Mouse Guard meets Lovecraft: The Shadow over Innsmouth

Mouse Guard Missions
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I hope this is posted in the right section…

Hello all, I have been wanting to run Mouse Guard, among other things, for a while and got the idea of doing Mouse Guard with some Lovecraft influence. (There are some spoilers for the Shadow Over Innsmouth, for those who care.). Specifically, I was thinking of sending a patrol over to help with a snake problem in a town that is far on the border and thought to be inhabited by odd folk. Once there, I plan to have flooding trap them there. There will only be one supposed boat which will not be around when they need it. The general premise of the city will be the same as Innsmouth, though will not involve the same source for the oddness of the city. The mice there will all be effected by a chemical found in a vile during the origin of the city. I am changing the Mouse Guard story then and giving it a Secret of NIMH backstory. All the mice/weasels were originally made smart because of a drug some found. Another drug (in the vile) was later found by a specific group of mice who later formed the town, but it gave them immortality at the price of changing into a hideous aquatic version of a mouse, overtime.

I may have one of the patrol mice have descendants from the city, though may need to work with a player on integrating that into his character info.

Hidden in the town, there will be the original mice who first drank the imortality chemical who now are heavily altered and are large monsters that live primarily underwater. They mate with regular mice now and then to produce semi normal offspring to inhabit the town.

I was thinking of using new conditions from torchbearer: afraid and raving.

There will be one drunk mouse vagrant in the town that will be the only good one left, again influenced by the novella.

I will have the first obstacle be weather for wilderness related with a snake attack twist. The 2nd will be the mice of the town attacking them as they sleep. A deadbolt lock will be missing from the door but a replacement will be available in the room. Again, borrowing from Innsmouth.

My question is what advice might anyone have to make this all work and what might be cool/interesting to include?

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I really like this idea. I might even run with it for my own group.

I’m not sure that I see the reason for changing the Mouse Guard canon, introducing the idea that mice and weasels were made sentient by some drug. First: So what? Secondly: Where did this vial come from? Are you also going to introduce humans, or some other god-like creatures? That could work, but really seems unnecessary.

I do like the idea of the second vial, which contains the immortality drug/serum. If any of that drug still existed, it would seem that it would be highly sought after by some mice, and most weasels.

For the setting, I would create a town (call it Innsmouth if you want, or something else) – don’t use one of the existing towns, and don’t allow any of the mice to have it as their hometown. Shroud it in mystery and the threat of danger. Reveal it to them through the fog, and ask them why they think this town is not on any of their maps…

If you want to in some way link the town with your patrol’s members, give them a tale that one of their friends or former Guard companions has gone missing in the general area of the Territories where your town exists.

The drunk vagrant in the town could be the mouse they were looking for, or just some “lucky” survivor.

My advice for obstacles would be to use the standard Mouse Guard approach of creating a mission/scenario based around two specific obstacles and up to two prepared twists. I would try to steer away from snakes and other natural predator types of encounters here, and rather focus on the supernatural – you have plenty to play with given the inhabitants of a location like this.

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I like what you guys are saying. Adding a Lovecraft spin to a one-shot MG adventure could be quite fun.