The Burning Court set does seem to have negative effects, as suggested by William Oh. The test subject reports dreams of burning alive if the set is worn while they sleep.

This presents issues with long-term Climbing, where Relics are traditionally worn at all times.

They also report feeling physically drained from keeping the fae summons active, which seems to scale with the number of summons active.

When a test subject had all seven fae active at once, they lost consciousness in less than an hour. They also experienced tangible weight loss in that hour, suggesting that actual tissue was burned to maintain the summons.

This non-charge ‘cost’ is unheard of in modern Relics, although older ones from beyond the current Coil have been known to possess similar drawbacks not included in the System’s description.

These negative effects likely stem not from the Relics themselves, but from the consciousness of the summons who reside within them, who were imprinted in the set wholesale.

There is a strong hypothesis that since the Fae that these summons are amalgamated from were all killed by William Oh, the set itself will continue to harbor a grudge against him until such a time as they achieve their revenge.

Would they become more compliant after William Oh dies? It is unknown, but I would wager that their thirst for vengeance will simply shift to a new target. Likely the owner of the set itself, who enslaves them.

The set effects are excellent, targeted at Fire Mage archetypes and Necromancer archetypes, creating a unique blend of the two.

Our Build research team believes that Void was able to maintain summoning all seven for an extended duration because he had used an Ability to make himself technically undead. His regeneration was quite high, so he could neither feel the damage being done, nor was it permanent.

That is an option to bypass one of the downsides of the set, but it requires a focus towards turning necromancy abilities inward, which doesn’t synergize as well with the effects of the set, which lean towards large-scale undead control and large-scale fire Mages.

Marksman has arranged for several master Craftsmen and Cursemongers to consult and investigate the possibility of modifying the set to mitigate its downsides, but their efforts have come to naught.

Until a perfect host is found, the current plan is to assign the set to its own squad. Given the physical and mental degradation caused by the set and its inherent value, Marksman decided that it was best to split the pieces up among a small group of people who could both use and protect it. The squad is composed of four Climbers who will take shifts and occasionally split the set up amongst each other to ease the burden of wearing it.

The prototype Elusive Smuggler was sent with them as an insurance policy, with instructions to confiscate the set and return it if the squad dies or becomes uncontrollable.

Marksman plans to give them some practice runs in the nearby Floors before sending them up to the 10th Floor to get their Class advancements.

Adelle Gavern, level 35 Research Logistician

Should I just kill him? Will thought, rubbing his temple.

Can’t cause me headaches if you’re dead. Plus you tried to kill a bunch of children, so I’ve got a pretty good justification.

The only problem with that was if Will solved his Marksman problem with murder, he would have to solve all his problems by killing them. It wasn’t like the other Lords would take that kind of violence lying down.

Zodiac wouldn’t, anyway. Amanda Wyrd would have an excuse to convince her husband that Will was evil and Carrie might rethink her neutral position if she knew Will would kill other Lords the moment they became inconvenient for him, and that would drag along the rest of her little cabal.

No, I can very easily see everyone turning against me if I directly attack him first.

Will considered. The same was true if Marksman directly attacked Will. Ghoul was not one to be trifled with and Zodiac would be just as pissed that his grandchildren wouldn’t be able to consolidate their territory.

So, just like the Establishing Quest, he’s going to try to screw me over via a surrogate.

How does he even benefit? I mean…he’s probably trying to have Emilie take over my Stronghold after I’m dead. He’s part of the old guard, so he might as well just give Carrie the finger after his vassal steals my Stronghold, refusing to honor the deal with her.

They are at odds with each other, after all.

The most obvious way to come after Will was whoever possessed the Burning Court set.

But Will knew about that. He knew how to deal with them, too.

Red herring?

No, that doesn’t feel right. However he comes at me, it’s still going to use the Burning Court set.

Marksman wanted to put Will in a proxy fight where he would lose no matter the outcome. That had been his tactic with the Establishing Quest. It wasn’t a bad strategy, objectively, just a dick move.

A proxy fight involving the Burning court set where I lose no matter what? Will thought, kicking his heels off the side of his Stronghold’s walls.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Will’s mind spun like a combination lock, keeping himself and the burning court set in play while mixing and matching every possible combination of other factors.

OH! I GET IT! Will thought, freezing when he added Carrie’s note about Marksman messing with Relic stealing builds to the combination.

With that, everything else fell into place.

If, rather than mitigating the downsides of the set, marksman instead ramped them up into a truly cursed set, he could turn any Climber into a Will-seeking missile.

If Marksman created a Class capable of rapidly putting Relics onto someone against their will, then he could deploy that person to the 10th Floor, then force-equip the Burning court set on anyone.

If the anti-Will effect was sped up enough, it might even cause one of Will’s Vassals to go mad and attack him, forcing him to kill them.

Lose-lose situation. Who are my top candidates?

Jorn, of course. He’s a huge part of my Influence generation, and he keeps my farmers safe. He matches the set’s synergies and if he turned against me that would be a huge kneecap to the Stronghold. Honestly I might even lose if he was wearing the set.

Carrie would be a good choice. If she went mad and the other Lords had to kill her after she killed me, Marksman would be free from her machinations and would be able to take the 10th Floor for himself.

Loth…nah, I don’t think Marksman could pull it off.

June, Brianna, Heath…Abyss, even Badur going mad and forcing me to kill him would be a huge kick in the nuts.

There were too many targets that Marksman could choose, which would stretch Will thin if he tried to protect them all. So instead, he had to do two things:

#1: Develop cursed kit countermeasures. Develop a new Class, Kit, or purchase an upgrade to The Stronghold from The Tower. Abyss, why not all three? No, developing a new Class will tip my hand. The other two, then.

#2: figure out who exactly Marksman is going to send after my people. It’s not a common Class or Ability. If I know who’s got the Set it should be easier to keep an eye on them.

And maybe get to level seventy as quickly as possible before Carrie cuts me off? What Floor would I have to get to? Floor 15 is level 65, So I have to get to Floor…17?

With one of Loth’s Abby, Will could get there and back in significantly less time than the…six months it would usually take.

Acclimation explained why Will’s parents were still missing, even seven years after the last time he saw them. it added up quickly on round trips to the upper floors.

Still gonna punch dad. Assuming he’s alive.

“What are you thinking about?” Brianna asked, sitting down beside Will.

“Punching my dad.”

“I can get behind that,” Brianna said with a nod. “I’d probably punch mine if I ever saw him again.”

“He’d die.” Will said.

“…yep.” The look on Brianna’s face showed that she wasn’t kidding.

She caught him staring and brightened.

“You look like you’re scheming something. Let me in on it.”

“I need you to buy some Relics in Akul that match certain requirements and relay them up here without anyone else finding out about it,” Will said.

“Just give me a list.”

Will gave her a list of the affixes he was looking for, then went and consulted Badur about upgrades to The Stronghold, checking his Influence against the prices as he went.

170,333 Influence remaining.

Jorn had found his stride, averaging nearly a thousand Influence a day. It added up quickly as the days of administering the Stronghold bled together.

Will didn’t have a deal to create a resource node for Maribelle, so he could afford to move that hundred thousand Influence and purchase some much-needed upgrades to The Stronghold.

Since Will was expecting an infiltration from Marksman, he purchased the Security Gate upgrade.

Security Gate: 1250 Influence

Designate an entrance as a Security Gate.

Designate an individual as a guard. The guard may send notifications to the Sheriff’s office and collect toll fees if desired.

Upgrades:

Traffic tracking: 1000 influence.

Automatic Notifications for those with criminal records: 5000 Influence

Scales: 2000 Influence

Paperwork integration with Town Hall: 2000 Influence

Will purchased sixteen Security Gates with the traffic tracking upgrade as well as the Town Hall paperwork upgrade.

He placed those sixteen Security gates in unexpected places around the Stronghold, such as the entrance to the tavern, in, Climber field office, the door to his room, a couple narrow alleyways, and his Vaults.

170,333: 102,333 Influence Remaining.

Since they were zones, the outward appearance of the areas didn’t change one bit, merely passively tracking foot traffic through them and reporting it to the town hall.

All will had to do was ask the Town Hall to flag any movement from a Vassal of Marksman.

Will doubted that Marksman would trust the Burning Court set to anyone that wasn’t under his direct control.

Will then designated Badur and his apprentice’s offices as the Town Hall.

Town Hall: 30000 Influence

Designate a building as a Town Hall. Within the Town Hall, records are stored. Land sales, Licenses, leases, taxes, and any other aspect where the lord’s government intersects with public life are administered from this location.

Paperwork is completed semi-autonomously, records are immune to damage and will manifest when requested by clerks.

You may assign administrators and clerks. Administrators are given limited control over the Town Hall, and the authority to do certain tasks at the Lord’s discretion, such as hiring contractors, tax collection and land sales.

Clerks are given more limited control over the Town hall, enabling them to summon and store paperwork at will. They also gain a minor buff to speed.

Upgrades:

Minor->major speed buff: 10000 Influence

Calming music: 1000 Influence

Industrial Scales: 5000 Influence

Self-updating map of surrounding parcels* - 10000 Influence

*Added by Map Primary.

Will bought all the available upgrades and assigned Badur as the Administrator, while his apprentices were the Clerks.

102,333 -> 46,333 Influence Remaining.

And lastly… Will turned his attention to the last upgrade he had in mind.

Helping Hands: 40000 Influence

Creates two altars anywhere in the lord’s Stronghold. A relic may be Sacrificed on an altar. The entire Stronghold will gain a diminished version of the Relic’s affixes until a different Relic is sacrificed on that altar.

No upgrades available. Upgrades to Phantom Hands may cause changes to Helping Hand.

Oh, it changed from ‘hand’ to ‘hands’ when I upgraded Phantom Hand to Phantom Hands. Cool, an extra Altar.

Will decided not to tell anyone and place the Altars somewhere nobody would see them being created.

If everyone noticed the affixes being placed on them, then fine, he’d tell everyone to avoid confusion, but if the affixes weren’t revealed in his citizen’s Status pages, then it would be better if they went unnoticed.

The less people who knew of their existence, the less people who could let the information slip to Will’s enemies.

Purchase Helping Hands.

46,333 -> 6,333 Influence Remaining.

In the quiet basement of his tower, a pair of skeletal hands rose out of the ground, their elongated fingers curled into half-claws, seemingly waiting for Will to place something in their grasp.

Rather ominous looking, aren’t they? Will mused to himself.