Warriors: Omen of the Stars #6: The Last Hope (43 page)

Improvise a very short scene based on the events as they played out in your game—let the players’ cats have that brief moment of absolute panic as they realize they are trapped and there is little or nothing they can do about it. Meanwhile, ask the other players what their cats are doing. The snow is now perfectly safe to walk on, so they would be in no additional danger if they try to dig their friends out—if they can find them!

Have the searching cats make a few rounds’ worth of appropriate Skill Checks (to dig, or hear the cries of their buried friends, or just remember where they were standing). Then, no matter what their totals, have them succeed in finding the buried cats. But these cats are no longer in any shape to continue the mission—they are cold through to the core, they may have broken bones, and they need some rest. The only real choice is to get them back to the Clan territories.

Hopefully, the other groups of warriors will be more successful. Or perhaps, once the wounded cats are healed, the group can go out and try again.

What Happens Next:
The adventure is over. The players’ cats do
not
get any Experience rewards for this adventure. The players’ cats
can,
however, play the adventure again.

Read Aloud:
“The hill is steep, and the snow is lightly packed. Pretty soon you find yourself up to your nose in snow.”

Narrator Tips:
Improvise a brief scene where the cats have to deal with traveling through snow that is deeper than they are tall. In order to move, they must leap out of the tiny “snow pit” they are in, and then immediately land in an identical situation.

This kind of travel is difficult. Ask each of the players how many Levels their cats have in the Jump Skill. Cats with 3 or more Levels can navigate this deep snow with no problem. Cats with 1 or 2 Levels can travel this way, but it’s exhausting—they lose 1 chip from fatigue. If any of the cats have 0 Levels in Jump, traveling like this takes them extra time and they lose 2 chips from fatigue, plus they automatically fail the Focus Check discussed below.

After two jumps, the players’ cats realize that because the snow is so lightly packed, jumping in it like this could shake the snow loose and cause it to slide down the hillside. If this possibility worries the cats, they can safely turn back and go lower on the hill (or even down to the valley). If they decide to proceed, have each cat make a Focus Check to try to jump carefully. If any of the cats have a total of 6 or lower, they have shaken the snowpack loose. If all the cats have totals of 7 or higher, they have successfully crossed the upper highlands.

What Happens Next:
If the players’ cats want to turn back and go to the part of the highlands they were in before, continue with
16.

If the players’ cats want to turn back and go to the valley and they have not yet encountered any foxes, continue with
4.

If the players’ cats want to turn back and go to the valley and they have already encountered foxes during this adventure, continue with
10.

If the players’ cats shake the snowpack loose, continue with
22.

If the players’ cats successfully cross the upper highlands, this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with
21.

Read Aloud:
“This is the deepest snow you’ve ever seen. You have to leap free of the snow even to move, but when you land you’re once again surrounded—and it doesn’t look well packed.”

Narrator Tips:
As in scene 15, the cats have to travel through snow that is deeper than they are tall—only this time the snow is even deeper. Plus, it’s loosely packed, and threatens to collapse and bury them every time they land.

Have each cat make three Jump Checks (that can make use of the Dodge Knack) and add the three totals together. If a cat’s grand total is 14 or lower, that cat has been trapped in a collapsing snow tunnel. The cat has one last chance to escape—a single Strength Check. If the total of this check is 8 or higher, the cat escapes.

What Happens Next:
If all the players’ cats get safely through or successfully escape the snowfield, this is the end of the chapter. Hand the adventure to the next Narrator and tell him or her to continue with
21.

If any of the players’ cats get trapped in the snowfield, continue with
14.

Read Aloud:
“The claws that scratch. The teeth that bite. Even a warrior has limits.”

Narrator Tips:
If the adventure has reached this scene it is because one or more of the players’ cats has been knocked out while fighting with the foxes. Improvise a short scene where the other cats get their friend back to the safety of the Clan territories. Let the players decide how they will get their unconscious friend home.

It’s possible that the players may want to look for medicinal herbs and try to use those to heal their friend. With the Ponder Skill and the Herb Lore Knack, that is possible, but it’s very hard. A single cat must get a total of 20 or higher on the Check, and even that only brings the unconscious cat back to a single Health Chip. He or she still must go back home immediately to seek healing from a medicine cat.

When the cats get back, one of the Clan leaders will ask them what happened. Let the players tell their cats’ tale. The leader will be impressed by their bravery, even though their mission ended badly. The leader will tell the cats that they acted as true warriors should, and they should be proud of themselves. But the leader will look a little dejected because there still is nothing to eat and no clue as to when newleaf will come.

What Happens Next:
The adventure is over. The players’ cats do
not
get any Experience rewards for this adventure. The players’ cats
can,
however, play the adventure again.

Read Aloud:
“You round a snowbank and see the hare dashing across an open field. Suddenly it turns to the left, kicking up snow as it does and revealing a single, green shoot poking through from below.”

Narrator Tips:
The cats must decide whether to follow the hare or dig up the shoot. Getting fresh-kill is important, but the Clan leaders also gave the cats a secondary mission to bring back any proof they can find that newleaf is coming soon (and cats who communicated with StarClan—from Scene 8—have an even clearer reason to do so). This shoot is the only green thing they’ve seen on the whole journey. The cats must choose which goal they will focus on, the hare or the shoot.

Ask the players what their cats want to do. If they want to follow the hare, improvise a brief chase scene with the hare getting farther and farther away each time it ducks around a snowbank. In fairly short order, it is gone entirely. If the cats then go back to the green shoot, they find only a rabbit-gnawed nub where the shoot once stood. The shoot is gone, and so is the chance to fulfill their secondary mission.

If the players want their cats to split up, with some of them following the hare and others trying to dig up the shoot, begin by following those chasing the hare. They have the same experience described above and will be gone long enough to miss the whole digging effort. By the time they get back, the situation will be resolved.

If all or some of the players’ cats ignore the hare and try to dig up the shoot, it will require a team effort to succeed. As simple as that task sounds, it is actually fairly challenging. The shoot is small, young, and fragile. Digging it up improperly could destroy it.

Have each cat make a Focus Check and add them together to get a group total. If that group total is equal to or higher than the total number of players (not including the Narrator) times four, the cats have successfully dug up the shoot. If not, they just bit (or clawed) off a small piece of the shoot. They can try again, but next time the group total must equal the total number of players (not including the Narrator) times
five.
The group can try a number of times equal to the number of cats making Focus Checks. So, if there are three cats adding to the group total, they may try three times. If they have not succeeded by that point, the shoot is ruined and the mission cannot be fulfilled.

What Happens Next:
If the players’ cats succeed at digging up the shoot, continue with
20.

If the players’ cats failed to dig up the shoot, they will find that a field full of normal rabbits is still gathered in a nearby field (though the snow hare will
not
be there). Continue with
19.

Read Aloud:
“The hunt is on!”

Narrator Tips:
This scene begins as a great rabbit hunt. The players must come up with a strategy for hunting so that they can get as much fresh-kill as possible. There are a half dozen rabbits in the field digging in the snow looking for anything edible. They aren’t having much luck, and they are on high alert for predators.

Hunting a rabbit first requires a Sneak Check with a total of 7 (the Stalk Knack can be used with this Check). If that fails, the rabbit is aware of your presence. For every point that a cat’s total is below 7, another rabbit in addition to the target rabbit is aware of the cat’s presence. For example, if a player’s cat only managed a total of 4 on this Check, the target rabbit would know he or she was there, as would three other nearby rabbits (7–4 = 3). Once a rabbit knows there is a cat nearby, it immediately flees. On this snowy terrain, the rabbits are much faster than the players’ cats, so there is no hope of catching them.

If a cat successfully sneaks up on a rabbit, he or she must make a Pounce Check with a total of 6, and a Bite Check with a total of 5. If either of these Checks fails, the rabbit gets away. However, if both the Checks succeed, the rabbit is now fresh-kill that the cat can bring back at the end of the day.

Use the Hunting rules (found in Chapter Five of the game rules) to improvise a hunting scene based on the players’ cats plans. Remember that as soon as one of the cats goes on the attack, all of the rabbits will have a chance to notice and then try to escape with their lives. With such a complicated situation, including so many different cats and rabbits, it may fall on you, as Narrator, to improvise a lot more than usual. When doing so, remember that this is the end of an adventure where the players’ cats have faced great danger and come through like the heroic warriors they are. Plus, their opponents are only a group of half-starved rabbits, so it is a good rule of thumb to decide most questionable situations in the cats’ favor.