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I mean, you don’t appear to be holding back so far. But don’t prevent him from opening the barrier. Or you can make one very squishy character with the full awareness that you’ll probably have to make another one before the end of the era.

I haven’t got around to reevaluating Alum yet, although he will take a backseat in the new Era and focus on his scholarship (if he survives). My new one is rather sparse on history, but I’ve got a voice and a concept. Basicallly, he’s a nonmagical-noir-cop-antivaxxer (sort of - I wouldn’t stoop that low) with perma-injury. If you punch his arm, he’s going to have a sore arm for the rest of the era. A note on intelligence - I’ll be RPing him about the same as Alum, although without his comprehensive knowledge - I’m not sure whether you’d count that as “intelligent” or “genius”, as the ranking system is a little fuzzy on that.

Alum was on his feet when he saw the barrel rise in his periphery. A shotgun of some kind, with a larger barrel - designed for spread and close-range lethality, but not distance. The monk’s finger was hard against the trigger. He couldn’t dive out of the way. Last time he had tried that, he’d ended up picking birdshot out of his back for the rest of the year. And he couldn’t move the barrel - it was heavy, and the monk was strong, already braced against the kick that would send most flying backwards. Alum wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was the gun. So. So he really only had three options, and those were to use his blade to block the shot, except he couldn’t guarantee that a stray bullet would hit a nearby Forger, or cut the tendons in his leg, and the cause-effect of the impact would send him flying backwards. He could transport back into Shadesmar, but he had just left it, and that would mean reverting and losing progress. An antidote would only be here. So Alum really only had one option, and as the gun climbed the final few inches he took that option, and focused on the air between him and the gun, treating it not as a collection of gas but a segment, like a wall of air, connected together. He held out a hand, almost involuntarily, and just before the monk pulled the trigger a wall of stone formed between him and the gun. One foot thick and as tall as him. @Ark1002

As the clock ticked over eighty, several things happened at once. He cut the monk, who dropped him, which was good, and Alum’s arm broke free from the ice, which was also good. But the monk didn’t die, which was unexpected, and the monk hit him with a stray slap that sent him flying, and Alum felt his nose snap and crunch, which was all things considered fairly bad. Alum hit the ground and rolled across the cobblestones. He tried to suck in some Stormlight through his nose as a reflex, but instead got a throatful of blood, sending him into a coughing fit. He recovered at seventy-five, and hauled in air through his lungs, but only a trickle of light fueled him. Alum hadn’t expected combat, so he hadn’t brought spheres. An oversight. He doubted he would make it again, one way or another. The light stopped the bleeding and cleared his head, and Alum tried to stand. @Ark1002

You’re looking for the Turnpike. slinks back into shadows

Alum felt the ice wrap around his arm with the tick of the eighty five, and the squeeze of hard bone against his neck. Pyrus vanished from his frozen hand, sending ice crystals flying and mixing with the dark spots swimming in his vision. He was now positioned with one arm lying against the ground, his neck firmly in the grasp of the monk, and his other arm... His other arm was free. He jabbed it towards the monk’s chest, between the third and fourth rib, and started to summon his Blade. @Ark1002

Eighty six. The monk had grabbed Alum by the neck again, the warped bone rubbing against his skin, and squeezed. Hard. He stopped thinking about the poison and started thinking about his neck - he couldn’t get his gun up in time, not without dropping Pyrus and drawing, pulling back the hammer, by which time his throat would be crushed. Alum couldn’t punch him, either - he had no training, and it was very likely he’d just break his hand as well as his neck. Then another fact came to him, very quickly, which was that he was still holding Pyrus, and that Shardblades were many things, including unwieldy, dangerous, and hard to use; but they were also much longer than a person’s reach, and the monk’s arm in particular. Alum swung the blade, one-handed, towards the monk’s abdomen. @Ark1002

Alum swept the blade up at the monk’s arm, trying to slice it. @2001Kra

I think as long as you don’t use them aggressively (starting a conflict) and discuss it with others before introducing them to a battle, it should be fine.

Alum suffered bruising on his shin where Fred had kicked him, but managed to get into a fighting position regardless. @2001Kra @erbiL ohcnaG

This looks fun, although I may be busy in the future. I’d like to be a pinch hitter as well.

While the other two were distracted, Alum had managed to get away from the wall and summon Pyrus, so that the kick landed where he had once stood. He stood in his best approximation of a stance. It was a while since he’d fought someone. Ninety seconds. He needed to finish this quickly.

Will Era 2 characters going into Era 3 need to be re-evaluated? As it stands, Alum’s scholarship/intelligence puts him over the 100 point cap when included with his KR abilities.

You’d probably have a base stat for Stephen (45, I’d guess) and then add on the intelligences of his aspects (45 for Tobias and Ivy, 0 for JC.)

As far as I understand it: no one can make armies out of thin air. Guilds that have established armies within the canon (and not just “I wrote it into the backstory of the guild”) are allowed to use them. If you want an army, I’d recommend hiring one. Don’t make one. (You could, theoretically, spend about half an era gathering logistics, making recruitments, and building up your forces for a battle. But honestly it’d just be easier to hire the troops.)

“Okay. He’s the guy behind you.” @2001Kra

The monk grabbed Alum and threw him backwards, and he dropped Pyrus on the count of eleven, who puffed into smoke as he hit the side of the building. The monk spoke, and Alum could barely discern the words through the slight ringing sound in his ear. Some stormlight helped, but it would not stop the poison. “I’m not,” he said. Six. “But I could lead you to him if you promised to stop killing my friends.” One hundred seconds flat. @2001Kra

Alum saw the monk fly towards him, and felt the poison bite his shoulder, and Pyrus fall into his hand all at once. The Dakhor monk would reach him at one hundred and twelve. He noted, drily, that they were using the Dor to stop their attempt. They didn’t understand. They had expected this to be a simple jailbreak - that they would walk up to the barrier and break into it. But it didn’t work that way. The Dor could be drained from a distance. The very tactics they were using to prevent their attempt was helping them along. All they needed to do was to survive until the storm hit; but right now, the storm wall seemed so very far away. Twelve. @Ark1002

Alum watched Tuare die with a small sense of shock. He had expected him to have a way out - he was a schemer, evidently, given the needle. Apparently the Ghostblood hadn’t expected his resolve. A hundred and twenty. A whole minute had passed, and the battlefield had descended into carnage. More and more shadows began to appear around him. Some he recognised. Some he didn’t. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen. A dim realisation flickered at the back of Alum’s mind. He had gone into shock. His hand was still extended, pointing at where Tuare’s head had been. It was not grief, or mourning, or inner turmoil that held him in place, but surprise. He had just killed a man. Did he really feel so little? A sharp twang in his side reminded him why. A hundred and sixteen. He leapt to his feet, stowing the gun, and kicked his mind back into gear. Blackbane. Rosharan poison from the Unclaimed Hills, dissolved into a solution. The commonality of the plant would necessitate a cure. It would exist. The question was whether he could locate it within under two minutes. His mind began listing possible options. As the clock hit fourteen, he transported back into the Physical Realm, and into the battle. @Ark1002

“Blackbane blooded, now.” He pulled the trigger. The hammer went up, and the gunpowder detonated, propelling the bullet down the barrel. He felt the poison reach his shoulder. A hundred and twenty five. @Ark1002

“If you’re going to try to bluff someone, it would be a good idea not to poison them first.” Alum went to squeeze the trigger.