The Forgotten Warrior

Since what happened to the apprentices was sudden and unplanned, getting clues is difficult. Any cat that got a total of 12 or higher on the Checks above succeeds in that action and gets a bit of an idea. However, it will take the group as a whole to puzzle this out. Add up the number of successes the players’ cats got as a group.

What Happens Next: If the players’ cats as a group got five or more successes, continue with 18.

If the total number of successes for the group was four or fewer, continue with 15.

7. Finding Your Foe

Read Aloud: “Some will say that a warrior’s most important assets are their sharp claws. But if you cannot find and follow your enemy, it doesn’t matter how sharp your claws are—you’ll never get close enough to use them.”

Narrator Tips: In this section, the players’ cats are teaching their new apprentices how to find, follow, and eventually catch a foe that is sneaking through the woods. Stalking an enemy is similar to hunting for freshkill, but other cats and wild predators are much more clever and dangerous than prey like rabbits and voles, and tracking them is a very complex task. On the other hand, clever foes can often be convinced to leave the territory simply by letting them know that their movements are being followed—a smart creature avoids unnecessary combat.

Begin by letting the apprentices refresh their chips, if they need to. Then ask the players what advice their cats would give to the apprentices. What Skills are most important when it comes to stalking? What Knacks can a cat learn to make this process easier? Are there any tricks that are useful when trying to chase down a clever foe? Lead this as a discussion among the players to get them to roleplay the things their cats might say.

When the instructional part is over, it is time for the players to take control of the apprentices again and have them try to stalk a pretend foe. In this case, it will be one of the players’ cats, though that cat will not use all of his or her sneakiness—these are just apprentices, after all. To succeed at this test, an apprentice must try all three of the following Checks and be successful at two of them: a Listen Check, a Smell Check, and a Sneak Check. These Checks must have a total of 5 or higher to succeed.

In most cases, even an apprentice that fails the overall test will succeed on at least one of the Checks. However, if any of the apprentices fail at all of the Checks in the test, it counts as a complete failure.

What Happens Next: If all of the apprentices succeed at this test, continue with 9.

If some apprentices fail but none have a complete failure, continue with 12.

If any of the apprentices had a complete failure, continue with 3.

8. Learning the Land

Read Aloud: “At first it seems like following a marked border is easy, but after a while all the trees begin to look alike and there are many places where one scent overwhelms another. Despite your best efforts, you have wandered over the border into another Clan’s territory.”

Narrator Tips: The apprentices have failed at their attempt to patrol a border. This counts as one failure for determining the next step of the adventure (as described in Scene 5).

Ask the players to discuss what they think went wrong. Why did the apprentices fail? What could they do differently to get a better result next time? What advice would their cats offer to the apprentices? Sometimes the best way to learn something is to try and fail, then try again. The apprentices have certainly learned something from this experience and now the players can allow them to make use of the advice that the players’ cats are giving them.

The Narrator should create a bonus pool of Ability Chips. This pool should consist of one chip for each of the players’ regular cat characters, and the chips should represent the Abilities in which the player’s regular cats have the highest scores. If a cat’s highest Ability score is Strength, then a Strength Chip is added to the pool. (If this is the second time the adventure has come to this scene, double the number of chips in the bonus pool.)

As the apprentices try again to patrol the border, they may use the bonus pool of Ability Chips to augment their efforts. Any apprentice may take a Chip from the bonus pool, but these Chips never refresh. Also, once the apprentices succeed in the border patrol test, this bonus pool may no longer be used—it is only useful for the test in Scene 5 and the action in Scene 2.

What Happens Next: The apprentices may now try to patrol the border again, but this time with the advantage of the Ability Chip bonus pool. Return to 5.

9. Gotcha!

Read Aloud: “It hardly seemed fair—apprentices trying to track down fully trained warriors—but with solid effort and a bit of luck, you succeeded. Well done!”