The OP Lich is a Returnee, Book 18 Prologue

Prologue – Trade Chat

(Magical World Disharmony Server, General Chat)

UsualSuspect, manoutoftime, muon, MewTwo, Avariel, Chummer, Golddigger, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, MacD, Inquisitor, OrangeQueen, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, BabyShark, Lichwatcher, Not_the_Face!, TheLichQueen, Scholar, Salty, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, BackDat@55Up and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Backlog: You guys see the new kit coming out of Phantomline?

Lizard: I know about the so-called ‘Mageblades’, both the ‘normal’ version and the ‘elemental swords’. Supposedly, they can be made into any type of sword they can come up with.

TheLichQueen: Swords are just the base form. If you really wanted, you could have an axe or polearm design. However, it would need reinforcement on the ‘haft’ to keep another blade from simply cutting through them. Swords have less problem with that, so we started there.

MewTwo: What about a shield?

TheLichQueen: Phantomline already sells Shield items. A ‘mage shield’ would be of limited use compared to the Shield spell. The only thing a ‘mage shield’ would be able to do better than the Shield spell is making a shield bash type attack, and a ‘mage shield’ doesn’t have the mass or physicality to truly serve as an attack. You’d be better off with a physical shield enchanted to stand up to magical attacks.

Scholar: Because even with magic, physics has a role to play?

TheLichQueen: Precisely. Magic can bend and twist the rules of reality, and sometimes suspend them temporarily, but the time and effort to achieve some effects may be better turned to other things. Though I can see some use for a collapsible shield with self-reinforcing capabilities. Perhaps mounted on a bracer?

GrimDark: Like that old game? Didn’t it have a rerelease for the virtual consoles what, five, six years ago?

TheLichQueen: Yes. You could even pair it with a ‘mage axe’ that had a Throwing and Returning enchantment. Maybe even make it the Water element with a Frost specialization?

GrimDark: Oh, I LIKE!

Backlog: Yeah, the weapons are neat and all, but I’m talking about the medical supplies!

TheLichQueen: Oh, you mean the MedScanner and the Trauma Band? Yes, I am quite pleased with how those came out. My sister does good work.

muon: Your sister designed them? What do they do?

TheLichQueen: Well, the MedScanner uses Light mana to act as a multi-spectrum scanner. X-ray, MRI, CAT scan? All those and more, in the palm of your hand. Of course, the resolution is not the same as dedicated devices at a hospital, but they can be used to check for broken bones, internal bleeding, and the like, even if a patient is not lucid enough to answer questions. The idea is to get it to first responders, so that they can better inform hospitals about an incoming patient.

SemiSolidSnake: Oh, wow. That is a game-changer! Just having the additional information would reduce wait times in the emergency room. And if you had them as part of medical kits in isolated areas, you could better diagnose and treat injuries, and know when you needed to get someone to an actual hospital.

Backlog: Yeah, Japan’s apparently ordering them in bulk, looking to get them in every ambulance in the country.

TheLichQueen: Yes, and the Self-Defense Force just publicly announced a contract for a ‘ruggedized’ version to be issued as a standard part of a medic’s gear. So, battlefield medicine will get a nice jump, as well.

muon: What does the Trauma Band do, then?

TheLichQueen: Oh, it applies a weak stasis field to the creature it is placed on. Someone with a minimum of training could force their way out of it, but the field is designed to basically halt physical processes temporarily. So, a subject that was bleeding out and choking on their own blood stops all of that, because they’re frozen in time, temporarily. It allows paramedics to literally look Death in the face, and say, “Not today.”

Avariel: How did you make that sound five times more metal than a literal god of war’s weapons?

TheLichQueen: To be fair, my normal appearance looks right at home on a metal album’s cover, so you could say that it comes to me naturally. Either way, I am happy to say that the MedScanner and Trauma Band will be mass produced in Phantomline facilities in both Japan and Egypt, as well as licensed to Zaubertechnik in Germany. The normal restrictions on distribution of Phantomline technology will apply, of course.

Anonymous4: Even though these are peaceful technologies? I mean, I get why you don’t want the Shield Charms or Armor enchantments out there to people you’re upset with, but medical supplies?

TheLichQueen: Please believe the obscenely powerful lich when she says that everything, from the smallest rock to a supernova can be made into a weapon, if one so chooses.

Anonymous4: How, though? You have a diagnostic tool and a life-saving device!

TheLichQueen: I’ll let you think long and hard about all the ways a hand-held device capable of replicating any scanner you can think of could possibly be abused by someone trying to get somewhere they should not be, or access prohibited materials. Like, say, a nuclear stockpile?

SemiSolidSnake: Well, that puckered me up right quick.

TheLichQueen: And as for the Trauma Band, if it didn’t have a locator spell woven into the enchantment, so that whenever it is active, it is actively reporting its position to anyone who can sense it, then it would be extremely useful for anyone who wanted to ‘disappear’ someone.

Inquisitor: Just how ‘woven in’ is that enchantment?

TheLichQueen: I helped with the design, and made it so that one would need to be as skilled as a Master Enchanter to figure out how to separate the two without trying to figure out each part of the enchantment, and running systematic tests to try and figure out what each part does would likely result in… severely unhealthy results for everyone around.

Chummer: Unhealthy, how?

TheLichQueen: One version would remove the limiter on the stasis field, essentially stopping everyone’s movement within a certain radius, with the enchantment sustaining itself from the mana of everyone and everything inside the field. They probably wouldn’t die, but getting paralyzed, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to even blink, for however long it took someone to find and rescue you? Insanity is a likely outcome.

manoutoftime: Note to self – Do not play around with enchantments.