Эрин Хантер - Night Whispers

The leaders of all the Clans will be pleased with what a good job the cats did, and everyone will be fascinated with the tale of the fox and her cubs. The cats who know the most about Animal Lore will say that the Clan warriors should probably stay away from the fox’s den for a few days, just so she feels safe. As soon as she doesn’t feel threatened anymore, chances are good that the mother fox will take her cubs and find a new den—they like to keep the location of their homes secret, especially from potential enemies. In fact, it’s most likely that the fox will take her cubs and leave the Clan territories entirely.

If the players’ cats go against this advice and go back to the hollow log within the next day, they will get there just in time to see the fox and her cubs walking up the hill away from the Lake and out of Clan territory. The fox will look back with a warning glare, as if to say “Don’t follow us!”

If the players’ cats wait a few days and then go back, they will find the fox’s den abandoned, and a fading scent trail leading up the hill away from Clan territory. Either way, the foxes are gone and they will not return to this part of the woods.

What Happens Next:The players’ cats should be proud of their accomplishments. Dealing with a fox is never easy, but dealing with an anxious mother fox is even more dangerous. They handled the situation wonderfully, and the leaders and other warriors will tell them so. All the Clans will tell stories of these deeds for many, many moons to come, and the two WindClan kits will grow up thinking of the players’ cats not just as warriors but as heroes !

Read Aloud:“The fox lies limp on the ground, out cold. You feel a great rush of success momentarily—then you hear the whines and sniffs of fox cubs as they rush out to see what’s wrong with their mother.”

Narrator Tips:While beating the fox in battle may give the players’ cats a momentary sense of accomplishment, the truth is that it is a bad ending to the adventure. With their mother injured, the cubs’ lives are in jeopardy. While she is hurt, no one will be around to feed them or protect them from other forest animals.

Improvise a scene where other Clan cats arrive, including one or more of the Clan leaders. Have them point out that the warrior code says that all kits must be protected—and it seems reasonable to say that applies to these three fox cubs.

It should be clear that the players’ cats did well by rescuing the kits. But their actions also make them responsible for the fox cubs while the mother fox recovers. They will have to spend a day or two shepherding the cubs around, the way a Clan’s queens do for its kits, and even bringing food to the mother fox (who is too weak to hunt).

What Happens Next:When all is said and done, the fox and her cubs will leave the Clan territories, and the kits will be returned to WindClan. The adventure is a success and the players’ cats should be proud of their accomplishments. A fox is always a wily opponent, but a mother fox who is protecting her cubs is even more dangerous. Beating her in combat shows just how strong the cats have become, and the leaders and other warriors will tell them so. All the Clans will tell stories of these deeds for many, many moons to come, and the two WindClan kits will grow up thinking of the players’ cats not just as warriors but as heroes !

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.

Maybe you just want to try the whole thing a second time, starting back at the beginning or perhaps picking up 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 try 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 the actions of the fox are very much dependent on not only what the players’ cats do, but what order they do it in, this adventure could easily have several distinct twists in how the story unfolds.

Plus, however they handled the interaction with the fox the first time through, the cats may want to see what happens if they try a more aggressive tactic—or a less aggressive one. Playing again will let everyone see all the parts of the story and give other players the chance to try their hands at being the Narrator.

If the cats completed the adventure successfully, then they all get Experience rewards. It is important to note, though, that each cat can only get experience from this adventure once. If you play through and successfully finish the adventure several times, your cat only gains the rewards listed below after the first time he or she completes the adventure.

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.

There is more than one way to successfully conclude this adventure. The players’ cats could have solved the situation by being diplomatic or by defeating the mother fox in a fight. As long as the fox and all her cubs were able to find a new den and carry on with their lives, it counted as a victory for the cats. However, the two resolutions have slightly different Experience rewards, as described in the Knack section below.

Age:Although the action in this adventure clearly happens over the course of a handful of 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 gains 1 level in the Smell Skill and 1 level in the Ponder Skill.

Knack:Dealing with a mother fox and her cubs certainly gave the players’ cats some lessons they would never have learned any other way. As a result, they each get a Knack based on what approach they used to resolve the situation.

If the players’ cats finished the adventure without having to fight and knock out the mother fox, they each gain 1 level of the Animal Lore Knack from interacting so closely with the mother fox and correctly interpreting her moods and intentions.

If the players’ cats finished the adventure by fighting the mother fox and knocking her out, they improved their fighting skills by facing down a very fast and dangerous foe. Each cat learned a few new sneaky combat moves and gains 1 level in the Feint Knack. If a cat already has 3 levels in Feint, then there wasn’t anything new for him or her to learn from this encounter.