The Prydwen

The Prydwen is a modified and heavily armored Brotherhood of Steel airship that flies throughout the skies of the Commonwealth. The vessel serves multiple roles for the Brotherhood, including those of aircraft carrier, command center, personnel quarters, equipment maintenance bay, and research facility. It is, for all intents and purposes, an airborne military base.

Background
The Prydwen was constructed at Adams Air Force Base over a period of six years. It took an initial two years to collect the materials necessary and another four to actually construct the airship. It weighs forty thousand tons, as noted by Lancer-Captain Kells. The nuclear core was taken from an old aircraft carrier as the previous one was not sufficient to efficiently power all the systems.

The airship is filled with hydrogen, as stated during the quest Airship Down. Four pylons attached to the ship's flight deck carry a single jet engine each, being responsible for controlling the Prydwen's altitude and help to keep the ship aloft. There are four docking hooks for Brotherhood modified VB-02 Vertibird gunships attached to the airship's hull. Vertibirds are accessible via the flight deck.

Layout
4 Areas:
 * 1) Flight Deck (exterior, to Vertibirds).
 * 2) Command Deck
 * 3) Main Deck
 * 4) Forecastle (exterior)

On the Main Deck is a medical bay, mess hall, power armor station, crafting equipment, and a shop (at the end of the corridor). There are also stairs that lead either up to the living quarters or down to a storage area. Around the perimeter and along the top are patrolled catwalks.

Inhabitants
The Prydwen's crew includes:
 * Elder Maxson
 * Lancer-Captain Kells
 * Paladin Brandis, if convinced to rejoin the Brotherhood.
 * Proctor Ingram
 * Proctor Teagan
 * Proctor Quinlan
 * Madison Li (optional)
 * Senior Scribe Neriah
 * Knight-Captain Cade
 * Predictive Analytic Machine (if reprogrammed in the mission Tactical Thinking)

Notable loot

 * BoS II T-60b power armor - Shadow of Steel quest reward.
 * Long range laser rifle found on the Prydwen Forecastle. The Forecastle entrance is located through the Main Deck's southern top floor.
 * Three mini nukes can be found on the lower catwalk of the main deck, next to the mini nuke crates that are recovered from the Fort Strong armory during the quest Show No Mercy. Two are on top of the crates and the third is on the floor next to the north western crate.
 * X-01 power armor MK1 helmet, Gauss rifle, Fat Man + 2 mini nukes, Fusion core and a bunch of ammo in Proctor Teagan's cage behind a master lock. (considered stealing)
 * Knight-Captain Cade's report holotape
 * C.I.T. recon report holotape
 * Personal log - 142 holotape
 * Quinlan to be deleted holotape
 * Maxson was right holotape.
 * Your new assignment holotape, on top of a barrel next to a bed, above the entrance to the main deck.
 * Nuka Cola Quantum, Prydwen main deck, lower catwalk
 * Lucia's personal key - on Lucia, and in Clarke's footlocker
 * From Lucia in Clarke's footlocker near his bed
 * Knight Lucia's log - in Lucia's personal footlocker

Pickpocket or dropped on death

 * Airship captain's hat pickpocket from Knight-Captain Kells.
 * Bomber jacket
 * Engineer's armor
 * Final Judgment (legendary gatling laser) carried by Arthur Maxson.
 * Medical goggles
 * Science scribe's armor
 * Welding helmet

Related quests

 * Shadow of Steel - Travel with Paladin Danse to meet with Elder Maxson.
 * Airship Down - Assault the Brotherhood along with the Institute's Synths.
 * Rockets' Red Glare - The Sole Survivor, Deacon and Tinker Tom lead a secret raid to destroy the Prydwen.
 * With Our Powers Combined - The Brotherhood have caused enough trouble, lead the Minutemen to destroy the Prydwen.

Appearances
The Prydwen appears only in Fallout 4. It will show up right after the main quest Reunions is finished, flying in over the western mountain range of the map and making its way across the Commonwealth, until it finally anchors above the Boston Airport. After this, the Sole Survivor can visit it during the Brotherhood of Steel quest Shadow of Steel offered by Paladin Danse.

Its remains can be visited if destroyed, and respawning Brotherhood corpses can be found and looted. Brotherhood of Steel scribes, knights, and paladins may appear and attack the Sole Survivor.

Behind the scenes

 * Prydwen (Middle Welsh lit. "fair-faced", "handsome") is the name of King Arthur's ship in the native Welsh literature concerning the legendary character. Arthur and his men board it to sail to the Otherworldly fortress of Annwn in the somewhat cryptic poem Preiddeu Annwfn as well as when they sail to and from Ireland in the prose text Culhwch ac Olwen in an attempt to gain a magical cauldron. It is not explicitly named in any other native Arthurian tale or poem, and in the Anglo-Norman literature that drew from it Arthur does not appear to have a comparable vessel.
 * It is pronounced by multiple characters different ways. Military Frequency AF95 broadcasts pronounce it 'preed-win' whereas Paladin Danse pronounces it 'prid-win'; the Welsh pronunciation is 'PRUHD-wehn'.

Bugs

 * Stealing from the Prydwen armory can result in all Brotherhood NPC's turning hostile against the Sole Survivor. This can happen regardless whether the survivor is detected or not and can happen even if a Stealth Boy is used. Solutions include picking up the desired item and moving it outside the armory before stealing it. This does not alert the Brotherhood.
 * In some cases after entering the Prydwen you will fall through the floor. Loading a previous save may fix this issue.
 * Killing the Brotherhood Lancer-Sergeant on the northern vertibird gantry may result, after a save and reload, in an invisible corpse with an untargetable version of the NPC standing over it. The invisible corpse may be looted, and may even be moved, but will revert to its original position on reload.  No known fix, but ultimately harmless. This bug has also been seen on the Scribes along the flight deck.

Gallery
El Prydwen 프라이드웬 Придвен