[Jack Simth]

Oh, he's got a normal personal power pool (not normal for a mage - it hasn't been exercised - but normal for a person) - it's just that he isn't used to power conservation. Someone who has all the power production of the Hoover Dam available to play with, from a society where a great many people have comperable supplies, won't even know what a flourescent bulb is, much less how to build/use it. If such a person is suddenly reduced to a generator hooked up to a bicycle, they are going to have problems.

As to limits on how many can be accessed at one time, Jack has already hinted at it a few times - he called his second ring a "spare" when he lent it to Arthur; the implication being that it isn't in active use. He mentioned that he maintains a connection to his Master's gem - a connection isn't necessarily an active conduit, just the possibility of one. He mentioned a safety mechanisim to prevent overloading the conduit; a single mage is limited to however much energy that mage can safely channel. More than that, and they go boom, much as a modern electrical transformer will when overloaded (there is one near my house - I've heard it go boom on a few occasions). More mages can channel more power, but they can't send it through one mage to shape; instead, they must turn it seperately to the same task. For burning the lead, Jack is actually planning on going boom, building a spare body to inhabit beforehand. In the short interum till he returns to the new one, he won't be able to channel much; it's difficult to affect the physical world when one is dead.

Yes, Krsqk did mention he'd be back yesterday, didn't he? It could simply be timzone differences combined with very tired after getting home late. Nothing to worry about for a few days.

[ October 23, 2003, 05:27: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]