Campaign 3, Episode 8: Beneath the Surface (The Mothership Saga)

**Beneath the Surface** is the eighth episode in campaign 3, and the eigth episode in The Mothership Saga.

Duck Team attempts to successfully highjack an airship without alerting Go! Go! Team 'Tection. Calder conducts a musical, Callie says goodbye to a friend, and Sol meets a kindred spirit.

## Plot Synopsis

Duck Team commandeers an airship for Mob Goblin by knocking out the mostly-inept Ezry guards onboard, despite their similarities to the crew. They then land the ship in the water and send the crew off on a dinghy, with Sol passing on a message that the Lightkeepers had sent them to hijack the ship, telling the crew that they could pass that along to Go! Go! Team ‘Tection. As the crew flew the stolen ship to the secret meeting spot, Callie investigates the ship's ledger and discovers that frequent deliveries were being made to someone in Irondeep named Gromdall Bronzebeard, a relative of the queen.

Duck Team set to cracking open all the shipping containers and discover potions and weapons hidden beneath the Mothership Mana Meals, leading them to suspect that there might be something more sinister at play. Arriving at the secret docks, Grem begrudgingly takes them back to camp, but only after they perform an impromptu musical while landing the ship and disembarking.

Upon arriving back at the camp, the group speaks more seriously about the strange shipments to Irondeep and theorize that Mothership could be helping to fund some kind of coup against the queen. Krugan confirms for them that Queen Jaina Bronzebeard is at odds with the rest of her family, and Krugan visibly wrestles with his own connections to the Bronzebeards and similar crime families. With memories of his estranged wife and daughter fresh in his mind. Krugan decides to leave for Irondeep to try to set things right there and find out more about this potential uprising, with hopes that he’ll see Callie and the Team again soon.

Meanwhile, there is an intruder caught sneaking around the outskirts of the camp, a young bullywug named Lyddie. A guard voices his concern that she could tell others about the secret camp if she were to be let go. Lyddie insists that she just wanted to find food for the fellow kids at the waterpark. With Sol’s own intertwined past as a kid growing up hungry and abandoned at the waterpark, the Blue Crew agree to escort her back with some food and support.

Along the way in the tunnels, the group begin to suspect that Lyddie has been working under someone else's orders and they eventually get her to confess. However, she only tells a half-truth, saying that there’s an ambush up ahead, using the group’s trust to run ahead. Only Sol is able to keep up and he is able to catch her just as she jumps out of the tunnels and into the arms of Sister Rosaline, the leader of the Lightkeepers. Rosaline, with two fellow cultists by her side, were waiting for Lyddie to return, but Sol manages to surprise them just about as much as they surprise him, and everyone faces off for combat, with Calder, Callie, and Albin still quite a ways away in the tunnels below.

## Quotes

* "Good cop, bad cop, cold cop, frog cop." Sol, laying out the strategy for intimidating Alamander the salamander.

## Music and Sound Effects

* "A Wizard Tournament" by Emily Axford.
* "Zelbuldar" by Emily Axford.
* "Bonkginya, Fia Bonkginya" by Emily Axford.
* "Shadowfell Sneak" by Emily Axford.
* "Spooky Shafts" by Emily Axford.
* "The Ruins of Old Cragwater" by Emily Axford.
* "The Gunslinger's Girl" by Emily Axford.
* "Montgomery Manor" by Emily Axford.
* "The Murderer's Mask" by Emily Axford.
* "Conspiracy in the Clouds" by Emily Axford.

## External Links

* Headgum
* Spotify
* NADDPOD Subreddit Thread