A Kitten, or a plot line?

[roguerouge]

Better yet, build up the kitten as a character-building exercise. Get them attached to the kitten. Have the characters watch it grow and prosper with pride. Let them make it their mascot, their personification of home, their friend.

And then you kill it. Have the BBEG kill it. Have it be caught in the crossfire. Have it be mauled by the BBEG's animal companion. Whatever is the most heart-ripping thing to do, do it.

You want Barbarian rage? You got barbarian rage. You want player motivation? You'll get it.

Of course, you should pay attention to my sig: This advice is not for all campaigns.

 

[roguerouge]

Speaking from experience, you could set up an epic battle by having the kitten need a pill.

Alternatively, it could be a powerful wizard's familiar -- preferably an evil wizard, and the kitten doesn't want to go back, but is bound by magic. Call it Gobbolino, and have it shoot sparks from its whiskers.

Awesome idea: familiars as slaves. I always thought that there'd be druids who look at this wizard-familiar bond as bondage and try to free familiars.

 

[Gilladian]

You could have one diplomatic adventure in which the PCs must deal with a person who falls for the kitty. Perhaps an otherwise neutral person agrees to forge an alliance the PCs truly need, but the kitten is the price he/she wants.

Or maybe the old "Dick Whittington's Cat" scenario - where the hero makes himself rich selling kittens to sailors and/or to a kingdom where cats were unknown; said kingdom was over-run by mice and rats until the cats were brought in.

 

[WhatGravitas]

I kind of think of the kitten evil alarm as shoe-horning it into plot lines. Think of the kitten as a character-building exercise instead of having it a part of major plots, which would be lame after its second use.

Yup. It only works once. I'd let them keep the kitten, occasionally describe how it goes to the barbarian, purring a bit.

And then, 5-6 sessions later, it warns them a single time, saving them from a stealthy assassin. Then leave it being a mundane kitten.

That way they get attached to it AND it they get their karmic reward for saving the kitten. Anything else has the potential to get cheesy/corny. On the other hand, if your group likes corny... go for it!

But that can produce paranoid players, who will never save kittens again. :\

Cheers, LT.

 

[Alzrius]

Whatever you do, don't hurt the kitten!

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Whatever you do, don't hurt the kitten!

Yes, ceiling cat would not be amused at hurted kitties.

Wait, now there's a strange idea. Give it a while as just the Barbarian's cat then through some circumstance draw the party into some sort of action that shows them cats have their own gods, who have their own conflicts & plots just like humanoid gods.

 

[blargney the second]

Check out the kitten storyline on Sluggy Freelance.
-blarg

ps - Kitten 2 had one of my favourite webcomic panels ever in this strip.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Another thought might be where the kitten came from. Was it just abandoned in the hole by its mother, or did an owner lose it there (deliberately or by accident.). If somebody the characters' know left it there to die, perhaps it might be a clue as to the NPC's personality. There could be some interesting reactions regardless when the NPC sees the barbarian carrying around the NPC's former kitty.

 

[Andor]

I'd stick with it being an ordinary kitten, to the extent that any cat is ordinary.

It could also save their bacon by doing a Pocahantas routine where the Orc warchiefs daughter falls in love with the kitten and asks daddy to spare the nice hummies who brought her fluffy.

Or have it stick around and grow into a full time adventuring cat who occasionally brings daddy a dead cranium rat as a prezzie.

 

[roguerouge]

Clearly, the next time I am stumped for something for my party to do, I will tell my player, "You have found a kitten in a hole in the ground. What do you do?" And my plot problems will be solved for the evening.