Let's Play Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

Ahh, goblins. Ever-abused low-level fodder for adventures the world, and the multiverse over.

I know this is a shorter post, but I wanted to get Goblinwatch out of the way. Bear with me.

Chapter 6: They Tried To Kill Me In That Tunnel

Naturally, the tunnels contains more rats, goblins and leechbats. We tackle the right tunnel first, killing anything and everything that comes at us, mostly with arrows. Halfway down the tunnel is a large chamber, apparently the main nest of the leechbats. We also come across the largest and nastiest form of leechbats around...the Soul Sucker. I kid you not.

Backpedaling and firing lots of arrows, we finish off this lot, then press forward. At the end of the tunnel is not light, but there is a small cavern with more enemies. Beyond that, there is a small corridor, with a staircase leading up to a treasure chest. Looks simple, right?

Wrong. There are a pair of alcoves to the sides, and each one contains some more rats. (I'm beginning to think this keep has a bigger rat problem then it does a goblin one!) You can guess what they will do when we approach the chest...and yet, approach it we must.

The rats prove no more difficult then previously, and we are able to claim the chest. Inside is some nice stuff, including a potion of extreme energy (+20 to all attributes temporarily). I have special plans for that one, so stay tuned.

We then head back over to the other tunnel, which is pretty much the same deal, only slightly shorter and with no rat trick at the end. However, one of the leechbats introduces Eno to one of the more annoying things in the game world: disease. A diseased character suffers Might, Endurance, Accuracy, and Speed penalties. Left uncured, it will result in a dead character. We don't have any method of curing it ourselves at this point, so a visit to the New Sorpigal temple is in order. Thus, we leave Goblinwatch.

Goblinwatch Complete!

A quick jaunt to the temple, and we leave 50 gold poorer and fully healed. Temples generally have varying prices depending on where they are, and the New Sorpigal one is the cheapest. Our next stop is the hill to the east of the town, where before we had noticed something before when we investigated the docks. It's a sword...in a stone. How cliche.

Before, none of our characters had the Might needed to pull the sword out, but with this new potion, Toblerone is ready to go! It's a nice two-handed sword, and Toblerone claims it. Now we head back to sell some stuff.

First stop is the magic shop, where we pay to have everything identified. As a result we find out that we have a nice set of magic items. Frustrating enough, one of them is a Warriors ring (yes that is punctuated correctly), which would have made it possible for Toblerone to get the sword without having to use that potion. Grrrr...

Among the others are a helm of defense (more armor class, given to Cate), a ring of fire resistance (Huaryu), a ring of luck (Cate), and a pair of Wizards gauntlets (bonus to Intellect and Personality, given to Eno).

Quick visits to the weapon and armor shops yield the same thing, but no more magic items (although there is a nice new shield for Huaryu), and we are good to go...but to where? The Abandoned Temple of Baa? Not yet...we've got something more interesting in mind! Namely, Castle Ironfist!

The next step is preparing to visit the mysterious Seer, who lives high in the mountains to the west of the castle. However, the Baa cult has surrounded the place with his followers. Guess what? We get to cut through them all...but not today.

edited 21st Aug '10 8:30:13 PM by TotemicHero

Just dropping in here quickly to say that, though I never actually played a lot of the M&M series, they seemed like they would be right up my alley gameplay-wise. Keep going!

Another short chapter! I'll try to make it up to you later.

Chapter 7: Magic Lizard Climbing Powers

So we're off to see the Seer, the wonderful Seer of Enroth.

As I mentioned last time, the Baa cult does not like us. They really don't like us. I could go on, but you get the point.

In the name of not liking us, they have apparently hired Lizard Men to aid their followers in not liking us.

The lizard men (or women, not a lot to tell the difference by) are (un)skilled archers, (un)able to hit their target's vital point at an (un)remarkable range. They tend to keep their distance, and automatically try to flank you. Not bad, but they lack the oomph (or accuracy) to do any real damage, and they can't exactly take the hits either.

Combine this with the fact that we've faced the Baa followers before, and you can guess exactly how one-sided the fight of us versus an small field full of these enemies is.

Once the field west of Castle Ironfist is clear, we have a couple of choices. We could go north across the bridge and fight more cultists and lizardfolk, or we could go northwest up a mountain pass and fight more cultists and lizardfolk.

However, being incredibly Genre Savvy, we know that your typical Seer would prefer the mountains over a field across a river any day. Thus, it's time to climb! (Excuse my dreadful rhyme.)

Along the way, more cult followers, then some lizards. These lizards attempt to flank us as usual, and in the process demonstrate their magic lizard climbing powers! They apparently can scale mountainsides that are far too steep to climb up or down (although wall hugging would allow us to go down), and do so. They also apparently cannot shoot arrows through the mountain, and finally, they apparently do not realize they cannot shoot arrows through the mountain.

We press forward, ignore the idiot lizard men, and finish off the last of the cultists, who are positions directly in front of the Seer's house. By this point, the lizard have finally figured out that their arrows do not make good decor for the mountainside, and have moved behind us in order to shoot us in the butt. We turn around and show them exactly where arrows do make good decor: in lizard faces.

Now that the mountain is almost completely cleared (one lizard man still has not caught on), it's time to visit the Seer.

The first thing we learn is that the Seer lives in a toolshed. I kid you not. The second thing we learn is that World Of Warcraft totally ripped off this guy's opening line with the tauren quote: "I've been expecting you." Honestly, Blizzard couldn't think of anything original? I mean...oh right, I'm supposed to be playing Might And Magic here.

Anyway, we ask the Seer a basic question: what should we be doing in order to save the world? His response is that we are not skilled enough yet to do world-saving, and should focus on improving ourselves, such as with the class advancement quests, before we proceed. Grumble grumble...

Having had enough of the Seer for now, we head out. Our next stop: crossing the bridge and killing yet more cultists and lizardfolk. Ain't life grand?

edited 27th Aug '10 7:09:11 PM by TotemicHero

Ahh, an alliance of idiocy. And these are the people that threaten the world?

When I said I'd make it up to you later...now it's later!

Chapter 8: You Knew I Was Going To Screw Up Somewhere

Apparently while we were visiting the Seer, they moved out of the field to the north, leaving just a sizable group of lizardfolk to oppose us. My guess is they didn't tell them they were doing it too, leaving their scaly allies in the lurch.  ^*

We wade in and kill a large number of them, but even we have limits. After a while, we pull back and rest in the local inn. Afterwards, it's time for a walk around the castle town. Specifically, we're out to join the Body, Mind, and Spirit guilds that have halls located near the castle. That's 50 gold for each. The Mind person is located next to the inn, while the Body and Spirit recruiters are up near the castle itself.

Of great importance here is the Spirit recruiter, a man named Bishop Inquisitorio (innovative names are clearly not a forte of this game). Want to know why he is so important? He's also the Master trainer for the Spirit Magic skill! Seeing as this is as good a time as any, let me explain Expert and Master training a bit more.

When you reach rank 4 in a particular skill, you can train it to Expert level if you can find an Expert trainer, improving what you can do with it, as I mentioned earlier. Usually this will set you back by a fair amount of gold. Master training is the next step, but there is only one Master trainer per each skill in the world (whereas there may be multiple Expert trainers). Unlike with Expert training, the requirements for Master training vary from skill to skill.

The good bishop is so kind to tell us that he is willing to teach any High Priests (final cleric promotion) how to Master Spirit. He's even so nice, he'll do it for free. What a swell guy. However, since we are neither Experts in Spirit Magic nor High Priests, we have to leave for now. We'll be seeing him later.

Next stop are the guild halls, where we pick up some nice spells. Cure Poison (Body) for both Eno and Huaryu, Cure Wounds (Body) for Huaryu, and Heroism (Spirit) for Eno. I guess we don't need those potions so badly anymore!

On our way back down from the castle, we notice one of the locals apparently is of reptilian lineage, as they too possess magic lizard climbing powers. Go figure.

Back to the killing fields, where we...um, kill lizardfolk. This time, they have slightly tougher variants called Lizard Archers (despite the fact they all qualify as lizard archers) who occasionally fire off Flame Arrow spells.

And now it's time to loot bodies and...

Oh, Crap!.

You see, we as a party are limited by the map, and there are invisible walls that bound the edges. Walk into one that borders another zone, and you are given the option to travel to the next area.

The monsters, however, have no such limitations. And if they die while beyond the boundaries, their body cannot be looted. This I know.

However, rapidly clicking the mouse when walking towards such a body is not a good plan. As a result...I accidentally traveled to the area known as Bootleg Bay.

Overland travel consumes 5 units of food (Did I not explain food earlier? If not, let me know.) and takes 5 game days. Luckily I had 14 food, so I just turn around and travel back as the local enemies growl at us.

In an effort to recover dignity, we loot the lizard camp (a nice treasure chest with good leather armor of poison resistance for Eno). We head back to the Seer, in hopes that he knows a way to rewind time so that our embarrassing mistake never happened. (Along the way, we kill that one lizard man that didn't get it before).

Unfortunately, the Seer is not a Time Lord and cannot help us. However, he does tell us that it is now February, the month of Intellect, and that we should go pray at the Intellect shrine in order to stop being so stupid.

Using my incredible psychic powers, I have determined the location of this shrine. First, we need to get back to New Sorpigal. We wait a day in the inn resting, then we are able to take the carriage to New Sorpigal.

Once there, it's time to visit the docks and see if ships are sailing! They aren't currently, so it's to the inn for another day of rest.

The next day...the boat is ready to sail! The destination: the Misty Islands, home of the aforementioned shrine...and so much more.

Chapter 9: Political Correctness Is A Myth In Enroth

A three day voyage, and here we are, sailing into a small bay in the quaint Misty Islands and...MORE BAA CULTISTS?!

Yep, they're here too. And they're even more stupid than ever. How stupid? Well, instead of walking along the coast to get to the boat, they stand on the shore and stare angrily at us. If looks could kill...they probably would still fail.

We have bows, so the ones to the south die quickly. The ones to the north don't, mainly because the ship we sailed in on sits smack in between them and us. As can be expected, the mystic among them doesn't like the ship we sailed in on, and casts Mind Blast spells on it. Someone needs to tell him boats don't have minds...

The Misty Islands consist of a single large island to the south, and several smaller islands to the north. The dock, part of the unimaginatively named town of Mist, is on the western side of the large island. Just directly north of Mist is the castle of Lord Albert Newton, which is...

What.

Remember when I said that the followers of Baa wore Sikh-style turbans? Well now there are Cutpurses, Bounty Hunters, and Assassins after us. And they are all women. Indian women. Indian women complete with midriff-baring sari-esque outfits.

UNFORTUNATE IMPLICATIONS MUCH?

Well, whatever. We kill them one by one with arrows, until there are none left on the island. Next stop: the shrine.

We visit the shrine and pray. Behold: +10 Intellect to all characters! Cate and Eno now have more spell points to throw around.

Now, we head to visit the castle of Lord Newton. As you might guess, he is another of the prominent six nobles, and handles promotion quests for sorcerers.

He agrees to give us High Council favor, if we can just find the Hourglass of Time. He plans to use it to create a scrying mirror that can look into the past. As he has poor memory. As he demonstrates by forgetting where the Hourglass is supposed to be. Eventually, he thinks that it must be in a nearby fort, and tells us to look there.

As for the Sorcerer promotion quest, he tells us we can all be honorary Wizards if we drink from the Fountain of Magic. Good, so where is it? He refuses to tell us, saying that is part of the task. Personally, I think he just forgot, but whatever.

Now we visit the local houses, and join the Fire, Air, and Water guilds. (This being an island, apparently there isn't enough land for an Earth guild.) And guess who these recruiters are? That's right, it's the Fire, Air, and Water Master trainers!

Now we visit the Fire guild and pick up a very important spell for Eno. If you've been paying attention, you can probably guess what it is...

Introducing one of the joys and masterpieces of magic, the Ring of Fire! This little spell chews up 10 spell points and hits anything and everything within a certain distance of you. Walls, doors, and other barriers pose no obstacle to this spell. It is a beautiful thing, and pretty much is key to a lot of dungeon exploration later on.

And now, since we killed a bunch of Indian girls and Sikh cultists, we can go train up everyone to level 5. Hooray!

Our next stop is going to be the northern part of the Misty Islands, where more politically incorrect enemies await.

I hope Lord Albert Newton remembers that he sent us on a quest in the first place.

I think I played IV or V in this series; I remember the style of combat you're describing, but I remember the Magic-like card game more than anything else. Sometimes I would log into the game just to travel around the game world challenging other people to card battles.

I also played I or II, I think. I seem to recall that the final puzzle was ridiculous... like it was based on American history or something.

edited 30th Aug '10 12:38:43 PM by Dracomicron

Sounds like you played VII. The combat system (along with the game engine) was overhauled between V and VI, and the card game was in VII.

Yeah, V to VI was the last (Only?) major overhaul in the game engine, correct?

Additionally, I'm pretty sure the ridiculous final puzzle was in II. It was de-cryptogramming the preamble to the U.S. Constitution (Except with the references to any places changed to that of the M&M world).

Anyway, more Liveblog please!

edited 30th Aug '10 3:53:07 PM by Emptyeye

I'll try and update when I can, which is mostly on Friday evenings (and occasionally on Saturday and Sunday). Real life obligations + feeding my World Of Warcraft addiction = not a huge amount of free time.

Also, there was an major shift between II and III, if memory serves.

edited 30th Aug '10 4:14:48 PM by TotemicHero

Well, technically Might and Magic IX used a new engine. It's just that M&M9 SUCKED BALLS.

Ah yes, the answer was "preamble". Fuckers. We puzzled over that shit for ages.

Chapter 10: Enroth's Travel Agencies Need Better Customer Service

The northern Misty Islands...I hear it's a wonderful vacation spot. Sadly, a lot of cultists and Indian women have taken their vacations there as well. Our job: to turn those vacations into permanent retirement.

Our first stop is the southern of the two lighthouses in the town of Mist. The fellow there has a quest for us...or not! It never shows up in our quest log, nor will we hear about it again, and there's no clear reward. However, he does do one thing of importance: He activates the magical teleport pad just north of Lord Newton's castle. This will take us to the northern islands.

The islands are all pretty small, linked by narrow bridges. The teleport is one-way, but there's another teleport pad at the far end of the island chain. Naturally, we have to fight our way through...sounds like an epic challenge!

...or not.

Like the majority of enemies in this game, these ones have no way to swim. And what about the bridges? What about them! They won't even bother to use them.

Therefore, the only enemies that pose any threat are the Baa cultists with Mind Blast spells. The rest are just fish in a barrel (and yes, that has been proven).

This is pretty much the story as we cross the isles. Each island except for the one we start on has at least one treasure chest (but they contain nothing special). There are also some fruit trees, from which we can pick more food. Finally, we clear the last island, go to the treasure chest, and-

BOOM!

Apparently Toblerone's Disarm Trap skill wasn't up for this one, as it explodes! Traps going off do damage to the entire party, and can potentially kill off people. This blast, while not fatal as such, is nasty enough to instantly knock Huaryu and Eno unconscious. Toblerone and Cate are left standing, but I have no way to heal up without resting now. Good thing we killed off all the enemies first, isn't it?

Chest traps are a one-shot deal, so having survived it, we can now loot the chest. Very nice shield and suit of chain mail inside, but Toblerone is proving useless...he can't identify them.

We now go to the end of the island, where there is a teleport pad - our way back - and an obelisk. The obelisks (there is one in each in-game outdoor area) each hold part of a code. Find all of them, decipher the code, and it leads you to...well, I'll tell you what it leads you to later. What I can tell you now is that you don't really need the obelisks to find it.

We hop on the teleport pad and get whisked back to the Shrine of Intellect on the main island. Back to the inn, a good night's rest, and then we go to sell our spoils.

An unfortunate discovery: it seems that the trap has damaged Eno's leather armor. No problem, we'll just have Toblerone fix it and...WHADDYA MEAN HE CAN'T FIX IT?!

Fine, fine, Toblerone's secondary skills are completely useless. Thus we have to have the local armorsmith handle repairs. Once everything is sold or identified (the new chain mail went to Cate, and the shield went naturally to Huaryu), we are ready to return to New Sorpigal.

We head to the boat...and the good captain tells us he's only currently running to Bootleg Bay. Time to wait.

We come back the next day...and now he's going to the Castle Ironfist docks. Dang it, we have to wait again.

Come back the next day...and it's Bootleg Bay again! Grah!

Day after that...and he's not sailing anywhere! I'm beginning to think the Baa cult is behind this.

The next day, which is March 1st...Castle Ironfist again?! NOOOOOOO!

March 2nd...Bootleg Bay. WhyyoulilcapnImmakickyouinda...

March 3rd...Castle Ironfist...SCREW THIS! I'm taking this boat!

We arrive at the castle docks, and make a beeline for the stables. They have a carriage ready, so we go back to New Sorpigal. ABOUT TIME!

Well, enough fooling around! It's finally time to tackle the Abandoned Temple of Baa!

Before you ask, this is a very long game. It will probably take me a several months at this pace to complete, so settle in for the long haul. Good things come to those who wait...

Chapter 11: Never Ask Why It Had To Be Snakes

Time for dungeon number two!

But first, some unfinished business. As we approach the temple, a gang of angry goblins attempt to ambush us on the bridge leading there. Dumb idea. The outside of the temple is guarded by more goblins...and a few evil mage apprentices. Said mage apprentices are squishy, and die fast.

This is the Abandoned Temple of Baa. The info I gathered using my psychic powers says the cultists were going to unleash a curse of vermin upon the town of New Sorpigal. The curse backfired, and the vermin took over this temple. Now, we plunge headlong into the fray.

And when I say "headlong into the fray", I mean we walk in the front door and get giant bats trying to bite our faces off. (At least they aren't leechbats...) They die fast.

Now we are free to take in the room, which actually looks kind of cool. Stained glass windows, darkened by grime, let a little light into a stone room. Oddly, the fireplace in here still has a flame lit in it...apparently bats discovered fire. (If you get the reference, you are a) a complete literary nerd, and b) deserving of a virtual cookie.)

A hallway leads forward before coming to a four-way crossing. After taking out a few more bats, we can go left or right, or straight ahead. Let's take out the sides before we go straight. Each side has a door, with presumably something nasty behind it. Of course, we have an ace in the hole...

Ring of Fire time! We open the way to the right and let loose our wrath on...giant cobras. Great. Being giant cobras, they naturally poison Cate. We kill them off, then cure the poison before I can look to tell you the negative effects of it. Go me.

This room is also nice, but more important, there's a chest in the corner. Inside is...the lost candelabra. Yes, it was that easy. Sheesh.

To the left path, which leads to another room and more cobras. This time, Toblerone gets poisoned. This time, I check to determine what the effects of poison are. They are pretty much the same as disease. Huaryu then casts cure poison on Toblerone...but I waited too long, and the spell won't work. You can only cure conditions like poison a certain duration after they are applied. Right now, with our lower skill levels, that duration is very short.

Good thing I have potions to do the work! So Toblerone is unpoisoned. Unlike the right room, the left room has a door leading onward. It leads to a corridor that forks into two small rooms. In these rooms...well, well, looks like that man from New Sorpigal was right. There are giant spiders. They die fast, and despite having equal ability to poison me as the cobras, they do not.

And now for a potion brewing break! Take one orange potion (I found in a chest, but can be made by mixing red and yellow potions together), mix it with a red potion, and we get a potion of Heroism! But wait, there's more! Mix yet another red potion with the heroism potion, and we get...'raises hands above head'...a Essence of Might!

The Essence of Might permanently increases a character's Might by 15, and reduces their Intellect by 5. There are several other essences like this in the game that work similarly, and we'll cover how to make each as we go. Each type of essence can only be used once per character (you can drink a second one, but it will have no effect). This time, we make Toblerone a mighty man, but he loses a little Intellect...not that it matters for him.

Now for the straight path, and it looks like they ran out of interesting looking rooms to use. The remainder of this place seems to be giant winding natural caverns...some temple.

Killing bats and spiders as we go, we come to a large cavern...where we are introduced to a spell trap. Spell traps, either set to go off at regular intervals or when you trigger something, cast various damaging spells. This trap works like the Air Magic spell known as Sparks (a spell we don't have yet). The trap shoots sparks everywhere in a rough circle around a chest, including one spark that always lands on top of the chest. The actual spells just shoots the sparks in front of you. In both cases, after a short period, the sparks explode and do Electric damage.

The key here is to time your approach to the chest so you don't get hit. We do so, and loot it.

We go to the next room, which is full of more spiders, cobras, and bats. We kill them off, but discover that, like their real world counterparts, bats carry plenty of diseases. Poor Toblerone...

An exploration of a side chamber off of this one reveals...the missing little girl, Angela Dawson! Seeing as we are weakened by our ordeals so far, and have two of our quests here effectively complete, it's time to leave...for now.

edited 4th Sep '10 8:11:49 PM by TotemicHero

Geez, you wonder how that girl got this far and lived that long in the dungeon, especially as we spent a week waiting for a boat.

^ In the SNES version of Sunset Riders (And maybe others), during the Smith Bros. boss fight, there's a Bound and Gagged hostage sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Apparently, what you're supposed to do is to free her mid-fight and she'll give you a power-up and run off. However, you can also simply leave her there to struggle...and watch as she proves to be completely immortal to any and all stray attacks, including not-exactly-small bombs going off right next to her (An immortality not afforded to your character, I should point out). At the end of the fight, if you still haven't saved her, she'll simply free herself and run off.

Clearly, Angela Dawson is related to this immortal hostage; her family just doesn't know it.

I seem to remember that you actually had to find all the obelisks in order to find the treasure: It simply won't spawn otherwise. But they might have changed that in some patch.

No offense, but I'd appreciate it if you don't talk about things I specifically say I'm not going to talk about yet (or at least use spoilers).

As for patches, I haven't downloaded any at the moment (on account of being too lazy to go look for them)...I'm just playing the release version as-is. I probably won't bother either.

I know this chapter seems short, but in terms of playtime it took me a while. Combat in this game can be pretty slow.

Chapter 12: Evil Temple Housekeeping 101

Well, we make it out and hit the temple, getting Toblerone's disease cured. Afterwards, we deliver the missing little girl to her mother, who rewards us with...sacks of food. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers.  ^*

Next stop is the local tavern. Apparently the good regent was so worried about the other issues, he forgot we told him where one of the cult's key agents was! Thus, Andover is still here, and rewards us with 1000 gold for recovering the candelabra.

However, word has spread about this Baa cultist, so since we just helped him...our reputation takes a hit. Reputation goes up or down depending on what kind of quests you do (plus how many innocent villagers you smack down). Donating to the local temple also improves your reputation. We head back there, hand over 100 gold, and instantly become "Respectable".

Alright, back to the abandoned temple. We backtrack quite readily to where we were (killing a couple of annoyances on the way), and take a look around the room where we found the little girl and...a door?

We open the wooden door to discover a passage leading down. Ah, this must be the way to the real temple!

...or it could just be the way to a torture chamber, with the old victims hanging in suspended metal cages. My psychic powers tell me the cages are trapped, so they get left alone. The gold coins scattered on the floor, however, are not, so we take them.

We go deeper into the caves, finding and slaying more bats and spiders. No more cobras at this point though. We do find a suit of plate armor on the ground, so Toblerone gets armored up.

We come to a huge cavern which extends in both directions. We head right, and discover a room that would leave Indiana Jones in a coma. We spend the next few (in-game) hours killing off the army of cobras (along with a few bats and spiders for good measure).

We now go straight, or take another right. Again, we go right, and again, another cavern chamber filled with cobras. I'm detecting a pattern here...

It turns out, this chamber was the cobra nest, with cobra eggs, which we take. There's also a treasure chest, which we loot. Toblerone fails to identify more items, but one item he can identify, which he does. It's a suit of leather armor of Might. Now Eno can have both Might and Magic!

The chamber after that...spider central. We clear out most of them, but our Wizard Eye spell (oh so useful) reveals there are more lurking on a ledge just above the entrance, ready to pounce. However, we have a fiery ace in the hole...yep, Ring of Fire works vertically too! (Kinda makes it more of a Globe of Fire.) We spam cast it until Eno's Spell Points number exactly one more than number of remaining spiders. Which is, to say, zero; they're all dead.

We then head up there to find that among the other spiders is the queen spider herself: very large, very twisted, and very dead. Cate cuts her spidery heart out, which strangely resembles a human heart. No clue why.

At the far end of the room is another door, and behind it, another chest. Opened, it reveals more stuff Toblerone cannot identify. Of greatest interest is a mace, which if I remember correctly, is the best quality type of mace in the game. Go us.

Well, we're done with the last quest, so we decide to head out to turn it in. However, there's still more spiders to be squashed, cobras to be de-fanged, and bats to be...something witty that I can't think of right now. We'll be back.

edited 10th Sep '10 7:51:40 PM by TotemicHero

Ahh, monster slaying for fun and profit.

I apologize for no update today, had to visit some relatives. I'll try to squeeze one in this weekend.

After much delay, I bring you more might, more magic, and more Toblerone!

Chapter 13: Saying Bah To The Cult Of Baa

Okay, we're all on the same page right? Wait a second...nope, we aren't.

It turns out, I did something earlier I forgot to mention. When I turned the Goblinwatch scroll over to Janice, she offered a new quest, which I picked up. Said quest involves going to a non-abandoned Temple of Baa south of Castle Ironfist and recovering a sacred chime...or stealing it...or something. We'll cover doing that later. Sorry I forgot to mention it, feel free to slap me.

Anyway, we leave the Abandoned Temple of Baa and rest up at the inn, then turn in the spider's heart. 1000 gold for our troubles.

Next, I use my psychic powers to locate someone in one of the southeastern houses in New Sorpigal who is willing to buy the cobra eggs we found. 300 gold for each, with 6 eggs total...yay.

Next stop is the training hall, where we each train up two levels. Allocation of skill points to magic skills (or for Toblerone, misc. skills), and we are good to go.

Back to the abandoned temple!

We make our way back the long cavern where we took the right path to fight the queen spider. This time, we go left, out onto a natural stone bridge overlooking another cavern.

Killing a spider that jumps out at us, we notice there are several other spiders in the cavern below. These congregate at a point directly underneath the bridge. Guess what spell we use to kill them all without breaking a sweat. (Three guesses, first two don't count.)

We then proceed across the bridge and down a tunnel, killing several spiders and bats along the way. The tunnel dead-ends in a tiny room with a odd circular altar. We leave said altar alone, and backtrack.

Back to the right then. We work our way around to find the room with the stone bridge overhead...and a bunch of nasties in wait.

Ah, but we can be clever! We rapidly retreat around to the top of the stone bridge. The bats fly up to get us, and get shot down. And now that the remaining spiders and snakes are below us again...Broken Spell of Fire seals their fate.

We head back down again, killing off a handful of spiders that hid in the corners (wimps). The next room is a medium-sized cavern with another of those circular altars. Also, there is a treasure chest, which we loot.

Abandoned Temple of Baa Complete!

Time to head on out and enjoy the spoils. Tune in next time.

...

...

Just kidding! I'm still here.

We head out of the temple, and rest at the inn. Toblerone somehow identifies that mace we found. While it's not the top-tier like I thought, it's the second highest-quality, and very nice all the same.

Now, one more juicy tidbit to share with you...one of the game's most well hidden secrets. You need someone with a Disarm Trap skill of at least 4 to get this (or else a lot of health).

We head east along the coast north of New Sorpigal, until we come to a rock. But this is no ordinary rock...it is a Rock with a capital R! And that means...it hides a hidden (trapped) treasure cache!

The contents vary, but ours has a lot of gold, a Protection from Electricity spellbook, and some magic boots Rogues (+5 Accuracy and Speed). Cate gets the boots, Eno gets the book, and we are all very happy.

Ok, now we're done for real. Next time: goblin slaying!

edited 24th Sep '10 5:10:08 PM by TotemicHero

Hmmm, no comments since my last post. Am I not cool enough for them?

Chapter 14: A Tale of Two Peninsulas

Last time, I promised goblins. And goblins we shall slay!

First, a little fantasy geography. New Sorpigal sits near a bay, opening east into the ocean, formed by two peninsulas. Each of these peninsulas has been overrun by a different group.

The northern peninsula is filled with goblins, and the southern peninsula has a group of rogue mages. All of which would love to kill us, and all of which we are going to try our hardest to kill.

North one first then, since goblins are more fun. This fight is going to be a common feature in most of the later game...pitting the party against a small army (or in some cases, a large one) of enemies. Later on, once we acquire more area of effect spells, said fights will be fairly easy. As for now...we just have Ring of Fire.

However, we also have turn-based mode and bows. Against the goblins, who are scattered about and lacking in ranged attacks (except for a pair of shamans), this is a winning combination. We clear out the goblins in short order, and hit their camp.

The camp has three crates containing odds and ends (including some mildly enchanted boots of Magic), and a cookpot with a little food left in it. (Apparently goblin cuisine is close enough to human cuisine for our party not to care.) We pick up the loot, and head for a single house that sits at the end of the peninsula. It's untouched despite the fact that goblins surrounded it.

Inside the house is a drooling man named Igor. He tells us that if we were to find a weapon from the "Age of Wonders" (nothing to do with the actual games called Age of Wonders, I hope), he could teach us a few tricks (aka Expert training). Igor finishes by saying "Really! I'm not crazy!" Did I mention he was drooling?

Leaving drooling man behind, we leave the northern peninsula. The next stop is the southern peninsula.

This will not be nearly as easy. As you might guess, mages throw spells at you. The whole shoot and scoot method we used against the goblins will not work. Thus, we have to play this one like a shooter game. That's right, we've got your Doom in our Might And Magic!

The southern peninsula is blocked off by hills, through which leads a narrow pass. We can go along the coast, go over the hills, or take the path. Several mages have set themselves up on the path ahead...mostly apprentices. We take the high ground, and beat them back as they try to climb. Typical squishy mages.

Having cleared the pass, now for the peninsula itself. A small pond sits in the middle of it, and most of the mages are on the other side.

There's no simple way about this. We have to go head to head with the mages. Here we go!

(I really wish I could provide some epic fight music for this part, but I can't think of any, so supply your own.)

After much running back and forth, pumping out of arrows, and us eating more than a few spells, the mages fall before us. We loot their bodies and hit their camp. Four crates and more food, but nothing special at all. You'd think a group of mages would have more magical items then a group of goblins, right?

At the end of this peninsula stands another house. However, the resident of this house has slightly more sanity...because he's Falagar, the sage who saved us and trained us as adventurers. Gee, what's he doing out here?

Whatever it is, he does have advice for us, which is pretty much what I already told you: Gain High Council approval...which is required before you can consult the Oracle, whatever that is. Only the Oracle knows how to deal with the devils.

Now that we've taken care of the two peninsulas...wait, I remember seeing something on the way to deal with the mages...were those goblins I saw on the coast south of New Sorpigal? Yep...time to kill them!

There were two bands of them. I use the past tense because I already killed them. What can I say, I work fast.

With the money we've earned, our next stop is...shopping for spells! How exciting! So exciting, we'll put it off until later.