Before we left the church, we were given the red and white roses. The next thing that we did was buy citizenship for all of us. That was so the city would be our official home. All that was left to do was to get Daniel and Abel. It was easy to see them as they explored the outside of the house. They were all for going around and taking forts from bandits. I put them back in the party and we rode out for the closest fort. There were five bandits outside and about twenty inside. They did not stand a chance between all of us. The bandit boss was difficult because he kept using hidden traps and escape routes to evade and attack at will. Killing him was satisfying, When the fort was cleared I got a popup. It gave me the choice on whether I wanted to take it for the Church, the city, or myself. It was tempting, but I claimed the fort in the name of the Church of the Seven Roses. The menu said I could set the set the operations of the fort. There were three options: hospitaller, crusader, outpost. Each of the options had a marked purpose for the Church of the Seven Roses.
I had to take a moment to read them over. A hospitaller fort would provide spawned paladins specialized in healing. The crusader setting was straight forward. They would be specialized purely for combat. The outpost had an increased spawning rate. The paladins spawned there would be specialized in scouting and defense. Since the Church of the Seven Roses was a small cult, there were very few followers and clerics to begin with, let alone any paladins. It would need the increased spawn rate. It would bolster the numbers at the very least. I chose the outpost. There were upgrades that could be added to the forts. I dropped 100 gold coins on expanding the fort's barracks so there could be more paladins at a time. I had to leave a paladin behind as the commander if I wanted to leave. Otherwise, it would be vacant and go to the first creature that came upon it. Alternatively, I could stay at the for until the first of the paladin recruits came in. I chose to do that. It took a few in game days, but several young men came by the fort asking to become paladins.
Since I was not high ranking enough, we had to wait for a Master paladin came to the fort. That took another in game week. She was Dame Glenda Sliverthorn. She had the 26 recruits that showed up plant roses outside of a window of the outpost. When they had done so, she had them kneel and dubbed them paladins. Daniel and Abel took part in the initiation as well. All of us were at the Squire rank. Dame Glenda came up to us and said "This is the first piece of territory we've had. I will stay here as the commander. What will you do?" I told her my intention of taking another bandit fort. Her eyes sparkled and said "Hey, don't get ahead of yourself. One fort is a stroke of luck. Don't get killed going for another." I looked at her and she shook her head. "You know what? You take another fort, and I'll knight you right on the spot." The quest appeared. I accepted it immediately and gathered my party. We rode for the next fort. We got there at night and we launched a sneak attack. There were about thirty bandits in the fort. We cleaned them out with surgical precision.
When we fought the boss, he landed a critical hit on Daniel. That was not something I was expecting to happen to us. I had to use the Lay on Hands perk to bring him back to moderate health. We killed the boss and I claimed the fort for the church again. This time I made sure the operations of the fort was set to hospitaller. We could use some healers. After we spent some time to let recruits spawn in, we sent the letter to Dame Glenda. It took her two days to come to the new fort. She looked at us approvingly. "I stand corrected. You took another fort and even found some more recruits. I am bound by my word and will knight you all." she said. The 12 recruits planted roses and a were made squires. My party and I were knighted. She said "You need to appoint a commander. I don't do well in hospitals. It was a coincidence I was even in Sacrilmon to take command of the first fort. The other members ranked Templar and above are not in this country." I turned to Daniel and asked if he wanted the position. His eyes sparkled and accepted it. Dame Glenda left the next day.
There was still one more bandit fort. After Glenda was gone, we went for it. Daniel was left at the fort. I was riding with Chien and the others had their own horses. As we rode on, Chien began to groan. I asked if he was okay or if we needed to stop. "I'm feeling a bit on edge. I haven't given comfort in weeks. Chat too." he said. I looked and saw Chat was also looking under the weather. "Alright. After we clear this base, you both can comfort me. As comrades, you can tell me these things sooner." I chastised. They looked as though the scolding worked. They looked much better now that they had something to look forward to. The bandit camp was under staffed by the standards of the other bandit bases. There were only twelve of them in the fort. We killed them all and I set the fort to crusader. Now that we had the lion's share of the forts in Sacrilmon, the Church of the Seven Roses would gain in notoriety and fame. We'd gains some prestige as well. I made Abel the commander and then sighed loudly. Chat and Chien were both really horny and chose separate rooms.
