A badly-wrapped package.

[eternally_aggrieved]

A brown paper package sits on Ahrotahn's desk in Relto. It shakes and wobbles, giving the general impression that it is grievously annoyed.

Comments

[all_the_worlds_have]

The chest beneath the globe opens, revealing five tumblers with letters on them. Dialling in 'Sigil' causes the chest to close, and the edge of her he table beneath to slide out.
A large crystal on a base sits in the revealed compartment, along with another note from "AS".

[calledtoventure]

She reads the note.

[all_the_worlds_have]

"A new discovery has shaken me to my very core.

To investigate the refractive properties of the Fifth Element, I fashioned lenses from it. Wearing them exhausts and troubles me: they show me visions that I do not comprehend.

The visions turn darker the further below the earth I go: I have relocated my study to the north tower.

I can no longer visit the wine cellar."

[calledtoventure]

Ahrotahn eyes her monocle warily. It hasn't shown her anything that weird, but she'll keep it in her pocket when she isn't actively using it, just in case.

She examines the large crystal. Including, cautiously, through the monocle.

[all_the_worlds_have]

It glows noticeably, even when she's not wearing the monocle: through the monocle, it's so bright it's difficult to look at. Otherwise, it seems an ordinary chunk of crystal.

[calledtoventure]

Is the crystal movable? Anything interesting under or behind it, or on the bottom of the base?

Can she create a sort of flashlight by holding the monocle next to the crystal?

Does anything interesting happen if she holds the crystal next to the lens in the niche and rotates the lens?

Does the crystal match the irregularly shaped hole on the base of the box in front of the niche?

[all_the_worlds_have]

The crystal fits perfectly in the hole in front of the niche. A pair of doors open in the box: Sliding in beneath the lens, the crystal locks in place. The lens casts a fuzzy beam of light up against the top of the niche- a fuzzy beam that sharpens to a thin line when Ahrotahn turns the lens. The concentrated beam causes another little compartment to slide open: this one contains a tiny little flywheel.

[calledtoventure]

Can the flywheel be mounted in the area with the gear? Or, if it's fixed in place in its compartment, can she spin it with her finger?

[all_the_worlds_have]

It can indeed be mounted in the area with the gear!
Flipping the two switches causes the separated arms to snap together, forming a handle that Ahrotahn can use to pull out a drawer. Inside sits... Some sort of curiously intricate device for reflecting light...? It certainly seems to have a mirror in it.

[calledtoventure]

Does the device perhaps slot into somewhere in the path of the beam?

[all_the_worlds_have]

Why yes, it does.
A line of pearlescent crystals illuminates along one side of the box, snaking up one of the support pillars in the corner. The beam emerges from a glass aperture in the top of the box, still focussed finely.

At the upper corner, below where the beam emerges, a small panel flips open, revealing two buttons.

[calledtoventure]

Ahrotahn presses each of the buttons in turn.

[all_the_worlds_have]

As soon as she presses either of the buttons, a little needle jumps to the right, then starts to slowly slide to the left. The box ticks, loudly.

[calledtoventure]

Assuming nothing interesting happens along the way, she'll wait for it to run down, press the other button, wait for it to run down again, press both buttons together, wait for it to run down again, press the left button again, and press the right button while it's still ticking.