Soul of Copper

What it is:
A series of coffins containing strange corpses. It is unknown how many are in this "collection" at the current time, what they are for, who created them, or how.

In general, what the fuck.

The corpses seem to be incubators for silvery eggs containing creatures that we cannot identify. The Party opted to abort them rather than let them mature to term on the ship or shore. The eggs seemed to contain an almost oil-like substance. The difference in size seemed to indicate various stages of growth for the creatures, implying that the corpses had been prepared at different times.

How we found it:
The Party was alerted to the presence of these objects via a Mimic in the Labyrinth of Wonders (Marvels? Fuck my memory). The master of the shop declared that the Mimic has only ever taken that form since they got it, despite attempts to coax it to wear other guises.

Background/Misc information:
As he stated, Mimics tend to take the form of the thing the people who are looking at it desire most, so one usually gets treasure chests or other valuables.

Either the Mimic was imprinted with the importance of the Soul of Copper coffins somehow, it is a subconscious desire of the people of Anterrande, or... well, god knows what, really.

Commonalities between the two we have obtained imply that it is ritualistic in nature and any further specimens found will follow the same patterns. So far as we know, these are not natural creatures.

Soul of Copper 1 (House Delam)
Fairly decent condition, almost petrified wood coffin

Copper nameplate on the front that reads "Soul of Copper" in Common

Coffin is fully sealed

Corpse inside shows odd pattern of "bloating", closer inspection shows that they seem to be infections or infestations of some sort - the fluid gathering in the pustules is being pumped to a bloated part of the chest.

The eyes of the corpse are covered by skin (and later, we learned, bone)

Inside the chest cavity is a golf-ball sized silvery orb

When the orb is pulled out, both the orb and chest cavity, once warm, quickly cool

Soul of Copper 2 (Anterrande Post Office)
Also fairly decent condition, a bit more scuffed on the bottom. Same quality of wood.

Copper nameplate on the front that reads "Soul of Copper" in Common

Coffin is fully sealed

Corpse inside shows odd pattern of "bloating", closer inspection shows that they seem to be infections or infestations of some sort - the fluid gathering in the pustules is being pumped to a bloated part of the chest.

The eyes of the corpse are covered by skin (and later, we learned, bone)

Inside the chest cavity is a softball-sized silvery orb

When the orb is pulled out, both the orb and chest cavity, once warm, quickly cool

Soul of Copper 3 (Hag's Swamp)
(I checked the fuck out because Cosette wandered off, I'll fact-check my spotty memory later)