Thursday, April 13, 2023

Materialists - A Mishka County faction for Mausritter

Materialists venerate human made objects, believing that the possession, understanding, and use of those objects raise all mouse-kind to greatness. As such it is the collection of human made objects that is the primary motivating factor behind all of the organizations decisions. The Materialists believe that any unique, important, or powerful human made object inherently belongs in their hands as they have amassed the widest and deepest knowledge of human objects.

“Humans created the Trap and the Trap made us stronger.”
Jasper Summerholme, founder of Materialism
Materialists have a rigid hierarchy and organizational structure. At the top of the hierarchy is the Vlasnik (roughly translating to "holder" or "owner").  Below the Vlasnik are the Drugi (literally "second"). There are currently two Drugi though Materialist bylaws allow for creating additional Drugi positions as needed to handle increases in administrative duties. Third there is the Almak (Chief Solicitor). Solicitors are the arm of the Materialists tasked with finding and acquiring human made objects.

There are two primary seats of power held by the Materialists, one in Lone Oak, the other in the old church. The old church is where a majority of the organization's hoard of human mad objects is located.

The current Materialist leadership is as follows:
Vlasnik Garbo
Drugi Otho - Head of the Materialist's Lone Oak Council.
Drugi Marcus - Head of the Materialist's Old Church Council.
Almak Samuel

Around 50% of Mishka County mice consider themselves Materialists though on a practical level this has no real impact on a majority of these mice.

Game information

Resources

  • Predominant faith
  • Great store of human artifacts

Goals

  • Collect unique human artifacts
  • Wrest control of the landfill away from the Landfill Collective
  • Figure out how to use electricity

 Secrets

  • Vlasnik Garbo's health is failing, he is essentially infirm, causing a virtual power vacuum among the Materialists.
  • Drugi's Otho and Marcus are maneuvering themselves behind the scenes to be the one to replace Garbo as Vlasnik.
What might they want from the PCs?
  • To recover lost human artifacts from dangerous locations.
  • To infiltrate and spy on the Landfill Collective.
  • Otho or Marcus may seek the PCs support or endorsement if the PCs gain enough renown and/or influence.

Mishka County - A Mausritter sandbox setting

I have begun running a campaign of Mausritter for a friend of mine. Just the two of us, one-on-one. Maybe it was my excitement in getting back into RPGs after years (decades?) away or my enthusiasm for introducing Roll Playing to a friend or over compensating as a new game master but no matter the reason I most definitely went too deep in my pre-campaign prep.

This is how I ended up with Mishka County, a campaign world set in a rural central-Illinois county that has been mostly abandoned by humans and as such become overloaded with rodents and other wildlife. Mishka County is home to one mouse city, Lone Oak, a few towns, and many villages. There is an deteriorating human church and a neglected farmstead which includes a house, barn, and rusted equipment. On the west end of the county is a lake and in the south the still utilized human landfill.

Throughout all this are over 20 factions, including three dominant religoi-philosophical groups, trade organizations, secret cabals and beyond, many at cross purposes.

It is unrealistic to expect one player to see and experience all this and even though I would like to find another player or small group in the setting as well I thought I would share Mishka County with you, the internet.

My goal is to post at least twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, mostly but not all Mishka County related (my first post here is a Mörk Borg monster). Ooh! Faction Friday! ...and monster monday? Anyway, this introductory post is going up on a Thursday so the first Faction Friday will be tomorrow where I will tell about the Materialists, the most widespread of the Mishka County mice religoi-philosophies.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

10,000 Teeth - My first Mörk Borg Monster

10,000 Teeth

HP 10 | Morale - | Hard enamel -d4 | Attack special

An oozing pile of teeth stolen from all manner of creature (though mostly human) that leaves a trail of mucus where ever it shambles along.

Special: When attacked by a 10,000 Teeth the target must make a DR12 Agility test to avoid having a limb enveloped by the creature. Once a 10,000 Teeth has ensnared its prey it begins to grind away causing d4 damage per round and will gnaw through a limb in 3 rounds. A DR14 Strength test to escape  

Constant Chatter: Constantly emitting the sound of chatting teeth whether it is moving or not. 

Crumbly: Falls apart once it reaches 0 hit point. Additionally it falls apart if an attack deals 6+ damage, otherwise only a ffew teeth are knocked off, damage is reduced to d2.

Easy to hit: DR10

This has not been tested in any way.