A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript
Episode 11: Power That Could Level a City
Transcript by Cameron Robertson
Note: Zee-o is a synthetic humanoid being and primarily speaks in a robotic, monotone voice.
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 -
Drew: Drew Mierzejewski as Wyatt Fisher.
Aly: Aly Grauer as Zee-o.
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, with today’s messages:
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the show! (If you think they would like it, of course.) We are still a young show, and if you’re enjoying what we’re doing, spreading the word makes a huge difference.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into episode 11: Power That Could Level a City. 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, Wyatt had a heart to heart with the widow of a man he killed, we split up to gather info for a job the "wizard" gave us, I taught Zee-o about what "engage" means and then I gathered the tablet, Zee-o gathered me, and we booked it...being chased by drones that had no reason to chase us.
[radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: The town of Wawa is a peaceful community by a lake. The large city hall is choked in vines and the call of birds echoes over the misty water. This moment of peace is shattered by the sudden appearance of Cassidy and Zee-o running out of the trees. Zee-o is holding Cassidy like a child, moving faster than a human should be able to; which makes sense, because they're not human. The peace is further disrupted by the whine of drone blades. [drone blade noises] Twelve flying machines dangling small chain saws rise in formation above the treeline. They move with perfect precision before dividing into groups and scattering through the town. And I need you to roll initiative. That will be Vigilance.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: I have two successes.
Aly: Two successes, two advantages.
Drew: A triumph and one success.
Sydney: One success and two advantages.
Nick: Cameron, I need you to roll me three yellows three times.
Cameron: Okay.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes, three advantages.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes, three advantages.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes, an advantage, and a triumph.
Nick: Okay, the combat order will be a PC slot, two NPC slots, another PC slot, then an NPC and then the final PC slot. You all arrive at the truck, maybe 10-15 seconds ahead of the drones, you have a brief moment to plan and prepare and then they will be on you.
Aly: Zee-o skids to a stop near the rig and with surprising gentleness, Zee-o deposits Cassidy on her feet upright in a position ready to move.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Thanks for the ride.
Aly (as Zee-o): I thought we would get there faster.
Sydney (as Cassidy): We got there faster.
Aly (as Zee-o): It was successful.
Sydney (as Cassidy): It was successful.
Drew (as Wyatt): All right crew, wheels to the road here.
Sydney: Cassidy starts going around to the side of the truck and unloading a side crate during this.
Drew (as Wyatt): Here's the game plan. I'm gonna head on up, get in my rig. I want you all to defend the truck. All right? These things will tear it apart in less than a minute if we do. If anything, we're going to try to get out of here as quickly as we can.
Aly (as Zee-o): Wyatt?
Drew (as Wyatt): Yes?
Aly (as Zee-o): The people in the town. The drones are heading towards the town as well.
Drew (as Wyatt): They have not paid us for this.
Aly (as Zee-o): I understand. But they do not know what is coming.
Drew (as Wyatt): How fast could you get there?
Aly (as Zee-o): Fast.
Drew (as Wyatt): Then do it.
Aly: Zee-o takes off.
Drew (as Wyatt): Emma?
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah?
Drew: We see Wyatt reach into his belt and he pulls out his pistol. His pistol is a revolver that shoots shotgun shells. It's very large. It's probably like a four chamber pistol and we see him open it *chkk* and we see the camera look into it and it's got two shells and he *chkk* clicks it back and he flips it around and hands it to Emma.
Drew (as Wyatt): If anything gets close you fire at it. Got it?
Cameron (as Emma): All right, I don't need to yell this time to tell you that something's coming to the truck?
Drew (as Wyatt): Focus. Focus.
Cameron (as Emma): Kay.
Cameron: Emma grabs the gun.
Drew (as Wyatt): All right. If anything gets close you fire. It's life or death right now.
Cameron (as Emma): Got it.
Drew (as Wyatt): All right.
Sydney: So during this conversation, Cassidy's unhooking a so far untouched crate off the side of the truck with a bunch of closed latches. And she takes her bow off and hangs it on the side of the truck right next to this. Inside this box is not the same rifle that we saw, not the old beat up one that was left in the snow that gets spun around. This one only sees the light of day in situations like this. And it's well worn polished wood. There's a lot of engravings down the stock. There's a leather strap on it with actually six bullets in the bandolier on the strap. The strap is still pretty empty, but this is the most bullets that at least that anyone in the town would have ever seen in one spot.. And Cassidy gets this ready and slings it over her shoulder and looks back to Wyatt as he's finishing his pep talk.
Drew (as Wyatt): All right. We'll see you on the other side. Cassidy protect the truck.
Drew: And we see Wyatt stand up. And next to where Cassidy has pulled that crate off of the side of the truck. As he runs up to the rig is he takes out his sword and sticks it in the dirt. We see another crate and it's got a 'Wyatt' stenciled on the side of it. And we see him take it down and open it up and it's got a vest in it, an armored vest and a couple other little armor pieces in it. And we see him in less than 10 seconds, take it off, put it on and it's mostly just a chest piece and bits that go around the wrists. And we see him clink the two bits of wrist together and they *phsst* snap into place. And now he has gauntlets and he's got chest armor mostly. And he leaves the crate in the dirt and runs over to where his combat rig is and we see him, like before with the bandits, climb up into it. Step into it. We see the boxy heads up display helmet thing come down over him with a soft *kunk* and we see the inside of it light up as different parts of the screen begins to come up in this kind of like *vvvVVV* in the background. And he reaches up and pulls the lever and *dushhh* drops to the ground. And is the sword is right there to pick up.
Nick: You rolled a triumph Drew in your initiative.
Drew: I did.
Nick: Would you like to spend that on the rig boots up with no problems for the first time in months.
Drew: Yes, I love that.
Nick: And we get this shot of Wyatt in this armored exo-suit pulling the sword very smoothly from the ground. And probably a close up of Wyatt's face inside the helmet looking pleasantly surprised that the knee joint didn't lock and that the hands all worked exactly as expected. And he is ready to go. You can hear the grinding of saws cutting through masonry and wood alike. Two of the drones head for the rig.
So we will start off with a player character. I think with that description, it makes sense for Wyatt to probably take the first slot. I would say for that a maneuver counts as getting in, getting started, hitting it, letting it go. Just to make it a little more risky, you can now run towards things. The drones are skimming over the ground, probably eight inches off the ground, they were cutting up part of the fountain on the far side of the square but the large clang as everyone scatters and the rig drops to the ground was enough to draw their attention through whatever sensors they have and there are two of them moving towards the truck.
Drew: So we get this shot of over Wyatt's shoulder; we see the drones skimming across the ground, and him begin to *dshh dshh* run. And we see him leap into the air and he's just gonna stomp on these two.
Nick: So that will be a Brawl check at average difficulty.
Drew: So this is going to be two yellow, two green, a blue because I'm in my combat rig and two purple.
[dice rolling]
Drew: That's a success and a triumph.
Nick: Nice. So a triumph is enough to crit on these particular units. That's enough to destroy one. It's not enough to get both of them though.
Drew: So we see Wyatt loping across the lawn, across the middle of the town, the sword in his hand. And we see his hands go up and he takes both sides of the sword and he rests the blade on his shoulder. So he's running like that. And it looks like he's gonna go in and like sweep. But he jumps at the last second and lands full body on one of them, and then parries the buzz saw blade against the other one as it comes up across him.
Nick: The crunch of fiberglass and carbon fiber is clear, even above the groans of the blades making contact, and Wyatt you're surprised. This thing is flying, but it's able to push you back on your feet a little bit, it's able to generate tremendous force, which is not something that you were expecting. You're really glad that you took one of them down.
Drew: So we see him land on it, and then turn to face this one. And that's his turn.
Nick: Yep. And we are going to go to an NPC slot and this other drone is going to spin back away from Wyatt. It has little floating blue lights that seem to be just below the main body of the drone. It's a kind of extended rectangle two feet by one feet with the helicopter blades on each end and hanging down from the bottom is this blade on an actuator arm. And these lights don't appear to be attached, but you can see that they focus on the crushed drone and then focused on Wyatt and it charges straight at you. And I'm going to need you to roll two yellows and a green -
Cameron: Okay.
Nick: And a blue.
Cameron: Okaay.
Nick: Against - Do you have any defense, Wyatt?
Drew: I do. I believe my defense is three because of my long sword, my combat rig, and what I usually have.
Nick: Yeah, this is sort of your thing is being good at this.
Cameron: Two yellows, a green, a blue, two purple, and three black?
Nick: Yep, that'll work.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: A failure and two threats.
Nick: Okay, so this thing bounces off of you and you are able to parry it and set it off balance.
Drew: So as we see Wyatt do this hanging parry. The blade skates off of his blade - there's sparks - and he goes from a hanging parry into a downward diagonal cut at this thing, and we see that the drone recognizes what it's doing and does a base an upside down flip in mid air to get away from the blade. But in doing so it sends itself off balance and kind of flips its way across the lawn.
Nick: And again, it moves very agilely. It's a drone, it's light. Your brain is having trouble connecting the amount of force it's able to apply to the speed and lightness of its movement. It's like a dragonfly that weighs like a softball for some reason. And up next, we have another NPC slot. You hear the grinding of saws down by the lake, and a huge fireball erupts. That's that slot. And next up we have a PC slot. Wyatt is engaged with this one, they are bouncing off of each other. And there is a now raging fire, oily and smoky, down by the lake and there is still the grinding of saws out in the town as these drones start to take things apart.
Sydney: Yeah, so Cassidy watches Wyatt run off to go engage in melee combat with these drones with chainsaws and looks to Emma.
Sydney (as Cassidy): He's gonna get himself killed. Are you good watching the truck? Cause I -
Sydney: Cassidy starts looking around during this for something tall [laugh] with a vantage point.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I can't, I can't stay here by the truck. This isn't gonna work.
Cameron (as Emma): Um sure?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Great.
Sydney: And she takes off having spotted the lighthouse. This village is full of trees in the middle of it, which is a little bit weird for the sight lines. But the lighthouse is tall enough that she thinks she can catch the glimpses that she needs. And she's got her rifle this time so she's pretty confident and she double checks her radio earpiece. The green light goes on in the top left corner of her vision and she starts running basically full speed towards the lighthouse. And at the same time she hits the transmit on the radio,
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Zee-o I'm going to the lighthouse. What's it look like downtown?
Aly: Zee-o's head tilts to one side in recognition of the radio transmission coming through and they say
Aly (as Zee-o): [over radio] A good idea Cassidy. I am heading into town now.
Cameron: Question - when Zee-o answers back, is that a silent communication? Or do they say it out loud, as well as transfer it?
Aly: Zee-o has the option to answer out loud as well as sending the message, quote unquote, psychically. If it is more beneficial Zee-o can just send the message through their brain. And I think in instances like this, where things are moving very quickly, and Zee-o has to communicate with Cassidy long distance, I think it just goes silently. So Zee-o's head cocks as they run, and the words appear in Cassidy's headset. On Zee-o's end, there's no speaker. Zee-o's not projecting their voice or Cassidy's voice out loud.
Sydney: Does Wyatt's exo-suit have radio?
Drew: I think so - I don't know if it's working or not.
Nick: So it does, but it's real spotty.
Drew: Okay.
Nick: If someone on the radio yells, left, left, left, left, you'll go Oh, I think I should turn left. But you're not going to have in depth communication at this point. So what I will say mechanically, is Cassidy, if you are running to this lighthouse; it's far enough, I think you could reach it if you did two move actions. So if you did a maneuver, and then if you use your action to move further.
Sydney: MmHm.
Nick: It would take another maneuver to climb all those stairs. So you would be able to get up there next round. You could also shoot as you go, and you could spend strain to do something as you -
Sydney: That's what I was thinking about.
Nick: Yeah.
Sydney: Yeah. So given that the lighthouse is really far, rather than trying to take a running shot with these valuable bullets with this fancy gun, Cassidy instead is going to keep her eyes open, watching and inventorying where these drones are as she makes the run from the rig to the Lighthouse towards that fireball or the general direction of that fireball. And relaying that info in real time over the radio link. Zee-o will get all of it, Wyatt may or may not get some of it, but Wyatt's also actively engaged so how much he can use it ehh? And then if Emma is by the radio that's in the truck, that old box radio that - it works, most of the time, maybe even Emma might get some intel off of this.
Cameron: Emma does have that radio that she fixed earlier today with her. It's just if she turns it on or not. [laughs]
Nick: So we see Cassidy running hunched over towards that lighthouse just booking it and giving a running commentary as she goes just doing everything she can to be the eyes of this team and go ahead and make me a Perception check.
Sydney: What is the difficulty?
Nick: This one's going to be average.
Sydney: Okay.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: This is three successes and a threat.
Nick: So I think that you're able to call out the following: you are able to give Wyatt information about where the drone is because it's flown straight up so that it doesn't have any advantage against him on its next attack. So good job. How do you tell Wyatt that the drone has flown up above him?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Wyatt that drone's *radio static* look up it's *radio static* you hey *radio static* up *radio static* pay attention *radio static* it's above you!
Nick: And Wyatt you look up very quickly. Do you try to say anything over this spotty radio connection?
Drew (as Wyatt): [over radio] Affirmative.
Nick: And so with those other successes, you're able to give two blue die to Zee-o by calling out where they are. So as you approach the lighthouse, there is a group of three by this shack with the fuel tank that has now exploded, they have hit it. It didn't appear to affect them in any way. One of those three is chasing a woman that is running down the shore of the lake trying to get away. It doesn't appear to be catching her, but she is dead on sprinting, she will not be able to stay ahead forever. And you can also see sparks shooting up further into the town, probably in the direction of the general store where you were earlier. You don't have a good sight line from the ground level. But you're able to call that out to Zee-o that there is probably another group over there. And up next, we have another PC slot.
Aly: So Cassidy has been calling out these locations and trajectories and Zee-o is booking it into town. I think Zee-o probably sees the woman being chased by the drone, and banks their trajectory to intercept the drone, and is going to physically intercept it and prevent it from catching the lady.
Nick: Okay, we have established that Zee-o is very, very fast, so I'll say if you use your maneuver and spend two strain that you're able to get all the way to the drone. It's just a different scale of speed here. And so you are able to make a Brawl check to try to stop this thing from attacking the lady against average difficulty.
Aly: Cool. I'm now going to mark two strain.
Nick: Yep, you can spend strain to do an extra maneuver basically.
Aly: Okay, two purples, and...
Nick: Three green, you do have two blue die from Cassidy.
Aly: Here we go. One success. [laugh]
Nick: So you are able to stop this thing in its tracks, but you can't damage it. So describe how you intercept and stop it, but it's as though you had done a certain amount of damage and its soak was higher than that.
Aly: So Zee-o banks their trajectory, books it for this drone. And I think there's a cool running leap that happens with the idea being that even though the drone is not flying super high right now it is still above the ground and by running and leaping Zee-o is going to try to use their momentum to put it on the ground. What happens when they leap at it is they reach for that arm, and they try to wrench it out of, not out of its socket, but like if it was a person arm they would be trying to headlock this person and put them on the ground. This is like a body guard move, get down Mr. President kind of a situation. Half a moment of slow-mo running leap and then finagling the arm into an arm lock and driving this thing to the ground. I think it bangs on the ground pretty hard, but none of the pieces go flying off of it and Zee-o is a little surprised because it was a pretty hard contact with the earth. So it's very clear that this thing is not necessarily damaged, but that Zee-o has it now in this arm lock and on the ground.
Nick: And as you wrenched to throw this thing. It's light, you know it has to be to fly, but it takes a lot more force to bring it down than you're expecting. That's part of why you don't damage it. It's as though it has some sort of internal inertia you weren't compensating for.
Aly: Hmm, okay.
Nick: And up next is another NPC slot. You hear screaming in the town. Everyone does. It's very loud. And up next we have a PC slot.
Cameron: Since Emma is still standing by the truck, which is in the town square, can she see where the screaming came from around her?
Nick: You can see that the three that are by the shop are digging through the roof. Currently, the screaming appears to be from another row back.
Cameron: All right. So Emma's standing, where everyone left her next to the truck,
Nick: Holding a shotgun pistol. [laughs]
Cameron: [overlapping] Holding a giant shotgun pistol, which I imagine - it's huge and it looks ridiculous when she's holding it, and if she shot it, she would likely injure herself. But sees the fireball down by the lake, sees Wyatt fighting the drones, sees Cassidy takeoff, sees Zee-o take off, all running away from the town towards the lake. And there's a panicked shot of her face as she looks towards the screams as they happen. And then she runs around to the back of the truck and climbs in and is going to start uncovering the Knight and trying to turn it on.
Nick: So we get this shot, you grab this tarpaulin that has been wrapped around the Knight since you joined up with the Patina and pull it off. You see what looks like an exo-suit, but it's so much bigger. It probably unfolds to something like 20-25 feet tall. It's got a cockpit that's sealed, it's got armor. It's seen better days, but this is a battle weapon unlike anything you've ever seen before. This is the kind of power that could level a city.
Cameron: Emma takes a deep breath and turns around to the workbench behind her flips on the truck's radio that's in the back and grabs some tools and turns back around and is going to start turning stuff on. So we've also said that Emma's been staying where Pallie slept in the truck, there's no way Emma hasn't looked at the Knight. [laugh] Because she's not just gonna leave it covered. It's cool. She wants to see it.
Nick: Go ahead and make me a hard Mechanic's check.
Cameron: So that's two yellows, a green and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: A failure and two advantages.
Nick: Oh, well, you've seen the Knight before; you've taken the tarp off of it to look when you thought no one was around. You thought for sure that the boot sequence would be something simple. And as you really start to mess with it, you realize it's hardware and software, and that they're not connected. This is going to be very difficult to do by yourself. But you do identify where the generator power can be started manually from the outside. And you see that it seems to run on some sort of hyper condensed fuel. And it starts to burn with a high pitched boot up noise and a couple of running lights start to turn on, but you can see there is no single on switch to this thing. And so that is the end of the round. And we're back to the top again with a PC slot.
Drew: So Wyatt got the information that another one has come in or just this one has now gone up around on top of them?
Nick: So this one has flown straight up to a blind spot above you and is coming straight down and you get the information that you're getting dive bombed essentially.
Drew: So we see on the inside of his heads up display, the thing moved away, and we see Wyatt turned in that direction. And we see on the inside of the HUD different readouts trying to search for it. We see a circle trying to look around trying to find it and just a lot of Error, Error, Error. But there is that dark spot on the top right hand side that we see is just completely dark with that little sticky note put on it. And as we see it looking around, we hear Cassidy come over the radio like bits and pieces. And Wyatt goes
Drew (as Wyatt): Affirmative.
Drew: And turns just in time to see this coming straight at his face. And he's going to attack. It's what two purple?
Nick: Yep.
[dice rolling]
Drew: That is three advantages.
Nick: So you don't manage to hit it, but you put yourself in a very good position potentially. What would you like to spend those advantages on?
Drew: So we see this thing coming down immediately coming into Wyatt's face. We see Wyatt turned his blade in such a way that he puts it in the path of this thing and it course corrects and goes in a different direction, which Wyatt then twists the blade again, and parries again with a shower of sparks. So that's one, two, and the third parry, as it glances off that way it comes back around on his blind side, but he knows that that's what it's going to do. So he parries again, and catches the thing and flips it into a tree and it bounces off the tree and kind of wobbles its way through the trees into the trees again, out of Wyatt's sight and if he doesn't know where it is, again,
Nick: That's an advantage for you?
Drew: That is. That is an advantage for me.
Nick: Okay, so you are now standing in the square without any immediate threats. You can see on the far side of the square the town shop is being cut into, you can hear screaming in the distance, there's a fireball in the direction that Zee-o and Cassidy ran.
Drew: So because that thing is now out of my sight and I don't know where it is and there's nothing to fight because that shop is now under attack I'm gonna run to that shop.
Nick: So you book it across the square. Do you jump over the low wall of the dry fountain that's in the middle of this square?
Drew: Oh yeah and straight into the shop.
Nick: Yeah. And you run through part of the wall next to the door and smash it open, just as the ceiling starts to give in and these three drones descend down into the shop. You can see that the shopkeeper is standing behind the counter holding what looks like a large pot with a rip cord on it aimed up towards the ceiling.
Drew (as shopkeep): Come on, you flying devils! Bring it on! Come on!
Nick: And that's where that turn is going to end and there is an NPC slot up next. We are going to cut away from the shop to where this drone is locked on the ground with Zee-o and it is going to attempt to remove your head from your shoulders. Can I get two yellows and a green versus two purple please, Cameron, with one blue die.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Three successes, one advantage.
Nick: So that is six damage coming at Zee-o, minus your soak.
Aly: So three.
Nick: So you take three damage. So that's a pretty palpable hit. So this thing manages to flip out of your grasp and impale you with the saw through the left side. You're able to keep it from getting into anything that's sensitive, but it cuts through part of your matte black finish and into some of your internals and sparks fly. And next up is another NPC slot. The three drones that are in the shop and bust in through the roof are going to attack the shopkeeper because he's closer to them. And Cameron, can you roll me three yellows versus two purple, please? They get a bonus because there's more of them.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: One success, an advantage, and a triumph.
Nick: Oh, let's go ahead and roll a crit on this shopkeeper and see how bad it is. These do have plus 30 to all crits though.
Cameron: So I rolled an 81.
Sydney: You rolled an 81?
Cameron: Yeeeaaah.
Sydney: Okay. So plus 30 is 111. Temporarily disabled: this target is immobilized until this critical injury is healed.
Nick: So this group of drones comes down, the shopkeeper pulls the ripcord and it shoots a little gout of chemical fire up which they fly through as though it's not even there. And the saws strike down, cutting through this man's chest and he drops into a rapidly expanding pool of blood beneath him. And we're to a PC slot.
Sydney: So Cassidy's been running across this city towards the lighthouse. She was running out of the forest to get to here, it's a lot of running. She's pretty happy that she got to catch a ride with Zee-o for a little bit because she still has a hole on her side. And that's not doing her any favors right now. But she's almost to this lighthouse. Cassidy will take her maneuver this turn to - she's gonna run up and try the door.
Nick: It opens.
Sydney: Oh, she had been mentally preparing to kick it if needed. But she's happy she doesn't have to destroy any more property than is already being destroyed by everything else going on right now. And she takes the stairs three at a time and the spiral staircase that goes up towards the top. So it's on the small lakeside, it's not really meant for navigation the same way a big one by an ocean would be not that Cassidy would know that because he's never seen the ocean. But she gets up to the top fairly quickly and it coming out onto this balcony. There's a small stone walkway with a railing around it and a view of the town and destruction because there's a plume of black smoke coming out from the docks where the fuel tank exploded. There's roofs caving in by where the shop was downtown.
Nick: You can also see that there is another group that has been systematically disassembling houses and there's a small group of people running away as their homes are being destroyed.
Sydney: And Cassidy makes a face and then the face goes blank and she drops prone on the floor readying her rifle. I'm going to spend, again, another two strain to do an aim after that first maneuver.
Nick: You can see the two that are still disassembling the fuel depot, you can actually see one just cut into Zee-o pretty badly. You saw three dive down into the shop, and you can see these three disassembling houses that doesn't account for all of them, but by your account that does account for most of them. You also see as you're surveying this battlefield, the drone that had bounced off of Wyatt and he had thrown it into a tree comes out. It looks a little shaky, but it's starting to head back towards the rig with its saw buzzing.
Sydney: So Cassidy's got this mental tally of where each of the drones are and what's the biggest threat right now. Obviously, the one fighting Zee-o is in a bad spot for Zee-o but it's also a hard shot because they're engaged with each other. The two on the docks are causing a whole bunch of trouble, but they already made the explosion. And Cassidy figures that with that explosion there actually there's not that much left that they are causing useful destruction on and she sees the smashed in door of the shop, where Wyatt's exo-suit went in. I think she sees that Wyatt's not in the open and she sees that there's a bunch of stuff happening over there and she's basically mentally ranking targets on what's the most effective to shoot at, what's the highest risk for coming out of this fight safely for as many people as she can save, and then she sees the one that's approaching the rig where she knows that Emma is. Where she knows that Emma has the shotgun pistol that she's never shot. That's it's even more unwieldy than the last rifle that Wyatt gave her that she wasn't comfortable using and she makes her decision. So she looks through this old - the scope is a little bit more beat up than the rest of the rifle. It almost looks like an old Spyglass like it wasn't always meant to be a sniper rifle scope. It's got the range finding markings inked in on the far side, where they've been painstakingly manually drawn up to be able to zero this thing. But it works. And she lines up at that drone that's approaching the rig where Emma's hiding.
Nick: And this is going to be a long range shot, so that's hard difficulty. But you get a blue die because you're aiming, you get a blue die because this thing is discombobulated from being thrown into a tree, and then you also have a blue die from your sniper's nest as well.
Sydney: In addition to that, this sniper rifle that's so valuable that it doesn't get taken out, even when bandits are threatening their lives. Also has accurate two.
Nick: Oh, wow. Okay.
Sydney: So this is going to be five blue dice, two greens, two yellows against a hard difficulty because it's at long range.
Nick: Mhmm.
Sydney: So giant dice pool.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: Two successes and two advantages.
Nick: How much damage does your rifle do?
Sydney: It does nine pierce two.
Nick: Oh, yeah, this thing is eviscerated by this heavy caliber bullet. So -
Sydney: Yeah, so this is what Cassidy does. The bow is what gets used all the time, but the rifle is what Cassidy lives for. And that blank expression is just the expression of focus the expression of her entire attention, her entire being almost is in this gun in this moment in the shot. She takes a deep breath in, deep breath out. And then once her lungs are empty, and she's not moving, she's been timing her heartbeat, she squeezes this trigger between heartbeats, and that shot goes and just hits the drone's center of mass, and it splits down the middle and falls to the ground. The two halves fly in different directions at weird angles, because they're no longer synced up, they lost central control and they're not aerodynamic anymore now that half of it is gone. And the chainsaw swings around and wraps around one of the pieces and everything just basically falls to the ground in a cloud of dust from this very distant shot. And Cassidy just takes a deep breath in and works the bolt and catches the empty brass that comes out and quickly puts it into her pocket trying not to burn her hand too much. But that brass is valuable and it can be reloaded so... And she starts scanning again, looking for where the next shots going to come.
Nick: Do you call out any targets or anything on the radio?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] That's one down by the rig. There's still two by the docks, there's still one Zee-o fighting you. There's three in the shop, there's three in the houses... I don't see anymore. How are you guys doing?
Nick: And with that, we will move on to the next PC slot. Zee-o you hear that as this blade pierces your side. You're locked in a fight to the death with this drone, but you have protected the woman who is being chased.
Aly: So the saw rips into Zee-o's left side managing to miss primary functions but still wildly inconvenient. And Zee-o is wrapping their brain around the fact that it has a different mass than they expected it to for its size. So there's that moment of buuh on Zee-o's part while, this thing is buzzing into their [laugh] expensive chassis, the blades are still whirring and buzzing. I think it's pushing forward into Zee-o with the intent of cutting straight through them and Zee-o reaches out with both hands and grabs the arm, one where the approximation of like the forearm would be, and then one almost at the socket, where it's attached to the rest of the drone. Zee-o is going to dislocate this arm and yank it out of the drone.
Nick: That sounds like a Brawl check to me. Because it is stuck in your side, I'll give you a blue die because you were in a position that I'm sure the original engineers were not expecting.
Aly: I have one rank in Brawl.
Nick: I would politely recommend that you flip a story point for this one.
Aly: Okay, now it's two yellow and one green and two purple and one blue. Four successes.
Nick: Oh, wow. So that is enough damage to actually destroy this thing.
Aly: Zee-o reaches out with both hands grabs where the forearm would be grabs almost where the socket is, and in a quick certain move dislocates and then removes the arm from the rest of the drone's body. So it has driven them back against a wall or whatever. And Zee-o steps forward and body checks the drones body forward, sending it spinning away from them, removes the saw on the end of the arm from their body, flips it, and then slices the drone in midair with its own arm.
Nick: And it breaks apart into pieces as it's struck by its own cutting blade. And the individual helicopter blades fly off in different directions. Some plunk into the lake nearby, some smash into buildings or trees. And you were now holding this chainsaw arm.
Aly: When Zee-o flips the arm around and grasps it to wield it like a weapon, these cables come out and snake into the drone’s arm and integrate with it to keep the saw blades spinning; to keep it moving. And they do the Six Samurai slice with a little bit of a lunge and then as they come back up out of the lunge having destroyed this drones body with its own arm. Now the question is, does Zee-o, having integrated with this drone’s arm, have a better sense of how to communicate with these other drones and tell them to stand the heck down?
Nick: Yeah, now that you have integrated with this very old piece of technology that has been rather unbalanced, go ahead and roll me a Chassis roll. This one is going to be at hard difficulty as some of the inherent programming that you've just fused with tries to fuse back.
Aly: So it's three purple, four green because it's my Intellect.
Nick: Mhmm.
Aly: Zero yellow.
Nick: Yeah, cause you're not trained in your chassis yet.
Aly: I'm going to go ahead and roll then. One success, two advantages.
Nick: Great. So you feel very weird. The saw, Zee-o, is beautiful. Like what a marvelous piece of simplicity. What gorgeous design. You get this urge to use it on anything you can find. And then you realize that that's not your thinking. And you isolate that thought as quickly as possible and are pretty introspective, but you're aware of a tug of war internally now.
Aly: So I think right about that moment is when Cassidy's voice comes in over Zee-o's radio, and Zee-o is staring at this new saw hand thing, appendage that they've acquired. And they lift it up a little bit in the light to watch it spin and they say over the radio for whoever to hear,
Aly (as Zee-o): [over radio] Everything is fine. Everything will come apart the way it is supposed to. Everything. Nothing can stand in the way of this blade.
Aly: And then there's a long, awkward pause. And then Zee-o goes,
Aly (as Zee-o): [over radio] I apologize. That was not meant to be said out loud. I have integrated with one of the drones' arms. I will now use it as a weapon.
Nick: So that was Zee-o's turn, so there's another NPC slot. You hear destruction spreading amongst the town. And Cassidy from your perch, you can see, running out of one of the other buildings on the square, Modem the wizard and he is running with his staff and the sensor that he has on the end of it pointed in front of him like a weapon, and additional drones are coming out of the woods and you can see the four that you hadn't been able to see so far coming to clash epically with the wizard Modem in the middle of this square. And we're to a PC slot.
Cameron: So camera swings back to inside the rig. And Emma is now sitting up on the Knight. So has done what she could from the floor, but has now moved up into the chest cavity area, and is continuing to press buttons and turn knobs, and then turn the knob back because it did something didn't want and then poke another button, the comms come on, and then they go off. There's a lot of lights happening, but it doesn't seem to be actually waking up at this point. Briefly, she gets the local radio station over the mech, and it just goes out. So I'm going to try to Mechanic it again, to continue turning it on. Is it still a hard boot?
Nick: Yes.
Cameron: All right.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: An advantage?
Nick: Would you like to spend the advantage that the signal goes out? And that Zee-o is able to detect it?
Cameron: Yes. One of the buttons that I find - when Emma flips the comms on, it makes a connection to Zee-o. Zee-o doesn't hear anything, but can tell.
Nick: In one of the bottom small square screens down by the controls that you notice is just a flashing text that says 'awaiting software boot'.
Cameron: Hmmm
Nick: And Zee-o you hear the mech; something reaches out to you. You can tell right away Emma's trying to turn it on. The generator has been cycled, but the software isn't integrated, it needs you.
Aly: Zee feels the signal come online and is going to turn back and try to fight whatever is in the way on the way back to the rig to help Emma boot the Knight up.
Nick: You have enough movement you could get there this round and do a thing. The question would be do you spend the time fighting? And then that's your action? Or do you try to dodge so that you can help with the boot up in this round?
Aly: I think I'm going to go help Emma at the rig with the Knight. There's always been something between this Knight being patched together and Zee-o understanding who they are. Whenever that comes up, it takes precedence over anything else that's in front of Zee-o. Zee takes the saw arm with them. They don't drop it. They don't disconnect. They carry it.
Nick: So what I need from you is an Athletics check to run back as you identify that where you're needed most is back at the rig to help with the Knight. You're not sure why Emma hasn't booted it up already, but obviously they need your help. But as you were running back, these two drones that were disassembling the exploded shack seem much more interested in you having destroyed one of their compatriots and they try to stop you. So you are trying to dodge them and get away.
Aly: Okay, so you said Athletics, which I have one rank in the greens are my Brawn. And then how many purple?
Nick: We'll say two.
Aly: Okay, here we go. One success, four advantages.
Nick: Wow. So you're able to outdistance them. They don't chase you after the initial clash. What does it look like as you dodge them, or parry them and run for the Knight?
Aly: Zee has just finished apologizing into the radio for their outburst. And they've lowered the sawblade and it's not spinning right now. They've turned that off. They're still holding it and they lower the saw blade. And they turn to look to see if the lady has gotten away, when the signal pops up at the back of their mind, this undefinable tug to go be near the Knight, especially because usually when that thing goes off in their mind, it's because it's come online fully. But right now the signal is not complete, there's something missing. So whoever is turning it on has not done the complete process yet, which is a red flag basically for Zee-o to get over there and see what's going on. So Zee turns and starts running back toward the rig, and sees those two drones drop whatever they're doing and start swooping at them. And I think Zee-o [laugh] is doing like the Naruto run with the saw blade arm kind of behind them as they run super fast. They blithely duck sideways and then under and then they do like a little barrel roll over one of them as it swoops at them and they duck down between some trees and a building.
Nick: Yeah, and so they start to follow slowly but their programming isn't made to account for the way that you're moving and you can tell that you've confused them. They're gonna take a while to get there and you're able to make it all the way back to the rig. You're very fast. And Emma you see this skeletally thin figure with a hooded poncho holding a saw out lined at the end of the rig by the sunlight outside.
Aly: Zee-o grabs the side of the truck and hoists themselves up into it with the saw blade still attached to their left arm, and their eyes fix on Emma.
Cameron: Emma turns around when she hears the chainsaw - so it's like right as Zee-o's approaching the back of the truck, turns around like
Cameron (as Emma): Ahhh!
Aly (as Zee-o): Emma.
Cameron (as Emma): Oh, hi.
Aly (as Zee-o): What is going on? Are you turning on the Knight?
Cameron (as Emma): I am I am trying to.
Aly (as Zee-o): It is incomplete. You have not succeeded.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, yeah, I know.
Aly (as Zee-o): What is wrong?
Cameron (as Emma): Um, it says that the software is offline still.
Aly (as Zee-o): You have to turn the software on.
Cameron (as Emma): I figured that out. I, I don't know how to do that. None of the buttons up here seem to be linked to that...
Aly (as Zee-o): You're a mechanic.
Cameron (as Emma): Yes?
Aly (as Zee-o): I do not understand.
Cameron (as Emma): Um, I- uh uhh. I-I-I'll explain later. Uh can you get - can - Do you know how to turn this on?
Aly (as Zee-o): Pallie could turn it on.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah. [sigh] Well, do you know how to?
Aly (as Zee-o): I do not know which button it is, but I believe I can communicate.
Cameron (as Emma): Great...
Aly: And Zee moves quickly into the rig where the Knight is and reaches out with their free hand. I think there's a panel on the hip of where it is. Zee reaches out and opens this panel, doesn't remove it just swings it open, and then reaches in with their good hand and reaches out to speak to the Knight and to turn that software on.
Nick: And it feels like that feeling 20 minutes into a surprise party when it really starts to hit you how much work your friends put into not only making this place for you but doing it as a secret. You feel warmth and welcome. And the Knight begins to respond.
Cameron: As Zee-o opens the panel and reaches out towards it Emma's like,
Cameron (as Emma): I swear I checked that panel.
Nick: And Emma you lose your balance and fall into the pilot seat of the Knight as it begins to rise and it stands up out of the back of the rig.
Aly: As Emma sits back into the chair, the sounds change. There's a different chord of machinery music that's happening as the Knight comes fully awake. And as it stands up out of the back of the rig, Zee-o looks up at it and says
Aly (as Zee-o): Good morning.
[hurdy gurdy music swells]
Outro:
Aly (as Zee-o): End of episode. Commencing end credits. The following information will be placed in the show notes for your added convenience.
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:
Drew Mierzejewski as Wyatt. Drew can be found on Twitter @worldstoforge and is the showrunner for Skyjacks: Courier’s Call, an all-ages actual play podcast set in the world of Spéir, designed by James D’Amato.
Aly Grauer as Zee-o. Aly can be found on Twitter and Instagram @dreamstobecome. Aly is also a player on and audio editor for Skyjacks: Courier’s Call. You can support both Aly and Drew by joining their Patreon @ Patreon.com/WhimsyArtifice.
Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Twitter @ sydney_whitt.
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.
This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett with two Ts. 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.
Until next time…
...Audio Offline.
[hurdy gurdy fades]