Adventure Ideas

[lord Claincy Ffnord]

Moreover, think about how the Lord Ruler died. The extreme aging merely disabled him. His actual death was a result of Vin driving a spear through his heart. What happened to that spear? What Hemalurgic power might it now hold? And for that matter, what about the spear the Lord Ruler drove through Kelsier's chest?

When I asked Sanderson about these things at GenCon last year, he just raised his eyebrows and smiled.

Oooooh interesting.
After a little research (aka rereading parts of the final empire) it is mentioned that the spear vin stabbed him with is wood. Could be retconned or changed in later editions i *guess* but it seems that that spear would only be useful as a symbol.

The spear that killed kelsier on the other hand, that is a very different story. No mention is made of what the spear was made from but, it was initially from one of Ham's thugs, so as part of the skaa army we can assume that it was wood/stone-tipped/iron-tipped or steel-tipped. The last two are interesting. As a side note, thinkling about Haemalurgy, either of the spears that were thrust through the lord ruler could, in theory, have penetrated right to make Haemalurgic spikes, I don't think they did, but if they had been thrust in a little differently...just a thought.

the known haemalurgic properties of iron:
-Iron spikes steal strength and are used to make koloss or blessings of potency, not too exciting but the thought of a koloss or kandra with a bit of kelsier in them amuses me somehow =)

steel is farm more interesting:
-a steel spike steals and grants 1 physical allomantic power (tin, pewter, iron or steel)

in the case of Kelsier that would most likely be iron or steel.
I think more important is that ANY spike essentially rips off a piece off the persons soul granting it with whatever other power whoever uses the spike gains. Most o the time the effects aren't too noticeable, just a drop in charm/spirit/whatever. But we know that copper directly grants some scattered memories of the person and Duralumin can implant their whole personality, sharing the body OR overwriting. I think its likely that generally the parts of the people who are used to make the spikes are not strong enough to appear except in those 2 metals, however someone with a sufficiently powerful personality/soul like kelsier *might* have some impact.

Also, another slightly unrelated thought. Given that:
A: Duralumin spikes can sometimes completely override the recipients personality with the victims
B: A haemalurgic spike can be made without killing the victim
So, could you potentially end up with essentially 2 of the same person, but in different bodies? (Although both would probably have a weaker personality than the original person, this could be rectified with huge quantities of feruchemic alluminium (identity)). We are looking at cloning your mind into someone elses body here.

[Leonerd]

I'm pretty sure the victim needs to die for a hemalurgic spike to become effective. The hemalurgy chapter say "It involves using a metal spike to kill someone, thus stealing one of their characteristics or abilities (and coincidentally, absorbing a piece of the person’s soul in the process). The victim’s death seals the characteristic or ability in the spike, which can then be driven into another person’s body to pass the stolen trait to them.". You could probably spike a dying person at the right moment and get their ability that way, but there's always death involved.

A ruthless enough person could, however, transform their identity into another body that way. It's risky and you'd more likely than not end up with a mix of personalities, but with careful preparations it might be possible.

Just thought of this, could several spikes be made from the same person? At the moment of death, drive two spikes made of different metals inside the victim. Do you end up with one hemalurgic spike or two? How is it decided which spike would be transformed?

I have an NPC Noble in my current game who experimented with hemalurgy. He's pretty much a mad scientist at this point. He killed his terrisman to steal feruchemical copper (no more lab reports!) and increased his intelligence with two copper spikes. The weird memory issues cause him to space out sometimes. His mind already weakened, Ruin was able to make him kill his wife and duralumin spike her. Now a part of her soul is inside his head and his mind is so fragmented that she can actually take over. She pretty much runs the body now, he can't even remember she's dead. Looking forward to see how my players will figure this out.

[lord Claincy Ffnord]

I'm pretty sure the victim needs to die for a hemalurgic spike to become effective. The hemalurgy chapter say "It involves using a metal spike to kill someone, thus stealing one of their characteristics or abilities (and coincidentally, absorbing a piece of the person’s soul in the process). The victim’s death seals the characteristic or ability in the spike, which can then be driven into another person’s body to pass the stolen trait to them.". You could probably spike a dying person at the right moment and get their ability that way, but there's always death involved.

A ruthless enough person could, however, transform their identity into another body that way. It's risky and you'd more likely than not end up with a mix of personalities, but with careful preparations it might be possible.

Just thought of this, could several spikes be made from the same person? At the moment of death, drive two spikes made of different metals inside the victim. Do you end up with one hemalurgic spike or two? How is it decided which spike would be transformed?

I have an NPC Noble in my current game who experimented with hemalurgy. He's pretty much a mad scientist at this point. He killed his terrisman to steal feruchemical copper (no more lab reports!) and increased his intelligence with two copper spikes. The weird memory issues cause him to space out sometimes. His mind already weakened, Ruin was able to make him kill his wife and duralumin spike her. Now a part of her soul is inside his head and his mind is so fragmented that she can actually take over. She pretty much runs the body now, he can't even remember she's dead. Looking forward to see how my players will figure this out.

I distinctly remember reading a response from Brandon in some Q&A that stated that it *was* possible to survive being spike, but the victim is still having a chunk of their soul ripped out (and investiture) so they won't be in too good a way afterwoulds. I spent a bit trying to find the specific question again but failed, jsut found a few people mentioning it, sorry about that.

So with that, yes, in theory multiple spikes could be made from one person, but you would probably want to wait a bit between them and unless they have an abnormally high amount of investiture (say a mistborn for example) you probably aren't going to get much after the first spike.

Ooh, that would be interesting. Would be interested to hear how that turns out if you don't mind posting it =)

[Herowannabe]

Oooooh interesting.
After a little research (aka rereading parts of the final empire) it is mentioned that the spear vin stabbed him with is wood. Could be retconned or changed in later editions i *guess* but it seems that that spear would only be useful as a symbol.

The spear that killed kelsier on the other hand, that is a very different story. No mention is made of what the spear was made from but, it was initially from one of Ham's thugs, so as part of the skaa army we can assume that it was wood/stone-tipped/iron-tipped or steel-tipped. The last two are interesting. As a side note, thinkling about Haemalurgy, either of the spears that were thrust through the lord ruler could, in theory, have penetrated right to make Haemalurgic spikes, I don't think they did, but if they had been thrust in a little differently...just a thought.

The spear that killed the Lord Ruler was indeed a "simple wooden spear" which I took to mean that it was basically a big wooden stake- no metal. The spear that killed Kelsier was obsidian tipped- it says so a few paragraphs earlier when a few of Ham's soldiers charge the Lord Ruler.

Rather disappointing, I know.  I started wondering the same thing a while ago so I paid close attention to the spears when I reread the series last month.

[lord Claincy Ffnord]

The spear that killed the Lord Ruler was indeed a "simple wooden spear" which I took to mean that it was basically a big wooden stake- no metal. The spear that killed Kelsier was obsidian tipped- it says so a few paragraphs earlier when a few of Ham's soldiers charge the Lord Ruler.

Rather disappointing, I know.  I started wondering the same thing a while ago so I paid close attention to the spears when I reread the series last month.

Nuts =( missed that it was obsidian. Oh well, the joys of running a mistborn campaign that doesn't have to follow direct mistborn canon =D

So to go back to more the original topic. Could have a character appear in the story who it turns out has an atium spike in them that has replaced their personality with that of someone who lived back near the founding of the final empire (or earlier). As atium spikes don't degrade and atium can steal anything. You could actually make a campaign of this in an outside cannon world reality where the player characters are all personalities like this from sometime in the final empire. But the current time is 1000/s years later and they have only just been put into people. Could make for an interesting, role-playing heavy, campaign.

[nathius]

I just wanted to share what happened to the vulcanic eruption scenario: Feel free to use any of the ideas. Loperma, the city in which the action takes place is a minor gold mine in the final empire.

Secrets to discover:
* Lord Forrekellen (ruler of the mine) is not only trading in gold from his mine, he is also charged with creating golden spikes that are of interest to the steel ministry

* Officially, Forrekellen does not know, why he is producing the spikes; but he has done some research ...

* If the heros challenge Forekellen physically, they realise, that he heals his wounds almost instantly, while fighting with a golden sword.

* If they win, they find a golden spike in his body; (he's been saving and tapping health)

* in the basement, they find discriptions of how to "create" a steel minister and a dead terrisman on some table. (Forrekeelen has killed his loyal manservant for his experiments; my crew used the Kandra to digest the corpse and go into mental conflict against Forrekellen, rather than trying to win against him physically.

* Just to make a possible fight challenging, the obligator is an Atium-Misting, going to turn steel minister soon. (If the crew doesn't get rid of him here)

Loperma is at the end of a canyon, and the fleeing people have to walk for about a day to get out -> The Lava is slow enough not to kill them in minutes; they have a chance to escape if not to many things happen.

At the end of the canyon, a rockslide blocks the way out, but on the other side, three steel inquisitors and a horde of Koloss are waiting, and digging a whole for the people of Loperma to get out. Well, the Koloss save the carriages with the gold (and especially the spikes), but the people get a chance to escape.

This was a big setback for my group, as they tried to rally the people for their revolution, telling them how they were supposed to be left to die. And then they are (accidentally) saved by the Lord Ruler's agents.

That setback made my crew following the track in order to steel the gold spikes again, because they think this would be a bad strike against the ministry.

Well, any thoughts, or experiences with some of the ideas?