Chaos reigns and everything requires immediate attention as the Patina strives to complete their mission.
Chaos reigns and everything requires immediate attention as the Patina strives to complete their mission.
Content Warnings:
- Violence
- Explosions
Cast:
- Marathon Messenger is played by Penn Van Batavia. She's an indie TTRPG designer who just launched a new game, Wasmannian, a solo RPG about bees, wasps, and otherness in a binary world. You can find Penn on Twitter at @acquiredchaste.
- Cassidy Shard is played by Sydney Whittington. She also edits the show. Find her on Twitter at @sydney_whitt.
- Emma Blackwood is played by Cameron Robertson. Find her on Twitter at @midnightmusic13 and on Instagram at @reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
- Birdie Foundling is played by Kit Adames. Find her on Twitter at @venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor and writer on Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast.
- Our GM and narrator is Nick Robertson. Find him on Twitter at @alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron, which you can support at Patreon.com/TabletopSquadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
Music & Sound Credits:
- This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.
- old radio Channel search sound effect by Garuda1982. Link & License.
- Wood. » WOODBrk_Rotten tree.Hitting And Splitting With An Axe 4_EM.wav by newlocknew. Link & License.
- Blasts » ExplosionBombBlastAmbient6.wav by zimbot. Link & License.
- Dusty by Crowander. Link & License.
- Running Eiskrokodil (ID 01) - Remastered by Lobo Loco. Link & License.
Art Credits:
- The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @rashedjrs.
Find Us Online:
- Our Website
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A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript
Season 2 Episode 14: Emanating Menace
Transcript by Cameron Robertson
Intro:
[hurdy gurdy music begins]
Nick: Welcome, listeners, to A Knight of Shreds and Patches. An immersive actual play podcast. This episode features the talents of –
Penn: Penn Van Batavia as Marathon Messenger.
Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling.
Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood.
Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard.
Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.
Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:
Thanks for being a listener, today and every day! Only the coolest people listen to our show, so consider leaving us an iTunes review, which makes it easier for us to find new listeners, and will make the world just a little cooler for each new person that finds us. And if you want to be even cooler than being cool, ice cold even, consider backing our Patreon, where you’ll get access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 2, Episode 14: Emanating Menace. And so...
Join us, for now our tale to yours attaches
To carry hope: a Knight of Shreds and Patches.
[hurdy gurdy music ends]
[electronic beeping]
[robotic powerup noise begins]
Distorted Robotic Voice: Power restored. Systems online. Reconfiguring audio connection.
[robotic powerup noise fades to radio frequency static]
[over radio]
Sydney (as Cassidy): Last time on a Knight of Shreds and Patches, I took the Knight out to do what it does best. Their "big gun" blew a bunch of holes in the street around me as i charged the fortress, then climbed the wall, disabled the gun with Emma's crossbow cannon thing, "disabled" a rocket launcher bandit with Emma's crossbow cannon thing, and regretted not figuring out how to bring the sword as a pile of ne'er-do-wells stopped me from getting to the gate and letting everyone in. Fortunately, I'm not alone, as Emma stopped their radio jamming, Birdie infiltrated the base and got the gate open, and Marathon finished clearing out civilians and came to look intimidating.
[radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: The first thing we see is a cloud of acrid smoke rising above what was once the settlement of the Advantia in the town of Iota. Chaos reigns as we see blue electric sparks rising from shattered hardware along the outside of the town. The walls have been blown apart that protected the Advantia keep and we can see the Knight standing in the center of the courtyard, having destroyed everything that gets in its way, creating both a distraction and a serious, credible threat as it strikes at the heart of this bandit incursion. Emma is outside of the walls having recently taken down the system that was blocking their radios heading back towards the rest of the group, Marathon and Birdie are by the gate having just gotten the door open finally allowing for everyone to regather, and the Knight has just been jumped on by a bandit from the walls carrying some sort of incursion tool, a diamond drill bit aimed towards important parts. And a another earthquake shakes the ground.
Sydney: Cassidy gets the proximity alarm warning and then immediately following an incursion alert, takes a second to process what that means, and then understands, ah, there is someone on the back of the Knight that should not be on the back of the Knight and should not be able to hit anything vital. And looks out, turns back towards this open courtyard and tucks her arm in and rolls to put the entire back of the Knight on the ground through the course of this roll in a way that any human type shape would now be a human type smear.
Nick: All right, go ahead and make me a Coordination check with the Knight. I do think there's going to be two black die on this because the Knight was not designed to do action rolling. This doesn't feel as intuitive as most of the motions you've done so far. Average difficulty to do an action roll, but I'm going to flip one of my own story points to upgrade the difficulty.
Sydney: Fortunately, Cassidy also has a knack for Coordination so I remove those two black die and then Cassidy is also rather trained in Coordination so with the Knight's Agility stats, which are the same as Cassidy's, I'm rolling two yellows, two greens, a purple and a red.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Three successes and two advantages.
Nick: So you are able to throw yourself into a roll. The alarms stop. It's a weird feeling, doing a roll in the Knight. Everything's felt very natural to you, it's been very organic so far, surprisingly so, but this you do feel some vertigo as the screens that are your interface with the outside world tilt disconcertingly, and you're more aware of the Knight around you. The proximity alert alarms stop and the incursion alarm stops, but as you gain your feet again, you hear a voice, one that you haven't heard before coming from the main panel.
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] Something still on hull. Problem. Help needed.
Nick: And the voice is deep and rumbling - you're almost unsure if you're hearing it or if it's within your head. And we're going to cut away - Birdie and Marathon from where you're standing, you see as the rumble of the earthquake stops, the Knight throw itself wildly across the ground. The bandit who was pinned onto the back of the Knight throws himself free, rolling along the ground appearing to be unharmed. You see that whatever tool or drill he had is still jammed into the back armor of the Knight and while you can no longer hear the high whine that pierced the ambient noise of this battle of the drill running, you do see that there's a flashing light on the back of it even from this distance. It's very bright. You also see that while most of the bandits in this courtyard are focused on the Knight, you all have been noticed standing over by the gate.
Penn (as Marathon): Well uh, first of all, I just want to address it now. Nice lats. Nice form, Birdie, pulling down the gate handle.
Kit (as Birdie): [still sounding strained from exertion] Nice what?
Penn (as Marathon): Uh anyway,
Kit (as Birdie): [recovery is a slow process] Huh?
Penn (as Marathon): So what's the plan? You want to go for the drill bit? You want to go uh, wha- we want to people it, looks people are looking at us and I'm not -
Kit (as Birdie): [tired but in a scared way] Uhh.
Penn (as Marathon): - confident in what the plan is because I'm just me.
Nick: You hear the rattle of crossbows being raised and pointed in your direction.
Penn (as Marathon): Oh god.
Penn: Marathon takes cover.
Kit: Birdie is going to squeeze behind whatever cover Marathon is behind.
Nick: There is a low barricade of trash and debris that you're able to throw yourselves behind. If anyone takes the time to try and flank or get a new angle, it won't be much good, but you are not currently within the line of fire.
Kit (as Birdie): I think we just really need to not be here right now. Uh~.
Penn (as Marathon): Sure, sure. And what was that about like a distress call?
Kit (as Birdie): [stutter]
Penn (as Marathon): Is that our job?
Kit (as Birdie): [still lost in the tired fog] I think - yeah, I think that's, I think that's what we're supposed to do. I think we should just yeah, we should do our job. Yes.
Penn (as Marathon): Uh [over radio] Gander to Kestrel.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [slightly winded] Hey Gander.
Cameron: Emma is breathing slightly heavily. [laughing]
Nick: You begin to hear the heavy thuds of an exosuit running along the perimeter of the wall and towards the door.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Uh Kestrel, um Cassid- Cormorant needs some help. Uh there's like a thing sticking out of the big thing and we need help.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [winded] Okay. I'm almost there.
Cameron: The thumping is getting louder.
Penn (as Marathon): Okay, so gameplan we're gonna we're gonna run against a wall here. Is that-?
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Penn (as Marathon): What do we know where these people are held?
Kit (as Birdie): Uh~.
Penn (as Marathon): Did you see them? When you were, you know, taking your tour?
Kit (as Birdie): No. No, I haven't seen them. But um, I assume that they would have to be a basement. That's something that I couldn't have seen without someone from this compound. Leaving me there. Right. Sure. I don't think they keep them on the ground floor where anyone could just walk in here. Help us.
Penn (as Marathon): Let's go to the place. You didn't go. Yeah, it's always in the last place. You look.
Nick: Okay, so Are y'all trying to run across the courtyard to the main keep because that's the place you haven't seen yet?
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Kestrel we're also going to need cover on our way to save uh~, Ipa.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [winded] Okay. [pause for breathing] I'm sure that can be arranged.
Nick: And we see Marathon and Birdie trying to hop from cover to cover to stay out of line of fire of these crossbowman and heading towards the main Advantia keep and the armored sealed door. Cassidy - What does it look like inside of the Knight right now?
Sydney: When this voice spoke Cassidy's first instinct was it's someone on her radio channel, someone that should not be on her radio channel. This is the Patina's radio and she hits a couple of buttons and then realizes that no it came from in the cockpit? And furrows her brow and then doesn't have time to deal with that because there is a horde of infantry men with spears trying to stick the pointy ends into the hydraulic hoses and wiring harness and everything that makes up the Knights basic functionality. There's maybe something's still stuck in the Knight's back, but the alarm stopped going off so like maybe it's fine and that's eh~ - there's more pressing threats.
Nick: On that note, as you're looking around at the infantry, the overall color scheme of the HUD on the Knight and the switches is a mellow blue-green and you see red light from the side of your vision as some of the blue-green lines and tracing and dials begin to slowly turn red and it's seems to be spreading from the back of the cockpit towards the front.
Sydney: What other junk is in the courtyard? Cause I'm going to have Cassidy hit them with something.
Nick: You could use -
Sydney: [interrupting] I could use the gun.
Nick: - a big piece of the gun. Yeah.
Sydney: Cassidy reaches down, pulls a chunk off of the big gun that had previously been down and just throws it over hand towards the thickest clump of dudes trying to make an approach. One of the bandits that was in that clump of adversaries vanishes, and there is an impact against the far wall of the courtyard with a uh slightly less solid impact than would have been imagined from the material that was thrown and she hits her radio button.
Sydney: [over radio] [ever so slightly panicked] Kestrel, Cormorant. Why are my displays turning red? Is that a thing?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] What?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] The displays are turning red.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] That should not be a thing.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It's a thing.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [confused freak out] Okay~.
Nick: Over the radio, before it cuts out Emma, you hear the beginning of a deep crackly voice and then the radio turns off and Cassidy you hear between your broadcasts
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] The incursion, it will wake the other. Bad~.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Are you on my radio or you in the cockpit with me and why are you talking to me while we're fighting?
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] Bad~.
Sydney: Cassidy attempts to hit a mute button and get back on the radio.
Nick: So when you press the radio this voice cuts out and you're able to broadcast - you override it.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Also apparently the Knight’s trying to talk to me or there's something hacking us or maybe there's more than one thing.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Cormorant come again. I thought you just said that the Knight was talking to you.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] If it's not the Knight, there's something else in the cockpit with me.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] [Emma stress level = 3] Oh, gosh. Okay.
Nick: As this conversation is happening, the Knight is still drawing a majority of the attention. Birdie and Marathon you're making your way across the courtyard.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Kestrel this is Gander. We're getting pinned down. We we also need assistance.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [Emma stress level = 4] Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Nick: We see Marathon and Birdie, you are crouched behind what was once a well sized barrier, but part of it was torn away by some of the shrapnel kicked by the Knight. You are dangerously exposed but worried that if you move you'll be even more so and you can see three bandits with heavy crossbows taking aim and about to pull the trigger.
Penn (as Marathon): Dirt.
Kit (as Birdie): [concerned noise]
Cameron: Emma has left her radio on since it just makes sense to leave it on the whole time while she's in the robot so that she can focus on other things and the breathing is just getting louder as she's speeding up trying to get closer.
Nick: Emma make me a hard Athletics check to push yourself and to rescue your friends before they're hit by these crossbows.
Cameron: I'm gonna go ahead and flip a story point just to be doubly sure. So my dice pool is three yellows, a green and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes and a triumph.
Nick: So describe how you protect your friends. You're able to make it there and other good things happen as well.
Cameron: Emma is so close to making it to the doors of the compound and is pushing the exo frame to its limits of how fast it can run and is pushing the limits of how fast she can run. She will probably regret this later because she doesn't like running. But she makes it to the doors which had opened enough to let Marathon in but hadn't fully open. So she busts through them throwing them fully open, does a quick scan of where everybody is in this courtyard and then continues running towards where Birdie and Marathon are pinned down. And she's running, she has both arms out to the side and she's holding her sword in one hand and holding the giant wood support beam that she took from one of the houses in the other in the anime style running with your hands backwards. And I think she makes it to right in front of them so she's in between them and the group that's going to be shooting the crossbow bolts and whips the wood around to serve as a shield.
Nick: And as you do that, they let fly with the bolts and pinion your wooden shield, but they do not hit you or your friends. Is there anything you want to use that triumph for?
Cameron: How many people were there that shot?
Nick: Three.
Cameron: Okay. So as Emma lands in front of Marathon and Birdie, and we hear the three thunks as the three arrows hit her staff we'll say? It's kind of, size wise it works as a staff for her when she's in the Exosuit. And she shifts her grip on it to where she's instead of holding it backwards and up, she shifts it so that she can push it and just shoots her arm forward, throwing it towards the three people who shot to try to just clothesline all of them.
Nick: Yeah, the three of them in unison catch this heavy beam and are thrown backwards and crushed beneath it as it was much heavier than they were expecting. They are definitely out of this fight and you've protected your friends from the immediate threat.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [sounds tired but in an energized way] All right go go which w- which way are you going?
Nick: There's a steel door a quarter of the way across the courtyard. Picture a castle with a main door like the actual building of the castle within the walls, but it's kind of low and bunker looking and this is the one entrance that hasn't been covered in debris or sealed up or whatever.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Uh we're trying to get to that bunker keep.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [yeah definitely tired] All right y'all go, I'll cover.
Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Thanks Emma~.
Cameron: Emma is now serving as the wall between them and the rest of the bandit cohort.
Nick: Okay, so the three of you head towards that door.
Penn: Doing that crouch run thing.
Nick: Yeah. [laugh] Cassidy you see from the corner of your HUD, the three markers of the other members of your team heading inside. The red light is continuing to spread across your cockpit and the deep voice has gone silent.
Sydney: The Knight lunges forward and picks up a bandit, as Cassidy is again engaging the radio.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Kestrel, Cormorant. So someone climbed on the back and poked me with something or stuck something I don't know, I shook him off and then some voice came on telling me things were were unhappy. And
Sydney: And Cassidy just throws this dude entirely clear over the wall not to be seen again.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] I shook the dude off, but now there's red that keeps going forward into my displays and there's [sounds of someone who has reached the limits of their understanding of technology] Does any of this make sense?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Uh. So yeah. [Emma stress level = 4.5] So uh something was inserted and is hacking your systems. Um. You say it's on your back, can you reach it?
Sydney: Cassidy sweeps a leg out to shoo the closest bandits away and then tries to get the Knight to bend back in the way that she definitely would be able to if she was not in the mech suit.
Nick: Yeah, you all see the Knight reaching towards its back and maybe for the first time you see what some of the limitations of this armored suit are. The joints just don't bend that way. The mech isn't able to reach that part of itself without causing itself damage and so it stops. Cassidy is not able to remove this herself.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Nope, it doesn't reach that far.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay. All right. You'll need assistance on that then. Um. [Emma stress level = 5] Is the stuff on your screen just turning red or can like, is it just turning red and remaining the same words that you'd normally be seeing and things you'd normally be seeing or are words changing at all?
Nick: Cassady up to this point, it had just been turning red, but now you're beginning to see artifacting in the vision on the screen and some of the displays going dark and flashing on or showing numbers that make no sense. The system appears to be being compromised.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It's getting all digitally and things are starting to go black.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Shit.
Cameron: Emma thwacks someone with her sword as she's running with the other two.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Thank you!
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] I um. [thinking pause] If you can make your way over to this side of the courtyard, as soon as they're good I can I can try to get it out, but if you can't reach it, that's I don't I don't know how else you're gonna get - I I can't -there's nothing I can do from over here besides pulling whatever is depositing the code in like I - if I can't pull that out then I don't know. Ugh. I don't...[longer sigh] [Emma stress meter ticking up]
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] [sounding overly cheerful] All~ right! Let's try it.
Sydney: And Cassidy takes a step, gets caught on a piece of soil, reaches down scoops up the rock that was buried and sidearms it towards one of the bandits that had just finished retreating and thought that they were safe, and then moves towards the spot that Emma had indicated.
Nick: As you were attempting to move across this courtyard while you were being hacked, Cassidy make me a daunting Resiliency check with the Knight.
Sydney: So I'm using the Knight's Brawn for this plus Cassidy's skill, so I am rolling one yellow and four greens against four purples and then I'm going to flip a story point to upgrade one of those greens to yellow.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: That is six successes and two threats.
Nick: Oh, good. Okay, so your mobility is not being affected. Your vision, while it is getting glitchy, is still effective. The deep voice that you heard before seems to have gone silent for now, but you do see a popup warning flashing in yellow letters on one of the side screens that says 'Non Critical Systems Quarantine' and the air begins to get warm and stale in here as the circulation stops. And the cockpit itself just gets much more warm and less comfortable. It is more effort now to pilot than it was before. You're not really sure why it just seems to be taking more energy and you take two Strain as you work your way across the courtyard.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Kestrel something is making it heat up in here. And that is not a metaphor.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [Emma stress level = 5.5] Okay. Is there anything on the screen when that happened?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Non critical system quarantined?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [Emma stress level = 5] Okay! Hey, that's not bad. Uh~. It's not great that um - it's obviously going to make life more uncomfortable for you but um
Cameron: Thwack! Hit somebody with a sword.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] That's good. It's - the Knights trying to take care of itself. Good. Hmm.
Nick: And we see Birdie and Marathon make it to the door of this keep, we see Emma protecting them from any bandits that notice they're there, and the Knight making its way across the courtyard fighting all the while. Marathon and Birdie this door is thick and steel and appears to be sealed tight.
Kit (as Birdie): Um.
Penn (as Marathon): Emma is this something you can just bust through?
Cameron: Emma turns around and punches it. Can we see if I can do enough damage to punch it to make a good hole for Birdie to put a blast in?
Nick: Yeah, I think that's a great idea. Emma go ahead and make me a Brawl check at average difficulty.
Cameron: All right, so my dice pool is a yellow and three greens, two purples and a blue because this is a combat check against the door.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes, two advantages.
Nick: You are able to punch a large dent in the door. The outer armor of it cracks a little with the force of your blow. It is too hard to punch through easily but not hard enough to shatter. You do some damage to it, but it would take quite a while to kick this open with brute force unfortunately.
Cameron: Emma spins back around to face back out towards the the enemies and is shaking out her hand which doesn't make any sense, but she is.
Penn (as Marathon): Is that-
Kit (as Birdie): Uh-
Penn (as Marathon): Is that a no?
Kit (as Birdie): That's -
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] I-I probably could make it through if I sat here and kept punching it but there are dudes, so -
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah. That's okay. Thanks. Thank you Emma! That's perfect.
Kit: And Birdie slings down her backpack and Marathon you just hear bottles clinking as she pulls out -
Penn (as Marathon): Are you gonna punch it?
Kit (as Birdie): No. Wha- the only thing that would happen if I punched it would be my hand breaking.
Kit: And she just is stuffing a napkin into a large glass bottle and is trying to fit this homemade explosive into the dent that Emma created.
Nick: Hey, Birdie roll me a Classical Knowledge check at average difficulty, but you can have two blue die because of your experience with this kind of thing. Because there's something that you might know about trying to do explosive entry with a fire bomb - I'm just curious if you do.
Kit: Okay, so that's two green, two purple, and two blue. One success, two advantages. There we go.
Nick: So you're preparing to shove this molotov into this hole, and you remember back to some of the more aggressive repairs that you had done in Sasnak. And you don't think based on the armor and strength of this door that the molotov setup that you have is going to create enough of a breach to get in. But with those advantages, you do realize that you are next to another pile of ammunition for the big gun and for the rifles that have already been claimed by some of the bandits. You realize that those weapons appear to have been picked up but you still haven't heard any gunfire which is concerning, but you're able to put together very quickly while the fire bomb won't work, you might be able to make something a lot stronger that would.
Kit: So what Marathon sees is Birdie trying to push the molotov into this dent, pausing, looking down at this pile of ammunition and just this devious smile on her face. [laugh] And she just shoves the molotov into Marathon's hands and is like,
Kit (as Birdie): Hold this.
Penn (as Marathon): Oh! [startled and concerned] Is it going to explode in my hands or-?
Kit (as Birdie): No you have to light first for it to explode!
Penn (as Marathon): [reassured and calm again] Okay.
Kit: And is just gathering as many of these rounds as she can carry. So Birdie is gonna whip out a roll of duct tape from her backpack and then maneuver Marathon's hands so that she's holding the bottle while Birdie is duct taping these rounds to the bottle. And it's kind of a hack job but it's going to have to work for her and Marathon watches her take out one last thing. It's a small marker and she draws a little smiley face on the bomb before setting it in the dent and being like,
Kit (as Birdie): Okay, uh Marathon, maybe uh just back up a little bit. I'll I'll uh
Penn (as Marathon): Yes ma'am. I - wherever.
Kit (as Birdie): Yep. Uh.
Kit: And she's gonna light the fuse and just yell to Emma.
Kit (as Birdie): [sounding more nonchalant than someone with a bomb should] Uh Bomb? Bombs gonna go off!
Cameron: Emma action rolls forward.
Nick: Just out of curiosity, Birdie, how far do you move to get to cover?
Kit: How far can I move to get to a conceivably good cover without getting shot full of arrows?
Nick: I think you're able to run and slide and get behind some cover 10 or 15 yards away, you would probably be fine out there. I was just curious if you were going to be danger close or were going to try to get Marathon further out, that's all.
Penn: After Emma action rolls, Marathon also slides so that the combat rig is positioned between her and the explosion.
Nick: The molotov is set, Birdie has gotten behind cover, Marathon is so that the exosuit is between her and the explosion. Emma, it feels like everyone needs you at the same time. Marathon is using you as cover for an imminent breach, you were protecting Birdie from crossbow fire, you can begin to see that some of the bandits are switching to rifles as though they've decided to burn their more permanent resources in an attempt to repel this assault. And the Knight is working its way towards you, but you know, the longer a hacking incursion is allowed to take place, the more permanent damage it could cause. What do you prioritize?
Cameron: Emma's going to continue to prioritize Marathon and Birdie for the moment at least until they get into the room because they are most exposed at the moment and Cassidy is working her way towards her so progress is still being made on the Knight front. But since Birdie ran to the side, and Marathon came and got in front of Emma, since Emma is still fighting people, she switches to have her sword one handed and picks up Marathon with the other arm.
Penn (as Marathon): Woah! Hey!
Cameron: So that she can continue to fight without stepping on Marathon. And so now it's just like a child fighting holding a doll.
Penn (as Marathon): This is a strange feeling. Okay.
Cameron: It's not comfortable because the exo frame is metal right? And there are edges and the arm was not meant to lovingly hold anyone [laughing] in a comforting way, but at least you're not getting stepped on and Emma is keeping herself between Marathon and the explosion but also making it so that any people coming at her are hitting the side that she's not holding Marathon on.
Penn (as Marathon): My feet are off the ground. Okay, thank you, Emma.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Birdie how long till this explodes?
Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Ah~.
Kit: And it just explodes.
Nick: This explosion tears the door open, flinging shrapnel in all directions. Bits of stone and masonry are also thrown. Some bandits are forced to cover. There is the loud pinging noise of shrapnel bouncing off of Emma in the exosuit and Cassidy in the Knight. Cassidy you see this door breached, there's billowing oily smoke - it is twining up in the sky above with the smoke that you created destroying the big gun in the courtyard. Two things draw your attention more than anything else. One, several of the bandits appear to have switched to bolt action rifles and are aimed solidly at you and about to fire and two, the blue-green parts of your display that were not yet infected with this red light from the incursion turns a sickly dark purple-black. Still lit up but not in a way that you've seen before and a different voice comes through the cockpit
Sydney (as The Other): [over internal speakers] [very computerized] This incursion will not be tolerated.
Nick: And your controls go limp in the Knight. The joysticks are no longer responsive. The Knight is still functioning but it is seemingly doing its own thing. As the purple black light begins to push back against the red, the night thoughtlessly reaches down, grabs a bandit that's scrambling for cover and crushes it to sausage in its fist before stomping towards another group of bandits and away from Emma and the bandits open fire on you.
Sydney: Cassidy tries to hit the radio button. It doesn't do anything. Cassidy hits it again looking out the display as the Knight is doing things without her and then hits the radio on her wild tech headset instead of the Knight's radio and goes
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] [over this shit] Emma, why is it moving without me?
Cameron: You start talking on your wild tech headset right as Emma, who had still been talking to you when the Knight radio cut out, so you just hear
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [yelling] Where are you going?!?! [more normal volume] Wait what?
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Go Cassidy! Hell yeah! Crush'em.
Nick: Cassidy you hear the original voice you had heard in the Knight say
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] It has awoken. Must protect myself.
Nick: And about a third of the indicators and screens all go dark, the rest still being infected with that sickly purple light. And you also see through the remaining displays, the bandits holding rifles open fire on you, and I need someone to roll four yellows at average difficulty with two blue die. Now these are rifles so it probably won't hurt the Knight but it sure could crit which could be a problem.
Cameron: Four yellow, two blue, two purple.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Well. Three successes, one threat, and two triumphs.
Nick: So that would do 12 damage, but that is nowhere near enough to pierce the Knight's armor. You hear bullets ricocheting off but it is with those triumphs enough to crit, so I need you to roll a crit on the vehicle chart plus 10 because of the extra triumph.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: I rolled the 12 so it's a 22 - Shrapnel Spray: chunks of metal or wood are hurled at the occupants at deadly velocity. The pilot and occupants must each make a hard Resilience or Vigilance check or suffer one wound or suffer one wound plus one additional wound per any failures on the check. And then you can spend three threats or a despair from the check to inflict a critical entry on the character.
Nick: So something from the life support system buried within the armor takes an unlucky shot, and the mech was already beginning to heat up inside. Cassidy is beginning to sweat, but some superheated gas from the back of the cockpit ruptures and starts to spray into the cockpit potentially hurting her.
Sydney: Cassidy immediately reacts and tries to get that superheated gas leak covered or at least aimed away before it starts causing her too terribly much bodily harm. So I'm going to roll a hard Resilience check. So I am rolling a yellow and a green against three purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Two threats.
Nick: Okay, so you take one wound. Cassidy you're able to get this out of the way to where it's not going to continually injure you but you do take some burns on your hands and you take a wound as you are dealing with this and the Knight continues to rampage across the courtyard.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Emma the Knight is doing stuff and I'm getting shot at.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [Emma stress level = 5.5] Okay.
Cameron: Since the explosion has happened, Emma spins around, sets Marathon down and kind of gently pushes her towards the door to just get her out of her turn radius [laughing] for when she spun back around and then spins around and takes off across the courtyard to go chase down the Knight which is now rampaging away.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Okay, yeah. Thank you! Yeah help her get her. Get them. Yeah.
Nick: And so Emma, you go chasing after the Knight. It is starting to move more quickly and before Cassidy did not have qualms about removing threats, but there's a certain ferocity in the Knights attacks now. It is no longer using the slingshot on its arm, it is crushing and kicking and creating a lot more collateral damage as you attempt to catch up to it. Marathon and Birdie you are standing before the smoking door where you've breached to go and try to rescue the Advantia that you know are held captive inside. When you hear a familiar voice calling from across the courtyard.
Cameron (as Elvira): [yelling] [country western accent] Hey! Come over here!
Kit: Birdie just glances behind herself and sighs and is just like,
Kit (as Birdie): Uh, Marathon you'd better better go. I think I have to deal with something real quick.
Penn (as Marathon): Wha- in the middle of, what? Just come with me. What? Let's go.
Kit (as Birdie): Well, if I - look, I - she's running towards us. I want to make less -
Cameron (as Elvira): [yelling] [country western accent] Just who do you think you are?
Kit (as Birdie): [sigh] I want to make less problems for whoever's getting the Advantia out of there. It's better if we don't have to fight as many people.
Penn (as Marathon): Who is this? Oh my wait -
Kit (as Birdie): You don't remember Elvira?
Penn: Marathon gets a glazed look as she flashes back to her drunk night. She's like,
Penn (as Marathon): Oh. Oh no. Oh. Okay. Um.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, you deal with that. Uh.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Penn (as Marathon): Um, don't take too long.
Kit (as Birdie): I'll be down. I'll be down. Don't worry about it. It'll be fine.
Penn: Marathon – her battle paint is starting to sweat just a little bit, but it's still mostly intact but the frightened look on her face spreads as she inches backwards into this shredded steel door.
Kit (as Birdie): [yelling] Be down in a second.
Kit: She doesn't sound very confident.
Penn (as Marathon): Sure. Good luck.
Kit (as Birdie): Thanks.
Kit: And she turns around a little presentationally and is like,
Kit (as Birdie): Ooh um.
Kit: Birdies gonna just make a kind of pained face because she doesn't know a lot what else to do and is like,
Kit (as Birdie): Hey, there Elvira.
Cameron: Elvira is stalking across the courtyard, 100% focused on Birdie. There are gunshots ricocheting off the ground next to her, no reaction. Total focus. You can see behind her on the side of the compound, you can see a balcony and there's a rope made of sheets swaying gently in the wind as she stalks towards you. And she looks pissed, surprisingly.
Kit (as Birdie): [uncomfortable noise] Uh~ you seem pretty uh, pretty fired up lets uh - we can just talk about this, you know, we can work it out like adults, right?
Cameron: Elvira continues towards you, pace not altering at all and kind of herds you back to where your back hits the wall of the compound and then she sets an arm fist into the wall above you in a way that could be potentially sexy, but is not in this moment, except it is a little bit.
Cameron (as Elvira): [country western accent] You locked me in my room. What are you doing?
Kit (as Birdie): Ah, you know, [awkward laugh]
Kit: Birdie is just a little flustered.
Kit (as Birdie): Um. Ah, you know, I'm on official business.
Kit: Birdie is trying to reach for her stick with her foot.
Nick: And we cut away from that situation to Emma charging after the Knight. Emma, you can see this drill, this strange spike, stuck in between the shoulder blades of the Knight still flashing with a light blue. But as you get close, the Knight whips around and swipes an arm at you and you're barely able to duck out of the way. It doesn't have a face, there's no expression, but even so in its posture it is emanating menace. It feels like an entirely different being than it did when Cassidy first started it up.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Oof! [dry humor] Thanks for that Cassidy.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] [annoyed] Not me!
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] I know I know.
Cameron: Emma changes tactics and instead of directly approaching the Knight, as it appears that the Knight does not appreciate that, Emma aims for the stairs to get up onto the wall.
Nick: And as soon as you get outside of some predetermined radius, the Knight goes back to flying bloody chaos amongst the bandits. You don't expect that this contingent is going to last much longer at this rate as you quickly mount the stairs. We see you shoulder a bandit off of the wall as you run by. With a quick scream they fall outside of the fortress, and you are poised on the wall the walkway with the Knight down below fighting this group of people still gamely attempting to keep it from destroying their fort.
And we cut away to Marathon stalking down this staircase attempting to be quiet. At the bottom of the stairs there's a series of hallways and she follows the sound of voices to an open cobblestone room lit by flickering electric lights. And you can see a handful of bandits armed with rifles aimed at robed figures kneeling in a group. One of them wearing a much more intricate robe than the rest is standing up and having an argument with someone who plants a fist into his jaw knocking him back and you hear her given order.
Sydney (as Jolene): [country western accent] If any of them talk again shoot them.
Nick: And Marathon you recognize that the person in charge of guarding these hostages is Jolene, the woman you were drinking with just a night ago.
Penn (as Marathon): [quietly] Dirt.
[hurdy gurdy music swells]
Outro:
Penn (as Marathon): Welcome back to MTR 1153, that was just the end of today’s broadcast and we’ll be right back to the music after this little break. The particulars of the subsequent can be found in the show notes.
This has been A Knight of Shreds and Patches, an actual play podcast using the Genesys game system from Fantasy Flight Games. The show is edited by Sydney Whittington, and features the talents of:
Kit Adames as Birdie. Kit can be found on Twitter and Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor for Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.
Penn Van Batavia as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter @ acquiredchaste. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes Wasmannian, a prompt game about gender and wasps. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.
Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Twitter @ sydney_whitt. She’s also a contributing editor for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast..
Cameron Robertson as Emma. Cameron can be found on Twitter @ midnightmusic13 and on Instagram @ reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron, which you can support @ Patreon.com/TabletopSquadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.
The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @ rashedjrs.
You can follow the Patina on Twitter @ akosap_podcast or visit the website: www.akosap.com. To further support the show, consider joining the Patreon at www.patreon.com/AKoSaP, where we’ll be bringing you weekly content including bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.
Until next time…
…Signing Off