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Beneath a Crimson Moon

Within churning depths unfathomable, they are sleeping, dreaming...

"The Merms have always been a mystery to me; they were here long before I ever arrived, after all. But stranger still are their nocturnal habits: on the night of the new moon, I have observed them gazing silently toward the empty cosmos, as if pining for something..."
- From the journal of William "Maxwell" Carter

This is a fairly beefy mod that adds a new magic staff, a new static world object, and three new creatures.

Eclipse Caller's Staff

"It seems to be calling out for something." - Wilson

The Star Caller's Staff, once a wonderous magical tool that brought light wherever it went has been corrupted and twisted by the Thing that sleeps within the new moon. When cast, it summons a hole to the infinite void where your cursor is placed, consuming the life of anything that comes near - including yourself...

To obtain this terrible weapon, you must repair the Moonstone and insert the Star Caller's Staff, just as you would if you wanted to create the Moon Caller's Staff. However, you must wait until the new moon rather than the full moon. You must defend the Moonstone as usual, but when the event is finished, you will find the Eclipse Caller's Staff has replaced the Star Caller's Staff.


Wretched Altar

"A ghastly display of theological fervor." - Wickerbottom

Deep within the fetid marshlands, the Merms have built a disturbing center of worship for their twisted gods. They are protected by the Zealots... and hold the key to awakening an unspeakable evil.


Merm Zealots

"They serve the dark machinations of their twisted gods." - Wendy

The holy men among the Merms, the Zealots conduct their insane rituals among the poisoned marshland earth. At most times, they are content to stay near the Wretched Altar, but should you successfully create the Eclipse Caller's staff, you will soon find they covet your new weapon... and will hunt you down and kill you if need be.

They lead parties of Altered Merms, and fling orbs of dark lightning in combat.


Altered Merm

"Exposure to their gods has... affected them." - Maxwell

Monstrous merms that have regressed into an even more primal and vicious state, they follow their Zealot masters and mercilessly chase down whoever the Zealots direct them toward. While idle, they occasionally vomit up pools of a strange black liquid. Repulsive... and deadly.


The Eclipse Caller's Staff offers terrible power to those who dare to wield it. But should it fall into the gnarled claws of the Zealots, they will attempt to bring it to the Wretched Altar. Pray they do not reach it, lest the Thing be summoned, and the world cursed, plunged into a horrible night that never ends.

Destroy the Thing, and perhaps you may yet see light again.



On a less dramatic note, if you ever encounter bugs, please please PLEASE tell me about it in the comments below and I will do my best to fix it. If it is a crash, please provide the crash log located in Documents/Klei/DoNotStarveTogether/client_log or a screenshot of the error message that displays during the crash :)

Thank you for trying my mod and I hope you have lots of dark and horrific fun!!!

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UPDATE 0.02:
- Emissary of the Abyss now works! Still need to finalize stats.

UPDATE 0.03:
- Two new creatures:
-> Altered Merm: A product of poor breeding... or something worse? Prefab code: "inbred"
-> Merm Zealot: The masters of the Merms' twisted rituals, they lead the Altered Merms in hunts for more sacrifices to placate their dark gods. Prefab code: "zealot"
- The Altered Merms follow the Zealots and aid them in combat. Merm Zealots boss around the Altered Merms and fling balls of energy from long range.

UPDATE 0.13:
- Fixed a crash that would happen after an Altered Merm vomited too many times.

UPDATE 0.66:
- Deep within the fetid marshlands, the Merms have erected a Wretched Altar (prefab code: "merm_altar") - a twisted monument to their madness.
-> It doesn't do anything except spawn Merm Zealots - yet. You will need to generate a new world for one to be placed.
- On the night of the new moon, something evil stirs within the void above. Find it a worthy vessel.
-> The Moon Rock will be active on both the full moon and new moon. The normal scenario will begin when the Star Caller's staff is placed in the Moon Rock, but during the new moon, rather than becoming the Moon Caller's Staff, it'll instead become the Eclipse Caller's Staff (prefab code: "voidstaff"). Its spell will summon the Absolute Nothingness, a hole to the Abyss that'll consume the life of anything around it - including you...
-> For some reason, the Zealots seem to covet the Eclipse Caller's Staff. Best keep it out of their hands...

UPDATE 0.9:
- It is now clear why the Zealots desire the Eclipse Caller's Staff - when you performed the Moon Caller ritual on the night of the new moon, the Star Caller's Staff was corrupted beyond all measure... and something terrible made the gem its home. For now it is sealed, but the Zealots conspire to release it...
-> If a Merm Zealot finds the Eclipse Caller's Staff, it'll steal it and attempt to take it back to the Wretched Altar. If it successfully brings the staff to the altar, the altar will be destroyed, and in its place, it will emerge - the Emissary of the Abyss, bringing with it a horrible night that never ends. Slaying it is the only way you will ever see the sun again.
-> Upon death, the Emissary will be sealed within a Black Gem, allowing you to easily recreate the Eclipse Caller's Staff with an Ancient Pseudoscience Station. Plus, the Wretched Altar will be destroyed, so you no longer need fear the coming of the Emissary.
- The Moon Caller event will now have different visual effects on the new moon, befitting a dark entity entering the staff.

UPDATE 0.94:
- Reworked a lot of problematic code involving missing animstates, actionhandlers, and bad spawners. All behind the scenes stuff but should work better
- Reduced the damage of the Absolute Nothingness
- The Wretched Altar is now buildable using a Shadow Manipulator. Ingredients are: Moon Rock x8, Pigskin x4, Black Gem x1.