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Well, I should have seen that coming. I wiggle the trident until it comes loose, then approach the treasure chest slowly.

Pulling out the hammer and chisel from my smithing tools, I think to myself, such an odd choice, strapping a chest with gold. Not the strongest of metals, rather soft, actually. I begin to use the tools to pry away the gold binding from the chest, breaking off chunks as I go and stashing them in my bag.

Well, that's odd. I barely nudged this thing. Maybe I should look around for more clues. I look around the room, from my current position, hoping for some visual clues that I might not have been able to see from my previous position, hoping to see a glint of a metal key or something, reflected in the torchlight.

I give a mighty thwack to the cracked area with my great club. Several in fact.

Walking back the way I came, I exit the room and push the door closed. I then harvest some of the "battered and fried" fish from the water, and lay them out to dry on the ledge. I grab a few, heat them up over the torch, enjoying a quick meal, and then set up for a long rest to finish the night, extinguishing the torch. Perhaps tomorrow, I will call back Maggie and see if she can heat the gold on that chest.

Groping around in the dark, I eventually find the torch and get out my tinderbox. Perhaps I should have been more deliberate about where I put things... I re-light the torch, and roast another meal of fish. Ugh... not the best tasting fish, the stuff that old sea dog caught tasted much better. But food is food.

Figuring the rough time of day when I last summoned Maggie was late afternoon, I decide to busy myself with stuff until then. Wedging the torch into a crevice, I have both hands free to set about. I find a loose stone on the wall and place it next to the jade door. Then I check on the remaining dried fish.

"Yep... dried barbequed fish," I say, almost startling myself with the sound of my booming voice in the quiet cavern. Why don't I stick to my inside voice. I gather up the remaining dried fish, about a day and a half's worth of edibles, and put them away in my bag. Then I look out over the still water and stretch a little.

Hmmm... some of that fish still looks okay, and I've got nothing better to do with my time. I set about collecting the fish that don't look to be spoiled. Good thing that water is nice and cold. Gathering and laying out to dry, I think I've got another couple of days worth, assuming they keep that long. Maggie did a darn good job charring them. Maybe that's why they don't taste that great?

More time passes as I continue to find various ways to burn it. I'm not sure precisely how much time passed, but it seems like the sliver of light up at the entrance of the cavern has started to fade again, so I'm thinking I should be good and Maggie should be ready to heat that metal up.

I walk over to the door and pull it open again. Then I warm up my hands, utter a short word, and toss the stone into the near corner of the room, summoning Maggie again. At least, I assume it's gonna be Maggie. They all look the same to me though...

"Hey Maggie, welcome back!" I say, with false confidence in her identity, "Ready to try heating up the gold on that chest?"

Ahh, the Two! Haha just kidding One. Ok!. she flies over to the middle of the room and infants her heat metal spell. After a mere 6 seconds, the chest screams and transforms into amorphous blob with strange iron and gold coloring. It’s lid opens to giant ugly teeth.

"Maggie, back off! Head to the side!"

Is this one of those things Songweaver mentioned in some of her tales? I thought that was just made up! What was it called again? A mimic? Didn't one of the stories speak of a hero having a pet mimic? Hmmm... I wonder if I can calm it down.

Maybe I can convince it to move clear of the crack in the wall, and then I can find out what that's about without having to harm it. Or be harmed by it. Plus, it might be cool to have a companion that doesn't disappear after 10 minutes.

"I'm going to see if I can calm that thing down, Maggie. Please stay clear, but feel free to back me up with a claw attack if it decides to attack me."

I proceed to attempt to calm the mimic and herd it away from it's current position.

Ok Boss!The blob starts to spin on one pseudopod until it looks like a bowl of spaghetti. Then it transforms into a coil of rope, lashing out at Maggie.

Ahhhhhk.