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

[calledtoventure]

She proceeds counterclockwise through the other three catches.

[all_the_worlds_have]

When she reaches the next catch, all the opened catches relatch. How annoying.

It takes another two attempts before she has all the reversals, but then -

Another key. A rather complex-looking one.

[calledtoventure]

Would it happen to fit the rather complex-looking keyhole on the front side?

[all_the_worlds_have]

No, though it looks about the right size...

[calledtoventure]

Perhaps it has moving parts, and can be reshaped or reconfigured to fit.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Indeed it does. While it is more complex than the first puzzle-key, having two independently rotating sections, each with four directions, once you know it is a puzzle-key the puzzle is practically solved. The rest is merely tedious rotations and comparisons to the keyhole.

Turning the key reveals-

A compartment surrounded by whirring clockwork, and darkness that seems to go on for further than it should. A dial with a star on it sits on a red velvet pillow.

When the dial is taken from the safe, the door closes on its own. The key does not appear to want to come back out from the keyhole this time.

[calledtoventure]

Does the star dial fit into the indentation in the center of the large gear symbol?

[all_the_worlds_have]

It does!

As soon as it is put into place, the second seal - the one marked with a keyhole- separates. Only one lock remains between Ahrotahn and the contents of the second safe.

(With her luck, it'll probably be another safe.)

The side she has just inserted the dial to splits in half, and a large clock emerges. It appears that she has just inserted the central dial of the clock face.

On the front of the clock, there is:
A push-button in the upper-left corner.
An oval socket beneath the clock-dial.

On the right-hand side, there is:
A large flat panel, held in place by a latch with a tiny keyhole.
A panel with four screws.
A small sliding panel with a triangle pointing upwards on it.

On the left-hand side, there is:
An assembly of gears with a hand-crank to turn them.
A small slider.
Another brassy circle with one corner missing and a circle on it. This one is marked with a pentagon.

[calledtoventure]

So many new things to play with!

She looks at the clock through the lens.

She pushes the button.

She slides the triangle-marked panel upwards.

She turns the crank.

She tries moving the small slider.

She tries fitting the three-quarters brass knob with the concentric squares to the three-quarters brass circle with the pentagon.

She tries fitting the brass knob in the oval socket.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Nothing is revealed under lens-light.

When the button is pushed, a small gear in one corner of the clock face shifts outwards and temporarily interlocks with a second one. Since neither gear is turning, this does nothing.

The brass knobs are, alas, all firmly attached to the box. They do rotate nicely, though.

There's another three-quarters brass knob with a matching triangle symbol behind the triangle-marked panel, though this time the point of the triangle is pointing at the floor.

Turning the crank causes some of the gears on the side of the box to spin, but the missing gears mean they do nothing.

Moving the small slider causes one of the gears on the side of the box to shift to the left, meshing into a different set of gears.

[calledtoventure]

She holds down the button and turns the crank.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Nothing at all appears to happen on the front side of the clock, but after a few moments' turning, the top of the box shifts upwards, revealing another hidden layer. There is a very oddly-shaped hole in one side, and directly on the opposite side there is a drawer with four circular latches, each with one quarter of the circle missing. The latches are marked, each with their own symbol: a triangle, a circle, a pentagon, and a pair of concentric squares.

A new brass dial marked with a circle has appeared on one of the corners of the box, as well.

[calledtoventure]

She turns the brass knobs so that the missing quarter of each one is in the same position as the correspondingly marked latch.

[all_the_worlds_have]

It turns out that the arrangement works in exactly the opposite way, but Ahrotahn has the essence of it. The drawer pulls out, revealing...

An extra gear and a rubber band.

[calledtoventure]

She takes the gear and the band.

She moves the slider back to its original position, holds down the button, and turns the crank.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Nothing happens.

However, it appears that pulling out the drawer has revealed three rapidly-spinning gears above the area where the crank is. None of them are currently connected to anything.

[calledtoventure]

Can she connect them using her loose gear?

[all_the_worlds_have]

The leftmost one can be connected to the hand-crank using the loose gear, but the other two are too far away from the existing set of gears.

[calledtoventure]

Does moving the slider cause them to mesh?

[all_the_worlds_have]

It does not. They would be turning in the wrong directions, in any case.

[calledtoventure]

Can she connect them using the rubber band as a belt?

[all_the_worlds_have]

Though the rubber band is sized correctly, the recesses the three gears are turning in make it impossible to get a rubber band around them. It could perhaps be used to link two other gears, however.

[calledtoventure]

She looks over the clock again.

If she moves the slider to the right, she should be able to use the band to connect the lower right-hand to the gear at the top that meshes with the middle recessed-gear.

[all_the_worlds_have]

Unfortunately, the elastic is just a bit too short.

[calledtoventure]

Well, she can at least try turning the left-hand gearage with the spare gear in.