A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript Season 2 Episode 15: Scared Sheep 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:
Hope your day, your week, your month, and your any other useful and also temporally local length of time is going well. We’re happy to have you here and listening, and hope our bedside manner (or anywhere else you listen that’s not beside your bed) continues to be satisfying.
And if you’re feeling especially satisfied, consider backing our Patreon, which gives you access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards. We also just published a new full-length episode in our Sasnak Traveling arc, featuring Kit as GM over a game of Blades in the Dark, and set 15 years in the past with a separate character lineup of fun and chaotic individuals.
And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 2, Episode 15: Scared Sheep. 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, I feel like I was late to everything my friends needed me for - with some disastrous results. Looking at it positively, I definitely got my cardio in just barely making it to the courtyard in time to keep Birdie and Marathon from being skewered with crossbow bolts, BUT then it’s hard to focus on that win while the Knight is attacking me cause Cassidy got swarmed by bandits cause I wasn’t there to distract them and now there’s some sort of malicious program that’s taken full control of the Knight and I have to try and get rid of that without actually being able to look at anything myself and… No, you know what? It’s totally going to be fine. Yeah…totally…fine. [radio static]
Episode Start:
Nick: The battle for the Advantia outpost of Iota is raging. You would think with the numbers that the Patina would be unable to hold their own, and that the oily smoke rising towards the sky would be from the Knight and their defeat. But instead, as we move closer to the site of the battle, we can see that the bandits who held this fortress are in the midst of being routed. The most prominent piece of the battle is the Knight itself, swinging angrily - bestial - at anything that gets close. Emma, you had attempted to help Cassidy to troubleshoot the fact that she could no longer control the Knight, but the Knight had turned on you as well.
Cameron: So after the Knight had taken a swipe at me, I had changed tactics and climbed the stairs to be up on the wall. And while the Knight is distracted, fighting the bandits that are still on the ground within however its eyesight is working right now, Emma is walking to the point where she is behind the Knight and can see the drill thing that has deposited this malicious entity into the Knight and does a little bit of stepping back and forth, kind of like a sports person prepping to get ready to run out of the tunnel at a football game, except much clunkier because it's in a exosuit. And she's going to jump for the back of the Knight to try to pull this drill out.
Nick: All right. Go ahead and make me an Athletics check, but rather than it having a difficulty, it's going to be an opposed check against the Knight's Perception. It will be against one red and two purples.
Cameron: So with the exosuit I get a blue die to combat checks - since I'm jumping at the Knight to rip something out of it, can I get my blue die?
Nick: Yeah.
Cameron: Cool. So I have a yellow, three green, a blue, two purples, and a red.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: Two successes, two advantages.
Nick: Great. So the Knight doesn't notice your jump until you are already assured of success.
Cameron: Emma has, from talking with Cassidy and from the Knight taking a swipe at her, has realized that the Knight is not in a situation where it could be of any assistance in getting this thing out of it, so she's gonna have to do it herself. So she's been pumping herself up to jump, waits until the Knight has finished taking a swing at the bandits and has stood back up to full height so that there's the shortest distance between where she's at at the wall and its back where this drill is plugged in, and she says over her radio,
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Cassidy brace yourself.
Cameron: And then jumps and grabs on to the Knight's left shoulder within the Jeep grill and hangs off of the Knight's back for a moment so that she can grab the drill and pull it out to be able to fully remove it rather than just ripping it down where it potentially could still leave part of it implanted and then once she has pulled it out she drops to the ground.
Nick: Cassidy you can't see out of the cockpit by now - the screens have gone completely dark. Your face is just lit by a single red emergency LED affixed in the cockpit above you. You hear a heavy clang and the servos whir as the Knight compensates for a heavier weight, the shrieking tear of something being pulled loose from the Knight's armor, and then the Knight jerks again as weight is pulled free.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] [much concern] Emma? Are we good. It's still black.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] It's it's a start. We've started it. I got the thing out.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Good.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Now you're just gonna need to retake control. [spoken with the confidence of someone who doesn't have to do it]
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay, how do I do that?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Well -
Cameron: Emma is running away from the Knight in case it's still mad.
Nick: The Knight has turned to face you, the broken remnants of the bandits around it strewn in its wake as it begins to walk menacingly towards you and slowly accelerate during this conversation.
Sydney: Cassidy is looking at the array of blank buttons and switches in the Knight with just concentrated anxiety. She has no idea of what this is supposed to do. As soon as it stops being a intuitive mapping of her movements and thoughts to action, this is beyond her skill set.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [slight heavy breathing] Okay, what are you seeing in there?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Darkness?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [concern and dread] There's nothing lit up?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] There - I have a red emergency light?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay. [sounding calmer] Okay, that's good. On your uh, left side -
Cameron: Emma does a dodge roll.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] - underneath the console. Reach under there and there should be like a box thing.
Sydney: Cassidy hits the flashlight on her radio headset to help see inside this Knight that should really be lit up if there's someone on it and follows Emma's instructions.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Did-did you find it?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Yes, I guess? It feels like metal.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay, [said mostly to self] well, most of the Knights gonna feel like met- [back to Tech Support role] like it's like a box? Like square rectangle?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It's all flat square edges.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Cool. Yeah, uh grab that go ahead and firmly pull down.
Sydney: There is a tearing sound as adhesive and wires pull apart and the protective cover that Emma's referring to comes off in her hand.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay, now walk me through it wires you see. [starting to sound tired]
Nick: As the two of you continue your running troubleshooting of your rebellious technology, we head back into the bunker where Marathon is viewing a ongoing hostage situation. Marathon when last we left you, you were at the foot of the stairs hidden in the shadows, there were bandits scattered around holding the remainders of the Advantia enclave at gunpoint, and Jolene, the woman you had met when collecting data, had ordered them to shoot anyone who tries to do anything.
Penn (as Marathon): [quietly to self] Dirt. Gotta save the wizards. Gotta figure this out. Uh~
Penn: What's the setup of the basement?
Nick: So surprisingly, as you got down the stairs you expected to see a basement but it's more of a main hall. There are doors in the distant shadows - more than you would expect. It seems that this fortress seems to go deeper into the ground as though very little of it is visible above. This room is very shadowy. It's lit by flickering, luminescent bulbs that are stuck in sconces on the walls. There are periodic columns holding up the high roof that is shrouded in shadow. You can just see the shapes of wooden beams. You see about 15 Advantia members, most of them wearing simple robes, and they are kneeling in a group in the middle of this room in the brightest pool of light. From where you are standing, you see six bandits. Three of them appear to have rifles, three of them appear to be armed with swords and axes. All of them are armored, all of them look like they are well versed in fighting. And besides those bandits there's also Jolene who has sprawled in a large wooden chair next to a metal table against one wall and is moodily drinking out of a steel chalice.
Penn: So this room specifically is a main hall room?
Nick: Yeah, picture a medieval banquet hall. That's basically what you've got going on here. But most of the furniture has been shoved up against the pillars and the walls to clear this big open space.
Penn: Marathon is very intimidated by these well armored, seemingly well trained people with guns and weapons against an unarmed washed-up radio jockey, so she has to depend on being a little more resourceful and I'm gonna flip a Story Point to add a precariously placed chandelier above most everyone in this main hall.
Nick: Okay, there is a chandelier that appears to be made out of - they look like they were the inner wheels of the rig that had been carved out with a plasma torch and there are light bulbs set into that that are lit. It's very big and looks very heavy.
Penn: Marathon is gauging a plan in her head and she takes a little bit of time to think it through and then we see her just huff, shake her head, tap her finger on her forehead to get into the zone and she begins to sneak towards the back of the guard nearest to the stairwell.
Nick: All right, I am going to need you to roll me a Stealth check at hard difficulty. You can have two blue die because of the poor lighting here and the fact that the guards are all focused on the Advantia. They're not expecting anyone to come down the stairs. You can also flip the Story Point to upgrade which I would recommend.
Penn: Well I'll go ahead and use a second one. Okay, so I've got a yellow, a green, two blue, three purple.
[dice rolling]
Penn: One success, one threat.
Nick: Hey, with that success, you are able to get to where you're headed. The threat is that you make eye contact with one of the Advantia members. They've got a hood pulled low over their head just like most of these members of the enclave, but you can see their eyes glimmering in the light. And there is a moment where you both hold your breath transfixed, and the member of the Advantia makes a surprised squeak, and draws the attention of the guards and busies themself, looking cowed and unassuming. So no one sees you, but they are mildly aware that something has changed. Mechanically, what that means is I'm keeping a counter of all the threats that you roll, and if you get enough of them, something very bad will happen.
Penn: Well, now that Marathon has had this unfortunate eye contact, but has slipped behind this guard, she's going to try and, from her crouching position, kick the back of his knee so that he does the dead drop thing and then pop up and pull him down by his head so that that crashes straight into the stone flooring.
Nick: Okay, so you're going to make me a Brawl check, average difficulty, but you're going to have three blue die, because this guard has no idea that you're there and can barely defend themselves.
Penn: So I've got two purple, four yellow, three blue, and we're rolling.
[dice rolling]
Penn: Five successes and three advantages.
Nick: Wow. With that many successes, not only do you take down the guard, but you're able to do it silently. So you are now standing over an unconscious guard. What would you like those advantages to be used for? In this stealth situation there's a lot of different ways they could apply.
Penn: As this guard is unfortunately suffering from, let's say very devastating head injury on the ground, Marathon is going to pull the body very softly back into the dimly lit stairwell in order to take both whatever weapon they had and try to dawn whatever armor they were wearing.
Nick: So yeah, we see Marathon walking down the stairs, adjusting her armor and a unconscious man wearing heart boxer shorts now sitting in the stairwell behind her. This guard as you have pulled them around the corner of the stairs and take their armor, they're not wearing face masks or anything - luckily the light is low - they're wearing a squat leather helmet that comes down over the back of their neck and just boiled leather armor. But you see that this guard did have a bolt action rifle that appears to be functioning. How much do you know about guns?
Penn: Marathon has held a gun as a prop, but has never used a gun. She has just never used a gun. She is the equivalent of anti gun safety.
Nick: Would it occur to Marathon to check to see if the gun was loaded?
Penn: No. And she probably wouldn't even know that a safety is the thing on a gun.
Nick: Great. We'll see how that goes here in a minute. It looks like a lot of Marathon's future will be dependent on how gun safe this guard was, but even with your lack of gun knowledge you do see a another clip of ammunition on the belt that you put on. You are now dressed as a guard. The contingent is one bandit down and you have a gun and we're going to cut away to a very different kind of conflict in the courtyard of the Advantia fort.
Birdie, you were accosted by Elvira having escaped her room, climbing down from a balcony on a rope of sheets. She caught up to you and pinned you up against a wall with her very presence and appeared to be very upset and you find yourself scrambling to think of what to do next.
Kit: Birdie's mind is racing and so she's been spouting gibberish up until this point. And in order to try it and to keep the lie going before she has to possibly get into a physical altercation here, Birdie just looks up at Elvira with just the most wide surprised eyes and she goes
Kit (as Birdie): You know, uh I was really doing my best to protect you from all of this. I think that you uh, I think you might have gotten things misconstrued here. [awkward kinda scared laugh]
Cameron: Silence.
Kit (as Birdie): [more uncomfortable noises]
Cameron: She's just staring at you. You do notice that her gaze occasionally dips down to your lips, but then quickly goes back up to your eyes. But she's not saying anything.
Kit (as Birdie): I look, I won't deny that we were kind of planning to wreak a little bit of havoc, but, you know, I really wanted to keep you out of it because I didn't want, you know, things are gonna be going really crazy out here and I just I didn't want you to get mixed up and all of that. I was gonna come and get you, promise.
Kit: Birdie's digging the toe of her boot into the ground and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible and as she continues rambling, she does put her hand on Elvira's shoulder and strokes the stripe of open skin between her hairline and her shirt collar with her thumb.
Nick: So Birdie, I need you to make me a Charm check against a red and two purples. But I will be flipping a GM Story Point to make it two reds and a purple.
Kit: All right, so that makes my dice pool one green, two yellow, one purple, and two reds. One success, two threats and one despair. [slightly despairing laugh]
Nick: Wow. Elvira, you believe some part of Birdie's story. But what do those threats do?
Cameron: So she believes parts of it. The threats are,
Cameron (as Elvira): [country western accent] Well, those are real pretty words, but I do notice that they do sound a little different.
Cameron: She's calling out that you've lost your accent completely, which maybe doesn't lead to your relationship having been entirely upon truthful things.
Nick: I think the despair is that as you are having this conversation, you're still pushed up against the wall and Emma goes running by...
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Wait. So there are three blue wires? [much confusion]
Nick: And as Emma goes running by, Birdie you see the Knight stomping angrily after her for some reason, and the Knight bounces a shoulder off of the wall above you as though it didn't quite make its path correctly and you are knocked to the ground and Elvira is knocked away and there are large chunks of masonry raining down. You're no longer pinned, you could run and you can see that Elvira's adrenaline is up having almost been crushed by this machine that has killed many of the people she knows and you're not sure what's going to happen next. And I think that's a good point to jump away. As Emma, you go running by attempting to help Cassidy to troubleshoot, we get a view of the inside of the Knight's cockpit. Cassidy what does it look like in there?
Sydney: Cassidy has stripped down to her sports bra with the buildup of waste heat without life support and excess superheated gasses being vented when she's trying not to let them cook her and has pulled off three separate fuse box covers, one panel that just covers the general workings, and the primary control panel with its switches and buttons is flipped entirely up to reveal the circuitry underneath. And she is currently holding a bundle of wires counting across them describing them to Emma with frustration and climbing panic as the Knight continues to rampage and she can't tell what's going on outside but she can't imagine that there's that many bandits left and when it starts going after say Emma or her other crewmates, that's a problem.
Nick: The sound of armor crunching into stone is very distinctive as you attempt to count these wires.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Yes there's three blue ones and then a purple one and then a red one and then a purple one and then a yellow one.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Uh okay um. Switch the two purples on the the side that is closest to the screens. Switch the two purples.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] All of them are screens.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] No the ones that are like the farthest away from you when you're sitting like that end of those wires swap them.
Sydney: Cassidy sticks a hand down into the pile of wires that is the sensor hardware of the Knight and swaps two wires.
Nick: Make me a hard Mechanics check, but you can have an upgrade to one of your die because you're following instructions from Emma.
Sydney: So with that upgrade, I have a yellow and a green against three purples.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: A failure and an advantage.
Nick: Well, I'll give you two choices, either with that advantage, you can give yourself a blue die on their next attempt to try to cut off this program that's in control. Or you can have temporarily disabled some of the exterior controls for the Knight, which will make it harder for it to grab Emma which it's about to try to do.
Sydney: I would like to disable the Knight.
Nick: Okay, so the wires that you switch, you get a painful jolt from your fingers down to your toes.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Ow!
Nick: When was the last time you were electrocuted?
Sydney: Some time when doing creative infrastructure upgrades to Allium governmental systems.
Nick: Those systems were extremely high voltage they were industrial. And you get that painful flash and numbness that tells you that you're really lucky that you were grounded through your feet and not across your chest. Feeling does start to come back slowly, but you know that's going to be sticking for at least a day. You take four Strain damage and you feel a jolt as the Knight lurches and its gait from what you can feel is suddenly off kilter and slower. And as you look in this box where you were changing wires, you see that while this is two purple wires, it's actually a different box than the one that Emma must have been talking about - there's a stack of two and you were in the bottom one. Emma, you hear Cassidy yell out in pain, you see the Knight lurch and it tries to grab you. Make a hard difficulty Coordination check to get out of the way. This would have been much more difficult except that the Knight suddenly can't move the way it wants to.
Cameron: Okay, while I'm in a combat frame, can I have a blue die because I'm trying to escape getting grabbed? [laughing]
Nick: I would say this is a combat check, yes.
Cameron: I have three green, three purple, and my blue.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: All right, I got two successes and two threats.
Nick: So you're able to skip out of the way of the Knight. With those threats, you get a damage warning that pops up on your HUD, you still have full functionality. Did you ever go back over Wyatt's temporary repair for the ankle?
Cameron: It's been like a month, so she probably shored it up a little bit, but I don't think we've necessarily had the parts to do a full repair on it.
Nick: Yeah you would need a steel pin and maybe to re-drill through that joint.
Cameron: Mhmm. So I think she beefed it up and made it fit a little better to hold it but it's still a temporary fix.
Nick: So you see a damage notification pop up and the HUD is warning that that repair is about to go. So it's still good, but you could potentially start seeing some damage and lost mobility if you keep pushing as hard as you are.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Emma, that one didn't work.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] I... [stressed laughter] You're walking a little different.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay great, but that didn't turn it - it didn't give me any monitors. All it did was shock me.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Um~ In the uh, what's the order of the colors in the other box?
Sydney: Cassidy takes a different bundle of wires out.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] There's like seven yellow ones, and then another two purple ones and then three blue ones.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay, swap those two purples. Same, same direction.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay.
Sydney: Cassidy does the same thing she had done on the previous box on this one.
Nick: With this wire swap Cassidy, you feel a frigid cold breath down the back of your neck as the life support systems kick back on. You hear a sound like all of the air being sucked out of a plastic bottle at once as the waste heat conduit that had been ruptured seals itself and the screens flicker back to life.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay, I can see again. I can kind of breathe again.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [tired] Sweet. Progress. [breathing heavy]
Cameron: Emma dodges a hit from the Knight which [laughing] Cassidy can now see that it's chasing her.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] I do not have control and it is punching at you.
Cameron (as Emma): I...I am aware. Yup. All right. Uh now what?
Nick: And Cassidy you hear a voice again, saying
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] It is still in control.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [interrupting] [over radio] I'm aware of that. Emma, did you hear that?
Sydney: Because Cassidy is currently broadcasting from her radio headset, not the Knight.
Nick: Emma, you heard another sound over the radio that wasn't Cassidy but it came out as a weird encoded static, like being a couple of frequencies off on an AM radio, you weren't able to make out the words. So it was like a patterned interference essentially.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] I heard some buzzing.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Well, it's
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] Please. Please help.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [interrupting] [over radio] Yes I know!
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Who are you talking to?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] The Knight is yelling at me that there's something inside it.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [this day has just been so tiring] The Knight's talking to you?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Yes, and I have an open mic on so you should be able to hear it.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] I- I can only hear you and then like some weird, fuzzy thing uh that you appear to be speaking with. Um ask the Knight how to fix it. [tired Tech Support laugh]
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] How do I fix it?
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speaker] You must partition the entity.
Nick: And part of the control interface that's a digital screen lights up in a friendly blue-green Cassidy. This is the first blue-green that you've seen since the screens cut out. Once the cockpit got power again, it was mostly consumed with that dark purple light with little streaks of red fighting its way along some of the exposed wires. The terminal lights up and you can see a command prompt blinking. And as you try to decide what to do with that and this phantom voice Cassidy, Marathon - you are disguised and armed but you still have Jolene and five other bandits to deal with.
Penn: Marathon feels slightly more comfortable while still sticking to this dim lighting, getting a little bit better have a view of the rest of the room. Since the light seems to be coming from the main hall where the Advantia hostages are being held rather than in this hallway where she was in front of the stairs. So she's going to take a peek and try to suss out who might [laughing] be at risk of disappearing into the darkness as well.
Nick: Make me a Perception check at average difficulty.
Penn: Three greens, two purple.
[dice rolling]
Penn: Two successes, two threats.
Nick: [sounding real concerned with the threat counter] Oh Marathon. You can see that there is another guard that's wandered off there in the shadows and really out of sight.
Penn: She is counting off - does it look like this person who's walked away had a rifle or had a sword slash ax?
Nick: They appeared to be armed with a sword and an ax. You can still see two other people with rifles visible.
Penn: I can get chopped a little bit but I can't really get shot much. So looking back at this chandelier, how much personage does this cover? How many people is this chandelier hanging over?
Nick: The chandelier is hanging over all four of the remaining guards. It's very large. The problem is it's also hanging over the Advantia people clustered in the middle. They're mostly in the hole in the center, but there's a chance you might hit some of the innocents as well.
Penn: Marathon is going to, while in this guard uniform is going to start coughing, trying to simulate a deeper voice
Penn (as Marathon): [low coughing]
Penn: And is going to just keep coughing and put out a hand signal as if she's trying to stave off help from her coughing fit, but is the universal sign if somebody can come help me.
Nick: Make me an average Deception check, but I'm going to flip another GM Story Point to upgrade that to a red and purple.
Penn: [laughing] So I've got a purple, a red, and three greens.
[dice rolling]
Penn: Three successes and a threat.
Nick: With three successes, what would be Marathon's best case scenario here? What was she picturing in her head as the ideal situation to come from this?
Penn: What Marathon was picturing was that somebody would come to help her - ideally someone with a gun and that she was going to duck into that stairway and then as soon as this other person rounded the corner into the hallway and was out of sight, she would try to pull a very similar move that she pulled on the other guard and quickly dispatch a second guard.
Nick: Okay, and that's exactly what happens. One of the guards with a gun comes over looking concerned, you turn down the side passageway before they get a good look at your face, and I'm not going to make you roll to attack them because I've already made you roll a couple of times.
Penn: Marathon quickly lifts a knee into their diaphragm to keep them from making too much noise and then elbows their head straight into the ground from this bent position.
Nick: The next thing we see is Marathon dragging this second unconscious guard over to where the first mostly undressed unconscious guard has been hidden.
Penn (as Marathon): [under breath] Dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt.
Nick: So you have removed two of the three with firearms. There's a few guards left. At this point, Jolene has refilled her chalice from a large wine bottle on the metal table and is starting to grumble to herself in a voice that's distinctly audible in this large room, but seems wrapped up in her own problems.
Penn: Marathon now that she's taken out two of these guards and there's one left with a gun, others with swords, is going to take a steadying breath, she's feeling very shaky, and is going to enact the final part of her plan that she had thought through - she didn't think that it was going to go as swimmingly as it had so far. The plan is to rush in with a gun to the guard with a gun and then as that's happening slide a bolt action rifle to the Advantia.
Nick: Okay. I think that you have surprised everyone enough that you're going to be able to get in close to this guard before anyone realizes something is wrong, because you've been able to do this so quietly so far. Make me a Ranged Heavy attack.
Penn: [laughing] Does it count as ranged heavy if she's not actually going to shoot it? The goal was just to have the gun aimed at the person.
Nick: Okay, then make me a Coercion check. Because you're surprising this person and holding up the group, you can upgrade the check once and have two blue die, but it will be hard difficulty because these are hardened warriors on guard duty who are armed.
Penn: I'll flip a Story Point to upgrade my one green to a yellow. So in total, I have two blues, a green, a yellow, and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Penn: I got one success, one advantage.
Nick: Oh you lucky duck. So describe how you hold up this group. You take them entirely by surprise and the bandits at least are going to be held up. They're basically going to surrender at this.
Penn: So Marathon once again, takes this steadying breath, it's a little shaky, and turns the corner very quickly, drops the second bolt action rifle on the ground, kicks it over to the Advantia as she holds the gun up to the last guard with a bolt action rifle and says
Penn (as Marathon): Hands up! I'll shoot.
Nick: There's a long quiet moment as you lock eyes with this guy. You noticed that he has a scar along the bridge of his nose that's deep enough that he probably has trouble breathing. And he looks like he's thinking about trying to raise the rifle, but then you hear the sound of the rifle that you slid to the Advantia behind you being racked as one of these hostages now armed is also aiming guns at the guards. The bandits all begin to raise their hands except for Jolene.
Sydney: There is a clatter of a chalice hitting the ground with a small amount of liquid still in it and Marathon you can see across the room where Jolene had been sitting, Jolene is now standing with a gun in her hand swaying a little bit unsteadily from the alcohol that she has been chugging given her position as guard instead of up there fighting.
Penn (as Marathon): Jolene.
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] Marathon you fucking idiot.
Penn (as Marathon): Nice to see you again too.
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] I'm gonna have to shoot you.
Penn (as Marathon): Nobody has to get shot here. That's, you know, everything is already turning up pretty -
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] Leave now or I'm shooting you. You got three seconds.
Nick (as Guard): Well, I don't want to get shot.
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] I'll shoot you first.
Penn (as Marathon): Okay everybody, let's leave. We've got -
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] Two.
Penn (as Marathon): - three seconds. C'mon, Advantia.
Penn: And Marathon tries to signal them to move really quickly.
Nick: They're milling around like scared sheep right now. There are too many guns pointed in too many directions for them to know where to go.
Sydney: Jolene waves her gun over the Advantia also unsteadily. [laugh]
Nick: The Advantia with the gun, his hood has fallen back - he would look regal, he has sharp cheekbones and a thin goatee and hair that's combed back stylishly, but he also looks like he hasn't been in the sun in a very long time and hasn't had a good meal and even though his hair is swept back he still seems rumpled and unkempt, but he is holding a gun and he swings it decidedly to be pointed at Jolene.
Penn: At the threat of the second count, Marathon is going to try and angle herself so that the guard that she was holding at gunpoint is in between her and Jolene.
Nick: He is so thoroughly held up he's the one who said he didn't want to get shot that as you step he instinctively steps in the direction that you want and is now between the two of you. However, that does mean that the other person with a gun is now a much more prime target.
Sydney: Jolene seeing this gun pointed at her just goes
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] Fuck it.
Sydney: And pulls the trigger.
Nick: All right, make me a Ranged Attack Heavy at hard difficulty.
Sydney: I'm gonna take an additional black die for being quite drunk. So I'm rolling two yellows, three purples, and a black.
[dice rolling]
Sydney: This is a success and an advantage.
Nick: Oh, okay. Jolene, you have basically a re-chambered pistol with a single shotgun shell in it. You aim center of mass pull the trigger and this Advantia who you know to be Ipa, the leader of the Enclave, the one that has given you the most trouble while being the most seemingly polite and subservient this entire time, you finally have a chance to put this smug bastard in his place and you pull the trigger. The shot flies true hits him straight in the chest and he drops to the ground.
Penn (as Marathon): [yelling] No!
Nick: But from his position on his side as his robes begin to soak with blood, he shoots back and that will be a yellow and a green at a hard difficulty. But he's going to use a maneuver to aim so he gets a blue die.
Nick: So a yellow, green, a blue and three purples.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: A success and one threat.
Nick: Ooh. Jolene, you have had enough to drink that you're warm and a little numb. You're not seeing double but things do blur in and out and you smile to yourself as you finally put Ipa down. There's a long familiar pause that always seems to come after the first gunshot in a fight. And then surprisingly, the second gunshot is accompanied by blooming pain in your chest as you take a rifle bullet and nine damage and fall to your knees, dropping your now spent pistol from numb fingers.
Penn: Marathon realizes that things are devolving very quick and she's like
Penn (as Marathon): Anybody who else doesn't want to get shot, get!
Nick: Three of the bandits run for the door. A few of the Advantia also run for the door and then some of their friends grab them by the shoulder. They're very scared. And you are very quickly alone in this room until a final bandit, the one that you saw walk off into the shadows, walks back into the light zipping up the front of their pants from where they were peeing in the corner. You can see that they appear to have earbuds in their ears and a complete look of shock on their face having not heard anything that just happened.
Penn: Marathon just levels the gun at them and softly whispers
Penn (as Marathon): [menacing whisper] Get.
Nick: You can see this guy doing the math in his head, seeing Ipa down, seeing Jolene down and he turns to leave. He starts to walk trying to look self assured and not afraid, but quickly that turns into a jog and then a sprint as he clears the room.
Penn: Marathon rushes over to kick the gun away from Jolene and slides the third rifle back towards the Advantia and says
Penn (as Marathon): Y'all take care of Ipa. I'll take care of Jolene - uh Jolene?
Penn: And Marathon is going to turn Jolene on to her side.
Sydney: Jolene reaches over to where her mug had fallen on the floor and takes the last sip out of it from the hadn't spilled with dry lips.
Penn (as Marathon): [zero calm bedside manner] You you you gon- hey you you're gonna be you're gonna be all right. Um. We just uh we-we
Sydney (as Jolene): [drunk country western accent] I got a hole in me.
Penn (as Marathon): [sounding like someone who has never dealt with a gunshot wound before and is terrified] Yep. And I'm going to put pressure on that wound so uh, just here we go. It's gonna hurt.
Sydney: She just makes a pain sound. Marathon's hands are now quite bloody.
Nick: Marathon make me a Medicine check at hard difficulty.
Penn: So I've got three purples and two greens.
[dice rolling]
Penn: A failure and a threat.
Sydney: The bleeding starts to slow but Jolene's lips are just pale and her skin is pale. You're not sure if you're not doing it right or if there's just already been too much blood lost.
Penn (as Marathon): [freaking out] Oh god, oh god. Uh - How's Ipa doing everybody?
Nick: There's a low murmur of people speaking in medical terms that seem way too complicated, but as you glance over in a panic, you do see a weak thumbs up given by Ipa from where he's laying on the ground.
Penn (as Marathon): Good news. Good news. I got you wizards. Uh. Now, I know this is a lot to ask - can you guys- is there anybody who can help Jolene over here?
Nick: Marathon, the blank looks you get from these recently released hostages reminds you of the time that you wandered into a field of sheep and they all just stared at you in confusion for far too long.
Penn (as Marathon): Medicine. This is a person!
Nick: The members of the Advantia turn their back on Jolene and you and go back to helping Ipa and we're gonna cut away. Birdie, you were almost crushed by falling masonry as the Knight careened by. You can see the Knight in the distance now limping after Emma, and over the muffled radio you can hear what sounds like electrical engineering being shouted back and forth. Elvira you were knocked away from where you had Birdie restrained. You're full of adrenaline and anger and fear.
Kit: How far is Birdie away from her backpack at this point?
Nick: By this point, having criss crossed around this courtyard multiple times I think the backpack has leaned up against some cover 10 or 15 feet from you. You could make it to it before anybody made it to you, but that would take a majority of your reaction from whatever Elvira is about to do.
Kit: Birdie's going to risk it because she doesn't have any way to protect herself without the backpack that also has the stick on it. And so very desperately Birdie is going to scramble up and just make a break for the backpack and immediately grab her hockey stick and try to prep into a defensive position as much as she can before Elvira hits her.
Nick: All right. Elvira, you see Birdie who had just been telling you that she was trying to protect you, run for a backpack nearby. And as you try to process through your combat reflexes, you see she's running for some sort of weapon.
Cameron: So after having dodged the fallen masonry, Elvira has gotten up to her hands and knees and is looking through all of this stone dust and sees Birdie bookin' it for a backpack with a weapon. And you can see her think about it for a second as if she's weighing options and then instead of reaching for the crossbow that has been dropped by one of her fallen bandit members she reaches for a softball size chunk of stone that had fallen on her and chucks it at Birdie as she's running away.
Nick: All right, make me a Ranged Light attack at average difficulty and I think that Elvira is particularly talented at this, so it is two yellows and a green at average difficulty.
[dice rolling]
Cameron: A failure and two advantages.
Nick: All right.
Cameron: For my advantages, I want the rock to hit really near her, so it seems like it could have just been trying to do a warning shot as an intimidation tactic type thing. [laugh]
Nick: Are you trying to throw it between her and the stick to try to warn her off of it or just -?
Cameron: I just want her to know that I'm watching.
Nick: So go ahead and describe this throw.
Cameron: So we see Elvira pick up this hunk of rock and she pushes herself up to where she's on her knees. You can see her judging the distance as if she throws things a lot and underhand softball pitches it at Birdie, and I think it sails right over Birdie's right shoulder and hits the ground in front of her four or five feet in front of her backpack.
Kit: Birdie hesitates a little and then looks at Elvira and is just like
Kit (as Birdie): [all the sass you could possibly cultivate as a younger sibling] You missed!
Kit: [laughing] And then grabs her backpack and is instead going to go for one her molotov cocktail. If she's gonna throw things and she's not gonna fuck around with this. Birdie's going to pull it out of her backpack and hold it up at Elvira
Kit (as Birdie): You want it?
Cameron: Elvira is considering the ramifications of her action. Elvira is realizing that she doesn't want to have brought a rock to an explosives fight, and crossbow doesn't work either - not quite the same magnitude as the molotov. Level of intensity not quite even. But I think she pushes herself to her feet slowly in a not intimidating manner - as much as possible. As she does keep unfolding herself up because she's got legs that go on for days.
Cameron (as Elvira): [country western accent] Well I didn't hit you.
Kit (as Birdie): You meant to.
Cameron (as Elvira): [country western accent] No.
Cameron: [laughing] It doesn't sound all that convincing.
Kit: Birdie looks at her very intently in the eyes and flicks the lighter on [laugh] and she just hold it there.
Cameron: Elvira is just going to take off towards the gate to leave since most of her friends appear to be dead.
Kit (as Birdie): [relieved sigh] Well. Glad it didn't waste it.
Kit: [laughing] And she's going to put her lighter back in her pocket and then put the molotov cocktail back in her backpack.
Nick: And we cut over to Cassidy and Emma still frantically trying to get the Knight back under control.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Alright, what do you see on the screen?
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Uh~ I'm looking at a list and there is an S-D-A-1 and a C-D R-O-M?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yeah.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] And a intruder. I assume.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Ooh gonna guess that's the bad one.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] What do I do?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Um. Try typing DELETE and then that file name. [laughing]
Sydney: Cassidy types DELETE and then intruder slash and hits enter.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It says uh, it can't remove because it's a folder?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Well that's bullshit. Uh. Do CD intruder.
Sydney: CD intruder.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay uh, LS dash A.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] There's a bunch of garbage. I don't know. It's a bunch of numbers. There's a dot and two dots.
Nick: As you all are troubleshooting, Emma you see several armed members of this war party, leaving the keep through the door that Marathon went in running quickly, and the Knight nonchalantly backhands one of them into a wall as they run to try to leave the fort. Cassidy as you're typing, you can see that all of the screens except for the terminal you're typing on have gone that deep purple color. The red lines of the original intrusion appear to have been completely absorbed by this more powerful intruder program.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] All right. None of those names are helpful. Do MOVE star quarantine?
Sydney: There's the sound of typing and then
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It doesn't know where quarantine is.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [sigh of a programmer who hates command line] Okay, MK DIR
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay...
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] quarantine.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Kay.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Now repeat -
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] That same thing?
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yeah.
Sydney: Cassidy types the command and hit enter.
Nick: The light around this terminal flickers and goes dark. And the Knight itself goes dark again - for a second Cassidy you think that you were completely locked out like you were before, but then the Knight cycles through its startup sequence over again and lights back up in that calming blue-green light. You hear that strange voice one more time say
Nick (as The Knight): [over internal speakers] Thank you.
Nick: And all of the controls are responsive.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] And~ we're back.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [quietly] Oh thank god. [normal volume] Good! Yay~.
Cameron: Emma has stopped in the exosuit and has her hands braced on the knees and is breathing deeply [laughing] cause she's been running this whole time.
Sydney: Cassidy looks around at the no more fighting - everyone is either dead or left.
Nick: There is a local motion sensor that is part of the heads up display on the Knight and you can see a cluster of people sized objects running through the town and away out of range and another lone dot running the opposite direction through the cranberry bogs and into the woods.
Sydney: I think Cassidy, rather than worrying about the things that have left at this point, she just wants to make sure that her crew is alive and not in bad shape.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Kestrel - I know you're fine.
Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] [out of breath] Yeah.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Eagle? You all right?
Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Huh? Oh, yeah, Eagle's me. Um, yeah, I'm doing pretty good. I made some friends.
Kit: And there's a sudden cut to Birdie sitting on the ground with a little swarm of ducks. There's a bunch of little baby ducks that were a part of the escaped farm animals.
Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Gander, did you succeed in your thing?
Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] [sounding shaken] G-g-gander uh, Gander to Cormorant. Uh there's uh, the Advantia's safe. There's a lot of blood here and uh I need some help. There's there's somebody down here who's pretty hurt, uh there's a couple of people down here pretty hurt. Um. There's just a lot of blood and I'm, you know, I'm not doing the best with it. Uh and uh you know the bandits are gone, but the the Advantia's saying it's waking up? Something's waking up? This isn't over or something.
Nick: And all of you feel the tremendous shake of a powerful earthquake, much stronger than the ones you felt before, as though the Earth itself was being torn asunder.
[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