Mitflit Massacre

The Maggot Trainers

The party had barely made it across the bridge when three mitflits came around the corner, saw them, and loosed a giant maggot at them like a trainer throwing out a Pokemon.

Shiro put his hands up and said they came in peace. The mitflits scooped the maggot up before it could bite anyone and came closer to talk.

They had been expecting heroes from Otari, they said, though not until after they had attacked the town. They backpedalled at once: they hadn't meant to say that.

The mitflits explained that they used to live underground, until they were pushed up by "mushroom-eyed" people who took over their floor down below. When the party asked whether they had seen the lighthouse glow, fear crept over their faces. They told of a creature made of blood that rises every night, and of ghostly spirits at the top of the lighthouse. Asked whether they had seen a dwarf, they said they had heard of dwarves but had never actually seen one.

The mitflits argued among themselves about whether to take the party to see Boss Scrawng. The party insisted that wouldn't be necessary and set off to explore.

The Keep

The first door they pushed open led to a room holding a half-eaten giant frog. When Ja-ja went up to it, two giant maggots burst out of the carcass. He killed them both with his teeth.

Behind another door, four mitflits were squabbling in a mushroom pit over a particularly tasty-looking grub.

A third door opened onto something far worse: a howling vortex of six kobold spirits. Shiro exorcised them quickly. When the room fell quiet, Rygel searched it and turned up a few interesting trinkets: a wolf's tooth, and a vial of black liquid labelled "YUM".

Buzzybuzz

The next room held a pile of dead woodland creatures and a giant fly, and it attacked as soon as the door opened.

The party hit back, and mitflits came running, begging them to stop. Buzzybuzz, as they called it, was essential to their plans to attack Otari. They tried to push the party away from the fly, but the tiny creatures were far too weak to manage it.

The party wasn't keen to stop. Rygel convinced two of the mitflits that Buzzybuzz was nowhere close to being a threat to Otari, and sent them to tell Boss Scrawng to call off the attack. Vega held a third mitflit in place. Herald planted himself in the doorway behind the two that scampered off.

Bad News Travels

On their way to Boss Scrawng, the two messengers ran into the survivor from the watchtower, the mitflit who had fled across the vine bridge. It told them the party had killed two of its friends on sight.

The two messengers came straight back into the main hall in a rage, and Finn and Shiro were waiting there. Their attacks were wild and feeble and did almost no damage. Finn killed one with a single shot from his sling.

Back in Buzzybuzz's room, Beans tried to leave and head for the main hall. Herald was still blocking the door. He would move, he said, if Beans asked nicely and said please. Beans would not say the magic word, so Herald stayed where he was. Beans spoke some magic words of his own instead and called down lightning on Herald. Herald's answer was a vial of acid: he melted the keyhole so the door could never be opened again.

Buzzybuzz, meanwhile, flew away out the top of the tower.

The party took the long way back to the main hall. While they were on their way, more mitflits poured into the hall, furious at the news of their dead friends.

One of them set its maggot on Finn. The maggot took a sizable bite out of him, then clamped on and would not let go, and began to eat him alive. Finn stabbed it three times, quick and desperate, and the maggot died.

Herald made for a door he had learned led to a staircase going down. Before he reached it, two clumsy mitflits came at him from either side and couldn't land a single blow.

In the main hall, mitflits swarmed Ja-ja, and none of them landed a blow either. Ja-ja killed every one of them with his jaws.

The mitflit beside Herald saw the carnage and ran. It scrambled across the mushroom pit and made it up the far side, and was a step from the door when Corpi's divine lance and Herald's acid flask hit it in the back and killed it.

The Lighthouse

Meanwhile, Beans had wandered off to the base of the lighthouse.

Inside, it was immaculately pristine. The only exception was a pool of fresh blood, about a human's worth, in the centre of the floor. After the ruined keep outside, the complete lack of wear was jarring.

Herald worked out what had caused the damage to the keep: a very powerful magical duel, fought here about 500 years ago, roughly when the town of Otari was founded.