When a Chest Isn't a Chest

The zombies weren’t hard to avoid. In fact, as passages kept breaking off into the cliff face, it was becoming more and more likely that we would lose them all together. Zombies aren’t exactly known for their attention span. Then again, we may have been the only live meat they’d seen in weeks. I, for one, didn’t want to take the chance of slowing down.

A few hours later, Kalena let out an exited cheer. “Hey, I see something behind those vines!” She pulled at the plants. Rhegar strode back to her side and motioned for Kalena to move out of the way. His glaive made quick work of the foliage and the stiff vines fell away to reveal a stone worked archway and room. Through the archway, we could see four nautically styled chests spaced evenly about the room. “Think it’s a trap?” asked Vixi. “Probably.” I replied. Since it was highly unlikely that treasure would be sitting in an unguarded room, we proceeded carefully. Rhegar would search the room for traps, with Kalena holding the light for them. Markas would follow a few steps behind. Kyri, Garn, Vixi, and I would stay in the hallway. Garn and I kept an eye out for wandering guards or zombies, while Kyri and Vixi watched the others, with bow and eldritch curse ready to fire.

The dragonborn made his way cautiously about the room. He tapped the floor, walls, ceiling, and even the chests with the butt of his glaive, making sure it was safe to proceed. Once he completed his circuit of the room, he stood in front of the nearest chest with Kalena at his side. Markas beckoned us into the room, but I stayed at the doorway. Something about this still felt wrong to me and my paranoia told me that we should keep on pair of eyes on the hallways. “I can’t detect any magic traps. Hold your breath.” Kalena said as she threw back the lid.

A monstrous tongue lolled out of the open chest. Kalena screamed as it wrapped itself around Rhegar. I whirled around in time to see a huge sticky fist form from the side of the chest and sock the paladin across the ribcage. “That’s a mimic. It can take the shape of anything around it and if there’s one mimic posing as a chest, there’s likely to be a second!” As Markas went to leap forward, a second chest spewed goo over the paladin from behind, anchoring him to the floor. A third chest in the back of the room sprouted tentacle-like limbs and scuttled toward Rhegar. It formed a fist from one of the appendages and clocked the dragonborn across the head. He slumped over, unconscious.

Garn rushed forward, sidling up next to his scaly comrade. He took a wide swing at the monster, giving Kalena a chance to escape behind him. “No time to go limp on us.” He said giving the paladin a shake. Rhegar’s eyes snapped open and he groaned. Markas loosened himself from the tacky vomit. He tried to confuse the creature but when that fails he whirled his flail. “Careful!” I yelled. “Your weapon can stick in the mimic and you may not get it back!” Awakened, Rhegar wrestled free of the tongue and goo. He stabbed at the chest but it whacked the glaive out of the way with a fist. Vixi unleashed an eldritch bolt into the mimic and its skin flashed different colors for a moment. In front of me, Kyri drew back an arrow on the bow she had taken from the orchid woman. My eyes widened as I watched spines sprout from the body of the arrows. She must have been as shocked as I was because the shots went wide. My slingstone missed the beast but I sent Rhegar a healing prayer to bolster him for the blow that was certainly coming.

The chest vomited more ooze at Garn but the dragonborn avoided the brunt of it. He whirled around and sunk the lifedrinker spear so deep into the mimic’s fist that it severed the limb. His attack bolstered my confidence that we could make it out of this encounter. I think the others felt the same way, because Markas took a swing at his own mimic right after Garn’s attack. Rhegar attempted to freeze the mimics with a blast of cold, but they ignored the attack so he settled for moving into a flanking position across from Kalena. The wizard brandished her dagger at the chest with a fierce look on her face. She shouted over her shoulder for the rest of us to shift position and create an opening for herself and Markas, and we did.

I watched the wizard closely as she pulled magic from the air into a glowing violet ball. Kalena lobbed the ball into the center of the three mimics with a satisfied look on her face. Wisps of purple smoke swirled up around the mimics. Two of the mimics slowed dramatically in their movement and the third slumped over snoring faintly. “Now! Attack now!” She told the rest of us. “Now while I’ve lured them to sleep.” Garn buried his spear in the mimic once again, but this time it remained stuck in the tarish body. Markas landed a blow to the lid of the chest, forcing the lid to close. The mimic changed shape wildly before it crumbled into a pile of stony blocks that then dissolved into goo. Vixi cursed the mimic in the back and in its confused state it briefly became an armoire, its odd mind twisted by psychic damage.

Kyri rushed forward to the sleeping mimic, pulling back a green fletched arrow as far as she could draw it. Spikes and spines sprung up along its length but this time she paid the protrusions no notice and aimed for the hinges holding the lid to the chest body. Mere inches away, the elf released. The deadly projectile slammed into the joint, burying itself to the feathers. The surface of the mimic danced through a dozen patterns before it too dissolved in a pile of sticky residue. Not done, the green haired elf whirled about on her toes, nocking another arrow as she turned. It tore through a tentacle on the last remaining mimic.

All of our attention was now focused on the last mimic. A magic missile exploded against its side and I ran up for an attack. It blocked with one of the fists but the opening allowed Garn to push by and sink his spear into the side. Markas set up for a flank, but the mimic wasn’t giving up yet and pushed his flail out of the way. Rhegar used his chance to sever the fist. Kyri loosened a final arrow into the open mouth and the final mimic crumbled to pumice.

Kalena was the first to recover, jumping around excitedly. “Did you see that? One shot! She took it out in one shot!” The elegant elf looked slightly embarrassed by the excited girl. “I wouldn’t have been able to take that shot if you hadn’t put it to sleep first.” “Yeah, but then you turned around and nailed the other one!” The wizard clapped her hands excitedly. “Those were several very well placed shots.” Garn complimented, offering the elf his hand and the rest of us were quick to add our thanks for Kyri’s excellent archery skills.

The last chest in the back of the room was an actual treasure chest. Inside were two vials of a healing potion, nautical charts of the surrounding islands and four leather bound books. Rhegar tossed me one and I cracked it open. Scanning the page, I recognized the word. “This book contains the ritual for water walking.” Kalena rushed forward and opened another book. “This one has Make Whole. We can fix the provisions box!” She squealed excitedly. “Throw them in the packs then.” Rhegar growled. “You gals can puzzle over them back on the ship when there is time to do things like learn spells. Right now, we should move on.” “I agree.” Said Markas, “Someone probably heard the noise we made fighting the mimics and will be coming to find out if their treasure is intact.” Shoving the items into various packs we continued down the passageway.