r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Charming_History7423 • Nov 25 '22
Antique safe made in France around ~1780 / 1810. With three keys and a combination of ordered switches
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u/JoeDomm73 Nov 25 '22
A modern safe-breaker would have a veeeery hard time with this one.
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u/_Im_Dad Nov 25 '22
I reckon I could break in to this, it'll take some time though. Then I'll masturbate inside the vault to celebrate.
It's about time I came into money.
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u/JoeDomm73 Nov 25 '22
Dad is weird.
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u/overloadedcoffee Nov 25 '22
I read this. Closed the comment. Then went back to upvote it for the pun.
Brilliant.
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u/Cultural_Ant Nov 25 '22
"This is the Lockpicking lawyer .... "
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u/Logan20th Nov 25 '22
"And today, I'm gonna get into this safe with just a toothpick and my pinky toe"
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u/well_shoothed Nov 25 '22
Lockpicking Lawyer is like the Chuck Norris of lockpicking... it wouldn't surprise any of us to hear:
"And today, I'm gonna get into this safe
with just a toothpick and my pinky toejust by my looking menacingly at it"4
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u/SH4D0W0733 Nov 25 '22
''The French always forgot their magnetic shielding in that era, so by putting this magnet here on the side... and it's open.''
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u/boris_keys Nov 25 '22
Let’s do it one more time just to make sure that it was not a fluke. Okay folks…
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u/boris_keys Nov 25 '22
I bet he could pick those twisty locks with the tool Bosnian bill and he made.
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u/gabrielesilinic Nov 25 '22
Well probably he would be able to break trough the material itself but not trough the puzzle
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u/Plethora_of_squids Nov 25 '22
I don't know about that - there's this thing called a himitsu-bako (probably better known as Japanese puzzle boxes) which are known for being super complicated but at the same time can absolutely be cracked if you spend enough time fiddling with it. This just looks like one of those, but with a few locks which could probably be turned with enough leverage.
Like if you started playing with this you'd probably notice that one of the knobs is loose and has a certain position it wants to be in and that there's marks where a different knob has been shifted and whatnot. You probably wouldn't be able to crack it as fast as a normal safe sure (even at the time - this was never commonly used so even an era accurate safebreaker would be stopped by this) but it's definitely still doable.
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u/ReluctantAvenger Nov 25 '22
I wonder. Seems to me that with a sequence that complicated, someone is going to have to write it down. Instead of cracking the safe, I'll be looking for the note.
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u/real_human_person Nov 25 '22
The note is to be found in an even more complex safe, which has been encased in molten steel, dumped at the deepest point of the bottom of the marianas trench, and is accompanied by a suspicious looking snail.
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u/ReluctantAvenger Nov 25 '22
Dang - that was nearly perfect. You should've gone with a killer rabbit instead of the snail. /s
Then again, perhaps it's that snail (from the story) which never stops chasing you?
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u/shadovvvvalker Nov 25 '22
Most safecracks in a professional setting just involve drills and cameras.
Unless you are going for a surreptitious entry, the face plates are prime targets for removal.
And it would be surprising if the sequence couldn't be broken with just picking 1 or 2 keyways with a skeleton key. They are just extremely warded keyways. Warded Keys are not hard to figure out. Thats why we don't use them anymore.
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u/ShadowPouncer Nov 25 '22
Only because they didn't have the right tools.
The locks themselves are almost certainly just complicated looking Warded Locks.
That means that opening the safe is probably pretty easy once you make something close enough to the right shape to both go into the lock hole, and to turn the mechanism.
It's possible that it is, indeed, more complicated, and/or that they included 'traps' to try and trip you up with it, but a modern pin tumbler lock with good tolerances and security pins is almost certainly a great deal more secure.
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u/tn-dave Nov 25 '22
“Hey Reddit - just found this safe in my Grandparents attic. Any ideas how to get it open?”
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u/CoalNightshade Nov 25 '22
To unlock this safe you need to make 3 DC 20 Investigation checks, and 3 DC15+ Slight of Hand/Lockpick checks
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Nov 25 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/loneandlost Nov 25 '22
I was certain someone would definitely mention LPL. Love that guy. Anyway, that's all for today...
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u/Ronagall Nov 25 '22
This is all I could think of... Might be the first lock to take him over 15 minutes.
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u/oiiSuPreSSeDo Nov 25 '22
A D20 crit or 2 would pop this open in a mere kick or 2
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u/MinosAristos Nov 25 '22 edited Nov 25 '22
D20 is the best reasonably possible outcome, nobody can kick this open. D20 would be "you kick the safe and do not injure yourself".
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u/FaeryLynne Nov 25 '22
"Reasonably possible" are the keywords a lot of players (and DMs) forget. A D20 crit does not mean "shit that's completely ridiculous happens" it means you applied all your luck and skill and got the best outcome for this situation
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u/oiiSuPreSSeDo Nov 25 '22
Indeed. Sometimes a door/chest/npc be locked up so tight a 20/20 crit does precisely jackshit
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u/SeekeretStuff Nov 25 '22
It's bad DMing imo to let your players roll for things that are impossible. Putting impossible tasks in front of your players should be avoided, it's typically just lazy railroading.
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u/GenexenAlt Nov 25 '22
What a Sleight of Hand check cannot solve, a Strength check can
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u/Onkelcuno Nov 25 '22
Barbarian: I rolled an 28 on my athletics check to smash it, +4 from the ram you gave me. does a 32 open it?
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u/lelawes Nov 25 '22
Those key shapes are amazing! I’d be interested to know how they’re triggered on the back end, and exactly how difficult they would be able to pick without significant prep time.
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u/robhol Nov 25 '22
It might just be the keyhole that's that way and that the individual locks aren't as pick proof as they seem. This looks a lot like "security through obscurity" and maybe they're the world's simplest locks behind an exotic-looking key hole - there's just lots of them, and hidden behind stuff.
Just guessing, though.
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Nov 25 '22
You're probably right, I'm fairly sure that the key shape is most of it. They're all pretty thin and finely smithed, preventing a pry bar from being inserted. I'm guessing the locks behind are about as complex as a room door.
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u/Chubbstock Nov 25 '22
Also I think it's important to know how easily the key turns. It doesn't look like it has a lot of pressure that it's overcoming, so there's not much mechanism behind it
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u/RandomComputerFellow Nov 25 '22
I think security through obscurity was a completely valid security system in a time where knowledge traveled slow and there were no tools easily reverse engineer something like this. It is only nowadays a problem where an variety of tools and information is available.
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u/DeebsterUK Nov 25 '22
The obscurity does add to it though, since just having the keys won't be enough for you to open the safe. Not quite on the level of modern 2FA but we're talking about over 200 years ago.
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u/shitty_mcfucklestick Nov 25 '22
They had 2FA back then too. 2 Fuckin’ Assholes were posted at the door to prevent unauthorized access.
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u/Teantis Nov 25 '22
Oy move along!
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u/indigoHatter Nov 25 '22
Hahaha, nice.
Amusingly, if there's a guard, this actually creates 3FA for this safe.
- Keys = something you have
- The order of the buttons to twist and slide = something you know
- The guards recognizing you = something you are
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u/frisbm3 Nov 26 '22
Plus, you can have a different guy have each key so that they can only access it together.
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u/Jeffy29 Nov 25 '22
I don’t think they locks will be particularly difficult to pick for a skilled lockpicker once they have an access to the keyhole, but hose knobs are crazy. Depending how well made the non-functional knobs are made (if movement can get detected or not) the amount of possible combinations between the knobs is crazy.
Take every 15 degrees of every knob as a number, then each push, each pull, holding while you move a different knob, you quickly arrive to as many possible combinations as modern passwords have. I am not sure if a lockpicker could devise a way to bypass them without simply getting lucky or breaking it.
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u/robhol Nov 25 '22
Good point. I didn't think they looked like the stereotypical "cartoon safe dial" and considering how secure (or not) the rest of it looks, I assumed they're not too finicky but you're not meant to know they're there.
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u/planx_constant Nov 25 '22
Locks from that time were entirely about preventing the key from getting in, with an unusual profile, or from turning with a few simple wards. Picking a lock from that era is dead easy.
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u/MundanePresence Nov 25 '22
I'm no pro, but learn the basic to pick. Those shapes must be complicated, especially the " G" shapes
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u/boredom_victim Nov 25 '22
The amazing shapes are warded keyways, the shape is the security - not very hard to pick, as long as you can get something strong enough through the keyway you should be able just to turn the mechanism behind.
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u/yunus89115 Nov 25 '22
I was thinking with a sketch pad and trace paper you could probably 3D print a key.
Not that 18th century lock designers had to really consider that possibility of course.
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u/OneTPAuX Nov 25 '22
Paging LPL. Paging LPL.
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u/Yastiandrie Nov 25 '22
He'll probably open it in 15 seconds with a troll doll head or something
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u/indigoHatter Nov 25 '22
"today we're gonna use Halloween candy and leftover Thanksgiving dinner bread to open this old safe."
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u/leoioi Nov 25 '22
Click out of 1, click out of 2....
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u/jnd-cz Nov 25 '22
I don't think there are any pins in this one. He'll use piece of thicker wire and just turn it in all three holes.
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u/Slothfully_So Nov 25 '22
“We’re being robbed, where’s the gun?” ”In the safe.” 🫤
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u/MikeBrowne2010 Nov 25 '22
Stall the intruder, I only need 37 minutes!
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u/hardknockcock Nov 25 '22
And another 20 minutes to prime the shot since this is the 17 to 1800s and we French won’t invent cartridge casings for another 40ish years
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u/GreeneBean64 Nov 25 '22
As a vault technician, this is the epitome of what I do. It’s so intricate and beautiful and complicated. Art with purpose. Meanwhile, I mostly deal with motion sensors going off at 4am bc the air kicked on and blew some papers around or a mole made a nest too close by.
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u/CulturalActuator Nov 25 '22
You won’t be so glib when that little mole finally robs a client blind.
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u/indigoHatter Nov 25 '22
We had someone fill someone's office with balloons for their birthday the next day.
They tripped the alarm repeatedly that night.
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u/ZirePhiinix Nov 25 '22
This is called security through obscurity. It's not that secure.
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u/robhol Nov 25 '22
That was my first impression too. It depends on what the locks look like internally - worst case, it might just be a hunk of gnarly metal you pass through a complicated-looking hole, and then it just shoves a bit of metal around without any typical lock "security features" at all.
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u/Floppsicle Nov 25 '22
Ah yes, Reddits lockpicking experts have arrived.
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Nov 25 '22
It's very easy. Just get the click on 1 and 2 and the bind on 3, and that's it, you're in. Simple.
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u/Quirky-Skin Nov 25 '22
Well yeah I've seen the video now. You fools! I know the combination to 1700-1800s safe now! Nothing can stop me from getting the parcels of secret info.
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u/jnd-cz Nov 25 '22
You don't need to be expert to see that those keys are solid chunks of metal with no cuts to activate any pins inside.
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u/robhol Nov 25 '22
Yes, but then they couldn't be snarkily superior at the people being interested in stuff, or, god forbid, having opinions.
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u/DeathStar13 Nov 25 '22
Yes the lock is easy to pick but you have first to get to the keyhole
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u/AnotherGit Nov 25 '22
This is called security through obscurity.
Which in ~1780-1810 meant "very secure".
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u/pv0psych0n4ut Nov 25 '22
I think this is more of secret safe kind of thing where you stick it in a similiar looking wall rather than an obvious safe where you put it in the middle of your house.
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u/mjkjg2 Nov 25 '22
shut up and take my money
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u/ReddFoxxJr210 Nov 25 '22
I need this! I have nothing worth protecting in it and no room to keep it but I absolutely need this
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u/SmileAndDeny Nov 25 '22
I can picture Geralt getting mad it’s taking too long to get his coin from some dwarf banker.
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u/rubixjobseeker Nov 25 '22
I guess those resident evil puzzles aren't so crazy after all.
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u/BraidShadowLegendsAD Nov 25 '22
Combination written at the back of the Declaration of Independence?
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u/wakeupwill Nov 25 '22
Some DC 25 lock picking required here.
Or maybe an extra ten seconds for the Lock Picking Lawyer.
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u/SaviaTarsisDronca Nov 25 '22
”Hello guys, this is thelockpickinglawyer and for today I have this safe from around 1780…”
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u/Paco_Pirata Nov 25 '22
I'd probably get pissed every time it'd need to be opened and just start leaving valuables outside
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u/chasteeny Nov 25 '22
Given how shit the metallurgy was I imagine the most secure thing about this is the fact it just doesnt look outright like a safe
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u/boti4207781 Nov 25 '22
how they hell woukd one go about building such s catraption if you dont minf mind me asking ? purely out of curiosity . thanks .
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u/Need_vagina_pix_nao Nov 25 '22
I do amateur locksmith and lock picking for a hobby. I don't see how a person with no knowledge about a lock like that could even start the process unless you had a plasma torch or something. That's amazing.
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u/getoffmygrassdevil Nov 25 '22
now a days if you forget your password all you gotta do is reset it. with this thing though...