page_0: "EYE BEAM EXPT: PRELIM. NOTES BY DR. BRAUNSTEIN

The Geode is a megalithic fossil eyeball recovered from the sinkhole Vomerocoel, its age and nonporous exterior seemingly incompossible with the insectoid scratching sounds it emits. I intend to know the source of these noises, but doing so is not straightforward. Similar fossils were once found in the sinkholes Duln and Harbringer when they were gouged for rhodopsinite. Sonic anomalies (which the quarry gang called \"passengers\") were present in each - until they were transected or scryed by mage, leaving what appears to have been nothing but solid stone.

Clearly, the act of observation is destroying something in these fossils, which is why I arranged for a black block to be conjured around the Geode before it was excavated. We can only hope its \"passenger\" remains, though we can not be certain until we find a way to see into the black block.

Black blocks, of course, are as impermeable to eye beams as they are to the Four Elements that comprise all mundane matter. As you know, I have theorized a fifth element called \"nether\" to account for the so-called sorcerous phenomena. I am now certain it is produced by sinkholes. Among its hitherto unexampled properties, eye beams passing through it are unidirectional. If the black block cannot see the eye beam coming, it cannot block it; similarly, the \"passenger\" cannot disappear."

page_1:"Whoever commands the \"passenger\" may well take a step toward Ocular Superiority, but the method itself is expected to be a greater treasure. For both reasons, the experiment is on hold until the director of Seeing Eye can oversee it in person. In the meantime, familiarize yourselves with the procedure:

1. Orient the pupils in the retinue room in such a way as to focus their eye beams. This step may be assumed, for their restraints are well engineered.

2. Turn the release valve, emitting compound eye beam into mirror matrix.

3. Rotate mirrors so that eye beam passes into the basement sinkhole and through the \"windchime\" array, bathing it in ambient nether. When the beam reaches the room below, its doors will open (they are otherwise closed to thwart nesting troglofauna).

4. Access this room via the rope bridge and throw the switch, sending eye beam back up to the Geode. It should now be capable of seeing without being seen.

5. Amazing x-ray vision guaranteed!"