Having the nose of a Yodhmagog allows one to ignore certain smells, like rotting flesh and other corpse-related effluence. But it doesn't help as much against caustic fumes. And while they are powerful enough in the waste pipe to cause a normal person to pass out or suffer burns to their noses, eyes and lungs, they mostly make Nicora feel a big phlegmy. They still sting and burn, and irritate her skin (and 'walking' on her nipples certainly doesn't help) but it seems like a distant sensation. And whatever the fluid is, it doesn't dissolve her tape-worm based breadcrumbs, which she's still aware of.
But mainly there is that very faint beacon to try and reach. It probably isn't actually the scent of sin, but another aura-related sense, but the dim red patch is clear to her in the blackness. There are other sensations, possibly sound, that reach her through vibrations: who know all that pumped-up flesh could be so sensitive to such things.
There's no taking from the grotesquely mutilated Eeee. She just moves along, slow and steady, as she works slowly through the pipes. There are points where she smacks nose-first into a wall and she has to find a direction to turn; but that beacon gives her a direction to always work towards; a place to get closer to. Every itch, burn, and annoyance is minor compared to much of what she endured up to now, which does actually help her to ignore it. Walking on breasts, though, that is uncomfortable, and squishy, but at least her effluence makes her slide easily enough. Granted, there are moments she wishes she'd die and clog the pipe in revenge for having this done to her.
The pipes keep angling upward, but the Yodhmagog form has surprisingly good traction: the breast secretions change to be sticky or slick as needed, even when submerged in the toxic brew. The main problem comes from the fluid itself hitting her back more often, as overhead pipes dump down into the main shaft. The noises of the Tower become deeper as well, sometimes rippling through Nicora's jelly-like mass. But that is also ignorable, so long as it doesn't dislodge her.
Less ignorable are the voices. Indistinct but numerous. Without working ears it is difficult to make anything out, other than that they seem to come from all directions.
Nicroa tries to think of songs instead, mental sounds to try and drown out the indistinct voices and clear her distractions. She has enough from the burning discomfort of the fluids all around her, and the squish-weight on her breasts.
There are plenty of gypsy songs of course. Most of them are pleasant. And given their origin, may also have been for warding off evil spirits of the undead sort. They didn't work as well against the alcoholic sort of spirits. Those might have actually helped with performing the songs.
Nicora also thinks horrible things about the Goddesses, the people of Babel, and her constant irritation. It's expected, really. How can anyone be expected to cope with all of this and not feel angry with this situation! Still, on she goes, towards the spot.
It's much more of an uphill slog, with more odd noises along with the way. "Damn the Kindly Ones!" It's mixed in with Nicora's own thoughts, but it's definitely not one of them. The background voices might be a little clearer, or at least louder now, and seem to share a lot of the same sentiments.
Nicora starts trying to focus on those voices now that she can hear them. Of course, how is she hearing them? Her ears aren't great down here. She's still moving onward, though her attention has shifted some so she slows down
"They took everything.. why won't it end?" "Whear am I? Whear am I? Can anybody hear me?" "I can't feel my body." "Sunala, please hear my prayer." The voices seem more in Nicora's head than actual sounds.
And this is a time Nicora wishes she had more direct access to the Barsunala as she could collect these souls up to take them out. "I can hear you," she thinks, just in case they can hear her.
"Who are you?" "Who said that?" "Are you Sunala?" There's more and more of them after that minor announcement, until it's a cacophony of pleading, demanding, threats and rambling.
"I am the Barsunala, actually; Her son," Nicora replies in thought. ""I am on a mission to undo a curse."
"I'm cursed! That must be it!" "You can take me to the Sea of Souls!" "I don't want to die! I don't want to be like this anymore!" "The Barsunala is a myth. You're just trying to trick me! I don't trust voices anymore!"
"I don't know how to find you, so you have to come to me if you want me to try to take you," Nicora things as she slithers ever onward. This is creeping her out!
"I can't move!" "I knew you were just in my head, because I don't have one!" "I can't see." "I don't know where you are." And then came the tide of "Save me, please!", "Find me!" and other pleas.
Nicora pauses, and tries to see if she can feel/find them. She figures it is probably pointless, but she tires anyway.
When switching over to aura sense, it's like being in the center a smeary, pulsating aurora. There are plenty of dark emotions, from fear to apathy to anger, but it's difficult to pinpoint any one source. But some of it seems closer than others, at least.
Nicora mentally sighs. There is nothing she can do in here. So she goes back to the previous sense and continues to slither-slog onward. She feels grumpy now, though!
The pleas eventually stop. It's apparent that the voices can't hear each other at all. Many fall back into their laments and cursing.
Nicora mentally sighs to herself again and slogs onward. She wanted to help, but she doesn't know how or if she even can. The best she could do is tell Sunala of the voices and get her advice, she decides. Squish, squish, on she goes.
The streams of burning goo get thinner as she gets higher into the structure, until eventually she comes to a large open space. It feels like the target is directly above her now.
Nicora squishes about in the room, trying to determine if this is the place she has to shift back from, or if she must remain as she is. She can't risk changing if it would be dangerous to do so, after all
There are a few puddles in the chamber, but they feel 'old' to her teats. There are other pipes, large and small, leading off from it as well, but the ones she can fit through are all going downwards and away from the red goal.
Well, it's now or never, then. She sort of curls up and lets herself fall back into shadow. In this place, she must decide what shape to use in here, what may be best. For now, the safest is probably Scourge the dragon-thing, so she picks that and lets it sort of flow over her, and into her.
It's not as difficult going from Yodhmagog to Scourge, despite the drastic differences. But it also restores its right arm to 'normal', which is still holding the bag Hosheb placed in it. The weird aura-aurora (aurarora?) is still there, but there are more distinct blobs in. The signal from above is missing though in Scourge's senses.
Scourge marvels at having limbs again, and it's grateful for that. It runs around in a few circles, grateful to have them. Then it extends its wings and tries to wing upward in the direction it remembered where the signal was.
The chamber is like a tube, but there's a ceiling. And also a platform that encircles it near the top. The walls there are covered in valves and other devices, and a few doorways. The signal felt like it was further up before though.
Scourge goes to the platform first and alights on it so that it can explore and see what is up there. "Now, where are you, hmm?" it burbles.
Scourge, while circling the platform, ends up pausing and checking the bag it had transferred to the tenta-tail.
Inside the bag are the earrings that the mages created, and the odd glass plates from the mystery chest recovered by the Yodhrephath.
"Oh, these!" Scourge blurts. Then realizes it has to go to Eeee to use them. So, it's back into the shadow it goes to just find Alptraum and take on that form.
Ears! Not always as useful as a tail that can grab things. The downside is that some of the fumes still make it up to the platform, stinging his nose and eyes. Also, he's got a gender again, which is not usually something he misses while being Scourge.
The gender isn't important here, and Alptraum works on fitting the earrings. He also ties the bag over his nose and upper mouth to help stop the smell.
Now he can hear a tone, which seems to pulsate up and down. A few turns and shifting of ears pinpoint the source as above but also a bit to one side, so not directly above the chamber.
Alptraum uses his wings to go airborn again and circle, trying to locate the exact tone point.
It's outside of the chamber, definitely, and off in a direction that favors one of the doorways at least. The door looks like the same ceramic material as the rest of the place so far.
Alptraum heads towards that doorway. He checks to see if it's unlocked, and also feels along it for trap points or thin trigger lines.
The door has latches to close it, but is actually ajar at the moment, and opens inward onto the platform. With the bad over his nose and the hum from the earrings, it's hard to tell what's beyond it. The lighting is already taxing even an Eeee's ability to see clearly.
Alptraum stands back and uses an extended wing to pull the door open slowly.
It squeaks horribly at first, so anything beyond it must know it's being opened. But beyond that grinding bit of resistance, it swings opens silently. It's very dark beyond it, and the air is definitely flowing outwards towards Alptraum, feeling a bit damp.
Alptraum shakes his head. At least the breeze will blow the smell away. So, he takes off the cover of his nose and starts into that dark passage and starts echo-sounding it to see.
The ear-tone isn't helping, which makes things a bit fuzzy. There's definitely a clear passage ahead, which changes a dozen meters or so later. Either a bend or something else.
So, Alptraum heads onward, slow and steady.
There are some squishy spots along the way, but the walls seem smooth and clean. Alptraum comes to a vertical junction, with a ladder going up and down. The moister air is coming up from below here, so the ladder is a bit slick in places.
Alptraum listens to the tone here. Up or down? Which way does it go?
It still seems stronger when he looks upwards.
So, Alptraum folds in his wings and tries to slowly climb upward.
The ladder rungs are sturdy enough, but the higher he climbs through the shaft the more grungy they become. He's gone up quite a ways before he hears something behind him - not below or above, but actually behind his wings.
Alptraum turns his head and tries to look behind his wings. "Hello?" he says.
There's something like a whisper, but it might be a very weak moan. There's no light at all for normal vision, but Alptraum isn't really limited by that if he switches to Barsunala 'everything is silver' mode.
Alptraum closes his eyes and concentrates to switch his eyes over to seeing in a more 'spirit' way instead of normal.
The world becomes shades of silver. And with some odder effects as well, since Alptraum can see the person embedded in the wall, and also a bit further beyond the wall to the rest of the poor soul. The wall itself is in bad condition, and the Eeee trapped in it seems little more than a mummy.. and an incomplete one at that, being mostly just a torso and head, but with its guts unspooled and vanishing from sight. There are connections as well, that might be Eeee parts. "My legs itch and itch and itch," Alptraum hears in his head.
"You don't have any legs," Alptraum remarks to the corpse in the wall, trying to keep his voice steady. "Who and what are you? Why are you here?" He also folds his ears back a bit, and bites his lip.
"They itch. I run and run but they never stop itching," the thing replies. He or she is still alive, barely. "I have to run to run to run, to stop the itch. Itch means run and run and run."
"You're in a wall, you cannot run," Alptraum tells it, and one brow of his arches up a little bit. "And why do you have to run because of the itch?"
"Because.. because I run. It is what I do. Run, pump my legs to stop the itching. It is what I do," the former Eeee replies.
"That doesn't make sense. What is your name?" Alptraum asks. "I'm down here looking for something from the old Sabbaoth."
"I.. I don't know.. don't remember," the thing replies. "I'm for running. I run."
Alptraum reaches out and tries to poke it.
It feels leathery, and there's an uncomfortable amount of give beneath the probe. The exposed part of the body even twitches from it. "Run," it repeats. "Run the itch away."
Alptraum tries to show the places to the creature stuck in the wall. He's boggled by how this thing is even still alive.
It's hard to tell in Death-o-Scope if the eyes are seeing anything. But there's a leathery blink, and something is there. "Run?" it seems to ask.
"Run," Alptraum repeats.
"What.. dark. Very dark," the wall-Eeee responds, finally something other than run or itch related laments.
"Run dark," Alptraum says this time. Is this some sort of weird passcode thing?
Alptraum hmms, and shuffles the plates around until they light up again, then shows the glowing outlines to the wall-thing.
"My legs.. I see my legs," the mummy claims.
"Where do you see your legs?" Alptraum asks as he tries to look at the plates too.
"There, don't you see them?" the thing says. "I'm running. They're below me." Below here is presumably a lot of pipes, if the wall of valves was any indication.
"The pipes? I'm trying to find a place where the Sabbaoth put something down here. This map I think helps lead to it, maybe," Alptraum says, though he's uncertain. His ears flick and he tries to pick up the hum again.
The tone is still strongest up above. "Pipes? Legs. They run, or they itch." the wall-thing claims.
Alptraum's ears flick. "Oookay, you're talking about running the system. Well, I'll leave you to it. I need to go up more," he admits apologetically. And up he starts to go. He'll have to come back this way later anyway.
The voices are still there in the background, even if this particular one didn't seem to care about anything more than running. Climbing reveals more patches of flesh grafted into the walls. Few have faces though, or are as recognizable. But the direction tone is soon drowning out the voices, since neither are 'real' sounds. There might even be some real light up above.
"This is disturbing. Why are people fused in the walls here?" Alptraum mutters, "How old are they? Are they since the town founding?" He wonders all of this as he continues up towards the light.
The ladder leads to another corridor, but also continues upward. The tones seem to indicate this is the proper level though. And this passage looks worse for wear. There's some light, but it's coming from patches of.. flesh. There's more of it here, along the way towards where the earrings get the strongest signal.
Alptraum carefully steps off the ladder and into that corridor. Once there, he starts to slowly walk down the corridor, ears twitching and listening. "This place is creepy," he grumbles.
Some of the patches are quivering or pumping. One section is clearly joining two sections of exposed pipe together. And behind the walls are the voices. But they seem to quiet down the closer Alptraum gets to his goal.
Alptraum can't help himself, he starts poking the spots on the walls as he passes them. Why? Because they're like buttons that say do not push.
Most of them react, but the reaction is to make a mental screaming sound, which comes from somewhere else. They don't stop doing whatever it is they're supposed to be doing though.
"That's just wrong," Alptraum mutters, frowning and looking ill. He continues on a little faster, following the tone sound. He also tries looking at the plates now and then too.
They actually show him to be nowhere near the path they had marked in them, so there must be something else the Royal Mages were interested in besides the curse. The tone is clearest as Alptraum reaches another ceramic door in the curving hall, which seems to be clear of fleshy bits.
Alptraum moves close to the door and starts trying to check it over for traps again; tripwires, or possible switches. He's paraniod, this place is dangerous.
This one has all of the latches set, but they're on Alptraum's side so presumably are meant to keep anything on the other side from getting out. Some of the caustic fumes as were in the waste pipes are present as well.
"Ugh," Alptraum groans. He starts releasing the latches, one by one. While holding his nose with one hand. "I'm going to die. I just know it," he mutters.
The latches take some effort, either from having not been moved in a long time or from the effects of the chemical fumes over.. a long time.
Eventually Alptraum manages to unlatch them all without anything horrible happening.
"It's like Dagh farted in here. I'm glad my fur hasn't fallen out," Alptraum grumbles. With the latches released, Alptraum caaaaarefully tries to open the door.
This also takes some effort, and reveals a garish pink light beyond, which mixes poorly with Barsunala-vision. There's an open chamber beyond from what Alptraum can hear and see before the earrings become deafening.
Alptraum removes the earrings quickly, and then also tries to just go back to seeing normally too. "Ugh, ow, meh," he complains from the sensory onslaught.
After recovering and switching to his normal sight, things don't look a lot better. And the air makes his eyes water as well. But beyond on the door is what seems to be another chamber like the one with the valves. There's a circular platform around the circumference and an open space below. There are things hanging down from the ceiling here. Chains and tubes that may or may not be made from someone's intestines. There's a grinding sound as well now that he can hear again.
Alptraum blehs and has to cover his nose again. Then he's carefully making his way into the room, ears twitching. "I feel like I'm in a nightmare,"he comments.
There's caustic steam coming up from below, but he does spot something against the far side of the chamber: a root. It's not the healthiest looking thing, but it's definitely a thin tree root, and it vanishes down into the light and haze.
Alptraum slowly creeps towards that root. "Well, well, well," he comments, "Look what we have here. Are you the root of the problem?" Yes, the joke is lame, but it's to help him cope.
It's.. one root, certainly. But from this side there's a rickety looking set of stairs that hug the curve of the wall as they spiral down further.
"Go up, and now i go down. On stairs of doom. Of course it is. Any bets on if they turn into a slide? Drop me into a spike pit? Pool of acid?" Alptraum remarks dryly. Such an epitome of cheerful thoughts this one. He rubs his face, then starts down ... though ready to grab the walls if he must.
The wall is smooth of course. At least until he comes across another root, this one breaking through the wall itself as it heads downwards. It's thicker and darker than the pale one above. Probably from a better-tended tree.
"Another tree, another root. Probably doesn't lead to beer, though," the bat quips. Down, down he goes!
There are others that he crosses, some thick, some thin, some.. dead. But he's gone down far enough that he can see them reaching for something in the center of the chamber. The pink light pulses there, and the grinding is broken up into something like the ticks of a mechanical clock. He make out something like an Eeee shape where the roots converge. From above it looks like the spine has be replaced by a long series of slowly turning gears, and wings are skeletal but not necessarily bone. There are white ceramic parts, and skin and fur as well, and the branches wind around what might be limbs or reconstructions of limbs. The head is turned to face downwards, and the pink light throbs up out of the gaps between flesh and not-flesh.
"What in Dagh's name is this thing?" Alptraum remarks as he slowly draws close, to get both a better look, and look it in the face. "Dronnell," he comments, or perhaps questions. Is this a clock?
Once he's more level with the head of the thing, it turns to look at him with a grating of gears. Enough of the shape is visible to call it female though. One eye-socket glows pink, and the jaw is held together with wire so the mouth can't move. "Dronnel.." a voice that sounds like rocks being rubbed together repeats. "Father.."
"Tormentor. Prisoner. Daughter. Whatever you are," Alptraum says grimly. "Your time has come to an end. This monstrosity is coming to an end."