Fallen (Part 5)

(A letter to Lyirdanna)

Dear former high lady miss tall one Lyirdanna ma’am,

Greetings and salutations.

Nikolas has been busily reviewing the designs that young Abigayle adapted for this mobile containment unit that she was working on. He is very concerned about so many different systems being contained in one single device. Most were intended on being individual devices. Nik says that combining so many creates the need for a very powerful power source, which can produce enough energy to run all of the systems.

Nik also says that he isn’t sure how Abby managed to reverse the intended power flow in regards to the various gems – originally, he intended the power contained within these gems to function as a means of enhancing certain natural properties of the gems themselves, and then infuse the metal with these properties – allowing, for example, a ruby to contain the power of fire, and transferring this into a sword. Instead, she has somehow managed to use the gems to capture and contain the demonic energies from the fel-infused steel, which in turn absorbs the energies from the strange demonic glyph.

However, Nik is afraid that Abby may not have correctly configured part of the wiring, or perhaps did not completely comprehend the conversion system, and he believes it may not be functioning correctly. He isn’t sure, because he is working on deciphering schematics, which may or may not correctly portray the reality of how the device is functioning, but he believes it is possible that the gems are not properly storing these energies. In which case, the device may not be functioning, and the demonic energies are not being contained at all. It is more likely, however, that the device is functioning as intended, but at a lesser capacity. While this would give you more time to develop an alternative solution to this dilemma before the gems reach critical capacity, it unfortunately also means that the energies from the glyph are free to continue spreading freely.

There is also the slight possibility that, because the fel-infused steel in and of itself contains some vestiges of demonic taint, the gems may actually be injecting more demonic energies into the glyph, instead of drawing it out. Again, he can’t be sure without studying the actual device in person, but he does believe that the amount of taint contained within the metal would only be a slight amount, and most likely would not have a noticeable effect.

Nik also says he’s not sure he completely agrees with Abby’s assessment of the volatile nature of the gems upon releasing the non-key-dependant locking mechanism, but he is sufficiently concerned to be working on a means to help mitigate the possible resultant explosion of energies. He believes that the nature of the demonic energies can be thwarted by natural and holy energies. In fact, he further postulates that this may be part of the reason miss lady paladin Branwynne attempted to contact a druid for aid in this matter – to counter those energies emanating from the glyph.

I agree with Nik on this. Demonic energies by nature are corrupting, destructive, and unholy. If these energies can be countered by nurturing, creative, and holy energies of sufficient power, in an exact ratio of 1:1, I believe that the effect of these energies can be cancelled out. The problem, of course, is to determine the exact amount of energies that must be applied to negate the demonic energies. If a proper balance between the conflicting energies is not established, the results could be disastrous.

Unfortunately, we do not at this time have accurate readings of exactly how much demonic energies are being produced by the glyph in question – we only have a reading on how much demonic energies the gems currently contain. We are therefore unable to give a reliable estimate on the amounts of anti-demonic energies would be required to counter the demonic energies.

I hope our research thus far can be of some assistance. Nikolas and I will continue our research into this device and the energy systems, in hopes of providing more helpful information.

In all sincerity and good wishes,

Adelheide Frizzlespring and Nikolas Whirlybolt
_____

“There,” said the gnome happily. “Just a quick, short note. Not too complicated, I think. What do you think, Speedy?”

But the tortoise was already fast asleep.