A Very Frustrating and Dangerous Twinborn Opponent

[Moash]

So I was looking through the different metals along with their powers, and I see that Chromium will wipe away the powers of other allomancers. So what if you have a Leecher who also possesses feruchemical abilities and has steel metalminds. To leech someone, you must burn the chromium and then touch them. Its almost like a game of tag. Give a leecher steel metalminds, and they will now be able to store their physical speed. How infuriating would that be if your opponent could just come up to you before you could even move, and they just get rid of all your metal and render you helpless. You might have other flasks of metal, but they could just swipe it with their speed. It would be even worse, if this Leecher Steelrunner twinborn was an expert hand to hand combatant, and an expert with weapons. Even if they ran out of speed, they could then just beat you down in a one on one duel.

 

 

 

I think someone like this would be the ultimate constable to have around, just use them as your secret weapon to effortlessly subdue any criminals with allomantic abilities. If one of these criminals had feruchemical abilities, could chromium wipe away the stored attributes as well? I am not actually sure of how that one works, if anyone knows it would be much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best allomantic metals to fight this fiend would be steel or atium, just hover in the air and run away, or use atium to get a slight advantage that probably couldn't save you anyway. Or if you are lucky enough to be a steelrunner, you can play an epic game of tag.

[Guest]

I LOVE THIS CONCEPT!

 

As for Metalminds, they're safe AFAIK unless they pierce the skin. Any metal inside the body can be burned Allomantically and therefore should also be affected by Chromium (Supposition, but I think it's a safe guess)

 

There's also a WoB that says a Hemalurgic Spike could be wiped out by Chromium, but that it would take time because of the amount of Investiture in the Spike.

[Elbereth she/her]

I also really like this idea. Feruchemists would be harder to fight against, definitely, particularly if they did something like swallowing their metalminds. My guess is that you would have to touch the metalmind to leech it, not just the person tapping it, but that is by no means certain.

While not packing quite the same punch, a Nicroburst/Steelrunner Twinborn would also be quite cool. Running around to every ally, giving help when needed, and bursting enemies exactly when not needed.

[Guest]

I've got several evil ideas for Nicroburst-Steelrunner. At a party? Just keep the Nicrosil burning as you shake everyone's hand and watch for a reaction when their metals go out of control (or worse, if they start burning a Hemalurgic Spike accidentally), stab Hemalurgic Spikes later when the opportunity presents.

[Elbereth she/her]

That wouldn't even need a Steelrunner. Just a Nicroburst could do that. It'd be very useful, though they'd have to be actually burning their metals to make a difference.

Side note: what happens when you flare copper? Or duralumin+copper?

Of course, you wouldn't even have to spike them later. It'd be equally useful just to know who's an Allomancer and who (probably) isn't.

[Guest]

The Speed is to make the Spikeing easier, especially if you're greeting people somewhere private you could use the Speed to sort through your Spikes for the right type and then get perfect positioning before they recovered from the shock

[natc]

I would think you'd need mental speed too for something like sorting things at that kind of rate.

[Kaymyth she/her]

Shush, you.  I intend to use exactly this combination (as part of a team with some other Allomancers) later in my fanfic, just to keep my double-steel Twinborn Eva from getting too uppity.

 

Metalminds aren't leechable unless they're inside the body.  They do burn, but it takes longer/more concentration to leech out invested metal.

 

Conjecture:  Also, I would surmise that the target must actually be capable of burning the metalminds in question.

[Oudeis he/him]

 Any metal inside the body can be burned Allomantically and therefore should also be affected by Chromium (Supposition, but I think it's a safe guess).

 

Eh... we know that there's theoretically a way to burn a spike, but we also know for sure it's not the default. Vin burns duralumin and bronze to detect Breeze's Soothing, and doesn't burn up her earring, so we know for absolute positive that the default is, duralumin does not automatically burn up a spike. It's possible chromium works under a different principle but I would be surprised. At the very least, it's not at all a safe guess. Obviously, if someone in-universe does figure out how to allomantically burn a spike... well, depending on what they do and how they do it, if they're currently in a state of "I can burn my spikes", then yes, chromium would likely burn them.

 

I've got several evil ideas for Nicroburst-Steelrunner. At a party? Just keep the Nicrosil burning as you shake everyone's hand and watch for a reaction when their metals go out of control (or worse, if they start burning a Hemalurgic Spike accidentally), stab Hemalurgic Spikes later when the opportunity presents.

 

Well, I can only think of a few dozen problems with this idea... 

 

1. As has been pointed out, only works if they're burning the metal.

 

2. Several metals are problematic. If they're burning bronze, they'll know you're burning nicrosil. If they're burning copper, there will be no reaction. If they're burning gold, bendalloy or cadmium, you won't need nicrosil to realize. If they're burning electrum... huh, not sure what they'd see, but prolly enough not to shake your hand, or at least stop burning. Aluminum, they'd have to decide to burn the instant they touch your hand, and even then... duralumin, first, why would they ever burn, second, no real external reaction. Ironically if they're a Leecher, whoever's power works first, you get the same effect; same with another Nicroburst, though if your purpose is hemalurgic theft it doesn't do you a ton of good to find other nicrobursts. (Yay! I'm a llama again! I'm a llama a- wait...) Steel and iron only work if they're currently pushing or pulling on metal, which again, you'd prolly notice them flying or shooting coins, and if you did nicroburst them, you'd almost certainly kill them without being able to take their powers, which seems to be your intent. Tin would prolly work, but if you're shaking hands with a Thug and nicroburst his pewter... well, you already said your feruchemical power was steel, so since you don't have feruchemical gold (and your plan won't help you get feruchemical powers) you now don't have a right hand anymore. But yeah, for tin, brass, and zinc, this could totally work. If they're burning their metal at a party as they shake your hand.

 

3. You won't be subtle. The Misting, and likely everyone else in the room, will realize you're a nicroburst and that you're bursting everyone. Every subsequent Misting you shake hands with after the first will almost certainly know not to burn while shaking hands with you. Also, since you know about hemalurgy, hemalurgy is obviously a thing that is known, so if you expose someone as a Misting in the middle of a crowd, and that person is later killed via hole in their chest, it's not gonna take the dirty conners long to narrow down their list of suspects.

 

Those are the big three... but hey, if you can figure out a way around these issues, your plan sounds great!

[Shardbearer he/him]

The Leecher/Steelrunner sounds awesome. Someone with these powers could have taken Miles out easily. Leech off his Gold and he's done.

[Oudeis he/him]

That I know of, we do not yet have confirmation that chromium leeches feruchemical stores. Am I mistaken?

[Shardbearer he/him]

But Miles was allomantically burning his feruchemical gold. So it could be leeched. Probably.

[Edgedancer he/him]

But Miles was allomantically burning his feruchemical gold. So it could be leeched. Probably.

Yes and no. He'd lose some of his gold but he'd probably still have health stored in his goldminds, which he could still tap and later burn. Depending on how Miles compounding habits work it may help in getting a lethal suprise attack in but even then it would have to be timed well to when his goldminds are near empty.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Edgedancer

[Oudeis he/him]

The way compounding works, you do not constantly burn your feruchemical reserves. Sazed mentions this; the power comes at you all in one huge burst, like allomancy. The act of compounding is something you do for short periods of time to build up enormous stores of an attribute, not something you do constantly as you heal. From Miles's first PoV itself, he talks about how he's constantly drawing on his reserves, not burning them.

 

We never actually see Miles compound. We don't see it from his PoV, and any time he's on screen, he's not in the act of compounding. We see him feruchemically tap from his insane stores, and we see him burn gold allomantically, but to date we have never had a PoV of a person actually compounding, and only one very small scene where it's possible someone was compounding on screen.

[Kurkistan he/him]

Regarding leeching metalminds:
 

OK, so in the signing line, I asked the question about chromium vs a Compounder with both invested and uninvested metals in both their stomach and piercings.
 
Sorry I don't have exact quotes, but there was a line and no easy way to take notes.  
 
But what it boils down to is this:
 
1)  Yes, the piercings will get burned off.  (I bet that seeing that happen would look downright weird.)
2)  The noninvested metals go before the invested ones.  He said that because invested metals are harder to effect, it takes a little extra time and effort to get them to burn off.  So a Leecher trying to clean out a Compounder would have to get a good grip and hang on for a few seconds.
3)  Chromium burns about as quickly as duralumin, so if you're trying to burn off a lot of metals, it is possible to run out of chromium before your target is clean.  This would probably only be an issue when dealing with larger pieces (like jewelry) rather than your standard metal-flakes-in-the-stomach deal.
 
I asked another question about the population levels of Mistings, Ferrings, and Twinborn in the AoL era during the Magic tournament, but it goes better as a response to an older thread of mind on the Mistborn boards.  It basically will tie up that thread quite nicely.
 
 
Also, I got beat at Magic: the Gathering by Brandon Sanderson.  That was cool.  

[Kaymyth she/her]

Regarding leeching metalminds:

 

 

I was going to reference this, but it appears that I don't need to.  Beaten to my own quote!

[Edgedancer he/him]

Regarding leeching metalminds:

 

I suppose then the question is, if Steel also speeds up metal burn rate, if yes problem dealt with (at least somewhat), if not... well at least steel would make it easier to keep physical contact.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Edgedancer

[bluepotion he/him]

Conjecture:  Also, I would surmise that the target must actually be capable of burning the metalminds in question.

 

I believe that it works in the same way as aluminum which will burn away any of the metals that are in your system.  This is the one use that aluminum gnats get from there power.

[Kaymyth she/her]

I believe that it works in the same way as aluminum which will burn away any of the metals that are in your system.  This is the one use that aluminum gnats get from there power.

 

Is there a specific WoB that states that an aluminum gnat can burn off metals that they otherwise cannot burn?  It was always my understanding that it worked that way on Mistborn specifically because they were capable of burning those other metals.