Ashworth Museum, top floor

Mimic Museum

The The Ashworth Museum of Natural and Supernatural History has stood as a cultural and intellectual cornerstone for decades, featuring artifacts both manmade and otherwise. Lately, however, its halls have been empty, its coffers emptier, and its director—a stern and eccentric woman Brianna Ashworth—has withdrawn from public life. The cause is at once obvious and yet baffling: guests and employees have begun to go missing. With some (though few) of their remains turn up some days later in the sewer system, bloated, shredded, and bloodied. Things have gotten so dire, in fact, that the people of the neighbourhood have begun rumbling about burning the museum to the ground.

General Features

The following features are common throughout all areas of the museum and are printed here for ease of reference: Size & Dimensions. Treat the ceilings within each area of the museum as being 15 feet high unless stated otherwise. If you are using the maps provided, treat each square as being five feet. Illumination. If the party is investigating during the day, treat each area as being well lit by natural sunlight. If the party is investigating during the night, treat each area as being dimly lit by moonlight. Surface Detail. The museum is constructed of treated oak wood and marble stone. Large windows of glass are inset into the walls and ceilings, providing plenty of light. Locks. Several doors and display cases throughout the museum are locked. Characters can make a DC 14 Dexterity check using thieves’ tools to unlock them or break them open with a DC 16 Strength (Athletics) check. Creature Mimics. In several exhibits, mimics are imitating different creatures. These creature mimics use their own statistics, except with the following changes:

The mimic is a monstrosity and gains the shapechanger tag.
It gains immunity to acid damage and the prone condition, but loses all other resistances or immunities.
The mimic has darkvision out to 60 ft.
New Trait: Shapechanger. The mimic can use its action to polymorph into an object or back into its true, amorphous form. Its statistics are the same in each form. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
New Trait: False Appearance (Object Form Only). While the mimic remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary object.
If the creature has the Immutable Form trait, it loses it.

Don’t Drop That!

Special care must be taken during the adventure to prevent unnecessary damage to the museum’s artifacts and structure. Whenever any creature misses an attack, casts a spell that damages an area or forces a saving throw, or directly targets a museum piece, the GM must roll a d6 and multiply the result by the level of the adventure (3). When it comes time for the characters to collect their reward, subtract these results from the total gold value (including items). See "Concluding the Adventure" for more information. Additionally, if an area in which a battle takes place contains treasure as noted in its section, roll a d20 in addition to a d6. On a 1-5, the treasure is destroyed (it may still be collected and possibly repaired, however).

Concluding the Adventure: What’s the Damage?

Once all the mimics and armor have been cleared from the Museum, the patron will spend the next few hours surveying the damage. They will, hopefully, be horrified at the carnage wrought upon their precious investment— horrified, but thankful for the characters’ help anyway. To calculate the party’s final reward (1500 gp), subtract all damage incurred throughout the museum from whatever was promised initially (include the value of items promised, if any). However, if any of the objects were stolen by the characters, and no attempt was made to cover their tracks, the patron will demand their immediate return or threaten to contact the authorities.