This is a Summer Camp article written AT GREAT SPEED! It has not yet been edited, so apologies for the copious typos and small text issues.
Mimics are creatures with the unusual ability to transform their body into an exact replica of an inanimate object. Innately able to make use of the natural magic around them, their transmographications are more than mere illusion: a mimic who has transformed into a chair may be sat on as one would a chair. They may be picked up and moved around. They do not feel warm to the touch and their texture - as a chair - is entirely wooden.
Native Environment
Mimics are sentient but not sapient - they are roughly equal to a dog or cat in terms of intelligence. They have been observed travelling in small groups, but are usually found alone. It is assumed that mimics in the wild take on the shapes of rocks to hide from predators, as well as to ambush unwary prey. Their excellent transformation skills allow them to blend in with the local geology. Mimics are incredibly strong and, once prey is in their grasp, it is rare that it escapes.
Mimics and humanoids
Mimics are the last word in adaptability, and have found that human abodes - especially abandoned houses and properties - make especially good hunting grounds. The great variety of objects there gives them many and varied opportunities to lie in wait for prey whilst hiding from attack. While they are content with smaller prey, such as rodents and wolves, mimics are perfectly able to take down anything as large as a fully grown humanoid. As their abodes are often used as hideouts for bandits or locations of exploration for adventurers, they have unfairly received the reputation as man-hunters, rather than opportunistic carnivores.
Detecting a mimic
The surest way to detect a mimic is when it attempts to devour you. This usually involves the appearance of teeth, a tongue and a variable number of eyes in what seemed initially to be an inanimate object.
They may also be tempted out of their form with edible morsals - for example, one way to detect a mimic chair is to place a piece of chicken on its seat. Many an adventurer has lost his lunch, rather than a limb, using this method.
Other than that, mimics, whilst in the shape of an object, always hold a barely detectable trace of alteration magic.
Training a mimic
Mimics have rudimentary intelligence and in some parts of the world, animal handlers have succeeded in training them. The mimic must be found in egg form - and this egg may resemble anything from a carriage clock to an old boot - before being carefully, lovingly reared to an adult. Trained mimics often have a few specific forms they excel in and can assume on command. They make affectionate companions as well as useful working animals for owners who treat them well.
Did you know...?
...that no one knows what a mimic looks like! To this day, not even trainers know the natural form of a mimic, as they always appear in their protective imitative forms.
...Mimics may be inter-planar creatures! It's theorised, because they seem to be able to change their physical volume as they assume different shapes, that the rest of their being is stored in a different plane. Whether this is a pocket plane or another of the planes entirely is unknown.
...mimics have a sense of humour! Trained mimics have been observed playing tricks on their owners, such as pretended to be a chair only to disappear under their posteriors as they sit.
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