The Chat Thread

[Koloss17 She/They]

2 hours ago, Longshot97 said:

Point of clarification: The Connection of the Worldspike allows all residents of the Alleycity to hear their own language spoken when communicating. Does this prevent people from holding discussions in different languages (in the interest of secrecy) or using codes and cyphers? Is Intent a factor here?

Intent is likely to be a factor. I believe you can intentionally speak in code, yeah. In a different language, maybe. I mean, it’s really just a plot simplifier, so it shouldn’t restrict your RPing options.

[Longshot97 he/him]

Here's a thought. What happens if (by some twist of chance) Asylum is defeated? Regardless of how it happens, maybe Perses stomps him into the ground or something. Asylum is now a very tough combatant, especially with potential horses of minions at his disposal. But his deal with his Talent was contingent on causing chaos. Further, his blood moon is only supposed to last the night. Once the sun rises, supposedly, he's done.

Best-case scenario, he loses his power boost, the blood moon stops, and things go back to normal (kind of). Worst-case scenario, his Talent lashes out, regardless of his agency.

[Koloss17 She/They]

45 minutes ago, Longshot97 said:

Here's a thought. What happens if (by some twist of chance) Asylum is defeated? Regardless of how it happens, maybe Perses stomps him into the ground or something. Asylum is now a very tough combatant, especially with potential horses of minions at his disposal. But his deal with his Talent was contingent on causing chaos. Further, his blood moon is only supposed to last the night. Once the sun rises, supposedly, he's done.

Best-case scenario, he loses his power boost, the blood moon stops, and things go back to normal (kind of). Worst-case scenario, his Talent lashes out, regardless of his agency.

From what I understand, @Stormlightsong is just fine with Asylum’s arc ending in their death.

[Grey Knight]

Goodness, the Alley has changed since I was last here. I can barely recognize the place!

[Koloss17 She/They]

1 hour ago, Grey Knight said:

Goodness, the Alley has changed since I was last here. I can barely recognize the place!

I mean, I had to change some things. The revival of the Alleyverse required new players and an easier entry point, so we did a soft reset and kept things simple.

Is there anything you miss?

[Grey Knight]

14 hours ago, Koloss17 said:

I mean, I had to change some things. The revival of the Alleyverse required new players and an easier entry point, so we did a soft reset and kept things simple.

Is there anything you miss?

Oh, don’t take me wrong— I meant it more in a positive sense. It’s always wild to me to go AFK for a long time, then come back to see this place thriving.

[Longshot97 he/him]

Hello all. I greatly value the experience here, which is why I feel the need to make this semi-formal announcement.

My semester proper has begun, and the workload is simultaneously unbelievable yet quite predictable. Thus, I predict that I will most often be posting on Saturdays. For those monitoring the "Recently Browsing" window, I will be hopping in sporadically to remain up-to-date.

However, I am terrible both at keeping promises and managing my time, so this may not stand.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

[Koloss17 She/They]

10 minutes ago, Longshot97 said:

Hello all. I greatly value the experience here, which is why I feel the need to make this semi-formal announcement.

My semester proper has begun, and the workload is simultaneously unbelievable yet quite predictable. Thus, I predict that I will most often be posting on Saturdays. For those monitoring the "Recently Browsing" window, I will be hopping in sporadically to remain up-to-date.

However, I am terrible both at keeping promises and managing my time, so this may not stand.

Thank you for listening to my TED Talk.

Thanks for the update! Yeah so long as you can commit to posting once a week, you’ll be active enough. (As you can see @Stormlightsong is riding that schedule .
 

And if you need to step away for a bit, no problem! Just let us know when that happens .

[Just_a_Fan he/him]

idk what's going on here, all i remember is making what's basically one of those dumb op minmaxed Mary Sue type characters. having read the "cosmere and non-cosmere magic interacting" bit, I've decided to try to make something as a joke. it's a bunch of magic/fantasy animals in a suit of armor, trying to pass off as a clumsy kitsune. will amend with character sheet.

Edited September 13, 2024 by Just_a_Fan

[Koloss17 She/They]

1 hour ago, Just_a_Fan said:

idk what's going on here, all i remember is making what's basically one of those dumb op minmaxed Mary Sue type characters. having read the "cosmere and non-cosmere magic interacting" bit, I've decided to try to make something as a joke. it's a bunch of magic/fantasy animals in a suit of armor, trying to pass off as a clumsy kitsune. will amend with character sheet.

Sounds fun! If you want to pm me your idea, I can give you some feedback and help you out a bit!

[Longshot97 he/him]

Nothing urgent, I just thought of something funny and wanted to share it.

My character carries a bunch of liquid mercury around (for one of his abilities). Recently, he's been doing so via a waterskin attached to his belt. While RP-ing, I was researching useful mercury facts, and discovered that two tablespoons of the stuff weighs a pound. A metric pound. That is 13.6 times the weight of water.

So, naturally l, I blithely had my character hold up the full waterskin of the stuff for use as an Allomantic anchor.

Then I started to wonder...just how heavy would that waterskin be? Could he actually have held it up with one arm? In fact, could he have even realistically been carrying it this whole time?

So I did some digging.

We don't know how much mercury Eighth of the Eve has, because he got that mercury from Reckoner-Earth, following the climax of book three, Calamity. In that book, we are introduced to this mercury in the form of the Rtich motivator - two "magical" gloves and a large jar of liquid mercury. That is all the description offered.

Okay, large jar...not much to go off of, but better than nothing. Let's say a 64-ounce jar. It's a bit small, but let's go with that. A volume of water that size would weigh..four pounds, give or take. So, all of that means my character has been carrying around (drumroll please)...

54.4 pounds of liquid metal.

At an underestimation of the amount of mercury.

I find this ridiculously funny.

So yeah, get out of here, assorted demigods, Twinborn of godly power, and vessels of eldritch monsters. My character's been lugging around more than the maximum weight allowed a suitcase on commercial flights on his belt (which I suppose is the real hero of this story). He's lifted it up one-handed without even thinking about it. Heck, he's tossed it around like a toy.

I need to go spend hours internally justifying this. But I hope you found this at least half as funny as I did.

Edited October 5, 2024 by Longshot97

[Koloss17 She/They]

15 hours ago, Longshot97 said:

Nothing urgent, I just thought of something funny and wanted to share it.

My character carries a bunch of liquid mercury around (for one of his abilities). Recently, he's been doing so via a waterskin attached to his belt. While RP-ing, I was researching useful mercury facts, and discovered that two tablespoons of the stuff weighs a pound. A metric pound. That is 13.6 times the weight of water.

So, naturally l, I blithely had my character hold up the full waterskin of the stuff for use as an Allomantic anchor.

Then I started to wonder...just how heavy would that waterskin be? Could he actually have held it up with one arm? In fact, could he have even realistically been carrying it this whole time?

So I did some digging.

We don't know how much mercury Eighth of the Eve has, because he got that mercury from Reckoner-Earth, following the climax of book three, Calamity. In that book, we are introduced to this mercury in the form of the Rtich motivator - two "magical" gloves and a large jar of liquid mercury. That is all the description offered.

Okay, large jar...not much to go off of, but better than nothing. Let's say a 64-ounce jar. It's a bit small, but let's go with that. A volume of water that size would weigh..four pounds, give or take. So, all of that means my character has been carrying around (drumroll please)...

54.4 pounds of liquid metal.

At an underestimation of the amount of mercury.

I find this ridiculously funny.

So yeah, get out of here, assorted demigods, Twinborn of godly power, and vessels of eldritch monsters. My character's been lugging around more than the maximum weight allowed a suitcase on commercial flights on his belt (which I suppose is the real hero of this story). He's lifted it up one-handed without even thinking about it. Heck, he's tossed it around like a toy.

I need to go spend hours internally justifying this. But I hope you found this at least half as funny as I did.

Honestly it’s your call whether to justify it or not. We’ll understand if you want to say “physics shmysics” and have it just act like metallic water.

[Through the Living Shadow he/him]

Has anyone else noticed that it’s supposed to be a Hallandren based plot, yet half the action is happening in the Mistwarrens?

*sigh*
This is what I get for making an Elantrian.

[Koloss17 She/They]

24 minutes ago, SpiritOfWrath said:

Has anyone else noticed that it’s supposed to be a Hallandren based plot, yet half the action is happening in the Mistwarrens?

*sigh*
This is what I get for making an Elantrian.

Yeah this is something that we’re wrestling with a bit. Like on the one hand, we don’t want to force a plotline, as this is meant to be a free form RP, but at the same time…

The current thought is that there will be preparation made to try to nudge the plot towards New Hallandren, and of course when UFO does more than just scheming and mobilizing to do things, there will doubtlessly be more involvement there. 
 

If you have suggestions on how to nudge the non-UFO folk to be more interested in what’s going on, I’m willing to hear it! But it shouldn’t get in the way of player agency.

[Through the Living Shadow he/him]

21 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

Yeah this is something that we’re wrestling with a bit. Like on the one hand, we don’t want to force a plotline, as this is meant to be a free form RP, but at the same time…

The current thought is that there will be preparation made to try to nudge the plot towards New Hallandren, and of course when UFO does more than just scheming and mobilizing to do things, there will doubtlessly be more involvement there. 
 

If you have suggestions on how to nudge the non-UFO folk to be more interested in what’s going on, I’m willing to hear it! But it shouldn’t get in the way of player agency.

Yeah, Twin was talking about the Shardthief was leaving for Hallandren, and Teon was gonna try and track him down. Youll have to check with him (@TwinStorm), but I think it was cuz Reana (Leon’s wife) had a crew there. 

That prob be wrong.

[TwinStorm He/Him]

Just now, SpiritOfWrath said:

Yeah, Twin was talking about the Shardthief was leaving for Hallandren, and Teon was gonna try and track him down. Youll have to check with him (@TwinStorm), but I think it was cuz Reana (Leon’s wife) had a crew there. 

That prob be wrong.

nah hes going to New Hallendren for anti investiture

[Through the Living Shadow he/him]

6 minutes ago, TwinStorm said:

nah hes going to New Hallendren for anti investiture

Aaaaahhhh

cool

[Koloss17 She/They]

@TwinStorm I don’t know if you saw, but to continue with my Perses scene, I would need to know what metals your character has on you, because Perses is looking to mess with things.

[TwinStorm He/Him]

12 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

@TwinStorm I don’t know if you saw, but to continue with my Perses scene, I would need to know what metals your character has on you, because Perses is looking to mess with things.

he has vials of steel and zinc and electrum metal minds (in the form of rings, bracelets, and various jewelry)

[Koloss17 She/They]

12 minutes ago, TwinStorm said:

he has vials of steel and zinc and electrum metal minds (in the form of rings, bracelets, and various jewelry)

Is his weapon made of metal/shoot metal? Don’t know how decked out they are in aluminum.

[TwinStorm He/Him]

Just now, Koloss17 said:

Is his weapon made of metal/shoot metal? Don’t know how decked out they are in aluminum.

just normal metal

he has plenty of metal on him

not afraid of allomancers

and cuz he'll need anchors also

[Koloss17 She/They]

btw y'all: I am going through the forum for things to update for the current era. This will take a while, but I do plan on working on it. From what I see, this is the list of things to update

• Era 7 plot thread, just so that people can have an easy rundown on what happened in the previous era.
• Updating the worldbuilding and etiquette guide, mostly to give it a once over to see if something needs expanding on and to update the districts and specific locations
• Era 8 character thread--create a list of all of the approved characters and who they belong to
• NPC thread-less important, but adding my recurring NPCs and possibly adding some NPCs for this era

anything I missed?

[Steel Speedster ♂]

@Stormlightsong

Quick question about an ISD, since Palava has one. From my understanding, it works much like A-bronze, but I was wondering how much precision it has. A skilled Seeker could tell exactly what the kinetic Investiture was doing (what metal for example.) Can ISDs do that, or just detect whether or not there is Investiture being used?

Also, does the person have to be actively using the ISD to detect anything, or does it work passively as well? I noticed that your character’s IED seems to vibrate when it detects static Investiture, but I wasn’t sure if that applies to ISDs as well.

[Stormlightsong]

On 2/1/2025 at 12:36 PM, Steel Speedster said:

@Stormlightsong

Quick question about an ISD, since Palava has one. From my understanding, it works much like A-bronze, but I was wondering how much precision it has. A skilled Seeker could tell exactly what the kinetic Investiture was doing (what metal for example.) Can ISDs do that, or just detect whether or not there is Investiture being used?

Also, does the person have to be actively using the ISD to detect anything, or does it work passively as well? I noticed that your character’s IED seems to vibrate when it detects static Investiture, but I wasn’t sure if that applies to ISDs as well.

Great question! A rough explanation on how each of the special tech work is on the UFO guild thread though you can make some slight alterations to the means of communicating a result (Farenah’s for example, vibrates at the anti-stormlight tone if there is a concentration of over 1 BEU nearby) 

As for the abilities of an ISD. I think they can only detect the presence and intensity of active investiture, and to know what type of active investiture, you would have to run the output through a system that can tell the difference between different signal frequencies or something which is not something that UFO can do yet. 

Edited February 2, 2025 by Stormlightsong

[Koloss17 She/They]

btw I do plan on starting the next episode at some point soonish. Would now be a decent time, or do we want to wrap up some more scenes before moving to the next ep? Episodes are purely to provide nice points where people can start new scenes, but doesn't actually mean anything. It's good to after a while make a new episode every now and again, because its a great point for new folks to join in on the fun, and to make each era more digestible for those wanting to look back and read other threads.