Nymphlopedia

Entry 24: Toxic Nymphs

Vince swore he heard some skittering behind him while he scanned through the new violet cavern he happened to spot.

He whipped his head there. Nothing. But maybe some faint red glow out of the corner of his eye?

There the noise was again, that time right behind where his head turned towards. Another whip - another look. Nothing. The air started smelling funny. He coughed.

"Sonata?" He asked. "Are you doing something? Whatever it is, it's not funny! You're... not funny in general!"

"I'm still right here!" Sonata said, giving a wave from the rock she stood on. Outside of the purple cave. "Yeah I think you have company, you should probably leave. And get out of the cave, I think the air there isn't safe for Humans? But you have a lot of Life Crystals now, I think you're fine? Maybe you're not, be safe."

Vince just huffed. "I swear, if you're-"

He turned around and- JEEZ! He needed to leap back. She definitely wasn't there before. A very pale naked woman with wild, violet hair that was... shaped and curled in places to resemble clouds. Two spinning spirals of poison gas were around her, generating from her... heels? And fanning out, until they faded out just by her neckline. She had an awkward smile on her face.

"Heya." She said, sounding unsure. "Sorry for scaring you like that. Um, I'm just passing through. Hoping you're not here to hurt me or anything. That would be kind of inconvenient for me."

"No." Vince replied. "No, I'm not. If you're not going to hurt me."

"Well, if you're not going to hurt me, I guess I don't have to try to hurt you. Okay, I guess I'll just be on my way to the tavern."

Sonata got up and ran up to her.

"Heyyyyy... I'm looking for pretty much anybody who doesn't want to kill me or Vince, if you want to move in, we can build a lot of houses."

"By 'we' she means 'me,'" Vince said. "Sonata's houses are terrible. And that's if she actually tries, she usually doesn't and relies on me."

"So," Sonata pretty much ignored everything Vince said, "Wanna join the Naked Empire?"

The Toxic Nymph shook her head. "Uh, no thanks. Empires are a little too barbaric for my tastes. I prefer democracies."

"Oh, this is a democracy! I just use the word 'Empire' to sound cooler!"

She looked off and put a hand on her chin.

"Oh. Well. In that case, I'll think about it. Do you have a card?"

Sonata reached in to her hair and threw one out. That made Vince ask the obvious:

"You keep the cards in your ha-"

"Fifty-six of them not counting this one, I also have three daggers, a Magic Mirror, and a bomb. Don't worry, I shake it all out of my hair whenever I'm home and throw it in my chest."

The Toxic Nymph took it. "I'll look it over. By the way, I have some neighbors - not friends, not at all - who might want to eat you. You too, Nymph. So uh, you probably shouldn't be around here unless you know what you're doing. 'Kay, I'm leaving. I guess."

She turned violet all over, her eyes flashed red, and she suddenly lept like a rocket taking off.

Toxic Nymphs.

The beautiful faces of the violet Nymphs and Satyrs of the toxic side of the caves tend to be the last thing clueless explorers see before succumbing to the toxins filling their lungs.

Preferred Environment: Toxic Caverns.

Environment Threat Level: Dangerous, even with a proper Gas Mask or related gear.

Environment Stats: Dry. Warm. Moderate-Fantastic. Rare. A set of caves (again, an artificial "Surface Toxin" can be made) with a particular layout that involves strong gasses and liquids that are toxic to Humans. In spite of that, some life has been known to grow around there.

Other Names: Poison Nymphs, Gas Nymphs (this fell out of favor due to fart jokes), Venom Nymphs (not Acid Venom Nymphs).

Affinity: Wind.

Color: Bright Violet.

Traditional Costume Weapon: Snake-like wisps of poison, often a good distance from their bodies, swirling around them usually in a double helix. May have a single helix or more, but double is the most common. Helps them with controlling poison gasses, liquids, and to a degree moving the stones around.

Vince's Comment: I've gotten my ass kicked a lot by them. Normally, I've been told to watch out for bats, falling rocks, bats, skeletons, bats, loose mining equipment, and bats, but not so much "floating pockets of poison gas" being released. How... I'm not even sure how this is a "normal" biome, exactly. But Tania and Sonata insist it's "natural" and neither Purification Powder nor Green Solution do anything to them (I've tried), so I'll go with that.
Wait Green Solution does work on Mushroom Forests though... what does that mean? Probably nothing.

Sonata's Comment: Alright, normally our colors "make sense," but this doesn't. Don't most poisonous things have like green to them? And the extra-powerful "acid venom" a violet? So, why are the Poisonous Nymphs the violet ones? While the acid ones are a sort of green? Plus their own clouds are this deep purple-violet and stuff. It's a little backwards and it bugs me. Imagine if Magma Nymphs were blue and Ocean Nymphs were red. I mean, yeah, some are because of mutations, but still.

Tania's Comment: Toxic Nymphs.
Nymphae Venenum.
Poison is another one of those elements that to outsiders may look like an antithesis to life, but this is really just an alternative form that humans and their bretherin have less preparation for. Not only do plenty of life utilize poison chemicals similar to that of this biome in their biology, but what is toxic to most Surface life is beneficial to the extremophile communities that thrive in these parts of the caverns. To Toxic Nymphs, "poison gas" is just "air." They see no difference aside from finding it slightly easier to breathe through. Also, a side note, albinism has been documented to be more common among this variant than any other Nymph type. Going by their "absolute humanoid disguise" looks, any way.

Closing AN:

This chapter's centered around poison gas-Nymphs yet has zero fart jokes in it. There's a reason for this. I hate fart jokes (unless you get stupididly creative or unexpected with them) and I'm not a fart fetishist, so that's a double-stick.

Alright, Day 8 done! And possibly the final Tania-less chapter! Day 9's gonna open up with a bit of a doozy (in at least two ways) before... cooling down a little bit in Entries 26 and 27. I'd consider #25 the "End of Season 1" even though it's immediately followed by two other chapters and, of course, ideally, this whole story (or at least this "first chunk" of it) is all out in one month. Yet again, you'll see.

Yeah, this is also the last of the loosely Run: .GIFocalypse based Nymph types, the "colored/chromatic twelve" Deans loosely corresponded with the Nymph of the same color, and the "main Nymph" usually was written to give a similar personality to the given Dean because, again, I'm bad with ideas, but like I said the "Dove" of the bunch is the Force Nymphs. Meanwhile, the "Burrda" - or at least the post-rewrite one - was given to the Spirit Nymphs. Does this also imply that I'll be doing some kind of "Dean expansion" that goes the other way and fills out the other quaternary colors? Not too likely but, we'll see. The answer will definitely not be in RG's next update proper, again the write's still really small, we're just finishing up Kathody's arc. If the Nymphs don't feel like exact clones of the Deans with that in mind... well, I consider that a good thing (unless you think they're not because the Nymphs aren't very fleshed out, but in RTLD's grand scheme of things... well, they're kinda minor characters sort of?), I don't want them to be complete copies for a number of reasons.

I actually do have names for over half of the "Bright gang" Nymphs so far, the "representatives" that join the Naked Empire, it's just that I'm not too sure about most of them so in some chapters I just flat-out don't mention names. Basically, all of the non-quaternary-colored ones I named. And a few more.

Also I've "fallen behind on my staying ahead" schedule, and basically to catch up, later today I'll have to write out thirteen rough drafts, including Entry #75, so wrapping up "Season 3." I know I'm still super ahead but I'd like to get the roughs done as soon as possible so I'll have less worrying to do overall.

One last thing, I know this whole day (well, these current versions of the chapters) has been lacking in fanservice, but... even ignoring possible rewrites/replacement chapters, let's just say that Entry 25 (sorta) will more than make up for it. It's one of the "ways" it's a doozy.