Night Whispers

Narrator Tips: The scent trail leads up to a copse of trees. The players’ cats can smell the WindClan kit and fox cub’s scents on the wind but not on the ground. This is very unusual—it’s generally the way an owl’s scent or a sparrow’s scent comes through. The players may want to puzzle over that, but they have a more pressing issue—there’s a new scent, too. This one is on the ground and coming from very nearby.

Have each of the cats make a Ponder Check (the Animal Lore Knack will be helpful) to see if they recognize the scent. Anyone who gets a Skill Check total of 7 or higher realizes that the new scent is a raccoon.

If the cats follow either scent trail, they enter into the copse of trees and find a strange sight. The kit and fox cub are in one of the trees, clinging to a narrow, low-hanging branch. Below them, a round-bellied raccoon is hissing and barking and swiping the air with its claws, furiously trying to get to them.

The kit sees the players’ cats and calls out, telling them what happened.

He and the cub were just running around, having fun, when they accidentally tumbled into a raccoon. This made the raccoon angry, and it chased after them. At first this seemed fun, too. The raccoon was heavy and slow, and the kit and cub were small and fast—they expected it would give up the chase soon enough. But it didn’t. It kept coming, and it kept getting closer as the kit and cub grew tired. Soon it was almost on top of them, and they noticed just how sharp its teeth and claws were. In order to get away, he and the cub climbed this tree. This turned out not to be a great plan because the raccoon just climbed after them, so they went out on a branch that seemed too thin to bear the raccoon’s weight. The plan worked—the raccoon couldn’t come out on the branch after them—but they still underestimated its anger. Rather than going away, the raccoon simply climbed back down to the ground and has been there ever since.

The kit and cub both look terrified, exhausted, and desperate for the players’ cats to do something to help. The question is: What will the group do?

What Happens Next: If the players’ cats want to attack the raccoon, continue with 15.

If the players’ cats want to try something other than fighting, continue with 11.

11. A Test of Wills

Read Aloud: “The raccoon hisses and growls at you. Even after all this time, it’s still seething with anger at the kit and cub, but it’s aware of your presence and seems to realize that you have it outnumbered.”

Narrator Tips: The raccoon has no intention of leaving, so it is up to the players’ cats to convince it otherwise. How they try to do that is up to them and, in great measure, the results depend on you, the Narrator. The players’ cats can try any tactic they can imagine—using the Hiss or Arch Skills, charging at the raccoon as if they plan to attack and then backing away, finding some fresh-kill to offer in order to distract it, etc. It is up to you to decide how to use the game to resolve their actions.

The raccoon has a Strength score of 10, an Intelligence of 4, and a Spirit of 6, and it has Ability chips to spend just the way the players’ cats do. It doesn’t have as many advantages as the cats, but it does have a few Skills and Knacks. The raccoon has 4 levels of Hiss, 3 levels of See, and 2 levels of Smell. It also has the Leap Knack.

As an example, if the cats decide to try to scare the raccoon away by making noise, you’ll probably want to have them make Hiss Checks. You may want to set a target number for a cat to try to beat on a single Skill Check, or set a higher number and have all the cats generate a group total, or let the raccoon make its own Hiss Check. Do whatever you think best fits the situation.

As the Narrator, your best guess is automatically right.

This scene continues until the cats succeed in chasing the raccoon away or they decide to switch tactics and fight it.

What Happens Next: If the cats decide that this isn’t working and that it would be better to fight the raccoon, continue with 15.

If the cats succeed in scaring away the raccoon, this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 20.

12. Home and Family

Read Aloud: “The scent trail is finally clear. Before long, you come to a small clearing with a fallen log at the far end. Sitting in the hollow of the log is the fox. She glares at you, then looks down between her paws where you see she has one of the WindClan kits pinned. The kit is struggling to call out to you, but its words are muffled by fox fur.”

Narrator Tips: Allow the players to ask any questions they want about the situation—don’t rush them into making a decision about what to do next. Exactly what they find out will depend on what they ask, but below is a detailed summary so that you know how to answer clearly.