Puzzle Boxes

The Lunchbox: The first puzzle box that Mark received. Nicknamed "the demonic lunchbox" by some fans, it was an-old fashioned lunchbox with three dials on it. A message is written in the cypher created by Lutwidge across the lunch box: "I don't remember my birthday. Do you remember my birthday? I have a new birthday." The password to open the lunchbox is ICF or 9-3-6, Lutwidge's date of birth. Inside is a splicer mask, some paper Little Sister dolls, a crayon drawing of the Big Sister and a little girl while the Big Sister is attacking an unknown blond female and a message in Lutwidgian cypher "it's cold down here daddy come find me".

The lunchbox is in many ways the most mysterious of all of the puzzle boxes. There are still several unanswered questions about it. Why did the Big Sister deliver it to Mark, and Mark alone? Why was the password set to Lutwidge's birthday? Who is the one saying in the encoded language on the lunchbox "I don't' remember my birthday. I have a new birthday". How was it created using the Lutwidgian cipher and and a Lutwidge-like puzzle when Lutwidge was in the asylum and yet referenced stuff that was very recent, such as the new Little Sisters?  The Metal Box: A simple metal box with multiple levels. The first level involves spelling Red Queen as you move various pieces with symbols from the Lutwidigian cypher into openings on the box. Upon solving this puzzle you are given the following message from Lutwidge: "''Oh magus, you have begun thy journey. Your master's temple has fallen but his work is not yet finished. Turn south by west toward great Muhheakantuck. Upon it's shoulder shall you find the decrepit corpse of the red queen. If you would run her race then seek her crown jewels, they wait beyond the looking glass. Follow the twinkling of gems oh seeker, and you shall unlock the roads to rapture.

This is Orrin Oscar Lutwidge, September 1958"''

The Jewelry Box: Discovered by Mark in the "decrepit corpse of the red queen", the crumbling ruins of Lutwidge's former company, Scarlet Sovereign Import/Export. Mark looked beyond the looking glass by breaking open a mirror in the back of the building and found this jewelry box. The first level is a memory game that, upon completion, opens to reveal a piano along with clues to the August 8th beach event. You also get this message from Lutwidge: ''"You have unlocked the treasures of the empresses but in the unbinding of the lock you also found a key for the key points to the sea where the grandest treasure waits but the sea has its own strange song. If you find yourself stranded on the shore with the evidence you long have sought yet unable to advance, then listen well and take notes. This is Orran Oscar Lutwidge, one other lolling in drunken ecstasy upon the way to Rapture." ''

The Coordinate Piano: A miniature piano that is unlocked upon completion of the jewelry box. There is 3 rows of keys, but there's really only 10 keys in it because each note is paired with 3 keys from each row. The coordinates and times were featured for the August 8th events. If you play the notes to "What do you do with a drunken sailor?" it unlocks level 2 of the metal box.

The Metal Box Level 2: Also referred to as the 4x4 puzzle, it reveals a 4x4 grid of characters from the Lutwidgian cypher. Lutwidge poses the following riddles:

"The greeks say I have feet on either side. I camouflage myself by showing... what's inside. 

Like an Englishman, my children I do lug, in a carriage that I cram, I push them with a shrug.

A barrel is my home with squirts inside its walls, my eggs are set like jewels within its crystal hall.

Now if you learn my name you'll know how deep to sink, seek where Rapture lies, I wait upon its brink.

When to Rapture's depths the Seeker doth descends, through a pane of glass, he'll see my glassy head.

''Two eyes watch my four, like Janus I do spy, I see both 'fore and aft' with ideas hyper wide. "''

To solve this puzzle you must spell "Phronima" with the Lutwidgian cypher in the field to the right of the grid. Upon doing so, you get a new message from Lutwidge and unlock the next level fo the metal box.

"Seeker, you have fathomed the depths of the secret. You know now what wonders wait in Rapture, both within and without. But if it remains beyond your reach, despair not, for the Red Queen's race has nearly run its course. Keep the faith and you shall embark upon the White Knight's journey. The Knight's question must be answered, only then will the seven fold lock at last unfold. Its lights will lead you through the wreckage and prepare you for your last descent. This is Orrin Oscar Lutwidge, one other laboring on the waves to Rapture."

Metal Box Level 3: Referred to as the 5x5 puzzle, it is simply a 5x5 grid with each tile representing a letter in the Lutwidgian cypher. As of this writing, no solution has been found for this puzzle.

Rubix Tube: Acquired at Tollevue Mental Hospital from Quain. This puzzle has derives it's unofficial name for being compared with a Rubix Cube. Inside there is a journal by Lutwidge/Quain. The full text of the journal is presented below:

Page 1:

To square the circle is a tangle yet a problem more easily subsumed than to find a triangle within the triangle Ye be lost unless ye find it and ye find it, ye be DOOMED Here there be MONSTERS

Page 2:

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...the pool of tears..."

In that sea of wreckage gleams the golden eye that leads the bold to -RAPTURE- and the rest to merely DIE  Page 3:

Down the RabbiTHole and what Orrin found there

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...Down down down. Would the fall never come to an end? 'I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. 'I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think-'..."

"'...-yes, that's about the right distance-But then i wonder what Latitude and Longitude I've got to?...'"

(Arrow pointing to the passage) Wouldn't you like to know? Such nice grand words to say

Page 4:

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!'..."

Always late..... too late

1959 and the party's almost over!

(picture of Rapture masquerade ball with white rabbit mask)

What does the White Rabbit know? Should auld acquaintance be forgot? YES YES 100x YES

Page 5:

(Cut out of the mad hatter's tea party with mask pictures glued over the characters' faces)

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'No room! No room!' they cried out when they saw Alice coming. 'There's plenty of room!' said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table..."

Page 6:

All these years, Orrin had been SHUNNED by the Master of Wonderland as if there Was NO ROOM for him. But there was PLENTY of Room!

In his new home, Orrin found people WONDROUS STRANGE, of a like he had never before encountered.

They were the BEST and the BRIGHTEST and hid their BEAUTY behind a Marvellous Masquerade.

They looked Askance at Orrin at first. But he soon Proved his worth with his Imagination and Invention.

So they invited him to try the TREATS

Page 7:

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...However, this bottle was not marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste..."

(Pictures of plasmid advertisements and Eve's Garden)

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice..."

Page 8:

Electro-Bolt and Sonic Boom, Telekinesis makes things Zoom! Target Dummy, Cyclone Trap! Unleash the ice of Winter Blast! Incinerate will make you warm as you release an Insect Swarm. Enrage a useless bloody fool and make an enemy your tool The possibilities are rife......... for VARIETY'S the SPLICE of LIFE

Page 9:

There are no Happy Endings in the Kingdom......

For WONDERLAND went to WAR!

(Various pictures from Alice in Wonderland covered in blood splotches. Also a picture of Atlas holding up a globe.)

(Arrow pointing at Atlas) Who He? Got the whole world on his shoulders!

No Daddy No! not the Drill!

The more things mutate..... the more they tend to CHANGE!

Page 10:

Orrin couldn't stay with his new friends...For they had all Gone Quite MAD

(Picture of Alice looking at the Cheshire cat)

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat; 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.' 'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice. 'You must be,' said the Cat, 'or you wouldn't have come here.'..."

Page 11:

Alice in Wonderland book cutout - "...'It was much pleasanter at home,' thought poor Alice,..."

And so... Orrin escaped from Wonderland only to be betrayed by EVERYONE!

Let the FRENCH FRY! Let her seeing eye dogs be BLINDED

and pity the seeker who seeks in VAIN

Page 12:

The secret, sweet Alice, Lies deep

For the checkered Journey can be traversed only by a knight And none are left in this game but PAWNS of the Broken-hearted Prophet I have SPAWNED

Not Quite

"The End