All Level, No Experience (Worm/Pathfinder Amnesia Quest)

---

Right then, your plan of action was fairly quick to come together, and shouldn't take all that long to execute. In particular, you should be able to get a good few things done in fairly rapid succession. Firstly, it's no issue to simply take out your phone, and call Lisa.

After only a couple of rings, she answers, "Hey there, boss-man. What's up?"

She sounds a lot less, barbed perhaps, than when you first met.

Regardless of that, you respond, "I have a more ongoing project for you and Alec, although if you can think of a way to involve the rest of the Undersiders reasonably, you are open to. In particular, I'd like you to more persistently run general public manipulation whenever you can, for the foreseeable future."

You can hear her ask, "Alright, even putting aside why- you're seriously running for mayor? Why in the heck would you be interested in that?" and, almost immediately she groans to herself, "That was rhetorical, power of mine," before focusing back in again, with a sigh, "Okay, right, straight up world domination. Wait, no, worlds domination, since you want Aleph too."

After one more moment, she says, "Fuck it, if anyone's going to do it, it would've been Eidolon years ago or you now. I'm in-" and, a touch flippantly, "All hail the Emperor! Right, so, you want us to help your mayoral campaign, then?"

You respond, "Yes, generally. Manipulations towards considering third-party candidates, greater acceptance of powered people in public office, for some get them to think of how it would be 'historic' to have the first case fifty-three in public office in Brockton Bay, nudge some people to witness by upcoming construction from a distance- awe is the primary emotion to aim for but curiosity will do if needs must- and of course greater approval of myself directly where you can. Oh, yes, and perhaps if you can, greater acceptance of mass surveillance, scrutiny, and direct authoritarian oversight."

Lisa said, "Oh, we're going full nineteen-eighty-four, aren't we?"

You can't help but scoff, "Please, knowing what I do of the society depicted within that book, the Nation depicted within is apparently more concerned with even the most petty control, why, even Hell understands aspects of keeping subordinates if not happy, then at least eager."

Lisa lets out something between a gasp and a knocked out breath, then after a moment says, "Okay. Right. So. Hell is just a real, actual place. Right." After another moment, not sounding quite entirely sure, she asks, "Is heaven real too?"

You respond, "Where I come from, yes, though I haven't checked up on the local situation yet. So, I take it you're capable of what I've asked?"

Lisa says, "No- well yes but- wait- what the fuck does- don't just HANG-"

You hung up the call, your flip-phone making its usual satisfying clap as it closed. Now then, that was one thing done in just a couple of minutes, and it shouldn't take much longer to speak with New Wave and request they not fly over the construction site. A very quick look online and it's easy enough for you to pinpoint the houses of the two families that make up the team, and you elect to go speak with the Pelhams in particular.

It's simple enough to earth glide out from your lair, and take a single seven-league-step to reach the sidewalk in front of the Pelham's house, startling a man on a jog across the street. Ignoring that, you walk your way to the front porch, and ring the available doorbell once- you certainly didn't need or even want to instill any dread or the like, so there was no need to risk accidentally falling back on an old knocking technique you'd learned (and later iterated and perfected) from the Phistophili contract devils.

Ah, and soon enough someone pops their head out; short cut hair dyed blue but you could tell was naturally blonde, he looks to be around Trainee Hebert's age- reviewing your memory, you believe you'd seen him when you'd flown past the Immaculata school while on Spice- overall, this must be Shielder, or young Eric Pelham.

He says, more asking than saying, "You're, Iluontar the Mountain-Smith?"

You respond, "Yes, I would be. This would be the Pelham residence, correct? I need to speak with someone who can relay a message throughout New Wave, nothing negative, I can assure you."

He takes a moment- ah, he's a bit 'starstruck' is why he's pausing- before saying, "Oh, right, you'll want to talk to my mom about that, let me just..?"

He looks towards you as he trails off at the end, and you nod once, waving him off.

He closes the door behind him, and you can hear him whisper to himself, "Oh my god the Mountain-Smith is at my house!" before composing himself, walking towards what you can identify by your tremorsense as stairs, and shouts up the house, "Mom! The Mountain-Smith is at the front door! He says he wants to talk!"

As there's a brief exchange within the house, your phone vibrates, and you check it. Ah, a text.

From Lisa: "Jackass."

Hm, quaint. Ah, and the door is opening again.

What must be Sarah Pelham, or Lady Photon, opens the door, with Neil Pelham a.k.a. Manpower and Crystal Pelham a.k.a. Laserdream varying amounts of behind her, the latter more openly curious, with Shielder at the same distance.

You speak first, offering a handshake, "Hello there, you would be Mrs. Sarah Pelham, Lady Photon and part of New Wave, correct?"

She takes it, "That would be me. Eric said you wanted to talk?"

You say, "Only briefly. I simply wanted to inform you, and ask if you would pass along to the rest of New Wave, that due to a project I'm taking on there's going to be a significant amount of construction with both tall equipment and a fair amount of security presence across a one-thousand and fifty by one-thousand and fifty foot square, between the intersections of," you name the four intersections, "and that you not fly over the construction site, due to the number of flyers within New Wave. Construction proper should begin in a day or two, and the area should be fairly obvious soon enough as well."

She blinked, and said, sounding pleasantly surprised, "Oh, well. Thank you for the consideration, I'll be sure to pass that on to the rest of the team," she turns back towards the younger pair, "Kids, you heard that?"

Eric says, "Yes mom, no flying over the construction site."

At a look from Ms. Pelham, Laserdream seems to hold back from rolling her eyes, and nods along as well, eliciting a simple, "Teenagers," from Ms. Pelham.

She turns back to you and says, "Thanks for taking the time to inform us in person."

You nod, "Of course, it's the least I can do, and it doesn't hurt that now I know it reached you. Well then, have a pleasant evening."

With that, the goodbyes are said, and you waste not even the faintest sliver of time in returning to your lair, and immediately taking off the tattoo holding the Divinity Drive, and beginning research on the third floor.

And by everything, is the Divinity Drive catastrophically advanced. You admit, you had been having an off moment and weren't taking the more consistent path to test it, but you had barely begun to understand it as you worked- simply ignoring the cold, your rate of healing was more than fast enough to disregard the harm it caused. Bracing, if anything, really.

Until, about four and a half hours in, you receive a call, one that giving a quick look at the ID, was from Armsmaster of all people.

You answer the call, "Hello, Armsmaster. I wasn't aware you had my phone number- through the PRT, I take it?"

What is clearly his voice responds, "Yes, hello Iluontar. I'm calling due to something of a complicated issue I'm dealing with."

You say, "That being?"

Armsmaster says, "The cape you've taken under your wing, Ungoliant, has managed to take down Lung. I'm trying to tell her that she might not be ready for the kind of attention that might bring down on her."

You say, "Firstly, then, lethal or non-lethal takedown?"

Armsmaster responds, "Nonlethal."

You say, "Right. I presume Ungoliant is still present? Could you put me on speaker phone, then?"

After a moment, Armsmaster must have done so, and you can hear Ungoliant say, still in her persona by the way she speaks, "Mr. Mountain-Smith, hello."

You say, "Hello. Right then, I will not make this decision for either of you, but I will simply remind you, Ungoliant, to keep in mind the image you wish to create, or to hide. There can be satisfaction in knowing you are the force in the shadows that few ever even know of, just as much as in commanding open respect for your strength. It is simply a difference in kind, and a matter of taste. You have been crafting your image thus far, so I will leave this to your own judgement."

There is a pause, before she says, "Perhaps without your implicit backing, or if I were new, I wouldn't, but I will be taking the credit for this. Let everyone know that 'the bug girl' is not to be trifled with- I chose the name Ungoliant, I will aim to live up to it."

You say, "Well, there we have it then, Armsmaster. Ah, as well, once Ungoliant is gone, I might like to speak to you a moment after, assuming it's just us on the line."

Indeed, a few moments later, Armsmaster returns and says, "We're alone, you wanted to talk?"

You say, "Yes. Allow me to say, Armsmaster, that from all that I have heard and know of you, you are, in my eyes, an exemplary parahuman. Your dedication to your goals is commendable, your internal drive ought to serve as an example, and your sheer competency in your craft is aspirational, or ought to be, for all around you. I truly consider you among the ideal of parahumanity. So, I ask you listen to me and understand that I am not speaking from malice when I tell you that you do not need to chase glory to such an extent."

Armsaster says, "I am not-"

You cut him off, "Armsmaster. I have met many, many people who have sought glory or fame in my past- many of whom have done incredible things, good, bad, and neither. It is not an inherently bad trait or goal, but you must learn to be in control of it, and to not let it control you. I know you fairly well, and know that type of thinking, so allow me to guess your approximate thoughts, you would be doing her a service, keeping her from retaliation, and besides, you had been active for so long, done so much, it would only be right that the credit go to you after all of the preparation you'd done for this, rather than another on a mere fluke. Am I correct, or approximately so?"

After a moment, you hear a stiff, "Approximately."

You say, "And you would indeed have been satisfied in the moment, but I can assure you having seen it happen to others- even one instance coming to light can shed doubt on all the rest. And besides that, to perhaps a greater degree even, that sort of thing has a tendency to eat away at a man- lest he constantly rationalize it away over and over again, repeating in his head until it damn near maddens him- sometimes it simply does."

Armsmaster says, "I don't know about that last part, but," he sighs, "I suppose you're right."

You say, "Yes, and neither of us want that for you. Rest assured, Armsmaster, with time, all that you do will be recognized properly, one way or another," A thought strikes you, and you add, "Even if I have to make sure of it myself. Keep yourself well until then, Armsmaster."

Armsmaster says, more lightly, "Will do. Same to you, Iluontar."

The call ends, and with that, well, you were interrupted halfway through your research. Thankfully, you can simply pick up where you left off.

(No Vote this time, remainder of the plan picks up next time)

---

AN: So, when I was rolling for Taylor's progress about her quests that night, part of what I do is a D20 roll, and depending on the results of it, either nothing happens, I take it as is, or I move on to roll a d100. Taylor decided to genuinely hit a perfect 100. So, something of a more impactful encounter. Then, after I assigned Undersiders, Empire, ABB, and Merchants to a d4, in that order, said d4 lands on the 3. On the same turn that some of the Undersiders were sent out on manipulation, except you weren't around to provide the same capabilities in stealth.

So, apparently, Fate is a thing, and this particular station of canon isn't taking no for an answer, I figured. What in the hell.

Unrelated but something I'd decided on: Given that all of the Terra-Cotta assistants are blatantly identical, no matter how many are assisting on a given project, you only get one +2 circumstance bonus from cooperative crafting from any number of them, since they are essentially the same source. Other creatures helping you however do grant the stacking bonus. For instance, just the 199 T-CA's, only a +2, them and say, the unlikely team-up of Danny, Uber, Narwhal, and Lustrum are also, somehow, helping, then that's a total +10. Figured I'd mention it now, since it may come up later.

And by may I mean heads up, the Divinity Drive is, well, you'll see that it will not be easy to create, once you eventually figure it out. And yeah, that 5,000 is only for 4 hours of research thus far, the remaining 5,000 will arrive next chapter. Which, for future reference I decided to go with a system kind of similar to mundane crafting; Every 8 hours, make a Check (Typically knowledge, varies by project) of a certain DC, multiply check result by DC, that represent progress in research, in sort of nebulous, uh, for now 'Research Points'. Here's a thing I typed out in my own notes in it below,

"Researching the Divinity Drive can be done by either a DC 100 Knowledge (Engineering) check, a DC 100 Craft (Mechanical) check, or a combined DC 200 Knowledge (Engineering)+Craft (Mechanical) check (roll only 1 d20 and add the total modifiers for both skills). When researching, each point of Research Progress is roughly equivalent to 5 Silver, and when determining research time, every 5 silver of the Price is 1 point of Research Progress required."

Oh, and you're not going to know how much research is actually needed to complete the research until you're a solid ways into it- sort of a 'You don't even know how little you know' sort of thing. Oh, yeah, and new Research section of things, yeah.

Next chapter's in a couple days, no actual vote, the schedule is just to count down the time and such, similar to how I did it one other time before.

Hope y'all enjoyed!

(No Vote Conducted)

---

You indeed pick back up, but again, you had only barely been comprehending it when you began, let alone having been interrupted by the phone call. Ultimately, while you do end with something of a better understanding than before, it is only on the absolute most surface level, having mostly figured out which tools would be best for the job out of those you have, and that even with everything you have, you can still only barely walk down the path of understanding this thing. You could perhaps reliably study it without your Lord's Banner or your Headband of Mental Perfection, but not lacking both, as you currently are.

Regardless, it is now four in the morning, and you need to ready yourself for meeting with both Mr. Hebert and the couple of construction experts he was able to rustle up for it, and a union lawyer to ensure everything was up to snuff. Firstly, actually putting your plans to paper- where it did immediately help you catch something- originally you had planned on simple 200 by 200 buildings at the corners, but soon realized while that might possibly be a touch space optimal when put purely on paper, if you were going to have people living in there, how would the people on the inside get any sort of sunlight or fresh air?

Being an earth aligned elemental for the vast majority of your life, it made enough sense that you hadn't seen much wrong with a living quarters without access to the sunlight or wind- if anything that just meant you weren't as vulnerable to invisible stalkers or other air elementals, but most people even back in Golarion didn't exactly plan around the assumption that an invisible stalker could be sent after them at any random moment. You'd know, you'd gotten more than a few people that way. Still, it was fairly quick for you to mentally rearrange things, rather than just a 200 by 200 block, instead have the building be 250 by 250 with a 'hollow' 150 foot square- which probably would make for a wonderful inner courtyard area too, and for another aesthetically pleasing place to put a hologram generator for any announcements you'd like to make or such- while the building proper would be 50 feet along from outer wall to inner courtyard.

In a sense, taking the 16 50-foot blocks of space that made up the building, and rearranging them so that any given section had at least two exposed sides. Which left space for a ten foot hallway (for both furniture, and so you wouldn't have to squeeze yourself around constantly on your own territory), with twenty feet on each side of said hallway for apartments. Hm, double checking your memory- ah, perfect, Brockton Bay's minimum apartment size by law was well under the 400 square foot studio apartment design you had been considering.

Hmm, right then, a decent mix of studio, two-bedroom, and particularly large 'family' sized apartments ought to leave you with a rough occupancy of around eighty people per floor, plus or minus depending on circumstances. Hm, let's see, going for an exact 35/35/30 split of the apartments, that should net you- do the mental math- 49 units per floor on average, since you needed space for hallways, stairs, and elevators. It was tempting to leave the first couple of floors for non-residential usage, but that might run afoul of one or two annoying and rather detrimental zoning laws that you'd have to remove- or at least it would come close enough to cause issues in the meanwhile, and besides, it would be far simpler to simply designate a different building for commercial uses outright. Minimum parking requirements…

Minimum parking requirements could take their catastrophic impracticality and bugger off, you can more than easily think of a good few ways to get around those laws yourself, and given all that you'd accomplished you doubted anyone would be willing to actually bring it up to your face.

Honestly, while you could greatly appreciate the engineering and technological advancement that goes into cars, the fact that they would let practically any idiot who could pass a written test behind the controls of one was a travesty- you would be certain to remind your people that going at such speeds in two-tons of steel was a privilege under your rule, one that would have to be properly earned, maintained, and could and would be revoked the instant they misused it. At the very least you'd ensure that every last one would have a speed governor installed- hmm, perhaps you could actually see about building an auto manufacturing plant at some point? But you've digressed.

Let's see, four of those sorts of building, one for each corner, three- two? No, three- three of which would be for housing, at thirty floors each, approximately eighty residents per floor, that should all in all net you a 'population' of around 7,200 in all once it's filled out, and the fourth building ought to be more than capable of handling commercial space, especially if you left less or even no inner courtyard for that one in particular. Although, hmm, perhaps if you spoke with someone who knew more on the matters of plants and the like you could put your heads together to use that as agricultural space- in the worst case healthy and repeated doses of the Plant Growth spell ought to make pretty much anywhere you decided to put a farm down viable.

Ah, how you loved magic, it just solved so many problems if you just remembered to apply it, even more if you were actually the mildest bit clever about it.

Eh, for now, you decided that you would be better served by putting your farms outside of the city limits or in dedicated demiplanes rather than trying to cram one in, and simply went with the full 250 by 250 block for commercial space, eliminating the courtyard on that one specifically. Right, that was living space handled, and electricity?

By even pessimistic estimates, one fusion generator tucked into a basement could support at least two hundred and fifty thousand households, let alone apartments. You could simply build one in the basement with your own team at one point and be done with the issue for the most part.

Right, now, you've finally gotten everything in order on your end, and all of your blueprints drawn up in wonderful detail on your end, after you'd taken a moment to Transfiguring Touch some stone to paper, and rather than nearly using Simurgh Ichor as ink as you'd nearly done out of sheer convenience, you instead opted for the much saner decision of simply purchasing a good bulk of ink and other assorted office supplies for a few hundred dollars and picking them up by teleportation. From there, you simply patched yourself up a touch, rested, and spending the remaining few hours before the meeting…

Well, what were you doing in that brief time?

[ ] [Interlude] Browsing PHO, for a little while. (PHO Interlude)
[ ] [Interlude] Checking up with Dragon on the status of the Wings of Flying, and that whole deal with her/The Guild to establish that your 'Tinkertech' doesn't innately degrade. (Dragon/Guild Interlude)
[ ] [Interlude] Going to your Number Man brokerage account and spending the time day-trading. (Number Man/Cauldron Interlude)
[ ] [Interlude] Contemplating if there's anything else you want to put the Undersiders towards. (Lisa/Tattletale Interlude)
[ ] [Interlude] Wondering how the demonstration crossbow you made is being used, if it's at least properly appreciated. (Wards/Shadow Stalker/PRT ENE Interlude).
[ ] [Interlude] Daydreaming about what might have been, if somebody else from your world had taken your place. (The Other Guy/Non-Canon Interlude)
[ ] [Interlude] Browsing the internet idly, for nothing in particular, to simply kill the time. (No Interlude)

(Any interlude would take place after next chapter.)

Well, after spending your time doing that, you quickly teleported off to the meeting.

Whereupon, well…

Apparently, either taking the Spokesman's daughter under your wing and preparing her for the parahuman world, with a relative amount of protection that could only otherwise be found from a Triumvirate escort, or solo-ing the S9 and being the lynchpin in the Simurgh's demise, perhaps might have brought some good will from the man in his negotiations.

Or, considering that from what you could tell Spokesman Hebert was actually managing a fairly commendable amount of neutrality given the circumstances, and that the same explanation might not extend to the other four people in the room, the Dockworker's Union was actually relatively desperate for a big job like this, and the benefits were considered well worth it.

You had naturally overheard the phrase 'roughly equivalent to several thousand dollars a man' when Mr. Hebert had stepped aside to speak with someone about valuing the priority housing offer, which had been a rather good sign.

Still, you had negotiated in rather good faith, and even generously. In fact, it wasn't all that much of a negotiation, and more a surprisingly- for all sides- relatively brief conversation over it, where you would be paying Six Million Dollars on labor upfront- which was your suggestion, as you rather preferred the simplicity of just doing it upfront, it gave them more security in the matter, and you still had many, many millions in the bank- and you would be extending the priority housing offer to all members of the Dockworker's Union within Brockton Bay. In exchange, the Dockworkers Union would be provided all the needed labor, permits, and other overhead, as well as payroll and that sort. The exact sort of minutiae you didn't need to spend time handling yourself, frankly.

Which once that payment goes through, then, oh noo, you'll only have 3 Million dollars in your checking account. You might even be forced to, to, t-to… To take maybe five minutes online to make a transfer from your savings to checking, or even, world forbid, spend maybe a day on the frankly hilariously easy to exploit stock market. Sure, maybe for typical humans it was closer to a gamble, perhaps if they were really clever they could make some consistent higher gains, but for someone like you?

It might as well just be a slightly more inconvenient piggy bank, frankly. Actually, thinking on it, the piggy bank had a few disadvantages, even, considering most of the time a typical piggy bank didn't automatically fill up with other people's willingly given money, and heck, you actually had to go out and get a new piggy bank once you broke it to get the money. For you, the stock market was, frankly, more convenient than a piggy bank.

Well, anyhow, with that done, you'd also need to go and bleed for a few hours to get most of the required materials for your apartments, since you were of course providing those yourself due to the relative ease of it, and not long after that was when the arranged time for that city escort of your 'heavy construction equipment' was scheduled, or, your Juggernaut Robots.

Of course, before even that, it was a Saturday, and so you'd be spending a fair amount of time training your trainee- you had even heard some news that Ungoliant had caught quite a few more criminals- enough that she had managed to pass the 256 count, by your estimates. Well, you'd leave it to her to bring it up, similar to how her altercation with Lung and ensuing meeting with Armsmaster brought her up to 4 parahuman encounters ending well in a week- 5 if you counted Lung and Armsmaster separately.

But, once all that was done, you would have a good amount of time on your hands. The only real mandatory event for the mayoral race was the debates being held on June 19th, although you would probably want to do more yourself before then.

So, with that in mind, it would be around 11 PM, on the 9th of April at that time, once you were done.

What to do then?

[ ] [Plan] Hand the reigns to Iluontar.
-[ ] 1 Day
-[ ] 1 Week
-[ ] 2 Weeks
[ ] [Plan] More Constructs.
-[ ] More Clockwork Soldiers.
-[ ] Some Terraformer Robots.
-[ ] Reclamation Robots (Can convert scrap to technological items for you, over time. Will be deliberately restrained by Iluontar, incapable of creating other robots.)
-[ ] Some Collector Robots.
[ ] [Plan] Research the technology you have on the backburner.
-[ ] Research the Divinity Drive (Progress: 10,000/???)
-[ ] Research the Overlord Robot Frame (Progress: 0/???)
[ ] [Plan] Campaign Measures
-[ ] Create Collector Robots & Green Hologram Generators (Propaganda & Surveillance. Cheaper than Observer Swarms, Worse at Surveillance, Requires External Power for Propaganda)
-[ ] Create Observer Robot Swarms & Individual Observer Robots (Propaganda & Surveillance, More Expensive, Effective Surveillance, Doesn't Require External Power)
-[ ] A Fusion Generator & Decanter of Endless Water (Model District, Provides Self-Sufficient Electricity, the excess yield can be sold or donated back to the city or country).
-[ ] 30 Decanters of Endless Water (Model District, Provides Self-Sufficient Water)
-[ ] Improved Cauldrons of Plenty (Model District, Provides Self-Sufficient Food) (Already going to be made, to fulfill Benefits to the Dockworker's Union)
-[ ] A few Advanced Surgeon Robots (Model District, Provides Self-Sufficient Healthcare)
[ ] [Plan] Talk and try to hang out with Dragon. Mention you're running for mayor, and that you're starting on a project related to that.
[ ] [Plan] Y'know, him and you actually got along fairly well, check back in on Armsmaster. Maybe offer him a Ring of Sustenance, while you're at it.
[ ] [Plan] Write-In (Write-In, if you'd like.)

(Iluontar Gets: 1 Vote. Still cannot Surge.)

---

AN: Man, I learned a surprising amount in writing this chapter about unit density and such- and did barely remind myself that people do tend to prefer to have windows where they live. So, yeah. Also, I keep forgetting but I need to remember to actually photoshop together a height comparison of, I think I had planned the lineup of like, Vista, Taylor, Armsmaster, either Mannequin or You, maybe Ziz or Leviathan, and then the damn Juggernaut Robots. Seriously, those things are 50 feet, they tower over most houses and have a solid 20 on Leviathan. They are a damn sight when you think about them even slightly too hard.

Hope I described the layout of the planned building he wants to make well enough- I think I did but I can't be too sure. For a different visual, take a 5x5 square, then hollow out a 3x3 square in the center of it, that should represent the space of those planned apartments. Which, funny enough, that many people counts as, according to Ultimate Campaign, already a Small City. Which, fair enough I suppose.

Anyhow, I do have that Thursday thing again, so next chapter in a few days. Hope y'all've enjoyed!

Edit: Of course it's after I turn off the computer I remember what I forgot; I'll update the finances tomorrow or so.