Let's Play Might and Magic

[clockworkchaos]

Part 1: Of Might and Magic, no Heroes

So like half the forum, I've been loving Omicron's let's play of the Final Fantasy Series, and, in turn, it's made me want to do a let's play of my own.

Now granted, unlike the spirit of Omicron's I'm not going to be exploring a set of famous games that are new to me, and instead I'm going to be replaying a lesser known series I loved because I want to bring it to more people. Might and Magic.

Now some of you are probably going to go "lesser known!? I loved Heroes of Might and Magic III", and yes, if I was talking about Heroes, you would be right. Instead I'm talking about Might and Magic, the RPG series that came first.



I played the shit out of MM6-8, and am looking forward to playing them again starting at 6, but…@akuz bullied me into starting with one like Omi-senpai did. As older western RPG's, they are sadly going to have a lot less character than FF, but I'm going to try to give my thoughts as I find them.

So let's start with MM1.

First, the manual. This is important, because older games didn't have the disc-space for extended tutorials, and a large part of the game intro was meant to be in the manual. Which honestly… I miss a lot. These beautifully detailed manuals that games expected you to read and enjoy.

https://www.starehry.eu/download/rpg/docs/Might.and.Magic.1-Manual-Apple2.pdf

Starting off "Might and Magic is an ongoing journey that can last hundreds of hours". I hope not, given the LP is going to be looooong if I have to do that. Making your own maps… uggggh, but I played Etrian Odyssey. I can do this. Read though huh… "Surrender may be a necessary maneuver, to get into a particular area" interesting, kill keep note of that. "Gems are required to cast higher level spells." Interesting.


Now some of you might go "wait, what? Uh, Clockwork, you want to tell us anything about the lore? This is a game with a full manual, should it… give some backstory?"

Nope. There is no backstory in the manual. The best you get is

When you begin, the uncharted world of Might and Magic is as strange and unfamiliar to you as it is to your characters. It is up to you to map the world while traveling through it.

The world is divided into towns (there are five), underground caverns and dungeons, open terrain, rivers and seas, and mountainous areas. In general, the more dangerous an area is, the more treasure you can expect to find there...if you survive"[/Manual]

Click to shrink...

There are 5 towns. Other than that. "Hey go explore this world, here are the mechanics, here are some dangers. Now go out and find stuff." I have no idea what's going on*. There is no starter quest, or even an inkling of what our end goal is. Not even a vague 'defeat ganon'. It's really trying to sell itself on 'mystery' which, with a name like 'secret of the inner sanctum' makes sense? It's a title that more about mystery and exploring that something like

"Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord"
"Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness"

Both of which suggest much more… danger/combat? (To be clear those often were very mystery, but Ultima at least tells you who the bad guy is as the start)

*Okay I lie, playing MM6-8 gives me some idea but… yeah



But with all that, let's get going.



I can't do justice to this constantly switching screen in a screenshot, it is headache inducing. But seems to revolve around a orb held up by a pedestal in the shape of a claw. Now I just have to press the escape key-

… press the escape key…

Oh, my god. I just discovered my escape key is broken ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

Okay one day of working on stuff and I managed to remap my num9 key to escape, so I can play this game.






Very old school. I can make my own characters, but I have no idea what is good or not, so… default party I guess? (there are 6 premades, you can make as many chars as you want, and you choose which ones you take out each time you exit a inn)

Also take a note of the 'go to town' bit. One of the fascinating things about old school games is the way they don't… have as many rules as games these days, can can do weird things. There are a total of 5 towns with inns, and you select which one you start the game from. This might seem like you can start the game from any, but that's… inaccurate. Once you start in a tavern, you have to gather your party, no party members in that town, no going out. The premades, and any characters you create, start in Sorpigal. So you effectively start there. If you managed to get your party to another inn, you could leave from there, but, notably, if you wanted to head back to Sorpigal you would have to use a set of characters in Sorpigal. It's… interesting, but feels very weird in the way that any mass parties are going to involve a lot of couriering people. Especially because as far as I can tell there is no reason to have multiple parties.


But onward, meet our heroes

(6 char slots, 6 classes, which from my "oh no what if I pick the wrong class" neurosis viewpoint is great)

And with that, it's time to start



A quick look around


Since we want to start mapping, I started with casting the location spell,which tells us that
Sectors C-2
Surface X=10, Y=10
Inside X=6, Y=5 Facing South

A second cast gets us a move in the X coordinates on inside, but not any others, which gives us a good idea where we are in the absolute of the map (which I checked and are all 16x16)

Exploring around gets me a



Which I'm gonna but a pin in and- my first encounter behind a locked door


A few misses here and there but a pretty easy victory… followed by the light going out.


I'm not sure why the light went out, there was text, but I missed it. But all I have to do is cast the light spell-... and I realize I'm out of sp (spell points). I'm kinda annoyed since there were visible torches on the walls so no idea why losing my light should make it go dark, but, after an embarrassing amount of time stumbling around, I remember I can rest anywhere and just uh… rest. One cast of light later and-





Oh… oh I am not where I was previously. My guess (note from the future, correct) is that I encountered a pit or trapdoor, and dropped down. The 'location' spell giving me 10' below backs this up.

A few nasty encounters force a retreat, which moves me to a 'safer tiler' in this case right next to the stairs back up. Interesting. The retreat system placing you in odd locations really adds a layer of mechanics when your base location data takes spell points (Sure it's 1,but I only have 5 right now). Since retreating can make you worryingly lost.

I end up finding my location again in the city, and find some interesting stuff, including a status with the phrase-
One by Water, One by Land
One by Air and one by Sand
The Wheel of Luck
Will Favorably Pay, the more of these Menacing Beasts you Slay!
Although Wishes May Come True
All Beast Will Become Anew

So it looks like there are elemental bosses(sand=fire?) for bonuses? I think

Also I encounter a jail that says 'stay out' and follow the advice, before opening a different locked door and getting killed by a poltergeist I didn't know to run away from until too late.

Which means no progress since you can only save at a in… or no in-game progress, I have a map much more filled out. So a sort of victory.

One issue at the moment is that there is the game is old-school enough that text is limited, and that leaves analysis a bit bare. The thoughts that come to mind are that this world feels very… unsafe. Behind locked doors in the starting town are monsters, and sorpigal feels more like a dungeon than a town aesthetically. I'm not sure if that's limited backgrounds, or meant to be that way ,but it feels almost fortressy, with broken catacombs just beneath. A place you build if your world means you can't afford to live in anything but the most fortified of places.

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.

Also, exploring around, I find my first encounters within the general town



This is actually surprising, as previously all encounters were behind locked doors, which felt like a layer of safety that there apparently isn't? Both encounters were around the South-West, and I explored the rest of the map (minus areas behind doors) safely, so I'm assuming it's not everywhere. (also they kill me, via being impossible to hit, but this isn't news)

I have to retreat from the sprites since I can't manage to hit them. But come back and continue exploring to find a passage outside, so hypothesis that monsters are entering the town near there.


A cast of location tells us we are at C-2 X/Y 10

So we have a decent set of mapping here since I did read all maps are 16/16
C-2 is probably the outside map. Leaving us with at min 6 outdoor maps (probably more if we assume C-2 is in the middle, then 15, which matches with the outdoor maps in MM6).

I head back in, finding stairs near the same location, leaving it ambiguous if it's the dungeon monster coming up or the outside coming in, face a group of skeletons and



For context,my tank has 12 hp at this point. So yeah, no surviving that.

It leaves me a bit worried. That's two encounters in a row that have kicked my ass. In the starting area. So I need ways to level up, but based on my MM6 experience, that usually takes gold which I used to buy armor… and encounters don't seem to give them.

Hopefully I can find sources of exp and gold that aren't as deadly. For now,I'm continuing mapping, including going to the jail. Which includes gnomes we murder, (bandits? The guards? Who knows) and cells when hilarious are unlocked going in,but lock behind you. Well come game.

As is, we have nothing left, so it's time to start exploring the dungeon, if only because of my own desire to finish things here before exploring the world. Checking in, I see the pit was actually a trap door. Some more exploring and… another death from an encounter.

I am not cautious enough in this game…

Still I've at least managed to map Sorpigal

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/110iK5UMdRrtVQEKlgnhSyx4GM01q3pETYTox4F6SDfE/edit#gid=2034773277

(side note, the manual comes with a map of Sorpigal, but I wanted to map so I could compare and make sure I had them right[/quote]

 

[clockworkchaos]

Part 2: On Combat, and Gold

This is a bit of a side-note, but Omi suggested I break down the combat which is a good idea, so you all have some context.

So Combat.


The first screen looks like this, or at least it does if no one ambushes each other, (if you get the ambush, you can opt to avoid them, if they get the ambush it forces combat).

We get a picture of one of the enemies. While this encounter has all enemies of the same type, this isn't a requirement and the limitations of this game means you will always see only one enemy. Thought the top right gives us a list of all enemies.

We have 4 options.

Attack starts a fight.

Retreat tries to run away. This option is interesting, because it doesn't work like you'd expect compared to most modern RPGs where that would simply put you on the tile you were at, encounter gone. Instead it takes you to the 'nearest safe tile'. Which is the in for Sorpigal, the entrance to Sorpigal for outside, and the stairs up for a dungeon. This means that you can't get super far in a dungeon by simply running from all encounters, but, also it acts as a safety button. If you find yourself needing to get away from a dangerous trek you don't have to try to brave several random encounters to get out.

Bribe offers monsters a bribe,which can be food, gold and/or gems(secondary currency for casting the more powerful spells). You get the choice if you accept the demands they make, and then it's give it away or combat. In the case of Rapid Jackal's you get 'no response' because uh… rabid?

The final one, surrender, is perhaps the most intriguing. Since it gives up your loot and has the monsters 'take you to a more dangerous tile'. The guidebook hints this might be the only way into certain jails and stuff, so interesting but…. Ugh giving up all your gold/gems sounds painful.

The on final bit of weirdness is all options are combatish and the opening screens…


Which is backed up by a part where it talks about how the term MONSTER is misleading and some might prefer bribery, or run away, or even help you. And I'm not sure how you deal with a monster helping you? Can you bribe someone for good things? Should you just defend? Not sure. Anyways, on to the combat screen.



It's a turn-based game. In the top left is your party formation, you can see 1 and 2 in front, with everyone else behind, and that is the order.

On the right are the enemies. You probably notice that some party members and enemies have a +marker. This marker denotes that a unit (party member or enemy) is in melee range. All attacks are either ranged or melee. Ranged attacks and spells can hit anyone. Melee attacks can only be made by those in melee, at those in melee. Some(most? So far) enemies, like the rabid jackal, have only melee attacks. So the C,D and E rabid Jackals can't attack until one in front dies. Which reduces the 'alpha strike' advantage of a lot of rpgs, since the enemies don't start doing less damage till you are down to two.

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.

Delay/Protect/Quickref/View ch are all mechanical combat options. Ie, delay the message speed, see what spells you have active, look up character sheets.

The "Handicap" refers to the side with an advantage in speed which I think is just a buff to turn order.

On any turn you always have the option to Exchange (swap places). Use an item. Try to retreat (according to guide it's harder in combat, but increases its chance the later in combat you do it). And block, which is a basic defend command.

Our first party member, wizz, being a wizard, can't equip bows or slings, so has no ranged attack, and isn't in melee, so casting is our only option.

You enter a spell level, enter a spell number (every level of spell has up to 8 choices) and then any targets. The spells are detailed in the manual, so for example I just entered 2 and 1 to get electric arrow annnnd…



You can also see the target is now 'wounded' which means any damage, as far as I can tell there is no way other than keeping track to tell how damaged something is.

Next up is Zenon the archer, who has no spells and is not in melee,but does have a bow.


So we can shoot. Which can hit anyone.

Finally we get to one of our melee combatants (and you can see that killing the A jackal moved everyone forward)

Melee has two options. The first fight makes a melee attack against a chosen enemy in melee combat.

The second attack always attacks the first (A) monster. No advantage other than it's faster. I am wishing that game was smart enough that anyone not in melee but equipped with a bow had a similar 'attack' option that would auto-use their bow to shoot a but… well can't have everything. (note from the future, I am wrong on this, Alt-A does that)

Winning gives us a victory screen, and our reward.


Also, taking away from the literal rules, there are also the assumptions combat is built around. It's based on dnd, which means that misses are common. Compared to rpg's that don't hail from dnd rules, it often feels more random for that, a set of lucky/unlucky rolls being much more swingy than a game where the difference between a high roll and a low roll is 1000 or 1300 dmg.

The combat is… mmm. 'Unfair' is probably an okay term. Not just difficult or hard, but… unbalanced? Some encounters are easy, but some are utterly murderous. In general, in a modern game, I expect most enemies in an area to be of similar difficulty. One might be more dangerous or annoying, but you expect it to be beatable. Or if one encounter is hell, most of them will be some variation of hell as well. MM1 doesn't do that. In an area, some encounters might be easy but others…



That spray hits everyone in the party, and my highest hp character has 14 hp at this point.

I am dying a lot, and maybe I'm bad but it feels like it's more the game is just deadly.

In this game saving only available at inns(you can rest and heal anywhere, with the risk seeming to be a chance of random encounters… at least I assume, I've never had one but the game informs me that I didn't so that has implications). Right now I have only access to one inne (the starting one) and of which only 5 exist. As such I am having a lot of runs where I die and lose progress.

Yet… it's also interesting, because I don't lose everything, and the unbalanced encounters actually contribute to the one thing I don't lose. Knowledge. Not just the more detailed map I have, but I know to run from acid beasts now. I know that imps fireball but run away. I have more knowledge about which monsters I can take, and which I need to run at all costs.

So this,despite the difficulty I think largely the mechanics come together in something that works,something I can move forward with. Or would if I didn't have one tiny problem.

Gold.

Go back to the victory screen annnnnd…



It only lists exp, yeah. No gold. None of the enemies I've beaten give loot, and that's a big problem. Gold matters a LOT in Might and Magic. Not only for things like equipment, but also level. Just hitting the exp amount won't level you in MM1. Training costs gold.


(note that this pic is from the future, realized I didn't have a screenshot here and thought it was good to show the training hall)

So without gold I can't get more powerful. And resting in this game uses up food, which costs gold to refill, so unless I find gold, I'm eventually going to be out of gold and food and uh… stuck.

I end up trying both the dungeons of Sorpigal and the area outside to find enemies that give gold or chests that give it. And cast. More and more I encounter enemies that are are clearly too dangerous for me, in increasing frequency. To the point it's pretty clear that I should be a higher level, but again, no gold source, no leveling. I get desperate enough I google, and there I discover something.

Enemies not dropping gold?

Total bullshit.

The 'search' command, which I thought was to, you know, look for hidden treasure in the world? It's not. You need to use it after every encounter to actually pick up loot.

I am both annoyed and wow do I feel stupid. Checked the manual and "You should always search after defeating a monster and before moving off the square". Wow, I had not thought about how much I think of auto-gold getting after a battle as part of a turn based rpg. Like I know I had to manually loot in MM6-8, but since that game has visible corpses it fell into the part of my brain that was like "oh yeah you manually loot in games where enemies have visible corpses' compared to my brain just being like 'of course turn based is autoloot'. Shows my assumptions.

So now, I have access to gold. I have access to exp. And I know that my level 1 ass can't managed either the dungeons of Sorpigal or the outside, so it's time to grind.

 

[clockworkchaos]

Part 3: Advancing, Grinding, Exploration

So, before I get into the grind, I do want to show a few things I found. First when I went outside I found this behind a set of trees (there are three 'wall' types in the overworld, trees seen here, which block sight but can be walked through. Denser trees, which block sight and usually, but not always can't be walked through, and mountains which I've never found one I can walk through)



… offensive stereotype aside, I went ahead and recorded these, which appear to be a combo of "color' and some nonsense worklike "ogram" which, on a hunch I tried putting into a anagram solver to get… nothing.

Another hidden one gets me to a bunch of 'minor demons' that fireball me to death.

And with that, on to the grind.

The spot I pick is-



One thing I've worked out is that MM1 random encounter rate is… honestly pretty low? It's not zero, but I feel like I can manage a lot of exploration without one. Instead, it seems to mainly use guaranteed encounters on certain tiles. These encounters are, as far as I can tell, random ones from the pool of random encounters you get, but step on that tile, and you will always get an encounter. Or at least the first time in a map you do, after that it's a normal tile, resetting when you leave the map or save at an inn.

The jail has one behind its locked door, and there is a second right behind a door to the south. Neither are far from the inn, so I can both reset them and save so I am sure not to lose progress. Grinding up to level 2 nets me near double hp (I think it's dnd semi-random? With max first level). And makes exploring below much, much more viable. Also, side note, but I have to share two of MM1's most bizarre/amusing mechanics.

First up


So this is a loot drops, (it's trapped obviously, everything is)

But open it and…



See how it says "each share"?

Yeah, that's because gold doesn't go to the party. Gold, gems and food are tallied individually. This isn't a huge limitation because at every merchant you have a "G" button for gathering all gold the party has, which you are going to use before any purchase. It's such a bizarre little mechanic, because it like… is really trying to replicate dnd groups where you do give shares. But since you control everyone…

The other one is the training. Classes have two different exp curse, a faster one for rogue/cleric/knight, a slower one for Pally/Archer/Sorcerer. That's not surprising, pre 3E Dnd did that (even if there is was individual classes). No that isn't the weird mechanic

Let me compare my level 2 knight to my level 1 archer.




Given the stats probably not noticeable, but as a hint, everyone starts at age 18.

Level increases your age by one. This is interesting in the story it tells.That this isn't a short quest that happens over an afternoon or even a year, but a quest that takes years, lifetimes. But it does create the amusing bit that we have comic book aging where everyone ages at dramatic times and thieves are going to get older than wizards.

With my first level on everyone, and around doublish hp on everyone, I'm ready to give the downstairs another go.

And discover some things.

1. Some areas cut off your spells, which turns out the lights since light is, in fact, a spell
2. Being clever and going 'oh that's why the shop has torches, for when you can't spell cast.' doesn't work because torches work by 'casting' the light spell.
3. They devs love to put guaranteed encounters in these spaces

1. Death does not prevent HP recovery

(yes really, no he's still dead and won't act)

1. It's 200 gold to rez, so better to just reset if someone dies

Incidentally I have a party member die twice to that square and it drives me nuts trying to figure out why, they go unconscious in the fight sure, but they don't get attacked again, and I can't figure it out, almost thing maybe snakes are special somehow until I realize-



It's the locked door. Normally after any combat where a person goes unconscious, I have my cleric heal them. Buuuut in this case, no magic can be cast, so without thinking I try to move out to a square I can heal, attempt to unlock the door, trap goes off, and the already unconscious member dies.

So lesson learned. Rest if you can't heal before trying to unlock a door.



Lore wise, I encounter two things in the caves below Sorpigal. The first is a courier service.

.
(I read this wrong at first and think he's offering one, and try to figure out what it might be, maybe a way to transfer items from chars in one inn to another before I realize it's a request for us to do a courier service, aka our first real quest)


This… weirdly works for me? In a way a lot of came courier service stuff feels very 'kill the basic rats you grunts.' The selling of the world as dangerous makes a courier feel more… more dangerous than places with clear working roads and developed trade networks.

The second lore bit is the Arena.



I'm initially really excited about this. The arena in MM6-8 is a good source of gold early game, and I figure it might be possible here. As it turns out, no, you can fight monsters, but not gold

Non-lore wise I encounter two things of note. The first is a swirling portal.



Which takes me to a new dungeon, to be explored later (I have to find my way back to Sorpigal but luckily it's not too far)



The second…


This makes me thinks, because I only found two cells in the jail, so going back and trying every wall, I find… a hidden passage.

This area proves very annoying to explore as while it doesn't stop magic, any light cast lasts one round. If I want to map i either have to cast like every time I move or even turn, or map very carefully. Which…. I'm mixed? If this is going to be a preview of a dungeon, somewhere long, this is going to turbo suck and I might just look up that dungeons map. But as a small section, it kinda works? Putting your mapping skill to the test by giving must more incentive to 'premap' by looking at walls and judging distances. I find a couple other hidden passage out of the extra area, getting to the northern area that appeared blank before.

The 'reward' for this area is a guaranteed encounter with some higher level monsters, which... yeah okay that's unique, but I was hoping for a chest at the end or something? Feels like there should be more.

I'm really wondering if I missed something and end up looking it up. Apparently not? Except all encounters are more difficult until I rest, which… huh leveling implications. Also I find out missed several secret doors when exploring which since as far as I can tell the look identical, means so much more work

For context


Secret door


No secret door. So the only way to tell is by trying to get through ever wall.

Mapping stuff can be fun, and working things out logically can be fun, but trying every wall isn't. Like I suspected this might be the case and have been semi-randomly trying walls,but I don't wannnnnnna. It's… honestly discouraging after a session where I felt like I was having a grasp on things.

I… I'm gonna be honest, it really makes me want to just look up maps, esp once I finished mapping. If someone who played knows a way to detect secret doors, I'd love to hear it. Ramming myself face first into every wall is not my idea of fun. Like I've talked about how unfair it is, the rest can be fun, but also like… I wasn't surprised. I enjoyed Etrian Odyssey, which is similar, if a modern take on it. But this just feels….. Uggggggh. I was hoping there would be something I could look for to try to puzzle it out, but since a lot of them aren't going to be hinted at as there isn't a distinguishing visual it feels… like a tax of 'bump into every wall. Which is frustrating

A exploration of Sorpigal level 1 yields
-A room that you can't cast magic with a encounter, nothing else
-A statue I missed earlier (not hidden)
"In Honor of Corak, For his Mapping expedition of the land of VARN and rediscovery of the Lost Town of Dusk". Incidentally this is the first mention of any land's name, and in context it's not clear if this is a specific land, or the entire world.

A second statue which reads



Hey, first real hint of a main quest. Not telling me what I'm fighting, but gotta get some brothers together.

And, finally



Which lets me TP to other towns. Given that it's hidden, I think this could be useful later, but I imagine they are murderous rn, and the biggest advantage of going to town early in most rpgs, buying op loot, requires gold which I have barely any of.

Also I visit the bar and have gold now so I remember I can buy drinks and tip barkeep


"See man in cave below!(2,1)

Checking that against my map,that's the courier location, so this would have given me directions to my first quest

One last statue hidden behind a secret door. With the

There are Many Dungeons Like Me, Find the Right Pair and You'll Discover the key
The ancient Seer og has lost his sight
The idols will help to end his Plight

So more quest hinting. (positive note, all of this exploring has pushed me to level 4)

Summed thoughts.

One thing I noticed especially with the lower dungeons of Sorpigal is there are a lot of 'dead space' dead ends, rooms that are empty. Things with 'no point' often behind guaranteed encounters. While my initial reaction to these was disappointment like the hidden room in the jail, I've given it some thought and think that it kinda works for simple dead ends?

As I said before, you get your normal progression in this game, exp, gold, probably quest triggers? But you also have the progress you as a player have. And dead rooms help that. If that room has a chest you want, then if you die, you will need to go back to get it, so that you lose all progress by dying. But, if the room is empty, then you know it's empty now, you can skip it, and choose to get exp/loot in a better spot for it. (this applies less to hidden areas, where the disappointment rules)

Secondly lore wise… I feel the caves beneath Sorpigal tell a story. Those things that are dangerous, things where you get real tasks, like a courier or arena, are located below, away from where inexperienced people could get to them. My party spends nearly 3 years in their 'intro arc' just learning to navigate Sorpigal safely before they are really ready to take on the world. Safety is limited in this world.

The biggest issue lore wise I have is the encounters that appear even in the top level of Sorpigal (and I learn later it can happen anywhere not just near the entrance(, I get that it makes it a place with its own danger/exploration, but it feels silly. Yes a world with danger all over the overworld is silly on its own, no place for farms, but I can kinda… sorta work with that? But one where you can't step outside the inn to get to the tavern without monsters… feels sillier.

Though lore in no way hints at it, the headcanon that most makes sense to me is simple, monsters won, the town is occupied and most people bow their heads. Your group are rebels, and the 'encounters' in town are guards finding you. Of course, this doesn't feel entirely compatible with staying two years but…

Well nothing is perfect.

Also updated maps

Sorpigal

Sorpigal 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 15,v,v 14,^ v,^,Ta,12>,< 13,>,> 12,^ v,3 11,^,v,Jail?,Tr,Magic Les 10,No access 9,8 8,2,<,> 7,^,v 6,7 v,Tr,Train 5,>,BS,1,Fd,Ta,Tavern 4,6,11,BS,Black Smith 3,>,Inn,10,<,FD,Food 2,5 v^,^,Inn,Inn 1,>,T,9 0,E1,E2,E1,Outside E2,Stairs Down

docs.google.com

 

[clockworkchaos]

Part 4: 3 Doors down

So with the exploration of Sorpigal complete, I have two options. 1 is to do some overworld exploring, the other is the cave I teleported to. In truth, I do a bit of both, while generally in games I like to finish a area, I don't know which areas are the next 'logical' choice difficulty wise. So I test both, eventually coming to the conclusion the Cave is probably safer? And go for that.



This is the opening to the cave, which is literally 3 doors. 2 of them lead to hallways but the third…




Oh old-school dnd dungeons, where you could have giant slides that lead to acid. Does it make any sense to have giant slides in a dungeon rather than some simiplier trap?

No.

But it does let the game massively relocate me (you get to watch the screens fly by fast enough you can't see where you are going) so as to challenge mapping skills by requiring me to recast location and map discontinuously, and also, slides are cool.

After painfully determining that anytile in the 'slide' will send me down to the pool, I try the only other route, which leads to




Uh oh

I try to run away and fail, and am forced into combat where I'm almost certainly going to die from 16hp aoe-



Huh… here where I discovered something.

The 16 hp aoe? Isn't.

Last time both Acid blobs used the aoe and did exactly 16 hp, so I assumed it was that much. This time I got aoe's ranging from 0 hp to 11. Still murderous if I was still first level but beatable.

I'm… it's weird, that should be good news, because it means I can get through them, but I'm actually disappointed? I think because it reduces my knowledge base. "This enemy is deadly" I can deal with and adapt. "This enemy has a range of dmg that goes from trivial (1 hp) to deadly (16 hp) isn't. It's a die roll" Which is less… useful knowledge?

But even with that, I take my victory and go to see where I got teleported to…



Well shit. Magical darkness (spells work, but light doesn't).

Okay. And light isn't working, so what about location



… 10' under. I'm on the second level, oh dear

In total darkness I stumble around, mapping and casting locations when I get lost, slowly finding my way out until…





Hmmm, I'm just gonna… go the other way I found…. Actually you know what? I've only a few fights this dungeon, I don't have much to lose, so I'm going to bring knowledge, yolo

But beforeI do, I cast light and discover that the area of darkness was much smaller than I realized

Going down the corridor my first encounter is easy but counters me in the most ingenious of ways… it hands me a greatbow,which means I now have something to lose if I die. Fiendish.

I go explore the other way, annnnnd



Leading to another dead end that is gonna to poof me. Another poof leading to… huh, same place I poofed originally, so at least I don't have to start mapping from scratch or find myself deep in the dungeon.

More exploring finds…



New and maybe dangerous? Guard does imply maybe reasonable/intelligent? Checking bribe options and… no response. Fight it is

I find these enemies are immune to my weapons, and have to beat a retreat, heading back to save before going in again. A few more encounters with ogres (way too much hp) and 8 acid blobs (too many) leads me to conclude I need another round of grinding.

This time, I opt for a spot I found in my exploration of the dungeons of Sorpigal


This hallway is a series of 4 tiles that all give encounters, behind one locked door, which is more encounters per run and less doors than the previous one, and, more importantly, they are all consistent. Same monsters, every time.

The first two are monsters that don't give gold, but aren't difficult
But the last two are the prize. Skeletons are gold dropping monster, and weak to turn undead, a 1 mana spell that usually kills all or all but ½ of them, and costs only 1 SP (serena has 5 SP max per level)

But the real prize are these the giant ants

Not the easiest enemies, but not deadly in any way. And they tend to drop chests. Chests have gold, but, more importantly, have items. I've gotten things I can't buy in the store, like plate mail and even a +1 Bow.

And that +1, is what I'm really grinding for. I don't know it, but a lot of dnd has monsters that are immune to non-magical weapons, or ones below a certain + number. After grinding to level 5, I managed to secure a +1 ax, bow and dagger for my warrior, archer and robber respectively. I don't have one for my paladin, but that's okay. With my new, tougher team, it's time to challenge the dungeon again.

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.



A set of Ogre's give me a test to see if my party can handle the monsters here. (the answer is no)

Ouch. A few rounds of testing show that spot is another 'fixed' encounter, always fight, always ogres, and reveals another key information piece. If I retreat from them, and come back, the encounter is 'used up' which means running isn't entirely useless. And I'm able to find the Ogre path is a dead end.

A very nice day. WIth confirming the Ogre path leads to a dead end, it's time to try the guard path (who also seem to be fixed). My theory that +1 weapons would work is proven correct, and while slow, the guards don't do much damage to me and waste turns with dispel.

Behind them is… (hilarious I thought it was magical darkness at first, before realizing while writing it up the dispels they cast in combat dispelled my light)



Welp, why not?

This turns out to disable the slides, allowing more exploration, and means I end up staying longer than I want, as exiting the dungeons would make me since I don't want to have to re-push the button, leaving me to let some of my guys stay poisoned (max hp decrease on each rest)


That is, in fact, 2 and 1 max hp

Find another shimmer portal and take it because… well why not?





Going up reveals myself to be 'in town' so I think I found the second town. Not where I want to be rn, but worth knowing. Heading out and…



I knew I should have gone all female! I stumble around town until an encounter kills me. I do note the blacksmith is described as 'supremely beautiful young woman' and uh… combined with male draining, I have my suspicions about her.

Still a lot of knowledge gained

I head back in, exploring the entire dungeon and finding… nothing. I go to the 'hall of endless encounters' head in and find an encounter, and another, and another. And I figure 'okay one encounter each square, I can deal. Only to, at one point, turn around with mapping and find…

I am only two squares in. Every encounter puts me back a square. After puzzling it I gave up and looked it up.

Turns out the solution is a level 2 wizard spell 'jump' which moves you forward two tiles. Honestly… that's on me. I should have gotten that, jumping over the hazard square lets you continue on, to get to the end. I could argue that the 'hallway' made me think the entire hallway is trapped, but the game gives you a subtle hint by making the first few tiles not trapped, which should hint it's only specific ones.

Good show game.

Going to the end, I find…



At first I figured this is like, some special monster, and would have left, with no knowledge further, if I hadn't done one last map check online to make sure I didn't miss anything.

So it turns out it's talking about 13 guaranteed encounter spots in this dungeon. Gonna be honest I would never have figured that out if i hadn't looked it up. The jump one feels clever and one me for not figuring it out, this just feels like trying to parse what the game wants.

But, time to go for the prize. I have to take all 13 encounters without leaving the map.

So, all 13 encounters without leaving the map. I tried a few times, and I've managed to learn to deal with the ogres (the answer is lightning bolt, spam it, can you only cast it 5 times before you are out of mp? Yes. That's fine, rest after each encounter). No, the problem I have is poison. Since poison halves the max hp of anyone after resting, it's a run killer. I don't get 'cure poison' as a spell until level 7 which is two levels away (and 2 levels probably trivializes the fights honestly). And don't have access to any items that cure it, so I have to go back to town to heal. If I was being poisoned in the fights, I could at least have ways to help, go splurge on scrolls of fire and go all out on the poisoning enemies.

But it's not. Instead, the poison is happening from traps when I open doors or loot and my thief robber fails to disarm. (You may ask: Clockwork couldn't you not loot chest to increase your odds?

I would reply: You shut your awful mouth)

Eventually I settled on a hybrid approach. I give my best try, but if poisoned, I go back, heal up and save, and try again, slowly gaining exp.

Record of runs since determining this path forward

1. Ogre fight has to many ogres, die(I can deal with up to 5ish,not 8)
2. Poison darts on fight #4 chest
3. To many cyclops on fight #2, die
4. Have a MAJOR REVELATION as I realize the 'protection from poison spell lasts all day (aka till I rest), not one combat. Which means I have a method of not solving my problem, but at least mitigating it. Finally make it past the first 4 fights without getting poison! (forced to retreat at fight 5, continue to see if retreat counts)

I manage the remaining fights annnnnd-



Bronze key… interesting.

But that's for another time, rn it's time to go back and save

So while I still think the hint was ridiculously obtuse, I'm actually far more pleased with the quest than I thought. It feels almost like a… final exam? Of the mechanics of the game so far?

1. You have to understand out of combat spells, you've almost certainly gotten 'light and location' already, but here you need to add the idea of long-term protection from poison and jump.
2. You need to understand that this game allows you to rest frequently. I literally rested after almost every encounter, because they were hard, and I needed to have full mana to lightning/fireball spam. This really broke my final barrier on limiting rests.
3. Accept using gems. Look I hate using stuff that uh… usable up. The old 'save every potion' here, there is higher level stuff I might not use, but I spammed fireballs like they were going out of style. Even with it, I was net positive on gems because fireballs cost 1, and enemies that drop gems can drop 25ish.
4. You need to accept not all encounters are winnable, retreating from one still nets you victory.
5. The guards force you to get some +1 weapons

All that said, it is still semi-random, I'm betting you can still get an unlucky poison eve with protection, and running is far, far from guaranteed. But I'm… ultimately satisfied? Feels like the final exam before you can proceed to the second town, of which the cave leaves a portal for you.

Lore wise…. There isn't much here. "A crazed wizard did it" is basically a joke these days. A serious watsonian analysis isn't going to turn something up.

Doylistically though… it's old school Dnd. More than anything else this dungeon is very old school dnd. "Why is there an elaborate dungeon?" Because Wizard. There are three doors before you, one is trapped, no there is no way to tell. Your wizard has 'sleep' and 'web' spells early and lvl 5 with fireball, fly and lightning bolt is a game changer.

So yeah, dnd.

No map this time as I accidentally saved at the wrong time and broke it, and used a online map

 

[clockworkchaos]

1.5 It's for the combat advantage I swear

So… There is an oddity with Might and Magic, one that I've kinda been avoiding for a bit, but have to confront.

It's open world.

In something like Final Fantasy, you have a game that tells a story usually pretty linearly with some side-quest. Racist Western Devs aside, that's a pretty good way to do it, and for all Bioware toutes choices, they usually do the same.

This game isn't like it.

Nor is it like most of the open world games of today where it is often level-set so that all areas are appropriate for your level, or, at least you know very quickly when they aren't.

Both types of games tend to lead to a gameplay where you go to a place/quest/dungeons. Complete that place/quest/dungeon, and go on to the next one. Even something like Skyrim, which I consider the evolution of the latter MM games, and one of the most 'oh look at that' type games, tends to have you complete your dungeon, and then get distracted on the way to your next one.

Here… that isn't true. For one thing, I don't go into any dungeon knowing it's difficult, at least until an encounter. And the game's encounter rate of random encounters is low. It's balanced around the fixed encounters, so if I don't find those I can end up going around the area a lot before realizing I should go somewhere else. Adding to that, further in areas tend to have more diversity of creatures, so I end up fighting packs which have one high level guy and several low levels and think 'okay this is a place I can take' before the pack with all high levels comes in and I go 'oh'.

The narrative problem here is that discussing a place fully is good, it's narratively satisfying and easier to follow, but I should note that the appearance of such is, to a degree, a lie in this LP. I'm almost always poking at multiple areas in bits until I determine I can finish one and follow that. But the cleaner narrative here is a historian's fake.

All that said, my thought is that the game naturally is pointing me to portsmith. I have a portal to it, and I swear I saw a bronze gate there (forgot to screenshot) before I got the bronze key, I went back and checked, but it appeared normal now, so not sure if it was a case of the key meaning it didn't count, or I misremember.

But… well I don't have to, and I kinda don't want to? I want to start exploring the overworld, I don't like the idea of traveling via portals only now knowing a basic way to get back (spoiler, the fly spell, instead of letting me cross mountains at I thought it was, let's me select a overworld map and instal port there, so getting back to Sorpigal is easy)

I start with the Northern Map, C-1, which provides the first indications of human civilization outside the towns I've seen.




First indication of human civilization I've seen.



So apparently there are trade networks? Huh…

The Wagons lead to ambushes, mostly with monsters that are higher-level than the random encounters, and kill me sometimes, though carefully trying all of them leads to one with a "Merchant Pass".

Also I find a icy regions

(Fun fact the limited data means the tilesets are colored by region you are in, not inherent to the particular mountain, so looking at this mountain one tile back makes it look non-frosted)

C-1 Finishes with no other major discoveries, and I opt to now try East of Sorpigal
D-2. There I encounter-





The desert seems force you to be 'lost' by randomizing/forcing turns in a particular direction (not sure which). While it's possible that this area is navigable, it seems like I'm probably going to want to find some item/quest to help mitigate the heat. (I know protection from fire, jump and levitation all don't work)

Also I do find a new tileset

(it acts as a basic forest, blocking vision but not travel)

With nothing else of interest in D-2, I decide to tackle underportsmith rather than continuing to explore, mostly on the basis of getting close to level 7, which gets the cleric's first aoe spell, lightning bolts. It's outdoor only, so I figure level 7 will make outdoor a lot easier, but not change indoor that much. Underportsmith I encounter a central passage with 4 directions and, I opt to start exploring the side, managing pretty good progress until-




Ohhhhh shit.
(prettys sure this is a very specific fixed encounter as it's in front of a door)
(I die before I even get a round, given this is no-where near the difficulty of any other encounter, I'm sure this is a specific 'fuck off' encounter. Behind that door is probs endgame stuff)

That sends me outside again. (Getting lightning bolt, which turns out to not be nearly as good, since it's non-melee only and my cleric is slow enough she usually doesn't cast until later in the round when most non-melee are dead, unlike my wizard who always goes first).

I opt to go exploring outside for a bit finding some new monster and a cave









I get a Broadsword +2 and decided to head out to save. Going back to save and equip stuff I look up what things can be equipped where (yes I'm looking it up online, the system for trading items between chars is a pain, and trying each person to see what the requirements are for this weapon is just… annoying , and notice something odd.

Might and Magic 1: Items List

Complete List of Items from Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum in sortable table with category filters...

www.oldgames.sk

That broadsword can't be equipped by either of my melee fighters (Neutral and Good) because of alignment restrictions. Fine it's evil right? ,But the table says +2 broadsword is good only and…



Crag Hack is now evil

And looking at it, all my neutral characters are now good, and my good now neutral. I did something evil and I… have absolutely no idea what? Did I kill something I wasn't supposed to? (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.)

Well it doesn't matter really this is old school dnd where alignment is just teams. The level 5 spell "Restore Alignment" restores anyone to their original, at the cost of 2 gems (that's two fireballs, aka 1 easy fight). So Gal is now good and everyone else… eh, I'll get to making them non-evil eventually.

Maybe

I head back in to find-

A fixed one.

First one that's fixed.

Continuing exploration I find 10-16 fixed, and… it's a magic square. I'd like to say I figured that bit out myself, but I'd stumbled upon the fact that MM1 contains a Magic Square dungeon earlier by accident. That said, I did solve the square myself.



I am a cool dudette. (the gems and gold are tiny, exp is okay, the int is unique and awesome thought)


Finishing that I opt back to the dungeon under pondsmith, feeling like I'm strong enough to really take it. This time I opt to take the straight path and-



(that is, by the way, the other side of the tile where the demons killed me, turns out if I had gone from the front way, I would have known. It was supposed to force you to go around, but I went around the first time, and didn't know).

I continue to explore to find



I step in to get a reversal!

Zenon III: What?
Wizz Bane: Fascinating we seem to have had our gender reversed

Sir Galand: We should…. Probably go back to our original genders… you know 🙁
Wizz Bane: Actually maybe we shouldn't
Sir Galand:?
Wizz Bane: Well, tactically, the area above seems to drain males, so if we want to continue our quest, it would be only wise to remain female
Sir Galand: You are right!
Swifty Sarg: Didn't we decide that was succubi lust?
Wizz Bane: We all know Serena's a flaming lesbian and she wasn't drained

(The party looks over, to see Serena in a catatonic state)

Sir Galand: Well, I mean… that is reasonable. It is vital we complete our quest. And changing to a girl would help it, not that I want to be a girl or anything, having fantasized about it. But you know… for Justice.
Wizz: You know the rest of us are still evil, and haven't have our alignments restored?
Zenon III: Speak for yourself, I was always evil, damn unicorns.
Swifty Sarg: What about Crag? is he gonna be okay, he's always so manly-

Crag: I'm gonna wear the prettiest unicorn pelt dress and have so many cute weapons-
Zenon III: He's fine, so we're agreed no: changing back?
Serena: FUCK NO. YOU GIRLS DO WHAT YOU WANT BUT I AIN"T STAYING THIS WAY, TURN ME BACK INTO A WOMAN.

(this actually is a pain since I can only use the pond once a time each trip, so I have to exit, go down to change everyone back, then go up, remove Serena from the party, and go back down. The only saving grace is Wizz is now level 7, and while the lvl 4 spells don't add much firepower, they do add the amazing time warp, which is a 100% guaranteed run away, so I can use it to clear fixed encounters without risking death or worse- ⅚ of the party getting exp and one member not and having uneven exp counts).

I find a few fountains, one that poisons me and one that-

Okay… that is good enough I need to figure out what 'worthy' is to make sure everyone gets it. Looked it up and… turns out it's everyone 'worthy' just means made it there.

With the party now able to explore the town without drains


Really?

Also every female shopkeeper is described as hot, which I theorize is because all the party is sapphic, but the succubi are comphet enough they only drain from people they see as males. Tragic.

More exploring finds a few points of interest.


Brother.. Hmmmm. The statue back in Sorpigal mentioned two brothers.

But yeah, after mapping the town, I find two notable unmapped areas, the first is by the temple which I check every wall, to nothing. The second,more promising, is a series of 10 by 1 by one rooms, with each back up against inaccessible rooms, I go through each one (requiring a unlock and a fight) to finally find the opening on the final room, and find…



Zenon III: Lady I promise you it was not hard.


Well, this is definitely not a fight I can win. (thankfully retreat works, but yeah, notes for later).

And with that I am done with Portsmith mapping, and have a high end boss to fight later. (also serious complaint, why is the boss with greater devils, when 3 lesser devils is a challenge right now ? It's like… frustratingly out of scope with the area)

But with Portsmith done, and my characters feminized a good time all around. With no more portals suggesting new places, it's time to explore the open world

 

[clockworkchaos]

1.6 Aliens

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?)

Spoiler: MM6 people

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.

(I die)

I think that's enough for this update.

 

[clockworkchaos]

1.7 Exploring

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.

1. It's a decaying shipwreck, which feels haunted and undead are usually associated with curse in MM
2. 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

	Erq, Blackridge
	Medusa Cave, Warrior Stronghold	Merchant Caravan
	Port/ WW/ ALIEN	Sorpigal-Start	Desert
	Weeping woods, Dangerous waters

 

[clockworkchaos]

1.8: Love, Death, and robots and JRPGS

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

1. Mean
2. 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…

Going back to this

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.

Click to shrink...

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

1. Got Teleported
2. Got diseased (infectious sap)
3. Poisoned thorns
4. Lightning
5. All SP drained
6. Cursed (doubled dmg I think? Based on how much dmg was done
7. Nothing
8. +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.

 

[clockworkchaos]

1.9: I go insane

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.

 

[clockworkchaos]

1.10 Castles and Quests

So… castles have quests.

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

1. Find Lord Kilburn
2. 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

1. A tiny island that doesn't seem to have anything?
2. 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.

1. Okay, so 'ancient ruins in quivering forest'. - Already got, it's the wizards place
2. Someone's peak- Already got
3. "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.
4. Shrine of Ozark in Duks- Already done
5. "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

1. Bring Garlic (so he wants to fight vampires)
2. Bring Wolfsbane (and were wolves)
3. Bring Belladonna (and people)
4. 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).