The Patina is making progress on their objectives, but things are starting to get dangerous in the chaos.
The Patina is making progress on their objectives, but things are starting to get dangerous in the chaos.
Cast:
- Marathon Messenger is played by Penn Van Batavia. She can be found on Twitter at @acquiredchaste and in drag as horror king JOHN on Instagram at @john.is.risen. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes SLICE *IT* OUT, a grisly carving RPG about cutting pieces of yourself out to fit in. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.
- Cassidy Shard is played by Sydney Whittington. She is our wonderful editor. She’s also a contributing editor and occasional guest player for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast. Find her on Twitter at @sydney_whitt.
- Emma Blackwood is played by Cameron Robertson. Find her on Twitter at @midnightmusic13 and on Instagram at @reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
- Birdie Foundling is played by Kit Adames. Find her on Twitter at @venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor and writer on Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.
- Our GM and narrator is Nick Robertson. Find him on Twitter at @alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron and can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
Music & Sound Credits:
- This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.
- old radio Channel search sound effect by Garuda1982. Link & License.
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- Wire explosions / vibrations (slow) by mlteenie. Link & License.
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- Car Crash Elements Sideswipe 01 by PNMCarrieRailfan. Link & License.
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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 3 Episode 57: Your Greatest Weapon
Transcript by Cameron Robertson
Intro:
[hurdy gurdy music begins]
Nick: Welcome, listeners, to A Knight of Shreds and Patches. An immersive actual play podcast. This episode features the talents of –
Penn: Penn Van Batavia as Marathon Messenger and Gwendolyn Rozenthall.
Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling and Vaus Foundling.
Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood and Janus Foundling.
Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard and Winifred Foundling.
Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.
Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:
I’m sure you are all too wise and observant to be caught out by a late April Fools, so instead here’s a late Trans Day of Visibility. We’re here and we’re queer and we won’t disappear, even though I suppose we are no longer visible... Queer joy is resistance, so enjoying the episode is keeping up the fight.
And if you need more content to find joy in, consider backing our Patreon, which gives you access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 3, Episode 57: Your Greatest Weapon. 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 trying our best to rip off that device holding Sasnak in place. Marathon's cutting through their forces and trying to convince herself that she's not killing them, and Birdie's apparently setting Emma up to play baseball with bombs, although I'm just basing that on what I can gather over the radio while I'm running around covering Winifred and trying not to get shot myself. Emma's out there smashing things up with the Knight, and especially when she swung over to my part of the battlefield and started knocking the invader hardware down, she's drawing enough attention that Winifred might actually get left alone long enough to get this done. Now we just get to hope that our friendly bloodthirsty AI sleeping in the Knight doesn't wake up and kill the rest of us before that happens.
[radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: The battle for Sasnak Traveling rages on. Mercenaries continue to pour out of vehicles and attempt to climb into the underbelly of the city. The Ramp and the Ramp Girls are under siege, and the Patina is in the midst of it all. Winifred is continuing to climb towards the device near the center of the city. Marathon is currently running back to the Ramp to help anyone who's in need. Emma just finished destroying many of the cherry pickers, ladders, and grappling hooks that led to the underbelly of the city in the Knight. And Cassidy continues to run overwatch. Birdie is situated on the Ramp and has just seen a large wave of mercenaries charging towards the Ramp attempting to overwhelm the Ramp Girls with numbers and Birdie is stuck in the middle. What does Birdie want to do?
Kit: Birdie is going to go up with the Ramp Girls and try to help them - also, because it may be good to get on the Ramp Girls good side, while they still can. She is bravely running away. [laugh] She'll go and take cover next to some Ramp Girls.
Nick: It's a long run up the Ramp with bullets pinging around your feet as you move from the exposed area where you were standing back towards the barriers the Ramp Girls use as cover, but you're able to make it without being hit and slide into some cover with some Ramp Girls.
Kit: Birdie would like to attempt to create some sort of barrier between the Ramp Girls cover and the oncoming crowd of mercenaries trying to make their way up. So if she can create just essentially like a wall of fire would be the idea, because she has the fuel to do so if she emptied out one of the explosives from its bottle form. It would have to be something that she would do while she's running up the Ramp, and then use a spare match to toss behind her to actually ignite the fuel, so I think that would be her best bet for right now.
Nick: Yeah, that's very doable. So Birdie, I need you to make me an average Athletics check to see how much you're able to spread this fuel before setting it on fire without being hit by any of the incoming bullets.
Kit: Alright. Birdie is just gonna be rolling two yellows and two purples. Two successes.
Nick: Nice.
Kit: So as she will take her zig zag path up the Ramp after a long string of curses exits her mouth when she sees the onslaught of mercenaries coming up towards her. She does start mumbling,
Kit (as Birdie): [under breath] Serpentine. Serpentine. Serpentine.
Kit: As she upends one of her larger bottles of fuel in a trail following and with the other hand will attempt to dislodge a match from its case in her pocket.
Nick: You're pretty successful with this. You've created a wall of fire between you and the Ramp Girls, and the mercenaries. You have slowed their charge pretty significantly as they try to figure out how to get around it. But in the meantime, fire.
Kit: Once she gets up to the Ramp Girls, she will try to make the moment a little bit light hearted, as she does understand that she is a random person who's just been throwing bombs at mercenaries and none of these Ramp Girls really know who she is, and she'll go,
Kit (as Birdie): How's everybody feeling?
Nick: You find yourself in cover with the Ramp Girls who are on point to this defense. There are three of them. They are well armed and they are obviously very motivated and surprised to see you jumping into cover as a wall of fire bursts to life behind you.
Penn (as Ramp Girl) Aw shit! Who's got bombs? The fire!
Penn: And a Ramp Girl looks wide eyed, already with grime all over her face, except where there's some goggles.
Sydney: Another one on the other side pops up and takes a couple of pot shots at the mercenaries who were shooting and ducks back down.
Sydney (as Ramp Girl): Don't destroy the city there too.
Penn (as Ramp Girl) I'd rather have them on our side.
Cameron (as Ramp Girl): Think she is on our side.
Cameron: Third Ramp Girl who is, rather than popping over the barricades, is laying down flat with a sniper rifle, shooting underneath some of the detritus that has been piled to create these barriers.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, the Ramp will be fine.
Cameron (as Ramp Girl): It's metal. It'll it'll be fine. Probably.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, probably.
Penn (as Ramp Girl) Thanks for the fire!
Kit (as Birdie): Yep.
Nick: And Cameron, I need you to roll me three yellows versus three purples, please.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three failures and one threat.
Nick: Really?? So the mercenaries shoot through this wall of fire towards the Ramp Girls having been slowed in their charge, but their vision is obscured enough by the flames and cover they are unable to hit anything, and they are currently exposed on this Ramp without any cover for themselves.
Penn: Marathon has been charging towards the Ramp in this Exosuit, just going at her full speed. If you look closely, you can see a small limp in the Exosuit as she's extending more and more of her own power to try and keep the suit moving forward, triggering her gunshot wound to flare up a little bit more. And she is just going to keep going and try to bowl through a bunch of these mercenaries as she heads up the Ramp to come in between them and the fire and the cover that the Ramp Girls have, just as an extra layer.
Nick: Make me a Brawl check, please, against - we'll say this is a big enough group, we will upgrade the difficulty by one, so it'll be a red and a purple.
Penn: I'm rolling five yellow and a blue, against a red and a purple.
[dice rolling]
Penn: Two successes and four advantages.
Nick: Nice. That's enough to Crit so you could take one out. How much damage is that total?
Penn: Five, and then plus the successes, that's -
Nick: Yeah, so that's seven damage. So you take out three different mercenaries here. There were seven total in the group. So as you bowl into this group, a lot of them are knocked from their feet, and three of them don't get up again. What is your combat style? How do you succeed?
Penn: As Marathon charges through, one turns as they hear the stomping behind them, just to immediately receive a clothesline that sends them flipping through the air and back to the ground. And with her other arm, she's grabbed one from behind in a headlock, and as she turns to face this group of mercenaries, the guy in the headlock, his body goes swinging while she's holding onto his neck and head, and the legs whip into another mercenary who goes flying off the Ramp, and while they're low to the bottom of the Ramp, it's still enough of a distance to at least knock the wind out of him.
Nick: This group of mercenaries turns to see what this new threat is and several of the mercenaries do not get back up.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Sorry, you got another one. I guess it's not your day.
Nick: They are going to shoot at you, Marathon.
Penn: Marathon's eyes go wide as she immediately sees a bunch of guns aimed right at her, and she lifts up her arms.
Nick: So two yellow and a blue versus two purple please, Cameron, now that they're at close range.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: One failure.
Nick: It's fine. Their small arms fire doesn’t manage to penetrate the armor of the exosuit. Marathon is unharmed. Away from the Ramp, as Emma has finished in the Knight, cutting down a lot of the access points the mercenaries were using to infiltrate the city, she has become fully the focus point of the mercenaries as they identify that the biggest threat is this war machine in their midst. And a half track truck is barreling down on the Knight, attempting to ram it and knock it off its feet. And the driver is good at this. I need you to roll me three yellows and a blue versus one purple.
Cameron: So since this is a direct contact attack they're trying to make, I'm going to add Emma's Melee Defense, which adds three black dice.
Nick: Oh, damn. Okay.
Cameron: So it's the three yellow, a blue, a purple, and three blacks.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: One success and two threats.
Nick: Huh. Okay, so we're gonna say this is the same silhouette as the Knight. Emma, this is your first experience fighting something that is about the size of the Knight, even if it's down on wheels, and the driver is moving faster than you would expect and does manage to ram you, and the Knight takes six damage minus your Armor.
Cameron: All right, the Knight's Armor is three, so three damage. The Knight has a max of 20 Wounds, so three takes it down to 17.
Nick: And the driver is continually gunning the engine, attempting to knock you over currently, but that hasn't happened yet.
Cameron: Since the truck got two threats and does make contact with the Knight, probably around the knees is where the front of the truck would hit, it does push the Knight back slightly and throw Emma a bit off balance, especially because it was low enough to the ground that she was not looking down there when this happened, she was looking around at the other cherry pickers and stuff that she hadn't managed to cut down. And she stumbles back a little bit and in doing so, the Knight's foot lifts up and interrupts the path of the truck slightly to where it is now blocking other people and vehicles from getting access to the Knight, even though it is still oncoming. I'm isolating it to one person physically fighting me while I am physically fighting the Knight as well. Emma stumbles backwards.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Whoa!
Cameron: That one makes it through the radio. She wasn't anticipating that.
Nick: And I'm going to flip a GM Story Point here, because I didn't get any advantages, so I'm just going to force the issue now. Emma as you stumble in the Knight, you see that that black purple light is spreading much faster. Your main controls are still functional, but most of your sensors in supplementary systems in the cockpit are now giving out gibberish, and the Knight is harder to control than it was a minute ago.
Cameron: With the radio flipped off.
Cameron (as Emma): [quietly] Oh no. Oh no, oh no. Uhmm~. This is fine. This is fine. We're fine. This is fine.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Emma, you okay? That was a big hit.
Cameron (as Emma): Eh -
Cameron: Emma flips the radio back on.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't see that truck coming, but um
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] You got it?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yep, hurt- I'm good. Hurt a little bit, but I'm I'm gonna squish it.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] All right.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yep.
Sydney: And Cassidy switches her attention on to the people who have been putting their attention on Winifred.
Cameron: Emma flips the radio back off and takes a deep breath and refocuses on the new problem that's becoming a bigger problem with her in this cockpit.
Nick: That brings us to another character slot. We've got Cassidy and Winifred still to go.
Sydney: The battlefield below Cassidy has gotten a lot more chaotic with the entry of the Knight and the destruction of many of the truck arms and elevation tools that are allowing the mercenaries into the city. So most of the adversarial attention is now focused on the Knight, but there are still a few people who are seeing Winifred's figure scrambling across the paths under the city. Cassidy does a brief scan, finds the one with the rifle with the biggest scope, figuring that that's a person who has been successful enough to afford nice hardware, and must mean that they're pretty good at their job, and goes to try to take them out.
Nick: Okay, I would say this is long range.
Sydney: So I will be rolling three yellows and two greens against the three purples, plus the two blues from the Accurate two of the rifle. And I will go ahead and use my Maneuver to Aim, so I'll add one more blue to that.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Four successes and three advantages.
Nick: Okay. Yeah, you absolutely are able to take this person out and if you have an idea of what you want to use those advantages on to maybe help Winifred or something that is good too.
Sydney: So this sniper who had been looking upwards falls suddenly back into the cab of the truck that they were leaning out of the window, now missing some important organs, and their body hits the driver, who had been sitting still, but now there is someone laying on the gear shift suddenly throwing the truck into Drive, and as they're wrestling to get this body off of them, the truck that had been hosting the sniper slams into another one nearby, which conveniently had one of the few people still remaining that was paying any attention to the smaller threat of Winifred, and that will lessen the attention on their activities up under the city for the moment.
Nick: Yeah, the mercenaries that were tracking on Winifred have all been pretty thoroughly distracted, either by being involved in a car crash or being shot or being right next to a car crash, so Winifred is not going to be shot at this round. You have achieved your objective. Before Winifred goes though, the truck that has rammed the Knight is going to gun the engine and try to ram the Knight again. It's going to be three yellows and a blue, versus one purple, plus three black dice.
Cameron: I am going to flip a Story Point to upgrade the difficulty from a purple to a red, now that Emma is aware of this threat at knee level and is looking towards it and has gained the potential ability to get out of the way, and I am also going to have the Knight suffer two Strain, taking its Strain from 15 to 13 to upgrade the difficulty check two more times to get an additional red. So now the dice pool is three yellows, a blue, two reds, and three blacks.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: A wash on the failures and successes, but one threat, and a Triumph and a Despair.
Nick: Huh. Okay, so for that Triumph, the truck is able to actually knock the Knight over and knock it prone, so the Knight is currently more exposed and will have to use at least a Maneuver to get back up to do anything. The truck is on top of one of the Knight's legs, so it's fairly pinned. I think the Despair is that the foot of the Knight broke something underneath the truck, and the truck is not really drivable anymore. It's just busted. So, Emma, you are knocked to the ground in the Knight, which this is the first time that has ever happened while you seen someone with the Knight. Roll me one yellow die without any difficulty.
[die rolling]
Cameron: One success.
Nick: Okay. Emma takes one damage. Your head hit something inside.
Cameron: So Emma was at 15 wounds and was totally unharmed and is now at 14.
Nick: Now the Knight is prone, and there is a truck that is rapidly leaking fluid out of the bottom and making a high pitched whining noise, parked on one of the Knight's legs.
Cameron (as Emma): God damn it!
Nick: And last up for the round is Winifred.
Sydney: So Winifred, with Cassidy's help, has made it back on the path, but as they get closer to the middle of the city, the decay of the elements is getting worse as these areas are even less frequently serviced and breathing hard, she hits the end of a platform that has nothing in front of it, and she looks around and she's kind of on the furthest edge of her current collection of platforms and underhangs, and to get any further forward, she would have to do a long detour. She was a little frazzled by being dropped and having lost the advantage of Cassidy in her ear helping guide her, she's hit a bad pathfinding spot, and looks around for anything that could be interfaced with with her tablet to open up a new path that is hopefully a little bit more direct.
Nick: All right, that sounds like a hard Wild Tech roll to me.
Sydney: Winifred will be rolling four yellows and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: A success and an advantage.
Nick: All right, so Winifred is able to create this platform and continue to move forward unmolested.
Sydney: Winifred has slung her tablet back from where it was strung across her back over her shoulder like a messenger bag, and quickly gets a readout of the nearby activatable devices. And one of them says that it is a service elevator for loading cargo into one of the utility levels and so she issues the go to its lowest extent command, and out in front of her, an elevator drops one story out below the bottom of Sasnak and extends walkways on either side. And one of the walkways lands right connected to the platform that she's on, and she's able to move across. There aren't railings, because this is meant to be loaded from a truck or something from below. But compared to everything else that she's been struggling with, no railings is just like home to her, and she quickly makes her way across.
Nick: Winifred makes very good time having created this walkway, and for the first time, she catches a glimpse of this device that's been spliced into the city and caused it presumably to stop. It is a cylinder about the size of an oil drum with green glowing lights all over it and Winifred you catch a view of the bottom of it sticking out of a informational hub on the bottom of the city. You're not quite close enough to reach it yet, but you are within striking distance.
Sydney (as Winifred): [over radio] All right, I finally see the device. Getting close now.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Great. Great. Good.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Let me know if you need anything.
Nick: So we are back to the top of the order.
Penn: Marathon is backlit by fire and has just finished blocking a bunch of shots from piercing her exosuit by raising her forearms in front of her face and using those to block a majority of the shots, and then lets her arms slowly drop as some people are reloading and begins to charge forward, trying to maintain another obstacle between these mercenaries and the Ramp Girls at the top of the Ramp.
Nick: All right, make me another average difficulty Brawl check. You took out half of them so they're not upgraded anymore.
Penn: I'm rolling five yellow and a blue versus two purple.
[dice rolling]
Penn: Four successes and four advantages.
Nick: [muttering mysterious GM math] Four successes, that's nine - [normal Nick] yeah, you're able to clear this group out. They are no more. How do you finish off this squad?
Penn: With her first step forward, she just grabs two of them by the head and clunks them together. Then as the last two are attempting to fire at her, she'll grab the guns out of their hands and try to do the crumple thing, realize that's not as practical as she imagined, and then just pulls down on them so that they lose their footing, and then pushes both of their heads into the ground as well. She tries to flip her radio on,
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Radio on! I took, took care of these ones on the Ramp. Emma, you need help over there? Birdie, you need help? Cassidy, you need help? Winifred?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [winded] I could potentially use some [clears throat] backup.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] On my way! [to self - creating theme song a la Kronk in the Emperor's New Groove] I'm mobilized. I'm support. [realization strikes] Oh, radio, off!
Nick: Marathon, as soon as you commit to heading towards Emma in the Knight, you see someone step into your path at the base of the Ramp. They are extremely large and proportioned, bigger than you would expect a person to be, and as some of the smoke from the fire behind you clears your vision, you see an exosuit. It's a different model, but very similar to what you are also piloting. And through a loud speaker on this armor you hear
Nick (as Mercenary): [over speaker] I’m putting you down.
Nick: And this exosuit charges you. They're wielding a metal spike about the length of a sword, but it looks like it's made for piercing armor.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Aw dirt.
Nick: And Cameron, I need you to roll me four yellows versus two purple and then a black die for Marathon's Melee Defense.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes and a threat.
Nick: So this is eight damage coming at Marathon.
Penn: Most of my seven Soak will take that damage, but whatever this exosuit has planned for Marathon, it's going to take her dangerously close to passing out.
Nick: This enemy exosuit lunges forward, Marathon, and stabs you through the side. You can see that this spike is able to rip through the armor of the Exosuit, which makes you feel especially vulnerable. It just nicks your side doing just the slightest amount of damage, but you are in a fight for your life. If this mercenary gets a good shot at you, you are worried that you could definitely be at least knocked out, if not killed.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Uh uh - Radio on! I've got a fatal distraction for the moment. Radio off!
Cameron: Emma sighs from where she's still laying flat on her back underneath the city and is like, just flips her radio on.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Take care of yourself. Don't worry about me. It'll be fine.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] You don't have to say radio on and radio off.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] The radio has been on this entire time. It's fine. [tired laugh]
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Be careful.
Nick: So who is up next? The Ramp is currently clear, but Marathon is in a fight for her life at the base of the Ramp right now.
Sydney: Winifred, having caught sight of the device, now has enough information of where she's going to pick paths that connect all the way through and she takes her final round of sprint towards the device.
Nick: As she gets there, this device has been jammed up into the underside of the city. Winifred, you can see a nest of wires that have been fed up into some of the city's infrastructure from this large green barrel looking apparatus. And as you start to plan out how you're going to interface with it, you hear the clank of boots on metal gangplank as a mercenary swings around from the far side of this device, holding a long sword and charging at you, trying to skewer you and protect their objective.
Sydney: Winifred takes a deep gasp in surprise and draws her small self defense pistol that she mostly has to keep octopuses away from her in the Guts, and starts hip firing towards this guy as he approaches.
Nick: So it'll be an easy check, because you're at close range, but you will have a black die because this person is charging you and you are very surprised.
Sydney: So Winifred is rolling a yellow and two greens against a purple and a black.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: One success.
Nick: Yay. With your quick thinking and shooting, Winifred, you're able to remove this threat. How does he die?
Sydney: While she has been to the firing range and has the skill base for this, she's never needed to shoot a person before, and she trails a couple of bullets. She hits him in the leg and then in the gut. This is a pretty small pistol. It wouldn't have stopped him normally, but his leg gives out slightly and this device, where it is, is not directly over one of the platforms by design. It is over a set of square ducts which are easily able to support the weight of the people near them, but are not equipped with railings or other safety features. And the one as his leg gives out, he slides off of the side of the duct, tries to catch himself with his sword - it doesn't gain a purchase, and he falls from the bottom of the city. Winifred leans over onto her knees, breathing heavily, before looking up at the device, now nothing between her and trying to disarm it.
Sydney (as Winifred): [over radio] I'm there.
Sydney: Cassidy had caught sight of the figure falling, and looks up to see Winifred leaned over, tired but victorious, and starts scanning around Emma to see if there's anything any targets that she can hit to free up the Knight from where it is currently pinned.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Good job Winifred.
Nick: Cassidy, as you're surveying where Emma is currently pinned, you can see that there is a mercenary who has climbed down out of the cab of the truck and is sprinting towards the cockpit of the Knight, deftly dodging the Knight as its limbs move and Emma tries to get the machine righted. He is holding some sort of package. It's a brown box of some kind about the size of a loaf of bread.
Sydney: Cassidy has an unpleasant flashback to being locked in the Knight with no method of interaction from the last time that someone was able to get counter measures placed and does not want to let this guy make it the rest of the way to his target.
Nick: I'm going to say this guy is sprinting, partially covered by the Knight and the truck from your position, and it is long range, so there will be two black die on this, not because the long range, just because of the cover and everything.
Sydney: And Cassidy will take another Maneuver to Aim, so she is rolling three yellows and two greens plus three blues against three purples and two blacks.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: A Triumph with no successes and four advantages.
Nick: Well.
Sydney: So without any successes, Cassidy doesn't make contact with the guy, but I think the Triumph is that this bullet goes squarely through the box and throws it from his hands. Cassidy works the bolt, prepared to, if this guy somehow has another piece of equipment that could be used, to take away his ability to hurt the Knight further, but does not see him produce any such thing and begins to re-scan the battlefield.
Nick: Yeah, having had the package shot out of his hands, this guy panics and starts to run the other direction, back towards the truck. And he actually gets to the door of the truck and keeps going, running towards some other vehicles and further cover.
Sydney: And I'd like to use my advantages to give the Knight a blue die or two on its next action, as one concern has been freed up.
Nick: So that was Cassidy. We've got Birdie, and Emma left to go this round.
Cameron: So Emma has been laying flat on the ground on her back in the Knight, kind of just looking up at the bottom of Sasnak, and has seen that Winifred has reached the device. So she's feeling good there, that at least she's lasted long enough for Winifred to get there, and she's going to try to get up as much as she can with her Maneuver, and end up with the Knight in a lunge, leaning back so one foot is still stuck underneath the truck and that leg is straight out in front of her, and then holding most of the weight of the Knight on the back leg. And with how close she is to the truck and the fact that her foot is underneath it, she's not going to hit it with the sword - she could hurt her foot - but she is going to raise her non-sword arm at the truck and fire the arm cannon directly into the side of the truck.
Nick: All right, so go ahead and make me a Ranged Heavy check. This is that easy difficulty because it's very close range.
Cameron: And I'm also firing with one of the cannon balls that we have loaded in, so that means it's Accurate one, so take another blue. Emma is going to fire into the side of this truck. I'm going to flip a Story Point just due to the extreme close range that this shot is being fired at, of basically being able to put her fist up to the side of the truck to then launch, with the goal of this being to get this truck off of her foot while causing it a lot of damage, so that she can fully stand back up. So my dice pool is two yellows and a green, three blues, and a purple.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes and four advantages.
Nick: Nice. Do we have the Crit rating on your ranged gun?
Cameron: Yeah, the Crit is three.
Nick: Okay, so you can Crit on this truck and knock it loose and free yourself for sure.
Cameron: [asking for a present from Santa] Can I roll on the Vehicle Crit Chart?
Nick: You can roll on the Vehicle Crit Chart.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: I rolled a 42 which is Hull Damaged: The vehicle's hull is compromised.
Nick: I'd also take it as you've ripped this thing open enough that you can kick your leg free and knock the truck in half.
Cameron: I made a hole in the hull so I can get my foot out, so now there's a Knight's foot shaped hole chunk taken out of this truck, and Emma stands up to the Knight's full height having freed her foot. And then Emma is going to take two Strain from the Knight to do an additional Maneuver and extricate myself from this situation with this truck, and while still remaining under the city, move closer back towards the Ramp.
Nick: As you start to run, Emma, there is a massive explosion behind you. You picked a good time to get out of that area. It appears that the package that mercenary was carrying was some sort of shaped charge, which would have done pretty significant damage to the Knight if you had stayed within range.
Cameron: Emma looks so cool running away from the giant explosion in the giant mech suit. Due to the explosion, Emma startles and turns and looks behind her.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Oh, my goodness.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Oh, I shot that guy. Why did it still explode?
Cameron: Her arms definitely do like a surprise lift like whoa! [laugh]
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Oh, my goodness. Okay. We're fine.
Cameron: With the radio flipped off,
Cameron (as Emma): Everything's fine. It's not at all purple in here. It's okay.
Nick: So Birdie, you're up next.
Kit: Can Birdie potentially use this moment of Marathon engaging in a very dangerous situation to position Marathon in a better light to these Ramp Girls as well?
Nick: Yeah, absolutely.
Kit: Birdie sees the predicament that Marathon has found herself in, and in trusting that Marathon has the situation covered, at least for now, is going to plant a few seeds looking ahead, to hopefully alleviate some of their Ramp Girl adjacent issues that will probably crop up very soon after this fight ends. And she turns to the three Ramp Girls. Birdie is going to pretend radio and make sure to hold her hand up to her ear in order to manufacture this conversation between her and Marathon. Birdie is on the radio, but no one's gonna be able to hear besides her the response. It's just that she's being really overly obvious to these Ramp Girls that she's talking into at radio. She actually does want to know how Marathon is doing, so she is going to have it on, but she's going to respond as if Marathon is doing okay, whether or not she actually is.
Kit: [over radio] Um Marathon - you need any help over there? It seems you have things handled pretty well.
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] I mean, I've got the blade stuck in me, so at least he can't hit me again with that.
Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Awesome. Just shout for backup if you need any, okay?
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Okay, I would love some.
Kit: And then she'll turn off her radio. [laugh]
Kit (as Birdie): So that one's Marathon - you know, the Marathon Messenger from the Ice Derby stuff?
Penn (as Ramp Girl) Like the sport?
Kit: Yes! Yeah she's, like, super awesome, truly. Like, we're so lucky to have her. She's so capable and, like, really helps us out a lot. And -
Sydney (as Ramp Girl): She looks like she's in trouble out there.
Penn (as Ramp Girl) Yeah she looks like she got stabbed.
Kit (as Birdie): She's handling herself really well. I think she's actually really handling the situation well. Did you her take out all of those mercenaries by herself?
Penn (as Ramp Girl) That was pretty cool. Yeah.
Cameron (as Ramp Girl): Oh! Getting stabbed was probably part of the plan -
Penn (as Ramp Girl) Ahh!
Sydney (as Ramp Girl): To make him more vulnerable?
Cameron (as Ramp Girl): - to actually bring the other mech closer. Yeah.
Kit: Brilliant strategist, Marathon really, really is.
Cameron (as Ramp Girl): No, that's, that's really smart.
Kit (as Birdie): [fond laugh] Strategy is her strong suit.
Cameron (as Ramp Girl): Yeah~. Limit his range. Trap down his weapon. That's smart.
Nick: Okay, roll me a Charm check. [laugh] This will be average difficulty at this point.
Kit: Can Birdie have a blue die because she's been talking about Marathon and like the group this whole time?
Nick: Yep.
Kit: Birdie is going to be rolling two yellow, one green, one blue and two purple. Three successes and two threats.
Nick: Okay.
Kit: The threats definitely are going towards Marathon in this moment. [laugh]
Nick: Yeah, you were successful. You convinced them that Marathon is very capable and empathetic and truly a hero.
Penn (as Ramp Girl) The Patina is much more personable than I thought they would be.
Penn: And this goggled Ramp Girl is nodding at her compatriots.
Nick: And having shored up the Patina's reputation, we see Emma in the cockpit of the Knight frantically having freed herself from under the truck and dodged an explosion, but flipping a GM Story Point, the purple light of the incursion against the Knight spreads to completely encapsulate the cockpit.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Oh, fuck, fuck. Uh em. Uh no, that's not oka- mm. Okay. Uh.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Emma, you good?
Kit (as Birdie): Emma?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Uh what? Um mm. Eh, eeah uh mm, uhh mm - I I will be once I fix this, um.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] You just sound you sound like you're struggling.
Sydney (as Winifred): [over radio] Yeah, we've got kill switches.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Hey yeah. Uh huh.
Cameron: Emma looks down at the dashboard of the Knight and the radio switch is totally in the off position.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Not that you're in a very safe spot to use those right now.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yeah, that's, that's, I don't, I don't really want to kill it right at this moment. Yeah, yep. Uh I, I'll have it set up. But it I'm - where I'm at is not opportune to, -
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay~.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] - collapse. I will, I will attempt other other options first.
Sydney (as Winifred): [over radio] Let me know if you need anything.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [fake laugh] Will do. [uncomfortable laugh]
Cameron: Is this like when the Knight was taken over back in Iota, where the screens are totally gone now as well, or was that the red incursion that was doing that?
Nick: Yeah, that was the red incursion. You can still see out of the screens.
Cameron: Great. So I can see the terror that I'm causing.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] If I'm about to hurt any of you, I'll I'll shut myself down.
Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Um~
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Y'all just focus up there. It's fine. Don't worry about it down here.
Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Yeah.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] You got this, Emma.
Cameron: The Knight is still running towards the Ramp. I don't think the momentum stopped when Emma lost control.
Nick: And the Patina sees the Knight charging towards the Ramp with a different posture, this one more predatory and alive, and you continue to hear Emma working frantically to take back control of your greatest weapon.
[hurdy gurdy music swells]
Outro:
Penn (as Marathon): Welcome back folks, you’re tuned to Going the Distance: Traveler’s Guide on road dial 1558. That’s a wrap on today’s log and we’re set to loop after these considerations. Further detail for the following is cataloged in the show notes.
This has been A Knight of Shreds and Patches, an actual play podcast using the Genesys game system from Fantasy Flight Games. The show is edited by Sydney Whittington, and features the talents of:
Kit Adames as Birdie. Kit can be found on Twitter and Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor for Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.
Penn Van Batavia as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter @ acquiredchaste and in drag as horror king JOHN on Instagram @ john.is.risen. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes SLICE IT OUT, a grisly carving RPG about cutting pieces of yourself out to fit in. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.
Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Twitter @ sydney_whitt. She’s also a contributing editor and occasional guest player for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast.
Cameron Robertson as Emma. Cameron can be found on Twitter @ midnightmusic13 and on Instagram @ reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.
And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.
This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.
The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @ rashedjrs.
You can follow the Patina on Twitter @ akosap_podcast or visit the website: www.akosap.com. To further support the show, consider joining the Patreon at www.patreon.com/AKoSaP, where we’ll be bringing you weekly content including bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.
Until you tune back…
…stay bold and stay kind