Fading Echoes

Read Aloud: “This looks like a mouse—but it’s not at all fresh and there are other bitter tastes in there, too.”

Narrator Tips: To a Clan cat, anything but freshly killed meat is a very poor meal, and this one is especially bad. The humans have spiked the meat with mild sedatives to calm the captured cats and, hopefully, put them to sleep until they can be collected.

Any cat who eats this food immediately loses 5 chips because of the drugs. He or she must then make a Spirit Check. If the total of this Check is 9 or lower, the sedatives cause the cat to fall asleep. If the total is 10 or higher, the cat remains awake but is drowsy and will be unable to do much other than talk for at least the next few hours.

What Happens Next: Unlike in previous adventures, it is possible for some of the cats to be knocked out of the adventure while the rest of the group goes on. The cat who is stuck in this cage is now out of the game. However, tell that player there is a chance that the other cats will be able to rescue his or her character if they go through the rest of the adventure successfully. He or she should stay in the game and help the others, if only by giving advice.

The adventure may continue in several different ways, depending on what the remaining cats want to do.

If they want to explore some of the remaining cages, continue with 9.

If Burr is still around and they want to talk to him more, continue with 3.

If they want to investigate the sounds of Twoleg activity, this is the end of the chapter. Pass the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 7.

11. Sneaking into the Camp

Read Aloud: “The mixture of strange sights and smells is overwhelming. It’s difficult at first to tell one sensation from another, especially while trying to stay out of the constant bustle of the Twolegs rushing back and forth.”

Narrator Tips: Before getting any further into the scene, tell the players that it is now time to refresh their chips. Any chips that were spent on Skill or Ability Checks are now brought back into the cats’ chip pool, but any chips lost to injury remain lost. (See Chapter Five of the game rules for a full explanation.) Note that this only happens the first time the cats play through this scene. The adventure may lead them back here several times, but they only get to refresh their chips once.

The point of this scene is to let the cats sneak into the camp and begin exploring. Because this action is so unpredictable, you as Narrator will mostly have to react to what the players want their cats to attempt. Your main job is to give them information about what they see. There are three main areas in the Twoleg camp for the cats to explore (though the cats will not know them by these names).

The Medical Tent: This is the “strange den” the cats saw in scene 7. As they get closer it will seem even stranger. The tent is set up to provide a fairly clean area for the vets to do medical examinations. Any cat who makes a Smell Check with a total of 5 or higher can tell that there are at least six separate cat scents in this area. But anyone whose total is 8 or higher knows that most of those are stale and that only two cats are in there right now.

The Supply Van: This is one of the “sleeping monsters” that the cats saw in scene 7. It is a minivan that the people from the animal shelter have used to carry their supplies to this remote location. The Twolegs are constantly going to the van, opening it, taking out some needed items, and closing it back up. Whenever the van is opened, the cats can catch a number of distinct scents. Any cat that attempts a Smell Check is at first overwhelmed by the mixture, but if the check total is 5 or higher he or she can identify a single specific item. For every two points the total is above that, the cat can identify another specific item (so if the total is 7 the cat can identify two items, if the total is 9 then three items, and so on). The items in the van include: The kind of food that’s used in the traps, medicine, rubbing alcohol and other medical cleaning solutions, and any other items the Narrator thinks the animal shelter people would have brought with them.