Dungeons and Dragons: Molf Trader (creatures of Deep Imaskar)

Transdimensional floating jellyfish people, the Molf have achieved astounding magical power, living in and even trading bespoke demiplane realities. The sage of Candlekeep continues his tour into deep Imaskar.
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#fantasy #5e #dnd
aj pickett, the mighty gluestick, dungeons and dragons, roleplaying, tabletop, 5E, 5th edition, faerun, toril, forgotten realms, Eberron, pen and paper, Dungeons and dragons lore, monsters, magic, magic items, monster ecology, greyhawk, mystara, krynn, golarion, spelljammer, planescape, homebrew, live stream, Magic the Gathering, Wizards of the Coast, WotC, Ravnica, Ravenloft, Theros, Strixhaven, Fizban, Mordenkainen, Drizzt, cosmology, planescape, spelljammer, lore, stories, outer planes, elemental, artifact, toril, faerun

[@spoon1710]

This was one hell of a ride. I feel like I just experienced hours listening to this.

[@AJPickett]

The time warp... its just a step to the left, and then a jump to the right..

[@nix-cipher]

I agree

[@joedominguez8064]

These sorts of videos perfectly illustrate what places this channel above others in my opinion. Introducing these fantastic creatures and locations through the lens of a being actually encountering them makes things so much more immersive . Playing an actual campaign with you as DM must be amazing 😂 keep up the good work!

[@AJPickett]

I'm an average DM at best

[@kingmasterlord]

deep imaskar is so far beyond the demi-plane tricks I was planning for finding a mythallar and extending its range beyond one mile with portal pylons, I wonder if it would even be enough to catch the attention of one of these. certainly at best they would find it quaint or cute. the best I could do with player mechanics is a spherical mile filled with minimum size demiplane portal rings with permanent inscriptions.

[@santiagoduran232]

Hi, I am extremely interested in learning more about the whole Imaskari lore, but I don't know where to find more information in detail in order to read the sources of the video. I have the following manuals: Underdark, Vademecum of the Realms, Lords of the Underdark, Lost empires of faerun, Races of Faerun and the Darkvision novel ¿Do you know where to find something?

[@RandMantearTheDragon]

@@santiagoduran232 same

[@kingmasterlord]

@@santiagoduran232 well, you could write something. I might.

[@LSDireWolf]

I am absolutely loving this deep imaskar content.

[@anthonyromero9935]

Me too i cant get enough of it!

[@orangetornado5701]

I wonder how much time the sage has lost, including his previous trips to the feywilds and such

[@AJPickett]

well, the Sage is around 300 years old so far.

[@orangetornado5701]

@@AJPickett Thank you for the reply. I like the occasional narrative of said (part dragon) dire halfling. Over all I enjoy your content and fear for any player sitting by your table

[@bigsarge2085]

Deep Imaskar is the best Imaskar!

[@rayanderson5797]

There's something adorable about the giant, floating, diamond-hard space jellyfish finding humans "weird". Molf: "I dunno, man. Those bone things are kinda creepy." Human: * trying to cover themselves with their hands * You're... Not supposed to see those...."

[@remigusker6024]

The narrative potential of this makes my brain spin, absolutely cool as hell.

[@drakoxion]

The Molf have seen things you people wouldn’t believe. They witnessed the tragic fall of the Thundercats at the Battle of the Celestial Dinobots and listened mournfully to the twisted dreams of the Chained Oblivion. They saw Nyarlathotep and Shuma-Gorath duel over the Nine Omniverses of Brahma, and beheld the rise and fall of the glittering citadels of Dragotopia.

[@MarceloSantos-pt3hj]

I for one, enjoy these Sage works of fiction. They give a certain perspective, even if not taken directly from established texts. With the amount of research normally going through your videos it's a lovely addition to have a fiction based in these places and these entities.

[@joshuazane3210]

This series is wonderfully trippy. Next time I indulge in hallucinogens, I'll have to rewatch these videos to see what perspective I might gain.

[@demetrinight5924]

Having this story told from a personal perspective really draws the listener into the world. I look forward to the next adventure

[@DaussPlays]

The piece at 11:54 continues to be one of my favourites I've fostered for this, or any project yet. It's just so cool, very glad it made it into the video.

[@AJPickett]

Fantastic work thanks Dauss, I'm really looking forward to people reacting to all the stew images :D

[@docop8926]

Man I remember back when your channel had less than 15K-20k, you probably don't remember me but I used to comment a lot, my screen name used to be (TD top dog) back then.... Anyways I'm so glad you're doing well on your channel keep up the good work man

[@AngelusAnsell]

A refreshing change of pace. I could certainly do with more of your own creations, as they seem to be at least as good and deep as anything you cover that DnD already has. Never ever stop.

[@camerongunn7906]

That awkward moment when the Planeswalker you're with looks at you and shrugs.

[@Greenscyth22]

Due to their unique physiology they're able to create habitats and cities where most others couldn't. Imagine living in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant like Jupiter without suffering the ill effects of the heat and toxic gasses.

[@jeffscrungle6179]

Your descriptions of planar enviroments are so mindbendingly fascinating, Its so out there, and it's gonna take a few more watches before I can take it all in but I love it.

[@Mortablunt]

I read this as Milf Trader and cannot be dissuaded.

[@honkthegoose3543]

Hot Molfs in your area.

[@josh-oo]

@@honkthegoose3543 Hot Molfs right outside your house.

[@DamienZshadow]

Wait, you made all this up?! This is incredible! I have a similar idea of a species that is perceived as a god in my world which evolved on gas giants as well and appears to be slightly jellyfish like as well but you created an entire culture for your people. I especially adore the way you had them respond to laughter. Brilliant!

[@daryldecker7469]

Superb storytelling as always Mr Pickett. You certainly bring the lore to life.

[@Ashen.Elixer]

OOH! I'm DEFINITELY adding these to my Astral Sea area! Think I'll tweak them to be a bit more "timelord-y", though. Say that they'll essentially keep most memories whenever they revert, but get a new brain structure, and thus, new personality!

[@VerityAran]

❤ Wow this is great! More of the Sage’s journeys please!

[@arriasinsanite4886]

deep imaskar is a really intriguing place (If I may call it that) I wonder how would look like a campaign setting based on that

[@HumbleMemeFarmer]

Me: *breathes* Molf: "I will give you a thousand dollars to not do that ever again."

[@betametroid1761]

Are there even any problems/threats in Deep Imiskar? Seems like they kinda just won D&D to me. Lovin' the videos

[@deepsea5266]

What a wonderful journey.

[@adamwelch4336]

Cosmic jellyfish! Imasker is a crazy place!

[@BeanLordClown]

Loving these videos keep it up

[@Aikolon]

Extremely satisfying to listen to. As always. But also very inspiring. This personal fiction of you is so good. :) Love it

[@philurbaniak1811]

👍👍 great hearing your writing (as always!), wishing you all the enjoyment that we all get from your work AJ 👍

[@burakc9673]

This AJ.... This is the kind of amazingly and incredibly awesome kind of content that i subbed to you for sir! This is amazing!

[@Frogandragon1]

Thank you for the fun side trip. Only found your channel recently while doing a lore dive for a campaign I am running. Best channel I have found in ages. Thank you for the hard work. Means I don't have to work so hard to prep for my lvl 14-17 game :0

[@albertlawson9894]

Hey AJ I know you probably have a lot on your plate. Would it be possible to make a video/s on the difference between Divine, Arcane, and Nature Magic?

[@michaelmorford3932]

Great work as always! I made a pot of coffee as a tasty beverage! 😋

[@UriahNeveah]

This was really cool. I don’t know how these get into the campaign, but I’m going to find some way to do it. Warlock patron? Psychedelics? Dreams?

[@Harrowed2TheMind]

I mostly see them as some sort of elusive vision or short interaction encountered only in very unusual circumstances, such as astral travel or, as you mentionned, through a psychedelic trip of sorts.

[@stanchskate]

I didn't know the immortal jellyfish was so small !

[@themightymoose5047]

I love this style of video and topics, please keep it coming!

[@jeffcarter2308]

Love this, AJ. Such imagination! Never stop being your amazing self.

[@DEricTodd]

Yes! Loving the deep Imasky lore. Thanks AJ keep 'em coming

[@lucaricciardi8253]

Loved this. This is what I look for in fantasy, and never find. Again, thank you

[@HowtoRPG]

Thanks AJ.

[@purplehaze2358]

These videos make for excellent background audio while I’m writing.

[@sammniamii]

yeah do love theses side trips into story land. a little different but entertaining in their own way. 👍

[@nitayrafowicz5934]

great video as always AJ. always a pleasure to find more weird and (until you show them) forgotten creatures of ancient civilizations of the D&D multiverse

[@christophermzdenek]

I am enjoying this imaginative voyage of discovering the impossible.

[@freakyskull516]

still in that raurin game level 12 now with 2 imaskarcanas the crown and the crystal tome we have just finished dealing with an up and coming warlord in the making and are cleaning his remaining people up while we prepare to attempt to ready the local populace to break the curse on raurin once we do an attempt to find the deep imaskari is on the horizon assuming we dont go vacationing in the far east or hunt down that spell jammer port we heard about next

[@couchcommandoiv5528]

The Planar tunnel reminds me a lot of Douglas Adams' Restaurant at the End of the Universe

[@AJPickett]

My inspiration for that comes from Greg Bear's "Anvil of the Gods" novel... hard core sci fi.

[@lordk.gaimiz6881]

This is incredible, looking forward for more of this ^^ deep imaskar seems so cool but so... Complicated? Sure, complicated is good enough hehe.

[@kylienielsen6975]

Every time I scroll through my dnd playlist I see this thumbnail and without a doubt I ALWAYS misread it.

[@maninthemirror9732]

Love the content mate, keep on the path of the mighty gluestick 😉

[@johngleeman8347]

I wonder what molfs think of mercanes? Two races of super merchants. XD

[@AJPickett]

They would get along well, the Molf are quite diplomatic, they would try not to talk down to the mercane and their odd little contraptions.

[@yelnoc45]

Please do more of this. That was wild and I'm totally putting them in my game.

[@bobsterclause342]

The molf find the flashing of their vistezial fange funny, so they often crack jokes so they can watch the funny gasping lung spasms... uh oh, there I go,- funny gasping lung spasm with my vitizial flangs jittering ope while I gasp for air.. That's fricking hilalrious.

[@Neazriel]

Will you be looking into the creatures from the old/new spelljammer books, such as the space whales and the dreamers or the scavvers? Love your content, sage.

[@andresmarrero8666]

An alien race that doesn't want to kill you and they find us to be weird which is far. Good to know that if I am ever lost in the deep ethereal all I have to do is ask a Molf for directions. Could you cover the Inklings and Octolings of Splatoon similar to what you did with the Smurfs? It would be interesting seeing how your character would describe them.

[@HumbleMemeFarmer]

They are aberrations, a failed Illithid experiment, nothing more

[@krispalermo8133]

Let me tell you about the greatest multi reality bending standup comics specialize in one liners, the Molf. Molf makes all Diplomacy checks cross with half rank or full skill ranks in Preform ( deadpan or flip humor or the greatest or lamest Dad jokes you can come up with.)

[@Purple.mind...Honored.one.]

My world has a version of these but are different in a few ways you could kind of say there are a little bit of a mixture between abilith and these, Anyways one of my players are playing as a paladin who lost ther master & half of ther holly script, The religion they follows Was created by my psychic jellies, The religion they follows are like mandalorians that persecutes magic As a result that religious order went on a crusade That lasted for billions of years, then half of them have returned from the now war torn worlds but the other half are lost in worlds of magic Including my player character. Anyways what exactly made The religion they follow is going to a surprise for them

[@TyLarson]

Everytime I hear golden torc I think Julian May.

[@norbertzacharczuk1064]

Absolutely fascinating 👏. I love this channel. Exellent work.

[@johnnikyecole9114]

Amazing my dude. Another shockingly awesome video in the bag. Love these stories thanks for making them very entertaining.

[@trajanfidelis1532]

Thanks for another great video AJ!

[@okamiv5]

I apreciate these in character vids.

[@That80sGuy1972]

Now I know why a friend called my gas giant aliens "molf babies". These beasties are far more complex and interesting than the nearly godlike super-dense space glob aliens I made. I will replace my months of work with Molf when (if) I DM again. Awesome video AJ. I drink a lot, did I ever send you via email any of my homebrew monsters? I think you might like some of my Ultima computer game inspirations, like the Headless Beholder-kin.

[@AJPickett]

I'm always keen to see more monsters.

[@That80sGuy1972]

@@AJPickett Sweet. A few of my players were really into the computer Ultima games, especially Ultima V. I picked a moongate cycle for the planet and adopted some Ultima monsters into homebrew Loom of Magus 2nd Ed monsters. The Headless's I altered from being mad mage experiments to being Beholder-kins... rumored to be made mage experiments. The ferral ones, the random encounter ones, were the basic ones. They seem to be almost ogrish naked headless humanoids that are hard to kill who are great at punching and rending you apart. For brute force, think of them as fully functional flesh golems without the healing by electricity thing while having a free (almost animal) will who is bent on murder. When they live through a fight and can collect intact fresh heads (a rare thing) from corpses they beat to death, that's when they get interesting. Their "neck hole" (mouth) opens up as they bring the head to it. It chews away whatever bits of the neck and spine that remains. The main eye, observing the whole thing, inside that mouth. When the mouth is done chewing, the dozen eye stalks come from the inner edges of the mouth to spin into a neck. Three go inside the head. Three go into the brain where the spine once was, scanning the brain and mentally restructuring it as they pass through to pilot and preserve it. One stops in the middle. The other two eventually make it to the eyes the replaces them... popping the old ones out after copying their looks and (if applicable) absorbing their special abilities. The other 9 eye stalks become sort of a mostly-exposed coif, like a 9-fingered hand of long and extremely thin fingers is holding the head. Those blend slightly to the looks of the assimilated head. Then the entire Headless alters the shape of the body (not mass) to most closely resemble the build, shape, and color of the victim's head. Often, it will look like a bigger, more muscular version of the victim... but being a doppelgänger isn't the goal, despite how it sometimes can do that. The Headless now has access to all of the victim's memories, skills, learned (non-divine because gods don't grant magic to someone copying their faithful fallen without having their soul) spells, voice, etc... but not their soul. So, it is possible for a Resurrected or Cloned hero to fight his evil Headless counterpart using his head from when he died before. The Headless, with the head, will be eerily close to its victim's personality... sometimes wanting to take that person's place the same way any of us finding some dead random person's life that we can just slip into if so tempted. The central eye, never seen until the Headless is feeding, has a combination of Truesight and X-Ray vision. It constantly scans and can see everything, even when within the Headless's meat sack. Heart-seeker weapons don't do an instant kill, but do hit this eye. If any single attack does 10% or more of the remaining monster's HP to that almost impossible attack, the monster dies from that eye being destroyed... it needs that eye to regulate all life in its body. The brain-center eye just looks around the victim's brain, regularly assimilating things and fixing the head. If the head is hit and less than 10% of the monster's HP isn't inflicted by the next round, it is completely healed. The smaller eyes, if targetted via a Called Shot at -8 to hit, are destroyed until any healing magic is done to the Headless... then all of these eyes are restored. HPs of damage are still applicable to the total damage (except for the restored HPs)... healing magic just heals the normal HPs of magic on top of recovering all the smaller (almost invisible) eyes & eyestalks. Left Eye: Everyone engaged with the Headless from the front, what it can see, is affected by anti-magic the same way a Beholder's main eye does its cone. His anti-magic doesn't count for when he does magic because he can blink briefly when he does the magic... unless blinking isn't enough time like dispelling something done over time or an effect that lasts longer than a blink that can be broken via anti-magic. Right Eye: Action Foresight. To-Hit, AC, and dodge related saving throws are at +4 or +1 per 4 Headless Hit Dice (round up), whichever is greater. Those are on top of all other bonuses, calculated last. Remaining 9 smaller eyes: No more than 3 per target: 1 (top of forehead, front and front flanks): Magic Missile 2 (right of forehead, front and front right flank): Shatter 3 (left of forehead, front and front left flank): Cause/Cure Light Wounds (no save, 30' range) 4 (right side of face, front and front right flank): Light/Darkness 5 (left side of face, front and left flank): Disintegrate (victim gets +8 to save, but also cannot tell the attempt was made, disintegrated or not) 6 (right of the cheek, front and front right flank): Wither/Regenerate (Regenerate is normal but Wither, the reverse, saves are at +8 to save, but the victim cannot tell an attempt was made unless they fail the save and a limb withers) 7 (left of the cheeks, front and front left flank): Sleep (despite being a 1st level spell, this is incredibly powerful for most things... and players with a lower HD companion will suddenly realize that companion just passed out) 8 (right below chin, front and front flanks): Vampiric Strike 9 (left below chin, front and front flanks): Color Spray Headlesses are usually seen as a mere brute-force monster... a headless humanoid hulk that seems to attack only sentient life. Animals avoid them, even trained ones. Only war dogs and war horses (as well as other disciplined animals) in company of their masters engage Headlesses and only if their masters command them. They are Lawful Evil, often percieved as Chaotic Evil, because they are cruel, attack sentient life, brutalize them, and are so basic that their innate command structures seem random, and they are almost Abyssal outside of being natural. In base, calculate them as Ogres in all physical ways, but being a little stronger and having their bare hands being the same as them holding a club. Also, they are pretty much immune to critical hits aside from extra rolls allowed and bonus HP damage. They are more human in size than Ogre, barely larger than a headless hulking man, but they are stronger than Ogres and have their HD's but at +1 per HD, +1 # of attacks, +2 to-hit, and +5 to damage. All of them are looking for heads. When a Headless pack kills of local humans/humanoids/demihumans that have heads that can be used (totally rare), there is a fight with seemingly instinctive rules that often destroys all the usable heads. So, when a Headless assimilates a head, even if it's merely a dipsh^t Goblin, they become far more dangerous... not as a leader of the Headless, but as that Headless getting that racial head and using that race to make more like it, a Headless that found a head, usually by using knowledge of both worlds. Before Orcs found religion, had a god, Headlesses nearly wiped them out via their culture and brutal society piracy that they helped happen. I know, you are now probably comparing them to that Stargate parasite race, but I created these as a teen in the late 80s... and they are kind of the reverse of that.

[@That80sGuy1972]

@@AJPickett Oh, that was just a little nugget on my homebrew Ultima Headless monster. The actual monster stats are more detailed. Ultima is a D&D-ish computer game that has some monsters not in AD&D that I homebrewed for my Ultima-inspired homebrew campaign. I'll email it to you when I'm a bit more sober with the stats. Did you ever play the Ultima series? I think you are a bit younger than me so, if you did, you probably got into it at around Ultima V or after, right?

[@WanderinRound]

Stellar video, your original lore ideas are inspiration treasure troves!

[@darlhiatt8136]

This is so deeply weird, I love it

[@darkfograven570]

I love the description of humans

[@billcox8870]

I have never heard of this creature. This is going to be interesting.

[@coleroberts1773]

Loving this series pls keep it going

[@glorbojibbins2485]

lol i really like these guys

[@Mister_Cy]

How's your day going AJ It's been a while since I watched your content I enjoyed this video a bunch and I enjoy your story telling style of content?, has your winter been nice?

[@AJPickett]

As winters go, it was ok thanks Mr-cy.

[@samsamsamsamsamanilla5281]

Consistently awesome AJ, thanks again!😊

[@recursiveslacker7730]

Wait, you invented this? This is wild!

[@dakotabarlett2604]

Another gem.

[@octo5042]

I really want to use these entries for my dnd game. This would be so fascinating! This is literally so cool, I can't thank you enough

[@guybob548]

Love these Learnid Jellies!

[@aliince9372]

These are amazing mate. Thanks for making them

[@guuspot923]

Not your usual fare but a tasty morsel nonetheless. More glue for this table, please?

[@thedragondaddydm6182]

Last vid was beholder mini vans and this one was smart space jellies what’s next ferrets that are used like waist disposal

[@TheHornedKing]

I like it. Molfs sound awesome. But since it's october, I am wondering if you got some spooky stuff planned.

[@Wulfbaine05]

YES PLZ!!!!! I need me some spooky 👻!

[@AJPickett]

I have something on the boil, yes.

[@user-pd9ch7hj6j]

Thank you for the video and have a good evening 🌌.

[@chriscalvin5083]

Good video AJ

[@ttilatv3502]

is this in any way actual lore, or it is just you making cool stories up? in any case, I love it.

[@AJPickett]

purely my own wild imagination at work here.

[@ttilatv3502]

@@AJPickett oh wow, well, I hope you don't mind if I use smth like this in my game

[@burningbronze7555]

Nice the one I voted for, still want the ethereal filtcher.

[@BenC...1975]

Bizarre creature. Like it. Any live stream plans upcoming?

[@Emil-Tiger02]

Yay!

[@xytek]

Thanks!

[@AJPickett]

You bet!

[@williamdavis7274]

The best

[@gorillaguerillaDK]

Absolutely AWESOME video!

[@hellerdjoplup2652]

I Iove this

[@joeking3282]

I luv a fit molf

[@thomastruant8837]

Love your work if you made it into a book I'd buy it

[@anathema1828]

Incredible work thanks for the inspiration!

[@AJPickett]

My pleasure!

[@hazbinhotelsuperfan3383]

I always love watching your videos

[@santiagoduran232]

Hi, I am extremely interested in learning more about the whole Imaskari lore, but I don't know where to find more information in detail (in order to read the sources of the video). I have the following manuals: Underdark, Vademecum of the Realms, Lords of the Underdark, Lost empires of faerun, Races of Faerun and the Darkvision novel ¿Do you know where to find something? And thanks for this amazing video.

[@nitayrafowicz5934]

just type imaaskar AJ got a video on ancient Imaaskar from two years ago

[@soultron4238]

This is fantastic thank you. I really enjoyed listening to this, and my brain is really wondering how old do they interact with what us plebes consider to be the inner/outer planes.

[@soultron4238]

Also, how/do the Molf interact with the gods. Either they just don’t give a flip, or the gods have been brokering deals with them since ever.

[@soultron4238]

If Tharzadun gets to reform existence, would that be a single prime material and planes, or just one of the infinite permutations?

[@soultron4238]

Suffice to say a video that leaves me with more hanging threads to wonder about is probably the best kind, so thanks again.

[@soultron4238]

Now let me get some of those old Torg books out for flavor. Talk about a lvl 15-20+ campaign…

[@hazbinhotelsuperfan3383]

I was wondering if you could do a video on Matt Colville's illrigger class

[@AJPickett]

I can take a look at it, but no promises

[@jaredbledsoe-sams1361]

I get the feeling that they are terrified of the inevitable? Edit: They = deep imaskari people.

[@AJPickett]

I get the feeling the gods consider the deep ethereal like, that bit of the castle wall that has all the shanty town, slum construction going on, but, it's mostly harmless and too much trouble than it is worth to clear it out.

[@onpatrolforthejuice]

I loved it very creative.

[@chadstinson9886]

I enjoy it