Nymphlopedia

Entry 80: Decay Nymphs

Tania happened to walk in on Sonata and Vince both aggressively pushing something towards the other as she went through the caverns. The following from Vince immediately cleared a few things up:

"I'm not putting on the brass knuckles!" He said.

"Come on!" Sonata replied. "We're in Rustyard Country right now, that means rough brawling, and the best way to do that is with toughening up your knuckles!"

"Literally nothing you just said is true."

"I can't put them on because that would break Rule #1!"

"Okay that I can trust."

"What are you two doing?" Tania asked.

"We're entering the Decaves!" Sonata said.

"Nobody calls them that." Vince responded.

"Well I'm somebody and I call them that. Anyway, Tania, we're going to the Decaves, and it was one whose Nymphs had bullied me ages ago. I'm nervous."

"You never confronted them?" Tania asked.

"Tania, you've known me for a while. Do you really see me as the sort of person to face my fears?"

"Everything we've done since killing the Moon Lord is in some way preparation for fighting True King Slime or Lindsey."

"...Okay. Lindsey scares me more than them anyway. But still, I... I don't like fighting the monsters of my past."

Vince rolled his eyes. "Sorry I'm your exact opposite. And wait, you want me to put these on to intimidate them?! Isn't that having me fight your battles for you?!"

"Nah you're just supposed to look scary so that I have more confidence. I'll do the fighting. Also, if that Aroma Nymph completely kicking our asses yesterday was any indication, post-Moon Lord Nymphs are not the sort of people to mess with."

"Why not bring the Naked Empire on them?"

"Oh that's just cowardly. Now, put on the uncomfortable brass knuckles! It would fit with their biome!"

"You're not doing a good job at convincing me by calling them uncomfortable!"

"I'm trying to lie less, okay? It's my New Years Resolution."

Tania sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I swear. When I first met you two, you were doing something like this. Here."

She grabbed them.

And then threw them to the part of the cave they were standing in front of. The one with all the rust everywhere. All of them heard a voice shout "IS THAT TREASURE?!"

Vince folded his arms and smirked. "If you get that, alone, I'll put them on."

Sonata rolled her eyes. "Oh, fuck you. I'll grab them, but just because I really like them. They look neat."

"Why did you even craft those if you refuse to wear them?"

"I told you," Sonata shrugged as she walked to the rusty caves and- woah, she had to dodge a chain trap. It was basically one of those 'ropes around the feet' traps, just with a metal linked chain coated in rust rather than rope.

Also, the cave had a ton of puddles in it. Very annoying to navigate through.

She saw a Nymph, who from a glance looked somewhat like she was made of stained metal or was rusting, flipping the brass knuckles around and examining them.

"Hi Decay Nymph! Oh, you're new. Maybe things have changed in over four-hundred years? Is Coppra still here? Link? Chris?"

She looked at Sonata and gasped. "You're the one who- oh no... yes, they're here, I think they'd want to speak to you. Well, not want, but-"

Sonata raised an eyebrow as the Decay Nymph ran off. Also, Tania and Vince went to her.

"The deal was off so we joined." Vince said.

"I think we're gonna have to battle a huge armada or something."

Sonata flinched when she saw what the Decay Nymph did - return, with an army of other Decay Nymphs, most of whom Sonata recognized from her childhood. The Oread mouthed "No, no, no..." to herself several times when-

They all bowed to her. Covered in sweat.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry." One of them said.

"Have you actually changed," Tania asked them, "or are you just saying that because Sonata is armed with one of the most powerful weapons known to Terraria?"

"It's! Um... the second... thing. But we can do the first too!"

Vince grabbed the brass knuckles and put them on himself. All of the Decay Nymphs gasped.

"Okay." He said. "I see why you wanted me to do that."

"Great!" Sonata said. "Finally, a place we go that turns up on my side! Look, I enjoy a good bully revenge plot, but that's not why I'm here. I need to get some Dechains - I hate the puns down here - to make a defense net. I'm not sure how this works, but ever since we got our Ancient Manipulator crafted has really started hurting my head."

Decay Nymphs.

Leaves fall. Metal rusts. Concrete cracks. People fall and die. Change is the one constant, especially decaying change, and that's something these Nymphs usually just want to get done faster.

Preferred Environment: Decay Ponds/Decay Caves (or "Decaves").

Environment Threat Level: Dangerous.

Environment Stats: Moist/Humid. Warm. Average on the mundane-fantastic scale.

Other Names: Rust Nymphs, Breaking Nymphs, Clockwork Nymphs, Aging Nymphs, Rustyard Nymphs.

Affinity: Water.

Color: Dull Vermilion.

Traditional Costume Weapon: "Rusty" "chains" (made of their own natural metals, usually from ores or just created by their magic) usually just around their arms. Aides them with commanding water, metals, and almost any "water (or other liquid)-metal (or other solid) interaction."

Vince's Comment: Be prepared for a lot of small cuts and getting some spiky things in you. Just in general. If you have some basic defense, you can protect yourself against that.

Sonata's Comment: It's a nice and relaxing place but these stupid fucking dog-monster things that live here keep trying to turn it in to some kind of scrap bully battle place. Oh yeah, the Nymphs too. It's kind of an adult bully hangout. Lots of rude assholes here, but a lot that are really, really nice. Not too many in-betweens. FYI, I think of myself as an asshole, and Vince as an "in-between." Tania on the other hand, she's... nice but just a little... yeah...

Tania's Comment: Decay Nymphs.
Nymphae Caries.
I would go on a big poem about death being a regular part of life and natural and all, but the Nymphs here insist that they are not "death themed." Just... themed around "breaking" parts of nature. Their biome is its own ectosystem rather independant of this, simply metal with proximity to water that causes a lot of rust, and they just went with that. I have some times been accused of looking too far in to things like that.

Closing AN:

Day 25, done! Five days left! And twenty more "numbered" entries to go!

Hrm... wasn't sure where to really go for this chapter, especially since I sort of rushed it. I legitimately think that the best thing about this was the joke that the Aroma Nymph seen in the last chapter actually won the duel. And that was basically improvised, while I was writing the last chapter I didn't think of going in that direction at all.

The biome is very, very loosely inspired by a location in Pikmin 3's mission mode. Obviously to those familiar with that game, the Rustyard.