Session Reports

[Enric]

Session One: "The Road to Ironwood"

It's the first day of spring, 1152, and Lockhaven is bustling with guard patrols setting out for every corner of the Territories. One patrol is called into Gwendolyn's chambers, where she assigns them the task of delivering the first of the spring mail to nearby Ironwood, a journey that should only take about three days.

The patrol consists of:

Blueberry (Tom), the Patrol Leader. He's a kindly mouse, but has little sense of humor when it comes to his name. His Belief is "Mouse civilization is the last, best hope for all animalkind." His Goal for this session is "Deliver the mail within three days' time." And his Instinct is "Protect the patrol."

Finn (Matthew), a Tenderpaw. He's young and naive and eager to prove himself. Blueberry is his mentor. His Belief is "Courage is the heart of the Mouse Guard." His Goal is "To prove myself to Blueberry on this mission." His Instinct is "Keep your nose to the wind."

Grenn (Michael), a Patrol Guard. Grenn is an orphan, and an accomplished scout and hunter. His Belief is "A dead mouse can't guard anything." His Goal is "To get us where we need to go." His Instinct is "Always keep an eye out for danger."

For the first day of the patrol's journey, they make good time, and the weather is sunny, despite some ominous-looking clouds on the horizon. Blueberry opts to make a Weatherwatcher roll to prevent the oncoming rain, and the next morning, they discover that the path that led to Ironwood last fall has been washed away by snowmelt and blocked by fallen debris.

Grenn takes the lead and makes a Pathfinder roll with an Obstacle of 5, assisted by Finn, but fails. The path that he opens up is a hard one, and the patrol moves slowly. Finally, they are forced to slog across a large, muddy field before reaching the shelter of the woods on the opposite side. Finn rolls an Ob 4 Health test, with help from Grenn, but also fails. The mice struggle across the field, and by the time they reach the other side, they're all soaked to the bone and wading through water up their waists: Finn takes the Angry condition and Grenn takes Hungry/Thirsty.

Once safely in the forest, Blueberry successfully makes a Survivalist test and builds a shelter for the patrol. The next morning, the rain has stopped and Grenn is able to find the road to Ironwood. About two hours outside of the town, the guardmice come across signs of a struggle in the road, and a trail leading into the forest. Grenn follows the trail and rolls against an Ob 4 Scout test... and fails.

The patrol is ambushed by a family of masked bandits - a grown mother and father mouse and their teenage son - as they walk through a gulch. The bandits demand that the patrol surrender the mailbag. The guardmice opt to drop the bag and back out of the gulch, all the while intending to double back for it, but the teenage bandit looses an arrow at his father's urging, and a conflict begins. The patrol chooses the goal "Escape with the mailbag," while the bandits, oddly enough, opt for "Steal the mailbag." The conflict lasts about three rounds before the bandits are defeated and flee into the woods. The patrol had lost enough disposition to justify a significant compromise, however, and so Finn took an arrow that had struck him during the conflict as the Injured condition.

With that, the guardmice complete their journey to Ironwood, where they are welcomed with open arms by the new mayor, a grayfur by the name of Old Bailey. When he hears of their troubles with the bandits, Bailey informs them that they had no doubt met up with Jasper, a thief that had been forced from the town over the winter, along with his family. He promises that if he gets his hands on the bandits, he'll see them all hang.

That's where the GM's Turn ended. On the Players' Turn, Grenn made a roll to relieve his Hungry/Thirsty condition and succeeded, Finn made a roll to relieve his Angry condition and failed, and Blueberry made a Resources roll to procure a poultice to relieve the Angry condition, which he turned over to Finn.

[Enric]

Session Two: "Trailing the Bandits"

A few days after the patrol reaches Ironwood, a wax merchant named Mag arrives in the town square, breathless and exhausted. She'd been struggling her way through the thick undergrowth from Wildseed when she was waylaid by three bandits - no doubt Jasper, Aliuce, and Paul, fleeing to the north. Old Baileydemands that the patrol put an end to the bandits' troublemaking, and Mag offers a partially completed map to the guardmice, in hopes that it will help them make their way.

Before continuing, the guardmice wrote out their Goals for the session:

Blueberry: "Capture Jasper and his band, alive if possible, dead if necessary."

Finn: "Recover the food for Ironwood."

Grenn: "Make Finn look foolish."

The night before setting out, Finn pays a visit to Mag, both to find out if she has any more information about the bandits and because he's a little smitten with the young wax merchant. Unfortunately, he's interrupted when Grenn arrives. The guardmouse informs him that Blueberry wants to make sure that he gets a good night's sleep before setting off, and Finn makes a sheepish exit while Grenn congratulates himself on making a fool of the young tenderpaw.

The patrol's journey takes three days. Like the road from Lockhaven to Ironwood, the path to Wildseed has been obscured by snowmelt, undergrowth, and fallen branches, and the map that Mag provided proves to be of little assistance. Grenn fails the Ob 5 Pathfinder check required to reach Wildseed, and as a result takes on the Tired condition by the time the patrol arrives.

Just outside of Wildseed, however, Grenn notices the bandits' tracks, clearly leading into the woods between Wildseed and Thistledown. After two more days of travel and a successful Scout test against the bandits' Nature, the patrol finds the scene of a battle just outside of Thistledown. Blueberry's friend, the guardmouse Lucien Ark, is there, but badly wounded after an encounter with the bandits. Paul is also there, but after succeeding in an opposed Fighter test, the patrol manages to capture him.

The guardmice have the option of pursuing Jasper and Alice, but Lucien's wounds are serious enough that he will require the attention of a healer in Thistledown, and soon, so they decide to let the other bandits go for the time being. Unfortunately, the only healer in Thistledown is Miles, who left the Guard in disgrace after Lucien found him asleep on duty. The patrol decides to initiate a Speech conflict in order to shame Miles into helping, which they win handily. The healer begrudgingly assists Lucien, and the GM's Turn ends.

On the Player's Turn, Finn went off by himself to try to come to terms with the frustrations he'd been contending with since the last mission, and successfully relieved the Angry condition. Grenn relieved the Tired and Angry conditions, and Blueberry read a few of Miles's medical texts, starting on his way to opening up the Healer skill.