Might and Magic (Ch. 9)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic: Secret of the Inner Sanctum

Chapter 9: Exploring Varn + Finding Dusk


The last thing I remembered was taking Okrim's ring from his body. The next thing I knew, we were at our regrouping point in the Sorpigal Inn.

The next thing I remembered was being chastised by Faulkner for touching the ring without heed to the danger. And then by Sam and Alicia for endangering them all by getting myself eradicated by the wizard's spell. Sam, true to his word about not even leaving one such as I behind, had gathered my remains and they escaped back to the city, where they spent a substantial sum of money paying the clerics to revive me from the ashes left behind.

In all my time upon Varn, I had considered myself quite evil. Quite comfortable with the idea of letting no second thoughts bar me from whatever I desired. But the selfless display of Sam and Alicia...it may have changed my outlook slightly. Much to my embarrassment. My body ached all over and felt old and tired. The trauma of what I had been through had prematurely aged me. But I was alive again and filled with a newfound vigor. Okrim's ring was still in my possession. Free of it's former curse, it filled me with the burning anticipation of power. It would be a valuable artifact in the journeys ahead.

Okrim's Ring gives a nifty +10 to a character's luck stat when equipped.

In the course of the daunting quest, we had enough gold still to visit the Guildmaster for another year of training. From our humble beginnings, we were becoming a considerably skilled force on Varn. Faulkner and Alicia learned yet another circle of spells to add to their spellbooks.

Clerical Spells: Level 5

5-1: Deadly Swarm- The cleric conjures a swarm of stinging wasps and blood-drinking vermin to engulf -ALL- enemies, doing 2-20 damage each. Only works outdoors, which limits its use. Very nice for wiping out the large groups of chaff that you wind up randomly encountering while travelling. (Costs 5 SP)

5-2: Dispell Magic- An appeal of cancellation to the divine causes all buffs and debuffs to be dispelled for all allies and enemies. Not really useful. Enemies don't really buff themselves. (Costs 5 SP)

5-3: Paralyze- Attempts to place a paralyzing hold on all enemies at close range. Not really useful. Seems to miss more often than it connects. (Costs 5 SP)

5-4: Remove Condition- Heals most status conditions other than Stoned, Dead, or Eradicated. Not really useful because there are already spells to remove poison and disease. Paralysis and blindness already wear off after resting. (Costs 5 SP + 3 Gems)

5-5: Restore Energy- When struck by an enemy attack that drains levels, this spell restores them. Also not really useful, since in the PC version at least any drained levels are automatically restored once combat ends. This whole circle of spells really kinda stinks for clerics. (Costs 5 SP + 3 Gems)

Sorceror Spells: Level 5

5-1: Acid Rain- Summons a torrent of corrosive rain on all enemies at long range, doing 5-50 damage each. Outdoors only. Meh. At least Deadly Swarm hits everything. Outdoor-Only spells still kinda stink. (Costs 5 SP)

5-2: Dispell Magic- Same as the cleric Dispell. (Costs 5 SP)

5-3: Finger of Death- The caster channels the willpower of all deceased great wizards into their finger and points it at an enemy, causing instant death. This spell is actually moderately useful as an opening tactic against a group of strong enemies. It seems to have about a 30-40 percent success rate for me at least. (Costs 5 SP + 3 Gems)

5-4: Shelter- Sends the party into a torporous slumber within a pocket of time, allowing a full day's rest in the span of a moment with no chance of being ambushed. Does not work in combat. Buffs that normally wear off after resting still wear off. Still, good for resting more safely if you have a few magic points to spare. (Costs 5 SP + 3 Gems)

5-5: Teleport- A short-range teleporting spell that can move the party up to 9 squares in any direction, provided there are no magical obstructions. This spell is sweet for shortcutting your way through dungeons or places that you already have mapped out. There are a few places in the game where magic barriers will not allow passage though. (Costs 5 SP + 3 Gems)


We spent the next several months of our journey scouring Varn sector by sector, seeking anything interesting while avoiding the more dangerous regions to the far northwest and far east.

In the B3 sector near the town of Portsmith, we found an exceptionally high peak on an island in the lake where we could see for sectors around. The sign identified it as Blythe's Peak. We could see the wyvern peaks where we were attacked from above. The medusa's lair where we had braved being stoned to death. Out along the sea to the south we caught a glimpse of a rotting pirate's ship listing about the waves.

With Faulkner's Walk-On-Water magic, we could explore the ocean at our leisure. In the seas at B4 we caught up with the ship we'd seen on Blythe's Peak--It was the long-lost ghost ship "Anarchist". A ship damned to sail for all eternity after sinking one of Alamar's ships, the Jolly Raven -- long ago.

Ghosts have the feared ability to drain the lifeforce from the living by touch, prematurely aging them. But Faulkner was able to Turn Undead and cast them away with a single hostile glare. The treasure was unremarkable. We reasoned that more of it was probably buried elsewhere on land long ago.

In C4 at the mouth of a cove closer to the coast, we found the remains of the aforementioned Jolly Raven. There was nothing left among the splintered remains worth taking.

Turning north to A2, we travelled the frozen mountains and were beset by a cadre of centaurs leading tamed war beasts--chief among them nothing less deadly than a true-to-life Red Dragon. With it's fiery breath it could have posed an unfathomable danger to us, but fortune was on our side. With one fast magic sign, Alicia pointed to it with her Finger of Death, and it crumpled into a heap straight away, leaving the rest of the beasts and centaurs for us to clean up. Faulkner retrieved its tooth as a grisly trophy to add to the Medusa head.

Elsewhere in the frozen hills, we came upon a frozen throne of crystal ice. Sitting atop it was the ice princess herself, her skin and hair as white as fresh snow. She challenged us with a riddle; 'Conqueror of worlds, maker of dreams, the greatest force of all, yet elusive it seems.'  I guessed Wealth. Faulkner guessed Power. Finn, ever impressing us with his wit and intelligence, guessed Wealth also.

She dismissed us out of hand and wistfully replied that we were wrong. That we did not understand because we were too young. And then she looked wistfully and expectantly at Sam and Alicia as though expecting them to speak. Yet, overcome with a strange shyness, they said nothing and we were allowed to leave in peace.

There are strange things near the edges of the world. Even in these dark ages, every explorer knows that the land of Varn is flat. Travel far enough over land or ocean and the gray mist becomes too dense to travel any further, and none who have dared have ever come back. On one of the southsea islands near the edge of the world, a distant island was visible over a chasm in the ocean...a kind of fissure that opened through the water and through the foggy mist we could see the stars twinkling--like a kind of 'sky below' to match the night sky above. A hooded bridgekeeper materialized from thin air and extended a bridge to this mysterious far island for us, but demanded an answer from us first for our passage.

Could this strange island be the home of the Inner Sanctum? We could not refuse the challenge.

The only question he had for us, which he asked us each in turn, was for our color. My mind immediately flashed back years ago to when our journey first began, which I shared with our group.

The gypsy! The toothless old man we saw just outside Sorpigal when we first set foot outside the city walls. He had read in our palms each of our 'colors' and we had dismissed it as nothing but a weird curiosity. Trapped here now with the bridgekeeper, we each scoured our minds...trying to call the old gypsy's words back into memory...

In the end it was Sam, Faulkner, and myself who remembered our colors correctly. Finn, Betty June, and Alicia guessed incorrectly and were transformed to ashes before our eyes. In our shock, we failed to notice that the Bridgekeeper had disappeared. Vanished into whatever ether he had first arrived from. Our prize on the far island was not the Inner Sanctum, but a small key, carved out of coral. Whatever door it unlocked, we hoped it was important enough for the immense cost and time it took to gather our eradicated friends and revive them back in Sorpigal.

 Further to the north among the higher mountains of A2, we tried fruitlessly to find a path to A1. Not even Alicia's teleport would carry us past the craggy peaks. We -did- find a small retreat where a simple druid turned upon us, startled at our sudden entry. However, she was not hostile. Mad with isolation, she said that Lord Kilburn had foretold our arrival. We could not get any information out of her regarding her relationship to the exiled lord, but she only offered to give us something we needed, so long as we promised not to help 'that demonic menace'.

Without waiting for an answer, she pressed a small gold card into my hands. It matched the size and shape of the silver merchant's pass we were already carrying--this was no merchant's pass. This was a king's pass. We couldn't just invite ourselves into the local lords' castles with this. With the king's pass, we could petition an audience with King Alamar himself. We couldn't afford to misplace this--I gave it to Alicia to hang on to in the rear of our party where it was less likely to get damaged in battle.

Not far from the eastern glades where Alamar's castle lie, there was a single curious diamond door, standing by itself out in the plains. Faulkner, who is more learned about this sort of historical lore than the rest of us, informed us that this door was created by Corak and leads to the 'astral plane'. A kind of alternate world that exists alongside Varn, or perhaps within it. It was not the only mysterious door standing in Varn either, as Faulkner showed us...

In the further north, another monolithic door stood by it's lonesome at the edge of the world, surrounded by the icy peaks. Faulkner explained that this one was dubbed "Gates to Another World", and apparently marks the place where Corak the Mysterious, his work apparently finished, left Varn forever. To either return home to the Ancients, or to continue wandering the stars. This ominous gate held not even an obvious keyhole or locking mechanism.

Further to the east, in the E4 corner sector, the virulent swamp was home to many undead and stinging poisonous insects. We came across a corpse stuck in the mud that begged for our help to free itself. Sam recoiled in horror at the undead thing, but Faulkner and I, who had fewer scruples--offered a hand and pulled the revenant loose from it's muddy prison. Gasping a sigh of relief and thanks, it handed us a bag of 50 Gems for our trouble and wandered on it's way--much to Sam's stunned surprise.

At the edge of the desert a little further north, we found a trading post that had been set up by the nomadic thieves that wander the sands. We found their method of trade more equitable than the hermit who simply relieved us of our possessions and ran. In exchange for magic herbs, potions of skill or speed, spare weapons, or anything else we had laying about on us, they would exchange cactus nectar. A valuable resource for when we desired to challenge the hot sands that made up eastern Varn.

We weren't quite ready yet to delve deeply into the desert. However, a shorter excursion led us to spot Castle Dragadune on the horizon. The former home of exiled Lord Kilburn. Who knew what treasures lay within? And if Dragadune were nearby...

The town of Dusk must have also been close by. And in all speed, we found the passage leading underground to it.

This town was thought lost for many years until Corak rediscovered it. We still had a sheet of Vellum to deliver to Telgoran, as well, and we had put off our courier duty long enough. It was time to stop in and see what was here.




The town itself was a ghost town. Literally. It seemed there was not a single living soul in Dusk, yet the shops were open and the activity was, for lack of a better word--lively. Like the undead corpse we had helped out of the mud in the swamp, the town of Dusk was populated with undead. Of the mostly-friendly variety. As long as we stayed away from the ancestral crypts in the northwest passages, they were mostly content to let us go about our business. The ghostly blacksmith sold weapons and armor enchanted with a superior magic to the other towns, and sold valuable potions of skill. At the local tavern, Casper's Fine 'Spirits', we caught up on enough gossip to locate the only other living person seen loitering around town and were able to track him down.

Telgoran accepted the magic Vellum greedily and, folding it up for later reading, stored it in his travel bag. At last we were finally rid of the thing. He paid a handsome sum for our services and made no mention of our rather overdue arrival. In fact, in addition to the money, he gave us a lead for future treasure hunting...

"The brothers you must find, Portsmith and Algary are Combined.".

I hated wizards that spoke in riddles. And yet, at least these were less cryptic than some we had seen recently. Portsmith and Algary were the remaining two towns which we had not yet explored.

There was little else of note in Dusk. The dungeon below housed some interesting artifacts, but nothing that provided any leads on the Inner Sanctum. The Shrine of Ozkar was also there. Dedicated to the hero Ozkar of forgotten antiquity. Praying here with 'a clear mind' was said to bestow treasures upon the pilgrims who travelled to it.


"Clear Mind" meaning that the leader of the party still has his original alignment. The treasure gained is not significant though. For me I think it was like, a dagger +1.

We had accomplished much in our explorations of Varn of late, and rested the night in the ghostly innkeeper's residence. We still had much to do and almost nothing of lasting value gleaned on the Inner Sanctum.