Transcript: Season 4 Episode 5: A Fancy Feature

A Knight of Shreds and Patches Transcript

Season 4 Episode 5: A Fancy Feature

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 –

Pen:  Pen Prairie-Larson as Marathon Messenger.

Kit: Kit Adames as Birdie Foundling.

Cameron: Cameron Robertson as Emma Blackwood.

Sydney: Sydney Whittington as Cassidy Shard.

Nick: Nick Robertson as GM and Narrator.

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

Hope all your 11/11 wishes that you may have made yesterday came true! And my dear US listeners, thanks for voting! I join you in being glad the election is over, and share in the wonder and the vindication at the results. Exercising our civic duty has never been so important, and hopefully we’ll see the first positive change in a while come from it soon.

But if you need something to tide you over in the meantime, 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 4, Episode 5: A Fancy Feature. 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]  

Sydney (as Cassidy):  Last time on a Knight of Shreds and Patches, finally got the Knight booted up, just in time to see Emma get snatched by the spider and watch it run away. Fortunately, I hit it with the Knight's cannon and it changed its mind. Unfortunately, it decided to instead go climb into the canyon and hide in a cave. So, I went down after it and cornered it and then I... didn't try and finish it off. It feels familiar and part of my history, or it feels like a waste to destroy it, or it was just a bad tactical decision to fight in such a small space. but I bargained with it by having the Knight translate, and got Emma back, and got a promise that I'll get my headset back here soon too, I think. I don't especially trust it, but for whatever reason I'm going to give it a chance. Aaaand now to go make sure it doesn't get the opportunity to change its mind.

[radio static]

Episode Start:

Nick: The sun kisses the horizon as the members of the Patina watch Cassidy dive over the side of the canyon where the giant mechanical spider had disappeared not that long before. Cassidy luckily was geared up with all of the appropriate climbing gear and is beginning her descent. Let's start with everybody on top of the cliff. How do you all react to this situation? [laughing]

Kit (as Birdie): Cassidy, what the fuck? Why? [groan crying] I'm not going down there. I will go down there. I didn't mean that.

Penn: Marathon is still steaming just a little bit and is setting up tents. Kind of frustratedly threw some stakes off to the side and picks them back up to try and link them back together.

Cameron: Emma has remained in where she was laying across the backseat in the rig, and is still just focusing on her breathing and recuperating, and probably doing some level of self-check-in, seeing like where bruises are and how much she's able to move around before she feels any pain across her ribs, where she got the most force of the spider hug.

Kit: Birdie is kind of between everyone because she's trying to keep an eye on Emma, trying to help get camp set up, and just watched Cassidy rappel off the cliff which is why she's kind of just muttering to herself that she doesn't really want to go down there, but she will, [laugh] but she doesn't want to climb down there. She turns to look at Marathon to see if there's just anything to be done.

Penn (as Marathon): What do you want me to do? I can't climb down there. Or I'm not allowed.

Penn: Marathon stoops down to hammer a stake in.

Kit (as Birdie): [protesting in favor of buddy system noises] Dah- ahh-

Cameron: There's a cough that could possibly be a laugh that comes out of the cap of the rig.

Kit (as Birdie): I, I, duh. We gotta do something. She can't go down there alone.

Penn (as Marathon): [totally not a false calm] She just did. Cassidy's allowed to go and do things alone.

Kit (as Birdie): Oh, are you big mad about this? Okay. That's fine. I'm gonna give you time.

Penn (as Marathon): I'm not mad.

Kit (as Birdie): O-oohhhohoh~ [disbelieving word stretch with laugh] Yeah. I believe you.

Kit: Um, and she's gonna go look over the cliff's edge to see if she can judge in the waning light how deep this really is, because she didn't get a good look during the fight before.

Nick: Yeah, so shadows have begun to extend across this canyon, making it look even more deep than it already is. It's a long way down, and you can see Cassidy still working her way down towards a very obvious cavern in the side of the canyon.

Kit: The way that Cassidy has her line set up, is it possible for someone to hook onto it and follow her down?

Nick: Oh yeah.

Sydney: You'd want like a harness and a rappel tool.

Kit: Well, yeah. Does Birdie know that Cassidy has a spare set of climbing gear that she could get herself into?

Nick: Surely, because Cassidy brings people climbing to bond with them.

Sydney: Mm-hmm.

Kit (as Birdie): Welp. [calling down cliff] Cassidy, I'm gonna follow you down.

Sydney: Cassidy stops, looks up at Birdie leaning off the cliff. 

Sydney (as Cassidy): [calling up cliff] Why?

Kit (as Birdie): [calling down cliff] Because I don't want you to be alone.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [calling up cliff] I'm not gonna - I'm setting up alarms. I'm not gonna go try to fight the spider.

Kit (as Birdie): [calling down cliff] I still don't want you to be alone down there with it.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [calling up cliff] I'm not gonna go in the cave.

Kit (as Birdie): [screaming down cliff] But he could come out of the cave!

Sydney: Cassidy plants her feet on the wall and crosses her arms.

Kit (as Birdie): [calling down cliff] [annoyed] Oh~!

Sydney (as Cassidy): [calling up cliff] If you come down, I'm not gonna be able to get up so fast because there's gonna be someone else on the rope.

Kit (as Birdie): [angry grumbles][false cheerful humming in an attempt to self-soothe]

Kit: Birdie does a quick circle lap away from the cliff's edge to calm herself.

Sydney: Cassidy continues her rappel down, skipping off the wall a few feet at a time.

Kit (as Birdie): We're all gonna die.

Kit: And she's gonna retreat from the cliff's edge.

Penn: Marathon is still hammering stakes in and as Birdie comes near again, she's like,

Penn (as Marathon): Turns out you're Junior Patina too, huh?

Kit (as Birdie): No, she just doesn't want to do anything - [overlapping] I don't know.

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I'm sure.

Kit (as Birdie): She's... [disbelieving manic laughter] I'm gonna go down there. [more normal laugh] Why not?

Kit: Um, Birdie's going to at least get out the climbing gear. And once she has the pieces, she'll go over to Emma.

Kit (as Birdie): [bedside at hospital voice] Hey, bud.

Cameron (as Emma): Yep - waz up?

Kit (as Birdie): So Cassidy went off the cliff, and I just want your opinion, because although you're kind of concussed, probably, I think I'd just feel better if I had someone on my side here. I'm just concerned about Cassidy potentially getting caught up in a fight with the spider down at the, at the bottom. Will you be okay if I leave? Should I leave?

Cameron: Emma slowly pushes herself up into -

Kit (as Birdie): You're okay. Easy, here.

Cameron: - not quite a full-seated position. She still has one arm behind her, leaning her weight back on it.

Cameron (as Emma): Um

Kit (as Birdie): Should I let her be?

Cameron (as Emma): [thinking huff] I think, safety-wise, it at least makes sense to have somebody have a harness on, ready to go, if necessary.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay, yeah.

Cameron (as Emma): Um. If she's going, like, actually going to look for the spider, then...

Kit (as Birdie): No, she said she's just setting up alarms and stuff. I'm just concerned about it, like, coming out, because I know that it's, like, no longer interested in her. But you never know. It was literally chasing her for how many years?

Cameron (as Emma): Well, I think it was chasing the headset, so...

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I know, but...

Cameron (as Emma): As long as she doesn't have that, she should be fine. But you getting geared up still makes sense to me, for -

Kit (as Birdie): Okay.

Cameron (as Emma): - if you need to get down there quickly, then you're already in it, and we just have to attach you, and off you can go.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay.

Kit: Birdie takes out from her side backpack pocket a little coin-sized piece of chocolate and hands it to Emma.

Cameron (as Emma): Aw, thank you.

Kit (as Birdie): I saved it from Sasnak. It's probably a little crushed, but you were gonna say?

Cameron (as Emma): Um. If you put the harness on, then I can do the safety check for you.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay, yeah, that sounds good.

Kit: And Birdie's gonna at the very least suit up and, I think, get her remote-activated goop to draw potential fire or, you know, create a distraction for Cassidy to get out, do something - who knows? She just needs to feel helpful.

Nick: Well, while Birdie is doing that, Cassidy, what are you thinking and what are you doing right now?

Sydney: This is a lot bigger prey than normally she would try to tackle, but her plan is to get down to this cave entrance and set snare lines up with lines that can be taken back up to the top of the canyon edge and set bells or something on it so that when the spider leaves this cavern, they get alerted up on top and can react to it. Cassidy is assuming here that there is not another exit to the cavern, but she figures that's a safe assumption or the spider would have run away from her when she walked in on it with the Knight.

Nick: Yeah, make me an average Survival check, but with a black die because you are hanging off the side of a cliff while you do this - makes it slightly more challenging.

Sydney: I am going to flip a Story Point for this. Cassidy has a yellow and two greens normally, and with a Story Point she has two yellows and a green against the two purples and a black. 

[dice rolling]

Sydney: Two failures and two advantages.

Nick: Nice. So you don't succeed at rigging up this tripwire setup the way you want it to. I think there are some limitations just in the shape of the cave and how you can attach things. There's just not a really good way to do that. You could use the advantages for the idea that there is most likely not a way for the spider to get out except for this one entrance, which you already knew, but that the way the canyon is structured, it will probably have to climb up in a way that you would be able to spot it pretty easily, you would just have to set an active watch. You can't just rely on these rope lines to do it for you. But if you set an active watch, you will be able to see the spider if it leaves.

Sydney: Cassidy sits and is trying to drill her screw hardware into the wall to set these snares, and it just is not taking, and she ends up dropping a piece of hardware, which falls down into the canyon deep enough, it takes several seconds before the sound hits her, and she looks pretty frustrated. Somewhere between with the situation and with herself that she can't do this in the way that she's wanting, and sees the sun in the sky and that it's starting to get dark, and seeing that the geography is such that they probably could just see it from up on top if they kept a watch, throws one more glance into the darkness of the cave where she knows that the spider's still lurking and begins the ascent back up, which is a lot easier when she's just using ascenders and not trying to actually climb that full distance.

Nick: So you're not really climbing using the wall, you're just inching up the rope, basically?

Sydney: Yeah. When we have the rope hanging from the top, you can skip the hard part. Like, it's not easy, but it is significantly less than having to climb 150 feet or whatever it is.

Nick: Okay. Birdie, did you go back to watching Cassidy, or are you still back towards the camp side of things?

Kit: Once she's suited up and Emma has done a safety check on her, she'll go back to the edge of the cliff where she's got some of her supplies with her.

Nick: So you begin to hear Cassidy climbing back out. You can hear the ratcheting sound of anti-rapelling. You can see from the tension on the rope Cassidy is already climbing back out, did not spend very much time down in the canyon.

Kit (as Birdie): [calling down cliff] Oh! You good?

Sydney (as Cassidy): [calling up cliff] Yeah, we're just gonna have to watch. I couldn't get the snares set and I wasn't gonna sit around waiting for the spider to eat me.

Kit (as Birdie): [calling down cliff] That's fair. Um, okay. Well… [under breath] gonna get out of this harness.

Nick: So it takes a while for Cassidy to climb back out, but she's able to do it without any significant delays or risk. And pretty soon, the Patina is all back topside.

Penn (as Marathon): Camp's done.

Penn: Marathon sits down on her favorite stump she's unloaded from the back of the rig.

Cameron: After helping do the safety check on Birdie's gear, rather than trying to get herself back up into the rig, Emma sits leaning on the step up into the truck and is staring at a fixed point in the distance and like covering one eye and then covering the other eye, turning her head to the side fairly quickly, making sure that - she doesn't think that she has a concussion, but she's trying to verify what she can that her head still seems to be functioning correctly.

Sydney: Cassidy pulls the rope up and coils it around the anchor that she was using so that it can be unfurled again if needed, but it doesn't stay hanging down the side of the cliff.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Emma, how you doing? Still in one piece?

Cameron (as Emma): Mm-hmm. Yeah, just feel a little… compressed.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay, well now that I'm back up here and can actually talk…

Sydney: As Cassidy gestures to her not-radio headset and walks back towards the group.

Sydney (as Cassidy): So the spider apparently stole my headset to do some kind of transmission thing and uh, doesn't want to fight, as far as I can tell. And I told the Knight to explain to it that I want my headset back, and it gave me Emma back. And it may still give the headset back, but I don't want to let it get away because I really like my headset. Any questions?

Kit (as Birdie): Nope.

Penn: Marathon looks tired and blinks.

Cameron: Everyone just slow blinks at Cassidy. [laughing]

Kit: Birdie is still on an adrenaline high from the fight, so Emma and Marathon are slow blinking at Cassidy and she's skittering around like a bug.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Emma, I want your help trying to see if we can't record this signal or something that it's doing, cause it's just sitting there transmitting. The Knight couldn't figure out how to decode it.

Cameron (as Emma): [wrung out] Okay.

Sydney (as Cassidy): But I had to - I wasn't gonna fight it when it was holding on to you, so...

Cameron (as Emma): I appreciate that.

Sydney: And Cassidy is just kind of grim-looking as she gets to the task because she's not happy that she feels like she's already failed multiple times in trying to get this taken care of and get her stuff back.

Cameron (as Emma): [tired but Nerd activated] Cassidy, you said the Knight talked to it?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah. I -

Cameron (as Emma): Okay.

Sydney (as Cassidy): - you said that we have the Knight that is like the Knight within the Knight.

Cameron (as Emma): Mm-hmm.

Sydney (as Cassidy): So I asked it for help, -

Cameron (as Emma): Okay.

Sydney (as Cassidy): - and it converted what I was asking to send it to the spider, -

Cameron (as Emma): Okay.

Sydney (as Cassidy): - which is that I said I wouldn't attack the spider if it gave me you and then if it gave me my headset back. And it wouldn't give me my headset back, but it didn't disagree, I guess? The spider didn't seem like it talked, like, in human words.

Cameron (as Emma): Okay. So then I can probably just go look at the logs from the Knight -

Sydney (as Cassidy): Sure.

Cameron (as Emma): - and see if I can find something else to put the um, the uh transmission or whatever it's doing.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, it made a bunch of like, really fast beeping patterns. It wasn't Morse code, I don't know what else -

Cameron (as Emma): That sounds transmission-y.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah. Something digital.

Cameron (as Emma): Mm-hmm.

Sydney (as Cassidy): I don't know. But we need to keep an active watch and make sure that the spider doesn't slip out without us noticing, because if it does come back, then it's gonna be suddenly in our camp. And if it doesn't, I am not willing to part with my headset at this time.

Cameron: Emma nods tiredly.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay. Um, I'm not really, uh, tired, so if I, I, I can take first watch.

Sydney (as Cassidy): That sounds good.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay.

Nick: Alright, so I think we have a couple of checks that need to be made. Emma, what are you trying to do to interpret this signal?

Cameron: So Emma uses the door of the rig to drag herself up out of her seated position and heads towards the Knight and wants to first take a look at the logs from the last time it was activated. And then will probably hook up her tablet to it and see if she can pull a recording or a documented-in-some-way digital pattern that was happening with the transmission, since Cassidy said it was audible. And will try running different types of decoders and stuff on it to see if she can tie it in with a known transmission type or if it's just, ‘nope, sorry, this is too software, can't help you.’

Nick: Sure.

Sydney: Can she have a blue die from Cassidy describing how the spider responded to the different queries?

Nick: Yeah, I think that's fine. That's a good starting point. Make me a hard Wild Tech roll with a blue die because of Cassidy's assistance with what this interaction looked like originally.

Cameron: Okay, so that is two yellows, two greens, a blue, and three purples. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron: Four successes, four advantages, and a Triumph.

Nick: Oh shit, okay. So with the successes, you are able to fully interpret the code that the Knight sent to the Spider. The advantages mean you understood its response back, and I would say the Triumph means you know what you would need to do to triangulate and intercept its transmission. Basically, this entire thing, you now have a deep understanding of machine-to-machine communication that you have been able to interpret because of the way the Knight talked to the Spider.

Cameron: While looking at the logs and like not, not fully turning the Knight on, but turning on the computer system at least so that she can get into it, she has Cassidy go and get the tablet out of the back of the rig so that she doesn't have to climb up into it and then plugs it into the Knight and starts tapping away. And is probably looking pretty just exhausted. Physically, she looks fine, but just by the way she's standing and how relaxed just every single muscle in her face is, and she just, she's so freaking tired. So she looks rather bored initially, looking into this. And then if Cassidy's standing there explaining the quote-unquote conversation that happened between the Knight and the Spider, the longer Cassidy talks, the more wide Emma's eyes get as she parses through what's happening in the conversation on the tablet. And then by the time Cassidy's finished talking, her eyes are fully open. And while she's still hunched over and looks like she could go to sleep, it kind of also looks like she has passed that point of tiredness where you are now awake again and detaches from the Knight and shuts it back down and just keeps clicking excitedly on her tablet while she figures out how she's going to catch this transmission.

Sydney (as Cassidy): I think our biggest radio is the rig. There was like a hole in the cavern that it had sunlight coming through, so there is some path to the outside. I don’t - if we can figure out where it is, we can just drag the rig over on top of it and try to listen?

Cameron (as Emma): Uh, listening that way won't work. Um…

Cameron: Emma puts her tablet into one of her very large cargo pants pockets and holds up a finger to Cassidy of like, hold that thought. And says, 

Cameron (as Emma): I'mma go figure out where, where we need to intercept. 

Cameron: And takes off at a slow walk. [laugh] It is by no means quickly, but walks over to the exosuit and will open it up and very dramatically hoist herself up into it.

Sydney: Cassidy watches Emma climb into it, and her hand twitches as she goes to toggle the talk on her headset that's not there to ask Emma what the next step is. And she crosses her arms and stands and watches.

Cameron: When Emma gets in the exosuit, she stands there for a minute as it readjusts back down to her size, and then she's also manually going through and turning on all of the things that she wants turned on for this. And will flip on the speakers for a moment and turn towards the rest of the Patina and will say, 

Cameron: [over speakers] Birdie, Marathon, turn on y'all's radios.

Penn: Marathon clicks her watch and holds it up to her face.

Cameron: The exosuit does a little salute and jogs off.

Sydney: Cassidy goes to sit next to where Marathon is so that she's within range of a radio.

Kit: Birdie's just fiddling with things and repacking her first aid kit as Emma is now up and at ‘em again. And kinda glancing between Marathon and Cassidy in this moment, where she wants to be. [laughing] She's exactly where she wants to be.

Cameron: As Emma jogs off, I think she jogs over towards where Cassidy had set the rope up to drop down and is able to get much closer to the edge of the cliff than Marathon was, and peeks over it to identify where the cave structure is below her to then start by opening up the exosuit for a minute, taking her tablet out of her pocket and hooking up a connector to it and then putting it back in her pocket so that she can interact with it while she's in the suit. Will start wandering, I want to say inland, from the canyon where the cave structure would go back into the hill. She has her personal radio turned on. She's using the one in the exosuit to link up with the pattern that had been being given off by Cassidy's headset in the Knight's recording and is trying to identify where the opening is that the transmission's coming through based on what the receivers within the exosuit can pick up.

Nick: Yeah, with all the success that you had interpreting the signal in The Knight, you had an idea of probably where the signal would be coming from, and you're able to track this down. It just takes a little while as you zigzag back and forth above the cave system, looking for the hole in the ground that the spider must be using. So we're gonna leave Emma looking for that signal. Is any conversation happening between Cassidy and Marathon, while Birdie observes?

Penn (as Marathon): So, uh, should I get the, the hot dogs out, or?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, I guess we have to eat, huh? Still, adrenaline doesn't make a good dinner.

Penn (as Marathon): Hot dogs it is.

Sydney: Cassidy goes to get the roasting sticks from the side of the rig while Marathon's fetching the food.

Penn (as Marathon): You, uh, definitely scared me there, by the way. Not that you can't handle yourself, but I guess you just scared Birdie too. Right, Birdie?

Kit (as Birdie): Um~, yeah, I - uh, I just, you know, buddy system, I guess.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, Emma was her buddy, I guess. Okay, never mind. Whatever. You did it. Nice job. Success. Again.

Penn: And Marathon, having pulled some buns out from the food packaging of the rig, starts to cut into some of them to put a slit into them for the hot dogs.

Sydney (as Cassidy): What, did you want to come dive off the cliff with me at the same time?

Penn (as Marathon): [scoff] No.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay, I mean, this is like, literally, this is the thing that I'm most qualified to do.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, exactly.

Sydney (as Cassidy): I don't know.

Penn (as Marathon): No, that's what I'm saying. You did it. You crushed it. You kicked ass. Nothing much else to say. Patina did it. Cassidy did it.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Well, we didn't do it because the spider still has my headset.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, we'll get that back, hopefully.

Sydney (as Cassidy): We're gonna go ambush the giant mechanical thing that killed a guy in front of us.

Penn (as Marathon): You'll climb down there, Emma'll hack into it, or whatever the fuck. We got this. And R-I-P to Secant. That guy was very cool. I was sad to see him go.

Sydney: Cassidy remembers handing him her headset right before the spider got him, and shudders, and then goes to start skewering the hot dogs and cooking them up.

Penn: Marathon, having cut the buns, brings them over on some camp plates and sits back down on her stump, still with an air of ‘tensity around her.

Kit (as Birdie): You know, Marathon, I don't think that Emma was trying to be insulting.

Penn (as Marathon): [monotone] Okay. Yep.

Penn: And Marathon leans down into her legs a little bit more.

Penn (as Marathon): [monotone] I agree. Totally. End of conversation, right?

Sydney: Cassidy looks back and forth between the two of them for a second, and then goes back to cooking.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, yeah, if you would like that to be the end of the conversation.

Penn (as Marathon): [monotone] Yep, keeping the peace. You know? Just, uh, yep. You, uh, you're watching stuff, right? You're watching for the spider? I feel like that's a -

Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] I, I am.

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping][monotone]  - pretty important job right now.

Penn: Marathon says without looking over.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay, well, I'll let you, uh, I'll let you figure it out.

Kit: And she'll take her things away from the camp and go to sit at the end of the cliff with her legs dangling off.

Sydney: Cassidy makes a face at legs dangling off of that high of a cliff, and then decides that it's not her problem, and goes back to preparing food.

Penn (as Marathon): Birdie - mustard?

Kit (as Birdie): [very flat voice] Yep, thank you.

Penn: Marathon turns back and prepares some buns with some mustard.

Penn (as Marathon): Cassidy mustard?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Sure, thanks.

Penn (as Marathon): Thanks for cooking.

Sydney (as Cassidy): We still gotta eat. [sniff] It's kind of a weird spot to be stuck in where we're just waiting for the spider to come back. We don't actually get to have left the situation, but there's nothing else to do right now.

Penn (as Marathon): [not totally monotone, but not expressive] Yep. Just gotta adapt, keep cool heads for right now.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [sigh]

Kit (as Birdie): [quietly] Yeah, keep it cool.

Sydney (as Cassidy): I thought you did pretty good at jumping into action as soon as something happened. I think if we hadn't moved as fast as we would have, uh, something much worse would have happened to Emma.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, uh, thanks.

Penn: Marathon nods.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Alright, Birdie, let me know when you're ready to switch out. We just need to make sure we keep someone paying attention.

Kit (as Birdie): Um, I can keep an eye on everything over here for a bit, where we can all still hear one another and stuff.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, I'll make Emma's hot dogs next. Marathon, you want another one?

Penn: Marathon, over her radio, asks Emma.

Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] Emma, mustard? Over.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yes, please. Over.

Penn: And a squelch of mustard hits another bun.

Kit: Every once in a while Cassidy does see Birdie glancing over her shoulder at Marathon, and her eyes are just a little bit narrowed, but she's not actually glaring at Marathon. It's more just like checking to see if she stopped being a little bit aggro about putting together the hot dogs.

Nick: So Emma is wandering further and further away from everybody else, tracking this signal based on kind of a guess of where the cave system goes, and a little bit of trying to pick up interference. Go ahead and make me an average Classical Knowledge check, but with two blue die, because you've been doing so well at this thing. This is to just track down exactly where the signal is coming from, so you can park over it and interpret what you are getting here.

Cameron: Alright, for Classical Knowledge, I have four greens, two blues, and two purples. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron: One success, two advantages.

Nick: Great. So zigzagging back and forth, you notice you're getting further and further away from the camp, but you don't really have any concerns about that, since presumably your attacker, or potential attacker, is deep underground with a lot of rock between you and it. And you find a copse of rocks, and nestled amongst them appears to be a gap in the ground. And as you inspect it more closely, your sensors start to go off as you detect a directed radio signal that appears to be going straight up away from you, and you are able to start harvesting the signal if you so choose.

Cameron: I would like to begin harvesting, please.

Nick: Great. That's going to take a while. Are you interested in getting as much of the signal as possible, or just enough to figure out what is the basic information?

Cameron: Her main thing is figuring out the basic information. What is it doing? Why? What is its purpose here?

Nick: Yeah, so you've already pretty much interpreted the signal and how to decode it, so that's not a challenge for you. It'll just take a little bit of time to get enough information that you can figure out what this is. It's sort of like downloading a website under low bandwidth. It just takes a while for it to resolve into something visible. So what I actually need from you is an average Resilience check with two black die, because as you stand there quietly, you are actually very tired and concussed, and there is a very real danger of you falling asleep.

Cameron: My Resilience~ [obviously searching character sheet] I have a yellow and two green against the two blacks and two purples. 

[dice rolling]

Cameron: One success, two threats.

Nick: Okay, you find yourself nodding a little bit, but you do not fall asleep after the adrenaline dump and your head injury today. You are able to stay awake for the full hour that it takes for you to get a good picture of what this signal is. And it is, you notice with surprise, extremely comprehensive map data. There isn't enough of it for you to figure out exactly what part of a map it is, but this is giving topography, geography in general, landmarks, average weather patterns over time. Basically, comprehensive knowledge of somewhere is what is being uploaded, and it's extremely detailed, which is demonstrated by how long it takes for you to absorb enough information for you to even see what it is transmitting.

Cameron: Is there any indication within the transmission that indicates who the receiver is supposed to be?

Nick: Ooh, good question. The information is being sent to, it says it's a corporate entity called Atlas. You've never heard of that. You're not sure exactly what that is. So the ping is a lot longer than you're used to seeing, especially for a pure radio signal. It's about two and a half seconds, which is an extreme distance and it occurs to you that this signal is being shot straight up, and you look up into the sky, and you don't see anything except the shattered moon hanging low above you.

Cameron (as Emma): Huh.

Cameron: Emma stares at the moon for a bit, probably just getting distracted and kind of falling into the hazy in-between-sleep-and-awake phase of humanity. And then will shift, jolt herself awake, and realize that she was spacing out, staring at the moon. And will look back to her screen and then looks back and forth between the info that she's got showing up on the HUD and the moon that she can see just straight up above her where the signal's being sent, trying to convince herself that that is indeed what's going on.

Cameron (as Emma): It is. Huh. No, that's... Huh. Why~? Why?

Nick: One thing that you do notice as well is that the return signal, when it's bouncing back, is just the barest of acknowledgement of communication. There's no transfer coming from the recipient, which you might expect that there would be some sort of exchange. Besides acknowledgement that it's made a connection, there isn't one.

Cameron (as Emma): Why-why are you just doing a boring 200 handshake? Tell me something interesting about yourself.

Cameron: Emma's just talking to herself about how rude it is that this isn't in there, but then takes a minute and seems to just fall asleep again with her eyes open, and then quickly looks up back at the moon and says, 

Cameron (as Emma): Wait, I guess you... I guess I did learn something. There's a... there's something with a receiver on the moon that has power, because it's receiving. Okay, I'm not as mad anymore. Okay. Hmm... I don't know how long I should stand here, because I feel like I'm getting cool map information, and Cassidy's really gonna like it. But I'm really tired, and also Marathon made me a hot dog, so I want to go eat a hot dog. And then Cassidy might be sad, because I didn't get all the map information.

Cameron: Emma turns on her radio.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Cassidy, would you get mad if I didn't get all the map information?

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Map information?

Sydney: Cassidy says, we see at the campfire leaning into Marathon's watch.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Yeah.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] What, what map information?

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] So, the map information that the spider's sending to the moon.

Sydney: There is a long pause.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] The spider stole my headset to send maps to the moon?

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Ay, yeah. But they're like, like, like, really, really, like, detailed, like, it's not, it's not just like a 2D map, it's like full top- top- topographical, and like, weather info, and it, -

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] I would like to have that if we're getting that.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] - it's...

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Do you want me to bring you a hot dog?

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Um... I don't know where I am, so, uh...

Penn (as Marathon): [over radio] God damn it.

Nick: Cassidy, you look around, and it's relatively flat, and there is a tree line, but Emma hasn't made it to the tree line. You can see her from where you're standing.

Cameron: I'm facing the other direction, though. [laughing]

Sydney: Cassidy looks around, spots Emma, and goes, 

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] I know where you are. I'll bring you a hot dog.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Oh, okay.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [over radio] Maybe we tag out? Just stay there.

Cameron (as Emma): [over radio] Okay. Well, yeah, well, because if I move, then I won't get the map information.

Sydney: And Cassidy takes the hot dog, which was pre-squirted with mustard, gives Marathon a pat on the shoulder, and runs out towards where she can see Emma.

Nick: You are able to cross the distance without any issue.

Sydney: Does Emma notice Cassidy approaching?

Cameron: Not until you get in front of her where she can see you on the HUD. [laughing] And if she's staring at the moon, you may have to knock on the exosuit.

Sydney: Yeah, Cassidy knocks gently on the side of the exosuit, unable to radio to tell Emma that she's there because her radio is sending transmissions to the moon, apparently.

Cameron (as Emma): [possibly forgot Cassidy was coming] Oh! Hi Cassidy.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Hot dog.

Cameron: The exosuit opens up while remaining turned on. And Emma looks at her feet and then looks at the ground. And there is distance between those two things. And she just kind of looks at you like a confused lost puppy. Like she doesn't know how to solve this problem.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Do you want me to feed you the hot dog, or do you want me to help you out of the suit?

Cameron (as Emma): Um, I'll get out of the suit.

Sydney: And Cassidy gives an arm and a shoulder to Emma to support her weight.

Cameron: Emma definitely uses Cassidy for the balance aspect, but physically she's fine enough to step down and catch most of her weight without issue.

Cameron (as Emma): Thank you.

Sydney (as Cassidy): So is it...

Cameron (as Emma): [interrupting] Hot dog!

Sydney (as Cassidy): Hot dog. 

Sydney: And Cassidy hands Emma the hot dog. It is maybe a little cool. 

Sydney (as Cassidy): Is the exosuit just gonna like sit here and keep recording or whatever?

Cameron (as Emma): Mm-hmm, yeah, that's what I told it to do. Um, -

Sydney (as Cassidy): Okay.

Cameron (as Emma): - if you, if you want to look at the maps it's got so far, you can get in it, they're up on the screen.

Sydney: Cassidy climbs up in it and is a little bit short to see into the heads-up display, and all of the limbs are loose on her, but she's able to see, to start reading what is on the display with the maps and the details. And Cassidy's eyes widen.

Sydney (as Cassidy): These are really good maps, yes.

Cameron (as Emma): I thought you'd like them. You like maps.

Sydney (as Cassidy): I do like maps.

Cameron: Emma is laying on the ground, slightly spread eagle, but with one arm in, eating a hot dog. And she's just staring at the moon.

Sydney (as Cassidy): So it's talking to the moon with maps.

Cameron (as Emma): It's, it's sending maps to something on the moon. I don't think it's the actual moon, unless, unless the moon is a computer... I don't think so though, because you've climbed the moon before and you didn't say anything about it being a computer.

Sydney (as Cassidy): No, it was just rock.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, so probably, probably something on the moon then.

Sydney: Cassidy climbs back out of the rig and sits down next to Emma and looks up at the moon and the sky.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Huh. Okay, well, while you're still conscious, can we set the exosuit up to alert when it stops transmitting?

Cameron (as Emma): Mmm, yeah.

Sydney (as Cassidy): 'Cause then we can sleep, and especially you can sleep.

Cameron (as Emma): That'd probably be very intelligent.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Let's do that when you're done with your hot dog.

Cameron (as Emma): Okay. Yeah, I can - yeah, I can do that. I can just have the exosuit tell the rig when it's done. I can do that. Yeah.

Sydney (as Cassidy): And then we just, yeah, close it up or whatever, and maybe have an alarm if something tries to poke it. I don't want it walking off in the middle of the night, but...

Cameron (as Emma): It won't. It'll only actually move if me or Marathon's in it, so.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Oh, fancy.

Cameron (as Emma): Did you know that Marathon tried to take the exosuit over the canyon to go with you and the Knight?

Sydney (as Cassidy): N- no, I didn't know that.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, she did. It was okay though, don't worry, the suit stopped her.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Huh? How?

Cameron (as Emma): Um, I have one of, one of the, mm, one of the sensors turned on for her profile cause when, when, when we fought all the mercenaries on Sasnak, she just kept yelling at the suit to try to get it to turn things on and stuff. So I set some defaults in her profile so that like, the radio will just turn itself on and the speakers will turn themselves on, and like, she doesn't need to remember how to do those things. But at the same time, I also turned on that sensor to like detect nothingness, detect if the floor goes away, or if it was going to do anything that would put it in a potentially really dangerous situation that it couldn't tell was like stairs or something normal, um, so that it would just stop and not go that way, so.

Sydney (as Cassidy): That's a fancy feature.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, I don't know why, something just told me that Marathon someday was going to try to take it over a cliff. 

Sydney (as Cassidy): [soft laugh]

Cameron (as Emma): And that thing was not made for rock climbing.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, we should probably have a team huddle on what capabilities we're using, of which pieces are hardware.

Sydney: Cassidy has assembled the pieces of the interactions she observed earlier.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, I was gonna tell her that I had done that before the next time that she used it, so I could explain that like she didn't need to do anything to turn her radio on or anything and it was just gonna, gonna be all set up nice for her and, and then, and then surprise! There was a spider, so.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [overlapping] Yeah, we kinda had to spring into action immediately.

Cameron (as Emma): [overlapping] I didn't, I did not get to do that. Um, [end overlap] and now I think she's mad at me.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah. I need to have you teach me how the Knight boot up is supposed to work, 'cause I kinda stumbled through it.

Cameron (as Emma): [sad] Oh.

Sydney (as Cassidy): And it booted up.

Cameron: Emma looks really sad that her instructions that she wrote didn't work well.

Sydney (as Cassidy): We don't have to do it right now, but I think it would benefit me to learn more of this stuff, 'cause with all this moon and radio headset and the spider, I don't, I need to learn.

Cameron (as Emma): Hmm, yeah, we can, now that we're not on Sasnak and also there's not an evil AI in the Knight, we can have everybody actually practice the boot up sequence and stuff to get it running so that in an emergency situation, anybody could use it.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah.

Cameron (as Emma): I guess we, we could technically do the same thing with the exosuit if we wanted to. I don't think it'll limit me on profiles.

Sydney (as Cassidy): We can experiment with it tomorrow.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, but I can, I can make sure that, that you, uh, you, you know how to, how to do it fast.

Sydney (as Cassidy): That sounds good. Okay. We can head back once you've set the alarm stuff up.

Cameron (as Emma): Okay.

Cameron: Emma will raise both of her arms straight up in front of her and then fully sit up like zombie style and then will get to her feet and with great focus, heave herself back up into the exosuit so that she can press some of the buttons and change settings so that it will just hang out here and keep recording the data, but whenever it is no longer receiving the transmission, it will send a ping to the rig and will shut down.

Nick: Yeah, you don't really need to make any checks or anything to do that. That just works.

Cameron: Once everything's set up, Emma does not wait this time for Cassidy to assist her in getting down and it is a little bit more dramatic than it needs to be with a fair amount of stumbling as she tries to regain her balance after landing.

Sydney: Cassidy is hovering to make sure that Emma's got it and is prepared to catch her, but doesn't jump to intercept.

Cameron: And then Emma swings back around to face the exosuit and walks over to it and hits a button in the back where it would sit along your spine. And it closes itself up. And she goes, 

Cameron (as Emma): Okay, we, we can, we can leave it here now.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Alright. The rig is the thing over there that looks like the rig.

Sydney: And Cassidy points.

Cameron (as Emma): Oh wow… Could you see me from over there?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Uh-huh.

Cameron (as Emma): Oh.

Sydney (as Cassidy): You were looking the other way.

Cameron (as Emma): I did not do a spin when I said I did not know where I was.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, it's okay.

Cameron (as Emma): Huh.

Sydney (as Cassidy): You've had a long day. 

Cameron (as Emma): Okay.

Sydney (as Cassidy): You fought a spider with a sword and mostly held your own.

Cameron (as Emma): Mm-hmm.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Like, very positive connotations on that. No, no normal people can do that.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, I'm not even that hurt, but, but my brain is tired.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, let's get you back.

Cameron (as Emma): I feel like I used a lot of my brain to not get hit.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [soft laugh]

Nick: As Cassidy and Emma make their way back to camp, what are Birdie and Marathon up to?

Kit: Once Cassidy leaves, Birdie would just toss over her shoulder.

Kit (as Birdie): So are you gonna be grumpy about it forever?

Penn (as Marathon): No, but can I be pissy for a night?

Kit (as Birdie): You know what, that's actually really reasonable.

Penn (as Marathon): Emma's too punch drunk to talk about it anyway.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I just, okay. You know, thank you for communicating your needs.

Penn (as Marathon): Feels worse when you say it like that, but...

Kit (as Birdie): No, I really mean it.

Penn (as Marathon): Yup.

Kit (as Birdie): I really mean it. Like, it's, it's, that's fair, if you wanna be upset about it for, for a night and then talk about it tomorrow.

Penn (as Marathon): Thank you. Appreciate having your permission.

Kit (as Birdie): Okay, I wasn't -

Penn: And Marathon nods her head.

Kit (as Birdie): I wasn't, you know that I wasn't giving [overlapping] you permission.

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] Look, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm being a dick. It's like, just, ugh! Just don't feel like... If she... You know what?

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, rant, rant it out.

Penn (as Marathon): We'll talk about it. She'll teach me afterward. And that'll be the, that'll be the situation, okay?

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, but like, -

Penn (as Marathon): It'll be fine.

Kit (as Birdie): - you could, if you want to, you can, you can rant it out right now. I don't care. Just make sure your radio's not on.

Penn: Marathon looks kinda dubiously now she's lifted her head up.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, just rant. 

Penn (as Marathon): Oo~.

Kit (as Birdie): It's fine. It, it's, it sometimes feels good to get out.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, I know.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I know, you know. [mumbles into silence]

Penn (as Marathon): I don't know. I just don't feel trusted or useful. And you ever feel that too? Like, I feel like I see that glimmer in you sometimes too.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, I mean, we wind up in a lot of combat situations where I'm not really useful cause I have specifically long-range, very dangerous, life-threatening weapons that could hurt basically anyone, uh, with no discretion. So, like, I wasn't really useful during the actual fight because I, everything was too close quarters with Emma and the spider.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah. Is it just that we're specialists? Is that the thing?

Kit (as Birdie): I think we are specialists. I think that's part of the thing. Like, I don't know.

Penn (as Marathon): I can do things.

Kit (as Birdie): I think that, yeah, you, -

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] I feel like I am capable, but quite often I do feel like -

Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] - you're like, uh, you're a very effective weapon for the team.

Penn (as Marathon): - my skills are dismissed.

Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] You punch people to death, Marathon.

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] I don't know. I'm just feeling that tonight.

Kit (as Birdie): Like, you're, you're, like, seriously. I don't know if talent is the right word, but you're talented. I mean, like, I don't know, it's kind of... I do think that Cassidy and Emma just have worked together for so long and they spent a really long time getting really close -

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] True. I got the dynamic. 

Kit (as Birdie): - and kind of getting used to each other's rhythm.

Penn (as Marathon): Chemistry, yep.

Kit (as Birdie): [mumbled] Cassidy [unintelligible] Well, I, I don't know. I used to kind of like, relish in having nothing to do when I was with groups cause it meant that I was getting paid to do nothing cause I was getting paid to be with them, one way or another. But no, there's like, I don't think anybody likes feeling useless or feeling like they can't help in the way that they know how. And that, when you do try to help and being stopped because of something that feels like, like mistrust or...

Penn (as Marathon): Child locks.

Kit (as Birdie): Yeah, it, it, it, it's not a great feeling. And so I, I just, I get it. It's not...

Penn (as Marathon): Well, thank you for the therapy. Would you like another hot dog?

Kit (as Birdie): [singsong] Yes, please. Thank you so much.

Penn (as Marathon): I hope we get ketchup soon.

Kit: Birdie will approach Marathon, walking backwards to keep her eyes on the canyon, and then hold out her hand for the hot dog. [laughing]

Penn: Marathon'll pass it over a little more gingerly.

Kit (as Birdie): Thank you.

Penn: And will give Birdie a pat on the arm as well. 

Penn (as Marathon): Thanks, Birdie.

Kit (as Birdie): Thank you, Marathon.

Kit: And she'll go back to the edge of the cliff.

Nick: And around that time Cassidy and Emma stumble back into camp.

Penn (as Marathon): More hot dogs?

Cameron (as Emma): Ooh, yes, please.

Kit (as Birdie): Oh my gosh, you are punch drunk.

Cameron: Emma stumbles over and falls to a cross-legged position next to Marathon's stump, and holds her hands out for a hot dog.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Emma got the exosuit set up to listen to the spider transmitting, so it'll alert us when it stops, which means we'll get a signal when we need to start paying attention again. We should be able to sleep tonight.

Cameron (as Emma): Oh, Cassidy - can you make sure that the radio's on in the cab?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yes.

Sydney: And Cassidy jogs off towards the rig.

Penn: Marathon uses the movement of assembling another hot dog to also subtly shift her stump just a few more inches away from Emma.

Cameron: Emma thinks that, like, time and space is being very fluid right now, and thus, her upper body shifts over to continue to maintain the same distance with Marathon, because she doesn't understand that Marathon actually moved right now.

Penn (as Marathon): Here you go, mustard.

Cameron (as Emma): Thank you. You're amazing.

Cameron: And she just goes to town on this hot dog.

Kit (as Birdie): Oh my gosh. [laughing] It's a gruesome scene.

Penn (as Marathon): Feel like I shouldn't be watching.

Kit (as Birdie): [laughing] Whoa, whoa, take it outside. [overlapping][quietly] We are outside.

Cameron (as Emma): [overlapping] We are outside, Birdie.

Kit (as Birdie): [giggle]

Sydney: Cassidy rejoins the circle.

Sydney (as Cassidy): All right, I got the radio turned on. I can hear the white noise coming out of it so it should be good, but I will probably sleep in the cab tonight to make sure that we don't get ambushed by a spider walking up the cliff into camp.

Cameron (as Emma): Okay.

Penn (as Marathon): Perfect.

Kit (as Birdie): What time, what time am I off-watch tonight?

Sydney (as Cassidy): You're done.

Penn (as Marathon): I'll take over.

Kit (as Birdie): What? I'm done?

Cameron (as Emma): Nope, we don't need watch. Everybody can sleep. The exosuit will -

Penn (as Marathon): Oh.

Cameron (as Emma): - tell us when the transmission's done. And then, -

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah.

Cameron (as Emma): - that at least tells us that the spider's done.

Kit (as Birdie): Whoa!

Penn (as Marathon): Okay, in that case, I'm going to my tent.

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] Goodnight, everyone.

Kit (as Birdie): [overlapping] That is incredible!

Penn (as Marathon): Thank you for your incredible work. Yes.

Kit (as Birdie): Oh.

Cameron (as Emma): Goodnight Marathon~.

Penn (as Marathon): Goodnight.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Goodnight, Marathon.

Penn (as Marathon): Night, Cass.

Kit (as Birdie): [uncomfortable noises][rushed] I'm going to bed.

Kit: And Birdie's gonna dive into her tent to try and get some sleep before something happens.

Cameron (as Emma): Goodnight Birdie.

Nick: You all awake the next morning to realize that the alarm never went off for the spider transmission finishing. One of you runs to the exosuit to check and it is still registering a signal. You wait around and work on some personal projects around the rig. It makes it to lunchtime, you've still not heard an alarm. It makes it to the evening and you still have not heard an alarm. It seems that the signal is still being transmitted. And the question becomes, how long are you all willing to wait while this transmission happens? Because you are not sure how long it will be, but it's already been 24 hours.

Penn (as Marathon): Okay, Cass, it's been a day. Um, how bad do you want that headset? Is this a 48 hours bad, or a week bad? What you feeling?

Penn: Marathon asks, coming out of her tent bored again.

Sydney: Cassidy chews on the inside of her lip for a second.

Sydney (as Cassidy): This is a 'until we run out of food' want it.

Penn (as Marathon): Perfect.

Sydney (as Cassidy): [overlapping] So, three weeks.

Penn (as Marathon): [overlapping] Who wants to throw rocks over the cliff? Again.

Sydney (as Cassidy): We have romance novels and stuff to do, but I'm-- this means a lot to me, to get this back.

Penn (as Marathon): Yeah, sounds good. I'm all in.

Kit (as Birdie): Yep, I defer to you.

Cameron (as Emma): Um, if we [sigh] if we want to do an activity while we wait… [tired sigh] Cassidy, I think that you asked for, um, Knight Activation Lessons, 

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah. 

Cameron (as Emma): - yesterday?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, for group context, I-- it took multiple tries to get the Knight moving, which is really bad when we're being ambushed by a piece of Wild Tech.

Penn (as Marathon): Well, as long as you're giving lessons, Emma, uh, I want in.

Cameron (as Emma): Cool, yeah. We're thinking it'd be...

Penn (as Marathon): And I have lots, and lots, and lots of questions.

Cameron (as Emma): Okay, um, yeah, -

Penn (as Marathon): Lots.

Cameron (as Emma): - I think having all of us know how to get it up and running quickly for emergency situations means that anybody who's near it can -

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah.

Cameron (as Emma): - use it if needed. And now that there's no longer an evil AI in it, I'm not concerned about us turning it on to, like, have people try it out. So, it's not gonna, like, wander off in a rampage with any of us stuck inside it.

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah.

Cameron (as Emma): So...

Sydney (as Cassidy): We don't have infinite fuel, but we have enough to be able to do a couple of boot sequences and make sure we know how it works.

Cameron (as Emma): Oh, yeah, especially if we're not, like, moving around, really. 'Cause, I mean, the, uh, the thing, the fuel creator, is what I'll call it, in the back of the rig?

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah, our prize from the Advantia.

Cameron (as Emma): Yeah, that'll... I mean, that's, that's always running. And we, we didn't use the Knight for a -

Sydney (as Cassidy): Yeah.

Cameron (as Emma): - real long time. Um, so we, we're good on fuel reserves. So, like, even, even if we use up a fair amount, we've, we've still got enough to keep her topped up. But, yeah, I guess we can do that.

Sydney (as Cassidy): All right, Knight learning time.

Cameron: Did Cassidy re-park the Knight in the truck? Or is the Knight just by the truck?

Sydney: The Knight is by the truck, and also the canvas is ripped on the truck. Cassidy has slowly been working on sewing back together the canvas, where she ripped it getting the Knight out of the back, but it is a large canvas, and she's doing it by hand.

Cameron: So, to get prepped for the lessons, Emma runs over to the rig and gets in the front seat, and is going to move the rig to where the Knight is, so that the rig is parked right at the back of the Knight, so that the other people who aren't in the cockpit can stand in the back of the rig to see into or around the cockpit to be able to actually see what's going on and not have us do the lap situation again. Trying to set it up kind of like a medical theater, where everyone can look down into the Knight, whether that needs to be people are now sitting on the cab of the truck, or they're standing in the back of the truck. One of the two, depending on how tall the Knight is.

Nick: So everyone learns how to activate the Knight. It is a complicated boot sequence, but everyone feels more comfortable with it than they did before. The day passes fairly quickly and you still don't hear the alarm. Overnight, you all get another full night's rest with no alarm. And in the wee hours of the morning on the third day, the signal stops and you all are awakened to the alarm from the cab of the rig as the spider has finished its mission and attempts to escape.

[hurdy gurdy music swells]

Outro:  

Welcome back folks, you’re listening to Going the Distance: Traveler’s Guide with M. Messenger on road dial 1558. That’s all for today’s transmission - we’re set to repeat after the following bulletins. More in-depth info 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 Instagram @ venusvultures. Kit can also be found in the Discord, along with her collection of AKoSaP art that grows whenever she’s not facing art block.

Pen Prairie-Larson as Marathon. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky @ acquiredchaste. Pen is a teacher and indie TTRPG designer whose most recent work includes the X-Bike Ruleset, a high-risk fantasy sports game from the world of AKoSaP. Check out faer other work at penharper.itch.io. 

Sydney Whittington as Cassidy. Sydney can be found on our Discord server, which is linked in the show notes, and on Bluesky @ sydneywhitt. 

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

And Nick Robertson as narrator. Nick can be found on Twitter @ alias58. Nick was also the GM for Tabletop Squadron. Nick can also be found as a player on the Orpheus Protocol, a cosmic horror espionage actual play podcast.

This podcast features the sonic stylings 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 catch us again…

…keep being the bravest you.