Generic, Text: Mimic Colonies

Magical Phenomena

Mimics imitate terrain and dungeon dressing to hunt for food. Rare specimens develop a deeper understanding of the world and can communicate with other creatures. In extremely rare cases, groups of these creatures band together, creating colonies. These bonded mimics cooperate to create larger objects than any lone mimic could approximate. A mimic colony can work together to form buildings, bridges, crystal formations, cliff faces, statues, and nearly anything it desires. Entire villages appearing out of nowhere might be composed of mimics!
 
Mimic Communication. Members of the colony develop telepathy and the ability to speak. While within 10 miles of the colony, any mimic can communicate telepathically with other creatures within 120 feet of it and can speak Common and Undercommon fluently (or two other languages of the DM's choice). The colony's offspring gain these abilities innately and can use them even away from the colony, as shown in the Juvenile Mimic stat block.
 
Confronting a Colony. A mimic colony's primary goal is survival. If threatened by a force the mimics can't overcome, they are willing to bargain. Mimic colonies have learned that adventurers they can't defeat can be bought off with information about nearby creatures or locations, hidden treasure (which the colony obtained from prior "food"), or even one of their own young.
 
If the colony's survival is threatened and it thinks it has a chance of surviving a fight, it can leverage its combined might using special lair actions. On initiative count 20 (losing all ties), the mimic colony takes a lair action, causing one of the following effects; it can't use the same effect two rounds in a row:

• The mimic colony chooses up to three creatures within 300 feet of it. Each target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or have its speed reduced to 0 until initiative count 20 on the following round, as pieces of the environment grasp the target. If a target fails the save by 5 or more, it is restrained instead for that duration.
• The mimic colony uses the Help action, aiding a creature of its choice within 300 feet of it.
• The mimic colony chooses up to three creatures within 300 feet of it. Each target must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 13 ( 3d8 ) acid damage, as orifices appear on surfaces in the environment and launch caustic spittle.
• The mimic colony chooses a cube of nonmagical, inanimate material in physical contact with it. The cube can be up to 15 feet on a side. The colony reshapes that material however it likes. This transformation lasts for 1 hour.

When determining the difficulty of an encounter with a hostile mimic colony, consider the colony to be one additional creature of challenge rating 2.