The Last Hope

If the players’ cats want to follow the snow hare, continue with 18.

22. Avalanche!

Read Aloud: “You hear a sound like a thick tree branch snapping, and suddenly the top layer of snow on the hillside begins to slide down toward the valley—taking you with it!”

Narrator Tips: The players’ cats have inadvertently caused an avalanche, and they are standing right in the middle of it. Suddenly the world around them disappears and they are tumbling down the hill completely surrounded by flowing powder. It’s dark, cold, and hard to breathe. Ask the players what their cats are going to do to try to save themselves.

The best answer is for the cats to try to swim the way they would in a river. If the players come up with that answer on their own, give all of the cats a +2 bonus on the Swim Check. If they don’t think of it, or if they seem to think a different solution is better, allow all of the cats to make a Ponder Check. If the total is 5 or higher, they know that swimming is the best solution (but they no longer get a bonus to the Check). If the Ponder Check has a total of 8 or higher, they know that no action other than swimming has any chance of success.

In the end, the cats can take any actions they prefer. If they get a total of 7 or higher on a Swim Check, they get out of the avalanche safely. Any cat that gets a total of 6 or lower, or tries any action other than swimming, is automatically buried by the avalanche.

What Happens Next: If the players’ cats all escape the avalanche, continue with 16.

If any of the players’ cats are buried by the avalanche, continue with 14.

After the Adventure

After the last scene of the adventure has been played, the game itself is not necessarily over. There still are a few things you can do if the players want to keep at it.

Play It Again

If the players’ cats made a quick path through the adventure, or if they failed in either or both of their missions, you may want to go back and play again so that the group can explore all of the options the adventure contains. Or perhaps you just want to go back and pick up the adventure again somewhere in the middle where it feels like things went wrong. In either case, your cat would be right back where he or she was and have another chance to find a more favorable outcome.

One of the great things about storytelling games is that you can always tell the story again. And, since there are many different ways to approach their goals, the story could unwind in a different way every time you play (particularly as different Narrators get to guide the storyline).

Experience

If the cats completed the adventure successfully, then they all get Experience rewards. There are two different sets of experience for this adventure, though—one for coming back with fresh-kill and the other for retrieving the green shoot. It is important to note, though, that each cat can only get each of these Experience rewards once! If you play through and successfully finish that section of the adventure several times, your cat only gains the rewards listed below after first time he or she does so.

If you use different cats each time, though, each one can get the Experience rewards. The rule is not that a player can only get experience once; it’s that a cat can.

Bringing Fresh-Kill

If the players’ cats brought fresh-kill back for the hungry Clan cats, they get the following rewards:

Age: Although all the action in this adventure happens over the course of just a few days, the presumption is that this is the most interesting and exciting thing that happens to your cat during the whole of that moon. Increase your cat’s age by 1 moon and make any appropriate improvements described in Chapter Four of the game rules.

Skill: On top of the improvements your cat gets from aging, he or she also can gain 1 level in two of the following skills: Focus, Jump, Ponder, or See.

Retrieving the Green Shoot

If the players’ cats retrieved the green shoot and brought it back to the Clan leaders, they get the following rewards:

Spirit: On top of the improvements your cat gets from aging, he or she also increases his or her Spirit Ability Score by 1.

Knack: On top of the improvements your cat gets from aging, he or she also gains 1 level of the Animal Lore or Interpret Dreams Knack.

More adventures can be found at the back of each novel in the Omen of the Stars series, and you can find extra information at www.warriorcats.com.