CAMPAIGN FRAME: MOTHERBOARD – THE KOHD SEQUENCE

"The past isn't buried in the Echo Vale. It's idling on an ancient network, waiting for someone with a scrap-rig and bad luck to hit enter."

1. Frame Overview & Pitch

The Core Premise

In the shattered landscape of the Echo Vale, salvage crews eke out a living digging through the technological slag of an ancient war. You are a four-person salvage crew operating out of Salvation, a rough, independent frontier settlement built inside old industrial ruins on the edge of the Wastes.

During a routine salvage run into the hazardous Wastes, your crew recovers an anomalous military module: the Oracle of War.  Rather than storing historical records, the Oracle is an active predictive computation engine running on Kohd—an ancient machine language composed of logical, conditional statements. As the Oracle outputs predictions that directly reference your squad, rival factions, academic technomancers, and military recovery agents begin converging on Salvation to seize or destroy the machine.

Key Details

• System: Daggerheart
  
  
• Setting: The Echo Vale & The Wastes (Motherboard Campaign Frame)
  
  
• Source Narrative: Eberron: Oracle of War (Adapted Narrative Path)
  
  
• Tone: Techno-fantasy, post-apocalyptic scavenger thriller, tactical, atmospheric.
  
  
• Core Themes: Free will vs. deterministic code, survival in a fallen world, squad cohesion under pressure.
  
  

2. Core World & Setting Pillars

I. The Wastes & The Echo Vale

The Echo Vale is a vast region scarred by ancient industrial warfare. The Wastes form its central expanse—a dangerous zone filled with rogue autonomous Remnants, toxic chemical pockets, and buried bunkers containing high-value scrap.

II. Salvation: The Frontier Base

Salvation serves as the crew's operational hub. It is not a bustling metropolis, but a lawless scrap town built into the rust-eaten frame of a fallen industrial megastructure. Scavengers bring salvage here to trade for food, ammunition, and quantum payouts.

III. The Kohd Language

Kohd is the computational language used by ancient military intelligence networks. It functions through conditional logic statements:

$$\text{[IF]} \quad \langle \text{Condition} \rangle \quad \implies \quad \text{[THEN]} \quad \langle \text{Predicted State} \rangle$$

Over the course of the campaign, players will actively decipher Kohd glyphs and syntax to anticipate threat vectors and manipulate event probabilities.

3. Key NPCs & Local Support Ecosystem

Joey (Salvage Broker & Market Boss)

• Role: Theris’s primary commercial connection.
  
  
• Function: Provides salvage contracts, evaluates recovered technology, converts scrap into quantum, and acts as an early warning system when rumors spread in Salvation.
  
  

Rod (Kohd Scholar & Technomancer)

• Role: Elorin’s academic colleague and decipherer.
  
  
• Function: Operates a private laboratory in Salvation. Assists the party in translating complex Kohd syntax and investigating the historical origins of the Oracle.
  
  

The Motherboard AI ("Mother")

• Role: Shinjo’s Warlock Patron.
  
  
• Function: A mysterious, dispersed network intelligence echoing through hidden transceivers across the Echo Vale. Speaks through Shinjo, offering guidance that blurs the line between assistance and manipulation.
  
  

4. The Squad Architecture

The campaign is built around a dedicated four-person crew whose roles seamlessly mesh in both narrative exploration and tactical combat:

                  +-----------------------+
                  |    THERIS (Leader)    |
                  | Guardian / Stalwart   |
                  +-----------+-----------+
                              |
       +----------------------+----------------------+
       |                                             |
+------+----------------+                     +------+----------------+
|  ELORIN (Technology)  |                     | YOSEF (Tactics/Scout) |
| Wizard / Knowledge    |                     | Witch / Hedge         |
+------+----------------+                     +------+----------------+
       |                                             |
       +----------------------+----------------------+
                              |
                  +-----------+-----------+
                  |  SHINJO (Network Medium) |
                  | Warlock / Patron AI   |
                  +-----------------------+

Character	Class & Subclass	Heritage & Community	Primary Role & Specialization
Theris	Guardian (Stalwart)	Dwarf-Earthkin / Orderborne	Crew leader, frontline defender, salvage operations manager.
Elorin	Wizard (School of Knowledge)	Half-Elf / Loreborne	Technologist, artificer, chemical/alchemical medic.
Shinjo	Warlock (Motherboard AI Patron)	Faerie/ Network-Linked	Network listener, controller, anomaly detector.
Yosef	Witch (Hedge)	Human/ Orderborne	Battlefield intelligence, scout, squad coordinator.

5. Campaign Mechanics & Gameplay Loops

The Scavenger Loop

Gameplay in Motherboard: The Kohd Sequence revolves around a four-stage core loop:

1. Locate (Shinjo): Detect hidden network nodes, electromagnetic signatures, and scrap caches using Warlock network sensitivity.
   
   
2. Assess & Scout (Yosef): Read structural integrity, environmental hazards, enemy guard routes, and battlefield positioning using tactical overlays.
   
   
3. Analyze & Extract (Elorin): Disassemble hardware, bypass locks, synthesize compounds, and extract intact tech components.
   
   
4. Secure & Liquidate (Theris): Neutralize threats on the frontline, command the extraction effort, and negotiate trade terms with Joey in Salvation.
   
   

Objective-Based Encounters

Combats in this frame rarely focus solely on wiping out enemy HP. Encounters utilize Daggerheart's Action Tracker and Countdown Clocks to create dynamic goals:

• Terminal Data-Drain: Hold a network terminal for 3 rounds while defending against aggressive Remnants.
  
  
• Hazardous Extraction: Secure a heavy Oracle core module and carry it across collapsing industrial flooring.
  
  
• Signal Intercept: Prevent a recovery agent from uploading a Kohd sequence override to an external tower.
  
  

6. Campaign Narrative Arc

Act I: Discovery & Activation (Books 1 & 2)

• Setting: Salvation & The Outer Wastes.
  
  
• Narrative Focus: The crew takes on routine salvage contracts for Joey. During a dive into a buried vault, they recover the Oracle device and bring it back to Salvation.
  
  
• Key Event: Elorin boots the hardware, Shinjo detects a massive network ping, and the Oracle issues its first predictive output: THREAT APPROACHING.
  
  

Act II: The Third Protocol (Book 4)

• Setting: The Echo Vale & Frontier Pass.
  
  
• Narrative Focus: The Oracle’s internal routines trigger "Protocol Three," alerting high-level recovery factions across the Echo Vale.
  
  
• Key Event: Specialized recovery agents attack Salvation. The crew must defend their home base and flee into the Echo Vale to keep the Oracle out of hostile hands.
  
  

• 
  
  

Act III: The Kohd Convergence (Books 6)

• Setting: Regional Capitals & The Central Network Core.
  
  
• Narrative Focus: Political and military leaders learn of the Oracle and attempt to use its predictions to launch preemptive strikes.
  
  
• The Climax: The Oracle calculates a catastrophic conflict scenario. The crew must choose whether to allow the predicted outcome to occur, rewrite the Kohd Sequence using their combined abilities, shut down the Oracle forever, or integrate it into Mother’s global network.