Damn, that’s a sweet title! As promised, I’ve been traveling through time and finally completing some long-standing objectives. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I made some progress.

Castle Xabran

Castle Xabran was exactly where I thought it would be and, consequently, where my notes said it would be. Other than the four elemental discs I needed, the castle was used as a sort of checklist of spells and hirelings that exist in the game. Basically, it listed all the spells and hirelings and where they can be found.

There were some strong enemies in the castle, so I had to go back and forth several times, before I got all four discs.

More time travel

Some optional quests also involved time travel, but I could only do one of them – getting the Phaser from Spaz Twit. Spaz was easy to kill, but he was grouped out with a bunch of White Knights, which made the fight annoyingly long.

By the way, I figured out the White Knights, finally – they can only be hurt by male characters and, on occasion, with Disintegration.

I thought I also had to time travel to get the Star Burst spell from the Dead Zone in D1, but even though the Dead Zone wasn’t there in the previous centuries, neither was the spell. Maybe I missed the century.

There’s also a loin cloth I need to get from some other guy in the past, but I have no idea where or when he is.

Elemental talons

To get the elemental talons, I had to go to the four elemental planes, to a specific place and use the proper elemental disc there. I got the locations of the talons from notes in the Gemmaker’s cave, but I never wrote down the one for fire, so It took a while to find that one.

On the plus side, spending some time exploring got me a lot of experience and made me realize there’s a third set of red messages to decrypt, scattered throughout the four planes. That being said, I haven’t decrypted the yellow one’s yet.

It also made me realize there’s an especially difficult battle against an elemental lord in each of the four planes, which is basically a death sentence for me right now if I stumble into it.

Revisiting everything

I started from A1 and went left to right to fully explore everything I haven’t before and revisit places in case I missed something. To list it all in order…

Ice Cavern, B1

I only visited this one briefly to get my Personality up, so I went to fully explore it now. It was an annoying cave with a bunch of rooms containing a treasure guarded by one of those huge groups of low-level monsters. At least I mapped it this time, though.

Woodhaven dungeon, C1

I somehow missed this dungeon on my previous visit. The first level contained a cleric and robber class item, as well as a portal to the Pinehurst Dungeon. I like how the portals are labeled in Might and Magic II, instead of being a gamble like in Book One.

The second level took me well over an hour to clear, perhaps even more. It contained a second set of Robber and Cleric class items, so it wasn’t really worth the rewards. I did gain a lot of experience, though, so it wasn’t wasted time.

Dragon Dominion, D1

Everything up to the two Ancient Dragon fights, I can clear on full-auto. The dragons kill me in two turns, though. On the plus side, I realized I have access to two hidden item caches, where I found an Ancient Bow, a Titan’s Pike and a bunch of gold equipment, giving me several best in slot items for a couple of party members.

Later on, once I was done with all the castle dungeons, mentioned below, I returned here and managed to barely defeat the two Ancient Dragon encounters. My reward? 1,66 million gold per party member from each and access to a one-time HP increase of 1000. Yup, 1000!

E1 and Gem Maker’s Vulcano

I was now able to safely explore E1. The damage from the volcanic erruption was completely insignificant. I also went back to the volcano to get some gems I’ll need for enchanting.

Area of E2

Hell on Cron. My best guess is that this is supposed to be the end-game area, where a high level party can still find some challenge. I can handle a lot of the fights easily, but every now and then, you encounter a group of enemies that simply obliterates you.

There’s a fountain in  this area, simply called The Greatest Fountain. Using it temporarily sets everyone’s attributes to 200, which is actually a bad thing, now that a lot of my attributes are above that.

Luxus Place Royale, D2

The palace itself, I’ve explored ages ago. I never even took a proper look at the two dungeon levels, though. The stairs down are in a hidden area, so it completely slipped my mind.

It’s an annoying dungeon with a lot of encounters, most of them not doing anything. Dwarves, Sorcerers and, if I remember correctly, Knights are banned from certain areas, but I decided not to waste my time on these.  Simply put, I don’t need the class items or the HP boost anymore. I can get everything I need from enchanting and regular visits to the Dragon’s Dominion.

Level 2 had frequent random encounters and something reminiscent of the Secret of the Inner Sanctum – the walls of the level spelled out something – Central Research Observational Nacelle. Did you figure it out? The first letters of the term spell out CRON. 

Apparently, Cron is another one of those artificial worlds made by some advanced race, just like Varn was and still is. In case I haven’t outright say it, VARN is short for Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle.

There was also a portal to the Hillstone dungeon, some spots where I could gain some minor stats or trade them and a special place spelling males beware backwards. Drinking from it switched everyone’s sex to female. I guess Friar Fly is Sister Fly now.

Cave of the Chosen Ones, C2

I was able to enter. I’m not sure what qualified my party to be the chosen ones, but it’s probably one of several things I did recently, most likely the class quests.

The dungeon had a very unique layout. It was a single long corridor that kept wrapping around from west to east. You start out at the bottom and climb your way up, fighting monsters along the way. This was sort of luck based, since the level additionally blocks magical escape or teleportation. You can either luck out and get all the way to the top, or you can strike out.

On my second attempt, I did get to the top, where about 60 or so high-level demons, Devil Kings, I believe, were bowing to the Chosen One, whoever that is. I had the option to attack, and I did try, but these things have a lot of health and hit multiple targets for 500 damage, so my only choice was to run away the regular way. Lorelei got killed, but at least I didn’t lose all the experience.

Note: At this point, I returned to and cleared Dragon’s Dominion, gaining 1000 extra health on each of my characters.

Murray’s Cave, B4

I explored it and found Murray. He gave me a quest to kill Dawn, which I already did. Then he told me to search for my reward, which I didn’t do and stepped off the tile where I talked to him. In Might and Magic Book One and Two, this means the reward is missed. Since it seems to be a one-time quest, I completely missed it.

Luckily, Google says it was just some gold, nothing important.

Dawn’s Cave, D4

I think I cheated.

I got back to Dawn’s cave, not knowing what I need to do to be able to take the Orb with me, and then I remembered something – I can dismiss mercenaries. I gave the orb to Friar/Sister Fly and dismissed her. It worked!

If anyone knows, I really would like to know if this is cheating or the intended way to do it.

Changing history

Based on some notes, from Murray’s cave of all the places, I believe, I went to the C4 in the 9th century to find King Kalohn fighting the Mega Dragon, as it’s written in the manual introduction. He asked for the orb and the talons and I agreed. With that, history was changed and he was sitting on the throne in Luxus Royale from now on.

I went to see him and he told me to defeat SHELTEM in Square Lake and use WAFE as the password for something. Two issues:

1. Sheltem is in this game?! Did I miss this somehow?
2. Square Lake is the lake containing the Cave of the Chosen One. If that’s true, then I need either a lot of grinding, or a lot of Skill Potions, because there’s no way I can defeat those monsters at the end the way I am now.

Next time…

…grinding. So much grinding.

Related Posts:

• Might and Magic Book Two [18] – Completed
• Might and Magic Book Two [16] – Training Montage
• Might and Magic Book Two [15] – Dragon’s Dominion is hard!
• Might and Magic Book Two [14] – Too many things!
• Might and Magic Book Two [13] – Dawn’s Cave