PALISADE 22: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 1

Friends at the Table

Games, Fiction, Leisure

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 142 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode carries content warnings for body horror, description of teeth, discussion of mass destruction/death, small/tight spaces, indentured servants and slavery, and extreme heat.

Behind a twirling ornament of metal, the sun grows—the sun grows. Inside a concrete body, the feeling of a hand, pulling downward. Across a planet under red light, fear.

They would not wait. They could not.

This week on PALISADE: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 1

The "war" will appear on the surface to be a peace

Dossier

People

Stargrave Elcessor (she/her): Leader of the Bilateral Interecession’s occupation of Palisade, assigned personally by Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh. As a Stargrave, she has been granted the means and “right” to detonate the star at the center of Palisade’s star system if she determines that those here are an existential threat to the Principality.

Connadine (he/him): Commander of the BIS on Palisade. An expert in psychological operations and folklore. As a composer, his opus is the Adagio, a plan to get everyone on Palisade operating in ways not only predictable, but scripted. As a conductor, his orchestra now turns towards the second movement.

Routine Rennari (he/him): Half-Apostolsian, scion of a minor Kesh noble house, and the Blue Channel's heavy.

Mustard Red (she/her): A cyborg who once served as a member of Brink Proxy, with a speciality in surveillance. Joined the Cause during the Devotees expansion onto Palisade.

Midnite Matinee (she/her): Leporine scout and member of the Blue Channel. She and her trusty Pack-model light AutoHollow Popcorn used to run a repo company, but now are tentatively committed to the Cause and Millennium Break.

Places

Chimera’s Lantern: The second moon of Palisade, shaped oddly like a wasp’s nest or paper lantern. New arrivals to the world find its occasional glow unnatural and frightening. Thisbe and the Figure found evidence that it could be tied to driving the bulk of ancient Divine Principality forces off of Palisade.

Objects

Gambeson: The Gambeson is only about 10 meters tall (less than half an Altar), but it is nevertheless a terrifying scourge of the battlefield. Modeled after an iron maiden, except with it's tortorous doors attached to its back serving as wings. Its head features a metalworked face, twisted into extreme and offputting smile. Its skeletal frame serves not only as body, but cage: pilots are criminal conscripts forced to pay off their “debt” to Kesh by the Divine Plight, earning their freedom through combat achievements.

Paramerion: Cori’s new Altar, as designed by her brother Formido. Constantly twitching and rippling underneath the regal embellishments of its filigreed armor. Massive metallic wings stay folded on its back, a smaller pair cover its eyes like a visor and the sickles jut out from its forearms when stowed. A halo shaped like a crown rotates above its skull-like head.

The Stellar Combustor: A weapon of immense destruction, capable of destroying countless star systems if deployed without a firebreak. Has been used in some form or another since the time of the earliest Divines. In current form they take the form of a twirling, 3-ringed space station that rotates around a system’s sun.

Divines

The Divine, Arbitrage (it/its): The amoral machine turned de facto treasurer keeps the Frontier Syndicate a step ahead in all matters of commerce. Sole minter of “glint,” a newly popular currency on Palisade.

The Divine Plight (she/her): Plight is a 40 meter tall, humanoid Divine cast in black metal armor, and wearing the of a judge or inquisitor. She conscripts the guilty into her army as Gambeson pilots, compelling their loyalty with terrible, Divine feelings of guilt. Hemlock, whose interest is fundamentally in punishment and not justice, was born heir to a mid-tier Kesh House, but jumped at the chance to become an Elect.

Mysteries

Perennial (she/her): The Principality's so-called 'adversary,' who lives at the center of the galaxy and whose chaotic whims spread through her "Perennial Wave," an ever-present nanoparticle that has recently bonded with Kalmeria.

Additional Notes

The 23 Star Systems Nearest Palisade (with developmental focus):

Tartarus 5: Gas Mining
Lonn: Resorts
Helaine Delta: Duplicate of Helaine Gamma
Thulsa: Standard Spread
Xenacip: Lost Contact. Lost Portcullis Repair Team
Bhopal Kha: Pact Occupied
Maine: Lumber, Spice
Bishamonten: Arms Manufacturing
Carjel: Standard Spread
Isfahan: Standard Spread
Yoca: Standard Spread
KX 93-39: Black Hole Research Lab
Dul-Kaw: Established via Nidean Art grant
Darre: Tomb Sector
Ecou: Refugee Camps
Edino: Quarantined Sector
Skarnoc: Debris Fields
Hilde: Gas Mining
Por: Standard Spread
Nova Melides: Abandoned Divine Clash Worlds
Palamedes 8: Regional Refueling Depot
Castax 8: Stratus Research Facility
Ashlen: Standard Spread

Hosted by Austin Walker (@austin_walker)

Featuring Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart) Sylvi Bullet (@sylvibullet), Ali Acampora (@ali_west), Art Martinez-Tebbel (@atebbel), Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal), Keith J Carberry (@keithjcarberry) and Andrew Lee Swan (@swandre3000)

Produced by Ali Acampora

Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp)

Text by Austin Walker

Cover Art by by aurahack (aurahack.jp)

With thanks to Arthur B., chocoube, DB, deepFlaw, Edwin Adelsberger, Emrys, Greg Cobb, huw, Ian O'Dea, Ian Urbina, Irina A., Jack Shirai, K. Morris, Katie Diekhaus, Konisforce, Kristina Harris Esq, L Tantivy, Lawson Coleman, Mike & Ruby, Nich Maragos, Olive Perry, Patrick Murray, Robert Lasica, Shawn Hall, TeganEden, Thomas Whitney, viviridian, and Voi for their support

We are playing Armour Astir: Advent with additional playbooks from Strangers in the Night and 106th Astir Squadron. If you enjoy the show, consider supporting the TTRPG.

This episode was made with support from listeners like you! To support us, you can go to friendsatthetable.cash.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Palisade is a show about empire, revolution, settler colonialism, politics, religion, war, and the many consequences thereof.
0:09.0	For a full list of content warnings, please check the episode description.
0:13.0	Part 5, Gas Mining, Lawn Resorts, Helene Delta, Duplicate of Helene Gamma, Tholsa, Standard Spread, Xenosip, Lost Contact, Lost Port Colors Repair Team, Bobo Cobb, Packed Occupied, Main, Lumber, Spice, Bishop Monten, Arms Manufacturing, Cargil, Standard Spread, Isfahan, Standard
0:43.0	Spread, Yoka, Standard Spread, KX-9339, Black Hole Research Line, Dolcott, Established Vienna Day in Art Grant, Darae, Tomb Sector, Eco Refugee Camps, Adino, Quarantine Sector, Scarnock, Debris Fields, Hilda, Gas Mining, Poor, Standard Spread, Nova Melides, Abandoned Divine Clash Worlds, Palimades 8, Regional Refueling Depot, Castax 8,
1:13.0	Stratus Research Facility, Ashler, Standard Spread, Alter, Brighton, Crown, Gift 3, Moonlock,
1:40.6	Punish all, Skane, Thursus, Volition, The Brink, The Twilight Raraj, and its neighboring system,
2:02.7	where the three rings of the stellar combustor whip, and tight rotations, around the bolded sun, Palisade, its self-destination, Oh, how could you?
2:16.7	It's a wedding and solemn and market day too, because on Palisade, most people don't have time to practice dying, to imagine their own funerals, or the memorial services broadcast on Orion Airwaves, the little statuettes, the plaques, the pins that turn misery into messaging, but that doesn't mean they aren't scared on Palisade.
2:43.7	Even their cars, enjoy a scar, in car hay, on the aisle of the broken key, in city city, on new oath, in the crown of glass, and they're scared on the bleach head too, but they're moving, launching now, headed up, putting the world behind them, but drawing it closer at the same time, fingers on their own triggers, fingers wrapped together, reaching.
3:13.7	Touching, grasping, in the dark.
3:21.7	Welcome to Friends of the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical world building smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends, I'm your host Austin Walker, joining me today, Alicia Occompora.
3:32.7	Um, hi, my name is Alicia Occompora, you can find me on this podcast, and you can also find me on a more civilized age, a more civilized age.
3:42.7	Where we're figuring it out, who knows, Andrew Lee Swand, hey, you can find me on Twitter, I guess, at swandery 3000, and you can find me on our Twitch channel, most Monday nights, twitch.tv slash friends at the table.
4:00.7	Keith Carberry.
4:02.7	Hi, my name is Keith J. Carberry, you can find me on Twitter and co-host at Keith J. Carberry, and you can find the let's place that I do at youtube.com slash run button.
4:12.7	Jeanine Hawkins.
4:14.7	Hi, I'm Jeanine Hawkins, you can find me at Bleating Heart on Twitter and co-host in places like that.
4:22.7	Um, and despite what time.it is will tell us today, it is actually National Norma Day and National Whistleblower Day.
4:31.7	Greeth and Norma is in your life from friends and family to relatives this National Norma Day, and let's give it up for whistleblowers who have worked hard to protect us from corruption.
4:40.7	Just Norma's in general.
4:43.7	People named Norma.
4:45.7	Yeah.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Friends at the Table, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Friends at the Table and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.