Night Whispers

by Erin Hunter

  If the lowest total is 13 or higher, all the cats get in position around the larger rabbit, and they can Pounce on it together.

  The large rabbit has a Jump score of 8. In order to take it down, the cats must do 3 chips worth of damage to it; otherwise, it will escape before the cats can Pounce again.

  If the cats succeed in catching a rabbit, they get to have a quick meal before going back on the fox’s trail. If the cats caught the large rabbit, they can Refresh all of their spent chips. If they caught one or more of the smaller rabbits, each cat can Refresh one chip (and only one) from those that have been spent so far.

  What Happens Next: If the cats decide that this was a bad idea after all and want to get back on the fox’s trail, this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 3.

  If they tried to catch a rabbit, whether or not they were successful, continue with 9.

  8. Fox Fight

  Read Aloud: “The fox looks at you, her eyes cold and vicious. If you want to fight, she is more than ready to oblige.”

  Narrator Tips: This scene focuses entirely on the fight between the players’ cats and the fox. It uses the rules for fighting found in Chapter Five of the game rules.

  Once the cats make it clear that they are going to attack, the fox will stand up and leave its den, nudging the cubs so that they stay put and glaring at the kit so that she does, too. But now the kit is free to call out to the cats. She asks them not to fight but to listen to what she has to say.

  If the fight begins, it follows all the usual rules for fighting. The fox has a Jump score of 10, a Pounce score of 7, a Swat score of 10, and a Bite score of 8. The fox has Ability chips just like the players’ cats do, and spends them in the same way. She has 5 Strength chips, 8 Intelligence chips, and 7 Spirit chips. For the purposes of this fight, the fox is treated just the same as a player’s cat except that the Narrator controls all its movements.

  The fox will fight until she is knocked out because she is fighting to protect her cubs. However, if the cats want to stop the fight at any time, she will also stop. Fighting is not what she wants to do, but if forced to she will fight to the best of her ability.

  What Happens Next: If the cats decide to delay the fight and listen to what the kit has to say, continue with 16.

  If two or more of the cats are knocked out during the fight, continue with 13.

  If the cats win the fight and they’ve already found and rescued the missing fox cub and WindClan kit, continue with 22.

  If the cats win the fight but they haven’t yet found the missing fox cub and WindClan kit, continue with 16.

  9. Picking Up The Scent

  Read Aloud: “The fox’s scent is still around, but the trail is far from fresh. It has clearly been back and forth over this ground many times in the past few days, and finding the newest trail is even more difficult than before.”

  Narrator Tips: Taking a break to hunt has made the cats’ work even harder. They are going to have to work together to find the right trail. Ask the players if they can think of anything the cats can do to improve their chances of finding the right scent. This is an opportunity for the players to get creative. If any of the ideas sound like they really would be helpful, give each player’s cat a +1 bonus on the Check below.

  Have each of the cats make a Smell Check (allowing the use of any Knacks that seem appropriate). Then have them add their Skill Check totals together to get a group total.

  What Happens Next: If the group total is 20 or lower, continue with 17.

  If the group total is 21 or higher, this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 3.

  10. Up a Tree

  Read Aloud: “The scent is getting stronger. The missing cub and kit must be close, but their scents are not on the ground. They’re drifting through the air. That’s very strange, but surely it will all make sense once you find—wait . . . what’s that new scent?”

  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 ch
apter. 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.

  The fox, noticing how close the players’ cats were to catching her, headed back to her den in the hollow of the log. When she went searching for her missing cub, she left the other two cubs and one of the WindClan kits, the she-cat, here sleeping. Knowing that the cats would arrive momentarily, she put the kit up front under her paw—a warning that she will hurt it if the cats come too close. Really, she has no plan to hurt the kit at all. She simply wants to get her missing cub back, and she blames the Clan cats for the fact that it is missing at all. (The kit can explain this reasoning, if the cats can get the fox to let her up so she can speak.) The other two fox cubs are now awake but hiding behind her, deeper in the den.

  The fox is a clever animal, capable of communicating basic feelings by emotions—angry looks and sad whines—and pointing. She is not able to speak to the cats or make complex plans. The fox wants the cats to know that she is holding the kit until such time as her missing cub returns. She’s also hinting that if she finds out that the cats hurt her cub, she will retaliate by hurting the kit. This may be too complicated a message to get across without words, but it’s what the fox is thinking.

  At first, it may seem that the fox is intentionally keeping the kit silent by covering its mouth with her paw. In fact, she is just trying to keep the kit from wriggling away and running back home. Unfortunately, at the moment, she is preventing the kit from calling out to the cats, which would help to clear up the situation.

  What happens next depends entirely on how the players’ cats react to this situation. The fox is not going to make the first move.

  What Happens Next: If the cats decide to attack the fox, continue with 8.

  If the cats decide to leave and follow the other scent trail, continue with 14.

  If the cats do anything that involves staying near the fox’s den but not starting a fight, continue with 16.

  13. Knocked Out!

  Read Aloud: “When your eyes flutter open, you can see the friendly face of your Clan’s medicine cat peering down at you.”

  Narrator Tips: A significant portion (or perhaps all) of the cats have been knocked out in a fight. While it might have been possible for the other cats to finish the adventure alone, they succeed or fail as a team.

  Improvise an appropriate conclusion for the cats based on their actions. As long as they acted nobly and fought courageously, their Clan leader will be proud of them and say so. There is no shame in failing as long as you try your best. If they acted rashly or, worse, failed to uphold the warrior code, the leader will give them a more stern talking-to.

  Some other warriors succeeded in finishing the mission and finding the kits. As Narrator, you can decide how that happened and tell the players that tale.

  What Happens Next: The adventure is over. The players’ cats do not get any Experience rewards for this adventure. The group can, however, play the adventure again, hopefully either being more careful about when to pick a fight or merely being better fighters.

  14. The Other Trail

  Read Aloud: “Knowing that there is a second scent on the trail makes everything clear. In fact, you’re certain that this scent belongs to a fox cub, and the fox you’ve been chasing is its mother. But the cub hasn’t been moving around nearly as frequently, so the trail is difficult to follow because it is hidden under the mother fox’s scent.”

  Narrator Tips: The cats are hot on the trail of the second fox. This scene will require the cats to make one final Smell Check as a group. It also provides a chance to be sure that they have put together all the various snippets of information about the cub into an accurate understanding of the situation. As Narrator, you may ask the players to have their cats make Ponder Checks to see which ones understand things most clearly, but whatever the results are, the group as a whole should get all the following information.

  The two main scent trails are the cub running around and exploring the woods and the mother fox looking for him. Sometime early today, the cub’s scent was joined by the scent of a WindClan kit, and the two youngsters seem to be exploring and playing together. But then suddenly their scents stopped—they were no longer moving around—and their trail was buried under the scent of the mother fox as her search became more frantic.

  In order to figure out the last place the cub and kit went, have each player make a Smell Check for his or her cat, and then add the Check totals together to get a group total.

  What Happens Next: If the group total is 13 or lower, continue with 17.

  If the group total is 14 or higher, this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 10.

  15. Raccoon Ruckus

  Read Aloud: “After the better part of a day, the raccoon is still snapping at the kit and cub. Clearly it’s ready for a fight.”

  Narrator Tips: This scene focuses entirely on the fight between the players’ cats and the raccoon. It uses the rules for fighting found in Chapter Five of the game rules.

  From where it stands, the raccoon will hiss at the players’ cats, but it remains focused on the kit and cub perched on the branch above. The cats will need to force it away.

  If the players’ cats decide to fight the raccoon, the fight will follow all the usual rules for fighting. The raccoon has a Jump score of 7, a Pounce score of 10, a Swat score of 12, and a Bite score of 10. The raccoon has Ability chips just like the players’ cats do and spends them in the same way. It has 10 Strength chips, 4 Intelligence chips, and 6 Spirit chips. For the purposes of this fight, the raccoon is treated just the same as a player’s cat except that the Narrator controls all its movements.

  The raccoon will fight until it only has 7 chips remaining, and then it will try to run away. If this happens and the cats decide to chase the raccoon, they can easily catch up with it and continue the fight. However, if they let it go, the raccoon will leave Clan territory entirely and never be heard from again.

  What Happens Next: If the cats decide to delay the fight and instead try to scare the raccoon away, continue with 11.

  If two or more of the cats are knocked out during the fight, continue with 13.

  If the cats knock out or chase off the raccoon, they win the fight and this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with 20.

  16. The Truth of the Matter

  Read Aloud: “With a tiny grunt of exertion, the kit lifts up her head and calls out, ‘Wait! I can explain everything!’”

  Narrator Tips: The kit gets her head free from the fox’s paw and attempts to explain what happened. The details are below. Use them to improvise a scene where she is trying to make things clear quickly in order to prevent a fight, but also is struggling with the fact that she is just a frightened kit and doesn’t really understand all the details of what’s going on.

  The brother and sister had snuck away from the queens and the other kits, as they often did, and were poking around in one of the furthest corners of the WindClan camp. They smelled a strange scent and heard something scratching on the other side of the camp’s wall. It didn’t smell dangerous, and the scratching sounded like it was coming from something no bigger than they were.

  Their curiosity got the better of them, and they started scratching on their side of the
wall, curious to see what was out there. Soon they’d poked a hole through the wall, and on the other side they saw a fox cub. They started sniffing and pawing at one another. Before long, they were rolling around and play fighting, just like old friends. This quickly turned into a running and tumbling game of tag and soon they were far away.

  They spent some time running and playing together—this was the first time the kits had been out of the camp. After a while, though, she got separated from her brother and the fox cub. She thought she saw the fox cub’s tail, so she pounced on it, but it wasn’t the cub—it was his mother!

  The mother fox was frantic, searching for her cub. The kit could tell because her face had the same look the queens got whenever one of the kits went missing. Then there was the sound of other cats in the area—Clan warriors who were out looking for the fox—so she grabbed the kit by the scruff and carried her off to this den.

  “She’s been very kind to me but won’t let me leave,” the kit tells them. “I think she’s waiting until her missing cub comes home. But I have no idea where the cub or my brother is, and I just want to go home!”

  The kit begs the players’ cats not to hurt the fox. She bets that if they find and return the cub, the fox will probably take her whole litter and get out of Clan territory as fast as they can.

  What Happens Next: If the cats decide to go look for the missing kit and fox cub, continue with 14.

  If the cats decide they want to fight the fox first, continue with 8.

  17. Outfoxed

  Read Aloud: “The scent trail heads up the hill, away from the Lake. As it leads you deeper into the woods, the other trails fade away until only this one remains. But then you realize that this scent trail is older than all the others. You’ve accidentally followed the path the fox first used when she entered the Clan territories.”

  Narrator Tips: There are several scenes that can lead to this bad ending, so you will have to improvise the specific details of this scene. All of the possible lead-ins, though, are similar in that after following tracks around in circles for the better part of the day, the cats ended up focusing on the wrong one. They’ve now gone far enough away that it will take the rest of the day to get home, and by the time they do, other warriors will have resolved the situation.