM-turn -structure

First game was really short because the team rolled unbelievable good. Dain, the mouse from the mission “trouble in the grasslake”, took the lead in the group. Player realized the point of the beliefs pretty fast and acted the “Reason is the best guide to action” -belief pretty good. He passed the Weather watcher check in the morning and led the team safely to the Dawnrock. After getting to the Dawnrock they tried to get help from Matteo, who just drew a random map fastly and left the team with Angry Conditions.

In the players turn they realized that the path to the tower would be difficult without a guide or a decent map. Players were new to the “ideals of the guard”, so they didn’t want to help the villagers or Matteo with their hurries. They spent their checks to climb on a high rock near the town and tried to get some idea where they would be going the next day. They rolled like 7 successes so I gave them +2 to the pathfinding to the tower.

They went to Dinkle, who drew a map for them to find Hennik on the road. When they were trying to find Hennik and delivering him to the Lockhaven they rolled like 6 successes both the times so they didn’t encounter the Shrike. In Lockhaven they got rid of the Angry conditions.

With other group thing didn’t went so “well” : D. Dain forsaw the weather wrong, they all got tired in the journey and didn’t get the map from Matteo. After many difficulties on the road and sill angry because of Matteo, they decided to persuade him with swords and eventually got the map and a few of enemies in Dawnrock : DD But this all were for the well-being of the Territories of course ; ) When they encountered a streaming river, they build a boat with 6 succesess, and marched to Dinkles tower.

As some would have guessed so far Saxon was with the team and so they all marched with their swords guiding them to the Dinkle’s front door. Saxon was pretty sure that there would be a fight coming up… After Dinkle had made sure that these three Mouse guards wouldn’t kill him straight away, he told what had happened and led the team to a adventure once more. They did find Hennik just in time when Shrike was attacking him. After a bloody fight, Dain lost his left hand and the Shrike got away.