PARTIZAN 14: Deception in the Canyon City
Friends at the Table3 Huhti 2020

PARTIZAN 14: Deception in the Canyon City

Eager to refill their coffers, Kal'Mera Broun has brought SBBR to meet Kesh noble (and HORIZON commander) Gucci Garantine, who offers the group a daring opportunity to both make some money and get access--however temporary--to some Stel Nideo state secrets along the way.

The target is a secure Palace facility in the canyon city of Orzen, where raw footage is given final review before being shipped off-world for permanent archival. But with Apostolos' Barranca Loop on lockdown, its harder than ever to get things off of Partizan, which means that more material than ever is available in the facility.

Plus, with each Stel reinforcing their borders ahead of what feels like inevitable war, this city deep in the Pique Ridge has been left without its usual guards. Where once the noble hallows of Imperium's Plume guarded the people of Orzen (and the Palace staging facility hidden beneath the town), defense has now been contracted to a group of Oxblood Clan mercenaries. Oxblood clan mercenaries with motives and loyalties all their own...

This week on PARTIZAN: Deception in the Canyon City

///Operation Dossier\\\

//Organizations\\

HORIZON: In the popular consciousness, HORIZON is a radical, anti-Principality terrorist organization. In actuality, they are a radical-reformist group, which seeks to drive out what it perceives as corruption in an empire that ought be pursuing noble (instead of selfish) ends. Rumored to be funded by Stel Kesh's House Brightline.

The Partizan Palace: Across Divinity, the Palace provides citizens with authorized archival information, approved news reports (kept up to date locally by the day, galactically by the week), and art and entertainment determined to be canonical to the Divine Principality.

Oxblood Clan: What started as a group of orphans turned into a labor guild and criminal enterprise with connections across Partizan. Occasionally run rough-and-tumble military ops for extra cash. Allies with SBBR.

Imperium's Plume: A Hallow unit blessed by Imperium, one of the very first Divines of the Principality, tasked with inspiring support for Stel Nideo on Partizan by ensuring that even the home of Progressive Asterism remembers the strength of NIdeo's virtue.

//People\\

Gucci Garantine (she/her): AKA Saint Dawn. Vassal and political attache to House Brightline of Stel Kesh. She and House Brightline reportedly have ties to the "reformist" (read: terrorist) organization HORIZON. Rivals with Clementine Kesh, and contact of Kal'mera Broun.

Jesset City (he/him): Previously worked for Adamant Arms and Manufacturing, Jesset became full time Oxblood Clan lieutenant (and rising star) after his participation in the fateful mission in Obelle. Expert technician, rapidly developing hollow pilot, and Cipher Certified by Stel Nideo. Utilizes prostheses on his right arm, switching between an affordable myoelectric model with grip hooks and a custom model specifically designed for interfacing with a hollow cockpit. Pilots a Yoke.

Meridian Street (she/her) - Gucci Garantine's second in command in HORIZON. Dark lipstick, blue crewcut, expertise in matters logistical and military. Pilots a Yoke.

Thetonious aka "Tone" (they/them) - Gucci's bodyguard.

Aram Nideo (he/him): Often called the "The Father of Asterism," Aram Nideo penned the "Many Stars Argument," which became the backbone not only for the Divine Principality's faith but also its governmental structure. Posthumously awarded Divine status.

//Places\\

Pique Ridge: Territory controlled by Stel Nideo on Partizan. East of the Prophet's Sea, comprised of a mountain range which surrounds a vast, low bay.

Orzen: Deep in the mountains of the Pique Ridge, this city of 75,000 sits at the end of a box canyon. What started as a mining town grew to be a popular destination for both the religious and culturally inclined, as the city is home to a massive cathedral, Divine statuary, and one of the moon's largest theaters.

//Things\\

Perspective Bleeding: Once, before they were a Stel, the Columnar would collect and join together the thoughts of hundreds, thousands, or even millions, to arrive at policy decisions. This "Perspective Blending" was the heart of a democratic system that has been eradicated. In its place is the edgily-named "Perspective Bleeding," which offers a taste of that experience for just a few credits, if you know the right person. In Orzen, Gucci Garantine uses a Perspective Bleeding device not to relax or explore the consciousness of others, but to temporarily gain access to the skillset of someone else.

Poetic Cipher: A security system used by Stel Nideo. Requires knowledge not only of up to date passcodes, but also a high level, intuitive understanding of poetic techniques, conventions, and history.

Herd: Developed from the basic AdArm Troop design, the Herd's centaur like silhouette is famous to anyone who has faced off against Apostolos. The Troop's bipedal legs have been replaced with piston-driven, heavy quad legs that are able to shift between two modes: Movement (with legs paired parallel like an ungulate, allowing for high speed traversal or charges) or combat (spread in a wide cross shape for stability in firing or traversal, moving like a spider). Armed with heavy shoulder cannon, and spears that can be used for both melee combat and as javelin-like explosive projectiles.

Yoke: The Oxblood Clan's unique, further customized Herds. Though they cannot transform into the Herd's "combat" mode, they have upgrades that allow them to serve a unique command and operations role when deployed in pairs. Their heads feature unique horn sensors which can generate battlefield map data and targeting assistance when two Yokes can provide complete data. Wields a giant fortress shield in left hand, a kanabo in the right, and a vertical missile pod on back.

Wave Fried Art: An underground creative technique mainstreamed by Columnar musicians and performance artists Jerica Vault and Roland Tenten on their "Wave Fried" tour, which involves either creating something susceptible to standard Perennial Wave interference or else intentionally exposing something to a high degree of Wave. Regardless of method, the intent is to create a unique work that explores the boundaries of the Wave and makes more visible the context that delimit all artistic production.

//Additional Notes\\

SBBR's Objectives: Primary - Escort Gucci Garantine into the Palace facility and safely secure her extraction. Secondary - Maintain ruse for length of mission.

Rules of Engagement: Do no harm to the Residential district and minimal harm to the Theater (commercial) district. Damage to the Cathedral, Statuary, Quartz district, or Palace Staging interior is acceptable.

Hosted by Austin Walker (@austin_walker)

Featuring Ali Acampora (@ali_west), Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart) and Andrew Lee Swan (@swandre3000)

Produced by Ali Acampora (@ali_west)

Cover Art by Craig Sheldon (@shoddyrobot)

Episode description by Austin Walker

Music by Jack de Quidt

A transcription is available for this episode here.


A full list of completed transcriptions is available here. Our transcriptions are provided by a fan-organized paid transcription project. If you'd like to join, you can get more information at https://twitter.com/transcript_fatt. Thank you to all of our transcribers!!

Jaksot(524)

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Hey, everyone my name is Austin Walker, I'm the host, GM, and co-creator of Friends at the Table, which is an actual play podcast focused on critical world building, smart characterization, and fun interactions between good friends. Maybe you know some of our cast from one of the other podcasts that we do like Emojidrome or Waypoint Radio, or you heard us guests on something like the Great Gundam Project or the Giant Bombcast, or you saw the show's name in an article or had a very exhuberent friend recommend us to you with a lot of excitement. However you got here, thanks for giving us a shot! I'm going ot do my best to make sure that we don't squander that opportunity by giving you some advice on where you can start the show! Because there is a LOT of show, and honestly there isn't just one good place to hop on--but I do have some thoughts on what might work best. Broadly, we're an actual play podcast, like I said before. Which means we play tabletop roleplaying games and story games in order to tell stories together. It's sort of like a collaborative writer's room with some dice thrown in. Thankfully in 2020 a lot of people already know what that is, thanks to shows like Critical Role or The Adventure Zone. So I'm going to talk assuming that you have some idea about what it means to be a podcast like ours. If you want something short and sweet to get to know some of us and the style of stories we tell, then check out the three part Fall of Magic series which starts at September 14th, 2018 in our main feed. It's a light, but melancholy story about magic leaving a fantastical world and a great mage and her companions who are on a journey to restore it. It was originally a series of live streams which means that things are kind of loose and playful, it all has a sort of of Studio Ghibli vibe. And again, 3 episodes, in and out. A great starting place. If you wanna stick with fantasy but want something a little meatier, then let me recommend jumping on board with Marielda, which starts on July 14th, 2016 in your feed. In Marielda we begin with Avery Alder's The Quiet Year to build a custom, industrial fantasy setting filled with ingenious inventors, curious creatures, and broken hearted gods, and then we play out a campaign in that setting using John Harper's incredible Blades in the Dark. Plus, it's a great jumping on point for our now complete Fantasy series Seasons of Hieron. Marielda is a prequel story, you don't need to know anything about Hieron before listening. And when it ends, the episodes that follow are a clip show of everything that came before Marielda, which means you can jump right in to the second season fo Hieron after you finish our campaign of Blades in the Dark. If fantasy isn't your thing, then we've still got a lot of options for you. Our current season, PARTIZAN, is frankly one of the best we've had. It takes place at the heart of a corrupt galactic empire, where the very first dreams of revolution begin to stir in those who live there. We play Austin Ramsay's Beam Saber along with some other games, and it's great. It's about compromised characters, backdoor politicking, and tremendously powerful robotic gods called Divines. If you like Mobile Suit Gundam or Escaflowne or Crusader Kings II, PARTIZAN is the place for you. Plus, if you catch up, you'll be able to listen week to week along with the audience which is always really fun. I suggest starting at PARTIZAN 00, which is a character creation episode, or 01 if you want to get right into it. If you want to hear how we first conceived of Divines, then you can go way back to July 15, 2015, when we started COUNTER/Weight, our first sci-fi season. We play a bunch of stuff again: We use Jeremy Keller's TechNoir and Haimsh Cameron's The Sprawl to follow a group of cyberpunks, fixers, and mech pilots, and we zoom out from time to time to use the faction rules in Stars Without Number to follow things frmo a grander, more faction-scale level. COUNTER/Weight is probably my favorite season all said, but it does get off to a sort of rocky start, so I definitely suggest PARTIZAN first, unless you're someone who HAS to hear everything in release order. Finally, there's Bluff City, which isn't in this feed, but its first season is free on our Patreon. You can access it by going to tinyurl.com/freebluff. Bluff City is an anthology series, where we use a bunch of different games, including Masks, World Wide Wrestling RPG, Inspecrtres, Fiasco, and others to tell the stories of an uncanny version of Atlantic City. It has some of my favorite moments and characters and player performances, and I really recommend that people give it a listen! There are so many other things I could reccomend, but these are best jumping on points. If you give them a shot and like them, then hit us up on Twitter at Friends_Table to get more recommendations of what to listen to (or ask our incredible fans using the hashtag #friendsatthetable. Like I said, we also have a Patreon, which you can reach at friendsatthetable.cash, which has a BUNCH of other stuff if you feel like supporting us after giving some of our stuff a listen. That includes Live at the Table, a monthly livestream where we do one shots of a bunch of different games, Tips at the Table a roundtable Q&A show where we answer your questions about RPGs, table manners, storytelling, recording podcasts, basically everything and anything people might ask. And I do a show called Drawing Maps, which is a mix of streamed stuff and podcasts where I pull back the curtain on my game prep and also take soem GMing questions from the audience. ALL of those things I said are part of the 5 dollar a month tier. There's more stuff after that, but honestly, even just that stuff is a lot to talk about. OH also, even 1 dollar backers get the clapcast, which is like the cutting room floor, out of character jokey bits from the warm up conversation before we start doing the main show recordings. It's all good, and it honestly is amazing the degree of support y'all have shown us there and honestly everywhere across the internet. We are a small show--much much smaller than I think people might assume--but our fans have helped us cast a pretty large shadow, which rules. So, I hope if you give us a shot, you'll see what those fans have come to love over the years too. And hey, if you give us a shot and it's not for you, then no worries, you gave it a shot, and that's all I can ask from anyone. Oh, and I should also shout out Jack de Quidt, another member of the cast who is also an incredible composer who does a ton of great music for the show. You can find all that music at notquitereal.bandcamp.com, including this song which is the intro to Fall of Magic. Thanks so much. Peace. A full list of completed transcriptions is available here. Our transcriptions are provided by a fan-organized paid transcription project. If you'd like to join, you can get more information at https://twitter.com/transcript_fatt. Thank you to all of our transcribers!!

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