Magical Kitties Save the Day (Grown-ups)

Urban fantasy for all ages. Monster of the Week (Evil Hat Productions), Magical Kitties Save the Day (Atlas Games)

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nemarsde
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Magical Kitties Save the Day (Grown-ups)

Post by nemarsde »

Two back-to-back adventures run on the same day in August '22, featuring the same magical kitties at different times of the year. Kitties were randomly generated from the tables in the rulebook. Who were they and who played them?

Jester
Gypsy

A pouncy-bouncy, ginger tabby kitten who's easily aggitated. Imbued with the strength to lift a horse above his head.

Chloe
slill

An English Blue connoisseur, capable of projecting herself into the minds of dreamers, daydreamers, commuters and office workers. Has a superior sense of smell that would serve a bloodhound well, and many deep secrets that the other magical kitties are unware of.*

Pebbles
rossi720

A young, big-eyed calico cat, skilled at playing musical instruments and singing, often using his fantastic stretching powers.

Mr Cuddles
bigby

A remarkably large and sleepy, black Maine Coon. Most of the time. Sometimes he changes shape into other animals, even objects.

*Damn, never did get to find out what this was!

The magical kitties started out belonging to a Creole cat lady who lived in the East Texas Swamp, named Nana Ninon. Nana was a Voodoo "wise woman", learned in the magical arts and able to speak to the kitties.

They lived in her stilt-house in the swamp, helping the locals with minor ailments and troubles, and the only regular visitor being the Amazon Fresh delivery driver.
nemarsde
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The Fate of Flight 8418

Post by nemarsde »

It was summer and Nana Ninon was moving to River City, British Columbia to care for her elderly, ailing sister, Colette.

So the magical kitties found themselves in cat carriers in the hold of a 737-MAX. Flight 8418, from Houston to Vancouver (with a transfer flight to River City), travelling with Nana Ninon to a new life in Canada.

They were jolted from their cat naps by a sudden explosion and shuddering of the plane. Smoke flooded into the hold, there was a whining of engines and squealing of metal, the lights were browning out.

The kitties easily escaped their cat carriers with their magical powers. Pebbles stretching an arm through the grill to unlock his and Chloe's. Jester kicking the grill off of his, and Mr Cuddles changing into a corn snake and slipping out.

The plane suddenly nose-dived, loose luggage hurtled around and the screaming of a baby could be heard from the passenger cabin above.

As the kitties dove to the rescue, they came across a Burmese python that had stowed away on the plane, now freefall. Jester threw a massive suitcase in the opposite direction to propel him towards the hatch to the passenger cabin. Pebbles used four-point grappling with his stretchy limbs, and Mr Cuddles changed into a ring-tailed lemur and swung from the cargo webbing. Chloe tried convincing the python to act as a living whip but it ended up coiled around her in a panic. Mr Cuddles diverted to grab them both.

Jester was pushed up through the hatch first, the other kitties (and snake) right behind. The cabin was awash with high octane flames and choked with smoke, the passengers all battered or roasted to death. Chloe used her dreamwalking to locate Nana Ninon who was semi-conscious.

They found Nana sat next to a baby in a travel cot, the parents both dead. Nana was terribly burnt, third degree, most of her body, but she was holding up a mystic shield around the baby. She asked the kitties to save the baby and themselves before perishing.

Sadly, the kitties bid Nana farewell and then the tail section of the plane tore off, revealing broad daylight. The kitties grabbed the travel cot and escaped, Jester punting them up and out through the torn fuselage, Pebbles stretching into a parachute.

Out into the blue, summer sky. Below was the wilds of the Pacific Northwest; thick forest, wide rivers and snow-capped mountains.

The plane crashed and exploded. As far as anyone would know, all 189 people aboard were killed.

The python was shocked by the cool air and scenary, having thought he'd stowed away on a flight to River City, Florida. He'd planned to show the fine local tail his 36-inches but the kitties informed him the flight was bound for River City, British Columbia.

Crunching through the canopy of trees, the travel cot landed, stirring Mr Cuddles who'd fallen wrapped around the baby.

As far as the eye could see was evergreen forest. The kitties quickly decided to call the baby "Nina", since there were no tags left on her travel cot.

Chloe sniffed the air, smelling running water, pines, bear shit... then an intense light appeared in the air above the forest, fading into a chrome spheroid UFO.

At ground level, cylinders of orange light appeared and revolved, disgorging two tall grey aliens. Thin, with large black eyes, slit mouths and thick, plasticky skin under which seemed to be an almost mechanical endoskeleton. They reeked of plastic.

Being villains, they immediately set out monologuing, revealing that the Zelan Overmind estimated there was an 87% chance that the "great threat" was travelling on Flight 8418 so there must be no survivors. The UFO had shot down the plane!!

Having spotted a parachute, the greys were sweeping the area. They sprouted rayguns from beneath their skin and stalked towards where the kitties where hiding with the baby.

Chloe boldly leapt from hiding, drawing the grey's attention. They opened fire, balls of lightning blasting hot chunks out of trees.

Jester pounced at a tree, uprooting and knocking it over. One of the greys fired, showering Jester with burning embers, but the trunk still crushed the alien. The second was targeted by a catapult; Pebbles stretched between two trees and flinging the python at it. The python was all aboard for killing an invasive species without any consequence! The grey was startled when a 36-inch python snapped around its neck and shot at the snake, narrowly missing and blowing its own head off. The python shed his skin spontaneously and crawled away.

Mr Cuddles had stayed with the baby and saw a second UFO join the first in a search pattern. The kitties had to get out of there, somehow.

Chloe concentrated, seeking daydreaming fishermen, backpackers, humans but instead she contacted an old tree spirit called Burnheart.

This spirit had been awoken by a lover's tryst under its branches 800 years ago but it was struck by lightning and had been slowly dying ever since. Being fond of babies, it wanted to help the kitties and offered to transport them into the spirit world and light a path to River City. The aliens might have mastered the higher dimensions but they were unware of the first, the spirit world.

Having discovered the remains of the greys, the UFOs now teleported down a heavily-armed mecha so the kitties accepted Burnheart's offer. The tree uprooted itself and sank into the earth with the kitties and co inside its hollowed out trunk.

All was dark, until a starfield appeared, surrounding the tree-trunk which now acted as a boat. The stars coalesced into tunnels, a root network through the whole Pacific Northwest. Growing on these roots were veins of fungi, one of which pulsed with light and showed which branches to take.

The boat was carried on a fast-flowing stream of spirit water so Jester was nominated to act as outboard motor, steering them down the right branch. They whooshed along the stream until something interrupted, the stream fell away into a vast chasm and from its depths arose a mighty, Eastern-style dragon.

It introduced itself as the Serpent of Time, the Kala Sarpa, foreshadower of inescapable doom. She was drawn to the kitties but would let them pass if they gave her a worthy gift. Pebbles sang her a song, something from the swamp with a backbeat narrow and hard to master, and the dragon was pleased. She would let them pass and would even set them back on the right track if the python became her forever mate. The dragon was a bit more woman than the 36-inch python had anticipated but he it was better than freezing his scales off in British Columbia. So he agreed and swam off to join her, bidding the kitties "so long".

The dragon snatched up the boat and flew it upwards, dropping it back in the stream. Soon sights and sounds of the real world were creeping into the tunnels and suddenly the boat popped up on the surface of a river. Forest on either side, a road bridge there, a wrecked riverboat there. Ahead some buildings, flags of Canada, British Columbia and River City.

Some native fisherman cried out from the bank, having seen the treetrunk drifting along the river with a travel cot and four cats on it. So it was that Nina was found and adopted by River City. Mr Cuddles stayed with her whilst the other kitties went under cover with local residents.

Alas, the good news story—of a miracle baby found floating down the river with its Maine Coon protector—was overshadowed by the awful news of Flight 8418, that crashed that same day only 250 miles away.
nemarsde
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The Kitty-Ripper

Post by nemarsde »

We took a break then worked out XP. The table in the rulebook suggest kitties will level up every two adventures, but we levelled up anyway as an experiment. Then we created humans for the kitties and started our second adventure.

Baby Nina was adopted by the Mayor's PA and her husband, a firefighter, who were struggling to have a child of their own and couldn't afford the IVF. The PA is named Carol Waters and she, Waylon and Nina live in an apartment opposite the Gallery with Mr Cuddles. Now they have Nina they want a child even more so she has a sibling.

Jester lives on a small ranch on the outskirts of town, next to Montgomery Castle. His human is a girl called Rosie Fairchild, who's wheelchair-bound because of something like muscular dystrophy. This disability is constant source of sadness for the family and will be until they learn to accept it. Since Gypsy was concerned about Nana Ninon's sister's fate, perhaps Rosie's mum is Colette's daughter/Nana's niece?

Chloe has ingratiated herself with Ethel Evans, a wealthy old dame who lives in a glamorous mansion on Pill Hill. Wanting for nothing, even having her own manservant called Grimes, Ethel has become apathetic with age.

Pebbles has moved into a live music bar across the road from Hawthorne Beach car park. He lives with the proprietor, Riley Moon, who once wrote a hit song but has been robbed of the rights. She no longer has the heart to sing.

Six months later...

A deep, icy winter was coming to an end in River City, one that required the magical kitties to intervene in a dispute between ice giants.

Colette had sadly passed away in hospital and the kitties made sure that she and Nana were buried next to each other in River City.

Since then the snow had thawed but the dark, rainy nights held another mystery. Cats in the westside had been disappearing, properly, not just finding new homes and the magical kitty investigation (complete with chaotic, red string mind map) led them to stake-out one tree-lined residential street with high hedges.

A blood-curdling human scream drew the kitties to a Korean woman's doorstep and the fresh, vivisected corpse of Snowy, a white long hair. Villainy! It was no fox that had committed this crime, and organs were missing including the tongue. Chloe smelt formaldehyde and tracked the scent across the gardens, kitties in tow.

Around the back of the houses they were vexed by a badly-mistreated and hyperaggresive Rottweiler that had escaped its yard. Mr Cuddles changed into a crow and distracted the dog, leading it back into its yard whilst the others continued their hot pursuit.

It was evening rush hour, dingy under the street lights and raining. Reaching the main road, Chloe spotted the suspect, a bald middle-aged man with a combover, glasses and a mackintosh. He noticed the kitties and seemed to realise their were chasing him. He jumped onto a city bus. Jester high-tailed it across the road, dodging traffic and leaping through the closing doors of the bus. Mr Cuddles landed on the roof.

Chloe dreamwalked, finding a commuter stuck in the traffic who had completely zoned out. The man had some cat motiff in the back of his mind that appealed to Chloe, so she autopiloted the man towards them. It turned out he was driving an incredible loud, bright green Dodge Hellcat.

Chloe and Pebbles jumped in through the passenger side window without the mulleted driver noticing. Chloe then prompted him to follow the city bus with visions of National Lampoon-style boob flashing from the rear window.

And so all four magical kitties were able to follow Combover Man to the grand old Public Library, where he entered through a basement door.

The kitties followed stealthily but Jester had to distract a librarian with his cuteness whilst the others snuck around. Inside a classic wood and frosted glass partition office, Combover Man prostrated himself before a desktop shrine. Shelves around his office were full of books, but some had been unceremoniously dumped on the floor to make way for specimen jars. Inside were pickled cat organs!

Atop the shrine sat three mummified cats. Combover Man offered up the tongue, saying he'd also returned the cat's remains to its human. The middle cat came hideously to life and was pleased, ordering Combover Man to fit the tongue to her "sister" and preserve the other organs.

After fitting the tongue, the second mummified cat could speak and told the man to claim his reward. The man unscrewed the top of his skull, blood dribbing down his face and lifted it off revealing his brain. Bowing his head, the mummy-cats licked his brain causing him immense pleasure.

The kitties quickly formed a plan to incinerate the mummy-kitties and their acolyte. Pebbles sought out the manifold for the FE-36 fire suppression*, using stretchy leverage to turn off the valve for Combover Man's office. Jester careened along a shelf, pushing off specimen jars and grabbing a bottle of formaldahyde. The first mummy-cat spewed corrosive vomit at Jester like a hosepipe but he was fast enough to avoid the spray and dash the bottle over the shrine.

Chloe leapt from the top of the partition wall onto Combover Man's brain and dug her claws in, sending him into a fit. Mr Cuddles changed into a bombadier beetle and swooped in towards the mummy-cats but the second one tried to paralyse him with its evil-eye, calling him a traitor to magical kitties.

Mr Cuddles shook off the psychic assault and with a tiny but explosive insect fart, ignited the room.

Outside in the aisles, the librarian heard a MEEEOOOW! as Pebbles shot across the ceiling like an elastic band, then Chloe ran around the corner, skidding on the tiles because of the wet brains on her paws. Jester punched a hole through the wooden partition, escaping the blast in the nick of time and Mr Cuddles had soaked damage by changing into a baseball.

So intense was the flash fire that everything in the office was burnt to cinders, only smouldering ashes remaining. This, together with the fire suppression in the rest of the basement meant damage was contained.

According to news reports, Combover Man was the head librarian, Percy Sulaco, who was a collector of rare books and had recently returned from a cruise down the Nile. The authorities didn't discover what caused the fire but determined Sulcao had been storing highly flammable chemicals in his office, probably formaldahyde-derived adhesives used for bookbinding and repair.

*So we were right, Halon is banned and the substitute chemical is apparently FE-36. (Obviously you wouldn't want sprinklers in a library!)
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nemarsde
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Rocket Fuel & River Water

Post by nemarsde »

Two years later we revisited the magical kitties in River City, adding another two to the roster.

Bug
SteveH

A runty, white fluffball with a flat face and googly eyes. Very superstitious but can redirect lightning if ever struck.

The Prince
Pak

A rough-looking tabby with a missing ear. Knows much about human history but nothing about his own past. Can merge with shadows.

Bug is living with Shawnee Jackson, a maid who works at the Montgomery Hotel unbeknowest to her family who think she's a teacher. The Prince lives in the park with local hobo, Gus, who's tried to quit meth but is kept on the hook by his dealer. Dark!

The year is 2024

The game started with the kitties at their homes across River City, around dinnertime on a warm summer's eve, the smell of BBQ in the air.

Suddenly a massive explosion from south of the river blew out windows, halted traffic and threw the town into chaos. The Union Chemical Plant was up in flames!

The PA system told civilians to stay home and shut their doors and windows. Do not panic, do not evacuate. After assembling in the park, the magical kitties caught a ride on the back of a fire engine heading to the scene of the emergency.

There the city's firefighters were tackling a huge industrial blaze. Sneaking into the mobile command vehicle, the kitties overheard a conversation between Mayor Hoyle, the Fire Chief, and the CEO of Union Chemicals, Baxter.

The blaze threatened a silo of hydrogen peroxide rocket fuel. If it exploded, it'd kill everyone on the scene and engulf in the city in a cloud of acidic, toxic smoke. Baxter wanted to open a dump valve and release the chemical into the river, saving the city but causing an environmental catastrophe downstream. (The kitties also know this will poison the river maids that live under Rainbow Rock.)

The Fire Chief convinced the Mayor that they can hold the fire back until reinforcements arrived from surrounding districts. But, after they left, Baxter told his assistant, Schofield, to get some workers together and release the dump valve. Because Baxter has friends in Government and can risk a slap on the wrists for an environmental catastrophe, whereas a city full of people could sue him for hundreds of millions in damages.

Magical kitties to the rescue!

Tailing Schofield, Jester dumped a skip-load on garbage on him from a gantry then, whilst he was KO'ed, Chloe dreamwalked and inspired him to fight the fire instead.

Mr Cuddles pounced from atop a fire ladder, transformed into a giant squid and slammed into a water tower, toppling it and creating a haze of water vaoupr around the peroxide silo. The Prince merged with shadows and searched the plant for survivors, finding a handful in a refuge station with burns and smoke inhalation.

Meanwhile, down by the dock, Pebbles catapulted Bug high into the sky, landing him in the stern of a motor yacht after a close encounter with a news helicopter. Bug jumped from the yacht as it passed Rainbow Rock and was plucked from the water by the river maids. The kitty explained the situation and convinced the river maids to perform a ritual and summon the river spirit to help.

Elsewhere the firefighters were collapsing from exhaustion. Chloe brought them out of their torpor with dreadful dreams of what might happen if they quit. After delivering Bug to the plant, the river maids teamed up with Pebbles and Mr Cuddles to perform the summoning ritual upriver.

Schofield and some workers were fighting through to the refuge station with their own industrial gear, and Bug's arrival gave The Prince an idea...

Jester moved a giant, high voltage capacitor to the rear wall of the refuge station, then Bug tapped into the power grid and directed Sith lightning into the capacitor, overloading it. The Prince had gone into the refuge station to act cute and draw the survivors away from the rear wall, so when the capacitor exploded and demolished the wall, no-one was hurt. The survivors were able to escape.

For the ritual, Pebbles and Mr Cuddles made themselves into musical intruments whilst the river maids sang and danced in a circle. A tsunami rose, flooding the plant and swamping the whole site in a metre of water. Baxter had decided to open the dump valve himself "Come Hell or high water!". Gulp, he turned around to see the tsunami rushing at him and was carried screaming into the boiling bowels of the chemical plant.

The magical kitties had saved the day once more. The tsunami would be attributed to an emergency release at Watts Dam and Schofield run for mayor.
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