Mark of the Witch

5

^^ Surge City ^^

My first real plan of action was to meet Rollo and his Faction and the rest of my grandchildren, and with that completed, I had a small laundry list of goals that each needed to be addressed.

1: get my Reputation up to at least +20 (currently 0, after around ten dungeon raids, apparently there was a meter you could check.)
2: build a Faction and a Raid Team of my own, instead of hijacking Rollo's. (No progress yet, still have a bunch of unidentified Magic Equipment that I need identified.)
3: get to the Black Tower and accept my membership. (Very intrigued by the opportunity.)
4: conquer the Starter City to establish a hub for my family in this game world as well as a sizable cash cow. (No progress yet.)
5: conquer the Docks and the three Port Cities. (No progress yet.)
6: establish a Global Naval Trade Empire. (No progress yet.)
7: Conquer the World. (Like, .0001% progress, I guess.)

An ambitious list of goals, for sure, but each achievable in its own way, with an equal amount of luck and hard work. To that end, I was currently reading the offers on the forum for buying the Blank Map Template from me, and I'd selected a few of the better ones.

'15,000 Gold!'
'10,000 Gold, a Level-Five Faction Hall in the Starter City, and Crafting Materials to upgrade it to Level-Six!'
'I'll offer up 1 of the 3 total Piers in Surge City, -above the Starter City,- with the Pier at Level Two, two Level Three Schooners, and an Alliance with the Lion's Guard!!!'

"Rollo, dear? What level is your Faction Hall? I wasn't aware they had levels?"

The archer looked up slowly from the paperwork he was currently sitting through sluggishly, thinking for a moment. "Each of our buildings is a Level One Hall, because that's what you need to be able to run a business out of them... the main hall, where we are now, is a Level Two. Why?"

"Level Two is like this place? What's a Level Six Hall look like, then?"

He snorted softly. "There are no Level Six Halls in the Starter City, though there are a two Level Fives, and those are more like small Castles."

"I see... and the materials required to upgrade are expensive?"

"Exceedingly so. It's 100 gold per level, stacking each time, then five times that amount each in stone, wood, and metal. There are NPC's who do the construction, and it usually takes about a week to finish an upgrade. Still, it's worth it, because each level gives an increase in Luck and Charisma to the entire Faction that has it set as their Base, as well as an increase to the building's base income, and once you add in the Faction Taxes from your members, that amount gets saved in the Hall as a sort of 'Bank' that your Faction uses as its operational budget. At Level 1 you get a Pub, Level Two is an Inn, Level Three you get a Blacksmithy and Livery you can add on the side of the building, as well as getting the option to turn it into a pretty big Mansion or Hotel, though it can't be a Pub anymore, at Level Four it's a small Fort with a curtain wall and options for defenses, and Level Five is a Castle, which gives you a Noble Title; noble titles don't do much for now, but eventually we'll be actually creating Kingdoms, which means that it will become an important mechanic as time goes on."

"Mm... and what does Level Six give you?"

"I... don't actually know? The forums might have more information."

"Hmm... alright. Thank you, dear. Oh, and here, your Alliance can make good use of this." I placed a thick scroll of vellum on his desk, which contained a perfect rendition of the blank map, without any names or biomes or anything except rivers and seas, and at the same time sent private Magical Contracts (something all players could summon for free, surprisingly enough,) to the owners of the three final offers that'd been sent to me for the same map. It was difficult to make with only my meager talent for art, but with careful use of my HUD, I'd managed to trace it down perfectly (after several tries to get used to it).