A spikeway for Lurchers

[Mailliw73 he/him]

So, Coinshots and Mistborn can use spikeways, but what about Lurchers? How could they, if possible, go long distances quickly?

[Windrunner he/him]

Not spikeways as the one Kel used, at least. Those metal pieces weren't fastened to anything, so a lurcher would just end up hurting himself.

 

Probably a lurcher could just get a pair of rollerblades and pull on metals up ahead while wearing those

 

Or a set of bars overhead might work, in a kind of Spiderman-esque swinging style.

[Pechvarry]

I've mentioned several times how I want desperately for modern Elendel to embrace L-trains. Long lengths of metal track running 2 stories above and to all the important places in town? Yeah, that'd be pretty good for a Lurcher.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Do you think there was any way for them in the trilogy's time period?

[Pechvarry]

Doubtful. seems to me they've always been the stepchild of the "real" allomancers. A pole vault approach could result in a human slingshot scenario, but that only works once (or twice if you only broke one leg on your first landing).

Nails in roofs would supply decent transit through a city such as classical Luthadel, Spider-man style.

But travel between cities would require metal in the air with space to pass under the entire distance. That's seriously labor-intensive. By comparison, a rudimentary spikeway could be set up by a single coinshot with a reasonably large bag of metal bits.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Pechvarry

[Nihilist]

How about arches or poles with metal imbedded in them overhead...sounds simple enough to me.  And since mistborn probably didnt lay the spikeway in the first place, the skaa probably did, labor isn't even in the equation.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

What about doing a slingshot approach? Pulling on two buildings on either side of you then Pulling on a building behind you, flaring iron then releasing all three at the right time to send you flying? If that works how far do you think would it be possible to go?

[Windrunner he/him]

I think that there's not any elasticity to Ironpulls, so there's not really any advantage to try to use a slingshot type of approach.

[Shardlet he/him]

While I agree that it would not work in the manner Mailliw73 described, I think there is a way this could work.  Assume a modified version of the three-anchor configuration previously described (two in front, one behind).  Flare it up real good (though this would not likely work without pewter) so you have a super-strong yet balanced pull going.  Then, instead of releasing all three pulls, only release the anchor behind you and you have a super-flared lurch.  Aim carefully and enjoy the ride, because landing is going to suck.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

A series of metal spires with badded balconies at various heights all along them, these spires are placed maybe couple hundred feet apart, and are arranged in a zig-zagging line.

You start on base level, which has a havy metal base, you pull to the nearest tower (lets say to the right) above the first level padded landing, pull back on the base to decelerate if need be.  These bases would go all around the spire, so walk to the other side, look forward to the left to the next nearest spire and pull towards the second level. Or hell, only one level might be needed. But you just pull on the previous tower you jumped from as you approach the next tower in succession.

Theoretically, this could work? Maybe? Anyone see any obvious flaws I overlooked?

[Pechvarry]

Yeah, it's still not going to show up in classical scadrial. Even simple wood teepee-like frames with a chunk of metal firmly fastened to the top is too much infrastructure to maintain for the 1% of the nobility that is actually a lurcher. A Spikeway Proper, on the other hand, takes one coinshot to set up, would probably only take a day or 2 to do so, and be incredibly unlikely to degrade. And if a piece of the spikeway does come out of place, not only does the traveling coinshot have incentive to fix it, he has the easy means to do so. A lurcher cannot easily reattach a piece of metal to the top of the frame, and the elements will destroy said frame much easier.

A Lurcher path works in theory -- it's just not going to happen under TLR's rule. At least, not between 2 cities which would normally take a day's travel.

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Piggybacking off of Windrunners rollerblade idea, on a smooth straight road or lane, would it work if you had a Lurcher upfront on blades, and a Coinshot right behind him. They push/pull on eachother at the same time, is the physics there to make them move forward? Or it could be bikes.

Also, I know this is a little different than the Original Posters question of a Lurcher only way of transportation, but I thought it might be a fun idea.

[Shardlet he/him]

It would not result in both moving forward (or both moving backwards).  Abstract it to applied forces.  The movement of each would depend on the strength of the forces applied combined with their relative weights (inertia).  The result of this would be one of several scenarios:  The lurcher moves forward and the coinshot is static, the lurcher moves forward and the coinshot moves backwards, they are both static, the lurcher is staticand the coinshot moves forward, or the lurcher moves backwards and the coinshot moves forward.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Shardlet

[Pechvarry]

As far as my constant infrastructure concerns go, I have to admit that a bike would allow a lurcher to use a very normal spikeway at rocket speeds, assuming the spikes were sufficiently anchored and the path was reasonably flat (bike because rollerskates have no tolerance for terrain).

[TaoBoarder]

Soapbox cars! As long as the spikes are well rooted in the ground this is awesome also seems slightly less suicidal then a bike. Plus you could have races yay

[DocHoliday he/him]

Do we have any instances of a Lurcher Misting Pulling  on two anchor at the same time? I recall WoA, Vin swung a an iron gate into a Koloss and she felt that Pewter was the only thing keeping her in one piece. There is only so much stress the body can take and 150 lbs pulling on your center mass to the left AND another 150 to the right might have disastrous consequences.

[Miyabi he/him]

Do we have any instances of a Lurcher Misting Pulling  on two anchor at the same time? I recall WoA, Vin swung a an iron gate into a Koloss and she felt that Pewter was the only thing keeping her in one piece. There is only so much stress the body can take and 150 lbs pulling on your center mass to the left AND another 150 to the right might have disastrous consequences.

The fight between Kelsier and the Inquisitor. He was Pushing and Pulling dozens of pieces of metal all at the same time, so he was Pulling on more than one piece at any given time for sure. So it is possible to achieve Pulling in this manner.

I think a better approach would be a launch ramp which is lined with metal bars on either side which you could use to pull yourself on, flaring your metals using the subsequent metal bars to increase your speed, then you launch off the end of the platform after one final pull aided by someone burning Nicrosil to give you one last HUGE push with your metals. Then you down another vial on your way to where you are meant to land, which hopefully has some chunk of metal high enough in the sky that it could be used to cushion your landing.

This would be something that could be used for fun, but not very practical.

As far as an actual like "Lurcher highway" it wouldn't be THAT hard to either build a really long kind of wall-less hallway through which a Lurcher could Pull themselves through or hang larger pieces of metal on a wire (like telephone poles) that a Lurcher to grab onto as he falls then grabs the next set of metal anchors.

[Shardlet he/him]

While Kelsier is pulling on many pieces of metal in that scene, none of them can really be considered 'anchors' since they are smaller and Kelsier is pulling them to him rather than him to them.  The closest I can think of to what Doc is referring to would be Vin opening the storage caverns.  She did it with high flares of Pewter to compensate for the strain on her body from being pulled in two directions.  Even a super-powered lurcher would not be able to accomplish that.  But, I think some degree of control could be exercised with your pulls so that you were balanced between two anchors to root you to a spot.  But, a flared balance would probably be physically painful at the very least.

[king of nowhere]

i'm surprised no one mentioned electricity cables. they are perfect spikeways for lurchers, and an advanced civilization already has them in place.

At least until lurchers decide to organize a meeting, a dozen lurchers try to hang from the same cable and they all crash to the ground. the survivors are killed by the mob of people who lost electricity because of their stunt

[Miyabi he/him]

The problem with something like that is the fact that it's one big piece of metal. There's no way to pull at a distant location. Which is why I stated what I did the way I did. You could perhaps hang metal balls from them (I used phone line as an example instead of electricity) to use as anchors.

[Shardlet he/him]

Hard to say.  It has never been canonically fleshed out on how pushing and pulling works with large metal objects.  Vin's spire chase with the inquisitors suggests to me that you can choose a point to push from or pull towards.

Edited September 11, 2013 by Shardlet

[Miyabi he/him]

Not really, she just grabs one and pulls then pushes another and lets go. There are many instances one that springs to mind from a recent read is in the beginning of WoA when it's described that the lines go from the center of someone's chest to the center of the piece of metal.

Now whether that means you go from the farthest reaching points of the object and find a center that way, or the center of its mass is unclear.

[Claincy he/him]

Now whether that means you go from the farthest reaching points of the object and find a center that way, or the center of its mass is unclear.

I think it's more likely that its based on the centre of mass given how integral mass is to allomantic iron and steel.

[Pechvarry]

I think there's a scene where kelsier pushes one end of something while pulling the other. It may have been the cage though. Which would be several pieces.

[Claincy he/him]

Oops, forgot about that. You are correct Pechvarry.

 

The archers fired.

Kelsier grabbed the bars, flaring both steel and iron, Pushing against one tip of each bar and Pulling against the opposite tip. The bars lurched in the air, immediately beginning to spin like furious, lunatic windmills. Most of the flying arrows were sprayed to the side by the spinning rods of iron.