View source for Item:Red gold music box with its gilding flaking to reveal wood corrupted by bone bits

{{Item
|noun=box
|look=This once ornate box seems both an innocuous musical device and a blighted curio of the macabre.  Knurled khor'vela protrusions crack the gilded exterior, each shape evoking a youthful countenance grotesquely disfigured by undigested bone fragments.  Where intact, the gilding has the luster of gold and a coppery red metallic hue eerily reminiscent of freshly spilled blood.  Entombed beneath the lid is a clockwork-driven wax cylinder behind metal bands, aligned with an adjacent row of ivory plucking teeth.
|MTag=red gold, gold, khor'vela, wood, bone, wax, metal, ivory
|CTag=coppery red, coppery, red, blood
|STag=-
|type=container, toy, verby
|wearloc=belt
|weight=10
|lsize=6
|wsize=3
|hsize=3
|ilsize=6
|iwsize=3
|ihsize=3
|csize=100
|appcost=6,250,000
|sourcetype=-
|fname=No
|metal=no
}}
==Verbs==
*{{com|STUDY}}: As you study the box, you think you could probably open, close, clean and tap it.
*{{com|OPEN}}: As you lift the lid of the music box, the ethereal harmony of children singing begins from within.  Abruptly, the mezzo-soprano sounds turn to shrill shrieks and wails of terror that ascend into a horrifying crescendo before suddenly stopping.  The snuffed-out sounds still echoing in your mind, a crawling sensation rises like a wave and moves across your body before ending in a small shudder.
::As Player lifts the lid of the music box, she smiles to herself and appears to relax.  Abruptly, she looks startled and stares fixedly at the box's lid for a moment, an increasingly disturbed expression marring her visage and her body trembling slightly.
*{{com|CLOSE}}: As you try to close the music box, you feel pressure as if the lid were jammed.  Increasing your force, a bone shard in the exposed khor'vela sharply presses your palm and the sickening sound of children screaming emits from within.  Dread sets in as you struggle with the infernal device, when abruptly the wailing turns to delighted giggling and the lid gives.  The laughter rises to a manic pitch as the box shuts, the lid nearly catching your fingers as it slams with a loud *CLACK* like bone scraping bone.
::Player touches the music box's lid and struggles with it briefly, her strange expression increasingly panicked.  She fumbles and nearly catches her fingers as the box closes, its lid slamming with an irritating *CLACK* like bone scraping bone.  Oddly, it's difficult to tell if Player looks embarrassed or terrified.
*{{com|CLEAN}}: Spying a red, greasy smudge on your music box, you reach to wipe it off and only succeed in smearing it.  The harder you try, the more there seems of the sticky substance.  Fearing the stuff will spread further, you increase your scrubbing to a feverish pace, eyes glazing as a high-pitched ringing drowns out all other sounds.  Suddenly, a sharp pain breaks your trance and you notice there's no trace of the smudge, but your thumb is sore from rubbing an exposed bit of bone in the khor'vela.
::Player stares at her music box, then reaches to fastidiously wipe at something unseen upon its surface.  The cleansing begins simply enough, but then her eyes glaze and she begins scrubbing at an exposed bit of ossified material in the khor'vela at an increasingly feverish pace.  Suddenly, she breaks from the trancelike state, ceases the obsessive cleaning, and gazes at her thumb with a pained expression.  No wonder the gilding is flaking!
*{{com|TAP}}: On a whim, you rap a music box with one knuckle, a satisfying *TAP!* resulting.  After a moment, you hear a startling *TAP!* in response.  You hesitate momentarily, gazing curiously at the container before impulsively drumming a couple of knocks.  Abruptly, while your fingers still graze its surface, a muffled chorus of *TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPs!* resounds from within the box, their intensity increasing to create an uncanny rustling that sounds like sands rushing through an hourglass at a disquieting rate.
::Player raps a music box with one knuckle, a loud *TAP!* resulting.  She gazes at the container with primitive curiosity, then suddenly drums a second series of knocks.  While her fingers still graze its surface, an expression of childlike wonder dawns on her face.  Looks like someone found a shiny new toy!

==Contents==
*{{sloot|i|disturbingly diminutive phalanx crudely carved into a key}}
*{{sloot|i|alabaster and khor'vela mask with a pyrope icesilk blindfold binding the eyes}}
*{{sloot|i|immaculate cameo trailed by alabaster faces increasingly desiccated by khor'vela}}
*{{sloot|i|open-front Bloodworm Comet choker of darkly gleaming red gold and crimson pyrope}}
*{{sloot|i|daring camocas chest binder diagonally striped with red gold and brass metallics}}
*{{sloot|i|diaphanous crimson silk voile sari draped over a skimpy golden lipka cotton skirt}}
*{{sloot|i|interleaved gold and brass ring with pyrope shards set around an empty collet}}