There's always a certain clamminess to this chamber. Maybe it's because the real Yodhgorphat avoided it so much? But somewhere in this temple is - hopefully - some sort of map or guide to the Streets Below which may include the gathering places of the Yodhdiphath cultists.
Nicora, back in her 'natural' form (thanks to Melusine's tweaks), steps into the gloomy temple. Knowing that she would be going deeper into the temple this time, she's fashioned a small mask she wears over her muzzle to hopefully filter out any mold or worse that she may encounter. "Right, so Phlagaea knew of many old temples and hiding places. She even took me to one, so perhaps she had some maps in her old room. It would have moved tho the high priestess chambers afterward, so..." she murmurs to herself. Being here is always a bit nervewracking, but she's thankful she's on 'good terms' with the Goddess. But, always better safe than sorry, she heads to the main altar first and kneels down before it in respect, bowing her head in a moment of silence.
Of course, it's possible that Phlagaea never returned to the temple after the Night of Burning Temples. She may have stayed with the Yodhsunala and then left Babel.. but it's certainly worth checking out! The High Priestess must have some special information, after all.
Nicora's tail seems agitated at being in the Temple, and keeps biting her butt to express this.
After her moment of respect has passed, Nicora rises ... and swats at her tail. "Show respect to our lover," she softly growls at her own butt. She walks past the altar now and looks for passageways back into the temple, and to the residential section if her luck holds out.
There seems little rhyme or reason to the layout of the Temple, since most of it consists of natural caverns (with often unnatural things growing or pooling or oozing in them). There are caves that certainly show signs of habitation, but the Yodhgorphat didn't seem to hold on to much in the way of personal effects, beyond the makeup and decorations for their bandages. There are plenty of bottles of glowing green goo around for light at least. Finally, Nicora finds the abode of the High Priestess - right off the main cavern where the Yodh would gather. The most important priestess clearly deserved the room that required the least amount of effort to get to.
The small side-cavern has actual furniture (made of stone), including a desk and bed and something like a wardrobe. It was also, surprisingly, dry.
And deciding to keep her tail out of trouble, Nicora reaches around to bring the eighteen inch 'annoyance' around and keep it curled around her left forearm so it can't bite her. She also tries not to think about what it represents as she does this since that would be strange. "Now behave," she whispers to it, and goes into the chambers. The first place she goes is to the desk.
There aren't any papers or scrolls, but the top of the desk is engraved with Yodhgorphat runes - which, thanks to Phlagaea, Nicora has some familiarity with. The trick is finding the 'key' rune for what you want, and reading the runes that surround it. So 'map' reveals nine other runes around it (which also overlap other subjects, but then nothing in religion is supposed to be straightforward). Of those, Nicora can make out a few: Blue, Fur and Sour.
Nicora's brow arches. "Remind me to have a chat with Phlagaea when we get back," she remarks to her tail. Curious, she reaches down and touches the 'Fur' symbol.
The symbols themselves don't seem to do anything - that sort of enchantment would be more in line with the Yodhzakaro after all. But the runs are most likely directions, somehow. Nicora just can't figure all of them out. One of the others might be Tunnel.
Nicora looks for a piece of paper so she can make a quick sketch of the runes to use as a map. "I also want to look in that wardrobe," she thinks.
Inside the wardrobe, Nicora finds chitin and metal baubles, including what might be a formal tiara of sorts, made to look like a giant centipede with a green gem in its mandibles. Anything special was probably being worn during the ambush that killed off most of the Yodhgorphat.
Nicora shakes her head, but isn't entirely surprised by finding very little. "Lets go check out the 'Blue' area, eh?" she remarks to her coiled tail. Maybe it's crazy to talk to part of herself, but in this place it's good to have even pretend company.
The tail squeezes the bat's wrist. The caverns of the Yodhgorphat are colorful due to the various strains of lichen and molds growing on most surfaces. There are patches of blue lichen here and there, and following the densest concentrations leads to a deeper cavern that is mostly blue - with green glowing slime for light, making it look very strange. There are more tunnels branching off from it.
Nicora feels slight nostalgia here; even a bit of fondness, since this temple is where her first 'date' was. "What was this place, I wonder?" she says out loud. She picks one of the tunnels at random and peers down it.
It doesn't look special, just.. crooked. The blue lichen in that one looks hard and barnacle-like.
"Hello?" Nicora calls out. She also uses her right hand (in all its chitin and slimy glory) to pull off one of the barnacles.
The nodule comes off with a pop, and releases a horrific stink. It smells like.. boiling blood.
"Ew!" Nicora says and fans at her face. A bit later, she and pockets the barnacle anyway. Might be useful if she ever needs a stink bomb. Still curious, she heads a ways down that tunnel to see where it goes.
The tunnel opens onto.. a pit. A very deep, dark pit, since even the green slime doesn't go down very far into it. It smells of death.
"Yeah, that looks dangerous. Very, very dangerous," Nicora mutters and backs slowly away from the pit so she can head back to the blue room. She peers down the next-closest hallway once there.
This one has a slightly different strain of blue lichen.. and it's furry.
Nicora tries to get a sample of this too. Why? Who knows. It looks interesting.
The scratch-and-sniff method releases an odor like sour milk this time.
"Weird, but better," Nicora has to admit. "Shall we look?" she asks her tail, then heads down the passageway since her tail can't talk. That would be silly.
The further down the tunnel one goes, the less of the blue there is, until it's just the green and yellow glowing slimes, until the passage opens into a new cavern..
"Aha! Maps!" Nicora declares triumphantly. She pats her snake-tail and heads towards the central dias with the old stone map. "Lets see, there are marks, now what are they marking?" she asks the room as she leans in close to see.
In the model city, there are eight marked areas in the undercity, each done with a different colored slime or fungus. They are more or less evenly spaced throughout, but mostly in a circle around the city center - about midway between the edge of the 'bowl' and the Palace (now the Wound).
"Safe houses for the Yodhgorphat, perhaps? Storage?" Nicora asks the room as she leans in to peer at them, looking for any rune-markings that might indicate what they are.
There aren't any markings on the model itself.. but there are runes on the map engravings on the walls. The model may server as a master for figuring out where the engraved maps 'fit' on the city.
Nicora turns away from the central map and goes to the walls instead. She walks a slow circle around the room, running her fingertips along the wall as she looks for runes of Diphath that might indicate former meeting places of the cult.
There are eight maps, it appears, and each may be centered on one of the glowing marks on the model. There are symbols for the some of the other Sisters, including their old, bound symbols, marking shrines now doubt. There are several for Diphath on various maps, some surprisingly close to the central Gorphat ones. Next to each Gorphat symbol, however, is an additional rune. Nicora knows the one for 'Blight', and 'Wasting' and 'Cough'. The pattern suggests that the shrines to Gorphat were also used as storage or production areas for different afflictions.
"Visiting those places could be dangerous, except for the shrine maiden," Nicora remarks. She uncoils her tail from her arm and lets it go, feeling its familiar and comforting weight swinging from her backside once more. Now with both hands free, she starts making notes on where the Diphath temples are, particularly any near the Gorphat storage temples; because amena would not likely be above using those plagues as weapons against the city. It's a thought that makes her frown, but it's realistic. She should probably go burn the remains if she gets a chance.
There is a pinch, as Nicora's tail bites her again. It doesn't seem to be an annoyed bite though, so much as an I-want-your-attention one.
"Keep it up and I'll stick you in me," Nicora mutters to the tail as she continues to take notes.
The tail is insistent, and even tugs itself by stretching out.
A long sigh and Nicora rolls her eyes. "You are impossible," she complains. And true to her word, she reaches down and takes a hold of her tail again, but this time draws it between her legs. She can't believe she's doing to do this, but maybe it'll placate it. She tries to ease the tail into her altar to Inala!
The tail struggles, trying to slip out of the Eeee's grip. All the time, it keeps its head pointed towards the city model.
"What? You actually sense something?" Nicora says after a minute of fighting with herself. She heads back towards the model with her tail in hand. She then shows the city model to the tail.
The tail points down towards the side of the stone dais itself.
So Nicora crouches down to look at where the tail is pointing.
On the side of the dais is another set of engravings. They start with the symbol of Gephesa, followed by the symbols of the undercity shrines in order and closing with the symbol of Gorphat. The pattern repeats, eight times of course, as it circles the dais, with each cluster facing one of the wall maps.
Nicora tries touching the symbols. "Temples showing the change of the Goddess?" Nicora wonders. "I should perhaps visit them in order?"
The tail responds by biting Nicora's hand, of course.
There's some residue in the carvings - someone was probably supposed to keep them filled with glowing ooze at some point.
"Ow! Come on, I don't know what to do," Nicora complains to her tail. She holds it out to the ruins to see if it noses at anything.
The little dragon-head on the tail licks one of the runes, but doesn't do anything more beyond that.
Nicora presses on that rune to see if it does anything. "Maybe I should get some of the slime and refill them?" she asks.
The tail doesn't bite or offer any other reply, but there are bottles of green-glowing-goo laying around. They are ubiquitous in the Temple of Gorphat (and even Phlagaea always carried a few tied to her bandages).
"Might as well try it. Maybe their glow lights up parts of the wall maps," Nicora decides. So she lets her tail go and goes to get a bottle of the green goo to re-fill those rune-markers on the dias.
Picking up one of the bottles with her left hand causes the goo to glow even brighter - which could be an omen or at least ominous.
"Well, this could be good or bad," Nicora remarks as she takes the glowing bottle over to the dias and crouches back down. She opens it with her right hand, to see if it reacts to the touch from it.
There doesn't seem to be a reaction, but then the mirrors from the vision on Rephidim did associate the shadow with Gorphat for some reason.
Nicora now tries to fill the runes carefully with the green slime. She doesn't try to touch it of course, not unless it seems that there is no other way. Then in that case, she'll use the index finger of her left hand.
It does seem necessary to use a finger, since the goo tends to just dribble away otherwise (and really, Nicora does not want it getting onto her feet). After the first set of symbols is filled in and glowing nicely.. there comes the obvious choice: stop there, or keep going until all eight sets are filled?
"Well, so far I haven't exploded and the room hasn't either, so all eight," Nicora decides. So, the lover of Gorphat scoots around on all fours about the dais and fills in each set of runes using the green goo and her left index finger!
As the final symbol of Gorphat is filled in, Nicora experiences a familiar tingle, and her tail starts whipping about as if trying to escape her butt. "I wasn't expecting this," the somewhat gurgling voice of the Goddess of Affliction notes from behind the Eeee.
Nicora's left ear twitches. "Ah, hello Mistress Gorphat," she says very respectfully as she quickly gets to her feet and turns to where she heard the voice. "I came seeking maps of the old city, to identify possible places our enemies may be hiding. I meant no offense."
"I'm sure you did not, otherwise you would not have accepted to follow the Path of Affliction," Gorphat says. She stands (or slouches) near the entry to the chamber, conveniently blocking any escape. "I am flattered that you wish to become a Yodhgorphat."
Nicora blinks repeatedly. "Is that what I just did?" she asks in horror, her stomach sinking like a rock.
"What did you think you were doing?" Gorphat asks, the non-drooling corner of her mouth straining upwards into a smirk of sorts.
"I thought it might light up the map," Nicora says in a timid sort of voice as she approaches the Goddess in the doorway. "I can only read some of the runes."
"Your education will correct that," Gorphat promises, and then frowns. "Normally, there are other Yodhgorphat to handle this. We'll just have to play it by bowel and hope for the.. not best, but success at least."
Nicora holds up her hands quickly. "What, uhm, wait. I'm your lover, but now I m also to be your daugher?" she asks, wide-eyed. With the way her ears quiver, the Eeee is terrified!
"That is hardly unusual for Us," Gorphat points out. "Besides, it will be a fun adventure, I'm certain! You merely have to visit each the Stations within the undercity, pass their tests and.. you'll be a Yodhgorphat! And then you can lie about all day."
"Oh, so as long as I don't go, I won't become one," Nicora thinks, relaxing a bit. "Do you want me for a daughter?" she asks, wondering if the Goddess actually likes the idea, or not. She steps a bit closer to Gorphat too.
"Of course, my dear," Gorphat says, smiling and reaching out with a damp hand. "It would just be awful for you to fail, and become cursed, after all."
Nicora blinks. "Cursed?" she asks. She doesn't even move from that damp hand, because, well, no action seems like a good plan when dealing with a Goddess.
"Oh yes," Gorphat notes. "One does not make a promise of devotion to a Kindly One, and then simply.. not follow through on it. Such people are made example of, understandably."
"So ... if I don't go to each of the temples in the undercity, then I will be cursed?" Nicora asks, ears wilting. Maybe she doesn't have an escape after all. "But, I've already promised to be your lover, and even Hosheb's lover..."
"Affairs of the heart are not the same as obligations," Gorphat points out. Maybe Lawyers are a subcult of the Yodhgorphat. "I would not want to see you end up like my beloved Zannaran Bargorphat. You are such a pretty thing, after all." This is punctuated by pinching Nicora's cheek.
"How long do I have to complete the trials, then? And how do I begin?" Nicora asks. She remembers that poor creature all too well; and she herself already carries a blessing of Gorphat within her.
"You must go to each of the Stations in order," Gorphat notes, gesturing to the engraved series on the dais, and to the various maps. "Since it is customary to allow some recovery time between Stations, you have twenty-eight days to complete the Path of Affliction. Phlagaea completed it in twelve days."
"I doubt I could complete it faster than her," Nicora says. "Do I have to go in any particular attire? Or other requirements?"
"It does not matter what you wear, so long as it is suitable to get you to the Station," Gorphat notes. "There are no other Yodhgorphat to escort you through the Streets Below, so you will need to see to that yourself - but I am confident you can manage that easily enough."
"I'm less worried about the streets than what will happen to me at those stations," Nicora admits worriedly. "I must go through this? There is no other way?"
Gorphat frowns, and says, "I am thinking that you are not thrilled by your task? Won't you undertake this with a positive attitude, for me?"
"It's not that," Nicora says and waves her hands. "I would be honored to be your daughter, in addition to your lover and your demon's lover."
"After all, did I not ask that I keep your blessing upon my womb?" Nicora points out. "I have been devoted."
"And now you will show that you care enough to become one of my own," Gorphat says proudly. "It is only fair, given your closeness with Inala and Sunala.."
Alptraum says, "Barsunala ... Shrine Maiden ... Yodhgorphat?" Nicora asks softly."
FIX THAT!
"I should not have to share you as I do," Gorphat points out. "It was Phlagaea who befriended you in Babel, after all. The other Kindly Ones may share the Shrine Maiden, and the Sabaoth. But in the new order that arises, I will have a higher position thanks to your devotion."
Nicora rubs her forehead. All she wanted was maps, not to become a Daughter of Affliction! "Since I am here, should I also show my devotion by tending to you and your demon?" she asks, "Or is there anything else you desire of me while I am here?"
Gorphat smiles a bit greasily, showing yellowed teeth. "Well, I wouldn't want to spoil the surprises of the Stations. But since you're here.. there are a few things around the Temple that have not been tended to since my Yodh were driven out or killed. Do you know how to tickle the molds?"
Nicora's tail droops in relief at the mention of mere chores..
"No," Nicora admits and rubs her neck. "I will do what you wish, though," her voice drooping; she'd probably prefer spending sensual time with Gorphat or the demon!
The first of the Stations isn't too far from the main Temple, but distances on foot through the Streets Below are deceptive. What should have been a two mile walk was in reality a meandering path through darkness, where the safest route leads through burnt-out ruins and impromptu cesspools. Even if there was light reaching this deep, it would still have to content with the clouds of biting insects. Any group of three or more Eeee needs to be avoided.. and any group of less than that is probably bait for an ambush. And once Nicora thinks she's finally found the proper location - a heavy bunker clinging to the base of a lofty tower like some sort of parasitic growth - there's the matter of finding a way inside. Nobody has bothered to sweep away the garbage that has piled up after all.
"It's just like I remember, dangerous," Nicora mutters as she skulks about the base, clearing some debris here and there, looking for the outlines of a passage. She really doesn't want to go in there, but unless she completes these trials and becomes ... Yodhgorphat ... she'll end up a nasty mess, instead of a noseringed chosen mess. And maybe it won't be that bad in the end. Tickling the mold wasn't too bad. And there were even special sticks for it.
Finally, the symbol of Gorphat appears out of the debris, signaling that an entrance is hopefully close - but probably deeper under the garbage too. Given the lazy nature of the Yodhgorphat in general, they must have coerced locals into clearing away debris in the past.
"Ugh," Nicora mutters and rubs at her nose, making the ring swing slightly. "Time to get digging," she grumbles and starts clearing away the trash. She also repeatedly calls herself an idiot for falling into that trap.
A door is eventually revealed, and with any luck there will be a laundry room beyond it. It doesn't even look locked, since even the dwellers of the undercity have some sense of self-preservation.
"I really don't want to go in there, but if I don't I'll end up a mutated beast in heat, just like that Bargorphat," Nicora says, her ears wilted and her shoulders slumped. She stands outside that door for several minutes, looking like her best friend just died. Eventually, she draws her shoulders up, stiffens her neck, then opens the door and walks in.
The first thing to strike Nicora is the heat.. and then the humidity. And then the miasmic smell. The initial chamber is bare, like a waiting room.. except there are stone hooks on the walls. A statue of Gorphat stands near a passage leading deeper (and sloping downward to boot) into the structure.
Ugh," Nicora says and covers her mouth, holding it for some time until she adjusts a bit to the smell. She walks slowly and carefully into the room, then looks to the hooks, inspecting them to make a guess as to what they might have been for.
They don't look like meat-hooks at least. If anything they resemble coat-racks. If they have some special ritual purpose, it isn't clear. Of course, they could just be for decoration, but otherwise the only possible use is for hanging cloaks from.
"Go naked?" Nicora wonders as she eyes the hooks, then the corridor down. She bites her lip, then goes about removing the robes she does wear, leaving her bare, save for her jewelry and serpentine tail swaying behind her. She hangs the robes on one of the hooks. There's another pause, then she slowly heads for the passage down. she pauses at the Gorphat statue, looking up at it for a moment. "And here I start the Path of Affliction," she mutters to it ... then descends.
The tail is not happy, and expresses this with nips as Nicora descends. The atmosphere becomes even more oppressive, until the Eeee arrives at the bottom. There's a semi-natural-looking domed chamber, with a narrow ledge surrounding a churning, bubbling, glowing pool of green slime.
Nicora's ears splay again as she continues into this chamber. The heat is oppresive ... and the pool is ... disgusting. "Now what?" she asks the room, then looks for any sort of carving that might explain what to do, though she has a fear it is 'bathe in the slime'.
Or worse ... drink it.
Bathing isn't exactly a term that a Yodhgorphat would understand. This is religion. The proper term, then, is baptism.
"Oh Gods," Nicora says as she rubs her forehead. She reaches down with a toe and tests the temperature of the slime.
It is exactly warm enough to make it feel like something that just came out of somebody's body. It has the same general texture as well of such a thing.
Nicora paces back and forrth in front of this pool of yuck. She mutters and grumbles to herself, as well as gestures wildly with her hands, then towards the slime pit. "I can't believe I'm going o do this, but if I don't, the result is worse!" she says to the ceiling. She bites her lip, then sits on the ledge. A deep breath, then she slides her legs over the edge and into the ooze. She just leaves her legs in for a moment, trying to adjust to the feel.
The ooze creeps up her legs, reaching to her knees. It pulsates. It squeezes between every hair and feels like it's making an effort to penetrate Nicora's skin pores as well. It buzzes.
"Oh Gods," Nicora says again and bites her lip. She knows that feel; it doesn't help it feels good, and in some respects, comforting. She takes a deep breath, bites her lip, and slides the rest of herself in, save for her head that she keeps up by holding the ledge.
The ooze wants that head! There is no bottom that Nicora's feet can reach, and her tail struggles against the embrace. And the embrace is smothering, trying to suck the Eeee down!
Nicora takes a deep breath! She knows baptisms generally require full immersion. Going against all sane judgment, Nicora closes her eyes and releases the ledge; letting her entire body sink into the ooze, including her head.
It's.. warm. Despite the horrible feeling of the goo penetrating everywhere that isn't clenched tightly shut, there's something disturbingly familiar about it all. Nicora feels herself being swirled about the pool, prodded by bubbles of who-knows-what that struggle up from the netherworld below.. until with an odd convulsion she finds herself back on the ledge, a gooey mess with ooze running from her nose and ears and mouth and other places as she coughs and gags it up.
Nicora rolls on her side, coughing and snorting, trying to clean the ooze from the insides of her body. She lays there coughing until she feels she has cleared enough to sit up and actually open her eyes. "Well, at least it wasn't a completely new experience," she gasps.
There is a small revelation, at least, to tell Nicora she completed the challenge. Lying on her back, she can see the Station's symbol carved into the peak of the dome - and now she knows what it means: Womb. She has literally been 'reborn' through Gorphat.
"Well, birth is slimy," Nicora admits; she knows that from experience with Inala. She sits up slowly and wipes at her body; and also uses it as a chance to check herself out.
Nothing appears to be different, beyond the shininess of her slicked-down fur... and the urge to gag every so often.
Nicora gets slowly to her feet, and there she shakes and ... spreads places, to get even more of the goo out of her. "Ugh," she complains as she leans against the wall. "Well, it could have been worse," she tries to tell herself. She's intact, and though slimy, seems fine.
There a particularly large and flatulent bubble-burst from the pool, releasing more of the steamy miasma into the air.
"I think it's time to go," Nicora mutters as she heads back up the passage. Not only that, she really, really, wants a bath now. Maybe she'll even go without fur for a bit as Snowcora so she doesn't have to think about feeling slimy. And as she walks, she realizes she has to use the shadow to get the remainder off by devouring it ... or it will be one squeltchy walk back to the bunker. "Idiot," she says with each and every step up that hallway. And what's worse ... seven more to go.