Mimics

Hidden In Plain Sight

Masters of disguise, mimics are able to perfectly replicate any object.
As a mimic grows over the course of it's life, at is forced to replicate larger and larger objects.
Their ability to replicate objects serves two purposes, the first of which is to hide from predators that lurk in the areas they call home. The second purpose is actually to propagate their young.
While a mimic is able to harden their exterior to match an object, their inside remains soft. Combined with their general inability to move, there are many creatures that find mimics to be an easy and delicious meal.
Mimics are often found in places where adventurers meet their end, and this is no coincidence.
In order to spread their young, an adult mimic will disguise itself as some form of container, typically a chest, and collect nearby valuables.
Among the valuables it collects, they will hide a few of their young, which match themselves to the coins jewlery and gems that surround them.
Eventually an adventurer will come along and slay the mimic parent, and collect the spoils of their victory. Among which are the young mimics.
From here the young may be passed around dozens of times, until eventually they find themselves in the possesion of an unlucky adventurer.
When the person carrying the mimic dies in a suitable location, it will consume their body in order to grow, then collect their valuables and create more young.

Avoiding Encounters

While mimics posses a perfect resemblance to any normal object, they more than often fail to blend in properly.
To any creature that makes a meal out of mimics, the consistency between environment and object matters not.
To people it can be an obvious sign of a mimic.
If you find an object that looks entirely out of place in a dangerous location, chances are its a mimic.
This is not a flawless strategy however, as it is possible that an out of place object was left by someone else, likewise it is possible for a mimic to blend in with its surroundings.