I've had a dream of homebrewing a horse version of these and essentially having a stampede of them that essentially grows as its smashing through villages. A writhing, crackling mass of undead horses with purple tendrils trailing around. Its glorious but I haven't written a campaign around it quite yet.
One of my favorite undead monsters. Definitely need some class levels though. Why? You get to design a legendary serial killer as part of their backstory and skill set.
I love the concept of the inherent destructive consequence of just the existence of Undead creatures, the Entropy of the multiverse itself, it explains why Undead are universally feared and hated. Thank you I am definitely going to convey these ideas to my players.
Yeah, I love that. It always felt wrong whenever someone wrote a story where skeletons were just free labor and necromancy wasn't inherently evil. I'd much rather have it all fleshed out -- Where do they get their energy from? Why do the gods hate them?
Also a cool angle to the Mohrg is inspiration from its appearance - it is created out of its vitriolic behavior and willpower to stay alive, and the only thing that remains with it are its intestines. Intestines like the stomach are the source and mainstay of bile - a.k.a., Choler, one of the four humors attributed to hostile, ambitious, and overtly belligerent behavior! You could say this is the most extreme version of an imbalance of humours.
@@AJPickett Leeches on corpses to drain them of blood would be a pretty metal addition to a setting! Might be a Druid's way of consecrating the dead...
Gotta say I like the extended intros you are doing (seemingly) more often now. What I'd like to know more about is this idea that one can cast above 9th level spells when not on Toril. I know 9+ level spells used to be a thing and still are under certain conditions (like through Elven High Magic), but I've never heard about this restriction being specific to Toril before.
After watching the entire channel backlog, its strange being this early. Keep doing what youre doing sir, I always look forward to the inspiration in your videos.
Ah the Mohrg, instead of Undead, this creature is an Aberration in my version, a parasite from the far-realm that clings to humans and turns them into mass-murderers with suggestions, telepathic voices and corruption from the inside out, as the parasite feeds on murder, with each murder the parasite grows in the organs of the host, until one day the host is slain and the parasite mohrg takes over and bursts out, creating the Mohrg as in the pictures. With those tentacles it can drain not only flesh, blood and organs, but also sanity, turning others into chaotic murderers.
IIRC there are two different creatures that sound similar to your concept, in one book the mohrg was actually a parasite and the tsochar from lords of madness. Good concept and happy gaming 🙂
They look like fish bait, maybe a litch could control a haunted ship with one on board that jumps overboard with a grappling hook on a cable and sinks down to lure some gargantuan prey so the undead crew can hoist it in for some evil purpose
Skeleton that doesn't chatter or rattle, disables traps and has minions. Could be a great option for dms who's players go full murder hobo. Have a wise sage tell the tale by the fire only to face one later. That will chill things out. Buhahaha
Alternatively, it'll end up with the reaction of 'Cool, can we play them?'... Edit: Actually, that could be an interesting twist on the 'rival party' routine...the party of murderhobos end up against a *party* of these things, who are even more murderhobo than they are
This came at a very fortuitous time. My pathfinder group just went to the negative energy plane and one character swapped his soul out for void energy by passing through a Sphere of Annihilation and willing himself back into existence (with some divine help), and I've been wondering how negative energy, or entropy, can power an existence.
Nice to see Pathfinder variants too - there's a lot of really fucked up stuff in Pathfinder if you know where to look and that mohrg mother is a good example. That's the kind of monster you want to run in a horror game, especially if you're going for a resident evil atmosphere
These things are one of many reasons why I’m surprised the burning of remains isn’t required by law. Obviously only remains that were known of and could be gotten to could be burned but it would still reduce the amount of potential undead. Definitely seems worth it to me.
It could well be that nobody has ever seen or heard of such things before, in the case of the despised criminals executed by the community, they might leave them to hang, or rot in a gibbet, there is an element of vengeance in that.. the ferocious strength of the risen dead can break free of the iron cage or break the rope around its neck fairly easily.
@@AJPickett Good point. I hadn’t considered that people may not know of these monsters or how they come to exist. Unlike your subscribers, they don’t have the benefit of a great lore master :)
I've only ever encountered these in Neverwinter Nights, so I thought they were just a stronger type of mindless undead. Now I'm thinking of how they could be used as a BBEG. Just a despicable, 90's Disney sort of villain who is unapologetically evil and loves it, absolutely lives for the chance to kill people and get away with it. Come to think of it, this clip of Tim Curry's character from Fern Gully is exactly the vibe I was thinking of when you described the rush the Mohrg gets from killing and raising a victim. ua-cam.com/video/pVzYS3Ga_j8/v-deo.html
Ah, libris mortis. The book that gave me the idea to convince my DM at the time to allow certain undead traits and skills to be used by PC's. Some seriously fun game breaking sessions were had by us players. The DM...didn't enjoy it as much. Lol I always enjoy when you mention the old books A.J., brings back fond memories. Keep up the great work good sir. 🍻
I really really really like the idea of a living person who was once a Morgh but still evil and struggling to keep their need to kill under control. After all, it was killing that brought this onto them.
Hey AJ, never heard of the Mohrg. This monster would work well with the Corpse Flower. There is a ton of role playing options with this monster. Really like the different kinds of Mohrg, depending on how they died. That picture of the Elf with her hair blowing in the wind, don't know how you do it, but love the pictures you use. Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
Honestly the Morgh wouldn't be out of place in a dark fantasy setting like Berserk or Dark Souls or even a Steven King novel it's a shame that nobody else has made monster this Gloriously fucked up.
Honestly if you really think about it the existence of the undead, and the possibility that the evil person you killed might come back to life, would have a major impact in the cultures of DND. Such as their burials, if there was a risk that the evil man could come back from the dead, you wouldn’t bury him you would cremate him.
I appreciate that you got a little graphic there; there are some things, in the current day and groups, where some folks might say "THAT doesn't need to be in this game!", and while I can definitely agree that something like the Mohrg Mother, or describing the zombies of children doing anything is nasty, sometimes it's nice to be reminded that nor everybody shies away from gore, or psychological trauma. On a less vulgar note, if I don't sound dumb, why do these monsters exist? They died; their souls should have been drawn to the Fugue Plane, to wait for Bhaal's Petitioners, if they worshiped Him, or get offers from Devils to avoid bad fates. Why weren't these souls taken/condemned to the Lower Planes, or snatched by Hags, for the Soul Trade? Did they just slip through the cracks? I get that if a Mohrg kills someone, IT interferes with that; the power that courses through it can trap the soul, and create a other Mohrg, but the "original" beginnings of lines of them, I'd think, would be pulled out of the Prime, and dropped into the Fugue, to await either some evil God they worshiped, some Fiend, or whatever else, yet their soul lingered long enough to rise again? Just curious how this system interacts with the others you've discussed, in other episodes?
I feel like one could make a Dream Mohrg and do something like Freddy Krueger specially what happens in Nightmare on Elmstreet 3 where skeleton/body his hidden some where and will jump to life if someone finds them.
Great video AJ. I never even knew of these beasties until now, they probably came out sometime after I semi-retired from gaming. Back when I began gaming (D&D then AD&D), the undead didn't necessarily need to be negative energy albeit that was their most common theme. They just needed to be "unholy" mimicry of life. Evil clerics could "turn undead" a paladin, albeit it be harder, but that's a separate issue. Mummies used to be undead creatures linked to the Positive Energy Plane. That has been "debunked" in later editions but it wasn't a misprint, reality break, error, etc. That's part of why they could inflict their rot... they had magical life (the disease, a positive thing) growing upon them. That's also why casting a Raise Dead or Resurrection spell would instantly restore them to their formerly living form. The positive energy link in one of the vampire entries, that one was an error. They are negatively linked. Revenants were originally completely outside of extraplanar links once the corpse animated, which made them frighteningly immune to just about everything anti-undead. Their body was originally animated, kept together, and reassembled so fast it seemed damage immune by soul-induced will alone. The soul was involved, not an undead perversion of the spirit. The corpse was technically undead but the animating force was a truly spiritual one and that one was the iron will of that soul. The lich, totally negative material. But that's not the core. The core is soul-power contained in the lich's phylactery. The lich just weaponizes all of the powers of being undead and integrates that into its physical form. There were psionic versions of them back in my day and a large number of them were not even evil. There was nothing typically negative-material-undead about them or even typically undead aside from them being animated corpses under the control of a brilliant mind. Since Wizards of the Coast took AD&D from TSR, lots of changes to AD&D... even its canon... happened down to the very core. That was around the time I broke my 2nd Ed homebrew from what they were altering it into. That was also around the time that the regular creation of new AD&D editions started happening. Choking on the dust of my talking about this over a cracked open tome? Sorry. To us dinosaurs, it's not such a distant memory and all post 2nd Ed is just a blur of nonstop change and new ideas. The boxed D&D sets got us in, AD&D became our love, 2nd Ed improved, late 2nd Ed (and everything after) is WTF for us.
I feel that the concept of Necromancy and thus "life and death" have been stunted by the reclassification of the cure wounds spells being made conjuration instead of remaining necromancy (old, old change). I like to separate my necromancy into three states: life, death, and undeath.
@@havokmusicinc Wait, what about Wights they have int 10, yet can be created through 'Creat undead' spell and be controlled, he did mentioned that you need that spell. Or just be a wizard necromancer.
The plot with people dissapearing to later return in a changed state are rather common. However the reason for this can vary. As such it should be easy to mislead the players about what is up and if they are not careful they may rnd up perfectly prepared to fight the wrong monster. Are the returned undead or not? If not maybe they are members of a cult? If so, did they join willingly or where they coerced? If undead, are the reason a monster such as this or maybe just a necromancer? And then the question of why they do this. The plot can be varied massivly.
I kinda prefer the idea of the Morgh just being the animated intestines, because it gives them the option of deception! Imagine; a Morgh kills its most recent victim, and instead of leaving the corpse or dragging it off, the Morgh slips out of its current decaying body down the victim's throat or though a cut in their gut, feasting on the victims innards and settling in. Meanwhile, the guards just broke in and see a skeleton standing over a dead body; they beat it to pieces and cart off the victim, none the wiser. The Morgh now has a new disguise, just fresh enough to pass off as another face in the crowd.
If I'm an undertaker in the dnd universe I'm cremating every single body. They can have the funeral and lower the coffin into the hole, but after they leave alchemist fire is going in that hole. There are way too many ways for corpses, spirits, and all that crap to come back for my liking.
Alternately, your city or whatnot can have paid the local temple to have someone cast Hallow on the town cemetery, specifically with the "Everlasting Rest" effect.
That little bit you do at the end of the video is pure gold, you should do that more often! 👍 Ps I'm sure you will be as the years drag on and your mind gets more of that forgetfulness! With love though AJ 💕
I just finished writing up a serial killer in the capital city of my campaign known as "the Rottingman" who is secretly a Mohrg. I can't wait to traumatize my level 1 players. 😅
The water in the bathtub analogy is slightly off. Air replaces the water in that example, much like how a soul moves on to one of the outer planes after death. The positive & negative planes are on the Z axis, much like the fey and shadow planes. Souls aren’t supposed to go in those directions, so when they do, it creates problems.
Anything one might do has dangerous consequences. Some things just require more wisdom and prudence to properly perform than others. Necromancy is no different. Otherwise there would be no spell to bring back the dead in a not undead fashion. That said the power of necromancy does tend to go to the practitioner's head. Few habe the temperance to not abuse it.
The comment you made about Heat Death had me thinking about a more Cosmic Horror version of the Morhg for a sci-fi tabletop- that would be really neat.
Human Mohrgs are scary, however a Mohrg created from something like a Hill Giant is even scarier. Evil giants can be ruthless killers equally as much so as humanoids. A monstrous Mohrg giant would be a nightmare, wading knee deep in zombie minions occasionally throwing one in place of a rock. Or using it's higher dexterity score to stage stealthy midnight raids on villages to cause more destruction and to restock on zombies(ammo).
Been a while since I dived into Aj's vids, this is a good one to start off a binging session. And this is a particular nasty undead critter. I love it!
Hmm. I do wonder if a evil spellcaster who ends up as a Mohrg retains their spellcasting ability...if so, perhaps one of the ways to 'create' one is a failure and/or misplanned attempt at lichdom
The name of this horrible thing makes me think of a morgue as in a place where dead bodies are kept. Spelled very different, but still it is a morbid linkage.
Could do like a background plot with a serial killer'victims beaing found in a city and over the course the adventure in the city the killer might get caught, hanged and then rise as a mohrg and the party have to find it and destroy it.
I see immunity to poison but I don't see immunity to fire. The occult paladin about to remind the Morhg why I am the boss. I do the life drain and soul eating here.
I have two guestions. 1. Since all undead are basically walking black holes for life energy, what happens if an undead like a mohrg is tricked into trying to drain the energy of another undead? Does it reverse the energy flow & weaken the mohrg or something like that? 2. Have good aligned drow ever become a baelnorn? I know evil drow can become lichs but what about good aligned drow & baelnorns?
Theoretically, a Mohrg has no special protection from necrotic attacks, so its physical form, its anchor to the material plane, could be destroyed by another undead. In the case of the Baelnorn, they exist as part of their culture, one can not think of Baelnorn in the same way as one thinks of a lich, they are made with the consent of the Coronal and the Seldarine, therefore, it is highly unlikely a Drow would ever be allowed to make the transformation into undeath in the same way.. the only path practically open to a Drow is that of Lichdom.
when you said " negative energy works in reverse," it conjured an image in my mind of an undead moving in a jerking marionette fashion but reversed. idk how that would work but its creepy.
Ever since I watched this video I have had this really weird idea. What if a civilization found a way to use negative energy to power machines and other technologies? What would it look like and how would it work? I have no idea but I can’t stop thinking about it.
About how long do you think a freshly created Mohrg could last while still being described as "grotesque human" before fully deteriorating to obvious undead? The party enters the guardhouse to find three men, huddled around a younger 4th, shoving a warm drink into his hands and pleading with him to speak. "Come now boy, tell us what ye saw." The man shakes his head slowly and tries to lift the drink to his lips, but is shaking so badly that he spills much of it on himself before giving up. His eyes stare straight ahead, fixed on a point 1000 yards away. "It makes no sense. It couldn't... it can't..." An exasperated fist hits the table, shocking the boy. "Damn it son, what was it?" For the first time the young guard raises his gaze to meet his superior's. His face was stark white, his eyes sunken and his voice shallow. "It was Laughing Mack. T'were not my own eyes I'd have never believed it, but he stood there clear as im seeing you now. And when he laughed as he cr-" the boy is interrupted by a splash of vomit and a coughing fit that lead to tears. The oldest of the group looked down with a furrowed brow, prompting the obvious question from his partner. "Weren't Laughing Mack executed not a week prior?" "Aye," the guard spat, clenching the blade on his belt, "I hung him myself."
It is this kind of creature that has me thinking that there must be a number of realms-worlds-that have fallen to undeath and that it is the proliferation of this manifestation of entropy from beyond the future end of all things that will truly end the D&D universe. Orcus will be the only demon to survive. Not even death will survive.
Whether professional killers count as "serial killers" really depends on who you are talking to. They generally aren't considered to be such, but they meet all the criteria and a lot of experts would say that differing them is splitting hairs, especially since there are lots of assassins who do in fact kill for pleasure or other reasons on the side as well- turn that hobby into a job, guys.
Troubling creature. I'm gonna use it in my campaign 😂 On Executioners Hill in Port Blacksand criminals are executed as public spectacle. After being strung up fir show for several days, the bodies are thrown down a well into the ancient dungeon sewers of the city. A cold blooded murderer, Cutthroat Larry, is executed by hanging and his body thrown in the well. Some days later, even the rats give his corpse a wide birth, as it twitches and girgles under the compulsion of necrotic energy...
#Question: You said that undead can't store energy, but could for example a ghost just carry around a battery that could do so for them, and drain exsactly what they need from it, when they do need it?
AJ is perfecting his craft. Just as anyone who feels pride in their performance would do. Take a look at some of the first vids he did. Very awkward. But he kept at it and now is so smooth I think we all agree he is a professional. But mastery is always that elusive goal, one that is the motivation to keep going even when one has gained some degree of excellence.
I let my pc play a undead campagin my morgh barbarian was a stupid powerful pc. but after eating a village he came to a firey end at the hands a of a holy order.but took out a lot before he did
One of my favorite undead.
"Huh that skeleton looks weird...."
[paralyzed asswhipping inbound]
AJ: "Tell them, I said hi"
Me as GM: "The Mighty Gluestick sends his regards"
This mad me smile with a toothy grin.
I've had a dream of homebrewing a horse version of these and essentially having a stampede of them that essentially grows as its smashing through villages. A writhing, crackling mass of undead horses with purple tendrils trailing around. Its glorious but I haven't written a campaign around it quite yet.
Yikes! I love it.
So... In life they were really evil horses?
@@johnboettcher1962 They stole all the apples in the village. :(
@@fuzzyzombielove
Not sure that rises to the level of evil required to tear rifts in the fabric of reality.
@@johnboettcher1962 They were anthropomorphic apples. Applefolk.
"Get a grip, you Mohrg-larva."
~ a paladin NPC (my PC's foster-dad) to the edgelord warlock PC
It's worth pointing out these two characters didn't even meet until AFTER her alignment-shift from NE to CN.
This kind of makes burning at the stake and drawing and quartering seem like a very prudent way of dealing with heinous criminals
"You know what being alive is like."
But do we really?
“You know what being alive is like”
Which is more than you can say for the undead themselves.
Libris Mortis was always one of my favorite books. Also liked the mention of Tarchamus's Volcano spell
I was so intrigued by your explanation of negative energy, I forgot for a while that this was a monster video!
One of my favorite undead monsters. Definitely need some class levels though. Why? You get to design a legendary serial killer as part of their backstory and skill set.
exactly
@@AJPickett
Hay, can I control it if I create it.
I can imagine some dm saying, "The Sage of Candlekeep sends his regards." Before throwing out a malaugrym or something like this out on everybody.
One of those situations when fighting exactly 50 zombies would be safer than what looks like less than 50 but might not be just zombies.
I love the concept of the inherent destructive consequence of just the existence of Undead creatures, the Entropy of the multiverse itself, it explains why Undead are universally feared and hated. Thank you I am definitely going to convey these ideas to my players.
Yeah, I love that.
It always felt wrong whenever someone wrote a story where skeletons were just free labor and necromancy wasn't inherently evil.
I'd much rather have it all fleshed out -- Where do they get their energy from? Why do the gods hate them?
Also a cool angle to the Mohrg is inspiration from its appearance - it is created out of its vitriolic behavior and willpower to stay alive, and the only thing that remains with it are its intestines. Intestines like the stomach are the source and mainstay of bile - a.k.a., Choler, one of the four humors attributed to hostile, ambitious, and overtly belligerent behavior! You could say this is the most extreme version of an imbalance of humours.
We need leeches.
@@AJPickett Leeches on corpses to drain them of blood would be a pretty metal addition to a setting! Might be a Druid's way of consecrating the dead...
I'm playing a vampire necromancer at the moment, so this was VERY useful and informative!
Thank you Mr.Pickett this is (in my opinion) the best DnD content on UA-cam
I wasn’t expecting you to go from a metaphor about a bathtub to the existential horror of the universe’s death, but here we are.
Gotta say I like the extended intros you are doing (seemingly) more often now. What I'd like to know more about is this idea that one can cast above 9th level spells when not on Toril. I know 9+ level spells used to be a thing and still are under certain conditions (like through Elven High Magic), but I've never heard about this restriction being specific to Toril before.
Yep, it sure is. In this case, a very high-level casting of a lower-level spell runs into problems with the spell power restriction imposed by Mystra.
After watching the entire channel backlog, its strange being this early.
Keep doing what youre doing sir, I always look forward to the inspiration in your videos.
Ah the Mohrg, instead of Undead, this creature is an Aberration in my version, a parasite from the far-realm that clings to humans and turns them into mass-murderers with suggestions, telepathic voices and corruption from the inside out, as the parasite feeds on murder, with each murder the parasite grows in the organs of the host, until one day the host is slain and the parasite mohrg takes over and bursts out, creating the Mohrg as in the pictures. With those tentacles it can drain not only flesh, blood and organs, but also sanity, turning others into chaotic murderers.
IIRC there are two different creatures that sound similar to your concept, in one book the mohrg was actually a parasite and the tsochar from lords of madness.
Good concept and happy gaming 🙂
They look like fish bait, maybe a litch could control a haunted ship with one on board that jumps overboard with a grappling hook on a cable and sinks down to lure some gargantuan prey so the undead crew can hoist it in for some evil purpose
Heh! Very creative, I like it
Man, Pathfinder with its perpetual willingness to go to absolutely *bonkers* places.
Skeleton that doesn't chatter or rattle, disables traps and has minions. Could be a great option for dms who's players go full murder hobo. Have a wise sage tell the tale by the fire only to face one later. That will chill things out. Buhahaha
Alternatively, it'll end up with the reaction of 'Cool, can we play them?'...
Edit: Actually, that could be an interesting twist on the 'rival party' routine...the party of murderhobos end up against a *party* of these things, who are even more murderhobo than they are
This came at a very fortuitous time. My pathfinder group just went to the negative energy plane and one character swapped his soul out for void energy by passing through a Sphere of Annihilation and willing himself back into existence (with some divine help), and I've been wondering how negative energy, or entropy, can power an existence.
That sounds dope as heck!
3rd Edition had some really good monsters. Mohrgs were one of my favorite undead from that edition. I wish they popped up more often.
I find most 5e monsters sadly underwhelming. 3e monsters feel like actual threats.
Nice to see Pathfinder variants too - there's a lot of really fucked up stuff in Pathfinder if you know where to look and that mohrg mother is a good example. That's the kind of monster you want to run in a horror game, especially if you're going for a resident evil atmosphere
@@havokmusicinc Yeah, that one gave me a moment of "Woah, that is fucked up"... a rare reaction from me!
Libris Mortis was a great supplement. It has many balance and gameplay issues, but the creatures and magic items are fantastic
"It has many balance and gameplay issues, but the creatures and magic items are fantastic" is a good summary of 3E/3.5 in general lol
These things are one of many reasons why I’m surprised the burning of remains isn’t required by law. Obviously only remains that were known of and could be gotten to could be burned but it would still reduce the amount of potential undead. Definitely seems worth it to me.
They probably still reconstitute some how or make something worst as the ashe and embers gather over time.
It could well be that nobody has ever seen or heard of such things before, in the case of the despised criminals executed by the community, they might leave them to hang, or rot in a gibbet, there is an element of vengeance in that.. the ferocious strength of the risen dead can break free of the iron cage or break the rope around its neck fairly easily.
@@AJPickett
Good point. I hadn’t considered that people may not know of these monsters or how they come to exist. Unlike your subscribers, they don’t have the benefit of a great lore master :)
I've only ever encountered these in Neverwinter Nights, so I thought they were just a stronger type of mindless undead. Now I'm thinking of how they could be used as a BBEG. Just a despicable, 90's Disney sort of villain who is unapologetically evil and loves it, absolutely lives for the chance to kill people and get away with it. Come to think of it, this clip of Tim Curry's character from Fern Gully is exactly the vibe I was thinking of when you described the rush the Mohrg gets from killing and raising a victim.
ua-cam.com/video/pVzYS3Ga_j8/v-deo.html
Ah, libris mortis. The book that gave me the idea to convince my DM at the time to allow certain undead traits and skills to be used by PC's. Some seriously fun game breaking sessions were had by us players. The DM...didn't enjoy it as much. Lol I always enjoy when you mention the old books A.J., brings back fond memories. Keep up the great work good sir. 🍻
Yeah, the fact someone can choose a Mohrg player character just... Wow.
Seconded,, i no longer play that edition but i still pull that book for inspiration and around the spooky time of the year,, aka Halloween. HaHa
I really really really like the idea of a living person who was once a Morgh but still evil and struggling to keep their need to kill under control. After all, it was killing that brought this onto them.
Hey AJ, never heard of the Mohrg. This monster would work well with the Corpse Flower. There is a ton of role playing options with this monster. Really like the different kinds of Mohrg, depending on how they died. That picture of the Elf with her hair blowing in the wind, don't know how you do it, but love the pictures you use.
Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
a sort of Yellow Musk mohrg working in tandem with a yellow musk creeper would make for a great dungeon in a tropical setting
Honestly the Morgh wouldn't be out of place in a dark fantasy setting like Berserk or Dark Souls or even a Steven King novel it's a shame that nobody else has made monster this Gloriously fucked up.
Needed a mob for a failed vampiric lich, this is perfect.
Honestly if you really think about it the existence of the undead, and the possibility that the evil person you killed might come back to life, would have a major impact in the cultures of DND. Such as their burials, if there was a risk that the evil man could come back from the dead, you wouldn’t bury him you would cremate him.
I appreciate that you got a little graphic there; there are some things, in the current day and groups, where some folks might say "THAT doesn't need to be in this game!", and while I can definitely agree that something like the Mohrg Mother, or describing the zombies of children doing anything is nasty, sometimes it's nice to be reminded that nor everybody shies away from gore, or psychological trauma.
On a less vulgar note, if I don't sound dumb, why do these monsters exist? They died; their souls should have been drawn to the Fugue Plane, to wait for Bhaal's Petitioners, if they worshiped Him, or get offers from Devils to avoid bad fates. Why weren't these souls taken/condemned to the Lower Planes, or snatched by Hags, for the Soul Trade? Did they just slip through the cracks? I get that if a Mohrg kills someone, IT interferes with that; the power that courses through it can trap the soul, and create a other Mohrg, but the "original" beginnings of lines of them, I'd think, would be pulled out of the Prime, and dropped into the Fugue, to await either some evil God they worshiped, some Fiend, or whatever else, yet their soul lingered long enough to rise again? Just curious how this system interacts with the others you've discussed, in other episodes?
Many forms of undead have origins which pre-date the current prime material plane.... pause, think about that for a while...
Great video man, this creature is very chilling.
I feel like one could make a Dream Mohrg and do something like Freddy Krueger specially what happens in Nightmare on Elmstreet 3 where skeleton/body his hidden some where and will jump to life if someone finds them.
That is a great concept! It would be a different kind of undead though... hmmmm *writes notes*
The picture of the mohrg in the 3.5 MM used to give nightmares as a kid.
And when you get older, you have nightmares about its stat block
The mohrg ironically can send you to the morgue.
Great video AJ. I never even knew of these beasties until now, they probably came out sometime after I semi-retired from gaming.
Back when I began gaming (D&D then AD&D), the undead didn't necessarily need to be negative energy albeit that was their most common theme. They just needed to be "unholy" mimicry of life. Evil clerics could "turn undead" a paladin, albeit it be harder, but that's a separate issue. Mummies used to be undead creatures linked to the Positive Energy Plane. That has been "debunked" in later editions but it wasn't a misprint, reality break, error, etc. That's part of why they could inflict their rot... they had magical life (the disease, a positive thing) growing upon them. That's also why casting a Raise Dead or Resurrection spell would instantly restore them to their formerly living form. The positive energy link in one of the vampire entries, that one was an error. They are negatively linked. Revenants were originally completely outside of extraplanar links once the corpse animated, which made them frighteningly immune to just about everything anti-undead. Their body was originally animated, kept together, and reassembled so fast it seemed damage immune by soul-induced will alone. The soul was involved, not an undead perversion of the spirit. The corpse was technically undead but the animating force was a truly spiritual one and that one was the iron will of that soul. The lich, totally negative material. But that's not the core. The core is soul-power contained in the lich's phylactery. The lich just weaponizes all of the powers of being undead and integrates that into its physical form. There were psionic versions of them back in my day and a large number of them were not even evil. There was nothing typically negative-material-undead about them or even typically undead aside from them being animated corpses under the control of a brilliant mind.
Since Wizards of the Coast took AD&D from TSR, lots of changes to AD&D... even its canon... happened down to the very core. That was around the time I broke my 2nd Ed homebrew from what they were altering it into. That was also around the time that the regular creation of new AD&D editions started happening.
Choking on the dust of my talking about this over a cracked open tome? Sorry. To us dinosaurs, it's not such a distant memory and all post 2nd Ed is just a blur of nonstop change and new ideas. The boxed D&D sets got us in, AD&D became our love, 2nd Ed improved, late 2nd Ed (and everything after) is WTF for us.
I feel that the concept of Necromancy and thus "life and death" have been stunted by the reclassification of the cure wounds spells being made conjuration instead of remaining necromancy (old, old change). I like to separate my necromancy into three states: life, death, and undeath.
To this day i still run healing spells as Necromancy school.
WHERE DO THE TRUE VAMPIRES COME FROM ?
I always loved the Curst from 3.0's Monsters of Faerun book. Completely insane and nearly unkillable, the deadpool of D&D
Love these guys
Yeah, they are just so amazingly evil... I don't think I have ever really unleashed their full horror on a D&D session.
@@AJPickett Do I control the Mohrg if I create it?
@@stain1095 intelligent undead are not inherently controlled by the necromancer who raises them
@@havokmusicinc
Oh, thank you for the information.
@@havokmusicinc
Wait, what about Wights they have int 10, yet can be created through 'Creat undead' spell and be controlled, he did mentioned that you need that spell.
Or just be a wizard necromancer.
Sweet. Been binging your content while stuck in hospital and weirding out the nurses. 😀
Ooo this one should give them the heebie jeebies.
Get well soon!
Criticizing their skills and planning for after, huh? :-)
I have been searching on more info on Morhgs! Thank you AJ!
"you know what being alive is like."
Yeah, it can definitely be interesting 😅
The tasty beverage this evening will be chamomile tea. Which I guest means I'm getting old cuz I am really enjoying a cup of this every evening.
The plot with people dissapearing to later return in a changed state are rather common. However the reason for this can vary. As such it should be easy to mislead the players about what is up and if they are not careful they may rnd up perfectly prepared to fight the wrong monster.
Are the returned undead or not? If not maybe they are members of a cult? If so, did they join willingly or where they coerced? If undead, are the reason a monster such as this or maybe just a necromancer? And then the question of why they do this. The plot can be varied massivly.
To me that bathtub and drain is commercial pop music, or facebook....
I concur.
You have gotten better and better at this lore explanation thing
I kinda prefer the idea of the Morgh just being the animated intestines, because it gives them the option of deception! Imagine; a Morgh kills its most recent victim, and instead of leaving the corpse or dragging it off, the Morgh slips out of its current decaying body down the victim's throat or though a cut in their gut, feasting on the victims innards and settling in. Meanwhile, the guards just broke in and see a skeleton standing over a dead body; they beat it to pieces and cart off the victim, none the wiser. The Morgh now has a new disguise, just fresh enough to pass off as another face in the crowd.
If I'm an undertaker in the dnd universe I'm cremating every single body. They can have the funeral and lower the coffin into the hole, but after they leave alchemist fire is going in that hole. There are way too many ways for corpses, spirits, and all that crap to come back for my liking.
That's all well and good until a sentient ash cloud comes after you.
@@zarrg5611 Fill the urn with Holy Water. IIRC, it's cheap enough for a first-level character to use similarly to grenades.
Alternately, your city or whatnot can have paid the local temple to have someone cast Hallow on the town cemetery, specifically with the "Everlasting Rest" effect.
That little bit you do at the end of the video is pure gold, you should do that more often! 👍
Ps I'm sure you will be as the years drag on and your mind gets more of that forgetfulness! With love though AJ 💕
I just finished writing up a serial killer in the capital city of my campaign known as "the Rottingman" who is secretly a Mohrg. I can't wait to traumatize my level 1 players. 😅
The water in the bathtub analogy is slightly off. Air replaces the water in that example, much like how a soul moves on to one of the outer planes after death.
The positive & negative planes are on the Z axis, much like the fey and shadow planes. Souls aren’t supposed to go in those directions, so when they do, it creates problems.
0:18-4:27 And this is why necromancers are either evil or just idiots and why nobody likes necromancy.
Necromancers are wizards though. Surely some of them do it out of curiosity.
@@Jadizi True but there's no way for them to not find out the dangerous consequences of it after a while.
Anything one might do has dangerous consequences. Some things just require more wisdom and prudence to properly perform than others. Necromancy is no different. Otherwise there would be no spell to bring back the dead in a not undead fashion.
That said the power of necromancy does tend to go to the practitioner's head. Few habe the temperance to not abuse it.
The comment you made about Heat Death had me thinking about a more Cosmic Horror version of the Morhg for a sci-fi tabletop- that would be really neat.
Sounds like we have a Jason Vorehees on our hands. one that can create zombies.
If Jason was this bad then Friday would become a really bad nightmare.
Time to get extremely nerdy
Human Mohrgs are scary, however a Mohrg created from something like a Hill Giant is even scarier. Evil giants can be ruthless killers equally as much so as humanoids. A monstrous Mohrg giant would be a nightmare, wading knee deep in zombie minions occasionally throwing one in place of a rock. Or using it's higher dexterity score to stage stealthy midnight raids on villages to cause more destruction and to restock on zombies(ammo).
On the other end Goblin Mohrg or we could go smaller?
As a DM running an Undead themed campaign, gotta say I love when you bring us new/old undead creatures to keep things fresh for my players
Ah, gluestick with my breakfast. Just what I needed. Thanks, AJ!
Awesome sauce this bad boy is going in my current campaign in like 2 sessions.
Been a while since I dived into Aj's vids, this is a good one to start off a binging session. And this is a particular nasty undead critter. I love it!
Glad you enjoyed! Welcome back.
@@AJPickett Good to be back!
Thanks for showing me my new favorite monster.
Hmm. I do wonder if a evil spellcaster who ends up as a Mohrg retains their spellcasting ability...if so, perhaps one of the ways to 'create' one is a failure and/or misplanned attempt at lichdom
Yeah, I imagine they would.
You could add the spell stitched template to it giving it spell casting abilities
The name of this horrible thing makes me think of a morgue as in a place where dead bodies are kept. Spelled very different, but still it is a morbid linkage.
I love it when i have no idea what a video is going to be about! Starting in five four three two...
I didn't know Omniman plays D&D? Nice portrait.
Oh, so only material plane is bound by 9lvl block, i never thought about it.
Yup. Secretly go to the bottom layer of pandemonium into one of those isolated chambers and cast your lvl 11 spells from there.
Could do like a background plot with a serial killer'victims beaing found in a city and over the course the adventure in the city the killer might get caught, hanged and then rise as a mohrg and the party have to find it and destroy it.
This one you could have saved for Halloween! 🎃 💀 👻
I usually create a monster for Halloween.
Beautifully worded and tactful video about a despicable rotten creature. As expected from a master storyteller, bravo xD
Super excited about your transparent silicone mats being shipped. Have so many plans for them.
I see immunity to poison but I don't see immunity to fire.
The occult paladin about to remind the Morhg why I am the boss. I do the life drain and soul eating here.
I have two guestions. 1. Since all undead are basically walking black holes for life energy, what happens if an undead like a mohrg is tricked into trying to drain the energy of another undead? Does it reverse the energy flow & weaken the mohrg or something like that? 2. Have good aligned drow ever become a baelnorn? I know evil drow can become lichs but what about good aligned drow & baelnorns?
Theoretically, a Mohrg has no special protection from necrotic attacks, so its physical form, its anchor to the material plane, could be destroyed by another undead. In the case of the Baelnorn, they exist as part of their culture, one can not think of Baelnorn in the same way as one thinks of a lich, they are made with the consent of the Coronal and the Seldarine, therefore, it is highly unlikely a Drow would ever be allowed to make the transformation into undeath in the same way.. the only path practically open to a Drow is that of Lichdom.
Got an idea for false morhg ( possibly inteligant or undead worms) and fog varients. Possibly Ethereal, posion or helucungetic fogs too.
i have serious Jason Voorhees vibes....love it!
Geez Pathfinder has no chill. Gotta love Golarion tho
The game system may not be that creative (dodge dodge) but the lore and monsters sure are. Credit where it is due.
when you said " negative energy works in reverse," it conjured an image in my mind of an undead moving in a jerking marionette fashion but reversed. idk how that would work but its creepy.
Putting strategy to a monster I've always considered marginal. Many thanks indeed. It's like a vampire that a 5th level party might handle.
21 strength?? Thats fucking giant strength. This is not a skeleton you want to wrestle with.
Ever since I watched this video I have had this really weird idea. What if a civilization found a way to use negative energy to power machines and other technologies? What would it look like and how would it work? I have no idea but I can’t stop thinking about it.
Black hole generators.
@@AJPickett That’s definitely interesting. Might use it for my own setting one day. Thanks for your comment I’m a huge fan of your channel.
I get the mental picture of Doom but more eldritch horrors
I love a good spooky scary skeletal abomination. Great work AJ! This one gave me the heeby-jeebys.
Scary. Well written and selected.
How about the different Wights?
About how long do you think a freshly created Mohrg could last while still being described as "grotesque human" before fully deteriorating to obvious undead?
The party enters the guardhouse to find three men, huddled around a younger 4th, shoving a warm drink into his hands and pleading with him to speak.
"Come now boy, tell us what ye saw."
The man shakes his head slowly and tries to lift the drink to his lips, but is shaking so badly that he spills much of it on himself before giving up. His eyes stare straight ahead, fixed on a point 1000 yards away. "It makes no sense. It couldn't... it can't..."
An exasperated fist hits the table, shocking the boy. "Damn it son, what was it?"
For the first time the young guard raises his gaze to meet his superior's. His face was stark white, his eyes sunken and his voice shallow. "It was Laughing Mack. T'were not my own eyes I'd have never believed it, but he stood there clear as im seeing you now. And when he laughed as he cr-" the boy is interrupted by a splash of vomit and a coughing fit that lead to tears.
The oldest of the group looked down with a furrowed brow, prompting the obvious question from his partner. "Weren't Laughing Mack executed not a week prior?"
"Aye," the guard spat, clenching the blade on his belt, "I hung him myself."
That is EXACTLY what it's like, yes, and the decay speeds up as the Mohrg takes more victims, as the negative energy courses through them.
It is this kind of creature that has me thinking that there must be a number of realms-worlds-that have fallen to undeath and that it is the proliferation of this manifestation of entropy from beyond the future end of all things that will truly end the D&D universe. Orcus will be the only demon to survive. Not even death will survive.
could we ask for a 2 hour long video about kreen ecology?
It's a gengar
Whether professional killers count as "serial killers" really depends on who you are talking to. They generally aren't considered to be such, but they meet all the criteria and a lot of experts would say that differing them is splitting hairs, especially since there are lots of assassins who do in fact kill for pleasure or other reasons on the side as well- turn that hobby into a job, guys.
True.
Troubling creature. I'm gonna use it in my campaign 😂 On Executioners Hill in Port Blacksand criminals are executed as public spectacle. After being strung up fir show for several days, the bodies are thrown down a well into the ancient dungeon sewers of the city. A cold blooded murderer, Cutthroat Larry, is executed by hanging and his body thrown in the well. Some days later, even the rats give his corpse a wide birth, as it twitches and girgles under the compulsion of necrotic energy...
#Question: You said that undead can't store energy, but could for example a ghost just carry around a battery that could do so for them, and drain exsactly what they need from it, when they do need it?
Sure, sounds like a fun wondrous item "The ghost battery"
Love going to this channel and viewing the gold that are your videos!
Doesn’t gentle repose prevent you from rising as undead?
Sure does, for ten days, I'm just saying the body doesn't decay during that time, it is still very fresh when the Mohrg rises.
Desert mohrg probably looks like a beef jerky person...
Not my favorite thing to be killed by lol
How is it possible your shows just get better and better? Love your undead series, perfect for the coming Halloween season
There is always room for improvement, plus I like to compete with myself, hopefully each video I make will be a new personal best :)
@@AJPickett well, you're succeeding in my book! Stay awesome AJ👍
AJ is perfecting his craft. Just as anyone who feels pride in their performance would do. Take a look at some of the first vids he did. Very awkward. But he kept at it and now is so smooth I think we all agree he is a professional. But mastery is always that elusive goal, one that is the motivation to keep going even when one has gained some degree of excellence.
I love that example of negative energy.
I let my pc play a undead campagin my morgh barbarian was a stupid powerful pc. but after eating a village he came to a firey end at the hands a of a holy order.but took out a lot before he did
This was 3.5
Sounds like the dream.
Man I'm about to put this template ontop an evil dragon