Mediums and Messages

November Mausritter - Session 2

Gerrit Lamberts. Milk Jug by a Shed. 1810 - 1850. Etching on paper.

This post continues my ongoing micro-campaign of Mausritter by Isaac Williams. As ever, I'll endeavor to keep this spoiler-free for the players, but if you are planning to ever play The Estate adventure collection, steer clear.

Through the House

This week, our party consists of:

Adolphus decided to stay back in Brickport and search for leads there. (A.k.a. his player was unavailable.)

Gwendoline Burley introduced the party to Mauster Rogers as they packed up to investigate their first and most concrete lead: Heloise had undertaken the privilege to the Chapel of Eternal Peace, somewhere behind the house. The party decided to take the faster route through the manor house proper.

To do that though, they needed to get the lift in operation. The party made a pitstop by Peanut Jammy's house and persuaded him that they were going either a) on the pilgrimage themselves, b) to protect pilgrims, or c) to prevent others from stealing human goods and defiling themselves. Impressed, Jammy agreed to send them up the lift, but wouldn't wait for them to come back down.

Riding the lift to the surface level, the party found themselves in the wall of the living room of the human house. Rosemary was a frequent traveler in these parts and knew that the fastest route would be to cut through the first floor bedroom. The group tried their best to be stealthy but felt like they were being watched as they passed through.

With relief, they made it to a mouse hole on the far side of the bedroom. Only there did they realize that lurking on a window sill facing out back was the house's cat, black with a pearl collar. The cat had been watching them curiously as they traversed the space.

The bedroom featured a large human bed (with two giant humans sleeping inside) and a large fireplace. Next to the fireplace, was an end table with a brass bird cage sitting on it. From the far side of the room, the party saw a mouse-sized figure sitting inside.

Across the Bedroom

After some discussion, the mice decided on a plan. Rosemary and Horatio would go to the window to distract the cat, while Fennel and Rogers would scarper across the room over to the fireplace, climbing from there to free whoever was in the cage with Fennel's file.

Horatio and Rosemary found the cat waiting for them. It greeted them with interest, wondering what they were doing and what they wanted. It indicated that it could get out and get them if it wanted; it simply didn't right now. Up close, the two mice noticed that the cat's collar had three tags - each of which shimmered holographically and seemed to be magical.

Their distraction, sadly did not work. The cat immediately noticed as Fennel and Rogers dashed for a pile of wood next to the fireplace. Horatio and Rosemary tapped on the window managing to rouse the humans. At the same time, Rogers started a small fire in the wood pile with a torch before rushing out the back. Fennel through one of her stolen barrels of powder into the flame, causing the fire to catch and fully engulf the wood pile.

The cat reared back, but most importantly, the humans were alarmed. One grabbed the cat and dragged it away to the living room. The other began scooping the flaming logs into the fireplace, where Fennel and Rogers had retreated.

Inside the fireplace were a flight of narrow, mouse-scale stairs, carved into the bricks. Fennel decided to go up as Rogers ran back to his compatriots in the mouse hole on the far side of the room.

The stairs led up to a strange tower made of carved brick and compressed soot pressed into the corner of the fireplace. Fennel heard concerned voices chattering within in an unknown language. With a fire building below, she decided to squeeze out through a crack in the bricks and onto the mantle.

From here, Fennel could see that the cage's occupant was a bird - a blue magpie. She got its attention and cut a deal: she'd leave the file in exchange for 500 pips in three days time. The bird agreed, introducing itself as Corby and saying to meet at the fountain in the front yard. When asked the bird said that the Soot People lived in the chimney. The bird didn't know what kind of animal they were but said they liked oil and colorful materials.

To the Chapel

Fennel lowered herself down with some thread from her pack, then snuck back to the rest of the party. From the mouse hole, they decided to make their way to the small shed-like structure behind the house. Horatio figured other mice would live there, so they could ask them for directions.

It was evening by the time the party arrived. Out front of the shed, they found white robed mice tending a garden of zucchinis and fenced off smelly herbs. The mice welcomed them and congratulated them on "completing the pilgrimage." The party entered and as they did an evening bell rang and a group of monk mice pulled the shed's door shut.

Inside they found a mouse encampment built under the pews of a small shrine with travelers giving offered to armored guards that patrolled the space. They hurried by and found themselves at the base of a ladder leading up onto a stone altar, about 1 foot tall.

The party ascended and met two guards who asked them to give up their possessions before going to the "bath" - a bucket full of herb-smelling, milky liquid with a few relaxed looking mice bobbing around inside. Rogers persuaded the guards that the party were visitors from another parish in the nearby stump, home to the Moth-Queen and her servants. They were hear to meet with Reverend Goldenfur. More flabbergasted than persuaded, the guards agreed to lead them on.

Behind the altar was a colossal, human scale statue of the Virgin Mary with her hands cupped together at her sternum. The statue was fractured at the knee and supported by a stack of bricks held together by cord and mouse-scale wooden construction. The guards led the party up these bricks, past groups of meditating monks. As they ascended, Horatio and Rogers started to feel increasingly peaceful and mellow. Rogers decided to eat some pharmaceutical mushrooms from his pack to intensify the experience.

Reverend Goldenfur

Their path led them to the statue's cupped hands. There they found an old monk with an amber-tipped staff meeting with an affluent looking mouse in a beret. The beret-wearer was offering the old monk an emerald, but demanded to know who was interrupting his private conversion ceremony.

The old mouse revealed himself to be Reverend Goldenfur, the leader of this sect. Rogers tried to persuade him they were knew converts from the stump parish, but Goldenfur was unconvinced. Not wanting to cause a scene, he took the emerald from the mouse and said they would conclude later after an audience with the newcomers. Guards carried the beret wearing mouse away.

Goldenfur demanded to know who they were and what they wanted. At this point Fennel drew a weapon and a fight broke out. Goldenfur proved the quickest, tapping his amber staff. The four monks in the space seemed to be dazed or hypnotized, but two immediately grabbed Fennel and hurled her from the statue's hands. She tumbled down the statue's robe-like sleeves and came to a stop at ground level, by a large hole burrowed into the back of the building.

In the meantime, Goldenfur cast a charm on Rogers, who in turn managed to force feed his new friend one of his mellow mushrooms. One of the robed monks knocked out Rosemary with a punch. Seeing the writing on the wall, Horatio called for peace. Goldenfur agreed (perhaps feeling the mushrooms) but ordered the party led to the baths.

The Escape

Investigating the back exit, Fennel discovered it led to a rosebush behind the shed. There she found a small brass bell and the torn and bloody remains of the white robes worn by the converts. She pocketed the bell and hid away amongst the foliage.

The rest of the party descended back to the altar and the bucket full of milky liquid. As they went, Rogers tried his luck asking after Heloise. Goldenfur let slip that they'd be seeing her soon.

At the bucket, the party was forced to enter, immediately feeling instantly mellow, sedate and unwilling to fight. They realized that Goldenfur intended to keep them their until the liquid had done whatever it was intended to do. They deduced that the hypnotized monks were fully mellow.

Rogers emerged from the bath and managed to convincingly seem hypnotized. At the same time, Horatio and Rosemary swam to the far side of the bucket and jumped out, dropping to the stone below. Chaos broke out as the guards gave chase. The two decided to head to the base of the statue where they had seen Fennel drop earlier and happened upon the back exit.

Infiltration

Still inside, Rogers was led to the interior of the convert's compound. The statue of Mary proved to be a hollow replica made of plaster. Its insides were webbed with interlocking platforms and semi-private rooms. There he met his niece Heloise who was excited and confused to see him. When questioned, she revealed that the converts bathed each morning and that the Reverend had a private apartment on the roof of the chapel. She also intimated that the converts frequently went on their "Final Journey," disappearing into the back of the chapel to the ringing of a bell.

With that taken care of, Rogers decided to rest and enjoy the food provided him by the Chapel of Eternal Peace. The next morning, Rogers fed Heloise and himself a poisonous mushroom, reducing them both to vomiting messes. While the other mice went to their baths, they were taken up to an infirmary inside the statue.

The rest of the party decided to scarper off into the nearby tree line to rest, recover, and sleep off some of their mellowness. They'd try to infiltrate in the morning and watch the back exit in the meantime.

As the sun rose, the farmers returned to their plots outside the chapel. Rosemary and Fennel lured two of the farmer mice and knocked them out. They stole their robes, leaving them tied up with the rest of their gear as they infiltrated the chapel a second time.

The disguises worked wonders. The guards were encultured to pay no mind to the converts, so they successfully made their way inside, found their way to the interior of the statue and up to the infirmary. There they bluffed that they had been given orders by Reverend Goldenfur to move Heloise and Rogers.

The plan worked and the mice retreated down the stairs. Heloise, confused, thought she might be going on the Final Journey already and was listening for the bells. Rosemary led the party to the back exit, figuring it would require passing fewer mice. There they encountered the two guards they had met yesterday.

Rosemary told them that these mice were sick and highly contagious and they were being taken out for quarantine. To confirm this, Fennel forced herself to throw up on one of the guard's boots. This proved enough to persuade them and the party escaped into the hills.

Gathering their stuff and linking back up with Horatio (who had stayed behind to sleep off his mellowness), they decided to head back to Brickport the long way, giving the Chapel a wide birth.

GM Notes

What a session! I had a heads up that the party would be headed to the Chapel of Eternal Peace, but I hadn't considered that their route would take them directly by another site in the chimney. It was nice being able to just whip out the module and riff off its contents on the fly.

I felt reasonably good about my ability to handle so many split party sequences. I felt a little less solid in handling so many negotiations, deceptions, and general attempts to blather past situations. I found myself often resorting to a WIL save. Many of those I successfully set a threat (e.g. combat ensuing or being imprisoned), but some I kinda just as skill checks. Not ideal.

The one combat went disastrously as a result of the entire party failing their DEX test to go first in combat. That seems like a pretty likely result, rules as written.

Mellow is a condition from the module I was running. As originally written it is intended to fully kill (or rather, convert) a mouse when they pick up 3, but I decided that you needed to get a full inventory for it to permanently take hold. It felt like it led to a good "the party gets taken prisoner" scene, which I find isn't always easy to pull off in tabletop.

I'm excited to have the cat appear on screen and linked to one of the factions. It feels like a real cornerstone of the setting and I'm looking forward to having them show up more often.

#Mausritter #session reports