This thread is for you to experiment with the machine outside the normal roleplaying threads.  This can be done separately to your normal posts.  My intention is to keep the game up to speed while still allowing you to figure out this puzzle.

STARTING POSITION AND DESCRIPTION:

To the right there is a table set up like a private laboratory.  But it is a strange sight:

An object like a flashlight or laser focuser is on the left on a stand pointed to the right.  It has a button to turn it on or off.  There is a second button below the first and a slot under the device.  Next to that button is the word "reset."

On the far right is a receiving unit to receive the light.  Between the laser pointing device and the receiving unit are five slots in which crystals can be placed.

Next to the laser is a jar of octagon shaped crystal lenses -- like eyeglass lenses.  Each crystalline lens has a slightly different tint, making many different colors, including white and black.

Right now, five lenses are put into the slots, with the following colors (left to right):  Red, Purple, Black, Black, Black.


YOU HAVE ALSO CORRECTLY DETERMINED THAT THE NEW FILE ON THE COMPUTER IS RELATED TO THIS MACHINE.  IT HAS THE FOLLOWING ARRAY OF PICTURES OF SUNS:


From left to right, they are:  A blue star, a white dwarf, a white star, a red dwarf, and a yellow star, like this:



FROM PREVIOUS CLARIFICATION POST:


One thing I wanted to clarify about the device.  As for the "reset" button, it is toward the bottom of the machine.  Disks are placed in a slot below that button  before the reset button is pushed.  They are immersed in some sort of liquid there.  When the reset button is pushed, the disk is reset and is deposited in a cup-like place at the bottom.

The disks are all easily removable and replaceable in the five slots, in the reset slot, and in the jar that carries the extras.  All the slots are the same size, meaning that any disk can fit in any slot.

KYRILLIAN EXPLAINED:

Kyrillian says, "We have tried the machine with these disks.  They change color when they are placed in the slots and the buttons are pushed.  He tried various combinations but didn't seem to get it right.  Beyond that, I don't know many details because Kyrtok was the one doing the experiments, not me."

I made a very crude diagram of the machine and its current color configuration.  Hopefully, this will help.

Hammer pushes the button to "on."  The laser, which is an unidentifiable whitish laser of very high intensity, shoots through the five disks and to the receiving unit, but nothing else happens.  Apparently, the button was already pushed in this configuration and the configuration needs to be changed.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:34, Fri 19 Aug 2011.

Hammer takes the last two black disks, puts them in the reset slot and presses the reset button.

After pushing the reset button, Hammer finds that the two disks turn a translucent white.

Hammer takes inventory of all the colors that there currently are, both in the jar and on the machine.

There is a red, purple and black in slots on the first three slots of the machine (in that order).

Two disks have just been reset to white.

In the jar, you find two red, two yellow, two blue disks, and one white disk.

If you put a colored disc in the two remaining slots and it incorrect does it change to white. Thus reducing the red, yellow, or blue disks?

You need to choose which colors to place in the slots.  You can call them slot 1 on the left to slot 5 on the right.

We obviously want

1. blue
2. white
3. white
4. red
5. yellow

in the machine.
As we've just received more white disks (from the reset), let's place them in the machine in this order and activate it.

S'Krllk orders the disks in the order of the pictures and hits the button.  There is a whining, fizzing sound as light goes through the disks and forms a purplish mark against the receiving end.  It seems a perfectly round circle that has neither mass nor depth, yet it seems incomplete compared to the blackness you have seen.

Almost immediately, you hear a beep from the computer behind you.

Hammer runs over to check what popped up on the computer.

A new file has popped into the machine.  It is unclear where the file came from, or how it got into the machine, but opening it reveals a new set of pictures, as follows:



These are a yellow sun, an orange sun, a white dwarf, a red dwarf, and a purple star.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:58, Fri 26 Aug 2011.

Note: I edited the above to fix an error, so if you read it before the edit, please reread.  Sorry.

"Good or bad Hammer?

More stuff popped up again?  I guess once we figure out the codes, more options become open to us?"

So looks like we want

Yellow
Red
White
Red
Purple

this time I guess.

You do not have a purple disk.

originally in machine:

1. Red
2. Purple
3. Black
4. Black
5. Black

Hammer takes 4 + 5 and resets them to white
S'Krllk places in the machine:

1. Blue
2. White
3. White
4. Red
5. Yellow

Now we need:

1. Yellow
2. Red
3. White
4. Red
5. Purple

So what happened to the purple disk that was in slot two originally?

My bad. I had thought that was one that had been reset.

So you do have one purple disk.

When you say "we need," are you talking about disks or the star colors?  I say this because the star color in the second slot is orange, not red.

S'Krllk wonders, "Do they always reset to white?" and places a red disk and a white disk (we have the most of those colors) in the reset slot before pushing the reset button.

When he "resets" those disks, nothing happens.

Maybe switch the Orange & Red one?

Sorry, I suck at riddles and puzzles.

Hammer puts the disks as S'krllk suggested and pushes the button.

The laser lights up and the area turns from a deep purple to black.  The area looks like the darkness you've seen earlier.  You see a dark amorphous hand reach through the hole from seemingly nowhere and drop a strange item onto the table.  Then it appears that the hole closes up suddenly, and the hand is gone, leaving only the streak of blackness like you've seen outside in the corridor.

OOC: There was one more level to the machine, but I figured you guys aren't really into it, so I dropped it.  What the machine does is use the colors of the rainbow, so there are white, blue, red, and yellow disks when reset.  The sun colors are the colors that each one must become in that order.

So if you need yellow, orange, white, blue and purple, you would insert disks as follows:

yellow, red (because yellow and red make orange), white, blue, red (because blue and red make purple)

So if you need orange, the one in front must be yellow (or red) and the one where orange is supposed to be must be red (or yellow), which combined make the color you need; white resets the color.

Anyway, moving on...

In reply to GM Heath (msg #25):

Sorry dude, Unless Desi had a great LOG score, she would've gotten it before me!

I was starting to think along that route...but glad to be moving on. :)

It's sometimes hard to do these puzzles on RPoL due to time lags because you can't keep the information straight in your head, whereas with tabletop you move through it quickly.