In a surprising turn of events, the Advantia triggers the facility's security system while the Patina does absolutely nothing wrong.
In a surprising turn of events, the Advantia triggers the facility's security system while the Patina does absolutely nothing wrong.
Cast:
- Alli Nesbit & Kira Nesbit as Renn & Ciphera. Alli and Kira can be found on their show RPG for You and Me, a duet actual play podcast. Their website rpgforyouandme.com has tons of art from the show, character bios, custom setting rules, and more! You can also find Alli and Kira on Sounds Like Crowes: Terminus and The Night Shift podcast, not to mention Alli now helms Dark Matter Magazine podcast. You can chat with Alli on twitter @youseethehat and @rpgforyouandme, but Kira is accessible through the show's Patron exclusive discord, found at patreon.com/rpgforyouandme.
- Marathon Messenger is played by Penn Van Batavia. She's an indie TTRPG designer who just launched a new game, Wasmannian, a solo RPG about bees, wasps, and otherness in a binary world. You can find Penn on Twitter at @acquiredchaste.
- Cassidy Shard is played by Sydney Whittington. She also edits the show. Find her on Twitter at @sydney_whitt.
- Emma Blackwood is played by Cameron Robertson. Find her on Twitter at @midnightmusic13 and on Instagram at @reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
- Birdie Foundling is played by Kit Adames. Find her on Twitter at @venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor and writer on Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast.
- Our GM and narrator is Nick Robertson. Find him on Twitter at @alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron, which you can support at Patreon.com/TabletopSquadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
Music & Sound Credits:
- This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.
- old radio Channel search sound effect by Garuda1982. Link & License.
- Steel pipes fall on concrete » 34 Wrench on concrete floor, indoor, 5 impacts.wav by Bibow. Link & License.
- White Atlantis by Sergey Cheremisinov. License.
- The Beauty of Maths by Meydӓn. Link & License.
- Uplifting & Upbeat Technology Corporate by RomanSenykMusic. 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 2 Episode 25: Worth Our Dibs
Transcript by Cameron Robertson
Intro:
[hurdy gurdy music begins]
Nick: Welcome, listeners, to A Knight of Shreds and Patches. An immersive actual play podcast. This episode features the talents of –
Penn: Penn Van Batavia as Marathon Messenger.
Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling.
Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood.
Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard.
Alli: Alli Nesbit as Renn Dare.
Kira: Kira Nesbit as Ciphera Vex.
Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.
Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:
Thanks for listening to our show! You got this! Give ‘em what for! You’re the bee’s knees! The cat’s pajamas! Basically, you’re going to be successful at that thing you’re trying to do, whether it’s a tough technical task, a stressful interpersonal conversation, or just thoroughly enjoying this particularly relaxing calendar day.
And if you need more content to enjoy while, say, munching on an unusually large quantity of fast food, 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 2, Episode 25: Worth Our Dibs. 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]
Kit (as Birdie): Last time on a Knight of Shreds and Patches, we cleaned up the jolly jogger after he went and had his very big algae lunch and started trying to get reunited with Cassidy and Renn and Ciphera but there were these uh, floor cylinder - Zimbies I think Marathon called them? Whatever - that started trying to follow us and you know what it's no skin off my back because I had a nice leftover ar- little artillery shell from Iota - no clue how it got in my bag. It's crazy. And it took care of the bots really well, but uh I kind of feel bad because I think it shook Renn and Ciphera up because I promised them I wouldn't use explosives but uh yeah [awkward laugh] sorry. Sorry Renn. Sorry Ciphera.
[radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: We see a large work room. The Networking Lab that is being investigated by Cassidy, Ren, and Ciphera. Small domes are scattered along the ceiling, a strange metal chassis is separated into parts on a work table in the middle of the work room. Ciphera is in front of a screen having plugged some of Renn’s technology into a port. The display has begun to scroll incomprehensible code at a rapid speed. More worryingly, a line of unchanging text saying “Partial download of interface initiated” is visible on the screen, with a quickly filling download bar.
Kira (as Ciphera): [panicked but still trying to sound cool and collected] Renn, I need your help here, please. Right now.
Alli (as Renn): [distracted] What's the matter? Can Can I get a sec?
Kira (as Ciphera): [failing] No, it needs to be now.
Alli: Renn looks over and Ciphera's voice doesn't normally waver like that, so she's going to make some tracks over there.
Nick: Yeah, even from where you're standing next to this husk, you can see a download bar filling in. It is bright blue, and the rest of the screen is black or green, so it stands out pretty clearly. And as you head over, you're able at a glance to see that this is some sort of data dump happening from an external source.
Sydney: Cassidy is across the room. Having seen when the video took over the other monitors and was watching on a different one, but is now looking over at the Advantia with attention, if not yet concern.
Nick: Yeah, and so the audio cut off - the only one that got corrupted and changed data was the screen where Ciphera was and Renn now is. There is no more sound - you don't have that pleasant marketing voice anymore, but the rest of the monitors are still displaying what could only be described as business people being ecstatic about their profits having partnered with Erie Data Transformation Incorporated.
Kira: So Ciphera steps back as Renn gets closer to just allow her full rein, and she wrings her hands a little bit, looking back over to the robotic but humanoid form and just says
Kira (as Ciphera): [much concern] It stopped playing. There's a progress bar. Um. It it popped up and it said something about project APOC, a file that said apoc.ai. And now there's a progress bar and it said something about a-a a lunar system.
Alli (as Renn): A lunar sys-
Kira (as Ciphera): [interrupting] A lunar system. Yeah.
Alli (as Renn): [concern was contagious] Okay.
Alli: Renn sits down, she probably just gets on her knees to focus in on the screen a little better. Can she discern anything?
Kira: Ciphera will takes a moment to sort of give her a quick shoulder pinch, like a shoulder rub, but then immediately turns around and goes to stand closer to the husk that they found and snaps her staff back out to just stand there with a slight tremble. She's much more fidgety now just looking around the room at these things that are staring at them. These orbs.
Nick: So from what you're able to tell Renn as you glance at this, before you start touching anything, it's the same as what Ciphera saw: a massive amount of data is downloading very, very quickly. But it seems like it's so much data that even if the bandwidth is very impressive, it's taking quite a while and large, large chunks of it are either corrupted are not able to come through because most of these files are being canceled as they try to come in. You're able to see behind the pop up of the download the same data entry that Ciphera was reading as well. So this appears to be some sort of active download from an external source, potentially from whatever the lunar network is.
Alli: Renn just muttering to herself more than anybody else in the room and she's just saying like,
Alli (as Renn): [TOTALLY not panicking] Alright, well, I mean .ai - dot AI [panicked laugh] that's - this is fucking great and all the files are you know, red, that probably means they're being being, you know, maybe they're corrupted. Maybe they're just not downloading. Maybe they've been overwritten for something else that's worse. Uh Phera can you get my my replacement leg please? From my bag over there?
Kira (as Ciphera): Yeah, of course.
Alli: And she starts to uncouple her prosthetic and fold it out into a way that looks much more like a weapon than it did before. Always got it on her - you never know.
Kira: Cipehra brings over the replacement prosthetic and awaits further instructions.
Alli (as Renn): Just get that hooked up on plugging this in here, thank you.
Kira (as Ciphera): Yeah.
Alli: And she will look for any kind of USB looking device.
Nick: Yes, you're very easily able to plug into this network, the dongle that you provided Ciphera is already plugged in. There are several external plugs. I think you probably have to put a couple of adapters on to get it to work, but you're able to interface with this in however you would find most appropriate. Just out of curiosity are the connectors in your prosthetic?
Alli: Yeah, part of the prosthetic is a hollow container, so it has bits that she might need to make it more applicable to the system she's trying to get into. But it folds down until a very compressed sort of almost like an external hard drive but like this bitch got terabytes in it.
Nick: Okay, is your prosthetic electronic at all are purely mechanical?
Alli: I want to say it would have to be electronic.
Nick: Okay, so it's got some microprocessors and things in it.
Alli: After the murder house, she's been working on designing something. [laugh]
Nick: Okay. So you are uploading a design to this system?
Alli: Basically what she thinks she's made as a Trojan horse virus that'll eat AIs, but she's never had a chance to use it.
Nick: Okay, make me a Wild Tech roll at daunting difficulty which is four purples, but you can add to blue die because you've been working on this program for a long time. I am going to flip my GM Story Point though to upgrade the difficulty one.
Sydney: Cassidy is basically standing with the tension in the room absorbing it, but with nothing that she can do or have any input on because she doesn't even feel like it would help to go and look over their shoulders and it would probably honestly make them more nervous. So she's just looking at the husk thing on the table going, okay, all of the people that she would confide in are not here.
Cameron: All right, what dice need to happen?
Nick: So it's three purples and a red, two blue, and whatever the Wild Tech stat is.
Cameron: That was two yellows and two greens? So many dice.
[dice rolling]
Alli: Well, that'll be one success and one triumph.
Nick: Wow. Okay, so you're going to be able to completely stop this download and purge the data from the system. What does that look like as your Trojan horse virus takes over?
Alli: I think it almost eats away the screen, like moths eating a sweater, just from the outside rim on in it just the text, the little fiddly bits of code, it just all gets slowly whittled away until the last thing we see is the .ai on the bar.
Nick: Yeah, the computer system completely stops. The low humming that had been filling the room dies. The lights are still on. The only thing left on this screen is that .ai file and a pop up notification that says 'Data Not Found. Download Canceled'. And you all jump as audio suddenly comes back into the room and you hear
*Nick (as Video Host): [over speakers] Through Erie Data Transformation Inc., all our hopes can be realized. 100% of stockholders recommend Erie Data Transformation Incorporated.
Nick: And then all of the screens turn off and the room is weirdly quiet. And we're going to jump back to Emma, Marathon, and Birdie. You have been walking down this hallway for a while. There is the smell of burning plastic and wires and a light haze of smoke in the hallway from Birdie's solution back by the power source and you notice that the doors to the smaller labs and meeting rooms are all standing open now, everything is well lit. Most of this space is ruined, filled with debris completely empty, decayed, but as you continue down the hallway, you all are able to connect the dots on that map that you saw in the original room and you realize that you're very close to the Data Encoding lab, so you are near the very back of the facility.
And the door is open and inside you can see what looks like, weirdly relevant to earlier, to be set up like a science fair. There are trifold boards with little displays of technology. There are bright, well produced posters that seemed to have been preserved in time that explain what is here. This looks like a smorgasbord of information. And as you are walking into this room to begin to look around, you hear a bass hum emanating through the walls as though power consumption is going way up and this lasts for about a minute and then that suddenly stops, the lights flicker and then all is quiet again.
Kit (as Birdie): Huh. Weird.
Cameron (as Emma): Hmm.
Penn: Well, we're already down here. So,
Cameron (as Emma): You know, I feel it'd be very accusatory for me to call Cassidy and ask what they just did,
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah.
Cameron (as Emma): so I'm not going to.
Penn (as Marathon): I -
Kit (as Birdie): [overly dramatic voice] Cassidy what the hell is that?
Cameron (as Emma): [laughing]
Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, we're better than that.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah. [awkward laugh] I won't blow any...
Cameron: Anyway, Emma is gonna go start looking at science fair projects.
Kit (as Birdie): Uhh.
Penn (as Marathon): Looks kind of like a, I don't know, what what is -
Cameron (as Emma): A- a science fair?
Penn (as Marathon): I don't- I've never, uh, what is a science fair, Emma?
Cameron (as Emma): Uh. So it looks a lot like this.
Cameron: And Emma does a broad gesture at the room.
Cameron (as Emma): But we had them in school and you would, everyone would do a different science fair project and you picked like some scientific thing. There were a lot of power generators for us because it was around the same time we learned about the dam but,
Penn (as Marathon): Oh...
Cameron (as Emma): And then you like, you put together this project to explain your science thing and then you get prizes if you're good at science.
Penn (as Marathon): Uh it looks kind of like a flea market.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, kind of similar except they're not selling things, you're learning things.
Penn: [laughing] Marathon gives the most [no laughter, only serious] deadpan look to Emma.
Penn (as Marathon): [sounding almost in pain] Yes. Very exciting.
Cameron (as Emma): It is because this is a really old science fair. [happy in nerd]
Penn (as Marathon): I - I'm happy for you.
Cameron (as Emma): Thank you. I'm happy for me too. [laugh]
Penn (as Marathon): [so much pain] Yay~.
Penn: Marathon is gonna go look for some trinkets to mess with.
Kit: Are there things that Birdie could use in her explosives in this room?
Nick: So as you all are all looking around, go ahead and make me a Perception check.
Cameron: What difficulty?
Nick: Average.
Kit: Two yellows, a green, and two purple.
Penn: Okay, I've got three green and two purple.
Cameron: I'm rolling the same thing as Birdie.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes, a triumph, and a threat.
Penn: One success and one threat.
Kit: And I got four successes and a threat.
Nick: Okay, so what I would like - don't worry about those threats, it may come up in a minute. With your all's successes, this is really a display of not only the data encoding technology that this lab specifically is focused on, but some of the broader reaching information that this company does in general. So what all would you like to find and be able to salvage from this? Bearing in mind with that triumph, it can be something much less relevant and lucky to have as well.
Kit: Birdie would like to find a little section where there's a motor and some parts that could potentially aid her making of explosives down the line. Not necessarily explosive things, but just anything salvageable. Any sort of little canisters, tubing, - fuel if she can find it.
Nick: I was thinking there would probably be some lithium batteries that are charged down, but you have battery acid and reactive metals that you could play with.
Kit: Yeah, maybe the motor runs off of a lithium battery. And while she's dismantling it, she finds it. She's like,
Kit (as Birdie): Oh, this looks useful.
Nick: Yeah, you can go ahead and mark down a large pile of explosive materials and whenever you want to spend some downtime making yourself some goodies, you're more than welcome to.
Kit (as Birdie): You know, this is rounding out to be a very successful trip. I like this. [louder to get groups attention] You guys having fun?
Penn: As you shout out, Marathon accidentally dropped some little metal trinket -
Penn (as Marathon): Oh, yeah. Very fun.
Kit (as Birdie): Mm.
Penn (as Marathon): Science!
Cameron (as Emma): [snort]
Kit (as Birdie): Real convincing.
Cameron: Emma is moving through the room a bit slower than Birdie and Marathon because she is, if she finds an interesting tri board, she is reading what's written on it. But is also, as she's walking through, looking at these displays, like collecting any little bits of wiring, or anyone who set up a battery type project or whatever and is just snagging things that could prove useful in the large mechanical project that she's going to have to do later. But what I wanted to use the triumph for was that on one side of the room, the primary researcher's desk that she makes it to, and there's an eReader because I want unlimited books. So as this is a researcher's eReader there's probably is some useful technical manuals, and obviously, you know, a manual showing you how to blow stuff up. But they were also a huge connoisseur of romance novels. So just have a large collection.
Nick: Yeah, you are able to find an eReader. It does not have access to all human information ever, but it does have some useful technical documents of various types, some fun research information, and a massive collection of romance novels on it. And while it doesn't appear to have held a charge since this lab was closed up, whenever that was, it does have a little solar panel on the back. So even if the battery's dead, do you think you would be able to replace that part and this would be very easy to access.
Cameron: Yeah, so Emma's gonna go ahead and claim that as part of the Patina's spoils and just backpack that and then continue roaming the room.
Penn: I think Marathon is poking at little gadgets and things and she's hoisted the jolly jogger up on to the tables so that it can walk level with her on top of the tables as they move across all these gadgets. So the jogger is kicking science majigs onto the floor as they walk. And then she gets to a table that's like wearable - wearables? Like there's watches and headphones and stuff, gadgets and she holds her hand out like when a mom reaches her hand out across to the passenger side seat when they're stopping or something. So she reaches out and stops the jolly jogger from walking and she's like,
Penn (as Marathon): Wait, I think I could pick something up that looks pretty nice right here. No science required.
Penn: And she starts eyeing up some of this jewelry and picks up a watch and it as she picks it up, it clicks a little bit, and it makes a [walkie talkie engaging sound] like a radio sound and she's like,
Penn (as Marathon): Oh!
Penn: And it drops it back onto the table and looks around, sees that nobody's noticed, except that the jogger has gone to sniff it a little bit. And then she picks it up with her fingers again and clicks the buttons is like [short radio buzz] that and she see is a little dial on the side just itsy bitsy and starts turning the dial and like whispering into it.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] [whispering] Copy. Copy. [clears throat] This is a Marathon. This Marathon Messenger. You're listening to MTR 1153 -
Cameron (as Emma): Marathon, what did you find?
Penn (as Marathon): Woah!
Cameron: Emma doesn't say it over the radio. She's just in the room with her radio talking.
Penn (as Marathon): Oh, um, I just found a little watch here.
Cameron (as Emma): Is that a radio?
Penn (as Marathon): I don't know, you tell me.
Cameron (as Emma): Were you talking over the radio?
Penn (as Marathon): Is it?
Cameron (as Emma): I could hear you. Why are you doing your radio station intro?
Penn (as Marathon): Yeah -
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It sounds like we're just in a weird time echo or something? MTR 1153 coming through.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Oh uh. Um, I'm sorry. I didn't realize this thing was -
Penn: And Marathon tries it again.
Penn (as Marathon): Can you, can you -
Penn: She pulls it up again to her mouth.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] [way too loud] Can you hear me Cassidy?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Ow~.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Oh gosh. Ow.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Marathon.
Kit (as Birdie): [pained whine] Marathon~.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Sorry. Sorry to close too close. Um. Cool. Well, I think I just found like a radio watch, copy over.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Let me see.
Cameron: Emma's gonna walk over and come look at it.
Penn: Marathon pulls the jogger back under her arm.
Sydney: We get a quick flash over to the other room where Cassidy is looking in the other direction, staring into the corner where one of those big bubble things is just going what now? all over her face. Not saying it but like why-? [laugh] There is so much chaos that is happening where she is not to be able to moderate any of it and it feels as much as she immediately jumped in to defend her own team against Ciphera's comments, it's not great when they're in a facility like this to just be poking things.
Penn: And then Marathon hands the radio watch over to Emma.
Cameron: Emma, who has made numerous a watch and her day, or fixed numerous a watch in her day. Flipping it over and looking at it.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, this does appear to be a radio.
Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping with Emma] [gasp] Marathon can be a part of our team! [genuinely delighted]
Cameron (as Emma): [overlapping with Birdie] I mean, we kind of knew that from the fact that we could hear you.
Penn (as Marathon): Well~. Oh, this is pretty cool. O -
Cameron (as Emma): The time is set wrong.
Cameron: And Emma starts flipping other dials to set it to the correct time.
Cameron (as Emma): Uh, yeah, here you, you found yourself a radio, congrats.
Penn (as Marathon): And a watch. [does sound more excited about the watch part]
Cameron (as Emma): [laugh] And a watch.
Penn (as Marathon): It's pretty classy, actually.
Kit (as Birdie): Pretty snazzy.
Nick: So as you all are looking through this data laboratory, we cut back to the other lab now that everything has shut down. As that video ended the screens all went black and the humming died down. Cassidy you're in the corner listening to this radio conversation looking up at one of these domes and you notice something that is different than it was when you entered the room. The black empty circles that were in these domes are now all pointed in the exact same direction. And you notice that they are all pointed at Renn.
Sydney: Cassidy squints at it and then looks at the other ones and sees the same things and goes
Sydney (as Cassidy): Hey, Renn, I'm not sure it liked whatever you did, because there's a bunch of stuff pointed at you.
Kira (as Ciphera): Permission to smash them to pieces immediately.
Alli (as Renn): Granted.
Alli: She immediately takes cover. [laughing]
Kira: Ciphera starts smashing the cameras, just running around the room one by one whacking them with her stick. These sort of flourishing swipes as the end of her three section staff flies out a little bit and whaps it and then gets suctioned back through magnetism snaps together, rinse and repeat.
Nick: So nothing is currently happening, but Renn if you move in any direction, you notice that all of those domes silently track wherever you move to like you're being watched. As you begin to interact with these and smash them, the hollow circles extend outwards around the room and you can see now what unsurprisingly is some sort of camera lens and beneath it is some sort of spray nozzle and they begin to spray some sort of sticky green foam towards Renn. Renn, can you make me a Coordination check please, at average difficulty?
Alli: Her Coordination is - eh,you know, two greens.
Cameron: So two greens versus two purples. Do you want to flip a story point, because we have seven?
Alli: Sure.
Cameron: Cool. So now it's a yellow, a green and two purples.
[dice rolling]
Alli: A success and a triumph.
Nick: Great. So whatever this foam is, it doesn't activate from all of these domes at the same time and you're able to begin to get out of the way. You can move slightly faster than they are tracking. As Ciphera is smashing these domes, some of the dispensers also fixate on her and begin to spray towards her as well. Would you like to use that triumph to be able to have dodged close to the door per chance?
Alli: Oh, that sounds neat.
Nick: So Renn is able to get to the doorway while getting out of the way and you notice that right around the doorway seems to be a blind spot for these domes. The foam where it is hitting the ground is beginning to expand very quickly. And I need a Coordination check from Ciphera.
Kira: So I have two yellow, one green, and I also have a talent called Sidestep, which makes it more difficult for me to be hit by ranged abilities.
Cameron: You spend one strain and upgrade the difficulty of all ranged attacks.
Nick: So what we'll do is since we're not using it as a ranged attack, we'll use Sidestep if you spend a strain, you can upgrade your Coordination check. I think that's fair. So this is average difficulty, so two purple versus your Coordination.
[dice rolling]
Kira: I got two successes and one threat.
Nick: So Ciphera, you're able to get out of the way this foam. What tactics do you use to clear out of this room? With your knowledge and your experience, you can tell this as some sort of security function that would restrain people until they're released, but knowing that this place is ancient, probably no one would ever come to release you.
Kira: So I think they continue spraying as they start to wheel around towards Ciphera, so she can sort of in slow motion, see the trajectory of the streams and orient herself appropriately to plot a course through the rest of the room to continue smashing as many as possible, but then make her way out before she'll be pinned down by multiple streams. And she moves very hunched and low to the ground, but with decisive motions, and there's always sort of a rippling flutter of the poncho that she wears, which gets very close to some of the streams but manages to stay just out of reach. Maybe she has to dive roll back across the middle to get over the expanding pile of foam and join the others.
Nick: Yeah, you're able to get to that same blind spot by the door. These domes aren't in the hallways, so once you've gotten out of the room, you're as safe as you could expect. Cassidy you notice that while these things were tracking on Renn, and then secondarily on Ciphera, they don't seem to have marked you at all and part of that is those threats that I've been collecting this whole time are actually security tags that have been assigned to you all by the security system, based on the amount of things that you've done in the amount of attention you've drawn. And Cassidy hasn't rolled a threat this whole time. As far as security measures for this facility are concerned, Cassidy is a non threat and it is not going after you in the slightest - you're able to just walk out.
Sydney: What is the foam doing? Is it just expanding or is it like melting through desks or something?
Nick: No, it's just expanding. It is like quick set construction foam so it's getting bigger and you can tell as it expands up over a desk and hits things off that it is extremely sticky.
Sydney: Do the things stop shooting once Renn and Ciphera have left?
Nick: Yes, but very slowly and the foam continues to expand.
Sydney: Because my first instinct was stand on the corner in the blind spot under the camera and wait for them to stop, but if I'm not gonna be able to get out afterwards not useful.
Nick: You probably could, it would just be a little ungraceful and you'd have to wait for it to harden. From where you are, and as you begin to react, you could still make your way through the clean spots and they're not shooting at you directly, so you would be able to do that fairly easily.
Sydney: So Cassidy sees that the foam is expanding and is maybe not impassable, but it's gonna either take a lot of effort or a lot of time and quickly starts skirting along the side of the room and then notices that they are not tracking her at all. They were tracking the other two and there's a bunch of foam in the middle of the room especially around with that first console they were interacting with was and continues moving quickly, like very aware of where the sources of the foam are, but not moving recklessly, I guess not mindlessly panicking and scrambling. How close is that AI robot thing?
Nick: If you want to grab something from it, you absolutely can.
Sydney: Because I imagined Cassidy has a pack on her, I don't think a lot of that robot stuff is gonna be super useful. I mean, I guess if she sees that there's time to, because they're not shooting at her, as long as she's able to outrace the expanding of the foam, I kind of want to grab like head and torso of this thing, like not limbs, but sensors, and especially the power source. Whatever I can grab that's in one big piece and stuff into my backpack before I leave and not look like I totally stuffed a big dangerous science thing in my bag.
Nick: So the torso is not going to fit in your backpack. It is too big. You could thread it between the straps, and definitely put it on your back and carry it but you would not be able to be sneaky about it and hide that from Renn and Ciphera. You could remove the head.
Sydney: Can I get the head and the power source?
Nick: Yeah...
Sydney: Cause we said that it wasn't hooked up. Which means that it should be pretty - because Renn was unwilling to start hooking things back up, that means it should be fairly disassembled still.
Nick: Yeah, you can take the head and the power source, you could get that. I think it would probably be are you trying to sneak this because then I think it would be a contested Stealth roll to see if you can get it out. You're not getting shot at by foam, but they definitely make it to the safe spot before you're totally done, so there's a chance for them to see what's going on.
Sydney: That's why I'm trying to think if it's worth trying to sneak it and failing or just walking out and going no, we said we got claim. Emma needs to look at this before I can make that choice.
Nick: The question in the Stealth role is just how quickly does Cassidy get to that in relation to you all dodging out of the room and does it happen while you're still -
Sydney: Okay. Yeah, then I'll try for it and then we'll see, because I'm not bringing the whole thing - I don't need a fully independent robot. I just want the tech and well because the Knight has a bunch of ocular sensors and stuff that were all harmed in the most recent fight. So
Nick: So what are Renn and Ciphera's Perception?
Alli: Uh Renn's is two green.
Kira: Mine is three green.
Nick: Okay, so this will be against three purple. So Cassidy, I need you to make me a Stealth check against three purple die.
Sydney: So I flipped a Story Point which brings my Stealth total up to two yellows and two greens against the three purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: One failure, one threat, and two triumphs.
Nick: The fuckity shit! So you failed this Stealth check which means that Ciphera and maybe Renn have seen you from their position in the doorway, grab this salvage on the way out. You had the time to do it, but they were able to get out of the threat radius fast enough to take notice of what you were doing. That being said, you do have two triumphs, so what would you like those to be?
Sydney: So the first triumph is it turns out that when Cassidy tried to grab this, especially like pulling the battery out of the guts, it didn't come [laugh], the whole torso just dragged off the table. But the vices that had the limbs attached were all firmly secured enough that the ball joints just popped out, so Cassidy ended up with a torso and a head which was too big to fit in her pack, so she commits to - she sees the expressions on Renn and Ciphera's faces as she drags this body under her arm off the table and then tucks it under her arm and quickly moves, but not recklessly still, at least in her movements. And then the second triumph, I'm thinking if there's some way to like influence the security system to be when they go to make a threatening move towards me that it detects unauthorized action against guest of Erie Data Integration or whatever.
Nick: So you want the security system to like you?
Sydney: Yeah, because I've got the thing in my hands. So it's sensing that I have hardware.
Nick: Okay.
Sydney: Cassidy's whole goal with this is to give Emma the option of making this decision because they weren't going to have the option otherwise and Cassidy doesn't know if this is good or bad. So worst case, they feed it to another explosive Roomba.
Nick: Yeah.
Sydney: but
Nick: Yeah, I really liked the idea of while you are carrying the torso of this thing, the security system identifies you as a friendly and does not bother you.
Sydney: Yeah so Cassidy catches up to the other two with the body of this machine vessel tucked under an arm. It's heavy, but it's movable. And she goes,
Sydney (as Cassidy): Alright everyone, alright?
Kira (as Ciphera): I've been better. [clenching teeth] Why are you holding that?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Because it's dibs and you didn't want it.
Kira: Ciphera holds her staff up and sort of points it at her and says,
Kira (as Ciphera): We are going to have a longer conversation about this when we get the hell away from this room, but you have some very strong misconceptions about what's going to happen here. I thought you were the only one of your group that had some sense, but it seems like I was wrong.
Alli (as Renn): If you need some augmentations for your ears to help you hear better I can do that.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I'm not the expert with this - Emma is and if the room is filling with immobilization foam or whatever, then we didn't have the option to be able to look at it to determine if we wanted it. So I have to give it to Emma to see and then we can blow it up if it's bad.
Alli (as Renn): [disbelief] Emma self-proclaimed not a wizard?
Kira (as Ciphera): Yeah, I think the the knowledge here is standing right next to me. So you can carry that that way if it strangles something it's you, but don't presume that you have the final say.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [always the voice of logic and reason] It's gonna a hard time strangling something with just a torso.
Alli (as Renn): [overlapping with Ciphera] You'd be fucking surprised.
Kira (as Ciphera): [overlapping with Renn] Well you don't know that that's just a torso, do you? Because we don't know enough about it. So lets go
Sydney (as Cassidy): You can see the guts inside of it.
Kira (as Ciphera): Well, let's hope we don't see your guts on the ground.
Nick: And the tension noticeably stronger, you all move away from this room and towards the next lab that you recognized on the map which with security systems operational and other things going on, you quickly decide to move to the data encoding lab. Birdie, Emma, and Marathon - you see your three companions enter the doorway of this lab and notice that they just inherently seem to have been having a disagreement. You also notice that Cassidy is carrying what appears to be a large part of a mechanical person.
Penn: Does it seem heavy for Cassidy?
Sydney: It's not light.
Nick: The torso is probably like 75 pounds so you could pick it up but it definitely has impacted your ability to do stuff.
Penn (as Marathon): Ooh here Cass - your loot looks kind of heavy. I can take that for us.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I got it.
Penn (as Marathon): Okay, cool. Uh. What's up, guys? So we found some cool things.
Alli (as Renn): What kind?
Penn (as Marathon): Uh I found a radio. [quieter] Show them, show them Emma. Show them Birdie.
Cameron: Emma's gonna hold up a collection of wires and battery pieces that she'd been collecting. She's not showing the e reader. It's in her backpack already.
Kit (as Birdie): Uh no I didn't get anything. I'm very good at not stealing.
Penn (as Marathon): Oh, and uh here is
Penn: Marathon is just like holding the jogger under one of her arms and sets it down. Is like
Penn (as Marathon): and uh, this is the jogger, everybody. So
Sydney (as Cassidy): Of course.
Kit (as Jolly Jogger): [fish noises]
Penn (as Marathon): Say hi doggie.
Sydney: Cassidy ignores this fish and goes over to an open table near Emma and puts this thing down and goes
Sydney (as Cassidy): Emma do we want this?
Cameron: Emma begins examining.
Sydney: And Cassidy watches Renn and Ciphera. [laugh]
Nick: Emma make me a hard Wild Tech roll please.
Cameron: Can I have a blue die for my Inventor talent because I have seen technology similar to this before?
Nick: Yes, you sure can.
Cameron: And I'm gonna go ahead and flip a Story Point because we have some, so I'm rolling three yellows, a blue, and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes and a triumph.
Nick: So taking a look at this, there is a lot of really useful, much more miniaturized technology than what you can normally get your hands on. This is extremely valuable. Much like Renn identified earlier, the brains of it are not completely assembled, there's parts missing. It doesn't have nearly the processing power it was clearly designed to do. It doesn't have any limbs, so using it as is doesn't seem very helpful, but you could absolutely cannibalize this to make some really cool things.
Cameron: Emma is doing a very similar in depth observation and analysis, similar to what Renn did initially, looking through noticing how tiny everything is in comparison to the tech that she normally sees that does anything similar to this functionality wise, and is nodding through the entire examination. So it's obvious to Cassidy having seen Emma do a bunch of mechanical stuff before that yes Emma is interested in this and it would be useful and she's just nodding. And then as it keeps going starts smiling slightly as well. [laugh] The smile is due to Emma identifying the power source and it is little, surprisingly so, for the size of this mechanical being and having noticed the uh - we'll say tense vibe of the three of them as they walked into the room with this, Emma's gonna use that triumph to just go ahead and quickly detach and pocket that power source, hiding it under the guise of like wiping grease off her hand on the leg of her pants, but she's got a lot of pockets in these pants, so somehow that power source ends up in a pocket, but she finishes her examination and steps back and is like
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, that's got a, that is a lot of nice stuff in it.
Sydney (as Cassidy): So it's worth our dibs.
Cameron (as Emma): I - yeah? It's I mean,
Sydney (as Cassidy): They left it, they don't they didn't want it. So
Cameron (as Emma): I-I would be quite happy cannibalizing this.
Kira (as Ciphera): [teeth clenched again] You're purposefully mischaracterizing the situation to benefit yourself.
Cameron (as Emma): Well what-
Sydney (as Cassidy): I don't know you're talking about.
Kira (as Ciphera): [almost spitting] Clearly.
Cameron (as Emma): What-what's the concern with it? Like it's got good cameras, it has good chips that I can reuse in the Knight. What is world ending about this?
Alli: Renn opens her mouth to answer with a wagging teacher finger already extended.
Nick: And as Renn is prepared to lecture the Patina on the dangers of uncontrolled technology, we cut back to the networking lab. It is now encased in green solidifying foam. The computer monitors that had shut down, flickers back to life and a data feed begins to scroll. It says 'Network Connection Failed' and then there is a large block of scrolling code and then it says 'apoc.ai purge at 99.99%'. And then another block of scrolling code and then it says 'Activating Aggression Module'. And the room which was, even under security protocols, very well lit flickers and the lab goes dark, lit only by the line of code on this monitor that says 'Aggression Module'.
And then slowly the other monitors that before had showed marketing stock footage begin to light with a very dim light that grows brighter and brighter in a dark purplish black glow that casts everything in shadows. And from beneath the green foam, there is a quiet thump that gets louder and louder and a robotic hand burst its way free of the foam scrabbling its way out. And we can see that the wheel and the leg and the various arms of this machine that were remaining have a fixed themselves together in a messy, inhuman mass that is able to half roll half scramble its way over the foam towards the door and out into the hallway.
[hurdy gurdy music swells]
Outro:
Penn (as Marathon): Welcome back to MTR 1153, that was just the end of today’s broadcast and we’ll be right back to the music after this little break. The particulars of the subsequent can be found in the show notes.
This has been A Knight of Shreds and Patches, an actual play podcast using the Genesys game system from Fantasy Flight Games. The show is edited by Sydney Whittington, and features the talents of:
Alli Nesbit & Kira Nesbit as Renn & Ciphera. Alli and Kira can be found on their show RPG for You and Me, a duet actual play podcast. Their website rpgforyouandme.com has tons of art from the show, character bios, custom setting rules, and more! You can also find Alli and Kira on Sounds Like Crowes: Terminus and The Night Shift podcast, not to mention Alli now helms Dark Matter Magazine podcast and Apex Magazine podcast. You can chat with Alli on twitter @ youseethehat and @rpgforyouandme, but Kira is accessible through the show's Patron exclusive discord, found at patreon.com/rpgforyouandme.
Kit Adames as Birdie. Kit can be found on Twitter and Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor for Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.
Penn Van Batavia as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter @ acquiredchaste. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes Wasmannian, a prompt game about gender and wasps. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.
Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Twitter @ sydney_whitt. She’s also a contributing editor for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast..
Cameron Robertson as Emma. Cameron can be found on Twitter @ midnightmusic13 and on Instagram @ reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron, which you can support @ Patreon.com/TabletopSquadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.
The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @ rashedjrs.
You can follow the Patina on Twitter @ akosap_podcast or visit the website: www.akosap.com. To further support the show, consider joining the Patreon at www.patreon.com/AKoSaP, where we’ll be bringing you weekly content including bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.
Until next time…
…Signing Off