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]

It appears that the logo is held solidly at the other end by a hidden pin.

[calledtoventure]

Perhaps she should take a closer look at a few things. The eyepiece, first; then wear it while inspecting the iron key, the logo, the dials, the second keyhole, the brass insets, and all sides of the safe including the back, top, and bottom.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Upon closer inspection, it appears that the block at the end of iron key is on a small pivot, allowing it to rotate.

[calledtoventure]

Aha! And does rotating it cause it to open, detach, or perhaps reshape so as to fit the second keyhole?

[all_the_worlds_have]

With a 90-degree turn, a new face of the cube clicks into place - and now the key matches the second keyhole! Slotting in the key and turning, a small compartment opens, revealing a miniature wrench.

[calledtoventure]

The wrench can probably remove the screw.

[all_the_worlds_have]

It does!

Within sits a small brass-rimmed lens, tinted a pale blue. It looks very much like it could fit Ahrotahn's eyepiece.

[calledtoventure]

Excellent. She fits the lens into the eyepiece, and looks through it at the seemingly-blank dials.

[all_the_worlds_have]

... There is quite a bit more to see.

As soon as she puts on the eyepiece, the entire room seems to flare with brilliant cyan light. The edges of the safe are outlined with it: each of its feet has a small circle of cyan light, a little diagram of its own to complement the larger circle that surrounds the entire safe, edged with strange characters.

The entire back side of the safe is dedicated to a single massive character: a hexagon within a circle, one half much smaller than the other, lines radiating out from the centre of the diagram and passing out through each point of the hexagon. Above it, a set of cyan-glowing fingerprints: below it, pooling cyan liquid on the floor. The symbol repeats elsewhere in the room, above the dials and off towards the table.

The dials themselves are a confusing mass of lines, all jumbled together. It's clear that there is some form to be created here, however - much of the discontinuity aligns with the dials themselves.

[calledtoventure]

She sets to aligning the dials. She starts with the outermost, rotating it until its patterns come into alignment with the lines outside it, then repeating the process with the next one in, and so forth.

[all_the_worlds_have]

It takes a bit of effort to get everything aligned correctly - the pattern is vaguely symmetrical and therefore annoying - but when the final ring clicks into place, it's followed by a heavy 'thunk.' Little gears hidden in the intricate filigree spring to life, retracting the iron bars from the front of the safe's door, and it falls ajar.

[calledtoventure]

Excellent. And inside is—

[all_the_worlds_have]

Another, smaller safe. This one is hexagonal, in a red wood - perhaps cherry - and sealed with three brass locks, each bearing a different symbol. The first is a stylized keyhole: the second is a cog: the third is an eye.

The memory-dream shifts, and suddenly the new safe is sitting on the table to one side.

[calledtoventure]

Perhaps it's time to take a closer look at the table, then.

[all_the_worlds_have]

The table seems perfectly ordinary, even upon close inspection.

[calledtoventure]

Does the eye symbol bear any recognizable relation the ambiguous symbol on the key?

[all_the_worlds_have]

No: in fact, the entire previous safe appears to have faded away into the shadows, along with the iron key. Only the lens remains.

[calledtoventure]

Then she will inspect the new safe carefully, while wearing the lens.

[all_the_worlds_have]

There is quite a lot to see.

Beginning from the side with the three seals and proceeding rightwards, she finds:

An entire closed side, marked with the same eye symbol as the seals.

A foot of the safe with a hidden compartment, concealing a small candle-wick.

A side that shines with faint opalescence. Four small numeric dials are arranged in a cross: When the side is viewed through the lens, the entire iridescent panel vanishes, instead looking in to a cube that floats in space, fragments of cyan digits scattered through the area around it. On the left inner wall of that strange revealed space, a two-by-two matrix is engraved on the wall. An unknown glyph sits in the lower-left.

An entire closed side, marked with the same gear symbol as the seals. A small circular indentation in the center with a tiny square hole suggests that something is intended to be placed here.

A corner that, beneath lens-light, glows with fingerprints: gentle pressure causes a thin piece of wood to fall away, revealing an old, leather-bound book with an intricate cover. Higher up the same corner, the two-by-two matrix is repeated, this time with the bottom-right character recorded.

A side with a small panel of four tumblers, aligned in a two-by-two grid. Experimentation shows that the symbols match with the ones recorded in the matrices elsewhere.

A corner with a brass dial: turning it causes a brass end-cap to pop up, exposing a collapsible telescope.

An entire closed side, marked in the center with the same key symbol as the seals. Above, four brass letters are marked into the wood: they appear to be shiftable tumblers as well. The fifth letter is missing.

A closer examination of the pointed top of the box reveals a star-shaped slot, and a two-by-two matrix with the top-left character recorded.

[calledtoventure]

Several things to investigate, then.

She enters the two known characters in the correct positions.

She turns the dials experimentally: do the fragmentary digits move in response?

She looks through the telescope, both with and without the lens.

[all_the_worlds_have]

There are three known characters: the top-left, lower-left, and lower-right. All of them are present on the dials in the correct positions.

The fragmentary digits do not move in response to shifting the other dials: on closer inspection, some of them are actually complete. To the left of the cube hovers a numeral '5': to the right, a '7'.

The telescope is rather dim and difficult to see through, though it does pop out of its compressed state rather satisfyingly.

[calledtoventure]

She turns the left and right dials to five and seven respectively.

Perhaps the image is clearer in the telescope's extended state? If not, does placing the lens in front of the big end of the telescope help?

[all_the_worlds_have]

The dials click into position.

The image doesn't seem to be any clearer, regardless of what Ahrotahn tries.

[calledtoventure]

Perhaps it's actually a microscope. She tries holding the wick up to the end as she looks through. When that fails, she tries the same thing looking through the 'scope in the other direction, without success.

Time to read the book.

[all_the_worlds_have]

The book appears to be locked. The intricate design on the cover taunts Ahrotahn with the promise of something interesting within.