Might & Magic II: Castles and Quests, Part II

Thanks for making that clear, strange person scrawling oddly detailed message on the wall of a random dungeon, trusting that the social institutions you reference will remain active at the point that another stranger comes along and reads this message, and that by then the bishops will not have already died or have been freed.

When I last posted about Might & Magic II, I was hanging around Castle Hillstone, trying to slay all of the various creatures that Lord Slayer wanted. Eventually, he gave me a quest to kill a Dagger Jaw, which I've never even seen in the game, so I decided to try some other castles. In Pinehurst, I found the answer to some confusion with a message on the wall: The "Triple Crown" doesn't just mean winning three battles of each of the ticket colors; it means winning a battle in each of the three arenas. With that knowledge in hand, I bought three tickets of each of the four colors and went back to each of the arenas. In fairly short order, I became a "Triple Crown winner" for each of the colors, and now when I free the bishops in the castles, I'll get a lot more experience. Plus, based on a message I received in a dungeon, I'm "halfway to an audience with Queen Lamanda." In Castle Pinehurst, I found an J-26 Fluxer, bringing the number of oddly-named objects that I carry to three. Per a message in a dungeon, "Fluxer, Radicon, Todilor, and Capitor are essential to gain the Element Orb." I still lack the Todilor. Also in Pinehurst, I found the most B.S. trap I've ever encountered in a CRPG: I ran afoul of these traps twice, meaning it's suddenly the year 902 and all my characters are 20. A message around the door frames in the castle warns that the world will end in the year 1,000, so I have to be careful with these traps. I'm making a note, though, to see what happens in the year 1,000 after I win the game. Lord Peabody, of Castle Pinehurst, gave me a quest to find his servant, Sherman. I had a previous message that he was being held captive in Native's Cove. After searching the area fruitlessly, I discovered that I had already freed him and he was waiting for me in Atlantium, so I temporarily dumped Harry Kari and added him to my party. Lord Peabody was suitably grateful: I don't know quite what to do with the time machine yet, aside from a few scattered notes, so I think I'll leave it alone for now. The last castle I explored as part of my overland exploration was the Luxus Palace Royale, which turns out to be the castle of Queen Lamanda. Unfortunately, she can't give me a quest, but what she says tells me something about what I need to do next: I have gained the Triple Crown, so what I'm lacking is the "plus." Based on a message I found at Mount Fairview, I know that the "plus" is the advancement my characters get when they complete the character-specific quests that were outlined on the statues in Atlantium. The plaque outlines all of the character quests:

• Knights must defeat the Dread Knight of Jouster's Way
• Paladins must defeat the Frost Dragon who resides in the dungeon beneath the Forbidden Forest
• Archers must stop Baron Wilfrey from terrorizing Falcon Forest
• Clerics have to reunite the soul of mighty Corak with his body
• Sorcerers must release both the Good and Evil Wizards from the Isle of the Ancients
• Ninjas must assassinate the chaotic Dawn of Dawn's Mist Bog
• Barbarians must defeat Brutal Bruno, the Barbarian Chieftan
• Robbers must accompany at least one other class on their missions

Aside from the robbers, the classes have to do these quests alone, which poses some problems. Aside from the obvious drawback of not having a full complement of characters to help in the fight, cast spells, heal, and so on, there's the difficulty associated with getting to each of the quest locations without the sorcerer's ability to cast "Fly" or "Lloyd's Beacon." However, judicious use of NPCs is probably the answer: I can have as many NPC paladins as I desire accompany my PC paladin. Moreover, since you can "dismiss" NPCs whenever you want, I could have an NPC sorcerer get the party to the right location and then send him packing back to town. My characters are still getting their butts kicked on a semi-regular basis, though, so I think I'll finish my general exploration of CRON's surface before attempting the class-specific quests. Some other scattered notes:

• I have far too much gold: more than 7 million. The NPCs are starting to cost a bit (more than 1000 a day for each), but that's still a drop in the bucket. The shops have stopped selling things powerful enough to interest me. I pay for temple blessings before setting out on each quest, but other than that, I have no idea what to do with all this gold.

• Equipment progression is still reasonably solid. On every map, I pick up two or three items more powerful than something that one of my characters is already carrying. Powerful items are tied to alignment, so if I find a Fiery Spear +11 that only evil characters can use, I either need to ditch it or save it for an NPC I don't normally travel with. I don't know how high the +s go; my highest right now is 15.

This dark trident rocks.

• As in the first game, there are fountains that temporarily raise statistics and special encounters that raise them permanently.

• My primary spellcasters have achieved Level 8 and, consequently, some excellent spells. The cleric spell "Moon Ray" simultaneously heals PCs and damages enemies, which is enough to keep my party alive round after round in tough outdoor battles--but it only works outdoors. The sorcerer spell "Dancing Sword" does some significant damage to 10 monsters at a time, but I can only cast one or two before my spell points are gone.

Alas, I helped the village achieve its destiny.

  

I'm encountering a lot of battles in which I get attacked by 255 of something. Hardly ever are these monsters particularly difficult. There are no spells that affect all foes--only those on the visible screen--so defeating them generally involves holding down CTRL-A while I browse Reddit on my iPhone. It's good to be blogging again. In my next post, I'll finish up with the outdoor areas and move to the underground.