TVC BK I, T 1: Greenmount Fortress

Turn One:  Greenmount Fortress

Name: Greenmount Fortress (Unfinished)

• Tier: 3 star
• Grade: 2 star
• Durability: 36%
• Type: Building/Fortification
• Stats: 10 836/ 30 000
• Description: When Thorin of the Willows seized this land, he  imagined a great fortress on the adjoining mountain. It was to be the  seat from which he would project his power over his new vassals. Sadly,  this dream never materialised. The Ridgemen lost the war and this land  was taken back before the core of his new seat could be completed. The  central keep and most of the towers were never even finished. With  enough manpower and resources, it may be repaired to its former glory or  even upgraded past it to become all it was meant to be and more.
• Restrictions:
• Effects:
• Repair Requirements: Wardstone grade 3 or higher | Repair all facilities

“Hey, Bunpagna? Where are you going?” Unojd asked me as I stood up.

The response he got clued him to the fact that I wanted nothing to do  with the little discussion they were having. “Fuck off! I need some  air. A piss too.”

The other bandits stayed quiet as I walked past the fire and towards  the northern wall. With Chugar and Kanen gone, I was now the strongest  bandit in the gang and they knew it. If I wanted to, I could easily  seize power and become their new leader. I get the feeling they wanted  me to. Hah! Fat chance!

Making my way behind the keep to take a piss, I selected the wall in  front of me. Luckily, the controls were very intuitive. The effects,  however, were very trippy. It is one thing to right-click something in a  game and see it highlighted, but doing so in real life looked bizarre.  Case in point, a ten-metre-long section of the wall I selected was  glowing —sort off— it clearly wasn’t giving off any actual light nor was  it divided into that neat grid that I assume had been imposed on it.  The pop-up item screen was a nice touch though.

Stone Curtain Wall

• Tier: 1
• Grade: Uncommon
• Durability: 72%
• Type: Defensive Fortification
• Requirements:
• Repair: 1 Influence | 50 Stone per 10 cubic meter
• [Upgrade?]

Curious, I selected the upgrade option. Immediately, several new  panels opened up in front of me. Each held a different option; a  description and a mock-up photo of what the end result would look like.  Shaking out the last few drops, I decided to take a long walk along the  wall. More time for thinking that way.

Upgrade: Robust Curtain wall

• Grade: Uncommon
• Effects: Durability x2 | Defence + | Security +20
• Requirements: 300 Influence | 10000 stone
• Upgrade: Warded Curtain Wall
• Grade: Rare
• Effects: Durability x2 | Defence + | Magic Defence +20 |Security +30 | Spell dependent effect
• Requirements: Curtain wall | 500 Influence | 1000 silver | 10000 stone | 1 wardstone | Large Formation Spell | 100 mana crystals

There was even a third option for a cladded wall that provided  bonuses depending on the materials used. These weren’t the only kinds of  upgrades. Even ignoring the direct upgrades, there were functional  decorative and not-so-decorative wall mountings I could build such as  gargoyles and siege weapons.

Wall mounted Ballista

• Tier: 1
• Grade: Common
• Durability:
• Type: Siege/Defensive Weapon
• Requirements: 5 Influence | 10 wood | 3 iron

The more I scrolled through this new interface, the wider my eyes  grew. Slowly, it began to dawn on me just what I was looking at.

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed softly under my breath.

This was some sort of tower defence add-on to reality. If this was real and not some kind of high-res hallucination…

All plans to run away and change my name were swiftly abandoned. With  a tower defence system, I could simply hole myself within this keep and  have my defences slaughter any would-be heroes that tried to kill me.  To paraphrase one of those makeover shows, Greenmount Fort was small but  it had good bones. It was built by the Dawnridge Army during the Second  Sa’rnean wars but was never completed due to the wars ending before it  could be put in use. That and the fact that the Ridgemen suffered such  great losses during the war that they were driven from the area  entirely.

Whatever the case, this was supposed to be a military/political  outpost. Fully repaired, I could probably withstand anything short of a  proper army. If the Captain was to be believed there were many places  like this scattered all over the continent. There were abandoned forts,  temples, sects, and even whole settlements forgotten by time and reduced  to shadowy ruins that few people dared go to for fear of curses or  worse lurking within. The old bandit leader only knew this place existed  because he had been a Captain in the Glen Lord’s army, hence the title.  It was a testament to the war-torn nature of the world I now found  myself in that such things were possible.

Before this, I’d wager my chance of living to a ripe old age at an  even 30 per cent…maybe less. Bunpagna’s memories didn’t exactly paint a  rosy picture of this world. Suppose I could escape and reinvent myself,  there were always other bandits. Then, of course, the adventurers,  monsters, magical and natural disasters, diseases… The list of probable  causes of death was a long one indeed. However, this changed everything.  This was a tangible power that could be used to defend me from the  worst of it. I already had the castle. All I had to do now was figure  out how it worked.

I turned back to the floating interface, eager to discover its  secrets. Given that this was a game-type interface surely there was a  status screen or menu option, right? Responding to my unvoiced query,  the wall upgrades screen switched itself out for what I wanted.

[STATUS]

• Name: Bunpagna Thaddeus
• Race: Human
• Class: Brigand
• Level: 4
• Title: None
• Alignment: Neutral
• Fame: 0
• Treasury: 12 s | 2 es
• Faction Population: 0
• Influence: 42
• Unspent Perk Points: 4
• Evaluations: A weak nobody with no prospects.

Purposefully, ignoring the insulting evaluation, I asked mentally, ‘Menu?’ and lo and behold that popped up too.

[MENU]

• Missions:
• Shop
• Research
• Faction Management
• Asset Management

Fingers and mental commands working in tandem had me scrolling  through the various options quickly so I can get a feel for what this  interface was capable of. A jaunt over to asset management had me  looking at a screen with all the info on my new base: Greenmount Fort.

‘So many many map options.’

Just like that, I was looking at a miniature three-dimensional model  of the fortress with each ‘facility’ outlined and tagged. It had several  points of interest. My eyes darted between the model and the real  fortress, trying to match everything on it with the real thing.  Consulting Bunpagna’s memories didn’t help, he hadn’t even known they  had a forge, however, a cursory check revealed that what his interface  called a forge was the building we used as a kitchen. Going by this, the  soldiers’ barracks were those old wooden buildings that once stood  against the wall. We tore the last down ages ago. They were already a  hazard, we just helped them along the way. All that was left was a  collapsed pile of wood where it once stood, our primary source of  firewood. Most of it was used for our outhouse and scaffolding along the  ruined eastern… hold on a second.

If I was reading this correctly, the aerial stables/sky dock was the  bit jutting from their remaining tower that they had constructed a  wooden parapet on to provide cover for the eastern section of the  curtain wall.

Squinting, I could sort of see what it must have been. Greenmount  Keep was perched overlooking a mountain pass. The easiest and quickest  way to do it; if I was a big shot was simply to fly up the mountain.  That portion of the keep must have been the fantasy equivalent of a  helipad, a place where flying guests could alight, be checked and maybe  house their mounts. It explained why that tower was so big and why the  outward ‘windows’ were more like giant arches instead of the traditional  loopholes used everywhere else.

Mentally, he bumped repairing it up his priority list. It was  basically a private mini-airport attached to his new estate, how could  he not? Inwardly, he resolved to find himself a flying mount. Either  that or learn to fly.

Logically speaking, the existence of aerial stables implies that of a  ground stable. I was lucky there. Captain Chugar always insisted that  they be kept in good condition. We wouldn’t be good horse bandits  without a place to house and feed said horses, after all. No work is  necessary for the normal stables. That just left the wall, the towers,  the keep, the armoury, the forge, kitchens, barracks, granaries, etc.

I went over the display twice, trying to be extra careful. For 4000  units of stone, 1000 units of sand and 1000 influence, I could fix the  wall. That had to be my number one priority, however, there were  questions that need answering. Either the curtain wall was really cheap  to fix or influence was a high-value currency that was going to be very  hard to come by. For now, I will assume it was the latter. Somehow I had  42 influence already. Where they came from, I do not know, but perhaps I  could use that to test things out. The problem though is that if  influence proved to be difficult to acquire later, I could be screwed.  Still, I had to know. The only question was where I would get the  required materials or better still the manpower necessary to collect  said materials.

I grinned and made my way back towards the campfire. Slowly but surely, a plan was beginning to come together.

It was only when I reached the fire pit that I realised that  something was wrong. Everyone was sitting quietly, too quietly. It was  the kind of awkward silence that only exists because everyone is too  afraid to break it. A quick look around revealed a silently crying  Terven.

“What’s wrong?” he asked Joe, one of the younger bandits.

“It’s Teirn”, Joe said, turning to look up at me with clear relief  before adding a sad sigh. “Doesn’t look like he’s going to make it to  morning.”

Hesitating, he added, “Terv found him passed out earlier. He’s still  breathing if only barely but they can’t wake him. He is not taking it  well.”

That was… bad. Terv and Tern were brothers. They were also twins. The  inseparable, insufferable kind. Losing one would surely gut the other.

Joe speaking up caused the other bandits to look over as well. They  gave me an expectant look. I haven’t had one like that since group  projects back at university. It was the kind of look that communicated  that they didn’t understand the assignment and that they were hoping you  had the answers because they had no plans of contributing anything  meaningful to the discussion. I frowned. The analogy actually made them  sound better than they were. These were bottom-of-the-barrel bandits.  The idea that I would be relying on them in the future was actually  worrying. However, beggars can’t be choosers.

“Alright everyone, gather round. I have a plan.”

[You have gained 6 new level 1 recruits]

[You have gained 1 new level 2 recruit]

[+7 influence!]

[You have absorbed faction: Chugar’s Gang]

[+10 influence!]