Adventure Twisted Side Story - CRAZZZZY RAT AND HIS CAST OF

[Carthrat]

Carthrat picks up one of the cubes, and checks his watch..

[Anastasia]

It is 3:47 AM.  You glance over your should and see Diane is still talking with Rachel.

[Carthrat]

"I doubt we're going to get any more sleep tonight.. did you recognize what those things were?" asks Carthrat, pocketing the cube.

[Anastasia]

"They appeared to be some sort of Air Elemental, but what sort of Elemental uses a machine?" Diane says, the last half spoken more to herself than you. She is wearing a ruby red bathrobe, which is open at the middle, giving sight to a purple nightgown.  

Rachel, who is leaning on Diane, nods the best she can from her position.

[Carthrat]

"A clever one," replies Carthrat. "Or one under the control of someone clever enough to note the advantages."

Carthrat scans the cube..

[Anastasia]

The cube scans...

There are wisps of anomaly detected at the center of the cube. Still, you are able to get a good scan in spite of it.

It is a simple machine that generates energy from a small...fusion core? No, not fusion...And the more you scan it, the more the core makes no sense. It is not fusion energy. It seems to be fusing air together in some bizarre techquince to generate power.

Yet, there is no mechanism to fuse the air, it just happens. The rest of the machine generates energy and creates powerful gusts of wind.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat pauses for a second.

"This device.. hmm. I can't be sure, but I believe it is a truly groundbreaking power device which creates energy from plain air using a combination of future-tech and magicka.. amazing, most devices built like this collapse.. unless.. unless!

That magess! She stocked magicka rifles and shit.. but there's nobody out there who's smart enough to build this on their own. Not alone, anyway."

Carthrat shakes his head. "It'd be incredible if it wasn't so likely to be out to kill me."

[Anastasia]

Diane laughs drly. "Yes, it would be if this magess wasn't trying to kill you. How about we get back inside, hm, before we hash this over."

[Carthrat]

"Yeah.."

Carthrat follows Diane inside, glancing at Rachel, still looking a mixture of concerned and amazed.

[Anastasia]

As you walk in, Rachel continues to lean on Diane.

---

A half hour later, you are all sitting in the living room, same as nine hours ago. Rachel took the time to make a soothing tea, while Diane spent the time casting some spell over the house.

After sipping her tea, Diane looks straight at you.

"Please, tell us about this magical technology you mentioned."

[Carthrat]

"It's a concept design I've been trying to analyse. You see, while technology *generally* manipulates and conforms to physical laws, magic breaks them. Technology has certain advantages over magic, and vice versa, as it is simply impossible to cast a spell without breaking *some* rule, otherwise, the spell itself wouldn't be possible.

Keep in mind this is all theoretical.

Now, for instance, you could enchant a pistol. That's all well and good. But you see, a pistol isn't like a sword or a bow. You would have to.. how did Sai describe it? Enchant each and every part with some kind of 'recurring' enchantment that renchanted itself every time it was used, because whenever you fired a gun, it would consume gunpowerder; oxygen, create fire and air pressure, parts would move, etc. etc. These disrupt the flows of magic around the weapon, so to speak.

Otherwise, I'm sure we'd see many more magical handguns floating about.

Now, of course, a mage of a decent capablity *can* lightly enchant a handgun, it'll just take alot of work. But it's incredibly cost-prohibitive to enchant a major work.. well, that's not entirely true. Enchanted cars, enchanted planes, hell, even enchanted battleships are all plausible, if horribly expensive and difficult to maintain.

But you see, when you get to stuff that's currently beyond the technology level of today, it's virtually impossible; not only does the technology simply have so much work to enchant, but it bends the physical laws about it, thus bending the magical laws that would otherwise apply to spells; hence, this distorts the spell and can produce all kinds of nasty effects.

Not to mention how rare it is to obtain that level of technology.

Me and Sai tinkered with it for some time, but it's too costly and requires too much effort when you compare simply making a better item or employing a different spell. That said, I'm sure there's all kinds of amazing things that can be done with the two working in conjunction.

Whoever is employing these machines can't have all that many. If they did, we may as well give up now."

[Anastasia]

Diane nods at various points of your lecture, keeping interest in it.  

"So...I see. I have gathered bits about this before; as I was once curious as to why magic and machines so rarely combined. I never knew that they fundamentally clashed to that degree." she bows her head for a moment, then looks back up.

"Can I see the cube? I would like to analyze the magic in it."

[Carthrat]

Carthrat produces the cube and sets it on the table.

"They have potential as focusing agents, I must admit. For instance, you could use, say, mundane power to fuel a spell, feasibly. I'm just not sure how; I was never a mage of any ability."

[Anastasia]

"Really, no mage potential at all?" she asks as she picks the cube up.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat shrugs.

"Maybe. I don't know. I never studied magery.

Because, to my way of thinking, the theories involved just don't make *sense*. It's like giving a farmer a fishing line to plow a field with."