Haven't played any serious DnD at all but I have found myself eagerly waiting for AJ's content. 👌

"avoid the blood orgy" is literally the least necessary statement I have heard in my life.

Next time my players are engaged in underwater shenanigans, I’m going to have them swim into a “thick, viscous, and milky area of water filled with strange floating beadlike orbs”, only to find out they basically swam in to a merrow jizz cloud and are now under attack by merrow who think they are trying to eat their eggs. “Roll Iniative!”

Here wuz Seamus! Seamus is at work. Seamus is tired from running a 14 hour game yesterday. Seamus' boss is in the next room. Seamus rolls the dice again!

13:43 "...or in the case of shrines, Skulls!" The way you said that so joyously made me laugh XD

Underwater adventures are so cool. You would have to be exceptionally brave to not feel a creeping sense of dread when exploring aquatic locations and being attacked by monstrous beings that dwell beneath the waves.

I really want to make a Triton paladin that is ashamed that one of his parents or ancestor were actually a Merrow, so i can explain why he looks a bit more... Fishy( thinking Zora from legend of Zelda). I want him to be more chaotic good like he is fighting back against his demonic blood.

when you talked about how they might throw away unlucky harpoons, it made me think they probably have venerated weapons which they consider lucky, because every time they are brought out they make a kill. and then you talked about demogorgon twisting enemy demons into demonic weapons. and 2+2=4 great video!

The first time I heard of the Merrow was in the 3.5 Monster Manual, where they were an aquatic sub-species of Ogre.

1:44 the marrow depending on planes slightly change the most fun plane for their duel personalities is shadowmor which switches between a dark/light version due to a fairy named oona wanting power so bad she corrupted the plane to cause such severe personality switches when she switches the planes dark/light it truly changes everything. It’s a interesting lore story.

The problem with aquatic monsters is that DMs have stacks of monsters they only get to use in a water environment. As a result savvy PCs avoid bodies like the plague because they know that they'll have a bunch of encounters as the DM will throw loads of encounters at them in their eagerness to try out these unused beasties.

My players are all afraid of the water or I'd be using these guys. Thanks for the info AJ, one step closer to the entire monstrous manual playlist!

Say no to drugs and demogorgan.

Well you have now finished all of the Irish creatures in the Monster Manual and I have to say my ancestors might not have a large bestiary but what we do have is always going to leave an impression no matter what you're looking to do with them.

And we’re back at it again with tiny video. 😀

I know you already did some goblin videos, but I want MORE!

Merrow: Aquatic Gnolls.

Gets HarPoon'd: "Where'd you get rope from?" "Hair from backflesh of pirates." "Oh..."

That's a nope fish!

Geez... these guys make my (2nd Ed based) home-brew modification of the Merrow look tame. Mine are eons ago linked to Sahuagin that often keep Sahuagin slaves (like Bugbears sometimes did Goblins) with untold level cruelty... nothing close to these demi-demons. These Merrow would hunt and eat mine.

Basically its a whole new creature from the old aquatic orge from 1st and 2nd edition.....interesting twist on the 5th edition version thanks a lot AJ....great vid

*sigh* thank you AJ, thank you for being a wholesome, entertaining constant in a crazy, wacked-out world. Here’s to many more videos in the future! Also, a question for the comments; what aquatic creature do you look forward to using or encountering the most in an average campaigns limited aquatic encounters and why?

Hey AJ, man I never want to go into the water ever again. A under water campaign would be awesome but from a DM's point of view. That would be quite the under taking. 🐲🌊 Thanks AJ for the video & have a great day.

Great video AJ! I was wondering if you could do something on one of the demon lords in the Tome of Beasts or the Creature Codex? Like Chemosh or Mechuiti? I know there isn’t much info on them but if you could that would be awesome.

Demogorgan is not the way kids. Cause other wise you end up like these poor suckers. Not to mention becoming a mane is not a fun time.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into water!🐟🐬🐋🐙🐊🦑🦈😈👿

Timely video with the Ghosts of Saltmarsh coming out.

HAHA the small intro is back :D

the only Merro?[w]? I remember as a child was from I believe the dragonlance novels and that was an aquatic orge with magic abilities similar to an ogre Magi, I miss that ogre variant and I hope they bring something similar back

And it's back. Who here has 30/20 vision?

I once played a barbarian who fought a merrow. He got stabbed by the harpoon…. And yanked the poor towards him and killed it with its own weapon.

Been waiting for this one.

Inappropriately chill music for the content of this video, the grimdark hits like a shark attack.

love your vids man keep it up

I don't play D&D but these videos are always interesting to listen to.

Didnt know Yogg Saron was in the DnD universe. The more ya know

Great video!!!

Is there any indication of how long before 5E's current time the transformation from Merfolk to Merrow occurred?

Great video - this is one of the many monsters I've seen in print (or in images), but never encountered in gameplay. It's frustrating how hard underwater combat is for characters w/o a swim speed + the right weapon type. Would be great if water breathing were available as a lev2 spell, maybe targeting 5 creatures instead of 10. Dunno. Pirates, coasts, and water-based creatures/monsters/locations can be challenging for DMs to work in to a primarily land-based campaign

*Casually slaughters the replay button because nothing else is on in my subscription feed.*

2:25 Nope. . . 4:46 I want one!🤩

Fish & Chips... CHARGE!!!!!

everybody praise aquatic month!!! men i was waiting for you to do dedicate aquatic monsters ecologies thank you this is great! (the kraken video was also superb)

Good video

Oh my.

Huh. I wonder what would happen if Demogorgon and a particularly powerful Kraken engaged in hostilities.

Aj, in your opinion why did the Merrow go from Mermaids 🧜🏻‍♀️ with red caps that allow them to shapeshift between terrestrial and aquatic form to being Mermonsters? The reason I ask is because D&D isn’t the only literary entity that has turned the Merrow into monsters.

I may need to rethink my understanding of the cooperation of evil undersea creatures. I've always thought that most evil sea dwelling creatures work together in some fashion due to overlapping goals of their societies or Gods. But that would be foolish to assume Kuo-Toa, Sahuagin or Merrow would work together just because they share similar traits and tendencies. If good aligned sea creatures don't always get along, evil ones must be the same. Not all merfolk are cheerful neighbors, and not all Locathah are helpful and not all Tritons are looking to save strangers.

asking out of curiosity, for an idea I am currently entertaining, can or will merrow serve or be forced to to serve a kraken?

Merrow !! Merrow !!

Yay

Will/would you make a video on more mtg-related stuff and how it can be used in D&D? I've been wondering about that ever since WotC released the ravnica D&D supplement.

I’m still playing 3.5/Pathfinder; do the Fresh Water Merrow still have two legs or do they all have shark/ell tails now?

Whoa whoa whoa. That is not how lorwyn works. At all. The merfolk of lorwyn transform into the merrow of shadowmoor and vice versa during an event known as The Great Aurora. (almost all life on the plane is transformed from warm and pleasant to grimdark)

You talking about seas in the beginning got me thinking; are there any Arctic seas? Or any Arctic like regions with cool cultures, monsters and more?

5:00 This is a topic i find interesting in fiction - at what point exactly does the threshold become permiable? Given your opinions on twitch - as a relative meta metaphorical example, if it were DnD - exactly how bad would it have to get, in order for the demons to pour through and breach the manifested weakening in the fabric? (thinking back on the fall of the eldar and the non-consentual birth of slaanesh) Humour me, whence doth thy wicked netting twitch become, a ruptured nexus of unwelcomed maws begotten by the wrought harrowings of unpurged sins? When fore is thy due judgement home? When fore dust thou shatter "mass"?

At 4:40 what is that? It looks amazing!

Are there any aquatic demons? I suppose they don’t need to breath but I still can’t imagine a Glabrezue doing so hot under the sea, not so intimidating when it’s just floundering around

Are there any Aquatic Ogres in 5e?

This merrow lore is creepy. Lovecraft call backs are always welcome.

Merrow allies or subjects in battle?

I’m confused. Is a merrow like a different type of mermaid?

aspect ratio

ICKS-it-zock-HEETL

So they're just evil mermaids OK

best and mostest anime wifu.. come at me.

1.) So Demigorgon has abolith and kraken worshiping him? How dose that work? 2.) Was that rift to the abyss temporary, or later closed by something else, or is it still there (and maybe growing slowly)? 3.) How dose demonic corruption work? 4.) Is it like Warhammer corruption? 5.) What things can induce such physical and/or mental changes? 6.) How fundamental dose it get (ex. dose it do things like alter your soul, assuming there are different types of souls)? 7.) Can either be reversed (maybe by things like a wish spell, divine intervention, etc.); if so, how? Dose it matter what or how much corruption has taken place? 8.) What dose that mean for things like demon blooded tieflings? 9.) How dose this compare to far realm taint? 10.) I have been reading some of the planescape lore lately and, while I am just starting, it seems to treat the abyss as just another, extremely horrible, outer plane, even talking about the power of belief having an effect on it. Dose that mean that, for the most part, the multiverse has naturalized the abyss (like an ecosystem adapting to incorporate an invasive species), or is that just outdated lore? I know the abyss is expanding (albeit, from what I understand, the abyss is trying to eat several infinite planes at a finite rate, so at this rate it would take an infinite amount of time) but all outer planes can gain or loose territory based on the belief and alignment of the inhabitants so the only difference is that the abyss itself actively dose this, and dose so to non-outer planes. P.s. also speaking about the abyss, is there something like the blood war in the elemental planes between elementals, genies, primprdials, etc. and demons?

Are these like sahuagan pardon the spellin

Aspect ratio is weird on this video, most of the images were very small? Usual good quality content otherwise. Also these Merfolk are ripping off Slaanesh's origin story from 40k!

Ixitxachitls > merrow! may demogorgon rain forever with his true servants!

Demogorgan: "Do you know how the merrow first came into being? They were merfolk once, taken by the ruinous powers. Tortured and mutated, a ruined and terrible form of life. And now, perfected: My fighting merrow. WHOOOM do you serve!?!?" Merrow champion: "dem - mo - gorg - gan!" *demogorgan shoves an arm tentile right in there, leaving a permanent twisting mark * 🧜‍♀️🧜‍♂️🌅🦍🐙😵🪓🩸🏛😱🔪🍣🐟🤪🤤🐟 *tries to stop demogorgan but gets mentally overpowered by demogorgan & forced back into infinite pirraanha style wanton bloodlust fueled darwinion conflict* 🐟🤤🐟🧜‍♂️⚔🧜‍♂️ Demogorgan: "Seek out the followers of demogorgan, spoil them, corrupt them, ruin them terrorize their form of life. You will taste merflesh!!!" *drives the arm tenticle in there further* "You can only say yes to demogorgan, once you have already freely said "YES". I am demogorgan." 🧠💪😵

Second.....

First

"Two twin towers" Um.....[Insert 9/11 joke here].