Might and Magic III: Materials and Momentum

Stomping hydra eggs gave me the largest experience reward in the game so far.

      

Things really picked up this session. I explored all of Column D and half of Column E, for a total of six maps, leaving me only six to go. Among them, there were five dungeons, although I left three of the five for later, for reasons I will recount anon.

     

Almost done!

      

Column D was mostly a mirror of Column C, generally continuing the same island or groups of islands. It started in the frozen north, where the east side of an island that started in C1 offered a fountain that raises all attributes by 100 points. I can't imagine there's a more powerful buffing fountain in the game. I wish I'd found it before fighting all those crabs last time.

The fountain changed the nature of buffing. I outlined the path I used early in the game, but now the optimal buffing path hits only four locations: the 100-point fountain, the level increasing fountain, the hit point fountain, and the spell point fountain. It's important to go in that order because the hit point and spell point fountains will increase your values to around 100 points higher than what should be possible given your current attributes and levels. Thus, you want to buff the attributes and levels first.

       

If this is the "mount" of Athea, she's a cruel mistress.

      

The 100-point fountain alone is enough to create pretty ultra-powerful characters, so I set my archer's "Lloyd's Beacon" for the location. I only did the full buffing trail when I encountered particularly difficult foes. In some ways, it seems like cheating, or at least kind of playing like a wuss. On the other hand, that's what the fountains are for, right?

Corak's notes for D1 focused on the other island, which also had a fountain called the "Fountain of Katera," but I'm not sure I understand what it does. There were a few treasure squares, plus a couple of "trap" squares where avalanches damaged my party.

Most important was a dungeon called "Cursed Cold Cavern," where a coven of witches guarded pots of magic brew that increased my attributes. The witches were drawn like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, and for the umpteenth time I wished the game had taken a less goofy approach. They were capable of cursing my entire inventory, but luckily a single "Uncurse" back at the temples took care of that problem. Messages in the caverns, some obtained by answering Pegasus riddles, told me that Princess Trueberry has the Golden Alicorn, that a Vampire King guards some Ultimate Power Orbs, that the password to a sunken island is YOUTH, that the "pirates' treasure" is "real" on Onesday, and finally that if I take a pearl to the Pirate Queen, she won't steal my gold.

      

All we own, we owe her.

       

The boss foe of the caverns was a "Black Knight" who looked almost futuristically armored.

     

This looks like something out of DOOM.

     

If you want to test yourself on the riddles, here they are. I got all but the first one on the first try.

• What is always coming but never arrives? (TOMORROW). I tried FUTURE first. 
• What cannot be seen but only heard, and will not speak unless it is spoken to? (SIRI)
• What is nothing but holes tied to holes, yet is strong as iron? (CHAIN). I was going to type MAIL first, but I switched in time.
• What lives in the winter, dies in the summer, and grows with its roots upward? (ICICLE)

Map D2 made up the northeast sector of the Isle of Fire. I left the interior for later, so I just mapped the water around the edges on my first visit. A whirlpool in the western section teleported me to the Arena, where I won my second combat for 2,000 experience points. I guess I should have been visiting in regular increments if I wanted the Arena to help me. At this point, I'll have to win dozens of combats for the experience point rewards to be remotely valuable.

The eastern side of the map had four encounter points at which the Pirate Queen abducted my party. True to the message in the caverns, upon each encounter she took one of my Precious Pearls of Youth and Beauty, rewarded me with 25,000 gold and 100,000 experience points, and set me loose. I still have a few pearls left. I don't know if they're useful anywhere else; if not, I should just visit her until they're all gone, I guess. After that, based on the message in the caverns, I assume she steals my gold.

       

      

D3 occupied the southeast quadrant of the Isle of Fire and the surrounding waters. Whirlpools once again held treasure chests, and opening those chests once again summoned monsters--in this case, "Octobeasts." They have 3,000 hit points and 8 attacks per round and cause weakness when they hit. I would say that they're quite a bit harder than the crabs, but my party was several levels higher and now had access to that attribute-boosting fountain. I was able to kill them in mostly melee attacks. I think there were about 9 of them.

       

Between this and the "spider" last time, someone really needs to tell New World how many "eight" is.

       

D4 offered another desert island scattered with pirate chests. C4 had contained a lot of chests, too, but they just disappeared when I tried to open them. The message in the Cold Cavern had explained why: the chests are illusions except on Onesday. The game offers a 10-day week, so I just had to wait for Onesday to roll around again and I could loot the chests.

Castle Blackwind was on the island, but as with Castle Greywind in C4, I arrived a few weeks late to complete the castle, so I didn't bother to enter. I'll note carefully when Day 50 and 60 approach next year and make sure I'm at the right places.

Speaking of days, I had learned from the Greek Brothers that magic seashells would wash ashore on Rainbow Island on Day 99. I'm not 100% sure which island is Rainbow Island, but I think it's probably the one-square island in D4. Unfortunately, owing to training, I missed Day 99, too. So that will also have to be saved for next year. The year only has 100 days, so it won't take that long. Three years have passed since I began the game.

      

I suspect that on Day 99, this will leave more than just a hole.

     

I moved over to the bottom of Column E and worked my way up. E4 occupied the western half of a large desert island swarming with "plasmoids," which cause your weapons to break when you strike them. I had to deal with them with spells.

The map was studded with oases which made a point of saying that it was safe to rest in them, but most outdoor areas are generally safe to rest if you've cleared the enemies, so I'm not sure if there was something special I was supposed to do there. There was also a wishing well that wanted me to type in the keyword of what I wished for. I tried some obvious things--GOLD, EXPERIENCE, POWER--but got nothing.

    

This feels like a trap.

    

Buried treasure on this island released Vulture Rocs, which I'm convinced were harder than even the Octobeasts. I had to do a full buffing sweep to take them out.

In the midst of some mountains was the Magic Cavern, a huge sprawling dungeon full of sorcerers and floating heads called "guardians." Vapors rising from the floor canceled active spells. Coffins, when opened, released liches, but my party was still buffed from the Vulture Rocs and thus were able to kill the liches in one hit. Wading in fountains increased intelligence and speed. A number of altars had powerful magic spells, but I had already bought everything for my spellcasters, so they were mostly wasted.

     

Lich? Or Disco-Lich?

    

On to E3, which outlined the southwest area of a swampy island. At least three squares held "quicksand!" which immediately killed my two lead characters every time I stepped into it. 

      

Sinking me deeper in love with you.

        

Beyond that, there wasn't much here except for battles with "tree golems" and random treasures in the water. 

      

These guys are going to be really annoying in 4 more games.

     

When I was done, rather than continue on to E2, I decided to head back to Blistering Heights and explore the Isle of Fire. The island consists of a number of interconnected pathways crisscrossing maps C2 to D3 (four maps total). The pathways are bordered by mountains that I don't think there's any way to step on or cross.

Unless you have high fire resistance, you take damage with every move--and even if you do have high fire resistance, you have to wait for the damned fire animation to hit every character every time you do anything. This is a bit annoying.

Monsters were tough here. Fire lizards are the easiest. Fire stalkers are a bit harder because they only take magic damage. Major demons and devils are quite hard if they attack in groups, as they did in the northwest.

      

Individually, they're not so tough.

     

But hardest of all were the "great hydras" in the southwest. I can't imagine there are many harder creatures in the game. They have 5,000 hit points, do 12 attacks per round, and cause poison. There were maybe 12 or 15 roaming the map, and I had to "Lloyd's Beacon" out of the area and restore my spell points after every couple of battles, even with my characters fountain-buffed. The experience and item rewards were worth the effort, however.

       

The toughest foe in the game so far. I know I keep saying that.

      

The main purpose of the Isle of Fire, other than destroying monster spawn points for experience and treasure, is a pyramid--the second I've found--in the center. I avoided the first pyramid and I avoided this one, too, thinking that I should save them for the endgame. I must have a vague memory of playing this before.

As I close this session, my party is extremely obsidian-heavy. Almost everyone has obsidian weapons and armor, plus brooches, belts, cameos, and boots. Obsidian seems to be the most powerful material in the game. The material hierarchy seems to go leather < wood < glass < coral < crystal < iron < bronze < lapis < pearl < silver < brass < amber < steel < gold < ebony < platinum < ruby < emerald < sapphire < diamond < obsidian.

      

My cleric's inventory. It must be exhausting just to move.

    

Obviously, the idea of weapons and armor made out of some of these substances is silly, but Might and Magic is far from the only series to offer equipment of silly material. I've never understood why in the Elder Scrolls series, "glass" is something that you mine, nor why it makes armor and weapons that don't shatter the first time you use them. (At least the Ultima series has that right.) Someone also needs to tell both Might and Magic and The Elder Scrolls that "ebony" is wood, not metal, and not particularly suited to swords. I guess I can buy obsidian as a material for weapons--even The Game of Thrones has gotten in on that racket--but can you imagine how heavy a suit of armor made out of the material would be?

Throughout most of the game, I've relied on the item's value to help guide how it compares against other items, but obsidian seems oddly undervalued. An obsidian dagger, for instance, does 52-54 damage with a +10 bonus and sells for only 800 gold pieces, less than other daggers above steel that do less damage. Obsidian and platinum platemail both sell for 100,000 gold despite platinum offering +18 protection and obsidian offering +28.

Aside from my concerns about the realism of the material, though, I love the quantity and variety of items that characters can equip. With 8 characters and so many items, the equipment upgrades offered by the game are more-or-less constant.

I've only been training every few hours, and I usually go up 5 or so levels at once when I do. All my characters are around Level 40 now.

Still no problems with money. Training is costing about 15,000 per level and the two NPCs cost about 35,000 EACH per day, but I'm walking around with almost 2.5 million and have another 4 million in the bank, earning interest. I know I'll eventually run out but it seems a long way off.

    

The fact that the average dungeon delivers hauls like this keeps me flush with cash.

    

Miscellaneous notes:

         

• Three of my characters are now magically aged, one by 50 years (!) thanks to one of the cauldrons in the Cold Caverns. I think there's a way to reverse magic aging--probably having something to do with the hidden island and the YOUTH password--and I hope I find it before anyone dies.

       

This wasn't cool at all.

       

• Another Ancient Fizbin of Misfortune was to be found in the witches' caverns, and again I declined to take it until I know what it's for.

• The game attaches textual qualifiers to attributes, such as "very low" (8 or below), "low" (9-10), "average" (11-12), "good" (13-14), "very good" (14-16). After that, the words just seem like synonyms, including "super," "amazing," "fantastic," "astounding," and "astonishing."

• I still haven't found the "evil castle," where I can turn in all these Artifacts of Evil and a couple Ultimate Power Orbs. The game almost ensures that you side with the good or neutral king just to free up inventory slots.

    

By the next post, I expect to have finished the overworld map, unless I get to Day 50 and have to take a break for the Greywind/Blackwind quests. (It's Day 19 as I write this.) I'm not regretting my approach, but remind me when I get to Might and Magic IV that I want to explore more randomly or organically rather than in predictable columns.

Time so far: 41 hours
Reload count: 14