MG SPQM c1s11: Look at my family.

During the break in missions the patrol is called to a hearing about the hare incident. The hares have made a big event out of the patrol, who they don't know wich patrol it is, shot at a hare and now has temporarily ended their cooperation with Asylum which means no hare riders for The Guard and no hare contests at The Big Games. They probably won't hold that stance for long though since they need work done by the mice but for the moment it's the mice who has it worst.

It's Nona who ahs brought this up and questioned whether the patrol did the right thing and if they maybe should be punished in soem way. At the hearing is the patrol, Nona and a tribunis. The patrol defend themselves quite good although they can't get away from the fact that they're the reason that there's no hares for the hare riders and no hare contests fo The Big Games this year. In the end the tribunis concludes that they did wrong but that they can't really be held responsible for the result since they act with what information they had at the moment and at that moment the hare seemed to be a spy for someone and then not a member of the hare Asylum is cooperating with. There will be some discontent in The Guard (Obstacle, Conflict, Convince the tribunis they acted correct with the information at hand: Won with Minor Compromise). 

As a few days pass by they realize that Nona and Faustus is working hard on getting most of the cedit for bringing on half of the box to Asylum and also rescuing the other half that the patrol lost. Now that can't be let pass by without taking a stand. A rethoric fight takes place over the coming week as Nona and Faustus is spreading lies and the patrol tries to kill the rumours with the truth. Apparently Nona and Faustus don't think that Gaius' patrol should have both a merit badge for the long secret box mission and the recover of the lost half. If their rumorus get a grip in the guards's minds there will be voices raised for not giving them to merit badges. Lucius is a good speaker and together they manage to almost fight the rumours but Nona and Faustus has a lead and works hard. In the end they only is given one merit badge but also Nona and Faustus is deemed quite suspicius by many guards and lose some of their good connections with other guards (Obstacle, Conflict, Convince the guards that Faustus and Nona is not speaking the truth: Won by both sides, The patrol only gets one merit badge and Faustus and Nona loses 1 point in Circles). The division between Nona & Faustus and the patrol is just widened (End of GM's Turn).

Gaius visits a doctor to finally get rid of the sickness lingering from the long period in the wilderness (Check: Passed Circles Ob4).

As things settle down Lucius, with his family head's good will start to arrange for a feast for the patrol, Mamercus Fabius Longius and the philosophers. The feast will just be a dinner for M F Longius but Lucius presents it as a simple dinner to remind fo the hardship the patrol and the philosophers endured together. The feast goes well and Mamercus finds it nice and picturesque and leaves thinking good of Lucius family (Ceck: Arrange dinner for Mamercus in a way that makes him focus on Lucius family as partners in the affairs with the philosophers, Passed Resources Ob6). During the dinner Dekia has her own agenda, she wants to lure Aeneas to tell her what the thing in the box is. Interested and curius as Lucius is he can't stop her although there's some risk that her attempts ruin the feast. In good team work witht he rest of the patrol Mamercus is distracted and Aeneas tungue slip late in the evening and he tells Dekia that it was a Astrobium, whatever that is, but as he's gone so far his own ego makes him to shortly explain what it could be used for. Apparently the one holding it will be able to sail across the big sea instead of around it. A fact that could topple the power balance in The League of Mice Cities not a little (Check: Passed Deciever versus 3D). 

Satisfied with the course of events the patrol relax and finnally get some real rest for a while (End of GM's Turn).

illern (a) illertass.se

SPQM c1s10: Finally, the box is in Asylum!

Early Summer, 3 Weather Twists.

The patrol arrives at Asylum and immediately takes the philosophers to the barracks to leave them in the care of The Guard, report and convince the tribunis in command that there's still a chance to get to their half of the box - if they just get some extra patrols and quickly go out to comb the terrain. Dekia and Gaius leaves their report and try to convince the tribunis while Lucius keep an eye on the philosophers. Aeneas actually seems a little interested in the order of everything at the barracks although he usually seems to think that Asylum is well below Sapientia in every mean.

Dekia manages to convince the tribunis to give them three extra patrols and immediately go out and track the godmice down (Obstacle: Failed Persuader versus 3D, succeeded with Condition Angry). Immediately they escort the philosophers to Marmercus Longius Fabius, the city praetor, who will be their host in Asylum while the other patrols gather for the mission, only to find out that two of the three patrols are Faustus' and Nona's patrols. Gaius and Dekia bite their tongues, control themselves and they set out on the mission.

Now organization is a hard thing for mice but Gaius does a good job and the next day they're closing in on the godmice in double cadence and in good organized. It's almost that they for a moment feel a little breeze from The Golden Age as they fall down on the godmice who drops the box and run for their life (Obstacle: Passed Beginner's Luck Militarist).

They get the box and quickly returns to Asylum, a little surprised they could work so well together although the harsh relations and a little worried about that only a few godmice was travelling wioth the box. Without ambushes they arrive to Asylum and can give the box to a happy Aeneas (End of GM's Turn).

They now actually get two weeks of rest where they will get no new missions and they fall into some our-big-important-mission-is-finished-and-we-succeeded-coma. Later Lucius visits a Doctor and get his injuries treated (Check: Passed Contacts Ob4, Condition Injured is removed). Both Dekia and Gaius manage to, after a while, come to senses and relax now that the missions is over and they don't have to work with Nona or Faustus. Now the responsibility for the box is no longer theirs (Check: Passed Will Ob2 for both Dekia and Gaius).

The happiness is tainted with sadness though when two small mice babies, Lucius sister Prima's daughter and Gaius’ sister Prima's son, dies in some strange sickness that the patrol is supposed to have brought upon their families from their long mission in the wilderness (End of Player's Turn).

illern (a) illertass.se

SPQM c1s9b: And the box is lost...

Early Summer, 2 Weather Twists

The patrol almost manages to get to Asylum when they're attacked Again. This time it's not someone's Liberation Front. It's godmice, those ridiculous mice that say that the forefathers doesn't exist and that the emergency plot device ''god'' actually exists and that all mice have to obey his will. The patrol readies their weapons and fight bravely but there's so many of them, so many…

After a hard fight the patrol breaks apart and a godmouse manages to get the box and run (Check; Travel the last part of the journey to Asylum with the box and the philosophers: Lost Conflict with Compromise, the patrol can follow the godmice with the box). The godmice withdraw and the patrol pants but there's no rest for the pretorians. They park the philosophers at a tavern and set out to get the box back.

They hunt down the mice, tackle them and grab the box and run away but it gets snatched from their paws again (Twist: Fighter versus 6D, Failed with a Twist).

Again the patrol hunts the godmice and catches them in a glade. They stop, drops the box and threatens to stab it to pieces with their spears. During this fight of the wills a godmice sneaks away with the box and disappears and then the other godmice also runs off (Fighter versus 5D, Failed with a Twist, Unseasonably Hot).

Depressed the patrol returns to the philosophers, pick them up and in the heat returns to Asylum. On the way they pick some hope. If they could convice a tribunis to send out several patrols it might be possible to get the box after all. It's just two hours to Asylum. The patrol hurries on (End of Players Turn)

illern (a) illertass.se

SPQM c1s9a: Still got the box, still got the box...

Early summer, 2 weather twists

The hare appears again and the patrol really bothers about it and is convinced that it's following them and reporting to someone about their whereabouts. Something has to be done. They decide to try to lure into a cramped situation and hurt it but not kill it with the belly shooter. They scout out a good place and some of them take the regular route their while some take a shortcut and prepare the belly shooter. The hare appears and Lucius fires. The spear goes through the ear of the hare and it takes a jump right away and disappears (Obstacle: Passed Physicist versus Hare 7D). The patrol sighs reliefed and continue their journey.

After some travelling they suddenly spot a crow and even before it dives down towards them they know that it will try to steal the box. Ravens are tricksters and can steal for the fun of it but are on the other hand not that bent on actually stealing something. Crows on the other hand are common thieves and engaged in stealing stuff. The patrol back down and when the crow lands they form a line with the spears towards it. The crows makes an attempt but gets quite badly hurt and gives it up (Obstacle: Passed Fighter versus Crow 7D). They hurry on (End of GM's Turn).

They continue their journey and when they rest for the night at a wine tavern Lucius manage to reason his way to a stoic way to look upon the hardship they have to endure (Check: Passed Recovery Ob2, Undisciplined is removed). They still have quite a piece of a road to travel to get to Asylum, they straggle on (Check: get one third of the way to Asylum, Complex Test with two Tests). As they walk on they come to a town where the inhabitants are about to start building the bridge. They have one problem though; they have to make an offering to the spirits and the forefathers before they begin this big engineering project. That's not a problem in it self but one or two poor families has fallen to banditry and will most probably attack and steal the offerings which contain a lot of food and a little silver and a gold coin.

After a short discussion the patrol conclude that they can't just walk on, they have to help the farmers laying the ceremonial foundation for the mundane bridge foundation. So they escort the caravan toward the stream to be bridged and they are attacked by the bandits. When the bandits see the pretorians they turn around and flee and at first the patrol thinks they made the day but in the meantime one of the accompanying farmers ran off with the silver and gold (Complex Test part 1: Fighter versus 4D, Failed with a Twist).

The patrol immediately hunts after him and quickly closes in when he lets go of the loot and runs away (Twist: Passed Scout versus 2D). The patrol picks up the money and return just in time to deflect a new robbery attempt. Now the caravan can travel in peace to the stream and conduct the ceremony. The pretorians travel on.

After a week or so they run into another patrol on a mission. The patrol is escorting workers towards the scent border where they will lay out scent to strengthen the barrier against predators. After some exchanging of news the patrol leader asks for help. They have sighted a kestrel and probably it's after the civilians. Normally the patrol probably could ward it off by themselves but now it's very important that no civilians get hurt or any of the equipment gets thrashed. Again the characters can't turn down the plea for help and change route to follow the other patrol until dusk and to stay with them until after dawn.

While the other patrol prepares the encampment together with the civilians the characters put up the belly shooter. Now the kestrels gonna encounter some mouse technology.

When darkness falls the kestrel attacks and Lucius once more fire the belly shooter. The kestrel gets the spear in the tars and almost drops to the ground before it turns away to get some easier caught food (Complex Test part 2: Passed Physicist versus Kestrel 6D). The other patrol thanks them and promises to tell about them when they return to Asylum. After dawn they part ways and the characters start the last part of the journey to Asylum (Almost End of Player's Turn).

illern (a) illertass.se