After reaching the core, the Patina rebandages wounds and begins their task of hacking into the city.
After reaching the core, the Patina rebandages wounds and begins their task of hacking into the city.
Cast:
- Marathon Messenger is played by Penn Van Batavia. She can be found on Twitter at @acquiredchaste and in drag as horror king JOHN on Instagram at @john.is.risen. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes SLICE *IT* OUT, a grisly carving RPG about cutting pieces of yourself out to fit in. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.
- Cassidy Shard is played by Sydney Whittington. She is our wonderful editor. She’s also a contributing editor and occasional guest player for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast. 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 that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.
- Our GM and narrator is Nick Robertson. Find him on Twitter at @alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron and 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.
- Labyrinth by Sergey Cheremisinov. Link & License.
- What Is It I Know by The Oracle Of St. Vincent. 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
- Twitter
- Join our Patreon
- Join our Discord
A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript
Season 3 Episode 51: Plug and Play
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 and Gwendolyn Rozenthall.
Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling and Vaus Foundling.
Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood and Janus Foundling.
Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard and Winifred Foundling.
Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.
Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:
Welcome to 2026! We’re happy you made it on another lap around the sun with us, and even happier you’re choosing to spend your time here with us. May this year bring us closer to a world with less inequality and abuse of power.
And if you want to start off this year with a backlog binge, consider backing our Patreon, which gives you access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 3, Episode 51: Plug and Play. 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 Karma): Ramp, this is Colonel Karma Jones reporting from Guts comm hub... Sierra 3 Echo 51. Status update:
Conditions are deteriorating at street level. Mercenaries are looting and most are sheltering in their homes or Turning bunkers. Movement is difficult and subject to ambush.
En route to the Ramp, I made contact with a person of interest, Birdie Foundling. Her crew, the Patina, has been known to work for Opal, our base cause hypothesis of this current predicament, but state that their association with the councilor has recently ended. They were discovered post-combat with outsider mercenaries, which would align with this statement.
I requested their assistance with the ongoing combat on the Ramp, but the Patina states that they have other obligations -- they think they can restart the city. I, personally, find this unlikely, given their history and that of the Foundlings, but if they do have a method, that would greatly ease our situation below. We've liaised with another member of the Foundlings, Juno, and he is guiding us through the Guts towards their destination.
Whether it is to protect them and save Sasnak, or to prevent further damage, I've chosen to accompany them on this mission. Time will tell whether we call them heroes or traitors.
Over and out.
[radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: The center of the Guts at the core of Sasnak Traveling is a large domed chamber. The city itself gives no indication from above that there would be such an open and empty space below the council's main meeting room, but with access from the Guts or from the Special Council passageway, this heart of the city is able to be found. The Patina - Cassidy, Emma, Marathon, and Birdie - along with Colonel Karma and Juno enter this giant chamber to see the focal point at the center. The pillar in the center of this room is a little over 10 yards wide. It is huge and disappears up into the ceiling with a pulsating blue glow in a motherboard pattern all along its surface. The pillar itself is black and unreflective, besides these lights that trace throughout its interior. Seated at the base, even from this distance, you can see Winifred. Winifred watches as the group walks across this room. The chamber is cavernous, probably 50 or 60 meters wide, with a couple of different hallways leading into it from various parts of the Guts.
Sydney: Winifred has pried an access panel off and has been wiring in a bunch of different peripherals in preparation for this moment. There's what looks like a headset sitting on the ground. There's a pad that doesn't look like it's actively doing anything right now, but is still tied in, and she's got on fresh from work, a snug white sweater dress, a wide black belt and long black boots. And she stands up from the pile of materials that she'd been working with and moves to walk towards the Patina as they close the space in this giant room.
Sydney (as Winifred): Glad to see you.
Cameron: Emma does a wave.
Sydney: And Winifred counts the group as they come into closer detail and realizes there are more people here than she was expecting.
Nick (as Juno): Hi-
Penn (as Marathon): We had a great guide on our way in.
Penn: Marathon says with her arms crossed.
Nick (as Juno): Hi Winifred. All according to plan.
Nick: And Juno gives a double thumbs up and a big smile.
Kit: Birdie is going to take a little bit of a lead, still limping pretty heavily, but she's pushing through it for now to hug Winifred, because she's just very grateful to see her sister right now.
Sydney: Winifred gives her a big hug back.
Kit (as Birdie): Are all uh, is your family okay? Are all of you guys okay?
Sydney (as Winifred): As far as I know. Maria's out helping taking care of the injured. Larry is with the kids in the dome, is still - they haven't gotten in.
Kit (as Birdie): Okay that's, that's good to hear. Merchants Alley and the Stacks are a mess, but Nona has got it handled.
Sydney (as Winifred): You look in a little rough shape. You all right?
Kit (as Birdie): Oh you know, got shot, but that's okay. Happens. Nothing we haven't seen before.
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah, well, hopefully we can solve one problem here. What's with your childhood crush?
Kit (as Birdie): [instantly flustered] Why would you say that? Why would you - [sputtering]
Sydney: And Karma's eyes sharpen and she goes,
Sydney (as Karma): This is a restricted area. You shouldn't be here.
Kit (as Birdie): [on a long exhale] Oh, I'm really glad we pushed past that.
Cameron: Emma continues walking past Winifred and says,
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] You didn't need to add childhood.
Cameron: But does it quiet enough to where like it's a comment specifically for Birdie and Winifred, because she's not that mean.
Sydney: Winifred gives a quiet snort.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly to self] [sputtering] So mean to me.
Sydney (as Winifred): Sorry that we're trying to save the city, oh Colonel Karma. [quietly] Birdie, why is she here?
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] Because it's complicated, okay? She was - she might have, like, tried to arrest me if we hadn't brought her along with us. We've been seeing each other. I don't - it's complicated. Not for right now.
Sydney (as Winifred): Hmm.
Kit (as Birdie): She's here now. That's all I got.
Sydney: In the meantime, Cassidy is looking around this room. How many entrances and exits are there?
Nick: There are four main entrances and then a couple of smaller door locked passageways. So like big open hallways that lead in at the cardinal directions, and then there's some air vent hatches, and a couple of what look like submarine doors. The small ones, you would note, there are three of them. Two of them are welded shut, and the other one doesn't get used very often. It's mostly the main walkways.
Sydney (as Cassidy): This doesn't doesn't look especially defensible.
Sydney: As Cassidy is sweeping the room.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Is there anywhere that we should expect to guard from?
Sydney: Karma is just being ignored as they are taking care of business.
Nick: So there isn't much surveillance that Winifred has access to in the Guts, because she uses the same kind of systems that have been taken out by Juno. But while there aren't doors to close and secure, the way the acoustics work down here, you can hear people coming from a really long way off, and it's easy to tell what direction they're coming from. So you have sort of an early warning system just made out of the shape of this room.
Sydney (as Winifred): You'll be able to hear them coming. Come on, let's go back.
Sydney: And Winifred turns on her heels, putting her back to Karma, and drops her voice again.
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] How much does Karma know?
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] Um, quite a bit at this point. I mean, she knows that we're here to reset the city. She thinks that we're some, that we're working with Opal, and that we were the ones that created this issue in the first place, and essentially I allowed her, well, I encouraged her, against maybe the better wishes of some of my teammates, to just come along with us so that she doesn't arrest us when all of this is done.
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] Okay. The trophy being a command thing is really sensitive knowledge.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] I haven't told her about that.
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] Can we go to the other side of the pillar?
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] Yeah, if you can keep her off of me, I'll take care of it.
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] Birdie, that's on you, babe.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] [Pshaa noise] Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll tell her that I'm gonna stitch up her shoulder while we're down here or something like that. Keep her from moving.
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] She hasn't seen what's in the case, Winifred. It's been in the case the whole time, so
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] That's that's one blessing. She is right that I shouldn't have access to this room, but so it goes.
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] I mean, the city should be moving.
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] Yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] So there's lots of should things right now.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] If she decides to focus on that out of everything going on right now, then that sounds like a her issue.
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] I just don't want to - when we save the day, I would like to still have a job and access. I care about the city.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] Yeah, probably more than she does, but I'll do my best okay?
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] All right. [normal volume] Anyway, we're here. This is the work spot.
Sydney: Cassidy is walking next to Karma and Marathon and kind of the second half of the group.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Well, it sounds like we'll be just being vigilant and trying to catch whoever shows up first.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Sydney (as Karma): This is a secure part of the city. There shouldn't be anyone here at all.
Penn (as Marathon): Hey, but I'm ready to zip around. I'm already seeing -
Penn: And Marathon scans the room.
Penn (as Marathon): - few places I could jump skates off of.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, we're gonna have to be, you know, either mobile or accurate if anyone does show up. Long sight lines.
Cameron (as Emma): Please remember that your arm is injured, Marathon.
Penn (as Marathon): Oh, don't worry, I didn't forget.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Penn (as Marathon): I'm coursing adrenaline right now.
Cameron (as Emma): All right.
Penn (as Marathon): Crash hasn't hit me yet. Anybody got Arena Juice, by the way? [awkward laugh]
Penn: Marathon scratches the back of her neck.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Juno has got some, like fancy inhaler thing.
Cameron (as Emma): I have another brownie.
Kit (as Birdie): A brownie?
Penn (as Marathon): Actually, I will take that.
Sydney: Winifred sits down at the interface that she had set up and gestures to the bag that she assumes has the trophy, because nothing else is - everything else looks too purposeful and too pre loaded.
Sydney (as Winifred): [quietly] Okay, let's give it a try.
Cameron: Emma walks over totally nonchalantly to hand the bag over.
Sydney: And Winifred gives a sharp head jerk at Birdie before looking down at this bag.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] What?
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] Birdie - go flirt.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] [sputtering as she remembers] Oh go flirt. Yes yes yes yes yes yes -
Kit: Birdie balances on her good leg as she does a little half twirl to turn towards Karma and Marathon and Cassidy with a hopefully inconspicuous smile and say,
Kit (as Birdie): Well, it's gonna be kind of techy for a little bit, so I figure we may as well recoup as much as possible. You know, Karma, I'm gonna have to give you stitches that glue is not gonna hold if we get into a fight. And Marathon, I have to change your bandages at some point. It's grody.
Penn (as Marathon): Hey, yeah, take your time though. Stitch up the Colonel. Yeah, I can handle it.
Kit (as Birdie): Okay. Well, let's Okay, come on. Let's -
Penn (as Marathon): I'm a little tough.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, yeah.
Penn: She gives a side eye to the Colonel.
Sydney (as Karma): Is this really the most important thing to be doing right now?
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, it is, because if -
Penn (as Marathon): We don't have anything else to do,
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, there's no point in just sitting around and distracting Winifred and Emma while they work and -
Sydney (as Cassidy): If people show up with guns, then we stand up and you rip your stitches, and we go shoot them, and then we redo them.
Sydney: And Cassidy walks to go put her pack down against the far side of the pillar from Winifred and Emma.
Kit (as Birdie): Well, it's gonna be on you to be good enough at fighting to not rip my stitches, so we don't have to do that. And it's also gonna be on you to stay still and not complain long enough that I can actually do them, so that you'll still have an arm when we finish this.
Sydney (as Karma): It's only a graze.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah - and it can get infected if you don't do something about it early on.
Sydney (as Karma): So you're saying your treatment earlier wasn't enough?
Kit (as Birdie): Um I was gluing it shut in a hallway where we had no way of sterilizing anything, so no - which is why I'm doing it now.
Sydney (as Karma): Oh but now we do.
Kit (as Birdie): Yes. We do.
Penn (as Marathon): To make it better. We have time. Yeah.
Kit (as Birdie): We do. Now we have better time and -
Penn (as Marathon): Are you always so contrary, Colonel?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [no-nonsense friend who is over your bullshit] The faster you sit down and let Birdie get to you, the faster we can be over with this and you can be running patrols or whatever is gonna make you feel better.
Penn (as Marathon): Thank you, Cassidy.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Kit: And Birdie is going to take a deep breath and step closer to Karma, and in an attempt to pull her focus from Marathon and Cassidy, she'll put a hand on Karma's good arm and say,
Kit (as Birdie): Look, you're gonna be more use to us and to the city if you're at - in better condition, and that's all we're going to be good for right now. I just want to help okay? Please?
Nick: That sounds like a good time for a Charm check. It will be Birdie's Charm against Karma's Vigilance.
Sydney (as Cassidy): That is two reds and a purple because I wrote it down after editing this most recent episode.
Nick: Thank you. And then two blue die, one from Cassidy and one from Marathon.
Kit: I'm gonna also flip a Story Point for this one, because I think it's important. So Birdie is gonna be rolling three yellow, two blue, two red and one purple. One success, two advantages, and a Despair.
Nick: Yay~. So with those successes, Birdie, Karma is going to acquiesce to your request. I think what the Despair is is that as you get Karma's shirt away from this shoulder graze, the glue has already come unstuck, and you realize this injury is a lot worse than it originally looked, either because in the heat of the moment you were able to just seal it up as best you could, or because Karma has injured it worse working her way down into the Guts with you all, but she will have negatives on any combat checks she does, at least for the rest of the day with this injury.
Penn (as Marathon): Oh dirt. That looks awful, Colonel.
Kit (as Birdie): Um.
Kit: Birdie went from going a little smug in her expression to a hopefully convincing like she's hoping that the mask she's concocting to anyone looking on is convincing. Birdie goes from moving at a more relaxed pace as she prepped, to digging through her pack and pulling out anything she can to help her in this moment. And she glances at Karma,
Kit (as Birdie): Um, okay, you should put your arm in a sling. Like, really, actually.
Sydney (as Karma): We don't have time for that.
Kit (as Birdie): Um, you know what I said about like you keeping an arm in case of infection? This um, this is a graze, but the only thing that made it a graze is about half a millimeter of skin. This is your entrance and exit wounds are - it's just a line. I don't - I'm -
Sydney: Karma is trying to look over at the top of her shoulder where the wound is.
Nick: And Karma, as you get a look at it, you experience the phenomena of when you look at a wound, it starts to hurt more as you get a better picture for it, and you are in considerable pain. Just brushing this off seems more and more daunting to you as you all talk.
Sydney (as Karma): Clean it up.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Sydney (as Karma): We'll put a sling on it when we get out of here.
Kit (as Birdie): No, I have one in my bag. Just - I'm gonna still have to give you stitches and everything. This is just -
Penn (as Marathon): That looks like shit.
Sydney (as Karma): I am not gonna be able to use my rifle if my arm is in a sling.
Kit (as Birdie): I know.
Sydney (as Cassidy): This is a pretty big room to not have more than one gun.
Sydney: Cassidy says from sitting beside.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I know, I know, I know it puts a big restraint on what we can do. But if you, I'm worried that if you shoot with - do you, can you only shoot on that side? Can you shoot with both with both sides? Does it matter?
Sydney (as Karma): It's not gonna be accurate with my off hand,
Kit (as Birdie): [stressed sigh]
Sydney (as Karma): - if you want me to hit anything.
Kit (as Birdie): Um, okay, I'm just, I'm -
Penn (as Marathon): Birdie, can you shoot a gun?
Kit (as Birdie): [short laugh] I mean -
Sydney (as Cassidy): Maybe just work fast, and if you can get Karma put back together in time,
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Sydney (as Cassidy): - we'll, won't have to deal with it.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I'm going.
Kit: And her hands are shaking a little bit as she's threading her stitcher needle.
Kit (as Birdie): I'm gonna do my best.
Penn (as Marathon): And if all you gotta do is bandage me up, I'm just gonna grab the bandages out of your bag, okay? I can take care of it.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, yeah.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Marathon, let me - I can field dress a wound. Come here.
Penn (as Marathon): Okay, thank you.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Karma I do have a pistol that you can use that I took off the previous bandits if you can't use both hands, it's something.
Sydney: And Karma gives a nod and goes back to watching Birdie work.
Nick: And we're gonna cut away from the group first aid situation going on to Winifred and Emma.
Sydney: Winifred gestures for the trophy.
Sydney (as Winifred): All right, let's see if this works. I'm glad you were able to get it down here. I'm glad you were able to get down here. That was a lot of uh - I basically had to just set out and hope you got here.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, that - it's been a long day.
Sydney (as Winifred): Well, hopefully it'll be shorter soon. Here.
Cameron (as Emma): [doubtful laugh]
Sydney (as Winifred): Flip it over and see if there's an access panel on the bottom.
Cameron: Emma having unzipped the chainsaw case, turns the trophy, still keeping it low profile, so that there is less movement happening for Karma to potentially catch sight of and looks at the bottom of the trophy.
Cameron (as Emma): Yes.
Sydney (as Winifred): Cool. Let's take that off.
Nick: I need y'all to make me a Stealth check.
Sydney: Winifred's probably got a yellow and two greens.
Nick: What do you have, Emma? Because this one will be collaborative, so you can actually -
Cameron: Exactly that same thing.
Nick: Okay, so you'll have a yellow and two green, plus a blue dye for collaboration, plus, let's say with the successes that happened, you can upgrade your skill by one against Karma's Vigilance.
Sydney: Which is two yellows and a green, so two reds and a purple.
Cameron: I'm gonna flip a Story Point. So it is three yellows, a blue, two reds, and a purple.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes.
Nick: Awesome. So you all are able to do this completely concealed. Karma is not going to have any idea what's going on with that or that the trophy is being used at all.
Sydney: With the access cover pulled off, Winifred presses a hidden catch, and the base of the trophy detaches from the glowy bit, and she carefully places the glowing cube settles slightly, shifting in place, hovering an inch above the pad that Winifred had set up. And she scoops the chainsaw bag to cover it and checks her tablet and says,
Sydney (as Winifred): Okay, I think this will work and we can keep it out of sight.
Cameron (as Emma): Hey, all right. Cool.
Nick: Speaking of you think this will work, I need a Wild Tech roll at daunting difficulty from the two of you.
Sydney: Winifred's Wild Tech is four yellows.
Nick: What's Emma's?
Cameron: One yellow and three greens.
Nick: Okay, so you could add a blue die at least.
Sydney: So that'll be four yellows and a blue against four purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: A wash.
Nick: So this wasn't a check to see if you would succeed or fail. Winifred has been doing this for a really long time and getting ready for this for a long time, but this is going to take a while to complete. It's not as easy as just plugging it in. There's a lot of diagnostics and things because it does not work the first or even the second time.
Sydney: And Winifred taps some buttons and frowns and looks at the pad and looks back to her tablet.
Cameron (as Emma): I'm not liking the frown.
Sydney (as Winifred): It seems it's not gonna be as easy as plug and play. [sigh]
Cameron (as Emma): Welp.
Sydney (as Winifred): Let me try a couple of things. This is the first time I've had it in hand - I could only take a guess at how it was supposed to work and it's not - it's ultimately a, you know, debug key, it's not really meant to provide direct access. It really it just lets us bypass the hardest security. Let's see what I got.
Sydney: And she starts tapping away.
Cameron: Emma is watching what Winifred is doing over her shoulder.
Sydney (as Winifred): So I guess while we're here, we're going to be doing something similar to the Knight, if this works. I'm basically using this to [sigh], to grant me a higher level of user permissions. The equivalent of a pseudo in a normal system, except it's on a higher kernel ring.
Cameron (as Emma): Mhm.
Sydney (as Winifred): You wouldn't do this in any normal circumstances, but we have to kick the whole city back to 'on'.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, wouldn't do in any normal circumstances, but circumstances are weird right now. So
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): Both, both with the city and with the Knight.
Sydney (as Winifred): This is not how I was hoping to be able to do the test run of this. Really I was hoping to be able to test it on the Knight.
Cameron (as Emma): You didn't - you didn't want it to be quite this scale of importance for the first time? What~?
Sydney (as Winifred): Because it has, as far as I can tell, it has two features. It has the cyber security portion and it has the permissions portion. The permissions won't help you on the Knight,
Cameron (as Emma): Mhm.
Sydney (as Winifred): But you have spooky things growing in it,
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah.
Sydney (as Winifred): - and it would save you from that.
Cameron (as Emma): That would be good.
Sydney (as Winifred): Unless the Knight was somehow made by the people who made Sasnak and I don't think that's the case.
Cameron (as Emma): I doubt it. I haven't seen the same logo anywhere since we've been here.
Sydney: Winifred hits a button, and there's a flash of light inside the bag, which is mostly covered, and she looks at it and then frowns again and goes back to typing.
Sydney (as Winifred): Getting closer. Well unless - do you know anything about the outside besides there's mercenaries and people at the Ramp?
Cameron (as Emma): Uh there are a lot of mercenaries, very heavily armed mercenaries. There is uh, the main force, it sounds like, from what we've heard, is trying to board at the Ramp. So there's a large portion of this mercenary battalion, I don't know how large it is, like down on the ground still battling at the Ramp trying to fight their way up.
Sydney (as Winifred): Well, that is the Ramp Girl's great calling in life.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, but -
Sydney (as Winifred): Now I'm confused why we have one here.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah well. Before I do that explanation, they're also coming up through the Guts as well.
Sydney (as Winifred): Mm.
Sydney: Winifred hits a button again, and it flashes again with a similar response, and she keeps typing.
Cameron (as Emma): So that's probably how they got out on to the top side of the city already is through the Guts somehow. But it sounded like the Ramp Girls were still doing a decent job of holding them off at the Ramp, but we have a pet Ramp Girl with us, because um, okay, so the acknowledgement - need to acknowledge to be fair, she did shoot the guy who was about to hurt Birdie.
Sydney (as Winifred): That seems good.
Cameron (as Emma): So I will give her credit for that, but then she continued to aim a gun at us and is convinced that we are working for Opal still, because it appears that maybe Opal is the force behind this whole happening.
Sydney (as Winifred): Ah.
Cameron (as Emma): So even though we said our contracts done because we won the championship, she refuses to believe us.
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah, she don't really have a copy of the contract to wave at her.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah and even though when she came across us we were fighting the other mercenaries, since we are mercenaries, we must be here to ruin the city, even though we've been here peacefully for months.
Sydney (as Winifred): Of course.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah. So she -
Sydney (as Winifred): She's she's not gonna trust that what we're doing here is necessarily helping. We could be helping take over the city.
Cameron (as Emma): Yep, she she tried to strong arm us into going to the Ramp. And the way that Birdie got her to agree was saying that she could come with us, because she didn't believe that there was anything we could do to get the city started back up. So now she's following us.
Sydney: Winifred bites her lip and is nodding along.
Sydney (as Winifred): kay. Well, we can't do anything about it now, unless you want to disappear a Ramp Girl.
Cameron (as Emma): I did offer, and it was turned down. I have not rescinded my offer. My offer still stands. If anyone is interested.
Sydney (as Winifred): She hasn't done anything wrong, but I really don't want her looking down my nose [laugh] while we're trying to do this.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, and Juno did let her call back into headquarters once we got to the Guts, so they are aware of the fact that she's with us.
Sydney (as Winifred): Ugh.
Cameron (as Emma): So if at this point, if she happens to pass out from the gunshot wound she got from the mercenaries, darn.
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah, we just got to keep her out of our hair for now.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, if, if we do something to her, then it's obvious, and she'll remember, and or the Ramp Girls will remember, and then things will go badly.
Sydney: There's a longer flash this time, and it blinks a couple times.
Sydney (as Winifred): Okay, I think we're getting somewhere. I think we're maybe one more pass.
Cameron (as Emma): All right.
Sydney (as Winifred): Sorry, I'm having to do a couple of layers of hash cracking, and I tried to bypass it, and I just it ends up being brute force. So
Cameron (as Emma): Mhm. And we don't really have time for that right now.
Sydney (as Winifred): No. Unfortunately.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, but
Sydney (as Winifred): Okay.
Cameron (as Emma): You know, if your sister ever happens to ask you for relationship advice, I would just inform you that I don't think this is a healthy pairing, and Birdie deserves someone a lot better and nicer to her.
Sydney (as Winifred): I, based on my interactions with Karma, this makes sense.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh yes, I forgot, because also the Foundlings -
Sydney (as Winifred): Oh yeah, we've -
Cameron (as Emma): - are always standing against the city and are criminals. She said that too.
Sydney (as Winifred): Well, we've worked with Karma and been blamed by Karma. So,
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah. So
Sydney (as Winifred): We all get to where we are by the path that we take.
Cameron (as Emma): Mhm.
Sydney (as Winifred): [calling out] Juno!?
Nick (as Juno): Yeah I'm awake! What?
Nick: Juno has been staring into space, just purely dissociating. In their mind they have finished their job, and were just waiting for more instructions or a chance to go back into the Guts and see what's going on in there.
Sydney (as Winifred): We need some, like, booby traps on these doors, or you can go try to, like, seal something off to keep people out of here. Whatever you think is gonna help. Standing there isn't gonna serve us.
Nick (as Juno): Okay. Well, if I don't see you all again for a while, it's been lovely, and I will go see what I can do.
Nick: And before anyone could stop him, Juno goes jogging off down a different hallway than the one that you arrived from.
Sydney (as Winifred): [calling out] Thanks for bringing them here.
Nick (as Juno): [calling back] Yep, yep. Absolutely.
Nick: And Juno is gone into the gloom of the Guts.
Sydney: There's a line of text in Winifred's terminal that just says [OKAY] in green with brackets around it. And she takes a deep breath,
Sydney (as Winifred): Okay, I think, I think it's time.
Cameron (as Emma): Nice. I'm glad that worked.
Sydney (as Winifred): So I gotta get hooked up here, I kind of got a hand wavy - the way that it ends up working is that I project my presence directly in, because it's a lot easier. The way that the constructs work is the it shapes to match our mental model and so if we do the equivalent of going in, we can actually reason with it a lot faster.
Cameron (as Emma): Huh.
Sydney (as Winifred): It just means we're sitting against the wall, eyes closed, dreaming of computers.
Cameron (as Emma): Can I come? For Knight learning purposes?
Sydney: Winifred looks slightly taken aback.
Cameron: Emma smiles, winningly.
Sydney (as Winifred): Uh. I mean I don't - hold on, let me - Hmm.
Sydney: And she starts rummaging in her satchel that she brought with her.
Sydney (as Winifred): You sure you don't want to be out here to guard? I don't know if - it's not a casual in and out process necessarily.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah but so we've, we've been talking of potential other things we could do once we get the city moving to like, continue to be helpful, and we have - thinking about like the Knight would be useful in a situation like this, but the Knight is not mm, hyper user friendly at the moment, so
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah, and it's possessed.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, if I had extra, just some extra tools in my toolbox to use,
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): - that would make me feel better about the option of turning it on right now.
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah. Then we need someone else - Cassidy? - to stand watch.
Cameron (as Emma): Mhm. She's very good at watching, very focused.
Sydney (as Winifred): Okay, yeah, I have my backup headset. I mean, the fidelity won't be as good, but you'll be able to see what's going on.
Cameron (as Emma): That that's fine. I don't know any different, so -
Sydney (as Winifred): [laugh] Fair enough.
Cameron (as Emma): [laugh] It'll be fine.
Sydney (as Winifred): Okay, sure.
Cameron (as Emma): Awesome.
Sydney (as Winifred): Let's see if this works. Sure hope this works. [calling out] Hey, Cassidy!
Sydney: And Cassidy perks up hearing her summons. She just has finished changing the wound dressing on Marathon's arm. These new bandages are no longer dripping blood.
Penn: And Marathon has a little glowy smile as she pats her forearm and then winces.
Sydney (as Cassidy): All right, Marathon, you're good.
Penn (as Marathon): Thank you, Miss Cassidy.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I gotta go see what they need.
Penn (as Marathon): I'll keep watch.
Sydney: And Cassidy stands up and walks around the corner. It's a few meters around to get to the other side. She comes up to see the electrodes attached to both Winifred and Emma as they're preparing to go restart the city.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Oh! Both of you?
Sydney (as Winifred): Emma thought it would be good to -
Cameron (as Emma): I'm thinking it would be very good Knight experience,
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah...
Cameron (as Emma): - and also potentially assistance in doing it faster if I can do tasks for Winifred.
Sydney: Cassidy looks over at Winifred.
Sydney (as Winifred): It won't hurt, it might help. But she's right that without doing it once, you're not gonna have any luck with the Knight without me. I hope you won't be without me.
Sydney: Cassidy scratches her head.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, I sure hope too, but we don't get the luxury necessarily. So are you like, what what's, what's the procedure here?
Sydney (as Winifred): We pass out.
Cameron (as Emma): We dream of computers.
Sydney (as Winifred): Yeah, well we - yeah, repose, I guess. So you'll get to watch us. Try to keep Karma from wandering around too much.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, Birdie is doing her best.
Sydney: We hear a grunt of pain distant around this pillar.
Kit (as Birdie): [stressed] I'm sorry.
Sydney (as Cassidy): We'll see how it goes. I guess do it as fast as you can, and we'll keep you safe while you do it. Do I - can I wake you up when, like bad guys get here, or what-?
Sydney: Winifred winces.
Sydney (as Winifred): Uh, try to take the bad guys out first, and then we'll see what happens.
Sydney: And Cassidy nods.
Sydney (as Cassidy): All right. Well, good luck. Godspeed, I guess? I don't know.
Cameron (as Emma): Sweet Dreams?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Sweet dreams.
Cameron (as Emma): That seems like the proper - nerdy dreams? I don't know.
Sydney: Winifred motions for Emma to get comfortable and find a spot where, if she's not conscious, she's not gonna, like, fall over and hurt something, and she herself leans deeply up against the pillar with her bag behind her.
Sydney (as Winifred): All right, here we go.
Cameron: Emma sits crisscross applesauce with her back up against the pillar with her sword resting across her lap.
Sydney (as Winifred): And I'll count backward from ten.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Sydney (as Winifred): Ten - nine -
Sydney: And Winnifred hits the button and Cassidy watches their bodies go limp as there's another flash of light from under the chainsaw bag.
Nick: Winifred and Emma, you both experience a rushing sensation like high diving into a deep pool. You can feel not exactly wind, but something rushing all around you as you open your eyes to see a bright tunnel, and you can feel yourself with great force, rocketing along this path. After about 30 seconds of this sensation, you both find yourselves floating forward in a black void. In front of you is a cascading waterfall that reaches as far as you can see, to the left and right. It is numbers and letters and symbols and some pictures and sound waves - it is pure information, and it is blood red, running over itself and through itself, blocking the way in front of you, and you find yourselves floating towards this red wall.
As you continue closer, you get the feeling that this wall would absolutely shred you down into nothing, except that floating between the two of you is the blue cube that was the X Bike trophy. It bathes you both in a warm blue light, and as you impact with this wall, it parts around you, as you are protected from the internal security by whatever security protocols are included in this cube. So you find yourselves floating through this barrage of data. Everything goes dark for just a second, and then, as though none of that ever existed, you find yourself standing upon a glowing blue floor in a void. It stretches in every direction, and we see Winifred and Emma's mental projections of themselves inside Sasnak Traveling's main computer. What do your mental projections look like?
Sydney: Winifred looks just like she did outside. She has spent months and years honing her mental projection to minimize the amount of transposition that has to happen between the virtual avatar and herself in an attempt to make things easier and faster for her. The edges of her are a little wavy, almost like a heat mirage, and she looks over at Emma, the white streak in her hair seeming to glow.
Cameron: Emma's avatar is it is still her in her human form, but it is a younger version of Emma. She still has the long braid she had when she first encountered Pallie in Thunder Bay, and she looks probably around late teens, like 17-18ish. It's mostly obvious just like her face is slightly more round and childish. She's still the same height because apparently she hit that height early, but it is a younger, less worldly version of Emma.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Welcome to Sasnak.
Sydney: Winifred's voice is slightly distorted, as though it's being sent across a bad modem connection.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Whoa~.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] You're affected by as much physics as you think you are. So you can float, or you can walk.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Oh, great! [laugh] [sarcastically to self] Just, just walk naturally, Emma.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] I suppose you could swim.
Cameron: Emma's just having flashbacks to her first time in the Knight, when they were like, "just walk like you're normally walking. It's fine, just don't think about it." She's like, why does this keep happening? But she's just looking around all around them, turning in a slow circle, taking in this vast space.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] So the big waterfall thing we went through would have been the firewall. I'm glad we made it through that. That means the trophy did its job. I wouldn't have put us in if it wasn't going to but,
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Yeah.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Got to experience it.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Kind of looked more like a waterfall, but it was red.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Yeah well, the abstractions are chosen by the system you connect to, to some degree, so, but I guess the people, the precursors, the people who built these things had something in mind. Now we're looking for the archetypal equivalent of a power button. I assume that's what we need to get Sasnak back on if we just got whacked by an EMP or something, -
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Mhm.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] - in this endless void.
Nick: And Winifred, you know from your dives into the non core systems that a lot of times when it's open like this, if you just go forward, you will run into the system interactions that you are able to reach at this point. You could turn left or right, and it's still basically a linear system at this stage, because there isn't anything presenting itself so far.
Sydney: Winifred looks at Emma and then takes a step slightly forward and to the left.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Ah there we go. If you step forward, you'll see what I'm looking at.
Cameron: Emma gives Winifred kind of like a 'okay~' look, and steps forward.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Oh, whoa.
Nick: As you both step forward, what you see is the equivalent of a path down with a floating lock in front of it. So what you're going to have to do is go through multiple layers of the system to get to some of the most base functions to turn it back on. And like Winifred said earlier, the things that you see in front of you will vary based on how you interact with them and how your brain perceives them. So what I'm picturing is like a manhole going down and floating in front of it is just like a white holographic lock that you're going to have to deal with. But what did the two of you see of the equivalent of a symbol of a locked door and a path down?
Sydney: There's a flash as Winifred sees the manhole and the floating padlock, and then it morphs into her preferred form, a white picket fence with a padlock over the clasp.
Cameron: I don't believe that Emma is aware enough of the workings of the system yet to get a glimpse of the manhole cover at all. Winifred knows what's behind what she's seeing, and Emma is basically just going off vibes. So I think when Emma takes her step forward, she immediately is faced with a very large, intricate black iron fence, like in an old timey garden or an old churchyard that has a thick chain wrapped around the two sections of the gate, holding it together with a large padlock on it with some greenery and stuff inserted in made up of the falling green text particles.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] So moving in this space is kind of relative. We saw one step forward, and now we're hitting our first permissions gate.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Uh huh.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] How that manifests kind of depends.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] It's a gate.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Yeah, mine's a gate too.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Cool. So yours looks different than mine?
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Um, mine is a white picket fence.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Oh, mine is -
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] It looks a lot like the gate to my house.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Mine is not that. Interesting.
Sydney: And Winifred starts - her default response to these is to start setting up a couple of environmental listeners, looking for anything that would happen to be wandering by and carrying the combination to the lock, which maps over to snooping through logs and local memory for something that would satisfy the credential check.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] So how much can we interact with this? Like if I take if I take another step towards this gate I'm seeing in front of me -
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] You'll probably bounce off of it.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Okay.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] You can try it. Maybe it'll, maybe it'll work. Generally, the system maps over your actions to what it's expecting,
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Okay...
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] - and it maps its perceptions onto you. So you can kind of try what you think will work, and if you think it will work and the system agrees, then it will.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Okay.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Now I'm thinking in terms of the underlying architecture, but
Cameron: Emma is just looking up the height of the fence.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Can I climb over it?
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] If it'll let you.
Nick: Make me a hard Athletics check, Emma, but you do have a black die because you are very unfamiliar with this system.
Cameron: So I have two yellows, a green, a black, and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Failure and two advantages.
Nick: Okay. Emma, you start to climb up this gate, and it's actually very easy to do. Your hands grip nicely. As you start to climb, however, the gate gets taller and taller above you, and as you try to climb faster, the gate seems to grow faster.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] I'm not thinking this is going to be successful.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Well now you know.
Sydney: And Winifred catches a bite on one of her lines.
Nick: Roll me a hard Perception check, Winifred.
Sydney: So then I'm rolling two yellows and a green versus three purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Four successes, a Triumph, and three threats.
Nick: Cheesy Pete's. So with the two checks, you are both sitting at one threat net right now, because Emma's two advantages cancel out two of those threats. Winifred in your experience, you know that the more interactions with the system you have, the more likely that you're going to draw attention of security protocols. So the longer this takes, the more dangerous it gets. That being said, your fishing [phishing ;) ] for the credentials you need is wildly successful.
Sydney: We see Winifreds just kind of sitting and listening, and then suddenly just reaches down and pulls out what the system renders as a fish out of the glowing blue ground underneath them, and she whacks the lock with the fish, and the lock drops to the ground and the gate opens. It was a successful fishing [phishing ;) ] expedition. The Triumph here - Winifred hasn't tried to do this kind of direct interfacing with another person at all, much less someone connected through the same access point. And the system decides that these two signals which are interacting with the same part of the system at the same time should probably be grouped more together, and decides to merge the two user sessions. So now Winifred can see what Emma sees, and Emma can see what Winifred sees, which in the future, will allow them to help each other more collaboratively on these checks. And so Emma sees Winifred holding about a foot long rainbow trout that jumps out of her hands and swims down into the data streams, and the gate opens, which also opens Emma's big cast iron one. And Winifred looks over and raises an eyebrow and nods at the representation that Emma has achieved.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] All right, we're in.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Nice.
Cameron: Emma grabs a hold of one of the vines of ivy on this fence that were made up of the falling code, and grabs onto it and jumps off of the fence, uses the vine to repel down back to floor level, where Winifred's at.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] And now we do this until we get there, and hope we do it fast enough that no security protocols boot us and you know, mercenaries don't shoot our bodies.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Great goals.
Sydney (as Winifred): [digitized] Onward.
Cameron (as Emma): [digitized] Okay, let's go.
Sydney: And Winifred takes another step forward.
Cameron: Emma follows.
Nick: You step forward over this manhole looking portal, and find yourselves falling again with a rushing of numbers and data and light as the system moves your consciousness to the next layer of its programming. And we're going to cut away from that to back outside in the main chamber with the pillar. What is everybody up to out there as you are waiting for Emma and Winifred?
Penn: Marathon has scooted closer to Birdie, has still got her skates on, and is idly drifting around but close while keeping her eyes, as she promised, on as many of the doorways as she can.
Penn (as Marathon): So, um, Colonel - Birdie, you might want to sit this- cover your ears or something, but you know, I was wondering your intentions with my with my really, really good friend and sister, Birdie Foundling.
Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] Oh, my God.
Sydney (as Karma): Are you a Foundling too?
Kit (as Birdie): Ohhh~.
Sydney: Karma is apparently entirely prepared for this conversation and is not caught off guard at all. Or maybe she's just hard to read.
Penn (as Marathon): No, not in the same sense. But I am very protective of of, you know, Birdie's emotional and physical well being.
Kit (as Birdie): [under breath] Oh my go- [becomes a groan]
Penn: And Marathon without taking her eyes off the hallway.
Penn (as Marathon): So I have, if you could answer the question, I would appreciate, what are your intentions with with Birdie.
Penn: And then Marathon briefly looks at Birdie to just see how red she's getting before grinning to herself and putting her eyes back on the hallway.
Kit: Birdie seems to be far more caught up with doing triage with Karma's wound, and is not as red as anyone in this room has previously seen her get, but the tips of her ears are pink. She's definitely just pursing her lips and trying to get through this and ignore everything that's happening, because she has to concentrate.
Sydney (as Karma): Well after this, I assume we're going to go back to Ramp Girl HQ, for questioning.
Penn (as Marathon): Mmm.
Sydney: And Karma gives a glance up to Birdie.
Penn (as Marathon): I - you can make that assumption, Colonel. Why don't you assume that for now, Colonel.
Kit (as Birdie): Wha- questioning for what?
Sydney (as Karma): For how you saved the day and got Sasnak moving again?
Kit (as Birdie): Can you really not just be happy that we did and maybe let it go? Just putting it out there.
Sydney (as Karma): No.
Kit (as Birdie): It'd be really nice.
Sydney (as Karma): City safety is our responsibility.
Penn (as Marathon): Okay. Well, let me just say that intention - I see what that intention is, and we'll see if we respect it, Colonel.
Sydney (as Karma): Bold of you to assume it will be a choice.
Penn (as Marathon): Mm.
Penn: And Marathon takes her eyes off the hallway to look at Karma.
Penn (as Marathon): Bold of you to assume you have the power. Sorry, sorry, I get caught up.
Kit (as Birdie): Okay,
Penn (as Marathon): We're talking about Birdie.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah,
Penn (as Marathon): Birdie,
Kit (as Birdie): Well, I wish you wouldn't.
Penn (as Marathon): - you keep stitching her up.
Sydney: Karma stares levelly at Marathon until she breaks her gaze. [laughing]
Penn: Marathon does break first to look back, look at the hallway.
Penn (as Marathon): But for now, I guess I'll just keep us safe.
Sydney (as Karma): It's not a personal attack. It is my job.
Penn (as Marathon): Sounds like it was a lot of people's job to lock up the Foundlings before.
Sydney (as Karma): So you're saying I should have then. Trustworthy. Really helping your case.
Penn (as Marathon): [irritated laugh/huff]
Penn: Marathon while skating forward, flips one of her skates off and kind of trip kicks for plausible deniability, even though it's very obvious that Marathon is just trying to get a small kick in on Karma, and then reactivates her skate.
Kit (as Birdie): Okay look, the Foundlings toe the line Karma. You knew this, and not to put it in this format, but how's it gonna look when the person you brought in for questioning you can't necessarily deny entanglement with? Maybe you're compromised Karma. What are you gonna do then? It's not a threat. It's just, -
Sydney (as Karma): [overlapping] It's not been a secret.
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] - something to keep in mind, I guess. Oh, really?
Sydney (as Karma): Sorry. Would you like it to be?
Kit (as Birdie): I wasn't acting like it was. Should I have been? Because right now, it seems like you're wanting to-
Sydney (as Karma): There's a difference between you working for a councilor and working for the councilor who is trying to stage a coup on the city.
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping in background] Opal has nothing -
Sydney (as Karma): If your contract has ended and you're not involved with it, then there won't be any problems.
Kit (as Birdie): Exactly.
Sydney (as Karma): So what are you what are you worried about? What is she being so aggressive about?
Kit (as Birdie): What- what am I being so aggressive about? Or Marathon?
Sydney (as Karma): Marathon.
Kit (as Birdie): [sharp exhale] Well, I think Marathon's being a little untoward because of the predicament we've landed ourselves in, and you haven't exactly given us a reason to treat you like a comrade.
Kit (as Birdie): You outwardly do not trust us, or does that like make us the bad guy?
Sydney (as Karma): I am here to protect you. I took a bullet - what do you want Birdie?
Penn (as Marathon): Hey, you can take a bullet and you can -
Sydney (as Karma): Fuck off, Marathon
Penn (as Marathon): - the bullet and you can be here -
Kit (as Birdie): Okay okay -
Penn (as Marathon): No!
Penn: And then Marathon pushes Birdie a little bit away, assuming the stitches are complete to, like, tower over Karma, right now.
Penn (as Marathon): Nah, you shut the fuck up. We're trying to help you and your fucking city and Birdie's city, but you've done nothing but try to interrupt us, okay? Okay, I understand that we were working for Opal. We're not working for Opal, and if you want to clear it up with me, let's clear it up. Stand up. Come on.
Kit (as Birdie): Oh my - [how did this happen]
Penn: And Marathon, after shouting, lifts up her fists and gets into a little fighting stance.
Kit (as Birdie): No one is fighting!
Sydney: Karma looks at her rifle and then looks at Marathon and then shakes her head.
Penn (as Marathon): Try it.
Sydney (as Karma): Better things to do -
Kit (as Birdie): Can -
Sydney (as Karma): - than deal with a blowhard.
Penn (as Marathon): Yeah?
Penn: Marathon is gonna punch Karma in the face. [laughing]
Nick: So whether or not I call for a roll depends on, are you wanting as the player to hurt her?
Penn: Marathon in the moment might be wanting to knock her unconscious, but I don't know if that's something that happens.
Nick: So Marathon, roll me a Brawl check please, plus a blue die because she's sitting on her butt and I'm gonna flip a GM Story Point to upgrade Marathon's roll.
Penn: With an upgraded check, Marathon is rolling five yellows and a blue against two purple.
[dice rolling]
Penn: Three successes, three advantages, and that includes a Triumph.
Cameron: All righty, let's see.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: I rolled a 37 which is Stinger: Increase the difficulty of the target's next check by one.
Nick: And three successes, and you have five Brawn so that's eight damage coming at Karma.
Sydney: Karma has two Soak with only her dress uniform on, and so she takes six damage, taking her to nine out of 14 total Wounds.
Penn: Marathon, in this fit of emotion, punches down at Karma, trying to bring her fist to Karma's cheekbone, and just immediately after the punch, and she sees that Karma's head moves with it, she just spits for good measure.
Penn (as Marathon): I punch hard too.
Sydney: Karma, with a cracked orbital on the eye that she hit, grabs her rifle up and makes to stab Marathon with the bayonet.
Kit (as Birdie): Fuckin' fuck! Cassidy!
Sydney: Cassidy from where she's watching Emma and Winifred's eyes move underneath their eyelids like they're sleeping and having vivid dreams, goes to run around the corner and sees the tableau before her.
Sydney (as Cassidy): What the fuck is going on? Why? What are we doing?
Nick: And it's at that point that you all hear the clump of booted feet in the corridor, and somewhere in the distance you hear the sound of a rifle cocking.
[hurdy gurdy music swells]
Outro:
Penn (as Marathon): Welcome back folks, you’re tuned to Going the Distance: Traveler’s Guide on road dial 1558. That’s a wrap on today’s log and we’re set to loop after these considerations. Further detail for the following is cataloged 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 and in drag as horror king JOHN on Instagram @ john.is.risen. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes SLICE IT OUT, a grisly carving RPG about cutting pieces of yourself out to fit in. 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 and occasional guest player 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. 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 you tune back…
…stay bold and stay kind