The Patina hits a roadblock and encounters an old foe.
The Patina hits a roadblock and encounters an old foe.
Cast:
- Marathon Messenger is played by Pen Prairie-Larson. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky at @acquiredchaste. Pen is a teacher and indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes the X-Bike Ruleset, a high-risk fantasy sports game from the world of AKoSaP. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.
- Cassidy Shard is played by Sydney Whittington. She is our wonderful editor. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Bluesky at @sydneywhitt.
- Emma Blackwood is played by Cameron Robertson. Find her on Twitter at @midnightmusic13 and on Instagram and TikTok at @reading_and_dreaming. Cameron was also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a fully completed Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
- Birdie Foundling is played by Kit Adames. Find her on Instagram at @venusvultures. Kit can also be found in the Discord, along with her collection of AKoSaP art that grows whenever she’s not facing art block.
- Our GM and narrator is Nick Robertson. Find him on Twitter at @alias58. Nick was also the GM for Tabletop Squadron and can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
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- 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.
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Art Credits:
- The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @rashedjrs.
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A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript
Season 4 Episode 3: Quite an Advantageous Deal
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 –
Pen: Pen Prairie-Larson 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:
We’re back to the yearly spooky season, where we plant big gravestones into our yards, if we’re lucky enough to have a yard in today’s capitalist hellscape, and hope that next year a crop of the little cute ones will spring up in a self-sustaining cycle. The best part is, there don’t even have to be any bodies involved. If you take really good care of them, maybe they’ll even get big enough to enter into the contests at the county fair, and you could win a blue ribbon almost as nice as the one we’re symbolically giving to our latest patron! Thanks for joining, Will! All the onlookers will ooh and ahh as you hold up your patronage to show off for the attendees.
And if you want to get a head start on next season’s crop, consider backing our Patreon, which gives you access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards, which could include, but don’t, headstone growing tips.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 4, Episode 3: Quite an Advantageous Deal. 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, we're finally back on the road and making as good of time as we could hope for, considering that it's the deep of winter and conditions vary between bad and worse. We hit up a small Sasnak port town full of Opal-related refugees, which had very good bread. We saw a mural in the middle of nowhere that for some reason showed Sasnak following the cows and cited its sources. And we even met who Marathon apparently knows from back home in Incantation, the Big Road people. A part of me wants to believe they are actually trying to connect the world, but it's balanced by the cynical side of me that says that they just found a different way to extract tolls than violence, and the realistic side of me that says their road placement and planning is so poor it won't really matter either way. I dunno, it's kind of a fun idea, and it didn't cost much to make Marathon happy, and we get a little bonus of feeling like it could help someone out someday. The more we feel like it's worth it, the less we miss the money, haha. We're coming up to one of the few bridges in the region, so guess we'll see shortly if anyone else has a different way of extracting their tolls.
[radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: The sun is hanging low in the sky as the Patina in their rig roll to a stop on the edge of a gorge. The river is far below and there's a single bridge crossing this gorge for miles in either direction. Those of you that have been this way before know that going around will add multiple days of travel. Unfortunately, standing on your side of the bridge, looming tall - taller than any human should be - holding a strangely shaped staff and wearing an ankle-length cloak that hides their features, someone is guarding this bridge. Even as far away as you are parked, you hear this person declare,
Nick (as hooded figure): You shall not pass.
Nick: Otherwise, this figure makes no motion towards you, waiting to see what you will do.
Cameron: So this is still like a full road width bridge?
Nick: Yes, you could drive over this bridge.
Pen (as Marathon): Ah, hold up. We probably have a toll or something.
Pen: And Marathon rolls her eyes and then looks a little bit at Birdie with a smile.
Kit (as Birdie): You're just - never mind, never mind. Can we just hit this guy?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Well, he didn't say ‘pay the toll’, he said ‘none shall pass’, so I guess we're about to be ambushed.
Pen (as Marathon): Wait, what?
Cameron: So this guy looks freakishly tall, taller than a human should be?
Nick: Absolutely.
Cameron: Can I make either like a Perception or Wild Tech or Mechanics or something check to try to determine the nature of this being?
Nick: Yeah, you could give me a Perception check. The biggest thing getting in the way of that right now is the cloak that is obscuring their features, but maybe a breeze will blow or something and you'll get a view of what's going on. This is gonna be hard difficulty.
Cameron: But I am sitting in the cab of the rig with Birdie, so we are at Engaged range, yes? So I can get Heightened Awareness.
Nick: Sure.
Cameron: So that puts my dice at two yellows, a green, two blues, and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Four successes.
Nick: Okay. This figure is, like you had already seen, very tall. Leaning forward, trying to get a better view of what may be under this cloak, there's a light breeze, and you catch some short glimpses that you're able to kind of put together in your head. This is probably a human, just based on their shape. They don't seem like they would be any sort of wild tech, but they are wearing wild tech. They seem to have extra-long legs covered in dark blue armor that lead to their total height. Their arms don't look proportional to how tall they are, which makes you think that this isn't an entirely full suit of some sort of powered armor, it's probably just the legs.
Cameron: Probably more like powered stilts?
Nick: Yes. Maybe a chest piece, but that part you wouldn't be able to see because the cloak is affixed to the front.
Cameron: But the length of the arms does not correspond to height to where this would be a full suit.
Nick: Correct. Or for some reason, the suit of armor has stubby arms, but that seems unlikely.
Cameron: Emma leans forward from the backseat over in between Birdie and Cassidy in the front to try to get as close to the windshield as she can to get the most accurate height comparison in her mind from where she knows that the top of the hood of the rig is to where this person is standing. And squinting a bit, trying to take in any details that she can see. And when there's the breeze that blows the cloak slightly, she laser focuses in on the legs and then does a quick eye bouncing around check to see the relation of size of the parts of this being that she can see outside of the cloak. And sits back slightly and says,
Cameron (as Emma): Okay. That's, that is someone in uh, at least the bottoms of an exosuit that is giving substantial height.
Sydney: While Emma is studying the figure itself, can Cassidy study the environment to see how likely it is that there's actually an ambush waiting versus just one person on a power trip?
Nick: Sure. That'd be another Perception check. This one, just average difficulty.
Sydney: I am also sitting in the cab with both Birdie and Emma, so I will take the two blue dice from Heightened Awareness. So I will be rolling two yellows, a green, and two blues against two purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Two successes.
Nick: You see that there's actually a pretty good amount of open space between the rig and this gorge, where the trees that you drove out of do not make it all the way to the edge, creating sort of a no-man's-land between you and this figure in front of the bridge. The trees on either side of the road that you were driving through are relatively thick and there's some undergrowth, so there could be people hiding along there, but it wouldn't be a particularly effective ambush because of the angle. And it seems, if you were laying an ambush here, you would've hit yourselves in the trees, you wouldn't be making your stopping point this bridge out in the open like this guy is. So it's possible he has backup somewhere, but from a tactical situation, that's not how you would do it.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay, I don't think there is actually an ambush here. I think it is - with the knowledge of that you think it's an exosuit - I think it's a guy with an exosuit trying to be intimidating enough to collect a toll, or for some reason deny people from using the bridge.
Pen: Marathon leans in to join everybody else in the front part of the cab. Her copper hair barely held into a tight little ponytail.
Pen (as Marathon): Ah, so this guy's just another poser, huh?
Cameron (as Emma): I don't know.
Pen (as Marathon): This one, uh, the old Patina can take out real quick?
Cameron (as Emma): [interrupting] I mean, it's a person in an exosuit. I'm not by no knowledge of skills, but one person in an exosuit - partial, potentially.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, I mean, like, if it came to it, we should be able to handle the combat fine, but I guess someone should go... or we could all roll out and go see what he wants. One person stay in the rig.
Pen (as Marathon): If we all roll out, it's pretty intimidating, I think.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Well, he's wearing a giant exosuit and standing in front of a bridge and saying ‘none shall pass’, so...
Kit: Birdie is gonna knock down a pair of sunglasses from where they're resting on top of her head. And she's gonna roll down the window enough to stick her head out and she's gonna go,
Kit (as Birdie): [yelling] What do you want?
Nick (as hooded figure): [loudly] You shall not pass, bandits.
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] I think he thinks we're bandits. So, -
Pen (as Marathon): [overlapping] Oh~, he's got a mistaken identity thing situation going, yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): I think we've been reading you too many romance novel books, Marathon. Not everything is a trope.
Kit (as Birdie): [laugh] Should I like, correct him? Do we think? Should I just kinda tell? No, no one's gonna stop me. Okay, uh - [yelling] No. No bandits. Just passing through.
Nick: There's a long pause.
Kit (as Birdie): He's thinking, thinking hard.
Nick: The figure shouts back,
Nick (as hooded figure): [loudly] If you are not bandits, then come out and speak with me. I must be convinced, or you shall not pass.
Pen (as Marathon): Now's when we roll out, right?
Pen: Marathon starts to reach for her door handle.
Kit (as Birdie): I do, uh, hold on.
Cameron (as Emma): Hold up, -
Pen (as Marathon): Oh, yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): [overlapping] - Marathon. Not so fast. Let's have a plan before walking out.
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] Who is going to go out and who is going to stay in the car? Let's talk about this.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I'm staying.
Pen (as Marathon):* [overlapping] Does that mean we have to...
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] I'll stay cuz I'm in the driver's seat.
Pen (as Marathon): Oh, okay.
Kit (as Birdie): So if we need like a speedy exit or something.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah.
Pen (as Marathon): So me and Emma, huh?
Kit (as Birdie): Can we, uh -
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I think, Emma, if you wanna put the, turn the charm on.
Cameron (as Emma): Let's, let's not try to escalate, Marathon.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, yeah.
Pen (as Marathon): Hey, I'll just look tough.
Sydney (as Cassidy): If something dumb happens, I have the pistol in the glovebox.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Pen (as Marathon): Perfect.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, Emma, you can do your, maybe, I don't know, maybe like a small-town gal shtick would work on this.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, I'll go make a new friend.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Pen (as Marathon): Yeah.
Cameron: And Emma sits back in the seat and starts retying her shoes real quick before she gets out of the back of the rig.
Pen (as Marathon): Put the, put the charm on this nine-foot chump.
Cameron: As she gets out of the rig, Emma does sling her sword onto her shoulder.
Pen: Marathon slides out the other side to join Emma near the front of the rig as they walk in front of it.
Nick: As you approach, seeing that you're armed, the person blocking your way vaguely aims the staff towards you. You see the top that was pointed at the sky looks like the end of a trumpet, kind of bugled out, and is covered in a mesh that is aimed at you as you approach.
Cameron: How long or tall would you say the staff is?
Nick: It's about as tall as he is, so like, eight feet?
Cameron: So Emma and Marathon come to a halt about 15 feet from this guy, just to not be in direct swinging risk.
Cameron (as Emma): Hello.
Nick (as hooded figure): Hello.
Pen (as Marathon): Greetings.
Cameron (as Emma): Hi.
Nick (as hooded figure): I must request that you do not come this direction.
Cameron (as Emma): Why?
Nick (as hooded figure): You are too clearly a threat to the settlements on the other side, as armed as you are. I have made it my duty, as a member of the Advantia, to protect the people beyond this bridge.
Pen: Marathon scoffs a little bit.
Cameron: Emma's friendly face falls a little bit, ever so slightly, that only Marathon probably notices. Cassidy, you probably see Emma stiffen slightly, though, even if you don't know why.
Sydney: Cassidy, watching the interaction, says out of the side of her mouth to Birdie,
Sydney (as Cassidy): That doesn’t seem like a good sign. Did you see that?
Kit: No. I'm just gonna get ready to go.
Pen: Marathon holds her hands out.
Pen (as Marathon): Hey, we have no problem with the Advantia. We’ve done work for the Advantia, Right, Emma?
Cameron (as Emma): Yep. Um, are you just here as like a town protector? Like, are you, are you assigned to this area? Or are we actually approaching some Advantia-controlled settlement or enclave? I don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know what you call your, uh...
Pen (as Marathon): Places.
Cameron (as Emma): My brain wants to say clubhouse. [laugh] Your official buildings.
Nick: This person pulls back the hood that's been hiding their facial features, and you see that they have a long, dark beard with some gray streaks in it, and hair that is pointing in every direction. They are white, and they look to be maybe fifty, although the beard hides a lot of their face. And they make eye contact with you, Emma, and say,
Nick (as hooded figure): We prefer enclaves.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Nick (as hooded figure): And how many Advantia are around is not the kind of thing someone peaceful would ask.
Nick: He looks deeply suspicious.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh sorry. I was, I was just wondering if it was like, you wanted us to stay away because it was like your, your enclave location? And thus you have the perimeter, like you do in Eagle Hill, around that enclave? Or if it was just, y'all were stationed here and there were settlements? So it was just you wanted us to stay away from the settlements? That, that's all I was trying to clarify.
Nick: He looks a little surprised and crosses his arms, still holding on to the staff, but it's no longer pointed at you, and says,
Nick (as hooded figure): If you've come from Eagle Hill, you've come a long way.
Cameron (as Emma): [tired laugh] Yeah. Yes, we have. And I guess actually not directly traveling from Eagle Hill. We were in Eagle Hill, we went back up to Tree All, and then,
Pen (as Marathon): [overlapping] Hey, that's where I'm from!
Cameron (as Emma): [overlapping] so technically, we're...Yep. And so Tree All, and then we met - we were on Sasnak for a while and kind of... I honestly don't know where exactly we went on, while we were there. [overlapping] Um, but now we're off and...
Pen (as Marathon): [overlapping] We actually were heroes in Sasnak too, so…
Cameron (as Emma): And now, now we are, we are trying to get towards Mellow Tone?
Nick (as hooded figure): I see.
Cameron (as Emma): Is this the correct - this is the correct direction? Yes?
Nick (as hooded figure): It's the correct direction -
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Nick (as hooded figure): - in that generally west is the way to Mellow Tone.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what we gotta go at the moment. It's, it's not, it's not like there's a long road.
Pen (as Marathon): Hey, we're just trying to get there from A to B without using up all our gas, you know?
Nick: Emma, I need you to make me a Charm check at hard difficulty, please. Marathon, you can help if you would like.
Pen: Sure. My charm is... three yellows.
Cameron: So if you've got three Skill, then we'd actually take your Skill and we would take my two Presence. So it'd be two yellows. And then I'm going to flip a story point as well because Emma is just so fucking genuine that like, I mean, obviously, everyone's gonna trust her. Can I have a blue die since it does seem from the wording I'm using and where I know their other enclaves are and how kind of their structure's set up that I have worked with the Advantia before?
Nick: No, because that doesn't necessarily make you less of a threat to this guy.
Cameron: Fair enough. So we're rolling three yellows, three purples then.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes and a threat.
Nick: Okay, so this guy believes that you are not an active threat to him, which is good. He's not necessarily convinced to just let you pass right now, because he's already made his oath that he will not let people pass on the bridge. I think the threat is... in his mind, bandits and mercenaries are pretty close to the same thing, and you've basically admitted to doing mercenary work. So, he doesn't think that you're necessarily a threat. He's not going to attack you unless you do something, but he's not necessarily convinced to let you go. You can see, though, he relaxes and uncrosses his arms, rests his staff on the ground, and leans forward a little to get a better look at you.
Nick (as hooded figure): It seems that you have had quite an adventure.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, and we're not done yet.
Pen (as Marathon): Yeah, you can... Trying to get west. Through the bridge.
Cameron (as Emma): Kind of seems like we're, we're hitting most of the seven. That's, we're part of the way, almost halfway through.
Pen (as Marathon): We just need to get through. Mosey on... mosey on past ya in a safe way.
Nick (as hooded figure): If you've worked for the Advantia in the past, have you letters of writ from other enclaves? Do they guarantee you safe passage or connection with other Advantia?
Cameron: Emma thinks for a moment.
Pen (as Marathon): We have like a gift for Susan.
Cameron: Emma makes no reaction to what Marathon just said and is gonna... Maybe if she doesn't react, no one else will have heard it either.
Cameron (as Emma): Whenever they wanna like call us for a job, they play Moon River over the radio.
Nick (as hooded figure): Interesting.
Cameron (as Emma): Um, they never give us any official paperwork or anything, but I can give, I can give the names of the Advantia members we've worked with before. I don't know -
Pen (as Marathon): Hey, you know Renn and Ciphera?
Cameron (as Emma): - I don't know what your ability is to contact them.
Pen (as Marathon): You know Todd? Todd from Tree All, maybe?
Nick (as hooded figure): I'm afraid simple interpersonal connections won't help you here. We are quite isolated this far west. I am not familiar with the eastern enclaves, beyond their general location and realms of study. Either way, I have given my word not to allow armed individuals to pass into the towns on the other side of the gorge. They have negotiated quite an advantageous deal for myself and my studies in exchange for keeping them safe. And in their mind, safe is free of strangers.
Pen (as Marathon): Oh yeah? What you studying?
Cameron (as Emma): Realistically, would you have anyone traveling this way that wasn't armed?
Nick (as hooded figure): It does happen, occasionally, -
Cameron (as Emma): Okay, so occasionally, there's stupid people who come through.
Nick (as hooded figure): - and... Haha, yes, indeed. You will find there are many stupid people on the road. I am currently studying invisible waves.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh, cool.
Pen: Marathon blinks.
Nick (as hooded figure): The effect of sound and electricity on mechanics.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh, that's cool. Are you trying to like, see if you can like disrupt the mechanics with like gamma, alpha waves or something? Or is it more just seeing if they have any impact to like performance or anything?
Nick: Huh, make me a Wild Tech roll, Emma.
Cameron: Can I actually do a Classical Physics check, please?
Nick: Sure. Yeah, make me a Classical Physics check.
Cameron: Cause that feels very on point. [laughing] It's not actually as good as my Wild Tech, but it feels more correct.
Nick: Yeah.
Pen: Marathon's excitement and enthusiasm deflates as she breathes out, starting to hear the science talk.
Sydney: Cassidy looks to Birdie back in the rig and goes like
Sydney (as Cassidy): I think they’re talking science now based on Marathon’s expression and Emma’s excitement, which seems good.
Kit (as Birdie): Well, that's good then.
Nick: I think it's hard, and you have a black die, because this is this guy's specific realm of study, so any of your homegrown knowledge wouldn't sit well with him, because he knows all the technical terms as they're supposed to be, in his mind.
Cameron: Can I have a blue die though because I'm obviously excited about it and no one ever wants to hear him talk about his shit, so this is actually a rare opportunity for him? [laugh]
Nick: Sure, yeah.
Cameron: In that case, my dice pool is four greens, a blue, a black, and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: One success, three advantages.
Nick: Wow, okay, yeah. You being interested in his realm of study and showing not some little amount of knowledge of his realm of study completely surprises him, and his face lights up. When he smiles, you can see he is missing a few teeth. He seems more and more like an eccentric hermit than a looming sentinel. And he leans down even further. You can hear the servos on his exosuit legs adjusting to keep him upright as he leans closer to you, Emma, and says,
Nick (as hooded figure): Indeed, I am mostly interested in the disruption of other technology, being able to shut down things that I don't want operating. But I've also discovered that certain waves have a surprising effect on the human physique and have managed to make it into a weapon, if you can believe that.
Nick: And he wiggles his staff a little bit.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh I mean, that, that doesn't seem too far out of stretch in my imagination -
Pen (as Marathon): How's it work?
Cameron (as Emma): - since I know that, like, if you're, if you're exposed to some types of rays that like we use in medicine and stuff for a long time it can, it can mess you up pretty bad. So that, that tracks. You wanna know how the, the invisible wave -
Pen (as Marathon): [interrupting] No, actually, I take that back.
Cameron (as Emma): - cannon works?
Pen (as Marathon): My eyes were already glazing over.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Pen (as Marathon): So, uh...
Nick: He looks disappointed.
Pen (as Marathon): Your science seems really cool, dude. Any chance, uh, we could negotiate a science thing with you? We could...
Nick (as hooded figure): What do you mean, negotiate a science thing?
Pen (as Marathon): Um, maybe Emma could help you out with something. I dunno.
Pen: Marathon is obviously kinda riffing.
Pen (as Marathon): Um, we could help you track down more wave things. Emma, I-I-I think I-I'm out of my-my depth. [laugh]
Cameron: Emma's just kind of looking at Marathon like with a fond smile on her face.
Pen (as Marathon): A mutually beneficial arrangement. That is all I'm-that's all I'm asking. That's what I'm trying to get to.
Cameron (as Emma): I would be open to that, uh, if, if the agreement you have with the nearby settlements, though, is that they don't want to see any strangers, I would also appreciate if you could direct us to some other place that we could pass this gorge behind you? Preferably one that'll fit our truck.
Pen (as Marathon): And not use up all our gas.
Cameron (as Emma): Ideally, it would not be too far out of our way, either, yes.
Nick (as hooded figure): I will admit, although it makes me seem rather inconsiderate, that the only way to continue west from here is to go north or south quite a ways for this gorge to end. It would add -
Cameron (as Emma): [sigh]
Nick (as hooded figure): - days, maybe weeks, to your travel.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh, no.
Nick (as hooded figure): I have become taken with the two of you. I would like to help you. I am trying to decide how I could possibly let you pass, what logic I could use that would allow me to essentially go back on my word to the villages on the other side. If only there was some way you could provide a new realm of study or something that would be able to override my word in an advantage to my organization instead. That would be the only way I could go back on a previous agreement.
Pen (as Marathon): [whisper] Do we have anything like that?
Pen: Marathon whispers to Emma.
Pen (as Marathon): [whisper] I mean, besides the obvious big one.
Cameron: Emma is sitting there and has started chewing on her thumbnail a little bit as, as she's thinking through what the options are.
Cameron (as Emma): And it's not possible that you could let us through and then like give us a path to where we could avoid going near any of the settlements? To just not cause any panic amongst the civilians?
Nick (as hooded figure): Well, I would ask that you do that anyway,
Cameron (as Emma): Well, yeah.
Nick (as hooded figure): - but some sort of exchange of knowledge is the only way I see for you all to cross this bridge. And it would need to be quite impressive for people in your... Of people who are as far-traveled as you. I can assure you that the knowledge that you share would only be used for my personal study, as I am not currently a member of an enclave. I'm out here on sabbatical.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh, that's nice. Is it a nice place for that?
Nick (as hooded figure): No, not really.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh, okay. Well, I'm sorry.
Pen: Marathon nods her head.
Nick: He looks kind of, at the distance, kind of sad.
Cameron (as Emma): At, at, at least you get some time to work on a personal project?
Nick (as hooded figure): That would be one of the few upsides, yes.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah… Are the, are like the towns accepting of you? Or is it still kind of, we, we made a deal, but you still are also a stranger, so kind of arms length?
Nick (as hooded figure): There are individuals, but majority of the towns are not interested in interacting with me and to be frank, I am not interested in interacting with them, as they do not understand my realm of study.
Cameron (as Emma): Hmm.
Pen (as Marathon): Hmm.
Cameron (as Emma): I guess that makes sense.
Pen (as Marathon): Been there.
Nick (as hooded figure): Being alone is not so bad.
Cameron (as Emma): No, but having a person to talk to, just to remind yourself occasionally that you're human, is nice.
Nick (as hooded figure): If you say so.
Cameron: Emma shares a look with him of, ‘I do a lot of machine shit, too. And if you focus on it too hard, you can kind of lose yourself.’ That's what the look says.
Nick: Hmm, he nods to you, waiting. He's kind of laid it all out on the table for you. In his mind, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place and wants to help, but he needs something in return to get around his own word.
Pen (as Marathon): Could sh- could show 'em my gravskates. We could show 'em... we could give 'em that-that tentacle thing that we've got - the arm.
Cameron (as Emma): I'm, I'm trying to think if there's, if there's, if there's anything that I've had to work with that has involved waves.
Pen (as Marathon): Waves. Well, if you did, I tuned it out. Get it? [chuckle] Waves.
Cameron (as Emma): Hmm.
Pen (as Marathon): [laughing] We could lend you to this guy for a little bit. No, probably not that one.
Cameron (as Emma): [laughing]
Pen (as Marathon): We wanna keep traveling. Well, we got Cassidy's radio headset too. That's like, radio waves speaking and tuning out.
Cameron (as Emma): Mm-hmm. Yep, that's...
Pen (as Marathon): Is that the right kinda waves?
Cameron (as Emma): That... Yeah, um, those are invisible.
Nick: He's leaned back politely to let you all talk in relative privacy as you try to come up with a solution.
Cameron: It is obvious Emma is just brainstorming as she's going through things.
Cameron (as Emma): Uh, I mean, there are invisible waves. They're not, if he's just looking in general, that would work. They're not, you're not gonna use radio waves as a weapon towards somebody, but I'm okay with what we provide not being used as a weapon.
Pen (as Marathon): Yeah, me too. I mean, ideally.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, uh, yeah. [overlapping] Do you wanna, do you wanna run back to the rig and ask Cassidy if she'd be okay with us showing it?
Pen: [overlapping] Yeah, I'll try it. Yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): Mentioning that it is to a enclave-less Advantia member?
Pen: Marathon gives a mini salute.
Pen (as Marathon): I'm on mission.
Pen: And she does a little jog back to the rig, onto Cassidy's side.
Sydney: As Marathon's coming back, Cassidy turns to Birdie,
Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay, so do we think this means they've figured out how to get us through? What are the odds?
Kit (as Birdie): Um, if it's Marathon coming back and not Emma, no.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Oh...
Kit (as Birdie): They haven't found a way and they have to talk to us.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay, that makes sense.
Pen: Marathon knocks on the window on Cassidy's side.
Sydney: Cassidy rolls the window down.
Pen (as Marathon): Hey, we found a way. We're basically through. We just, you know... This guy wants to like investigate some like waves or whatever and...
Sydney (as Cassidy): Who... what? [overlapping] Who is this guy?
Pen (as Marathon): [overlapping] And, uh, Emma and I were talking and [end overlap] - he, uh, he's like Advantia and we were, we were thinking about letting him look in at your headset.
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] Oh boo.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [overlapping] Ahhh... My headset?!
Pen (as Marathon): Yes, it makes radio waves.
Kit (as Birdie): That's attached to Cassidy's head?
Pen (as Marathon): Well, we don't have to bring out Cassidy with us. You can get it off, right?
Sydney: Cassidy inflates her cheeks and looks unhappy with this proposal.
Pen (as Marathon): And I think he's just gonna look at it. I don't think he's gonna keep it.
Kit (as Birdie): Well.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [dramatic sigh]
Cameron: In front of them, Emma has turned to the side to where she can, while not completely losing sight of this dude, also look towards the rig to be a reassurance should Cassidy need it, based on whatever Marathon decides to say. [laughing]
Pen (as Marathon): You trust me~, or - you trust Emma, right?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, but I don't trust this random guy who is nine feet tall, threatening, or whatever, and an Advantia, whatever.
Pen (as Marathon): Yeah, he's just some old guy. Old geezer. You could even come out, probably. We, we've talked peace into him. He likes us now. Just, I, I just wouldn't bring out a gun to show him.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, if he's gonna look at the headset, I'm not... I gotta be there too. I've had this for too long. [overlapping] Family heirloom.
Pen (as Marathon): [overlapping] Hey, Birdie, wanna come out and make it a party?
Kit (as Birdie): Uh, nope!
Pen (as Marathon): Fair enough. It's pretty boring.
Sydney: Cassidy claps Birdie on the shoulder and then goes to put her jacket on.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Alright!
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I'm just gonna make a quick exit if we need to. I'm just gonna stay in the car. If you need me, uh, signal me. Do like a bird hand sort of thing.
Pen (as Marathon): Oh!
Pen: And Marathon holds up two fists and does a very complicated gesture that's hard to remember.
Pen (as Marathon): Uh, that means you want to run him over, if I give you that signal.
Kit (as Birdie): Uh, no, maybe just start screaming.
Kit: And she's gonna kick her boots up on the dash and start playing one of the romance novels.
Pen (as Marathon): Fair enough.
Sydney: Cassidy slowly and reluctantly climbs out of the front seat of the truck with her headset on her face, as it always is.
Pen: Marathon and Cassidy come crunching on snow back to the same spot that she was standing with Emma.
Nick: Emma, the entire time that Marathon was gone, this guy has just been standing staring into the middle distance. No attempt to create further conversation. He is clearly someone who's used to standing here alone without much stimulation and doesn't seem to need to start another conversation.
Cameron: As soon as Emma saw that Cassidy was starting to put her jacket on in the rig, indicating that she was gonna get out and come along with the headset, as it is attached to her face right now, she turns back around towards the Advantia guy and says,
Cameron (as Emma): Alright, it looks like she's got her. So we do the most wavy thing that we have, that I can think of, is we have a Wild Tech headset that our captain has, that she is not going to agree to give you, but we could let you examine. But I know it's got, it is a radio, just like in general, but also does have some other wave stuff happening, because it has been tracked before. I don't know what kind of waves it has - not my area of expertise, I'm more just the mechanical part - but mystery waves in a headset, if that would be interesting.
Nick: He nods slowly.
Sydney: As Cassidy catches the end of this conversation, she takes a deep breath and, doing her best Wyatt interpretation, gives the swipe right of Advantia respect and tries to not show any other emotion. About feeling like doing this gesture is the most helpful step to be taken here.
Nick: The tall man looks pleasantly surprised, smiles at you Cassidy, and reciprocates the swipe right gesture.
Nick (as hooded figure): I see that you have indeed spent time around my brethren.
Sydney: Cassidy looks at the guy and looks to Emma.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I heard we need to investigate the headset, as toll?
Cameron (as Emma): Yes, please, if you would be willing.
Pen (as Marathon): Oh, I don't know if we introduced ourselves too. This is Cassidy, uh, Emma, and I'm Marathon. What was your name, dude?
Nick (as Secant): I go by Secant. I am an Advantia of the Third Order here in the Central Region.
Pen (as Marathon): That's awesome.
Sydney: And Cassidy, making eye contact with Emma, slowly reaches up and takes her headset off and holds it in her hand. There is a very small tan line on her face, where, even in the winter, it is still very visible that this is where it lives.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay.
Nick: The Advantia reaches down to take the headset, but before he does, he pauses and says,
Nick (as Secant): I acknowledge that you are sharing something close to you that has great value, and I promise that it will not come to harm as I examine it.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Thank you.
Sydney: And Cassidy holds it above her head to be close enough that he can pick it up from on his elevated position.
Nick: He takes it gently and turns it over in his hand a couple of times. You hear him mumbling to himself something about miniaturized transceivers. And then he reaches into his cloak and is rattling around in some pockets and pulls out a box with a small screen on it and holds it next to the headset and says,
Nick (as Secant): Interesting. Very interesting. Who are you communicating with right now?
Nick: And he's looking at Cassidy.
Sydney: Cassidy looks back and forth between Emma and Marathon.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Uh... I don't have the radio transmitter on. It's push to talk, so...
Nick (as Secant): No, not the radio - the other transceiver.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Which other transceiver?
Cameron (as Emma): That must be the mystery one I was talking about.
Nick: And he turns the screen around to show you. There's just a bunch of waveforms on it. It's not something that's easily discernible. And he points to it with the hand holding the headset and says,
Nick (as Secant): Well, you can see here, because of these multiple waves, there's multiple transceivers on different frequencies. And, wait - do you hear that?
Nick: I need you all to roll me a hard Vigilance check.
Kit: Everybody's straining their ears to listen and they just hear really loudly.
Kit (as Audiobook Narrator): He places his hand on her heaving bosom -
Kit: from the truck.
Sydney: Cassidy is rolling a yellow and a green versus three purples.
Pen: Marathon is rolling three purples and a green.
Cameron: Emma has two yellows against the three purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: One success and three threats.
Pen: A failure and an advantage.
Cameron: Two successes and a threat.
Nick: Okay, so Emma and Cassidy, with those successes, you hear a mechanical sound that really the only thing that springs to mind is Wild Tech servos in the distance. They seem to be coming from somewhere behind this man in the gorge. With those threats though, you are unable to react in time or warn him before a dark metal arm erupts through the man's chest as he is impaled by a spider-like claw. He drops Cassidy's headset as he gasps, and all three of you are sprayed with blood from his chest wound as climbing out of the gorge over the bridge behind him is the giant mechanical spider that has been hunting Cassidy for most of her life.
Pen (as Marathon): [overlapping] Oh dirt!
Cameron (as Emma): [overlapping] Oh my god!
Sydney: Cassidy hesitates for a second between the headset and the spider and that all of her guns are back in the rig.
Cameron: Emma immediately draws her sword and places herself in between Marathon and Cassidy and the spider.
Pen (as Marathon): Let's get you back to the guns, miss.
Pen: And Marathon reaches down to hit her skates and reaches out an arm to Cassidy.
Nick: I need everybody to roll me Vigilance, please. We're dropping into Initiative.
Kit: Can Birdie just automatically go last? I'm assuming it will just take her, like, the first round to actually know what's happening.
Nick: Sure.
[dice rolling]
Pen: I rolled one green, two successes.
Cameron: On my two yellows, I have three successes and a Triumph.
Sydney: And my yellow and a green, I have an advantage.
Nick: The spider is rolling two yellows with a blue die because it definitely has the advantage at this moment, and it's rolling it twice.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: So the first roll of that is a success and two advantages.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: And the second is two successes and a Triumph.
Nick: Ooh, so we're gonna get: PC slot, PC slot, spider, PC slot, spider. So the spider currently is shaking its leg, trying to dislodge this Advantia that is impaled on it. And most of its various camera eyes are focused in on the obstruction, trying to see the best way to free its leg. Some of the cameras are pointed down at the ground where Cassidy's headset was dropped, and one of the other legs is pawing towards it like somebody who's dropped their glasses and is trying to pick it up. And it's a PC slot.
Cameron: For my Triumph, can I have it be that as the spider has crawled out of this gorge and is putting partial weight on the bridge and partial on the side of the gorge itself, that the bridge is strong enough that it is not being damaged by this movement?
Nick: Yeah, I think that is a fair Triumph that the bridge can absolutely hold the spider's weight without concern.
Cameron: So Emma is going to try and take advantage of the fact that the spider is not currently standing at its full height because it is still partially on the wall of the gorge - it hasn't fully come up on top yet and is going to rush forward while trying to keep as much distance from the edge as she can. And I want to take a swipe with my sword at the body of the spider since it's much lower to the ground than it normally is.
Nick: Okay, you can even have a blue die because it's currently distracted dealing with the corpse.
Cameron: Alright, so for that Melee check, I am rolling three yellows, a blue, and two purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes, a threat, and a Triumph.
Nick: Okay, what's the total damage?
Cameron: So my Brawn is three, plus the two for the successes, plus four for the sword, so nine. Pierce one.
Nick: Okay, you give it a pretty solid whack. This thing is pretty heavily armored, but you do manage to cut a gash in some exposed mechanics. You notice that there is dripping hydraulic fluid and little coin-sized spider bots fall out of the hole and then start crawling around where the wound is.
Cameron: Since I was standing right there when the spider came up, so I said I rushed towards it, but I didn't really need to move mechanically to hit it, I’d like to use my Maneuver to pick up Cassidy's headset and put it in my pocket.
Nick: Okay.
Cameron: And I'm Critting on it with my Triumph.
Nick: Yep, go ahead and roll that Crit.
Cameron: That is an 81, which on the Vehicle chart is Defenses Damaged: the vehicle's defenses are compromised. If a vehicle's defenses are compromised, reduce its Defense to zero.
Nick: Okay, it doesn't have any Defense, so.
Cameron: Well, it still doesn't.
Nick: Okay, so Emma, you're able to grab the headset and put it into your pocket. As you do so, you notice that more of the eyes of the spider become locked directly on you. And the spider clears its arm that was impaling Secant and throws him into the gorge behind it. And you hear air whistling through the exosuit as he plunges into the abyss. And now it's the spider's turn and it's gonna attack Emma. This thing rolls four yellows to attack.
Cameron: And a Melee?
Nick: Yep, it is trying to crush you with its arms.
Cameron: So I have three Melee Defense, so it has three black dice.
Nick: Oh, and I'm gonna upgrade it one, not with the GM Point, but with the Triumph it rolled on the Initiative.
Cameron: Okay, so add a green?
Nick: Yes, please.
Cameron: Alright, and then I am going to suffer two Strain to use two levels of Dodge to upgrade the combat check to two reds instead of two purples.
Nick: Okay.
Cameron: That puts the final dice pool for Spider at four yellows, a green, two reds, and three blacks.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes and two threats.
Nick: Okay, so you've got 10 damage coming at you.
Cameron: I am going to use my Parry Talent - it's when I suffer a hit from Melee after damage is calculated, but before the Soak is applied, I can suffer Three strain to reduce the damage by two plus my ranks in Parry, and I have two ranks in Parry, so I'm going to reduce that damage down to six.
Nick: Okay.
Cameron: And then I have five Soak, so I take one damage.
Nick: Okay, so describe how you are just barely injured by this massive mechanical spider trying to crush you to death.
Cameron: As Emma puts Cassidy's headset in her pocket and takes a step back to look at the spider and notices all of its eyes shift over to her as Secant is flung into the abyss, she does a, it could be cheeky or it could be [scared laugh] ‘hi’ type of wave at all of the eyeballs, and then as the spider launches its body down at her to crush her, she grabs a hold of the closest leg to her and yanks herself to it so that she doesn't get crushed because it's not going to hit itself, but she does slam herself into the leg and bonks her head pretty good.
Nick: And even though you are able to dodge it, it does follow through on this crushing blow and leave two craters in the snow and part of the road where you were standing just a moment before.
Cameron: Emma looks towards the rig, hoping that her friends are coming.
Nick: We're to another PC slot.
Pen: Marathon is, with all of the movement, has skirted out of the way, but is still standing ready for Cassidy to hop on if she wants a quick ride to the rig.
Sydney: Cassidy, yeah, grabs onto Marathon and says,
Sydney (as Cassidy): Get the exosuit and get Birdie to try to push it off the cliff. I’m getting in the Knight.
Pen (as Marathon): Roger. I'll take you there.
Pen: And Marathon, with wide frightened eyes, turns away from the spider to speed Cassidy on her back towards the end of the rig, where she can hop into the Knight.
Nick: Yeah, you're able to do that fairly easily and the spider's very distracted by Emma, so you don't have to worry about that at the moment.
Pen: And as Marathon reaches the end, she'll drop off Cassidy and go around the back of the rig towards the other side to knock on Birdie's window.
Pen (as Marathon): [knocking on window] Birdie, Birdie, Birdie!
Kit: Birdie perks up at the first, she was starting to drift off to sleep a little bit. And she starts herself awake as if her head just dropped as she nodded off. And will go
Kit (as Birdie): Huh? Huh?
Pen (as Marathon): Hey, Birdie, you ready?
Kit (as Birdie): What? Uh, uh, ready? For what?!
Pen (as Marathon): Spider!
Kit (as Birdie): What is it doing?
Pen (as Marathon): Spider!
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, okay, what, okay, is there a plan? Do we have a plan? What the fuck are we doing?
Pen (as Marathon): Uh, let's blow it down this cliff. That sounds great. [overlapping] Uh, Cassidy's getting the Knight, I'm getting the rig, combat rig.
Kit: [overlapping] Okay, do I use the truck?
Pen (as Marathon): I think the plan is, run it off this cliff.
Kit (as Birdie): With the truck, okay.
Pen (as Marathon): Use the rig, use your bombs, just get it down.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm staying in the truck.
Pen: Marathon completes her lap around the rig again, reaching the exosuit, and the quick-release lever pulls just out of her hand as Birdie starts the rig forward.
Pen (as Marathon): Ah, dirt.
Nick: Okay, up next is a spider slot and it is going to try to hit Emma again. It scrabbles around, putting Emma between it and the rest of the Patina and raises its two arms to try and smash Emma again. You can see Emma on the underside, there is a port to maybe some sort of storage, but there is a multitude of smaller arms like a crab's mouth that are constantly moving. They look like they are grabbing at you from the underside. And then the two arms come slamming down again. Four yellows, please.
Cameron: Alright, I am once again going to suffer two Strain to use Dodge to upgrade the check twice.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: One success and a Despair.
Nick: Whaaat? So one success is nine damage coming at you.
Cameron: [sigh] Okay, I will accept that and I Soak five, and so I lose four.
Nick: Yeah, so with that Despair, Emma is thrown free of the melee and away so that everyone else has a clear shot at the spider. Emma, do you do anything to dodge being crushed into a pulp by this thing?
Cameron: She, as she sees the arms coming, raises a sword to try and block and probably takes a few steps back and I think ends up standing on a small hill pile of snow. And because of the steps back that she takes, the arms coming at her explode into the little hill and it loses all structural integrity and sends her backwards off of it. And so she manages to step out of the way so it would hit right in front of her and then the snow does another job of continuing her movement in a backwards direction. And she unmechanically falls on her butt in the snow, just because I feel like you would, but I don't want to have to waste anything standing back up.
Nick: Yeah, I think that's fair. So Emma is thrown free, next up is another PC slot.
Sydney: Cassidy slams heavily onto the floor in the back of the rig and scrabbles quickly up into the cockpit of the Knight, opening it just enough for her to climb inside and then closing it behind her, and starts looking for the freshly labeled startup sequence, the different buttons that Emma has laid out. It is a lot better off than it had been at the beginning of the journey when - even after Pallie had refurbished it everything, because it was still expected to be started by her, or perhaps by Zee-o. And now Emma, amongst all of the other fixes, has done her best to make this possible to do without needing years of wild tech knowledge. But Cassidy's definitely trying to work very fast, and even though she knows roughly the process, it is still not her area of expertise, and it's not often that they are needing to get it booted from cold directly into a fight, and it's especially not often to have to do that right after seeing someone get eviscerated in front of her.
Nick: Yeah, so I'm going to need an average Wild Tech roll. You can have a blue die because everything is pretty well labeled, but I'm also gonna flip a GM Story Point to upgrade the difficulty because you are under quite a bit of stress.
Sydney: So that puts Cassidy at two greens and a blue against a red and a purple.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Three advantages and a failure.
Nick: Dope. So the Knight is not going to be started on this round. It does begin to boot, but Cassidy, there are so many buttons to press and so many different toggles that need to be pointed the exact right way. Even having seen this done before, it takes a lot of concentration and the Knight just is not fast to get started. It never has been.
Sydney: Cassidy, feeling a frustration with her incomplete understanding of how the Knight boot process works, reaches up to try to get on her headset and talk to Emma to help guide her through it before realizing that she just touched her empty temple, and grits her teeth as she slows down a little bit and tries to read more of the labels instead of just trying to muscle memory a thing she's not done very often.
Nick: Everyone else does hear the simultaneously deep and high pitched whine of the Knight beginning to boot from the back of the rig. We're to the last PC slot of the round, which is Birdie.
Kit: Birdie will crack her knuckles, push the aviator's back on her head and go,
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, yeah, let's drive. Let's drive the rig towards the cliff. No pressure. No pressure at all. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay.
Kit: And she's going to take off the parking brake and use one foot as leverage to toss an arm back and yell to Cassidy,
Kit (as Birdie): Get ready, we're moving.
Kit: In hopes that maybe she will hear, who knows? But it's for integrity purposes. She knows that she did it, and that's what matters to her. And she's going to, without a ton of caution, start driving this thing towards the cliff and hope that it doesn't side-skitter and mess a lot of things up.
Kit (as Birdie): The Knight can always grab the truck and bring it back off the cliff… I'll be fine, I'll be fine.
Nick: Okay, make me a hard Drive check with a black die because you are trying to time your acceleration and deceleration to keep you from going off the cliff.
Kit: Birdie is going to be rolling three yellows, one green, three purple, and one black. It's two successes, one advantage.
Nick: Wow. Okay, you successfully hit the spider with the rig.
Kit: There is a beautiful cinematic picture of the camera off of the cliff's edge with the spider in focus and in the background, out of focus, slowly getting closer, is the rig. And while the spider is preoccupied with Emma, all of a sudden, the very loud horn of the rig just gets held down by Birdie. She goes,
Kit (as Birdie): [screaming] Fuck off!
Kit: From within the rig and will hit the spider straight on.
Nick: Yeah, so as you honk the horn, almost all of the cameras swivel to lock on to you, Birdie, and it's intensely unnerving just before there's the crunch of metal on metal. And the spider takes a hefty amount of damage. We'll leave it at that. So you make contact with the spider and then immediately slam on the brakes to prevent going off of the side of this cliff. You are partly lined up with the bridge, so that gives you a little more time as you are slowing back down. The spider is halfway pulled under the rig with a nasty crunch and then begins scrabbling on the hood to try and pull itself back up.
Kit (as Birdie): Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.
Nick: And Birdie, you hear a tearing noise as some of the legs seem to have been ripped free and the two front arms begin tapping more and more forcefully on the front windshield of the rig -
Kit (as Birdie): Ew!
Nick: - as it looks like it's almost coming in after you, even though this thing is the size of the entire cab of the rig.
Kit: Can she reverse, still using her turn, or is that it?
Nick: I think you can reverse. That's okay.
Kit: Birdie is gonna, without any warning to anyone, hit the arm over the back of the passenger seat, look back, realize that there's an entire back end of the rig still attached, and then look over her other shoulder, yanks it in reverse, stomps on the gas to gun it backwards.
Nick: The spider slides off the hood as the rig accelerates backwards. Cassidy, you are thrown around in the cockpit of the Knight a little bit as the momentum changes multiple times in quick succession. And the spider, sparking slightly, missing two of its rear legs, extends its remaining limbs to stand to its full height and the cameras fixated all around it lock on to each member of the Patina split evenly as the spider prepares for war.
[hurdy gurdy music swells]
Outro:
Welcome back folks, you’re listening to Going the Distance: Traveler’s Guide with M. Messenger on road dial 1558. That’s all for today’s transmission - we’re set to repeat after the following bulletins. More in-depth info 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 Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit can also be found in the Discord, along with her collection of AKoSaP art that grows whenever she’s not facing art block.
Pen Prairie-Larson as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky @ acquiredchaste. Pen is a teacher and indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes the X-Bike Ruleset, a high-risk fantasy sports game from the world of AKoSaP. Check out faer other work at penharper.itch.io.
Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Bluesky @ sydneywhitt.
Cameron Robertson as Emma. Cameron can be found on Twitter @ midnightmusic13 and on Instagram and TikTok as @ reading_and_dreaming. Cameron was also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a fully completed Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick was also the GM for Tabletop Squadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast.
This podcast features the sonic stylings 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 catch us again…
…keep being the bravest you.