Hunting the mimic

[wildneb]

Hey all, I'm about to launch my new d&d campaign that runs off the back of my previous 4 year campaign and would like some help from the hive mind to make it sparkle.

My players are starting the campaign as members of a monster hunting guild of sorts in a city plagued by critters. I thought it could be interesting to have them deduce and them hunt a mimic in the city but am stuck for ideas on how to turn it into a fully rounded adventure. Thoughts?

Beyond the mimic, if you have any other great ideas for monster hunting within a city, please shout up.

Thank you kindly x

[Nifft]

Mimics are dumb, and therefore probably easy to hunt. You just need a spell like detect shapechanger or locate creature. If you're not a spellcaster, tie a rat to a stick and start poking all the furniture with a live mammal.


More sneaky creatures to find in a city:
- Were-rat
- Doppelganger
- Intellect Devourer
- Imp or Quasit which disguises itself as one or more urban animals
- Druid terrorist
- Hobgoblin Egoist with that shape-change ACL
- Succubus
- Hivemind of rats created using Dark Speech

[Kaptin Keen]

If I were a mimic, I'd mimic a toilet, not a chest. I'm just sayin.

[wildneb]

What if the team didn't know the culprit was a mimic? Could take some hardy investigation work to figure it out? Not above raising the intellect if the mimic also. Could be a spate of vicious murderers within an inn but with no obvious culprit or some misdirects?

Will certainly give the other creatures some thought though! Thanks

[Segev]

Mimics are dumb, and therefore probably easy to hunt. You just need a spell like detect shapechanger or locate creature. If you're not a spellcaster, tie a rat to a stick and start poking all the furniture with a live mammal.

Mimics are average 10 int, just like humans. They're not "dumb."

They are, however, slow-moving, so if discovered, they can't run off to easily hide elsewhere. If you want the mimic to be a focus of a full adventure, you should actually create it as an NPC. What is the mimic's purpose? What are its goals? How does it go about them?

For an easily-acceptable target monster, maybe it's in town seeking revenge against an adventuring party that it and its friend tried to ambush and kill, but which killed its friend before getting away. It's tracked the surviving adventurers here, and is hunting them. And their families. Or maybe just "the town" in general for having sent the adventurers that killed its friend. Make it a horror monster, lurking as doors, doorways, even replacing beds and wardrobes.

It should set up traps, leaving secretions behind to glue pursuers to the floor while it gets away or collapses things on them. It should avoid confrontations where it hasn't set things up to give it control. It might even make a deal with an unscrupulous businessman or noble to eliminate competition for him if he provides cover. Or maybe it's turned an honest businessman into a patsy by threatening to kill his family if he doesn't cooperate, and demonstrated the ability to do just that by opening one eye on the back of the chair his little girl was sitting on at breakfast one morning, after the man had tried to psych himself up to report the beast to the authorities later that day.

[Lapak]

Building on Segev’s point about mimic intelligence and tactics, but taking it from another starting point: the mimic is serving as someone else’s muscle. It’s being paid, or has been dominated, or some such. So the adventure now becomes:

- deducing that a mimic is the problem
- finding and stopping it
- deducing or discovering that it has a master (somehow get the information from it, notice un-mimic-like behavior and work out why, detect that it is under magical compulsion)
- work out that person’s agenda

Those last three don’t have to come in that order; it’s probably a lot easier to track down a mimic on a rampage if you know who it’s after and why. But if they’re somehow able to find it without that knowledge, it hooks them into a greater plot. (Or it doesn’t, because they never catch on, and now they have an enemy that they don’t even realize exists.)

[Nifft]

Mimics are average 10 int, just like humans. They're not "dumb."

Huh, so they are. Thanks for the correction.

Back in 1e they were "semi- to average", which meant their Int range was between 2 and 10, which is on the dumb side. Guess I never noticed the average Int change between editions.

They are, however, slow-moving, so if discovered, they can't run off to easily hide elsewhere.

With its Int 10, I'd figure that a mimic could hide itself in a way that allowed faster movement.

For example: as the interior of a stage coach.

Another example: as the bed of a wagon.


The wagon-mimic was content to eat the bottom-most bag of grain or veggies (or meat) once every couple of days. But then the trading company sells the wagon, and now the wagon-mimic is being used to cart around furniture or metal ingots, neither of which are tasty.

So, at some point a driver is alone with the wagon, and the driver gets eaten.

Maybe the wagon-mimic is now being used to carry ingots from a mine (2 days away) to the town smith, and the mimic decided to drive the horses back into town -- so an empty wagon shows up at the gate, with the payload fully intact, but no driver.

The PCs are hired to find out why drivers keep disappearing.

[wildneb]

Superb ideas guys. I initially hag the idea of the mimic liking a particular flesh (halfling hide for example). I like that it had more motive or that it had a master. The latter would certainly tie into my extended plans. Thank you all

[Lord Torath]

Just remember to give at least three clues for each piece of the puzzle. Three clues it's a mimic, three clues to its motive, and three clues it is (or is not) working for another.

[wildneb]

Will do often make the mistake of being too illusive

[VelociRapture12]

I've seen mimics be some really terrifying things like entire houses. You could make the mimic the dungeon they go through to find the mimic ( a.k.a. We enter the house to get the scroll of locate creature or detect shapechanger.) it could then turn into a much more intriguing fight as they now have to figure out how to leave the mimic and kill it without dying themselves.

[JNAProductions]

If I were a mimic, I'd mimic a toilet, not a chest. I'm just sayin.

Evil. Pure evil.

[Sredni Vashtar]

I once had an idea of a particularly intelligent mimic running a criminal enterprise while mimicing a statue (which was then wrapped in robes and cloaks). It's the best way for a mimic to disguise itself as a humanoid, and can lead to an interesting surprise when the truth is discovered.

[Kaptin Keen]

Evil. Pure evil.

In a way, highly unpleasant for both parties. But still, getting the jump on the big tanky guy while he has the plate mail down around his ankles =)

[Doorhandle]

In a way, highly unpleasant for both parties. But still, getting the jump on the big tanky guy while he has the plate mail down around his ankles =)

i'm with JNA here. You know how in many anime there are people than can sense killing intent? I just sensed killing intent from that post.
Good work.

some more ideas:
-A mimic-like creature rather than a straight mimic. Dungeon Menshi had a hermit-crab that used chests as a shell, for exsample.
-Templated mimic. No-one is prepared for the chest that breathes fire!
-A chest that's totally normal...and the mimic is lurking above it, designed as a candle rack.
-If they camp for the night, have mini-mimics replace some of their equipment.
-Dark-souls Kung-fu mimic as the final boss.

[Kaptin Keen]

Or - since Mimics are clever as people - why not a non-combat encounter:

Hello, good adventureres. Allow me to present myself: I am Chameleo the Mimic, and while, yes, traditionally we're expected to be natural enemies, I happen to be looking for a job.

Here is my proposal: I carry your loot for you, keep it safe - and because of my unusually high carrying capacity (it's the stubby little legs that do it), you will be able to carry much more with you. I take a 10% cut, which is more than paid by the extra amount of treasure you can haul.

Whaddaya say? Do we have a deal or what?

And if they say yes, it sneaks off with everything once it's full.

[Segev]

Or - since Mimics are clever as people - why not a non-combat encounter:

Hello, good adventureres. Allow me to present myself: I am Chameleo the Mimic, and while, yes, traditionally we're expected to be natural enemies, I happen to be looking for a job.

Here is my proposal: I carry your loot for you, keep it safe - and because of my unusually high carrying capacity (it's the stubby little legs that do it), you will be able to carry much more with you. I take a 10% cut, which is more than paid by the extra amount of treasure you can haul.

Whaddaya say? Do we have a deal or what?

And if they say yes, it sneaks off with everything once it's full.

That's a mimic with unusually low Wisdom. Wisdom's the score that handles survival instinct, right?

[Lord Torath]

Or - since Mimics are clever as people - why not a non-combat encounter:

*snip*

And if they say yes, it sneaks off with everything once it's full.

That's a mimic with unusually low Wisdom. Wisdom's the score that handles survival instinct, right?

Seriously. One Locate Object spell later, and the soon-to-be-post-mortem mimic will have an angry party of adventurers on it. You can kill a PC's friends and family, but stealing their stuff makes it personal. I'm pretty sure I remember a campaign dominated by one character who went to extreme means to punish someone for stealing his boots! If it steals everything else? No telling what means the PCs will use on the poor mimic-thief.

[Avigor]

Don't forget the Tsochar, which can take over the bodies of humanoids and use them, kinda like the "Edgarsuit" from MIB.

[Kaptin Keen]

Seriously. One Locate Object spell later, and the soon-to-be-post-mortem mimic will have an angry party of adventurers on it. You can kill a PC's friends and family, but stealing their stuff makes it personal. I'm pretty sure I remember a campaign dominated by one character who went to extreme means to punish someone for stealing his boots! If it steals everything else? No telling what means the PCs will use on the poor mimic-thief.

That's a mimic with unusually low Wisdom. Wisdom's the score that handles survival instinct, right?

You make it sound like that's a problem. It's supposed to be fun - it doesn't matter if or how the characters get their stuff back. All that matters is that they were cheated. Personal is good. And wisdom score is entirely irrelevant, it doesn't matter if the fight comes before or after the mimic tricks them.

[Lord Torath]

You make it sound like that's a problem. It's supposed to be fun - it doesn't matter if or how the characters get their stuff back. All that matters is that they were cheated. Personal is good. And wisdom score is entirely irrelevant, it doesn't matter if the fight comes before or after the mimic tricks them.

Or - since Mimics are clever as people - why not a non-combat encounter:

Well, you did specify a non-combat encounter....

[Kaptin Keen]

Well, you did specify a non-combat encounter....

Well, yes - that's true. But that's not to say bloodshed isn't waiting somewhere down the line. I am the guy who once walking into a group of very serious roleplayers and touted the merits of, occasionally, just mowing down goblins with great cleave.

That didn't go well, but I still believe such antics to be central to roleplaying.

[SpoonR]

If the city is "plagued by critters" make a mimic that prefers to trap and eat critters. So it made one mistake and accidently ate a wizard's familiar, are you SURE you want to kill the pest control? A similar non-antagonist mimic might be a couple square blocks in the poor quarter - it mimics decent if run down buildings, eats the leftovers of the squatters. Man, a pet mimic could be as useful as a pallet of duct tape.

A locked room mystery. A mimic committed the murder and is still in the room.

The mimic can bud off mini-me's. Not able to fight, but can spy and have a telepath connection with the main body. Lots of garden gnomes around the city these days. Maybe one can mimic a belt pouch or something else an adventurer would have on them.

For actually hunting a mimic, the slow speed is a problem. You either need to make it really hard to find (but why is the mimic hanging out in the center of a maze?), or special escape routes. Wagon mentioned above. Mimic in the sewers can hop in and turn into something carried fast by the current. Mimic in a room made/ate a trap door (with a mimic-sized slide), so with one action it can get into an area the PCs can't easily reach.

Technically is the T-1000 a mimic?

[The Glyphstone]

The T-1000 is more like a doppleganger, since it can mimic creatures. Mimics are restricted to objects.

[Shackled Slayer]

The game prop hunt is honestly the best possible thing you can "mimic" for hilarity and giving the players heck. Look up markiplier prop hunt lets plays on youtube and you'll get the idea. I see allot of people suggesting "detect object", but you can skew it so that the spell only shows a 40 foot area of where the item generally is, or at least cause some kind of arcane shenaniganry to cause the spell to function as the "cold-warm-hot" game (you're getting warmer, warrmerrr, oop, now your getting colder).

I actually remember doing this myself actually. I had just said fudge it and assumed the mimic had infinite transformations, so it could scoot along and switch forms while moving in a room. It was hiding in this old storage watchtower and i played absolute paranoia head games with the players, throwing out red herrings left and right and playing up the motion of the scene. Ultimately the mimic got away by transforming into a chain in a room full of chains hanging from the ceiling, all of which swayed gently at the slightest breeze. The player used shocking grasp like 5 times and assumed they had got it. I made them roll three consecutive perception rolls before telling them they see a chain slithering away from the tower through a field like a serpent. They nearly died laughing because of the way i played it up and how the archer for the LIFE of him couldn't hit the bugger.