Might and Magic 2 (Ch. 5)

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

Chapter 5 - Sansobar

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The Poorman's Portal in western Middlegate offers passage to Sansobar for a mere 50 gold. It was the next logical choice if we were going to complete our circuit of the five towns.

Housed in the southeast corner of Cron, the dusty land around Sansobar is rough and slightly hilly. It lies right next to the sequestered elemental plane of Earth, where Gralkor and his elementals were jailed after the Elemental War. The city itself, however--was a rather seedy and wretched place. In this quite corner of Cron--thieves and degenerates gathered like so much chaff collecting in a windswept alley, the eyes of the populace were on us with fascination and distrust.

The Monster Bowl was here--the second of those three arenas in Cron where the ticket games are held.

Having brought a green ticket with us from Middlegate, we created quite a spectacle with a match against the local men-at-arms. We emerged victorius, and 1500 gold richer!

The money came in handy at the Temple Benedictus, where we next visited to pay our donation as Nordonna had suggested. With our business here finished, we could have easily moved on. However--as long as we were in the neighborhood we decided to explore further for opportunity and information.

We had only just refilled our rations at the local pub when a vicious fight had broken out around us. A mug hit me in the face and my half-orc blood took over, charging in to 'bring the peace'.

My allies swooped in around me to back me up, bless their hearts. But the bar crowd was a little larger than I'd first anticipated. There were six of us and nearly fifty of them--and on top of that, it seemed they felt threatened by us and stopped fighting each other to focus on us!

Thinking quickly, Ruce took a handful of coins and scattered them across the chairs and floors, sending the inebriated patrons into a frenzy to collect--and in the confusion, we slipped out and ran as fast as we could!

"Just like in Sorpigal, huh Volkmeir?" Sam reminded me, referring to the time he'd first seen my brother and myself. Out of breath, I clapped him on the shoulder, "The trick is to know when to walk away and know when to RUN."

We had found ourselves in a quieter, poorer section of this windswept town. The stench of humanoid waste was overpowering. There was no fresh water or plumbing in this corner of Sansobar.

An enormous crowd of beggars and cripples were huddled here and took notice of us, crowding around us with needful looks on their faces. It would have been easy for us to refuse and risk angering them--but we had more than enough gold to spare. Sam took a small collection from each of us and we gave freely.

Enormous rats were gnawing on a figure in this corner--who thrashed and cried out in apparent agony. Such a sight even touched Lucreto's twisted mind, and he already lobbed a flame arrow at one of the vermin before the rest of us closed in.

 It was a trick. Either that, or just poor luck on our part. It was no struggling victim at all that the rats were feasting on, but the dessicated remains of undead pests. These Coffin Creeps have a special ability that drains the magic reserves of our party, making it best to use our spells early in this battle or not at all. Eventually, we cleared enough of them away and those we did not smite had run off, revealing an entrance to the catacombs underneath Sansobar. How could we, as adventurers--turn away such an open invitation to danger?

"Beware of Vermin". A little too late for that, considering what we had just forced our way through to get here.

Ouch! I accidentally stepped in a snapping trap with gator-style teeth. It ripped into my ankle and smarted greatly, but with Ruce able to give us first aid--these traps--and there were -many- of them, were more of a nuisance than a threat. Apparently, somebody down here was trying to take the vermin problem into their own hands.

"Sharp Tooth Den". None of us had heard of any such creature before, and yet we could hear the sound of movement and heavy breathing on the other side. We decided to take our chances and bust in.

A bad idea, it turned out. These were trained, killer hunting dogs--no doubt kept here as a kind of kennel to further root out and deal with the local vermin. They were fast, and extremely well coordinated with each other--able to attack three or four times each round for our one or two.

It was only through a little luck and careful use of Ruce's first aid magic that we survived--as he went around reviving us quickly after each time the pack would swarm and knock one of us unconscious. There wasn't even any decent treasure to be found afterwards, either!

Other thugs and hunting animals were occasionally found lurking the corridors, too. They didn't take kindly to our intrusion and clearly meant us harm.

The vermin was unusually large in Sansobar. The bats, the rats, the spiders--all grotesquely oversized and aggressively territorial. I'm not afraid of bugs, but we tried to avoid some of these spiders when we could, so as to avoid having to pay for healing poison.

An N-19 Capitor? There was a message in the Middlegate sewer that referenced a similarly-confusing sounding artifact. Whatever these things were for--they sounded important. If confusing.

At the time we discovered this message about the Mystic Thaumaturge of Good, we didn't quite understand the significance of it. Lucreto, however--made a note of it anyway, and it would serve to be of use much later in our quest.

In a quiet corner of the catacomb, we found an odd little man who introduced himself as the Thieving Fiend Maxwell. For a minor fee, he offered--he could train our ninja, Sofia--in the intricacies of his trade.

However--the man's words were larger than the truth. It was clear even as he described and illustrated various techniques to Sofia, that he had no idea what he was talking about. I'm not a thief, myself--but I'm fairly sure I've never seen an actual thief use a dinner fork as a lockpick in the way Maxwell was teaching her.

If you buy Maxwell's services--your thieves will LOSE five points in lockpicking.

What a waste of money. And yet, before we could register our disapproval, he had already snuck away into the shadows. Damned thief.

In another corner of the catacomb, one of the resident bodies suddenly lurched to life and sat up. We readied our weapons--but the undead revenant held up his hands with his palms out, in a display of controlled surrender. It seemed that this zombie still had a shred of it's former self within it. He retrieved from his clothing a scrap of paper cardboard and handed it to me. Printed on the reverse of a printed number were the words "Admit 8".

"This will help you in Corak's Cavern." the zombie droned. And then, as quickly as it had lurched to life--it crawled back into it's relief and was still again. Corak's Cavern? Could that sage's disembodied soul have possessed this body just long enough to help us?

"Thieves' Guild". With visions of taking our vengeance on Maxwell in mind, we eagerly decided to storm the place. No doubt--they were also responsible for the ankle traps and trained dogs.

The guards at the front door went down easily to our onslaught. But once within, the rest of the thieves engaged in discussions and business in the quiet booths only eyed us with curiosity, and then went back to their dealings. Their confidence was a bit unnerving--but then, perhaps it was best that we did not need to take on the entire guild.

The Chief Thief was in residence and inquired about our business here. He scoffed at the name Maxwell--referring to him as a filthy degenerate--not even sanctioned by the Guild.

He gave us a counter offer. His fee was higher than what Maxwell had been asking, but Rinaldo Jr. was truer to his word. After about an hour working closely with him, Sofia felt much more confident about disarming traps and opening locks than before.

Training with Rinaldo raises burglar and ninja lockpicking points by 10, and can be repeated up to around 60-ish! That makes looting enemies much more manageable than before. For there are many, many traps in Might and Magic 2.

With our scouring of Sansobar above and below finished, there was no reason to remain in town for now. We regrouped at the inn and trained for a time under the local guildmaster--a harsh and powerful sheik of the sands who knew much about combat and sorcery. His fee was slightly higher than the meager facilities at Middlegate, but I think we were better off for it.

Sorceror Spells - Level 2
2-1: Eagle Eye - Outdoors only. An ethereal eagle is summoned by the caster's will and circles the party far overhead--with it's fantastic sight feeding back directly into the sorceror, the knowledge of local surroundings is greater. In practice--this allows you to see a small 5x5 window of the area around you, as in some of the screenshots above. Can be nifty when starting to map a new area. But as long as you have a cartographer, your own mapmaker is more useful in the end. Costs 2 SP. Quest reward from Nordon.

2-2: Electric Arrow - Does 4-16 electric damage.
2-3: Identify Monster - Tells you an enemy's HP, AC, and whether they have a special ability.
2-4: Jump - Jumps forward two squares.
2-5: Levitate - Avoids some (but not all) ground-based traps.

2-6: Lloyd's Beacon - Named after the famous mage who invented it, who just happens to be named Lloyd Beacon. With this spell, a sorceror can set a 'mark' which is permanently saved in the caster's memory. When casting Lloyd's Beacon again in the future, you have an option to create a new mark, thus destroying the old one--or you can teleport back to your 'mark' from anywhere in the world. Useful for plumbing dangerous dungeons. Once you get really far in, you can drop a mark--use the Cleric's 'surface' spell to get back to safety and regroup--and then return to your mark instantly when you're ready to continue! Costs 2 SP + 1 Gem. Learned from Lloyd himself in Corak's Cavern.

2-7: Protection from Magic - An all-in-one spell that raises protection from magical status effects like paralysis or silence. It's potency rises with caster level. Costs 1 SP per level + 1 Gem. Must be purchased.
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Clerical Spells - Level 2

2-1: Cure Wounds - Heals 15 HP.
2-2: Heroism - Grants a character 6 bonus levels for the duration of combat. Must be purchased.

2-3: Nature's Gate - Opens a portal to a random area of CRON, based on the current day of the calender. (Cron has 180 days in a year.) Must be found. Not that useful. You're more likely to get yourself lost just randomly teleporting about. Costs 2 SP.

2-4: Pain - Causes 2-16 points of damage.

2-5: Protection from Elements - An all-in-one spell that boosts resistance to fire, cold, energy, acid, and electricity. Potency increases with level. A vast improvement over MM1 where each element had it's own 'protect' spell. Costs 2 SP + 1 Gem. Must be purchased.

2-6: Silence - Attempts to prevent monsters from casting spells. Improved from MM1 because this one targets 4 enemies + 1 additional one per level of caster. Costs 2 SP.

2-7: Weaken - Attempts to soften the muscles of up to 10 enemies, reducing their damage roll by half until the spell wears off. Must be purchased. Costs 2 SP + 1 Gem.