Carved deep into solid gray stone, only the ivy-covered face of Lockhaven is visible from the outside. This sanctuary from the wind and cold and violence of the outside is a place of peace and respite for the Mouse Guard. For those brave and noble mice who fall for the cause, Lockhaven often provides the last peaceful night's rest they'll ever get.
For now, in the dead of winter, your duties are minimal, and you are free to relax and prepare. This calm will not last. But for now. For now, you are unneeded.
Robin gazes out at the gray skies overhead, thankful that it wasn't snowing today. Despite the cold weather, Robin's heart beat warmly in her chest, for the day was fast approaching that she would be able to prove her worth on a Mouse Guard patrol. It had been her dream ever since she was old enough to have dreams, to serve proudly on the Mouse Guard. No mouse would stand in her way!
She crosses her arms resolutely with a smile.
Baron sits in his cell, staring at a single candle flame. I must build a good name for the Mouse Guard. And I cannot do that if I keep letting my temper get the best of me! Taking a deep breath, Baron begins the relaxation technique, just like the old Mouse-sage showed him. But within a few moments his thoughts are racing...I wonder what chef has made for dinner? I wonder when my next mission will be? I wonder if my new boots will be stout enough in the snow this winter? Ack! he shrieks realizing he's lost concentration...This is impossible, he says standing up in frustration. Stupid sage-mouse. This was suppose to help me keep CALM. He blows out the candle and grabs his gear. Mabe a little sparing practice with Dain would do the trick instead.
Ingrid spends her days sweeping snow from stone on the outer walkways of Lockhaven. She found the chill of winter pleasant, although it bit far less thanks to her thick cloak.
During her free time between drills, she attempts to draw the crystal structures of various snowflakes she finds. An endlessly tedious task no doubt, but a good one to pass time.
Winter has broken.
Mice can sense these things. There's a smell in the soil. A dampness in the air. New green things are beginning to sprout. Old predators are beginning to awaken.
For the mice, spring is a time of work. The snow is melting and the roads are safe—relatively speaking.
Winter has broken, and so it is time once more for all mice of the Guard who are able to venture forth. This is why Dain and Ingrid were called into the room of Lockhaven's Matriarch.
Since the very first assault on Lockhaven's nigh-impenetrable walls, it has been traditional for the ruler of the fortress—and the Mouse Guard that man it—to be a female mouse. Gwendolyn is the current head, and she has served well under great adversity.
"Dain," she says, "thank you for coming. And you, Ingrid—I did not send for you, but I suppose I should not have expected Dain to come alone. Nevertheless, I have your new mission, and it will be up to you, Dain, to choose your remaining two mice." She pauses. "Well, one, I suppose, since Ingrid should be taking her tenderpaw out this time. It is high time Robin was tested in the field."
She stands, lifting a bag of mail from beside her desk. "The frost is off the road, and mice of the Territories rely upon us to maintain connections. I know mail delivery isn't the most exciting of duties, but I trust you will treat it with the utmost care." Along with the bag, she hands Ingrid a basic map of the territories, guessing the skilled cartographer will be able to improve upon it during the journey.
After the debriefing, Ingrid goes to get Robin, and Dain goes to get the fourth member of the patrol. He's already made up his mind on an ideal candidate: Baron is a skilled and alert hunter, and Dain has learned much in their odd sparring matches. He goes to seek the mouse out.
Ingrid finds Robin atop the walls of Lockhaven. Up here, the cold is bitter—a prelude of what's to come on the road, perhaps. Her tenderpaw appears to be examining snowflakes.
Dain and Baron run into each other in one of the many dimly-lit halls of Lockhaven. Baron has just completed a rather fruitless meditative session and is looking for a sparring partner.
The Mission: The patrol must take the bag and deliver portions of mail to Elmoss, Sprucetuck, Dorigift and, finally, Gilpledge.
Robin straightens up, and wraps her cloak more tightly around herself against the cold. Seeing Ingrid, she snaps a salute, clicking her heels together as best as she can. "Good morning, Ingrid, ma'am! Bit nippy today, innit?"
Hot weasel on a stick! A mail run? What a relief. We should be able to stay out of trouble then this time, right Dain?
Robin straightens up, and wraps her cloak more tightly around herself against the cold. Seeing Ingrid, she snaps a salute, clicking her heels together as best as she can. "Good morning, Ingrid, ma'am! Bit nippy today, innit?"
Ingrid joins Robin on the wall, blowing small clouds with her breath before finally speaking "You'll warm up soon enough, tenderpaw. We have a mission to attend to and we'll be departing Lockhaven shortly."
The young mouse's face lights up. Barely able to restrain her excitement, the young mouse merely nods in acknowledgement. She manages to control her excitement enough to avoid repeatedly nodding more than once.
"Now to find our fearless leader. Robin, have you seen Dain?"
"Yes, ma'am," the young tenderpaw replies dutifully. "In fact, I saw him enter the main halls of Lockhaven, below," she points downward, through the floor they both stand on. "He should still be in there, it was only moments ago that he entered. Let's go find him!" And with that, the young mouse bounds off toward the stairs leading downward.
Dain arrives carrying the mail bag. Every year the cold reach a little deeper in his bones, the rest helps a little less.
He sits, and cleans his spectacles.
"Greetings, Guards. Conrad, my mentor, always told me that mail delivery was the life blood of the territories, something all of us take for granted, except when it doesn't happen. And this, the first delivery of the year, is important. A way to open a new season. I expect from all of you to take it seriously, and strive to do your best. Any questions? Ingrid, do you have a route ready for us?"
"I do" replies Ingrid with a nod "Safe paths have been cataloged by the Guard already and there lies a route directly from Lockhaven to Gilpledge passing through each other of our destinations. The only question lies in the final leg whose path takes us on a large north-eastern detour. We could accomplish the same in a third of the time if we struck out directly from Dorigift but we run the risk of wandering outside of guard patrolled areas."
"Good work Ingrid. Tenderpaw, what do you think we should do? And remember the saying 'After winter no land is patrolled land'."
Baron wasn't much for maps so he left that to the smarter mice. Whatever route we take, the mail will be delivered. Our steel will see to that! he says while wiping down the blade of his halberd with snake-oil so it won't rust.
Out the patrol journeys. Ingrid follows her plotted course, stopping first by Elmoss. Long known as being the elegant home of mouse science, Elmoss is built inside the trunk of a tall, old spruce tree. The hollow trunk provides stories of living quarters, apothecaries, breweries, and libraries. The governor, a red-furred mouse named Laurel, greets the patrol at the entrance and gratefully accepts the mail due her town. Baron's father, Pa Twistwood, is there to greet him—his mother is hard at work within and can't be disturbed.
The mice of Elmoss invite the Guard in to rest and recuperate, but there is no time. Clouds have begun to gather. Spring is a dangerous and unpredictable time, and the patrol must continue its journey.
Next, the patrol heads to Sprucetuck, placed along the Territories' southwestern border. Harvesting sap from the spruce trees in the area, the sciencemice of Sprucetuck, Dain's hometown, brew famous beers and elixirs. It is part of a hollow spruce tree, where within the mice are shuttled along the great multileveled multileveled dwelling using a series of counterweighted lifts.
Damon and Dara are there to greet Dain, and they take the mail for their town—including a missive from Gwendolyn. The scent border will soon need to be reinforced once more, and the chemists of Sprucetuck will be needed then.
They bid the patrol farewell as it sets out once more towards Dorigift.
The stop by Dorigift is a comparatively short one. Nestled within a rotting log, the small hamlet of Dorigift is home to not more than two (fairly mingled) families. This is but a stop along the way to the final destination. However, the mice of Dorigift do furnish the patrol with a warning: A raven has been seen flying around the region and may have made its nest somewhere nearby. An encounter could prove problematic. Ravens are notorious nuisances, but they can kill unwary mice.
And it is on the way to Gilpledge that the patrol runs into trouble. The path has been obscured by patches of snow, pools of melt water and stretches of mud. It's very hard to tell which way to go.
A good description can go a long way towards earning rewards at the end of the session. Always keep in mind your Beliefs, Goals and Instincts when roleplaying a description.
Now, here's how the roll works. If you have Pathfinder, roll as many d6s as your skill's rating. Every result of 4 or better is a Success. Any result of 3 or lower is a Snake—it doesn't count. In this case, if you get at least six successes, you succeed. If you get fewer, you fail, and must deal with a twist or a condition. Coward dice!
If You Don't Have Pathfinder:
You can act with your Nature skill instead, but since this task probably isn't related to the four aspects of Mouse Nature (foraging, escaping, hiding, climbing), you run the chance of taxing your Nature skill, which isn't good. That said, your Nature skill is likely quite high, so it might be worth the risk!
Alternatively, there's Beginner's Luck (which is what lets you actually learn new skills). This means you use your Will (for mental tests) or Health (for physical ones). In this case, you can choose either depending on how you roleplay it.
When using Beginner's Luck, the total dice you get to roll (counting teamwork, wises, gear, etc) is halved.
Ways to Boost Your Roll:
Keep an eye on your Wises when making tests. If you think a Wise applies to the roll, you can use it to aid a friend making the roll, adding +1d6 to the roll (you can't use a Wise in this way to help yourself). I can nix this if I think the connection is weak.
If you have a piece of gear or equipment that you want to use, it might also grant a +1d6 advantage. Again, it's the GM's call whether or not it helps.
Finally, you can use Teamwork. To do this, you must describe how you are helping the main mouse (and they must not decline your aid). This allows you to donate +1d6 to the roll. This is called a helping die. However, you must use a skill or wise that is relevant to the activity. It need not be the same skill, but it must be related (for instance, you can help a friend use Armorer to make armor out of a beetle carapace, but you must use a skill like Insectrist or Scientist).
You can't aid with both a Wise and Teamwork. Also, if you provide a helping die, you are bound by the results just as the mouse you're helping is. You Reap What You Sow.
A Tie: Is something special. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Dain gets close to Robin.
"Weather is important in what we do. If you know the weather, you have half the road advanced, without getting out the door. Do you feel like finding a path for us to follow?"
I'd like to be with her, Dain. I'll let her do the pathfinding, just want to make sure she doesn't get hurt. What do you think Robin, shall we take a look?
"It's alright Robin, lead on." says Ingrid, placing a reassuring paw on the young mouse's shoulder "Baron and I will be right behind you. Look here, see how the rain has washed away the path? Pay attention to the topography of the area and you may be able to pick it up again."
So I get that I get +1d6 to my Pathfinder roll, and I have a skill of 2 in Pathfinding, but I looked all over the recruitment and discussion threads and couldn't find what size die to use. Is it 2d6?
Fate Points are spent after a roll in which some of your dice came up 6s. If you choose to spend a Fate Point, you get to roll bonus dice equal to the 6s you rolled. So if you rolled two sixes, you get to roll 2d6 more and potentially increase your total successes. Those new d6s are also exploding, so if you keep rolling 6s, you get to keep rolling more.
Persona Points can be used to add +1D to your roll per point spent. You can also spend one point to Tap Your Nature.
Tapping Nature means you get to add your Nature ability rating to any skill or test. So, you'd get to treat your Pathfinder as 2+4=6, and roll 6d6 even without the aid. However, because this test is probably not fitting within mouse Nature, your Nature would be temporarily reduced by 1 afterwards (and if the test is failed, the reduction is bigger).
I'll just trust in my own abilities, with Dain's help.
Smiling gratefully over her shoulder at Dain, and nodding at Ingrid's advice, the young mouse furrows her brow in concentration. She studies the path, imagining each footstep and trying to extrapolate where the walker might have gone.
Robin leads faithfully, with her fellow guardmice's guidance, and the journey passes in safety in spite of the obscured path. But it is getting close to nightfall, and so Robin leads the patrol to a hollow stump where they can rest for the night.
Inside, they find a rather surprised raven.
The bird, caught rummaging about for insects, squawks and flutters. It zooms out past the patrol. "CAW! CAW!"
The great bird turns. It seems to be looking closely at Dain.
Its gaze zeroes in on the mailbag. The raven enters a dive. ""
Awesome, so I'm Fearless with a Fighter skill of 2, so can I use 2 dice for a Maneuver roll? I'd like to show off to my patrolmates against our first opponent and prove my worth! To do this, I'd like to jump at the Raven and grapple it around the throat, wrestling it to the ground!
Dain's goal is to chase the raven away, while keeping the mail safe.
Okay Crow. I can see you want to take our mail bag and fly off. Well, you may do the flying off. But... Baron twirls the Halberd in expert fasion, it's silver sheen reflecting in the crows mirror-black eye...I insist you leave the mail!
"CAW!" the raven retorts.
Defend
Maneuver
Testing Fighter (3) + 3 helping dice.
2 successes, plus 4 health, 6.
About the actions, they would be:
Ingrid Defend.
Robin Maneuver.
Baron Attack.
The raven dives straight for the mice, talons outstretched, seeking to snatch the pretty mailbag!
Ingrid quickly draws her bow and fires off an arrow at the diving Raven, Imposing herself between her companions and the bird.
After Ingrid's arrow is loosed I tackle her, knocking both of us down just as the Raven's talons close inches over our heads...bloody ravens seem to be getting faster every year!
Dain moves behind Ingrid and Baron, waving his sword.
"Robin, come! If we keep together the raven will have a harder time attacking us!"
"Hiiyyaaaa!" Robin shouts, sticking with Dain and following his lead!