When the hunt is done, narrate a brief scene describing the players’ cats’ journey home, followed by a more detailed scene describing their reception. The fresh-kill they bring—spare as the meat is—goes to feed a great many hungry cats, and probably saves a few of them from joining StarClan.
The players’ cats are treated like heroes, and rightly so, but the truth is that they did not succeed in the task given to them by StarClan. They did not find the green shoot in a white field and bring it back to the Clans and, as the dream predicted, it is more than a moon later that leaf-bare finally loosens its grip. Don’t let this knowledge ruin their thoughts about their other success—this is, after all, a successful conclusion to the adventure. It’s just that there was an even better conclusion that could have been reached.
What Happens Next: The players’ cats have succeeded in getting fresh-kill for the hungry Clan cats. They have earned Experience but their victory is incomplete, and so are the rewards that they can collect. See the “After the Adventure” section for details.
20. Shooting the Moon
Read Aloud: “With a pop, the shoot comes loose from the frozen ground and lays on the snow in front of you.”
Narrator Tips: The players’ cats have succeeded in fulfilling this part of their mission. Nothing happens immediately, though. They simply have a green shoot to carry with them back to the Clan lands. But the cats back there are still hungry. If the players ask what happened to the field full of rabbits, tell them that their cats must go back and look. If they do, they will find that the rabbits are there (although the snow hare no longer is). Let the cats hunt the rabbits, as described in Scene 19, but give each cat 5 bonus points they can spend on any Checks they want to during the hunt. (These points can be spent the same way that Ability chips are, and they always count as the right color chip for the action being taken.)
If the players do not think to ask about the rabbits, have them stumble across the field by accident as they start their journey home. Let them hunt as described above except that they do not get the bonus points.
If the players’ cats had an earlier conversation with StarClan, on the first night of their journey home, they get another message in their dreams. In that dream, the same member of StarClan who spoke to the cat before appears and tells him or her what a good job the group has done. “When you deliver the shoot to the Clan leaders, give them this message: The warrior code is meant to bind the Clans together, but too often it is used as a reason for them to fight. As the moons pass, remember how much more you can accomplish when you work together. The Clans must all cooperate if any of them are going to survive.”
When the players’ cats return, bearing fresh-kill and the green shoot, they are treated as heroes. And when the Clan leaders hear what StarClan said, they all look a little shaken—but they promise to think about those words of wisdom and use them in the future.
If the cats come back with the shoot, but with no fresh-kill, their greeting is much less warm. Completing a mission from StarClan is certainly a good thing, but the Clan cats need food! The Clan leaders will listen to the message that StarClan sent, but will not be as receptive as described above. Their attitude will be one of disappointment that their Clanmates must suffer for such a simpleminded message.
Either way, true to StarClan’s word, signs of newleaf begin to appear everywhere. Trees bud, prey animals come out of their leaf-bare slumbers, and the snow begins to melt. Well before the end of one moon, newleaf is in full bloom and the Clan cats are all on their way to regaining their strength and returning to life as normal.
What Happens Next: The players’ cats have succeeded in getting fresh-kill for the hungry cats from all Clans, and they have fulfilled StarClan’s mission. They truly have earned the Experience rewards that await them. See the “After the Adventure” section below for details.
21. Rabbit Run
Read Aloud: “At first you think the cold must be getting to you—the snowy field ahead seems more brown than white. Then you realize it’s not brown snow, it’s brown rabbits—a field full of them!”
Narrator Tips: After a long, dangerous, and very uncomfortable hunt, the players’ cats have found just what the Clan Leaders sent them to find—a glen full of prey animals to be hunted and brought back as fresh-kill. In truth this is just a half dozen or so rabbits that have woken up from hibernation thin and hungry. But for a cat that hasn’t seen a live prey animal in nearly a moon, they would seem like a sumptuous feast.
Describe the scene in such a way that the players understand what a bounty they have found, and ask them how they are going to go about hunting the rabbits. While they are talking that over, have all of the cats make a See Check (to which the Alertness Knack may be applied). Any cat whose total is 10 or higher sees a strange sight. (This is crucial to the adventure, so if none of the cats have a total higher than 10, then the cat who got the highest total sees it instead.)
At the far end of the glen stands a single strong and healthy snow hare—its pure, white fur practically sparkling in the sunlight. Unlike the other rabbits, it does not look haggard and timid. It is strong, with lots of meat on its bones, and sits up proudly and defiantly. It stares directly at the players’ cats with a strange glint in its eyes.
Have all the cats make a See Check. Anyone who has a total of 8 or higher notices that the glint was actually the image of a plant shoot sprouting up through the snow—defying the cold leaf-bare wind in the same way the hare seems to be defying the cats themselves.
Then the snow hare suddenly spins and runs away, disappearing behind a snowdrift.
The cats must make a split-second decision—will they stay here and hunt the rabbits or chase after the snow hare and risk scaring away the rabbits as they do?
What Happens Next: If the players’ cats want to stay here and hunt rabbits, continue with 19.
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.