Might and Magic 2 (Ch. 16)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic 2: Gates to Another World

Chapter 16 - Guardian of Terra


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[ ] Stop Sheltem.

This time, we came back to the 9th century prepared and returned the Claw and Orb to it's rightful owner. Dumbstruck, the good king Kalohn did not have time to inquire as to how we came into possession of his missing artifacts. He was too busy dealing with the Mega Dragon's rampage through the Savanna.

With a sense of pity at being unable to watch the full proceedings--the time continuum snapped us back to the 10th century before we could witness the aftermath of the battle.

Yet--even as we returned to our proper time, we knew that something miraculous had changed about the world. The streets seemed just a little bit cleaner. The townspeople a little less afraid. The cripples and beggars a little less numerous.

It was still a world of Might and Magic, but no longer without it's rightful ruler. Ominously, the sun still glared ruthlessly overhead at the height of each day. We had restored much stability to the world--but Sheltem's work still needed to be undone. From within the core of the world, he was still directing CRON out of alignment.

King Kalohn sat majestically on his throne--aged now, but with the vigor of a man half his years. He looked at us with a kind of recognition--it seemed he recalled us from the epic battle he waged with the Mega Dragon so many years ago by his perspective--Corak was there, too. Still severely injured but with enough strength that he was now able to leave his study.

Sam, who had a way of dealing with nobility, urged us to our knees and spoke for us,

"My king....," the paladin began--but King Kalohn raised a hand to beckon silence.

"Chosen Ones--my advisor....our friend--Corak, has informed me of the dire quest you all face. Would that I could come with you in this most perilous task. Yet now the way is sealed, even to me. The Jurors' rules are absolute....only the Chosen may enter the access hall in Square Lake. Go there---to the very end of the line. And remember the access key... WAFE."

"WAFE...," Sam repeated softly... "Water...Air...Fire...Earth...the natural order of the elements through Cron's history..."

Well, at least it would be easy to remember.

Square Lake---located right next to Middlegate, where our quest all began. It made sense to have the core of the world be located right here--in the middle of it all.

There was an access door here, at the mouth of a cave leading deep into the bowels of CRON. Only when it recognized the '+' marks we all carried did it open and allow us entry.

The hallway was cramped, with no branches leading off anywhere. It was a straight shot, heading deeper and deeper into the world.

"Everybody stay close," I reminded the others, "There's nothing in here we can't handle. But they're gonna put up a fight."

At every winding turn down the unbranching hall, we were set upon by varied and large groups of men and monsters. Jugglers were magicians with weak constitutions but with powerful spells that could send us flying through the air, messing up our melee ranks. We couldn't spend the time to rearrange ourselves without risking more attacks by the frost dragons and army of sorceresses.

"Sh...Sheltem...," the humanoids droned brainlessly as they attacked without remorse.

Deeper and deeper. There was no end in sight.

"Sheltem...intruders...SLEEP. LET US SLEEP!"

The illusionists were similarly entranced. The demons less so, but doubtlessly they needed little convincing to ally themselves with the nemesis of the Ancients.

"No...NO! Let us rest. I MUST REST!"

The shouts of tormented souls echoes through the long hallway. And there was no end in sight. It was impossible to tell how much farther it would go.

A mob of bats escaped over our shoulders, screeching away behind us--and in their wake, an entire squad of the Palace's own royal horsemen emerged--without their steeds of course. They were the elite that King Kalohn had to offer. That Sheltem could bewitch even them was testament to the dark one's far-reaching power.

"No! NO! Let me go BACK!"

The last horseman suddenly turned away from engaging us, and lurched himself toward the sturdy rock wall of the corridor. Before we could stop him, he began slamming his own head against the rock face over and over--until, with a smear of blood, he toppled and breathed ecstatically...

"Thank you...," he whispered, before dying with a look of utter bliss on his face.

There was no end in sight. But from down further in the darkness, we could hear more 'Sleepers of Sheltem' beginning to awaken and move.

An entire army advanced on us. Without being outdoors, we couldn't use some of our better wide-area attacks like Sam's Moon Ray or Lucreto's Starburst. The amount of soldiers and witches was almost like a flood moving in unanimous, staggering synchronization. The danger started to become not a matter of cutting them down, but avoiding being trampled by the relentless march.


Then, suddenly--with a dawning feel of creeping dread--we heard movement -BEHIND- us. More Sleepers had awakened in our footsteps..if we dallied now they would come at us from both sides and we really WOULD be trampled.

We quickened our pace. Faster and faster. From somewhere far off, we heard a loud shriek. Somewhere, one of them must have decided to put themselves back to 'sleep'.

The amount of humanoid Sleepers was starting to taper away. More monstrous armies were taking their place--strange alien machines and elemental stragglers, who had no doubt come of their own free will to take vengeance on humanity.

Faster and faster....

Darker and darker....

Deeper and deeper.

This far down, even our magical light was starting to get stifled by the deepness. The air felt heavy and thick. It was like being buried alive. And, as before, the sound of movement was all behind us and ahead of us...

Even the demihumans had started to thin out, and now we were beset by whole conjured armies of various elementals and demons themselves...we hoped this meant we were getting closer to our goal.

But there was no end in sight....

Lucreto began looking panicked all the sudden.

"I can't go any further! I'm suffocating! You're taking my AIR! ALL OF YOU!"

"Quiet, elf!" Deanna gave him a kick and grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him with us as we began running faster...Lucreto calmed somewhat--but we couldn't take much more of this. The tension was going to drive us mad.

I suddenly felt out of breath and weary. I tried to keep up with the rest of the group but fell a few paces behind.

I wanted to lay down and rest. Sleep began sounding good. Suddenly, the innate danger of this place was far from my mind.

"I can't...I need...to sleep. Must sleep." I mouthed through a choking breath.

Sofia turned back and gave me a kick in the ribs. It was painful but suddenly snapped me back to my senses.

"We can't afford to lose you." she barked with a sharp focus.

The cloud of weariness began to fall away from me. It was a trap. Sheltem's influence trying to blanket us all. We wouldn't fall for it. Not so long as we were looking out for each other.

Suddenly--not far ahead--we saw a dim glow of light. A whirling strobe of blue and red. We were finally nearing the end of the line...

And as we drew up on the end of the corridor--suddenly, a blast of humid moisture erupted near us--followed by a chill of frozen air...a burst of burning flame..and the rumbling of earth taking shape.

We were surrounded by elementals. And just ahead of us, approaching from the core of the world...

(Art shamelessly stolen from a google image search.)

Corak and Sheltem had engaged in a pretty grevious battle. Corak was still in the long process of 'repairing' himself and it seems Sheltem fared little better. An entire half of his face had been scorched away--and yet there was no visible blood or seeming pain. His skull gleamed softly in the low light of this place, making him look anything but humanoid. His staggering, lurching gait similarly reflected the appearance of someone who was still critically injured.

In the midst of his staggering steps--he tried to speak to us. But his voice was garbled and distorted, like someone who's been choked nearly to death. We couldn't make out what he was saying, other than the repeating words - "Version 1...Version 1...Version 1..." croaking out like a repeating chant.





We didn't have time to attempt to communicate. Still leaving us confused over his broken words--he hurled an energy blast at me, catching me off guard and knocking me off my feet. Even in his damaged state--Corak's prisoner was strong. Very strong. But this time he didn't have his Soul Maze to imprison us in. And with his opening energy blast, melee broke out all around us.

In some versions of the game there's no battle here and it just skips straight ahead to the next part.

We were exhausted from our long march through this terrible corridor. Yet--for what seemed like one of the few times in this adventure, superior numbers were on OUR side. We had finished our fill of elementals in our jaunts through time and were quick to send these last guards back to the realms in which they came.

I'll never forget the look that Sheltem gave us. When first he laid his eyes on us in Varn--he looked at us with the gaze of someone looking at ants. Not threatened--but just malignant. This time, confronting him in his weakened state, Sam and I charged in and struck fierce blows that sent him flying back and crashing into the mysterious devices at the end of the corridor.

Then--he looked at us with a look of utter hatred. And although he couldn't speak--we could tell what he was thinking. That perhaps he had underestimated these simple 'Varnlings'.

Turning to the transport tube behind him--Sheltem stepped through it and disappeared. We would never see him on Cron again.

I shuddered and looked at Sam. He was feeling what I was feeling. Sheltem had attacked and killed even Corak. We had made a very powerful enemy this day.

We thought to chase after him and finish the job--but the tube he disappeared into was no longer responding. It's entrance was closed off forever.

We approached another nearby tube--and we found ourselves transported by a strong current of air into a strange chamber.

The wall, floors, and ceiling were all gleaming metal--strange flickering and strobing lights were all around us. A strange panel was displaying a picture of a world--not flat like a VARN or a CRON, but spherical--hanging like a pearl in the vastness of space. Every last inch was covered in a gleaming blue, like an endless ocean.

Could this be an image of Terra?

"This...reminds me of the Inner Sanctum." I mouthed to Sam. Sam turned to our companions and urged them to not touch anything. There was no humanoid in a white coat this time to operate the machines.

From near the picture of Terra, we heard a voice call out.

"Friends--this is Corak. What's going on in there? Is Sheltem destroyed?"

I couldn't see Corak anywhere, so instead I addressed the screen itself.

"No. He ran away through a large tubed chamber."

There was a long pause.

"Damn it! By now he's taken the escape craft and is long gone!" Corak sounded frustrated.

"I'm sorry."

"No--it's not your fault. CRON is still out of alignment. I need you to follow my instructions very carefully and only touch what I tell you to touch. Understand?"

Using the WAFE code, we unlocked the controls to the strange machines surrounding us--and, listening to the great sage very carefully, we operated them in turn until at last--the strobing blue and red lights changed to a simple green glow.

Suddenly--an alarm blared, and the light flashed red again.


"Corak, what's going on?" Sam asked, "Did we touch something we shouldn't have?"





There was another long pause.

"No. No, everything was done perfectly. It's a trap. A kind of trap lock left by Sheltem. Look around you very carefully. Is there a message showing on any of the machines near you?"

"Damn!" Corak exclaimed. He surrounded startled and frustrated. And it made all of us uneasy.

"It's a timed lock. He must have left it just in case I was able to get in and fix the alignment. In 15 minutes, the controls will be locked out completely--and neither you nor I nor anyone will be able to put CRON back on course!"

I was stunned with the pressure. Suddenly--it felt like precious minutes were slipping by while we stood helpless in shock.

Suddenly, it was Sofia who stepped up to the machine and spoke.

"Corak--what's a cryptogram?"

There was a shorter pause this time before the great sage replied to us.

"It's a puzzle of words. But instead of different languages, it deals with different letters."

Ruce, who was a skilled Linguist, suddenly stepped up.

"Like a cipher?" he inquired.

"Exactly, yes! Each letter is in another letter's place. 'A' might become 'Z'. Or perhaps 'R'. Or any other letter, really."

"The first step in solving a cipher is to work on the smaller words. That's the fastest way to decipher the vowels, which will help decipher the longer words."

Lucreto stepped up and shoved Ruce aside.

"We don't have time to just start guessing. There's a clue here, Corak -- 'Preamble'. What's a preamble?"

Sam didn't wait for Corak to respond, instead answering the elf's question right away.

"A preamble is the introductory statement of an official charter or declaration. Every temple creates one when they begin operating in a city."

Deanna shoved Lucreto aside and stammered impatiently, "Well? How do preambles usually begin?!"

Sam kept his focus and thought back deeply into his memory of such temple activities...

"They usually start by identifying the associated constituency.  'We, the people...' "

"Yes, yes that's it!" Corak said, "If Sheltem wrote it--than it would be in associated with his Guardianship...of Terra.."

"We, the people of Terra...," Ruce stepped back up and squinted at the words.  "It fits perfectly. Okay, everybody step back and let me work..."

(The cryptogram is different each time you reload your save game, which means it has to be solved in real time rather than looked up on Gamefaqs.)

"If the answer is Preamble...then in the cipher of this cryptogram it would come out as...."

Using the different lettered buttons while carefully squinting at the encoded message, Ruce entered "Qpjoerxj", taking careful note to capitalize the first letter.

There was a loud shuddering jerk that caused a resounding boom all around us, knocking us all to our feet.

"Was that good or bad?" I asked quizically.

Sofia got to her knees and focused intently...  "Good. It was like the entire world suddenly came to a stop."

Corak's voice came through the speaker. The blaring alarm and red lights had stopped--once more, the room was bathed in a calm green.

"Ruce..Sam...Sofia...Deanna...Lucreto...Volkmeir...my friends -- you have just saved CRON and all its peoples. And preserved millenia of effort on the part of the Ancients. I can't say enough to thank you. In the span of the timeless years and knowledge I've been endowed with by my creators---I simply do not know the words."

We settled against the cool hum of the machines and finally got a chance to breathe in much needed relief.

"I'm on my way down there. It's over. For now. Wait for me."