Friday, August 15, 2014

Of Mice and No Men (part 3)

Since the second session the players wished to restart their characters, having a slightly better feel for the world. The new characters are brothers, of the Maroo family. We have:
  • The "Necromouser" a mouse who lived in the Foo province after the family moved to the Gnoll Stone Kingdom. The oldest of the brothers and an outsider, he is a necromancer (necromancy works differently here) and has a staff that allows him to speak to (i.e. read as "lets the GM yell at him with") all of his ancestor's ghosts, that only he can see and hear (or anyone holding the staff).
  • Tiki Maroo, an assassin of sorts. The only fighter in the family as of now, and has a tendency to gloat.
  • Gabrielle Maroo, adopted hedgehog. An aspiring "politician" who swears that the world is a god and genuine place and that there's no need for violence. He tends to speak for his brothers.

The year is 409. Wanting adventure and pay the brothers join the "King's Guard" which is little more than low paid adventurers who rarely live all that long. Necromouser spends much of his time arguing with their ancestor's ghosts, constantly being told he needs a real job, acupuncturist being the most common one used to harass him.

The move to go to their destination, which happens to be a manor on a small island with a rat standing guard at the bridge. They ask for entry and he introduces himself as Lewshweitz wearing a 1920s style "zoot suit", points to some severed heads on a stick from their predecessors and lets them cross. The Necromouser asks if he can bury the heads as it was disrespectful. Lewshweitz tells him that only the Boss can give him that go ahead. On the far side they meet a guinea pig at the door, named "Shifty P" who was eating "cannoli cheese" and spoke with an outrageous and loud Brooklyn/Italian accent, he uses the phrase "So I says to the guy..." often. He was and is the party's favorite NPC. They go inside to find a calm and jazzy interior, akin to a speakeasy. They are greeted by a third NPC, this time a mouse who begins many of his lines with "Hey, yo I'm Sammy G..." so they immediately figured out his name. He also carries a very nice shovel around with him. Necromouser speaks the the boss first about the heads, and gives the staff to the Boss for a moment and is met with a simple statement: "I have been swayed." Cue more laughter. The others make their plea and at met with a statement that the King wants him to pay 40% taxes, the Boss claims it is due to an affair with the King's sister and himself sometime in the past. He does admit he likes the way he does things and killing people makes for good space to work sometimes. The party is sent back to try to fix it so he can go legitimate. Necromouser stays behind and buries the severed heads with Shifty P.

Back at the Castle they are given forms, with magical ink to prevent easy altering, and indeed they call for very high taxes. They are paid in advance for their efforts. They return and the Boss and the players come up with a plan to alter the forms to lower the taxes called for, the Boss sends them to his associate, named Bonnie.They go and are met by a large rat, and ask "Are you Bonnie." The rat calls back in a thick mobster accent, "Yo, the name's Dave! Do I look like a girl!? You wanna fight about it!?" To which they apologize and are met by an older squirrel with a large moustache, Bonnie. He takes the payment the Boss sent and says it'll take a week. The players swing back by the Castle and inform the Steward that the Boss is looking over it and is expected to agree in a week.


A week later they file the forms after knocking the taxes down to 15%, it took a long time to redo the magic ink on the form. During the week they are given a job by the Boss, to get some money from a shopkeeper. They go, he turns out to be a cheese salesman, and sees through the persuasion the party throws his way. He shoots Gabrielle in the face with a fireball, dealing some damage, and attempts to run out screaming. He is blinded and stopped by the Necromouser and taken inside where they play it off like he is sick as Gabrielle tries to run off where he is stopped by a guard and tells how he was attacked. Tiki kills the shopkeeper with a stab through the ears during all the commotion. As the guard enters the crowded place and asks if anyone saw what happened, I speak up in a thick Italian accent (Shifty P) "Yeah! I saws the whole thing 'awfficer.' He was like yelling and then BAM! Punched that guy right in his face!" with Sammy G in drag with his shovel hidden underneath the table they were sitting at. The guard buys Gabrielle's story and goes to fetch a priest for the sick shopkeeper. They loot the place and the Necromouser helps bury the body, talking to the distraught ghost, asking him to tell his wife he loves her. They return with the money and a lot of cheese without being suspected.

By now the players have nicknames, being reliable and based on things they do or say. The Gabrielle is known as "Schmucky G," Necromouser becomes "Toodles" after saying toodles to the boss before they left during the week, and Tiki becomes "Cornhole" because of a few corny jokes he tells. At the end of the day they are made couriers like they wanted and are sent up to Whitewood, a disputed terriory between the Gnoll Stone Kingdom and the Whit Range Kingdom, and the region itself is striving for independence. They are to sell yellow cheddar, it being cheap in Warren but rare in Whitewood and take a 25 "pound" crate of it (5 wheels) on a cart.

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