The Battle for Acbury

Spring 867

olves stalked the forests of Paradise like gods. Black bears have greater size and strength, but they made their diet mostly of plants. Wolves, though, embodied the ideals of predation. Most importantly, they worked together, as a pack, coordinated like a seamless whole. According to legend, Ælfwen, the first Matriarch, took her model for the Mouse Guard from wolves—that their greatest strength lie in their cooperation, and by cooperating, even mice could steal that power. Then, during the Cataclysm, the wolves went extinct. The Guard celebrated it as a great victory, that they managed to drive the very worst predator into extinction.

In the Blizzard of 851, though, a pack of wolves, hungry and desperate, crossed the Scent Border into the Black Forest. The Guard raised an army of some 20,000 mice—effectively every mouse in the Forest who could use a weapon—and went to war. The Wolf War ultimately succeeded in driving the pack back into the Wasteland, but the traumatic experience of the wolves’ return had other repercussions. Æðelred rose to the rank of Guard Captain when he uncovered the Wolf Cult, a group of mice who took the resurrected wolves as gods sent to bring punishment on the mice for defying the natural order, and offered mice as sacrifices to various predators. Even for mice less moved to fanaticism, the return of the wolves made many mice question things they had taken for granted about themselves and the Cataclysm.

Ivy had more immediate concerns, lying in a bed in the home of Ælfgar and Osburga, listening to the howls. She had learned of some plot, hatched by someone in the Guard itself, and working with the Mistletoe Brotherhood, to sabotage the Scent Border. Wilric had discovered the wolves just over that border near Sapford. They had done all they could to strengthen the Border, but two other patrols had already come and gone. Had they also left weakened Scent?

That morning, Leofmund interrupted the patrol’s breakfast, helping in a badly hurt Moss. Ivy had sent him on an early morning errand to buy some grain, to compensate Ælfgar and Osburga for their hospitality. Even in the best of times, Acbury gives the Guard a cold reception, but with the news that a pack of wolves had crossed the Scent Border, tensions ran high. Moss did not handle it well when he heard some locals disparaging the Guard. When he began loudly defending the Guard, he quickly attracted first agitated onlookers, who quickly became a mob. Leofmund intervened and dispersed them. He helped Moss back to Ælfgar’s home.

Despite the disaster at Sapford, Leofmund’s faith in his friend remained unshaken. He told Wilric that the Brotherhood planned a big battle to drive back the wolves—and he wanted Wilric’s help. When the patrol arrived, many Brothers disparaged them, and Wilric specifically, for failing to create an effective Scent Border, and for the disastrous attack on the wolf near Sapford. Leofmund defended his friend, telling them about their shared trials in Waelingas.

The wolves could not climb the tree, so Acbury itself remained safe. However, their prowling about made the open country a death trap. If they did nothing, Acbury’s safety would turn it into a prison, and the mice inside would eventually die. The Brotherhood planned to lure the wolves into a swampy area. They would have archers in the trees, with enough infantry on the ground to keep the wolves from running away. Looking at the plan, Ivy—who had enlisted the aid of the rabbits at Rockpointe, whose charge broke the weasel lines and won the war—suggested that rabbit-mounted mice could lead the wolves into the trap. One of the Brothers mentioned a warren underneath their oak tree.

Ivy managed to communicate with the rabbits, and began to try to convince them to join the fight. It took some doing, but eventually the rabbits agreed. A late spring snow began to fall—odd, this late in the season, and something that Reinhard took note of as further evidence of strange weather.

They began the work of rigging harnesses to the rabbits, when they overheard a scout’s report. He reported two caravans of Travelers: one coming up the Oak Road towards Acbury, the other taking the old road that used to lead to Sigetun, before it fell. Ivy recognized the direction the first caravan came from, up the Oak Road, as likely her own family’s—and the colorings of the other caravan made it most likely Moss’s family. Out in the open, oblivious to the fact that a wolf pack has crossed the Scent Border, they both seemed doomed. The patrol mounted on rabbits; Ivy and Reinhard went to escort her family, and she sent Wilric for Moss’s.

Ivy and Reinhard made it too late. They found the wreckage of the destroyed wagons, the blood splatters and occasional limbs of Ivy’s family. Only one remained alive, Oak, Ivy’s father, but even him only barely. Reinhard refused to leave any mouse behind. It took all his skill, but he managed to save Oak’s life. They loaded him up on the rabbit, and took him back to Acbury.

Meanwhile, Wilric fared better finding the caravan with Moss’s family. He escorted them, until the wolves showed up. Wilric managed to catch their attention—particularly the one with the scars on his front legs, who recognized his scent from Sapford—and led them on a chase, away from the caravan. The wolves caught up to him and ate his rabbit, but Wilric himself managed to escape. The caravan reached Acbury safely, and soon after, Wilric returned, as well.

In the final preparations for battle, Reinhard heard someone cry out his name. He turned to see Gwynedd, arrayed for battle. She had not joined the Brotherhood, but with the survival of Acbury itself on the line, everymouse who could use a weapon had turned out to fight. They embraced, and shared a tender moment before marching off to war. Reinhard gave her one of the small offerings for the Unseen that he carved from stone, and made her promise that she would give it back to him after the battle.

It fell to the patrol, mounted on rabbit-back, to find the wolves and bring them to the battle site. The wolves found them, instead. They ran, the wolves chasing them. Ivy shouted for them to split up, so hopefully each wolf would follow a different one of them—they couldn’t offer any help to each other then, but neither could the wolves. Wilric noticed the scars on the front legs of the wolf who chased him. Down three different paths, they converged at the chosen spot, where the Brotherhood unleashed all of their weapons. The patrol turned, and began sending orders back and forth across the battlefield.

The battle, however, quickly turned into a rout. The wolves gobbled up whole lines of infantry; the archers panicked, broke ranks, and fled. Seeing the battle failing, Ivy decided to take matters into their own paws, and commanded her patrol to charge in, and fight the pack themselves. They didn’t last long before the wolves sent them scurrying away as well, but they bought some time for the retreating army.

They returned to a very quiet Acbury, a heavy sense of doom laying over the mousehold. The caws of a raven broke that silence. Ivy could understand the words of the one-eyed raven, Oðinn. It helped that he apparently had taken some effort to try to communicate with the mice himself.

“Everything just like the oldfur said. The Scent Border weakened, just like he said. I led the wolves here, just like he asked, and now the mousehold will fall, just like he said. But why would Bluecloak want a mousehold to fall? Oh, I feel so confused—so I came here, to seek out my good friend, Wilric. I know, no matter what else happens, I can always count on Wilric. We’ll always hate each other.

“I think that oldfur wants to play a trick on me. Me! I’ll show him. I’ll play a trick on him, first. I’ll lead the wolves north tomorrow at dawn. You can take all the mice and lead them south, along the old road, to the ruins of that old mousehold where you used to live. Old roads connect it to other mouseholds, so from there, you can return across the Scent Border, go back to your Cathedral, and kill the oldfur. He’ll never see it coming!”

With that, the raven flew off. Wilric cautioned against trusting his enemy—he expected a trap, with the wolves just waiting to catch Acbury’s whole population out on open ground. And even if he told the truth, marching a whole mousehold’s worth of refugees out, beyond the Scent Border, into the Wasteland? It seemed like madness.

Wilric slipped out, looking for survivors from the battle. Specifically, neither Leofmund nor Gwynedd had returned. He managed to find them, and bring them back safely. Gwynedd returned Reinhard’s carving; they fell into each other’s arms, and went off to spend some time alone together. Everyone in the patrol had suffered grievously, and found themselves needing to recover. Regardless of what they would do about Oðinn’s plan, they needed to rest before they did anything else.

As he rested and had some time to think, the discrepancies between these wolves and the old tales occurred to Wilric. They seemed like wolves, but in so many ways, they also seemed like coyotes. What if, somehow, without wolves around, coyotes had become more “wolf-like”? Wolves rarely bothered with mice; they brought down bigger prey. Coyotes, though, would frequently eat mice, and these predators seemed happier to eat mice (and rabbits) than wolves would normally. It occurred to Wilric then, what if the greatest success of mouse hunters—eradicating the wolf—had only created this new predator, who only fell harder upon the mice?

Awards

• MVP Wilric
• Workhorse Reinhard
• Embodiment Ivy & Reinhard

The Mistletoe Brotherhood

Spring 867

mong the refugees of Sapford, Wilric found his old friend, Leofmund. They had served together once in the Guard; in fact, he and Leofmund once undertook a secret mission into Waelingas, where they discovered that the weasels had begun taking mouse slaves to breed as livestock. When they brought that news back to the Matriarch, the Eighth Weasel War began. While Wilric became a hero in the war, Leofmund could never shake the horrors they had seen. He left the Guard and returned home to Acbury. There, the Mistletoe Brotherhood recruited him quickly, and he became one of the Brotherhood’s most reliable men. He came to Sapford with some others from the Brotherhood to help rebuild the village. Ivy’s patrol also pitched in.

While helping Sapford, a beady-eyed merchant named Eadwig demanded that Ivy’s patrol escort him to Acbury. Though no one trusted him or liked him, they recognized their duty, and took him down the dangerous Oak Road, where many merchants fall to the Mistletoe Brotherhood’s bandits.

As they neared Acbury, Leofmund blocked the road, with some armed men. He asked Wilric to step aside; the merchant had worked with the Brotherhood, and given names of senior Brothers to the Guard, who had captured and executed them. For his betrayal, the Brotherhood had sent Leofmund to kill the merchant. Wilric would not stand aside, though; instead, he fought his friend, and defeated him. In the fight, through, the bandits knocked over Eadwig’s wagon, sending the Scent and the grain tumbling downhill, but Moss noticed the clank of a large bag of metal coins, as well. Eadwig leaped for the coins, but Moss got to them first.

Cornered, Eadwig explained that he had worked with the Brotherhood—until the Guard captured him. He gave up the names of Brothers he knew. Then, a patrol leader named Hroðgar offered to set him free if he delivered a payment to the Brotherhood in Acbury. Eadwig considered it a suicide mission; surely, the Brotherhood would kill him for his treason. Hroðgar told him that the Mouse Guard would kill him for his treason, too; at least the mission offered a chance of survival, however slim. Eadwig took it.

Having reached Acbury, Ivy finally opened the letter with Matriarch Cynewyn’s secret orders, which she had instructed Ivy not to read until she reached Acbury. The letter said that she had selected Ivy’s patrol carefully. Ivy and Moss came from the Travelers, making them outsiders even in the Guard. Reinhard had great talent, but the trauma he suffered in the war had kept him from ever receiving recognition for it. Wilric had proven himself one of the greatest heroes in the Guard, yet his inability to conduct himself in polite society had kept him from gaining any recognition for his actions. In short, Ivy’s patrol gathered some of the greatest talent in the Guard, without drawing any attention to that fact. The Matriarch had done this very carefully and deliberately, because she had come to fear a traitor within the Guard.

She believes someone in the Cathedral has begun to conspire with the Mistletoe Brotherhood, towards ends as yet unknown. She asked Ivy to discover the truth behind her suspicions—either to confirm them with evidence, or dispel them as the paranoia of an aging mouse.

Wilric and Moss delivered the payment to a Brotherhood boss, and managed to get him talking. He started by confessing that he considered the whole plan foolish; yes, sabotaging the Scent Border would make the Mouse Guard look bad, but assuming that the Brotherhood could defeat whatever predator came across seemed arrogant. Their failure could mean the fall of Acbury itself; he considered the other bosses blinded by the gold offered, and entirely too sure of their own ability.

Reinhard tested the cask of Scent they had come to deploy, and found it watered down. From the events near Sapford, Wilric knew that a pack of wolves roamed the territory beyond the Scent Border. In a dangerous mission, they tracked the wolves to their den, well into the Wastes. Moss managed to recover some wolf urine, which Reinhard mixed into the Scent.

Ivy managed to find the right areas, and Reinhard poured the Scent. Yet they also knew that two other patrols had already laid the rest of the Scent Border around Acbury. Might someone have sabotaged their mixtures, as well? They returned to Acbury, their initial mission fulfilled. Yet, as night settled in, and they heard the distant howls, none of them could help but wonder what might happen to Acbury next.

Awards

• MVP Wilric
• Workhorse Moss

The Siege of Rockpointe

Fall 862

Note: This adventure took place at GASPcon 10, November 2009. “The Defector” provided a prequel to this. This adventure stars mentors and other NPC’s from the regular campaign, and takes place five years prior, during the Eighth Weasel War.

he Eighth Weasel War began when Wilric and Leofmund returned from a covert mission deep into Waelingas, revealing that the weasels had begun taking mice as slaves, trying to breed them as livestock. The Mouse Guard launched an invasion of Waelingas to save those mice.

That invasion did not go well. The weasels repulsed the Guard, and counter-attacked, laying siege to Rockpointe, where the Matriarch had set her headquarters for the war. Guard Captain Æðelred took a commanding role throughout the battle, along with Patrol Leaders Æren and Hereweald (whom the Matriarch promoted to the rank of Guard Captain after this battle, for his actions in it). Patrol Guard Sigmund emerged as a war hero during the fighting at Rockpointe, and even Gwynedd took up arms to defend Rockpointe in battle.

Some guardmice slipped past the weasel patrols to find food for Rockpointe, but found that the birds had taken almost all of it. They cut a deal with the birds to share their food, in return for driving off the weasels. So the guardmice returned to Rockpointe by air, flying on the backs of songbirds that brought an air drop of supplies to beseiged Rockpointe.

In the first attack, the Guard managed to break the weasels, and chase them into the river. They pressed their advantage back into Waelingas, pursuing the retreating forces. They hunted down the High King, and Gwynedd assassinated him.

However, upon returning to Rockpointe, they found that the weasels had regrouped, attacked, and infiltrated the fortress in their absence. They rushed in, and managed to save the Matriarch, defeat the weasels, and rescue Rockpointe, but now the weasels had laid in for a new siege. They did not have long before a hawk harried their fortifications—attracted by meat the weasels had cunningly left hanging when they managed to slip inside.

After fighting off the hawk, Æ&ethelred’s informants, the crows Hunin and Munin, informed him of a signal fire lit from inside Rockpointe last night, flashing a message to meet the weasels tonight. The guardmice laid a trap to flush out the traitor in their ranks. After defeating the weasels and chasing down the traitor, they began to piece together what had happened. The High King had lost control of his kingdom when he broke and retreated. The weasel prince with the connection to the spy used that leverage to try to make a play for the High Kingship himself, promising to take Rockpointe. With the spy caught, they supplied some key misinformation to the weasel army. Meanwhile, Ivy had made an alliance with the local hare burrow, which offered to join the Guard as cavalry.

When the weasels attacked, they found the tunnel they expected to lay open, closed shut. Then, the rocks fell on them from above. At that moment, a company of hares began charging them, with the Mouse Guard on their backs, leveling long lances at the weasels. Their cavalry broke the weasels, destroying their last army. For years to come, mice sang of the rabbit charge at Rockpointe that brought the last Weasel War to a victorious end.

Sapford

Spring 867

he healer in Sapford tells Ivy that Reinhard needs help. The traditional rememdy for pokeberry poisoning requires large amounts of fat and vinegar. She says she has the vinegar she needs, but not nearly enough fat. For that much fat, she says, they’ll need to hunt beaver.

Wilric and Ivy both fear the implications of killing even one beaver, since they have only recently begun to restore themselves after the Cataclysm, and have thus only begun to restore the old streams. Yet, the needs of their dying comrade must come first, at least for the moment, so they go hunting.

They manage to find a single beaver, keeping a lodge. They kill her, but discover that she has left a litter of newborn kits. Wilric notes signs that a wolf has prowled the opposite bank, and probably killed the beaver’s mate. Ivy leads the kits out of the lodge, to take back to Sapford and find some kind of accommodations for. As they travel, a heavy rain begins to fall. The stream begins to rise. When they reach Sapford, they find it in danger of getting swept away by a flash flood.

The patrol throws themselves into the work of throwing up levies to save the town, but it proves insufficient. The levies break. Ivy takes command, leading Sapford’s population successfully to higher ground.

While the rest prepare temporary homes for the refugees of Sapford, Wilric decides to make up for hunting the beaver by hunting a wolf. He raises an army from among the refugees, and leads them across the stream, into the wolf pack’s territory. It ends disastrously, with the wolf crushing the refugee army, leaving only a scarred leg to show for the assault. Wilric learned a hard lesson about commanding other mice in battle.

Thomm’s Run

Spring 867

oss left the Cathedral, hoping to impress his new mentor by arriving at Port Guard ahead of her. Unfortunately, he took the wrong road, and didn’t realize it until he reached Northwatch. Along the way south towards Port Guard, he ran into a group of Traveler men, led by one calling himself Hemlock. They discussed the relationship between the Travelers and the Guard, with Hemlock telling the young tenderpaw that one day, his duty would require him to make a choice between his loyalty to the Guard, and betraying his people.

Meanwhile, in Port Guard, Wilric awoke to find Reinhard passed out, with signs of poison on him. The local apothecary, Ceolflæd, said it looked like water hemlock poisoning. Amidst this chaos, Moss arrived; when he mentioned the name of his traveling companion, Ivy became intensely suspicious. Ceolflæd offered to travel with the patrol, to ensure Reinhard’s recovery. With the urgency of their mission pressing upon them, Ivy decided to load up the boat she had arranged for, and begin their journey up Thomm’s Run.

At the point where the Black Stream flows into Thomm’s Run, Hemlock prepared an ambush. His gang had rigged ziplines to a debris pile that sent much of its face falling into the stream, releasing salamanders that began to swarm over the patrol. Ivy’s patrol fought through the ambush, but their boat turned over, and they got swept downstream.

They awoke again in the Traveler camp of Oak and Maple, the parents of Ivy and Hemlock. They had rescued the mice at the scene, and brought them back to care for them. Unfortunately, they had thought nothing of the cask of scent that dropped to the bottom of the stream. Ivy and her patrol returned, and managed to pull ip up out of the stream again.

The Traveler healer mentioned Reinhard’s pokeberry poisoning. Travelers know pokeberry quite well; they actually know how to prepare the young berries for food, even though the mature berries contain a very deadly poison. The guardmice noticed the difference between the diagnosis of the Traveler healer, and Ceolflæd’s. When the Traveler healer mentioned that someone had fed Reinhard pokeberry poison recently as well, they managed to put together that Ceolflæd had poisoned Reinhard, and had offered to join them only so she could ensure that he eventually died.

Wilric set out then, to hunt down Hemlock and bring him back. He admitted that Ceolflæd, his lover, had worked with him to poison Reinhard. He said that those Travelers tired of the Guard’s mistreatment had begun to follow him, devoted to defending their people—as aggressively as necessary. Wilric tried to torture Hemlock for more information, but Ivy and Moss intervened. They ultimately left Hemlock to the judgment of Traveler law.

Ivy enlisted the aid of a rabbit in getting the scent to Sapford. They loaded the cask, and climbed atop the hare, who ran across the forest, and brought them quickly to the stream-side village.

Reinhard’s Journal: Port Guard

Spring 867

o, I am finally assigned a new patrol? I was beginning to think they were going to keep me forever! Not that I mind my studies, but I think it’s time I was back on patrol. There is much I must do if not for myself but for the whole of mousedom.

And speaking of my studies, I’m no longer sure what to think. The winters are getting longer. I have no explanation for this at the moment. The records show the temperatures doing strange things, and the rate of change is shockingly rapid.

I was just finishing my observations for the morning when in came my new Patrol Leader Ivy. We were to leave for Port Guard immediately. That was fast…

I’m not sure I’ve met a Traveler before. The wandering mice are fascinating. She seems wise and. How do they stay safe? How does their society work? All interesting things I may one day learn. Perhaps one day I can ask her more about the Travelers and maybe meet more of them in our own travels.

My other patrol-mate terrified me at first sight. It’s not every day you see a mouse materialize out of nothing. I understand how Wilric is proficient at his trade. He has already proven a strong ally when swords are drawn. Not long after entering Port Guard, a bullfrog appeared at the docks.

I’d never seen one up close, and to be honest I’d not like to again. Wilric was the first into the fray, deftly attacking the encroaching frog. As I was running in, the frog darted out his tongue disarming my patrol-mate. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what happened next… I… I could see my former patrol leader before me… he was hurt so badly, and… I could do nothing…

When my mind came to, I was on top of the frog, sword embedded in the back of its head where the spine meets the skull. I’d heard such things could work, but never have I tried it in practice. I never thought I would, to be honest. I was happy to see there was little damage to the dock and that my friends were OK.

Oh, and then there was Æðelred. Still the same, still disapproving of me. I’m not sure if he wanted me to take responsibility for the damage to the dock or not, but Ivy’s cool head prevailed. Æðelred took his leave and we were able to continue with what we needed to accomplish.

Wilric and I shared some beer in part to celebrate our victory, and partly to relieve ourselves of the irritation of dealing with the uptight Æðelred. Looks like my new patrol-mate and I have something in common… Ivy? She didn’t seem to appreciate our ‘goofing off’. I call it team building.

We managed to get everything together and acquired a boat… but an ominous sign came into view. Along with the boat in the port, a flake of snow followed by some of it’s friends made themselves known. What madness is this weather? I only wish I knew what was happening to our world…