This post was written by the wonderful Aproustian. I wanted to post it separate so she could get appropriate appreciation. Thank you for this, it is fantastic.
Mimic encounters an adventuring party
It was quiet, in the darkness, and the mimic was bored. It reached into its own insides to root around the bag, fingers touching and counting each glass bottle, as if it hadn’t done so dozens of times before. But, it had nothing better to do—nothing had happened at all in its cave since a few months earlier, which had been a riotous few hours of fighting and fire and rock falls. The mimic had enjoyed all of that greatly from the sidelines. It had planned to be involved, of course, except by the time it found the perfect opportunity—everyone suddenly vanished and the dark quiet had dropped on the whole cave like a heavy blanket.
Its questing fingers found the stalagmite. The mimic grasped the thin end and hauled it out. If mimics could hum, it would; instead, it started to tap the rock bludgeon against the floor in an imprecise rhythm.
*tap* *tap* *tap tap* *tap* *ta—
The mimic paused. Could it be? It listened carefully for a second, hearing nothing. Maybe it was the mimic’s (admittedly limited) imagination. But no! There it was again! A footstep!
The mimic hurriedly put the stalagmite back into its bag and clanked shut its lid, hiding its arms and stilling its motion so that any wayward adventurer would see only an irresistible treasure chest.
More footsteps, and a splash of light from a lantern. Several humanoids of various shapes and sizes were entering the cavern where the mimic lay in wait and it had to resist the urge to cackle. The mimic kept its eyes half shut so they resembled knots in wood, and watched carefully as the adventuring group spread out and poked around parts of the cave. Once it was sure someone had spotted it, it slipped down into the pit between its platform and the party. No way was the mimic going to let this opportunity get away! Who knew when the group might get instantaneously spirited away to leave the mimic behind—best to attack!
The mimic scrambled up the side of the pit, hauling itself up and over the edge. In one smooth motion it reached into its bag and pulled out its stalagmite, then eyed the group. One of the taller ones reacted quite strongly, pointing at the mimic and brandishing a maul threateningly. Perfect! The mimic grinned to itself. Time for fun! The mimic pointed back with it stalagmite. It would fight this one fairly, then take on the rest of the group one by one, better to spread out the good times.
Evidently the humanoids weren’t as fair minded as the mimic was—one of the small one loosed an arrow towards it. Before the mimic could react, however, its new nemesis did, stepping in front of the arrow and making shouting noises towards the small one. The mimic was impressed by the angry one’s actions and thinking quick, bashed itself on the head with its stalagmite to match the damage. A fair fight is a fair fight, after all.
The tall blue one evidently disagreed, sending a bolt of fire towards the mimic. Once again its challenger stepped in! The mimic was delighted. What a worthy adversary! It reached into its bag and pulled a vial of fire, smashing it on its head.
With a roar, the angry one swung its maul at the mimic, who nimbly dodged a few times. It pulled out another vial—this one ice—and held it aloft. Before the mimic could fling it, the vial was bombarded by another blast of fire. The mimic finally did cackle at this, because the fire immediately froze. The mimic swung the frozen fire into the face of its nemesis, who staggered back. For a moment, the mimic wondered if that was the end of the fight, but the angry one was made of stern stuff and came back swinging.
As the two swung and dodged, the mimic grew increasingly irritated. Not at the challenger, but at others in the party. The blue one was throwing more fire, and one of the other tall ones was throwing its own potions! Fed up, the mimic reached into its bag and pulled out one of its more potent vials and chucked it at the feet of the other tall one. It’ll show that tall one what a real potion is! The mimic cackled as the vial exploded into an enormous fireball, scorching the tall one. Ha! Just what it deserved!
The mimic swung at the angry one and took a hit from it in return, but that was to be expected. What wasn’t as welcome was the additional attacks. The two tall ones who had been appropriately staying out of the fight had decided to join in the fray. One shot at the mimic with a crossbow, while the other charged in with a sword. Fine! I’ll fight you all! The mimic swung with its stalagmite, connecting on at least one of the fighters, as it took more literal fire to its face from the persistent blue one. The sharp bite of steel from a sword splintered some of the mimic’s lid and it staggered back. Before the mimic could recover, it felt the heavy end of its nemesis’s maul come crashing down.
In the last few moments of awareness, the mimic felt a thrill of glee at the fun it was having…and at the thought of what would happen to this party when they found the special potion the mimic was carrying. See how they like their magic then!
And then, it was darkness once again.
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