I decided to go over to Honey Village first. There were two ways to take the villages on the map. There was the conquering route and the diplomacy route. The first way was self explanatory. The second was to do enough missions for the village that they give their allegiance to our cause. We still a very had high reputation as liberators and Lawmen. That would probably go a long way for getting them to follow us. I assigned Elis and Tybalt as well as Kadin and two bandits to come with me. We walked to the village and found the village chief and the elders. "We are knights of the Order of the Apples and Orange. We recently took occupation of Fort Straightlance and have been improving it. We're here to show our good will. I was wondering if there were any jobs for us or problems to solve. Do you want assistance." I asked. They were taken with us and showed us around. We met with the villagers and some of them had a fetch quest. We were in the village had a few days. We did their tasks and they were on the verge of finishing their allegiance meter.
On the last day, there was a bandit raid. The bandits were all high level and we lost some of our men and villagers. After the battle, we stayed behind to help bury the dead and clear out the bandits. It was enough to push us over the edge. The chief and elders gave us assurances that they would never forget the kindness we showed them. That was a good mission accomplished for us. We then made the trek back to Fort Straightlance. When we got there, I learned that Suzie and Reiner had left on their own to get Fort Ironscythe under control. The bandits were holding down the fort. I decided to wait for them to return. It took a day before they returned. It was an easy success for them. Using the money in the treasury, I made the same upgrades to Ironscythe that I had here in Straightlance. I asked Suzie and Reiner to take the other Standard Bearer and five knights and stay there. "We can go, but how will we be able to communicate? Can we send the knights?" I thought about it. "Yeah. We have two forts and a village. All we need is a city." I said.
We did patrols around the forts to bait bandit encounters. They were very lucrative after all. We used the money to upgrade the forts. Each for had several parts. There were the walls, the keep, the stables, the barracks and the forge. The dungeon was below the keep. The stairs up lead to the roof where one could see things from the highest point of the fort. We could made the walls higher and thicker. There an option add at most two extra walls to surround the fort. It was even possible to man cannons and ballistas on the walls. The keep allowed for reputation and exp. bonuses. It could be fully customized to the Players liking. The dungeon needed a jailor and multiple cells and a torture room could be added. If added, a torturer was needed. The forge was for the smith. The better the forge and blacksmith, the better the items would be in quality. The barrack determined the number of men that could be housed and gave a morale boost. If we fully maxed out everything, the forts would become impregnable fortresses that would not be able to be taken.
Using the money, I upgraded the forges by upgrading the furnaces and bought iron and steel ingots for both of them. It could now burn hotter and less impurities would remain during the forging process. We hired Wendel's brother to work the other forge. I also bought several banners and hung them around the keep and barracks. Their vibrant green really reminded me of our roots. Chandeliers with candles were added for extra lighting. I sighed and knew that I was going to need to save up a lot of money to buy the cannons and ballistas. It took several raids and bandit encounters to get the money. I even sent out the original party to seek out bandit hideouts to take their loot and sell it to the village and city. They all loved us for it and we were soon crawling with people who wanted to join us. We had no way to house and feed them all, so we had to turn away those who could not pay their own way. Even then we had to limit it to ten new Squires in Ironscythe and eight in Straightlance. We were still a bit short on the cannons. I needed something to happen.
