241: Picking Rewards, Part II (Patreon)

Note: Getting better and hoping to start posting regularly again.

“We can only get one of each,” Roland said as he projected the Mythic Building stats. “But as you think about it, I’m making an executive decision to exclude the Guild House and the Sect Pavilion from consideration. We’re already saddled with a Fae Consulate because they basically threatened the life of one of my friends. We don’t need any more entanglements.”

Nobody raised any objections. So far, the Fae hadn’t been a bother; Roland had a brief meeting with the delegation’s leader, Tahel Wynd, which had been polite and uninformative. So far, the handful of Fae in the Consulate had kept to themselves. And Tahel had warned Gorman about the Dullahan. Roland still didn’t trust them one bit.

“All right, here’s the next batch.”

Imperial Seat of Power (Mythic Building, C-Grade)

Both a palace fit for an emperor and a powerful stronghold, the Seat of Power will transform your capital into a powerful military and political center.

Description: The appearance of Seat of Power is determined by the Affinities of the ruler of the Territory. It is a reflection of the ruler’s personality, goals, and desires. The Zone it is placed on will be heavily modified. The Seat of Power will access any walls and fortifications and greatly expand them, creating fortifications encompassing an area of a minimum of 200 Safe Zone Tokens (195-300 acres) or double the size of the current Zone, whichever is greater.

Capacity: The (Royal, Imperial or otherwise-named Guard; see below) barracks will house (Charisma/10) troops and (Charisma/100) officers. The Great Palace will have servant quarters with a capacity of 1,200, royal quarters (35 grand bedrooms), and guest quarters (15 grand bedrooms, 60 guests’ servant quarters). Capacity can be increased by spending Territorial Essence.

Prerequisites: Greater Territory or Territory with a total population above 250,000.

Benefits:

* Empire Room: This chamber contains a hundred-foot-wide map of the owner’s Greater Territory. From there, the Lord, Viceroy or other deputies can spend Territorial Essence to create or improve structures. The Lord can also transfer his senses to any of his Zones while in the Room. Finally, once a day the Lord can teleport to any of his Zones from the Room.

* Fortifications: The walls around the Zone containing the Seat of Power will be replaced or improved to a minimum height of 40 feet, with 60-foot-tall towers flanking each gate and spread along every 100 yards of wall. Defensive installations like energy shields and siege weaponry gain a 75% increase to all effects. The Seat of Power itself has its own interior wall, with the same specifications.

The fortifications have the same Grade as the Lord and increase it accordingly until reaching the C-Grade cap.

* Personal Guard: The Seat of Power allows the creation of a Personal Guard (named as the Lord desires). The Guards serve as a personal army, security force, and security detail. They can be deployed beyond the Seat of Power. 

The Guards will have access to an Epic Class based on the Lord’s Affinities (volunteers must have at least one of those Affinities to qualify) and can retroactively convert to it during the swearing-in ceremony. They must swear an oath of loyalty; they serve directly under the Lord.

* Imperial Training Center: A safe area where Guards, residents and guests can use their abilities to their full extent without risk of death or injury. Can accommodate up to 300 trainees at a time. Skills and Techniques gain a 150% bonus to learning or improving speed while operating in the Training Center.

Zone Bonuses:

* Morale Bonus: The Greater Territory gains a 5% Morale Bonus; the Zone itself gains a 25% bonus.

* Productivity Bonus: The Zone gains a 35% bonus to crafting, construction, or similar production endeavors.

* Tax Revenue: Taxes raised by the Territory gain a 20% bonus.

Labyrinth of Plenty (Mythic Building, C-Grade)

This C-Grade Resource Dungeon was created by High Magus John Dee from XXVI-112 as a gift to Queen Elizabeth’s elite Adventurers of the Order of the Garter. It is meant to enrich the land where it stands after its resources are unlocked by strong Dungeon delvers.

Description: The Dungeon is built in the Elizabethan ‘Prodigy House’ style, a 40-foot-tall, 300-foot-long, 100-foot wide structure. The manor appearance is merely a facade, however, as the entrance leads straight to the Dungeon proper. It must be placed within a Safe Zone and does not contribute Token equivalents to it.

Capacity: The Labyrinth is an Instanced Dungeon that can run up to 100 concurrent instances. Each instance has a varying number of floors (3-7) for each Grade of difficulty (F, E, D, and C).

Prerequisites: Entry to each Grade-level requires all party members to be no more than one Grade below it.

Time Differential: Time will pass faster while inside the Dungeon. For each hour that passes inside the Instance, 12 minutes will transpire in the outside world.

Benefits:

* Floor Clear: The first time a Party enters an Instance (and after the Instance resets, see below), they will face dangers, including monsters, traps, and special events. Upon clearing a Floor, it will transform into a gathering area that those with the proper Skills can exploit. Each Floor will remain cleared for 7 Dungeon days (1 day and 9.5 hours on the outside).

Floor clears will award two Chests to each participant: one will contain standard Dungeon loot, adjusted for difficulty; the other will have an assortment of resources (ores, leathers/hides, herbs, and the like).

* Resources: Each Floor will have resources of all kinds (everything from minerals and gems to plant and animal life), spread over several mini environments. After the Floor is cleared, mining, collecting and gathering can proceed without danger. Access to a cleared Floor Instance is gained through a Token given to the Party leader. This Token can be handed out (or sold) to others. Resource quality will range from Uncommon to Mythic.  

Zone Bonuses: None.

Necropolis of Vanth (Mythic Building Complex, C-Grade)

This building is offered as a gift from the Aisar Pantheon, specifically the goddess Vanth. Despite its Pantheon origin, the Necropolis has no bonds to the Aisar or any other deity or pantheon and can be used freely and without debts or obligations.

In addition to being a powerful source of Death-related knowledge, it provides a unique link between the Death Realm and your world, and gives you citizens a chance to remain behind after death.

Description: This 50-acre facility comprises an underground city, 60 feet underground and built along Etruscan architectural lines, with rows of homes, paved streets, and non-denominational temple structures that serve as learning, training and meditation centers. It can be placed beneath a normal Safe Zone, and will add 54 Tokens to it, although the area will be underground.

The Necropolis has ambient illumination, but it is dim by normal human standards (Perceptions above 35 will not be affected). Access from above can be gained via four entrances that can be installed aboveground and a Portal with an exit set anywhere within the Safe Zone.

Capacity: There are enough houses and sanitary facilities to house 1,500 people. However, living beings will suffer from assorted debuffs due to the high Death-attuned Mana concentration, unless they have Death or Undeath Affinities above 65%.

Prerequisites: None.

Benefits:

* Attached Instructors: 15 Instructor Constructs can be selected from a pool of 250 candidates; they include Classers and Cultivators that can teach Death-related Skills and Techniques up to C-Grade. They do not require upkeep.

* Death and Undeath Concentration: The Necropolis has D-Grade Mana concentrations, with areas at C-Grade density. Circulating Death- or Undeath-attuned Mana is 50% more effective, and Essence gains from Cultivation are 30% higher.

* Improved Daos and Techniques: Death-related Daos and Techniques developed at the Necropolis will gain one Quality Tier, to a maximum Quality of Mythic.

* Meditation Chambers: One Temple holds 50 Meditation Chambers with higher-density Death-attuned Mana.

* Practice Grounds: A safe area where students can use their abilities to their full extent without risk of death or injury. Can accommodate up to 150 trainees at a time.

* Rapid Learning: Learning, developing and training Death- and Undeath related Daos, Skills and Techniques gain a 200% bonus to progress speed.

Zone Bonuses:

* Death Bonus: +25% to all Death- and Undeath-related effects, including, damage, range, and defensive values. Also applies a 25% penalty to all Death and Undeath effects used by hostile entities within the Zone.

* Guardians of the Necropolis: These E-Grade Elite Bosses will guard the Safe Zone, under the command of the Zone Leader. 1 Guardian will appear per 5 Tokens used in the Zone.

Portal Nexus (Mythic Building, C-Grade)

This structure can hold up to 100 Portals and allow the construction of destination Portals (each one linked to one of the Nexus’ Portals) anywhere within the Greater Territory.

Description: A four-story-tall triangular building with an equivalent area of 3 Safe Zone Tokens, which are added to the attached Zone. Each story holds 25 portals, for a total of 100. This building does not add Safe Zone Tokens and must be built inside a Safe Zone.

Capacity: None. Other than the portals, there are waiting areas and one office section on each floor.

Prerequisites: A Greater Territory with at least two Territories.

Benefits:

* Portal Network: The building allows the Territory to build Portals on each of its Zones. Each Portal costs 50,000 Essence to build and has an upkeep of 1,000 Essence per month. Zone Portals can only send people to the Nexus.

Each Portal in the Nexus can connect to up to 100 Zones. Each Zone has its own code that is set at creation. Upon entry to the building, travelers will receive a System notification asking for their desired destination and will direct them to the proper portal. Portals are for foot traffic only. Wait times will vary widely.

A System construct – the Portal Director – will manage traffic through the nexus, assigning portals to minimize wait times. Personnel with the proper authority can override the Portal Director in case of emergency, such as needing to move large numbers of troops to a given area.

* Study Area: The fourth floor has a viewing area that allows observation of the Portals as they open and close. Studying Portal formation can provide insights into Space-related Concepts. Up to 50 people can use the Study area in relative comfort.

Zone Bonuses: None beyond the economical and military benefits of being a near-instantaneous travel hub for the Greater Territory.

“There you have it,” Roland said. “I know you all have prepared for this, so let’s hear your first choices, starting with you, Gorman.”

The Viceroy’s choices surprised him. “Immortal Workshop and Labyrinth of Plenty. They’d give us a huge leg up supplying us with gear and marketable goods, and the Labyrinth provides not just the raw material, but another training center. Barton’s Dungeons are great, but none of them would let us train a hundred teams at the same time. Even without the resources, I’d vote for the Labyrinth.”

“Good points. George?”

“Reaper’s Roost and Seat of Power. The Roost would let you expand the Pale Riders and turn them from a scouting and Dungeon unit into an army. The Seat of Power gives you or your deputy a lot of information on the Territory. Information is power.”

I wouldn’t have expected George to speak up for the Riders. They are the one force in my Territory that is utterly loyal to me. On the other hand, helping Roland’s power base helped everyone. George Buford might be pro-Gorman, but he was also pro-survival.

“Inara?”

“The Immortal Workshop from the Legendary buildings, and the Portal Network for the other. Being able to travel instantly to as many Zones as possible would help a lot of people. We could send teams to handle emergencies instantly.”

“Yes, that is a major selling point,” Roland admitted.

People were scattered in small cities and smaller towns, surrounded by hostile countryside. Travel had to be done in groups. It was impossible to put a big enough garrison to handle a major monster surge in every Safe Zone in the Refuge. But having reaction teams ready to go whenever a Zone’s leader used the Territory Interface to notify Roland of an emergency would solve that problem.

Mario Acosta glanced at Gorman before speaking up. “Immortal Workshop and Labyrinth of Plenty would help us out a lot. We have a lot of ordinary materials – all kinds of metals, masonry, cement by the ton. But it’s all regular stuff. Upgrade Tokens are rare drops, so we’re still building a lot of things with regular components. And they are fragile. Any E-Grade can punch through a brick wall. You remember the friendly brawl two days ago? They weren’t even serious, but they demolished an entire bar. It’d just gone back to business after Integration, now they had to rebuild from scratch.”

“We can reinforce ordinary structures with Essence through the Territory Interface,” Inara pointed out. “But unless we dip into the strategic reserve, we can only do so much every month.”

“Yes. Resource management can be a pain,” Roland said before turning to Barton. “Thoughts?”

“Dahlia will kill you if you don’t pick up the Necropolis.”

“No, she won’t. And I heard from a little bird that I might be able to get the Necropolis without using our pick here, so I’m putting it off the table, too.”

“Awesome,” Barton said. “The Academy is nice but limited. The Roost, same; it would be helpful to you and the growing number of Death-affinity people we’re getting. The House of Evolution is neat in a mago-cyberpunk way, but it’s not something we need. The Seat of Power is great, but we can do without it. The Portal Network is something we’ll be able to replicate ourselves, eventually. It’s a shortcut to a destination we’re going to arrive at.”

Roland nodded. Barton hadn’t given Roland his picks; he had explained while all but two of them weren’t really what the Territory needed. The Council didn’t have a vote; they were there to advise the lord of the land. If Roland went for the Reaper’s Roost and the Necropolis, leaning into his Death side, that would be it.

But he’d never intended to abuse the Territory that he’d sort of stumbled into owning. The land and its people weren’t meant to be mere resources to exploit for his own advancement. The million people – it was shocking how many had survived outside the cities – he was in charge of deserved better. Having crafters turning out the weapons to defend them and the tools to rebuild their lives was what they needed.

“Immortal Workshop and Labyrinth of Plenty it is,” he said. “I’ll make the picks and tomorrow Inara and Mario can tell me what’s the best place for them. I’m guessing somewhere close together so the resources go to the people who can use them.”

   “That would be ideal,” Mario said. “And close to one of the larger crafting centers we’ve already got. The Workshop won’t be able to handle all the materials coming from the Labyrinth, I suspect.”

“Makes sense. All right, meeting adjourned. I have to speak to an emissary from a goddess.”

“I just love this new reality,” Barton blurted out. “Gods and monsters and resource management.”

I’m glad someone does, Roland thought, but he was smiling a little as he stood up.

It was growing on him, too.