Nymphlopedia
Entry 15: Soul Nymphs
"You sure this is the best way to stop Dave?" Sonata asked. "I mean... no offense, but you don't strike me as the 'spiritual' type of person. You know... more of a science-y woman that a magic-y one."
Sophia grumbled. As she went on with Vince and Sonata, she kept brushing her orange hair, in case something was in it. It felt like something was, but... none of the group could see if it was the case or not.
"I mean, I'm more magic-y myself and even I don't... really know what this place is..." Sonata continued. "I think if there were actual corpses here, I might be able to raise them. But this weird glowing cave, I don't know, I'm not feelin' any bodies... and I'm not very science-y, I um... please interrupt me."
"He can be a real handful, but I know a thing or two about him! Like me, he's good with technology. So we'll have to counter him. Find ecto-magic."
"Please tell me you at least learned a thing or two about that from being stuck in the Dungeon."
"Oh yeah."
"Fwew!"
"Right there." Vince said, looking at something shrouded in the fog. That was ahead of him, but behind the two women.
"Woah." Sonata turned around. "I think I taught you how to spot Nymphs too well. You're seeing them before I can-"
They heard a lot of cracking. A figure rose, drenched in Ecto Mist, groaning a little-
Oh she was yawning. The Soul Nymph, looking straight-up like a blue-green-tinted monster that would emerge from a TV and crawl after people (the gang would later meet a non-Nymph monster and ally that actually fits that description), rubbed her eyes and looked at the trio.
"You... caught me... off guard." She said in monotone. "Take... what you want. You... win."
"Woah!" Said Sonata. "We're not here to steal from you or kill you or anything! We want your help!"
"Help?"
"It's to stop my brother!" Sophia spoke up. "Do you know about any ghost weapons or can you use your ghost powers to jam his machines? Machines and ectoplasm don't work well together. Trust me. If you get it just right," she pounded her palm, "they'll cross with each other in all kinds of crazy ways and short them out!"
"I know. I have jammed many, many cell phones before..." The Nymph of the spirits said in a dull tone.
"So you're just going to help us?" Vince asked.
"I would have killed you, but you seem prepared. It's three to one, my neighbors... aren't here..."
"...I'll still take that." He shrugged. But both Sophia and Sonata looked far more... well they were clammy at that point.
Sonata leaned to Vince's ear. "Please get Tania over here I'm a little nervous help."
The Soul Nymph slowly shuffled over to them.
"...Did you just say... Tania?" She said with an even lower voice.
"Yep! Dryad Tania! We're the ones who killed Cthulhu's eyeball and his skeleton, and ever since we did that - the first thing I mean - she's moved in with us!"
"Dryad... Tania..."
The ecto-mist around them all turned blood red and swirled. The Soul Nymph's eyes flashed, glowing, as the sounds of screams were heard around the adventuring party. She bared all her steel-sharp teeth, fists clutched so tightly that she started (unintentionally) drawing blood from her hands.
"The Dryad?! You... are allies with THE DRYAD?!"
"...See," said Sonata, "I told 'ya we should have called her with us. As soon as you found the Nym-"
"THE LAST OF THOSE TRAITORS THAT DIDN'T TAKE OUR SIDE?! THAT LOCKED THE OREADS AWAY ALL THOSE YEARS AGO?! THAT LIVE IN THOSE MOCKERY WOODEN BOXES YOU CALL HOMES?!"
"H-hey in my defense, I've been building houses-" Vince knew that he should shut up.
"I DON'T CARE IF I SENSE THAT YOU ARE STRONGER THAN ME. RISKING MY LIFE TO AVENGE THE OREADS - THE ONES THAT AREN'T TRAITORS LIKE YOU - WILL BE WORTH IT!"
Soul Nymphs.
Most Soul Nymphs are not fond of eating meat. However, they eat spiritual energy instead, a far more grisly fate.
Preferred Environment: Soul Burials; also frequent in Graveyards and in the Dungeon.
Environment Threat Level: Dangerous.
Environment Stats: Wet. Cold. Moderate-Fantastic. Rare. Regions that have a strong connection with ectoplasm and dead ghosts (not undead bodies), with heavy energy relating to the spirits. Appears to be washed out, with glowing energies and high amounts of Ecto Mist. "Graveyards" are weaker versions of these.
Other Names: Spirit Nymphs, Graveyard Nymphs, Ghost Nymphs, Ectoplasm Nymphs.
Affinity: Fire.
Color: Bright Aqua.
Traditional Costume Weapon: Wisps of ectoplasm around their arms and legs that can glow in complete darkness. Helps them commune with the spirits and gives them mild clairvoyant powers.
Vince's Comment: NO. I'm friends with two - one of them's part of Sonata's Naked Empire after all - but otherwise I'd like to try to avoid fighting them as much as possible. If I had a gold coin for every time I was made intangible, I'd have five gold. It's not much, but it SUCKS happening to you at least once!
The one we found in that cave with Sophia... jeez, I know she's part of the NE now, but still, she scares me. So quiet, too...
Sonata's Comment: They're pretty good mediums. You get to chat with and know about people who otherwise became ghosts and moved on in some way. Well I mean you can just dig to Hell, and most of them ARE in Hell because yeah judgement's really strict on all of us, but this is easier. It's pretty nice knowing that time or unfortunate accidents won't keep you away from your soulmates. Not too much. If only there was a completely fullproof way to raise the dead... imagine all the historical figures I could try to woo! (I mean, I'm already... working on my relationship with Tania. She's a pretty historical figure. Wait, aren't I a historical figure now too?! I help kill Cthulhu's organs!)
...
Wait wait wait. Isn't my type supposed to be the "undead one?" I'm not jealous or anything. Just curious.
Tania's Comment: Soul Nymphs.
Nymphae Amine. (I swear if one more person makes an "anime" joke... that means you, Sonata.)
Many of the "green Nymphs" are closer to the Dryads than most of the rest; these are closer to the Oreads, specifically their connection to the dead. They sense ectoplasm through their hairs, their bodies are strengthened by the presense of the unresting, whereas most of the Nature Spirits are weakened by the feeling of dreary dead around them. Graveyard Nymphs are one of the many anomalies in the Nymph listing, a mystery even they do not understand. Should their zones be powerful enough and enough of them are hostile, they could even potentially suck the life out of neighboring biomes. While not considered by Gaia Regulation Center's definition to be an Evil Biome, the fact that they have a patron Nymph species in the first place being a giveaway to this fact, they stay on the border of this definition. I would watch them with caution, but again, even they are oblivious to their own mysteries.
Day 5!
This is another mini-story I might replace. Hell, I might even have these events happen onscreen in Romancing the Last Dryad, followed by a proper fight, since it's actually pretty plot-relevant. That's a big consequence to just winging the stories. And of course, the proper mini-fic would be replaced with something sexier, since this and the last chapter were rather fanservice-free... again.
...I changed these from "Graveyard Nymphs" to "Soul Nymphs" at pretty much the last second and vanilla Graveyards were going to be their "biome." Might flip it back, unsure.
Dave does not refer to a canon NPC. You'll see him in RTLD proper.
Also I'm already halfway done with the loose outlines! Starting a few days before September, I was doing them in a pattern of 6-6-6-7, for every twenty-fifth one. Also, for when I started, I did the Intro and Oread chapter on the same day as the first six "numbered" ones. So, well, I'm done with #50's rough and I plan to get through another six soon after this chapter's out.