Nymphlopedia

Entry 99: Mountain Nymphs

Beginning AN:

Well, this is pretty much the final "regular" entry, depending on how you look at it... the Dryad Entry definitely counts as "special," and the 100th one arguably on account of it... yeah, being a 25th. And the last of the not-Dryad entries... but you could also technically say that since this is the last entry that's not a twenty-fifth numbered one, it too is special in that way? And the 98, being the last that's not special in any sense of-

Forget it. Here's the entry.

"...Huh." Said Sonata, looking at the summit of a nearby, well, mountain. "You know, for all the mountains in our area, I just realized something... we haven't really... explored them. We're near the end of our little army prep for now, and this is the first time we, as a gang, have been here. I mean of course we all ventured there on our own and we've even had run-ins with the Nymphs, it's just... kind of weird to head here last of all before taking on the Key Holders."

"True." Said Vince. "So close to home... almost like a weird bookending... almost."

"Reminder." Said Tania. "We're not going to fight Lindsey with this army, we just need to stop her Key Holders from spreading the World Evils. Then we can grow ever-more before confronting her herself."

Sonata nodded. "Yep. That's the plan. Take on all her super ultra powerful big goons first..."

"Those fucking abominations to the name of nature." Tania finished.

...

Right, so as expected, it took quite a bit to hike up the mountain-

The trio barely flew out of the path of a giant boulder that came rolling down to them from above.

"Did that fucking Digital Nymph set us up in some kind of trap?!" Sonata asked. More boulders chased after them, and were flown out of the- okay some of them 'hopped' from the ground and damn near homed in on them. Thankfully, they were easy enough to lead away in to a rock wall, breaking them to pieces. "SERIOUSLY! WHAT IS THIS?!" She shouted.

The gang heard laughter from above.

Quite... well, tough-looking violet Nymphs were standing above them. On average, they looked a bit burlier and bigger than the Trio. Just by a bit though.

"You wanna cross in to the land of the ROCK NYMPHS?!" One of them shouted.

"ROCK NYMPHS!" The others all repeated.

"We heard you knew a thing or two about Ashen Nymphs!" Vince called up to them. "We're looking for their help, and then we were going to start going after Lindsey's minions... with all their keys..."

"AND THEIR FUCKING EVIL BIOME-HARNESSING!" Tania shouted, stomping her foot on the ground. "This isn't a game! Lindsey is an insult to nature!"

"Wow you're being really assertive now." Said Sonata. "You know, I kinda like that."

The Mountain Nymphs just all laughed. One of them waved her fingers around, forming a block of glass-like crystal. Another one - the apparent 'leader' who was the first to talk to them - punched it, shattering it, and then jumped over to the Trio.

Then they all laughed.

"Oh yeah! I'm enjoying the challenge of that! We'll happily join you if we get to break stuff."

"Hahaha, of course you can!" Sonata said. "Glad you're thinking of joining the Naked Empire so easily! So uh, why did you throw a boulder at us?"

"It was a test of TOUGHNESS! So, you want the Ashen Nymphs? We can hook you up with them!"

"...And the catch?" Vince asked.

"The boulder was the catch! Man we thought we could get you and that fucking Dryad with our Homing Boulders." She shrugged. "Guess not!"

"...Okay. I'll still be mad at you for that, but later."

Sonata patted him on the shoulder. "Hey I mean we Nymphs may be nuts, but we're less nuts than some of those other guys. Fountain of Youth? Those damn Hom... things?"

Vince nodded.

Mountain Nymphs.

Nature's towers seen from afar and from nearly anywhere house some of the mightiest Nymphs. Challenge these brave warriors if you dare!

Preferred Environment: Mountains.

Environment Threat Level: Dangerous.

Environment Stats: Average wetness. Cold. Mundane. Common. Surface Mountains are large land structures that can give way to stone, sprawling towards the sky, often in ranges. "The Underground Mountain" is the term for the specific sort of rocky caverns usually right below mountains (often still at sea level if only slightly below), made of special minerals.

Other Names: Heavy Stone Nymphs, "Stone Nymphs," "Cavernous Nymphs" (when that's not applied to Oreads), Rock Nymphs.

Affinity: Earth.

Color: Dull Violet.

Traditional Costume Weapon: Colorless crystal gauntlets around their wrists. Grants them extra strength, letting them lift exceptionally heavy structures.

Vince's Comment: They're hard as rock and can punch with all the force that that implies, smashing anything, they can even break diamond. If you find any enemies, they'll want to directly attack you, but... well, straight up fist-fighting or sword fighting obviously won't get you anywhere. Have you seen any gigantic pillars lying around outside the mountains? Yeah, these Nymphs built them, and they like throwing them around just for fun.

Sonata's Comment: WOW I'm normally the one trying to get Nymphs to like me, but THEY'RE the ones really doing a great job at getting ME to like THEM! They pamper, they have really cozy homes that give this nice, fuzzy feeling... it's kind of like nostalgia, almost? Like returning to a home town? But no, my "home town" was really just a fucking pit by this scummy underground pond where I barely had enough plants and corpses to munch on to stay alive, ever since I was abandoned by my parents just barely after my birth... this... most of the Mountain Nymph resident areas kind of fees almost like the town I almost never got to live in... since, well yeah, a lot of Oreads just live by FUCKING. LINDSEY.

Tania's Comment: Mountain Nymphs.
Nymphae Mons.
Deepwood Nymphs are closest to my Variant, while Mountain Nymphs are close to Oreads. In fact, "Oread" was even derived for a term specifically meaning Nymphs in the mountains, rather than the caves. I have been meaning to try to get that changed, but like most language matters, it was a slow and painful process. The Mountains and the Caverns are, in many ways, deeply related both in obvious terms of geological makeup and in terms of innate biome magic that can be drawn from them. However, Mountain Nymphs are at their best drawing from height and defense, unlike Oreads who draw from the depths and raw damage. As with all Variants, they reflect on their biome, in this case by being imposing, reaching to the peaks, and impenetrable.

Closing AN:

...Could this be considered a vanilla biome? Maybe this is the actual last vanilla biome? I mean... you see mountains in the background all the time... technically there are, well, at least "hills" that usually have the cave entrances...

Also the sorta final "Pikmin-based" one. Specifically... they're meant to very LOOSELY be inspired by Rock Pikmin. I guess. Hence, the nickname "Rock Nymphs."

Yeah sorry for an underwhelming "final normal" chapter. I was just drawing a complete blank.

Vince's original Comment here was about saying that their defenses and stuff were so high they should be "Shield Nymphs," it's what gave me the idea to rewrite "Wasteland Nymphs" in to... well, yeah, the previous chapter. But again, Wastelands and Rainforests might just come up later anyway if I decide to expand this.

Up-next is a twofer of big chapters! The last of the "twenty-fifth numbered entries" in the First Edition, then... well, yeah. DRYAD HYPE!