This creature resembles a treasure map that flaps as if caught in a strong wind, even in a dungeon where the air is perfectly still. When touched, the map splits open, revealing its fanged mouth and face.
Mimic Spawn. Mimic adhesive is not just a powerful means of trapping prey, it also contains millions of microscopic larvae that feed on flesh. Most of the larvae are consumed by the mimic when it eats. Mimics are either unaware of this, or they’re indifferent to the fact that they routinely cannibalize their own offspring. A few manage to survive, however, by adhering to the clothing or equipment of someone who escaped from a fully-grown mimic’s attack. These larvae hitch a ride on their host, far from the dungeon, cavern, or ruins of their birth. There they drop off and grow into wormlike mimic young called map mimics. In time, map mimics grow into typical mimics.
Smaller than a Dinner Plate. Map mimics are too small to mimic the types of objects their parent does, but they can still deceive prey by altering their forms. They can assume the shape, texture, and coloration of anything up to the size of a dinner plate.
Paper Scrolls. Their preferred form is parchment paper, and they can display the path they’ve followed, complete with important landmarks, on their hide. In this form, they curl up and wait inside bottles, or in the clutches of corpses in plain view, until another unsuspecting adventurer discovers them. Anyone who follows the “map” is led back to the parent mimic, lying in ambush and hungry to be reunited with its offspring.
Mimic, Map
Tiny monstrosity (shapechanger), neutralArmor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 32 (5d8 + 10)
Speed 30 ft., fly 15 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 (+0) | 15 (+2) | 14 (+2) | 13 (+1) | 15 (+2) | 16 (+3) |
Damage Immunities acid
Condition Immunities prone
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages —
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)
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.
Constrict Face. When a map mimic touches a Medium or smaller creature or vice versa, it adheres to the creature, enveloping the creature’s face and covering its eyes and ears and airways (escape DC 13). The target creature is immediately blinded and deafened, and it begins suffocating at the beginning of the mimic’s next turn.
False Appearance (Object Form Only). While the mimic remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary object.
Mimic Page. The mimic can disguise itself as any tiny, flat object—a piece of leather, a plate—not only a map. In any form, a map mimic can make a map on its skin leading to its mother mimic.
Actions
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage. If the mimic is in object form, the target is subjected to its Constrict Face trait.