Privy to Secrets: Nolzur's Outhouse, feat. Wichita Witch, 59027.

[Rigel]

After a long day on that dusty trail, a man has needs.

 

 

And while sometimes a man might just go round behind a cactus or a rocky outcrop, other times a man's in mixed company where that just won't do.

 

 

Now, ain't nothin' to be ashamed of, just a part of livin', that's all.

 

 

 

But sometimes--and praise the Lord, it ain't often--it's the last part of livin'.

 

"whut in tarnation...?!"

 

 

 

But when it's your time to go, you gotta go. 

 

***

A little sidenote on D&D monsters and their origins:  We all know that pulp and sci-fi influenced the creators of Dungeons and Dragons as much as fantasy does (displacer beasts came from a van Vogt space opera, and I'd bet money that orcs--pig-faced brutes in early RPG art--got their green-skinned tusky look because D&D precursors included Tharks from Barsoom until the Burroughs estate sued.) But where did the Mimic come from? It's hard to tell, but there are a few strong possibilities. 

First, Wollheim's short story "Mimic" from 1942. If you haven't read it, do so--it's a great little pulp yarn. The titular mimics aren't the amorphous sticky oozes we know today, but they conceal themselves almost perfectly as mundane people--and, more importantly here, objects. 

 

Secondly, and perhaps most convincingly, Philip K. Dick's 1953 story "Colony." A tale of paranoia on an alien world, and probably also where we get the Rug of Smothering. The alien threat here is pretty much exactly like our D&D mimics, formless organisms that can take on any shape (and do). 

Thirdly, John Bellairs' "The Face in the Frost," published 1969. This is the first gelatinous amorph masquerading as a building that I've seen in a fantasy context--though it isn't clear whether the entity in question is an organism or a magical construct, or if there's a meaningful difference. Anyway, all those 'what if the WHOLE TAVERN was a mimic?!' suggestions? Been done before the moon landing.

 

Lastly and returning to this post's genre of Weird America, Manly Wade Wellman's John the Balladeer stories.  Our hero Silver John rambles about the Appalachian hills encountering strange doings and stranger critters and haints. Among these is the false house or 'gardinel.' (John doesn't know why they're called that.) 

Spoiler

"...They look some way like a shed or cabin, snug and rightly made, except the open door might could be a mouth, the two little windows might could be eyes. Never you'll see one on main roads or near towns; only back in the thicketty places, by high trails among tall ridges, and they show themselves there when it rains and storms and a lone rarer hopes to come to a house to shelter him.

The few that's lucky enough to have gone into a gardinel and win out again, helped maybe by friends with axes and corn knives to chop in to them, tell that inside it's pinky-walled and dippy-floored, with on the floor all the skulls and bones of those who never did win out; and from the floor and the walls come spouting rivers of wet juice that stings, and as they tell this, why, all at once you know that inside a gardinel is like a stomach." 
--from "Farther On Down the Trail," 1963.

 \

This last isn't a certain influence because it's mentioned only briefly in a 1963 short and brought up again in more detail in a novella written after the Monster Manual came out in 1977. But you never know. I for sure don't.

 

 

I think this will work just fine for a little Western gardinel. 

[Chaoswolf]

Great paint job, and neat little story. 

[Zloyduh]

Your stories are great! 🙂 love them

[Glitterwolf]

[AlonTey]

Heck yeah!  Making me wish I hadn’t glued the tongue in mine, repositioning it really changes the feel of the mini.

[Samedi]

Not only a story, but a recommended reading list! Thanks!

[Darcstaar]

Is nothing sacred?  A man has to use the John, he should be worried it’s a mimic!

 

Great work, though.

[Iridil]

Love how you painted the inside vs outside. Love the story... another great tale!

[Grand Slam]

22 hours ago, Darcstaar said:

Is nothing sacred?  A man has to use the John, he should be worried it’s a mimic!

 

Great work, though.

I was thinking the same thing. Its downright uncivilized. 

 

Great painting all-around...especially the woodgrain and the mimic's tongue. The humans work well, too. They've got an appropriately dry/dusty feel.

 

I second your recommendation on John Bellairs, btw. Used to read him all the time when I was younger. Great stuff.

[Rigel]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed it. This is a fun multipurpose mini.
 

On 6/23/2022 at 12:35 PM, AlonTey said:

Heck yeah!  Making me wish I hadn’t glued the tongue in mine, repositioning it really changes the feel of the mini.

Well, a little breakage and repainting isn't too hard! It really does add to the character. I just wanted the door to be able to fully close.

 

On 6/23/2022 at 10:31 AM, Zloyduh said:

Your stories are great! 🙂 love them

On 6/23/2022 at 2:13 PM, Samedi said:

Not only a story, but a recommended reading list! Thanks!

On 6/24/2022 at 6:45 PM, Grand Slam said:

I second your recommendation on John Bellairs, btw. Used to read him all the time when I was younger. Great stuff.

Oh, I'm a big pulphead! Heartily recommend all the stories above. I haven't read much Bellairs, but everything I have read has been delightful. 
 

On 6/23/2022 at 8:32 PM, Darcstaar said:

Is nothing sacred?  A man has to use the John, he should be worried it’s a mimic!

Great work, though.

It's a unique and awful terror! (Fun fact, one of the first D&D games I ran had a homebrew outhouse mimic, back in 2016 or so. WOTC definitely didn't get the idea from me but I still feel good inventing it independently.)
On the upside, win or lose, you won't need to use the bathroom further after the encounter. Hope it drops spare pants as loot.

 

On 6/24/2022 at 6:45 PM, Grand Slam said:

Great painting all-around...especially the woodgrain and the mimic's tongue. The humans work well, too. They've got an appropriately dry/dusty feel.

On 6/23/2022 at 9:37 PM, Iridil said:

Love how you painted the inside vs outside. Love the story... another great tale!

Thank you! Matte versus gloss finish is doing most of the heavy lifting on the mimicry...that, and a palette best described as 'gum disease.' 
The cowpokes were some of my early paintjobs, so some of that weathering is the vagaries of time. I like them though. Might go back and give them a touch-up one day. The mustachioed fella is from Murch's Pulp Figures.