In a stroke of genius strategy by whatever mad wizard populated this world, the 5 HEADED HYDRA secretly has eight heads, stealthily leading its foes into a false sense of security.
It's similar to that time I in my youth played Pokémon Colosseum and nicknamed my Ledian LEDYBA. I then proceeded to consistently forget I had a Ledian and not a Ledyba.
(Spoiler from the future, yes. Turns out opening a fight with Unicorns or pegasi with hostility is evil, even if the bribe/surrender option forfeits all your gold. What do those greedy ponies need it for anyways.)
With Portsmith done, and my characters feminized, It's time to do more overworld exploration
Nice. I can finally buy my Vampire the Masquerade merch. Here I encounter my first castle, which comes with a new tileset.
According to statues in the first area, there are 6 of them. So this is the first, I do some exploration and come across..
Those Rakshasha? Caste fireball. Fireballs are like.. 17-34 dmg to everyone. Knocking out half of my guys round one. But it's cool, because Sir Galand can heal, I can bring up Wizz Bane. Who can then cast a guaranteed retreat. Still, that seems to be a signal that this are is 2 hi level 4 me.
More exploring uncovers a cave with more 'tiles that send you back one space' and this time I know jump.
Honestly annoying. This game has no indication you are sent back one space, so I have to reorient myself each time then cast jump. A hidden passage find me
A trapped space that sends me all the way back to Pondsmith, and I have to go in, reorient to determine the trapped tile, and can then avoid it, which leads to a hallway filled with both trapped send back tiles and guaranteed encounters that rather sucks, but finally…
Let's see what our reward is
Nice. (Still can't figure out what it does, but it's worth 5000g so it must be good?
Another hidden passage, another teleport trap (at least this time I know to prepare and pre-map).
Another hidden passage annnnd
Interesting, since I have other areas to explore and I don't know if there is a way to get 'authorized' I opt to avoid for now.
I answer 'no and am teleported back to the start; After going back a second time I find that
(No there is NO other context to this, you just find wizards who give you shit…
Actually all the quest so far are random wizard shit. Deliver letters, fight 13 encounters, rescue prisoners)
I do exploring around enter one of the doors and…
And instantly teleported to a castle. Which uh… I assumed it was a 'if you free a prisoner you get teleport access.' deal. Maybe instead it's 'once you free all 6 get access to… something else? Statue of judgment)
The portals are unlabeled, and fuck trying each one, I look it up. Turns out it's to each town and castle which… not very useful? I'm pretty certain the overworld with fly is way faster than this.
Also another on the 'bad door' likely to kill me
I did get to level up with my lower chars, so that's nice, also 2 hits a round with level 8 fighters.
Following that, I decided to look at the 'authorized personal only.
Wow…
So the implications here are fascinating.
Because until this point, this cave comes across as sort of a random dnd/game thing? Cave with teleport portals, because… portals. It makes no sense lore wise, why would you have a cave in the middle of nowhere setting up this massive infrastructure rather than from town to town given the desperate state of transportation on this world. But it makes
But with the authorized personnel being aliens it… like… massively changes the context.
This isn't a cave FOR the people of the world. This is a cave for the aliens, aliens who likely don't want to be known. It makes me think the 'statue of judgment' is a 'great and powerful Oz type deal. Dunno if the wizard is a disguised alien, a robot, a dupe or like, a human working with them but… yeah.
Honestly given they kill anyone who finds them, I'm kinda suss about these guys. Why do they want me to free prisoners? Are they trying to take from the shadows, and freeing dissidents further's their plan? Or have they always controlled it, and now someone else is here? Either way… it feels… implications.
Also it uh… it is the first real 'this is sci-fi' in the setting. Though at this point… well most of this is extrapolation. There isn't any in-text that the statue is a computer/great and powerful oz (though there is another locked door labeled 'experiment in progress' which is sci-fiy). This is a game from 1986 and it could be a weird one off but… yeah. Here we encounter aliens for the first time.
(Unless some of the other enemies that reduce that sprite are aliens?)
Okay so yes, obviously this isn't a one off given the series is a Sci-Fi, but I'm trying to read from the perspective of someone who was playing this the first time.
Also, I know what everyone is going to say, 'but clock the devils/demons are actually aliens. And yes, in 6 that's true, but based on the presentation here, I think that's a retcon.
Don't get me wrong, the sci-fi setting is probably here, but the demons and devils being aliens, rather than similar to any other magic creature, isn't indicated at all, the devils looks human-like rather than the later kreegan, and the aliens are labeled entirely differently.
I try to fight them and
So, I want to take a moment here to note something interesting about the combat system.
So in Dnd, which most rpgs derive from somewhere in your ancestry, you tend to have three states
Up (at least one HP)
Unconscious (0 or lesshp, can go negative cured instantly by healing above 0)
Dead (like unconscious but requires a dedicated spell/item to get you alive again, basic healing doesn't work, usually going to far negative hp)
And it's… interesting seeing that translate in games and what changes they make. The most common one tends to be removing negative HP. 0 is 0.
Like, Dragon Quest/Final Fantasy opted to merge unconscious and dead into one status. You hit 0 hp, you have to use a special item/spell. Meanwhile other games would just be 0 is 0, any healing works.
MM1 does an interesting take on this. 0 is 0, no negatives. But it still distinguishes between unconscious and dead. If you have at least one hp, any attack, no matter how big, can only bring you down to 0 hp. But if you are at 0 hp, then any attack, even 1 hp attacks, will kill you. Since enemies won't attack 0 hp members, the only way to die without a party wipe is aoe attacks. And, on the flip side, a single enemy even one that did 10k dmg an attack, can be countered by one healing spell a turn bringing the 0 hp person up again (and they even get a action that turn!)
Unrelated to the dead/unconscious bit, I've really grown to appreciate the melee system in MM1. I talked before of how it worked (anyone in melee can attack anyone in melee, ranged and spell can hit anyone). But… I want to talk about it more, because it's honestly really surprisingly good, like, I could see an indie game that focused on it as a central mechanic.
First, because most enemies can only attack in melee, it creates some interesting situations, once you start to encounter mixed groups of enemies. Enemy encounter of up to 16 enemies lets the devs thrown situations where you have like… 8 chump enemies, 5 semi-okay enemies and 3 serious enemies in ways that most non-tactical rpgs can't afford to since they only have 3-4 enemies per fight. Because of this I can often focus attacks, or avoid focusing attacks to try to make sure the= melee slots are chumps only (each time you kill a enemy the rest move up).
Secondly, once you get AOE spells, the equation changes, because a lot of aoe spells care about melee/non melee. The Wizard's base AOE spells are fireball and lightning bolt, same damage, but fb hit 5 enemies, lightning 3, but lightning can be fired into melee. Choosing which to use, to deal with in melee threat or out of melee, provides interesting decisions.
Finally it provides an interesting outdoor/indoor difference. When I first looked over the spell list I noticed a lot of really good spells being 'outdoor only' and I figured 'okay they give you power for outdoors, but since the dungeons are challenges, no using the good shit, these spells are useless'. But… that's not really as true as I thought? Because outdoor encounters are, given the same enemies, much more dangerous. Generally outdoor encounters will force at least 5 party members and 8ish enemies in melee. While indoor ones will put 2-3 party members and sometimes as few as two enemies in melee. Since less melee tends to favor you (all your backrow members aren't hampered by it) this makes indoor encounters easier.
The tragedy is this system tends to not get a lot of love. You have one spell 'expand corridor' to manipulate the system, and it only makes it so 5 of your girls are in melee indoors, which is exactly what you don't want. Spells that opted to take enemies out of melee, or fighter attacks that pushed them around, could do so much with this system, and it's kinda sad it never got picked up and expanded on, its beautifully simple but offers more complexity that I realized.
That rant over, finishing up A-2 there are a lot of water tiles so it's time to get my Jesus on and go explore the open sea. (Walk on water is a cleric spell)
I encounter a forest that is annoying, half the tiles are crossable, half aren't, and they are depicted identically and, key, no magic, both no magic for battle, and no mapping aid. It's tedious to map but I finally come across it's secret
More exploration reveals a island in the middle, which we can find
This gives me the name of the cave (Korin Bluffs) and, based on this info, I think it's telling us something that appears in each of the spaces around, ie area map B-2 has a cave.
I do some more exploring, starting with B-2 and ending up at A-2 where I encounter…
I don't think this is very safe. Also I think my characters are red-green colorblind.
Oh every chest is trapped, to be clear. I just don't bother saying that because it's a given that ever door/chest is trapped and I rely on my robber to disarm them.
I will say, that alien design is very striking. I'm also weirdly fond of the whole "aliens in a fantasy setting" trope (especially when the setting is fairly "basic" to begin with) and to see that it was already a thing this early in the era of adventure games is pretty interesting.
With no specific direction to go, I'm continuing my exploration process.
For a brief references, and so it's clear, here is a quick map which I will keep updated for everyone to follow along just to my journey is kept more clear
Merchant Caravan
Port/ WW/ ALIEN
Sorpigal-Start
Desert
Going off that, I opt for starting in B2 (left of the Merchant Caravan map)
I do some more exploring, starting with B-2 and ending up at A-2 where I encounter…
I don't think this is very safe.
Opting a northern route from B2 instead, I stumble upon my next town, Erliquin, where I'm supposed to deliver a letter!
In the town the most interesting thing I find are these
Barriers, which the guide book notes I need the level 6 (ie: get to level 11) sorcerer spell etherealize to get through.
Mostly the town seems boring at first, though peaceful, no encounters at all the only thing I find is
Which no, not now anyways. Instead I continue to look for Agar, and utterly can't find him, until I go to the tavern where, after tipping them enough I get the hint "Agar lives behind the inn"
I go to the inn and try to go to the wall behind it (which I haven't mapped and..)
I also find an underground area of Erliquin that has multiple barriers blocking as well as…
It's electricity, it's zaps me when I go forward. It's clearly electricity which is a little weird being coy cause
Wizz Bane: I make lightning I know what is is
Serena: As do I
Wizz Bane: No you don't, you call it from the sky which is why you can only do it outdoors
But right. Coming off the heels of the aliens, and it starts to build a narrative about the world. The aliens could be a one off thing. Dismissed as a joke, it's not like random jokes weren't a major part of 80's Dnd games and settings. But here… it starts to build a narrative. Especially since
It's… you know, it's pretty clearly a computer. This world is, underneath the fantasy, a sci-fi world.
At the moment, it leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Is it a case of coexistence? Sci-fi aliens stumble upon a fantasy world and settle it to look into magic. Or is a case of supplanted, sci-fi aliens breeding 'magic' into a population. Or is it all sci-fi all the way down, 'wizards' merely knowing the ancient command words for activating old weather systems and broken pieces of machinery.
Possibly not the latter, as then the electricity would have been stated as lightning. But otherwise… It's an open question, and an interesting one. But I've no doubt the 'secret' of the inner sanctum is related.
Either way, the barriers cannot be breached, so I am stoked and forced to explore other areas of the overworld, there I find
Another castle, which I avoid for now.
Interesting, can't do anything with these yet but I'm betting this is a 'stargate' deal. (even if this game was 8 years before)
Finishing up all I can of B1, I move south to continue exploring B2,where I find a tree with the words "9-9 Raven's Lair" on it.
Heading to 9-9 of B2 gets me this
Insides is the dungeon tileset but with a new door type!
I have no idea what this is, and I'm honestly puzzling over if it's some part of a puzzle or supposed to be a reference to a 'modern thing that ancient people wouldn't understand' like the computer. Either way I can't make sense of it and continue exploring
The other thing, after many, many, many locked doors is…
I'm guessing I need a silver key? Or…
Okay, part of me is now 'sci fi' brained, and once again trying to work out if the silver door is something sci-fi and if I could recognize what it really was I would get what needed to be done…
I have nothing.
I did track around half the dungeons to fight a dangerous encounter, win, be surprised nothing dropped, realise my inventory is full. Exit, clear inventory, go ALL THE WAY BACK to fight it again…and still not get a silver key. Either way, I find myself stymed for now. It's possibly on the second floor, but that proves too dangerous. Back to overworld exploring, I find one last dungeon in B2. One that I have no idea what sort of monster could POSSIBLY be here
(I'll take Medusa for 200 Alex, and no I'm not trying them now)
Also not a dungeon but in one corner of the map…
Yeah, that's a run away immediately.
Heading down to B4 (B3 was Portsmith and already explored) I encountered a mostly watery map, not surprisingly, Portsmith itself was located near an inlet. Along the beaches I find
It turns out to be a ambush (unicorns and giant ants not undead or sea creatures, which makes me suspect it's a random monster,)
Zenon III: no you fools, it's proof the Unicorns are out to get us!
Serena: Sorry Zenon there was to much good loot that was good only
Wizz Bane: My little pony, My little pony
(As far as I'm concerned the only good/evil difference is your feelings on unicorns and pegasus)
I find more shipwrecks, which despite not having monsters that should be dangerous at my current level, seem to kill me a lot, with monsters doing more damage that I feel they should. My guess, and I can't find any info on this, is that they have some mechanics that doubles damage.
What that mechanic is I have no idea,but I suspect it's a curse, my theory is as follows.
It's a decaying shipwreck, which feels haunted and undead are usually associated with curse in MM
I have had things specifically note 'you are cursed' and haven't gotten the * characters usually get when they get a status effect, and whatever is here has no display
That said I have no proof, but I feel like each time I get cursed the next battle feels like more damage happened.
Exploring along I end up water walking again, passing by one island-
I suspect that's going to be a mechanic in the southern area of the map..
On the other patch of northern land in the area, I get…
Creepy, and magic doesn't work here, which is more of a mixed blessing that it was at the start of the game. Some of the most annoying enemies use magic, and watching them try and fail to cast spells is very satisfying. Exploring gets me another portal at the center of the woods.
My party carefully considers this
Swifty Sarge: Hey, so gals, just considering, maybe we shouldn't jump into random portals all the time?
… gals?
They already left, didn't they?
Zenon III: I think mistakes were made
Okay, so Dungeon under construction? Is this more sci-fi? Are the dungeons just made by aliens to test us? As a game? Is this getting meta?
Or is this just a joke?
It's one of the things that is hard to tell, because 80's dnd would 100% just have this as a goofy joke. And… I can't tell.
Like the implications if it is under construction is that rather than this being any form of post apocalypse, it's all watched over and made to be a fantasy and..
And that actually makes sense?
How is such a world that is so dangerous the towns are all underground surviving? How are they farming enough food?
They aren't. The food is being brought in by those who control it. Maybe it's a case of realizing that people get better at magic through conflict(Exp), and they are purposely generating conflict to research magic. Maybe it's a sick game for amusement. Maybe it's entirely something else but…
But it is weird because it makes the world coherent, but only by virtue of "aliens did it" excusing any world-building issues. It's… so weird and genius but also…
Also goofy? Both the previous aliens and the computer really were little things that you had to puzzle out the implications of in ways I like. "Dungeon under construction" is so much more in your face "this is artificial", and I'm not really much of a fan of it… yeah?
Back to my hapless adventurers
"Sir" Gal-and: Oh dear I we've come too early
Sarge: I think that's the least of our problems, is anyone else worried this place is way beyond our capacity and we are going to die?
Wizz: Huh? O right, I supposed we should get going serena?
Serena: (Casts surface)
Wizz: (Casts Fly)
Wizz: And back at Sorpigal inn, safe and sound
Swifty Sarg: And if the portal end had been in a magic preventing zone, like he one the actual entrance was in
Wizz:... Well I... you worry to much, it worked out, did it now.
Swifty Sarg: I'm a trap handler, it's my job to worry
And with that, I think I will end this update here, updated map
My problem right now is that I know what later games says happens in this one, so I can't join in on the speculation because some of it might be things that are actually in Secret of the Inner Sanctum. >.<
So to note, the next part of this covers a very long amount of time, in terms of playing but since most of that was gameplay, not anything very… lore talk about, I'm skipping over a LOT.
But, highlights?
See this, this is a trap I consider both
Mean
Funny
You may think, oh if you accept it, its's an obvious ambush. And you'd be right.
What is funny is that if you are suspicious and don't accept
YOU STILL GET ATTACKED
And one that is, honestly, much more deadly.
I enter the town of Algary which is… the single most boring town as far as I can tell? Sorpigal is the starting town and has statues telling you hints. Portsmith has the succubus female only going on. Erq are rich assholes. Algary… is just a town? It has a port, but they don't do anything other than having Zom.
There are a few points of interest such as
Which turns out to be an infinite fight pit, with loot! Good for leveling (and I do) but…mmm it's behind the Inn, so maybe it's a fight club deal? I have no idea, also the town is the only town without a dungeon.
Morago the mystic, who takes our measure
Nice, thought you could uh… you know, just give us it on your stats page.
And two possible bugs?
Tavern rumors inform me "The king is!" What the king is it doesn't say
Also I think this is a programming error. See that weird door? If I enter the empty wall, then the other side shows a wall, and it's a normal room with a door. Think it was misprogrammed so one side of the wall doesn't appear. A glitch in the matrix.
But otherwise, this town just doesn't have a strong character
Though… even without strong character, I think it does establish few things
First, the world does have trade networks.
The winged beast can work with caravan's going to and from Algary, and Algary itself has docks, as probably does portsmith? The towns are underground but…
This speculation is then validated by statues I find on the South west, specifically the Blue Dragon statue, which states that "Before the days when the towns moved underground, dragons were few and far between." Which means yes, the town is explicitly an underground dungeon itself, and implies that deadly monsters have been grown since. I'm pretty happy that it lays out that.
It suggests, to me at least, that dragons are linked to them going underground. Granted it could be read as dragons just appeared after, but as a link…
And I can see it, dragon's are major threats, there are no 'easy' dragons in this game, all of them are threats that can devastate even my level 9 party if fighting more than one. And given that, I think this gives us a rough estimation of what the strength of a theoretical 'trained' guard is in the world, enough to take on most other enemies plaguing the roads, but not dragons, or level… 7ish? Admittedly that would be enough wizards could cast fly, but wizards might be rarer, or fly just can't transport goods. (also I'd say it's the equivalent of a lvl 9 part in fighting strength, which could be like… 16 guys? Of less power)
In this assumption the winged beast can attack caravans, but it's unique, and dangerous for it, and the wagon's hit by the trolls in C2 were probably isolated ambushes. A risk, but not a certain one.
The towns then, provide anti-dragon cover, perhaps being too small for dragons? Dragons may have caves, but they are usually presented in media as big caves. The underground towns acting as the same as medieval castles, a place to run to a la some reverse 'dragonriders of pern' where it's protection from dragons.
If so, dragons being found on the edges of the map might suggest not that dragons are on the edge of 'civilization' but rather that civilization is on the edge of dragons. They like the mountain areas, and humans like away from those, in safer areas, but the world is fundamentally of dragons, humans just exist on the edges.
Most of this makes sense. And I like it for a 'your characters really were just starting out at the start, having to train for nearly 10 years to get to vet status before really breaking through human limits'' Admittedly I can't fit the 'monsters in towns' thing here, but… I can kinda let that just be something I ascribe to gameplay weirdness. Like it's pretty clear towns have monsters because every map gets fully used and they can't 'waste' one by having large maps with no monsters.
Part of which I can ascribe to memory issues but also…
So way back I remember reading someone talking about the difference between JRPGS and western (in this case mostly referring to Isometric western of late 90's early 2000's) as whether you were willing to have one system or multiple systems. In western, everything was part of the same system, so when combat started your characters fought where they were, as did the monsters, contrast with a system that takes you to a new screen for battles. This could, at times, be giggle inducing fun, anyone who has played BG3 with explosives or stolen via head baskets in Skyrim can attest to that, but it also means their systems tend to be unbalanced and clunky. Trying to fit every interaction into the same system means it rarely excels at any. I love Planescape, but it is hardly a great combat experience.
In the same way I'm thinking the mapping of towns the same as dungeons hurt this, since towns just don't have enough content to really justify their size. Etrian Odyssey, a game made by people who loved this era of games but did it with an eye to a more modern thought process understood this, and created an alt system. Towns don't have maps, they just have locations you select from a screen, with maybe a background change as you hover over each one. This does a lot, because it lets your mind fill in the rest of the town, with having to have it in. I'm not asking questions like 'why are all the houses empty?' and "how does anyone live here with so many monsters" when playing EO in the way I am here.
Ultimately, however, things like EO couldn't have been developed without first learning what doesn't work, so… you know, this is a look to the past.
On a completely unrelated note, witness the wood golem art
Beautiful.
In E-3 I encounter two things that might be more evidence of Sci-fi tech, first
Which I bet means there is a diamond key somewhere, though this could be a case of 'sufficient tech' that is reading as 'diamond door' to primitives.
Second
Giving the wrong one gets me teleported away (the right one comes from a harper you can find nearby), is the lion magic? Or robot? Or is there a difference? Either way I find another castle
The king's Castle
I move down to E-4 and…
Nope
NOPE
Also, in continuing themes of 'this game is a dick'
While mapping C-3 and stumbling into D-3. I get a quest to 'climb every tree in the map and return to me' and it activates the trees on one area, which, when you climb one of 8 things happen
Got Teleported
Got diseased (infectious sap)
Poisoned thorns
Lightning
All SP drained
Cursed (doubled dmg I think? Based on how much dmg was done
Nothing
+5 food (once out of 19 climbs)
Also any of these can come with a ambush as well
This quest is a dick, and by the end I want to punch the quest giver in lieu of the luck charm reward.
C-3 proves much more fruitful, as I find Wyverns (same sprite as winged beast). Which makes me remember that lord Kliburn is supposed to be by "Wyvern Peaks". But even better the Wyverns give 1-2k exp per encounter at fixed areas, and are pretty easy to defeat. As long as I rest every 1-2 encounters I can farm them safely. Which I use to get everyone up to lvl 9. I also find a nest,
Which I thought was a dungeon, but turns out to be an encounter, a bunch of Wyverns and, for some reason, 1 8 headed hydra. Defeating them gets me a Wyvern's eye.
In "this game is a dick" I managed to find a hidden merchant, and he offers to trade, I accept thinking 'secret shop' only to find
This asshole gives you two maps, and then REPLACES YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING INVENTORY WITH USELESS SHIT
Losing me, ALL of my inventory, quest items included, given maps reset you could gather them all again but… fuuuuuuuck that. This is a reload. I'll deal with this ass later if I need the maps.
Huh… you know, the original thing said Lord Kilburn was at wyvern peaks, I only found out now that he was exiled and like… this doesn't paint a good picture. Like it looks like he found something in the desert, and then everyone else ignored him, or considered him crazy, and now it's on us to find it. This honestly feels the first real… main-ploty mission I've got? Like it could be more but most missions so far are missions that are… personal? Beat my challenges. Deliver this letter. This, by contrast, is about the fate of the realm, even if Kilburn could maybe stand to give us a few more details.
I could go explore the desert but… yeah I've got other places I want to map, in the North West I find Castle Doom, as well as a hidden passage that, weirdly you can't possibly miss given it appears on the way to Doom. Feels like sucker's bait maybe?
I also fight (rather than dying or running) my first dragon.
Though thoughts.
1. Everything but the red dragon are chumps, and 1 v 6 is good action economy odds
2. My characters might be red/green colorblind?
First time I lost, but managed to run away, and come back knowing where the encounter is and with anti-fire spells. Which wins, yielding me a dragon's tooth, feeling pretty good I continue on and-
Game is dicks.
Continuing my exploration I make use of the level 5 wizard spell 'teleport': it can teleport me up to nine squares in any direction, which is great for exploring, even if some maps prevent it.
Using it I uncover-
This place? Spinning tiles that are very annoying. I find a passage down, which has monsters that kick my ass.
Continuing my sightseeing tour-
A cave the turns out to be the other side of Erliquin cave, I suspect that, sans teleport the way you were supposed to get to this area was find the password, and turn off the barriers
A riddle!
I try to answer honestly, guessing 'darkness' at first. On the theory that all worlds end in darkness, and also it brings sleep, but it's so easily chased away, and get a 'wrong you are too young to understand' and a battle.
Thinking of 'time'? It will conquer all worlds, you can't get your dreams without time, chronomancy is the strongest magic of all, but we never seem to have enough of it.
Nope
Looked it up, it's love. I feel both of my answers were valid. Reward is a diamond key, and I had that diamond door…
Well, time for that later. For now, my next destination is the desert, to find the secret Lord Kilburn spoke of.
This also acts as your way of tanking, since your front two are always in melee, while your back two are never in melee unless others have gone down or the enemy gets an ambush. Weirdly the middle ones are mixed, sometimes they start in melee and sometimes they don't and I'm not sure why.
There's an old might and magic LP on the LP archive and it indicates that it's a property of the area- how wide a room you're supposed to be. It's not something it really dwelled on but shrug.
Also level 5 gets new spells, including the key wizard spells "Fireball" and "Lightning bolt". Which are my first AoE spells. Fireball hits up to 5 but can only be used on enemies not in melee range, while lightning can be used in melee, but only hits 3. They both cost gems though.
Fun fact you actually can use fireball on targets in melee range, supposedly. It's just a bad idea since you blast your own party if you choose to in addition to the enemies.
There's an old might and magic LP on the LP archive and it indicates that it's a property of the area- how wide a room you're supposed to be. It's not something it really dwelled on but shrug.
Fun fact you actually can use fireball on targets in melee range, supposedly. It's just a bad idea since you blast your own party if you choose to in addition to the enemies.
It's definitionally linked to area, you get a LOT more people in melee outdoors vs indoors (which creates a interesting dynamic, outdoors let you use your more powerful spells, but indoors has better melee ratios. It's not all that, because ambushes auto-make more people melee and it varries from encounter to encounter in areas. So it seems to be a combo of area + some random roll.
The second I figured out after I accidentally hit a 'melee' enemy though hitting the wrong key a few times... I killed my party like two times before I figured it out! (I have died a looooooot)
The desert is brutal, even with maps, it takes up one food every time you move a space or even turn around, so easy navigation often requires finding little 'oasis' of non-desert terrain'. Or would if you know I didn't want to map everything in case I missed something important because this game would hide something vital somewhere in there and not tell me.
The largest area of non-desert, in the very north-west yields 3 things.
First
Interesting, marking it for now…
Second
I'm considered "not worthy" right now this is judgement once I do the prisoner quest I think
Hey dusk, I've been looking for that!
Continuing on I find a small set of traders
Unlike the previous trader, this only takes the first item in your inventor in exchange for 'cactus nectar' a multi-use item that gives you food, handy for desert exploration.
I tramp through more desert and find a section that has random teleporters getting teleportered to
(side note, later mapping reveals this is super annoying to get to, with a lot of teleport traps forcing you to trek through the desert, but I ended up teleported here just.. Directly and didn't realize how hard it was until later)
Lore wise this are, because it's very like… open? The other aliens were hidden in a small room, one you could say 'oh the devs being silly' but this… this is a stat bonus, something much more clear. And if I go further in (or really less far in, since I was teleported in the middle)
I opt for a friendly reaction, because why no.
Well now, this is Lore(™)
Like major lore. This is what Kilburn was pointing us to. What he must have been exiled to. There is an alien replacing one of the lords, and we have to expose him. Not something as a side story, but a major plot point. It also… well the aliens seem to be fairly friendly? They warn us about the enemy, they don't do a lot, which may be they are stuck, or just… you know, early era game. But they aren't hostile like the others. They also seem to be much less…
The original aliens in Korrin bluffs seemed very in control, but these ones aren't. Are they separate groups? Allied? Hostile? I… I honestly don't know. If feels like they should be separate otherwise the ones at Korin Bluffs would be the people to contact but… yeah
The final area the desert gives us-
Here we meet the clerics of the W, E and N, who give services healing, uncurse and alignment restoration for free. Oddly we are told to find the S clerics for a reward, and based on where the others are, they =the clerics of the south should be at the entrance, but they aren't and searching doesn't do anything
… okay I give up, where are they?
I look it up, and it turns out they are in another dungeon, not as I figured, some puzzle around the area. Well that's annoying. I like.. Don't mind a dungeon run, but please don't make me think it's a puzzle.
But with that I've finished all of the map…. Or well all of the map that I can,the following is unmapped
1 Large section of A-1, on account of I can't get to it
2. A-4 On account of red dragons
3. The souther seas of B/C/D 4 on account of ocean enemies kicking my ass
4. A small section of A-1 because I can't get to it
5 A-4 On account of black dragons
I think that the ocean will also need those maps, but I'll handle that later, for now, I have dungeons
The areas I have for exploration are
Towns
1- Dusk and any dungeons (my first target)
2- Erliquin dungeon (needs barrier removal or the Pw)
Dungeons
Wizard's lair in B1, monster to dangerous
Medusa Cave in B2- Possible, white wolves killed me via frost breath, but packing protection from cold would probably make it possible
Warriors Stronghold, also in B2
Temple Fortress (I can't open yet)
Castles
Blackridge (B1)
White Wolf (B3)
Alamar (E3)
Doom (A1)
Drag (E1)
Also there is a "City of Gold" in E4 but that's a nope!
Well that and a fuckoff gigantic scorpian that has to be "The Beast of Sand" the Sorpigal stuff talked about
I opt for Dusk first which has a very distinct flavor
Yeah it's all undead, friendly undead, if spooky but non hostile, which suggests this isn't a world where 'undead always = evil'. Though… there is something in the type of undead. Ghosts, apparitions, the training ground is haunted armor. All of them tend to be more… spiritual? Undead. There are no friendly vampires, zombies, or ghouls those are always hostile (there are hostile ghosts and such but there are friendly ones to). This suggests to me an almost… sinful flesh? Theology of undead.
The spirits, once torn from the flesh can be good or evil, hostile or not. But the flesh risen after death is always hostile, perhaps mindless, perhaps not, enemies don't really talk, but always hostile to the living.
Non undead wise, dusk, being next to the destroyed castle suggested that this are was devastated. Not sure what did it, while the 'alien crash created a desert and killed everyone here' seems cool, it doesn't really seem to line up timeline wise. Nor was it dragons, since we don't encounter any here, and these are protected areas.
Maybe we will find out, maybe not. Either way, we explore the area,
Nice. Finished the courier quest
It's zom and zam, yes I already met them.
Finally we do more exploring to find….
This is fine
I open it to find
Oh my fucking god I've been holding on to this garlic forever. I knew vampires were coming!
Mother-F
WHY DO THE VAMPIRES HAVE FIREBALLS? (I quickly die having not thought to protect myself from FUCKING FIRE VAMPIRES)
Okay I looked it up because the garlic thing drove me insane.
You want what the garlic is for?
It's for a quest. Someone wants garlic in a quest in Castle Blackridge.
You notice how I said Castle? Because I found out something else*. ALL THE FUCKING CASTLE ARE QUEST HUBS.
I'm… oh my god.
I went into Castle White Wolf, found enemies that kicked my ass (though I think I could take them now) and then found Korin Bluffs with its thoughts about 'prisoners'. So I went 'okay the castles are endgame dungeons, got it.' I actually thought freeing the 6 prisoners might be like.. The mainline quest.
No, they are the fucking quest hubs with prisoners as a side quest.
Amazing.
I searched the manual and can't find a hint of this there-
And-
Oh my god-
The game came with a hint book
THERE WAS A FUCKING HINT BOOK! I looked at it, it came with maps.
Reading a bit, it's clearly not meant to be something you read through like the manual. It warns against that, and removes mapping as a thing. Though like… made respect for MM1 for actually including one rather than either trying to sell a "strategy guide" like the 90's or just really on the internet to create it like nowadays.
But that is the only place that tells you the castles are quest hubs. I spent like… half the game completely avoiding the quest hubs because of an initial impression on them and no information to tell me otherwise.
Just… absolutely nuts.
I finish exploring Dusk caverns, which consist of a bunch of traps and the Prisons of Agility for +4 agility then, next time we confront the lords or the realm in the castles, and find our imposter.
*Actually I ended up finding out a LOT more things that I meant to, I'm going to try to play as if I didn't have any of the other info I now know, and act like I would have otherwise while trying to forget most of it. But yeah at this point I'm walking with a lot more info.
I know there are 6 castles, and since they do have monsters in them, I have to think about which to tackle first
White Wolf
Blackridge
Alamar
Doom
Draug
Of those, I can cross Doom off, since it's been said to be the toughest. Draug is destroyed and that hints at maybe no quests.
Of the remaining 4, I opt for WW first. I already have some of it mapped and the monster I died too, a raska, is not one that is dangerous at my current level. So I'm confident I can handle it.
Searching and… here we go
And there it is.
The irony of all this is if I had opted to simply walk straight my first time, I would have found him. But I wanted to map the side passages first, and found trouble (behind a locked door that might have been the castle dungeon?), which made me stay away from castles assuming they were the endgame quest. If I had gone straight, my life would have been very different.
I know where that is, that's the B2 Stronghold,
I don't even have to go anywhere, just go back and
Talking again gets more 'services needed and more quests both of which I have alread completed
Find Lord Kilburn
Discover the secret of Portsmith
With increasing (though minor at this stage) exp values of 2k and 3k.
The next one, find the pirates secret cove, is one I don't have. But 6k for free is nothing to sneeze at
I explore the castle a bit before going out
Re reading the prisoner quest… it looks like I only have to find them, when I thought it was a 'rescue them'. Given the 'statue of judgement' this is a moral choice type thing. Honestly I'm taking 3. 2 is probably the 'good' choice in this sort of game, but fuck torment. I'm doing nothing
After that, time for the pirate cove… I'm betting I need those maps the trader had but fuck losing the entire inventory, luckily I have a plan
Wizz Bane is my fastest guy, can teleport around, and can auto-retreat. So I go with him alone, removing his inventory. A little fly and teleportation and
Bam, wizards, never underestimate them
Even so do some exploring of the ocean to fine
A tiny island that doesn't seem to have anything?
That I still get my ass kicked by sea-creatures
Sooo… sorry Lord Ironfist, but think I'll do this one later.
Overall, I think Lordfist seems clean? Like his requests are reasonable ones. The warlord's fortress, pirates and Portsmith are threats as a lord I would want to know about. Sure the portsmith one could have been a kill attempt, but nothing else was as dangerous, and it makes me wonder if my ability to retreat from the succubus queen was luck or if she's coded to always allow retreat. Since the quest doesn't require you to kill her and seem like it must intend what I did.
He asks you to find Lord Kilburn, but not to silence him or bring him back, so maybe he is willing to believe Kilburn to some degree? Also his prisoner is a demon which… yeah reasonable.
Either way, I'm not too suspicious?
Castle Blackridge N is next, on the basis that it's closer to the flight point. I explore it to find that the enemies are super low level, like wow, this was meant to be explored way earlier.
Yeah, I'm freeing him.
Zenon III: Have you considered he should be there?
So that's what the 'abandon quest' spell is for. Welp, time to bust it out.
Okay, so 'ancient ruins in quivering forest'. - Already got, it's the wizards place
Someone's peak- Already got
"Sample of desert people's goods' - That's got to be cactus juice… Is Lord Inspection a druggie (honestly given his prisoner, don't trust him) Either way ain't my problem.
Shrine of Ozark in Duks- Already done
"Fable Fountain in dragondune"
I find a silver message and nothing else interesting. Lord Inspection… is fine? The prisoner is suspicious but could be guilty of any number of things, and medieval lords being jerks is normal, not alien infiltrator evidence, he's quest doesn't appear super like… realm focused like Ironfist, if anything maybe a little magic focused, but nothing major as an issue.
Time for Blackridge South.
His services are
Bring Garlic (so he wants to fight vampires)
Bring Wolfsbane (and were wolves)
Bring Belladonna (and people)
The head of a medusa (and stone people)
Pretty sure that one is in medusae's lair, and is a place I was planning to go anyways, so… to the lair!
Doing more exploring I find
Hmmmm, okay so basilisk turn people to stone, this could means It's a basilisk lair instead but… I haven't found any obvious medusa's elsewhere and there are a bunch of snake traps/pits so… I'm still thinking medusa's are here
(amazingly annoying enemies, since they can either do a completely unthreatening attack, or breath gas that affects everyone and has a random chance of turning people to stone, something I can't undue without going all the way back to a church)
It's frustrating because leveling trivializes the rest of the encounters but… well I need to, so I do, now only having to worry about my run ending if one particular character gets stoned, rather than any of them
Also one of the other spells I get is "Rejuvenate" which…
Wizz Bane: Please
Serena: It's a bad idea
Wizz: Yes but aren't you the least bit curious? It says it trims 1-10 years off your age
Serena: But continuing
Wizz: Look we'll do it on Zenon, she's evil anyways, we can raise her right if she ends up a baby
Serena… fine
Zenon: WHY AM I SO OLD (failure on the spell ages instead)
Serena: Okay that didn't go right, let's try it again (a few more bits of testing and I think the spell auto-fails if you try to get them below 18)
Back to the cave where my wisdom proves itself as half my party (but not cleric) is stoned and I can just recover. Then a hidden passage and
Swifty Sarge: I KNEW IT! See I TOLD you it wasn't just Basilisks, but no one listens to old Swifty. She's just crazy
Wizz: We kept going, now we just need an intact head and…
Crag: Oh… intact.. Right…
Wizz: well next time try to keep at least one head intact enough
(This is my explanation for why the first fight doesn't get me the head)
The next fight is more productive
Turning that in gets us a quest for wyvern eye and dragon's tooth, the two things we've been getting in spades grinding.
Next up is
I have no idea.
After that time to explore castle revealing my third silver message and…
Swifty: WE DIDN'T EVEN LOOT ANYTHING
Interestingly, at first this doesn't appear to do anything, but the next fixed encounters are super tough
I don't make the connection the first time (I die) but when I go back to the same fixed and it's chumps, and I figure it out. A way to get some high level encounters has potential, if I'm cautious I can beat these guys and that's good exp and loot
Also
… yeah sure?
Lord Hacker is deffo my must suspicious guy at the moment. His quest reak of bad shit. Nightshade is not something I trust him with.
I make some attempts to grind here, given the monster and I can but… it's on the edge, where multiple runs fail in death, acceptable for mapping but not grinding, and opt to leave it.
Castle Alamar blocks me, apparently I need a 'kings pass' to open it, so no more lord's for me. For now, instead using my new power to test my melee on the sea, and survive this time! (Clerics get a amazing aoe spell at level 6, that dmgs all enemies and heals all allies, since people go to 0 hp only, anyone who isn't dead gets back up each turn). As such, I opt to continue mapping with my newer, more powerful spells (not least because the cleric spell is outside only).
First things first. That part of A-1 that was a massive unmapped block I can't enter?
Isn't.
It was literally open, I just mismapped a portion and put a single wall where I shouldn't have. Issue of mapping. Either way it takes me to a 'dark rider' I can challenge. Since I've gotten a lot of xp I don't want to lose, I do not accept and teleport out.
Continuing on I map A-3 (A-2 still has the dragons blocking my way) which is mostly water and nothing of interest until I get the 'water erupts, revealing a tremendous serpent'.
…. YOLO
(ass kicked by the sharks, beast doesn't even fight before I retreat)
On an island right next to the serpent I find…
I give it a spin, and get 'loser' for everyone, which doesn't surprise me. The statue in the first town said we needed to fight the great beasts to increase our luck as with the wheel of fortune. (Water.. Which is I'm betting that serpent, that one super tough square in the desert, the winged beast that takes you to the ambush in the swamp, and a uh… I'll check the last one, but yeah)
Nothing else in A-3, A4
A4 is amazingly annoying, having 'tidal waves' that send you back. At first I thought it was specific tiles, but walking over the same square produces different results, and not in the usual 'traps only work one time' sense, untrapped squares tidal wave me. Nor is it a specific number of steps, because starting from the same place lets me take different step amounts.
I think it's random?
Looking it up, one moment.
No answer I can find. But I find two things of interest, first set of the sea that is blocked off. This is unusual, until now once you have water walk all 'sea' tiles are open. If the devs wanted it blocked off they added mountains. But here, no mountain, just 'rough seas'.
Second
Fucking monty python ass hours (if has to be monty right? I mean it could be a reference to the trope Monty was parodying since I can't ask a question back-
So that's what the fucking seer was for, I knew writing it down was a good idea, or would be if the color didn't change each time you start up the game and so it doesn't work. (Also, color, yeah it has to be MP)
Going back to get updated colors and I get a chest with a coral key. Which surprises me. I really, really thought that would be a bridge to the blocked out pieces of ocean and-!
Idea, I have the pirate maps, but they aren't in the inventory slot of my first person. I wonder if that would change anything.
Nope, turns out just teleporting solves it though, but I only get one small island with nothing on it… feels weirdly limited. Also I cheat because the Tidal waves make mapping so annoying so I check to make sure I didn't miss anything and then fill in the rest of the map with ocean.
Moving on, B4 is already mostly mapped, though I do note the ghost pirate ship area (it was my first water encounter and gave me probably a slightly too high expectation of how difficult water was)
C4 and D4 I map as one, and find a couple interesting things.First is Og, who needs his idols according to statue in starting town
Next up is
Ugggggh, I knew this was coming, ever since the starting town had a statue of a memory of someone who "lost their life to savages of southern isles". In one of the souther areas I encounter 'crazed natives'. Fuck that. Painful trope of seeing people who don't want to be colonized and violently try to stop you as savages, and one we've not seen the last of in this series (also I have to retreat since any space they are on blocks magic and they are tough). Continuing to search..
Pretty sure this it the volcano that occasionally erupts here, and hey, coral key already found, soooo
Oh puzzle,let's see what this all has
Fist are pits of lava which is a levitation need. and a hint that 'the caverns are randomized until the dials are set'.
Wait, that's… interesting info. Are the dials like… reorganizing the area? Can I not map it!?!?!
I check another cell and get death via gorgons, given I'd have to face natives again (who I can only 'beat' via running away and coming back to the cell with no encounter) I opt to skip this until I am strong enough to massacre indigenous peoples.
With the entire sea mapped out, and having gotten both
The Pirate maps and
Defeating the ghost pirates with
With neither giving me any luck, I go check online and…
I missed a portion of A2 water, which was legit my stupid ass. Darn it
Lord Ironfist will be happy. Next up is the Shipwreck of Jolly roger, which is probably all those shipwreck fights I had earlier- (near them but not it)
Next up is "FIght Ghost Pirate Anarchists"
… oh my god the ghost pirates guys were Anarchists?
THAT IS THE COOLEST THING EVER.
Like, straight up, can I go back and join them? Do I have to be undead?
Fuck, LP cancled. I want to do a quest where you are GHOST PIRATE ANARCHISTS.
Lord Ironfist is no longer based, new friend is ghost pirates.
(also he now wants me to conquer the warlord's stronghold that I found first time for him).
Moving on I decided to take E-4, which turns out to be swampy and not so dangerous, the black dragons seem to have been a specific encounter. Also while playing I was streaming with @AKuz and went a 'you are in a swamp I bet you are killing frogs' and I was like 'no frogs in this game.
Also fought and was doing it, and when to aoe and got rid of a bunch, then looked at the remaining ones and
OH SHIT! Gold dragons. They end up being worth 9k exp, the most I've gotten in on battle so far. Continue exploring reveals that the MASS DRAGON encounters are in the southwest cliffs, where I die and lose the xp, bt thems the breaks. More exploring finds a area of 'toppled tombstones abound', and eventually..
Am I really gonna defile this grave for money?
No, I have enough money. I'm going to do it for the love of the game
(it's a vampire and a bunch of mummies). I then find a crypt which..
It's a lich this time, easy xp and
Oh fuck me, liches can eradicate people. Eradicate is 'not even a body left' condition, which means even if you rez people back, they lose one endurance, permanently. Also my Cleric, you know the one with the TURN UNDEAD! (I manage to pull through via blitzing the lich, and then taking the mummies). But it's that ability means this isn't a good exp spot. Good exp isn't worth perm stat losses.
Huh. So first, I am not stupid enough to fight this. No way.
But also, this does kinda support the 'dragons displaced humanoid' theory I have going. Like they have their own city. Sure it's one, to humanoids 5, but it's just there,not indicated to be underground. These are their mountains (surrounded by the graves of humanoids and ectoplasmic residue) and next to it…
This is the 4 floor deep building I encountered way back whe). Which given the usual gold-dragons association, makes me wonder about connections? Not going to go in now, but interesting
Taking stock after mapping E4 I have
Mapping
Small inaccessible areas of A1, E1,
Most of A2
Dungeons
Wizard's Lair,
Warriors Stronghold
Small part of Dusk with undead
The crystal door might lead to one with a crystal key?
Volcano
Building of Gold
Other
Alamar once I get kings pass
Dragadune
Doom
I'm about to go dungeoning when I realize… I have access to wizard lvl 6 spells, including etherialize. It only moves 1 square forward unlike teleport, but it works on every map unlike teleport. Which means I can go explore those off limits areas of the map, and check out the barriers around Ereliquin so… yeah, let's do that first
So in order
E-1 produces a murderous amount of dinosaurs at the forbidden area, to explore later
Dusk gets me the "undead amulet" after several encounters with no spells, which looking up is equipable to increase the power of turn undead, I then try it out on the vampires nearby, which helps me win to get… nothing, oh well.
Ereliquin has more city treasure, also stealing it bring diamond golems upon me (rich bastards)
A-1 Gets me
The endurance pool, which is nice.
Also I realize I had a shortcut to it from B1 I could have used so I didn't need to have etherealized to get here
I r smart
And uncover one to A2, so mapping there.
(dmg every tile)
I learn two things from this encounter, one fascinating, and one very mundane
1.The game's code, however it works, apparently does not perform checks for "0 hp = unconscious" at the start of combat, or in the field. So everyone can start at 0 hp and still fight.
2. Simply casting protection from Fire negates the damage
After long navigation I get
The king's pass.
Which kinda implies which lord is the demon, don't it?
Saving, I level up who I an, getting the final tier of spells on cleric, including a guaranteed instakill on undead, which is nice, along with protection from elements, which means no casting 5 different spells if I want to be prepared (I haven't admittedly because too much busywork).
It's time for Castle Alamar, and the 'king'.
First up, as I'm exploring
I rush in, to find EVERY SINGLE SQUARE has a encounter, after fighting through 8 of them I finally get to the end and-
… OLD SCHOOL DND
Because yes, this just flings you out of the castle, go back in, everything resets.
I explore back in the southern castle and find an identical passage (Scream, monsters, every tile). Am I stupid enough to go again…
Yes, yes I am.
Surprisingly only one of them was sucker bait. We are all to gay to even consider not freeing her.
And go to face the king
Wow, in cast it wasn't immediately obvious, he is clearly the imposter. For one thing "Varnlings"could not be more obvious. Also, his quest? Can't be refused. Unlike every other lords. I checked about it, curious if you could help him (I don't know of that crypt) and what happens, and it's fake, it takes up your quest space, but the place is made up. There isn't anything else I can do here.
So I said earlier that I felt like the devil/demon= aliens was a MM6 thing.
And there is some argument that isn't true. The imposter is an alien, and he's been referred to as a 'demon' at least once.But…
I don't really think so. I feel the druid was using demon as a more catch all term. And there is not evidence he's in any way working with the others. He's certainly not Kreegan, and there are clearly helpful aliens who note he's a criminal, which means the other aliens are NOT Kreegan, who don't… really do helpful.
Continuing on, I make an attempt against the winged beast, figuring that my aoe is good enough I can make real progress on its assassins, and my wizard has protection from magic available, which should do a number on its paralyze.
(it works, though the reward is kinda sad, 3.4k exp and 7 gold. I assume the beast's real rewards are the wheel of fortune). Great sea beasts sharks still kick my ass, time to wait for meteor swarm.
But with that, the world map is 100% finished, and it's time to start dungeon delving. First up on my 'feels like it had the monster that were the least op last time we fought' is Warrior's stronghold.
For people wondering what connection this Lord Ironfist has to the Ironfists of Heroes/MM6-8, the closest thing to an answer is in HOMM1's manual: this Lord Ironfist is probably Ragnar Ironfist, so cousin to HOMM1's Lord Ironfist (who went on to become father to Roland and Archibald in the HOMM1-2 gap). This is unlike most repeat names, who are just... repeat names for generally roughly similar characters. Multiple times over, even.
For people wondering what the connection this Lord Ironfist has to the Ironfists of Heroes/MM6-8, the closest thing to an answer is in HOMM1's manual: this Lord Ironfist is probably Ragnar Ironfist, so cousin to HOMM1's Lord Ironfist (who went on to become father to Roland and Archibald in the HOMM1-2 gap). This is unlike most repeat names, who are just... repeat names for generally roughly similar characters. Multiple times over, even.
The HoMM1 backstory is fucking wild and I am going to have to devote a post to talk about it before doing MM6.
Part 1.12: Why Liberalism is best
The warlord's fortress second floor encounters are tough, but with protection from elements and strong peeps I'm able to take on even a group of 4 dragons. Nothing of interest until
It's another slide trap but this one is a 'conveyer belt', the game much more openly showing its hand as sci-fi, and point to, at least for me, evidence that this place is like… a facility that was once something more. Like there is a great juxtaposition between the high tech of a conveyor belt, and someone placing a spear wall at the end as a trap. A repurposement of a fallen world. Really post-post apoc shit.
Another corridor gets me giants hurl boulders, which I opt to avoid for now.
Going around that..
(The tests are fights)
I will go though 4 tests until I get…. Nothing? Like it doesn't lead to anything, I'm honestly confused. It wraps back to the conveyor belt.
I do more exploring, making use of etherialize to go to areas that I wouldn't normally get to, and find something interesting, mainly how the devs limit etherealize
I find a set of areas where I could go if the conveyor belt were turned off that I can't get to. I tried going through the walls around the conveyor belt, but all the spaces next to those walls you can't cast spells in, and since etherialize is only one space forward, I can't sequence break.
More searching (and etherializing to bypass the boulder room gets me)
I then go to the entrance of the room…
Welp there are the giants…. Let's do it
(I have to retreat)
Still that finishes it and I think this locked door denotes the 5th test and…. Nothing
Explored the entire map, nothing. The boulder doesn't change what it says…
Looking it up.
Okay, I missed a button that deactivates the conveyer belt and a message on one specific wall that I passed by. Entirely because I was facing the wrong direction.
WIth the conveyer belt turned off…
… it's Robin Hood.
And I have way too much coin to submit, let's rock
Welp, least I saved beforehand
Next up is the Wizard's Lair
Actually, no
No fuck that.
I can beat this. Time to play smart.
Step 1, use the thunderanium. I've been holding it forever, and only now figured it's a might increase when used, and it has like 50 charges.
(255 is the stack overflow so stopping here)
Step 2
Divine fucking intervention
Thi is a spell I basically never used in MM6-8, since it ages the caster 10 years
But here? There is nothing listed about that. (which is lies, it ages 5 years, but I have a easy spell that knocks years off so… eh)
It only costs 7 sp (also 10 gems, but I have 800 of those for each person), and heals everything but eradication. If an enemy can't eradicate me, and doesn't knock out Serena, they can't do shit.
Round 2 you communist asshole
Damn, communism got hands.
Wizard lair is up next, where I navigated an incredibly annoying dungeon full of teleporters that randomly teleport you. I have to get teleported by each one at least once so I know where it is, and then I can bypass it via jump. The process is slow, the monsters are hard, but it is satisfying to navigate it bit by bit, filling out my map. Also, on one wall
That's… horrifying?
More gold faces tell us that "Okrim is watching and knows your weakness." Which might be meant to be intimidating, but all the fool has done is tell me his name, and I know Lord Hacker wanted his ring for a reward. Unlike communists, you can trust nobility.
Also I find another checkered pattern room. Which I remember from the Warlord's Fortress but still can't figure out the connection. I also find another wall head, telling us "I would pay highly for a green handled, pearl encrusted abelnuski." Which???
Is… is that a treasure I find, a random sentence? Google can't even say what an abelnuski is, so I think this is fake, but just… weird?
I find yet another golden message, and make my way to "Lair of the Omnipotent Wizard Okrim"
Wizz Bane: Welp seems, we have to kill him, I'm the only wizard who should achieve omnipotence
Zenon: Aren't you supposed to be good?
Wizz: Yeah, which is why I have to kill all the other wizards, they have no sense of right and wrong
He falls pretty easily and I get…
This would be intimidating, if I could rez
(it eradicates me which is -1 end to rez, so sucks but, eh)
Giving it back to Lord Hacker, he gives me one last quest and
I KNEW I DIDN'T TRUST YOU!
Okay game, well played 'not the imposter but still evil ass' is a good play. Dick, but good. I'm going to reset because fuck losing my inventory, but I do take the time to map while down here, since it's a busted run. Also this proves that both communism and feudalism suck, hence why my chars are obviously liberals.
(also another 3 door problem, I have no idea what the symbols mean)
I eventually surface to discover this was castle dragdune, which is coming up,, but I want my stuff back first. I reset (I still give Hacker the ring, exp is exp, and as long as I don't talk again, he doesn't thrown me in the dungeon)
Current needs
Misc
Beast of Sand, Earth, Water
Kick robin hood's communist ass
Fight the dragons at A-2 to prove I can
Fight the black knight at A1
Dungeons
That crystal door might lead to one with a crystal key?
Volcano
Building of Gold
Castles
Dragadune
Doom
The Misc outdoor stuff can wait till I level up my wizard to 13 and get the final tier of spells, as for the others. The volcano is random unless I apply the right combos, so I assume there is, somewhere a hint as to what to apply. I'm gonna avoid it for now. Ditto Doom, which I've been given warnings about. I think my order is crystal door, then Dragadune, then building of gold.
First up.
I was right.
I use it and
This is with light, btw, it's just… empty, and location gets me…
Unknown
Turning around gets me a single door, in the middle of nothing.
It's.. honestly a decently atmospheric area, for what a game of this era could manage. Just the absolute nothingness that defies what we know, removing my location spell, my most basic mapping tool. Moving to the one door…
And I'm back… interesting. This… is a challenge, mapping this is going to be big, since I can't know where I am but… let's rock
This place is evil. Almost all walls are replaced with barriers, which means I can't know where anything is until I bump into it. The few real walls I can find always have anti-magic around them, so I can only enter through the proper door. And perhaps most evilly, the entire thing wraps around, leaving me with little sense of position.
The only saving grace of this is that no where else is anti magic.
Mapping it,I find the door I can't enter, 5 astral projectors and… nothing else. I look it up, and end up spoiling myself on some stuff, but yes, that's all there is. And so with the 'astral plane' (yeah that's what this is) done, I move one, time to take on the destroyed castle.
It's.. honestly a decently atmospheric area, for what a game of this era could manage. Just the absolute nothingness that defies what we know, removing my location spell, my most basic mapping tool. Moving to the one door…
Yeah, MM1 doesn't have music but it feels like a place where if the game had had backround music, it should cut off. My first thing when I found the place was to cast 'light' and that did nothing and then I realized that there wasn't and 'darkness' text like it should have...
1.13 No honored dead are buried here
And now, on to Dragdune
You know, previously Dusk was just a city of the dead but dragdune is right next to it and… that tells a story doesn't it?
This place, out in the desert, thrived once, and something terrible happened. I had thought originally that perhaps this was Lord Kilburn's castle before exile, but working it out I don't think so. The city of Dusk was 'lost' for a long time. I imagine it was lost when Dragdune and it fell, one becoming a city of the restless dead, the other just dead. And 'lost' implies it happened a while ago. While Kilburn feels more recent. With the dragons in the North East and South West, and Dusk/Dragdune in the North West, it feels as if the map is edging in on the humanoids. A world where their twilight is coming. Even the human king, the place of strength in the west, castle Alamar, is now held by an impostor. Or the remaining lords, one is concerned only with his own potion and will betray anyone to get it.
This is a dark world.
Though on a lighter note…
I assume this is just… a bit of a random message? If not I have no idea.
I genuinely, honestly have no idea what the game thinks is 'good' but… look, the castle is destroyed, everyone is dead, leaving it to hurt is just cruel
So at first I think 'no' because you get a lot more exp per battle than gold but… well I think about it. I need some gold for training, but otherwise, it's not very useful to me right now. There are no buyable weapons that have even a +1, much less the +2 or +3 I have right now. So… I need some gold, but I really don't need all the gold I need.
Okay so I did what I think is clever.
First I give it all away. Then I head back to Lord Archer with no gold, and submit to him which caused him to give everyone 5k gold.
It's not worth it to repeat, since 5k exp isn't worth that trip, but the 65k I got from the one time gold deposit? Oh yeah. Also, proof that communism would never work in the real worlds, because adventurers would abuse it to give magical wells gold.
It turns out just submitting to him completed Lord Ironfist's and Lord Inspection's quests.
Ironfist now wants me to 'find the stronghold in raven's wood'
Didn't he… just send me to beat it?
No seriously I'm so confused,
Okay I looked it up, turns out (and I should have remembered this) it's the first quest. He just cycles them. Which… I could do for infinite exp, but I think that grinding is generally faster. As for analysis, mine stays mostly as is. Ironfist is 'good' per say, but he is concerned with threats to his realm. Again, that means hunting down Robin Hood, because stealing from the rich is bad for Lords*. But he isn't as actively destructive as Lord Hacker.
*Unless given that he was okay with me just submitting, he in league with the Lord Archer and is feeding rich adventures to him!
Inspection wants me to 'solve the riddle of the Ruby'. I have no idea what that means and no new thoughts there.
Back to Dragdune. I finish mapping floor 1 (which was very hassle free, no fixed encounters, no teleporters or other mapping difficulties so it goes much faster than a lot of other dungeons) floor 2..
(please don't be radiation, please don't be radiation)
It doesn't seem to do anything, and I feel very clever when I work out logically where a secret passage has to be based on the fact that I wouldn't be able to get out of the area without etherializ if there wasn't a secret passage there.
Next up comes series of rooms, such as this one
Or another labeled 'cult of the new order' and then monsters.(honestly the rooms feel like that should be a story but I don't… I don't really feel like it mixes with the story of Dragdune otherwise laid out. Mostly feels very… 'dnd give him as to next combat' rather than a narrative) I also find 'a cavernous passage' Curiosity gets the best of me and I go explore this, which leads to caverns under dusk, not terribly useful, but good to know.
Continuing on I make it down to the third floor.
Apocalypse log? (Corak also discovered dusk) I also encounter another checkerd pattern room, and a hint on another wall "The last part is the first ''.
Wut? (no seriously I have no idea what this is)
Thanks Corak.
I then make it down to the fourth floor, which is where Lord Hacker threw us. I still have no idea what the paintings are about, and the monsters here are tough, with random teleporters that I can stumble across until I map them, and invisible walls, not as many as the ethereal plane, but enough to make mapping annoying, to the point I would say the fourth floor takes as much time(or more) to map than the other three floors combined, despite being the same size. Eventually I do stumble upon something of interest
This time, no YOLO., I am way too deep and way too much loot and exp to risk it.
I head up, save, sell loot and go back, and because I can't help but be distracted exploring areas, find this before getting to gongs
So probably 3 tones with gongs, I still have a 50/50 on gongs summoning some horrible monster
Ringing one, turns out the random teleport, not summon, (ironically the first one to another gong.
Speaking of annoying I got a 'alignment slips' when attacking this set of monsters.
And like, I'm really curious about what in this crew was evil to attack? Is it just general evil to attack? Because none of this crew feels very like… good coded? Like yes there are genres where werewolves or orc or… well honestly the issue of 'barbarian' is…
Look this game has "Rabid Leper" as a enemy, I don't think it's going to appreciate that barbarians as a terminology often gets used for foreign or indigenous people and the morality therein.
Even worse is this
I've looked over the enemy table, and I thought these guys would be aweful.
They have a 30% chance to cast disintegrate, which again eradicates you, and permanently lowers stats when you rez. I was prepared for them to suck 30% of the time to have to roll the dice on 'save throw or get fucked'.
Turns out I was wrong.
They aren't that bad.
They are much, much worse.
Because what I didn't realize is that they have a 'on touch' effect.
You know what effect that is?
Eradication.
This means they don't have a 30% to try to eradicate you, they have a 100% chance. Disintegrate is the thing I hope for since you are more likely to resist it than dodge their attacks. Point is they are horrible, and I die and am forced to reset.
Coming back again, More ringing reveals that rather than the tones being aligned with a 'fixed' gong, every time you ring one you have a random chance to get a tone, and a random tone, including repeats. Which… is really annoying. Especially on a floor with enemies who are very, very deadly. Even so I eventually prevail.
That's majors since (spoiler) I can now go and re-get every, since, stat-boost, and I intend to. Also I've leveled up enough my mage has access to level 7 spells, with two very important one, the first, meteor swarm, does 1-120 to all enemies, (outdoor only) which I intend to use on the beasts, and the second, power-shield, halves all damage, which is also great.
With my newfound POWER these I crush the 4 beasts (looked it up, dark rider was #4.) and try the wheel again
Huh, so not a guaranteed win even with all 4
Anyways I got dates with dragons, and a communist.
Master archer is hard, but worth 28k exp when done, I also go and challenge a small area on E1 that had the hardest encounters I've found (mostly dinosaurs) to find…
Doing so returns everyone to age 18.
As for the dragon town meeting…
I knew the dragons were conspiring with the devils!
On a serious note, I can't beat this, mostly on account of the devils, even if I eliminate them turn one that leaves the gold and silver dragons up and to many other breaths. If the devils weren't there I think I could take out gold and silver turn one, and the rest would be just survivable, which I could heal and conquer but..
Well if wishes were horses and all that.
Onward to the building of gold.
This, and rooms like it(Glass, ruby, twinkle) appear on the first floor most of them just have various uninteresting encounter except…
The rainbow room.
This is possibly the best grind spot in the game I think? It's two silver dragons every time, which is few enough enemies it's easily takable,and silvers have 127 treasure rating in the game (tied with gold dragons, titans and greater devils/demons). So for upgraded loot, here it is.
Moving to floor 2
Okay so normally I don't show easy encounters but.
This encounter is fascinating to me.
To start, it's a fixed encounter. These same enemies appear every time.
So one of the things I found out while looking up information, is that random encounters in MM1 use a table set. There are 12 'groups of monsters' 11 is sea monsters, 12 is unique monsters, but the other 10 are sorted difficulty class. A Kobold is level 1, a gold dragon or greater demon 10. Every area has a set of tables it pulls from for non-fixed encounters.
Every difficulty class has exactly 16 monster in the table, and what makes this one interesting is that it's literally all level 1 encounters. 14 out of 16 of the totals There is no possibility that you could get to this area have this encounter be in any way a challenge. But as a story telling…
I already know the city of gold is artificial, thanks to teleporting to the bottom. But if I didn't, this really would be the first hint. While any fixed encounter is 'artificial' in the sense of being custom made, most feel like reasonable ones. Monster you expect there or make sense. This… doesn't. 16 different monsters feels artificial, like a menagere. And even if you didn't know about the exact monster tables… you'd know these are all 'weak' monsters. It sets a sense of things… I like that, honestly.
These encounters continue through level 8, along with a locked door that has all the 'missing' encounters of each level. This area starts to challenge by the end, and provides so much like… environment story? Or at least does if you read it that way. A challenge of 'intentionally story telling or just 'devs thought encounters were cool' is always an issue. There isn't a 'zoo' sign but… that would have kind of given the game away early wouldn't it have?
In what is no surprise, the door beyond contains…
All lvl 2 monsters. And so on and so forth. All the way up to level 8 (not 9 and 10 which I was worried about)
Level 3 takes a bit of getting used to, it's central gimmick is a hub that has one way doors, with each area having a one-way teleporter to get you back, with a guaranteed encounter when you teleport back. Difficult to map and with nothing special, and it doesn't lead to floor 4 at all, so it feels… filler? Floor 4 is behind the crystal door, which you know would be a problem if we couldn't tunnel through side doors.
I enter level 4 and explore and-
Oh, Oh that's what they mean by 'under construction. The dungeon layout is… it isn't annoying barriers or evil teleporters, but it's almost the most maddening layout of the entire game? I mean like… it feels wrong. Senseless.
You have doors just hovering out in the middle of no-where. And I know I described the astral plan, but that was, once you mapped it, a room in the middle of nowhere. Walls still around. In the 4th floor of Drag you had doors that appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, but there were always invisible barriers that worked with the door to make a room. Here the door stands alone, you can just go to the side and ignore them, because they don't guard anything. Same for walls, and sometimes both, doors that are doors on one side and walls on the other. Which alone, I've encountered before, but usually as a 'one way' trap deal, Here, the sides are open so you can just walk back
The entire thing is nonsense. It's not a challenge, really, it's very easy to navigate, trivial, being so open, but feels deeply wrong. The only major landmarks are a few isolated rooms with barrier protected centers guarding major enemies.
Along a single corridor in the North East I find fixed encounters full of dragons, at a square with that black and white checkerboard patterns I've been seeing everywhere I find….
Nothing.
I am shocked enough at this I check online. It turns out that, despite every other chest in the game being auto-open if you get to the right square and search only being for enemy drops, here is the ONE TIME there is a item.
The first idol
And I have no idea where the second one is.
Also I have a crisis of "OMG WHAT IF THE BLACK AND WHITE CHECKERBOARD PATTERN MEANS SEARCH" and go back to one I remember (warlord's fortress) and check and it doesn't. There rest of the rooms are empty. I still don't know what they mean. But that does remind me of that silver door. Still don't have the key but I can tunnel around it.
Following that path leads to
At this point I have ⅞ messages, (assuming there are 8) and you know what, I'm betting I can solve this. And Even provide follow along links.
Here is the initial messages
Message
1
Completion
Must
Each
Kings
Of
Astral
With
9th
Sanctum
and
Wonderous
2
One
Riddles
Value
You
You
5
Card
Must
Claimed.
Dreams
3
4
Of
Be
Has
TRUE
Knowledge
Plane
A
Level
To
Reality
It
5
The
Discoveries
Your
To
Return
The
Your
For
Dreams
Is
6
Book
Done
A
Self
That
From
Key
You
Be
To
Seems
7
These
And
That
Must
Can
Different
Shall
Have
From
a
JVC
8
The
Are
Quest
Increases
Identify
Apply
Locations
End
Attached
My
Sequel
And, spoiler alert, it's going to be 100% a case of reading the worlds from top to bottom. I've played enough Might and Magic to know they love using that. (Also based on that I realized I recorded message 5 wrong originally, since it had only had 10 words, and every one should have at least 11, also spoiled myself that I'm missing 2, not one message woops)
But even with this, we can start making some progress
To start with, we can be certain that message 2 comes after message 6. On the basis that this game is called "Book One" and the first words of each are there.
6
Book
Done
A
Self
That
From
Key
You
Be
To
Seems
2
One
Riddles
Value
You
You
5
Card
Must
Claimed.
Dreams
We can see other parts paired up when we to this.
"A value"
"KeyCard"
"You must"
Etc, etc. So we can be fairly confident that these are right.
Second, 1-4-6 are likely sequential, because their last 3 words make 'wonderous it seems'.
1
Completion
Must
Each
Kings
Of
Astral
With
9th
Sanctum
and
Wonderous
4
Of
Be
Has
TRUE
Knowledge
Plane
A
Level
To
Reality
It
6
Book
Done
A
Self
That
From
Key
You
Be
To
Seems
And since we know where 2 is…
1
Completion
Must
Each
Kings
Of
Astral
With
9th
Sanctum
and
Wonderous
4
Of
Be
Has
TRUE
Knowledge
Plane
A
Level
To
Reality
It
6
Book
Done
A
Self
That
From
Key
You
Be
To
Seems
2
One
Riddles
Value
You
You
5
Card
Must
Claimed.
Dreams
So 1-4-6-2, and we know that 5 is after 2 since it's another 11 worder, while the other two are before the sequence as they have 12 words and… yeah okay I'm lost.
So after solving it, I realize that I almost certainly messed up 5, there should be another word at the start of it, thought I haven't checked what, but I'd bet 'requirements' if you want to see what you can solve from that)
Okay time to see if Castle doom clears it up. Because that's where I'm going next. I start with the front entrance, to see the main castle.
Castle doom really emphasizes the 'science fiction aspect with both'
And an 'metallic box' that screams 'intruder alert'. Which is interesting since the other castles appear to be just… castles. Ones built by people with the tech base you expect of someone making a castle, with the aliens observing them. Castle doom, the legendary caste with no lord… is clearly not.
I also find…
… are we going to do it?
Yes
(turns out to be bigg area with encounters, though not super dangerous ones, on each square) get to the end and.
Which
Fucking nerds
I really love old school star trek episode names, none of this one word bullshit, the entire thing is poetry
We do find the final prisoner.
One the one hand yes, I free them, on the other WTF is a small child doing there? Not to get MIB here, but I'd like to know more about this kid? Not only is the castle unsafe, but A1 is a dangerous are, full of dark woods and the legendary dark rider. Where did this kid come from?
Continuing on, written in 'blue' blood are the words 'canine has the key'. I think the blue blood is supposed to be alien-like, but honestly with a fantasy world it doesn't stick out. What color blood should a dragon have?
Finally I find the interleaves, telling me the order of the silver and gold messages.
Which when I apply to the silver messages in that order and reading up-down one letter I get
"To Raise Statistics visit A-1 12-1" This is the pool of health
The rest… I get junk data in ways that likely mean I accidently misrecorded something, since it's stats and like… I already have all stat locations I don't care (I found all but speed legit, speed I missed and I'll admit to looking it up after getting worthy).
I find sets of clues, both enigmatic (jump 3 times to reach center).
And useless
15-7 is the flight point in A1, which I would have had to already go to so… I'm so confused, and am I missing something? In order to get to this statue I woud have already had to do that….
Ohhhhh I just got it.
Korin bluffs lets you teleport to Doom. Which would make you miss out on the secret entrance. This is telling you how to find it.
Continuing on I find the gold interleaf (8, 5, 3, 9, 1, 4, 6, 2, 7)
Looking at it, I had 1-4-6-2 correct. But my assumptions that blanks at the end meant the message was over were wrong. The Blank at the end of 2 is intentional, since it comes before "JVC" which is the initials of Jon Van Caneghem, the game designer, as like… a sig.
WIth the main area mapped out, I find that the middle is blank, and opt to try the secret passage route. Here I fine 'the endless spiral' on the inner part of the castle, a spiral that does seem endless, as a result of teleporters that don't tell you they have teleported you. But move you to a square on the outer part of the spiral (moving it one forward so you appear to be the same distance from the end of the hallway.) So I need to 'jump 3 times' to avoid the 3 teleporters. Careful mapping to find them gets me to the end and…
Unlike the silver/crystal doors, the surrounding squares are magic resistant, not getting around the golden key needs. Which I assume is the key the dog has.
I also get "UNOBTAINIUM" in a random encounter which sells for 25k, if it has another use I can't figure it out,but I hold on to it.
Overall, Doom was not nearly as tough as it's build-up suggested. The 4th levels of both Golden building and Dragedune were nastier, I think. But with it done the only dungeon I have left is the volcano, which I might as well try. I know I'm missing the Silver, Gold and Crystal keys, so lots missing, plus one idol. If the Volcano doesn't give me the gold key, then I'm stuck.[/Spoiler]
Going to the volcano I find the 'random' description I was told seems to be a LOT of teleports. Checking the locked doors at the start where I got my first hint I find…
Look Zenon III maybe evil, but that just means she hates ponies. Sexual harassment is wrong. And I'm freedom. (also fuck this game for continuing fucking old like, totally bullshit tropes that are racist as fuck)
This unleashes a
Yeah virgin sacrifice to volcano God. Fuck this.
This asshole? Eradicates one member a turn if he attacks. I lose the first time, and second because he decides to cast fireball (which does virtually nothing) and still lose two party members. To no reward other than like basic exp. Since eradication is a perm -1 endurance I reset and try kissing and get…
Hilarious. Tk fucking solution to the dials was in the one damn prison I didn't open on my first trip (since the 4th killed me) and I avoided it the entire time because I was hoping ot find the info. Great.
Also I really, really hope I'm just being of nasty mind and they didn't… fucking make the "Luscious Virgin"'s hint be fucking blowjob.
Turns out even with stabilization the teleportation traps around the dungeon still happens, and makes this dungeon suck. The only thing of note is I find the Volcano god again.
Asking for a a lue gives me "The second is more important" and teleports me to Sorpigal.
Riddle wants to know 'who was brave and failed' and in continuing with the fucking racism parade, the answer is Gala who-
Sigh as her statue in Sorpigal puts it, "In honor of Gala... for her brave attempt to work with the savages of the Volcanic Isles".
I hate this game sometimes. And I know it isn't going to get better on this…
But with that I get a 'key card', hinting the volcano god is not what he seems. I could do analysis there but just… fuck this place, not going back.
Annnnnd I'm stuck.
I have no gold key, no unexplored areas, and no idea…
Or no, that's a lie.. The truth is, I know the solution, I've known it for a while, because the limited guides for anything MM1 means that it's super easy to stumble upon info I wasn't looking for when I'm stuck on some other part, and I stumbled upon the answer. I've been, trying, to the best of my ability, to play the game as if I didn't know what I would have done without the hint until the point I would have naturally looked it up, so the solution…
Remember this way back? The final guy in the courier chain quest tells you it. Yeah, I screwed up. I saw this and went 'yeah Zom and Zam, I already meant them" and then…. Didn't go back to talk to them. Or think about the fact that at the time they were like 'you are not the couriers." Kinda just… 'oh I'll get a specific quest to courier to them" but this, this was it, this unlocked it, going back to them and…
… wait, that isn't right?
Oh my god, I know what happened, the 'courier' quest is determined by having a 'vellum scroll' in your inventory and there are a set of enemies called… I don't remember invisible stalkers, that steal shit from your inventory and stole the quest item, so I had to redo the quest
Going again and
Combined those we get C1 15-15, which once you've gotten both hints unlocks a treasure.
We take this to the stronghold I couldn't enter before and blow twice to go inside
With this I work towards solving the riddle, and figure something out.
First I realize I screwed up message 5, the final message makes no sense if I read as is, message 5 has to have a missing word at the start, because moving one over makes everything work perfectly. My bet is the word is 'requirements" but I've labeled it (miss) here.
The (mis) For Successful Completion Of Book One These
Are The Tasks That Must Be Done Riddles And
Quest Discoveries and Training, Each Has A Value That
Increases Your Ratings The Kings true Self You Must
Identify To Be Worthy Of Knowledge That You Can
Apply Return From The Astral Plane From 5 Different
Locations The 6th Visit With A Key Card Shall
End Your Frustrations Yet 9th Level You Must Have
Attained For The Inner Sanctum To Be Claimed. From
My Dreams To Reality, and Reality To Dreams a
Sequel Is In Order, Wonderous It Seems (blank here) JVC
Okay so.
Reveal king's true self
Visit Astral Plan 6 times and come back 5 (ie, claim all 5 astral projectors with a key card(.
Also be level 9. Which maybe means I need teleport, since it's the only real unique spell I get at level 9
Continuing on I have the first set of inhabitants of the maze, which is both gross and unsurprising.
Minotaur's are the monster most associated in the west… or possibly in the entire world at this point, with mazes. Uncomfortably they appear to be civilized.
Like actively capable of crafting their own tapestry's and they are largely staying in their own maze which we are forcing ourselves into. Very uncomfortable unexamined 'yeah go raid the monsters' stuff. Granted part of me is like 'you know you don't have to play good guys in games, and this game explicitly lets party members be evil. So…. mmmm
I think it bugs me less than the volcano because minotaur's are a race or often coded as one?
We head down to floor 2 and find this
Before I head to the maze. I head back to explore a few side rooms and…
Doggo who gives me the volcano hint, though not sure the use given that we get the same hint in the Volcano itself much more explicitly., searching the pedestal I find the gold key afterwards though when I look again…
NO!
Continuing on I explore the rest, leaving only the maze itself. I'm intrigued going into the maze, given the entire game is 'mazes' how do they handle the most famous maze of all?
The answer is… not great a set of 4 corridors that auto-move you forward and teleport which is just… I did not play MM1 for a reflex game with invisible teleporters. I instead opt to use etherialize to tunnel around the back, killing the "Gray Minotaur" in an easy confrontation (I was very overleveled for this place).
Gold key in hand I head back to Doom and..
In order to see the king I have to regrab the king's pass (since it was also stolen) and then head back to confront the impostor.
Honestly yeah, pretty demonic looking here, when I was expecting something more 'alien/robot' and less 'demon flames' in our controtation. We don't fight him, instead thrown into the soul mazes.
Like the astral plan, location doesn't work here. What you are supposed to do is map it, and it reveals the name but… fuck that. If they don't let location work there is no way to tell what direction is 'north' and since the maze warps, what is the 'start', which means you can map it fully and still have to redo it.
Fuck that.
His name is Sheltem. You know it, I know it. I'm not wasting my time mapping a place that thinks removing your basic mapping tools is a good challenge.
It isn't. It isn't clever, fuck it.
Okay that, that rant was my immediate reaction and I did do that… only later… I kinda regretted it, because honestly? This was the penultimate challenge of MM1. Might and Magic 1 is, at its core, very much a game of mapping and exploration. Fights exist, but there aren't really many boss fights. The critical path to 'win' Courier quest->Whistle->Gold Key-> Goros Eye + King's pass + Merchants pass all requires non actual fights at all. This is the challenge and I cheated on it.
Sadly I can't do anything about that. I saved at a inn, and this game has one save slot, and I can't go back. I'm done, unless I was crazy enough to redo the game and-
Yes, really. It's not as bad as it seems, since the game is a lot of mapping and knowledge as a challenge, and I've done that. This time, I set to get the best grinding spots, aiming for level 16. It also gives me a chance to review the combat and the ways it change
Level 1-5
Level's 1-5 are the squishy levels, like most Dnd stuff, you start with only one hit dice, and gane a second at level 2, this means that Dnd and any derived games tend to have HUGE hp increase in the early levels, that levels off. Most other rpg games, be they final fantasy, dragon quest, elder scrolls or just… anything else, tend to have the decency to start your hp reasonably sized so that the early game is easy and you can get into it. But dnd even with it's concession to 'max first level hit dice' still insisted that level one is one hit dice,making you fall over in a stiff breeze,and that carries over here.
I keep the grinding spot I talked about in Part 4 for these levels. The fixed encounters are just so valuable for not worrying about surprises, at level 1 I go only for the first 3, expanding to the 4th at level 2 and then at level's 3-4 hitting the few other guaranteed encounters in the area to make each back and forth a little faster.
At level 5 the game changes. While the first 5 levels the party members are not so different in combat, level 5 is where the wizard pulls massively ahead. With access to fireball (5 enemies in non melee) or lightning bolt (3 enemies anywhere) they can do aoe damage, and that Aoe damage is comparable to what anyone else does single target, better even, since resiting a spell is half damage, while dodging is no damage. Objectively from level 5 to level 8 the best part is 6 wizards, and my adventuring day is determined by 'does the wizard have mana'.
During this time I opt to use the wizard's fly to get easy quests (courier, Lord Hacker's early quest, several of Lord Ironfists's) completed for worry-free exp. The remaining exp is done in the 'swaze pit" from 1.8. It's next to a in, can be fought infinite times without having to enter/exit to reset, it's ideal if it wasn't for the fact that the enemy set is random, and fixed encounters are king when grinding. Still I manage it till level 7.
7 is when I make my way to wyvern peaks. At 1333-2333 per encounter, the wyverns simply are worth more than double the best I can get at the pit, and for less danger. Doing it at 7 is risky and tough, but I manage to get to 8. 8 is where fighters start to pull ahead in single target, as Knights, Paladin's and Archer's get a extra attack, doubling their dmg. From this point on they will do more in single target, with the Wizard never making up the dmg difference and later monsters being much more magic resistant while your party gets more accurate. Clerics remain useful for healing, but won't be damage queens. Robbers… are tragically just never really going to become useful in combat. They are there for doors and chest and nothing else really matters.
I grind the wyvern's (and red dragon) from 7-11, probably the longest grind, with a brief detour at level 9 to use teleport to grab all the stat boots, then a second at level 11 to hit castle Dragdune with etherialize and become 'worthy' to regrab them. Then, a second boost in hand, I go for my final grinding spot, the 'rainbow room' in the golden building.
This encounter is the most 'fixed' of all, not only always being silver dragons, but always two of them. Not only are they great exp (6666) but they are one of the monsters tied for the highest 'treasure value' in the game. So I can get the highest end weapons. The strategy is to kill one of them in the first round before it acts, as long as only one acts, it won't kill anyone round 1 and I can finish it off. It's fragile and I die a few times at the early levels, but as I level up it gets easier, giving me treasure such as the archers bow and "ultimate sword' that my mage can duplicate to ensure all of my fighters are doing ridiculous dmg. I set my endgame goal of level 16 where the fighter's get their third attack, but I do admit to getting a bit bored, and raising my stats a third time because I could.
Hitting 16 with my warrior, I decided to wrap up quests I missed on my first go round. Turns out inspections 'ruby riddle' quest is a riddle in the middle of the warrior's (Robin Hood's) stronghold that I somehow missed despite mapping the area.
Answer is crystal, which gets us the crystal key that makes the city of gold strongholds easier, and leads to our next area (city of Gold).
Lord Inspections final quest is to defeat the minotaur's lair, which Idid while picking up the Gold key. Grabbing the white queen idol once again, I look it up to discover black queen idol is in another checkered room in the Ancient Wizard's lair (none of the other checkered rooms seem to contain anything) and move to og's island. Deliver them and…
Okay what is next has to be the most obnoxious quest in the entire game.
There are three places you can get 'a hint' though, as far as I can tell, they aren't places that indicate it's related to this. Despite, you know, the fucking checkered pattern as a motif being right there. I think E is the only one that's near a checkered patterned room and it's only 'on the same level' near.
Solution said:
C. C3 (8,0) says the first part is female--the only female chess
piece is the QUEEN.
D. Volcano God's dungeon (0,5) says the second part is the most
valuable--the KING, the object of the game.
E. Dragadune level 2 E1 (12,12) at 20 feet below (9,13) says that the
last part is the first--1.
F. You must respond in kind. Slip the words "to" and "level" in to
solve the quest.
Again one of these hints comes from the Volcano God, who is asking his own riddle. But the hint he offers is for this riddle, not for the riddle he's asking you!
Absolutely wild game design, I have no idea how anyone has any chance of getting this without looking it up, but the solution is
"Queen to King's level 1"
Do that and he tells you that 'an important prisoner in Castle doom has your sights.' Aka the true king.
WIth quest out of the way, and the party ready (i am technically one level below my original party but I think I'm stronger overall since I've got better gear). I go to the Soul Maze again.
So let's talk my plan.
This is my starting square, and the 'arrow' is the direction I am facing., I have chosen to assume that I am facing West, and at 0,15. I have no knowledge that this is true, but I have to start somewhere. From there, I simply move east, mapping as I go
This is my first major breakthrough. WHile the maze loops, I have one way of figuring out when it loops, whenever you map transition, the game goes through a loading screen, using this and when I load I can figure out the 'borders' of the map. Since I loaded when moving into "7,1" I can conclude that what I have recorded at "8,1" is really "0,1". And "8,0" Is really "0,0" and can move everything accordingly. At this point I know that the Y coordinates are correct, and my original plan was to move North until I found the next loading screen, but in a strong of luck I discovered that I actually had them right at the start. Going any further South results in a loading screen.
So at this point I have set up a border. I don't know if my map is 'accurate' in the sense of North/South/East/West. But I know the border's are correct. And I continue to map, until I come to my next problem.
See the issue?
If not, the top area contains letters "AME" and a "F" above the e, but all of them are clearly upside down. (the rest of the map we have mapped is nonsense). So I end up having to take the map and flip it, carefully redrawing everything. But now, now I can say I have both the border's and the orientation right. Now its only a matter of time.
It isn't easy. While the maze has no extra encounters, no teleporting tiles, no other tricks, it also has no mercy. Most maps you can always reorient yourself if you get lost, a simple 'location' spell, or just finding a notable and clear location, a long hallway. A major room. A set of doors. The astral plane forbids the location spell, but the invisible walls means that the astral teleporters are easily visible and act as fixed locations to orient themselves.
The Soul Maze has none of that. It's set's of walls and corridors not having the sort of geometric regularity that creates memorable orientation locations, and so if you get lost… you get lost. I had to rest multiple times when I miscounted steps and could not figure out where I was. Still it gets easier, the more I map, the more confident in where I am I get, and the combat is surprisingly light. Might and Magic most hingest on guaranteed encounter spots to make up most of its combat, the actual random encounter rate is low. And so…. I map. Until I have the name of my captor.
"MY NAME
IS
SHELTEM"
(also a reversed "HELP" up top)
And so I can tell the Agent the name, this time having earned it legitimately
And with that, I'm back in Sorpigal.
Heading back to the castle
The real king is back, and the impostor is gone, to another world where we can give chase.
Overall what I find interesting about this is that the 'endgame' here has no boss battle. Your 'confrontation' with Sheltem isn't a fight, it's a riddle and a mapping challenge. Which is… cool? It reflects that the game knows where its strengths lie and defines what we expect in any modern or even semi-modern game.
On a Watsonian level… it's honestly kinda weird? Why does Sheltem send you into his Soul Maze rather than just… kill you? Even if we go with 'he isn't that strong in combat and can't fight you why does the maze reveal his name? He could have just… not and left you to starve. Why does the person inside need his name?
I can make some version which sort of makes sense but I have to stretch it. Maybe the agent was trapped as well, but is too weak to risk exploring? And needs to enter the name into the system to remove it. Maybe the nature of a "Soul Maze' Always forces a name reveal as a safety precaution*. I can make it work, but I have to do a lot of work on my end to do so. But there is a way that I can do no work to make it make sense.
*This does really on me knowing Sheltem is a robot
But from a Doyalist perspective It's easy to understand.
Sheltem is a fae.
No one would remotely question if a fae trapped you in a maze with a riddle of their own name.
Fae… or demon. Because knowing a demon's true name is often considered to give you power over them. In a sense Sheltem is 'in universe' a sci-fi alien escape, where 'alien' may just be more advanced humans. But out of universe, he's a demon, a fae. An agent of chaos who we are given no rhyme or reason for why he is doing anything he is doing. He just… is? Granted motivation isn't really something given to much of anyone. Most of my analysis here is taking scraps of info and trying to make a narrative about it.
Still the way the 'science/fantasy' reverses in/out of universe is interesting. "In universe" this is a sci-fi universe that has a veneer of fantasy, but the 'sci fi' is the true one. But out of universe, this is almost the reverse. The person you give name to uses sci-fi words "agent, Starphase, etc etc" but the actual rules are…
Well they are fantasy, names and riddles and fae and demons..
