Let's Play Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

I would like to point out that Age Of Wonders was actually pretty good by the Shadow Magic sequel.

edited 4th Oct '10 10:09:07 AM by Dracomicron

I'll do some major updates tomorrow. I was renaming/repairing a very broken trope tonight, and it ate my time.

"... And in the depths of the abandoned temple, nestled deep within goblin-infested territory, there you will find the legendary Sword of the Champion."

"Been there, done that. I use it for a backscratcher."

Gotta love completing quests before they even give them to you.

So, refresh my memory again, can you switch between Turn Based and Real Time or something? The mention of dodging mage attacks like Doom kind of threw me off there.

Yes, switching between the turn based and real time is possible (and recommended).

Chapter 15: The Most Boring Chapter Yet...Not

We head back to New Sorpigal and sell off most of the loot. About the only thing we end up keeping is a ring of fire resistance, which Cate can wear for now.

Next we hit the Self and Elemental Guilds in New Sorpigal for spell shopping. We pick up a couple of defensive spells, nothing new or special. Next, we travel to Castle Ironfist to hit the guilds there.

These guilds are much more handy. We pick up Heroism for Huaryu (remember, Eno already had it), and Cure Paralysis and Remove Curse for both of them. Remove Curse will prove to be especially useful in the next dungeon we visit.

But we're not done yet! We head to the docks, and promptly get on a boat to the Misty Islands. Time to hit these guilds.

From the Water Guild, we pick up Water Walk and Ice Bolt for both Cate and Eno. The former is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The latter is one of the best single-target damage spells in the game, and should be a regular tool in your arsenal.

From the Fire Guild, Cate get her own Ring of Fire, and both Eno and Cate now get Fireball, which is good at clearing out clumped enemies. Just make sure they aren't too close to you...

The Air Guild nets us Feather Fall for Cate, and the aforementioned Sparks spell for Eno. Good enough, so now we have a nice and well rounded selection.

We head for the boat. Unlike in Chapter 10, we actually do want to get back to Castle Ironfist and not New Sorpigal. Just like in Chapter 10, the boat is going nowhere. Meh.

Back to the inn, to rest a day. Fortunately, this time we are able to catch the boat to exactly where we need to go.

Now it's time to head for the next dungeon: the non-abandoned Temple of Baa that lies in wait. I wish it were so easy as walking up and knocking on the door, but more cultists and their lizard-y flunkies are standing between us and them.

Cue epic fight music again! We take down all the enemies surrounding the oddly small temple. Looks like we can go in now...wait, there are more enemies to the southeast...let's kill them!

After a long and grueling battle, we take down all those cultists and their wee lizard friends too. Hooray for us! Now we are ready to enter the next dungeon.

But first...for all the number-lovers...

Character Data Report 1

Toblerone the Knight

• Level: 7
• Age: 21  ^#1
  ^{Yes, age is important. I'll explain this later.}
• Hit Points: 82
• Spell Points: 0
• Armor Class: 38
• Might: 34
• Intellect: 10
• Personality: 5
• Endurance: 24
• Accuracy: 13
• Speed: 12
• Luck: 16
• Fire Resistance: 0
• Cold Resistance: 0
• Electric Resistance: 0
• Poison Resistance: 0
• Magic Resistance: 10  ^#2
  ^{Knights start with this at 10, I forgot about it when I was making the characters.}
• Skills: Sword (1), Bow (2), Leather (1), Plate (2), Identify (4), Merchant (3), Repair (3), Body Building (2), Disarm Trap (3)

Cate the Archer

• Level: 7
• Age: 22
• Hit Points: 43
• Spell Points: 18
• Armor Class: 32
• Might: 10
• Intellect: 30
• Personality: 5
• Endurance: 12
• Accuracy: 19
• Speed: 17
• Luck: 24
• Fire Resistance: 1
• Cold Resistance: 0
• Electric Resistance: 0
• Poison Resistance: 0
• Magic Resistance: 0
• Skills: Dagger (1), Bow (2), Fire (4), Air (4), Water (3), Earth (3), Chain (2)

Huaryu the Cleric

• Level: 7
• Age: 25
• Hit Points: 32
• Spell Points: 40
• Armor Class: 38
• Might: 10
• Intellect: 17
• Personality: 20
• Endurance: 12
• Accuracy: 12
• Speed: 12
• Luck: 16
• Fire Resistance: 2
• Cold Resistance: 0
• Electric Resistance: 3
• Poison Resistance: 0
• Magic Resistance: 0
• Skills: Bow (2), Mace (1), Spirit (4), Mind (4), Body (4), Shield (1), Chain (2)

Eno N'foretsam the Druid

• Level: 7
• Age: 24
• Hit Points: 32
• Spell Points: 67
• Armor Class: 19
• Might: 16
• Intellect: 35
• Personality: 25
• Endurance: 12
• Accuracy: 12
• Speed: 12
• Luck: 16
• Fire Resistance: 0
• Cold Resistance: 5
• Electric Resistance: 0
• Poison Resistance: 0
• Magic Resistance: 0
• Skills: Staff (1), Bow (2), Fire (3), Air (3), Water (3), Earth (2), Spirit (2), Mind (3), Body (3), Leather (2)

edited 9th Oct '10 5:38:27 PM by TotemicHero

Mhwa-ha! Toblerone's ready for a fight, kiddies!

I seem to reemember Sparks (and later the hideously roken Shrapmetal) being incredibly powerful close up: Due to the way the spell works it' possible to stand close enough that you hit an enemy with multiple spars/shrapmtals) which is really nice.

Especially Shrapmetal, sinc seemingly nothing resiosts it and it deals hieous damage.

I remember never being able to FIND this Temple of Baa until I was grossly overevelled...

Chapter 16: This Is Why Trap Safety Is Vital

In the interest of safety, we head back and rest up at the inn. Having done that...time for Baa!

We enter the temple. Classy Roman-style architecture in a small room. A single door in front of us. We go through it and...

...End up in a huge square room. A central chamber with four doors sits in the center. Slightly raised pathways extend to the north, east, south, and west (which is where we entered from). Tunnels connect to northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest corners. It is very majestic in size and scope.

It is also very empty.

Since we're here, let's check out the structure in the center first. Signs beside each of the doors read:

As the winds blow, the seasons change, and only at the end of all can the doors be opened.

On a side note, the in-game texture for the sign actually reads like a town sign, complete with population (4346) and a establishment date (1408). No, it does not tell how to unlock a Luigi class.

Good NEWS, everyone! I fixed the poison slime pipes! I know the solution to this puzzle! You can figure it out to, the answer is somewhere in what I just typed!

Okay, for those of you that didn't get it, the solution is to activate the doors in the order of North-East-West-South. Fail to do this correctly, and the doors have traps waiting to hurt you.

The doors open, revealing a small chamber with a treasure chest. We go forward to open it...and it explodes! While Toblerone does his best Homer Simpson impersonation (D'oh!), we loot the chest and get a Bathhouse Key.

Monster trigger activated! A monster trigger causes monsters to spawn when you activate something. In this case, skeletons, along with a few acolytes of Baa (which have more spells than the rank and file cultists) spawn...right outside the doors of the little room we're inside.

Time to beat feet. We make it out, despite Eno ending up cursed (a skeleton did it) and unconscious. Curses make it so spells do not successfully get cast sometimes. After quickly healing and curing Eno, we rest (I forget to find favorable terrain to rest on, so I use up extra food), and prepare to head back.

Inside, we get to enjoy the benefits of the raised pathways - skeletons can't navigate them. They pile up on either side of the door...and you know exactly what spell is tailor made for clearing them out.

In the wake of Ring of Fire spam, we get to mop up the acolytes who are much smarter and have kept their distance, along with a few skeletons who missed the memo telling them to fall for obvious traps. The acolytes prefer lightning bolt spells, so I activate the Protection from Electricity spell and shoot 'em.

After finishing those off, we head outside and rest. Going back in, we kill off a pair of new skeletons and go north.

The door at the north end leads to a long hallway extending in both directions lined with sculptures. There are doors at either end of the hall. We don't have the key to the door on the right, so we go left...and enter the bath house.

Inside, oddly enough, is another treasure chest. We go to open it, and...another explosion! Grrrr. We loot the chest and claim the Treasure Room Key. Woohoo!

Now we have to deal with a group of skeletons and one acolyte that have spawned behind us. Easily done, and no one got cursed. Plus, we only had to cast Ring of Fire three times.

However, I get the impression that this dungeon's traps might be slightly ahead of my skill levels. However, I know a way I can even this up. Time to go seek out expert training for Toblerone before we return to this place!

edited 15th Oct '10 5:09:06 PM by TotemicHero

Woo, more liveblog!

For the record, I love numbers, and more updating of character stats was something I wish I had done more of in my liveblogs.

Chapter 17: Just When You Thought We'd Seen The Last Of Them

We leave the temple and rest up at the inn. Now for what we have to do:

To get Expert Training in a skill, said skill has to be at rank 4. I think the problem is pretty evident: Toblerone's Disarm Trap skill is only at 3.

Thus we have to go gain a level, which means killing stuff, which means finding stuff to kill. What to do?

Fortunately, we have not explored all of the Castle Ironfist environs, and there happens to be some more goodies to get that will help us, so off we go.

But first, I must confirm what my psychic powers are telling me. Sure enough, the Disarm Trap expert trainer lives near the castle. Also, we discover that an Identify Item expert trainer lives next door, and will train any one of us for 500 gold. Toblerone, you are now an expert!

We head west from the castle, and enter the swamps, which look like someone laid out a dirty green throw rug on the ground. Figures. Along the way, I resist the temptation to have Toblerone open a pair of random crates sitting there...why risk it when our abilities will soon go up.

The swamps contain more Baa cultists then you can shake a staff at, plus more lizardmen. They are guarding what appears to be a shrine and to the north of it...an inn in the middle of nowhere?

<Cue epic battle time.>

Having cleared those out, we stay at the inn and learn that there's a nearby dwarf mine. Guess what we'll be doing at some point.

Anyway, now we head south. A giant square-shaped valley, looking suspiciously like an arena, sits south of the shrine. We skirt the coast to the west, and...

Oh no. Not again.

Facing us are more lizardmen, but they have pets. Guess what these lizardmen think make good pets?

Leechbats.

However, we have something different that we didn't have the last time we faced leechbats...namely, a certain fiery spell that tends to even the odds no matter what you are doing. So we let them close.

The good news is, we kill off the leechbats in short order. The bad news is: These leechbats aren't nearly as hygenic as the ones in Goblinwatch.

Toblerone is diseased. Cate is Diseased. Eno is diseased. Huaryu is...not diseased. And I lack means to cure disease.

We go and polish off the lizards (who were apparently guarding an ancient stone manor - guess what that is), and then we retreat back to Castle Ironfist. The temple there charges an arm and a leg (180 gold per person) to cure us, but it is done. Now it's time to head back to the field and finish up, as we still haven't quite gained a level yet.

Before we do, I stop by the Body guild and see if they have a Cure Disease book available. They don't. I smell a marketing collusion. Anyway, I go ahead and take advantage of an offer I didn't take advantage of before...the Body guild teaches the Meditation skill. Obviously Toblerone can't learn it, but the other three can. And do.

Now back down to the swamp. This time we take the east side of the valley. There's an odd building here, surrounded by the usual lot of enemies (including more leechbats). This time, I pick them off with arrows rather than let us get surrounded.

The odd structure is...wait for it...another temple of Baa! This temple is actually semi-friendly, and they offer the standard services of any normal temple. However, seeing as we're trying make our names as adventurers fighting said cult, we decline to use said services. It would make us look hypocritical (and lower our reputation too).

We check our screens and...bingo, we're ready to level! We head back to Castle Ironfist, and spend a week training. Skill points allocated, and now we can buy Toblerone Expert status in another skill. 500 gold, and he can disarm more traps than ever!

Now we're ready to return to dungeon-form Temple of Baa (Trust me, keeping track of all the Baa temples is only going to get worse from here on out). Get ready!

edited 22nd Oct '10 8:06:33 PM by TotemicHero

Gawd, they're like Starbucks. Was that neutral temple also offering coffee, by any chance?

edited 23rd Oct '10 9:40:50 AM by TriggerLoaded

I'm bringing more Let's Play! Hold your applause.

Chapter 18: A Tale Of Keys And Kiting

We head back to the Baa dungeon of the week. A single Baa acolyte opposes us in the main room, earning a honorary Too Dumb to Live badge. Now, let's tackle the south side.

The south door leads to a short corridor with three other doors. One at each side halfway down the hall, and one at the opposite end. We go straight.

It leads to a slightly twisted hallway with an suspicious statue at a dead end. My psychic powers tell me the statue is important, so we search it and find...another key. Being lazy, I don't look at the name of the key, which is a mistake.

Said key opens the eastern door in the previous hallway, and opening said door, of course, is another monster trigger. More skeletons and another two Baa acolytes wait for us. But like most skeletons, the raised paths confound them to no end, so a little Ring of Fire-ing and a few arrows clean them out nicely.

Unfortunately, one of the skeletons (specifically, a more elite version called a skeleton lord, they're the only ones that do curses), slapped Cate with a curse, which we quickly cure.

Now back to the room we just opened, which seems to be...the temple pantry. Several bags of food, as well as a chest, await us. Toblerone shows off his newfound expertise, and the chest does not explode. Inside is another Bathhouse key. Guess we head back to the north wing and open that other door.

The key works on the other door, and naturally more monsters spawn. We turn around and go toe-to-toe with more skeletons and a single acolyte. There is a second acolyte, but he ran away for some reason.

When the dust settles, we've got two cursed people (Cate and Huaryu), one person afflicted with the fear condition (Toblerone, who is not nearly as brave as we thought), and everyone low on spell points. Time to go pay money to the big temple.

Having done so, we head back inside and kill the lone acolyte who remained unkilled. Now we are able to go loot the chest inside the other bathhouse room (no trap explosions, yay), and get a Store Room key.

So now we have rough idea of the temple layout. West is entrance, north is baths, south is storage, and east is...what we will do later.

Anyway, we head back to the south wing to open the final door. Doing so, naturally, spawns more monsters. One of the skeletons actually manages to figure out how to get to us, and dies doing so. The rest...Ring of Fire says hi.

After killing both acolytes and all but one of the skeletons, we notice the remaining skeleton is doing something odd. It's running away, down the southeast tunnel. Since we were going to have to tackle each of these tunnels eventually, now's a good time to start!

...After we loot the chest in the last room, which contains a...Secret Room Key. Interesting...

I'm not going to go into too much detail about each of the tunnels, because they're all roughly the same. Each ends in a huge cavern that contains a large group of monsters consisting Baa acolytes, skeletons, and/or an old favorite...more giant spiders.

Here's the breakdown, in the order I'm doing them:

• Southeast: Skeletons and Baa acolytes
• Southwest: Spiders and Baa acolytes
• Northwest: Spiders and more spiders
• Northeast: Spiders and skeletons

Our strategy is pretty basic: We kite a small group of skeletons and/or spiders up the tunnels, pumping them full of arrows and throwing down Sparks spells as we go. Rinse, wash, and repeat until almost all skeletons and spiders are dead, then go back into the caverns and kill the Baa acolytes and any leftover spiders or skeletons.

It's not fast or glorious (which Toblerone would naturally complain about), but it gets the job done. Other than one point where my keyboard went "LOL SPAZZ" and started spinning my party in circles (easily fixed by some quick button presses), it went smoothly.

The caverns do introduce three features we will see in later dungeons. First, there are cauldrons, which when drunk from provide permanent one point bonus to either the selected character's Fire or Magic resistances. Which resistance gets boosted depends on the type of brew (Steaming for Fire, Magical for Magic) in the cauldron.

Second, there are piles of trash. These can yield loot when you activate them...but are far more likely to leave one of your characters diseased. Finally, there are the skull piles. Activating these automatically inflicts a character with a nasty status condition such as a curse, or possibly even killing them outright. Do not touch these.

With the caverns complete, all that remains of the temple is the east wing. Will we have what it takes? We shall see...

I know people are worried about the whole Google pulling their ads thing, but do try to relax. With that said...

Chapter 19: We Are Officially Boned (In More Ways Than One)

Well, we head out and rest, as is normal. Rather then find an inn, we just camp out just outside on a patch of grass. Now, time for the final wing of the temple.

The east wing lies behind two pairs of double doors. We open the second door, standing to the side because my psychic powers tell me to. Naturally, they are right as usual.

A spell trigger is set up here to continuously cast the Fireball spell towards the doors. Of course, with all the doors we opened, this means that said fireball flies all the way to the dungeon entrance, where it hits and explodes. Gee, getting out of here is going to be fun!

The east wing consists of a long corridor flanked by mini-water canals. Seeing as said canals appear safe, we hop in one and wade down the corridor, avoiding the fireballs in the process.

The end of the corridor consists of a pair of stairways branching around in opposite directions, leading upward. Both lead to the same place, and each one has a small group of Baa acolytes guarding them. Easy enough.

Both stairways connect to a short hall, with another entrance halfway down the hall. We head in there to find...

...the main chapel, the largest room in the dungeon yet. A huge columned room with an altar on a raised dais, the room is mostly empty. Around the altar are group a not-insignificant number of Baa followers. Guess who we get to kill?

Among these followers are three Priests of Baa. These guys mix up Lightning Bolts with Harm (Body Magic, does damage) spells, and have a good amount of health. Luckily for us, we are able to separate them and kill them one by one.

When all of them are dead, our spell points are all but gone. We head outside (dodging the fireballs) and rest up, again forgoing the inn for a patch of grass. We then head back inside (dodging the fireballs), ready to find out what these last two keys open.

We approach the altar in the chapel. We notice that there is a gong on the altar. We can't reach it from this side, so we circle around to pick it up...

DONG!!!

The sound following the ringing of the gong is the combined sound of bones rattling as dozen of skeletons began to charge, and three of my four characters (Toblerone is too cool for this) coming very close to needing new pants.

Luckily, my psychic powers tell me of a secret door behind the altar. I open it (this uses the Secret Room key), and we dart in, running down the right side of a corridor that splits in two directions.

We head up and reach a ledge that overlooks the chapel. We are able to discern three things:

• There are far too many skeletons for the old AI to control at once.
• The skeletons have trouble navigating the dais.
• There is another ledge directly opposite the one we are on.

Opportunity for us!

We shoot down all immobile skeletons in range, then head over to the opposite ledge and do the same. We then began switching back and forth between ledges, killing the skeletons that get hung up on the dais with arrows and spells.

Once we are down to about ten or so skeletons remaining, we just head out into the chapel and kite them around, pumping them with arrows until they are all dead. Slow, but it worked, and we took no hits from any of the skeletons.

(I wish I could say I took no hits at all, but a poorly-aimed Fireball spell kind of...um...blew up in our face. Yeah, I suck.)

We then begin our search for the locked door that the Treasure Room key will open. It turns out it was on the ledge down the left path past the secret door, and it itself is another secret door. We open it, and enter a small room with a chest.

The chest contains mostly gold, a nice suit of magic leather armor (upgrade for Eno), another Treasure Room key (huh?), and...the Chime of Harmony! That quest is effectively complete! (Kudos if you remembered us getting this quest way back when.)

We decide to see if there is another such secret door on the opposite ledge for this new key to open. Of course, there is. Inside is another room, filled with a very large number of bags of gold. Do we take it? Yes we do!

Now over 10,000 gold richer, we can now declare...

Temple of Baa Complete!

We now leave to turn in our quest and sell off loot (dodging the fireballs).

Edit: I can't spell "dais".

edited 29th Oct '10 7:51:59 PM by TotemicHero

Huzzah! Now let's do the heroic thing and blow all our money on mead.

Chapter 20: How Many Ways Can I Look Stupid?

We now head back into town. We can now level up, but decide to put it off in case turning in the quest makes us level up twice. That way, one less game week is spent on it. Aren't I smart? As you'll see, I'm not.

We rest up at the inn, and then go through the song and dance of selling off our goods. Yay for fake commerce!

Now we visit the stables...and no rides today. Sounds familiar, right?

However, there is something that we can do in the meantime. Remember where we found the strange mansion and the semi-friendly Temple of Baa? We're going back there, to finish clearing out the last of the outdoor monsters in the Castle Ironfist region. Huzzah!

Along the way, we open that one crate we skipped before. Some weapons, some gold, nothing fancy.

Before, there was a road leading north into the mountains. We didn't take this road because all the leechbats made me scared...or something...or maybe I just hit the level goal before getting there. Yeah.

Anyway, after killing off a lone leechbat, we take this road, which leads into a rectangle shaped valley tucked away in the mountains. Below us...more Baa cultists and lizard men. This is starting to get old.

Cleanup proceeds as planned. Not entirely pretty, but a few well-placed Fireball spells go a long way. Anyway, the floor of this valley has a teleporter pad, identical to the ones found in the Misty Islands. This pad will take us to and from Castle Ironfist itself.

Hold on, you say. Why didn't you just teleport in to begin with? Well, would you want to teleport into the middle of the enemies? Didn't think so.

Besides the teleport pad...is another obelisk! This makes #2. One step closer to that, right?

Anyway, we decide to hike back rather than teleport. Good exercise, and saving the world is physically demanding, after all.

Rest up at inn, and then travel to New Sorpigal via the stables.

I get to New Sorpigal and train everyone up to level 9. And then...wait, wasn't I supposed to turn in a quest first?

Well, somebody hit me. Hard. Please.

We go turn in quest, and discover, yes, I can level up my party again. Grrrrrrrrr.

Another week spent on leveling up (this time to 10) later...and we allocate skill points. Now to pick up some major Expert level upgrades, all in New Sorpigal.

• Expert Fire Magic - Cate and Eno
• Expert Earth Magic - Cate
• Expert Body, Mind, and Spirit Magic - Huaryu
• Expert Meditation - Huaryu

With that done, back to Castle Ironfist. We visit the local Body guild and pick up the Cure Wounds spell for Eno. He'll need it where we are going next.

Why, where are we going next? To the place I went before by mistake. Bootleg Bay awaits!

Level 10 already? We're making our name in the world...

Chapter 21: With A Name Like Bootleg Bay, You'd Expect Pirates

Heading north, we travel to Bootleg Bay...and once again, find ourselves surrounded by enemies.

The local tribes of cannibals don't like us. Their leaders, the fearsome Head Hunters and the mysterious Witch Doctors, like us even less. And just to top this all off...they brought some familiar scaly faces. Yep, lizard men again.

The cannibals, weirdly enough, have their own version of gender discrimination going. There are an equal number of female and male cannibals, and they all have roughly the same stats. The main difference, though, is that the male witch doctors toss Fire Bolt spells, while the female witch doctors summon Insect Swarms (Earth Magic, for those wondering) to sting us.

Fight time. Healing magic plus arrows makes short work of them, although Huaryu loses his cool after taking a couple of nasty hits, calling for a healer.

Look in the mirror, genius.

Once done, we get to see what was nearby. A group of abandoned circus tents sit to the east...we'll learn more of those later. Amid the hills east of that, there's a crate. Time to open it and...damn it, Toblerone! What the heck happened to your Expert training?

After healing up again after the exploding box, we loot it. Nothing fancy inside. Also in the hills are a strange building (we'll be back to this one later), and...the Bootleg Bay obelisk. Gee, that was easy.

Having read the obelisk, we head down the western road, to a small town. What, you ask, is the name of this town? Good question. I'll let you know when I find out. Anyway, my psychic powers tell me to check out the local temple, so I do.

A side room there, one of two, reveals a bald monk. He tells us he used to belong to a monastic group called the Order of the Fist, but he left when they acquired an supposedly evil crystal. Now they want to give the crystal to the Baa people (yay), and he wants the crystal destroyed. Another quest on our to-do list for later.

Next, we go to rest at the inn...which is run by a goblin? Khagul is his name, and innkeeping is his game. Despite the ownership, this inn is fairly well kept (middling service, but still...), and despite us massacring his cousins way back when, he gives us a room at a good rate.

After resting, my psychic powers tell me to check out the fountain northeast of the town, along the coast. Guess what? It's the Fountain of Magic! As soon as we get back to the Misty Islands, we get honorary Wizard status! Sadly, the rest of the promotion quests will not be nearly so easy.

Now, we take the road to the west, coming up on the Temple of the Fist (where the monk wanted us to go). Nearby, angry cannibals charge us, while a pair of scaly paragons await...Lizard Wizards! I kid you not.

After they are dead, it's time to move on. Wait, you thought I would stick around in Bootleg Bay? Well, we'll be back here soon enough...but first, time to go to the big city!

Five days of travel later, we arrive in the region of Free Haven, which is pretty much going to be the hub for the rest of the game. The city, also named Free Haven, has a lot of things that everyone wants. Guilds, Expert trainers, and even a few Master trainers! This will be fun!

Aw, sweet, the Big City.

So what is on our quest to-do list?

I am busy, so can't play tonight. Maybe sometime over the weekend, depending.

Guess who's back? Back again?

Chapter 22: A Haven For Customer Unfriendly Guilds?

The Free Haven region. So much to do, so little time.

First stop is the castle to the southwest of here. This castle is home to Osric Temper, the kingdom's champion and the third of the six nobles we have to impress.

Temper is a man of action, and he's on the same page as us: the devils are the Big Bads. To get his approval, we have to destroy a outpost the devils have created near the ancient castle known as Kriegspire. This is one of the harder approval quests, so it gets to wait.

Also, he handles promotions for Knights, and Toblerone is all too happy. This one is fairly simple on the surface: get the sponsorship of an existing Cavalier, and you can become one. As you will soon see...it really is that simple.

Now to the city! We really don't want to tangle with the locals (more mages and some archers) at this point. So naturally it's time to utilize the oh-so-nifty Water Walk spell, and cut across the lake to the north. We do so, and end up in the southeastern part of the city, next to an odd building.

This building is the High Council building, and also sits above the chamber that houses the legendary Oracle we need to consult. The six representatives are all here, and they must unanimously approve of us. At the moment, they do not approve at all, and give us thumbs down. Some gestures are truly multiversal.

But from them, we learn the (last) names of the remaining three nobles:

• Lord Stone
• Lord Stromgard
• Lady Fleise

We will see them later. Now for the town.

We head north to near the docks and visit a house that my psychic powers told me to. Inside, we get a quest from a strapping young lad to find his "friend", who is being held captive in the Temple of Tsanta on an island in Bootleg Bay. Yes, it's another temple dungeon, and yes, it is the next dungeon on our list.

Next, we head to the northwest most part of a town, and visit another house. The man inside wants to study the remains of a lich...but not just any lich. He wants to study the remains of the greatest lich, Ethric the Mad, and is willing to pay us if we bring him the skull of Ethric. Sure, sparky...we'll...get back to you on that one.

Next we leave the city, and travel to Free Haven's #1 suburb, Rockham. There, we visit the tavern, where a man named Chadwick Blackpoole is enjoying a drink. Chadwick is also a Cavalier. Guess what, Toblerone? You can start cheering now.

Now to head back into the city and hit the local guilds. They are scattered all over the city, so I'm not going to bother describing which way we went. It doesn't matter anyway, as the whole thing turns out to be a big fat waste of time; they have nothing useful I can afford. The biggest groaner is not having Cure Disease. Come on people! Help a group of adventurers out here!

Time to hit a southern house, and get another quest. Zoltan Phelps wants the legendary dagger Mordred. He bought it, but bandits attacked the caravan and stole it. He wants us to recover it. Guess what? Not happening any time soon.

Now, we head back across the lake (another cast of Water Walk) and talk to Osric Temper. We have the nomination, and now, <drum roll> we have the promotion! Toblerone is now a Cavalier!

Of course, this being a quest, we get a lot of experience points. Back across the lake (another Water Walk) then, to train. Sounding familiar?

Did I say a lot of experience points? I meant A METRIC TON of experience points. All of our characters go up not one, but two levels! Everyone, meet Level 12.

We then go around and collect the horseshoes from the two stables of Free Haven. Someone apparently forgot to tell them horses have four hooves, as each stable only has two horseshoes. Whatever. All of them go to Eno, as his wide range of skills make him slower to develop. There's a reason why I named him what I did.

Skill points get assigned, and a lot more skills are at the Expert threshold. As tempting as it is looking around Free Haven for trainers, that would be boring. I don't do boring. So...

...one last trip across the lake (guess what spell I cast). It's time to return to Bootleg Bay, and cast more Water Walk spells! The Temple of Tsanta awaits us...

Wow, that's all we needed to do? Buy a Cavilir a drink and he'd sponsor us? Hey, whatever works.

... Isn't anybody else reading this?

yes. I just find it hard to comment on a game series I've never played before. I've played all the Heroes of Might and Magic games from 2 onwards, which is why I decided to follow this, but never a Might and Magic game.

so yeah, I'm always here...in the shadows...

edited 27th Nov '10 7:39:43 AM by Blissey1

I'm lurking about as well. I just never have anything to add. Saying "that was fun to read" after every post would get tiresome, but rest assured I'm silently enjoying the adventure.

Ahh, excellent. Just making sure I wasn't the only one commenting.

I do have a bit of a hard time finding things to comment on, admittedly. But I try.

Speaking of, Totemic Hero, what's in our quest queue?

Mark me up as another lurker. Always interesting to see other people's strategies :). I've still never completed this game, though I have a saved game somewhere with just the final quests remaining. Maybe I should get to that...

Let's see. As far as I can remember:

• Rescue guy's "friend" from Temple of Tsanta.
• Rescue the healer from the thieves guild.
• Recover the harp from the dragoons.
• Destroy the evil crystal in the Temple of the Fist.
• Recover the dagger Mordred.
• Obtain the skull of Ethric the Mad.
• Rescue a "damsel in distress" from fortress at Mist. (Paladin promotion to Crusader)
• Drink from the fountain of magic. (Sorcerer promotion to Wizard) [Complete]
• Investigate fortress at Mist for whereabouts of Hourglass of Time. (Council Approval)
• Find Lord Kilburn's whereabouts. (Council Approval)
• Destroy the devil outpost. (Council Approval)

I think that covers it.