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Transcript: Season 2 Episode 13: Blue Lightning

A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript Season 2 Episode 13: Blue Lightning Transcript by Cameron Robertson


Intro: [hurdy gurdy music begins]


Nick: Welcome, listeners, to A Knight of Shreds and Patches. An immersive actual play podcast. This episode features the talents of –


Penn: Penn Van Batavia as Marathon Messenger.


Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling.


Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood.


Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard.


Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.


Sydney: Hello listeners, this is your editor, Sydney, with today’s messages:


Thank you so much for listening! While we might stubbornly continue making the show without you ([aristocratic British accent] for the sake of the art, you see), it definitely brightens our days to know that other people are enjoying what we make. And speaking of being stubborn, if you live in the US and are of voting age, go vote! Every vote counts and the more stubbornly you keep getting out there and voting, the more likely positive change will happen.



And if you already have voted, or our words won’t do anything to sway you, consider backing our Patreon and engaging in some pleasant escapism, where you’ll get access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.



And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 2, Episode 13: Blue Lightning. 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 all got into our places to take back Iota from the bandits. Marathon and Birdie went into town to take their places and Cassidy and I stayed with the rig and our big machines. I had to start up the Knight and it was the first time by myself after Zee-o showed me how to do it and it worked! It worked! It started and the gun worked and it seems like it's fully integrated with the AI so it should be super intuitive to use and it just I think it's just gonna work super great and I'm just so excited to turn it on and I can't believe that I did it and… [fades out as Emma continues to talk excitedly] [radio static]


Episode Start:

Nick: The first thing we hear is a rattling crash. After the explosion a smoking crater has opened like a desolate flower scant yards in front of the Knight, which is charging up the cobblestone road in the town of Iota. Cassidy, you feel strong, quick, and reactive. The Knight moves with you in perfect synchronicity, but as you jump over the crater and continue to your goal, you realize that whoever is operating this weapon from behind the walls of the Advantia fort, they are trained because you can already hear the whistle of another shell coming towards you fired with surprising accuracy without a line of sight. And I need you to make me a Coordination roll at hard difficulty with the Knight to continue making forward progress without being hit by artillery shells.


Sydney: The Knight's Agility is the same as mine, which is four so I'm rolling two yellows and two greens against three purples.


[dice rolling]


Sydney: A success and an advantage.


Nick: Good so you were successful. You aren't hit, but you do find that your progress is slowed a little as you make sure not to take any shots. You are not sure what the capacity of this cannon or artillery is, but it must have some sort of magazine because they're able to fire quickly. The skill seems to be from adjusting and judging your path. What does it looks like as you dodge these explosions on your way towards the base of the wall?


Sydney: Inside the cockpit the camera can see Cassidy with a face of blank concentration. She is using the Knight as an extension of herself in the trance that comes with years of combat experience, of not letting emotions get in the way of getting to the target to do the job. Cassidy hears through the instrumentation of the Knight the whistle of the next incoming shell and jukes hard to one side, knowing that Marathon has already moved the people who were most in danger out of the way, Cassidy feels free to start juking into the buildings. It's kind of a shame for blowing up someone's house, but the bandits if they're blowing up that house are not blowing up her and she's here with the Patina to liberate this town, so an acceptable loss given the situation. Staying on the edge of like one house deep into the line down the middle of the main thoroughfare so that her position isn't predictable in that she's not only traveling through the spaces between the houses, she's not guided by the alleyways, she has cover but she can dart out into the open if they were to try and lead the Knight's progress too ambitiously.


Nick: You were able to make your way to the base have this fortress, the bridge that goes across a small moat that leads into these massive mud flats that you had crossed on foot the day before is not a drawbridge. It is made of stone and earthworks so they can't remove that and you find yourself up against the gate. You get the flash of collision detection as, optimistically perhaps, some of the guards on the wall shoot crossbow bolts that rattle harmlessly off of the Knight's armor and you have made it to the gates but they are firmly locked. What is your plan to create an opening for the rest of the crew?


Sydney: Knowing that there is a giant gun inside the walls and the gun has been shooting at her with surprising accuracy, she's not going through the gate because that would leave her silhouetted right where the gun is expecting it. Cassidy, with the armament that Emma has installed that the Knight is reporting happy telemetry for, she made the choice not to bring the giant sword that is more of a brute force beating stick instead knowing that there was a wall, knowing what her approach was going to be, she left her hands open. The gun that lives in the arm of the Knight is built into the arm which means she does have both hands free and while this wall is 30 feet high or so that they saw on their initial reconnaissance mission, 30 feet to a Knight that is 20 feet ish tall is almost vaultable. It's vaultable Cassidy decides and looks around for the point where the ground looks firmest trying to not get stuck in any mudflats. Not stuck but trying not to sink into any mud flats near the wall when she does her plant to jump and get as much height as she can and lines up to vault the wall.


Nick: All right make me a average difficulty Athletics check with the Knight but you are going to have a black die due to, even picking a good spot to jump and with the handhelds that you noted when you were reconnoitering the castle, this is not ideal. It will be a little bit harder to do.


Sydney: So the Knight has five Brawn, so with Cassidy's skill, that's two yellows and three greens. And then Cassidy has a knack for Athletics, which means that black die goes away. Cassidy's reconnoitering, she was pondering that this would potentially be a type of approach, the large artillery piece within the walls confirmed that it was going to be this type of approach rather than walking up and kicking down the door, but this had been already planned, so I am rolling two yellows, three greens against two purples.


[dice rolling]


Sydney: Two successes and four advantages.


Nick: All right. You are able to get up the wall and do it in such a way that there are other advantages included. What does that look like? And how do you prevent yourself from taking damage or being shot as soon as you poke your head up above this wall?


Sydney: So she knows the courtyard is reasonably big, but it's not huge and she knows that this artillery piece had been pointed very likely at the door if not, at least towards the front wall. So in her approach, she runs at an oblique angle to jump up to not along the front wall but the corner where the front wall turns to the side wall and makes this jump leaving big Knight feet shaped footprints indentations in the dirt, gets a good launch on it, puts both feet up on the wall and immediately jumps forward further landing several yards into the courtyard far enough off to the side and almost behind this artillery piece such that it would have to turn to face her in the Knight landing in a spry looking stance with gun at the ready already sweeping for the biggest targets of danger.


Nick: The artillery pieces across the courtyard from you pretty much against the far wall but with where it's aimed you are by no means within direct fire. It looks like they were aiming towards the door like you expected and you are off to the side enough to buy yourself some time although you will need to cross the distance if you're going for the artillery directly. So far, the danger that you're seeing is guards with their crossbows although they've quickly given up at firing at you and look to be running for cover. And you can see some additional bandits running out of what appears to be a makeshift barracks against another wall.


Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Patina, Cormorant. I am in the keep. Let's go.


Nick: We're gonna jump to Emma next. Emma you were just a few steps behind the Knight as the explosions in the street started to happen. The Knight accelerated quickly. You are fast, faster than you are on foot, probably just as fast if not faster than the rig when it gets up to full speed on smooth ground, but the Knight with its size can outdistance you as shells begin to fall.


Cameron: Since Emma got a slightly late start with getting into the exosuit and taking off after Cassidy when the timer went off for us to go, she's far enough behind the Knight as they're running up the main road that she can see when Cassidy starts changing directions. She can tell that the artillery fire is tracking Cassidy so she maintains running straight up the front road because the Knight’s obviously the larger thing that they care about right now. So she's doing the fun leaps over the giant holes in the road that the artillery that landed right in for the Knight caused and is just going on the path that is nice and flat and doesn't require going through anyone's home.


Nick: Weirdly enough, an outside observer would see that Emma in the much smaller exosuit looks less organic, moves less smoothly, than that giant Knight does as it clears the distance. Emma you see the Knight make it to the gate, pause, jump the wall, there's a flurry of crossbow bolts. Even from the distance that you're at, you can hear shouts of alarm and you hear Cassidy call out over the radio and then there is a flash of blue light throughout the town. The flash looks like the time when you were out on the farm trying to get cattle to come in before a storm and a tree next to you got struck by lightning. It's blue white, it's blinding. The helm of your exosuit does adjust quickly, but you still see spots as the radio cuts out.


Cameron (as Emma): [over staticky radio] Cassidy? [pause] Shit.


Nick: And Emma, you are about two thirds of the way to the gate when it sounds like your radios are being jammed by some sort of technology in this village. The original plan was for Cassidy to open the way for you in the Knight and for you to invade the courtyard. Do you stick to that plan or do you change routes?


Cameron: Can I tell where the light came from? Which side of me it was on or was it a full surround type thing?


Nick: It was a full surround type thing. You know from walking into the town that there were these large towers about the height of a building that ringed this village. Even as you are running up the road you can see between the houses long, thick cables that you know connect them. That would be your best bet, but you're not sure that that was the technology that caused the problem. It could also have been something that the Advantia buried as a defense mechanism, it could have been something that the bandits themselves brought in, you just don't have enough information.


Cameron: Is there any changing to the lighting of these towers?


Nick: It was a bright flash, and then the light has pretty much gone away. You see periodic little blue crackles above the rooftops along the perimeter of the village, but it is no longer as bright.


Cameron: So Emma slows slightly and gets to the side of the road so that she's no longer just standing out in the open just in case the artillery decides to keep firing at what's coming rather than trying to take on the Knight. So Emma ducks into the shadow of a house on one side of the street and then leaving her radio turned on, flips on the exosuit speakers as well.


Cameron (as Emma): [over speakers] Gander? Marathon?


Cameron: And is looking around on the road seeing if she can see her.


Penn: Over the speaker that is going out throughout the whole town Marathon says


Penn (as Marathon): [over loud speaker] What? Huh?


Cameron (as Emma): [over speakers] Not on the loudspeaker. Come outside.


Penn (as Marathon): Okay it's explo- it's [mumble]- sorry eh-


Penn: Marathon steps out from behind this booth.


Nick: As Marathon steps out of this small armored building with the public address system that she had used to warn the villagers, a artillery shell crashes down into the street. Not very close to Marathon or to Emma, but Marathon is wreathed in explosive light and smoke.


Penn: And is definitely of doing that thing where she jumps in putting her hands over her head. Marathon dashes over to the house where Emma in the combat rig has hidden out.


Cameron: Emma flips her speaker off and throws the HUD up so that her voice isn't being broadcast as loudly as they have this conversation.


Cameron (as Emma): Does your radio work? Mine's out.


Penn (as Marathon): Here let me check. [over staticky radio] Gan- Gander to Corm- to Cassidy. Marathon to Cassidy? Come in. [no longer on radio] I'm not I'm not getting anything, I guess. Am I using it right?


Cameron (as Emma): You're hitting the right buttons.


Penn (as Marathon): Oh okay.


Cameron (as Emma): Uh... shit.


Cameron: Emma looks towards the fort where the door is still standing strong.


Cameron (as Emma): Um. I think that the signal that's blocking it is coming from the tower perimeter? Uh


Penn (as Marathon): Oh.


Cameron (as Emma): Since Cassidy is in there, uh~. I was supposed to follow her in but,


Penn (as Marathon): But you're gonna knock them down now?


Cameron (as Emma): I'm gonna go try to knock down one.


Penn (as Marathon): Okay.


Cameron (as Emma): Uh so... yeah.


Penn (as Marathon): Okay, cool. [laugh] Well,


Cameron (as Emma): If the radios come back on it worked.


Penn (as Marathon): Sounds good to me. I'll just hang out here.


Cameron (as Emma): I mean, you can probably sneak further towards the fort.


Penn (as Marathon): Sure. Okay. Yeah.


Cameron (as Emma): Uh~, yeah they probably won't shoot you.


Cameron: Emma pops the HUD down after saying that. [laughs]


Penn (as Marathon): Well [concerned sigh]. Okay, I'll just - I'll just run up the hill.


Cameron: Emma flicks the speaker back on.


Cameron (as Emma): [over speakers] All~ right be safe.


Cameron: And takes off running just to the side, one of the sides.


Penn: As Emma darts out Marathon fumbles a little bit not knowing what to do with herself before sort of committing to a down getting ready to run position and pulling back and then going all the way for it. And she takes a deep breath to center herself, tucks her head in, and then once she's finished with this breath, she pulls her head up and her eyes have a much more fiery glint through her battle paint - her two lines, and she gets up and starts sprinting in that same way that looks almost like she's on the ice towards the fortress.


Nick: And Marathon as you have a set goal and no more time to think about it, you feel more confident and more prepared as you run through the smoke and debris straight towards the enemy. And Birdie, the last we saw you you had locked an amorous acquaintance into her own room and felt the shockwave of this artillery beginning to fire the "big gun", as Elvira called it. Birdie you can see as you begin to make your way across the courtyard, the Knight vaulting the wall, the beginning of a radio call, a flash of blue light and the radios all going dead, and the Knight beginning to look towards this artillery piece as some of the bandits manning it are frantically turning cranks and realigning to try to get a shot onto the Knight first.


Kit: Birdie is going to take a quick glance around to see how many people might try and disturb her while she figures out her plan but she takes the Walkman presses down and is like


Kit (as Birdie): [over staticky radio] Uh~. Hello? Nope, okay.


Kit: And is going to very quickly give up on that to see how easily she can build a path in her head to start blowing up ammunition piles. Did they move the ammunition from where she saw it on her tour with Elvira?


Nick: No, the ammunition is pretty much in the same place. They had it stacked where it was easily accessible. The pile closest to you with a couple of the rifles appears to have been picked up by some bandits, but there is so much chaos happening right now that nobody appears to have been organized enough to set up a volley or really any plan for counter attack yet.


Kit: Birdie is going to slowly as possible, start making her way over to the stack of ammunition in order to try and get this fight to end sooner rather than later.


Nick: All right, make me a hard Stealth check. You are going to have two black die because it is day time and there is not much cover, but you can have a blue die because of the amount of chaos currently happening.


Kit: Alrighty, so that's gonna be one green, one yellow, three purple, one blue and two black.


Nick: You could use the story point.


Kit: Sure I'll flip a story point to make that two. Okay, two successes and one threat.


Nick: Nice. So nobody notices you in this chaos. You crouch low and run through the groups of people scrambling around, the piles of weapons and ammo and supplies and trash that have accumulated as the Advantia were being occupied. The Knight is trying to line up a shot against the artillery and the artillery is doing the same. There are multiple piles of ammunition, you make it to a pile of ammunition, not the one that's being actively used, but one that is nearby, and much like you noticed before, you realize that this product is not stored particularly well or correctly and getting it to go up in an explosion should be fairly easy to do. With the threat though, you are within a blast radius of if the artillery was to fire at the Knight and as you begin to assess how you are going to detonate this cache, Cassidy - you have gotten over the wall. The radio is dead. You have a relatively clear shot against this artillery piece but you can see they are attempting to swing it around to bear at you.


Sydney: Cassidy lines up the Knight's arm pointing its finger at the artillery piece with its thumb extended and she says


Sydney (as Cassidy): Bang.


Sydney: It doesn't go through the radio.


Nick: For vehicle scale, this is medium range so it would be average difficulty for the gun that is now attached to the Knight, the slug thrower. I'm assuming you are using the forged ammunition?


Sydney: Yes, this is not improvised day. This is full power, let's go day.


Nick: All right, because of your advantages where you came over the wall, you definitely are able to get a shot off first. I am going to give you an option: you can either shoot at the artillery piece itself hoping to disable it, or you can make a much harder shot to try to shoot the bandit that you know is operating the firing mechanism of this thing, that's going to be very hard. So it's possible for you to take this thing down in one shot, but you're going to need to be pretty successful on where you hit it. If you manage to hit a person with this, they will turn into red mist. It's six of one half a dozen of the other, just it's do you want to take the risk on being injured?


Sydney: Cassidy is going for the more - there is theoretically a use where if she was to disable the crew, they could use this gun, but anything that that gun could do, the Knight can probably do with maybe slightly more effort because the Knight can breach a fortress, the Knight can even shoot stuff out of the air, so there's not that much there's an advantage to theoretically having one more big gun, but with the amount of bandits around and the ones that she's seen crawling around with crossbows and stuff trying to not get killed. There are too many people to let this be here, so she's shooting for the gun emplacement itself.


Nick: All right. That'll be average difficulty, no black die or anything. Take the shot.


Sydney: When the Knight is shooting the shaped ammunition, it also has Accurate 1, so I am rolling two yellows, two greens, a blue and two purples.


[dice rolling]


Sydney: How interesting. I'm going to invoke my Natural talent to reroll this dice pool. [laughing] I had a triumph with no success and three advantages. This is a once per session talent, but this is the time where Cassidy goes to shoot this and then squints at it and then adjusts her hand just slightly and the Knight's arm moves in unison.


[dice rolling]


Sydney: A triumph, three successes, and one advantage. I am also going to spend a story point to add my Agilities worth of combat check damage which is another plus four damage on top of that. The ball cannon is four damage at vehicle scale, which is 40 normal damage plus three successes is 7 damage, which is a total of 11 damage and a crit.


Nick: All right, let's roll that up.


Sydney: That is a 55. 55 is navigation damaged: the vehicles navigation is compromised.


Nick: So the crit disabling the navigation doesn't do a whole lot. I choose to interpret navigation as part of what is damaged on the ricochet of this cannon ball is the treads on this movable artillery piece, shattering them preventing it from navigating as in driving, but you've done enough damage to destroy this artillery piece. It will not be shooting anymore. So what does that look like?


Sydney: So Cassidy has lined up her armament just fully intuition based, the Knight probably does have some kind of software aim support assist for projectile weapons, but this is Cassidy's natural environment. This is what she has been spending her years honing her art for is aiming. And so when she says bang, the Knights propulsive mechanism fires with a mechanical twang, like if you had a rubber band that was made of steel cables, and we see this roughly cantaloupe sized projectile with its aerodynamic divots launch so fast towards this cannon and it hits just into the top of one of the treads just blowing the tread away but it also with the amount of kinetic force behind it it puts a hole through the vital mechanisms of this gun and the gun spins off a little bit. It settles down kind of sagging onto the treads. It looks dead and the bandit who was working the mechanism is tangled in it and taken with it. He may be not hurt - he's definitely not where he had been just a second before and the other artillery loaders are you looking rather surprised. Cassidy hits her radio button and says,


Sydney (as Cassidy): [over staticky radio] Patina I've disabled the - stupid radio.


Sydney: And sweeps again for threats in this courtyard.


Nick: You begin to look around and you notice a couple of things. Having eliminated the biggest threat, this is the first time you've gotten a good look at the actual keep of this fortification, the armored building. It is not as large as you would have expected. You saw the roof peeking over the walls, but it looks fairly fortified, very bunker like - almost like a protective cap that would be put over a large mining facility to prevent oxygen from getting in, and it appears to be sealed up tight with armored doors. You see coming around the corner of the wall, a bandit with a large tube propped on one shoulder and an eyepiece that they immediately start to look for and aim towards you and you see that the bandits on the ground and on the walls are beginning to coordinate.


Birdie, you are hunkered down next to this explosive stockpile. You see a couple of bolt action rifles leaned together to make a cone shape to keep their barrels out of the dirt and bandits responding to this attack are beginning to head your direction to pick up their more powerful weapons. They've seen that their crossbow isn't going to work against something like the Knight.


Kit: Birdie is going to take approximately half a second to look at Cassidy and then look over at the gates and go,


Kit (as Birdie): [long sigh of someone who has to do all the work herself]


Kit: And then just take out one of the molotov cocktails that she prepared just for this. This one has a little bit of a longer fuse, and she's going to just jam it in, strike a match, light the fuse and just start taking off towards the gates trying to still keep as stealthy as possible.


Nick: Okay. So Birdie, give me a Stealth roll to see if you are able to secret this molotov away where people won't notice it before it goes off and if you are able to get away without being noticed. This one is going to be average difficulty because you'll be moving away from people with cover between the two of you, but you are going to have a black die because you need to work quickly.


Kit: So that makes for one green, one yellow, two purple, and one black. Two successes, one advantage.


Nick: Nice. So where do you hide the molotov in this pile of bullets, explosives, and weapons?


Kit: She's going to do her best to put it in a place that would take anyone just enough time that it's too late to grab it, but while still trying to keep the fabric piece away from the highly flammable ammunition. So I'd say that she she just she found a generally neat line of shells and put it right on the end so that it looks like it's just a part of the line.


Nick: Yeah, so you put it at the end and it's about the same size and if someone was in a hurry, they probably wouldn't notice especially with the smoke pouring off of this now wrecked piece of artillery. You are able to make it across the courtyard to the gate. How does Birdie make it there and what do you do once you're there?


Kit: She's going to try and - cause she doesn't have a straight line path to these gates, so she's trying to actively get cover from everything that she passes, and she flicks the still lit match into another pile of probably flammable things just to have a little secondary nice little explosion to really seal the deal and she is whispering to herself


Kit (as Birdie): [whispering] Serpentine! Serpentine!


Kit: Until she has her back pressed up against the gates and is trying very hard to look unsuspicious.


Nick: You see that the gate is held closed with a large beam set into two brackets across the gate and as you try to figure out how you're going to get that open, we cut away to Emma. Emma, you were headed towards one of these towers emanating blue lightning. So as you were running away from the main firing, you hear screaming and the crunch of metal from inside the Advantia fortress. You see some scared faces looking out at you from the houses off of the main road and you get to the perimeter and you see that these towers are activated. Electricity is humming through them. The power lines connecting them all and presumably to some sort of power source are actually vibrating a little bit under the amount of draw that they're doing, you can see a little bit of dust rising from them.


Cameron: So as Emma hears the screaming from inside the fort she says,


Cameron (as Emma): [slightly heavy breathing] Good job Cassidy.


Cameron: As she's running, even though nobody can hear it because the radios broken. She has started talking to herself because she's by herself. So these towers - are they entirely metal? Like if I just say plow into one, like someone trying to bash down a door, is that a bad idea as I am encased in a metal suit?


Nick: That would probably be a bad idea. From looking at it, you're not sure if they would hold up to that, but you're also not sure what kind of insulation these things have or how your suit would be grounded against high power transfer. So you're not sure you would break it just by smashing into it and you're also a little worried about what it might do back. You're probably going to need to be a little more surgical to disable this thing. So as you get close to this tower, your original thought was to smash into it, but you are seeing that this thing is coursing in electricity and you're not sure which parts of it are hot and which parts aren't. You stop to take a better look.


These look like miniature radio towers, but with much more structure to them. The crossbeams are a lot thicker. At the top there is instead of a thin antenna, it is a wide cylinder that is wider than where the tower comes to a point and a large chrome ball on top. The electricity appears to be emanating from there and running down the structure. Cables are wrapped in and out of it and all around in a hectic web and they come together into one large cable that comes out of this tower and then branches in multiple places looking to connect it to the rest of this grid. You'd say probably it is about 12 feet tall.


Cameron: So as Emma's been just booking it towards this tower, she's been looking it up and down realizes that the initial approach of running her giant metal suit into it is bad, and then tosses out her second idea of hitting it with her giant metal sword while she's in her giant metal suit, and quickly looks around to see if there is any architectural structures that she could get like a big beam out of that wouldn't be made of metal.


Nick: Yes~. You notice off of the main road that these cottages - the small houses where people live or things are stored - have the wooden crossbeams stuck through stucco holding up the walls, but there are also exposed beams under the shingles of the roof. You could presumably rip something out of there if you tried hard enough. You do realize you will be damaging this person's home, but considering that their main road is being shelled currently...


Cameron: It's probably not the biggest of issues. So Emma shifts her path slightly after identifying the building that it is going to be easiest to get one of these things out of and continues her momentum to try to utilize that to rip it out as quickly as possible.


Nick: Okay.


Cameron: She would probably go for either a beam that was along the edge of a roof line so she could reach it up and grab while she's running, or a beam that's actually standing upright that she could shoulder check.


Nick: Go ahead and make me a hard Athletics check to rip one of these free.


Cameron: So my Athletics is two greens and one yellow, and then I get an additional Brawn from my exosuit, so that adds an additional green against the three purples.


[dice rolling]


Cameron: A success, a triumph, and two threats.


Nick: All right. You are able to pull this beam out at exactly the length you want. It's exactly what you were picturing. Something also good happens that I'll let you choose. With those threats, there is a pulse from the towers around you. You hear a burst of static and to your ear, there's a chance that if these are left running they could permanently damage your radios because of the charge they're putting into the air, but that thought is quickly overwritten by a new concern as a small rumbling earthquake happens for about four seconds and then goes still. You see dust falling from the houses around you as it is shaken loose.


Cameron: Emma continues to run during the earthquake using her sword to drag along the ground to keep her upright. And - how tall would you say I am in the exosuit?


Nick: Six foot ten, six foot eight - somewhere in there.


Cameron: So at the height that if I were say, to jump with this giant wooden beam I've just ripped off this house, I could baseball swing to hit the cylinder at the top of this pole?


Nick: That is a heck of a leap - to jump four or five feet in the air to give yourself a good chance to swing, but the exo frame has the strength to do it. You can leap like that. You do know from experience that landing like that can be not the most graceful thing.


Cameron: Yeah, that's not what I'm concerned about right now.


Nick: Roll me up an attack, please add two black die because doing a powerful swing while also leaping your height into the air is difficult.


Cameron: My Brawn is still a four with this, so I've got two yellows and two greens, got the two blacks, got the two purple for average difficulty. And does this still count that baseball is a combat check?


Nick: You're doing an attack, so I would count that as a combat check.


Cameron: Cool. So I get a blue die because the suit gives me a blue die for combat checks.


[dice rolling]


Cameron: A success and four advantages.


Nick: All right, you are able to take this down. And I think with those advantages, you're able to clear most of the interference from this network. What do you do that reduces the effectiveness of the rest of the towers as well?


Cameron: As Emma runs up, she drops her sword onto the ground so she can grab this post with both hands as she leaps up to do a big ol' swing at this lovely electric baseball that's sitting on top of this baseball tee for her and she hits an - if we were actually playing baseball, it would be a home run - and this particular piece of technology just goes flying off and since it's what was connecting the rest of the towers, the two towers nearest to it now have too far of a distance between them to communicate any longer because this one's just completely dead. It is missing the piece that it would need to communicate with the other towers.


Nick: So you break up the network. It's also worth noting that as the chrome ball flies into the distance for the briefest of moments, there's an arc of blue lightning behind it, which is satisfying to look at. As the radio clears, what sentence comes over the radio for everyone to hear with no context?


Cameron: Emma was definitely giving herself baseball commentary as she figured out what she was going to do.


Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] All right. Stepping up to the plate is rookie Emma Blackwood. She's approaching - she looks confident. She's feeling strong today. Oh, interesting approach. She's racing to the tee and leaping and Oh! That is a Home Run! And the crowd goes wild. [simulating crowd noise] [chanting] Home Run Queen! Home Run Queen!


Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Kestrel you okay? Gander over.


Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [yelling in excitement] Radios up!


Cameron: As Emma comes crashing back down to the ground.


Nick: Birdie you hear the radio come back to life. You can hear the sounds of fighting and yelling behind you as the Knight is keeping this entire contingent of bandits busy and you are faced with a barred gate and you know Marathon and Emma are on the other side.


Kit (as Birdie): [sigh] Okay. You got this Birdie.


Kit: She's going to start doing her best to get this gate open because she knows that at this point, she might be the only hope that the Patina has of getting inside. [laugh]


Nick: All right, make me a hard Athletics check.


Kit: Birdie has a yellow dice in Athletics, so that's one green, one yellow and three purples. I got one success and one advantage.


Nick: So how does Birdie just with pure strength, get this gate open?


Kit: Birdie - she doesn't have much strength, but she does have a lot of gumption and so she's going to glare at the gate like she's challenging it. And Birdie puts one hand underneath the crossbeam and then props it up with her shoulder and then takes her other hand and is going to angle her feet a little bit and really dig her feet into the ground and use her whole body weight to just lever up the crossbeam and she's definitely going


Kit (as Birdie): Aww shit. This is heavy. Okay. [noises of exertion]


Kit: And then she gets it just to the angle where gravity can take over and it will fall on its own.


Nick: Marathon from just outside the gate where you are pressed up against the wall to make sure nobody on the wall above you can shoot down at you easily, you feel exposed. You have been here for a lot longer than you would have hoped. You find yourself wondering what exactly the plan was. You hear mumbling and grunting from inside, a loud wooden clatter of something being tossed to the ground, and the gate creaks open just a little and you see Birdie's face.


Kit: Birdie is mid cheering for herself and she just has both hands up over her head like she just won like a fighting match. And she's like,


Kit (as Birdie): [screaming] FUCK YEAH! [normal volume] Oh! Hi, Marathon.


Penn (as Marathon): Oh, yeah, thanks, Birdie!


Kit (as Birdie): [sounding a bit exhausted] Yeah.


Penn: Marathon slides into the gate. What is the sight within the gate?


Nick: So while all this has been going on, Cassidy, why don't you make me an attack roll to see how you are holding up against the contingent of the bandits. What you are having to deal with with this attack, and I'll let you choose how you want to address this with the attack roll what your focus is, but there is a bandit on the walls, who has been working on getting a clear shot and not being exposed too much with a rocket launcher. But there are also about 10 bandits, you realize that the initial count there were more than you expected. They hadn't set as much of a guard as you would have thought. But there are about 10 Bandits with long pole arms, who are harassing you, like a group of hunters would a large animal or wild tech, just trying to stay out of your reach, but whenever you face one direction, they will try to stab at your back or the mechanics of your legs to slow you down.


Sydney: This is the point where Cassidy wishes she maybe had thought about bringing the sword.


Nick: So the question is do you want to take out the guy with the rocket launcher and risk being damaged by the people on the ground or deal with the people on the ground but risk the person with the rocket launcher getting off a clean shot without being punished for it? Because this is the problem with being a Knight and charging in. You're nigh on unstoppable.


Sydney: But I'm still only one thing. Cassidy is threat prioritizing and figures while this many people being this close is exactly why it would have been great to have Emma be here in the exosuit keeping her flanks clear, Cassidy was having to deal with the big gun and then immediately was beset by the hordes and didn't ever get around to opening the gate because she has been continuously under fire. But the most dangerous thing here the thing that is capable of hurting the Knight without just being a lucky strike that is designed for hurting something like the Knight is this guy up on the wall with a rocket launcher and the Knights target recognition software has put very weak signals it's on all of the foot soldiers on the ground with their halberds and their spears as annoying basically - as a mild alert of this is something trying to hurt you this is not a threat and then a big red circle with an annotated This is a threat on the guy with the missile launcher up on the wall, so she's going to not let him continue being a threat. Her method for doing that is shooting him.


Nick: So it's going to be medium range again. So two purple, you are going to have to black die because he is nestled within cover quite well.


Sydney: The high quality ammunition that Cassidy is using is Accurate one so I am rolling two yellows, two greens, two blacks, two purples, and a blue.


[dice rolling]


Sydney: A triumph and success.


Nick: Nice! So with the success you do -


Sydney: This guy's reduced to paste.


Nick: Yeah.


Sydney: At infantry scale because the damage of this gun is for vehicle scale, which is 40 at human scale and then plus the success is 50.


Nick: Yeah, it's the kind of shot where the person is just gone. The camera does not zoom in to see the after effects, this person is totally off the table. Is there anything you would like to spend that triumph on?


Sydney: So this missile guy was deep in cover behind several structural elements of the courtyard in the wall the parapets. Unfortunately for him if they did not stop the Knights direct hit and subsequent demise, but it provided a fertile ground for shrapnel to rain down everywhere because he was hiding behind good solid cover and that good solid cover is now everywhere else. So the triumph is that these rock shards and pieces that have been flung up in the air by both the initial impact and the ball ricocheting around up in the fortifications sends debris and sharp edged rocks and rocks big enough to be blunt force dangerous on their own down onto the pile of dudes that are trying to harass the Knight's flanks, and it does not do wonders for their morale and their willingness to keep up the fight with the way that things are currently arrayed.


Nick: They definitely fall back being showered with stone shards and gore keeps them from pressing the advantage as they have you surrounded. Marathon as you survey the courtyard that's what you see. The Knight having taken out the biggest threat but still surrounded by bandits. Just carnage.


Penn (as Marathon): Well obviously I didn't run over here for much. You guys have it pretty handled.


Nick: And as you say that, crackling over the radio the entire Patina hears a voice distorted as though through interference calling out.


Nick (as Ipa): [over radio] This is Journeyman Ipa of the Advantia. Please, whoever's outside come quickly. We are being held hostage by Cougar and his men. I managed to get to a radio but [pained yell] -


Nick: And the radio cuts out. While that is happening, another earthquake shakes the ground. This one's stronger and it lasts for six or seven seconds. Cassidy the Knight gave you a notification of the first earthquake but this one is strong enough that it doesn't compensate for it completely and even you feel it from your mechanical perch. Birdie and Marathon you almost lose your feet. Emma as you are running back to the main gate having restored radio connectivity, you lose your balance mid stride because of the ground shaking and slam into the wall of a cottage leaving a terrible rent and are able to continue on but it is the roof is listing dangerously behind you.


Penn (as Marathon): I rescind my former analysis.


Nick: And as you were saying that to Birdie, the two of you see a another bandit armed with what looks to be some sort of hand drill and dagger mixed together, leap from the walls of the fortification and land squarely on the back of the Knight and begin to jam into the armor with a high pitched shriek.


[hurdy gurdy music swells]



Outro: Penn (as Marathon): Welcome back to MTR 1153, that was just the end of today’s broadcast and we’ll be right back to the music after this little break. The particulars of the subsequent can be found in the show notes.


This has been A Knight of Shreds and Patches, an actual play podcast using the Genesys game system from Fantasy Flight Games. The show is edited by Sydney Whittington, and features the talents of:


Kit Adames as Birdie. Kit can be found on Twitter and Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit is also a voice actor for Elevator Pitch Podcast, a queer genre-hopping anthology podcast that can be accessed on Spotify and YouTube.


Penn Van Batavia as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter @ acquiredchaste. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes Wasmannian, a prompt game about gender and wasps. Check out faer other work at pennharper.itch.io.


Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Twitter @ sydney_whitt. She’s also a contributing editor for the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast..


Cameron Robertson as Emma. Cameron can be found on Twitter @ midnightmusic13 and on Instagram @ reading_and_dreaming. Cameron is also a player on Tabletop Squadron, a Star Wars Edge of the Empire actual play podcast.


And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick is also the GM for Tabletop Squadron, which you can support @ Patreon.com/TabletopSquadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol.


This podcast features the musical talents of Dora Violet and Arne Parrott. You can find Dora at facebook.com/doraviolett. You can find Arne at atptunes.com.


The official artwork for this podcast was created by Rashed AlAkroka, who can be found on Instagram and Artstation @ rashedjrs.


You can follow the Patina on Twitter @ akosap_podcast or visit the website: www.akosap.com. To further support the show, consider joining the Patreon at www.patreon.com/AKoSaP, where we’ll be bringing you weekly content including bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.


Until next time…

…Signing Off

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