I was in Erliquin, which is in B-1. Since B-3 of Portsmith was pretty much cut off from C-2 of Sorpigal, I was thinking there’s a good chance that a direct route from B-1 to C-2 exists. Because of that, I decided to stay in B-1 and explore all of the locales here. It was underwhelming.

The Erliquin B-1 Dungeon was a Bust

I went to the dungeon below Erliquin first, but within a couple of minutes, I had to get out. The dungeon contained a hallway with passages on each side being cut off by flickering lights and barriers. The lights kept zapping my party with electricity and the barriers wouldn’t let me get past them, so all I could to was to pick the locks on two reachable rooms. One of them was empty, while the other contained some sort of console which asked for an access code. I put in the wrong code twice, which caused my party to get attacked, but other than that, there was nothing else I could do.

Might and Magic Book One - Dungeon Below Erliquin

What I’ve managed to explore so far of the dungeon below Erliquin. The yellow spots damage you, the purple spots block you.

The Wilderness of B-1 Wasn’t Much Better

I went out and explored the wilderness next, but it ended up being extremely difficult and annoying, mostly because a lot of the fights were against groups of centaurs, which love to cast sleep spells. Inch by inch, I did manage to explore the whole place, but there wasn’t a lot I was able to find.

As hard as I tried, I couldn’t find the local cave. It either doesn’t exist, or it’s in one of the areas I wasn’t able to reach.
There was, however, a castle in the area, castle Blackridge. The weird thing about it is that it has an eastern and a northern entrance. I didn’t enter it yet, but I might do it next time.
The entire south eastern area of B-1 is unreachable. I couldn’t find a secret passage either. I’m assuming I can either get to it via the castle, or I can reach it from the east, which would be C-1. Based on my maps, I can get to C-1 from B-1, and C-2, so there’s a good chance I can advance from there.
The south western quadrant contains a lengthy passage ending in an area where “resting was too dangerous” and filled with difficult encounters. I tried several times, but I couldn’t get to the end of it. I did get close, though. There’s only seven or eight unexplored tiles left. The problem is, once you get into the area, the passage closes, so the only way to get out is to fight through, and I keep running out of magic points before I manage to do that.
To the north, there’s a long passage with something simply described as “The gates to another world.” I think the CRPG addict said this is where you transfer your party to Might and Magic II, or something like that. For now, there was nothing I could do here.
This area is basically a series of lengthy passages usually ending in a random encounter or simply nothing at all, which is the main reason why it’s so underwhelming to explore it.
From B-1, you can get to A-1 in two possible spots, B-2 in one spot and C-1 in another.

Might and Magic Book One - B-1 Erliquin Wilderness, Map Only

The widlerness of B-1 is not very worthy of exploration for now.

I actually visited the adjacent areas of B-1 and cast the Location spell there, just so I can finally confirm how the area coordinates work. It turns out, it’s not the same as map coordinates. Area coordinates seem to start in the top left corner of the world map and increase from there, so the top left area is A-0 or A-1, depending on which number it starts counting from. This means Sorpigal is actually northeast of Portsmith and Erliquin is now two areas north of it. Now that I’m thinking about it, the way I placed Sorpigal in my previous articles made no sense any way you look at it.

Might and Magic Book One - B-1 Erliquin Wilderness, Full

I have yet to explore the huge blank area, but here’s what I have so far.

In any case, I explored as much of the wilderness I could and I was done for the day. Next up, I’ll either go to the castle, or I’ll try and make my way to Sorpigal on foot, just to see if it’s possible. It might not be, though. I peeked into B-2 for a moment and I was attacked by a group of Ogres and other high level enemies, so it might be too difficult right now. I do know there’s a way to B-2 from C-2, though, because I remember it being guarded by a group of Caryatid guards.

Side Note: Turn Undead

I noticed my Turn Undead spell (Cleric, Level 1, Spell 8) has been failing recently. I assumed it was due to Alana’s alignment changing, so I paid the 25 gold to restore it at the temple in Erliquin. I haven’t had the chance to check if this was the issue, though. It’s sort of annoying having to fight enemies that destroy your alignment, but very often, I have no choice in the matter.

Extra Side Note: I Fail at Screenshots

For some reason, my screenshot tool failed to take any screenshots, or at least failed to store them in my usual location, so I can’t find them now. Instead, you get whatever I was able to map.