A Small and Dangerous Creature

There exists a small kind of arthropod or crustacean which has a natural bond with all its brood-mates, a psychic link that a generation shares. What happens to one happens to all, and thus they can act in concert, almost as a single organism split across separate bodies.

This is the common pawn, or pun (pronounced "pone").

By careful magic these pawns can be cloned, and have been modified to reproduce by asexual egg-laying, resulting in one mega-generation that is all connected. By using a small magical harness a user can see and hear the thoughts of the pawn, and mages can thus communicate using them.

Several different lineages of these exist, leading to different networks. For a small charge a mage will move messages from one network to another, while communication in the same network is generally free.

Message boards, calls, and texts all exist via the pawn-shell comm networks, as do plays and songs and other entertainments.

The older a pawn gets the more of its own personality develops. They don't die of old age, but do develop health problems.

Basically: what if phones & laptops were little animals like finicky old dogs or playful stupid cats?

These little guys might be weak to psychic invasion of their thought-network by psychics, astral entities, carnivorous or parasitic thought-forms, or the like. A mage or psychic might insert certain biases or patterns into the networks without notice, arranging them to go off as a contingent spell later.

Maybe important individuals are breeding/cloning their own network, resistant to a specific infection, and are going to release a fungus/disease that will destroy the others, allowing a monopoly.

A skilled but unscrupulous thief has found a way to "piggyback" on apawns, allowing them to see everything the creature sees, and is collecting blackmail on powerful figures.

An influential guild, noble, or other figure is pressuring the mages that run the network to allow them "back door" access to the system, which would be used to eke out trade advantages or monitor citizens' private lives.

A new function of the pawns has become popular, a kind of mindless game, and it targets children specifically, warping their brains. It pushes them just a tetch toward evil and decreases their Int by 2, but increases Cha by 1. Nobody knows who made the 'game.'