One of the nicer benefits of shape-shifting is that whatever afflictions or injuries Alptraum picks up in one form don't carry over to the next, at least so far. So the aches of an overworked Pierce vanish once he's back in his original Eeee form - unless it's all due to Eeee metabolisms and inherent anti-inflammatory hormones. The important thing is that he finally escaped.

Mages' Guild Hall of Babel
A pale reflection of the splendour of the old Guild Hall or the relocated College on Caroban, this tower is nonetheless an ancient, weathered and well-kept monument to the long-lasting traditions of magic on Sinai. It is far from symmetrical, having countless smaller towers, balconies and bridges sprouting out here and there, but here and there, there are attempts at order, as things are often arranged in groups of four, with repeated motifs of the traditional four elements: fire, water, earth and sky. In an attempt at union of the four, the typical room has wide open windows, hanging burning braziers, burbling fountains, and intricate and time-worn stone-work, often depicting fanciful and actual creatures associated with each element, arranged in sets of four.

This time the door guards open up as soon as Alptraum lands at the Guild Tower. They even salute.

Alptraum mock-sulks after landing and they salute. "Disappointing! You're used to me now. I can't show up and make you cower in fear," he mock-laments and even puts the back of his hand to his forehead. "Le-Sigh. Just another denizen of Babel," he hams it up. "Woe is my heart, abandoned so early in my role..."

"We have some new guys rotating in soon," the Jupani guard on the left claims. "We can tell them horror stories before your next visit if you like, sir."

Alptraum makes a face. "Bah, you're just no fun," he grumbles at them as he approaches. Granted once close he might give them a new nightmare because he kisses both of them, on the lips. And goes "MWAH!" loudly.

This does make the men go wide eyed. "Are we.. going to die soon?" the right-door guard asks. "Was that the Kiss of Death?" Both of their tails are now curled up between their legs.

"Nope! I just wanted you to make that face," Alptraum retorts, a smug grin eating half his face in the process. "I'm here to see the weird ones."

"Grobthrar the destroyer," Alptraum says with a straight face. "Or failing that, the Naga. She has some device for me to pick up."

"Oh, the.. uh.. smelly one? With the.." and here the guard makes a cupping-the-air gesture in front of his own chest.

"Follow me, sir!" the guard says, salutes again, and leads the way into the guild hall.

Alptraum slaps the butt of the remaining guard, and follows after the one that headed inside.

The guard doesn't lead very far, stopping at the circular reception desk. "The Barsunala is here to see Mage Rusty," the guard announces.

"We don't have a Rusty, to you mean Gusty the Air Mage?" the Eeee receptionist asks, trying to look around the guard to get a glimpse of Alptraum.

Alptraum steps into view. "I'm here to see the naga, actually, the spirit make. I think she's, uh. Her and rusty like to play hide the salami sometimes," he admits.

"Oh, Mage Rostre?" the Eeee asks, and openly ogles Alptraum. He or she is wearing typical Mage robes though, so it's hard to tell gender. "She's in the warded ritual chamber, with the others."

Alptraum oogles back because, why not? "Ah, the warded chamber? Are they busy then? I don't want to disrupt anything important," he admits.

"I don't know what they're doing, because it's secret," the Eeee says, leaning forward and holding one hand up to the side of her muzzle so the guard presumably can't lip read. Some Eeee tend to assume that non-Eeee are essentially deaf.

"Well, I'll return to my post then, before someone steals the other guard," the guard claims, then hurries back to the main door.

Alptraum leans in really close, then licks the receptionist's nose. "Ooooh, I seee," he says. Next comes a wave to the guard, and he says, "Good, I'll steal you both later, then!"

There is a rapidly approaching clicking sound, which suddenly stops just before Summer Forest appears, trying not to look like she was just running. "Oh, hello Barsunala!" she says cheerily.

"Hello there, o' purveyor of kinky dreams," Alptraum says as he waves to the doe. "Is something wrong? You seem to be in a hurry. Did Rostre summon the underpants demons again?"

"Oh, I came because my knockers tingled," the doe claims with a straight face. "I can take you to where Rostre and Cyprian are though, if you want."

Alptraum snort-laughs at that. He steals a kiss from the receptionist because ... he's in a weird mood. He's back upright soon thereafter and saunters over to the doe. "Lead on, one gifted of the heart-shaped butt."

As soon as they're past the reception area and into a hallway, Summer pauses to catch her breath. She had been running. "I set a small enchantment on the door knockers to let me know when you arrived," she explains once she has her breath. "I suppose I should have worded that differently. But at least I didn't say you'd tickled them!"

"That can be arranged. And I didn't know it was so exciting when I came that people would watch for me," Alptraum jokes, and rubs her butt now that she's still, in range, and ... okay, he wanted to. "I didn't know I was unique enough to be detectable, either. That's a little worrying."

"Oh, it was mainly for me," Summer claims, and wags her little tail. "After all, nobody else is supposed to know what we've been up to. Oh, the ritual! It's this way. Also a need-to-know thing," she adds.

Alptraum pulls Summer close and dips her back in a deep snog. When he comes back up, he lets her go and points, "This was, was it?" Perhaps he's testing to see how much she keeps her wits about herself.

"What?" she asks, a bit dazed. "That way was.. Oh.. right.." The Cervani pats her cheeks a few times and then leads down the curving corridor again. It isn't very far before she stops outside an ominously carved door depicting the sacred demons. "I'll see if they're still in the middle of things," Summer offers, and puts her hard fingers to the door.. which then jumps slightly from what sounds like an explosion on the other side. Bits of dust drift down from the ceiling. "I didn't do that!" the girl claims.

"Are you sure? You were fondling a demon door. That might cause things to explode," Alptraum comments, his voice taking on that sort of stern parental tone of disapproval. For all of a few seconds anyway and he laughs. "I'm pretty that was Rostre. Either her experiment exploded, or her breasts did," he jokes.

"Well.. there's nothing happening now," Summer says, a bit hesitant. "Should we see if there are any survivors?"

"Which are we rooting for?" Alptraum jokes. "And yes, let's inspect the carnage."

Summer checks the door seal a second time, then works the puzzle-lock before opening it slightly. There's no smell of smoke but there is a definite smell of blood and lots of groaning noises.

"I am not licking up that blood," Alptraum remarks as he precedes Summer into the room to spare her from some of it. He's aware of that species aversion to blood. "So, who died?"

The prone figure in the center of the room's magic circle doesn't look dead. Just stunned. It's also Mr. Sprocket (or possibly Albrecht Hemstone if he turns out to be Mr. Velvet's father). He's got scraps of flesh hanging from antlers though. Various other mages are slumped against the walls, also covered in gore. Even Cyprian is trying to recover still. At the 'center' of the explosion, which is off to one side, is Rostre, holding the remains of what looked to have been a small cage. She's also stunned, and like those closest to the blood-splosion has had her robe blown off. She looks around, then raises her arms triumphantly, and says, "Sssssuccesss!"

Alptraum blinks a few times. "All right, what in Dagh's name are all of you doing? Sacrificing people is right out, even in Babel," he chides as he puts his hands on his hips. "Am I going to have to punish you people?" His tone is all haughty, but he's probably joking some.

"We.. thought.. we were better prepared this time, after you showed us what to expect," Cyprian says, looking at his bloodied, shredded robes.. and pulling what looks suspiciously like a fang from where it was stuck to his cheek. "Rostre? What happened?" he asks.

"It worked!" the Naga claims, bouncing as much as a Naga can bounce (well more thanks to her additions). "The killer spirit transferred to the surrogate before going off! Although next time we might want to use something bigger than a Fuff'nar."

"Wouldn't that just mean a bigger mess?" the Skeek life mage says, and just sheds her soiled robe before going to check on the patient, who looks like he's about to collapse.

Alptraum does go over and help Cyprian up some as he checks him over for actual injuries. "Right, so I'll bathe you later, Cyprian," he promises, "You seem generally intact." Rostre's declaration does make him pause though and look back. "So, you did actually sacrifice something. That's not ... why not just transfer it into some spirit battery?"

"I can't wrangle a spirit directly like you can," Rostre notes. "Although the critter wasn't supposed to explode. I had the jar ready and everything. So.. need to adjust the timing better. But there is a tradition of using Fuff'nars as temporary storage for spirits in Babel."

"I doubt the exploded fluffnar would agree that is a good tradition," Alptraum points out. He checks Cyprian over a second time, then pats the bat's cheek. "No dying," he tells him, then goes to check the horned one in the center of the room.

"Well, the patient doesn't seem to have any trauma, he just needs to be cleaned up and put to bed for a bit, same as the younger one was," the Life Mage reports, and flicks a bit of fur off of the man's antlers.

Alptraum's eyes narrow as he tries to get a sense of the man, just in case there is hidden damage. "Seems like all of you have trauma, though," he points out.

"Next time I will use a tube to connect the Fuff'nar directly to the trap," Rostre says, smiling despite being covered in blood. "Although that one was also supposed to be my dinner. I like how they fight."

The Cervani buck's aura is a bit jumbled still, but the mages seem to be recovering quickly. "I hope we still have bath soap left after the other day," one of them grumbles.

"And you can just lick the others clean and still have dinner," Alptraum suggests to Rostre.

"Pot Luck night," the Life Mage claims, and actually tries to get Sprocket onto his feet. He's still pretty sticky.

"Oh man, so much goo," Summer bemoans from outside the door. Her voice is muffled, so she's probably got something wrapped around her mouth and nose.

"Do you need help moving the deer with the nice rack," Alptraum asks of the life mage, innocently. He also flashes Summer a grin.

"I'm stronger than I look," the Skreek woman claims. With the robe off, she does seem to have some beefy arms, relatively speaking. "This is going to take a major sponge-bathing though." She then glares at Summer and says, "Don't even think about volunteering, young lady."

"No blood.." Summer moans and just opens the door for them. One of the other sticky mages helps get Sprocket going as well.

"Why not? She knows more about her own kind than anyone else, right?" Alptraum calls after the skreek. "You can give me a sponge bath!"

"I need a bath," Cyprian claims. "But.. that went well, for the most part," he admits.

"She always thinks I'll 'over-excite' the bucks or something," Summer says with a sniff.

"Naga tonguesss aren't for licking," Rostre notes. "That would be like you eating through your nose."

"Ill give you a sponge bath," Alptraum jokes to Cyprian. "Now why I'm really here; I came to get the detection device about that matter you helped with a couple days ago." He also swats Rostre with a wing for that comment.

"Anything getting installed into someone is exactly as bad as it sounds!" Alptraum insists.

"Because with how you are, yours would be terrifying," Alptraum points out. He smooches Cyprian right on the nose, then Rostre, then follows after Summer.

Rostre is also following along. The keep going down and down, so probably to Rostre's lab space. Summer hurries, possibly because of Rostre's odor.

"Are you okay, Summer?" Alptraum asks as he hurries behind her. "I bet Rostre wouldn't mind you licking her clean."

"You aren't covered in blood," the deer notes. "And you probably taste salty too."

They reach the laboratory door, and Summer even pushes it open. "I hope your apprentice is here," she notes to Rostre, although there doesn't seem to be any other (living) presence in the room.

"I don't sense anyone in the room, Summer," Alptraum points out as he follows her into the lab and is soon looking around.

There's the usual bubbling tubes and beakers, empty cages and odd stuffed creatures. "It'ss her day off," Rostre claims, and slithers past into the back room. "I'll be wasshed off in a moment, don't ssstart without me!"

"You two are so cute together. Are you dating?" Alptraum ask Summer. He's also got one heck of a fangy grin at the moment.

"No! Of course not!" Summer claims, almost whining. "Now hurry up and get your clothes off."

"Because of Earth Magic," Summer claims. "Any non-living plant or animal skin could interfere. See, I'll go first!" And then the doe is removing her robe, shirt and trousers.

"You just want to be naked," Alptraum points out and rolls his eyes. He also disrobes because, eh, he's not shy at this point! He even tosses his undies so that they land on Summer's head.

"Ewww!" the doe goes and dances around in place until she gets the underwear off. "And no, I don't just want to be naked," she claims. "I want you to be naked too." She's looking into Alptraum's eyes, and seems to be straining for some reason.

Alptraum stares back. "What?" he finally asks her, and arches his right eyebrow slightly.

Summer finally gives in and looks down. "You were more excited to see me in the dream," she notes after staring for a moment.

Alptraum rubs Summer's head. "This is business," he points out, "And it is nice to see you. Were you trying to will me under your control?"

"Nooo," the doe says, and tries to get her ears back in order after the rubbing. "I need to take into account certain things," she says, then.. squats down and examines Alptraum's scrotal rings. She even.. pushes things aside slightly to get a clearer look.

"Hey now!" Alptraum blurts out and starts dancing around. "What are you doing?!" he squeaks, wings flapping now too. "That's a delicate area!"

"I need to see how you have these things put in," Summer claims. She does cup things and tug this way and that as well. She's actually muttering something, and there's a tingle of magic, but it's only a cantrip.

Alptraum tries to hold still. "They just go through holes and are closed around a bead," he tries to explain, his ears splayed out in confusion. It doesn't help the tingling is making things respond.

After the cantrip finishes, Summer licks each of the rings. There are definite pops of magic when that happens. "Did you get all of these frome the same place?" she then asks, and moves on to the rings at the end of his wing-fingers.

"For the most part, yes," Alptraum squeaks out, and twitches from the licks. "There's a place in town you can get some if you wish. They work better on women, or so I hear."

There are more tingles and tickles of magic as the doe tests each of the rings, then perks her ears, and goes back to the original spot. This time she.. kneads things between her fingers. "You have bumps in here, are they normal?" she asks.

"Ack! No, those are not normal, they were added ... by a friend who wanted them," Alptraum squeaks loudly and goes up on his toes!

"Hold still," Summer requests, and starts up her cantrip again. Once it's done she pauses, as if trying to figure out how handle this.. and then just glomps the whole thing into her mouth so she can work her tongue around it as needed.

Alptraum just about frizzes out. "You're going to get a surprise if you keep that up very long," he squeaks out and clenches his eyes closed.

She does release things once she's done with her reading, but then licks it some more anyway. Maybe it's salty? But more likely she couldn't really get to the tip properly when it was completely in her mouth.

That supplemental licking gets a small, er, surprise when things leak out a little from that torment. "I somehow don't think all of this was necessary," he grumbles, while twitching.

Summer seems surprised at the leak, but tastes it as well before standing up. She's already starting her cantrip again, and it's likely that Alptraum's nipple piercings are the next target.

"What?" the doe says, having to interrupt her cantrip. "Hey, I need to examine those," she complains.

"To learn exactly what they're made of," the doe explains, and goes back to singing her little spell. Then she's licking the left one rather forcefully.

Alptraum grabs the back of her neck playfully and tries to see if if he can get her to nurse on it a little. Why? BEcause even as a guy it feels nice, and breasts are one aspect he really misses when male.

"Mmf?" Summer goes as she's smooshed in a bit. So she does try to suck a bit, mostly using her tongue.. and licking the balls of the barbels.

"Mmmm," Alptraum comments, enjoying the feel of being nursed a minute or so before he lets go.

"That was odd," Summer notes. "It didn't hurt did it?" she asks.. then uses her hard fingers to actual give that nipple a little tweak.

"I.. don't know?" Summer replies. "It hasn't come up before." Then she's starting the cantrip again and moving to the other nipple.

And of course Alptraum encourages her to nurse on that one too if she goes into lick it again. "Being nursed on is one of the lovely parts about having breasts," he claims. "Or so I've heard."

After sucking for a bit, Summer asks, "I suppose it's very relaxing? And can you sit or lie on your back for the next parts? You're too tall if you keep standing up."

Alptraum's ears splay in confusion, but he does go ahead and lay down on the ground and stretch out a bit. "Don't do anything weird," he says.

The doe straddles Alptraum's waist, and says, "Open your mouth and say 'awwww' for me?"

Alptraum opens his mouth "Aaaaah?" he says, going a bit crosseyed while looking at her.

She bends down to check out the stud, then starts up her cantrip again before going in for a tongue-kiss.

This means Alptraum gets to lick back, and does. And demonstrates how a long tongue can coil, wrap, and throat-tickle.

This time she's gasping a bit by the time she comes up for air. Then she looks at his nose, and seems to consider her next move.

This makes Alptraum grin. "Gonna tongue my nose?" he asks while wiggling his brow.

"Yes," is the reply, as she starts her cantrip again. Magic sure is tedious at times!

When the spell is cast, Summer turns her head and sort of wraps her lips around Alptraum's nose, probing in as far as she can with her tongue to test the grommet.

That makes Alptraum's eyes cross. Funky-feeling doesn't even begin to describe that. IT also makes him wiggle his toes like mad.

It takes some tugging to get the tongue back out! Then the doe lays across Alptraum's chest so she reach his ears. This gives Alptraum a close up view of her.. neck. "Are your ears ticklish?" she asks.

Alptraum liiiiicks her neck, then playbites it. "A little, but not too bad," he claims before kiss-nursing on her neck. He hasn't bitten down, so it's mostly to tease.

"I am lots of fun," Summer claims, then casts her cantrip before licking Alptraum's left earrings.

The doe quickly switches to the right ear, before Alptraum can retaliate! Or at least she tries, since she still has to do the cantrip again first.

In goes the neck licking and nibbling again for a few minutes to disrupt her muttering in revenge!

Finally, the doe is done! Although she asks, "Are you hiding anything else I haven't found?"

"No, that's all of them," Alptraum says and flicks his ears around some. "Still don't know why you had to do that."

"Because I can't have things interfering with the signal, so I need to account for all of them," she explains, sitting up. "Stay as you are please," she says, then stands up to collect something from the table top, which she keeps cupped in her hands as sits back down on the bat.

"Or I could take them all out for the most part," Alptraum points out, "Which probably would have been simpler, wouldn't it?" He at least did remain laying, even if he did point out what she did was probably unecessary.

"That would not have been as much fun though," Summer claims, then leans over him again to get access to his ears. He feels two small, cold balls being moved around the outer structures of his ears, but they begin to warm up as Summer begins chanting again.

"That feels really weird," Alptraum claims, as if being licked all over didn't in its own right. "And so you just wanted to get physical with me, hmm?"

The doe can't answer, as she's chanting, and the balls are moving around asymmetrically. Maybe all that stuff really was necessary. And then she legs go of the balls.. and they keep moving on their own. Or rather flowing and crawling around.

As he starts to move, Summer quickly try to stop him.. by pushing her breasts down into his face! The sensation is more of a liquid or syrup moving around, and seems to follow the contour of the ears. It's spreading out.

Eventually the motion in the ears stops. But Summer doesn't move once the nursing starts. "That is nice," she admits.

Alptraum keeps it up for a bit, including switching between them ... but does eventually stop. "What did you do to my ears," he demands.

Summer sits back up, and rubs her breasts a bit. "Hmmm? Oh.. I installed the compass," she says.

There's a solid material that seems to be coating parts of the inner ears. "I think they look nice," Summer offers.

"Do you have a mirror?" Alptraum has to ask. HE also tries to bend his ears some to see if that stuff bends.

There's some give, but not much (but then they're in areas that generally don't bend). Summer gets up and looks around. She finds something and says, "How good of a mirror?"

"Doesn't have to be great, just enough to see," Alptraum says. "It feels weird."

Summer brings over a circular plate, that seems to be coated with glass or similar on the inner side. It also has some sort of monster face in it, but maybe Summer didn't see it. But there's enough reflection for Alptraum to see what looks like gold lining in parts of his ears.

Alptraum tilts his head and pivots his ears some. "It does look nice. Odd, but nice. The monster face on that plate-thing does not," he admits. "So, that's it?"

"Well, it's made for your sonar sense, so as you get closer to the source you'll hear it and know which direction and how far it is from that," Summer says, and smiles with pride. "I worked on it with Rostre. This way your best sense can be used, and it should even work around corners and stuff like real sound, so you could find your way to it in the dark."

Alptraum flicks his ears again. "Huh, clever, and decorative. This might catch on as a marketable decoration for Eeee," he claims and grins. "I approve.

"Marketable?" Summer asks. "This was actually really expensive magic, and I had to culture the amber myself," she explains. "It's got a very tiny bit of the tree sap from the revived tree in Inala's Temple in it."

Alptraum frowns. "How much. I can't be stealing from you," he says. "I'll need to pay for this somehow."

"Well.. probably priceless, since there's no more of that material, but then again, once you've used it it won't be needed anymore, so.. worthless?" Summer guesses. "I don't do the tallying. Master Cyprian just says goes 'tell me what you need' and then it shows up."

"Well, the sap does likely 'belong' to me as much as anyone right now, but ..." Alptraum says and shakes his head. "Look, I know I joke a lot, but I don't want to be abusive of generosity. It's not right to just take."

"I think the Coalition pays for it if it's a public service sort of thing," the doe says, looking confused. "I mean, you're a public service, aren't you?"

"A public monster, maybe. Not sure about a service. But, if they are I do appreciate it," Alptraum says and finally tries to sit up. "I know I joke a lot but ... meh, I don't want to seem like an actual jerk."

"But you like the compass right?" Summer presses. By pressing up against Alptraum. "You like my work?"

"Yes. It's an elegant approach to what could have been very utilitarian," Alptraum notes and then licks her nose. "You could have gone simple, but this has style to it. It's obvious you enjoyed making it."

The doe smiles. "And what are the chances you'd lose your ears after all!" she claims.

"Well, that's more of a possibility than I'd like to admit," Alptraum says, "But never in a way I'd lose this, I think. Hope," Alptraum waffles a bit.

The doe keeps looking up at Alptraum expectantly, with.. big doe eyes.. for a moment. "Should we find Rostre or.. something else?"

Alptraum arches his brow a little. "Did you have something else in mind?" he asks, bemused.

"Well.. would it be like it was in the dream if we did that?" she asks. "Not the plants and all, I mean.. the other stuff."

"I haven't been distilled, so I can't say how pure I am," Summer admits. "I've grown some questionable things on a dare."

"Like?" Alptraum asks, curious. "You're basically wanting to sleep with a supernatural monster, is that it?"

"Well, no, because I don't think there would be actual sleeping involved and because it would be with you," Summer claims. "I think Rostre has some sort of nest that she uses for a bed."

Alptraum laughs. "Am I really that appealing?" he asks and holds up his ugly right hand. "I mean, look at me."

"I'm a mage," Summer notes. "Everyone I know is weird in some way, and nobody has accused me of being normal either. And you're one of the few men I know that aren't co-workers, which would be really awkward."

"Well, there are those two deer here. You could even get pregnant with them," Alptraum points out and waggles his brow some.

"They're patients," the doe points out. "I'm not allowed near them, since I'm not a Life Mage. I'm technically kitchen staff."

"Ah, but you want to!" Alptraum declares and grins. He does finally get up and pick up Summer in his arms. "Come on, lets go find this nest."