The overlord card Mimic (in basic 2) is a little confusing. Our party was playing the second encounter of Secrets in Stone and we landed in the middle of a controversial problem.

Ariad was on top of the search token with the scrying stone on the backside (everybody knew this because the heroes had already searched the rest of the search tokens) but was not able to search it because she had already used all of her actions to move there. It was the hero's turn and they were able to search the scrying stone search token. Here comes the problem, the Overlord then played the card Mimic. The Overlord placed the Volucrix Reaver on the map. One of the hero's still had one more action and could have killed the Volucrix Reaver but decided against the action because the Overlord needs to search the search token to crush the stone, right? BUT the Volucrix Reaver was in play so no one could search the token. The hero party thought that the Overlord had sealed his own fate and could not win unless the Volucrix Reaver was killed. They could just take their own time and kill Ariad.

The Overlord argues that since the monster is his monster he still can search the token with Ariad but the heroes can't. The card Mimic doesn't say that Overlord can't search, just the heroes. I posted what the card says below.

Mimic, trap. Play this card when a hero searches, before revealing the search token. Place a fatigue token on the search token. The search token is now treated as a minion volucrix reaver. Once defeated, the search token is immediately revealed and is considered searched by the closest hero.

So would the Overlord still be able to search the search token or not? By the way this would also decide the winner of the quest...

Scrap what i said first, that only applies to large monsters sitting on search tokens covering adjacent spaces.

I would contact FFG and ask for a ruling.

I would personally play it in favor of the heroes though given my current understanding of the rules.

Scrap what i said first, that only applies to large monsters sitting on search tokens covering adjacent spaces.

I would contact FFG and ask for a ruling.

I would personally play it in favor of the heroes though given my current understanding of the rules.

Ok, thanks! That's a good idea.

Firstly, note that you do not place an actual Volucrix Reaver on the map with Mimic. This is important for a couple of reasons:

1) The token only occupies one space. It has the stats of a reaver but it's not actually a large monster.

2) The token does not impede the Volucrix Revear group limits, if that monster group happens to be in play naturally.

Secondly, the Search Token becomes a monster until defeated. To quote the card: " The search token is now treated as a minion volucrix reaver."

Last time I checked, no one is allowed to "search" a volucrix reaver. Neither hero nor overlord.

Finally, it seems that the token is immediately considered "searched" by the nearest hero when the mimic is defeated, so I would tend to agree with your hero players that the OL ousted himself by playing that card.

Finally, it seems that the token is immediately considered "searched" by the nearest hero when the mimic is defeated, so I would tend to agree with your hero players that the OL ousted himself by playing that card.

Agreed, even if the overlord used some friendly fire to defeat the reaver-tokien it's benefits would go to the closest hero, not the OL.

It appears the OL handed you the victory and enabled you to tie up all loose ends! He could only stop you from killing Ariad would be to kill the Reaver-token himself.

Thanks guys! Your points made sense and I will relate them to my group next time we meet up for our next adventure:)

I think I've played this quest wrong actually. How does ariad get out before the stone is captured by the heroes? Seems dumb now, but the door doesn't open until the heroes get the stone, so we got the stone and this was never an issue.

I believe that I played the same way as you (flightmaster). There is another rule that if the open group is defeated, then the locked door is removed from play. Our overlord chose the shadow dragon dragon and blocked the heroes from the stone. We had to take the dragon out before getting the stone, which then gave Ariad a turn to skittledaddle herself up to the scrying stone. Now that I think about it though, the balance seemed tipped towards the heroes....huh.