Mouse Guard: Murder at the Scarnsea Monastary

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As you can probably tell from my last few posts, I’m on a bit of a Mouse Guard kick. Don’t worry, we’ll soon return to your regularly scheduled programing.

For now, I’d like to point you to a mission posted up on the Burning Wheel/Mouse Guard forums, in which the poster Court Jester has assembled a quite compelling little mission: A murder at a monastery.

(Editor’s Note: Bridget, don’t read this.)

I’ll just quote him from here:

“The monks in MG are just mice that decided to remove themselves from society because of a belief that separation and isolation is good for their well-being. At first they kept to themselves but over the years they expanded their influence over local villages and and owners. As was the case in our world the ideals of the original monks became distorted and the monastery grew rich and corrupt off the fat of the land and those working the land.

Now if the mice that set up the monastery were originally from the Guard and were perhaps granted their initial land rights by the Matriarch of the times then that creates an interesting reason for Gwendolyn to want the now corrupt Monastery (whose current crop of monks have no ties to the Guard) dissolved but she wants it done with little fuss and no violence. She has had reports that there are dirty land transactions happening and so took this as an opportunity to send in an investigator and uncover the corruption bringing it to the attention the the territories.

Her first choice for investigator arrives and within a few days has been murdered…

Step up our heroes who must travel to a remote part of the territories in deep winter and then confront a monastery full of nervous (even murderous) mice who fear for their nice soft way of life.

This mission will also tie in nicely with attempted overthrow of Lockhaven in the Autumn of 1152…”

You really should see the mission he’s come up with. It’s compelling, has a rich cast of characters with different motivations, a great map, and really lends itself to a fantastic game. I’m thinking I’ll be running it for Bridget sometime, perhaps with her as a lone Guard Mouse sent to investigate.

If anyone else runs this, let me know how it works out for you.