The Mousehouse Meet

There were three things I wanted to accomplish at this month's Norwin Game Knights event:

1. Run a Dungeon Crawl Classics Road Crew adventure for two new players who expressed interest at our last event (along with a few others.)  
2. Try out DCC Lankhmar's Fleeting Luck mechanic for the first time.
3. Use my brand new and freshly painted Reaper Mouseling Miniatures.

To pull off all three of these in one sitting?  That would be epic!  

So I grabbed The Madhouse Meet, a 1st level DCC Lankhmar adventure by +Michael Curtis first featured in Goodman Games' Free RPG 2016 promotion.  I flipped through the module, and took a few notes.  I could easily transfer the adventure to the Mouse Guard universe as a way to playtest Dead Mice, my new DCC Mouse Guard conversion!

The great thing about The Madhouse Meet is that it's super adaptable to any fantasy setting.  There were only a few changes that I needed to make in order to set the Lankhmar-based adventure the Mouse Territories:

• I set the adventure in the city of Barkstone, around the same time as the War of the Axe (Fall 1152.)
• I created pre-gen 1st level guardmice using Dead Mice rules.  
• Timmons the Thief, played by Sue
• Matthias the Cleric, played by Bella
• Trixter the Wizard, played by Michael
• Owyn the Ranger, played by Andy
• Quarless the Warrior, played by Ed
• For backstory, I made all the PC's Tenderpaws, working alongside senior guardmouse Miles of Lockhaven.  Miles had brought the PC's to Barkstone to investigate rumors of an ominous and dark order of mice known as "The Axe."  
• Miles stated to the PC's that he would have to make contact with an associate named "Kenzie," and instructed the PC's to wait for him in a local tavern.  
• While waiting for Miles to return, the PC's fall unconscious and wake up in the dungeon of The Madhouse Meet.  

It was at this point that I had to make a few additional modifications, to both the adventure and the Mouse Guard universe:

• I brought in a troupe of evil rats, led by a Rat-Mage named Tullius.  Rats aren't really in the Mouse Guard comics, so this was something new to the setting.
• Tullius had promised to aid Shadow, leader of The Axe, in return for mice who wouldn't be missed: Mouse Guard tenderpaws.  Since the life of a tenderpaw can be quick and dangerous, it isn't uncommon for them to fall to the risks of their missions.
• Tullius' reason for gathering the mice was to feed their energy to a Patron Fairy that he recently discovered, in return for powerful magic.  Each captured mouse was to be force-fed sugary food and drink (in order to make them sweeter for the fell fairy), and branded with a mark that would make them more submissive to Fairy Magic in general.
• All the "guards" in the adventure were rats working for Tullius.  I used Mordheim Skaven for the rats.
• Little did the PC's know that Miles was a traitor!  He had been paid to provide the PC's to Tullius.
• For this particular adventure, I had to carve out a few parts of the adventure since we only had a couple hours to play.  But all-in-all it worked out.

Thanks to the Purple Sorcerer Demon generator, I was able to craft a Fairy quickly...

... did I mention that Fairy's in my Mouse Guard inspired Dead Mice universe are just teeny-tiny demons?  No?  Well they are.  

• Bowie the Fairy (yes, like David Bowie):  Init +1; Atk Sword +5 melee (1d8 dmg) and Claw +5 melee (1d6 dmg); AC 14; HD 3d12 (16 hp); MV 30' on foot, 40' fly; SP Branded Mice must make a DC 12 Will Save once coming into Bowie's presence, or they cannot attack him.  They may make a new save each round to shake off this effect.  SV Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +3; AL C 
• Demon Traits
• Communication: Speech (Fairy, Common)
• Abilities: Infravision
• Immunities:  Half Damage from non-magical weapons
• Projection:  Cannot travel planes of own volition
• Critical Threat Range: 20

I used a KenzerCo Fairy Meat miniatures for Bowie, painted way back in 2003, just before I gave up miniature painting for having children.  

I was pretty pleased to get the chance to showcase some of my old miniatures alongside my new ones.  I know that a lot of folks prefer to play DCC with a theater of the mind style during combat, and that's typically how I play.  But every once in a while, I like to show off the figures of my collection, and this was a great opportunity to do so.  

Also, I need to share that the Fleeting Luck mechanic is AWESOME!