Hey hey! Here's one hot off the presses! Conceived and designed only two days ago and what might be the final piece of the NPC puzzle.
I've spoken in the past about three counterpart areas - The tropics, the arctic and the desert.
They all have a native enemy type (Hockenblok, Fishflinger, Pteroflap) They all have a "natural" boss monster (Abominature, Crabsolute Zero, Stratasfiend)
And I wanted them all to have a local NPC: Quack van Honk, Tuyu and now Neferendi (am I going to stick with that name? Not sure yet.) Naturally, she is a sphinx and naturally she will ask you some questions that need to be answered before you can progress. But she isn't asking them because of some sort of divine purpose, she just needs help for her crossword puzzle.
I'm very pleased with how this design came together. I wanted a long, weird neck inspired by some of the old Greek sphinx statues but didn't want a traditional Egyptian headdress and I think this has enough basic sphinx elements but enough unique elements to be successful!