I’m putting together a mission for my players where they escort a caravan. The patrol eventually discovers that the merchant who owns the caravan is transporting contraband and have to decide what to do with him. The trouble is: I’m not sure what he might have that would be considered illegal!
The grain peddler’s map of Lockhaven from the Fall comic is obviously illegal, but I’m not sure how something like that would wind up farther from Lockhaven, and using an illegal map would feel rather derivative. Fenced or stolen goods would be illegal as well, but I’m having difficulties coming up with anything else and would appreciate any advice.
I think it would be up to every settlement to decide what is considered “illegal”, for that settlement only. The guard is mostly there to keep mice safe while travelling between settlements (bandits, animals, dangers of the wilde), to deal with outside threats (weasel, animals) and keep up the scent border, and to care for the network of paths. The map was dangerous because it posed a threat to the guard itself.
So, you might consider things that are dangerous or unwanted in one settlement alone (maybe dangerous to the guard itself, or maybe the guard has been asked to help, because that thing arrives from outside the settlement and passes through the jurisdiction of the guard?), or things that are dangerous to the whole territories.
How about clandestine communication between one very ruthless, ambitious mouse and a weasel leader? Or the aggressive leadership of one settlement is trying to undermine a nearby settlement: weapons for bandits, poison for the only well, counterfeit currency specific to that settlement … Something like that, perhaps?
yep, you get to create anything in terms of law and social taboo. Each settlement is individual and politically separate–something akin to the Greek city-states.
To expand on my previous post, Anything that either goes against the ethics of the Guard leadership or weakens the territory as a whole is illegal AND enforced by the guard.