Ok, I have internet, and I felt like doing an OSSR, so I'm back. We're still in "Specific Half-Breeds," there's 12 more of these guys, but some of them are notably shorter. That said, I think I'm going to break from the four half-breeds per post model and just do however many I can stay engaged in at a time.
Merg
A Merg is what happens when a human finds a merfolk's genitals and an author scrapes the bottom of the barrel for a race name.
*Gasp* IT EVEN SHARES THREE LETTERS WITH MERMAID!
It talks about the usual "sailor falls in love with fish tailed maiden, finds a way to make biologically implausible banging happen," and the much less common story of "maiden falls in love with fishtailed dude" and about how such tales usually end in tragedy or powerful magic. It then goes on to use two terms for entirely separate mythological creatures, and a pun as alternate terms for mergs- selkies, fetches and gillettes. Yes, really.
Most of the description talks about how mergs are pulled between two different directions, the land and sea, and how they usually live with only one of their parents because... I don't know, I mean, it's not like "Amulets of water/airbreathing" couldn't be a thing. Also, apparently these pretty half-breeds suffer prejudice... because... there are stories about fish people stealing our women? No, seriously, it says that, like this is Lovecraft. I mean... there's no picture, but they are described as "lithe and well-formed. ... essentially human in appearance, though thin webbing connects their fingers and toes." Some have pointed ears, but not all. and they usually have human coloured skin, but blue, green or pearly hair and eyes. They also, of course, have gills. They wear light clothing, but never boots or gloves, to prevent discomfort or damage to their webbing. I can see that for the gloves, but I'm not sure how boots would risk damage to the webbing of their toes.
In essence, they look like Lagoona Blue from Monster High, just with human skin
And kudos to Mattel and the MH wiki for not allowing right clicking on their images. I had to go to Tumblr instead
Demeanor informs me that "mergs have a reputation as flighty and shallow, with some justification." So...
If not for the fact that B&B predates Monster High by about a decade, I'd think this was purposeful.
...for those who did not spend the 2012 Christmas season stocking MH toys for Toys R Us, Lagoona is the genuinely intelligent, but slightly ditzy aussie surfer daughter of the creature of the black lagoon.
It goes on to say they have quick tempers and wild mood swings, and basically try to manage this by trying to not focus on "depressing or dire." They dance and tell stories, and are basically aggressively pollyanna and probably get on their parties' nerves. I suppose it's better than getting a lightning bolt up the arse from your own pissed off druid. They are huge wanderers, which make them good adventurers, but their tendency to wander between land and sea... not so much. If a player is good, this could add an interesting dimension to the character if they're kept from wandering into the sea on a somewhat regular basis, which they likely will, as sea campaigns are tricky.
The writeup isn't necessarily shorter than others, but it feels it, since it just keeps saying the same things. Mergs have happy childhoods but face trouble in adulthood, they wander, they're capricious, etc.
Mergs have a bonus to dex and no neg, 30' land speed and 20' swim, and that swim speed is halved if they wear boots or gloves. Low-light vision, amphibious and no LA. It feels light, akin to the half-orc write up. Not necessarily terrible (unlike half-orc...) but definitely a less than optimal choice.