Sprucetuck... the new Barkstone? Science gone wrong!

Mouse Guard Territories
41

I too am playing around with the scent barrier and conflicting factions. Maybe my ideas will add or reinforce some of your own.

  1. Sprucetuk is not run by the smartest scientist, but rather by a very popular and enjoyable charlatan. Think “The Governator” running California. He has no right or reason to be in politics but people were so tired of the last guy that he was just in the right place at the right time. Fun twist becomes who is this clowns advisers? Who is really running Sprucetuk?

  2. This one is complex, way out there ,and goes against some of the purity/rules of Mouse Guard but here we go… The scent barrier doesn’t just keep predators out, it keeps MAGIC out as well. In effect The Mouse Guard (those in charge of redistributing the concoction each year) don’t just protect the common mouse from expected threats but also from the unpredictable power of magic as well. I’m thinking that each type of magic (illusion, transfiguration and so forth) is a new skill that requires some rank in archivist. All kinds of fun comes from this. Who knows about it? Are there any wizards who seek to take down the barrier? Do weasels know any magic?

  3. One last idea, more food for thought really. Why is there only one Guard? Why isn’t anyone competing to do it better? Are there any thieves guilds, secret societies, or political extremists who claim to have the same aim as the Guard but come at it from a different angle? I mean, has any mouse created an organization with a particular agenda different then that of the Guard? I’ve introduced “The Guild” into my game. Basically an information peddling underground organization. They don’t have any ill will towards the Guard or mousedom in general but simply think that there is a profit to be made from exposing, handling, and concealing information and secrets.

Hope this helps, or at least gets the wheels turning.

42

Agreed! We’ve gone this direction having Copperwood pull Sprucetuck’s strings. Although the PCs have largely remained out of Copperwood and it’s not clear who is pulling their strings!

Cool idea.

43

Some militas, like Barkstone’s in the comics, seem to be strong and organized enough to actually be competing guards locally (locally is a relative word) and I guess Midnight from the comics who organized the rebellion were thinking patrly like that. I guess the Copperwood militia could be quite competing too.

I’m definitely exploring this idea in my ‘‘roman Mouse guard’’ campaign. I also think that there’s potential for a wide gray scale, not only putting different organizations directly against each other, not making it black and white. Your ‘‘The Guild’’ seems like a nice gray scale opportunity.

Turns some wheels over here :slight_smile:

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Mission 7 – GM Turn:

Winter’s here! Desperate animals test the weakened Scent Border, hoping for escape from their unyeilding hunger. A panicked deer wanders the territories as a wolf catches its scent. Sloan (the loremouse Cale almost killed), near death, chokes himself to sleep with regret in his Lockhaven jail cell. Next door, Brackson (the captured Sprucetuck scientist) screams “the bees are coming to kill me!” Ivy (Autumn’s ex-fighting instructor turned enemy) applies poison to her daggers. Jinn (Sprucetuck’s child mayor) has nightmares fixated on Bixby and Mousenet. Lockhaven’s economy is crumbling. Thom (the Lockhaven gossip, friend of Autumn) runs for his life. Mice scientists distribute face masks to Barkstone in preperation for Scent Border 2.0. Barkstone’s citizens stare back in distrust. Elmoss is free from squirrel attacks thanks to the PCs but needs help rebuilding to survive the winter.

Last Mission the PCs defeated and humiliated Walmond. After no longer bearing Autumn’s insults, he raises his axe and charges at Finn and Autumn… who embarrassingly disarm Walmond and drag him back to Elmoss.

Bixby’s new teacher, the white haired old mouse, cloaked in shadow who walks with a cane but flies on mounted bats delivers Bixby a message… Coperwood sends an army to Sprucetuck, the bees are being prepared to be let loose for Scent Border 2.0 BUT a wolf is stalking the Deer and threatens to enter the territories.

Cale promotes Bixby from tenderpaw to full Mouse Guard!

Bixby and Autumn drag Walmond in front of Cale who rips Walmond’s Mouse Guard cloak off! Walmond turns to the King and Queen of Elmoss (who he’s life long friends with) and claims this is all a misunderstanding. The PCs fail to convince Elmoss’ rulers that Walmond is a villain but before the PCs leave, Walmond quietly confesses to Autumn that he is responsible for her mentor’s death and there is nothing she can do about it!

The PCs stealth into Sprucetuck hoping to speak directly to Jinn and elicit his help in fighting the Wolf that threatens to invade the Mouse Territories. But Copperwood’s armies have already arrived!

Bixby uses his bat whistle but it works too well… a horde of bats swarm Sprucetuck, attacking the beehive hoping to snatch up an easy meal while carrying off a trapped Cale with them.

Bixby and Autumn ride one of the bats into the upper levels of Sprucetuck’s tower while Finn assists Cale and then fights off a few of Copperwood’s finest… ill-equipped to stand toe to toe with the Guard! Finn and Cale then pretend to be guards from Copperwood only to fail their deception only to get into more fights, kick ass, try to be sneaky, fail again, kick more ass!

Bixby and Autumn convince Jinn to help with the wolf in exchange for Bixby building MouseNet between Sprucetuck and Copperwood. Jinn almost disagreed but Autumn satiated his young mind with tall tales of her youth as a pirate! Jinn gives the PCs a batch of weaoponizes scent to use against the wolf.

Mission 7 – Player Turn:

Bixby works on optimizing a catapult to use with the weaponized scent against the wolf. Autumn finds out that Ivy beat Thom within an inch of his mousy life. The PCs heal up.

Hannidy, upon hearing of Finn’s epic battle with the one eared Owl (Mission 6) congratulates Finn and admits he was wrong about him.

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Mission 8 - GM Turn:

“Ivy wants to poison Gwendolyn”, Thom coughs at Autumn!

Gwendolyn instructs the PCs to deal with the Wolf first. She can protect herself for now. The PCs with a few mouse interns to help run the catapult head out.

On their way to the wolf, they pass hastened activity in Barkstone. Their busy building weapons, armor, training their citizens, and raising an army. Cale confronts Brand, a fellow soldier from Weasel wars long past (now enemy, failed circles test) who is training his new recruits. Brand proclaims that Barkstone knows the Guard are weak and the danger Copperwood and Sprucetuck represent. It’s time Barkstone does what the Guard can’t, fix the problem. They are strengthen themselves in preparation for war… if needed!

The PCs play out a Fight Animal conflict to drive out the Wolf. PCs disposition was 7 against the Wolf’s 16!!! With some amazing scripting, creative uses of the mouse intern red shirts, and the catapult the PCs just barely squeezed out a victory with 1 disposition left!

Major compromise! The fight with the wolf sends the nearby Deer into a panic. It runs towards Barsktone… crippling it… it’s panicked charge kills 40 mice outright, injures hundreds, and destroys several of Barkstone’s key buildings (Bixby saves several rare books from Barkstone’s library), many of them protecting food, medicine, and supplies for winter! The Deer ends its rage by fleeing the territories completely.

The PCs return to Lockhaven in victory but at a terrible cost. The people of Barkstone cried out “what do we do now” as they rushed back to Lockhaven to deal with Ivy and talk with Gwendolyn about saving Barkstone.

The PCs hunt for Ivy! It’s a chase through Lockhaven. Ivy’s stakes are “get to Gwendolyn to poison her”. The chase ends with Autumn trapping Ivy’s arm against a wall with her arrows. They drag Ivy into Lockhaven’s prison.

Mission 8 - Player Turn:

No checks were earned in Mission 8! The stakes were too high and the players didn’t want to risk more than they had to (In Mission 7, over 10 checks were earned).

The PCs spend most of their time healing. Cale trained with Hannidy to learn Militarist over a tabletop wargame re-enacting the fight with the Wolf roleplaying out scenarios where Barkstone wasn’t destroyed.

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Mission 9 is tonight!

The sky is filled with bloated bees popping into puffs of thick mist covering everything with an airborne scent that makes day seem like green tinted night. Those without face masks begin coughing. And any animal that dared considered mouse for dinner quickly flees the territories.

Word has come from Elmoss… the union of Copperwood and Sprucetuck are meeting with 8 of their neighbors (more than half the Western territories) to discuss an alliance.

Gwendolyn need to be at that meeting!

She’s gathered her allies from the East (including an uneasy truce with the pirates from Port Sumac) and wishes to represent them at this meeting. If need be, she will march their armies to Copperwood’s door step… but only as last resort. Gwendolyn needs your help to break into Copperwood and protection from those who would silence her.

But first… it’s time to interogate Ivy, Sloan, and Brackston.

47

Super brief summary of mission 9…

The PCs interrogated all the villains they’ve captured from the last 8 sessions. One turns out not to be such a bad guy, Brackston and with some rehab could be an ally. The PCs discover that Copperwood & Sprucetuck want to form a union in the West between all its neighbors using… Lockhaven’s financial weakness, the Mouse Guard’s failure to replenish the Scent Border, Sprucetuck launching a new air borne Scent Border and “saving” everyone, only through union can the west save the now homeless Elmoss and Barkstone… to build the largest army the Territories have ever seen! They also confirmed that Copperwood sent assassins to kill Gwendolyn. And there are rumors they plan to weaponize the scent to use against anyone that opposes them.

The PCs unified Lockhaven’s allies in the East, built a MOUSE TANK that looked like a turtle shell covered in the finest shields made by Finn’s family with a catapult on top, 4 wheel drive, and Mouse Radio! Ok… no Mouse Radio but it was hot!

They marched their army into Copperwood and after much political drama… war is averted… the west do NOT unify BUT the east paid a price.

The Mouse Guard & Lockhaven in its already money deprived economic crisis must now clothe, feed, shelter hundreds of mice from the dire, devastated, destitute Barkstone and Elmoss. The PCs also uncovered that the new Scent Border does indeed work! No more animal attacks! Except it makes the sky dark green, you have to wear face masks or get sick, and it drives Weasels into insane Mouse lust battle rages but you know, it’s still in beta. And Cale got captured snooping around Copperwood.

Tonight we climax the Guard!

Plus Terry is experimenting with Boston Creme Pie… which is actually a cake but Terry is working on a pie book so she will make it into a pie so get ready for… Vegan Boston Creme Cake Pie!

Mission 10… tonight… TIME TO LEVELS UPS with the special Winter Session rules!

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We’re putting the game on hold for a while after tonight’s session. We felt it was a great stopping point and it was a good idea to end on a high note and then come back to it later. I emailed all the players asking if they were ok if we bend the rules and play with the special winter rules since you either play winter missions or have winter reflection and we already played a mission in winter but ending it with winter reflection would make for a nicer end point. The players were excited to play winter reflection so we jumped on it and I’m glad we did!

We had several touching moments, funerals, memorials, promotions, the people of Elmoss and Barkstone were all conscripted into the new Mouse Guard army, Bixby started Mousenet, and Cale proposed to Brynn and she accepted! It was a fun way to wrap things up with plenty of cliffhangers if we start up again. .

Mouse Guard is a fantastic game and the players had a glorious time. Definitely a 10 session mini campaign I will always remember.

Best,
John

49

I forgot a few cool details.

By finalizing the plans for Mouse Net, Bixby invented a Steam Power!

And I made Cale roll when he proposed to Brynn… I was hoping for a story twist (Brynn’s had a secret child with Walmond, Cale’s bitter enemy) but the other PCs weren’t having it! Finn comes from a wealthy family of armorer’s and forged a fancy engagement ring for Cale worth a needed helping die. And Cale rolled almost a perfect success… giving me no chance at a twist. But it was well earned and fought!

The group is thinking when we pick this up, we’ll advance the timeline a few years to see the ramification of Bixby’s discoveries… Steam Mouse!

50

What did you ask Cale’s player to roll for the proposal?

51

I offered Persuasion or Deception depending on how he approached the proposal. If time allowed, I would have loved to have roleplayed out a full blown conflict. It was a great scene and won Cale’s player and Embodiment award at the end of the session.