🚀 go-pugleaf

[]

	"Damn mimics!  Here I had nursed my spelunker down to level 20,
	just finished off a dragon, and got swallowed by a lurker
	above.  "No problem," I think, "I'll just dig my way out.  This
	guy will be sorry he tried to eat me."  Well, I don't even get
	one swing in with my pickaxe, and I'm digested by the
	'mysterious monster'.  Turns out I was swallowed by a mimic!
	When I tried to hit it (from its inside, no less), it showed
	its true colors (?-)).  Of course, since a mimic doesn't have
	enough of a stomach to hold a rotting gelatinous cube, that was
	the end of me."

Nope.  You were swallowed by a chameleon.  It changed from a lurker
into a mimic, spelling your doom.  Mimics only mimic inanimate objects,
never monsters.

	"The worst thing was, I had a ring of protection from shape
	changers in my pack, but my fingers were all busy with other
	rings."

It doesn't matter.  If you had put on the ring, the creature would have
reverted to a chameleon, which also has a tiny stomach.  Same result.

	"I guess there is some warped logic by which a mimic gets the
	ability to swallow me just by imitating something else that
	does have that ability, but you'd think it would have the
	decency to keep that ability.  I guess the only way out of a
	mimic-cum-lurker-above is to read a scroll of teleportation.
	(Or will that even work?)."

That might work.  (Is there enough light to read?)  Or you can carry a
mondo weapon (like a crysknife) and carve on its stomach; this usually
works for me.  Or you could have waded onto the level wearing the ring
of protection from shape changers.

  -=- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)       [UUCP]
                        (tekecs!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]