I was one dungeon away from completing the game last time, but by now, it was obvious it would take a lot of grinding or potion abuse to get past the last major battle. This is exactly what I did.Continue reading
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.Continue reading
I said I’d get stronger. I went through my notes, did some research, and BOY did I get stronger. As it turns out, your average high-level Might and Magic II party is miles ahead of your average high-level Might and Magic Book One party.Continue reading
After trying to get through the Dead Zone (I wasn’t able to), I decided to give Dragon’s Dominion a second shot. First, I wanted to fight the Dragon Lord, though.Continue reading
The objective list I’m left with after my last Might and Magic Book Two session is a bit rigid, so I went through my old notes and added a few more objectives from that. This should give me more things to do.Continue reading
I said I’ll be using the various notes and rumors Might and Magic Book Two is full of to give myself goals from now on, so that’s exactly what I’ll try to do. I took the list I made in my last play, removed the things I’ve already done, cleaned it up a bit and came up with a list of objectives.Continue reading
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.Continue reading
I realized I somehow completely forgot about Thundara and the Snowbeast, so I made it a point to go there next time.Continue reading
Middlegate, Sandsobar, Vulcania and Castle Pinehurst are now completely known to us, but two more towns and four more castles remain. Well, three and a half, so we might tackle the one half this time.
I am not a chronicler of events, nor a historian. I prefer to focus on things that matter to me, not things that might matter to others. Consider this a record of my thoughts, not a chronicle of events.
Lord Hoardall is far from a desirable ally, but we have been at his castle already and I do hate lose ends, so I’ve convinced the group to go back there next. We even took No Name and Harry Kari with us this time.
Woodhaven was even more cluttered than we remembered. I was slightly worried that the lord might be offended of the fact that we haven’t found his Sharp Sabre yet, but in all likelihood, he doesn’t even remember us being here. In any case, he and his men were distracted enough for us to explore the halls freely.
The Green Bishop of Battle managed to get himself captured again, but we also bought another copy of the Green Key, so we freed him once again. Hopefully, this won’t turn into a tradition.
I’m just trying to make fun of repeatable quests here.
Harry and No Name are nowhere near our level of skill, but it has always been my opinion that everyone can be useful with a ranged weapon, as longs as they never shoot over their allies.
The final map of Castle Woodhaven. I’m not sure if the treasure does anything.
We remained at Woodhaven for about a week. It was short, but not without events. I must say, we’ve probably misjudged Hoardall. We all have. He might have an issue with material things, but his treasury is so vast because of it, even I, a paladin, was tested. Of course, I resisted the temptation, but I’m certain Rax and Harry were a few stones heavier as we were leaving.
Outside of that, we found something labeled as M-27 Radicon. I’m not certain what it is, but it looks eerily similar to the J-26 Fluxer, so Lorelei concluded we should take it.
Over the past few months, we’ve been steadily improving our survival skills, hoping to one be able to push through even the densest of forests and steepest of mountains. It might seem arrogant to say we are at that level now, but we are.
We returned to some of the old areas we’ve been to and started scouring through parts we couldn’t get to before. As it were, if a place is difficult to get to, those that do are quite dangerous indeed, so it has been painful.
It paid off, though. We found a cavern or two, secret paths and roads and many other things. It has been extremely difficult for Harry and No Name, but they are slowly getting the hang of it.
Castle Hillstone has its own Zoo, which, apparently, is a place where rich folk keep wild and untamed animals for other rich people to look at. I could understand the attraction in this activity, were I not an adventurer who sees exotic beasts on a daily basis.
Caslte Hillstone also has a dungeon, which we will, naturally, have to explore.
There was also another strange item to be found, this one labeled N-19 Capitor. Our experience with the Inner Sanctum made us familiar with alien technology, so I can now safely say that these items are not from this world. Since there has been one in each of the three castles we visited, I will also assume there is one in every castle.
Lastly, since they are not of this world, I will assume Corak, or someone connected to Corak left the items there for someone like us to find. The lords certainly didn’t put any importance into these items, as they were just placed there as ornaments.
The castle Grand Hall describes the personality of Lord Slayer perfectly. His guests are exotic beasts and monsters from all over the world and his festivities include fighting these beasts, to the death. As for the throne room, the lord had a quest for me, but I couldn’t accept until I paid a visit to Hoardall and formally declined his tasks.
There’s actually a guy selling an Elixir of Remove Quest, or something along those lines at the castle, so that’s what I used. The thing is, the Lord Quests seem to be of the generic type. I picked the page’s quest because I wanted to start from the bottom (there are four quest levels) and I got a task to kill a swamp dog. Easy enough.
This lord somehow captured the Red Bishop of Battle, so we managed to free him with the Red Key. I also freed two more prisoners, claiming they were imprisoned for killing an Earth Wyrm by using Magic instead of Might. Since Lord Slayer gave us a task to kill a Swamp Dog, we should probably keep that information in mind.
In fact, this is exactly what we did as we stepped out of the castle into the swamp and charged into the first pack of dogs we’ve seen. It pays off to keep maps and notes.
The lord rewarded us and gave us another, slightly more difficult task. We are to kill a royal horseman.
Royal horseman? Do the lords have an issue with the queen? We should get to Luxus Palace Royale sooner rather than later.
I urged the party to retire Harry for now and give Sir Hyron a chance to grow for a while.
Our first intention was to go explore Hillstone’s dungeon, but after taking a short stroll through it, we decided against it. Lord Slayer is a peculiar collector of dangerous things. While is Zoo was manageable, his dungeon was way past his Zoo in the danger department.
Instead, we remembered an unremarkable mine close to castle Pinehurst.
Rax clearly hoped to find riches in this mine, but I overheard people talking. The mine was abandoned ages ago and all that was left of the gold once abundant here is fine dust, pretty to look at, but utterly worthless.
Instead, the mine was home to something far less preferable – it was haunted by a dead necromancer and his minions, Sarakin. It was also extremely unstable, with frequent cave-ins taking their toll on us.
This is the spirit you see at the central part of the level. I’m not sure if the “ore” is a type or a pun.
Sarakin’s shade was close to the entance of the mine, warning us to go back, but we chose to ignore it. With Alana and myself ready to turn any undead running, and Sir Hyron and No Name giving backup with their crossbows, we didn’t expect much trouble.
You can also free these two at the mine.
We even freed two adventurers that got trapped by a cave-in and they agreed to assist us in the future, for a symbolic fee.
The final map to Sarakin’s Mine.
Eventually, we found Sarakin’s tomb and fought the shade. It was a difficult battle, with Sarakin himself and some of his minions repelling any weapon attacks and spells, but nothing can fully resist Disintegration. Eventually, they fell and revealed a magical fountain, removing any unnatural aging the shades we fought inflicted upon us.
The ghosts and Sarakin are immune to weapons. The vampires do a lot of ranged damage.
Naturally, we did not clear the mine in one fell sweep. As usual, we went back and forth between this place and MIddlegate several times.
At one of these occasions, just as we were about to enter the mine, Robin heard a noise in the nearby mountains. There was a highlander hunting party camping there. They got their hands on an ornamental sword and offered it to us in exchange for some sparring.
Mountain folk are hard, but they were no match four our cumulative experience and abilities, so the sword was ours.
It is a useless trinket, strictly intended for decoration, but someone clearly lost it, so hoping we would find that someone, we decided to keep it.
I started training hirelings for the class quests ahead. The way I understand it, only the classes related to the quest, accompanied by robbers can go to class quest areas, so I need a group of high level guys to do this. Because of that, I was training No Name, the archer and have switched from Harry Kiri, the ninja, to Sir Hyron, the knight at first, but later on started switching in other potentially useful classes. I’m thinking the robber can be Rax herself, but I should probably have as many high level sorcerers, clerics, paladins, archers and nights as I can.
Well, technically, since I can only have two hirelings, I can also only have two of the required class.
These are the hirelings I managed to free until now. Some of them are at my current level.
I also spent some time going from town to town, taking all of the hirelings to Middlegate, since this is my base of operations, offering the cheapest services.
Here’s my usual party report. Lots of upgrades this time.
A level and a far better armor for Lorelei. Plate Mail +4 got upgraded to a Plate Armor +5.
Also a level and an armor upgrade, but Priscilla also replaced her Magic Charm for another pair of Might Gauntlets. She hits almost as hard as Lorelei now.
Either Rax is all maxed out, or she has really bad luck with item upgrades. She did get three levels, though.
Alana gained two levels and her spell level is now 8. She needs spells, though.
Robin replaced her Ice Sickle for a Speedy Sword, so she can start the battle first again. She also gained a level.
Aleen got nothing. Seriously, no level, no items.
So, just to recap what happened this time.
I explored Castle Woodhaven fully. There are treasure rooms, but I have no idea if there’s anything useful in there. Each castle has a bishop you can free by buying the key of the same color at one of the town’s locksmiths. Each bishop gives you experience for freeing him.
I also explored Castle Hillstone. The Lord is Lord Slayer and he seems to be thematically oriented towards might, but I’m not sure if it has an effect on the game. I freed a couple of hirelings from the castle to. I tried tackling the dungeon, but it’s too tough for now, in my opinion.
The Hillstone bishop apparently gives more experience if you do the arena champion thing I found some messages talking about.
I started training hirelings to make myself more ready for the later class quests, since you can only take characters of that class alongside with robbers on a class quest.
I explored Sarakin’s Mine. I thought the gold dust does something, but I couldn’t find out what. I killed Sarakin and was able to use the rejuvenation fountain behind him. I’m not absolutely sure it makes you younger, but I think it does.
I also got the Valor Sword from a fight in the nearby mountains. It doesn’t do anything, so my guess is that it’s a quest item.
I’ll explore some other place, basically. I have absolutely no idea what that place will be. I’ll also keep training hirelings.
With Pinehurst fully explored and Peabody’s son still missing, it was time to find information elsewhere. Maybe another castle would be a good idea, or maybe even a town dungeon?
Alana claims I have issues; that I’m too keen on shooting things. Why wouldn’t I be? Shooting things is fun.
Anyway, she’s starting to think I’m a bit on the crazy side (which is also fun), so she’s being a pain about me writing a journal. She says it would help with my “issues”. Yeah, right. I don’t have any issues.
Still, I can’t deny writing is a useful skill and I sure have been neglecting it since about forever.
We just got out of Pinehurst, where I had a lot of time to practice my shooting. We decided to go to the dungeon below Sandsobar next. Hopefully, there will be shooting there was well.
My bow is getting worn out, though. I’d like to get a new one soon.
We used a portal to get to Sandsobar, stopped by the blacksmith, bought a yellow ticked and then immediately used it to enter a battle at the monster bowl. We fought Vikings.
Vikings share sprites with dwarves.
Vikings are big, which makes them easy to hit. There’s something about hedgehogs that’s very attractive to me, but I prefer when there’s a challenge.
I knew we should’ve visited this dungeon ages ago. Everything in it is week. The only thing that hurts are the ankle traps and you can’t shoot ankle traps.
Well, you can, but it wouldn’t do you any good.
There was a thief who offered us training in thievery. Rax was being silly and accepted. The thief spoke a bunch of nonsense, confusing Rax even more, took the cash and ran away. I think Rax is even worse at disarming traps now.
Rax’s Thievery is down to 69% now, for some reason. I’m not sure if the thief died it, or if it happened some time before, but I did not like it.
There was a note about a spell around the Elemental Plane of Water. Aleen wanted to write it down, as usual, but then I reminded her we already have the spell, because I’m smart like that and I didn’t want to wait around when I could be shooting things.
We couldn’t find a way forward. We explored every path, but they were all dead ends. Then I remembered a fun game I played as a kid – “wall chicken”. Basically, you charge into walls and see who quits first.
As usual, one of the walls quit first, and we found the thief den.
We crashed our way in and soon found the guild boss, Rinaldo Junior. I wanted to shoot him, but Rax wanted to be a better robber. She sure could use some improvement, so I let the guy go. Apparently, we are more street smart now, whatever that means.
That’s what the game said – you feel more street smart. My thievery didn’t increase, and I didn’t have any slots for a new skill, so I’m not sure what happened there.
Orcs! I love shooting Orcs!
The entire southern half of the caves was filled with some type of orc-pig mutants. I love the way they squeal with an arrow in their behind.
A zombie gave us an Admit 8 Pass for Corak’s Cavern. I’ve seen it all now. My life is fulfilled.
This zombie underneath Sansobar gives you the Admit 8 Pass.
Some killer canine’s made themselves a den in the south eastern part of the dungeon. I turned the entire pack into pincushions and then Rax took the glory by finding a Dog Whistle in the remains. What good is a dog whistle anyway?
The final map of Sandsobar and the Thief’s Den below.
Not much good, actually. It gives a plus one to luck when worn and can be used to cast the Guard Dog spell. There are far better uses of inventory slots.
We are back in Middlegate and it took just over a week to explore the cave. See how much more efficient I am compared to Alana? Heck, we even have time to go to Corak’s Cavern.
We found Lloyd!
Now both Aleen and I can cast a beacon anywhere we want and then return to it later instantly.
I can’t believe I missed this, but the secret passage to where Lloyd was is behind the stairs out of the dungeon. I should’ve known, since I already knew the coordinates from a random message. In any case, I have the spell now. I just have to figure out how to use it.
Ghosts are no fun. Aleen and Priscilla just wave their hands and they go away, but my arrows fly through them. It’s not fair!
Some guy in the cavern only wants to talk to “clerics and their robber assistants” which means the rest of us will be staying in Middlegate, chilling. Oh well. I hope it isn’t too troublesome for them. I don’t want to miss out on the shooting.
Alana and Rax hired two adventurers of their own professions at the Inn and went for it. Alana said it’s a mentorship program, but if you ask me, they just needed cannon fodder.
I’ve been thinking about this mentorship program and it might not be a bad idea. Here’s my pitch:
We offload our spear gear on some poor sods at the Middlegate Inn and maybe even take them with us every once in a while. They get some experience and proficiency and when we need them for some menial task, they have to help us, because it says so in the contract.
I mean, what good is the money we get from selling our gear when a single leprechaun can take it all away? I call that an investment!
Alana and her gang god back during the night. It seems the keepers took our Admit 8 pass the last time we tried to get in, so we need to find that zombie and get another one. Oh well, there’s plenty of time for that later.
To be honest, I don’t think the four would’ve survived the inner crypt by themselves.
I’ve convinced the team to go to Vulcania.
Lava. Lots of bubbling lava. Aleen taught me how to cast levitate, though, so I’m not too worried.
Apparently, there are other heroes known throughout Cron and someone has been keeping track on their whereabouts on the walls of these volcanic caverns. Scribes are strange folk. Paper is so much more practical.
By the Divines, how I hate mazes. This whole cavern is one huge maze. There’s no change in hell this is natural. Nature is incapable of being so cruel. The design of these passages has intent, and it isn’t good intent.
Ogre’s sure have changed since Book One.
What the inferno kind of names are Thund R. and Sir Kill?
Some kind of weird floating head took a look at our Rax and he instantly turned to stone. Luckily, Alana had something to say about that, but it’s funny. Even when there are no traps, Rax, manages to find one.
Divines damn these tunnels! We’ve been navigating a section for two days only to find an out of tune giant singing a terrible song at the end of it.
Some monsters have interesting names.
And then we realized the passage simply circles back.
At the end of one more passage, we finally found something of minor, albeit very minor use. Two adventurers were tied up there, by whom, we weren’t able to find out. The ninja is completely insane, so there’s no information to get out of him, while the other one suffers from amnesia. He even introduced himself as No Name.
They agreed to be at our disposal in the future, so they are now official members of the Mentorship Program.
Unlocking hirelings apparently serves as a reward for exploration.
And with that, we couldn’t find any more passages to navigate through. The volcanic caves were fully mapped, or so it seems.
The caves below Vulcania are mostly one-way secret passage sections. There was a split in one of them, pointing at “Endurance” on one side and “Help” on the other. I was hoping for a stat increasing pool at the end of the Endurance section, but all that was there was a giant. I listened to it, but as was as I can tell, nothing happened.
The final map of Vulcania and the caverns below.
A fool remembers. Everyone else uses ink. I will write down any information I find into my personal notes.
The mystic Thaumaturge of Good can be freed if you enter Right 32 and Left 64.
Look in Castle Xabran at 6,2 and you will find the Earth disc.
Seek the N-19 capitor at 3,13 in Castle Hillstone.
Look by 0,6 in the Luxus Palace Royale for the A-1 Todilor.
Dead Eye and Red Duke are in Bozorc’s control in D1 at 14,1.
Unlucky Sir Kill and Jed I should not have eaten so much fatty food. They are trapped by a cave-in in Sarakin’s.
The Air Disc is at 15,15 in Xabran.
Star Burst is in the center of the Dead Zone
And finally, we have our usual party report. There have been levels and items this time.
Lorelei simply gained a level this time. She’s at 146 health.
Priscilla gained a level and a spell level, so she can cast level 4 clerical spells now. She upgraded her Iron Helm +2 to a Helm +6.
Rax didn’t get any upgrades, but she did gain two levels. Her thievery is at 70% now. It dropped to 69% for some reason, but it’s going up again, apparently.
Alana gained no levels this time, but she did at least upgraded her Helm from +4 to +6.
Robin also gained no levels, but she didn’t get any upgrades either.
Aleen gained now levels, but she did get one major upgrade. Her Defense Ring +2 is now a Defense Ring +7, so her armor class is finally starting to look decent.
White Knights are the bane of my existence. For some reason, the only thing that has even a remote chance to deal damage to them is Disintegration, and even then, not one has it been an instant kill. Basically, I’m better off just running away with white knights.
Outside of that, things have become much easier once I got Raise Dead and Stone to Flesh. I can now recover from almost anything, so the risk of losing progress is greatly reduced. This means I can stay away from town longer and thus explore much faster.
As for the writing, it’s probably as bad as ever, but at least I have something of a system now.
Three town dungeons are cleared. I assume the one under Atlantium is probably too difficult, but I might try clearing Thundara. There’s the snow beast there as well.