Transcript: Season 3 Episode 58: Pain and Dismay

A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript  

Season 3 Episode 58: Pain and Dismay

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 and Gwendolyn Rozenthall.

Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling and Vaus Foundling.

Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood and Janus Foundling.

Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard and Winifred Foundling.

Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.

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

It looks like spring has sprung for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, so let this be your call to action to go outside, touch some grass, smell a flower or two, and then run back inside because there are plants out there and that means your sinuses are now full of pollen and won’t be letting you breathe again until summer. At least you got to smell that flower before they closed up.

And if you need something to listen to while you’re never going back outside again until the plants are gone, consider backing our Patreon, which gives you access to bonus episodes, campfire conversations, and other fun rewards.

And with that, we wrap up today’s announcements and head into Season 3, Episode 58: Pain and Dismay. 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]  

Penn (as Marathon):  Last time on a Knight of Shreds and Patches, we’re still battling for the fate of uh, Sasnak Traveling, trying to keep these mercenaries from taking over. Meanwhile I finally met someone who is maybe my match for now in another exosuit and I currently am stabbed. Uh~ but luckily Birdie is coming straight away with backup, as she told me, hopefully, or somebody. Um she’s up there with those Ramp Girls - maybe they’ll help too. Uh~ yeah. Let’s save this city! Augh! Dirt.     

[radio static]

Episode Start:  

Nick:  Battle under Sasnak Traveling continues in full swing as the Patina fights for the repair and freedom of the city from the mercenary invasion. Emma is currently in the Knight as it heads out of control towards the Ramp and her friends. Cassidy is suspended from the ceiling in a sniper's nest having just saved the Knight from a shaped explosive. Marathon is currently fighting another exosuit at the base of the Ramp. Birdie is further up the Ramp behind a wall of flames, having just influenced the Ramp Girls into being more favorable towards Marathon and the Patina. And Winifred has just managed to get to the device that is locking down the city itself. The sound of combat continues to rage as guns are fired and blades clash. The majority of the mercenaries are no longer climbing up into the city thanks to Emma's actions earlier, cutting down their grapples and ladders and cherry picker baskets. Everyone is at risk. Everyone is locked in combat, and anyone could be hurt at any time.

Penn:  Marathon who is struggling with this person in the combat suit is holding on to this spike that has wedged itself near her shoulder in a hole in the exosuit, and she shouts over comms, 

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] I could use some help. Over. I'm about to get stabbed real bad.

Kit:  Birdie will hear Marathon's plea, and will wrap up her conversation with the Ramp Girls with a quick 

Kit (as Birdie):  Oh, you know, I'm just gonna go make sure Marathon's got everything handled down there, but I'll be right back. Okay, shouldn't take too long. I mean, she's so competent. [fake laugh]

Cameron (as Ramp Girl):  No, no. Checking up on your friends is good. 100%.

Kit (as Birdie):   Exactly, exactly.

Kit:  And Birdie will attempt to appear casual as she starts prepping a hand grenade from her pack to hopefully toss in this opponent of Marathon's direction and give Marathon a bit of breathing room.

Nick:  So there is a wall of fire between you and Marathon currently, so are you going to try to throw through the fire, or are you going to jump through the fire?

Kit:  She's just looking to get through it. I don't think that she's going to toss it from the other side, simply because of having a little bit more precision with this would be great, because Marathon is in very close quarters with this individual.

Nick:  That is true. So I think you're gonna have to make two checks here, Birdie. You're gonna need to make an Athletics check to run and jump through the fire and then a Ranged Attack to throw the grenade. 

Kit:  Alrighty.

Nick:  We'll say the Athletics is average. Shouldn't be too hard. You're running downhill.

Kit:  Birdie's looking to not make it too hard on herself because of her injury, obviously, she's not doing anything fancy with it, and is just moving quickly through the area. Birdie will be rolling two yellow against two purple. A success and a threat.

Nick:  Nice. The threat is that your sleeve catches on fire some and you take two Strain putting it out while you are running down this hill.

Kit:  Anyone who is paying attention to the radio does hear Birdie go 

Kit (as Birdie):  [birdie noise] [whispered] Ow fuck! Okay okay. Ow. Fuck.

Kit:  While she bats it out on her sleeve, and once she's in the clear, she will line up her toss. Marathon is further up on the Ramp, so she's trying to have this grenade go off behind Marathon's opponent, to sort of dysregulate the fight. Have there be maybe just even a little bit of the blast, push this person off balance, or do a little bit of damage, but is trying to not actually throw it at Marathon.

Nick:  Okay. They're on top of each other, so it will be a challenging throw. So I'm going to say this is a hard check, but if you are successful, it won't hit Marathon. It's hard because you're trying to go past and be very selective here, and that's harder to do. And I want to flip a GM Story Point to upgrade it.

Kit:  Okay, Birdie is rolling, three yellow, one green, one red, and two purple. One Triumph, three successes, an advantage, and a Despair.

Nick:  [laughing] Yay~. 

Kit:  All Marathon gets is a 

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Uh watch your head, Marathon.

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] [strained yell]

Penn:  Marathon shouts as she's pushing back on this spike with both hands. 

Nick:  So the Despair is that this grenade plops right in between these two suits and will hit them both equally, but the Triumph can be that you Crit on the bad guy and not Marathon. These hand grenades are basically the same as your normal explosive, so they share the same stats. Like you didn't deliberately go get higher explosive grenades you made bottles of shit to throw, so that's six plus, you said three successes, that's nine damage going at both of them, and we get to roll a Crit on the bad suit.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  Alrighty, I rolled an 83 - Winded: the target cannot voluntarily suffer Strain to activate any abilities or gain additional Maneuvers until this Critical Injury is healed.

Nick:  Well, what's cool about that is that is exactly what Birdie wanted to do, so that's good. We'll ignore the armor, since it's an AoE type thingy, but you still get your plus two Soak. So that is nine damage going at both of them.

Penn:  Okay, so I do take two Wounds, and then that is all the Wounds I currently have, so that takes me down to zero. Does that knock me out? 

Nick:  Yeah.

Penn:  But it doesn't, because I'm spending a Story Point to use Indomitable in order to stay up until the end of my next turn.

Nick:  So you're still up. You're fine.

Penn:  Some of this shrapnel definitely explodes out, and there are definitely pieces sticking both out of the Exosuit and out of the small openings for Marathon skin in the Exosuit. 

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Ooooh. Fuck shit.

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] Holy dirt! What?! [shocked breathing]

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Sorry! 

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] Aaahh.

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Sorry!

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] They're exploding now too? Over.

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Uh no. Nope - that one was me. Sorry.

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] Please [mumbles]

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Are you blowing up Marathon? What is happening?

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Only a little. Don't worry about it. She's fine.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Do I need to go help?

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] No she's fine. She's fine, she's fine, she's literally fine, she's fine.

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] [pained noise] I um, uh uh -

Penn:  Has the spike dislodged from her after the explosion?

Nick:  Yeah, the explosion knocked the enemy exosuit back a little bit, and they pulled the spike with them. 

Penn:  Marathon, now freed, is in a little bit of a shock. Her eyes on the inside of the Exosuit are blinking very heavily, and as she looks around on the inside of the HUD of the Exosuit, we see there are three of the same Settings windows open. She shakes her head and shouts, 

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] Oh, well, I guess thanks for getting them off me~! 

Penn:  And she starts stumbling forward with the Exosuit back towards this guy.

Nick:  So as the Knight is charging towards the Ramp, some of the mercenaries down on the ground are looking up to see where some of the sniper fire and everything has come from and there's going to be a barrage of fire at Cassidy, since the last thing Cassidy did was create an explosion and kill a bunch of people. So Cameron, can you roll me a yellow and two greens versus three purples for this barrage of bullets going towards Cassidy?

Sydney:  Cassidy has two Ranged Defense, and I'm going to take two Strain to upgrade that difficulty twice with my Dodge Talent.

Cameron:  So two reds, a purple, two blacks, two greens, and a yellow. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  One success, two threats. 

Nick:  Oh, wow. These piddly rifles do six damage each, so that'll be seven damage going towards Cassidy. And anybody who attacks this platoon of rifle people will get two blue die to shoot at them because they are standing in the open shooting straight up.

Sydney:  Cassidy has two Soak, so she'll take five Wounds. Cassidy is in pretty decent cover, so she isn't hit directly, but the pure volume of fire into the duct that she's hiding behind starts carving a hole, and she's hit by spalling off the far side, filling her torso full of small pieces of shrapnel, and she cries out in pain and rotates to the further side to put more material between her and the guns.

Nick:  Who wants to go next? So it's Winifred, Cassidy, or Marathon.

Sydney:  Winifred has been trying to ignore the various cries of pain and dismay coming across the radio as she has been trying to diagnose how best to disable and remove the anchoring device, and she's really hoping that people will be intact still when she's done, but she knows that she's kind of the most critical person here, and she does not want to screw this up.

Nick:  Yeah so this device is about the size of an oil barrel. It has been affixed to the underside of the city and there is a gangplank that luckily runs around the general area where it is. The module is crisscrossed with glowing green lines that are working their way up into the city like an upside down tree spreading roots, and there is an access panel on one side that has a standard data port. The only thing keeping Winifred from getting into that is there is a metal cage over it that is locked with a simple lock.

Sydney:  Winnifred squints at the cage, squints at the lines, stands at an angle, readies her pistol and aims it directly at the lock. 

Nick:  Yep. That's certainly a way to do that. Roll me a Fortune die, please.

[die rolling]

Sydney:  That is two Fortune pips.

Nick:  Yeah Winifred blows this lock apart and the cage falls open, no negative consequences, and the bullet doesn't ricochet anywhere. Lucky you. 

Sydney:  Winifred quickly gets her tablet plugged in, figuring that if there is any countermeasures on board, she's willing to sacrifice her tablet for the sake of the city, and hits the button on her watch radio. 

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] I've got physical access. Trying to get it turned off now.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Sounds good, work fast…

Nick:  Yeah, so this is going to be a daunting Wild Tech check. 

Sydney:  That will be four yellows against four purples, and I'm gonna flip a Story Point to add a green die to that. 

[dice rolling]

Sydney:  Four successes and two advantages.

Nick:  Awesome. So there's a certain amount of successes you need to get to actually disable this thing all the way - that is a lot of them, but not all of them. There are layers and layers that Winifred is having to go through, but also with the two advantages, Winifred can give herself two blue die on the next check as she sets herself up for a better incursion as she continues.

Sydney:  Winifred has been cracking systems like these since she was a kid, since the first time that she had a tablet and was trying to figure out how to do things that it didn't strictly allow. And it quickly becomes apparent that while this tech is really good, wherever they cobbled it together from or maybe found and restored it, they didn't totally understand how it was working. They knew what it would do. They knew how to use it, but they didn't know everything about every piece of the process, and Winifred is quickly able to start digging into the system. It seems like they went for quantity over quality, and there are many layers of security, but once she finds an exploit to get past one, it applies to multiple but it just takes some time to do the hash cracking to hit the same type of thing over and over. It's just like an iterative, layered approach. It is slowing her down enough that she isn't able to do it in one pass. But so far, she hasn't seen anything that she doesn't think that she can get past, and she's quickly tapping away on her tablet and running a bunch of saved subroutines to be able to get her way through this.

Nick:  As Winifred is hacking away, the same group of mercenaries that fired at Cassidy is going to take a shot up at Winifred, so I need another one yellow and two greens, please, against three purples. And we'll say Winifred can get a black die because she's under cover too.

Sydney:  Yeah, Winifred doesn't have any Defense because she's not in battle armor. She will take one Strain to upgrade the check once because she only has one rank of Dodge compared to Cassidy's two.

Cameron:  So one red, two purple, a black, a yellow, and two greens. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  One failure, an advantage, and a Despair.

Nick:  Bad guy's got a Despair. So the failure means that they miss. The Despair is that the Ramp Girls' catapult that they use to discourage incursions on the day to day, has found itself a nice target in this platoon of mercenaries with rifles and fires at them, crushing several of them under compressed trash projectiles and scattering them so that they can no longer fire cohesively.

Sydney:  Winifred lays down onto the catwalk trying to minimize her silhouette as much as possible hearing another couple of bullets ricochet off nearby, and does her best to try to ignore what's happening, only to hear that particular volley of fire be interrupted by the sounds of metal crushing, but does not spare a glance because she thinks she's getting close.

Nick:  Up next we've got Marathon and Cassidy.

Penn:  After the exchange that Winifred and Cassidy have had over the radio, you start to hear Marathon softly whispering, since she hasn't turned hers off, 

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] Don't fuck up. Don't fuck up. 

Penn:  As she's pushing herself forward, and she charges forward with a raised fist to try and sock this exosuit in the head.

Nick:  Okay, that will be a Brawl check at average difficulty.

Penn:  Can I flip another Story Point to upgrade? 

Nick:  Sure. 

Penn:  So I will be rolling five yellow against two purples.

[dice rolling]

Penn:  Three successes and four advantages.

Nick:  Nice. Crit four is as low as it goes and that counts, so you can, if you want.

Penn:  Yeah, let's Crit on this exoframe for the second time. 

Nick:  How much damage total is it? 

Penn:  I've got five Brawn with the exosuit, so eight.

Nick:  Okay, you clock him pretty good. Let's roll that Crit and see what happens.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  43 which then adds 10 from the previous Crit, takes us to a 53 - Fearsome Wound: The target increases the difficulty of all Presence and Willpower checks by one until this Critical Injury is healed.

Penn:  Marathon, as her fist connects with this guy's exo-head, we just hear a large bonk as the head bounces off her fist and sends him stumbling just a second more while he's still getting his feet after this explosion and Marathon, who's just been mumbling,

Penn (as Marathon):  [over radio] Don't fuck up. Don't fuck up.

Penn:  Follows her fist with her body and collapses in a heap right in front of this guy. Her mumbles have gotten less and less intelligible until she falls.

Nick:  The opposing exosuit stumbles back a few steps after being clocked by Marathon. Then as it regains its balance, it looks around and sees that his main opponent has dropped, and begins to step forward menacingly.

Cameron:  Emma, trapped in the Knight that has been taken over, but still being able to see out of the screens to see the chaos occurring around her, watches Marathon throw the punch and go down as the Knight is heading towards this opposing exosuit, and starts wildly hitting controls, trying to take control back over but it's not in any planned approach at all, and does nothing. But she starts yelling through her radio. 

Cameron (as Emma):  [radio] Marathon! Marathon, are you up? Marathon, get back up. Shit. Marathon, I'm coming.

Nick:  Roll me a Fortune die, please?

[die rolling]

Cameron:  I rolled two Misfortune pips.

Nick:  Emma, there's a loud burst of static and the radio appears to be disabled, and no one hears your cries as you are trapped inside this cockpit.

Cameron (as Emma):  Fuck. Shit. Well, I'm coming anyway, I guess.

Nick:  Does Birdie have any reaction to Marathon going down?

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Aw shit balls. Um uh

Kit:  That's pretty much it. That's what all people over the radio hear is her trying to figure out whether or not she should go back to the Ramp Girls or if she should try to free Marathon from the exosuit while actively dodging fire.

Nick:  And Birdie, as you are struck with that indecisiveness, you see the other exosuit lock on to you and take a menacing step forward.

Kit (as Birdie):  [nervous laughter] Hey...

Nick:  And it's Cassidy's turn.

Sydney:  Cassidy, not having heard any clear communication about the status on the other side of the Ramp, goes to take the last shot currently loaded into her rifle, at the people who were just shooting at her and at Winifred, and sees that while they've been mostly scattered by the catapult, there's at least one that hasn't quite broken and run yet. And while she's lining up this shot, she's on the radio going,

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] How's the Ramp looking? That was a lot of unclear mumbles.

Sydney:  And takes a shot at the last guy of that platoon that has mission on his mind.

Nick:  All right, it's a long range shot so that's three purples.

Sydney:  I will use my Maneuver to Aim, and then I will be rolling three yellows, two greens, a blue from aiming, two blues from the Accurate two, against three purples.

[dice rolling]

Sydney:  Four successes and five advantages.

Nick:  Huh. [impressed] Yeah, this guy's super fucked.

Sydney:  Yeah, I would like to use these advantages to make the people around him very secure in their choice that they would be much better off not shooting up and should get back into the cover of their vehicles and wait for things to calm down.

Nick:  Yeah, I am fine with you spending five advantages that what's left of these people break and run for cover as fast as they can, probably not even getting in the vehicle - it's probably diving under vehicles.

Sydney:  But it's trying to clear the immediate threat from her and from Winifred, because as far as Cassidy knows, they're the ones that have been in the most danger recently. And she begins to pull bullets off of her bandolier and load them, one at a time into her rifle as she ducks back into cover.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Winifred - how's it going? 

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] [annoyed like a child just asked her if we're there yet] I'm going as fast as I can. It's a lot of security.

Cameron (as Emma):  [intense] Cassidy. Things on the Ramp are bad. Marathon's down!

Kit:  Birdie will chime in, which is the one that Cassidy actually hears, which is

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Um, checking in from the Ramp - everything's great. Can you hold please?

Cameron (as Emma):  Cassidy, you should really get over to this side of the Ramp. Birdie is facing down an exosuit, and I'm trapped in a machine that has a will of its own. 

Cameron:  Emma is frantically flipping the radio button on and off in an attempt to try to get it to go through.

Nick:  There are just bursts of static. It continues to be inoperable.

Cameron (as Emma):  Ugh.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Birdie, I don't like that tone of voice.

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Aaww [noises] can you give me one second?

Cameron (as Emma):  That's because she's lying to you. Things are not fine. Why can I hear all of them but you won't let me talk? 

Cameron:  And Emma is gesturing wildly at the screen as if it is the personification of this virus. 

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Emma, how's the Knight doing? You getting over to the Ramp? 

Cameron (as Emma):  [radio] I am headed towards the Ramp. The Knight is bad. The Knight is purple. I don't have control. Y'all can't hear me. And -

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

Cameron (as Emma):  - Marathon is down, and the guy is walking towards Birdie and has a big, scary stick, and Birdie is already just like, just barely holding on.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Is Emma -

Cameron (as Emma):  This is gonna go terrible.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Uh Winifred is there a way that she could lose radio connection?

Cameron (as Emma):  Yes, [overlapping] there is, because I have. Right now.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] [overlapping] Uh, I mean I suppose if it's taking control of core systems.

Cameron (as Emma):  It has taken control of all systems. All systems taken control of.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Well,

Cameron (as Emma):  It's ever so kindly allowing me to listen in to all of y'all so I know how badly things are going.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] I guess uh Emma, don't murder all of our people on our side and turn the Knight off before you do.

Nick:  On that note, Emma, as you are frantically trying to get a message out through the Knight, the Knight continues to stalk towards the Ramp. It takes an extra large step up onto the Ramp without going down to where the Ramp is actually contacting the ground. And you see, without any input to the controls, the Knight reaching towards the enemy exosuit, and it grabs it in one hand by the head and picks it up off the ground and swings the sword against the exosuit with its other hand, lopping this thing in half in a spray of blood and smoke and electric sparks, before slamming the top half of this exosuit and now dead mercenary into the ground with the other hand. And the Knight stomps down upon this now partially mechanical corpse and turns to look up the Ramp towards Birdie, the wall of fire, and the Ramp Girls and the city beyond.

Cameron (as Emma):  Oh, hey, Knight, actually, that was super cool, because I was gonna ask you if we could bisect that guy, and we just kind of did that anyway without me actually saying it out loud. So that was cool. Um. Eugh. Can we go the other direction? How about we turn around now? Um, please. Let's, let's leave.

Nick:  Hey, roll me another Fortune die.

Cameron:  Two good Fortune pips. I would argue that it is actually good fortune for me for them to not hear that.

Nick:  Okay with those good Fortune pips, the radio stays disabled, and nobody hears your panic as you are still attempting to control the Knight. 

Kit:  What everyone does hear from Birdie in this moment of watching the Knight, who she still believes to be piloted by Emma, completely rip some one in half, which is rather out of character for Emma, they do hear her go, 

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] [gasp] Emma, what the fuck are you doing? That was great. That was great. That was awesome. Um, Holy fuck. Holy fuck.

Cameron (as Emma):  Look, we just have a lot of pent up rage over here, okay? Uh, virus has been locked up for a very long time.

Kit:  Birdie just got traumatized and a piece of intestine landed at her feet.

Nick:  And everyone has now gone so we're back to the top of the order. Emma you see a targeting reticle on the screen start to bounce around, pinging targets. It pings several Ramp Girls through the flames. It hovers for a minute on another downed exosuit that you realize is Marathon, who is down on the ground, and then it locks onto Birdie, who is slightly blood splattered and staring up at you in horror, and takes a menacing half step forward as it appears that the incursion on the Knight has identified Birdie as the next target.

Kit:  Birdie is watching as the Knight moves in a way that, although she hasn't seen the Knight piloted very much since joining the Patina, she knows how Emma tends to move it or how Cassidy tends to pilot. It's not this and in the split second before she makes the realization that Emma is not the one in control, she does try to say,

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Marathon's fine, she's just, you know, resting. Uh, Emma - I don't think she can hear me. Um. You're scaring me a little bit, Emma. I can't lie. [uncomfortable laugh] Um

Cameron (as Emma):  That's all right Birdie. I'm scaring myself too. 

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] I uh, I'm gonna go ge- I'm gonna go -

Cameron (as Emma):  Why are you still just standing there? Please move!

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] - up there now.

Kit:  And Birdie is going to take this moment to do a full 180 turn and start sprinting as best she can back up the Ramp and through the wall of fire to hopefully at least get the Ramp Girls to safety from whatever's happening with the Knight.

Nick:  Birdie, I need you to make me an Athletics check - because you are on your bad leg going uphill through fire, we'll say hard.

Kit:  Birdie will be rolling two yellow against three Purple. A failure, just one failure.

Nick:  Okay, go ahead and roll me two green die, please.

Kit:  Two successes and an advantage.

Nick:  Great. So you take only two damage that ignores Soak as you stumble and fall through the fire and you fall prone just on the other side with your failure. So you do manage to put the fire in between you and the Knight, but you do not make it back to cover the protection of the other Ramp Girls and you are mildly smoking.

Kit:  As Birdie falls uphill, she attempts to catch herself as best possible and winds up a little on fire again and over the radio Cassidy and Winifred, hear her come in as she takes a last shot at protecting herself from whatever's about to happen. [laugh]

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Uh Cassidy, Winifred - I think I thi- something's wrong, wrong with the Knight. Something something's - Emma. Something's wrong with Emma, or something.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] I'm coming back. Winifred you're on your own for a second. Anything else I need to know before I get over there?

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] Um, 

Cameron (as Emma):  Marathon is down!

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] [rushed] Marathon is down but it's going to be okay. She's really fine. She's fine she's fine she's fine.

Cameron (as Emma):  [overlapping] She is laying on the ground in front me.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] [overlapping] Birdie are you fucking lying about the status of our group -

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] She's fine -

Sydney (as Cassidy):  - in the middle of a battle? 

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] [stammering] She she's - There are bigger things to do.

Sydney:  Cassidy has left her cover and is now running back towards the other side of the Ramp.

Nick:  The Knight continues to stalk forward with a feral hunch and smoothness of gait that is not normal for when it is being piloted and Birdie from where you have fallen, you see the Knight stepping forward into the wall of flames, wreathed in fire as it seems to revel in the heat, unmoving for a second, then peer down at you through the smoke and flame. 

Cameron (as Emma):  No! Get out of the fire! What are you doing?

Nick:  Heat warnings start to go off, Emma, in the cockpit.

Cameron (as Emma):  Do you have no self preservation? If this melts, you melt. What are you - oh my gosh! [under breath] Artificial intelligence was supposed to be intelligent.

Nick:  The Knight is fine. The cockpit begins to get much, much warmer. 

Cameron (as Emma):  I don't want to be cooked! Stop it. 

Cameron:  Emma, in an attempt to basically try all of the other options that she has before activating this kill switch that Winifred set up for her, she is trying everything that she has done that has worked before. There's just buttons everywhere and they're just all getting hit, and you don't have no idea what they mean so it just looks completely random and haphazard, but she is working through her plan of trying to regain some of the control of the systems from this evil AI, but it's not working, and so she's just, since no one can hear her, she's apparently just having the conversation with herself really, and with the incursion AI, even though it doesn't respond or appear to be taking her input into consideration at all, she's using venting and just talking aloud to keep herself more calm at this point basically.

Nick:  Up next would be either Cassidy or Winifred.

Sydney:  Cassidy is running and vaulting, working her way back to an angle where she can actually see down Ramp and see what's going on with Birdie. What she now realizes is why Marathon has stopped stalking on the radio. Her expectation is that the Knight is going to be doing the things it was doing the last time it went out of control, though she fortunately was inside of it last time and a little safer. 

But while this is happening, Winifred is continuing to work to break down the defenses of the device that's disabling Sasnak. She knows that now she has lost her escort, but she is hoping that she's almost done and there isn't any gunfire or anything aimed at her currently, so she's feeling reasonably confident that her position prone against the catwalk is hiding her enough from view.

Nick:  That'll be another daunting Wild Tech check with two blue die from your previous advantages.

Sydney:  So that'll be four yellows and two blues against four purples. 

[dice rolling]

Sydney:  Five successes and two advantages.

Nick:  Good job. That is enough successes that Winifred disables this device. The thing that is jamming the city and keeping it from restarting is taken offline.

Sydney:  The green lights that had been spreading out from the device as Winifred hits the last command and looks up above her at where the devices have started slowly pulling back into the device as the incursion features have been disabled in the city's natural countermeasures overcome the inertia and begin to push the invasion back out, and she takes a deep breath and hugs her tablet to her chest before realizing that she needs to get out of the way in case this thing, as it finishes its shut down cycle, the electromagnetic turns off and it drops through where she is currently practically underneath it.

Nick:  Winifred as you clear the potential fall zone for this device, you see that you were correct. The lights dim and then go out, and this large cylinder detaches from the underside of the city and falls to the catwalk with a loud clang. You feel the grating beneath you shift just a little as the metal is bent by the sheer weight of this device. It doesn't bounce. It just sticks because it's so heavy and the city is presumably free.

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] Okay, the device is off. How are things looking? 

Cameron (as Emma):  Not fabulous, Winired. 

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] [panting slightly] Good.

Cameron (as Emma):  I gotta be honest.

Kit (as Birdie):  [over radio] It's fine. It's fine.

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Is it fine? 

Cameron (as Emma):  No~.

Kit:  Birdie is trying to tug her legs up out of the fire and get back up to her feet. 

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] I'm on my way over to go help them. Just stay out of sight. You will have to get you back to the core, I guess. 

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] Yeah, we'll go turn it back on. Emma?

Cameron (as Emma):  Yeah?

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] We’ve got -

Cameron (as Emma):  What's up Winifred?

Sydney (as Winifred):  [over radio] If the Knight's acting up, I mean, don't let it hurt anyone.

Cameron (as Emma):  I mean I already ripped a person in half just a second ago, so~ - it's okay. He was a bad guy. He hurt Marathon. Um [sigh] But yeah, I don't intend to let the Knight hurt my friendos up on the Ramp. I'm working on it, it's fine.

Sydney:  And Winifred starts making her way with a lot less speed than she came out there. Now her mission is accomplished, and her stamina is entirely spent on the sprint and the parkour out there. She's looking mainly for stable platforms and hard sidelines.

Nick:  Up next is Cassidy.

Sydney:  The relief that Cassidy would have felt upon hearing that Winifred completed her mission is somewhat tempered by that she still doesn't have a clear picture of what's going on on the Ramp, except that Marathon is down and the Knight is not Emma anymore, and she is running flat out to get back to the Ramp to do something. While she runs, she uses a Maneuver to reload her rifle, which has the Limited Ammo four quality, and spends her second Maneuver to get all the way back to somewhere where she can see to witness the Knight.

Nick:  Cassidy, as you find your way back to the top of the Ramp, you see the Knight stepping out of the wall of flames. Birdie is down on the ground where she's fallen, and the Knight is clearly focused on her lifting a leg like it's going to step on her. 

Sydney:  Cassidy knows that nothing that she has is likely to be able to really damage the Knight. About the best that she can hope for is that she can draw the Knight's attention, and there's a lot more distance between her and the Knight than there is between Birdie and the Knight, and maybe she'll get lucky and hit a hydraulic line and slow it down. She sights and looking towards the ankle of the foot that's not currently raised, hoping she can hit something that will knock it off balance.

Nick:  As Cassidy lines up this shot, Emma from inside the cockpit you can see that a threat display has lit up. The Knight is still focused on Birdie, but it acknowledges that someone is aiming a weapon at the Knight, and you can see as it zooms in, that it's Cassidy with her rifle shouldered.

Cameron (as Emma):  Oh fuck - Cassidy, don't shoot me. God damnit...

Sydney (as Cassidy):  [over radio] Emma, whenever you're ready to turn the Knight off, would be great. 

Sydney:  And Cassidy takes the shot.

Cameron (as Emma):  I can't! My foot's above Birdie and Marathon's under me. If I fall, I land on both of them.

Nick:  I am going to say trying to shoot a hydraulic line on an armored thing down a hill is a daunting task.

Sydney:  I do not have the blue die from Aiming, because I used both my normal Maneuver and my bonus Maneuver, so I am rolling three yellows and two greens and two blues against four purples.

[dice rolling]

Sydney:  Six successes and an advantage. 

Nick:  How much total damage is that? 

Sydney:  That'll be 15 damage, Pierce two - which I don't think is enough to hurt the Knight.

Nick:  No, it's not enough to hurt the Knight, but you were calling out a specific shot and I think with that many successes, you are able to just barely knock the Knight off balance.

Sydney:  So Cassidy takes a shot really, aiming to have the bullet bounce around inside the armor and hit something important. She sees the bullet make contact with the armor plating on the ankle, and then she loses track of it, but the Knight doesn't seem to react or lose balance or anything, and she correctly concludes that she did not hurt it. But the Knight angles its head up towards her, and rather than bringing its leg down on Birdie, it begins to stride towards her and towards the collected Ramp Girl entrenchments, as she is the first one in this collection of people to shoot their what had been an ally up till not very long ago. And looking down this war machine from her elevated position, she does not feel especially safe, and it really reinforces why the responsibility of using this thing to protect people weighs heavy on the shoulders of the Patina, because someone using it like this would be really bad.

Cameron (as Emma):  How is making me go up the Ramp better?? There's more people to squish up there, Cassidy.

Nick:  And the Knight is stalking up the Ramp. It steps over Birdie without crushing her and Emma, you see a tracking reticle blip on and crosshairs fall onto Cassidy as the Knight primes its arm cannon to shoot at her. And it's your turn. It hasn't shot yet.

Cameron:  Emma, while still feeling a sense of relief that Birdie and Marathon have been stepped over and remain un-squished by the Knight, watches as the Ramp Girls behind their cover get closer and closer, and sees the number of highlights and things on the screen that starts surrounding Cassidy, and watch the Knight's left arm come up to start pointing towards Cassidy. She's just sigh right now. She's waiting for a safer time to turn the Knight off and I think we're here now. The Knight is now on the Ramp so if the city starts moving again, the Knight is going with it, and there are not currently any large mechanical threats around the Ramp that could damage the Knight, and she would really like to get it shut down before the Ramp Girls decide that she is now hostile. So she starts queuing up the complete shut off that Winifred set up for her, and as she's doing so, she starts talking to the Knight, but like the actual Knight.

Cameron (as Emma):  Hey Knight, like the real you. Um it's been a while since I visited because, you know, we've been really busy on the city, and we were kind of concerned about people finding out that we had you with us, but I know you've probably seen - if you still have any view into what I'm viewing, that a lot of our friends are going down, and if you could help me push back this purple AI taking over, that would be really most excellent for everybody involved. So I don't, I don't know, I don't know if you're even, if you're even on enough to hear me at the moment, but if you could help push from your side, that would be very much appreciated when I do this.

Cameron:  And I'm going to flip a Story Point to get the Knight to help me push back the incursion. So that would upgrade the Wild Tech roll that I'm going to have to do to shut it down?

Nick:  Yep. 

Cameron:  After making her request, Emma flips the scripting that Winifred provided on and what is the difficulty of this Wild Tech roll?

Nick:  This is going to be hard.

Cameron:  So with the upgrade from flipping the Story Point, I will be rolling three yellows, a green, against the three purples.

[dice rolling]

Cameron:  Three successes, an advantage, and a Triumph.

Nick:  Well, that heads off all the complications that I would have done. Congratulations.

Cameron:  If the final action the Knight could make before it complete shuts down is to kneel, that would be ideal, so that I'm not stuck 20 feet in the air, and then that makes it look totally purposeful that I walked up here to get out of my mech suit. 

Nick:  That can be what your Triumph does. Sure.

Cameron:  This looks totally intentional now that I'm just here because, well, the device is deactivated, so obviously we need to go turn the city back on now. [laugh]

Nick:  Emma, as you activate this kill script, at first, nothing happens. The Knight arms its catapult in its arm, and you can see a quick loading to fire, and then in the center of your display, some of the black purple light retreats just a little as the blue green light of the normal Knight appears. And then faster and faster the blue green light pushes back at the purple light. You see a status box appear in the center of the screen that says 'Warning, Incursion, APOC Protocol', and then that screen blinks away and the purple light fully retreats. You still don't have control of the Knight, but it disarms the catapult and slowly kneels to the ground before powering down, having barely avoided hurting any of your friends or your reputation in the city. And as the lights wink out, you hear the rumbling roar of Sasnak Traveling beginning to move. 

[hurdy gurdy music swells]

Outro:

Penn (as Marathon):  Welcome back folks, you’re tuned to Going the Distance: Traveler’s Guide on road dial 1558. That’s a wrap on today’s log and we’re set to loop after these considerations. Further detail for the following is cataloged 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 and in drag as horror king JOHN on Instagram @ john.is.risen. Penn is an indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes SLICE IT OUT, a grisly carving RPG about cutting pieces of yourself out to fit in. 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 and occasional guest player 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. 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 you tune back…

…stay bold and stay kind