Let's Play Mystery Dungeon DX, Part 2: Recruitment Drive

Welcome back to my little let's play of Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX! Last where we left off, I was reincarnated as a Mudkip and have been shanghaied into working alongside my partner Bulbasaur as part of a Rescue Team. But as I start to get into the rhythm of doing commissions and going to bed and floating in a strange green realm and having cryptic narration all over me, this time I experience an earthquake. 

And turns out that the earthquake happened in real life as well. Bulbasaur and Mudkip discuss this strange phenomenon before a strange third voice joins in... and out pops Dugtrio! This little gimmick happens multiple times throughout this quest, with characters talking, Dugtrio joining in, and then popping up with bombast. It's... it's not as funny as the game thinks it is, but at least they commit to it. 

Far less funny is that Dugtrio is the parent (parents?) of the Diglett that showed up a couple of in-game days earlier, and he was abducted by a very angry Skarmory and taken to the top of Mt. Steel. And... and that raises some questions as how a bird (a metal bird, but regardless) is able to drag off a whack-a-mole. Unless Skarmory uprooted whatever was underneath that strange soil... which, of course, is not for the audience's eyes. 

Mt. Steel is almost double the length of the previous dungeon, and filled with a more variable typing. As its name implies, we've got the Steel-type Beldum and Aron wandering around, but also a mixture of Fighting and Psychic types -- Tyrogue, Baltoy and Meditite also populate the mountain. It's still not hard per se, but I did actually experience my first fainting at around two or three floors in where a Beldum knocks out my poor Mudkip. In the olden games, this would've been game over since my main character was knocked out! Here, I did have to chomp down on a Revive Seed while the game positions Bulbasaur as the 'main' character, but it's nice to have a bit of a challenge. 

This dungeon also gives me a bunch of new mechanics -- Gravelerocks (not to be confused with Gravelers, who are rocks) are items that I can equip and function as like an extra attacking item. Like pots in Elden Ring! Which is actually quite useful due to the very limited party! It allows some long-distance sniping and preservation of PP, which is neat. I also encounter my first traps, which is similar to the floor traps in some of the multiplayer secret bases from Generation IV, which is a lot less funny in this game. 

Eventually, I do reach the summit and Diglett is stuck across a ravine and panicking. Our big bad boss, Skarmory, swoops in and starts ranting about how he hasn't been able to get a good's night sleep for a long time because he keeps being bothered by the earthquakes. Which... Skarmory, my guy, you're literally a Flying-type! You're immune to Ground-type moves!

Of course, Skarmory refuses to listen, and we get a boss fight at the top of this mountain. Which is... actually not the easiest type matchup for me. Skarmory's Flying-type attacks have an advantage against Bulbasaur, which means that Mudkip has to tank... but Mudkip's Ground-type moves do nothing against Skarmory (Immune! To! Ground!) and Skarmory resists Water. I do have healing items in berries, which means that I take down Skarmory without any casualties on my side. Beaten up by a mudfish and a garlic frog, Skarmory beats a hasty retreat. 

There's a bit of a conundrum as my Rescue Team figures out how to get Diglett past the crevice, but the pair of Magnemite we helped before show up and then use their magnetism to get Diglett across the crevice. Again, how? I guess both Skarmory and Magnemite are able to lift the chunk of dirt that Diglett is attached to? 

At this point, we get the screenshot that Mystery Dungeon is perhaps the most known for, where we do a cutaway back to the town. Diglett is happy and notes that his feet still feel like they're walking on air, and Mudkip, Bulbasaur and Magnemite are all utterly shocked at the mention of 'feet'. "He has them? Feet?" goes the utterly bamboozled Magnemite. 

Dugtrio does his little gimmick of popping up and thanking everyone present, and we get a cute little nod at Generation I's design aesthetic as the Magnemites note that they feel kinship over their similar jointed-trio evolved forms. That's a cute little nod. 

As the Diglett and Dugtrio leave, Bulbasaur realizes that we could do a proper RPG thing and start recruiting people, and asks the Magnemites to join. And the Magnemites seem happy to do so... until they ask where they're going to leave. When Bulbasaur and I are unable to answer, they hover-waddle off. They're not taking anything but perfect working conditions, I can respect them for that. But next up is going to be creating a way for us to get more party members, which I am a fan of! 

I get another dream with the ominous silhouette of a Pokemon I totally don't recognize, nope, no siree. In the next morning, Bulbasaur asks me if I actually want to be human again, but the game doesn't really let me do much other than give a proverbial shrug. Bulbasaur and I go back to the Pokemon Square, where Wigglytuff's Camp Corner is up. She explains the recruitment mechanic -- there's some 20-odd habitats that I need to purchase, and whether I can recruit certain types of Pokemon really depends on what habitat I have. Which is such a cool mechanic, by the way -- and a nice little way to  turn the lack of Pokeballs into a grinding mechanic. 

Wigglytuff gives me three camps (Stump Forest, Wild Plains, Sky-Blue Plains) for free. The Magnemites from the Skarmory mission show up and ask if they could join, and good ol' Wigglytuff tosses in a free Power Plant for the Magnemite to join my party. Party member get, bz-bzt!

What happens next is an interesting little cutscene. A Jumpluff begs a Shiftry and two Nuzleafs for help rescuing his friend, but Shiftry refuses to. The locals gathering around the commotion explain to Bulbasaur and I that Shiftry is a bully of a rescue team who refuses to help unless paid royally. And... to be fair, if he was in any other business other than search-and-rescue, I'd actually respect Shiftry -- business isn't a charity, and I have been taken advantage of by so many people who gaslit me with 'people are in need'! But Shiftry is a complete asshole here. 

At which point the ace characters come. Famously featured in one of the covers of the original Rescue Teams come the three badass Pokemon -- Charizard, Tyranitar and Alakazam. Very cool! Alakazam is the spokesman of the team, flanked by two powerful dinosaurs, and without being too confrontational basically scares Shiftry into buggering off and helping Jumpluff's mission. Lombre begins to talk up this gold-team. Charizard can melt mountains! Tyranitar is armoured and unbeatable! And Alakazam? Alakazam has 5000 IQ and apparently memorizes everything in the world. There's a bit as the three badass mofos walk through the city, and Alakazam very briefly makes eye contact with me. I think he recognizes me as an isekai. While all of  this is going on, we're being watched ominously by a Gengar. 

A couple more tutorials follow as I look at the camps, with only Magnemite hanging out in the Power Plant habitat. This is where I can use Gummis, which raises stats and sometimes adds a Rare Quality -- yet another mechanic that essentially acts as a secondary ability. From Mudkip's "Squad Up" ability, I assume Rare Qualities are very specific to the Mystery Dungeon gameplay as opposed to the base game's Levitates and Torrents. 

At this point, I unlock another new dungeon, Oddity Cave, but I go back to Mt. Steel. Essentially at this point I can delve with three-man parties, but since Mudkip and Bulbasaur are compulsory for adventure, I basically can only swap around the third slot. And my runaround in Mt. Steel doing quests finally has some recruits. Interestingly, the recruits just continually follow me, meaning that while I enter the dungeon with three Pokemon, I end up dragging a conga line of like 4 more as I slowly go down the dungeon. Unfortunately, I don't have the habitats to allow Baltoy or Meditite to hang out with me. They're understanding enough to give me some money before they return back to their habitat, though. It's at this point that the game introduces to me the existence of the 'Wigglytuff Orb', which allows me to call Wigglytuff mid dungeon-dive, and purchase a couple of habitats. That is, of course, if I have the poke-gold to do so. That's a nice way to make it not as frustrating as it could've been. 

After a surprisingly dreamless day and some inventory management with Kangaskhan, I venture into the new dungeon, Oddity Cave. Magnemite's insanely long-range Signal Beam is particularly helpful, even if ol' magnets is a bit trigger-happy and constantly runs out of PP for his Signal Beam. Oddity Cave is a bit more brutal!

And throughout my journey through Oddity Cave, I recruited a Zubat, a Nidoran-F, a Rattata, a Weedle, a second Zubat... but there are a fair bit of Pokemon, particularly massive Onix-es that take up multiple squares. And they take down some of my new recruits... and while they do serve as nice body shields against a large enemy, I run out of Tiny Revival Seeds soon enough and the fainted Pokemon are just... gone. It's, again, an interesting mechanic! Having a lot more minions does make going through the dungeon easier since you have more attacking bodies, but it's also so hard to position my heavy hitters where I want them to and to keep some of the Pokemon I want alive. 

At the end of this dungeon, none of the five survive the Onix ambush. I'm terrible at this! Sorry, comrades. At the end of the day, I end up with only two new recruits -- Lickitung and Gastly. Except I don't have a habitat for Gastly, and I end up only recruiting a Lickitung with no good moves. Just Lick and Supersonic. Oops!

The next day, we get to meet some villains -- the other antagonistic team featured in one of the covers of the Rescue Team covers -- Gengar is back, and he's got his two cronies, Ekans and Medicham. They introduce themselves as Team Meanies, and pester my mailbox, much to Bulbasaur's chagrin. They note that being a Rescue Team actually affords them some really nice social immunity. They're dirty cops! Gengar gives a bit of a monologue noting that their ultimate goal is... world domination! I like the 'being able to do dirty deeds under the safety of a respected job' angle myself, but this is a children's game at the end of the day. 

Saying that and introducing themselves as the totally-threatening 'Team Meanies', they grab all our requests and bug off, infuriating poor Bulbasaur. Thankfully, Pelipper shows up and drops a bunch of requests. I do go into town, and there are some changes in the gossip. Snubbull is fanboying over the Gold Team (and we can pretend to be one) while Caterpie's moved next to the Whiscash Pond. 

Lombre notes that since the disasters began, none of them have been able to evolve properly. which I thought is a nice way to separate Mystery Dungeon from the original games and to keep the spirit of 'you get reincarnated to a first-stage starter' alive. I do know enough that evolution is a post-game thing... which also helps to keep you constantly feeling on the backfoot compared to fully evolved Pokemon like Gengar or Alakazam.

Next up is another dungeon dive, back to Mt. Steel. This time, I bring a Wigglytuff Orb with me, but only really activate it near the end of the dungeon to make sure I keep the Pokemon I want. Which is to say, I like Baltoy a good deal more than Tyrogue. A Swinub I rescued also has been hanging around throughout the dungeon dive, and his type coverage seems to be useful since my team of Mudkip/Bulbasaur/Magnemite doesn't really have a good answer against Grass-types. Also, lastly, one of the quest-givers, Sunkern, joins me in the post office. I do like the large amount of different ways that Pokemon might be recruited, which would allow moments like my 'oh, none of the Pokemon at the end of the dungeon can stay with my habitats'. It's a nice little crutch mechanic if you keep screwing up, while also not being a too direct 'training wheels', so to speak. 

My little army is growing bigger and bigger, but this is where I'll leave off for today. I'm really enjoying this game a lot,  and while I'm probably not going to go too all-in on the recruitment drive, I definitely am enjoying having more Pokemon to play around with; and the whole 'habitat' thing and the fact that you can lose your fresh recruits if you haven't finalized them in a dungeon does add a nice layer of stakes to this game. 

Random Notes:

• My rescue team is called 'Rocket', because that's what you have to say if someone asks you what your Pokemon Team is. 
• Fairy types are here! I can confirm after fighting a Clefairy. I mean, I'm sure Mystery Dungeon DX has updated rules because most remakes do, but it wasn't a complete guarantee, I feel. The physical/special split, which wouldn't have happened in Generation III when the original Rescue Team games were released, is also included in this game. 
  
• 
  I really, really like the background art for the habitats. I also really like the world map artwork for both the full world (does this place even have a region name?) and the camps. 
• The Kecleons change inventories daily, particularly the purple TM Kecleon. This isn't particularly major, but I felt it's a nice little addition that makes the world really feel a bit more alive and gives some 'chase' items to track down. 
• In one of my journeys into the dungeons, I meet one of the Kecleon shops, who has put a massive carpet across a room and allows me to purchase items mid-dungeon. I know enough about this game to know that if we try to shoplift from the Kecleon, he's going to go full-on Legend of Zelda Cuccoo and summon the entire extended Kecleon clan to beat my ass. 
• I also get some points for completing missions after the Skarmory dungeon. The points increase my rank, and I basically go from Rookie to Normal. 
• There are also a bunch of new held items, like the Defense Bandana, Joy Bandana, Efficient Bandana, etc, but I really don't have a whole ton to say about them.
• Oddity Cave wasn't in the original version of the games, and was originally a Wonder Gift exclusive dungeon. 
• I really do like Magnemite! He already has a fun type coverage with Electric and Steel, both of which being pretty useful, but as mentioned above, Signal Beam is really powerful in this game with the range. I used a Magnezone in my playthrough of one of the Alola games, and I've always found ol' eyeballs to be one of my favourites from the original 151.

Let's Play Mystery Dungeon DX, Part 1: That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Mudkip

Technically, this should be titled "Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX". But that's a mouthful, and frankly I kept forgetting the 'Rescue Team' subtitle of the first pair of Mystery Dungeon games, so I'll be referring to this let's play as just Mystery Dungeon DX.

I love the idea of the Mystery Dungeon games. Back in the GBA and NDS days, where Nintendo and GameFreak tried to extend the life of a Pokemon generation with spin-offs instead of trying to churn out a generation every other year, Mystery Dungeon and Ranger were two games that were really trying to change the formula a bit. I played a lot of the original Ranger game, but never had a chance to properly play Mystery Dungeon. 

I loved the concept, though. It is what modern day anime weebs would call an 'isekai' genre, except I'm pretty sure this game predates the common usage of that term. I'm not sure if I particularly like the roguelike dungeon-delving game mechanic, but let's just say that I'm here more for a ride through a remake of a game I never got to play as a kid more than actually trying to be good at the game... something that I find is a lot less stressful and much more fun to me. I had absolutely zero idea that Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team got a remake on the Switch,  and that it was out, so finding this on the shelves at all was a huge surprise for me! And so here we are, cracking through it on a let's play. 

________________________________________________________

So yeah, we start off with a bit of a strange dream-like state, and it does seem that this first Mystery Dungeon game does have a strong dream component. Instead of asking for my name, the mysterious voice of the narrator asks me a bunch of wacky questions, ranging from simple personality test questions like asking me how I study for an exam, or asking me to grab one of my fingers from the other hand... to hilarious ones like "There is an alien invasion! What do you do?" These questions, combined with the gender I pick, gives me one of a small batch of Pokemon that will represent me... and I got a Mudkip!

I had wanted to play a Bulbasaur, my favourite starter, but Mudkip's a very close runner-up, so that's absolutely fine. The game lets me pick a non-Water-type as my 'partner', which I pick a Bulbasaur. That's neat!

I would like to take this moment to point out the possible starters for this game. We get all the starters from the first three generations, which makes sense since Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team was originally a Generation III game. We get some mascot Pokemon that are prominent from the anime, like Pikachu, Meowth, Psyduck and Eevee, which also make sense... but also in this pool are some very nice oddballs like Skitty, Machop and Cubone. I appreciate it. 

Anyway, the game makes it pretty clear from the get go that I, the Mudkip, is meant to be a human who just wakes up one day as a mysterious Mudkip that appeared in the Pokemon world. And this is a Pokemon world like no other, since there are no humans in this incarnation of the Pokemon world, and all the Pokemon speak to each other and live in little villages and houses. That's fun! That's adorable!

I, the human-turned-Mudkip, have no idea what's going on, though. As my new buddy Bulbasaur wakes me up and asks me what's going on, I (who actually know what Pokemon are, so human-me came from a 'regular' Pokemon world, I think?) am surprised that I'm a Mudkip, with some adorable animations as I look at my own fins and tails and act all surprised at this. My Bulbasaur friend is just confused at my insistence that I'm human, but the game doesn't dwell on this too long as it's intent on tossing me straight into my very first Mystery Dungeon. 

A Butterfree flutters in, in panic over the fact that a random fissure opened up and swallowed up her child, a Caterpie, and despite being a fully evolved Pokemon the Butterfree just can't think of what she should do to rescue her child. Instead, Bulby and I have to go and trek into the fissure to rescue the missing Caterpie, because that's what heroes in an RPG game does. 

Enter the first Mystery Dungeon: Tiny Woods!

 

The gameplay is a strange variation of the Pokemon rules we all know and love. My two guys have four moves from the get-go, and we move around these randomly-generated floors and look for stairs that let us proceed to the next level. All the while collecting items and fighting enemies -- and it's not just turn-based combat like regular Pokemon, but we also turns are taken to move around and some moves (like Mudkip's Water Gun and Bulbasaur's Vine Whip) have a greater range. In addition to HP and PP, I also have to keep in mind my hunger (or 'belly') status by eating apples, which adds a nice little wrinkle into things. There are also some additional mechanics down the line, which makes Mystery Dungeon's system surprisingly a bit more in-depth than I expected. 

This is a tutorial dungeon, so there's a lot of chatter about how to move around, how to access menus, how to attack, how to move, how to move quickly... which I feel was a fair chunk of information to take in. The combat in Tiny Woods is pretty simple, with most of the enemies being just Sunkerns and Wurmples.

We find the Caterpie at the very end of the short dungeon, just scared and curled up, and we rescue him. Bringing the Caterpie back up, his mama the Butterfree thanks Bulbasaur and I, and give us some rewards. Yay, RPG tropes! Caterpie becomes a huge fanboy over being rescued from falling down a fissure, and as the two bugs leave, Bulbasaur brings me to our new house and base and asks if I want to create a Rescue Team. (If I refuse, Bulby cries and you can't refuse a crying onion frog). Bulbasaur then gives us both scarves -- my Mudkip wears it like a scarf, while Bulby wears it more like a ribbon. 

And as the first day concludes, the game zooms in on the title drop... and Mudkip dreams. Ominous dreams happen every single night as I go to sleep (which gives me interesting Persona 5 vibes, just with less psycho warden kids) and hover in a strange light-scape as I reminisce about my previous human life. 

The next day, Bulbasaur takes me to the mailbox in front of our base, where a Pelipper shows up with a bunch of mail. Very One Piece, isn't it? Having sea birds deliver news? A pelican is actually equipped to carry parcels and news in its huge beak, though. That's really cute. I live and sleep in that house, but apparently not Bulbasaur, who hangs out elsewhere? Apparently all we get is just a starter set, which essentially is just the formalization of the Toolbox (item) and the menu to see tutorials. I must assume that Bulbasaur did all of the paperwork to sign up with the Poke-World's equivalent of unions off-screen. 

Our next quest is from Magnemite, who ask us for help to get two other Magnemite free. Apparently they got stuck, but since it's just two of them, there aren't "enough to make a Magneton". I think other than very early supplementary material and dex entries, this might be the few bits of media that actually acknowledge that Magnetons are supposed to be three Magnemites stuck together by magnetism, not the straight evolution that the game (and later on manga and anime) tend to display. 

Our next dungeon is the Thunder Wave Cave, filled with a bunch of Electric-types like Voltorb, Plusle, Minun, Elekid, and the odd Rattata or Nidoran. It's both easy and difficult for my Mudkip, who is weak to Electric-type attacks but also has access to Mud Slap and Mud Bomb. It's a simple five-floor cave, not really much different from Tiny Woods other than the themed Pokemon inside. It's pretty neat! With the Magnemites rescued, it's another rescue properly done. 

After another night and another dream sequence, Bulbasaur brings me to the town! Not-so-creatively called Pokemon Square, it's a pretty standard RPG starter town, with a bunch of shops and NPCs. I always love exploring these things. Bulbasaur introduces me to a bunch of the most important locations -- the Kecleon shop, the Gulpin shop, the Kangaskhan storage shop and the Persian bank. The Kecleon shop is ran by two Kecleons -- a regular one and a purple one, and they establish themselves as two representatives of a whole Kecleon store industry. Purple Kecleons, despite what Mystery Dungeon and even the anime itself would have you believe,  are not what actual shiny Kecleons look like. Real shiny Kecleons just change the colour of the zigzag belt, which is stupid. A stupid, stupid decision. Purple Kecleons are so cool!

Persian runs the bank, and makes a note that if I fall in the dungeon, I will lose all my money and items. Well, that won't do, so let's store everything in the bank! A cat most known as the pet cat of Giovanni is totally trustworthy, right? (Persian is actually trustworthy). Kangaskhan, who works off an adorable hut shaped like herself, does a similar service but for storing items. Anything that isn't a berry, apple or revival seed goes there, I suppose. 

Gulpin runs the 'link shop', which is one of the unique mechanisms in this series where you can link two moves together. They spend more energy (and I think PP as well) but I can unleash two moves at the same time, which would break a regular Pokemon battle game -- as Mega Kangaskhan proved in Generation VI -- but in Mystery Dungeon with its more endurance based mechanism, it's just an interesting mechanic. 

Lastly, though Bulbasaur doesn't point it out yet, is the Makuhita Dojo on the south of town, who promises training in exchange for specific dojo training coupons. An actual gym, like a sports gym, in a Pokemon game? Wow, the mainline games would never!

There are also a pond with a gorgeous waterfall with a Whiscash in it, who I think is meant to be like a town elder. And wandering in the middle of the square are Snubbull, Bellsprout and Lombre. They all give various advice, or mention about the recent strange natural disasters like earthquakes or fissures opening on the ground. You'd think elemental creatures like Pokemon would be a bit more used to it, but I guess they are really big fissures. 

At the absolute eastern end of the town is the Pelipper Post Office, which, gloriously, is shaped like a giant Pelipper head. I just love the design of these Pokemon buildings. There aren't a lot, but they sure are very charming! And we've got a common fantasy RPG trope, the request board! And I can accept multiple ones. Some of them are just going to a specific floor in a specific dungeon -- which are all Thunder Wave Cave this early on -- and rescuing a fallen, fainted Pokemon. The others are to escort a client to a friend waiting in the cave. 

The escort missions I kind of understand, but the 'save me' missions are a bit questionable. Okay, sure, maybe they can scribble down a letter asking for help as they get injured in a dungeon run or they fall into a fissure or something. But you're telling me Thunderwave Cave, B4F, has a working mailbox? Either the dungeons have a working postal service, or the Pelippers fly all the way down deep into the dungeons, take the letters but leave the wounded Poochyena behind. On second thoughts, they do evolve from seagulls and everyone knows seagulls have less empathy than the devil, so I guess that tracks. 

This leads to a second run through Thunder Wave Cave, which is essentially the same thing. In the escort mission, the guy we escort is actually a Pokemon, and they actually act as a party member, with the Elekid in this first mission helping by launching thundershocks at the enemy. Good show, Elekid!

I also test out link moves a bit more, and it's... it's interesting? I did link Tackle with both of Mudkip and Bulbasaur's strongest moves, but I generally like to have more PP to be able to survive the dungeon explorations. I'm sure there will be moments where having more PP or having more damage-per-move is going to matter, though. 

Anyway, with that mission done, I'm just kind of stockpiling and grinding experience points and items. After another cryptic dream the next day starts off with a cute little Diglett popping up and accidentally boring a hole. Mudkip and Bulbasaur encourage the wanton trespassing and property damage because Diglett is just a kid, but the tunnel actually acts as an instant shortcut between my base and the Pelipper Post Office, which is mighty convenient! This next day ends with another Thunder Wave Cave run, and... and that's where we'll stop this let's play for today because the next one is slightly longer and all the explanation about the town and some of the mechanics did take up more space than I thought.

But yeah, I'm enjoying Mystery Dungeon a fair bit! I'll be happy to see where this goes. It's a really charming game and a charming world, with a straightforward premise and a much snappier set of dialogue than some of the Pokemon games released around the same time. I'll have fun with this one, I'm sure!  

Random Notes:

• 
  This game is relatively faithful to the original Rescue Team games, but apparently with a lot of quality-of-life changes from Explorers and other Mystery Dungeon sequels baked into the gameplay. Chief among them is allowing gameplay to continue even if your 'main' character faints, or the ability to rename your character, your partner and the team name from the main menu. That's nice! Some other mechanics that I'm not familiar with (like IQ) have also been streamlined. That's nice! I'm not here to learn a crapton of mechanics, I'm just here to have a good time! 
• I got a Mudkip so I'm quite fine with it, but this game allows you to actually redo the personality test if you don't like your reincarnated form without having to do a hard reset. This apparently wasn't in the original game.  
  
• Some of the attacks are definitely revised, I'm sure. My Mudkip starts with Mud Bomb and Bulbasaur with Seed Bomb, and neither of them existed in Generation III. I assume these were different moves initially? Though I think I read somewhere that DX also rejiggered a bunch of the starter Pokemon's movesets to  make the early games more fair. 
• I did see some of my friends play these games back in the day, and I totally bought and read the tie-in Ginji's Rescue Team manga which streamlined a lot of the main plot. That was a pretty neat adaptation, or at least I felt like it was a satisfying little read back in the day. 
• I like the touch that there are no potions in this game, at least not that I can find, since it's a world without humans and the potions in those spray cans are created by humans.
• Mystery Dungeons and its ever-changing layouts is apparently just the normal state of being in this Poke-world, and no one ever questions it. I wonder if any of the future games would actually give us an origin to the actual physics of the Mystery Dungeons? 
• Speaking of which, after we do their quest, escort Pokemon just get teleported out in a Star Trek esque beam of blue light, with some handwave over a 'mysterious power'. It's obviously just a handwave to let the players continue to explore, but I wonder if there's any real explanation in-universe. 
• My character, Mudkip, is mostly a mute protagonist as befits the Pokemon standard, with Bulbasaur being my mouthpiece. But Mudkip actually does have a fair amount of internal thoughts when thinking about his dreams, as well as when he levels up. 
• I also try the Makuhita gym, but it's basically just an enemy rush where I try to beat up as many enemies just to get EXP and level myself and my moves up. It's going to be a resource I hoard until I understand the game mechanics a bit better, methinks. I like that Makuhita explains that the Pokemon I'm beating up are actually volunteers who offer to help out young fledgling rescue teams. 
• ...these Mystery Dungeon DX articles were actually written and (mostly) completed before Legends Z-A came out. I thought they'd be a nice buffer, but then Pokopia and XD: Gale of Darkness happened at the same time, and I was far more interested in doing either of those two... but ended up kind of not doing either... so yeah, have this kinda delayed one!

Reviewing 5E D&D Monsters - 5E Adventure Modules, Pt 4 (Critical Role)

Love it or hate it, the 'live-play' show Critical Role is certainly not the first group to think of streaming their Dungeons & Dragons campaign for an audience. But they are most certainly the first one with high-profile voice actors and one that was immensely successful due to the dynamics within the players, the abilities of professional voice actors to improv, and the amazing worldbuilding done in the world of Exandria over three campaigns. 

At the time of writing this update, Critical Role is a fair bit into its fourth campaign, a soft reboot with a rotating cast -- and in contrast, I first reviewed the monsters in their setting guide Explorer's Guide to Wildemount when its second campaign ended in 2020. Time flies. I had enjoyed Critical Role since then, consuming so much of their content throughout the past couple of years. They've quite literally been my companions throughout so many exercise sessions.

Since then, under the banner of official 5th Edition rules, Critical Role have also released an adventure: Call of the Netherdeep. While they were released a couple of books apart in the official release order, I've decided to merge the two together here since there are a fair bit of reprinted monsters in the latter. (Critical Role, independent of Wizards of the Coast, have also published a bunch of 5th Edition compatible books which have their own bestiaries, but if I do those they'll be in a separate article -- I'm just trying to get through most of the 5E content first). 

I am iffy about doing reviews for a lot of the crossover content, but Critical Role feels like it's designed to be used alongside D&D and a lot of their monsters have a very strong 'insertable in any D&D world' flair, if you know what I mean? You can see any of these appearing without needing to import the trappings of Exandria, with minimal lore adjustments, in Faerun or Eberron or whatever. 

As usual, my disclaimer with these 'refurbished' D&D 5th Edition reviews stand -- I'm only reviewing monsters that I have something to talk about, and will not talk about 'NPC' or 'job' statblocks, as well as the named characters (including bosses!) which had really caused me to struggle to find something to talk about in my initial reviews. 

And speaking of my original, pre-2020 reviews... this marks the last of my 'rewritten' D&D 5th Edition articles! I am quite satisfied. A bulk of the work went to the three primary bestiary books (Monster Manual, Volo's and Mordenkainen's) of course, but I am actually quite happy with how much more streamlined the compilations for the adventures are! I'm particularly happy that I got to remake some of the articles that gave me so much burnout back in the day. I don't think I'll redo the MTG crossovers -- mostly because I plan to continue reviewing MTG stuff, eventually, but also because I think I can do the rest of the 5E adventures in two to three more articles. Maybe I'll finish rewriting player races at some point. But then we're jumping all the way back in time to 2nd Edition as I break down the AD&D Monstrous Manual! 

• Click here for the previous part.
• Click here for the next part.
• Click here for the index.

[Originally reviewed in 2020, revised in June 2026]

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Aeorian Absorber

• Large Monstrosity; Neutral Evil; CR 10
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Most of the creatures that debuted in Explorer's Guide to Wildemount are either creatures that have appeared before in Critical Role, or would be relevant in the then-current final arc for the second campaign. These 'Aeorian Hunters' are one such pre-emptive monsters, and I remembered finding how cool it was when I've seen the monsters' statblocks in the book, and then hearing them described in the live play. 

The Aeorian Hunters are artificial lifeform created by mages in the flying city of Aeor, specifically bred to battle angels, demons, fey and even the gods themselves. They are biological monstrosities created by horrible experimentation on beasts and humanoids. Aeor itself would crash during the expansive backstory of this world, but their anti-magic monstrosities remain in the ruins of Aeor. They are immortal and designed for war, and have been driven insane and violent in the intervening years. However, I also like that the backstory is quite 'generic-fantasy' enough that you can swap in the Aeorian Hunters into any setting and call them the creation of a mad wizard or a mage city like... oh, Dalaran or the Netherese Empire, and they would fit.

I like that the Aeorian Hunters were specifically noted to have 'brightly-coloured flesh' due to the experimentation. Not all creepy monsters need to be dour! 

We're going by alphabetical order, and the Aeorian Absorber is the second-strongest of the three Hunters. It's a bright red-and-blue creature that's described as 'some sort of canine or feline', but it's got a tail that extends into a gigantic eyeball. I like that the Absorber doesn't actually have real eyes on its head, just flat flesh. All the Aeorians have resistance to radiant and necrotic, as well as resistance to magic. The Aeorian Absorber, as its name implies, will absorb half of any spell launched at it, and then unleash that energy in eye-blasts through its tail. Very cool! Very Legend of Zelda, I feel. 

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Aeorian Nullifier

• Large Monstrosity; Neutral Evil; CR 12
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

The most powerful of the three Aeorian Hunters is the Nullifier, which has a humanoid form... and looks like a ghoulish lizard-person with long arms, but with a torso and abdomen filled with fanged mouths. Nasty! The Aeorian Nullifier attacks with its many fangs and claws, as well as the 'horrid gnashing' that can stun or frighten other creatures. But when fighting mages, the Aeorian Nullifier shows off its little list of anti-magic spells... Counterspell and Dispel Magic to break spells, Detect Magic and See Invisibility to go around stealth and illusion, and even Antimagic Field to prevent spells from being casted. It's pretty much an MTG Blue player!

Of course, the one saving grace is that Aeorian Nullifiers and its other hunter kin are technically stuck in the destroyed ruins of Aeor (or your campaign-appropriate ancient ruins), and live alongside its fellow hunters -- and they know each other well enough not to harm one another. But the flavour also gives some nice potential plotlines, noting that there are rumours of a magical control device for these mighty anti-magic monstrosities, and regardless of whether the device exists or not, that would be probably something of high interest for a society so steeped in magic like any D&D setting. 

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Aeorian Reverser

• Large Monstrosity; Neutral Evil; CR 8
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

The weakest of the Aeorian Hunters is the Reverser, who is also visually the most boring, a bright-green dog-headed brute guy. And it is the brute of the three Aeorian Hunters. The Reverser's little gimmick is that it reverses healing done, nullifying healing and dealing force damage instead to the creature. That's a dick move! I guess healers are also spellcasters, though.

I don't have much to really say about the Reverser; I really do think that its appearance could've done more to communicate the idea of something that's anti-healing-magic. The gimmick is interesting, but I wished for a bit more in terms of thematic cohesion.  

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Core Spawn Crawler

• Small Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 1
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

The Core Spawn! Surprisingly, the Core Spawn has never appeared or alluded to in the many, many Critical Role episodes, which is surprising! They really do scratch the itch of a strange, Lovecraftian horror species -- something that I actually expected from the Call of the Netherdeep adventure below but didn't really get. The Core Spawn are really weird and bug-themed, so I absolutely love them. 

The lore given to us about the Core Spawn ties them to the Elder Evils, who manifest in the Material Plane through 'exploiting the unfathomable energy and darkness found in the world's depths'. They infest a particular region of Exandria called 'Blightshore', and anyone who explores there often return mind-wracked shells of their former selves, babbling about twisting labyrinths and malevolent nests. When cataclysmic, seismic events happen, and cultists hasten the events, are right Core Spawns sometimes pour up from where they are slumbering deep in the earth. 

I like this idea. I like that these aren't exactly creatures that breach in from the Far Realm like the Beholders or Star Spawn, but are dark things that are left buried deep beneath the earth, who emerge when the stars and signs are right. 

The Core Spawn Crawler is the smallest and the weakest, scurrying through the labyrinthine depths with their four strange hooked legs, their long tails, and probably biting anything in their path with that bug-like mouth. There's a vague Tyranid or Xenomorph vibe to them for sure, but also enough to set it apart. I like that they look insectoid enough while still looking so wrong, with fleshy parts and an inherent wrongness of how the anatomy is. As the weakest Core Spawn, these ones are just melee scrappers with pack tactics and an immunity to psychic damage. 

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Core Spawn Emissary

• Medium Aberration; Neutral Evil; CR 6
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

The Emissary is much cooler. On a brief glance, it's 'just' a wasp-person. But the longer you look, the weirder it gets! That face is easily the weirdest part of the design, looking more like a wasp's nest instead of a head. It's got a bunch of hollowed-out chambers above what I assume is a proboscis. Two sets of arms are traditional insect-monster bone-scythes, but its 'legs' point in a really weird reverse-direction.

The Emissaries serve as assassins and sentinels, and they expel crystalline spores from those tubes in their heads. These crystal spores deal damage when inhaled, which is... not what I expect 'crystal spores' to do. It just deals poison, which isn't the most interesting thing! I expected some kind of weird rock disease or something. But okay. The Emissary also has an 'alluring thrum' that charms those around it, but it's a bit less interesting. The crystals tie to the 'core' and 'rock' part of these subterranean eldritch bugs. 

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Core Spawn Seer

• Medium Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 13
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Going a bit weirder is the Core Spawn Seer. These are the least traditionally insectoid, and that's because they are humanoid arcanists that are corrupted! You can still see a bit of a humanoid figure in a tattered cloak, but its lower body has degenerated into a mass of scuttling bug-like legs... except they are actually arms, which make it creepier. Crystal mases grow erratically across the Seer's body, and its head is probably the coolest part, having degenerated into an oblong mass embedded with crystals. Or are those eyes? The flavour text says that they are 'horrible protrusions of fluorescent crystals', so does it just not have a face anymore? The end result is quite interesting, a weird silhouette that looks like something out of Dark Souls. 

The Core Spawn Seer has been 'ravaged by otherworldly radiation and disease'. Okay! It has a bunch of interesting abilities that the more 'natural' insect Core Spawn don't have, like the ability to glide through the earth, a resistance to magic, the ability to launch psychedelic orbs that cause random effects, and a strange 'fuse damage' that lets it negate damage and then unleash radiant damage on the next turn. 

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Core Spawn Worm

• Gargantuan Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 15
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

And the final and most powerful Core Spawn is... a giant worm. It always comes back to a giant worm! Love the art of this thing, though, where the body of the giant worm seems to be made up of a mass of dark tendrils that can break apart into masses of tentacles that are tearing into the adventurers fighting it. Its head is also not just a huge lamprey mouth, but rather a mass of tentacles surrounding an inner, almost reptilian mouth -- that red bit isn't the inside of its mouth, but rather its head! What a 'toothy maw'. The flavour text notes that this Core Spawn Worm's body is 'composed of primordial lava, perpetually on the verge of hardening into solid rock'. Which is probably why it can move around and coil around, while also tying into the 'earth's core' gimmick. 

In addition to being a giant worm that destroys and swallows prey, the Core Spawn Worm is also able to unleash explosions of damage whenever it is hit by radiant damage. Wouldn't you know, the Seer can deal radiant damage! It's a bit similar to the Star Spawn Hulk from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes being able to reflect its allies' attacks, which is a nice little consistency among aberrations. 

Ultimately I do feel like they could've done a bit more in highlighting the 'born from the planet's core' aspect of it beyond the visuals and some descriptions of crystals and lava, but I still like these weird eldritch bugs nonetheless! 

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Frost Worm

• Gargantuan Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 17
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Appearing in both the first and second campaigns, the Frost Worm is actually adapted from 3.5E's Monster Manual! Particularly in the first campaign, Critical Role made a fair amount of use of 3E and 4E monsters, and the Frost Worm showed up in a cool sequence alongside a Purple Worm. Standing at a CR 17 with the 5th Edition rules, the Frost Worm is slightly more powerful than a Purple Worm, and the stat blocks feel inspired by it -- with the addition of frost damage to its bites, a frosty aura around it, and the ability to emit a haunting 'trilling' that stuns them. 

I like the artwork, too. The original 3E Frost Worm is a bit more unique, with a triangular head-ridge and a pair of pincer fangs, but the 5E Frost Worm does look like a relative of the Purple Worm... with its 'inner body' even being coloured purple and the artwork making it look like it's a Purple Worm that's grown or evolved the frosty white carapace and bristles around it. 

Just like other big wormy enemies like the Purple Worm or the Remorhaz, the Frost Worm spends most of its time hiding underground, conserving energy until it detects foolish prey walking overhead with its tremorsense, upon which it bursts out and tries to eat them. I've always felt like the Frost Worm was a bit redundant because of the aforementioned Purple Worm and Remorhaz, and I can see why post-3E editions eliminate it from the base bestiary... but I am happy to see them represented in 5th Edition for sure. 

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Gearkeeper Construct

• Large Construct; Unaligned; CR 10
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Named a 'Gear Warden' in the actual campaign, the Gearkeeper Construct is a large construct whose primary shape is a sphere... but is like a swiss-army knife! The artwork shows it scuttling on blades, using them like beetle legs; while a bunch more blades poke out of its upper half. But it can also do a bunch of other things, like launch spears or unleash a cone of shrapnel blast. They can also roll up into a ball to quickly navigate corridors, before entering a combative state to shred whatever unlucky intruder they happen to find. 

These Gearkeeper Constructs were designed by ancient tinkerers and mage-engineers in the same 'Age of Arcanum' that those Aeorian Hunters were created, and were similarly left behind in ancient ruins. There's definitely some Skyrim Dwemer inspiration that goes into these things, which isn't a bad thing to reference.

And just like Skyrim, in the world of Exandria, the recovered parts of the Gearkeeper Constructs have been reverse-engineered by modern tinkerers (those dang gnomes!) to make modernized versions of it, which could be used in prisons or by fancy collectors. 

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Gloomstalker

• Large Monstrosity; Neutral Evil; CR 6
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Very much a recurring creature that show up a lot particularly in the first campaign, the Gloomstalker's visuals are quite simple. It's a giant 'shadow wyvern', and its ability involves it being able to teleport within shadows, being able to unleash a paralyzing shriek, and also being sensitive to sunlight. The Gloomstalkers hail from the cursed lands of Shadowfell, being some of the apex airborne predators of the place. 

The Gloomstalkers in the wild hunt in packs (called 'frenzies') to tear apart prey together, but they are most commonly utilized as mounts. Originally employed by worshippers of the evil Betrayer Gods, the cool giant shadow-wyverns have been utilized by even some of our heroes' allies. It's not the most original creature, but also one that I feel fits neatly as a not-too-derivative monster, and I've always felt like the Shadowfell needed a fair bit more expansion. And shadow-wreathed wyverns that emit paralyzing screeches are neat enough. 

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Horizonback Tortoise

• Gargantuan Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 8
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Love these guys. The Horizonback Tortoises are just really, really big tortoises, which really isn't super interesting, but I really love the idea of these slow-moving gentle giants having entire houses or even mini-villages on their back. The rough-and-tumble settlements look great, and the Horizonback Tortoises keep showing up both in the campaign as well as in the different Critical Role books. 

I really love the artwork and the idea of people making settlements atop giant, slow-moving tortoises. It's not quite the 'turtle island' that often crop up in media, but it's neat enough and I love the idea of these mobile caravans of tortoises picking up entire houses and facilitating a nomadic tribe to wander across deserts and plains. 

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Moorbounder

• Large Beast; Unaligned; CR 1 (regular), 3 (Bristled)
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

This one shows up a lot, too. The Moorbounders are large panthers with massive tusks, and the eyes of goats. Again, like the Gloomstalkers, they were originally introduced to give a unique mount -- particularly utilized to get through marshes and swamps. They're one of those monsters that are just a regular real-world animal with a few extra weird features... and that's fine. I guess early on, Critical Role's DM Matthew Mercer didn't want to go too wild with his original monsters? But it's fine; all settings have their own simple 'slightly different real-world animal'. Almost every D&D 5E adventure does that, in fact, except they usually go for creatures that can be turned into familiars. 

Moorbounders come in two variants, the regular and the Bristled Moorbounder. The Bristled variants are less suitable for mounts, being covered with blade-like bristles that they can use to slice up its prey. 

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Nergaliid & Husk Zombie

• Large Fiend (Devil); Lawful Evil; CR 3 (Nergaliid)
• Medium Undead; Neutral Evil; CR 1 (Husk Zombie)
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

The first arc villain of the second campaign is the Nergaliid, or 'Devil Toad', who joins the ranks of 'evil frog/toad people' that has been a bit of a glut throughout Dungeons & Dragons. I've done this rant elsewhere, so I won't belabor the point, but it is a bit of a pet peeve that there are so many other animal inspirations out there!

The Nergaliid is quite cool. These devils stalk the edges of society, feeding on the life force of sleeping humanoids. They try to stalk the same prey nightly, besetting them with nightmares and keeping them alive just to be a food source. The Nergaliid that our heroes fight was masquerading as part of a traveling circus, which gives it a convenient cover. When discovered, a Nergaliid tries to strike a deal with whoever uncovered it, in exchange for silence and freedom from torment. But if it has to battle, the Nergaliid will fight like the devil toad that it is... and anyone that the Nergaliid fully drains the life of turns into a Husk Zombie.

Husk Zombies are a bit different in that they aren't the 'shambling, brains brains' zombie like the ones described in the Monster Manual. Rather, they are the fast, charging zombies of Resident Evil or Night of the Living Dead, and whoever is slain by a Husk Zombie also becomes a Husk Zombie -- in typical zombie apocalypse fashion. There are also Husk Zombie 'Bursters' that explode when they die, in typical video game fashion. 

I really kind of wished that there was a bit more cohesion in the themes! The night-feeding and the zombie-plague-making are both cool features for sure, and I really like the idea of a fiend that stalks and insidiously feeds on the same prey over and over again. But I felt like there could have been a better cohesion between the themes explored here, particularly the fact that this is a devil -- the type of fiend that normally has a specific goal of creating deals in mind. It's not a bad monster, but one that I felt would've worked better as an independent fiend. 

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Sea Fury

• Medium Fey; Chaotic Evil; CR 12
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Critical Role portrays Fey quite well, and I'm surprised we didn't get more of a Fey presence in its tie-in books. The Sea Fury is a nice one, filling in the gap back in 2020 when the Hags had super-cool lore but not much in terms of impressive stat-blocks. Doing this review a half-decade later, we now have the Arch-hags in the 5.5E Monster Manual and a bunch of named Hags in the Witchlight adventure, but I respect the Sea Fury a lot. 

With a pretty cool name, a Sea Fury is an elite version of the otherwise-weak Sea Hag. Sea Hags that form massive covens to fight a threat often fall upon themselves, and the victor of the infighting would transform into a Sea Fury after absorbing the power of her once-sisters. A Sea Fury acts as one of the minor antagonists in the second campaign (which has a fair share of nautical elements to it). 

The statblock isn't super special compared to the other hags, but it is a very nice thematic one that has a lot of thematic fear and water-related abilities. Most cool is one of her lair actions, which has her summon the ghosts of dead pirates and sailors that haunt its lairs as Specter minions. Love the regional effects caused by a Sea Fury's presence too, which involves seaweed morphing into grasping limbs, while regular crabs and octopi mutate into intelligent, giant sentries.

Of note is that I am skipping a bunch of monsters that are just... 'variants of old monsters'. Since the Sea Fury is a variant of Sea Hag, I'll cover them quickly here. we've got a 'Shadowghast', which is a stealthy ghast. And to tie in to the nautical theme, we've got 'elite' versions of the Merrow and the Sahuagin, with the Sahuagin being a Warlock of local deep-sea eldritch horror Uk'otoa. They're neat, but I don't have much to say beyond that.

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Swavain Basilisk

• Huge Monstrosity; Unaligned; CR 7
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

Again, at this point of 5E's history, we don't actually have a proper 'sea serpent' statblock -- with the Swavain Basilisk here having a full year of publication history before Fizban gave us a Sea Serpent. As someone that likes to classify monsters in my head, I am not the biggest fan of calling it a 'Basilisk' since it's confusing with the actual dinosaurian, six-legged reptile Basilisk. But from a worldbuilding perspective, I like the idea that the same word is attributed to two completely different monsters. 

The Swavain Basilisk is basically just a big sea serpent, and the 'basilisk' part comes from its slimy secretions being able to petrify those that come into contact with it. That's a bit unexpected, but I suppose that's what makes the Swavain Basilisk so dangerous, I suppose. Like the land-based Basilisk, a Swavain Basilisk's secreted oil can be collected to create an alchemical antivenom. 

The Swavain Basilisk is noted to be a 'cousin' of its land-bound namesakes, which I find a bit hard to believe, but also magic exists, so okay. The Swavain Basilisk petrifies sailors in the ships that it wrecks en masse, creating large 'ocean gardens of statues' that the Swavain Basilisk uses as a food larder. The flavour text also suggests that they might travel up and end up in inland waterways or subterranean sewer systems. Must be a really big sewer... which makes sense, considering how big sewers get in the fantasy setting. 

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Udaak

• Gargantuan Fiend; Neutral Evil; CR 16
• Debut: Explorer's Guide to Wildemount (2020)

A bit of a recurring creature in Critical Role -- albeit more of a background description -- Udaaks are giant, four-armed demon gorillas with a monstrous maw and four eyes. Its head also looks a bit 'stony'. It's basically a badass version of the Girallon we've seen elsewhere in Dungeons & Dragons. Standing at a mighty CR 16, the Udaak is only slightly weaker than the iconic giant demon, the Goristro. Which is classified as 'huge' instead of 'gargantuan'. 

The Udaak is a lot dumber than the Goristro, though. These 'ox-gorillas' are solitary wanderers, and in the world of Exandria, many of them were left behind after an ancient cosmic war left them there. With no more connection to the Abyss, the remaining Udaaks just wander the world, titanic beings that slowly scavenge for food as they move and crush anything in their wake. However, in the time of Critical Role, the Udaaks have been enslaved by magical collars used by the mostly-Drow Kryn Empire, and used as siege engines and war mounts in their war against the Dwendalians. 

Overall, it's a pretty cool, if relatively simple, giant demon monster!

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Alyxian Aboleth

• Large Aberration; Lawful Evil; CR 12
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

A significant chunk of the 'Call of the Netherdeep' adventure takes place in underwater locations, and deep in the titular Netherdeep, an ancient demigod Alyxian has been imprisoned, slowly 'Golluming' between his inherent goodness and his selfish wrath, and has been corrupting the world around him. 

Even aberrations can be corrupted, and while I kind of wished for an eldritch campaign that starred greater Aboleths as the ultimate evil to be defeated (or at least as lieutenants of the Big Bad), I also recognize that it wouldn't fit the story this adventure is trying to tell. The Alyxian Aboleth has been corrupted to have the left side of its body warping to form a whorling mass of eyes, teeth and a nasty, parasitic mass of ruidium -- a plot device connected to campaign 3 and also Alyxian. 

Despite having a higher CR rating, the Alyxian Aboleth actually has a much less interesting statblock, swapping out some of its original abilities for ones that just do more psychic damage. Instead, the book actually utilizes the Alyxian Aboleth as this persistent threat that stalks the heroes through a part of the dungeon, causing parts of the dungeon to warp and change, and for strange whispers that foreshadow the real Alyxian's conflict to manifest in people's minds.

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Corrupted Giant Shark

• Huge Aberration; Unaligned; CR 9
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

One of the first monsters you meet that show the strange corruption of the Ruidium is the Corrupted Giant Shark, which is a wonderfully-illustrated hammerhead shark with these grisly red-moon crystals and tendrils that trail behind the shark like a nasty fungal infection. The artwork is just pretty cool!

The ruidium corruption causes the shark to emit an aura of constant psychic damage around it, and it is also to regenerate from wounds, unless hit by radiant energy or critical hits. It's a cool artwork more than anything, although we don't actually get to see that many ruidium-corrupted creatures in this adventure. 

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Death Embrace

• Huge Aberration; Chaotic Evil; CR 11
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

That's more like it! As we enter deep into the Netherdeep, we get to see some screwed-up, mutated sea life. The Death Embrace is a giant monstrous jellyfish-squid thing, with long grasping tentacles, a mass of veiny 'feeding' ones, and really wouldn't look out of place in a setting like Metroid or something. I like the pinky-purple colours as well!

The Death Embrace's feeding tentacles thrums with magic, while its 60-feet-long barbed tentacles does the titular 'death embrace', which is illustrated in that artwork. Those touched by the Death Embrace actually become petrified into statues, which... why not? It's a magical jellyfish. Interestingly, despite its name, the Death Embrace is highlighted to not be an aggressive predator, but rather prefers to do ambush tactics, and use the petrified statues of its other prey as shields to absorb attacks.

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Light Devourer

• Medium Aberration, Unaligned; CR 6
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

Oh, this one is a cool concept. You could be forgiven for thinking that it's merely a monstrous, alien anglerfish. That alone would be cool enough -- the body looks a bit longer and the perspective is a bit tricky, but I think it's meant to be a longer fish, like an oarfish or an eel. It's got spikes all over its body, a massive beard of Cthulhu tentacles and veins, a glorious gaping maw, and I don't see any visible eyes but a lot of glowing pink spots that could be eyespots? 

But the Light Devourer's name comes from its ability to absorb light -- including radiant damage -- and that's how it generates its own light! That's different from real anglerfishes! And when the Light Devourer unleashes the energy it absorbs, the spines and teeth glow hot as it converts the stolen light into searing energy. It's such a fun and perhaps somewhat 'video-game-y' enemy concept, but I like the gimmick a lot. I like the idea of this monster absorbing light (which other creatures need in the dark abyss) which it can weaponize against its prey. That sounds like pretty fun fantasy-magic-creature biology to me. 

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Scuttling Serpentmaw

• Small Aberration; Unaligned; CR 4
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

The Scuttling Serpentmaw is a fun one, a deep-sea craw with four claws (two near its mouth, and two longer ones), a really spiky body, and an alien pink worm bursting out of the center of its crab body. I love how alien this looks, while also still boiling down to 'crab fused with a snapping eel'. The artwork, again, is really nice!

The lore notes that Scuttling Serpentmaws lurk in crevasses and deep canyons, and normally the serpentine maw is hidden within the shell. When they see a prey, they unleash these serpentine appendages to tear into prey. Interestingly, the flavour text explicitly notes that the 'Scuttling' part isn't just decorative, these eel-crabs literally can't swim, and can only move around in seafloors and the sides of underwater caverns. I guess they are all crab legs and claws, and are missing the rear 'paddle fins' of real-life crabs!  

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Slithering Bloodfin

• Large Aberration; Unaligned; CR 9
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

Another sea-life creature mutated by the Netherdeep is the Slithering Bloodfin, who is just a large sea serpent! Or maybe gulper eel? This one just looks cool, though, with a row of red spines running down its body, some blade-like fins near its head, and a massive, mean maw with a blue tongue. I guess the idea is also to reference another iconic deep-sea creature, the gulper eel, since the flavour text notes how it unhinges its jaw quite wide, but it's still just a regular sea serpent.

In an interesting twist of the usual 'big creature swallows an adventurer' gimmick, the Slithering Bloodfin actually drains energy from the swallowed prey, using it to regenerate damage to its own body. The Slithering Bloodfin also explodes when it dies, leaving behind a poisonous cloud of viscera in its wake. Overall, the art is nice, but I like this one a bit less than the other deep-sea horrors we've seen. 

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Sorrowfish Swarm

• Medium Swarm of Tiny Aberrations; Unaligned; CR 6
• Debut: Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep (2022)

And... our final underwater enemy is the Sorrowfish Swarm, which gets cool art, but ultimately are just mean-looking snapping fishies that are a cross between like, a barracuda's 'mean long' body layout and a piranha's behaviour. They're just a horde of fish that bite you, and the statblocks are essentially Quippers (or Piranhas, depending on the edition of 5E you're using) with immunity to psychic damage. 

The flavour text does try to give some interest to them, noting that some people think that the Sorrowfish are given their name for their horrible flesh, but the real 'sorrow' is when hordes of them gather together, and are transformed by the dark presence in the Netherdeep into vicious, all-devouring hordes. The best part of this description also notes that Sorrowfish Swarms hide within the tentacles of a Death Embrace, probably similar to clownfish and anemones, except the Sorrowfishes are more vicious than clownfish. 

Overall, I felt like this is just... scratching the surface of a 'Netherdeep', deep-sea and eldritch abomination bestiary, surely? I liked the adventure given, but main villain Alyxian that we're not reviewing here goes for a more 'blob demon/corrupted angel' vibe which fits his story, I guess, but the adventure does rely a lot more on mood and descriptions of surroundings to set the horror moreso than either deep-sea or Lovecraftian horrors, which I thought was a bit of a missed opportunity!