The Time Tuner - an Adventure Location

The Time Tuner is a magical location that could appear in a magical dungeon, a wizard's tower, or a strange lab. It could prove to be a puzzling trap for curious adventurers, though not an immediately dangerous one. For those who puzzle out its secrets, it is a valuable tool indeed!

The Time Tuner consists of two rooms connected by an antechamber. The doors to each room are made of a strange metal; each door has a placard on the outside with writing in a strange, ancient tongue. The words translate to DILATION and CONTRACTION. Inside each room, a placard on the wall indicates, in several languages, the following statement:

One individual per room, both must be occupied.

The CONTRACTION room appears setup for relaxing - it contains a comfortable chair, some light reading material, and a bottle of wine. The DILATION room appears setup for intense work and study - tables with ink and paper; many books, perhaps potion making equipment or arcane grimoires for study. It also contains extensive stores of food, water, a bed, and a latrine.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of each room are lined with a glassy surface. Inside the door of the DILATION room is a rod that engages a locking mechanism. Both rooms are highly magical and emanate chronomantic vibrations. From the outside, the doors cannot be locked or unlocked, though handles allows the doors to be pulled ajar if the doors are unlocked from the inside. The doors swing open or closed effortlessly.

The locking rod in DILATION engages the locks on both doors when it is engaged. This also has the effect of switching on the Time Tuner's chronomantic abilities. However, the locking rod cannot be engaged unless both both rooms are simultaneously occupied, with no more than one individual in each room, and if CONTRACTION is currently unlocked. (The locking rod is magically enchanted to not function if these conditions are not met.)

Once the locking rod in DILATION is successfully engaged and both doors are locked, the walls in both rooms begin to shimmer with a faint, multi-colored light and everything takes on a wavy quality. At this time, the rooms begin their peculiar function.

In DILATION, time expands in relation to the outside world. For every week that the individual spends inside the DILATION room, one hour will pass in the outside world.

In CONTRACTION, time compresses in relation to the outside world. For every hour that the individual spends inside the CONTRACTION room, one week will pass in the outside world.

The DILATION room generates a time-debt when it is in use; the CONTRACTION room pays back the time debt. Neither room can function without the other being engaged. The individual in the DILATION room can unlock their door at any time and exit. However, the lock on the CONTRACTION room door will not unlock until the time debt has been paid, and the lock on the DILATION room door cannot be re-engaged until the time debt is paid an the CONTRACTION room unlocks.

As an example, Bargle the Magic-User enters the DILATION room, and sends his henchman Zazork the goblin into the CONTRACTION room. Bargle's homunculus, Vree, waits in the antechamber with an hourglass. Bargle spends what he experiences as two weeks locked inside the DILATION room, scribing a magical scroll. When he emerges, Vree indicates that he has rotated the hourglass twice. Two hours in the outside world have passed. CONTRACTION remains locked. Just under two weeks later in the outside world, the door to CONTRACTION unlocks and Zazork emerges. For Zazork, only two hours elapsed, just enough time to fit in a nice nap. The Time Tuner resets and is available for use again.

There are a variety of practical applications for the Time Tuner. As indicated in the example above, the Time Tuner can be used to advance projects in rapid fashion, such as learning a new language, conducting research, writing a book, or crafting a magic item, so long as one has all the necessary materials required. A motivated and well-supplied mage could craft numerous scrolls or potions in a single outside-world day.

The Time Tuner can also be used to quickly "time travel" into the future, at least for the individual locked in CONTRACTION, assuming one can find a partner willing to remain in DILATION subjectively for a subjectively long enough period. This might be a useful way to disappear for awhile if being hunted by the law.

Accidental use of the Time Tuner can be an unpleasant surprise for curious adventurers. Just ten minutes spent locked inside DILATION, trying to figure out its purpose will cause the individual locked in CONTRACTION to remain trapped inside for more than a day, at least to the objective experience of those outside the Time Tuner.

The difficulty, in both situations, is finding a willing participant to occupy the opposite room. 

It remains unclear what happens if one occupant expires while locked inside the Time Tuner. Do both doors remain locked forever? Do both doors unlock immediately? What if the time debt is unpaid? Also, what happens if the CONTRACTION room is somehow broken open while the time debt from DILATION is being paid back? Chronomancy scholars disagree, but many theorizes this would tear a rift in spacetime that could consume the entire world.