"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Anders said cheerfully. "But it sounds much more interesting than delivering a nag to the next town. Go fetch him, bring him here.

"Anyone wanting to visit the cathedral of the pearl, gather round!" he called out.

Putting his hand in the crack, he pulled on it to see if it would widen further.

In reply to Dread Pirate Robert (msg # 401):

"Hello, sir? What is not here?" Alessandra asks.

OOC: Welcome back, Alessandra! Hope the holidays haven't been getting to you.


Anders has no problem slipping his hands into the 'crack', but, oddly, there's nothing for him to grab! On the other hand, he quickly realizes that he can slip through completely the way it is.

It's like looking at a door at an angle in a mirror. It's a full-sized door; it just looks narrower that it really is.

Noticing that Anders does not seem to be having any luck with his attempts to grab this door that only he can see, Vasily decides it would be best to note details to aid the rest of them in recreating this vision. "Uh, hold on there a second, sir."

Vasily approaches Anders an kneels down to draw a tracing of Anders' feet. He also carefully notes where Anders is looking and holding his hands.

"Hopefully that will allow us to see what you see."

"That's a clever piece of thinking, Vasily!" Valentino comments. "I'd never have thought of that! Then again, I'm used to being on a ship where your feet are never in the same place for two seconds!"

Alessandra looks questioningly at the others. ''I wish he would tell us what he is seeing.''

"It's a cathedral..." Anders finally says, "right... there!"

He reaches out as if trying to touch something that isn't there.

With Vasily having traced Anders' feet in the dirt, he felt confident in stepping aside and letting the others stand in the same place.

"It's like looking through the crack of a door that's only open half an inch. I'm not quite sure why you can only see it at just the right angle."

"And I don't understand why I can see it but it doesn't seem to be physically there. Anyway, my guess, based on the exotic architecture, is that it's a Syrne structure. It looks like a cathedral to me. If any of  you can see it, does it look like a cathedral to you, too?"

"Okay, so we know where Prad was going now," Valentino says. "Of course, that's assuming he actually has the Black Pearl."

"If it's somehow controlling him, I don't think we want to take it off of him just yet. It could wind up affecting one of us."

"Clearly, though, it's allowing him to sense this cathedral, but not how to reach it. We could try pushing him through the crack... The problem with that is that it may require the Pearl to go through. Then we'd be stuck out here."

"One of us should attempt to go through first; that way there will be someone on the other side to help Prad through, and we'll know if we can get through without the artifact. Of course it seems virtually everyone has some reason to claim priority over me, but, if no one objects, I'd be happy to step through first."

"I was sort of trying, but if you want to go first, Vasily, be my guest," Anders responds.

"I'll help keep an eye on Prad to see what he does."

"Ok, at very least it will be a good way to test my measurements."

Vasily goes to stand exactly where Anders was and attempts to replicate everything about it, to see if he can see the doorway as well. If and when he can see it, he attempts to slip into the "partially open door."

Vasily steps onto the same spot as Anders had been standing but sees nothing at first. It only takes a few seconds to figure out that he has to be looking at just the right angle to see through the rift. He's not sure what that means, but that's exactly what it appears to be... a narrow crack in the air. Through and beyond it, he can see what can only be described as a cathedral.

He reaches out to try and touch the rift or feel something different. His hand has no problem sliding into the rift, followed by his arm, and then his whole body. And then he's standing on the 'other side'.

Oddly, he can still see the others, standing on the moor just like he is.

He realizes that the narrow appearance of the rift is actually some sort of distortion, as it is clearly wider than it appears.

As with most cathedrals, this one is huge, though maybe not so much as cathedrals go. Vasily is viewing it at an angle so that he can see it has three towers (probably a fourth that's on the opposite corner that he can't see) and a central spire that rises up higher than the towers. It appears as if the entrance faces east while what would be the south side is lined with tall narrow stained-glass windows.

The material that the cathedral is made of appears to be marble, but it's a pale greyish-green. The style is ornate but without faces, people or animals depicted--it's just 'decorative'.

Vasily is uncertain if the others can see him or hear him, but he announces his status nonetheless; "I'm through safely. There is indeed a large building here that resembles a smallish cathedral with towers forming each of the visible corners, as well as a central spire. It appears to feature stained glass windows, though I cannot make out what sort of motif they are portraying.

Please come through, the rest of you, so that we can explore this."

In reply to Vasily Pavlychenko (msg # 423):

Alessandra follows, and gasps quietly at what she sees.

As it turns out, the others can neither see nor hear Vasily once he steps through, although they can see him through the 'crack' and his words sound like the sighing of the wind.

Valentino is the next to step through, heeding his own words of caution about Prad.

Of course, that meant trusting newly-met Anders, but once through, Valentino immediately tries to return through it to the 'real world'.

Valentino has no problem stepping through, nor of stepping back through to the other side.

Like Vasily, he's a bit confused about how he can still see Anders and Prad while 'inside' yet can't touch them or hear them. He can literally pass right through them (or them him) without them knowing it.

Anders is the last to slip through the rift or whatever it is. It's tricky maneuvering Prad through together with him just to make sure that the Black Pearl (if Prad has it) won't do something crazy. Of course, once through, he thinks he was being a bit foolish at the precautions.

He's heard a few stories about the Syrne but mostly ignored the more outlandish ones. The lesser ones--about finding relics in unexpected places--didn't care any sense of power or dread.

This empty moor certainly qualified as an unexpected place.

"I don't see anything that screams Syrne to me," he comments to the others. "And if it wasn't for the fact that it's invisible from the road, I'm not sure I'd call it Syrne."

"Then again, after all this time, it doesn't look like time or the elements have affected it much. Are we even sure it's really there? We never walked across the moor to see if we ran into it. Perhaps we should move closer to it and see if it can be touched... now that we're 'on the other side'."

In reply to Anders Mendelsson (msg # 428):

Alessandra wonders what is on the other side. Perhaps this whole thing is an illusion.

"Let's see what is inside that cathedral." Vasily says, and starts heading in that direction.

There is a vague 'barrier' when you stepped through the portal, but no other impediment to moving toward the cathedral.

Approaching the cathedral cautiously, you don't encounter any dangers or premonitions. Even when you are close enough to touch it, there's no sense of dread or trepidation coming from it. When you reach out and touch it, it is solidly there.

Having walked to one of the doors, you can see that there are strange symbols carved into the wood (?) of the door... intentional design rather than something meant as graffiti. If it's meant as a warning, it isn't obvious that it is, which defeats the purpose of a warning.

Even touching the door handle produces no results. There appears to be no lock, so all it takes is to pull the door open...

Vasily pulls the door open. "Let's see what's inside, shall we? Ordinarily I would offer to let the lady enter first, but this seems like a situation where one of us gentlemen should take the lead, if you don't mind, Ms Alessandra."

"Just remember, there were several different people that are collectively labeled 'Syrne'," Valentino reminds Anders.

"The actual Syrne were merely the last, and the first discovered. It is thought that they may have built over top of the previous races, perhaps even destroyed or obliterated traces of the previous ones."

"But, you are right... this doesn't look like any Syrne I've seen, though I admit I've only seen one or two illustrations. I suppose this could be either Early Syrne or Later Syrne; styles could have changed."

He draws his sword in case something should leap out of the cathedral after all this time. He found it hard to imagine anything that could have lived so long.

Vasily pulls open the door with no problem, but what greets your eyes is astounding.

The interior seems constructed of transparent green glass! The green is about the same color as a green apple.

First there is a foyer as wide as the building. In the middle of it, there is a wide set (20 feet) of green glass stairs about 30 feet in that lead upward. At the top of the stairs, they reach a balcony, also of green glass, that goes completely around the room. Two doors--one at each side of the balcony--can be seen. These, too, appear to be made of green glass. A massive green glass chandelier hangs from the ceiling, which also appears to be made of green glass. Outside ight streams in through the walls and ceiling.

On the ground floor, there is a free-standing doorway to either side of the stairs. The view through each doorway, however, is different than the view that can be seen around the doorway. Since there is no wall in which the doorway is set, that is easily seen, which appears to be either a room or a wide hallway extending farther back into the building.

There is no door in these doorways... just the green glass door frame.

Both doorways appear to lead to a room, but the view is different in each. The view on the left is that of a large banquet room complete with green glass table, green glass chairs, and even a green glass chandelier and green glass candelabra on the table. There are no serving dishes, plates or utensils on the table, nor any food, nor any people visible.

The view on the right is that of a dimly-lit hallway. The walls of this hallway are made of green glass, but it is uncertain where the dim light is coming from. Three doors can be seen down the hallway--two on the left, one on the right. There might be more, but the light isn't strong enough to let you see how far the hallway goes or if there are doors farther along.

"Wow! This is truly awe-inspiring. Truly those species who came before us were capable of amazing marvels. There appear to be no dangers, just impossible architecture."

Vasily steps forward into the building, then turns back "It seems like it should be safe for everyone to enter. Make sure Prad comes in too; we don't want to lose track of him."

He then begins looking around getting closer looks at everything he can see. He's especially curious about what the open doorways look like from behind, but, honestly, there are amazing details everywhere.