Kudos to the Dnd researchers for using "Jabberwock" instead of "Jabberwocky." Even the Disney Alice In Wonderland got that wrong. Are there jubjub birds and bandersnatches as well? Maybe some borogoves? Although I can't fault them; they just hang around being mimsy while the mome raths outgrabe.
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 It is a cry uttered by those who judge their situation to be Frabjous. "Kaloo Kalay", "Frabjous" and "Chortle" are all words made up for the poem Jabberwocks originate from.
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 Its from the Poem by Lewis Carroll, titled Jabberwocky, which is what inspired this monster (directly), the hero of the poem rejoices after killing the Jabberwock with his vorpal sword, “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy.
So Feywild is like Las Vegas, What happens in the Feywild,Stays in the feywild. Hmmmm..... a Man gets lost in the feywild and returns 1 months later, with no memories of his stay there. a couple of years later, while having supper with his family, there is a knock at the door, outside stands a juvinile person, who says they are the mans child. Why are there no Fey heritage sorcerer class?
@@travisterry2200 nah, that is jsut raw magic. think this would be more general fey stuff. i do not know how to write it or what to put in it, but i kinda want it. thinks it makes sense.
Thanks for teaching me the word, _"brillig."_ Or at least, encouraging me to look it up. Apparently, it means roughly about the time you would start boiling meat to serve for dinner. Roughly around 4 o'clock. Brillig is boiling time! I can recite Carroll's poem backwards and forwards, but I never knew 'brillig' was a real turn of phrase. This antiquated vocab is mine now. All mine, forever.
The jabberwock is a perfect source for magical ingredients for items and potion that give true sight and so on. Just look at those eyes, you can't tell me that doesn't look like the center of a magical item.
I legitimately was gonna take an eye from a baby jabberwock and then pop it in my socket and cast regenerate to see if my DM would allow the part to graft. RAW it wouldn't work because regenerate makes your own body parts graft back onto you easily but he tends to roll with the punches and allow cool stuff like that. We will see
I once had my players visit the Realm of the Mad God based heavily off the Shivering Isles, it had 2 Jabberwocky, one whose burbling was low, indecipherable paranoid mutterings and it's gaze was a ray of enervation and the others was high pitched manic ramblings and a gaze that randomly caused either uncontrollable rage or irresistible dance. The two were bitter enemies and shared tea on Thursdays
My favorite version of the Jabberwock is from an obscure RPGMaker game, where it's pretty much the embodiment of evil (and also dead). You can encounter its (still living) corpse, which swears that it's a good dragon now.
@@benthomason3307 Obscure game, like I said. There are a bunch of references to fairy tales and the nonsensical works of Lewis Caroll. The Jabberwock is portrayed as an extremely evil dragon who annihilated entire civilizations just for the fun of it, but it got killed by an unknown hero a while back. When the main character finds its corpse, the corpse will talk about how living as a decapitated body allowed it to reflect on life, and now it's content with a peaceful existence. There's a whole bunch of other stuff, but I just thought the whole "redeemed corpse" thing was interesting.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” He took his vorpal sword in hand; Long time the manxome foe he sought- So rested he by the Tumtum tree And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy. ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
Burnination is no laughing matter, friend. My entire village of peasants was Burninated alive in their thatched roof cottages. To this day, I can’t draw an ‘S’.
Question about the Feywild: As we all know, the Feywild is tied to Emotions. And if I recall correctly, Mind Flayers have Emotions that Human Brains simply don't have. Would a Mind Flayer base in the Feywild thus be truly horrible?
I would probably have it come with mists and ambush a player in a forest then leave and come back later when they are alone, and each time it shows up i would give a different description of how it looks to illustrate the effect it has on memory.
In my games i teneded to have a variation of grand, greater and lesser Jabberwocks. the gran jabberwock was 1 of a kind in each plane it inhabited and there were a number of greater and far more of the lesser but still rare creatures. I did this to accommodate The Vorpal blade and more mundane vorpal enchanted sword, I made players who wanted to the Vorpal Blade quest for it. And if the Vorpal blade was found by a player they would then have to slay the Grand Jabberwock at some point soon as it now was stalking them and any jabberwock in proximity to the player would also try to kill them. It became a fun thing for my old group to do from time to time, especially with new players.
Hey AJ, did a little reading. The Jabberwock is a fictional character from the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. It only appears within the poem Jabberwocky that Alice reads during the first chapter and never interacts with the rest of the cast. The Jabberwock is commonly (and incorrectly) referred to as the Jabberwocky, though Jabberwocky is the title of the poem, rather than the name of the creature. In Tenniel's illustration, the Jabberwock is a large winged chimera (mixture of several animals) with the body of a dragon, a whiskered, fish-like head, insectile antennae and a pair of talon-like hands on both its arms and its wings, which may also serve as forelegs when it walked on the ground. It also wears a vest. It presumably lived within a place known as the Tulgey Wood until it was slain by an unnamed hero wielding a vorpal blade. Apparently a ferocious maneater in life, Jabberwocky warns the unnamed hero to beware "The jaws that bite" and "the claws that catch". Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
I'm pretty sure they dropped its size in relatively recent editions because it makes their minis both easier to work with, easier to produce, and less expensive to obtain.
I'm glad they brought this thing back hopefully they did not nerf them I remembers 2nd edition the jabberwock was able to give a terasq a run for its money on its own
That means it is always Jabberwock season and they will most certainly hate the vorpal sword warforge guardians and vorpal sword golem guardians powered by elemental energy from the plane of water. They are made to slay Jabberwocks and protect humans from such creatures. They even have a form of shape water so that they can blind the Jabberwocks. Being the guardian of the forest is fine until they start eating humans. If you aren't human AJ Picket then what are you?
Another great lore video, AJ. As for that little quagmire about its breathing, I have a homebrew rule that, related to its immunities, it can breathe any fluid (any gas or liquid) as if it was breathable air. You know, making it a terror no matter the terrain you find it in or try to escape to.
I kind of like the idea of describing the creature differently to every player on their turns (the images presented give tons of ideas as to how to describe them: certain people see tentacles on their face while others see horns or even a mane-like structure, some see said horns in the shape of a spider with threatening extended mandibles, while some see the tentacles as similar to a hare's ears or antennae, some see a pair rodent-like proeminent incisors, while others see a maw armed with full of carnivorous canines or rows upon rows of needles; its pupils might have that weird horizontal wavy pattern similar to a goat, the vertical slits of a snake or just glowing irises seemingly burning with an internal fire; its retracted wings might even look like a mantis' pincers, some might describe the creature as being mostly reptilian, while others describe the (perhaps even hairy) browns and leathery bat wings of mammals or a gleaming wart-covered water-repellent skin of an amphibian, its armor plates either scale-like in appearance or chitinous as an arthropod) and observe the confusion within the players' ranks trying to come up with an explanation of why all of their accounts are so dissimilar.
I find your idea of these being "troll dragons" quite interesting and may implement the troll's inclination towards spontaneous mutation into the origins of these dragons in my games. A troll transforming into these dragons as a result of eating dragon flesh could be interesting, or even coming about from a troll surviving the blast of a red dragon's breath weapon. In the latter case, the innate elemental magic within the breast attack would be absorbed into the troll, giving it the ability to mimic the red dragon's breath through its fiery gaze and developing an immunity to fire-based attacks. Its regeneration ability changing from being shut off by fire and acid damage to being invalidated by slashing damage could tie into Vaprak's blessing changing from only dying from being cooked and eaten into only dying from being butchered.
All mimsy were the borogroves, and the momeraths outgrabe. Make a video about Vorpal Blades or maybe even the legendary Vorpal Bunny, with its related cousin, The Beast of Caerbannog.
Burbleurbleurbleurbleurble. If anyone wants to run this thing, there was an Alice in Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass TV special in the 90s that had it in...two scenes, if I remember right, and conveyed a memorable atmosphere. It burst out of a present at a party. Everything turned to lightning and nightmare.
Earlier commentary eliminated, sufficed to translate from the earlier edition. This is what happens when dragon kin are isolated and exposed to the dark fey too long.
This gives me ideas to use in encounters, but rather than the party needing to worry about the Jabberwock, the Jabberwock and the party need to be afraid of the pseudo Death Knight that's draining the life out of that Jabberwock. I'm sure if we can harvest a few scales or some meat, that I can boil it down and make Everlasting Fire Giants. *Oooo the ideas...*
You have a gift. Absolutely brilliant story telling. Wiz with words. Bringing me golden idears. Knight of the night. But I can't find the connection with the Queen of Hearts pet back in the first Alice in Wonderland movie. Would have liked to see it in the second movie, when Alice gets into trouble with Johnny Depp. So 🤣. Like MTG needs creatures like these to mess up the time king guy. Thanks for the work you do.
Just took a look at the 2nd ed version and, damn. 80% magic resistance and any weapon that that is not a vorpal blade only does non lethal subdual damage. Combine that with paralyzing eye beams and dear god I think I have my next monster encounter.
@@Ghastly_Grinner That is the thing. This is all fey in origin. A story to be told. So even if you never intended to find and fight a Jabberwok chances are good you would fall down a hole and wind up in its nest. That is just how the magic of fey things works. But as a fey creature the Jabberwok is innately aware of this and seeks to subvert it. Postponing the conclusion of the story. By picking up the sword you are essentially submitting to the fey magic that guides these things and becoming part of the stories that weave together all interactions with the fey.
It's a shame that this version of the Jabberwocky does not speak. I loved hearing him played by Christopher Lee in the live action Alice in Wonderland.
Twas brilig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in wabe. All mimzies were the borogroves and the momoraths outgrabe. Beware the Jabberwock my son, the jaws the bite the claws that catch. Beware the Jubejube bird, and shun the frumious bandersnatch. He took his Vorpal sword in hand, long time the maxome for he sought. So rested he by a Tum tum tree and stood a while in thought. And as he stood the jabberwock with eyes of flame came whiffling through the tulgee wood and burbled as it. One two one two and through and through. The Vorpal blade went “snicker snack” He left it dead, and with its head, he went galumphing back. “And hast thou slain the jabberwock my beamish boy? Oh Frabjous day Caloocan-claay” he chortled in his joy. Twas brilig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimzies were the borogroves and the momoraths outgrabe
On the topic of magic items that have been hidden or concealed by monsters. Do you know of any spell outside Detect Magic that could be used to locate hidden magical objects? Like a magical gigger counter? I mean sure I can let the parties Artificer make something given enough time and material but just thinking out loud.
I don’t remember the name but there was a book series I read that included a jabberwock in its lore and it claimed it was a birth defect of dragon kind and I’ve always thought that to be the best origin of the jabberwock, meant to be born one of the most regal creatures in existence instead born a vile mutation who’s sight alone strikes fear and revulsion in anything it meets, instead did a magnificent breath of fire it’s gaze like an infernal basilisk turns all in its sight to blazing ash instead of stone
Not what I expected when they said, "Eyes aflame" or "eyes o' blazing"... And doors, can be boars, can be snores, can be floors, and yours could be mine- Wabba- Jabberwock Jabberwock.
Honestly never cared too much for the stat blocks for most versions of the Jabberwocky. Its not them I mind, its that they are often overly convoluted. To me the Jabberwocky is a bazaar fey-dragon who spreads confusion and insanity, but it can be killed.
Ok how about this idea, pet jabberwocky from a fay court princess, looks like a plush toy, and can kill a black dragon by itself, thanks to the spells given to it by the aforementioned princess of the elven court. Fighter: That plush is dynamite.
Sometimes I feel like you have to have achieved Tom Cruise level action hero skills just to survive in Dungeons & Dragons. Every intelligent race seems to be getting eaten by every monster.
Not terribly different from before humans killed out most dangerous and/or predatory animals from where they live. Only in the natural world getting injured, even slightly, can end up being lethal from infection so most animals will only commit to an attack they feel they either are sure to win or would buy survival for its kin. But even in this day and age people do become prey.
@@AJPickett That sounds like an Australian animal. Never heard of it, so instead of looking it up, I am imagining it as one of Australia's super-killer animals.
The jabberwock is vulnerable to all slashing damage as it shuts down its regeneration, and it has a relatively paltry number of hit points so, it can get killed pretty quickly if the players are well prepared.
How do true dragons react to jabberwocks? Do they most ignore jabberwocks or do both true dragons & jabberwocks hunt each other if they trespass in one a others territory?
I have a question. Jabberwock seems like quite the formidable foe to any party, especially without the vorpal blade. But how about an enchanted mirror or mirror shield. Would it be possible to send it's fire gaze right back at it? If not to injure it, then blind it to give it a disadvantage? Anywho, I love these videos so much and they're always of great help when I need info on anything D&D related
Hmmm, possibly, if you could find a way to alter the poem, the fey domain and it's creatures also shift and change to match it. That's the feywild for you
Consider the stories when dealing with fey beasties. If you can rules lawyer a reason why it is thematically fitting then go for it. That kind of convoluted thinking is very fey and therefore I personally would totally give it a green light.
Something I came up with for the lore of the Jabberwock is it operates in a manner similar to some depictions of Wendigos. The Jabberwock is a spirit that possesses a humanoid. I made this bit of lore to explain the proportions and why no one sees the juvenile Jabberwocks. The possession can occur in one of two ways after it is slain. The first is after 3d8 years the Jabberwock has regained the strength it needs take over the body of a humanoid. This transforms the humanoid instantly into the Jabberwock. The second method is after its death the spirit of the Jabberwock flys off and instantly possesses a humanoid. After the possession, the humanoid gains a level in green dragon bloodline sorcerer. Then after the 3d8 years they turn into the Jabberwock. Adventure hooks could be: Players are hired try to break the curse that has turned the local lord’s child into a Jabberwock. Or Players have been traveling with a friendly NPC that one night while camping in the woods, to the horror of the players, transforms into a Jabberwock. Now the players must decide if they will kill or save their friend.
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Feels weird to apply normal biological life cycles to very fey creatures. I kind of like Fey creatures having more mythic origins, incorporating old ideas like Spontaneous Generation (e.g., rotting meat produces fruit flies, not the fruit flies nesting in the meat).
Where could one find more information on the main 'character' of these stories? I know he is an arcane scholar of some kind with metalic dragon ancestry, but I forget the rest. Except for his ties to Candlekeep... And a Dire Hobbit?
6:22 Idea: you play in a grimdark campaign-> your grup is all made up of nonhumans-> (insert plot hook here) it must be solved in 1 year-> the jabba is smart-> you need something from it-> you can only get it if you give it 30 000 tons of human meat-> they're all under leveled-> and there is a human town close-> the jabba also sees it as a spectacle What do you do?
![[UNCUT] The Loyal Pin ปิ่นภักดิ์ EP.15 (3/4)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IVwR87OH0_A/mqdefault.jpg)
It's a good thing I brought my grandfathers vorpal sword with me
Snicker Snack!
Did he Proudly go galumphing back?
@@mikewaterfield3599 not proudly, he lost his brother and right arm in the fight.
@@trajanfidelis1532 truly a shame,
Yo were is your profile pic from, I used to know the artist name but forgot
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Kudos to the Dnd researchers for using "Jabberwock" instead of "Jabberwocky." Even the Disney Alice In Wonderland got that wrong. Are there jubjub birds and bandersnatches as well? Maybe some borogoves? Although I can't fault them; they just hang around being mimsy while the mome raths outgrabe.
They show up in the wonder land modules for TSR's AD&D. Or at least a couple of them.
Alternatively, they could have just called it 'Stan'...
Pathfinder has Jabberwocky, JubJub birds, and Bandersnatch. They went full in
Probably sounded better in the rhyme
After the jabberwock is killed it's not required to Futterwack afterword.
I play a Fey Elf who dual wields a matched pair of Vorpal Katana. They are Sentient and named Snic & Sanc in homage to Lewis Carroll.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
'twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe...
Awesome hope we get the Cheshire cat next
What are they all about?
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 no idea it's why I hope we get one
Monty Python made a film about the Jabberwock. One of there lesser known works. Very funny.
Kaloo kalay, this beast would make for a fine encounter
,,Kaloo kalay''-? What dose it mean?
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 It is a cry uttered by those who judge their situation to be Frabjous.
"Kaloo Kalay", "Frabjous" and "Chortle" are all words made up for the poem Jabberwocks originate from.
@@nicolaezenoaga9756 Its from the Poem by Lewis Carroll, titled Jabberwocky, which is what inspired this monster (directly), the hero of the poem rejoices after killing the Jabberwock with his vorpal sword,
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
@@AJPickett Oh!
So Feywild is like Las Vegas, What happens in the Feywild,Stays in the feywild.
Hmmmm..... a Man gets lost in the feywild and returns 1 months later, with no memories of his stay there. a couple of years later, while having supper with his family, there is a knock at the door, outside stands a juvinile person, who says they are the mans child.
Why are there no Fey heritage sorcerer class?
Wouldn't this be effectively wild magic sorcerer?
@@travisterry2200 nah, that is jsut raw magic. think this would be more general fey stuff. i do not know how to write it or what to put in it, but i kinda want it. thinks it makes sense.
Thanks for teaching me the word, _"brillig."_ Or at least, encouraging me to look it up. Apparently, it means roughly about the time you would start boiling meat to serve for dinner. Roughly around 4 o'clock. Brillig is boiling time! I can recite Carroll's poem backwards and forwards, but I never knew 'brillig' was a real turn of phrase. This antiquated vocab is mine now. All mine, forever.
Glad I could help!
The jabberwock is a perfect source for magical ingredients for items and potion that give true sight and so on. Just look at those eyes, you can't tell me that doesn't look like the center of a magical item.
I legitimately was gonna take an eye from a baby jabberwock and then pop it in my socket and cast regenerate to see if my DM would allow the part to graft. RAW it wouldn't work because regenerate makes your own body parts graft back onto you easily but he tends to roll with the punches and allow cool stuff like that. We will see
In American McGee's Alice, a staff tipped with a Jabberwock's eye was essencially a laser cannon.
I once had my players visit the Realm of the Mad God based heavily off the Shivering Isles, it had 2 Jabberwocky, one whose burbling was low, indecipherable paranoid mutterings and it's gaze was a ray of enervation and the others was high pitched manic ramblings and a gaze that randomly caused either uncontrollable rage or irresistible dance. The two were bitter enemies and shared tea on Thursdays
fey dragons are simply cool. still looking forward to that dracolich update
My favorite version of the Jabberwock is from an obscure RPGMaker game, where it's pretty much the embodiment of evil (and also dead). You can encounter its (still living) corpse, which swears that it's a good dragon now.
I'm sorry, what?
@@benthomason3307 Obscure game, like I said. There are a bunch of references to fairy tales and the nonsensical works of Lewis Caroll. The Jabberwock is portrayed as an extremely evil dragon who annihilated entire civilizations just for the fun of it, but it got killed by an unknown hero a while back. When the main character finds its corpse, the corpse will talk about how living as a decapitated body allowed it to reflect on life, and now it's content with a peaceful existence. There's a whole bunch of other stuff, but I just thought the whole "redeemed corpse" thing was interesting.
@@cordyceps182 Black Souls maybe?
@@foisopracurtir6389 Let's not spoil things now, all right?
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Have the players roll Perception and on a success give them something like, "you hear a wiffling and a burbling coming through the wood."
Oh darn I got excited and made that comment before watching til the end.
For some reason, I was tickled by your rather extended description of a saving throw. Also, props for use of "burninate."
Sometimes I explain RPG stuff for listeners who don't play the game 🙂
@@AJPickett And you're a legend for doing so.
Alice in Wonderland + Homestar Runner
I can't foresee any nightmarish Feywild complications there. Nope.
Burnination is no laughing matter, friend. My entire village of peasants was Burninated alive in their thatched roof cottages. To this day, I can’t draw an ‘S’.
@@KyleJordanGaming I'm so sorry for your loss.
Although there were no official Jabberwock stats for 3rd Edition, folks can easily use the Jabberwock stats for 3e from Pathfinder 1st Edition.
Question about the Feywild: As we all know, the Feywild is tied to Emotions. And if I recall correctly, Mind Flayers have Emotions that Human Brains simply don't have.
Would a Mind Flayer base in the Feywild thus be truly horrible?
Yes, also, elves have a greater range and more definitions of emotions than humans.
I recently played a game, where I made a pact with the jabberwock and rode him into battle to raid a temple. glorious chaos followed.
Sounds like an epic game.
@@AJPickett yeah, lv 40 decided to make an example out of forcing him out of retirement, XD
@@witchblood6873lv40? At that absolutely ridiculous level I'dve had a magical chariot I *forced* Gond to make pulled by a few stellar dragons.
Nice Job AJ didn't know it was in D&D, I think I might just use the Jabberwock instead of a dragon for a nice twist in my campaign
What a creature a single poem inspired.
Don't think we missed you saying "Burninating", sir. :D
Crazy to think those of us remembering Homestar Runner are now considered “old” 😂
I remember those guys from Pathfinder: kingmaker. By that I mean I’m still traumatized.
...and as if in uffish thought... The jabberwock with eyes of flame came whiffling through the tulngy woods and burbled as it came...
🗡
“One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.”
'Burnination damage'? Implying Trogdor is somehow related to Jaberwockies? XD
Straight up, 100%, affirmative.
I’ve been waiting for this one
Congratulations to D&D writers across the editions who added so much of the poem to this monster!
I would probably have it come with mists and ambush a player in a forest then leave and come back later when they are alone, and each time it shows up i would give a different description of how it looks to illustrate the effect it has on memory.
“Burninating the countryside,
Burninating the peasants,
Burninating all the people,
In their thatched roof COTTAGESSS!!”
In my games i teneded to have a variation of grand, greater and lesser Jabberwocks. the gran jabberwock was 1 of a kind in each plane it inhabited and there were a number of greater and far more of the lesser but still rare creatures. I did this to accommodate The Vorpal blade and more mundane vorpal enchanted sword, I made players who wanted to the Vorpal Blade quest for it. And if the Vorpal blade was found by a player they would then have to slay the Grand Jabberwock at some point soon as it now was stalking them and any jabberwock in proximity to the player would also try to kill them. It became a fun thing for my old group to do from time to time, especially with new players.
We have this deadly beast to thank for the legendary vorpal blade many a player has been happy to discover on their adventures.
Teeth that bite and claws that catch!
seems 5E forgot about the teeth part.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Hey AJ, did a little reading.
The Jabberwock is a fictional character from the novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. It only appears within the poem Jabberwocky that Alice reads during the first chapter and never interacts with the rest of the cast.
The Jabberwock is commonly (and incorrectly) referred to as the Jabberwocky, though Jabberwocky is the title of the poem, rather than the name of the creature.
In Tenniel's illustration, the Jabberwock is a large winged chimera (mixture of several animals) with the body of a dragon, a whiskered, fish-like head, insectile antennae and a pair of talon-like hands on both its arms and its wings, which may also serve as forelegs when it walked on the ground. It also wears a vest. It presumably lived within a place known as the Tulgey Wood until it was slain by an unnamed hero wielding a vorpal blade.
Apparently a ferocious maneater in life, Jabberwocky warns the unnamed hero to beware "The jaws that bite" and "the claws that catch".
Thanks AJ you have a wonderful day!
Ah Jabberwock, bizzarre yet iconic monster
I'm pretty sure they dropped its size in relatively recent editions because it makes their minis both easier to work with, easier to produce, and less expensive to obtain.
I'm glad they brought this thing back hopefully they did not nerf them I remembers 2nd edition the jabberwock was able to give a terasq a run for its money on its own
That means it is always Jabberwock season and they will most certainly hate the vorpal sword warforge guardians and vorpal sword golem guardians powered by elemental energy from the plane of water. They are made to slay Jabberwocks and protect humans from such creatures. They even have a form of shape water so that they can blind the Jabberwocks. Being the guardian of the forest is fine until they start eating humans.
If you aren't human AJ Picket then what are you?
He said he was a half Hin 🤔
@@TeCarbone unfortunately I don't have a clue as to what that is. Only that it looks human but isn't.
@@andresmarrero8666 Halfing. Halfings are called Hin in Faerun, it is there official name there.
Another great lore video, AJ. As for that little quagmire about its breathing, I have a homebrew rule that, related to its immunities, it can breathe any fluid (any gas or liquid) as if it was breathable air. You know, making it a terror no matter the terrain you find it in or try to escape to.
I kind of like the idea of describing the creature differently to every player on their turns (the images presented give tons of ideas as to how to describe them: certain people see tentacles on their face while others see horns or even a mane-like structure, some see said horns in the shape of a spider with threatening extended mandibles, while some see the tentacles as similar to a hare's ears or antennae, some see a pair rodent-like proeminent incisors, while others see a maw armed with full of carnivorous canines or rows upon rows of needles; its pupils might have that weird horizontal wavy pattern similar to a goat, the vertical slits of a snake or just glowing irises seemingly burning with an internal fire; its retracted wings might even look like a mantis' pincers, some might describe the creature as being mostly reptilian, while others describe the (perhaps even hairy) browns and leathery bat wings of mammals or a gleaming wart-covered water-repellent skin of an amphibian, its armor plates either scale-like in appearance or chitinous as an arthropod) and observe the confusion within the players' ranks trying to come up with an explanation of why all of their accounts are so dissimilar.
…and Brillig Day to you… *tips hat*
I find your idea of these being "troll dragons" quite interesting and may implement the troll's inclination towards spontaneous mutation into the origins of these dragons in my games. A troll transforming into these dragons as a result of eating dragon flesh could be interesting, or even coming about from a troll surviving the blast of a red dragon's breath weapon. In the latter case, the innate elemental magic within the breast attack would be absorbed into the troll, giving it the ability to mimic the red dragon's breath through its fiery gaze and developing an immunity to fire-based attacks. Its regeneration ability changing from being shut off by fire and acid damage to being invalidated by slashing damage could tie into Vaprak's blessing changing from only dying from being cooked and eaten into only dying from being butchered.
Excellent
All mimsy were the borogroves, and the momeraths outgrabe. Make a video about Vorpal Blades or maybe even the legendary Vorpal Bunny, with its related cousin, The Beast of Caerbannog.
Burbleurbleurbleurbleurble.
If anyone wants to run this thing, there was an Alice in Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass TV special in the 90s that had it in...two scenes, if I remember right, and conveyed a memorable atmosphere.
It burst out of a present at a party. Everything turned to lightning and nightmare.
Yeah, that was an intimidating adaptation.
My party just nearly killed by a Jabberwock in the last session.
Earlier commentary eliminated, sufficed to translate from the earlier edition. This is what happens when dragon kin are isolated and exposed to the dark fey too long.
This kind of inaccurate the, Jabberwock in Alice in wonder land is very much capable of speech and is quite intelligent.
Yeah, ignore WotC reality and replace it with your own.
@@AJPickett Probably the best advice you ever gave anyone!
@@That80sGuy1972 You can tell even back then I was already pretty much over WotC's nonsense.
Isn’t there a frost giant that got transformed by eating a troll. This could be a dragon that ate a troll.
Can you do a detailed ecology of every gem dragon it will be cool
I can
This gives me ideas to use in encounters, but rather than the party needing to worry about the Jabberwock, the Jabberwock and the party need to be afraid of the pseudo Death Knight that's draining the life out of that Jabberwock.
I'm sure if we can harvest a few scales or some meat, that I can boil it down and make Everlasting Fire Giants.
*Oooo the ideas...*
You have a gift. Absolutely brilliant story telling. Wiz with words. Bringing me golden idears. Knight of the night. But I can't find the connection with the Queen of Hearts pet back in the first Alice in Wonderland movie. Would have liked to see it in the second movie, when Alice gets into trouble with Johnny Depp. So 🤣. Like MTG needs creatures like these to mess up the time king guy. Thanks for the work you do.
Are you telling me I just typed out entirety of the jabberwockey poem onto the absolute wrong thing. Oh well, time to correct a mistake.
Just fought this thing in a friends homebrew game…freaked me out for sure
Imagine stumbling across a logging camp with scorched earth and ash statues of the worker's fleeing in terror.
Just took a look at the 2nd ed version and, damn. 80% magic resistance and any weapon that that is not a vorpal blade only does non lethal subdual damage. Combine that with paralyzing eye beams and dear god I think I have my next monster encounter.
"Can we go out for dragons?"
"We have dragons at home."
Dragons at home:
Omg, THAT'S what brillig means? Tea time? 🤯
Yes, the time one normally puts items on the boil for dinner/supper.
I know this thing isn't very bright but odd that it would actually seek out the man carrying the vorpal blade
Prioritizing the biggest threat perhaps?
@@somerandomschmuck2547 If its nowhere near that sword its safe
@@Ghastly_Grinner That is the thing. This is all fey in origin. A story to be told. So even if you never intended to find and fight a Jabberwok chances are good you would fall down a hole and wind up in its nest. That is just how the magic of fey things works. But as a fey creature the Jabberwok is innately aware of this and seeks to subvert it. Postponing the conclusion of the story. By picking up the sword you are essentially submitting to the fey magic that guides these things and becoming part of the stories that weave together all interactions with the fey.
I love fey wild monsters as they are always so quirky and need something special to subdue them. Makes mechanics of the game so much fun
It's a shame that this version of the Jabberwocky does not speak. I loved hearing him played by Christopher Lee in the live action Alice in Wonderland.
Isn't that the stick that Sheogorath gives you that turns grandmas into rabbits?
His staff is Wabbajack but based on similar theme as it was a Lewis Carrol story
@@couchcommandoiv5528 Wabbajack, not Jabbawock.
Yay!
Twas brilig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in wabe. All mimzies were the borogroves and the momoraths outgrabe. Beware the Jabberwock my son, the jaws the bite the claws that catch. Beware the Jubejube bird, and shun the frumious bandersnatch.
He took his Vorpal sword in hand, long time the maxome for he sought. So rested he by a Tum tum tree and stood a while in thought.
And as he stood the jabberwock with eyes of flame came whiffling through the tulgee wood and burbled as it.
One two one two and through and through.
The Vorpal blade went “snicker snack”
He left it dead, and with its head, he went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the jabberwock my beamish boy? Oh Frabjous day Caloocan-claay” he chortled in his joy.
Twas brilig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimzies were the borogroves and the momoraths outgrabe
I imagine it would sound similar to the lizathon from the original Thundercats cartoon
@AJ Pickett, I'm guessing you were thinking the same thing
I remember my first encounter with the Jabberwock in Pathfinder, some psychotic satyr loosed one on us because we refused to give it our booze
On the topic of magic items that have been hidden or concealed by monsters. Do you know of any spell outside Detect Magic that could be used to locate hidden magical objects? Like a magical gigger counter? I mean sure I can let the parties Artificer make something given enough time and material but just thinking out loud.
Legend Lore
@@AJPickett I guess. I should probably read the spell again ;( (brain fart).
Love these narratives! -Also gotta try the olive-stuffed sun-dried peppers, with olive oil and some cheese!
I don’t remember the name but there was a book series I read that included a jabberwock in its lore and it claimed it was a birth defect of dragon kind and I’ve always thought that to be the best origin of the jabberwock, meant to be born one of the most regal creatures in existence instead born a vile mutation who’s sight alone strikes fear and revulsion in anything it meets, instead did a magnificent breath of fire it’s gaze like an infernal basilisk turns all in its sight to blazing ash instead of stone
If you remember the book title please share. This sounds dope
@@thehillz726 I think it was something like “Legends of Dragonrealm” or something along those lines
@@cfakatsuki17 thanks
Not what I expected when they said, "Eyes aflame" or "eyes o' blazing"...
And doors, can be boars, can be snores, can be floors, and yours could be mine- Wabba- Jabberwock Jabberwock.
Such a great monster. Great coverage
Twas Brillig, and the slithy toves....
Honestly never cared too much for the stat blocks for most versions of the Jabberwocky. Its not them I mind, its that they are often overly convoluted. To me the Jabberwocky is a bazaar fey-dragon who spreads confusion and insanity, but it can be killed.
Did you mean bizarre?
@@GreenLanternCorps2814 nah man you visit the local shop and then bam a jabberwock
Lol
I think it's fitting that they're overly convoluted, given the origin of the Jabberwocky.
Bless the Mighty GlueStick
Ok how about this idea, pet jabberwocky from a fay court princess, looks like a plush toy, and can kill a black dragon by itself, thanks to the spells given to it by the aforementioned princess of the elven court.
Fighter: That plush is dynamite.
Glad you fixed this! I was so confused the other day when it was just the music track. XD
Great video, AJ.
Has anyone tempted to tame a Jabberwock to be a mount?
What would that be like if so?
Unlikely, but... fey realms? Maybe.
I wonder when we will get another aberration?
when the stars are right
Haha, I heard you doing the outro and was confused at the length of video I still had left😂
yeah, bit of an editing mishap there, all fixed now.
Charisma saving throw? That’s cruel. I like it.
Yeah, vicious!
@@AJPickett Teaches players not to have a dump stat.
Sometimes I feel like you have to have achieved Tom Cruise level action hero skills just to survive in Dungeons & Dragons. Every intelligent race seems to be getting eaten by every monster.
People get eaten by swamp tigers on Earth.
Not terribly different from before humans killed out most dangerous and/or predatory animals from where they live. Only in the natural world getting injured, even slightly, can end up being lethal from infection so most animals will only commit to an attack they feel they either are sure to win or would buy survival for its kin. But even in this day and age people do become prey.
@@AJPickett That sounds like an Australian animal. Never heard of it, so instead of looking it up, I am imagining it as one of Australia's super-killer animals.
I love that they made a CR 11 creature weak to a weapon you should only get at level 17 or higher.
The jabberwock is vulnerable to all slashing damage as it shuts down its regeneration, and it has a relatively paltry number of hit points so, it can get killed pretty quickly if the players are well prepared.
That could actually make sense if the idea is to have a single high level character 1v1 it
How do true dragons react to jabberwocks? Do they most ignore jabberwocks or do both true dragons & jabberwocks hunt each other if they trespass in one a others territory?
I think it would make sense if dragons see them as abominations
There is no co-habitation generally, some gold dragons locate a dream demiplane within a Jabberwock territory.
@@AJPickett that's rather unfortunate for said dragon lol
Calloo callay!
Hey uh, kinda weird- but the entire video post intro animation is ambient music and black screen.
On Android TH-cam app.
Fixed
Enjoyed this episode the first time, enjoying it even more after CR just used 1!😍
Is there a bandersnatch too?
There is. Just have not covered them yet.
@@AJPickett Did you cover the Bandersnatch? I can't remember.
I have a question. Jabberwock seems like quite the formidable foe to any party, especially without the vorpal blade. But how about an enchanted mirror or mirror shield. Would it be possible to send it's fire gaze right back at it? If not to injure it, then blind it to give it a disadvantage? Anywho, I love these videos so much and they're always of great help when I need info on anything D&D related
Hmmm, possibly, if you could find a way to alter the poem, the fey domain and it's creatures also shift and change to match it. That's the feywild for you
Consider the stories when dealing with fey beasties. If you can rules lawyer a reason why it is thematically fitting then go for it. That kind of convoluted thinking is very fey and therefore I personally would totally give it a green light.
Is there a separate speices of troll dragon or are you saying this is a possible troll dragon?
I'm pondering.
@@AJPickett oh Lord. Looking forward to the result
Something I came up with for the lore of the Jabberwock is it operates in a manner similar to some depictions of Wendigos. The Jabberwock is a spirit that possesses a humanoid. I made this bit of lore to explain the proportions and why no one sees the juvenile Jabberwocks.
The possession can occur in one of two ways after it is slain. The first is after 3d8 years the Jabberwock has regained the strength it needs take over the body of a humanoid. This transforms the humanoid instantly into the Jabberwock. The second method is after its death the spirit of the Jabberwock flys off and instantly possesses a humanoid. After the possession, the humanoid gains a level in green dragon bloodline sorcerer. Then after the 3d8 years they turn into the Jabberwock.
Adventure hooks could be:
Players are hired try to break the curse that has turned the local lord’s child into a Jabberwock.
Or
Players have been traveling with a friendly NPC that one night while camping in the woods, to the horror of the players, transforms into a Jabberwock. Now the players must decide if they will kill or save their friend.
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Feels weird to apply normal biological life cycles to very fey creatures. I kind of like Fey creatures having more mythic origins, incorporating old ideas like Spontaneous Generation (e.g., rotting meat produces fruit flies, not the fruit flies nesting in the meat).
What a wonderful video! Thank you for sharing your research. I’m going to implement this monster in my sessions.
So this thing can kill you just by looking at you and has a healing factor that would make any troll jealous? Talk about OP!
Otherworldly.
Where could one find more information on the main 'character' of these stories? I know he is an arcane scholar of some kind with metalic dragon ancestry, but I forget the rest. Except for his ties to Candlekeep... And a Dire Hobbit?
This is his in universe self I'm pretty sure.
6:22 Idea: you play in a grimdark campaign-> your grup is all made up of nonhumans-> (insert plot hook here) it must be solved in 1 year-> the jabba is smart-> you need something from it-> you can only get it if you give it 30 000 tons of human meat-> they're all under leveled-> and there is a human town close-> the jabba also sees it as a spectacle
What do you do?
Very informative video this one was, thank you I learned a lot 👏