It's Shillelagh Time

Hayden adjusted the arcane power regulator on the long quarterstaff, the metal plates held suspended by the magical field around the core of stout wood. “Come on, ye wee bastard” they cursed softly to themselves and pulled hard on the regulator circuitry plate with a screwdriver wedged underneath it. The plate was just the right size, but the tiny sonic elemental in the elemental capacitor was causing the plate to warp.
 
With a tiny tiny click sound, the plate snapped in and down into place, and all the force they had been pushing into the screwdriver slipped. Their hand and the screwdriver they were holding slammed hard into the arcane field and stuck hard. “Bloody biscuits!” they cursed, jerking their hand back.
 
The screwdriver remained, held in place by the arcane field, which was beginning to glow and hum very loudly, sparks flying out. The arcane power regulator was working, but the additional metal of the screwdriver in exactly that spot was causing a feedback loop through the capacitor, and there was additional power coming from somewhere that caused the screwdriver to glow white hot.
 
With great care, they began powering down the quarterstaff, but the staff was having none of it, and continued to increase in power. “No, we are not doing that,” they cajoled the staff with urgency as they continued to adjust the power flow. They’d hate to have to explain to Igor and Ghata how a hole got punched into the bottom of the boat.
 
“Where are you getting that energy from,” they asked themselves as they attempted to adjust the flow of the energy around the screwdriver instead of powering the staff down. “That little sonic elemental isn’t that powerful.”
With a final clunk, the screwdriver fell out of the arcane field, released from the energies that had been holding it tight. The quarterstaff’s metal plates adjusted and aligned themselves perfectly as the magical circuitry positioned them into the correct spot. A soft hum came from the staff, purring exactly as designed.
 
“Well that…hmm,” they muttered to themselves and leaned down to pick up the screwdriver. As soon as their fingers got within range of the handle, a jolt of arcane energy sparked from their fingertips down to the blade, causing them to jerk back their hand in surprise. Underneath their cursing, they heard the soft sound of giggling as little elemental spirits that looked like waves flooded out of the tool and out of the room.
 
“YOU!” Hayden called, pointing their finger where the flood of tiny little elemental spirits flew off to. “THAT’S why it almost exploded!” They reached down to pick up the screwdriver, ostensibly to threaten or throw it at the little spirits, but the screwdriver warped in their hand, changing from a screwdriver into a purpled-dipped painter’s brush.
 
They looked from their hand to the brush to their hand and back again, completely at a loss for words. They blinked, and the painter’s brush warped again, this time into the pencil from their mapmaking supplies. “What,” they started to say before the screwdriver warped again into a hammer that suddenly hit the floor when it gained the actual weight of a smithing hammer.
 
As the hammer hit the ground, arcane sigils flew up the haft, sigils that Hayden recognized from their own work on their quarterstaff. “Well, I’ll be,” they said as they touched the hammer, their touch once again causing it to change, but back into a screwdriver this time. Looking closely, Hayden saw where one of the little elementals was still trapped among the haphazard arcane sigils that had been burned into the haft from its contact with the arcane field, sigils that were a mirror reflection of the sigils they had designed.
 
They tapped the haft with their thumb, and the screwdriver vibrated, seemingly pleased, in response. “What are you doing in there? You’re not supposed to be in there.” Again, the screwdriver vibrated. “No, you’re not supposed to be there.” Hayden looked closer at the screwdriver, examining the magical runes burnt there and tried to figure out how it was working.
 
As they looked closer, a spark of arcane energy leaped out at the quarterstaff. The quarterstaff glowed with power as the metal plates reconfigured themselves with a bulge at the end that swelled with arcane energies. Hayden picked up the staff, and was surprised at how lightweight it felt. They waved it gently in the confined space of their bunk, and even though it felt light as a feather, the arcane power had a gravitas to it that felt like it could do some damage.
 
They looked from the screwdriver to the staff and grinned devilishly. "Oh, I like this," they said to themselves.