The Chest of Asmun Darou

The Chest of Asmun Darou is a bronze-colored 3 foot by four foot by four foot box with a hinged lid and a complex clockwork mechanism where the lock should be. Discovered hundreds of years ago in what is now Devil's Ante, the Chest drew attention for three reasons.   First, despite looking and feeling like Brass, the Chest is totally invulnerable to all attempts to damage or alter its form to date.   Second, no amount of force or magic has been able to move the Chest from where it sits on a small, seemingly natural rock plinth. In fact, the noble house of Darou takes its name from the explorer who originally found the Chest and their estate was first constructed as a laboratory surrounding it to study its properties and attempt to learn its origins.   Finally, despite a highly complex mechanism consisting of many moving parts, no attempt to date to open the Chest's strange clockwork lock has succeeded. Several sequences of actions when manipulating certain gears and dials in certain sequences have been shown through trial and error to produce effects on the Chest, however. The discovery of sequences is not always random: in a curious development, the mentally ill child of the family matriarch was able to discover several sequences when left to play with the device, and by trial and error it's been discovered that people with particular mental illnesses are more likely to stumble on a useful sequence, leading House Darou to sometimes host unusual cases from local asylums in the hopes of making a breakthrough.   Based on information available to the public, the Chest has been able to do the following based on known patterns:   1. A short sequences of throwing switches corresponding to the Fibonacci sequence while all dials are set to "1" causes the Chest, the Plinth on which it sits, and any sentient creature within 11 feet of the Chest to glow with a faint purple light that lasts for precisely two days, three hours, five minutes and 8 seconds. This light has no detectable effect, but those affected reported feelings of hope and optimism.   2. A much longer sequence of actions by any person suffering from certain types diseases seems to cure those diseases. This effect is controversial because it is known to the general public, but can only be activated once every three months. Hence, those hoping for a cure to some condition have frequently petitioned house Darou for its use, resulting in the family establishing a lottery system where citizens can buy tickets to secure access to this effect. The only diseases affected by the Chest are those that introduce a foreign or hostile growth into the body, such as a cancerous tumor, fungus, parasite or genetic alteration. While the house of Darou has tried to explain this to the public, many people still believe it to be a panacea. There have even been attempts to break into the house for the purpose of using the chest, which has ironically necessitated guards for an indestructible, immobile object.   3. A sequence of actions that must be performed within ten minutes of midnight has caused the user to suddenly know, by unknown means, that a certain task was necessary and needed to be performed. The user was in no way compelled to accomplish this task, and the effect fades over the course of one week to one month if the action is not pursued. If the user performs the task, they receive a blessing, strengthening some particular characteristic of theirs that is weaker than other parts of them (Lowest ability score increased by one). The tasks have varied from momentous undertakings like overthrowing the leadership of a particular guild to seemingly trivial and nonsensical actions such as moving a certain rock from one place to another. Some of these actions have later been revealed to result in significant changes to the course of history. The rock, for example, ended up tripping and revealing an assassin just as they approached an important diplomat in the guise of a beggar. There is no regular recharge period for when the Chest has new tasks, and when a new one is available a small blue gem on the side of the chest begins to glow, faintly.   4. Only triggered once, a complex series of inputs seems to activate an effect that irresistibly draws all lightning within ten miles to the chest. Since Devil's Ante is under the Everstorm, there is always some lightning in the sky above the Chest's keeping area, and the first triggering of this effect forced the evacuation of the building as lightning rained down on the chest once a minute for nearly three days. This was the occasion which forced the house to admit the chest's existence to the local government and general public, as any form of cover-up became impossible. It stopped on its own, and has not since been activated again.   5. Every two weeks, the Chest can be activated in such a way that it produces a small iron disc from a concealed slot near the base of the object. Covered in an unknown language and bearing odd grooves and markings, its purpose is unknown.   6. At any time, the Chest can be induced to cast one of the following spells on the room in which it resides: Silent Image (A near-perfect reproduction of the night sky), stinking cloud, hypnotic pattern.   7. A short activation sequence causes the Chest to display on its surface a random assortment of words, arranged as to be nonsense. These same words appear on each activation over a seven day period, at which time the words change to a different nonsense phrase. On one occasion, using this feature immediately after the Chest dispensed a "task" led it to display a quite practical warning concerning the situation. It has also produced cryptic messages if activated at certain times of the year that may serve a prophetic function.