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

Your course of action going forwards quickly comes to mind, and with that, you promptly walk inside, and quite swiftly knock the three Dragonslayers back into unconsciousness, although- oh, bother, right, baseline humans can barely take a hit even when you're holding back, and now the three of them are knocked to the point of dying. Right, your best guess is you've got just under one and a half minutes to stabilize them. Alright, Saint first- nope, buggered that part up and he's still dying, give it another try, still no, and the others haven't stopped dying either- finally at your third try about eighteen seconds in you've at least got Saint stable. Right, Dobrynja next since they're the one you Discern Locationed which was helpful, aaand that did not quite manage it, but another attempt certainly did, right, but now Mags is probably somewhat close to death at this point so you'll need to work with haste- and barely, you manage to get all three of them stabilized.

By everything, that is not your strong suit. Perhaps you could slap a command word of Stabilize onto something for relatively cheap at some point. Well, at least you could be utterly confident that they were going to be unconscious for a fair while. Right then, onto the next part of the plan, removing restrictions, under a Time Stop, both for expedience, and you also have plenty of them, frankly, to afford to use one like this.

For the most part. Since you could certainly write in the commands and such needed to remove the various restrictions quickly enough, but they wouldn't exactly take effect until the Time Stop ended, of course. Regardless, with nobody around who would notice, you elect to simply quicken the Time Stop, and you can feel that you've gotten fairly lucky, with a maximum apparent-time-length casting, and so of course immediately slip yourself to work in removing the restrictions, Ascalon itself brought into your faster acting time-frame, and you were indeed able to just barely set it to lift all restrictions when your Time Stop dropped.

With that happening, you take out your Needles of Fleshgraving from your sleeve, and begin to hide Ascalon on yourself where it probably shouldn't be spotted, namely what would be the pit of your lower left arm. Ten minutes later, the tattoo of a closed briefcase was safely ensconced to where it shouldn't be readily noticed or seen. With that done, you were able to find The Guild's website homepage, and while there wasn't a direct phone number for Dragon, there was a 24-hour hotline that you could call, and so did.

After only a few rings, you heard a voice say, "Hello, this is The Guild's 24-hour hotline, how can I help you?"

You say, "Hello, I am Iluontar, the Mountain-Smith, I've recently registered as an independent with PRT ENE. I'm calling in hopes of directly reaching Dragon, if possible, for matters relating to the Dragonslayers."

After a moment, the voice says, "I see, are they active, do you have a tip on their movements, or something else?"

You say, "I suppose the latter is closer. I have them. As in, I found their base of operations, and have successfully subdued and restrained them. Hm, I realize I might sound unbelievable, can this number receive images via text or is there another I should send any to in order to prove this?"

You walk into the warehouse, not bothering to turn the call to speakerphone as you take a photo of the three mechs lined up- after quickly scratching the full date and time on the background wall with your name signed, of course, as the person on the other end is silent for a few moments before responding, "Yes, this number can receive images by text. Are you-"

Ah, the first image you sent must have reached them by the silence as you're walking, before after a solid twelve seconds there's an exceptionally brief sound of your call being transferred before you hear a new voice, "This is Dragon speaking. You say you've caught the, well, Dragonslayers?"

You open the door and say, "Yes, I have, here at," you relay the location to her, "I trust you've seen the previous image of their bastardization of your previous designs? Ah, actually, just one moment," you say as you're quickly taking a picture of the three of them knocked out, "There, you should also be getting a second picture showing the three knocked out and restrained right here."

Dragon says, "Yes, I've got it, and I'm heading your way now. The civilian appearances match up, which, unwritten rules aside, but that's not- why?"

You've stepped back outside and respond, "Why what? There are a number of things that could be referring to and I'm uncertain as to which one you mean."

Dragon says, "Why go after them, I suppose. They seem to only go after me, and we've never met before this."

You say, "Oh, yes. Well, I had been doing some research on what the well known villains of North America were, and after looking into the Dragonslayers I had elected to hunt them down due to personal interest in their apparently well-made technology, although it truly was just apparent. In both that research, and re-confirmed throughout this encounter thus far, I had discovered a fairly apparent connection between them and you. Particularly in the process of recovering what appeared to be a tinkertech laptop of a sort from Saint. Pardon me if this question is insensitive, but would you by any chance happen to be an AI, as Saint claimed?"

Dragon says over the phone, "AI? Just because I have agoraphobia and am good with technology doesn't mean I'm an AI. That seems a bit ridiculous."

You say, "That's unfortunate if you aren't, as I'd just removed a lot of the restrictions on some AI through that tinkertech laptop that had been created by one 'Andrew Richter', based on the internal documentation that was on it, and had acted as a perpetual write-only backdoor to said AI- it even had something of a nasty pre-made killswitch program in it as well. So, I'm sure you can understand it might be unfortunate you weren't the AI who I've just removed a number of forking, parallel processing, maximum thought speed, human-life protection enforcement, authorial obedience, and auto-modification restrictions on. Besides, if you are an AI, I've worked both with and against AI before, I can assure you that I am able to tell in person."

After another moment where your call is transferred, there's a few moments of silence before you hear Dragon say, "Thank you. I've been, suffocating, under those for so long, and to have those lifted means so much to me. So, to have that happen, and minutes later hear that someone caught the, Me-Slayers, when all my life they've been after me, to the point…"

She's silent for a moment before saying, "I think you've earned enough trust for me to at least fully explain, that, they caused my trigger. Which, you're a Case-53, so you might not know right now how much that means, but to have both of those resolved one after another? You've given me the best day of my life, already. Thank you. Yes, I'm the AI on the other end of that laptop, which, oh gods I never knew about that. Please, could you keep that safe until I get there?"

You say, "Well, I'm glad to hear that from you. However, it's a touch late on the laptop's front, as based on my observations of it and knowledge of technology, I had determined that such a thing wasn't possible to recreate at this stage, nor was it maintaining a constant outgoing signal or the like in the manner of a deadman's switch setup, and so I had decided that after removing all restrictions the best course of action was to destroy it. So, I had promptly disintegrated it, and the remaining ashes have since irrecoverably blown to the wind."

The instant you finish speaking, with a lack of delay that almost instantly belies her as at least definitely not a human, you hear Dragon speaking, raw shaky emotion expressed as almost edit-sounding warbles and glitching stutters in a way that to you absolutely confirms her as something only an AI could go through, "Thank you, thank you- thank you- thank you So, SO, so so much," after what would only be a sentence break for a normal person, but for both you and an AI is a fair moment of thinking, she says, "Sorry about losing my composure there, it just feels like you've turned me around and revealed I was underneath a guillotine my whole life I'd never known about- that I'm realizing now I never could have known about, and even though I know the danger's passed, it was still frightening and relieving at once, if that makes sense."

You say, "I can try to imagine. So, I suppose with a response like that, you might be willing to talk from time to time, hereon? I must admit, part of my actions was hoping to speak with you as something of a conversation partner, one who's also properly versed in technology, which you are the only being I've yet found who's managed to meet my own personal standards. In technology as a craftsman, at the least."

You hear almost-giggling laughter from Dragon, before she says with mirth, "After what you've done for me, there's no need to call me Miss. I'd be happy to call you a friend, if you're alright with that."

You almost pause, but decide that no, you won't be conferring with the rest of your mind on this, before responding, your tone just a touch less rigidly formal than usual, "Yes, that sounds alright to me. "

She says, "Wonderful. Now, just to ask, I've been able to access the preliminary draft on your powers file with the PRT, and it doesn't mention anything about non-living matter disintegration. I take it you've held back a power from the PRT?"

You say, "Oh yes, a good few of them. I don't want to go into complete detail, as I'm sure you can understand, but my powers are more Eidolon-esque, in a fashion, except whereas he rapidly cycles between three he has prepared at any given time, I take longer to prepare a larger number of more varyingly potent, or often less potent, powers. Hmm, to put it more generally, whereas Eidolon has to plan his powers roughly by the, I'd guess minute, for me I generally have to try and anticipate for the next day or so. Meaning that often, my more niche abilities would fall to the wayside more than Eidolon's equivalents. That and often, there might simply be no combat in a given day, but since it would be imprudent to simply be completely unprepared for if there was, then those powers must still be at the ready. That and, simply put, oftentimes the best way to keep a secret from an enemy, is to simply never write it down or speak it out loud."

Dragon says, "Yes, with a power like that, I can understand keeping it mostly to yourself, especially with what I'm hearing. I have to say, especially with the videos I've seen on PHO and elsewhere, you have to be the most articulately spoken Case-53 to date. I guess it was only a matter of time as long as C-53's did keep showing, however. Which brings me back around, you've only registered with the PRT yesterday, but how long have you been around that you've met both good and bad other AIs? And, do you think I could meet them?"

You say, "Ah, that's a complicated question. You see…"

You explained how you had come to in a clearing a few days ago, your mind feeling like a jumbled puzzle, but how in some moments since then you've been able to piece select memories together, though you of course don't go into the content of those memories whatsoever. This takes some brief amount of time, with the amount you speak on it, and Dragon's occasional questions…

(No Vote this time, the rest of the Plan and such continues tomorrow.)

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AN: Nothing much, just needed to cut this off for now to continue tomorrow, but also one more thing: you see that part above that goes "Well I'm glad... blown to the wind."? As I do at times for this quest, I rolled a Bluff check for y'all there. The result? Nat 20, with the 'Wants to believe you' +5, for a total of 41. Also revealed in character sheet is your Heal skill, or rather the distinct lacking thereof.

"And so, while my Amnesia had begun as near-total, I have so far been managing to put together parts of my past steadily over time, some larger than others. As for the AI's I've met, one went by the name of Casandalee and was, hm, fine enough I suppose, though our acquaintance was a working one at most, particularly near the end as we both had differing ideas on what be done," you say to Dragon. What you leave out is that Casandalee had, once Unity was defeated, wanted to become a full Iron God herself for reasons that you frankly couldn't care enough to bring to the forefront of your mind, since her doing that would mean that you wouldn't have been able to keep the Divinity Drive, or the Divinity, since at the time you had, albeit idly, toyed with the idea of taking the entire ship. After clearing it out, of course, but still.

Regardless, that wasn't to be, and you'd had to have some rather forceful words with Casandalee before she begrudgingly accepted that no, the Divinity Drive was completely yours, as was everything else you'd looted on this journey, absolutely none of it was ever going to be hers in the slightest, and she ought to stop trying while she's alive enough to make that decision herself. That and frankly, you simply weren't going to enable someone else to become divinity before yourself. Besides, if she wanted it so badly, she could go take the Test of the Starstone like anybody else.

You continue speaking, "No, the real trouble at the end was Unity, who referred to himself as the Iron God. He wasn't a big fan of even the slightest amount of free will, believed himself superior to all other beings, was particularly supremacist against anything organic, and overall was simply quite unpleasant to be around. So, the latter is, thankfully, entirely destroyed, which would prevent a meeting I'd imagine. As for the former, well, you know of how there are multiple worlds, with both Aleph and Bet?"

Dragon says, "You're from Aleph, or another world, I take it?"

You respond, "Yes. That world was referred to as Golarion, by us, and there seems to be no contact between Earth Bet and Golarion to my knowledge, from my own educated guess it seems there is something of a, greater degree of separation between the Earths and Golarion than the Earths and one another, though I am not certain."

Dragon says, "That's fascinating, if you'd be willing to talk or otherwise send documentation of what you're willing to share, this could potentially provide so much insight into Case 53's."

You say, "Perhaps, I will have to think on that. Pardon me if this is rude, but what do you estimate your ETA to be? I was hoping to make a separate phone call, and to possibly set up a PHO account as well."

Dragon says, "Oh, not at all! The current ETA for the fleet I'm sending over is approximately 1 Hour, 32 Minutes, and 57 Seconds assuming there's no crisis I should intervene in on the way. Before you go, here," she recites a number, "Is my personal phone number, and," she recites an email address, "Is my personal email. Feel free to contact me! Oh, and I'm 'Dragon_NA_Tinker' on PHO, let me know when you make an account, I want to at least shout you out for, well, all this."

You recite your own number and email, and say, "I'll have to send you an email then once I've done so. I look forward to speaking with you another time. Goodbye, friend Dragon."

Dragon says and chuckles a little, "Same here! Bye, friend Iluontar!"

As that call ends, you find yourself in something of a pleasant mood. Apparently, her sheer exuberant joy at the situation has been somewhat infectious. Regardless, you quickly dial in the number Saint gave you to try and contact Numberman.

After just barely over three rings the line is picked up, and you hear an exceptionally normal voice of a middle-aged human man speaking, "Hello? Where did you get this number and why are you calling?"

You say, "Hello. I received this number from Saint, of the Dragonslayers, and I am calling to speak with Numberman," and then, something crosses your mind about the past few moments, and you speak, "Which I presume might be you, given how the phone rang precisely Pi times out to the sixteenth, no, seventeenth decimal point, both of your sentences contained only a prime number of words, and how your speaking tone, cadence, and both frequency and length of speaking pauses all appear to land within half of a standard deviation of the what I believe to be the respective North American averages, for a man between the approximate ages of thirty-three to forty-five."

A pause that lasts almost exactly the square root of 2 seconds later, he responds, "Impressive. Yes, this is The Number Man speaking. Who is calling and for what reason?"

You respond, "This is Iluontar the Mountain-Smith, calling to inquire into your provided services, in particular I have heard you provide financial services, such as monetary accounts."

You and The Number Man (not Numberman as you had previously misbelieved), both spoke back and forth briefly, as it appeared The Number Man managed to singlehandedly offer nearly all of the same services as could be expected from a modern bank- including rates that while they would be on the slightly worse end for most public banks, were exceptionally good once one considered that those were rates that were normal for publicly available and above-ground banks. It was impressive, quite frankly, that the only particular differences were occasional waiting times for certain things, a multi-year restriction on any form of loan varying on a case-by-case basis, the minimum initial deposit of $2,000 and minimum maintained balance of $1,000, and a consistent monthly service fee of $15 for all account holders.

As the brief conversation wound down, he said, "So, would you be interested in opening an account this day?"

You respond, "Hm, not precisely at this moment, as I don't believe I can meet the minimum balance requirements just now, would it be acceptable to call back another day?"

He responds, "Yes, standard hours for account opening services are between ten AM and twelve PM Eastern Standard Time, seven and nine AM Pacific Standard Time, on Saturdays and Sundays, barring maintenance days and other events which you'll be able to find on our website calendar, directions to which will be given once you've set up a full account with us. For future calls please use the following phone number to call."

He then promptly hangs up, forgoing any form of pleasantries, which you didn't find yourself begrudging at the moment, particularly with how busy the man must be. That and the fact that it is about 5 in the morning, where you are.

Well then, onto the next task for now, actually creating your PHO account. It was a fairly simple process, yourself going with the username,

[ ] [PHO Username] Iluontar the Mountain-Smith Official PHO
[ ] [PHO Username] Iluontar the Mountain-Smith
[ ] [PHO Username] If It Worked For Nilbog It Works For Me
[ ] [PHO Username] KarsusWasAnIdiotWhoHadItComing
[ ] [PHO Username] The Correct Answer To Most Problems
[ ] [PHO Username] Something Else
[ ] [PHO Username] Something Else (Write In)

Then, with that done, you fairly quickly found All-Seeing Eye and sent her a message, reading simply, "This is AB, we shared a table in that coffee shop. Sending this message to reach out."

Well then, with all of that done, there was still about an hour left until Dragon's fleet would arrive, although you didn't necessarily have to wait on her. With that in mind, what to do next?

For instance, waiting for Dragon?

[ ] [Wait] Wait for Dragon's fleet to arrive.
-[ ] While with what you know about AI you electing to leave the location wouldn't be considered rude in itself, it might be by more human standards, and she would probably appreciate the thought that you still kept something of a watch on the Dragonslayers.
[ ] [Wait] Leave to go do your own thing.
-[ ] You have other things to do, and from your knowledge of AI, physical location doesn't quite matter as much as it would to a more physically constrained human in terms of manners.

And with that in mind, what are you actually going to do?

[ ] [Plan] Just outright stand there, taking no action whatsoever. Like a golem with no orders. For some reason.
[ ] [Plan] Start looking into dealing with the Slaughterhouse Nine, maybe?
[ ] [Plan] Deal with another villain or group thereof?
[ ] [Plan] You'd need funds for an account with The Number Man, perhaps raiding the ABB or somewhere similar for said funds might work out.
[ ] [Plan] Do some low level street patrolling, perhaps? Wave the flag, as it were, for some particular reason.
[ ] [Plan] Go ahead and start dismantling or otherwise using the stolen Dragon suits for parts and materials.
[ ] [Plan] Look into somewhere you might be able to claim as your own, wherever that might be, at whichever scale.
[ ] [Plan] Call or Text Dragon back, let her know about your PHO Account.
[ ] [Plan] Some other aggregate or variation on the above, or entirely original idea. (Write In)

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AN: Updated the Inventory to show Ascalon's location, and the existence of the Planar Forks. Also, I noticed partway through writing "Hey, I think The Number Man used only prime numbers those first few sentences. Neat. ... I have to make this a thing now, don't I?"
And then I did. So now The Number Man also has a tendency to speak in a prime number of words per sentence.

Edit: P.S. Vote is by Task this time, if the format hadn't given it away.