Proposal
Adding onto my last post about gorgons, I started having ideas about other Dark sea creatures. Telchines are pretty interesting in my opinion, and could offer a way to get powerful weapons for conjurers, warlords, knights and, mainly, warriors.
Details/background on your proposal
Telchines are Dark sea enemies that have different spawning circumstances as compared to other Dark sea creatures. They are found in any range of the Dark sea, but are far more common in the later ranges, also appearing in greater numbers and larger structures. Telchines are demons of water, having flipper-like limbs and dog heads. They are master smiths, wielding weapons of their own making.
Instead of spawning on islands at set structures, the Telchines spawn at their own type of island. Forging reefs are a randomly spawning structure in the Dark sea that has both dry and underwater areas. They have different types, those being rocky, coral, sandy or grassy biomes. Coral and grassy biomes have large coral growths and forests of kelp and seaweed respectively.
Forging reefs are not hard to spot. They are a decent threat to ships, as they are quite shallow at some parts, and in other are literally coming out of the sea. The depth of the structure varies greatly, with many cliffs, pits and hills being scattered about, along with many caves.
Both on the dry land and underwater are the Telchine forges. These are decently sized structures that come as towers, wells, chambers or storages. These structures may also stretch deep underwater. Instead of fires, the telchines use magma found at underwater vents. However, touching these does not damage the player.
The reefs pose another threat as well, as the tops of the structures may hold ship attachments, cannons or, more rarely, mortars. Ships passing by will be targeted if the telchines inside are alive, however the weaponry is rarely numerous, meaning the player’s ships may pass quite safely.
If the player manages to get past the cannons and shallow rocks and stop their ship by the docks, the telchines will come out. They have no magics, however are extremely skilled at crafting and using weapons. The telchines are quite dangerous enemies at any range, as they have all kinds of weapons, both meele and ranged ones.
Telchines can also drop their weapons upon being killed. These weapons can be normal, arcanium, strength or artisan class. However, the arcanium and strength weapons are not imbued by the telchines. The weapons are rarely dropped, but are extremely powerful since they have little, if any drawback.
There are three tiers of telchines: apprentice, skilled and master. Apprentices are the weakest and spawn commonly at the surface level and rarely in the shallow water. Skilled are the middle-class and have 1.5x health, 1.25x damage and 1.1x speed of apprentice telchines. They are found at all levels, but most commonly in the shallow water. Masters are the most powerful telchines, having 2x health, 1.5x damage and 1.2x speed of skilled telchines. A few will always spawn in the deep water.
Across the reef can be found Treasuries, however, they are most common in the deep water, where they also hold the most chests. These chests have a much lower chance to drop normal loot, but drop gems and jewels of all kinds more commonly, as well as having a good chance to give weapons. These weapons can rarely be the Telchine weapons.
Master telchines always guard the treasuries in the deep water. They are extremely powerful and wield artisan telchine weapons. The player is recommended to be fully prepared to fight them, as fighting them underwater can make any mistake have fatal consecuences.
However, by not fighting the Telchines, you can leave some cargo from your ship to gain smithing favor. Sealed chests give 2 smithing favor each time they’re dropped off. Killing any telchines reduces favor by 4. The favor saves between servers, but reduces at a rate of 1 every 30 minutes.
Upon reaching 40 smithing favor, you will recieve a notification. At that point, the telchines become neutral. After that, you can interact with them. You can buy all kinds of weapons, even telchine ones, albeit rather rarely and at a hefty price. You can also use the telchine forges and complete certain quests.
Telchine blacksmith is an NPC that acts like a shopkeeper, but can fight back as well. It offers a permanent upgrade to weapons, increasing stats that are high and decreasing those that are low. The way the upgrade works is simple: it will find the stats that are over 1.0 and increase them by 50% of the gap between the stat and 1.0. Stats under 1.0 are reduced in the same way.
For example, a weapon that has 1.2 damage, 1.0 size and 0.8 speed will after the upgrade have 1.3 damage, 1.0 size and 0.7 speed. However, after this upgrade, the telchines won’t upgrade it more.
There is also the Telchine alliance quest. It is given by a master telchine and requires the player to sink 3 atlantean brigs. Though very difficult, it will award the player with a Master telchine quartermaster and permanently keep the smithing favor at 40.
Master telchine quartermaster gives very good stats. It increases ship stability by 5%, durability by 2,000, resilience by 15, ram defense by 500 and magic storage by 200, but reduces ram strength by 50 and speed by 10. It also functions as an armorer and a blacksmith, as well as offers telchine upgrades.
Telchine weapons look mostly the same as normal weapons. However, their stats are much stronger than those of normal weapons. The stat raise is either 0.05x or 0.1x to all stats on the weapon, depending on the weapon type. For example, bludgeon weapons will gain a 0.1x increase to size and 0.05x increase in speed and damage, while polearm weapons gain a 0.1x increase to speed and 0.05x increase to size and damage.
