It’s been two weeks since I last played Might and Magic Book Two. Other games and actual obligations simply kept me away. Naturally, I have no idea where I’m at or where I was about to go, so I’m trying to piece it together.

Corak’s Cave didn’t go according to plans

In my last posting, I said I’d give Corak’s Cave another go. Well, I gave it ago and I failed. My clerics/rogues simply need to be stronger before I’m able to get through it. I got to the crypt in the south and even talked to the guy who lowers the barrier, but there’s a fight in the last room against some extremely high-level undead. Of course, there’s this spell I can cast once I reach spell level 9 that will be extremely helpful, but for now, Corak’s Cave will have to wait.

This was two weeks ago. There may have been something more after Corak’s Cave, but for the life of me, I can’t remember, and I apparently did not take any notes.

No more in character for now

It takes a long time for me to write posts that are in character. Since I’m now a really busy guy, with work, work-related side projects and certification exams to study for, the time taken to write these postings takes away directly from my time spent playing games. Considering the end result isn’t that good, I’ll drop the whole fan fiction angle from my postings for now.

This blog is supposed to be my gaming journal and that’s exactly what it’s going to be.

That being said, what follows takes place between day 36 and day 42 of year 904.

Reassessing the situation

Looking at my character’s bags, I had several things. There was the Valor Sword. It’s not equipment, so I can only assume it’s a quest item. I have no idea for which quest, though. I also had Corak’s Soul, which I got in the Lost Woods in C-1 and the Admit 8 Pass which I can use to enter Corak’s Crypt. I’m assuming these two are related, but I’m not really sure.

Finally, I have four high tech items which I got from the four castles I visited: M-27 Radicon, J-26 Fluxer, N-19 Capitor and the A-1 Todilor. Since there are apparently five castles, there’s probably one more item. Also, since there’s supposed to be time travel in Might and Magic Book Two, I’m guessing these items are connected with that.

I have four high-tech items now, one from each castle.

I have no plan and I have no goal. Thinking about what I did two weeks ago, I believe I also explored a cave filled with military-type enemies (orcs and human), but I can’t remember where that cave was. I think it was the cave in the forest of C-3, but I’m not sure.

I guess it’s time to flip a coin and pick a location to go to next.

Unknown Cave, north of Sandsobar, in the Nomadic Rift

Incidentally, I had a meal with a peasant as an ingredient in one of the taverns. Because of that, I’m attacked by peasants outside of Sandsobar, every time I enter a certain tile. It just so happens that this is the tile I appear on if I Fly to Sandsobar. It’s annoying. There’s a similar thing with a meal involving gnomes and an encounter in the mountains of A-2, but at least that encounter is completely out of the way.

This cave is interesting. I fully expected it to be fire-related, but as it turns out, it’s some sort of bandit hideout. The rooms contain nooks with a random, completely unmagical and completely worthless weapon in each of them. This means I got to collect random junk and later on destroy it. Yay!

There’s one very impressive thing in the southwestern corner of the dungeon, though. A torch can be moved, which reveals a secret passage. The thing is, the wall blocking the passage actually disappears from the screen, as well as the mini-map, which is something I didn’t think could happen in Might and Magic Book Two. I can only imagine how proud the developer was when he made that happen.

That being said, this secret room also contained a regular worthless weapon, so there’s that.

Holy shit! A fight with 7 sewer rats, 3 conjurers and 55 iron wizards! Iron wizards are robotic enemies and I have trouble dealing with just a few of them at a time. I ran from that one.

I ran immediately from this one.

Leaving the cave tells me the name of the outside region – the Nomadic Rift. Most of the location names are revealed this way, since there’s hardly anything in Gates to Another World that could be called actual dialogue.

The Nomad Cave, which is what I call it now, was mostly empty of things. Instead, it contained an above average number of notes like the ones I usually find in caves. This got me thinking. Why not simply follow up on these notes one by one? Surely, I’d get somewhere if I did that.

Since I use One Note on a regular basis, I think that would be a great way to do it. One Note actually has a checkbox system you can use, just like you’d use list items in a Word document.

There was one spot in the dungeon where it looked like I got another note, but then I actually read it:

A rumor you heard about the Nomad’s treasure horde suddenly pops back into your memory, as you spy an overly large black “X”.

I heard no rumor, or at least, I can’t remember hearing a rumor. I’ll buy it anyway, though. There’s a large black “X”, but it did nothing. The message went away and it didn’t reappear. This same message appeared several times in the dungeon and again, it went away and didn’t reappear.

The notes in this dungeon:

The supreme Dragon Lord oversees a realm of destruction in D1 at 10,12
Mighty Nakazawa and Lord Peabody’s servant Sherman were last seen having some problems with Amazons near Native’s Cove at 10,1.
The mighty Serpent King slithers in E3 at 5,6.
The Mist Warrior keeps his lair atop Mist Haven at 15,11. He keeps at bay all who trespass with a Dancing Sword.
Mr. Wizard, a top scientist, has been interrupted in his research of the Arcane Wilderness by a very nasty Lich Lord at 1,14.
Posing as monster-attractive targets, Holy Moley and Slick Pick are entertaining at Dawn’s Mist Bog Cavern.
The Queen Beetle holds court in E2 at 11,6.
Hastily written by a shaky hand, a message reads, “Fluxer, Radicon, Todilor and Capitor are essential to gain the Element Orb.
Mystic Castle Xabran, holder of secrets, lies unknown in the 9^th century in C2, at 14,8.

Speed boost!

I couldn’t find the Nomad treasure, but I did find THE treasure. Guarded by a pack of leprechauns (bye, bye, money), there was a giant treadmill, which permanently increased everyone’s speed, or of everyone able, whatever that meant.

This map of the Nomad Cave probably isn’t final yet. Those X marks must mean something.

The thing is, looking at my character’s stats, I’m not sure if anyone was “able”.

Gear management

I spent about 30 minutes, or possibly more, distributing all of the items I got in the Nomad Cave, once I got back to Middlegate. I decided on a new approach. Since leprechauns are as common as they are and I bought everything I wanted to buy, I’ll be distributing the gear I get among the mercenaries. Class quests only allow me to take that class and robbers with me, so I’ll be mostly equipping robbers and the classes I have on my team.

That means ninjas and barbarians are out of luck by default.

Character progression.

None whatsoever. During my exploration of the Nomad Cave, none of the characters gained a level or an item. The hirelings got plenty of items, but it would be far too much work to list those. I’ll just mention an evil only Wind Staff, for which I’m very sad Aleen can’t use it. I gave it to Dark Mage instead. It increases speed by 10. Starting every battle with a Disintegrate would have been awesome.

Next time?

I’ll start working on that TO-DO list. I got 9 fresh tasks just from exploring the Nomad Cave. I can tell I’ve already done a few of these and some of those aren’t exactly tasks per say, but it’s as good a goal as any.