Nymphlopedia

Entry 41: Steel Nymphs

Tania brushed her hand against one of the many solid metal walls around her. The place looked like the inside of some building that contained something heavy, except with a strong cyan color scheme applied to it. And that the 'heavy thing contained' broke out and dented the metal at various, uneven spots.

If there was such a thing as an architectural uncanny valley, that biome would definitely fit in it.

But...

"Vince, you can lower the repeater! We're fine here!" Tania said. "There's a lot of metal creatures, but they're usually harmless."

"Okay..." Vince said. And he did, in fact, lower his weapon made from 'blessed' metal.

Not blessed in quite the same way as the Cobalt, Mythril, or Adamantite but- whatever.

"Sonata, could you knock that off?" Vince said. "I'm normally okay with your animal-like things but doing that is taking it a step too far."

She was bent forward with her arms scratching at the smooth metal grounds and her face against the floor, sniffing rapidly. Her straightened hind legs were pacing around from time to time, as she just kept adjusting where she wanted to be.

"Sorry, I don't like it!" She leaned her head up but otherwise was still posed like a dog sniffing around. "There's almost no smell at all here! Our noses are sensitive - sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff - so this is kind of like walking in to a pitch-black room! I'm trying to get the faintest bit of light here!"

"Sonata, please." Tania told her. "Yes, we Dryads did that too, but we mostly stopped after you were born." She wiffed in some of the air. "But you do raise a point. The air... oddly..." her nose twitched twice. "Clean..."

A dark cyan Nymph with a sleak, shiny body and one hand confidently on her hip walked out from one of the halls, from a door - one of the few doors in the region the group actually saw.

"Okay Sonata, I have all the material I need! I should be able to just head back to the Empire and help enhance that new sword!"

"Thanks!" Sonata said, and then she let in a huge inhale. "Alright, we're gonna stay out here. You can... go home... or whatever..."

Tania gasped, looking behind the Steel Nymph.

A patch of the metal was purple. Radiating with... something unpleasant. Looking a bit 'rusted,' even.

All four of them went to work immediately. The Steel Nymph's hands glowed her matchng dark cyan and she waved one around it, immediately taking the Corruption out of that. Sonata's hands glowed violet, which she flat-out threw at other spaces of the cave, taking out any sickly purple spots of the biome. Tania did the same with a green glow, and Vince shot a huge stream of green from the Clentaminator.

"Dammit!" Said Tania. "The Corruption, it..." she sighed.

"Hey..." the Steel Nymph rather weakly said. "That is our mission, the Naked Empire... reverting the world to its naked state. As in, not with any Evil Infections."

"Ooh shit that could be made in to a cool tagline." Said Sonata. "Also,"

She went up to Vince and started sniffing him. Mostly on the shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Vince, I'll stop, I just wanted to get something with an actual scent-"

"You can do that as much as you want." Vince said. "I... don't mind having you next to me like that. I just didn't like seeing you smelling around with your vagina and your asshole up in the air."

So Sonata just stopped caring, and went all out on his left side.

While Tania whiffed a little on his right shoulder.

Everyone looked at her.

"I couldn't handle it. It's... sterile."

"Nah, you're good too!" Sonata said to her. "I'd sniff you but I thought you'd slap me faster than Vince! But come on, you can do it! Give in to your instincts! Sniff!"

Steel Nymphs.

Better make sure you don't pick up THEM with a Metal Detector! These Nature Spirits are as tough as titanium and do not like what adventurers have done with their ore collections.

Preferred Environment: Steel Gatherings/Halls.

Environment Threat Level: Peaceful.

Environment Stats: Dry. Cool. Moderate on the Mundane-fantastic scale. Rare. Solid metal caverns, usually surrounded by plentiful ore veins of various metals.

Other Names: Metal Nymphs, "Iron Nymphs" (inaccurate), "Lead Nymphs" (inaccurate), "Hard Nymphs" (accurate but, let's be frank, corny).

Affinity: Earth.

Color: Dark Cyan.

Traditional Costume Weapon: Metal platings along the knees. Helps them "make vibrations" through metals, and detect pure metals (even down to atomic size for elite Steel Nymphs) among the earth.

Vince's Comment: Yeah. A fist-fight won't work. Their skin is just as tough as you would expect.

Sonata's Comment: No I haven't seen a "Terminator" movie, stop asking me or them! All I know is that they're naked when they go back in time, which is awesome, but then they always put on clothes which isn't!

Tania's Comment: Steel Nymphs.
Nymphae Chalybe.
Oreads tending to carry around metal detectors is often mistaken as them looking out for iron, a weakness to them, said by fairytales. Quite the opposite: Nymphs in general are collectors, especially Oreads and even moreso Steel Nymphs. To them, the metal is the best thing they can "sense" and "connect" with. Naturally, they take an enjoyment to factories, especally abandoned ones. Some Steel Nymphs are the reason why those factories were abandoned in the first place.

Closing AN:

Probably one of the easiest biome ideas to come up with that isn't one that's an existing actual biome.

By the way I'm still impressed that so far I haven't made a chapter as short as Entry 2. I'm not sure how it ended up being that short. And now since I have to have Tania in each of these I'm not sure if I will have an entry that short again.

(I think HUC Chapter 12 is still the shortest chapter of anything I've written, not counting visual stuff, and I think it's unlikely I'll be able to top (bottom?) that.)