Campaign 3, Episode 3: Missing Soldier (The Mothership Saga)

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

The Blue Crew attempts to retrace Beatrix's foot steps and uncovers more truths about Mothership. Callie channels a tight grandma, Sol reminisces about his youth, and Calder stands up for a friend.

## Plot Synopsis

After a daring escape from the Mothership labs and Albin successfully breaking the tracking capabilities of their manastones, the Blue Crew faces down what to do next. They decide to go investigate the home of Beedra Weevil, the Mothership scientist whose work was stolen while they were undergoing the S-Class upgrade procedure. They borrow a scooter from Krugan, who is willing to hide them from Mothership detection, and they head off.

On the overburdened scooter, they pass the Mothership Launchpad Academy, which Sol regards with much sadness after he and Albin shared in the discovery that their adventures were almost definitely fabricated. Nearby, they arrive at Beedra's rowhouse, which is guarded by two C-Class soldiers. Callie uses *Disguise Self* to look like Paetina (with Sol and Calder as her guards), and sends them off to go receive their upgrades to S-Class. With the guards dispatched, they enter, and find the house looking somewhat staged, though are able to find something hidden in the floorboards: a locket that projects a holographic message.

The message is from Beedra herself, and the hologram tells “anyone who hears this” that she has been trying to get the word out about the S-Class Synths, but now fears for her life and has made a recording. The hologram goes on to share that the Mothership was using secret *Modify Memory* and *Symbol* spells on its S-Class soldiers, who were otherwise the exact same as A-Class Soldiers. Beedra assumes that this magical infusion is being used so the company can override the objections and free will of its soldiers and carry out a full attack on the dragon elves in the Living Wood. She believes she was reported as a whistleblower to Mothership, and says that "if anything happens to me, it was Mothership."

A second recording then follows, showing Beatrix Netherin finding this same hidden compartment, and stealing a bunch of papers, and a big silver and gold gauntlet that the group identifies as a jammer, the likes of which could have been used in the attack on the lab. Callie recognizes the box it was kept in as the item that Krugan handed off to his hobgoblin contact the day before. They bring this information back to Krugan, who is terrified that he may be implicated in a crime against Mothership. The crew reassure him that they'll take care of it, and ask after the hobgoblin who took it. Krugan shares that his name is Darg and he's a part of Mob Goblin, which is run by Ma Goblin.

After a long rest, they take Krugan's scooter and a roll of toilet paper that allows them to communicate with Albin and they head outside the bubble to a bar called the Toad Hole to find out who Mob Goblin sold the jammer to. At the bar, an ogre slyly mentions that he'd like to make 35 gold that day, referencing Callie's bounty, but Calder immediately pays him 50 gp to walk away and leave her alone, telling Callie she's worth much more than that, making her weep. When they find Darg, they walk over with some frosted mugs of ale and a pitcher of water and ask after Beatrix. Darg insists that when he brought it to Ma Goblin, it was only the parts to make a jammer, leading them to ask for an audience with her. Darg insists on a show of loyalty from the Blue Crew, and sends them to go raid a crashed airship that landed in another crew's territory and bring back the payload in exchange for an audience with Ma Goblin and "one treat each" from the cache they bring back. They are warned about the raging gang war on the streets, but persist nonetheless.

On the way, they pass entirely abandoned streets graffiti saying "Thiala was right," and note its connection to a religious doomsday cult called the Lightkeepers. Upon reaching the crashed airship, they see a crumbling statue of Thiala. Looking around, they hear the sounds of combat between a gang of Juicy Rats and Lightkeepers both in and around the ship, and note that they will have to get up on top of the ship to enter and journey to the hull, which is crashed into the ground. Sol jumps up on top of the craft and lets down a rope. However, when Calder climbs up, he doesn't properly estimate his size, and falls through the roof, initiating combat.

The crew decides to go after the Lightkeepers inside, including a couple of casters, a couple of thugs, and a cult leader going by Sister Rosaline. They manage to avoid the wrath of the rats, including their manastone-equipped leader, for a short time. However, after dropping two of the Lightkeeper thugs, the two Lightkeeper casters each cast *Hold Person* on Calder and Callie, who both fail their Wisdom Saves to get out of it. Sister Rosaline then summons her *Spiritual Weapon* into Callie's hand, and makes it look like Callie threw the weapon at the leader of the rats, leaving the Blue Crew surrounded by enemies.

## Quotes

* "Protect me, for Thiala shines through me! I am sister Rosaline! For the light!" -Sister Rosaline, channeling some long-dead prophet of Thiala.
* "You are an enemy of the light! You've come crashing from the sky, and yet you are clearly directly from hell." -Sister Rosaline to Calder after he falls through the ceiling and casts *Ice Knife*.

## Trivia

* Callie channels her water into turning their blue Ezry armor into a rusty orange in order to disguise them.

## Music and Sound Effects

* "Organ Ambience" by InspectorJ at Freesound.org.
* "A Wizard's Tournament" by Emily Axford.
* "Mothership" by Emily Axford.
* "Microbrews Cruise" by Emily Axford.
* "Paetina" by Emily Axford.
* "The Trade District" by Emily Axford.
* "Implicated" by Emily Axford.
* "Synth Night" by Emily Axford.
* "Cable Car Ride" by Emily Axford.
* "Conspiracy in the Clouds" by Emily Axford.
* "Into the Fire" by Emily Axford.
* "Lucanus Aer'Tea" by Emily Axford.
* "Shadowfell Sneak" by Emily Axford.
* "Spooky Shafts" by Emily Axford.
* "Left is Left and Right is Center" by Emily Axford.
* "The Red Fen" by Emily Axford.
* "The Valiant Ol' Cobb" by Emily Axford.

## External Links

* Headgum
* Spotify
* NADDPOD Subreddit Thread