Fort Sera

Fort Sera, as initially encountered

Overview

There is a large, dilapidated and overgrown fort in a secluded fringe of the Outer Marston Swamps. It currently houses a small, independent mercenary company, who have started the considerable task of restoring the fort. They have named the fort after the Major in charge of the force, and who is leading operations there.

Once the MC's Influence reaches 4,000+, the fort's commander Major Sera Valkess sends him a letter, inviting him to the fort. This initiates a chain of events that can ultimately result in the MC taking over the command of the fort and its mercenaries.

Major Valkess keeps her troops happy with a dozen or more young, tribalist sex slaves, as is standard practice with armed forces in Ikaanos. Once the MC starts working with her, she makes these slaves freely available for him and his Followers to use daily, should he wish.

Day to day operations of the fort are the responsibility of Sergeant Marcus Williams, a veteran of the Border Wars. Sgt. Williams will answer to the MC if he takes over the fort.

Opening Hours

The fort does not open its doors to strangers. But once it decides to start working with the MC, the fort is always open to him.

Fort Sera Initially

• Soldiers: 15
• Power Value: 25
• Treasury: $600
• Focus: Mercenary
• Leader: Major Valkess (initially), The MC (later)

Donations

Once the MC has been invited to do business with the fort, he can donate to it to strengthen its faction Power Value. These donations raise the MC's Standing with the Fort Sera faction also. There is no immediate benefit to the MC from doing this, but if he takes over the faction, its PV will add to his Power Value, which will also bring in money and influence, so his donations will then benefit himself. The donations which the fort will accept are as follows - but note that until the MC has taken the fort over fully he cannot donate freely; only certain donations will be accepted, and in a particular order (see next section).

• $1,000
• $10,000
• $100,000
• 20 Swords
• 25 Automatic Rifles
• 1 Captive* (+1 to Power Value per captive if the Fort's PV is less than 100, and +1 with no cap if the captive is a Raider Lord/Chief, Highwayman, Raider King, Space Marine, Black Guard, or Red Guard.

* Unprocessed captives can be donated to Sera from the "Inspect Captured Slaves" screen anywhere in Marston Swamps, or via the "Faction Overview" screen in the Fort Sera menu. Alternatively captives can be added to the MC's household from where any slaves or convicts can be donated to Fort Sera at any time from the NPC's "Actions" menu.

Development

Allying with then taking over the fort

If the MC accepts the major's offer of joining forces with the mercenary company, he will first be asked to build up the fort's meagre forces by donating ten captives there. Sgt. Williams and Maj. Valkess will train these bandit reprobates into disciplined & skilled mercenaries. Sera informs the MC that taking bandits who live as criminals with prices on their heads, and turning them into legitimately employed mercenaries, will eventually lead to grateful and loyal troops, even if their initial recruitment was via "impressment" (forcible conscription against their will).

Once 10 captives have been delivered, the MC will be asked to donate 40 Swords and 25 Assault Rifles. Note that whilst collecting these, it is still possible to donate extra captives or household members to the fort to build up its complement (and Power Value, and the MC's Standing with the fort) if you wish to do so.

Lastly, once the weapons have been delivered, the MC is asked to donate $150,000 cash to the fort's coffers, presumably to buy combat armor for the troops there. Again, during the period he is amassing this money, it is still possible to donate more troops to the fort.

If he can achieve this last step, the MC will then be invited to return seven days later to attend a ceremony at which the leadership of the mercenary company is handed to him. He can also rename the company to anything he wishes. At this point, the fort's Power Value will be added to that of the MC's Faction. This will be +55 PV points, or more if the MC has donated more than the minimum troops to the fort. (Note that a few of the fort's initial mercenaries will have been killed by bandits in the interim, reducing its complement, and PV.)

The MC will now be a minor warlord in Ikaanos, more powerful than the "Mad Preacher", or a small city district like Raikan.

Growing the fort mercenary company

The MC will continue to be able to donate captives, slaves and convicts to the fort, as well as swords, auto rifles and cash. Raising the fort's PV in this way will raise the MC's own PV on a one-to-one basis, and may be a more efficient way of raising his PV than via building up his own Household. The Fort's activities will also generate a daily supply of cash and Influence:

• Daily income = 2 x Fort Sera's Power Value
• Daily influence = 0.5 x Fort Sera's Power Value (rounded up)

Burakumin Ichi Farming Village

Burakumin Village, or Burakumin Ichi, is a farming community in Raikan which the MC gets the ability to support if he clears out the Black Scorpion bandits who have been controlling the area. Depending on how much he subsequently invests in the area, the village will accumulate a food surplus to return to their benefactor. However, this newly prosperous and productive farming community will attract bandit raiders, in an Ikaanos riven by famine and poverty. So each night there will be the chance of a bandit raid on Burakumin, handled as a political event inside the Conclude Day framework. These raids will harm the MC's investment as well as the farming community. So if the MC is commander of Fort Sera, when visiting Burakumin village he will have the option to transfer one or more of his fort garrison to guard Burakumin. This will reduce his fort garrison, as the farm guards will be based in Burakumin. At least a dozen guards is recommended for Burakumin, as fewer will not be able to effectively repel bandit raids. Raids may kil some of this complement too, so the MC will have to keep an eye on this force ad transfer reinforcements as necessary.

Marston Swamps Watchtower

There is a pre-Severance watchtower dominating a small hill not far from Fort Sera, 20 minutes walk deeper into the Marston Wetlands. It is a Skyguard facility, but only used by them occasionally, and often gets taken over by bandits. If the MC clears the bandits from the watchtower, and if he has taken charge of Fort Sera, and if the fort has a complement of at least 85 troops so that it can spare 15 or more to garrison the watchtower, and if the fort also has at least $250,000 in its treasury so that it can afford to refurbish the watchtower, the MC can arrange with the Skyguard for his Fort Sera mercenary company take over the watchtower to use as a secondary base. He can then use this base to enforce order in the bandit-ridden swamps, and thus increase Control in Ikaanos city, if he wants to. He will have to pay a $100/day "freebooters holding" as rent to the Skyguard, as it is their facility, but they will be grateful to have it looked after and kept free of bandits. This is a dangerous assignment for the MC's troops, and he will likely lose some occasionally, so he will have to keep an eye on the watchtower garrison and reinforce it occasionally.

Colonial Properties

The MC will also have the opportunity to develop sawmills (e.g. Darkmere), mines (e.g. Kahill and Silfren) and ranches (e.g. Zapin farm) upriver, if he gets wealthy and powerful enough. These operations will need protecting from bandits else they will regularly be relieved of their produce, and may also need guards to prevent their labor force escaping if staffed with unhappy slaves. If the MC is commander of the fort company he can transfer soldiers from there to guard these colonial properties, rather than having to add captives to his Household and transferring them from there. Note also that Household captives will usually start off with terrible Affection, which may make them worse than useless as guards unless the MC takes a week or more to butter them up and convert them to his cause before deploying them. Whereas if transferred to the fort, Major Valkess and Sgt. Williams will do this work for the MC, and will choose only loyal and competent troops from their garrison for transfer to colonial properties. There may be cases though where the MC may want to personally train elite troops for colony guard duty rather than rely on the average stock chosen by his commanders from the fort garrison.