A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript Episode 30: A Good Connection 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 –
Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling.
Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood.
Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard.
Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.
Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:
We’re proud to introduce a new full-time cast member today! Please welcome Kit Adames, as found by our open auditions a couple of months ago. We’re super excited to have her on the show, so make sure you stay for the credits to hear all the fun things they’re involved in, and come say hi in our Discord server.
Also, our Patreon is live, and we’ll be bringing you weekly content from the archives starting this Sunday, including bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards, so if you’re interested, check out the link in the show notes and consider supporting our show.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into episode 30: A Good Connection. 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] Cameron (as Emma): Last time on A Knight of Shreds and Patches, we handed off the silica ore to Shawn, spent a little time patching Cassidy up, and then as we left we were summoned to speak to the Parliamentarian by a bunch of annoying floaty drones. So to avoid the continued annoyance, we went ahead and did that and that conversation did not go well. And we're being blamed completely for the highway men chasing us, trying to kill us, and are now on probationary banishment from Eagle Hill. As part of our payment Shawn let us utilize the Fabricator to make some fancy new parts for the Knight, so we got that upgraded. And then it was finally time for the train to come back from Tree All Mountain… and then Wyatt and Zee-o weren’t there. [radio static]
Episode Start: Nick: The town of Cluster is bold to call itself a town. A small group of buildings amongst the high trees a few days walk from Eagle Hill. The best part of the settlement is that it has an inn. No clever name here, just the place people point you to when you ask if there's somewhere to stay. The second-best part of Cluster is that it has a wall. Nothing special, just a line of sharpened tree trunks buried into the ground and tied with homespun rope, but it does make the little stop feel more secure. The spring snow has piled up on the shady side of the buildings in the walls and it's still bitterly cold, but the wind doesn't quite bite so hard as it did a week before.
As we take a closer look at this town, there's a small shop - really just a table set out under an overhanging porch covered in goods. Junk is mixed in with more traditional rations and supplies. We see a willowy woman with brown skin and natural hair held back with a faded yellow bandana. She's wearing a jumpsuit with the sleeves rolled up and a patched flannel shirt visible underneath. She's trying to make a sale to a traveler, but it isn't going as easily as any shopkeeper would hope. Birdie is the prospective customer at this little booth. Why don't you describe yourself?
Kit: Birdie is a younger woman with rust colored hair that's got asymmetrical bangs and is pulled into two long scruffy braids that looked like they probably were done a few days ago. She's got darker eyes. On her right cheek, there is a pretty large scar that runs from just underneath her jaw to below her eye on the right side. And she wears a kind of hodgepodge of different colored clothing that look like they were collected all in different spots over the course of a long period of time. Some of them are practical, she's got boots on with pretty thick soles, but others are definitely more fashion oriented and a bit eccentric in nature. She's got a very large and lumpy backpack on her back that clinks around as she moves. It's got a bunch of plaques that were attached in very interesting ways that all read like 'Danger' and 'Keep Out', as well as a hockey stick that's twisted in the straps that is almost as tall as Birdie is. It looks like it's being held together by tape. It's kind of hard to discern her exact age - in some lights, she could be 30, in others she could probably be a teenager.
Nick: And this shopkeeper, she's been staring at you and says,
Nick (as Shopkeeper): All you did was walk over here and start telling me my prices were too high, but you didn't even say what you want. What are you looking for, sweetie?
Kit (as Birdie): Well, I'm really not looking for anything right now, but I did notice this on your table and I think the price is a little high for something that I can't even really figure out what it is.
Kit: And she's holding this contraption that's got two handles and a round bowl at the end and it has little holes in it. And it's definitely not a fruit juicer, [laughing] but it's a fruit juicer, and she's just waving it back and forth and it's creaking. And she's just like,
Kit (as Birdie): What would you even need this for?
Nick: Sweetie, that's a drying rack. If you wash out your trusty cup and you want to make sure that it doesn't get any mildew or anything underneath, you just set it upside down on there. It's not going to go anywhere. Useful if you have any pets or anything that like to get up on the counters, you understand.
Kit (as Birdie): You know, I suppose that I'd understand if I had a pet or if I had cups, but yeah, this is it seems kind of unnecessary, you know, like you could just dry it out by using a rag or placing it just upside down anyways. I'm pretty sure it'd get dry anyways. But any- this is going for a lot of stitch.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): You must be from somewhere way out in the boonies, not used to a big settlement like Cluster, are you?
Kit (as Birdie): Uh~.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): The people here like the finer things; a drying rack for their cup, and they're willing to pay handsomely for it. I don't think three red stitch is too much to ask for a piece of finery like this.
Kit (as Birdie): You know, I suppose you're right. This is a pretty luxurious item. Yeah, that makes sense. You know, do you have any um - I'll put this down. Do you have any motor oil or um anything like of the sort? I don't really need fuel or anything, I obviously don't have anything to fuel but...
Nick (as Shopkeeper): I might have a little something. Let me look around.
Nick: And she does the kind of posture that you immediately associate with someone saying they're going to go check the back room and puts her hands on her hips and is just looking at the blank wall that's behind this table and then reaches under the tablecloth and pulls out three different jugs. One appears to have what could only be used motor oil. Even from inside a jug that's mostly full, you can see that it's a very dark color, that it's got little chunks in it. It's pretty gross looking. The next jug has what looks like is maybe cooking grease? It looks like it's maybe been used once, but it has little flecks of burned food or something in it, but otherwise could make decent biofuel. And the third thing doesn't come in a jug. It's in a glass bottle. And it just has a little piece of paper stuck to it with three X's done in crayon on it.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): I've got fuel of all kinds, but if you thought that the dryer was too expensive, sweetie, I don't know what you're gonna do with something like this. Consumables cost a lot, even in a big settlement like Cluster.
Kit (as Birdie): No, I understand that. I mean, I know it's pretty hard to come by these days, but considering that I don't really have a house, or cups, I think I'd be a little bit more willing to pay for one of these than the dryer. Though the dryer is lovely. It's a lovely dryer. So how much for the motor oil?
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Oh. [sigh]
Kit (as Birdie): Or
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Well, I could -
Kit (as Birdie): - rather -
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Pour you out of measure if you wanted it or if you want the whole thing, I think I'd have to go all the way up to a blue stitch. I hope you don't think I'm taking advantage of you, but it's hard to come by. I'm surprised I have this much.
Kit (as Birdie): No, of course. Of the three, which one would be the cheapest for a measure?
Nick (as Shopkeeper): For a measure, I got this from an Advantia a long time ago. He called it biodiesel. It's pretty flammable. Smells nice too.
Kit (as Birdie): Huh.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Kind of makes you hungry though.
Nick: And she points to the jug in the middle. Make me a Perception check at average difficulty, please.
Kit (as Birdie): All righty. I got two yellows and two purples then. Okay, I got two successes.
Nick: You can tell by the way that she smiles at you when she's talking about that this 'biodiesel' is from an Advantia and that it's this amazing thing, she's never met a member of the Advantia before. She's never left Cluster. And this is cooking grease. You know enough about mechanics and motors and things that yeah, if you have the right kind of motor, this can work as a fuel. Not a great one, but it does work. But she's talking this up like it's a huge deal and it's cooking grease. It's not that fancy. So her telling you it costs a blue stitch is pretty outrageous.
Kit (as Birdie): Wow, a member of the Advantia. That's really really cool. You know, um, so what makes it so special that you would get it from a member of the Advantia?
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Well, you can use it to cook or you can use it to run equipment generators. It's really how flexible it is. It's a wonder material. I don't even know where it comes from. It may smell like bacon, but that's a feature, not a bug.
Kit (as Birdie): You know, I'm pretty sure that that's cooking grease.
Nick: She bites on the inside of her cheek a little bit and looks down at you as you're standing there.
Kit: She looks a little confused at the grease and is just giving her the most just 'I don't know if you're actually lying to me or not', even though she knows it, she's kind of hyping it up giving her a little bit of the benefit of the doubt.
Nick: She quickly re gathers herself. Looks down at Birdie and says,
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Well, yeah, it might be but those other uses are real. That's a real thing. Uh [stuttering] I might be convinced to lower the price, though, if you're just trying to get some of it. I wouldn't part with all of it, of course, it took me a long time to collect all this. Well, I mean, it took me a long time to uh be gifted this by a member of the Advantia.
Kit (as Birdie): Of course. Of course.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Mhmm.
Kit (as Birdie): Um, how much of it would you part with for two red stitch?
Nick: Roll me a Negotiation check at average difficulty, but you can have two blue die because you've thrown her off her game.
Kit: Okay, I'm rolling one green die, two yellow die, two purple die and two blue die. Four successes and one advantage.
Nick: She smiles at you. You've been really personable and people don't talk to her that much unless they need something in this town. Not very many people live here, most just pass through, and she looks you up or down and says,
Nick (as Shopkeeper): If you've got any containers or anything for two stitch, I'll give you half of it. It's probably a couple of liters worth.
Kit (as Birdie): Really? Wow. Okay!
Kit: And she's gonna put the money on the table and she sets down her big, lumpy bag and flips it open and pulls out three varying sizes of glass bottles, and she just sets them all on the table.
Kit (as Birdie): Let me know if you need any more bottles. I think I have like two more in here.
Nick: She looks amused and also a little concerned at how quickly you were able to produce empty containers. I think she thought that you would have to go away and find some and she gets the jug. She looks around mumbling to herself about
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Where's that funnel? What did I do -
Nick: And can't find it and ends up taking a piece of scrap paper - she rips a large label off of a box twists it to make kind of a cone, sticks that into the bottle and starts to pour the grease in. And I think she fills the two smaller bottles all the way and the larger bottle about halfway. So you've got a good amount of fuel there. How do you seal these things up so they don't leak all over your bag?
Kit: She has two corks one of them is a bit small so it has tape around it, but it does its job decently well. The third one she has the actual original lid that came with the bottle and so she just twists that back on.
Nick: And as you're securing your bacon grease, you look down and secure the last lid and look up and the red stitch has disappeared somewhere into the jumpsuit of this shopkeeper and she smiles real wide and says,
Nick (as Shopkeeper): If I can get you anything else, sweetie, you just let me know.
Kit (as Birdie): I appreciate your help.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Oh, absolutely. And you just let anybody know when you're out there in the boonies, if they want to come into the cradle of civilization that's Cluster, that I make people a good deal. Nice and honest. Making trades.
Kit (as Birdie): [laugh] I will. Thank you again.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Oh, you're very welcome. You have a nice day.
Kit (as Birdie): Have a nice day.
Kit: She awkwardly waves and just walks away.
Nick: As you're walking away you see the shopkeeper slump down onto a little stool behind the table and she looks pretty tired because she was really trying to make a deal and it was very difficult to take one over on Birdie. Birdie definitely got the better end of that, got what she wanted, and the shopkeeper didn't make a huge profit, but she's glad that she at least hopefully made a connection with somebody.
Kit: Birdie feels a little bad about it, but not really because you know, you got to do what you got to do. She only has four stitch - had four stitch.
Nick: Birdie as you walk away pleased with your haul of grease, good for fires, good for cooking, the peace of the town of Cluster is broken by the sound of a heavy engine in the distant woods. We cut over to the cab of the Patina's rig. You all have been driving for a couple of days, you've made camp a couple of times. You're headed back to Tree All Mountain looking for the missing members of your mercenary band. They didn't come south like you hoped that they would and so now it's on you all to find them. Who's driving on this leg of the journey?
Cameron: We've been alternating driving since there's just the two of us now, and I think for this particular stretch Cassidy has been driving and Emma is reading one of the romance novels aloud.
Cameron (as Emma): Sophia watched through the rain as he raised his shirt above his head, once again just shocked at the magnitude of muscles rippling down his wet chest. [laughing] Um [clears throat and laughing]
Sydney (as Cassidy): You-you doing okay over there, Emma?
Cameron (as Emma): This author uses that phrase too much.
Sydney (as Cassidy): She's just really into wet chests.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, but he just took his shirt off and just stepped out into the rain, his chest should not be wet yet.
Sydney (as Cassidy): He was really sweaty before.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay, that's gross. That's not attractive.
Sydney (as Cassidy): No that's -
Cameron (as Emma): I do not understand this.
Sydney (as Cassidy): That's what all the ladies are into, right? Is like guys with their big sweaty chest going [groaning noise] with like, all the chest hair and everything like -
Cameron (as Emma): Um, no?
Sydney (as Cassidy): I mean, I haven't ever understood it but,
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah no, it - I mean I can appreciate the muscles. Uh like that's obviously takes a lot of hard work and commitment.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Sure.
Cameron (as Emma): But I don't know the - it seems like a weird thing to fixate on. I don't I don't understand why it's being brought up so frequently.
Sydney (as Cassidy): I mean, I suppose it's imagery. Yeah. As if the author's got one good line to just use like, just imagine a wet chest again.
Cameron: [sigh] Well, so it's this and then the purring. I do not understand the purring. I don't think people purr when they're talking in real life. He's doing way too much purring and growling.
Sydney (as Cassidy): It's those uh, it's the physical instantiation of animal instincts. Like you just given to that primal nature.
Cameron (as Emma): But... [sigh] [reading again] My restraints snapped, and I rushed into the rain and slipped my hand - Hmm. Hmm. Hmm.
Sydney (as Cassidy): You don't want to, you know, get to the climax of the scene.
Cameron (as Emma): They do.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, I guess we're almost there. I can see the walls right here. So we can, maybe we'll pick it up. Save it for a later point.
Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, yeah.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Just get right to the edge and then we'll...
Nick: As Cassidy pointed out, you can see the edge of a wooden palisade up ahead. There appears to be a gate. It doesn't have hinges; it just was dragged open and left open. You're able to drive into the small town of Cluster. Cassidy, you recognize from what you've heard of the area and the map that this town is here, there's not much but it's a good place to resupply, get some rest in town, and it does have a small population. You pull to a stop in the middle of what would amount for the town square; it's really just an open area furthest from the walls near a couple of small stalls and a building that's probably an inn. And you can tell you've already drawn the eye of most of the people here as you cut the engine.
Sydney: Cassidy pulls the air brake, turns everything off, and then looks over at Emma with expectant eyebrows raised.
Sydney (as Cassidy): You ready to?
Cameron (as Emma): Are we doing the thing?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, you want to do the thing?
Cameron (as Emma): Sure. How long were you planning to stay here?
Sydney (as Cassidy): Ah, not more than a day or two.
Cameron (as Emma): All right, short turnaround time on the jobs.
Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, short term job. This is a passing through spot. We got places to be and people to find.
Cameron (as Emma): Alrighty, let's go.
Nick: You all hop out of the rig. People are naturally gathering around. You see 10 or 15 people begin to gather around the rig.
Cameron: I don't think I do fully climb onto the hood this time. I've decided that that's unnecessary, and is just weird. But I do swing up to where I am standing on the step to get into the driver's side door holding on to the side mirror so that I am still slightly above head height for everyone else and they can see me, but I'm not like standing on top of a mountain speaking down to the people. It feels more intimate this way. It's less weird. Just trust me. That's how it is.
Cameron (as Emma): Good evening, everyone!
Cameron: Emma does a big wave with a hand that's not holding on to the side mirror.
Cameron (as Emma): [raised voice] We are the Patina. We will be staying through for the next night or so. If you have any machinery that needs fixing, or maps or surveys that need making, or any other odd jobs that could happen on our way to Tree All Mountain, please come talk to me and we can help you out. Thank you.
Nick: The crowd mumbles to each other. You hear that low murmur.
Sydney: Cassidy gives a nod to Emma as she steps off of the rig step.
Nick: Most of the crowd starts to disperse about their day. One person does approach and begin to talk to Emma about a perspective job.
Sydney: The person who walks up, she's quite tall. She's probably six feet tall, very thin - it reminds you of a skeletal tree. She's a little bit old and you can almost imagine a creak but spry, just a little creaky. But she's got a long cloak that hides most of her body. You can see long, spindly limbs sticking out. She's got weathered, but kindly features, but again with that same note of vaguely tree barky - they're very textured. And she's got long, straight white hair. She walks over clutching a small package, maybe a foot across on each side, so kind of square, just wrapped in brown paper and tied up with twine. It very much looks like she put it together in her kitchen with the stuff she had at hand to her, but it - probably with the amount of preparation that went into it, it was something waiting for an opportunity as opposed to seeing us walk in. This is probably been something that she'd been hoping for a while to have someone be able to help with. And she walks up to Emma. Cassidy has gone off to the back of the truck to go start doing the check over of supplies to make sure and see what stuff needs to be topped off while they're here while there's a little bit of civilization. And this old lady just goes,
Sydney (as Old Lady): So you're doing jobs?
Cameron (as Emma): Yes, we are. Good evening. Can I help you with something?
Sydney (as Old Lady): I have a package.
Cameron (as Emma): All right. Do you need it delivered somewhere?
Sydney (as Old Lady): Yes.
Cameron (as Emma): All right. Where to?
Sydney (as Old Lady): It needs to go to my nephew, Ananda Mallard. I'm sure you've heard of him.
Cameron (as Emma): Most definitely. Could you remind me which town he lives in again?
Sydney (as Old Lady): Oh, yes. He lives just outside of Grapes.
Cameron (as Emma): Okay.
Cameron: Emma is reaching into the back of the cab of the rig to pull out Cassidy's maps to open up to look to see if this is actually in their path.
Sydney: It's a smallish town. It's bigger than Cluster, but it is not like a destination by any means. But it's probably two or three days drive north, maybe very slightly out of the way but easily justified.
Cameron (as Emma): Yep, that we could definitely do that for you, ma'am. That is very much on our route.
Sydney (as Old Lady): Wonderful.
Sydney: And she just hands you the package.
Cameron (as Emma): Thank you. Where within Grapes, would we be finding him?
Sydney (as Old Lady): Well, here's a tall building, as befits one of his stature.
Cameron (as Emma): Of course. All right, ma'am, we'd be happy to take this for you. Our standard rate would be two green stitch.
Sydney (as Old Lady): Two green? So much?
Cameron (as Emma): It is slightly out of our way and we are saving you a lot of walking.
Sydney: She reaches into her cloak and produces a small billfold and pulls out two orange stitch and goes
Sydney (as Old Lady): I'm sure Ananda will be able to cover this. He's he's such a good boy.
Cameron: Emma has not taken the money yet that's being held out.
Cameron (as Emma): Is he aware that this package is coming?
Sydney: She looks slightly confused and almost as if she's trying to decide if she should be offended by it or not. And then just settles with,
Sydney (as Old Lady): Of course. His auntie always sends him presents.
Cameron (as Emma): Then you should know that the standard rate for this is two greens and that's how much we would be charging to take it for you, ma'am.
Sydney (as Old Lady): Last time the delivery person was so nice.
Cameron (as Emma): I'm sure they were and maybe they'll pass through again and could take it for you later.
Nick: I need you to roll a Negotiation check please, Emma. This is going to be average difficulty, but with two black die, because the last delivery person was so nice.
Cameron: Fair. I'm going to flip a story point. So my very promising dice are a yellow, a green, two purple and two black. I'm sure, it'll be fine.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: A success and two threats.
Nick: So with the successes, you're able to talk her up in price, but the threats are that it's price that she commits that her nephew is going to pay. And as that conversation continues, we cut back away to Birdie. Birdie, you've been watching all this hullabaloo from the edge of the square, probably leaning up against a building in the shade. What are you thinking as you see this mercenary band of apparently two women just roll into town and advertising their job capabilities?
Kit (as Birdie): She's mostly thinking like, Hmm, you know, I should try making a big announcement when I'm going into towns for work. I think that's a much easier way to do things.
Nick: As you're thinking about the feasibility of announcing yourself in town and what your capabilities are. You get a good look at them. One of them appears to be negotiating with an old woman.
Cameron: So Emma is, while not being short herself, slightly dwarfed by this older woman that she's talking to. She has brown hair that's cut into a long-ish pixie cut that's, it can still just barely be called a pixie cut. It's really leaving that realm at this point. She has fairly tan skin like she spends a lot of time outside and is wearing a sweater with a big old cowl turtle neck neckline that swallows her up and looks cozy. And she has this box that the woman handed her held on one hip and then with the other hand, you can tell that normally she would be standing there with it on her other hip but feels like that would be aggressive for this negotiation, so is just shifting it around pretty much constantly not quite sure where the comfortable spot for it to sit would be and eventually just pulls the box in front of her and sets both of her hands around it so that she stops moving. She's wearing cargo pants and combat boots and has a hip bag work belt type thing on one side that has a good number of tools sticking out of it, but she looks very friendly.
Sydney: And then back a few feet rummaging around in the trunks attached to the side of the rig, you see a slightly shorter figure with brown slightly coppery hair done up in a crown braid with a colorful bandana woven into the braid. She's got on a brown canvas jacket with several small stitched up holes across the chest of it. She's got on a forest green scarf wrapped around her neck, tough but form fitting pants, leather work boots. Her face is somewhat strong featured but still looks friendly and open from the glances that you're catching around the corner. You can also see several ear piercings. You can see the hints of a tattoo crawling out of her sleeves over her wrists of vines and flowers. And at one point, she turns her head sideways to raise an eyebrow at the conversation that the person in her party and the tall older lady are having. And you can see just barely a vertical scar running from above her right eyebrow down onto her cheekbone.
Nick: And Birdie, while you're watching this scene, you can't help but be a little amused at the energy that it's pushed into the population of Cluster as this new and exciting group has come into town. And while most of the crowd has started to disperse, you notice one group of people has gathered in front of the inn. You see someone that you actually ran into, physically ran into, yesterday. It was a very tall man, probably 6'4", somebody who was very heavy set and very strong, bald with a beard, wearing a shirt that's a little too tight. And he stands about a head above a group of people around him and is talking loudly. What did he do on your way into town originally, that just utterly convinced you that this guy was a huge jerk?
Kit: He is very lucky in that he has some form of vehicle and I think a little bit before Birdie physically ran into him, while she was on her way into the actual town, he drove past her and just covered her in slush. She's a pretty obvious person on the side of the road and he just did that car passing by and hitting the pile of mushy snow just right enough to hit her and then she ran into him and she immediately was like we are now enemies and I don't like you. [laugh]
Nick: When you ran into him, did you try to make his pockets any lighter?
Kit: I did. Birdie definitely shoulder checked him to the best of her ability given that she is a whole foot and change shorter than him, and she was also slightly damp from the snow, so it was a little gross too.
Nick: So roll me a Skullduggery check at average difficulty with a blue die because there is no way this guy would expect something of you because you are small, and he is big.
Kit: Alrighty. For this check I am rolling one green die, one yellow die, two purple, and one blue.
Nick: And I'm going to actually use a story point to upgrade one of those purples to a red.
Kit: Ooh okay. Okay. [laugh] I got two successes, one advantage, and one triumph.
Nick: So be thinking about what you want that triumph to be. The successes are you got something very important to him, and there's no way that he noticed. You took the keys to the snowmobile he had rebuilt, because that's what he splashed you with was a large snowmobile and you lifted the keys. I think for the advantage, you also managed to get him wet off of you being damp. You've ruined his shirt, he had to go get it washed. So this was extremely successful for you to the point where you were probably impressed with yourself that you managed to do this so smoothly and for such a good cause, because this guy is a big stinky jerk. What do you think that triumph was?
Kit (as Birdie): I think that triumph would probably be that he had just made a purchase wherever he was coming from and I think he had a few extra, not stitch, but he might have a couple of squares on him. And so they were outside of his normal whatever he carried his money in because they're not stitch and so she just ended up being able to lift a few.
Nick: Yeah, you definitely got three quarter squares, which is a lot of money, and also the keys to this guy snowmobile. And you have your hands in your pockets looking at this group negotiating and this other group that seems to be getting riled up and you notice that this guy, you've never really learned his name - you didn't expect to be in town even as long as you've been already, is patting at his pockets and pulling them out. And then obviously getting angry and shaking his hands. And this crowd is also getting upset. And you hear on the wind from the distance, just bits and pieces of the conversation, he's clearly making people angry and want to do something, and you hear words like thief, protect your homes, our hard-earned money, and you think he might have figured it out at this point.
Kit: Birdie goes a bit wide eyed and she removes her hands from her pockets, and just goes,
Kit (as Birdie): Uh oh.
Kit: She's gonna try and move back a little bit to where she has maybe slightly more cover from the building, but she's hiding behind and try and look for that shop keep that she met earlier, possibly to see if she's around because she knows that she made a good connection with her and that she might stick up for her.
Nick: So go ahead and make me an average Stealth check. Because they're all looking around now and starting to spread out.
Kit: So that's gonna be one green, one yellow and two purple. Two successes and one threat.
Nick: You fade into the shadows. You know that there's a certain mentality with being sneaky in an urban environment more than a physical technique of thinking unobtrusive almost, not making eye contact with people. It's amazing what people overlook when you are projecting that you're unimportant. Not a big deal. And some people stomp right past the shadows that you're in and don't see you. But it's clear that this group has begun to search the town for you. The threat is that that shopkeeper is nowhere easily found nearby. You see her disappearing into the inn, probably going to get an early dinner. And there's a lot of people in the way between you and her. This group is probably like 10 people, including the big bully.
And then as you're standing there, you know, this hiding place won't last forever. They're spreading out through this town and they're clearly upset, you can hear them talking about setting a watch to catch these thieves and things like that. And from your hiding place, you see that it's gonna be really hard to find anywhere to stay, but what you do see is that there is a way to get back to that little stall where you bought things originally, and you're able to scurry your way over there and hide under the tablecloth and camp out waiting for them to get bored. Bullies you know, don't have a long time to make people do what they want before they have to go off and do their normal work. And an hour or so later the shopkeeper comes back and she sits down on the stool and you can hear her whistling to herself. And she puts a foot under the table and kicks you in the ribs gently and then looks surprised, pulls back the tablecloth, sees it's you and says
Nick (as Shopkeeper): What are you doing under my table?
Kit (as Birdie): I'm sorry! You know, um there's this really mean guy and he started looking angry and talking about thieves and since I'm new in town, I really didn't want to get mixed up in it. And so I...
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Oh, Sheffield. You're talking about Sheffield.
Kit (as Birdie): Sheffield?
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Yeah, we hate that guy.
Kit (as Birdie): Ugh.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Yeah.
Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, he -
Nick (as Shopkeeper): What'd you do?
Kit (as Birdie): Well I I didn't do anything. He um, he hit me like with some snow on my way into town and then I ran into him. And he just seems, I don't know, I just I was worried that he was going to accuse me of something and I didn't want to get mixed up.
Nick (as Shopkeeper): [sigh] Unfortunately, he's got most of the people who live in Cluster so scared of him they'll do whatever he says, at least for a while. I don't think I can stick my neck out for you much further than I'm already doing. But I'll tell you what, you can stay under that table for as long as you need to. How's that sweetie?
Kit (as Birdie): That's perfect. I don't need to do anything more than this. Thank you.
Nick: And she lowers the tablecloth back down while keeping eye contact with you. And then goes back to her stool and starts to whistle in a very forced nonchalant way. And shortly afterwards, you hear her stand up and stretch broadly and say,
Nick (as Shopkeeper): Well obviously no one's shopping today. I guess I'm going to go home and close up.
Nick: As she leaves but leaves the tablecloth on the table and you have found a good hiding place for now. You've stayed places that were colder and less sheltered. And you decide to camp out under this table at least for the night and hope that people lose their attention to what they're doing.
Kit: She's very slowly opening on one of her little ration kits. It's like when you have a snack in class and you're really trying to hide it, and just painstakingly slowly opening it up. And it's almost comical how slowly - she takes at least 10 minutes to open up one pack.
Nick: And you eat in slow motion as the sun slowly sets and we cut ahead to the next morning. You're surprised to find that it was pretty comfortably warm under there. You used your pack as a pillow and you kind of slept in. What wakes you is the sound of those mercenaries you heard the day before getting ready to leave. Looks like they've resupplied. They've picked up what small jobs that they could - the pickings were pretty slim in Cluster, and the trucks getting ready to leave town. The other thing you notice is that this crowd of angry villagers appears to be working in shifts now with Sheffield the bully over watching them and they don't appear to be giving up on looking for you anytime soon.
Kit: Birdie remembers that the mercenaries mentioned something about going to Tree All, and out of all the big cities, she's never been to Tree All. So she takes a second and tries to see how exactly the bullies are looking around and where they're all placed. And she's going to try and make a quick roundabout break for the mercenary truck in hopes of getting out.
Nick: So that's going to be another Stealth check this time at hard difficulty, but you can have a blue die because you've watched their patrol patterns.
Kit: She does leave the other two stitch that she had for the woman, she sticks a hand just above the table and she just pats it down on the table.
Nick: There's still some junk on the table and so we see you put the stitch on top of the table and then pat around and your hand touches the juicer that you had talked about and sets it on top of the stitch so it doesn't blow away.
Kit: Yeah. So one green die, one yellow die, three Purple, and one blue. So that is one success and two advantages.
Nick: So you're able to get to the truck, find somewhere comfortable to hide in the back. What does it look like as you make your way across all this open ground without being seen?
Kit: It's a little funny how she scampers around trying desperately not to be seen. One of the advantages is one of the bullies that was mostly going to be blocking her path towards the truck, he sneezed really hard and he knocked his glasses off with the sneeze and so he's just Velma-ing around on the ground. And so she uses that to her advantage and just gets on to the truck.
Nick: And as the truck grinds into gear, we see Birdie's booted foot disappearing over the tailgate and into the back. And it rumbles out of town with you peeking over the side seeing that the search just got to the table you had been hiding under and Sheffield is looking under it and looks disappointed and walks away. It was a close call.
Kit: She lets out this very relieved sigh and just takes a second took stretch out on the [laughing] floor of the rig as much as she can depending on where she is, because sleeping underneath the table is not the most comfortable for Birdie.
Nick: And as you stretch you smack your wrist against something metal that rings loud enough to make you flinch. And you see a bright red motorcycle that's been kind of unceremoniously crammed into the back of this truck. It barely fits. And then you see this shadowy figure that takes up the entire thing and realize it's some sort of giant machine. Even from the little bit you can see in the dim light of the back of the rig you can see that it's armored and prepared for war and probably the most valuable thing that you've ever laid eyes on outside of Sasnak Traveling.
Kit: Birdie is just kind of slack jawed in this moment, and she very quietly under her breath just goes
Kit (as Birdie): Woah.
Kit: And runs her hand over it because I mean this is massive. This is very large, and she almost doesn't believe that it's real. But she's trying not to draw attention to herself. She appreciates the motorcycle as well. It's very pretty and shiny.
Nick: It's very shiny, except for a few parts where it looks like it was driven pretty aggressively and maybe scraped into some things in the recent past. Fresh scrapes. And we cut ahead. The sun is beginning to set and you find a nice clear spot on the side of the road to camp. Cassidy and Emma, you set about dividing up the duties to get set up for the evening.
Sydney: This gets done - it's a practice ritual at this point because they've been on the road for a few days. The first couple of times they worked through what things they disliked least.
Cameron: Most of the gear we would actually need to get out to setup camp is along the sides in the trunks. So we are pretty much fully set up on camp before Emma heads around to even look in the back of the truck to grab one of the random pieces of tech that had had a fix it note on it from Pallie that she's been working through to just have something to do while we wait for dinner to finish cooking.
Sydney: The two tents are already set up. Cassidy's tending to their wild tech cooking device, which by now is another well practiced tool in the arsenal as opposed to a gadget or a wonder.
Nick: And Emma, you go to grab that out of the back of the rig and Birdie did you fall asleep during the drive?
Kit: I think that Birdie is awake. She did sleep in this morning so she's awake. And she's huddled to where they might not see her immediately if the back opened. But she's like, you know what? They seem nice. And so she ended up a bit sprawled out just in the middle of things. She's lounging. It's kind of hard to miss her.
Nick: And Emma you see this eclectically dressed, rust haired girl in the back of your rig making herself at home and the two of you lock eyes.
Cameron: Emma had been very focused on getting the screen that she had removed from the quadrant of the exo suit screen that was just completely dead and cracked and has been repairing that and was headed straight to the table to grab it so she doesn't actually see Birdie until she turns around to then leave and spins and Birdie's just right there in front of her.
Cameron (as Emma): Hello. W-what are you doing in our truck?
Kit: Birdie just grins very casually back at Emma and goes
Kit (as Birdie): Hi. What's for dinner?
[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:
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.
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. 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]