Campaign 3, Episode 1: D-Class Knights (The Mothership Saga)

Art by ambassadorquark.

**D-Class Knights** is the first episode in campaign 3, and the first episode in The Mothership Saga.

Welcome back to Bahumia, everyone! Join Sol, Callie, and Calder -- three low rent Synthetic Knights -- as they try to prove themselves to the Mothership Corporation and the people of Ezry.

## Plot Synopsis

The campaign begins two hundred years following the cataclysm and subsequent defeat of the goddess Thiala. In the years that have passed, Bahumia has changed. The city of Gladeholm spent decades advancing magic and science at a breakneck pace before transporting itself and its citizens to the Astral Plane to deal with matters of universal importance. They left behind a power vacuum in which the five remaining kingdoms were left to contend.

Within the protective bubble, surrounded by skyships and criss-crossed with cable car lines, the city of Ezry has emerged as a leader in magical technology since the departure of Gladeholm, much of its success due to the growth and prominence of the Mothership corporation. It is a glittering metropolis, representing years of development in arcane technology and infrastructure, protecting the citizens of the bubble from external threats with a task force of Mothership Synthetic Knights. Synthetic knights are granted their magic through a technology known as a manastone, an implanted crystal that can channel their power and can connect Synths to the Mothership AI, Alexandrite. Synthetic Knights are classified by rank- from A-Class to D-Class, with their classification reflecting how successfully and uniformly their magic has manifested. An experimental class of Synths called S-Class knights were recently created, but the whole squad, including its leader Beatrix Netherin, was killed by dragon elves at an outpost near the Living Wood, just outside of Ezry.

With this history in mind, the episode moves on to the characters of the campaign, starting with Solum "Sol" Bufo, a Bullywug Monk and D-Class Synthetic Knight. He is preparing for the night shift when his roommate, Albin, comes home. A corporate mage for Mothership, Albin shares a rumor he heard at the office, that the company is preparing to make more S-Class knights, and he tells Sol that as a D-Class Synth, he might have a shot.

At the same time, Sol's coworker, another D-Class Synth named Calliope "Callie" Petrichor, is preparing to head to work as well. She is a "rainy day" Eladrin, Bard/Paladin, and she has recently gone through a really rough breakup, leaving her emotionally fragile. Callie lives in the belfry of a church that is being run as a front for a smuggling ring by Forge Father Krugan, an older dwarf man. Krugan shares that Callie's family, a notorious crime family from the Feywild, has put a paltry 35 GP bounty out on her head, leading Callie to weep, worrying about the low quality assassins who will be tempted by the sum. Callie hears something in her room, and hurries back up to confront the would-be assassin, only to find that a white fluffy duck with an orange beak has materialized on top of her diary. Callie tries to rebuff the duck, but it seems to imprint on her, and follows her to work.

The final member of their squad, Calder Kildé, is not preparing for their work day at this time, but rather arriving at the Mothership, hovering above the city, where he has been asked to come and answer some questions. He is a 7' 7" half-giant Eldritch Knight fighter from the Frigid North. Calder is brought into a conference room to meet an intense-looking halfling woman: Paetina Glenbottle, Mothership CEO. She offers to fast-track him to becoming an S-Class Synth if he can light her pipe by magical means. Equipped only with cold-based spells, Calder fails and is dismissed.

The squad meets up at the Mothership Security Tower to start their shift, Callie and Sol consoling Calder for his failure with Paetina, and Calder and Sol probing the presence of the duck. They encounter a C-Class group of Synths coming off of their shift, including a dwarven woman named Gifford who teases them for their D-Class status. With Natural 20's on their insight checks on Gifford's attitude, Callie and Sol realize that Gifford's hostility is all an act to cover up the fact that she has a huge crush on Sol. With Sol's consent, Callie makes out with him to make Gifford jealous. The kiss ends when Sol accidentally ejects his frog tongue, but successfully causes Gifford to punch a wall in jealousy.

While on shift, the group are called on their manastones by Alexandrite in which Sol permanently names them "Duck Team" in Alexandrite's database. The AI reports that there are rats harassing dockworkers at the Strixer's Elixirs in the Trade District. The team takes the long way there via cable car, but eventually arrives to see a group of pretty big rats on top of some shipping crates on a docked cable car. When the dockworkers leave the car to allow the Synths to move in, the rats shift into ratfolk rogues, and cut two of the cables holding up the car, swinging away from the dock with the shipment.

Duck Team jumps into action, falling and teleporting down onto the cable car. They eliminate several of the ratfolk before a getaway ship appears to take the shipment. One of the rats on board the getaway ship appears to have an infected manastone implant. Crossing over onto the ship, Callie and Sol ask what the ratfolk are trying to steal, and find out that these crates contain the elixirs for creating S-Class synths. Calder drops one of the remaining crates down onto the getaway ship from the cable car above, effectively killing the rest of the rats, but knocking Callie unconscious in the process. Without any healing abilities, Calder and Sol are still able to stabilize Callie after she fails one death save when Sol puts his tongue in her mouth and Calder does chest compressions.

As more airships with A-Class Synth backup arrives, the group looks at the remaining inventory and are able to determine that a powerful Symbol spell has been incorporated into these elixirs. They contemplate stealing some, and end up stowing one in the ship's glove compartment, along with the duck, who has tagged along. When Callie reads the minds of the A-Class Synths coming to back them up, she hears them think that this is at least C-Class work.

## Quotes

* "Are you a fucking low-grade assassin here to off me? Because if you are, you might as well get out of your fucking duck form and get out your fucking sword and we'll have it out." -Callie, meeting The Duck
* "Calder? Right, um, look at me? I wasn't born yesterday. I have a child, and my child has a child, okay? I'm a grandma, okay? You **can** have it all." - Paetina Glenbottle

## Trivia

* Emily was delighted when Murph revealed Paetina as a "tight grandma," as that had been a character archetype she had considered playing, but had ultimately passed on.
* This is the first main feed campaign where all three PC characters have known each other prior to the first episode.

## Music and Sound Effects

* "Engine Room" by Zimbot at Freesound.org.
* "Organ Ambience" by InspectorJ at Freesound.org.
* "A Wizard's Tournament" by Emily Axford.
* "Fantastic & Fuddling" by Emily Axford.
* "Mothership" by Emily Axford.
* "The Frog" by Emily Axford.
* "Tarragon's Terrarium" by Emily Axford.
* "Micro Brews Cruise" by Emily Axford.
* "The Frost Giant" by Emily Axford.
* "Paetina" by Emily Axford.
* "The Trade District" by Emily Axford.
* "Alexandrite" by Emily Axford.
* "Synth Night" by Emily Axford.
* "Cable Car Ride" by Emily Axford.
* "Hexbuds" by Emily Axford.

## External Links

* Headgum
* Spotify
* NADDPOD Subreddit Thread