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The mouse knights of Birch Hollow finally go inside the shack, and it turns out the shack has a cult in it. Jensen's new friends run a honey operation out of a rusted iron stove, and they worship a god called Sweet Tooth. Sir Martin commits blasphemy about thirty seconds after walking in. Sir Sneaker Nibble wins over a hostile guard with a dance routine, which is somehow the most effective diplomacy anyone manages all night, and Sir Clover spends most of the visit trying to keep three knights out of a mouse jail. Then a scabby, twitching stranger crawls out from under a collapsed table with an offer. Brian runs the second half of session one of Honey in the Rafters, with Jeff, Scott, and Doja playing the knights.
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Meet the Crew:
Jeff as Sir Clover Saltwick
Scott as Sir Martin Bellflower
Doja as Sir Sneaker Nibble
Brian as Game Master
Special thanks to Brad, Holly, and Jim, our Scapegoat Syndicate members!
They're keeping the lights on, and the airlocks sealed.
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[00:00:01] Thorne: Welcome to the Dark Star Adventure Cast, where the only thing standing between you and the darkness is your sword and the strength of your fellow knights. Her Majesty protect us.
[00:00:13] Star Master Jeff: I'm sorry, but we are honor bound to not give up our weapons. We are Knights of Birch Hollow.
[00:00:19] Robert: The black of the berry, the sweet of the juice.
[00:00:21] Star Master Jeff: I have to have some.
[00:00:23] Felix: It could be those bees brought some seeds back. You know, maybe they got confused. They thought it was big pollen.
[00:00:31] Thorne: Hello, everyone, and welcome back. This is the second installment of the first session of the Dark Star Adventurecast Mausritter Adventure, where our intrepid mouse knights from Birch Hollow have been sent by their much-loved Prince Dandelion in search of a magical seed from a massive black sunflower. After narrowly escaping being gobbled up by a skunk while bravely investigating its lair nearby, the knights now make their way to the human shack across the field to try to learn more about the sunflower and the effects it has on the creatures in this area.
[00:01:04] Star Master Jeff: cut so we're rushing over to the shack and i'm whispering to my two nightly companions to my two fellow knights and i say i just want it to be known that i'm only going to the shack because it doesn't really seem to be anywhere else to go and in addition to that i'm very worried about jensen he looked awfully shaken up i want to make sure he got home all right and that he isn't too rattled i'm here to help rattled like a rat
[00:01:31] Felix: It took me a second.
[00:01:35] Star Master Jeff: I think I might be missing your joke, friend. Like a rat, you know? Yeah, but that was a skunk. And these are bees over here. Yeah, but you're like, oh, no, never mind. So I don't want to go and like try to collect THC, honey. or join their cult. I just want to see if Jensen's okay, and then we can regroup and see how we can get the sunflower seeds and return as jubilant heroes to Birch Hollow.
[00:01:58] Felix: Yeah, listen, listen, listen. If these mice, like, worship this honey or something, and the bees... I'm making this honey from the black sunflower. And maybe these mice know what's going on with the black sunflower and how we can get some of these seeds. So I think this is a good move.
[00:02:15] Robert: Marty, I think that sounds like a spectacular plan. By the way, here is your sweet ass mask back.
[00:02:23] Thorne: Ah, thanks, Sneaky. And with that, the three of you arrive at the door to the shack. Still not difficult to get inside, but just wanted to let you know that now you are standing before the menacing human domicile. So I am going to fit my mask back on before we go in.
[00:02:40] Star Master Jeff: It was your idea, and you're putting on a mask now? What are the rest of us supposed to do? I don't know. I mean, I brought this from home.
[00:02:47] Felix: Like... I don't fill your rucksack. You didn't take enough masks to share with the rest of the knighthood? No, my mom made this for me before I left home.
[00:03:01] Star Master Jeff: We'll stay out here. Just yell for us when it's safe. No, you come with me.
[00:03:08] Robert: Is the air safe in there? We don't know. I'm more than willing to test it. And I step in next to him. Take a couple deep breaths.
[00:03:16] Thorne: Yeah, so the two of you go in and take some deep breaths. Okay. So you scurry your way, you force your way under the door, and you come out on the other side into the old abandoned shack. Just as a reminder, there's a collapsed table with two of its legs completely rotted off, a tipped over chair that is deteriorating and falling apart. Anything that's wood in here is, like, swollen and rotten. The whole smell of this cabin, especially to Sir Sneaker Nibble, it's like the mixture of sickly sweet from the honey and, like, rot from the wood. And it makes this, like, really unappealing... sweet scent, but you can breathe just fine. There's the iron stove on the far wall with the chimney that reaches out the top. There's some holes in the ceiling where light beams are shooting down. There's an old axe leaned up against the wall, some shelves with some junk on them, and then the massive beehive directly above.
[00:04:18] Robert: Sir Clover, I understand you don't like the scent, but it just tastes, smells as if someone spilled mead. Come on.
[00:04:27] Thorne: Okay, I squeeze in under the door and I breathe shallowly. It smells like someone spilled mead like 20 years ago and never cleaned it up.
[00:04:36] Star Master Jeff: Spilled meat. Can you get... I need to make sure I keep my senses about me. Will this make me drunk? I can't get drunk right now.
[00:04:45] Robert: Well, certainly don't taste the honey. Okay.
[00:04:48] Star Master Jeff: And I continue to breathe shallow and I wrap my cloak like around my face like a scarf as like a way to keep the toxic spores in the air that are certainly there out of my precious, precious lungs.
[00:05:00] Felix: You see spores everywhere. Lungs don't regenerate. Take care of your lungs. Question. Is the axe leaning with its head on the ground or up on the wall? Its head is on the ground, yes.
[00:05:11] Robert: Is it human-sized axe or mouse-sized axe?
[00:05:16] Thorne: Human-sized axe. It's rusted and the handle is rotten.
[00:05:19] Felix: If the head was upright...
[00:05:21] Star Master Jeff: That would have been cool to set a trap and have it chop someone. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah, that was a cool idea.
[00:05:27] Thorne: I just thought it wouldn't balance very well that way, so I imagined it.
[00:05:30] Star Master Jeff: I don't think it would either. Well, we would set up an elaborate trap to fucking cut one bee in half, and we'd cut ourselves in half. For sure. The skunk, man.
[00:05:40] Felix: Gotta kill the skunk with the axe.
[00:05:43] Star Master Jeff: Is there a hole large enough in this cabin for the skunk to get in? That's actually a good question.
[00:05:49] Thorne: Not through the door, no way.
[00:05:50] Star Master Jeff: As we look around the base of the shack, do we see any other holes?
[00:05:54] Thorne: Not of a size that a skunk could use, no. Maybe some various places that mice and bugs could get in, but not a skunk.
[00:06:01] Felix: They like to dig, cloves. Like, they like to dig, so you never know.
[00:06:05] Star Master Jeff: Why are you telling me that? I thought we were safe. I thought we had gone out of the skunk nest and into the bee nest.
[00:06:11] Robert: No, the only safe thing here would be in the stove.
[00:06:14] Felix: Yeah, I mean, as a mouse, I assume I think that's where the mice would be living. That's probably the temple. You're probably right. So I'm going to approach the stove, kind of, you know, not sniffing again because I've got my mask on. Do you have an arrow knocked? So you move towards the cabin. Oh, sorry, what were you asking? Yeah, I have an arrow knocked.
[00:06:35] Star Master Jeff: I'm not sure what the situation is. Yeah, I have my spear braced and I'm creeping forward. I'm creeping forward behind. Actually, we should probably determine marching order because Martin has a bow and arrow.
[00:06:49] Felix: Yeah, I shouldn't be in the front.
[00:06:51] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, Sneaker Nibble has a close range weapon and I have a mid range weapon. We have a pretty clear marching order. The problem is Sneaker Nibble only has two hit points. He'll be fine.
[00:07:00] Felix: He's fine. I have 14 life points though. Listen, Nibs is fine. He'll be okay.
[00:07:09] Robert: Yeah.
[00:07:10] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Let's go with Sneaker Nibble, followed by Clover, followed by Martin. Because Sneaker Nibble has a close range weapon. You have your two sewing needles, right?
[00:07:21] Robert: I went with Needle and Dagger.
[00:07:24] Star Master Jeff: Oh, nice. And I'm right behind you with a spear, which has reach so I can attack over you. And then we've got Martin taking up the rear with his bow and arrow.
[00:07:33] Thorne: Cool. That sounds perfect. So as you move through the cabin up towards the table and chair, you kind of hide behind it a little bit just to scout out the stove. And as you start to get closer to the stove on the far end, you start to hear mouse voices. They sound, you know, jubilant even. And you look underneath the stove itself. There appears to be a group of three of them sitting on the floor, passing around a small mouse-sized jar of something that they're stuffing their faces with and chuckling as they pass it around in a circle. hey do we recognize jensen you do yes as you get closer one of the three of them appears to be jensen from before his smile ear to ear jensen wonderful to see you puff puff pass so i assume that's you walking up to them sneaker nibble absolutely So as you approach them gregariously, as you just did, two of the mice stand up suddenly and they brandish what appears to be small candy canes that have been sharpened into a sort of a shiv. They brandish those at you, and they stand up like, who goes there? And Jensen sort of grabs them by their coattails and says, oh, no, no. These are the mice I was telling you about. They rescued me. Hey, you knights. You've come to join. These are my brothers. Hello, Jensen. Would you introduce us, please? Of course, of course. This is Ada, and this is Carlton. And they are kind of incredulous, and they look at Jensen like, I don't know about these mice. They look like...
[00:09:12] Thorne: Some kind of knights or something. Maybe they're here to put a stop to our operation.
[00:09:18] Thorne: And then the other mouse that was introduced as Ada says, well, I don't know. If Jensen was friendly with them, then why can't we be friendly with them? And she puts away her little candy cane shiv and extends a paw to Sneaker Nibble and says, well, welcome to the Sugar Temple. The Sugar Temple.
[00:09:37] Robert: Mike, what a beautiful establishment you have here.
[00:09:41] Thorne: Just wait till you see the inside. This isn't even the nice part? Nope, we're just under a stove.
[00:09:47] Robert: Jensen, you old sandbaggin' gentleman, you. What do you mean? I told you guys to come check it out. I said it would be great. Well, would you mind escorting me and my friends into the temple? We'd love to learn the way of the candy cane.
[00:10:06] Thorne: Yeah, let's see this temple. At this point, the mouse that was introduced as Carlton still has his little shiv out, and he doesn't seem to trust the lot of you. So he's sort of keeping it drawn, but steps aside and lets Ada and Jensen lead you in. And the two of them are like, yeah, come on, we'll show you around, we'll show you around. And Carlton follows behind.
[00:10:30] Robert: Can I do a little, like, shuffling back and forth with snaps dance to, like, disarm him?
[00:10:37] Thorne: Like, you're trying to impress him? Like, oh, this guy's not so bad. He does a nice little dance. Yeah. Yeah, I suppose you could. Why not? He... Well, you know what? Why don't you... I normally wouldn't ask this because I can't imagine how you doing a little jig could potentially be dangerous. But as a measure and an opportunity to let some dice hit the table, why don't you roll something for me? We could do a contest of will, if that works for you. Perfect. What you're going to do is you're going to roll a d20, and low roll wins, basically. We could do relative to your stats, but... I rolled a 2. Oh, wow. So Carlton, who rolled an 18, by the way... You know, he did not trust you guys 30 seconds ago. But boy, oh, boy, is he starting to come around based on the way that Sneaker Nibble dances.
[00:11:38] Felix: He loves to dance at Carlton. You know what?
[00:11:41] Thorne: Maybe you knights aren't so bad. I didn't know they taught dancing at the kingdom. Do you do that? What is it? Left, left. Oh, what are you doing there with your paws?
[00:11:49] Robert: Left, snap. Right, snap. Left, snap. Right, clap. Snap.
[00:11:56] Thorne: And at this point, all six of you are now inside the stove, and you see a grandiose mouse temple on the inside of this stove. It's been decorated in all sorts of ways with shards of crystalline sugar and candy bar wrappers and anything related to sweets and snacks. candy and sugar, they've got some sort of, you know, idol or temple to it here. You see quite a few mice going around, you know, talking, chatting, joking and laughing. They all seem like they're having a pretty good time. But the one consistent thing is that they're all passing around jars of that honey. And eating it. How many mice and are they armed? Most of them are armed. Not all of them. You definitely see occasional mice that are just walking around, you know, with nothing but their clothes on their backs. Most of them have some kind of weapon, whether it's like a candy cane or other types of like daggers and swords, you know, a lollipop or something, maybe. Like a mace. Yeah.
[00:13:12] Star Master Jeff: And how many are there?
[00:13:13] Thorne: And there's probably a couple dozen. And they're moving from room to room, walking around. There's a lot of mice here.
[00:13:22] Star Master Jeff: So it's not one big temple room. There's like other rooms.
[00:13:25] Thorne: Yeah. So you're in like a main chamber right now that you've just come up under the stove. So up through the bottom of the stove into like a main chamber. There was just like a rusted hole that you all crawled through. And that puts you into this chamber. You can see the candy wrappers everywhere, mice coming in and out of different little rooms that have been built onto the inside of the stove. There's a second floor where there was two shelves, like two racks in the stove at some point. So there's the bottom part where you would have put like the wooden stuff and then the upper part where you would have put know something on the grate so that's all been fashioned with a little stairs slash ladder that you can use to get in between the two layers and then there's rooms you know maybe two different rooms down on this side and then a couple of rooms up above it looks like some mice have made their own little place to live so they've kind of got almost like apartments built into parts of this stove it's quite uh the sight to see It reminds you of most mouse settlements. But this one's a little bit smaller because it's just the people who are here for the sugar, I guess.
[00:14:32] Robert: Marty, do you think this is just sugar they're enjoying?
[00:14:39] Felix: I don't know. I mean, I don't have much of a sweet tooth myself. They all look a little... How loudly did you say that? About that loudly while I'm standing there talking to old sneaker nibbles.
[00:14:51] Thorne: So at least Carlton hears you say that. And he goes, much of a sweet tooth. What kind of mice are these? I knew I shouldn't have trusted you. And he's like, got his hand ready to go for his candy cane. Hey, hey, hey.
[00:15:07] Felix: Listen, they upset my stomach. I was raised on a fungus farm. We just ate mushrooms all the time. Yeah, there's some sweet mushrooms, but candy was not something that we had available. And this shit doesn't agree with my digestive system.
[00:15:21] Star Master Jeff: I step forward a little bit to put myself between our ranged weapon wielder, Martin, and this man with the candy cane, Carlton. And as Martin's explaining that, I make sure that my spear is at the ready.
[00:15:34] Thorne: not threatening but just making my presence known yeah right listen here at the sugar temple we all we all worship the great god Sweet Tooth so coming in here into our place of worship saying things like i don't have much of a sweet tooth what uh and he just kind of like puts his paws over his face and he turns around and he says i'm sorry
[00:15:55] Thorne: I'll talk to you two later, to his two friends. And he just starts to walk away. Like, his head is in his paws, and he's just shaking it back and forth. Like, who are these people, and what has become of the world these days?
[00:16:06] Star Master Jeff: Ada, Jensen, we meant no offense. In Birch Hollow, we don't have a lot of sugar. We didn't realize it was so special here.
[00:16:13] Felix: I nudge Clover when he says that, and I kind of whisper in his ear while he's talking. Guess he's having a bit of a sugar crash, huh?
[00:16:20] Star Master Jeff: Heh. Martin, behave yourself.
[00:16:24] Thorne: Jensen says, oh, I'm sure no offense was meant. He's just a little bit high strung. We've been a little bit low on honey ever since, you know, recently we've been having some trouble with Shig. It's been making this whole operation a little bit more difficult. Well, tell us about it.
[00:16:41] Felix: I'd say it's the second time I've heard you mice talk about an operation. What kind of gig you got running here?
[00:16:46] Thorne: Jensen just holds out a jar of honey open at you in a sort of like a help yourself kind of gesture.
[00:16:53] Felix: Nah, I'll stick with the mushrooms.
[00:16:54] Star Master Jeff: yeah i definitely i watch you do okay so i was saying i'm watching to see if they reach out when they do i'm just going to reach out and like lower the jug so they don't put their hand in it and since you're doing that i mean you can obviously still proceed but i kind of just cover the lip of it a little bit as you're reaching towards and i say sir we are on duty we do not know the effects of this honey
[00:17:17] Thorne: Oh, I guess that makes sense. Well, this is the fruits of our operation, so to speak. You see, those bees up there at the hive in the rafters? They're drawn to that black sunflower. And they collect that pollen, that cursed pollen.
[00:17:35] Thorne: It has some sort of strange effect on the bees. But boy, oh boy, does it make some good honey.
[00:17:42] Thorne: And he takes a big like paw full and he just starts licking between his fingers and all over his hand. He's smearing it all over his face. And Ada's like, oh, give me some of that. And she grabs some too. They're both doing it. It's disgusting.
[00:17:57] Felix: And described it as cursed pollen and he's still going after it.
[00:18:01] Robert: I'm certainly particularly more interested now. The black of the berry, the sweet of the juice. I have to have some. Help yourself.
[00:18:12] Star Master Jeff: I grab your shoulder and kind of turn you around so that the three of us are in a little bit of a huddle while they're smearing honey all over themselves. And I say, Knights of Birch Hollow, we cannot trust that honey, and I do not think we should reveal our actual mission here. I believe that they will want to protect the sunflower seeds at all costs, since it makes... It is part of the life cycle of this temple. Whatever we do to get those seeds, I'm afraid we cannot rely on them for help. In fact, by asking for help, we may make them enemies. And they're smearing themselves with honey right behind us. Yes, they're trying to get...
[00:18:44] Thorne: They're trying really hard to get Sneaker Nibble to have some, because he clearly wants it. That's probably how you get inducted into this call.
[00:18:50] Robert: Those seem like very wise words. I mean, very wise words. But at the same time, how do you know if you don't try it?
[00:18:58] Felix: I mean, he's got a point. Listen, I think he should try it. We can see the reaction, the result, and then we'll have more information. Oh, my God. Sir Martin.
[00:19:08] Star Master Jeff: Brave, brave, reckless Sir Martin. He may partake in the honey and then become part of the cult. We do not know what mind-altering effects it may have.
[00:19:17] Felix: Then we got a man on the inside.
[00:19:19] Star Master Jeff: No, he may not be our man anymore. He may stop being a knight of Birch Hollow. We must protect our honor at all costs.
[00:19:27] Thorne: While the two of you argue about it, what does Sneaker Nibble do? Is he listening to their claims?
[00:19:33] Robert: I'm patiently listening, thinking, you guys don't understand how high my drug tolerance is.
[00:19:42] Star Master Jeff: I need to have like a whole joint, guys. Seriously. I don't feel anything.
[00:19:45] Thorne: All to myself.
[00:19:47] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, it's just for me. Okay, so we're bickering while you're thinking that. Are you?
[00:19:51] Thorne: Yeah, do you take advantage of the opportunity or do you just say, yeah, you know what? Clover's right.
[00:19:55] Robert: um okay um i want to see how disgusted i am by them smearing honey all over each other um i'm gonna roll a d20 uh under i'm sure it's very erotic yeah i was gonna say uh uh one to ten damn i want to get in on that um 11 to 20 i don't know it's kind of gross and that's a 14.
[00:20:21] Thorne: Yeah, so it's like the way they're eating it is particularly unappetizing. You think to yourself, you know, I would try it, but the way that they're consuming it makes me not want to.
[00:20:32] Robert: But like, if they just stuck their whole hand in the jar, like... Yeah, double dip. I don't love that. And now they're rubbing it on each other and then putting their hand back in the jar?
[00:20:44] Star Master Jeff: Yeah. And they don't shower. They're caked in honey from, like, days of doing this. They're so stinky. Wait, wait, I never said that.
[00:20:50] Robert: They're so stinky. I'm assuming... Where did you get...
[00:20:52] Star Master Jeff: The honey... The honey hardens on them and becomes armor. You know what?
[00:20:56] Thorne: They don't shower because they're animals. You're right.
[00:20:58] Star Master Jeff: They probably don't have plumbing at all. I shower. I wiggle around in a stream or whatever the fuck. Yeah, they bathe. I thought you meant you as in Jeff. I was like, Jeff... Yeah, he wiggles around in there. You know... You don't have to defend your hygiene habits on the podcast, it's fine. Wait a minute, no, I shower. I shower, guys, I swear, I shower. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I shower.
[00:21:19] Robert: Like a chinchilla, like a little dust bath.
[00:21:22] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, I dust myself, and then I lick all the dust off. Normal human stuff, of course.
[00:21:28] Felix: And listen, like, yeah, it's gross, but also, I've never seen a mouse eat so much sugar. Like, this cannot be good for them. Say that real quiet.
[00:21:38] Star Master Jeff: to clover and and sneaks and what was up with carlton he's just a little i don't know eyes strong you get some mice like that you get some mice like that well he was very interested in the dance which i thought was very weird and then he had a complete sugar crash out of nowhere and they're armed almost everyone here is armed i don't think we should be sticking around fellow knights yeah nice one
[00:22:02] Thorne: About at this point, you can tell that Jensen and Ada are running out of honey in their jar. They're kind of like, you know, sticking their whole snouts in there, trying to get what's left of it by licking it up off the bottom of the sticky jar. Doing a Pooh Bear. They're turning it upside down and shaking it.
[00:22:17] Felix: Definitely doing a Pooh Bear, yeah.
[00:22:19] Thorne: At this point, Jensen says, oh, it looks like we're out of honey. I guess we'll have to see if Brother Glacé can give us any more. And then Ada says, oh, Jensen, you know, there's not enough honey to go around. We were supposed to ration this. And then they're kind of both sort of... Ask who to give them more? Glacé.
[00:22:36] Robert: Glacé.
[00:22:37] Thorne: Brother Glacé was the name they said. Do you ask them who they mean?
[00:22:40] Star Master Jeff: No, I just wanted to make sure I wrote the name down here. Yeah, Glacé. So I'm assuming Brother Glacé is either the honey distributor or their leader at large. We might want to figure that out if we're going to stick around. The Honey Connect.
[00:22:53] Felix: Jensen, how are you all getting this honey? Like, it's not getting up in a beehive. It's pretty dangerous.
[00:23:01] Thorne: It is. It's very dangerous. We get it at great risk to ourselves. You see, the chimney there from the stove leads all the way up to the rafters. From there, we can get to the hive and, well, If you're careful, if you're quiet, and you're quick, maybe you make it out of there with some honey. The problem is, the bees have been getting quite disrupted by Shig. Ever since she got a taste for the sunflower seeds, she's been rattling that stalk every day, trying to get stuff to fall out of it, or to dig up whatever falls from the top naturally. When the bees get disrupted, confused, and angry...
[00:23:37] Thorne: They don't produce as much honey. And just saying this honey is so special because it comes from that black sunflower. I've never tasted anything like it.
[00:23:46] Thorne: I mean, you have to taste it to believe it. And he just takes one finger and grabs a little bit of honey and he just holds it out. And he's like trying to put his finger in your mouth.
[00:23:55] Felix: No, no, no, no. Like I said, if I have even a little bit of sugar, I'm going to be crapping bricks for a week. It's not for me. It's not for me.
[00:24:04] Thorne: All right, I think you're missing out. And then he eats it himself.
[00:24:07] Felix: But do you know where this sunflower came from? These guys are like meth addicts.
[00:24:11] Star Master Jeff: These are like those guys they warn you about in D.A.R.E. They're actually trying to give it away to us. Yeah, no one's ever offered me drugs, but it's up for this game. First one's free.
[00:24:19] Felix: You know, like, where the sunflower came from? Like, why is it so special? What makes it so special? From the ground. Well, yeah, obviously, numbnuts.
[00:24:27] Robert: You said it was cursed?
[00:24:30] Felix: Yeah, that one.
[00:24:31] Thorne: Yes, that's what Brother Glacé says. He tells us that some dark magics are affecting that old sunflower. It's been here longer than the temple. The temple was built specifically to gather the honey from that flower. So as to how it got here originally, I can't be sure. But it's been here for mouse generations.
[00:24:52] Star Master Jeff: So at least two weeks.
[00:24:55] Felix: I turn to the boys. I might want to talk to this Glacé guy.
[00:25:01] Robert: Might have some more intel for us. I'd agree with you, Martin. I do think that Glacé would be our next step. And then we might need to go up that chimney. See what's up in the rafters.
[00:25:11] Felix: It could be those bees brought some seeds back. You know, maybe they got confused. They thought it was big pollen.
[00:25:16] Star Master Jeff: Eventually, they're going to ask us why we're poking around so much. And the last thing that we want to say is that we're here for the seeds. In fact, asking about the black sunflower so much may make them suspicious. And once again... They are all armed. I don't know if we want to go deeper into this temple. They care about the honey. I don't think they care about the seeds. A couple of seeds won't matter to them. I think disrupting this ecosystem in any way is going to be a high holy shit to them.
[00:25:44] Robert: You're not wrong, but Martin's already done the greatest Sweet Tooth denial sin that exists. If anybody's going to be achieved, it's going to be him.
[00:25:54] Star Master Jeff: I think any perceived threat to the sunflower may be worse than our friend here not liking sugar.
[00:26:00] Thorne: At this point in the conversation, the cheerful faces of your friends Jensen and Ada are suddenly turned to fear as they look at something over your shoulders. When you turn around, you see three sugar cultists approaching with Carlton behind them, their weapons drawn.
[00:26:20] Star Master Jeff: Ah.
[00:26:21] Thorne: They walk up. Stop right there, outsiders.
[00:26:24] Thorne: We're not moving. What's up? You are to be placed under arrest. Under whose authority? Under the authority of Brother Glacé. You are suspected of trying to interrupt the operation here at the Sugar Temple. Please come with us.
[00:26:39] Robert: Turns out we were trying to meet Brother Glacé. Is he among us? Can we speak with him?
[00:26:46] Thorne: You can speak with the inside of a jail cell.
[00:26:49] Star Master Jeff: I'm sorry, but we are honor-bound to not give up our weapons. We are Knights of Birch Hollow. I understand that you are quite a small outpost of mice, just a short hop and a skip away from Birch Hollow, so surely you have heard of it. We are the most powerful society in this area.
[00:27:06] Thorne: At this point, most of the civilian cultists... have fled from this main room. Like, this is an awkward situation where these stern guards started talking very sternly, and people went into their, like, homes and shuttered their windows. And there's very few people standing around now. Ada and Jensen are both still here, but you can tell that they want to flee. Carlton stands behind the three guards with sort of a smug look on his face. The guard answers to your comment, Clover. Yes, we are aware of it. And we are also aware that the queen does not always approve of the actions of the sugar cult. We cannot risk her knights interfering with this operation.
[00:27:47] Star Master Jeff: And we will simply leave in peace.
[00:27:49] Thorne: And then they want to escort you towards the exit then.
[00:27:52] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Is that cool with you guys? I know we wanted to talk to the brother, but I think I'm not sticking around and going to jail.
[00:27:59] Felix: We got, yeah, we got too much shit to do.
[00:28:01] Star Master Jeff: um either we're going to be doing some stabbing or we're going to be no interest in jail no mouse on mouse violence yeah and what would what would we gain from fighting and killing them no one would give us any information after such an action so i think i think we've hit a dead end it's time to leave uh all we can hope is that jensen follows us out and gives us additional information out in the field because we do seem to have a kinship with him he saved his life
[00:28:27] Felix: Yeah, but we do have a man on the inside.
[00:28:29] Star Master Jeff: We didn't. That's true. OK, we allow ourselves to be escorted out to the are they are they making us leave the temple or the entire shack?
[00:28:37] Thorne: Just the temple. So back out into the shack.
[00:28:40] Robert: As I do, I give Carlton a long, sad look, one tear coming down my eye and give him the saddest little snaps ever.
[00:28:51] Thorne: He sort of like scowls at you like your kind's not welcome here until you snap. And then he has this look of like, what have I done?
[00:28:59] Robert: It could have been so great, Carlton. We could have been together.
[00:29:02] Thorne: He sort of looks away like he can't face you anymore. He stares off into infinity, wondering if he made the right choice. And with that, the three mouse guards... uh escort you to the uh not to the way that you came in which was up through the bottom but towards the actual door to the stove it has like a big metal door on hinges that humans would have used to like open it and put stuff in and then close it um but now it's sort of got like a natural opening from rust and deterioration that the mice use this is the normal like front entrance And they basically toss the three of you out. Your kind is not welcome here. Tell the queen that the sugar cult is an independent group and we do not need any interference from Birch Hollow.
[00:29:52] Star Master Jeff: I don't think that that requires a response.
[00:29:54] Thorne: Yeah, then they walk away.
[00:29:56] Star Master Jeff: Well, we certainly will be reporting this back to Prince Dandelion. And something occurs to me, actually, bringing up Prince Dandelion. Do we think that he understands that there is a cult here that's fully based around this black sunflower? Isn't it? Why does he want these seeds?
[00:30:13] Thorne: So Prince Dandelion is very well loved by the people of Birch Hollow, but he is also quite young and a little bit naive. And he gave you this quest because a court wizard told him that with those seeds, that wizard could do great things for Birch Hollow.
[00:30:33] Star Master Jeff: Yeah. I don't know. It's actually not that far back to the kingdom. I almost think that we go back to the kingdom to report back because we may not want to destabilize this society. That sounds like quitter talk, Clovey. I didn't think you were a quitter. Well, so we would just go very quickly, get new orders from the prince and make sure we're going along the correct path. He said how important it was. He knew how important it was. Are you doubting our prince? Is that what I'm hearing? I serve at the pleasure of the queen. I understand that the prince has given us a mission, but I don't think that he imagined that he'd be destabilizing an entire region by us interfering. That queenie's never done anything for me.
[00:31:14] Robert: And I don't think he's trying to destabilize anything, but he might be trying to, I mean, think about it, a seed of the black sunflower. He might be trying to get his own THC-laden black honey operation going around Birch Hollow. That sounds like good times to me.
[00:31:35] Star Master Jeff: But we are not the owners of the sunflower. I think it warrants a little bit of a discussion here. If one option is to simply try to steal the seed, which may cause us to get into direct conflict with the skunk, or by tampering with the black sunflower into direct conflict with that cult again, and then mice on mice violence is never good. Or we could attempt to make our way back into the stove as a peaceful delegation and barter for seeds, perhaps for something that they want in return, in which case I fear the only thing that they want is the death of the skunk. So I'm not sure how good you are at fighting skunks or building traps to capture or kill them, but that might be the most logical next step.
[00:32:15] Robert: Yes, I'm not sure they have any seeds. That doesn't seem to be something that they would value, honestly. They might. They, of course, very well might. But they want the byproducts of the ecosystem.
[00:32:30] Felix: It's also your original plan. There's your original plan, Clovey, of waiting till night, climbing up the sunflower, and getting them seeds while the bees are sleeping.
[00:32:41] Star Master Jeff: Yes, but I didn't realize we'd be stealing. They don't own it. It's not theirs. Hey, if someone came into our kingdom and started to partake of our blueberry bushes, those are our resources. I just want to make sure we are... Totally understanding that we may be creating a hostile relationship between Birch Hollow and the Sugar Cult.
[00:33:02] Robert: If they wanted a seed of our blueberry bushes so they could start their own THC-laden blueberry bush... Cross, hybrid, sunflower. More power to them. That sounds like a great import. Perhaps we should offer that to them.
[00:33:18] Felix: These little sugar-addled nobodies. They don't know nothing around here. They're just living off the land. We're taking a few seeds. It's not going to do anything. They'll be fine. They won't even know we were here. Thank you, Martin. I'm more worried about the skunk.
[00:33:34] Star Master Jeff: Well, yeah, they like coming out at night, too. Well, Sneaker Nibble, you are very close with Prince Dandelion. So I will, of course, follow your lead if you tell us that he would be okay with such an action.
[00:33:45] Robert: And I will follow the prince's orders to the letter of the law. I, more than any, I will do anything to the order of the royal family. And he said he needs seed of the black sun.
[00:33:59] Star Master Jeff: Well, very well then. You know the prints better than anyone. Then I suppose we better do whatever it takes to get that seed. So the only question remains is, what do we do next?
[00:34:09] Thorne: Just as you ask that question aloud, you see a mouse appear from underneath the collapsed table in the center of the cabin. They look emaciated and dirty and they sort of like stumble, you know, rubbing their hands together as they stumble out from behind or from under the table and start making their way towards you.
[00:34:31] Thorne: They say, you're looking for some of them seeds then? You need a seed? I can get you a seed. You looking for seeds? A very specific type of seeds.
[00:34:42] Robert: And dirty as in, like, dirt dirty? Or dirty as in, like, covered in honey dirty?
[00:34:49] Thorne: No, dirt dirty.
[00:34:51] Robert: He's not like a dirty boy.
[00:34:52] Thorne: No, he's, like, coughing a little bit. And, like, he looks like he's rubbing his arms and hands together. Kind of every so often he coughs a little bit. Yeah, yeah. I know what kind of seed you want. You mean from that black sunflower.
[00:35:07] Thorne: Yeah, yeah, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know where to get them.
[00:35:11] Robert: I can get them. I'm gonna let Martin, I'm gonna slowly back away and let the person with the plague mask go against, go talk to the plague rat. I think he's just a honey addict.
[00:35:21] Thorne: Listen, kid. What are you doing out here? Why aren't you in there with your people? I gotta, I gotta, listen. I can't, I can't, I can't. They don't, they wouldn't. But I can't. I'll show you. Show us what? My name? My name?
[00:35:34] Robert: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:35] Thorne: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they call me the Seed Man. Or you will. You're going to call me that. Yeah, because I know where to get them. I'll call you anything you want, Seed Man. Wouldn't it be Seed Mouse? Yeah, the Seed Mouse.
[00:35:46] Felix: Yeah. Mouse. Seed Mouse. Listen.
[00:35:49] Thorne: You can see that this mouse, when he's not rubbing himself, you can see that he's covered in scabs. And that's what he's scratching at them.
[00:35:59] Star Master Jeff: Um, wow. Well, I can't I can't let that go by unnoticed. So I don't really have any salves or anything on me. That's part of my kit, right? That's part of like my rations, maybe.
[00:36:08] Thorne: Um, yeah, because you just want to like give him some first aid of some kind. I don't think that you do. But I think it would be reasonable as a field medic if you wanted to use a one of your uses of rations for that.
[00:36:20] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, because it says my rations I eat to recover lost HP, right? Okay, so I'll say those scabs look something nasty and I take out my salves. Would you mind if I gave you some basic first aid? They would ease your suffering.
[00:36:36] Thorne: Oh, no, I don't need none of that. I'll get you the seeds if you get me the honey. This is unrelated to that, good mouse. What do I got to give you?
[00:36:46] Star Master Jeff: Nothing, nothing at all. Just sit still for a moment.
[00:36:49] Thorne: He looks really nervous, but he lets you do whatever you're going to do.
[00:36:51] Star Master Jeff: Okay. I apply my salves and I bandage up the worst of his wounds and whatever open scabs there are. It's probably a pretty quick procedure. And I make sure that there isn't any infection. If there is, I just kind of let him know about it. I'm not at all kitted out to help him with that. And then I step back and that's a use of my rations. I'll mark that off.
[00:37:14] Thorne: So you it doesn't take you long to just kind of wrap him up. And you're trying to see how serious this is so that you can warn him if he's going to need like, you know, serious medical attention or whatever. But there's something about these scabs. They're not natural. You're not sure where they came from. But it's like they they keep coming up like his skin is like flaking. It's it's almost as though it's some sort of like non natural condition.
[00:37:42] Star Master Jeff: Hmm. Friend, just as I'm treating you, could you tell me a little bit about how you received these wounds?
[00:37:48] Thorne: Oh, yeah, yeah, that's the, you know, the guy, you know, with the honey, the guys, they, you know, scary. Brother Glacé? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yellow ones. The bees. The bees. Yeah, that, yeah, the, yeah. Yeah, the bees. The bees. Yeah, the bees.
[00:38:10] Star Master Jeff: So do I think that these look like stings or like mandible crunches?
[00:38:14] Thorne: No, it looks to be some sort of like additional condition that was brought on by maybe being stung by a bee. Like an allergic reaction, but not, like maybe it has to do with...
[00:38:27] Star Master Jeff: the curse of the bees oh this isn't good okay maybe we'll just keep a lookout for a way to help him in the future because i don't really have any ideas right now yeah i mean he's an outcast from his society but i don't think we really necessarily want him to be part of a society that's gonna treat him this way so maybe we can take him back to birch hollow with us or just leave him here i i used i used to be i rolled my eyes you couldn't see that i used to be a honey runner get the honey get the brother glacey that's him yeah yeah brother glacey
[00:38:55] Thorne: He used to send me to get so much honey. Mmm. Oh.
[00:38:59] Thorne: And he sits down, and he, like, starts rubbing his face like he's slathering himself with honey that doesn't exist.
[00:39:05] Felix: Mm-hmm. Hey, listen, listen. Listen, kid. We're not interested in the honey. No, you want the seeds.
[00:39:13] Thorne: I'm not interested in the honey. No, it's for me. It's my honey.
[00:39:17] Star Master Jeff: It's okay. So how would you get the seeds, and how would you propose that we get the honey?
[00:39:22] Thorne: He taps his head with his paw finger.
[00:39:26] Thorne: I know where they got seeds. Lots of places to get the seeds. Find them. Find them sometimes. The mice, they store them. They store them in their temple there, yeah. There's a place with seeds. You could get them. I could get them. But I need honey. You got honey, right?
[00:39:44] Star Master Jeff: Where would we get the honey?
[00:39:46] Thorne: He just points at the bees.
[00:39:47] Star Master Jeff: You know where, Clover. You know where. Fellow knights, we have two different climbs ahead of us. We can either choose to climb and get the seeds ourselves at night and perhaps get into a fight with Shig. Or an owl. Or an owl. God's forbid. Jeez. Or climb here and face off against the bees to get their honey. Both are not particularly appealing paths to me.
[00:40:12] Felix: Yeah, but, I mean, one's more known, you know? These bees, like, yeah, they look off, but, I don't know. It feels safer to me than climbing the sunflower at night. I say we help this boy. If we were to get you your honey... Yeah, honey, for me, it's mine.
[00:40:27] Thorne: Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.
[00:40:28] Star Master Jeff: How sure of you that you could actually get us the seeds?
[00:40:32] Thorne: 1,000% sure.
[00:40:35] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Then we will make a trade, one for one. The honey for the seeds at the same time.
[00:40:41] Felix: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, so while we go get the honey, you go get the seeds, and then we'll meet back here. I'll get the seeds. And trade.
[00:40:48] Thorne: I'll get the seeds. I'll get the seeds. I got the seeds. I know where they are.
[00:40:51] Thorne: I know where they keep them. Where should we meet you after we get the honey? He kind of points back towards the collapse table.
[00:41:00] Thorne: My camp, my camp there.
[00:41:01] Star Master Jeff: Oh, it's very, very homey. Very nice. Let's take a second and think about this for a moment, guys. We would be sending this poor soul into the sugar cult temple. And if he's caught, he will be probably killed. I don't care as long as I get the honey. We will be pilfering seeds from a nearby mouse settlement not that far from Birch Hollow that we desperately do not want to make enemies of. I hate to say it, but I actually might be in favor of climbing the stalk and getting the seeds ourselves.
[00:41:30] Robert: I just can't possibly trust the crack addict. Yes.
[00:41:37] Felix: As Clover was talking, I was rolling my eyes over and over and over again.
[00:41:41] Felix: You just don't want to cause any problems with anybody, do you?
[00:41:44] Star Master Jeff: Oh, boy. Why'd you even come out here? Why'd you even become a knight? What are you doing? Well, I was promoted. It wasn't really my choice. But, in addition, I take our oath seriously, and we are representatives of Birch Hollow. I certainly don't want to start a diplomatic snafu.
[00:41:59] Robert: I'm just more worried that even if we get the honey, we're eventually going to have to stab the crack addicts.
[00:42:05] Star Master Jeff: I just want to note that on one side of the spectrum is me, nurturing and worrying, and on the other side of the spectrum is Martin, who is reckless and brave.
[00:42:17] Felix: Itching for a scrap. Itching for a scrap.
[00:42:21] Star Master Jeff: And on a completely different spectrum is Sneaker Nibble looking for honey. No, you're generous and wrathful, right? Generous and wrathful.
[00:42:28] Thorne: Wrathful, wow.
[00:42:29] Robert: Which is why I am very aware that there is a decent chance that if we showed this very kind, gentle rat a jar of honey, he would give us nothing and we would have to stab him in the face hole.
[00:42:44] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, you would give him twice as much honey as he wants if he came through, and if he didn't, you would kill him. That's generous and wrathful. Yeah, right?
[00:42:53] Felix: He would just OD. He'd be fine. The situation takes care of itself. Geez. Now, listen. Okay. Like, yeah, we could wait. We could try to climb it, but again, that thing is three times as high as those other sunflowers. And, and, and, and.
[00:43:06] Thorne: Have you ever climbed anything that high? And, and, and. And then I don't get any honey. Don't, don't, no. Don't, don't, don't.
[00:43:12] Star Master Jeff: All right, all right, all right. Don't. We don't need to involve him in this discussion.
[00:43:16] Thorne: Yeah, you guys walk away from him.
[00:43:18] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, we're walking away.
[00:43:20] Felix: I don't know if you've dealt with them before, but these skunks, they don't see like we do. They smell and they hear. So even if it's nighttime, she's going to be out there waiting for us. Waiting for us to fall into her mouth.
[00:43:31] Star Master Jeff: Sir Martin, if this was an evil cult, I'd have no problem with... slaying some of them or stealing from them. But by all accounts, they're just addicts. I don't want to cause a problem between them and Birch Hollow. And if it means putting our lives in danger, well, I suppose I'll just take some of that bravery you were talking about.
[00:43:49] Robert: Sneaker, what do you think? I'm just stuck on the if there's any chance that if the skunk eats the scabby crackhead, the skunk might die.
[00:43:59] Felix: i think this is the third time where martin and clover on opposite ends of a decision to make and it comes down to sneaker and he says something that makes no sense you're the tiebreaker wondering if these guys wash themselves it's like okay well we do need a tiebreaker all right well you know cloves if that's what you want to do that's fine but i tell you what you're the one climbing that sunflower
[00:44:22] Star Master Jeff: Well, we don't necessarily have to do that. We could maybe set a trap and keep the skunk contained while we do that, or we could try to kill it. It doesn't have to be a face-to-face combat. We might be able to dig a hole or trap it in its lair.
[00:44:37] Robert: Or get the bees to attack it.
[00:44:40] Thorne: I will say, as warrior mice... You know, you could you've you've you've heard the tales of war bands of mice taking down things the size of a skunk. If you could rally 20 to 30 warrior mice by your side, it is very achievable. But that's a very big if.
[00:44:59] Star Master Jeff: Okay, here's here's what I think. I think this is an OSR game. And because of that, we really do have a lot of flexibility.
[00:45:06] Thorne: Oh, yeah.
[00:45:08] Star Master Jeff: I think that we go back to Birch Hollow and get 30 mice to come back and kill the skunk. I think that there's enough mice at the temple.
[00:45:15] Robert: We could rally them on the thought of being able to fix the honey ecosystem.
[00:45:23] Thorne: Mm-hmm.
[00:45:25] Star Master Jeff: Well, actually, I don't know. I was going to say they're not trained warriors, and I'd feel guilty about putting them in danger. But this is their property. That's actually a really good point. We could trade the resource of the seed by giving them the advice and the leadership they need to take down the skunk, which is a thorn in their side right now.
[00:45:43] Robert: We teach them the power of the shield wall and...
[00:45:51] Star Master Jeff: uh see if we could band together as a legion and give the skunk the old stabby stab this is like a uh seven samurai situation or something where we all we like rally the town to defend itself yeah set traps and build walls they hate us
[00:46:09] Felix: They hate us right now. Whose fault is that, Martin?
[00:46:13] Robert: Whose fault is that? It's because I hate sweets. You're probably going to have to eat some honey.
[00:46:19] Felix: So I think this is the better approach than going back. Going back feels kind of like a cop-out.
[00:46:24] Thorne: It doesn't feel very interesting. Yeah, I won't tell you you can't, but I will tell you that it will take you several days. Yeah, but, like, the sunflower's not going anywhere.
[00:46:32] Felix: Yeah, but it just seems like a boring narrative decision. Agree. I think rallying the town against it or, like, finding a way to beat the skunk three to one is probably the way to go.
[00:46:45] Star Master Jeff: I think we should do that. But I do also think that if we came back with 20 knights, I think we'd come back to more than just a skunk to face. I think even if we killed the skunk, the knights would then set up a perimeter and be like, this is now an extension of Birch Hollow. And then the cult would be like, fuck you. No, it's not. And I'm sure we'd have to deal with that. So we kind of just have to decide if we want to get into a giant fight or if we want to create like a crazy diplomatic war between our two societies. But I think no matter what we do, there's going to be an if and on the end of it or a but rather.
[00:47:19] Felix: Yes, I think I think we try to reengage with the cult and be like, listen, we got off on the wrong foot. We think we can help you with your skunk problem. All we need is... How many seeds does the prince want? Just one?
[00:47:32] Thorne: You were requested to bring as many as you could carry, but if you only find one, then that's just one.
[00:47:37] Felix: Okay. So let's say three seeds. One for each of us, yeah. One for each of us. And that'll be our pay for helping them take down the skunk. I think that's kind of the approach that we should take. They can have all the honey. Back off, crackhead! Back off!
[00:47:52] Star Master Jeff: Where'd you get that stick? Stop hitting him. I think that we should spend the night here in the shack and observe what it's like here at night with the bees sleeping and with the skunks movements at night and stuff like that.
[00:48:06] Robert: Yeah.
[00:48:07] Star Master Jeff: And it will give them time to cool off. And if we're lucky, Jensen might even come out. Then we can go in tomorrow morning and state our case. Yeah, I like that. Okay.
[00:48:16] Thorne: It sounds like we want to try to camp in the shack, basically.
[00:48:20] Felix: And while we do camp outside, sorry, I want to camp back outside like in that hole that we came out of I do not want to camp in the shack with the bees and then we can maybe check it out at night Oh, I forgot about that.
[00:48:30] Star Master Jeff: What's it? So tell me tell me that whole situation Brian what's going on over?
[00:48:32] Thorne: Yeah, so there's a small mouse sized burrow in the ground over in the garden that separates the Cabin from the sunflower patch. So it's like right in the middle. That's where you started and That tunnel basically went like yards and yards from here. You entered it way over back on, you know, two hills ago. So it was a way for you to stay low and avoid like aerial predators. It's a not too uncommon way for mice around these parts to travel.
[00:48:59] Star Master Jeff: So it's not necessarily so we'd have an opening behind us and in front of us. It's probably safer, but we won't be able to observe what it's like inside the shack at night and how the bees operate. I don't know if that's necessarily important. What do you guys think?
[00:49:13] Felix: Yeah, we could always bunk down with this fella and then gesture at Seed Mouse. He's like smelling himself over there. I don't know why.
[00:49:19] Robert: No, Martin, you can have fun with Scabby. I would like to scout the shack to see if there's anything of value that we might be able to obtain. But I'd like to get a good view of the sunflower and then find a little mouse hidey hole.
[00:49:39] Felix: All right, well, this seems, I mean, maybe then this is the plan, right? We set up a little camp in like a little sheltered corner of the shack here, right? Sneaker, you can scout around the shack. We can keep an eye on things and just kind of pass the night and see how things look in the morning.
[00:49:53] Star Master Jeff: I'm going to ingratiate myself with Seed Mouse because we know almost nothing about this cult and their society, and he seems to have an intimate knowledge of it. So as I'm sort of gaining his trust, I just want to talk to him and I want to get any sort of information or lore drop that may become important later. And then as we're talking to the temple people later on, if anything he said during our nightly conversations comes back to help me out, maybe just let me know.
[00:50:23] Thorne: yeah that sounds good okay so i it sounds like sneaker nibble is going to do some rummaging um clover is going to spend some time just trying to ingratiate with the strange scabrous mouse that you met and yeah let me know if i find out his real name beyond seed mouse and what was martin up to just setting up the camp i'm gonna i'm gonna set up camp i'm gonna find a good spot that's like you know secluded it's got cover and just kind of you know set up camp
[00:50:50] Star Master Jeff: Is it possible for you to set up camp near one of the holes that lead out so that you can have like a bead on the sunflower stalk? Yeah, I'd love to know if the skunk goes out there because it's addicted to the seeds. So I want to know how often it's going out there and if it's finding anything.
[00:51:06] Thorne: Yeah, so remind me exactly where you're camping. Is it inside or outside of the cabin?
[00:51:11] Thorne: Inside. Inside. Okay, that's what I thought. And you want to be near the front face, preferably near some sort of hole or crack that you can look outside of. Correct. Okay. Yes. Cool. This is great. So what exactly... I can describe in pretty great detail the types of areas you could look around in. Sneaker nibble, if you want to tell me which places you're looking, or if you think you might be able to do all of them. I mean, there's some places that would be a little tricky to get. You might be risking yourself trying to get to them. But tell me how you want to handle that.
[00:51:44] Robert: Understood. I would like to do basically scouting around where we set up camp, because I'm sure we'll have some camp duties to attend to. Once we have an established area and they're on a good lookout around camp, I like to go in concentric circles around it, searching in the safe zones first to see if I find anything, and then seeing if there's anything that I can spot in a not-safe zone before I explore it.
[00:52:21] Thorne: Okay, and my last question is once again for Martin. Where you're thinking of camping is directly below the hive. Is that okay?
[00:52:29] Felix: I mean, yeah, they don't seem to be coming down here, so I'm okay with that.
[00:52:32] Thorne: No, they haven't seen any bees down here. So while Martin is spending time setting up a little camp near the entrance to the cabin underneath the beehive... Clover is off having a conversation with the Seed Mouse, who after a decent amount of conversation, you finally learn or think that you learned that their name is Sassafras. Okay, wow, good name. You can thank the D100 mouse names in the back of the Mausritter book. And then meanwhile... Sneaker Nibble, you're doing concentric circles around the cabin trying to find something interesting and valuable. You do find a lot of just junk and dirt and dust and nothingness. Old shards of sugar, dried drops of honey that are definitely not for licking. Um... candy wrappers learn that by trying to lick them yeah yeah you know that now after trial and error when you while you're searching around though you were searching under the table when you get to that point There's a big pile of stuff just that's all piled up. Mouse-sized traveling equipment, mouse-sized old clothes. It's near where Sassafras said was, quote, his camp. Would you rummage through it or would you leave it because it's his?
[00:53:55] Robert: um i if i have a feeling that it's his is he in like earshot could i could i wave him over to it to check if it's his easily yeah but he also would not be like you're not so close that he would know that you were going through it but you could easily just walk over there and be like hey is this your stuff I'm going to do that one. I'm going to go for the generous and upright. Is this yours before I start just pillaging?
[00:54:28] Thorne: Yeah, so Sassafras, or Seed Mouse, who we now know is called Sassafras, is talking with Clover, and you come over just to ask, hey, is this yours?
[00:54:37] Robert: Sassafras, I overheard your name. Wonderful name, by the way. I found this camp with all of these items that might benefit our journey. Yeah, yeah. Is this yours?
[00:54:51] Thorne: Yeah, that's mine.
[00:54:52] Thorne: That's mine. This table, that's mine. This shack, mine. The shack, yours. The bees are mine. Don't touch those bees. Those are my bees.
[00:54:59] Robert: Yeah, that's not giving me great confidence that this is yours. So if I take these things... You can borrow. You can borrow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're friends, right? We're friends. Of course we're friends. If you give me honey, I'll let you borrow it for sure. We're working on that, and we'll certainly... If we run into an excess of honey, you will be our first... You'll give me honey? The first person that we give it to.
[00:55:24] Thorne: Yeah, yeah, take it, take it, take it, take it, take it, take it.
[00:55:26] Robert: Please, bring me the honey. If we run into Honey, you will be the first we give it to. And I start rummaging through his stuff.
[00:55:34] Thorne: Okay. He goes back to his conversations with Clover as you kind of just, you're ignoring him at this point. He's sort of like, anything that you say he claims is his. Anytime anyone mentions Honey, he insists that it belongs to him as well. Very, very obsessed. almost deranged mouse. But Clover, you feel like there's just a, you see a sick mouse. You see a sad, you know, mouse in need of community and care. And so you're just trying to be, if you'll excuse the term, human with him.
[00:56:07] Star Master Jeff: I'm going to shoot Sneaker Nibble a sharp look that I hope he gets that's like, don't steal from this mouse because that's what's happening. Praying on his addiction to take his stuff. I shoot a sharp look, try to convey that complex sentiment with a simple mousy glare. Then I go on continuing to talk and patiently listen to and maybe even provide some therapeutic conversation with this poor mouse. Yeah.
[00:56:37] Thorne: So digging through this pile sneaker nibble, it is primarily things that are not that useful. But there's some stuff that is like general adventuring gear that might still be a value that you could take. And you also stumble upon something very interesting. And would you mind rolling a d20 for me so that I can tell you what that is?
[00:56:59] Robert: I would be happy to. The general adventuring gear I'm going to leave for him. That's a four. A four. Okay.
[00:57:09] Thorne: Yeah. What you have found... Sneaker nibble is a rune stone. You know about these. You've heard the royal family speak of them many times. This is how powerful wizard mice wield their magics, is through these types of stones. It's like a tablet that you could hold in one paw. Actually, I believe you hold it in both paws. And if you read the incantation, it activates a magic spell. This specific one, you take a moment to decipher it, appears to be a spell of sugar armor.
[00:57:41] Robert: I definitely pocket that. Yep. That's awesome.
[00:57:46] Star Master Jeff: That's from Mises.
[00:57:48] Thorne: someone just throws hot like warm lukewarm water on you and just completely nullifies the armor so in in Mausritter the way that casting a spell works is you would use your action or whatever to say that you're casting the spell i believe you have to hold it in both hands and then what you do is you commit an amount of durability that that item has to the spell so basically one two or three And then you roll that many dice. And different spells have different effects. Some spells are different depending on how many pips you put in. Some spells are affected by what the total that you roll is. But any sixes that you roll are misfires, and that can potentially cause pretty negative effects. And once you run out of charges in a spell, you can't use it anymore until you recharge it. And the way that you do that is different for every spell. So for your spell, it negates damage from the next attack that you take. And the amount that it can absorb is equal to whatever the sum of what you roll. And the way that you would recharge it is to take the tablet and boil it in melted sugar.
[00:59:00] Robert: Okay, not an impossible thing to do.
[00:59:03] Thorne: But otherwise, everything that you find is like rope and thread and torch. Like they're not even any good. There's like burnt out torches. Some of this gear is clearly not usable. Some of it is, but it's also like blankets and extra clothes and things that, you know, Sassafras probably needs.
[00:59:18] Star Master Jeff: I'm going to leave all of that for him. So I think at this point we're getting ready to bed down for the night. So I'll leave Sassafras alone since we've been talking for quite a while and he needs to get some sleep. And I'll make my way over to Sir Martin where he's created a camp for us by the front of the shack. And I guess you guys want to switch off watches throughout the night?
[00:59:45] Felix: Yeah, we'll take watches, keep an eye on the bees. Yeah, that's good.
[00:59:50] Star Master Jeff: I'm assuming we have nightly training and we'll do whatever the training is for switching off watches for three people, three mice.
[00:59:57] Thorne: Yeah, that sounds good. Also want to make sure that you eat, so everybody should mark off one use of their rations. This is my final use of ration. Okay, you can feel free to just take that out of your inventory and then if you need to eat again, you will have to find more or you can have some of someone else's or something like that.
[01:00:13] Robert: I hear there's some really great honey you might want to try.
[01:00:15] Felix: Yeah, yeah, I've heard of that. Are the dried mushrooms I have the same as rations, or are those different?
[01:00:21] Thorne: They are sort of like a... What's the word I'm looking for? Like a profession item. They don't have any pre-intended use. I'm totally cool if you eat them and discard them as a ration. That's fine by me.
[01:00:34] Robert: I have a net.
[01:00:35] Thorne: How big is said net? It is a mouse-sized net.
[01:00:40] Robert: Okay. Not gonna hold a skunk.
[01:00:42] Thorne: no it's like what a mouse would use to catch uh like an ant yeah yeah exactly that was my issue with the fisher mouse i was like what what mouse is trying to catch a fish you're you're catching you're catching those water bugs or you're catching like a tadpole yeah right i get that okay so um we'll just say martin on first watch and then clover and then sneaker nibble do you guys have a problem with that no and also is it it's it's like summer is it warm It is warm and it was clear today and sunny. I don't want to light a fire then.
[01:01:16] Felix: Okay.
[01:01:16] Thorne: It doesn't feel like you would need one. You're protected from the wind in here. Yeah.
[01:01:20] Felix: I don't want the smoke to bother the bees or anything.
[01:01:23] Thorne: You are directly below the hive.
[01:01:25] Felix: Yeah. I just want to make that clear that I did not light a fire.
[01:01:29] Thorne: Well, then it sounds like our noble mice knights are bedding down for the evening, and we are about at our time. So this may be the perfect opportunity to call it a pause for now. Ha-ha, pause, get it? Pause. And we can resume on the adventure at this site maybe next time.
[01:01:50] Star Master Jeff: Okay. Yay! You're supposed to say, but that's an adventure. That's an adventure. For another time.
[01:01:58] Felix: We'll do that in post.
[01:01:59] Star Master Jeff: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brian, that was really fun.
[01:02:03] Thorne: Thank you guys for playing.
[01:02:04] Thorne: Yeah, it was really fun, man. I really enjoyed running this for you. I really want to run the second half next time. I love this system. I really recommend it to people who want to try role-playing and have never done it before. Great choice of a system. The way that the adventures are written, the ones that are out there, You know, it's like this. It describes a location, but it doesn't tell you what you're supposed to do there. That's up to you guys to find. You know, we decided that you were looking for seeds, but we could have been here for lots of reasons. We could have been here because one of you lost a family member and they came and joined the sugar cult. We could have been here because you needed to slay Shig the skunk. You know, whatever we decided. I started playing Mausritter back... I think it was in November when they were doing the month of Mausritter, where a bunch of different creators were making all kinds of different adventure sites for this game. So really recommended if you're into games... where everybody plays as a little critter, and you want something that's simple and you can just roleplay and not worry about the rules, but you still want there to be cool stuff and interesting things, I definitely will recommend this system to people. So, thanks everybody for playing. That's my spiel.
[01:03:13] Robert: yeah wicked yeah that's awesome it's funny yeah thanks everyone in looking it up um and checking out the rules the top thing was like this seems like a great game or this i ran this with like my my young kids it's like it's a really nice like light system dip your toe in have a good time all right well thanks everybody yeah yeah thank you
[01:03:41] Thorne: And thank you out there for listening, but this is the end of our session for today. Once again, thanks to all of our cast, Scott as Sir Martin Bellflower, Jeff as Sir Clover Saltwick, Doja as Sir Sneaker Nibble, and me, Mouse Master Brian, as everyone and everything else. Don't forget that you can hear these new episodes two weeks earlier on our Patreon. Check it out at patreon.com slash darkstaradventurecast. You too could be as cool as Brad, Holly, and Jim, our scapegoat syndicate members. They're keeping the mice fed and the armory maintained. Thank you all so much. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a rating and a comment wherever you listen to help other people hear about us. Next time, a new day rises on the cursed sunflower field. Will the Knights of Birch Hollow be able to repair their relationship with the sugar cult and come to an amicable agreement? Or will the geopolitical and societal impact of their actions doom the realm to unnecessary mouse-on-mouse violence? The only way to find out is to keep following that signal.
