November Mausritter - Session 3
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.
The Long Way
This session, our party consisted of:
- Rosemary Butterball, a kitchen forager and Brickport local
- Horatio Thorne, square-dealing trash collector
The rest of the party split up to get Heloise Burley, the formerly missing daughter of the proprietor of Brickport's Biscuit Tin Inn, back to town as quickly and safely as possible.
Rosemary and Horatio decided to take the long way back to Brickport, looking for anyone who might have a lead on Heloise's missing brother, Milaster. As they walked, they found themselves a short ways from of a ring of loose stones in the Estate's backyard (like Stone Henge for a mouse). As they drew closer, a whiff of smoke floated up from the center and someone could be heard playing a grass accordion.
Rosemary tried to lead the duo in sneaking up on the standing stones, but almost immediately snapped a tripwire, triggering a clattering alarm from nearby. A voice called out and introduced itself as Honest Edward, a travelling merchant affiliated with the Bone Gang. On revealing that they were friends of Louis Two Knives, the mouse invited them to join him inside the ring.
Edward revealed that he was on a circuit from Brickport to Murrilet's Tower to Big Stump then back, a route that more or less circles the Estate. When asked, he said he had seen a mouse matching Milaster's description at Murrilet's Tower, a six hour walk to the southwest in the human's garage. Edward also offered to sell the party a discount magic sword - the fang of a wolf with "only a 1-in-6 chance of being cursed" for 250 pips. The cash-strapped party refused and bid him farewell.
Murrilet's Tower
By nightfall, Horatio and Rosemary had made their way to the garage. Inside the space was filled with shelves full of rusted human-scale implements. The great steel beast that sometimes lingered here was missing, leaving a shallow lake of oil across the paved ground. Murrilet's Tower was an oddity - a full suit of human armor, leaned in the corner of the garage to rust. It was flanked by a mix of tools and dented medieval arms that towered overhead. At the top, the party saw a bat hanging from the head of a hoe up by the armor's shoulder.
At the foot (literally), the party met two cockroaches on guard duty. The cockroaches informed the party that the wizard Murrilet would only allow visitors offering suitable tribute - 1000 pips or a magical item. In exchange for a ration, they revealed that Milaster was, in fact, there working as an "apprentice," though based on their description he seemed to be held against his will, perhaps working off a debt.
Not having the necessary tribute, the party discussed their options for acquiring a magic item. In the process, they remembered that they were supposed to meet up with Corby, the magpie Fennel had freed from the bedroom, to receive their reward. The meeting was scheduled for the next day at the fountain in the front yard. They decided to camp out at the foot of Murrilet's Tower before swinging by Brickport on their way to the rendezvous. While they camped, they shared a meal with the cockroaches who revealed that there was a back entrance to the tower at shoulder level, though it was also guarded.
Brickport Interlude
The trip to Brickport was quick and uneventful. There they found crowds of visitors entering and leaving the city, returning from the Frogacle race or leaving having concluded their festival trade. They found out that Grak Batter, the rat aligned with the Bone Gang, had won. They were due to return to Brickport soon with their winnings after boating their way through the drainage canal.
In town, Rosemary and Horatio checked in with Gwendoline Burley, their employer. They found her hosting a party for the other party members to celebrate the successful return of Heloise. She paid them their share of the reward - 100 pips each. The duo relayed that they had a lead on Milaster's whereabouts and received a token from Fennel to prove that they could pick up the reward on her behalf.
While in town, they decided to check in with Louis Two Knives, another Bone Gang representative, to see if he had leads on any magic items around Brickport. Louis said he did, but that he'd need payment, even for a friend. The party balked at the price and decided for the fountain.
Fountain Flight
It was nearly nightfall by the time Rosemary and Horatio made it to the fountain. The colossal human construction had three tiers, each with a waterfall-like cascade of human watering gushing out from it down to the next. At the top was a magpie nest made of twigs, pine needles, and the occasional thread of silver.
As the party approached, Rosemary had a sudden primal sense of danger. Immediately, the two mice tried to dig a burrow and hide among the grass and leaves, but they were too slow. The black cat they had encountered before prowled up to menace them, asking if they were digging their own graves.
Immediately, the party dashed up to the side of the fountain, scrabbling up and splashing into the water. The cat leapt up to follow and swatted at them ineffectually in the water. They swam across and with Horatio's hook were able to pull themselves up to the next tier.
There they found themselves at the foot of the Magpie's nest. A silver necklace chain dangled down offering them a way to climb up. Two magpies noticed them and welcomed them up, wondering what the mice's business was. When they explained, the birds called Corby in to greet them in a parlor filled with pilfered shiny objects and plated with playing cards. Corby recognized them as Fennel's travel companions and offered them their choice of two rewards - a mouse-made lamp that was rumored to scare off ghosts or a spell inscribed on half of a torn Pokemon card that would allow a creature to grow to many times their normal size. The party chose the latter.
When informed that the black cat was nearby, Corby tutted. He revealed that the cat was named Sabrina and that arriving here was breaking an uneasy truce between them. Rosemary asked if he would be willing to fly them away and Corby agreed, offering them front row seats as they dealt with the cat. Five magpies took off from their aerie and dive bombed the cat, forcing it to retreat inside, before Corby and another bird named Beckett flew the mice back to Brickport.
The Anti-Cult Committee
Horatio and Rosemary decided that the spell was too useful to just give to the wizard Murrelet. They decided to wait in Brickport until Honest Edward made his round trip back to town and purchase the wolf tooth sword with their earnings. In the meantime, they decided to meet with Mayor Pipp to see about putting a warband together to deal with the Chapel of Eternal Peace and prevent them from brainwashing mice and sacrificing them to the cat.
Mayor Pipp proved hesitant to take direct military action against another settlement. She wanted instead to work with Big Stump and Brambletown to impose a trade embargo on the settlement until they could find out more. The party discussed acting as envoys to gather more information and maybe deliver the news, but figured they would just be indoctrinated and sacrificed to the cat. Mayor Pipp delegated the problem to them, investing them as Brickport's Anti-Cult Committee, a position with no funding or official powers.
Disappointed, Rosemary and Horatio rested for the night at Rosemary's cottage and the Biscuit Tin respectively. They asked Gwendoline to look out for Honest Edward for them and decided to investigate the source of the cult's mellowing brew. They decided to start with Pastor Basil, formerly the town's priest, who had been taken prisoner.
They found Basil in a small cell by the town's main gate. He said he would be happy to discuss the matter further if they released him. The party demurred, deciding it would be better to investigate the Pastor's living quarters first, the inside of a mug in the former temple. Using their committee member status to get past the town guards, they searched the place, finding the Pastor's belongings packed and ready to go. Among them they found a journal and a golden letter opener, heavy and valuable. (The party would later sell this for more spending pips.)
The journal alluded to previous volumes stashed at the Chapel of Eternal Peace. It kept a detailed account of the citizen's of Brickport, evaluating who might be susceptible for conversion to the Chapel's dogma. Horatio noted that they could use the list of folks flagged as resistant to form a potential warband. The journal flagged Heloise' departure as well as Milaster snooping around asking hard questions. It also noted a shipment carried by the Bone Gang, headed for the Chapel proper.
With this info, the party decided to ask Louie Two Knives about the shipment. He proved unwilling to divulge Bone Gang business, even to the party. Rosemary decided to lean on him, warning that if the investigation got serious, Louie would be at risk. In response, Louie decided to share what he knew, but said that any dealings he had with the party were done from this point forward.
Louie said that the Bone Gang transported chemicals from a shed in the garden in regular deliveries to the Chapel of Eternal Peace. He said that in exchange, the Bone Gang was paid and Sabrina looked the other way on their activities. The rats never opened the containers and pointedly avoided asking questions about what the chemicals did. Louie warned that it was one thing to rescue a missing mouse and another to disturb the delicate balance of power in the Estate. Those who did might find themselves hunted down by the cat.
From there, the party decided to wait another day to see if Honest Edward would show up. When he didn't and locals confirmed he was significantly late, Rosemary and Horatio figured he might have been nabbed by the Church or waylaid at Big Stump. The party was left with a few options. Investigate Edwards disappearance or finish tracking down Milaster? Put together a band for an assault on the Chapel of Eternal Peace or track the shipments of chemicals back to their source in the garden?
DM Notes
We missed a week last week and had a small crew this time. I'm happy enough running the game for two players, but that does mean the party has less staying power, carrying capacity, and diversity of skills and tools.
This session was a real sandbox setting. Murrilet's Tower is a fully fleshed out location in The Estate, but the rest of the locations described this session are basically pictures on a map with a sentence fragment of description. I'm not fully comfortable yet with this kind of open-ended play, but I tried to just fairly adjudicate what happened next, stick true to the prep I did have, and let the encounter dice and travel procedures handle the rest.
The result worked really well. It's exciting to have Sabrina the cat as a persistent threat that stalks the players and I've always had a knack for tying together factions into an intrigue. The result is a sort of mouse-scale China Town. I checked in with the players who could make it to this session and they said they were enjoying the game and didn't feel like the system was tripping over itself, so it seems like its working out fine?
The only point of contention here is experience. Because the party isn't doing traditional dungeon delving and because to some degree they are coming off of a pyrrhic victory last session, they've really not accumulated much wealth. I'm happy to hold that as as stress point (a la Baldur's Gate 2), but it also means they are barely eking their way towards advancement. Mausritter characters aren't hugely transformed by the level up, but I do think I should tune rewards to be a little more generous going forward.