TEXT: THE NIGHT 
  OF THE  
  YULE CAT
  A Holiday Adventure for Mythic Iceland
  by Pedro Ziviani and Leo Pall Hrafnsson
  
  Mythic Iceland
  2
  You know the Yule Cat
  - that cat is very large
  We don’t know where he came from
  Nor where he has gone
  He opened his eyes widely
  Glowing both of them
  It was not for cowards
  To look into them
  His hair sharp as needles
  His back was high and bulgy
  And claws on his hairy paw
  Were not a pretty sight
  Therefore the women competed
  To rock and sow and spin
  And knitted colorful clothes
  Or one little sock
  For the cat could not come
  And get the little children
  They had to get new clothes
  From the grownups 
  - Jóhannes úr Kötlum,  
  Icelandic poet
  This is a short scenario based on the old Icelan-
  dic myth of the Yule Cat, the huge and monstrous 
  black cat that eats children who don’t have new 
  clothes to wear at Christmas eve.
  The story takes place during the Pagan Com-
  monwealth period of Icelandic history, before the 
  Christian conversion in the year 1000. As the sto-
  ry starts, the pagan player characters are preparing 
  to celebrate the mid-winter festival of Yule (“Jól” 
  in Icelandic), which is described in Grettis Saga as 
  being a time of “greatest mirth and joyance among 
  men.”  
  With minor changes, it is also possible to run 
  this scenario for Christian player characters living 
  in the years after the country has converted to the 
  new faith. Early Christians in Iceland associated 
  Yule with Christmas and celebrated it on the same 
  date.
  Timing is important in this scenario. The GM 
  should keep track of the hours in the day. Try to 
  build a sense of urgency by reminding the players 
  often that they need to complete their quest before 
  midnight, or many young lives will be lost. Do not, 
  however, tell the players how many hours exactly 
  they have left, as the their characters would them-
  selves have difficulty establishing the time of the 
  day when in the darkness of winter and under a 
  cloudy sky.
  SYNOPSIS
  The scenario starts with the PCs finding out that 
  the new clothes their children were going to wear 
  at Yule night, tonight, have been stolen. They go 
  to their local chieftain seeking guidance, only to 
  find out that the same has happened to all the other 
  farms in the region. A völva, an old woman with 
  the gift of seeing into the future, tell the PCs that 
  they are the ones who should be seeking the stolen 
  THE NIGHT OF 
  THE YULE CAT
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  A Holiday Adventure for Mythic Iceland
  3
  clothes, trying to find them before the Yule Cat 
  comes to eat the children at midnight.
  After talking to the children, the PCs discov-
  er that exquisite wooden toys were left behind in 
  place of the clothes by whoever took them. The 
  children say they have seen similar toys with their 
  friends from the mountains, the children of the 
  ‘hidden people’.
  The PCs travel to the mountains on a quest 
  to retrieve the new clothes. On the way there they 
  encounter a group of men being attacked by polar 
  bears. As they try to help, the men vanish into thin 
  air. It is a trap. After fighting the bears they final-
  ly meet the hidden people, and go into their farm-
  house. The children of the hidden people explain 
  that they were tricked by a group of elven soldiers 
  to steal the new clothes from the human children, 
  and that the soldiers then took the clothes from 
  them.
  Following the clues, the PCs find a cave and 
  inside it they find the group of elven soldiers. The 
  must fight and retrieve the children’s new clothes.
  Once they have the clothes, the PCs travel 
  back to the chieftains farm, getting there right at 
  midnight. They must distract the monstrous Yule 
  Cat long enough so that all children can be dressed 
  in their new clothes and thus spared the terrible 
  fate of being eaten alive by the gigantic beast.
  If they act with bravery, the PCs might just 
  be able to save the Yule celebrations.
  What is Really Going On
  A group of elven soldiers from coming from Álf-
  heimur, the world of the elves, was on an explora-
  tion mission in Miðgarður, the world of men. They 
  met a group of children belonging to elven fami-
  lies who had long ago decided to emigrate from 
  Álfheimur and had settled here in mythic Iceland. 
  There is an unease peace between the royal elven 
  houses of the elf world, and those who abandoned 
  that world and are now called ´the hidden people´ 
  by the humans. 
  The soldiers decided to stir a little trouble. 
  They knew about the the Yule Cat and the magical 
  binding that compels it to eat any human children 
  who are not wearing new clothes at Yule night, 
  so they tricked those elven children into stealing 
  the new clothes belonging to their human friends. 
  Later, they took the clothes from the children, and 
  they plan to hide them.
  Once those elven soldiers find out that a 
  group of humans is getting close to find out about 
  what they have done, they will set a trap for them.
  PLAYER CHARACTERS
  The player characters are all established house-
  holders. Each and every one of them are farmers 
  who own their own land. Also, they are married 
  and have each a few children of their own.
  It is not important where in Iceland the play-
  er character’s farms are located, but they must be 
  all in the same region and belonging to the same 
  goðorð (chieftaincy).
  SCENE 1: 
  CLOTHES GONE
  It is the morning of the day before the start of Yule 
  celebrations. All the family is up in this cold and 
  dark winter morning. The wind howls outside and 
  snow is falling.
  This is a busy morning at the farms of each 
  of the player characters. Each family has been pre-
  paring for tonight’s Yule feast for several weeks. 
  Cattle has been slaughtered, skýr (a type of yo-
  gurt) has been prepared, and shark meat has been 
  carefully rotten to the exact point, and urinated on 
  for optimal flavour, as tradition demands. The chil-
  dren have been busy for months as well, making 
  the clothes they will wear tonight and for the next 
  few months after that, out of the wool from the 
  farm’s sheep.
  Just as the player characters are getting ready 
  for today’s work at the farm, in each of their 
  homes, the children scream, terrified. The children 
  are shaking and crying; saying between sobs that 
  they don’t want to die.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  The Night of the Yule Cat
  4
  Let each of the players roleplay the interac-
  tion with their own children. The GM should try to 
  give to each child a distinct personality and memo-
  rable description, so that they will seem more real 
  to the players and so lend a greater sense of impor-
  tance to the quest to protect them throughout the 
  adventure. 
  In order to calm the children down, it is nec-
  essary a successful Easy roll of Charisma (APP 
  x5). The Charisma characteristic measures inter-
  personal reactions, and so it’s a good fit here. Once 
  they have stopped screaming, the children explain 
  that when they opened their wooden trunks they 
  realized in horror that their new clothes, that they 
  should be wearing later today, were missing.
  The player characters can look around for 
  themselves for the cause of their children’s fright. 
  A successful Easy roll of Spot means they see the 
  open wooden trunk where the children keep their 
  clothes, and see that it is empty. 
  The children have good reason to be this 
  frightened. Everyone knows it that children with-
  out new clothes in Yule night get eaten by a terri-
  ble monster called the ‘Yule Cat’. The player char-
  acters themselves have been using the threat of the 
  Yule Cat to persuade their children to work hard 
  so that they would finish making their clothes in 
  time for Yule.
  Now, there is only one thing to do. The player 
  characters can’t individually hope to find who stole 
  the clothes in time by themselves. So a decision is 
  quickly made by the adults in each of the house-
  holds to travel to the farm of the goði (chieftain), 
  with all the family. The goði will have the resources 
  to know what to do, or at least he can organize an 
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  A Holiday Adventure for Mythic Iceland
  5
  armed force to protect the children from the mon-
  ster.
  SCENE 2:  
  ARRIVING AT THE 
  GOÐI’S HOUSE
  The player characters arrive separately with their 
  respective families at the farm of their goði, Haki 
  Skaftisson. (if using this adventure with an already 
  established group, just replace the goði’s name 
  with the one they are already familiar with.)
   The goði is a rich man, by Icelandic stan-
  dards, meaning that he owns all of forty cows. His 
  farm is comprised of one large longhouse, and 
  three more houses, one being a temple, and the 
  other two are used for keeping the horses, pigs and 
  sheep inside during the winter.
  When the player characters arrive at the farm, 
  at around 9:00 am, they are surprised to see two 
  dozen horses hitched outside.
  Going inside the large longhouse they find 
  most of the men, women and children of the region 
  gathered there. The goði is seating a his high chair 
  at the end of the longhouse, and he is locked into 
  a heated debate with men who are  seated along 
  the wooden benches. The women and children 
  are gathered in the opposite end of the long hous-
  es, where mothers and grandmothers are trying to 
  calm down the terrified children.
  The player characters can take their seat on 
  the wooden benches. This is the moment when they 
  meet for the first time in this scenario. They know 
  each other as neighbors, and respect one another. 
  They should talk now and exchange details of their 
  experiences this morning. No doubt, they will be 
  surprised to discover that it was not only one farm 
  that had the children’s clothes robbed this morn-
  ing, and will quickly discover that the exact same 
  thing has happen to all the farms in the region.
  Finally, the goði says. “Be quiet, all of you! 
  I realize that the situation is grave, and we must 
  retrieve those new clothes or all the children of 
  this region will die tonight. But yet, we do not 
  know where to start looking.” - At that moment 
  the men erupt in shouting again, each one of them 
  angrily offering their idea of what should be done. 
  The goði stands up and in a quick movement he 
  pulls his sword from his belt. The sword gleams 
  in the light of the fire that burns along the cen-
  ter of the room. “Be quiet, or I swear I will cut 
  off the tongues of all of you and I will feed them 
  to the pigs!” - The room gets quiet once more, 
  and he sits down. Still holding his sword, he calms 
  down and speaks again. “We must ask  the gods 
  for guidance. As fate would have it, Hrafnhildur 
  Bragisdóttir, my grandmother, is here today, hav-
  ing travelled from the West Fjords for the Yule 
  celebrations. She is well-known for being a völ-
  va, a great prophetess. I will ask her to consult the 
  gods on what we should do to save our children. “
  SCENE 3:  
  THE VÖLVA 
  SPEAKS
  After a brief wait, the women of the household 
  walk into the longhouse bringing with them an el-
  derly woman. She is wearing a long black cloak, 
  and she walks with difficulty, putting the end of a 
  staff on the ground for support herself with every 
  step, bent with the weight of old age.
  All the men assembled in the hall stand up 
  in respect for the old völva. The goði rushes over 
  to the old woman, his grandmother, and helps her 
  as she walks the length of the hall. Finally she sits 
  on the chieftain’s high seat, an honor that no other 
  person in the country would have while the chief-
  tain is alive.
  The goði says: “Hrafnhildur, grandmother, I 
  bid you listen to me in this Loki-cursed times. The 
  new clothes of the children have been stolen, and 
  tonight the Yule Cat is coming. I beg you to ask 
  the gods… How can we fight the beast? How can 
  we kill the monster and save the children?”
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  The Night of the Yule Cat
  6
  About a dozen women take position around 
  the high seat. The old woman starts singing. At 
  first it’s only a low buzzing and then it grows 
  louder. She is joined by the other women, who 
  sing and dance around the old seeress. The dance 
  is like nothing the player character have ever 
  seen, it’s strange and mesmerizing. Of the sing-
  ing they can only understand a few words about 
  the gods and the ancient times when Miðgarður 
  was young.
  Finally, after what seems like a long while, 
  suddenly, the old woman shouts for the dancing 
  to stop. The women around her come to a halt. 
  The völva then says:
  “The Yule Cat is an ancient creature of 
  enormous power. It cannot be killed. You must 
  find the new clothes that have been stolen, it is 
  the only way to save the children! The gods have 
  blessed a few of you with the chance to complete 
  this task…”
  She then points at each of the player charac-
  ters in turn, saying “you”, “…and you”, and so 
  on until she’s pointed to all the player characters. 
  “You are the chosen ones. You must find the chil-
  dren’s clothes before it is too late, or you will be 
  the ones to fight the Cat when it comes! But, be-
  ware of the frost giant!”
  The völva then collapses on the goði’s high 
  seat, exhausted. The goði asks for everyone to 
  leave, as his grandmother needs rest. To the play-
  er characters he says they must get on with their 
  task at once.
  SCENE 4:  
  INVESTIGATION
  The player character may feel a bit lost at first. 
  Much responsibility rests on their shoulders and yet 
  they have don’t have any clues yet as to what hap-
  pened to the children’s clothes. Let the players dis-
  cuss among themselves and decide where to start.
  The Scene of the Crime
  A natural place to start the investigations would be 
  looking at the place where the clothes were being 
  stored.
  In order to do this, the player characters may 
  travel back to their own homes if they wish to do 
  that, or indeed to any farm in this region of the 
  country. Still, they may choose to start their inves-
  tigations right here at the goði’s farm, as the new 
  clothes belonging to his children have also gone 
  missing.
  At the goði’s farm the children’s clothes were 
  kept in a large wooden chest in the main house. It 
  is an ornate chest, carved with battle scenes, and 
  when closed it serves as a sitting bench. Inside the 
  chest the PCs can find sewing tools and a small 
  amount of threaded wool, as well as the wooden 
  bowls that the farm’s children eat their meals from. 
  Among these mundane items, resting under one of 
  the bowls, they find a few items that attract their 
  attention - beautiful toy animals exquisitely carved 
  from wood and finely painted with vibrant colors.
  Talking to the Children
  If the player characters decide to interrogate the 
  household’s children, they may do so. It’s prob-
  ably a good idea that one of the farm’s adults be 
  present, such as the mother of the children.
  When asked about their fine toys, the chil-
  dren say that they only found those in the trunk 
  this morning, and that they remember seeing 
  similar toys with their friends from the moun-
  tains. Players characters may guess at this point 
  that those friends are children of the hidden peo-
  ple. The GM may also ask for a roll of Knowl-
  edge (Myth) and pass on that information to 
  the players, adding that it is generally believed 
  that children having friends among the hidden-
  folk, the elves, is a blessing - hidden people are 
  known to secretly watch over their old friends 
  for life and provide them with help in moments 
  of desperation.
  If asked whether they have exchanged their 
  new clothes for toys, the children will deny they 
  have done that, which is the truth.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  A Holiday Adventure for Mythic Iceland
  7
  If pressed, the children will reveal that they 
  do know where those friends live. It is not safe, 
  however, to travel with children in this weather, 
  and the player characters will have to travel there 
  alone. The location described by the children is 
  only two hours travel by foot in summer weather, 
  but now in the winter only Óðinn knows how long 
  it will take or if they can even make it all the way 
  there in safety.
  SCENE 5:  
  TRAVEL
  The place pointed by the children as the home of 
  their friends is on a hill on the top of the valley. 
  The snow is so thick on the ground that horses can-
  not be used on this journey. The player characters 
  will have to travel on skis.
  There is a fierce and cold wind blowing from 
  the north, against the direction the player charac-
  ters are travelling, and more snow is falling. Also, 
  depending on the time they start their journey, it 
  is likely that they will travel mostly in darkness. 
  There is only about three hours of daylight in Ice-
  land at this time of the year.
  The GM should ask for a roll of Ski skill. If 
  all players succeed, the group will take about four 
  hours to arrive at the top of the valley where they 
  want to get. If one or more fails the roll, the en-
  tire group gets slowed down and the journey takes 
  one more hour, making a total journey time of five 
  hours. If one or more of the characters rolls a fum-
  ble, that means the character has slipped and twist-
  ed his ankle, and the journey now takes even lon-
  ger, making for a total of six hours.
  The GM should strive to describe how dif-
  ficult and taxing this journey is, as well as dan-
  gerous. Tell the players that their characters hear 
  strange noises and at times they think they can see 
  large dark shapes moving in the night. Everyone 
  knows that it is not safe to travel in the darkness of 
  winter - if the weather doesn’t kill you, there is a 
  good chance that the mythical creatures will - but 
  this is a desperate situation they find themselves in.
  SCENE 6:  
  A TRAP!
  When the player characters are getting close to 
  their destination, they find they can see some com-
  motion at a distance: a group of four people are 
  fighting three polar bears. Not much detail can be 
  seen from this far, however, with their vision ob-
  scured by the falling snow.
  If the players characters hesitate to run and 
  help the people being attacked by the bears, re-
  mind them that they are still in the valley where 
  they have their farms, and that these could thus 
  be people who they know or even be their rela-
  tives. Also, the Norse sense of honor should com-
  pel them to fight to protect those people.
  When the player characters get closer, the 
  GM should ask them to make a Spot skill roll. 
  Those who succeed notice that the people being 
  attacked wear strange armor which covers their 
  whole bodies, save for the head, in dark layered 
  plates which look almost like lizard scales. They 
  are also somewhat shorter than the average Ice-
  lander, and are defending themselves with spears. 
  Those PCs who failed the Spot roll never notice 
  these details, having had their view obscured by 
  the falling snow and being distracted by the threat 
  of the polar bears. 
  Just before the PCs reach them, those strange 
  people disappear. They simply vanish into thin air. 
  The bears are confused by that for a brief moment, 
  but then, already in a blood rage, they turn their at-
  tention to the PCs and attack them.
  Ski Skill
  Skiing (25%) [Physical] - A common skill in 
  Viking Age Iceland. For cross-country skiing, 
  unmatched skis are used. On the left foot a 
  long gliding ski is used, while a short, fur-cov-
  ered kicking ski is used on the right foot. A 
  single pole is used for balance. Skiing down-
  hill for sport is rarely done.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  The Night of the Yule Cat
  8
  You can find the stats for polar bears on 
  Mythic Iceland page 217. Alternatively, there are 
  stats for bears on page 334 of the Basic Roleplay-
  ing rulebook.
  SCENE 7:  
  MEETING WITH THE 
  HIDDEN PEOPLE
  After the PCs have dealt with the polar bears, they 
  see two men approaching on foot from the north. 
  They are dressed in typical Norse winter clothes. 
  Even though they are not wearing any skiis, they 
  seem to have no problem walking on the deep, soft 
  snow. They are not carrying weapons of any kind.
  The two men identify themselves as Heimir 
  and Vöggur, and they offer to take them to their 
  farm where they may take shelter and have their 
  wounds treated. Heimir, the older of the two, says 
  their house is very close, and just as the PCs look 
  at the direction he is pointing his finger at, they 
  see a farmhouse standing there, less than 200 me-
  ters away. There could swear there was nothing 
  there but a large rock only a moment before.
  If asked whether they are hidden-people, 
  the men will confirm that they are indeed some-
  times called that by the people who came from 
  the lands to the south and settled here in this is-
  land. If asked where they come from, they will 
  just say they are from an island just like this one 
  but which lies very far away. If pressed further 
  on the subject they will say they are from anoth-
  er world which hangs from Yggdrasil, the world 
  tree, just this world, Miðgarður, does.
  Inside the house, the PCs meet a beauti-
  ful woman and three young children. The house 
  looks fairly normal, if not for the total lack of 
  any weapons anywhere inside and for the unusual 
  high quality of the construction.
  When the PCs tell of their predicament, the 
  hidden people react with surprise and concern. 
  The adults confront the children about stealing 
  the new clothes from the human children. The 
  three young kids explain that they did not mean 
  to cause any trouble, but that they had been told 
  by the “other people of ours” that it was tradi-
  tion among the humans to exchange clothes for 
  surprise gifts in this day. Those people, they say, 
  suggested they take the clothes from all the chil-
  dren in the region and leave them toys. They had 
  been told that the children would be very happy 
  with the surprise.
  The adults of the house reprimand the chil-
  dren for talking to those they know to be the elves 
  from Álfheimur. “I am very disappointed in you. 
  I told you to never talk to those ‘other people 
  of ours’, the ones dressed in armor and carrying 
  weapons. They are not our friends.”
  Heimir will apologize to the PCs and explain 
  to them that those people the children are talking 
  about  are from the same world where they used 
  to live in themselves before them left to come live 
  here in Miðgarður. They are most likely, he ex-
  plains, soldiers in a military expedition into this 
  world. There is an uneasy peace between those 
  who emigrated from Álheimur, the hidden people 
  such as Heimir and his family, and the royal elven 
  houses from their old world.
  When asked about the whereabouts of the 
  clothes, the children explain that the “other peo-
  ple of ours”, the soldiers, took the bags of clothes 
  from them when they were coming home earlier 
  this morning. The children will also mention in 
  what direction the soldiers went - with that infor-
  mation, any PCs succeeding on a roll of Knowl-
  edge (Regional) will know that in this weather it 
  is very likely that they were making for a cave 
  not too far from here. If no PC succeeds on the 
  Knowledge roll, Heimir will volunteer this infor-
  mation.
  SCENE 9:  
  CONFRONTING 
  THE ELVES
  The journey to the cave, in the dark of the winter, 
  takes just over an hour.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  A Holiday Adventure for Mythic Iceland
  9
  It is a small round cave, measuring around 20 
  meters in diameter. There is a hot spring inside the 
  cave, making it a popular bathing site for people 
  travelling through this part of the country. During 
  the winter time, this place is rarely visited due to it 
  relatively isolated location.
  As the PCs get near enough to see the en-
  trance of the cave, describe to them a narrow pas-
  sage on the foot of a mountain, through which they 
  can see light and heated air coming from inside.
  If they stand to the side of the door, they can 
  take a peek inside and see the four elven soldiers 
  gathered around a fire they have lit right by the 
  side of the hot spring. One of the soldiers, sitting 
  on the ground, is holding a spear which has cuts 
  of meat stuck on its blade, and he holds it so the 
  meat is just above the flames. The bloody carcass 
  of a sheep lies by the back wall of the cave. The 
  sheep must have been stolen from a farm near-
  by, maybe even the farm belonging to one of the 
  PCs. They are talking amongst themselves in a 
  language the PCs cannot understand, but seem to 
  be in good spirits - perhaps they are congratulat-
  ing themselves on the prank they pulled on the 
  children.
  At the back of the cave there are also three 
  cloth bags. These contain the stolen new clothes 
  of the human children.
  The cave is too small for the PCs to sneak in 
  and steal the bags without being noticed, unless 
  they have a runemaster with them who can some-
  how magically conceal their presence.
  If they just run into the cave ready for a 
  fight, they can catch the elven soldiers by sur-
  prise. The soldiers will not surrender and will not 
  listen to anything the PCs have to say. As soon as 
  they notice the PCs, they will pick up their weap-
  ons, which are lying on the ground next to them, 
  and fight. The PCs can use the element of surprise 
  and have a free first attack on the elves. They will 
  fight until two of them are dead, then the other 
  two will turn invisible and flee, leaving the stolen 
  clothes behind.
  See Mythic Iceland page 151 for stats on 
  Álfheimur elves. If you don’t have Mythic Ice-
  land, you can use a soldier template with 6-point 
  darkened hard leather armor, armed with short 
  swords, and able to use the following spells from 
  the Basic Roleplaying rulebook: Light 100%, 
  Frost 60%, Illusion 40%, Wall 60%.
  SCENE 10:  
  TRIP BACK
  It’s time to run back to the goði’s house. The 
  journey should take them just over three hours. 
  The PCs are not sure how much time they have 
  before midnight, when the Yule Cat will come 
  and eat the children. It’s dark and overcast, so 
  they can’t use the sun or stars to accurately mea-
  sure the time. They can only pray to the gods that 
  they are not too late.
  To make matters even more desperate, they 
  face a fierce blizzard. The GM should remind the 
  players at this point of the words from the völva 
  earlier today, to beware of the frost giant. Allow 
  the PCs to make Knowledge (Regional) or even 
  Spot roll in order for them to find a cave some-
  where along the way where they can take shelter 
  through the worse of the blizzard. If they insist 
  on pressing on traveling instead of taking shelter, 
  they must make a Stamina roll every hour or take 
  2 hit points of damage due to frostbite each time 
  they fail a roll, even if they are well dressed for 
  the cold weather.
  From the cave where they take shelter, the 
  PCs can see through the falling snow the out-
  line of a giant. It is so huge that all they can see 
  through the falling snow is the giant’s body from 
  the waist down. The ground shakes as the giant 
  walks past and beyond the valley. The blizzard 
  follows him. This is none other than Hrym, one 
  of the guardians of mythic Iceland, and king of 
  the frost giants, who brings winter with him ev-
  erywhere he goes.
  After the giant has passed and the ground no 
  longer shakes, the PCs can resume their desperate 
  run over the snow, traveling as fast as they can on 
  skiis towards the goði’s house.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  The Night of the Yule Cat
  10
  SCENE 11:  
  GETTING CLOSE
  As the PCs get closer to the lower part of the val-
  ley, and to the goði’s house, they hear a very loud 
  and bone-chilling meow that resonates down the 
  valley. The sound is made by Yule Cat as it too 
  hurries towards the house, and is so loud that it 
  causes an avalanche just as the PCs are clearing 
  the last of the hill sides. Ask for a Skii skill roll 
  from all the PCs. Those who fail get stuck on the 
  snow and need to be pulled out by their friends on 
  a roll of Effort.
  SCENE 12:  
  FIGHTING THE 
  YULE CAT
  Unless the PCs get severely delayed, they should 
  arrive at the chieftain’s farmhouse at the same time 
  as the Yule Cat.
  The first thing they see as they arrive at the 
  farm is a huge dark shape in the night, and very 
  large cat eyes, about four meters above the ground, 
  that glow an intense yellow. There is chaos, and 
  people and children are running to the relative 
  safety of the farm houses.
  The Yule Cat is just as tall as the biggest 
  longhouse at the farm. It is extremely strong and 
  very fast. The creature is not concerned with fight-
  ing the adults, it came for the children who are not 
  wearing new clothes and it will hunt them down 
  wherever they hide. The Cat is as old as mythic 
  Iceland, and is too strong to be destroyed by mun-
  dane weapons. The best hope the PCs have is to 
  split the group, so that some of them distract the 
  Cat while the others run to each of the houses and 
  give the children their new clothes.
  There are four house in the farm. In the big 
  longhouse there are eight children, and on the oth-
  er smaller houses there are three, four and five kids 
  hiding, respectively. There are a total of 20 chil-
  dren.
  It takes the gigantic Cat only one combat 
  round to destroy the roof of a house with its enor-
  mous claws. Once a roof has been destroyed, the 
  Cat will eat the children inside who are not wear-
  ing new clothes, at the rate of one child per combat 
  round. Once it has eaten all the children without 
  new clothes in one house, it will move to the next 
  house with one mighty jump.
  If the Cat is hit by an attack from a player 
  character, the creature will stop what it is doing for 
  the next combat round and focus on the attacker. 
  It is not interested in killing the human adults, but 
  instead it aims to hit a blow of its paw to get the 
  pesky human away. It has 80% chance of hitting, 
  and can attack twice per combat round. Those at-
  tacks can be dodged. If hit, the person is sent flying 
  through the air but lands on soft snow and so suf-
  fers only 1D4 hit points damage. After being hit by 
  the Cat, it takes two combat rounds for someone to 
  get back up on his feet and run back to the creature 
  to continue the fight.
  If a runemaster attacks the Cat directly with 
  magic, the runic spell will fail to take the expect-
  ed effect, but the Cat is momentarily dazed by the 
  magical energy that just hit it, and takes one full 
  combat round to shake that off, unable to act that 
  for that time. Magical rune scripts that effect the 
  environment, aiming to affect the cat indirectly, 
  still take effect as expected, and the results are left 
  up to the GM to imagine.
  When the Cat is struck three times by attack-
  ers, it decides to get away from the house it is at-
  tacking at the moment and come back to it later. 
  The great beast will jump high into the air and 
  land right next to another house. This takes one 
  full combat round.
  While the Cat is being attacked and thus de-
  layed, ideally one or more of the PCs are running 
  into the houses and dressing up the children with 
  their new clothes. The adult NPCs inside the house 
  are too panicked to help properly with this task. 
  Once a PC carrying enough clothes gets into a 
  house, ask for an Agility roll. On a success, two of 
  the children in that house get dressed in one com-
  bat round; on a failure, no one gets dressed that 
  combat round; on fumble, one of the clothes are 
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  A Holiday Adventure for Mythic Iceland
  11
  ripped and can no longer be worn until a success-
  ful roll of Craft can be made to mend it. A critical 
  roll means all the kids in the house are dressed in 
  one combat round. This roll already takes into con-
  sideration NPCs trying to help as best as they can. 
  Remember to check the number of children in each 
  house as listed above.
  Running between the houses takes two full 
  combat rounds, as the knee-deep snow slows 
  movement down. If someone runs out of the house 
  with one of the children who are not wearing new 
  clothes, the Cat will give chase, knock down the 
  adult, and eat the child.
  Once there are no more children not wearing 
  new clothes, as a result of them getting dressed by 
  the PCs or having been all eaten, or most likely a 
  combination of the two, the Yule Cat will decide 
  that its work here is done. It’s time for it to move 
  to the next farm somewhere else in the country 
  where there are children not wearing new clothes. 
  The huge Cat jumps up and away form the farm 
  and runs into the darkness of the night with amaz-
  ing speed and grace. A series of loud meows can 
  be heard at a distance, fading fast.
  SCENE 13:  
  WAS YULE SAVED?
  Hopefully the PCs will have acted fast and saved 
  Yule! Or at least managed to save some of the 
  children.
  BUT WHY CAN’T WE  
  KILL THE YULE CAT?!
  During playtest, one of the groups com-
  plained that they felt frustrated by the fact 
  that they couldn’t kill the Yule Cat during the 
  final confrontation. Perhaps that group was 
  used to other games where characters usu-
  ally kill everything and take its stuff. But, 
  this is mythic Iceland, and some of the great 
  creature of legend that live here cannot be 
  killed, at least not by such mundane means. 
  Still there is great fun to be had in fighting a 
  mighty creature of myth such a the Yule Cat 
  and to survive to tell the story - maybe skalds 
  will even tell this story at the courts of kings, 
  and write Sagas about this night. Also worth 
  remembering is that saving Yule would be 
  seen be a great heroic deed, no doubt raising 
  the characters Status in mythic Iceland soci-
  ety to a whole new level.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  Selected Chaosium Titles
  FICTION
  Eldritch Evolutions
  #6048
  ISBN 1-56882-349-5
  $15.95
  ELDRITCH EVOLUTIONS is the first collection of
  short stories by Lois H. Gresh, one of the most tal-
  ented writers working these days in the realms of
  imagination.
  These tales of weird fiction blend elements
  wrung from science fiction, dark fantasy, and hor-
  ror. Some stories are bent toward bizarre science,
  others are Lovecraftian Mythos tales, and yet oth-
  ers are just twisted. They all share an underlying
  darkness, pushing Lovecraftian science and
  themes in new directions. While H.P. Lovecraft
  incorporated the astronomy and physics ideas of
  his day (e.g., cosmos-within-cosmos and other
  dimensions), these stories speculate about mod-
  ern science: quantum optics, particle physics,
  chaos theory, string theory, and so forth. Full of
  unique ideas, bizarre plot twists, and fascinating
  characters, these tales show a feel for pacing and
  structure, and a wild sense of humor. They always
  surprise and delight. 
  The Yith Cycle
  #6047
  ISBN 1-56882-327-4
  $16.95
  The planet Yith is the home of the Great Race, a
  place inspiring H.P. Lovecraft and other authors to
  pen classic tales of travel through time and space.
  In “The Shadow Out of Time”  there is implicit a
  very different view of Homo Sapiens’ origins,
  derived directly from the modern mythology of
  the Theosophical Society. Lovecraft often men-
  tioned Theosophy as a kind of foil and precedent
  for his own Mythos in his stories. This collection
  includes tales of Yith both famous and obscure,
  replete with time travel, mind-exchange, and
  thrilling vistas of primordial history set in context
  that enables new readers and long-time
  Lovecraftian fans alike to enjoy them.
  Includes short stories by H.P. Lovecraft,
  August W. Derleth, Richard L. Tierney and many
  others.
  Mysteries of the Worm
  #6037
  ISBN 1-56882-176-X $15.95 
  “H.P. Lovecraft — like his creation, Cthulhu —
  never truly died. He and his influence live on, in the
  work of so many of us who were his friends and
  acolytes. Today we have reason for rejoycing in
  the widespread revival of his canon. . . . If a vol-
  ume such as this has any justification for its
  existence, it’s because Lovecraft’s readers
  continue to search out stories which reflect his con-
  tribution to the field of fantasy. . . . [The tales in this
  book] represent a lifelong homage to HPL . . . I hope
  you’ll accept them for what they were and are — a
  labor of love.”
  —Robert Bloch
  Robert Bloch  has become one with his fictional
  counterpart Ludvig Prinn: future generations of
  readers will know him as an eldritch name hover-
  ing over a body of nightmare texts. To know them
  will be to know him. And thus we have decided to
  release a new and expanded third edition of
  Robert Bloch’s Mysteries of the Worm. This collec-
  tion contains four more Mythos tales — “The
  Opener of the Way”, “The Eyes of the Mummy”,
  “Black Bargain”, and “Philtre Tip” — not included
  in the first two editions.
  The Yellow Sign & Other Stories
  #6023
  ISBN 1-56882-126-3
  $19.95
  This massive collection brings together the entire
  body of Robert W. Chambers' weird fiction works
  including material unprinted since the 1890's.
  Chambers is considered a landmark author in the
  field of horror literature for his King in Yellow col-
  lection, which itself represents but a small portion
  of his weird fiction work. These stories are inti-
  mately connected with the Cthulhu Mythos intro-
  ducing Hali, Carcosa, and Hastur.
  This book contains all the immortal tales of
  Robert W. Chambers, including "The Repairer of
  Reputations", "The Yellow Sign", and "The Mask".
  These titles are often found in survey anthologies.
  In addition to the six stories reprinted from The
  Yellow Sign (1895), this book also offers more than
  two dozen other stories and episodes, about 650
  pages in all. These narratives rarely have appeared
  in print. Some have not been published in nearly a
  century.
  A Chambers novel, The Slayer of Souls
  (1920), is not included in this short story collec-
  tion.
  The White People 
  & Other Tales
  #6035
  ISBN 1-56882-147-6
  $14.95
  THE BEST WEIRD TALES OF ARTHUR
  MACHEN, VOL 2. — Born in Wales in 1863,
  Machen was a London journalist for much of his
  life. Among his fiction, he may be best known for
  the allusive, haunting title story of this book, “The
  White People”, which H. P. Lovecraft thought to be
  the second greatest horror story ever written (after
  Blackwood’s “The Willows”). This wide ranging
  collection also includes the crystalline novelette “A
  Fragment of Life”, the “Angel of Mons” (a story so
  coolly reported that it was imagined true by mil-
  lions in the grim initial days of the Great War), and
  “The Great Return”, telling of the stately visions
  which graced the Welsh village of Llantristant for a
  time. Four more tales and the poetical “Ornaments
  in Jade” are all finely told. This is the second of
  three Machen volumes edited by S. T. Joshi and
  published by Chaosium; the first volume is The
  Three Impostors. 312 pages.
  CALL OF CTHULHU RPG
  CALL OF CTHULHU is a horror roleplaying game
  set in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos, as
  described by H. P. Lovecraft, the father of modern
  horror.
  Call of Cthulhu, sixth ed.
  #23106
  ISBN 0-56882-181-6
  $34.95
  CORE PRODUCT – The Great Old Ones ruled the
  earth aeons before the rise of humankind.
  Originally they came from the gulfs of space and
  were cast down by even greater beings. Remains of
  their cyclopean cities and forbidden knowledge
  can still be found on remote islands in the Pacific,
  buried amid the shifting sands of vast deserts, and
  in the frigid recesses of the polar extremes. Now
  they sleep — some deep within the enveloping
  earth and others beneath the eternal sea, in the
  drowned city of R'lyeh, preserved in the waters by
  the spells of mighty Cthulhu. When the stars are
  right they will rise, and once again walk this Earth.
  Call of Cthulhu is Chaosium’s classic roleplay-
  ing game of Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary
  people are confronted by the terrifying and alien
  forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. Call of Cthulhu uses
  Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system, easy to learn
  and quick to play. This bestseller has won dozens
  of game-industry awards and is a member of the
  Academy of Adventure Game Design Hall of Fame.
  In 2011 Call of Cthulhu celebrated its 30th anniver-
  sary. In 2003 Call of Cthulhu was voted the #1
  Gothic/Horror RPG of all time by the Gaming
  Report.com community. Call of Cthulhu is well-
  supported by an ever-growing line of high quality
  game supplements.
  This is a softcover 6th edition of this classic
  horror game, completely compatible with all of
  previous editions and supplements for Call of
  Cthulhu. This is a complete roleplaying game in
  one volume. All you need to play is this book, some
  dice, imagination, and your friends.
  Call of Cthulhu 
  Keeper’s Screen
  #23120
  ISBN 1-56882-345-2
  $15.95
  A 3-Panel Keeper's Screen mounted on thick
  hardcover stock that folds out to
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
  33 inches wide. One side, intended to face the
  players, portrays an investigative scene. The
  other side collects and summarizes important
  rules and statistics, to help ease the Keeper's task.
  The package includes a 22”x34” Mythos Vade
  Mecum poster by the mad french artists Christian
  Grussi and El Théo, postulating relationships
  between the deities and minions of the Cthulhu
  Mythos.
  H. P. Lovecraft’s Arkham
  #8803
  ISBN 1-56882-165-4
  $28.95
  “Behind everything crouched the brooding, festering
  horror of the ancient town . . . the changeless, leg-
  end-haunted city of Arkham, with its clustering
  gambrel roofs that sway and sag over attics where
  witches hid from the King's men in the dark, olden
  days of the Province.
  It was always a very bad time in Arkham . . . .”
  —H. P. Lovecraft
  Arkham is a small town along the Massachusetts
  coast-the setting favored by author Howard
  Phillips Lovecraft in his tales of monstrous horror.
  All in all a quiet place, Arkham is best-known as
  the home of Miskatonic University, an excellent
  school becoming known for its esoteric and dis-
  turbing volumes residing in its library's Restricted
  Collection. These tomes form the foundation of all
  current efforts to thwart the dire desires of the
  Mythos legion.
  H. P. Lovecraft's Arkham contains extensive
  background information about this haunted New
  England town — written to be used by serious
  investigators as a base from which to further
  explore the mysteries of the Cthulhu Mythos.
  Pertinent buildings, useful people, and important
  locations are described in depth. A 17x22" players’
  map of Arkham is bound into the back, and four
  thrilling adventures complete the package.
  Includes the H.P. Lovecraft short story “The
  Dreams in the Witch-house” (1933).
  H. P. Lovecraft’s Dunwich
  #8802
  ISBN 1-56882-164-6
  $25.95
  Dunwich is a small village located along the
  Miskatonic, upriver from Arkham. Until 1806,
  Dunwich was a thriving community, boasting
  many mills and the powerful Whateley family.
  Those among the Whateleys came to know
  dark secrets about the world, and they fell into the
  worship of unwholesome creatures from other
  times and places. Retreating to the hills and forests
  surrounding the town, they betrayed their uncor-
  rupted kin.
  Prosperity fled, and a dark despair seized the
  people. What remains is a skeleton town, mills
  closed, its citizens without hope or future.
  However, secrets of the Mythos survive, to be dis-
  covered by brave and enterprising investigators.
  H.P. Lovecraft’s Dunwich begins with “The
  Dunwich Horror,” Lovecraft’s masterful tale of life
  in the town and its surrounds. It expands upon the
  story with extensive information about the town:
  pertinent buildings, useful people, and important
  locations are described in detail. A 17x22” map
  depicts the area for miles around, and two scenar-
  ios are included. All statistics and gameplay notes
  for d20 Cthulhu are also provided.
  Keeper’s Companion II
  #2395
  ISBN 1-56882-186-7 $23.95
  A CORE BOOK FOR KEEPERS, VOL. 2—New to
  Call of Cthulhu? A battle-scarred veteran of many
  campaigns? Here are essential background articles
  useful to most keepers.
  “The History Behind Prohibition” — A
  lengthy article bringing anti-alcohol advocates,
  law enforcement, gangsters, rum-runners, and
  consumers into focus. Lots of good stories.
  “The Keeper’s Master List of Call of Cthulhu
  Scenarios” — Lists are alphabetical by the follow-
  ing topics: scenario era; creature / maniacs / great
  old ones; legendary heroes and villains; cults /
  sects / secret societies; Mythos tomes; fictitious
  locations; and Mythos books from publishers
  other than Chaosium. 
  “Iron: a Survey of Civilian Small Arms Used
  in the 1890’s, 1920’s, and the Present”.
  Practicalities of firearms; common malfunctions;
  new skills Handloading and Gunsmithing.
  Firearms considered are likely to be encountered
  or thought specially useful by investigators.
  Insightful discussions of nine specific rifles, five
  shotguns, ten handguns, a sniper rifle, and the
  Thompson submachine gun. Hot load damage val-
  ues for most weapons, along with comparative rat-
  ings for noise, maintenance, powder, reloading per
  round, more, plus standard stats.
  “Medical Examiner’s Report” discusses the
  unusual corpse recovered by the Essex County
  Sheriff’s Department, as does “Dr. Lippincot’s
  Diary” from another point of view. Also a short
  article on deep one / human reproduction. 
  Brian Sammon’s “Mythos Collector” submits
  write-ups for the Book of Iod, Chronike von Nath,
  Confessions of the Mad Monk Clinthanus, Letters of
  Nestar, The Nyhargo Codex, Soul of Chaos,
  Testament of Carnamago, The Tunneler Below,
  Visions From Yaddith, Von denen Verdammten, as
  well as for more than a dozen new spells.
  And More: “Mythos ex Machina” gathers
  about forty examples of alien technology from
  Cthulhu supplements. Gordon Olmstead-Dean
  outlines the odd connections between H. P.
  Lovecraft and the Satanists HPL never knew, in
  “LaVey, Satanism, and the Big Squid”. Indexed.
  Basic Roleplaying
  Welcome to Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system,
  a book that collects in one place rules and options
  for one of the original and most influential role
  playing game systems in the world.
  Basic Roleplaying
  #2026
  ISBN 1-56882-347-9
  $44.95
  A CORE HARDCOVER BOOK—This 
  book
  comprises a roleplaying game system, a frame-
  work of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a
  sort of improvisational radio theater—only with-
  out microphones—and with dice determining
  whe ther the characters succeed or fail at what they
  attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player
  takes on the role of the gamemaster (GM), while
  the other player(s) assume the roles of player char-
  acters (PCs) in the game. The gamemaster also
  acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being
  guided by players: these are called non-player
  characters (NPCs).
  From its origin, Basic Roleplaying was
  designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character
  attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Basic
  Roleplaying mechanics are even simpler. Virtually
  all rolls determining success or failure of a task are
  determined via the roll of percentile dice. This
  means that there’s less fiddling with dice of differ-
  ent types, and the concept of a percentile chance of
  success is extremely easy for beginners and expe-
  rienced players to grasp. There aren’t many easier
  ways to say a character has a 70% chance of suc-
  ceeding at an activity.
  The system is remarkably friendly to new-
  comers. It is easy to describe the basics of the
  game system, and the percentile mechanics, to
  non-gamers. 
  Players of other game systems often find
  Basic Roleplaying to be much less mechanistic and
  less of a barrier to the actual act of roleplaying.
  Less time spent on game systems usually equals
  more time available for roleplaying and thinking
  “in character.”
  Characters tend to evolve based on practicing
  the skills they use the most. They do not arbitrari-
  ly gain experience in skills and qualities based on
  ephemeral elements such as levels or experience
  ranks.
  Combat can be very quick and deadly, and
  often the deciding blow in a conflict is the one to
  land first.
  Basic Roleplaying is remarkably modular: levels
  of complexity can be added or removed as needed,
  and the core system works equally well with con-
  siderable detail as it does with a minimal amount
  of rules.
  Retail orders for Chaosium titles are filled and shipped by Fergie, our shippin’ shoggoth.
  To order, find us online at www.chaosium.com.
  copyright © 2011 by Chaosium Inc. and Pedro Ziviani
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Basic Roleplaying (BRP) (d100)/Sourcebooks/BRP - Mythic Iceland Adv - Night of the Yule Cat.pdf