"Knight"

Knight with his old Dragonslayer's "Sword" | Credit: Hannah

"Knight", as they've come to be called, is a Toyfolk Paladin in the shape of a small articulated plastic warrior in full plate armor. They first appeared in their current form in the Ringbell woods, having set out on a perpetual quest to make friends, smite evil, and obtain a set of six magical stones. After meeting the rest of the party in New Town, Knight accepted a sidequest to find and eliminate the source of Black Ooze in the Forest, which they're still pursuing to this day. Like the Zazous, Knight is almost fully consumed by an unusually strong Game, which involves zealously playing the part of a generic Paladin from D&D 3.5.

## Story Developments / Character Events

* Just prior to the first arc, Knight arrived in town hoping to find one of his MacGuffins in the Tower and subsequently made an enemy of the Honey Guard by breaking into their fortification at the Tower's base. This got the attention of the Amperdens, who found Knight's antics charming and took him in, eventually leading to his first encounter with Mari. Though he hasn't returned to New Town in a while, Knight considers many of the Amperdens to be firm allies and good friends.
* When Awakening Baldric's children after the events in the Tower, Knight named Richenda de Courtoise Catface in the same manner that he comes up with his own titles
* They were granted a magical Dragonslaying Sword as a part of a sidequest in New Town, which was tragically never named
	+ This sword is used exclusively as a hammer
	+ The sword was able to instantly Banish a Kobold from the forest during the Wanderland arc, confirming that it really does have a powerful effect against dragons and dragonlings
	+ At the end of the Wanderland arc, the hammer was destroyed by the Deck of Many Things when it forced Knight to choose between it and Penny
* After bonding with Penny at Al Khampus, Knight picked up a habit of kidnapping small creatures and attempting to tame them whenever they appear in combat. Despite his highest skill rank being Animal Handling (as of level 9), this strategy has yet to work a second time.
* After having a lot of trouble protecting his friends through healing and tanking alone during the first two arcs, Knight needed a way to become more effective in combat. During the Galleria Deep arc, the party encountered Freya, a Paladin to the Wolf that was particularly skilled at dealing incredible melee damage. Over the course of the arc, Freya trained Knight how to use his hammer more effectively, and he eventually gained a level in the Furious Guardian prestige class
* In addition to the loss of his hammer, Knight suffered several other curses by drawing from the Deck of Many Things, including a permanent size increase and the inability to level-up, among others that haven't yet been explained
* After the events of the Fate Stay Knight text adventure, the strength of Knight's Game loosened somewhat, allowing him to explore skills and hobbies that fall outside of the typical Paladin archetype. Having learned from his friends over their many adventures, Knight gained access to four new spells:
	+ He learned Vanish from Lavender after seeing her regularly use Snapleaves to great effect
	+ He was able to pick up Bladed Dash by watching Belmandil without having to be formally taught. This is partially because Belmandil is the most mechanically similar to Knight—being the only other melee caster—and partially because he's seen the spell up-close many times
	+ At the beginning of the Conspiracy arc, Frisby taught Knight how to cast Speak With Animals at his request. This probably has to do with his habit of trying to tame small creatures in combat
	+ (This won't happen until at least level 13) In order to keep Knight safe on his many side-quests, Mari taught him how to summon Thread when needed. The connection is much weaker than usual due to Knight's low casting ability (Summon Monster IV), but he has enough experience summoning Penny to at least manifest a weaker, ethereal version of his big spiky friend

## Penny

During the Al Khampus arc, Knight encountered a particularly tenacious fire beetle during a random encounter and decided to adopt it. After the two bonded, the beetle eventually grew to become Knight's loyal animal companion, Penny.

Penny is a bit slower than most mounts due to her heavy chitin, but when she gets up to running speed she can move surprisingly quickly. She's also exceptionally skilled at moving through combat safely, and tends to support the team by moving allies around and drawing attention away from the squishier party members.

### Penny Lore

* Penny was originally a regular beetle, but as a part of some unknown research at Al Khampus, fire runes were permanently carved into her carapace, granting her an extremely limited ability to produce flame
* Because her body isn't built to handle the ambient heat produced by the runes, Penny becomes overheated very easily. As a result she frequently flutters her wings to vent excess heat, and loves cool, well-ventilated environments
* Though Penny has wings, she's become far too heavy to fly
* Penny is a homebrew Giant Beetle mount, with most of her base stats pulled from a combination of the Giant Stag Beetle and Griffon stat pages. She's otherwise treated as a standard Animal Companion

## Lore

* Because of their eccentric personalities, Knight has historically gotten along very well with Lumière and Lavender
	+ Since the Morabella arc, Lavender and Knight have been somewhat at odds over her decision to take on an Evil patron
* As the only two melee fighters in the party, Knight and Belmandil work together a lot and the two tend to get along, despite Knight's chaotic Toyfolk antics
* Because Mari acts as a sort of grandmother figure in the party and to Knight especially, he's started avoiding risky or self-sacrificing behavior in recent arcs, to keep her from worrying
* When asked about the details of their quest or their background, Knight always gives a different name, objective and backstory
* Knight is implied to have lived for a *long* time—at least by Toyfolk standards—and gone through multiple D&D-based Games. Most of this history is obscured by their current Game, however.
	+ They were canonically a high-level Spellslinger Wizard in a previous Game, though no one else in the party knows this
	+ In the central plaza of Port Bell Hollow there's a large metal statue of what appears to be Knight wearing a cross between a Wizard's hat and a cowboy hat
* When using his Worldly trait to roll untrained skills with advantage, we gain insight into some of the past lives Knight may have lived:
	+ They've failed Stealth checks more often than not, suggesting that they've never been decent at stealth
	+ During the Galleria Deep arc they demonstrated a surprising skill for storytelling when describing the events of the Tower to a Toyfolk teddy bear [Performance (Oratory)]
	+ They canonically know how to juggle [Performance (Juggling)]
* Prior to the events of the campaign, Knight once managed to pass through the magical fog and enter the Conspiracy, though no one knows how

### Given Names

* Dibgy
* Sir Vernon of the Marble Sea

### Alleged Accolades and Titles

* Knight of the Green Wastes
* Slayer of Draculas
* Thane of Whiterun
* Honorary Captain of the Oaken Guard