There's a new mod for the Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind that lets a tabby cat protect you from mudcrabs.
Reddit user, and father, NoUsernamesNotTaken created the adorably named Stripes The Cat mod to protect his eleven-year-old child from the game's mud crabs. Stripes is a grey cat with, you guessed it, stripes on its body. It was modelled after the family's own cat and the father decided to use the cat’s likeness in the mod as it would be a familiar face in the game for his kids.
Stripes the Cat has proven to be popular with the entire Morrorwind community, as it has quickly become the hottest mod of the month on the Nexus Mods website. Stripes also seems to be the talk of the town in Morrowind, as when you've got the mod installed, he is in Caldera surrounded by NPCs, and even the moodiest of them, Julan, has taken a liking to him.
In-game you can feed Stripes rat meat to him to help the player bond with him. You can summon him with a ring given to you when you first encounter Stripes, and although Stripes is quite sassy, he seems to be very good at obeying orders as he will follow you if ordered to. This last aspect is like his real-life counterpart, as the IRL Stripes will follow obediently behind them whilst the family dog is stuck on the lead.
Stripes the Cat runs off the back of another mod known as Companionable Cats, so to get Stripes in your game, both mods must be downloaded. The modder who created Companionable Cats created it for her daughter so it's nice to see Stripes coming from the same familial need to protect.
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind was initially released in 2002. However, players are able to reignite the spark of Bethesda’s ageing classic with mods like these. Stripes the Cat is part of the annual Morrowind May Modathon, and this year the game also celebrates its 20th anniversary.
