The Crystallized Cave Cassette Player, or "3CP" abbreviated sometimes, is one of The Roaming Music Players written in Tome of Oddities and Weird Stuff: Volume I. This one, rather than being found in one place, had been reported in many different caves and caverns. It plays a tune that has curious and dramatic results if matched by someone with an instrument of their own.

Summary

The Crystallized Cave Cassette Player has been reported in a number of places, sometimes multiple times in the same place. Typically, if you're in the vicinity of one, you'll find some unusual crystalline deposits around the place... Y'know, like big chunks of what looks like quarts or amethyst in weird places. The kind that you'd find in one of those stores that have all the cool geodes for sale and such. If you don't see the crystals first, though, you might hear it.

The crystal make up changes from instance to instance, but typically, harvesting a sample is almost impossible, due to it's unusually hard property. You could drive a truck into the things and they wouldn't get scratched. People have taken to jokingly calling it "Cassettite". When it shows up, it typically appears in chunks of semi-clear white, like you'd expect from a quartz or something. However, when getting closer to the 3CP itself, the clusters will suddenly take on a large variety of bold colors. Odds are if you see these, you'll either see (or hear) the 3CP soon. If you do, get your instrument of choice ready...

The 3CP itself is encased in a large, transparent spire of this Cassettite, illuminated slightly. The 3CP itself looks like what you'd expect, a cassette player with the usual buttons on it, except the outer shell appears to be made of the same Cassettite it's encased in... either that or it's that cool, transparent plastic that shows off the insides of whatever it's encasing. No one really knows, as no one has gotten close enough to examine an instance of the 3CP.

When someone who might be exploring the cave looks upon it, the 3CP then appears to react by the "play" button being pushed in. It also lights up much brighter, illuminating the surrounding area with the same glow. Oddly, the light doesn't appear to have an actual source. It then will play a quiet static, kinda like one of those old phonograph players, and then play a sequence of sounds, like an electronic version of a plucked string instrument. It will then pause and a soft light will then shine on whoever is looking at the 3CP. (If multiple people, then it appears to choose randomly.) When it plays it's sequence of notes, the colored Casettite clusters will illuminate, each color to a respective note.

For a long time, no one really knew what this meant or what to do. After a moment or so, it will repeat the sequence of notes and do so once more after a moment later. After that it appears to play a buzzing noise, the light dissipates and the 3CP, along with the Cassettite around it will turn a grey color. Nothing appears to reactivate it or cause it to revert or what have you. It just becomes... inert, I suppose? The weirdest part is when someone looks away, the inert Cassettite and 3CP seem to vanish without a trace. Someone had tried to keep an eye on it, but after a bit, they're overcome with the urge to blink, feeling something might've gotten in their eye or something. No harm is done by this, but this does cause it to disappear as usual.

The sequence of notes appears to change from instance to instance, sometimes being longer or shorter and with different pitches to the notes. It's like each instance has it's own "song". No one knows why it does this, but eventually, someone found out what to do when it does...

First Successful Communication

Eventually, someone got the idea to try to communicate with the entity by playing the song back to them. A person by the name of Eugine "Grandpa" Bunnehbutt, a local Lagomite prospector from Harrington, encountered the 3CP in a cave nearby on his fathers land that he would frequent as a child. It's worth noting the Bunnehbutt has been having some financial issues, getting into some serious debt. Not only that, but he had lost the deed to his father's land after it had been stolen one night. (Bunnehbutt figures it was a local ruffian and personal rival of his)

After some years and inheriting the land, Bunnehbutt had done his usual trek in, to an underground pool for some "relaxin' an' music" and playing of his banjo, the 3CP has appeared right on the ceiling, above said pool. Quite a sight, actually! It was situated right in front of an opening in the ceiling that would let the moon light in really bright like. After the 3CP has played it's song, Bunnehbutt got the idea to play a note back to it. It made the buzzing noise in response and played the sequence once more. Bunnehbutt hadn't played the same note back, but put two and two together. It wanted him to repeat it back. So he did. Then, the 3CP light up brightly, as the colored Casettite, and resounded in a harmonious hum, resonating the final note of the sequence. Then, what felt like a small quake happened, which was obviously startling for anyone that's in a cave and not anywhere near a fault line. After a bit of this, the Casettite shattered into a luminescent mist and a nearby wall covered in Casettite at the time crumbled. Bunnehbutt wasn't hurt by any of this. If anything, he said it was "kinda neat lookin'". The wall had revealed a small pocket in the wall with a chest that hadn't been there before. Insdie, lo and behold, it was the deed to the land and a sizeable amount of gold bouillon and gems to not only pay off the debts, but also a little bit left over to replace his missing tooth. Literally, he had a bit of the gold smelted into one as a sort of memento of the strange encounter. No one knows how or why this happened, but Bunnehbutt isn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

After this encounter, it seems the 3CP has appear a lot less often. Some speculate that it appearing so often at first was to get it's presence known, other say it was dumb luck all the way up until now. Regardless, it has been known to show up every once in a while, giving explorers and prospective wealth seekers great boons to either help on their adventure or lump sums of treasure, but it takes someone with a keen music know how to play the right tune for said boon... which is actually a li'l sayin' they have when they set out sometimes "Remember, play the right tune for the music's boon." as kind of a good luck and reminder to be diligent.

Spread

This story varies from place to place with details varying here and there. This may be because no two caves are really the same in the acoustic department and layout... and treasure, for that matter. The original report is ambiguous, but the first successful communication is, of course, the encounter Eugine "Grandpa" Bunnehbutt had.

Cultural Reception

It's referenced in some videogames on Ellienias, but this story is actually not that wide spread. Maybe it's a new one, maybe it's only known by people that... well, know about 3CP first hand or by word of mouth. It seems to only get talked about in rural towns and farms you'd find on a postcard about "the good ol' days".

It's also resulted in miners, spelunkers and prospectors carrying some kind of instrument with them, usually in the form of harmonicas or whistles or other small musical instruments.

In Literature

The reports of sightings and interviews with reporters are all documented in the Tome of Oddities and Weird Stuff - Book Series and in a few books and comics in parody.

4th Wall Break

Inspiration

Inspiration for this one is a bit obscure, I think? Have you ever played Donkey Kong Country 3? You know those secret caves you can find to collect the Banana Birds? That's the inspiration here. The mechanic is even the same, where you repeat back the sequence of notes the crystals play and there's a lil quake and the crystal breaks and out pops the bird. :P Just figure I'd turn the quake up a bit. I might've gotten a bit of inspiration from Zelda and it's secrets. Heck, I'm listening to Vinesauce play Ocarina of Time as I type this.