The tavern was filled to bursting. Small wonder, for there was a celebration and all of the Red Moon mercenary band were attending and working hard to go drain the cellars of all booze. The campaign had ended and they were alive and well paid. In a few days they would take to the ships and head north. Until then, they drunk and swapped tales, played games and made song. Around several tables a band of them had gathered playing dice with no small bets, but all in good spirit. Over these hands tales were swapped as well, memories of comrades lost and victories won. And among them sat the strangest sight; a tall cat-woman, clad in black armor. The mercenaries around her paid her no special note as they were used to their comrade, but the regular patrons and staff kept glancing over at the strange figure, for rarely before had they seen a Tabaxi. It was tall, easily towering over the average man, but also lean. Black fur covered every visible bit of her and she had a cat's head and ears. What limbs of her that were visible rippled with muscle like that of a mighty jaguar. The rest was covered in plate, blackened to prevent the reflection of light. The armor was well-used and adjusted to the cat-woman, but she was not its first owner. In places insignia and markings had been removed or shaved away indicating that it was likely looted off the battlefield from someone of sufficient wealth to afford such armor. The Tabaxi clearly looked like she might have been the one to have ended the previous owner's life, for she struck a mighty figure that would not shirk from spilling blood. No, she looked like a predator in every way. Made to kill. But for now the Tabaxi seemed in good spirits while glancing at her coin pile and contemplating a raise of the stakes. But her companions had another thing on their mind.

The question came from Round Tom, a hulking man, as fat as he was tall, and a good fighter with his warmaul. Long had the company wondered about Chases Her Shadow and her strange ways, and stranger abilities.
"Ey. Shadow. How about it, think it's about time now?"
The Tabaxi barely looked up from her cup. "Time for what, raising the pot?"
Round Tom snorted, knowing that Chases Her Shadow knew full well what it was about.
"No. Yes, but No. It's about time you told us the whole thing about ya. You know. How come you can do the things you do. And where in the blazes you came from."
The mercenaries around the table gave their assent, a murmur of encouragement and taunts. The Tabaxi looked up from her cards and her ears twitched while her eyes twinkled.
"Oh?"
On her left, young Timmon, who had joined at far too young an age but was now blooded with his first campaign, piped up.
"Yeah, you promised at Two Stars. When it was over you'd tell us all about it."
The Tabaxi purred. It was something she often did when she was thinking over a situation. Finally, she assented.
"All right, all right.... But you best keep my mug filled, because this is a long one." She picked up her mug and took a good swig for the dramatic effect, and then stood and smiled.
"I.." She began. "Am from Emon."
Men around her blinked and looked at one another. Emon was known to all, even if few had ever seen it. They all knew for certain that was likely not the place where her kind came from. There were groans and dissent.
"Ah ah ah! I am! I am! But my parents, they were certainly not. They came from across the sea, from a distant land called Wildemount. Or was it Wildymount? I forget. Anyhow, there they came from, taken for forced labor on a galley. But when the ship berthed at Emon's docks they escaped together. Still, it meant they were stranded here, on this land. They made the best of their lives and settled in Emon, where they had a beautiful litter of pretty Tabaxi. And the prettiest of all was little Chases Her Shadow, of course." The men laughed and cheered.
"Now Emon is a fine place, but when I grew up, I wanted to see the world. Maybe even one day go to the land of my parents. But for that I needed coin, lots of coin! And what better way to earn coin then to thump some skulls, eh? Mother had taught me how to hunt, so I was good with a bow. I joined a caravan guard, then another, ended up traveling the up and down the coast's trade routes before I got a nice job on a ship. Sadly, some pirates did us the disservice of sinking said ship." Chases Her Shadow made a defeated face, much to the humor of her onlookers.
"Needless to say I was fired, but alive. A few days of rowing a little boat got us to land at least, and a few weeks on foot got us to the Emerald Outpost. And this is where I met a few of you fine folk after a while. I needed a new job, and why not mercenary work? A step up and better paid then being a simple guard. Riskier too of course. But I was broke as can be and this fat fish was dangled in my face, who was I to say no? Should have done so of course. Would have saved me from smelling Round Tom's socks one day." A round of laughter followed as Chases Her Shadow drained her mug and gestured for more.
"So then came our first mission. This was... nine years ago? We weren't much to look at in those days, about fifty of us, and we had no real name for ourselves so hardly the pick of jobs. We had to take what we could and that meant some of the smellier tasks. And this particular job stuffed us on a big ship. We had to put down some sort of uprising in some quarry city that had hit on bad times. Work was scarce, people were getting mad and as usual the nobility and merchants were fat and only getting fatter, and then someone had the bright idea to start a of revolt of sorts, if you can even call it that. The guards couldn't handle it so mercenaries were contracted, and we entered into that thankless mess. Mostly did policing, rounding up some of the ringleaders, protecting some mansions, nothing very fancy or glamorous, but our employers were rich bastards and they paid us every coin owed. Gotta give them that. That took us the better part of a year and by the time we were done things had calmed down enough and the nobles were quite pleased with us and themselves. Our contract was about to end and we were saying our goodbyes, when some of us were invited by one of the lords for a goodbye party."
Chases Her Shadow looked thoughtful a moment, then sipped from her refilled mug.
"I'm not going to tell which one. Some things you better off not knowing. But here is how it went. Our boss, old Silver Swing back then, bless his spirit, was invited to this mansion. Big, opulent, gated. Real sight to see. But on the inside, oh, you've never seen the like. Tapastries, rugs, vases and tables, gold everywhere. It was like a never ending treasure room. How do I know? I was invited too. We didn't know why. We guessed because the lord wanted to see a Tabaxi. No Tabaxi in that place, right? Turned out we were right. The lord did. He was a big human, ten ears older then I was I think, probably good looking for a furless ape. Dressed in silks and gold and jewels. Very charming, but at the same time a real arrogant bastard. He was a good host though. Gave us some of the finest food I've ever tasted, and the wine was like honey. He listened to our tales but it was quickly clear he really only was interested in me. But I was fine with it, you know? As long as I kept talking I also got to keep eating and drinking. Gheh." Approving murmurs went around.
"So the evening went on and it was time to leave. The lord wanted to give a tour of his mansion, but Silver Swing excused himself, knowing he was not really wanted around any more and off he was. So it was me and the lord, and his thousand servants. He showed me around, telling where things in his house had come from, all that. I was a little bored with it but you know, this seemed like a guy who seemed good to have as a friend so I went along with it. And then we reached his library. At least a few hundred books, a nice reading place, all that, and we sat down for some drinks. After we got them, the lord told me he had a secret, and he wanted to share it. At this point I was a bit tipsy, and really didn't think this was going to be good, but here we went. And this lord, he changed in front of my face. I had to look at my drink a moment to think he had put something in it, but no, he had really changed. And he was weird. Now, imagine this guy changing into a Tabaxi, like me. Except instead of this cat that I am, he's far more broad and muscular. His fur was brown and white with black stripes, and his mane was shorter, and mostly white. So I thought I had found some strange sort of Tabaxi, but then I noticed his hands.."
She held her own hands up. "..they were on the wrong way. His palms... faced outward." She tried to turn around her hands to show, but couldn't really.
"So I asked if he was a Tabaxi, really confused. And he said he wasn't. He was something else. Their race calls itself Rakshasa. No idea what it means. But apparently they come from very far and are all powerful sorcerers, but they are also competing against each other constantly so they spread out and each tries to make their own little realm by getting rich and powerful. But he felt he could confide in me, one sort of cat to another. Well. That was nice." Chases Her Shadow scratched her head. The next part needed some glossing over.
"Now, I mentioned he was a bit of an arrogant bastard, but a good host. But once he had fur he was a damn handsome fellow, and it had been a while for me, you know what I mean? So one thing led to the next, and I got to see his bed, real nice. Goose down pillows and silk sheets. And the next morning there was a lovely breakfast together. And he asked if I wanted to stay. Now, let me tell you, one damn tempting offer. Good food and comfort for the rest of my life. But I knew I would never be his equal. He wanted me more as a... plaything. So I said I wasn't done seeing the world, maybe later. But he didn't get angry. He said he wanted to show me one more thing before I left." Chases Her Shadow glanced around. "No, we were not going back to the bed! Listen!" She smirked.
"We went to his vaults where he keeps all his gold and jewels, as if he hadn't enough around the house. And on a big pedestal in the middle was a sword. A scimitar. Jeweled hilt, ivory sheath, beautiful like you wouldn't believe. And he picked it up and drew it from its sheath, and he told me this sword was special. For one, it could talk. Second, it was made of a piece of a god. I guess I should explain this bit. Umm.. let's see." Chases Her Shadow scratched her chin a moment.
"You know how many races have their own versions of the gods? Cats have a few too. Except not that many. But the biggest one is called the Cat Lord. Simple right? God of all cats, except he's really different from what people around here call gods. For one, he grows old and dies. But he passes on his power to another cat, and that cat becomes the Cat Lord. Can be any sort of cat. Tabaxi, Lynx, house cat.. anything. And all he wants is to make sure all cats thrive. Simple right? So anyhow, in one past life the Cat Lord was this huuuge lion. Big as a house. And he fought some sort of god-snake. Fought so hard the earth shook. And they killed each other. Now the Cat Lord was fine with this, his power would pass on to another cat. God-snake? Not so happy. And when folk came to the place of the battle and found the bodies, they saw the power of the Cat Lord fade away from its body as it passed on. Except for one claw, that was stuck in the God-snake. So they took this big claw, and wondered what to do with it. And they decided to make a sword out of it. Get where this is going? Now, this sword, simply named the Claw of the Cat Lord, or just the Claw, had a spark of the Cat Lord's power in it. And it woke up one day and could talk. And like the Cat Lord, it only wanted to make sure cats thrived everywhere. It had all these magical powers, and would choose a champion to wield it. And if it thought someone better came along, poof, it disappeared and went to a new owner. Lots of good stories about that sword told by my father before bed time." She let out a content sigh.
"Well. Except, you know, here it was. Right in front of my nose. Something I thought was just made up for good story time was real. I knew it was real because I could hear it talk. In my head. Weirdest thing. It seemed to know everything about me and then offered me a deal. If I did things the Cat Lord would do on my travels, it would share some of its power with me. That basically meant 'be good to cats'. Not that hard right? So why not? I accepted, and bang! Powers! Flowed right into me. You've seen some of the tricks I can do. I mean, I'm no god or anything. I got a small piece of power from a small piece of a god, who's really not as powerful as the other gods. Pretty watered down at this point, right? Still, neat tricks." She shrugged.
"And that's it really. Oh, except the lord gave me this armor. I think the Claw made him actually. He wasn't the type to give away wealth like that. But he wasn't angry. Made me promise to come visit if I was nearby. Probably will, wouldn't mind some good grub. But off I went, and that's that really. After that place it was the goblin war, and that's where over the years most of you lot signed on, so you know the rest."
Folk murmured, and began thinking over the tale. After a few moments young Timmon piped up again.
"So if I had fur..."
Everyone laughed. It was a good night.