Troll Tongue

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

An original creation for the game's artificial underground environment, this "iconic monster" looks like a treasure chest and is designed as a trap for unwary player characters. The mimic made its first appearance in the original Monster Manual (1977), by Gary Gygax. This book described mimics as "subterranean creatures which cannot stand the light of the sun. They are able to perfectly mimic stone or wood." According to the book, mimics thus pose as items such as stonework, doors, or chests; when a character or creature touches the disguised mimic, the mimic can lash out with a bludgeoning pseudopod. A mimic excretes an adhesive glue to hold fast whatever touches it. The book states that all mimics move about constantly in search of prey. Mimics are described as neutral in alignment. The Monster Manual mentions that there are two types of mimic encountered in the game. The slightly smaller version is more intelligent, and is generally friendly if offered food, usually telling a player character about what it has seen nearby. These creatures have their own language and can usually speak several other tongues. The book described the larger variety of mimic as a carnivorous creature called a "killer mimic". This creature does not speak, and will attack anything which is nearby.

In Their Own Story

The July 1983 issue of Dragon magazine (No. 75) featured the article "The Ecology of the Mimic", by Ed Greenwood. This article provides additional in-game descriptions of the mimic, with the information purported as having come from "the Journals of Maerlun the Scholar". The article states that a mimic's hide is naturally gray in hue, with a smooth very hard outer skin that appears stone-like; a mimic is able to change the color and texture of its outer surface to resemble wood-grain by shifting a brown pigmented liquid between its interior and exterior body cells to fill the many capillaries lying just beneath the skin surface, while the creature can empty these capillaries to revert to its normal stone-like appearance. A mimic is amorphous, able to alter the external configuration of its form at will, and the more intelligent ones can even assume the shape of a partition wall, overhanging arch, or rough rock wall; this feat is accomplished by the creature's mode of travel, which involves extending its strong pseudopods, which exude a sticky "glue", and pulling itself along ("unsticking" its own glue at will), traveling on walls and ceilings as easily as it can on floors. The article also describes how a mimic observes its surroundings through its very sensitive "eyespots" (patches of pigment that are sensitive to heat, light, and vibration) all over its skin; bright sunlight effectively blinds a mimic by overwhelming these sensory spots, which is why mimics are almost always found in areas where the sun never reaches. Austin Wood of PC Gamer described Greenwood's article as "probably the closest thing to science to ever come out of D&D".

Reader's Guide

The monster collection "Creature Catalog III" in Dragon No. 101 (September 1985) featured a creature by contributor Gregory Detwiler known as the metal mimic. The entry states that a metal mimic is a more powerful relative of the "ordinary" mimic, with all of the mimic's basic abilities and characteristics, but being able to imitate metal, in addition to being able to imitate wood and stone. The metal mimic can take on the shape and appearance of items of any raw or finished metal, which includes the color, luster, and texture of any pure metal (such as iron, gold, silver, or platinum) except for adamantite, but cannot form into any alloy. A metal mimic can also create a magical illumination from itself or from any nearby object. A metal mimic can exude a pseudopod in the form of a sword or dagger; such extremities will appear to be a valuable enchanted blade, to lure prey. According to this entry, metal mimics come in two types: the larger, non-belligerent type which may be willing to negotiate for food, and the smaller "killer mimic" which is instinctively aggressive. Dungeon magazine No. 19 (October 1989) includes the adventure scenario "The Vanishing Village", by Marcus Rowland, which features the house hunters; these creatures are described in the adventure synopsis as "gigantic relatives of mimics, able to imitate cottages and other buildings up to the size of a small inn or temple."

Did You Know?

• The mimic was introduced in the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game's original Monster Manual (1977) by Gary Gygax.
• Mimics are described as neutral in alignment in the Monster Manual.
• The July 1983 issue of Dragon magazine (No. 75) featured "The Ecology of the Mimic" by Ed Greenwood, which Austin Wood of PC Gamer called "probably the closest thing to science to ever come out of D&D".
• The metal mimic, introduced in Dragon No. 101 (September 1985), can imitate any pure metal except adamantite, but cannot form into any alloy.
• Dungeon magazine No. 19 (October 1989) introduced house hunters, described as "gigantic relatives of mimics, able to imitate cottages and other buildings up to the size of a small inn or temple."