The Forgotten Warrior

Once a cat’s weasel opponent has fled or been Knocked Out, that cat can join one of the other fights on the following round. Each round, the weasel will reassess its situation. If it is facing more than two opponents, it will break off the fight and run away.

What Happens Next: If any of the players’ cats are Knocked Out during the fight, continue with 17.

If the players’ cats are able to scare off the weasels without a fight, continue with 19.

If the players’ cats get the apprentices back by winning a fight with the weasels, continue with 21.

21. Take That!

Read Aloud: “The weasels have been routed and your cats stand proud and unbeaten. The apprentices rush forward to thank you for rescuing them, and almost immediately begin to mimic the fighting moves they saw your cats use during the battle.”

Narrator Tips: The players’ cats have rescued the missing apprentices. They’ve demonstrated the skill that warrior cats can wield, and the damage that they can inflict when claws are bared. The apprentices immediately start talking about ways they’re going to make use of the fighting moves they’ve seen—applying it to hunting and fighting training they’ll do with the rest of their Clan’s apprentices.

Describe scenes where the Clan leaders make speeches at their camps, telling their Clans what great warriors your cat characters are. They point out that if all the apprentices and kits work hard, they too can learn to fight the way your cats do. This, however, makes it seem less wise to teach other Clans’ young warriors the same lessons—after all, the next time the Clans square off in battle, it would be best to have a secret advantage. As Narrator, your challenge is to show that all the Clans are saying the same thing—each one thinking that their warriors were superior to all the others.

While your cats will get to see their temporary apprentices again in the future at Gatherings and other times when the Clans get together, they won’t get to teach them again. And one day, it is possible that after those apprentices grow into warriors, they may have to fight against them in battle. Hopefully, though, the peace will be maintained.

What Happens Next: This is a good ending—the apprentices have been rescued and brought home, and all of the players’ cats came through safely. The players’ cats get all the rewards listed in the “Experience” section at the end of this adventure.

22. The Right Burrow

Read Aloud: “The overlapping scents of cat and weasel lead down a winding but distinct trail toward a patch of gorse shrubs, where you see a small, furry body on the ground. It doesn’t appear to be moving at all.”

Narrator Tips: Build a quick bit of tension about whether that’s one of the apprentices and how hurt it might be, but quickly let the players’ cats investigate. When they do, they’ll find that it is another of the missing apprentices who, like the one they found previously, is Knocked Out because of sheer exhaustion. After a night’s rest and perhaps some medicinal herbs, the apprentice will be fully healed and ready to resume training.

The scent of a weasel can clearly be smelled on the apprentice’s fur, as if the creature had been nudging the small cat, but not actually attacking her.

If the players’ cats look under the shrub near the unconscious apprentice, they can see the mouth of a large burrow (much larger than the one in scene 14, if the cats’ journey followed that route). Have any cat exploring this area make a Smell Check. If the Check has a total of 8 or higher, the cat knows that there are other cat scents here, but cannot be sure whether or not they belong to the missing apprentices. If the Check has a total of 12 or higher, the cat recognizes the scents of the other apprentices and is sure that they went down into the burrow. If the Check has a total of 15 or higher, the cat realizes that there are also scents for a handful of weasels, not just the one they smelled on the unconscious apprentice—this burrow is home to a group of the vicious creatures.

The only way for the players’ cats to rescue the apprentices is to go down into the weasel burrow and get them. But as the Narrator, you should never force the players to make their cats do anything that dangerous—the players must make that decision for themselves. Your job as Narrator is simply to give the players the information they need to decide what their next course of action will be.