Mouse Guard Session 2

I think this Mouse Guard session was a little less successful than the last one. The blame is totally on me, both sessions were run just using 2 of the premade missions from the book and the first weeks was very detailed and well written and easy to run without any real prep at all. The mission I intended to use this week wasn't as easy to just run without any prep and some of the stuff was specific to the premade characters they have in the book for use with the mission. That stuff could have been adapted I guess, but it didn't feel like the right way to go so I was forced to just make up some more stuff to expand the mission so it would fill up the gaming time. Anyway I think overall fun was still had, it just wasn't as polished as the first session. Here's the summary:

Mouse Guard Session 2

The characters all started out back in Lockhaven. It had been a couple of weeks since the previous patrol, and things had been busy. It was time to pour the northwestern Scent Border again and a large number of patrols were being assigned to the job, including the player's patrol. Al, Penelope, and Bran all set out with a large caravan of Guards and hand-drawn carts, following the trails from Lockhaven to Darkwater, then on to Lonepine and finally to Wolfpointe.

One night during the stretch of the journey from Darkwater to Lonepine, Penelope was one of the mice on guard around the camp and she heard some noises coming from the nearby undergrowth. Upon further inspection she spotted the gleaming eyes of a raccoon, right as it spotted the camp and came charging in. Yelling out a warning Penelope ran forward and set herself to face the oncoming predator. The rest of the camp woke quickly and rushed to help. Bran began peppering the thing with arrows while another patrol slipped behind the raccoon in a flanking position. The battle ebbed and flowed with both sides deftly maneuvering for position; but in the end the mice managed to be quicker and they drove off the beast; though a few injuries were sustained.

When they reached Lonepine the caravan left its wounded there to be tended to further, and then continued on its way. They had no more trouble on the rest of the journey out to the Scent Border and began to divide up into teams and move out to pour the sticky Scent Elixir along their assigned areas. Bran quickly identified the portion of woodland that they were supposed to mark with the Elixir, but the other two mice had some trouble working with the stuff and managed to get the stinky concoction all over themselves. With Al muttering angrily the whole time about being an archivist, NOT a field scientist; they went over to a nearby stream to clean up.

Penelope slipped a little ways upstream in order to have some privacy as she washed the Elixir out of her fur. While Al was also scrubbing himself clean and Bran was keeping watch a big old bullfrong suddenly popped up out of the mud along the bank of the river and tried to snatch up Al. With a yell or warning and some quick help from Bran, Al managed to evade the bullfrog's attack and they both ran quickly upstream to where Penelope was; warning her to get out of the water.

The patrol then left the stream behind and continued pouring the Scent Elixir. After more frustratingly slow work they finally managed to finish their task and went back to meet up with the rest of the Guardmice. Because of all the trouble they had they were the last patrol to arrive, so as the caravan headed back the Guard Captain in charge sent the three of them off at the fork in the path that lead to Grasslake, to check on the city and its inhabitants.

As they approached the city they were stopped by a panicked mouse who came running through the marshy grasses around the city, yelling for their helping and waving his arms. He breathlessly gasped out that the town was under an attack "A monster! A giant monster! Destroying the town! Eating mice!" The patrol told him they were there to help and to lead on. What they found was that a giant snapping turtle had crawled out of the lake and was basking in the sun in the town square, right in between the town bakery and the brewery.

It turned out the mouse that had come to get them was the owner of the brewery, Harold, and he led them to a crowd of mice on the far side of the square from the turtle, all the townsfolk were gathered up there staring at the beast and talking nervously. From talking with the mice they found that while of course everyone was very concerned about the turtle being there, the four who were the most concerned were Harold the brewer, Honeywind the baker, Lester the smith, and Thom the mayor; all of whose residences and places of business were in the town square and therefore in danger from the turtles actions.

These four mice began animatedly telling the guardmice that they HAD to help and they MUST drive the turtle out, and just how HORRIBLE it would be if anything happened to this or that building. After a quick side conversation they patrol decided to convince the mayor to calm the crown down and have them wait out of sight of the turtle.

After the crowd was gone they patrol began discussing the situation and their options. They decided that the most likely reason for the turtle being there was that it was a female there to lay her eggs. With their limited knowledge about turtles they figured out that if the turtle were to lay her eggs she would end up digging up the whole town square, which was something they and the village really wanted to avoid. They stood around discussing and brainstorming for quite some time.

Finally Al hit on the idea of trying to use some sort of herbs or plants to knock out or drive off the turtle and they went and questioned the mayor about the idea and whether anyone in the area knew about such things. He pointed them to a couple of ladymice, Josephine and Clove, but neither felt they could be of any help and didn't know of any herbs that would accomplish what the guard wanted.

While all this discussion was going on the crowd has been getting more and more riled up. Unknown to the players the smith, Lester, was a former Tenderpaw from the Guard who had failed to advance on to Guardmouse and was still fairly bitter about the fact and resentful of the Guard in general. Between him and Harold, who had a bottle of his own brew on him and had been sneaking swallows of it all day; they began to convince the crowd to take some action against the invading beast, whether the Guard would help or not.

When they noticed this change of attitude in the crowd the patrol attempted to talk them down from this idea; but their confusing rhetoric and flowery statements fell on mostly deaf ears. They did manage however to at least convince them to not actually engage the turtle in physical combat, just to try and scare it off.

Penelope was unhappy with even this however and tried to physically bar the way for the crowd; forcing them not to take action. Al tried to stop the younger Guardmouse but she wasn't listening. Luckily for them though the crowd merely pushed Penelope aside and any sort of real altercation was avoided.

The patrol caught up with the rest of the mice and they all began to work together to try and drive the turtle off. Penelope was her usual fearless self and led the spear waving and threatening motions from the front, while Al stayed back and yelled instructions, guiding the mice to the best effect possible; and Bran just ran around the flanks trying to help where he could. At first the turtle just ignored them or half-heartedly snapped at the nearest mice, but she didn't really move or become that aggressive.

The apparent indifference to their efforts at first weakened the mice's resolve; but after became heartened again after they managed to rile up the turtle and actually get it to react. The reaction was more than they wanted though and in a final destructive struggle the turtle was driven off but not before wrecking all the building they had wanted to protect.

With a somewhat dejected sigh of relief the town thanked the Guard for doing what they could and began to pick up the pieces. The patrol stayed around for awhile, helping them get the rebuilding process started and then gathered their belongings and began the trek back to Lockhaven.