Satsuoni

OOC. Once again, not too much content, so I'll add an image The book is a treatise on Feruchemy, quite new and limited only to a few high-ranked Terrismen. This Terrisman is a Steel Ferring (full Feruchemists are very rare these days, although not unheard of yet. His Metalminds are full, so he'd probably be able to fight Alfie off or at least escape. The story is fine, some background on the characters is appreciated. The chatter of the workers contains several names and places that were robbed or mugged recently, as well as speculation on possible culprits amongst more notorious criminals. EVENT: At one small station, barely worth the name and serving mainly as a fuel and water store, a tall man boards the train. He isn't distinguished in any manner when looking at the outside, in fact, he is quite unremarkable. However, Alfie's Steelsight allows him to see strange discrepancies within. The distribution of metals in the body is quite different, and whoever it is has two metal spikes within shoulders. There are also several small pieces of metal inside his pack, and some others embedded in his abdomen. He looks at Alfie suspiciously for a moment before heading towards Terrisman's carriage. I sit engrossed in my work. I sketch several possible spike layouts, including the one I think of as ideal: <sketch> before, regretfully, coming back to the reality of the situation - situation of not having nearly enough spikes - and trying to design a sequential spiking process for Engineers. One problem was that the original spikes changed layout of binding points, most often slightly, but sometimes drastically, especially if the exterior changed. I had to guess, and work out the best initial spikes to minimize the risk...

OK. OOC stuff for now, you know why . Ok, let us see. In the 2-nd class carriage with separate quarters travel two constables. The go from Mycondwel to Elendel. They are discussing those two fugitives that we killed, which you can infer from their description or possibly from the wanted poster they have on the table. It is not secret stuff, so they don't bother hiding. The pair is still presumed alive. In the third-class carriage with seats (instead of quarters), a minor functionary from House Tekiel bemoans his house's bankruptcy to the functionary from Yomen House. Apparently they also return from Mycondwel. In the same carriage, there are several workers from nearby towns, in several groups. Some are playing cards, and discuss nothing of much consequence not related to their bets. Some discuss working conditions. Of some (but not much) interest are those discussing metal shippings. In one group, workers express some fears about rising crime rate in the 6th Octant of Elendel, especially in the poorer regions. There is some talk about new gang, possibly with allomancers, but mainly rumors, nothing of substance. In the first-class carriage, there are 3 occupied compartments now. One compartment holds 2 sleeping people, minor nobles. We are in another one. In third there is a single terrisman from Tathingdwel, awake and reading some book. You can choose which, if any, rumors, etc you will hear, and decide to investigate something in more detail, in which case you can defer to me or provide them yourself (within reason). I nod to Alfie and continue sketching, lost in thought.

Actually, simply swallowing a metal after snapping will allow you to tap it, so you don't have to be spiked to discover you are a gnat - allomancers feel the metal inside them, and can estimate the amount of reserve. Duralumin doesn't burn out - it is in the book, said so in plain text by Vin as she burned it. But I think it won't be immune to Nicrosil. An interesting question would be what would happen if you arrange, say, 10 Nicrosil mistings in a ring touching each other, and all of them start burning at the same time - or in a line touching allomancer of another kind. Will it stack?

Alfie bristled all over. We felt uncomfortable with that, or rather I did. the cat within me couldn't care less. "Sorry about carrying you, Alfie" - I said. "Unfortunately, it was necessary to keep up appearances. Now, I wasn't goinya to extract yours pike, just take a look at it while it was in place, but you are right, it would have been... uncomfortable." For both of us, since taking a look included joining the spike to one of my secondary bind points. Apparently, he was unaware of certain methods in my employ, and this was a kind of information I didn't volunteer unless asked about. Still, his behavior seemed a bit off since that time. Should I be careful or let the process go its way? I will let it slide for nyaw... "Well, enjoy the journey, then. Maybe see if you can learn something of interest in other carriages. I'll work on the phenotype, and maybe nap for a while. Call me if you need something." [ooc]It seems that Alfie is influenced by the aberrant spike quite a bit, or is it just me? ANyway, unless some encounter happens, my next post will be around arrival to Elendel[/ooc]

The cats body butted my legs. I glanced down to ascertain that it is indeed Alfie. It was, so I nodded to him, and resumed reading a newspaper which I have procured from a boy nearby. There were no news about mysterious beasts or even more mysterious disappearances, so I could at least hope that most of the Cat Inquisitors out there had a good sense of keeping their activities discreet - not that I knew what most of those activities were, nya! The train came on time. Mycondwel was not a very popular destination, so I could easily arrange a separate first-class carriage for myself and Alfie, specifically mentioning that I was planning to sleep, so I was not to be bothered by servants. Scooping him before he could protest - appearances were important, and few cats were well-trained enough -or had little enough pride - to just follow the voice commands. I brought him into the carriage, closed the door behind myself and released him. The train departed the station soon after, going on to the next station, Wyllion. I locked the door, and turned to Alfie. "It is still several hours till nyext station. What are you going to do to pass the time? Want me to have a look at your spike?"

Hero of ages, chapter 39, ebook (the TenSoon POV) Sazed's note, the end of the same chapter in ebook, so probably the beginning of the next in proper book.

I followed the flying cat with my eyes for a moment, then burned pewter and started to run. It was an easy enough run, and I tapped but slightly into my Nicrosilminds, enhancing the burn and feeling more complete with the Investiture in me. I knew the road well, so I ran without thinking. "They will end you, you know." I almost ran into the tree before righting myself. This happened sometimes, when she awoke. I was never sure if that was truly her thoughts or just my delusions, nor did I particularly care. "The cat inquisitors that you make will end you, end us, one way or another" There was little inflection to the voice. She no longer cared about living or dying. She also could not speak without borrowing parts of my soul, so once again I was not sure if that were even her thoughts. She spoke the truth. One way or another, unless humans managed to deal with me first. Investiture, Nicrosil and pewter made me almost immune to a single assault, if any of them decided to attack. But each repelled assault was making more vulnerable for a time, since I tended to empty one of my metalminds during it. Five attacks stretched over hour, or one that was lucky or planned well enough, and I will die. I counted on the cats' egoism to prevent that. Most of them were smart enough to see me as convenience, providing food metal and cover. They were not about to endanger that and possibly die in the process, too. "Or so you think." Aye, or so I think. If I am attacked by humans, though, many would stand aside, and let me fight it out. Not everybody, but many. "That is the least of the danger. Maybe you should stop. Stop doing that, at least." No. I shall not stop. More cat inquisitors will be made, until they can sustain themselves, and then... "And then we end." Consumed by such thoughts, I quickly reached the outskirts of the small settlement surrounding the train station. Keeping a lookout for Alfie, I proceeded to the station after ensuring that I had my glasses on and I didn't slouch too much. People knew of me here, and didn't pay too much attention anyway, some even nodding in greeting. I nodded back. Politeness cost me nothing. I reached the station. The attendant there was new, and looked at me strangely, but money talked louder than my appearance ever did, and he lead me to a seat, explaining that the next train should be around in half an hour or so. I waved him around and sat down, looking around for a cat that should have been around here already.

Well, you could steal it with Hemalurgy, but this seems to be one of the few cases when using Hemalurgy is not the answer. If you can spike a shardbearer, you could probably just kll one, and bind the blade without using up bind points. If the bearer is your friend, he/she could just be talked into gibing the blade up... And I doubt Shardblade can cut Steelsight, not unless it can cut gravity. Although it may serve as an obstacle to Steelsight. The better question might be, what does the blade (either drawn or hidden) look like in steelsight? Maybe you can pick up shardblade user by using it.

OK, about blessings of Potency, they are the same as Koloss spikes: They were iron: And that is why I don't trust RPG as more than secondary source As for the mental fortitude, I believe this is a fancy name for intelligence/memory, while Emotional fortitude provides mental/emotional stability. It probably added additional resistance, but not enough to balance the spike damage completely.

Well, I for one would argue for consistency - the eyes are the only part of CNS outside the body, and located right next to the greatest concentration of Realm-spanning pathways, so even if the nerves in the limbs were to burn up and emit "smoke", we probably won't see it, and there would be much less that from the brain, anyways. The truth is, we don't know much about partial wounds like that in long term. Is the limb alive enough to not rot or shrivel over time? Is the cutoff point exactly where the blade passed or does it propagate back, like in case of spine, but lacking the energy to sustain destructive reaction? We don't know, since in the book everybody cut by the blade was quickly killed off afterwards (IIRC) They did say "a limb", so did they mean the whole limb was inactivated at once? Could Shardblade be used by the dentist to stop my teeth from hurting by carefully slicing through their bases? That said, obviously Shardblades are much more evil and destructive than Hemalurgy, since you can't make Cat Inquisitors with it. Maybe... I still suspect some interaction with Spiritual. Perhaps they act in combination for this.

"I see. Well, the spikeway goes from the edge of my holdings, as you probably know well. I shall go with you until that point, and then run. We shall meet at the station, where you can decide if you want to sneak into train yourself or go with me. Regardless,please make your presence known." I shoulder my pack and head out of the room, trusting Alfie to follow, or go his own way. Well, he won't be getting much electrum on his own way, that is for sure, nya! I go outside, passing the hall where some blood still remains, and head towards the spikeway at a slow jog, burning pewter only mildly, to stave off exhaustion. A Cat Inquisitor should have little trouble keeping up with me. It is not that far from here, through the forest.

Ok, to answer you. First, I was a little bit mistaken in my OP. Here is the quote: With the bolded text being an addition. In other words, the part that changes is not your soul - unless you were cut by shardblade - but your body's connection collection. So you lose access to the soul from the physical realm -you can't cut off part with shardblade my waving it over stump (I hope...) Whether the bind points are lost or migrate somewhere else over time, I don't know. Yet when cut with Shardblade, it is part of your soul that is cut off, and the physical part then leak life and becomes dead, though physically whole. Also, yes, the Cognitive healing does make more sense, although does not really explain aging - what if you continue to see yourself as young and live as hermit? Will you stop aging then? But that is an aside.

Plenty different - the Spiritual Life part of his body no longer has support for arms (Since the pathways of the Spiritual Physical, i. e. connections defining interaction of corpse) are gone, and cognitive is perceived differently, and hence changed. For a while (unlike in the case Shardblade is used), the "soul", the life patterns corresponding to "having arms" will persist, and hence the body would be able to be healed (by gold), but without support, it will eventually weaken and fade, Cognitive part changing to match (arms? what arms? I guess I used to have the, once). OK Weirdly enough, this part of the theory was formulated long before Q&A (since it seemed so obvious), but that was a nice conformation, yes.

I wince slightly at his comment. Quite a few of the points marked on the human diagram have corresponding scars on my body, scars that won't heal with pewter, or, I think, even gold. A lot of the cat's one, too. "Refilled your metals, did you? Don't be surprised, I have just knyown you for a while. Besides, that is what those metals are for, so nyou loss. Here is your eye." I affix the eye to the spike, its magnet slightly nicking the flesh around it with a number of small protrusions, so that the metal in it would not interfere with Steelsight. "There you go. You should be able to remove it with your claws if you would want to, and since the cats don't usually show much white, most people don't notice if one eye does not turn." "Now thenya. We should get going. There is a railroad not too far from here, that runs from Mycondwel to Wyllion. Unless for some reason you want to run all the way to Elendel, I suggest we board the train on the small station over there." -I point out the location on the map. "I know the way I am going - I'll simply run to the station, using pewter. If you prefer, there is a small spikeway leading to the proximity of the station from the border of my holding, or you can just sit on my shoulders. Which one suits you better?"

Ok, I freely admit that I may have misread you. It just seemed more directional somehow. My quotes from above posts that are related to this matter: And another one, from the Tales of the Goblet: So, to answer your first point, yes, I posit that indeed, the initial change in one realm causes instant change in others. Brain, in this case, is an area in Physical realm that has a very high density of pathways between realms especially Cognitive-Physical. Change in brain may cause same results as Rioting/Soothing, and vice versa. Some changes in one of the realm may have little to no analogue in the others, if they are not connected. Also, the window remembers what it was, but it is not what it was. Its memory of being a stained glass window is strong, but without the seal, it is not, currently, it. But this memory leads to it accepting changes in the history easier. I assume it works in the direction of the bad, too - if people hated its form for a long time, it found find easy to change into that form again, but I may be wrong here. Not exactly, since "parts" still assume separation, and in my theory, such separation signifies a drastic change in state, so that the object can't even be called what it was anymore, like Human->Ghost, and even that requires something remaining. I prefer "attributes" to "parts", like the above example of "charge, inertial mass and gravitic mass" I may be unclear on this part, but I call it cycle precisely because it recycles expended energy, not matter where it goes on the way, unless the cycle is broken (like in case of Hema spikes and apparently Nightblood, to an extent)

That might just be my misconception, but in your case there seems to be a definite direction in the interaction of the realms - from spiritual to cognitive to physical and back, while in my theory all Realms are one, in a sense - interaction in any Realm causes changes in both others, depending on the connection, and you cannot really separate pieces of the object. I've tried to explain that concept to Nepene yesterday, but essentially, in my mind, the presence of an object in three realms is like, for example, electric, gravitic and inertial (Higgs?) presences of electron - not really separable, although distinct. (Which would make some spren WIMPs, I guess XD)

So, for my 500th post I've decided to get myself together, and try to collect my theory of everything in one post. In many ways, it may intersect with Kurkistan's MEC, but I think it is different enough. First, a disclaimer: This theory represents my interpretation of the structure of Brandon's Cosmere. As much as possible, I tried to base it on known facts from the books and interviews, but I am not infallible. Therefore, while everybody is welcome to discuss it, and everybody if entitled to their own interpretations, my opinion may only change if the direct, factual evidence is presented that contradicts my opinion, ad not interpretation of the fact that contradicts it. In other words - I am stubborn . OK, I've tried to collect some data, but that was taking too long. So without further ado: Concept of energy The three realms The pathways and cycles Odds and ends: positive, negative, neutral Now, given the above theory, this is how I think the common magical systems in Cosmere work: (Also, I am adding links to my old ASD again. If somebody is going to downvote them, at least post why. Keep in mind that not all ASD are up to date, but they (IMO) are still close enough) So, questions? Err.. more questions?

I lift my gaze from the diagrams of human and cat, with detailed annotations on kind, position and angle of the spike for donor and acceptor necessary for a certain effect, and see Alfie sitting nearby, purring. I nod to him, and start cleaning up my notes, packing them into a waterproof bag, which I hide in my pack. I then turn to him. "So. I am ready to go. Are you ready?"

I carry the two corpses to a room beside kitchen, featuring a large stone table for butchering, where I quickly gut and wash them. I don't bother skinning, since most cats eat skin anyways. I then cut them into pieces, which I place into waterproof bag. After cleaning the place up, I deposit meat in the cooler cellar, and go to pick up Alfie's eye. It is in the hidden laboratory, where most cat inquisitors are made, so I descent into the mountain proper and follow a meandering path that I know well. The portion of the more solid rock where the laboratory was placed is surrounded by softer, more brittle stone, so wandering off the path could easily trigger a cave in on the trespasser's head, in addition to several artificial traps, most of which the cat would not be able to trigger. I reach the door. I remember how I made this place, soon after I got pewter. The first cats were made upstairs, in a more traditional metallurgist laboratory. Here, there was a part of the mine shaft, now mostly collapsed. I had to reinforce and expand the place, using the boosted pewter - and speaking of boosting. I swallowed another handful of Nicrosil beads. Power bursts like the one I just tried on Alfie, were costly, nicrosil being rare -I was one of the few people making it - and only marginally less expensive than gold on the current market - not that there was much demand outside Tathingdwel. And refilling a single one of my metalminds required almost half a kilo of the stuff, I was literally eating it like candy afterwards. Consumed by such thoughts, I reached the door, a great slab of stone and metal, too heavy to move even for a pewter savant. The cats had their own, smaller entrance, too small even for a human child, and relatively well hidden. I boosted my pewter to Nicroburst level and opened the door. After going through a dark corridor with some branching tunnels, i reached a more normal door with a switch beside it. This newfangled "electricity" was sure coming in handy, and of course my hidden laboratory had its own generator. The lights revealed a medium-sized room with rough stone walls, a pristine table with a cat-sized soft pad and a set of restrains in the middle, and array of my instruments ranging from the surgery hammer-knife to a delicate stone scalpel, as well as a collection of drivers. A medicine cabinet stood in one corner, and in other was a larger storage chest, towards which I headed. Fake eye covers were crafted individually for each cat receiving an eye spike, so that it would look like a remaining eye. It was a colored glass with a magnetic base, strong enough not to fall off, but removable. Some cats preferred their to be permanently affixed, so I took several eyes designed for Alfie and a tub of glue before turning to exit. After a brief hesitation, I go to the medicine cabinet and take some medicine against headache, smelling not unlike catnip. Than I leave the lab and return to the house, only to find Alfie fast asleep. Well. Better let him rest. I only hoped the awakened spike won't make him change body gender spontaneously. I returned to my room and set down to work on designing various phenotype projects. Engineer. Next one should definitely be Engineer.

"If you say so... Without Investiture, much of her influence should fade soon enough, since she is more memory than identity. But be warned, if it takes too much control for too long, I'll consider forced replacement after all. Please try to control it." I remove my hand and rise. "It is already light outside, we should be leaving soon. Rest and prepare, there is a nice soft chair over there. I'll take care of these" - I nod at the corpses. - "I'll pick up the eye for you from the lab. I usually prepare them after spiking, just for the cases like this one." I swallow and burn pewter, lifting two corpses by their hands and dragging them out of the room and towards the kitchen.

We were amused by its comments about escaping. Truly, it knew nothing about how fast we could move with the boosted pewter. If nothing else, we could jump with much greater acceleration that any Coinshot could afford on the account of its body being ripped by its own Push. Neither did it know that without direct contact, overly boosted Nicrosil created a bubble of Nicroburst effect, withing which any Allomancer burning metals would find him or herself without anything to burn very fast. The chances of it successfully escaping were slim... But we urged caution to myself. Arrogance and overconfidence were preludes to a fall, something that we have seen many, many times... But its time, like ours was running out, burst of Investiture expended. I shook my head to clear it a bit, and went to the side of the cat, who was in obvious pain I knew well enough. I sat near him and started to gently massage several point on his head, something that I found helped me in similar situations. "Something tells me hat we better limit ourselves to common Nicroburst, since it doesn't affect spikes." - I remarked idly - "Also, you should decide what to do with your second mental spike. I am relatively certain I can replace it without adverse effects, but the decision is yours."

I stared. Yes, it could be expected, given the circumstances. Didn't we do just that yesterday? Except her awakening must have taken poor Alfie by surprise. Well, it is not her place. She will submit, or we will show her the error of its ways. The energy from the latest burst still invigorates us, blending our essences stronger than ever, and we allow ourselves to slide a little deeper into insanity ever lurking on the edge of our consciousness. When we speak, it is in a strange double voice, one voice a high female, the other a rusty tone sounding like a dry corpse. Normally we would have not shown this side, but this is not a normal circumstance. "Violet. Yes we remember your dominant personality, mental spike number two. A head of the pitiful gang of a human bandits, you died whimpering in fear, but do you remember it?We harvested you, and cooked you in valeriana sauce. You were not too bad. If what you just said now was a threat, though" - we hiss menacingly and withdraw a flask with a pewter bead inside, holding it in our paw - "You should recognize your place, ghost of the dead human, and lie low until called" -we hiss with a sudden rage - "Your metals, if you had any left after a Nicroburst, would not save you. You are a spike, and unlike Inquisitors of old, a cat can survive for a while with up to three spikes removed, so you can be replaced" - we crush the flask in our hand, feeling blood coat the metal, and tapped Investiture from another metalmind, for just a moment, concentrating on the resonance of the metal in our hand. The fact that we could burn it helped, and it was only a moment before pewter ignited trailing mist, first black, blacker than night, then, as we release Investiture, white and luminous, licking the scratches from the glass and coating the paw in a strange silvery sheen. This was wasteful, of course, all that power escaping with merely a touch actually getting into a body, but.. We grinned, baring our elongated fangs "Behave yourself, or you will be replaced" - we crush the last remains of the metal in the powerful hand - "And burned to nothing like this bead."

"Ah, no, I believe that should not prove necessary. If I am wrong I'll finish them off myself. Be quiet now... Ah, here they are." We entered the room from another entrance, and just in time. The bandits have just entered the hall and were looking around. They carried a small lamp. I hoped that with the lamp, glass and the darkness in the room we were in they won't notice us until it would be too late. "Riot their fear. Softly at first" -I whispered, and waited until Alfie indicated that he was doing so. I could also see the movements of the two men becoming more erratic, one of them grabbing his gun holster. Now was the time. I knelt down and gently laid my hand on the cat's head, my half-nails half-claw poking his skin a little, swallowed some uncharged Nicrosil, and burned it, at the same time tapping Investiture from the metalmind on my left hand. It was a rather heavy metalmind, which contained an amount of Investiture that ordinary soulbearer could store in about a year. I compressed it into about five seconds. Allomancy and hemalurgy, they were both about holes in the soul, the channels through which the power could enter or exit, or so I believed. The rush of raw power mainly followed the channels opened by Nicrosil, through my hand and into Alfie, where it boosted his Zinc, burning it in a single burst. Mainly, but not all, and I could feel my consciousness expand, briefly wondering if the cat under my hand could feel the same. For a short time, I could feel as if I were ascending. A brief shudder ran through my body as first Zinc and then my own Nicrosil burned out, but the sheer pressure of the power was enough to keep the channel open without metal. In fact, i could feel some of the excess pressure activating my Pewter ability, albeit weakly. Horrible screams attracted my attention, my perception of time slowed down somewhat. I switched some of my attention to the bandits. My investiture was running out, but I could see that my plan was a success. The bandits has just been subjected to the rioting boosted about three thousandfold over the Nicrobursted Rioter maximum power. They were... not happy. The more timid of them was lying on the floor twitching and foaming at the mouth. From the dark color of the foam, I could tell that it was likely blood. He wasn't long for this world. The screams were issued by the second one. Even from my vantage point I could see his eyes bulging out, all muscles of his body spasming, before his last scream turned to gurgle and he dropped to the floor. I could tell from my expanded senses that was dead, most likely heart failure. At that moment, my Investiture ran out. With a shudder, I released my grip on Alfie's head and waited a few moments for the pain in my stretched, battered soul to subside, and the sense of ... diminishness... to become less. Belatedly, I remembered that while I was more or less used to such experiences, they could be quite traumatic at the beginning, and switched my attention to the cat, wincing a little at the stench of voided bowels reaching me from the hall.

"Ah, thank you, nya. The idea is simple enough. You have Zinc, so you start rioting their fear. I have Allomantic Nicrosil, which can boost your Zinc, and Investiture, which can both boost my Nicrosil and create a bleedover into your body on touch. I believe that will allow me to boost your Rioting about thousandfold and keep it going for a while, and that such boosted Rioting will kill them before I run out of Investiture in one of my metalminds. We shall see. Let us go. I know a convenient place where we can intercept them. I know you could probably Riot them from here, but I want to observe their reaction. Do stay behind me, just in case. They seem to have guns." I turn and head for a room that has a door with glass window opening into entry hallway, which I know they were heading for.

I wake in the predawn darkness, feeling unusually lucid. For a few moments, I try to understand what could wake me so early, but then it becomes obvious, as I once again hear muffled voices. My ears became better since I've changed, although they are still no match for a tineye, or even a proper cat, and while I can't properly distinguish the words, there is no doubt that these voices belong to humans, for while the cat inquisitor quickly develop voiceboxes capable of human speech, they still mostly sound like a crying infant, unless they make an effort to sound otherwise. It is simple the matter of size, in many respects. The human presence in the night is curious, since there shouldn't be any left around, although... I quietly go to the window and peer in the direction I've heard the speech from. There is light enough for my eyes to work, and I can see two figures sneaking towards the door of my house. I can also hear what they say now. "See? I told you those rumors of strange beasts and no one returning were false!" "I don't know. Why do you think that the lawmen won't follow us here, then?" "Bah! Some of them are fools enough to respect the property laws, and others are either scared by the rumours or busy being bravely shot in the roughs! No, nobody will follow us here. And look, here is the house of that crazed hermit metallurgist. It looks like nobody is around, and haven't been for a while. We can rest here, and I am betting there is still something valuable inside." As I thought. Bandits. Well excuse me for lousy housekeepinya! I happen to be the only human around, and cats don't seem to like cleaning much except themselves. Anyway, the bandits presented an opportunity, as usual. They came in my holdings sometimes, lured by the wildness or the rumors of riches. In fact, there was once a bandit lair not too far from the mine. It proved an excellent source of spikes in the beginning. Nowadays, most bandits were picked up by Cat Inquisitors roaming the woods, some of whom were quite insane, to my eternal shame. I considered. Nyo. The bandits seemed normal humans, and I didn't have cat in need of the spikes handy. A Harvester... I shook myself, getting back on track. Better to dispatch them and conserve the meat for later. Hmm... Alfie had Zinc, didn't he? I have wanted to try one trick for a while... I turned from the window and silently went to the door. It took a little while to find where Alfie slept, but finally I have discovered him near my lesser laboratory/ storage room. I carefully touched him, trying not to startle him too badly. He awoke quickly enough. I gestured for silence "There are bandits going into the house, and I thought I would use this opportunity to check out on the combination technique I wanted to try out. Before I do that, though, please use your Electrum to check if it will harm you. I wouldn't want to damage you." Note - the proposed technique will first exhilarate, then hurt somewhat, leaving Alfie with his soul sore for a while. It will let you experience a level of power that you otherwise are unlikely to. The decision whether to agree or not is yours. Either way, I will go to deal with the bandits after your answer.