Transcript: Season 2 Episode 30: Extremely Nonorganic Angles

A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript Season 2 Episode 30: Extremely Nonorganic Angles 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:

Thanks to our wonderful new patrons - be sure to respond to the message you got so we can give you the glory and fame you deserve. And for others, if the idea of getting a callout sounds exciting and doesn’t give you uncomfortable stomach butterflies (we don’t have to if you don’t want), you too can consider backing our Patreon, for access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.

And thanks to all of our listeners, because if you’re around listening to this today, you’re the best. Hope it’s been a good Pride Month, and may that energy of standing up for yourself and your community continue forward into every month.

And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 2, Episode 30: Extremely Nonorganic Angles. 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 were on the road for a really long time. I think Birdie and I may have gone a little hard on pushing the whole Marathon & Cassidy ship, so I think I’m going to stop sticking my nose into that - a decision that definitely doesn’t have anything to do with the entry in Pallie’s journal I listened to where I found out that Cassidy may have been romantically involved with or was at least romantically interested in Owyn, who, if my timelines are right and I'm pretty sure they are, would be the member of the Patina that didn’t make it out of Allium and... fuck I know that Cassidy blames herself for missing a shot and oh that’s awful and I just want to give her a hug but I’m pretty sure if she wanted to talk about it she would have brought it up at some point so…I’ll just let that sit, I guess. Speaking of things she did bring up though, when we were reading our most recent romance novel, Cassidy told us that she’s trans and we came to the group consensus that gender be rad, technology is cool, and the Advantia are sucky technology hoarders that don't want to make the world a better place. Then we found an old Aranibus shrine just off the road and it was actually nice and I think Birdie was able to grieve a little - I know she’s stressed about seeing her family again on Sasnak, so hopefully this helped bring her a bit of peace. Then we ended up at an old travel station and Marathon found some Wanted posters for the old Patina…including Owyn…so we grabbed those for Cassidy in case she wants them and then a freaking giant mechanical spider crawled over the rig. [radio static]

Episode Start:

Nick: We open on a roadside stop for the Patina. A once prosperous station for fuel and food and trade that has been abandoned sometime in the near past. As the Patina searched for fuel or anything useful before continuing on, a loud and terrifying noise pierced the landscape around you as Birdie and Cassidy, you ran from the back of the station where you were trying to siphon fuel to see a massive mechanical spider about the size of a large wagon crawling up and partially over the rig where the Knight is stored. And Marathon and Emma from your vantage inside the gas station where you were scavenging, you see the same - a tangle of pistons and legs and grabbers supporting a cylindrical head covered in camera lenses that give this thing a 360 degree view all around until all of the lenses snap to the same direction, somewhere to the side of the building. Exactly where Cassidy is standing.

Sydney: Cassidy has the expression that you have when you're in your second car accident. That this is really bad, this is also something that I've seen before and it's the inconvenience of having to deal with it is almost worse than the panic of having something bad happen. And she goes

Sydney (as Cassidy): Birdie I'm going to run that way. Get the motorcycle, come grab me, get your radio.

Sydney: And she takes off sprinting in the opposite direction.

Kit (as Birdie): Um. Okay, run this way, motorcycle, uh yeah, okay. I'll remember that.

Kit: [laughing] And she's going to immediately run towards the motorcycle.

Nick: So the motorcycle is stuck to the side of the rig, so Birdie is running straight towards this spider creature?

Kit: She's going

Kit (as Birdie): [panicked panting] Serpentine. Serpentine. Serpentine.

Kit: And just running in zigzags.

Nick: Yeah. So Emma and Marathon from your position inside this gas station, there is a moment of shocked silence after this terrifying screech echoes over expanses of flat concrete that has been cracked and pulled apart by undergrowth piercing it over the ages. You see, in this moment of silence, Birdie, sprinting towards the rig in a zigzag pattern, as most of the lenses still appear to be fixed and tracking some other target outside of the gas station, but several of them begin to swing back and forth watching Birdie.

Penn (as Marathon): [sounding very chill about this whole spider situation] Is she gonna- is she going after the Knight?

Cameron (as Emma): [also a bit too chill] I don't know what she's doing, but she's gonna need help.

Cameron: And I think Emma takes off after Birdie awkwardly climbing over fallen things within the gas station to get out to be able to be at least reasonably close to Birdie.

Penn: Marathon jumps over a hurdle of concrete right after Emma before tapping on the bottom of her boots mid jump to activate her new grav skates.

Nick: So we see Birdie running towards the rig, Cassidy running in the opposite direction across this mostly concrete plain, and soon after Emma and Marathon quickly approaching in Birdie's wake. Birdie as you get within 20 feet of the rig and this mechanical being, you do notice that, unlucky for you, the motorcycle is still attached on its rack to the side of the rig directly under this mechanical spider that has begun to slowly climb down off the roof of the rig as though repositioning but you would have to get very close if you were going for the motorcycle.

Kit (as Birdie): Shitballs. Okay uh~.

Kit: Birdie is desperately thinking of solutions while trying to keep moving at the very least in some direction of the rig. She sees that Emma has approached at this point. Birdie has been running this whole time not looking at the monster that's staring down at her probably thinking about killing her, like it's a wild animal and she's trying to avoid eye contact and her first instinct is to see what it does when she purposefully throws something - like she has a couple of washers or nuts in her pocket and she tosses them at something in the yard that she's running semi near, so that it might switch its gaze away from her just to gauge what it would do if given a distraction.

Nick: Yeah, you throw a small handful of scrap out onto the concrete and you notice that several of these camera lenses that pivot around snap to the motion, but the mechanical spider is still slowly climbing down. It is beginning to accelerate as it comes back to the flat ground next to the rig and you can see that it is difficult to tell what part of it is the front as it is mostly radially symmetrical and you are also close enough to see that while there are dozens of these camera lenses on this cylinder that sticks out of the middle that you can't help but think of the head, the body and even most of the legs also have camera lenses all over it that seemed to shutter and focus and move. And while you have distracted a portion of its attention, it does not seem to have changed whatever its goal is as it begins to stomp towards you. You can feel a slight tremor in the ground as it picks up speed moving in your direction. And also coincidentally in Emma and Marathon's direction. And at this point Marathon has definitely caught up and can move about twice as fast as you two.

Penn: Marathon arrives stopping very abruptly and does a slide skid to stop in her grav skates.

Penn (as Marathon): Uh do yo- need a scoop up? It's coming towards ya.

Kit (as Birdie): Yep, please.

Penn (as Marathon): Scoop!

Penn: And Marathon pulls Birdie up into a bridal carry and starts heading to the opposite side of the rig than this 15 to 20 foot tall mechanical spider.

Kit (as Birdie): Geeze.

Nick: As you're pulling Birdie away, you do see that the exact size of this is difficult to estimate because so much of it is legs. Right now it is close to the ground as it begins to pick up speed and move towards the side of the gas station away from the rig, but you get the feeling that if it stretched out it would be maybe twice as tall as it is now but that would decrease the amount of ground it takes up at any given time.

Penn (as Marathon): [talking fast] Sheesh this thing is - what is this thing?

Kit (as Birdie): I don't know, but Cassidy looked like I don't know she kind of just looked resigned instead of scared. Which I think, I don't know, I interpret a little bit as she might know something, but I couldn't tell you.

Penn (as Marathon): [yelling] Emma we're going through the other side of the rig!

Cameron: Emma's just following. She looked slightly amazed as Marathon whooshed past her because it's the first time she's seen Marathon on her skates, but is just going to follow the group.

Kit: Birdie has a habit of carrying smoke bombs on her and I'm going to flip a Story Point to have smoke bombs on Birdie's person. Before Marathon um had scooped her up, she was already pulling one out of her pocket with her pocket lighter as opposed to her backpack lighter and her other jacket lighter and her boot lighter. And she is trying to light it while Marathon is flying over it and is wriggling and just kind of squirms to face the opposite way back towards the spider once Marathon passes over it and tosses the smoke bomb to distract it from being able to see Emma hopefully.

Nick: So during this flurry of action, Emma you find yourself standing in what looks like the path of the spider as it comes around the back of the rig. Marathon and Birdie - you can see coming around the other side of the rig from where the spider is as Marathon yells that they're trying to get behind the rig. And at that exact moment, you see a large burst of smoke come out of where the spider is. Birdie, could you make me a Ranged Light attack, please?

Kit: Yes.

Nick: It will be average difficulty.

Kit: Okay, so that's going to be two yellow, one green and two purple. Two successes and three advantages.

Nick: Nice. Do you have any thoughts on what those advantages might do?

Kit: Hmm.

Nick: I was thinking it might keep it from stomping Emma before she can move.

Kit: Yeah. Keep it from stamping Emma and also maybe it can't tell where it came from.

Nick: Yeah, I think that is valid for three advantages. So Marathon and Birdie, you are on the other side of the rig you see the edges of a cloud of smoke but don't really see what the effect is on this giant machine. But Emma you see this burst of bright blue smoke and the spider stops for just a second. You can hear the whirring of now obscured cameras and the flailing of limbs that does nothing to scatter this clinging miasma that is obscuring its vision. And the spider begins to move forward again Emma, but it is not running straight at you. It is picking up speed. Emma, do you attempt to interfere with it in any way? Or do you meet up with Marathon and Birdie?

Cameron: I would like for the moment to move aside so that I'm very out of the way of this spider, but I'm just going to observe the spider and see if I can figure out what the heck is going on and why there's this giant spider.

Nick: As you watch its behaviors and move out of the way, make me a hard Perception check with two black die because it's covered in smoke so it's harder to tell.

Cameron: Can I have a blue die because I'm observing mechanics?

Nick: Sure.

Cameron: Okay. So I have two yellows, a green, a blue, three purples and two black dice.

[dice rolling]

Cameron: So that is one success and one advantage.

Nick: Okay, so you're trying to figure out what it's doing? That's what you're looking for, like what its motivation is?

Cameron: Yeah, what's up with this spider?

Nick: As it goes by the smoke is no longer obscuring the whole thing it is trailing directly behind the spider from what you can see appears to be a handheld smoke bomb that has gotten wedged into some of the mechanics of its body. And you notice that except for a few of the camera lenses that track you and a few others that are pointed as though looking through the rig at where Marathon and Birdie are stopped, all of them are fixated in the distance at what you see is the rapidly retreating form of Cassidy at a dead sprint.

Cameron: Having made this observation, I turn my radio on.

Nick: And as you turn the radio on, you see that the spider is getting its legs under it and begins to accelerate quite rapidly moving after Cassidy. You see that while the spider does not accelerate very efficiently, it does appear to have a fairly impressive topspeed for something that has to move on legs as it is moving across the flat ground. And we're going to cut over to Cassidy as you turn that radio on. But before you have that conversation, could you please make me, Cassidy, an Athletics check at average difficulty to see how far you have made it from this pursuer?

Sydney: Sure. I am rolling two yellows and a green against the two purples.

[dice rolling]

Sydney: Two advantages and a triumph with no success.

Nick: Huh. So you're not actually that far. Something has happened to slow you down or distract you, but whatever it is, could prove quite useful in the upcoming encounter that you know is probably going to happen.

Sydney: [sigh at the fickleness of dice] So I think what happens is Cassidy's running away from this gas station, she took off at a sprint, the ground looks fairly flat and open before there's some trees off in the distance that she starts aiming for because at least it'll give her a little bit of cover. And then with one step, there isn't ground and she doesn't even have time to react because she's looking out in front of her instead of down at the ground at her feet and immediately falls sideways down into a crevasse into probably a 15 foot drop onto at least fairly flat dirt, but it is the entryway to a cave of some size. Looking back up, it's kinda sheer like she could probably get her way back out of it if she planted against both walls and shimmied up but not at a speed that would be able to run away from this familiar encounter. So she shakes her head off, looks around, sees that there's more cave, a like a four foot tall passageway so not standing but not tiny, leading away from the crevice. Definitely too small for this spider to get in. She's pretty sure. And so she takes the opportunity to go further into this cave, hitting the light on her headset.

Nick: You see as you turn on the light that this cave, the walls are crumbling concrete laced with rebar. This is definitely something that was formed by erosion but not in natural rock. It's the degradation of something that was once man made, and parts of it appear very solid, but parts of it have made way for you. And I'm going to flip a GM Story Point to say that this concrete is thick enough that it interferes with the radio. So as Cassidy begins to explore this underground passage that she stumbled upon, we cut back to Emma, Birdie, and Marathon next to the rig.

Cameron: Emma was right at the edge of the gas station when she backed up to get out of the spider's way and then once it passed her step back forward, so she could continue to watch it as it started to run away and had seen that Cassidy was slightly off in the distance. And I think right as she turns on her radio, I want Cassidy to disappear.

Nick: Okay. Yeah, because of where you were standing you can see that Cassidy appears to have vanished. [laugh]

Sydney: Emma sees Cassidy vanish and turns her radio on in time to hear.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Oof!

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Cassidy!? [pause] Cassidy~? Shit. [radio turns off] Okay.

Cameron: And then turns back around to meet up again with Marathon and Birdie at the side of the rig.

Penn (as Marathon): Birdie what - what did she tell you?

Kit (as Birdie): Uh something, she was like, 'I'm gonna run this way. You will get the motorcycle and um your radio' and I think I don't remember. It all happened really fast. So I'm just getting the motorcycle and the radio.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah. Emma uh, what'd you see?

Cameron (as Emma): Uh so Cassidy was running that way and I think she fell in a hole? She disappeared suddenly from the horizon. Um.

Kit (as Birdie): [dejected] Oh.

Cameron (as Emma): I don't know ho-

Penn (as Marathon): Did it eat her?

Cameron (as Emma): No, it the spider hadn't gotten to her yet.

Cameron: I would like to flip a Story Point to say that Emma has listened to some of Pallie's journal entries that talked about the spider, so I am semi aware of it and I know some things that Pallie was thinking through to try to come up with the solution for it. So we don't have a plan, but in general, I know some technical things about it to give us a starting point at least.

Nick: Yeah, I am okay with that.

Cameron (as Emma): Okay, so the spider apparently chases Cassidy. This is the thing that has been happening. I've never seen the spider before but Pallie talked about it in a couple of her journal entries. They've run into it before it for some reason is following Cassidy um and that appears to be why she ran off because that has always been what they did in the past. Cassidy leave for few days to get it out of the way of the rest of the group and then then [sigh] she'd loop back around and they would speed off and lose it for a while. Uh but um that's not going to work if Cassidy is in a hole and [pause] can't [pause] run [pause] away.

Penn (as Marathon): Cassidy is in a hole. Is- okay.

Cameron (as Emma): I don't know how deep a hole. I don't know. I- she's not answering on the radio.

Penn: Marathons face is pretty stoic, but you can definitely tell that she's processing a lot of information right now in crisis mode.

Penn (as Marathon): Uh so no motorcycle?

Cameron (as Emma): I - I mean the motorcycle is probably Birdie you were supposed to go get her on it?

Kit (as Birdie): Uh.

Cameron (as Emma): Like follow and fetch her?

Kit (as Birdie): I think so. Maybe. She- yeah. Yeah, I'd say so, but I think, I don't know, let's just get the motorcycle either way - it can we can use it in a distraction if we need to. Even if we can't get her.

Penn (as Marathon): Kay. Motorcycle down. I'm on it.

Penn: Marathon skates around to the other side of the rig to leave Birdie and Emma.

Cameron: And Emma is standing there with both of her hands up on her forehead with her hands clasped with their elbows sticking out, and her eyes closed trying to remember [laughing] everything she's heard Pallie say about this spider to try to come up with something to do about it that's not trying to fight the giant spider.

Kit: Birdie has her hands pulling on her two braids just absentmindedly messing with them and tying them together in a little knot and then untying it while trying to think as well.

Kit (as Birdie): You can always we can always do like that old trick where you tie its legs together so it can't move or something right?

Cameron (as Emma): I- we could try. I don't know how - I don't know if we have anything strong enough and long enough -

Kit (as Birdie): [disappointed] Oh.

Cameron (as Emma): - to keep it down for any amount of time.

Kit (as Birdie): Rope or line?

Cameron (as Emma): And if we make it fall in the hole, [stressed laughing] if that's the only way out of the hole we'd just be trapping Cassidy. Um.

Kit (as Birdie): [thinking sigh]

Nick: And as you are debating and Marathon is pulling down the motorcycle, you hear the calamitous noise of metal smashing into concrete, and we jump back over to Cassidy. Cassidy as you've worked your way deeper into this cave beneath the concrete, you hear the smashing sound of your pursuer attempting to jam itself into a hole that is way too small, and the light behind you is blotted out. You can hear the grinding of metal on concrete and the whining of servos as it scrambles in your wake.

Sydney: Cassidy is now officially claustrophobic with the thing behind her. She can tell that it can't get to her, which is encouraging, but she definitely yeah, it is now sitting by the entrance and her choice is to sit near the entrance where it could maybe stick an arm down and get her or collapse the entrance on top of her which is bad in either case, or she can keep going deeper and hope for something - hope for something that changes the situation, whether it's another exit, which would be great, especially if it's soon or to get far enough away that it gives up. Of course your friends are all outside, so if it gives up what's it going to do? But she goes deeper uncomfortably.

Nick: And as you continue deeper, you hear multiple additional slamming noises as the spider almost frustratedly tries to force its way after you and then the light returns as the spider seems to have moved away from the entrance to pursue another tactic.

Sydney: As she's walking, Cassidy does try the radio, not having heard anything, but just into an empty channel of static.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Emma? Birdie? Marathon?

Sydney: She closes her eyes tightly and just stays crouched for a second and then keeps walking figuring that well yeah, we are in a cave. But there's a light on the heads up display on Cassidy's headset that isn't normally on. Cassidy sees this unexpected symbol in the corner of her vision and figures it's something but she's not really in a position to figure out what right now she gets stuck down here for hours, maybe she'll get a chance to do that.

Nick: And as you continue down this path, you see something that you've seen in cave systems before, that while there is a main avenue it begins to branch and split apart as the water that has carved this passageway over time was diverted and you realize that you're in some sort of maze and we're going to cut back to Marathon, Birdie, and Emma as you stand together with your motorcycle. You see that the machine was attempting to climb underground. You can't really see what entrance it was trying to use from where you are but the sound of it attempting to smash its way in was clear enough. But then you also see that it has given up on that approach and is pacing quickly back and forth in a grid pattern along the ground and moving away from you. The body of the machine is oriented like it is looking down like it can see something through the ground.

Penn (as Marathon): I think we found the hole.

Kit (as Birdie): Yep.

Penn (as Marathon): Well we got the motorcycle.

Kit (as Birdie): We got the motorcycle. Um.

Penn (as Marathon): What- do we want to get it close? Try and get Cassidy out and get her motorcycled away or -?

Cameron (as Emma): [thinking] Uh~.

Penn (as Marathon): - this thing, it's like-

Kit (as Birdie): We can't know what direction she went in.

Penn: Is it just making a square around one spot?

Nick: No, it is moving in a searching pattern, but it seems to be slowly working its way away from you. So it'll move off to the left for a bit and then curve back to the right and then will backtrack a little and then'll move forward. So it does look like it's searching for something like playing Hot or Cold, but it is making progress away while it does it this whole time.

Penn (as Marathon): Well, [self deprecating noise] you all are much smarter than me, but the two options I see right now are someone quick goes to distract the spider thing, well it's kind of more like a sea urchin. It's got so many legs. Uh~. Somebody goes to distract this thing and pull it away and then we get Cassidy out or

Penn: Marathon vaguely gestures at the giant machine.

Penn (as Marathon): While it's doing its like thing we could try and sneak out Cassidy. That's what I'm seeing as possible plans unless y'all have anything else.

Kit (as Birdie): I could distract if we wanted to do that.

Cameron (as Emma): I think distracting is probably the better plan. I don't I don't know if there is a sneaking Cassidy uh cause I don't- I don't- I don't know how it's tracking her to begin with. [stressed sigh] So it could just see right through the sneaking. Um but if we try to distract it and get it away, we could - Marathon if you want to zoom around on your cool skates and we can have one of us on the motorcycle. We can have two people trying to distract while the other one goes to try to find the hole and see if we can yell at Cassidy and get a response?

Penn (as Marathon): Do we want to try and do two distractions? What about the Knight? Is -

Cameron (as Emma): [laughs in broken technology] Oh, that's - no it's not moving.

Penn (as Marathon): Okay. No.

Kit (as Birdie): You have the exosuit?

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, the the exosuits gonna be slower than the motorcycle,

Kit (as Birdie): Mhm.

Cameron (as Emma): so

Kit (as Birdie): No exosuit. No Knight.

Cameron (as Emma): If we want to fight this spider I can get in the exosuit, but I [laughs in concern]

Kit (as Birdie): Nah I don't want to fight this thing.

Penn (as Marathon): Well, if Cassidy's current plan has just been to run, -

Cameron (as Emma): Mhm.

Penn (as Marathon): - then -

Cameron (as Emma): I assume there was a reason they weren't fighting it. [laugh]

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah. Let's just keep doing that, right?

Kit (as Birdie): Mhm.

Penn (as Marathon): Until we have more information.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah.

Kit (as Birdie): So two distractions?

Penn (as Marathon): So game plan distraction. So I can't drive the motorcycle - do we want the motorcycle to be nearby Cassidy to pick her up or do we need- because we'll probably want a quick extraction as well.

Kit (as Birdie): I can I can drive so that Emma can get off and help Cassidy if needed maybe?

Nick: As you are all planning, you are interrupted by more loud metal on concrete banging. And as you look over in the distance, you can see that this thing has started slamming a portion of its forelegs into the ground and you can hear the sound of concrete fracturing.

Penn (as Marathon): Oh, we gotta move.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah. Okay, let's let's do that plan Birdie. You -

Kit (as Birdie): Okay.

Cameron (as Emma): - you motorcycle and drop me off by the hole.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay.

Penn (as Marathon): Okay. I'll run interference.

Penn: Marathon looks around at some of the debris at this busted gas station and sees a metal bar at a slant in the ground, stomps on it and flips it up into her hand.

Penn (as Marathon): Meet you on the other side, I guess.

Kit (as Birdie): Yep!

Cameron (as Emma): Turn your radio on!

Penn: Marathon clicks her watch radio on and starts zooming towards this giant mechanized creature.

Kit: Birdie while they've been planning has been digging in her backpack and has the jar of the ignition stuff that Renn gave to her open and is just preparing as many explosives as possible so that she can keep distracting even if she has to stop moving to some degree and has her radio fastened to her jacket up by her head so that she won't have to hold it. She's filling up a small side satchel that's not her big bag so that she can separate out how many explosives she's carrying. She doesn't want to be carrying so many that if she gets in trouble she blows up so.

Nick: Emma do you jump on the motorcycle with Birdie?

Cameron: Emma adjusts her sword so that she can sit on the motorcycle and climbs on.

Nick: As you adjust your sword to stay out of the way, you climb onto the back of the motorcycle and Birdie guns is rapidly gaining on Marathon who had a head start on her grav skates. And we see Marathon in a dead speed skater sprint carrying a metal pipe heading towards this machine that is digging into the concrete and slightly behind and gaining quickly, Birdie, her braids flying behind her with Emma's arms wrapped around her waist looking out to the side everyone with identical looks of determination on their face as they ride to their friend's rescue.

And Cassidy, as you work your way through the main passage of this expanding maze, you begin to hear a muted thudding overhead and bits of debris and dust rain down as a small crack of sunlight followed very closely by a questing mechanical arm bursts its way down from the ground above.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [yell of annoyance]

Nick: But you are able to stay out of the way. You do make eye contact with a camera lens on one of the joints of this arm as you see eye to eye with your pursuer once again.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [annoyed] Oh go away.

Nick: Birdie, Marathon, and Emma - you hear Cassidy exclaiming to go away over the radio for the first time since she's vanished.

Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] No!

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Cassidy?

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Emma?

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] You fell in a hole?

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Yes.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] There's a spider.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Yes.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] The plan is to run away?

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] It needs to leave me alone.

Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Approaching spider.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] We're- we're working on it.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] I can go deeper or I can wait at the entrance. If I wait at the entrance, it may be able to get me fast.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Uh so if you could go back to the - back to the hole where you started, Birdie is about to drop me off.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Okay.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Birdie and Marathon are on distraction.

Sydney: Cassidy turns around and goes right back down the tunnel.

Nick: Make me a hard Coordination check as this arm which can see you sees that you're beginning to retreat back the way it came and bends at extremely nonorganic angles to try to take a swipe at your head.

Sydney: I am now rolling two yellows and three greens against these three purple.

[dice rolling]

Sydney: [long suffering sigh] I got three advantages.

Nick: Well, three advantages is no successes. This arm hits you in the side of the head hard enough to make your ears ring and everything goes dark. You have a moment of feeling like you're losing consciousness before you realize that this arm knocked your headset off and the light went out. It is somewhere on the ground beneath you and only faint light is making its way around the spiders grasping limb.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Fuck~!

Sydney: Cassidy starts looking for it, hoping that she could tell where it was by the sound but she got spun around and this thing is still scrabbling.

Nick: Make me a average Survival check, but you can have a blue die because of Cassidy making note of where that head set fell. But bear in mind the longer you look for it, the more likely this arm will hit you again. By the way, you did take five Wounds from getting hit in the head with a mechanical arm.

Sydney: I Soak two of them.

Nick: That's good.

Sydney: Okay, I am rolling one yellow, two greens, and a blue against two purples.

[dice rolling]

Sydney: Two successes.

Nick: You have a brief moment of panic as you feel the air just above your head disturbed by another swiping blow and then your hand closes over the headset and you're able to find the light switch again and you're able to scrabble back towards the entrance of this maze under the concrete plains.

Sydney: How many eyes are on the leg?

Nick: You made eye contact with one main one. There are a handful of smaller ones scattered around. It would be hard to tell from the brief observations you've made in the past but you have a guess that the different lenses serve different purposes and are different levels of detail. The big ones seem to be the ones that work the most like eyes.

Sydney: Cassidy contemplates trying to disable the lenses but decides that getting back to the entrance where her friends are theoretically approaching is a better use of her time and also that she probably wouldn't be able to blind it anyway because it could just stick another arm down but her desire for vengeance is burning.

Nick: And as you set aside the idea of revenge for now and work your way back away from this crack in the ceiling, Marathon - you are within striking distance of this spider. It is close to the ground up to one of the top joints of several legs around a small crater it appears to have bashed in the ground beneath it.

Penn: So Marathon is charging towards this spider creature with this long rod and she's just going to wail on the first leg that she approaches and then let that same rod hit other legs as she passes them kind of like rubbing a mug on a jail cell.

Nick: Go ahead and roll me an average Melee attack.

Penn: Okay, so I've got two purple and four green.

[dice rolling]

Penn: A failure and three advantages.

Nick: Okay~. So the good news is with your advantages you do manage to distract this large machine. The bad news is you're not able to get out of the way quick enough as a good portion of these lenses all snap on to you with the first contact of the pipe and several of these legs moving in ways that a organic creature would not be able to move lash out and smash you in the chest throwing you off your feet and for quite some distance before you hit the ground. And you take five Wounds as you are thrown bodily across the pavement.

Penn: Marathon as she hit this thing was starting to say

Penn (as Marathon): Eat my dirt!

Penn: And then as she's about to finish her little quip is nailed and goes flying. And although it is five Wounds, she does have five Soak, so as she goes flying, she's able to stabilize herself in the air and land back on her grav skates sort of skidding to a stop again. She grits her teeth and gets ready to run at this thing again.

Nick: And Birdie and Emma - what are you doing as you see Marathon knocked in the air before her quick recovery?

Kit (as Birdie): Ooh~! Oh, okay. She's getting up, she's getting up. That was pretty bad. Okay.

Cameron (as Emma): Uh~ maybe avoid the legs.

Kit (as Birdie): Yep. Yep. Keeping that in mind.

Kit: How far away is the spider from the hole where she's dropping Emma off right now?

Nick: Probably 30 yards, give or take. It's the distance that Cassidy was able to cover in the time it took you to come up with a plan and get out there in the first place.

Kit: Okay, Birdie is gonna continue on her path towards the opening and will be like,

Kit (as Birdie): [talking a bit fast] Okay um. I'll come and pick you up and I'll keep it off ya! Promise.

Cameron (as Emma): All right.

Cameron: I think Emma was riding the motorcycle sidesaddle, so as the motorcycle slows she just pops off.

Nick: So Birdie you're driving towards the spider on the motorcycle. Emma, you're at the entrance to the hole where Cassidy disappeared. Emma what is your plan?

Cameron: I would like to assess how deep this hole is. And if this is something that Cassidy could get out of by herself, or if assistance would be necessary.

Nick: So it's close enough that Cassidy didn't get hurt, but far enough this thing couldn't get in because it was too small. So the walls of this hole are close enough that Cassidy could rock climb her way out, but it's the kind of thing where if she had assistance or a rope, it would be a lot faster. It's definitely not something that she would be able to get out of in under 30 seconds without assistance.

Cameron: As Emma approaches and sees that while Cassidy with her climbing skills could get out of this hole by herself, Emma being there will be beneficial and it will speed up the process a good amount. So she remains by the hole and starts watching the distraction that is occurring with the rest of the group and the spider, and is trying to figure out how this ends without anybody getting injured any more than they already are, and how they all get away when Cassidy is not the one who is on a quickly moving object. So as Emma is watching the distraction take place and seeing that chaos continue, she unstraps her sword from the strap she has it on across her chest and once it's removed kneels down because she now has the space to kneel down and reattaches the buckle on the strap and lowers the whole sword still in its carrier down into the hole so that whenever Cassidy gets there, she just has to get up to where she can reach the hilt or the pommel of the sword to grab onto so that Emma can help lift her out.

Nick: Great. So Emma is preparing the way, Cassidy is crawling back along this low passage quickly, and Birdie you are riding a motorcycle straight at this monster that is picking up speed moving in your direction. It does currently appear to be mostly focused at the ground with a partial focus on Marathon who is approaching from another side.

Kit: Birdie makes the split second decision to actually choose one of Renn's remote detonation explosives and she's like,

Kit (as Birdie): Well time to see if it works.

Kit: And is going to take both hands off of the handlebars for like one second because she was like kind of person who would be able to drive with no hands confidently and she's going to grab the motorcycle handle bar, chuck the explosive, and then yank her stick so that the remote is pointing directly at the explosive that she just threw. So it looks very awkward to have her staff be almost javelin like on her shoulder in order to point it this way, but she really doesn't want to become Birdie soup. So

Nick: All right, make me a Ranged attack roll. We'll say average but you have two black die because you're trying to do all of this from the back of a speeding motorcycle.

Kit: So I'll be rolling two yellows, one green, against two purple and two black. Two failures and an advantage.

Nick: Okay, so would you like to use the advantage to be that you don't hit Marathon with this explosive that you chucked?

Kit: Yeah, yeah, as long as I'm not killing Marathon, that's good.

Nick: Okay, so you throw the explosive, you do make the throw correctly, it bounces off of the center of mass of this thing, but you struggle to detonate it easily because of this being the first time you've really used it and you are on the back of a motorcycle and trying not to crash and the explosive falls to the ground before going off beneath this spider and it is wreathed in smoke and fire and as the debris and dust clears this thing is directly in your path on the motorcycle and is charging at you.

Kit (as Birdie): Doh shit.

Nick: Marathon, you are picking up speed on your grav skates heading back towards this spider. You see Birdie throw an explosive, it appears to have done nothing to it and the spider is attacking Birdie.

Penn: As Marathon begins charging back towards this twisted metal creature, we see her eyes narrow as she starts to enter the hype a little bit and we get a cut of just her mouth as it turns from an intense grit of her teeth to a sort of smirk as she has this pole out extended and charges towards this monster and up one of its legs towards the quotation marks head of this creature and leaps up to try and jam her pole almost like a jousting lance into this top cylinder.

Nick: Okay, you're attempting to do something very difficult because you're skating on already slippery grav skates on a thin and moving target that will react to you being close to it, so this is going to be an Athletics check - daunting difficulty - that is four purples - and you are also going to have a black die because this thing is seeing you coming and is going to try to stop you as you do it.

Penn: Because this is such a cool moment and Marathon feels very in her zone and is used to these kinds of obstacles in the arena, I would like to flip a Story Point to upgrade my check. So with the upgrade, I have three yellows, one green, four purple and a black die.

[dice rolling]

Penn: Looks like actually a total wash. Because of my Natural talent I can reroll either Brawl or Athletics once per session, and I would like to do that right now.

[dice rolling]

Penn: A single success.

Nick: Wow. Okay, so you're able to do it. You skate up the side of this leg. It tries to flip you away, but you account for it and you find yourself in the air having ramped up over it able to strike home.

Penn: Time slows. The air is still smoky and foggy from Birdie's explosion earlier and Marathon emerges from this smoke to shove this rusted metal rod straight through the top cylinder of this thing, leaving it just as almost like a handlebar. And she starts falling back to the ground, tries to catch herself on a leg on the other side of this creature before tumbling into a roll on the other side. And checking to make sure she still has its attention before starting to skate away.

Nick: Oh yeah, you have its attention. You slam this bar home. You are actually not able to pierce the casing of the cylinder but there is a crevice into some mechanics closer down to the body and as you attempt to shove this bar in to what looks like a head it skips off to the side and lodges somewhere further in. You can hear a mechanical whining as the spider misses a step and several legs shoot straight out and go rigid. Birdie, you are forced to swerve the motorcycle drastically to get out of the way and the spider begins to, for the first time, appear uncoordinated as some parts of its legs attempt to walk the spider after Marathon and some parts are scrabbling angrily at its own body trying to pull this pipe out of where it is lodged. And Cassidy you see daylight up ahead, and as you approach the hole you originally fell into, you see Emma's large zweihander sword hanging hilt first tantalizingly at eye level.

Sydney: Cassidy squints against the sunlight but looks up and sees Emma's arm hanging down with the sword which is a convenient handhold now, and immediately takes a running leap and pushes up off of the wall as high as she can get to see if she can just reach the sword without having to do a proper climb first.

Nick: Yeah you're able to reach it with standing on your tiptoes you can get a grip on it, it would be a useful help for climbing free.

Cameron: I would like to bicep curl Cassidy out of this. [laughing] She was kneeling at was dangling her arm down into the thing so she could continue to stand up. Add some leg strength to the bicep curl. [laughing]

Nick: So Emma through main strength your goal is to just pull Cassidy out of this hole as quickly as possible. Make me a hard Athletics check.

Sydney: Can I give a blue die for also wanting to climb out?

Nick: Yes, you can add a blue die for kicking off the walls and trying to find leghold says she does this.

Sydney: Or what are your Athletics stats? I have a three in Athletics and a two in Brawn, so

Cameron: I've got a two in Athletics and a three in Brawn, so

Sydney: So I could assist with the proper - I could upgrade your die one.

Nick: Yeah, if you do this collaboratively, you could roll with three yellows.

Cameron: Alright, I have three yellows and three purples.

[dice rolling]

Cameron: Three successes and one threat.

Nick: Great for the threat you take two Strain because you do this very quickly and it takes some energy to do but otherwise you and Cassidy are able to get her out of the hole extremely quickly. How do you lift her out?

Cameron: So Emma had been kneeling next to the hole with one knee down, the other up and had leaned over to the side to drape her arm and the sword into the hole and as she sees Cassidy's light come through and feels Cassidy reach the pommel of the sword, she starts to stand while doing a bicep curl and just continues to stand and back away until Cassidy pops out over the edge.

Sydney: Cassidy puts a couple of boots on the wall just to provide some more upward momentum but turns out it's not super needed.

Nick: Yeah, this goes very smoothly. It looks like a maneuver that you've practiced before and you are out of the hole. Both of you can see that Marathon and Birdie are back on the side of this spider that is closer to the rig and the gas station and the spider seems fairly well absorbed with the two of them. Only a couple of eyes appear to be pointed in your direction.

Penn (as Marathon): [yelling] That's right. I know Miss Cassidy can play hard to get but I can play harder.

Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] What was that Marathon?

Penn (as Marathon): [yelling] Yip, yip little doggy follow me this way.

Sydney: Cassidy had her eyebrows raised at Emma's ease in which she got up but that was quickly erased by seeing everyone actively engaged with this spider monster. And she just looks at Emma and goes

Sydney (as Cassidy): Thanks.

Cameron (as Emma): Yep, no problem.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Time to run.

Cameron (as Emma): Yep.

Cameron: As soon as Cassidy let go of the sword, Emma was slinging it back over cross body and was starting to do the slight run backwards that people do before the just take take off in the other direction and is starts heading back towards the rig.

Sydney: Emma does notice now that they're up in the light that Cassidy is quite dusty and has a trickle of blood running down her face from one temple

Cameron: But she's moving so we don't have time to deal with that right now. [laughing]

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] All right Cassidy is up. We're getting to the rig. Y'all keep distractin'.

Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Can do.

Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Up to the task!

Nick: So at this point, the spider is much less effective. It is slower and more distracted. It appears to be divided in whether it wants to see to its wound or deal with the attackers and is fairly easy to keep occupied as Cassidy and Emma run back to the rig. Marathon and Birdie you are able to continue in your circles around the spider keeping it busy. In the distance you hear the rig rumble to life as Emma and Cassidy get it started and they begin to haul in a direction away from the spider gaining space and moving to safety.

Penn: After a little bit of time, Marathon and Birdie make eye contact in these circles around the spider and they both give a knowing nod. Marathon leans down,

Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Uh, split up, circle back to the rig?

Kit (as Birdie): [over radio] Yeah. Don't die.

Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] [laugh] You don't either.

Penn: Marathon chuckles and the two split up.

Nick: We see the motorcycle carving a arc away from the spider and in the direction of the rig and Marathon taking a more direct path in the same direction, as the spider, all of the eyes following the retreating Patina slowly converging to a single point. A cluster of arms reaches down next to the head, wraps around this pole that was jammed into a joint, and rips it free with a metallic grinding noise and we see the pole crushed into a jagged pile by this combination of hands and dropped to the ground where it clangs. We see the spider standing still watching the Patina leave, and from the perspective behind the spider watching the retreating Patina, a large scratch on the armored cylinder of the head. The casing for these cameras is visible, shiny and exposed because it is newly acquired.

[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