The Other Side: Part 2

Last month completed an incredible four part series that took us from Freeport to Qeynos and back again. The story spun tales of a lost artifact that had the power to change ones very being, and did so to someone who was completely overpowered by the artifact. This month we're taking a totally different turn in Legends & Lore. We're bringing in new characters and a story theme that you might just recognize, if you look for the clues as to what is happening with the characters. How will this story turn out? Read on as 'The Other Side: Part 2' unfolds.

"Married!" Goldrush shouted. He looked over at Taelean to see what his reaction was. Taelean didn't look surprised in the least.

Taelean shrugged. "He goes out on numerous occasions, often coming back in an uplifted spirit. He also will carry a pack with him filled with supplies for several days." Taelean smiled briefly at Silverius. "One time he requested I stop at Tubal's Bane in South Qeynos and see if a friend could get him a discount on a platinum ruby ring with a singing magic affinity." Tirla held up the ring which began to sing a melodic tune. "Had I know of this place." He glanced around the room and then out the window.

Goldrush looked coldly at Taelean, then turned away and began mumbling something about his inability to find a wife or mate to share his passions with. After a moment he focused to the task at hand, finding a way home. "Where is this place and how did you find it?" He asked.

Silverius shrugged. "I honestly am not certain. I discovered this place when on a tour of our home four months ago. There was a beautiful figuring on an empty desk in a storage room." He looked at Goldrush nervously. "It seemed to call to me. Without thinking I took the figuring from the house without the owner's permission. I simply couldn't help myself. I headed home and while I was on my way I realized things were different. Without thinking much of it at the time I went back to what I thought was my old place only to find an abandoned apartment." Silverius brought out the figurine from his cloak. "The only explanation at the time was this somehow teleported me to an identical Qeynos, one with everything like our own but with totally different people in it."

Silverius's wife gestured at the figurine. "When he came to this place I thought him a crazy man, at least until I saw the figurine. It's one of the artifacts thought created by the gods. The markings over the figurine indicate over thirty places of unknown possible destinations."

"You see, Tirla here happens to be affiliated with many in this city who know about the gods of the past and what they created. I was fortunate to have found someone here who was so understanding of my situation." Silverius reached over and cupped his hand over hers.

Goldrush's cheeks grew red as he fought to control from yelling too loud. "Let me get this straight. You have been visiting here for months and we knew nothing about it!" This vast unexplored world and you kept it all to yourself. I should have known. You are always putting your own interested ahead of everyone else's."

Tirla stood up. "I resent that implication. We have been working for weeks on a way to bring others across the threshold, without any success."

Goldrush got up and paced across the room, then stopped and stared at Silverius for a long moment. "Why are we here right now?" He asked.

Silverius stared back; unable to quite answer he turned away. "I don't know. As far as we can tell, I am the only one able to travel back and forth, and that must be done here." He got up and walked over to the front door. "Somehow this house acts as a focal point, perhaps one of many. Carrying the statue across the threshold allows me to cross back and forth between worlds. It is only when I am holding this statue does it work either way, and only so far here in this house.

"I'm not going to guess then as to how you managed to obtain access again to the house in our world before the previous residence vacated it." Taelean commented.

"I frankly don't care. He could have at least told us as to what was going on." Goldrush exclaimed, getting up and heading over to Silverius, pointing at the statue outstretched in Silverius's hand. "This statue doesn't look all that impressive to me. Why won't it work for any of us?" Before Silverius could reply Goldrush grabbed the statue and bolted out the front door. He stopped and turned around, fully expecting to see someone else standing at the doorway. Only Silverius and the others stood there in astonishment.

"I told you it only works for me. That is exactly why I haven't said anything to you before because I didn't want to get your hopes up until I could figure out why." Silverius held his arm outstretched his arm, beckoning to Goldrush to return the statue.

Goldrush refused Silverius's explanation, blaming his lack of confession due to his soon to be wife, who resented that comment as well. It was clear the statue didn't work for Goldrush, but he refused anyway to accept that as a final determination. "Fine then, have your damn statue back." He was ready to throw the statue back at Silverius, when in mid-swing he glanced at the statue and noticed something very peculiar about its design. "Taelean, you still have that coin don't you?"

Taelean had his hands held up, half expecting Goldrush to throw the statue in his direction. He blinked, slowly lowering his hands. "Well, yes I do. It's right here." Taelean reached into the pouch that was tied to his waist and pulled out the coin, handing it to Goldrush.

Goldrush took it, flipping it over several times, and then nodded to himself. He then walked to the table and laid the statue on its back. There was a round indentation on the front none of them seemed to have noticed before. Goldrush turned the coin over several times, and then he shrugged and pressed the coin into the socket. A soft click sounded.

Excitement at the new discovery lit up everyone's eyes, especially the ladies. "Quick, follow me to the cellar." They followed Tirla into the cellar where there stood two statues from floor to ceiling that looked identical to the figurine.

Silverius walked up to the statues and smiled. "It all makes sense now." Tirla nodded in agreement while Taelean and Goldrush looked at each other in confusion.

"It does?" Taelean said, while he gazed at the statues.

"Tirla and I always knew there was a strong connection to the house and these statues. They somehow controlled the crossover but we were never sure how." He held up the statue in his hand. "The coin is the missing link. Each side would appear to represent each of our worlds. See where on each side it depicts our ruler Antonia but caste slightly different. Also the markings on the outside of the coin are different." Silverius glanced down at the statue he held, a frown forming on his face. "The markings on this coin don't appear to match these two in the house though." He mulled that over as everyone tried to grasp what he had said.

"So does this mean we can go home now?" Taelean asked.

They decided to give the new theory a try and exit the house with the coin inserted into the statue, to see if that would somehow work for them. Silverius realized the coin had as much connection as the statue did. With both of them together it might create an area affect transfer. Together they might finally be able to bring the others home, and back again.

Holding the statue, Silverius held the others as they walked through the front door then turned around and closed it. They stood there for a moment, half expecting to see something or someone familiar after stepping through.

"If this works I hope we can still go back and collect some things of mine. I can't leave the house alone when the members of my order trust me to keep it safe while they are away." Tirla said as she turned towards the house, surveying the structure. "It doesn't look any different." She grasped the door handle and turned it, pushing the door inward. A strong musty scent wafted out from inside the house. Everyone peered in, seeing only a haze and a brief resemblance to the house they had just left. Tirla held her nose as she entered. "You guys are in desperate need of a maid."

Silverius and the others grabbed her simultaneously and dragged her back to the doorstep. "This isn't our home either." Silverius said just an old splotchy skinned frog appeared from inside the house.

"Rrriiiibittt!, riiibiittt!" The frog said over and over leaping up and down, protesting their intrusion. They promptly left and closed the door, stepping off the property.

"That wasn't either of our houses." Goldrush said. The others quickly nodded in agreement.

They stood there for several minutes, all of them, especially Silverius, confused as to why they had not appeared at either of the two original houses. They tried three more times to enter, each of them holding the statue, only to appear at the frog's house and Tirla's. The second time they came back to Tirla's house she grabbed several things before they tried to transport again. The frog was quite upset each time they entered and exited his house. On the last try it was found to be locked upon attempting to re-enter.

Tirla paced back and forth, holding her right index finger to her lips. Silverius knew that expression. She was onto something for sure. They waited patiently while Tirla formulated a way to get them out of the current situation. Silverius hoped anyway.

Miner Bobbin, an exhausted and entirely over-worked gnome in his opinion, chiseled away at the rock face before him. His team consisted of two other gnomes and a dwarf. They had spent almost twenty days digging out tunnels in the sewers to expand the system. It was tiring work but often peaceful. Besides his co-workers the only other company he had was the occasional rat or beetle that walked by, which he promptly ate.

Four hours to go and his shift would be over. He figured they were just about under the cathedral by now. Just a few weeks more and they would connect with the other tunnel. He swung the pickaxe in a wide arc, slamming the tip into the muddy rock face. A dull "thunk" sounded. That wasn't right, he thought. The noise was distinctly sharper than the rest of the wall had been. Swinging the pickaxe again he heard the same dull "thunk" sound. Curious as to what he had hit, although he speculated it was probably a chunk of mineral, he swung his pickaxe again and again until finally a large chunk of rock loosened, and fell away into a large cavern beyond. He sighed, thinking how long it would take them to re-tunnel if a large cavity was discovered.

Picking up a nearby lamp he walked closer to the gaping hole and stretched his arms out, allowing the lamp to illuminate the cavern beyond. A cool breeze swept across his face as he stared into the abyss. The lantern light reflected off a vast river that flowed some twenty meters below him, with stairs spiraling down from two distinct wall entrances on the far side. Torches lined the stairs and walls, creating a dancing pattern of lights that illuminated what had to be the most impressive site in the entire cavern. What had to be thirty some statues that supported the ceiling, lined the walls around the entire cavern. That explained what was holding up the cathedral above.

While he stared in awe, water that was pooled in the caves he was digging out had begun to erode the holes outer structure, opening an even wider hole than before. Bobbin began to panic as the hole appeared to show no sign of slowing its growth. He looked around frantically for his companions, but was unable to locate any of them. Panic set in as he couldn't think of a way to stop the walls collapse.

He was about to scream a warning, as the deterioration of the wall would surely comprise the building above and thus the entire cavern, when the ground beneath him gave way, plunging him into the cavern, straight down towards the river below.

"What is it my dear?" Silverius said.

Tirla thought for a moment longer then took the coin out from the statue, flipping it over. "What if the coin face determines where you transport to?"

"An interesting idea, although how does it determine a return destination? Goldrush said.

"It's the statue itself!" Taelean leapt up with excitement at coming to such a vague conclusion. He had been relatively quite up until now. "There are no statues in our cellar that I know of. Maybe this one," He shook the statue. "is tuned to this house. To get home we can try the ladies idea and flip over the coin and insert it back into the statue."

None of them had a better idea, although Goldrush had to admit that Taelean may be right. They flipped the coin and headed to the front door, stepping out onto the street beyond. As they had experienced before it was difficult to tell if they had gone anywhere. Cautiously, Goldrush opened the door, and quickly closed it. The image before his eyes was hard to clear away, fortunately none of the others managed to get a good look. He wouldn't tell them either what he saw. "This isn't our house either." he quickly said, leaving their curiosity peaked.

They sat there on the porch for some time before stepping into the house so they could exit it again to get back to the ladies house. Goldrush sighed when he spied no one present this time.

"I thought the other side would bring us home? Goldrush said.

"This isn't the right coin, obviously. There must be more somewhere." Silverius replied.

"Wait a minute. How come you were able to make it back to our place on so many occasions without the coin?" Goldrush said.

"That doesn't make much send to me either." Taelean commented.

Silverius shrugged. "It must tune itself to the last coin inserted, including the person who last used it. Once we put in another coin the original destination and key master was null and void."

Goldrush started to argue again. Tirla managed to calm him down, explaining that their only chance as she saw it was to locate another coin and try it out. Their best bet she figured was to start looking somewhere in the cathedral.

"Why is the cathedral so important?" Goldrush sighed, exasperated.

"The cathedral has several medium sized statues decorating the halls. It would seem to me that the cathedral itself might somehow play a critical role in this transportation process, as I've always imagined it had. Now that we know more of what we are looking for our best chance is to start at the cathedral. Silverius and I have several friends there that might be able to assist us." They decided this was a good bet as any so they left the house and headed down the street towards the cathedral.

When they arrived at the front steps a screaming gnome came running around the corner. He was covered in mud, spitting chunks of it as he screamed. "It's falling down! What are we to do?" He ran around them in circles screaming the same line over and over again until they could calm him down. Once they got him to stop they couldn't get another word out of him because he was so wound up. Instead he dashed off back the way he had come. They followed him around to the back corner of the cathedral where he disappeared into an open door way that look to lead to a storage room.

They followed him in. Neither Silverius nor Tirla had been through this room before, and certainly not into the stairway ahead of them that led to somewhere far below the cathedral. Walking down, mindful of all the cracks and the general slippery floor, they arrived at what had to be the most impressive statue collection any of them had ever seen. It far exceeded in size the ones in the ladies basement.

Silverius looked around in awe. "This is simply amazing! Look at the statues and their identical design as the ones in your cellar." He looked over at Tirla. "You never told me about this place before."

She walked over to the nearest statue. "Believe me, if I had known about this we would have been down here long ago." Something glittered in the slowly rising water at her feet. She stooped down, fishing through the water until she caught hold of what she saw, bringing it up for all to see. It was one of the coins!

As they passed the coin around Taelean noticed the water was continuing to rise, and finally took notice of the gnome rushing over to the side of the far wall where a large gaping hole had formed. "I think we have a bigger problem here than we realize." They all took notice of the hole and the water powering into the cavern.

"We need to find that coin and get out of here now." As goldrush shouted for them to all begin searching for coins the sides of the caverns continued to deteriorate all around them. If they left now they may never find a way home, but if they stayed much longer the entire structure might collapse under them. Either way they had to somehow warn anyone above if the walls continued to erode like they were.

One of the pillars came crashing down in the middle, separating Tirla and Silverius from the others. The rest of the group was forced to move back towards the end of the cavern while Silverius and Tirla moved up the stairs to see over the pillar. There was no apparent way for them to cross. They could wait for the water to rise but by then the entire cavern would have been compromised.

They looked towards Silverius to see if there was any way for them to cross over. With the water rising rapidly and the walls continuing to deteriorate around them they had little time. "We'll find another way and come through the house's portal. Don't worry about us!" Silverius shouted as he and Tirla retreated further up the stairs.

The rest continued to collect as many coins as they could while they looked for another way to get out. Silverius noticed that each of the statues had a small door at the base. "This must have been some massive central chamber for transporting around. Quickly, try each of the doors." Silverius and the others split up and began opening the doors to the statues, those statues that were left standing anyway. Upon opening each of the doors they came up to a hard rock wall, clearly no exit.

That's when Goldrush noticed the coin was missing from the statue they had carried with them. It must have fallen somewhere in the water. He suspected the doorways were portals, and in their present situation it didn't matter much where they went. Grabbing one of the coins out of his pouch they had collected he inserted it into the statue. It immediately began to glow a soft green tint. He walked around, watching the glow intensify and then fade. There appeared to be no consistency to it until he realized it was strongest nearer to one of the doors. Tucking the statue in his pouch he opened the door.

Water gushed in as he viewed what had to be their house; not Tirla's, not the frog's, nor the strange place they had encountered before arriving here, but their own home at last. Calling out for the others they made their way through the door, using all of their combined strengths to shut it from the incoming rush of water. After they managed to close the door, the water immediately ceasing to even slightly leak in, they looked around at the mess the brief rush of water had caused. It would be awhile before they could clean it up. They stared at each other for a moment, realizing they were home but also realizing they had left two very good friends behind, picking up a stranger in their place. At least Silverius was with his wife safe at her home. Would they ever find a way to make it back? He stared down at the statue in his hand, the glow already fading. They better make it back, he thought to himself as he stared at their new friend. Whatever am I going to do with a gnome in the house?