I have a human character who will go in and spy on the bad guys (humans + very magical leader who's a different race/species) and will send info back to the good guys (many different races). The thing that's tripping me up is how he would be able to send information back to the good guys. Here are the particulars about the setting that would influence this:
The only solution I can come up with is the "cellphone" used in Dr Stone, which was an AM radio system and could work using piezoelectric crystals (Rochelle salts or otherwise), but I feel kind of bad taking an idea from somewhere and for it to just look like "it's a cellphone! But magic." My googling tells me that civilizations like ancient China and Egypt used spies.....but not how they actually DID anything.
So I'm open to both historical spy gadgets, fantastical ones, and modern ones that work on simple concepts or energy manipulation. I'd be grateful for any info or ideas you may have!
- The ruling class/race are phoenixes (intelligent magical birds), so there's no homing pigeons
- Therefore there's nothing like telegraph lines, either. Info is normally carried on the wing by a phoenix
- Magic is based on scientific concepts and roughly the same energy costs and limits (so no teleportation for the same reasons why we don't have it irl, but you can heal a broken bone by pushing the body to do it faster)
- Telepathy is something that exists but having a second good guy close enough near by so they can "talk" would be difficult to keep hidden for long
- The non-magical tech is roughly middle ages
- If you stick magic/energy in a crystal it can be released to do something specific
- The gadget would have to not arise suspicions (so no crystal balls)
The only solution I can come up with is the "cellphone" used in Dr Stone, which was an AM radio system and could work using piezoelectric crystals (Rochelle salts or otherwise), but I feel kind of bad taking an idea from somewhere and for it to just look like "it's a cellphone! But magic." My googling tells me that civilizations like ancient China and Egypt used spies.....but not how they actually DID anything.
So I'm open to both historical spy gadgets, fantastical ones, and modern ones that work on simple concepts or energy manipulation. I'd be grateful for any info or ideas you may have!