Crafter's Ward Time Capsule

"So this is what got old Sesston canned by Constantine?" Thanie stepped around the plinth, circling the capsule. It was only a metal box, hinges and latch rusted with age. The guard posted in the rotunda was asleep; presumably watching a box for most of an eight hour shift was not the most engaging of tasks.
Cara clicked her tongue. "The price of obsession, I suppose. A District Commander must represent the values of Etoile, and temperance is key. The man made an ass of himself over what's likely a box of fripperies. Don't touch it. Can't let his 'sacrifice' go to waste."
"Was that a joke? Did you just make a joke, Caranda?" Thanie gave the Magistrate a grin. "I've never been interested in time capsules, anyway. Unless there's a stash of pirate's gold in them."
"I was merely hoping that there was something Sesston saw about the capsule that made it all worth his while. From a state sinecure to working a desk job at a junior Consortium. I didn't think there would be literally nothing." Cara shook her head. "I reviewed the magisterial records. Nothing about how it was recovered. Sesston himself is the only person that has that story."
"Either it's really juicy," the apprentice said, "or it is *incredibly* stupid. Stupid enough to where he didn't want it anywhere on the record. Any guesses? Perhaps he had to go to a den of iniquities, or be painted in a compromising pose." Thanie had a thoughtful look. "Even better - maybe whoever had the capsule demanded that he himself work in the night before handing the capsule over?"
Cara blinked. "I can't imagine anyone demanding those services of a District Commander of the Principality. Not unless there was some sort of leverage at hand, which itself seems like a good enough reason to remove him from service. Though I'm not about to ask either Sesston or the Princeps about the circumstances, curious as they may be."

History

The Crafter's Ward Time Capsule is, in the words of the Etoilean Monitor, 

The most amount of effort expended on what is possibly the least important object, by ratio.

The building of the Crafter's Ward in Patino, the Machine City was a quick and rough affair after the manufactories of the Arsenal Ward were marked for privatization. The completion of the Ward (and the building of Patino Central Hall) represented a major shift in the Principality of Etoile from a war footing to that of Progress and growth, and to mark the occasion, a time capsule was placed under a plinth in the Crafter Ward's central plaza in 632, containing various artifacts of the time and slated to be opened in a hundred years. The time capsule was promptly forgotten about, as most time capsules are little more than excuses for an officious ceremony and journal article.
It was in 722, ten years before the Capsule was intended to be recovered and opened, that an employee of the Patino District Commander came across a journal article about the time capsule. Intrigued, they had the plinth moved to confirm its presence - but it was missing, having been stolen at some point in the last ninety years. These sorts of artifact capsules intentionally are of little material value (usually some trinkets and recent journals), so the question of who had stolen the time capsule and for what purpose became that much more opaque.
Whether out of true motivation or boredom, the District Commander became obsessed with the time capsule, and devoted the resources of Headquarters Patino to the task. Journal descriptions of the Time Capsule were found in archives, and posters promising large rewards for information about the Capsule were scattered all across Patino. No lead was uninvestigated, and the District Commander himself was seen on a regular basis wandering around the wards and examining the contents of warehouse backrooms. This became a running joke in the Patino journals, and fodder for the Monitor back in the Etoile Capital City.
Within a season, the time capsule was recovered in circumstances that remain fairly unclear; what is known is that the capsule remained unopened, nobody was charged with the theft of the capsule itself (with the District Commander maintaining a silence), and the capsule is now on a plinth in Central under the direct watch of a local guardsman, ready to be opened in a ceremony in the second season of 732. For his trouble, the District Commander was replaced in 724, as Constantine was reportedly deeply unhappy with the mockery in the journals.

Significance

Time capsules in general are, for lack of a better term, a 'kitsch' object. Though meant to preserve a part of the world and of history, The Academy of Etoile researchers have noted that there's no particular need to bury the object underground to preserve it, as opposed to being placed in an archive or recorded in an academic journal (with many jokes to be made about 'squirrel hoards'). Roughly half of the time capsules known to have been buried have already missed their intended opening date; those that have been opened to pomp and circumstance have generally been disappointments, due to degradation of the contents or the fact that the contents themselves were relatively uninteresting.
The Crafter's Ward Time Capsule, while unopened, is now more associated with the jokes and ridiculous circumstance that led to its recovery.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Creation Date

632

Rarity

While time capsules are fairly uncommon, this one is unique.

Weight

25lb

Dimensions

A square-foot box, six inches high

Base Price

n/a

Raw materials & Components

The Crafter's Ward Time Capsule is a simple iron box a foot square, with a latching hinged lid. The contents inside remain unknown.