Source: Daniel Walker

First Appeared In: The Case of the 5th Season

Invented by: Edward Blackthorn

Owned by: Edward Blackthorn

Availability: Unique

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Professor Edward Blackthorn was not going to let a small matter of incarceration in millbank prison get in the way of his desire for revenge, both on those who had captured him and those who had abandoned him as a scapegoat for their nefarious schemes. Anticipating the lack of honour amongst thieves, Blackthorn had comissioned the construction of an ornate music box to his specifications from the finest Swiss craftsmen.

The Music box is a tongue and comb clockwork affair, housed in an ornate baroque wooden box. The tongue roller is unique in that it is programmable and the tongue adjust on the roller automatically depending on the tune. The tongues are made from very strong metal and the clockwork motor that drives it is capable or exerting a surprisingly large amount of pressure. The metal plates lining the box are made of a soft metal, and if damaged can be easily removed and replaced.

Amazingly it was this device that Blackthorn requested returned to him from his accomodation in return for his co-operation with the authorities when consulted on the involvement of his photonic scrying device in the Fifth Season Affair. He gave away its location and who might know and profit from its existence, which led to the unravelling of the whole mystery. Honouring their promise, he was left his music box to occupy him in his cell in the high security prison of Millbank, knowing that their was no escape from tower of isolated cells, each secured by a rotational bridge and an elaborate punchcard key system which even the best lockpickers where ill-equipped to crack.

Unbeknownst to the Governor and Guards of Millbank, and indeed those who had provided Blackthorn with his precious box, was that the box could read and replicate punchcards. Using a card blank, Blackthorn triggered the lock into punching its imprint onto the card. Feeding the card into the box's programming slot, the tongues on the roller adjusted themselves to this new "sheet of music" and using one of the soft metal plates on the inside of the box, Blackthorn used the roller to print his own punchcard key.

What happened next is a matter of speculation, suffice to say that aside from Millbank's consumption of certain mechanical goods increasing notably on its order books, no-one in the outside world noticed the developments within the prison. It is believed that Blackthorn led a swift and successful revolt in the prison, securing the Guards and Governor in the highest cells and freeing the prisoners. But rather than make good their escape and be hunted down, Blackthorn used this eager workforce to create automaton replica's to fill their cells with in return for Clockwork augmentations to their bodies. This provided enough cover for a slow unnoticed release of these prisoners into the outside world (some of whom soon found out that Blackthorn had implanted surprises along with the augmentations in their bodies, and were forced to hunt down Professor Thomas Crapper, whom Blackthorn was still insanely determined for revenge upon). Eventually Blackthorn himself fled from Millbank and London to a Northern Mill town, owned by Lord Peter Asmouth, to sabotage his former allies operations and to enslave another workforce so that he might create a giant automaton with which to destroy the city he was incarcerated in.