Might and Magic 2 (Ch. 9)

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


Chapter 9 - Lord Hoardall Woodhaven


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(I missed getting a screenshot here--but when you first leave Middlegate and enter the overworld, you are visited by your "guardian pegasus", who wishes you safety and says he will help you once a year if you can find him and learn his name.)

 The overworld of Cron was divided into twenty sectors. Arranged by letter and number--much like my native Varn, from A1 to E4. Lucreto showed us his map and indicated where Middlegate was--just to the southwest of Square Lake in this, the C2 sector. Woodhaven lied just to the north, in the C1 sector.

A curious hermit on one of the river banks showed Ruce how to cast the "Walk on Water" Spell, a magic we would surely need in the not-too-distant future. To the northwest in the forest paths lied Corak's Cave--the workshop where that sage studied when we was away from the Luxus Palace Royale. We weren't quite ready to go exploring there yet, though. We had to keep focused on one goal at a time, lest we get distracted and lost.

There were many signs like this one to help us stay on the roads.

And here was the C1 sector. Whereas the world of Varn is flat--with a dense gray fog that prevents us from travelling off the edge of the world. On the other hand, the world of Cron is more of a torus-shape, Lucreto tells us. If we were to journey further north for example, he tells us we would wind up in the C4 sector.

It was all rather confusing to me and I tried not to think too deeply on it. There were many undead ghouls and wraiths in this sector. As well as one nasty human.

The crazed hermit was heavily armed and had a whistling, playful tone of voice that varied at any instant from manic to demented. Patrolling his corner of the wood, he shrieked at us for his keys.

At our instance that we didn't have his keys, the madman procured a short length of rope from somewhere on his person and lashed it around Lucreto's neck faster than any of us could react. And before we could chase him away, Mark had strangled the life right out of him and run off!

Ruce wasn't yet powerful enough to revive one of us by himself--so our sojourn took a slight delay as we ran back to Middlegate to have Lucreto attended to by the clerics. We would make sure to steer clear of -that- part of the woods again!

Ahh--Castle Woodhaven. And within, Lord Hoardall Woodhaven, said to be the wealthiest lord of Cron. With our recently acquired skeleton key--it was easy for us to let ourselves in without having to force our way in through the castle guard.

Lord Hoardall was loaded so generously with treasure that it literally spilled out of his coffers and were kept in piles and boxes like so much clutter. The temptation was indeed there to help ourselves to a bit of it -- the patrolling castle guard certainly didn't look like much of a threat. But the stone golems under their command were a different story.

In one of the guard towers the local guard was selling a sample of Uncle Spudly's Quest Removal Elixir. (New and Improved!) -- the ley lines that were generated from the core of Varn provided clerics with a spell of Quest Removal. But there was no such spell in Cron's spell matrix. Uncle Spudly's Elixir, it seemed, was the only way to unburden us of the mark of a Lord's quest if we wished to abandon one. But at 19 gold, the price was a mere pittance.

The court jester greeted guests with a new joke every morning. Most of them defaming to orcs. I wondered if the funny little man knew about my half-orcish heritage and I was tempted to knock his teeth in more than once -- but the thought of my comrades thinking me ashamed of my bloodline was too embarrassing to risk.

A "Green Room", hrmm? The sound of somebody pacing a clanky metal floor echoed on the other side of the room, and we let ourselves in to have a look.

It turned out to be the jail of none other than the Bishop of Green Battle, one of the patrons of the Triple Crown contest. He had apparently been involved in a disagreement with Lord Hoardall over competition rules and was imprisoned here out of petty spite. He was extremely thankful to be set free--and even more delighted to be rescued by none other than the Green Triple Crown champions! He urged us to look for his brothers in the other castles.


There are 'key shops' in the various cities that sell different colored keys. Green, Yellow, Red, and Black, following the different Ticket ranks exactly. I didn't grab any screenshots of them, but I did go ahead and purchase them all eventually.

 Lord Hoardall welcomed us to his throne room eagerly and explained that he required the services of adventurers like ourselves to help him acquire even -more- items!

There are different ranks of 'quest' you can accept. Page, Squire, Knight, and Lord. The first three are ones that randomly assign you to gather a specific item to return to him, with rarer items generally being worth more XP. Since those are less interesting, I'm jumping straight to the fixed, highest-level "Lord" quest.

 Our quest was to find three swords. No true items of warfare, these blades--but ornamental deals. Jewels, gilded decorations--the usual adornments. The sort of thing that gets handed down from family to family and would be right at home in Lord Hoardall's extensive collection.

I'll skip the details of how we learned the precise locations of the blades. For the most part it involved surveying entire sectors of land and plying local drunks at the taverns with information. (Read: I looked it up online.)

 Far to the west, ferocious wild men treasured the sword of Valor as a priceless heirloom. Yet, they were willing to part with it if we sufficiently displayed valor in a challenge of combat. The barbarian Mountain Men were tougher and faster than your average man-at-arms, but we were better armed and armored and took our prize fair-and-square.

Closer to Woodhaven, the mysterious Guardian defended the sword of Honor because of a promise long forgotten. With no other meaning in the creature's pitiful life, we liberated the blade from him and put his soul to rest. The Guardian was stronger and fiercer than any one of us, but we vastly outnumbered him.

The last blade was in the D1 sector, a mountainous region just west of the sector where Vulcania lay.

Surrounding the craggy paths was a small bog. And in that large black region that we were unable to map?

That was the Dead Zone. Over a hundred years ago, in the midst of his battle against the Elemental Lords, King Kahlon and the Lords waged a magical battle here that was so destructive it laid waste to this entire league of ground. Kahlon was victorious that day--but no living thing had ever grown here since.

Lucreto licked his finger and held it in the air, declaring that the background Thaums were still too heavy to risk travelling any closer to the Dead Zone. The residual energy was capable of melting flesh from bone and burning us all to cinders if we even dared.

In the southeast hills, we found an encampment of orcs--reveling to the sound of their own wardrums. The Orcish warlord Bozorc made his home here, and from this camp raided nearby travelers and settlements.

On the back of the sign read another message-- "No Orc Jokes!".

I wondered if he'd met the same court jester we did.

It was a sizeable war party--but other than Bozorc himself and the carnage spirit under his command--the rest of his army were all rank and file highwaymen and thugs. Once we slew the leader--the rest were nothing more than an exercise in attrition.

Bozorc has a chance on melee hit to steal -ALL- of that character's gold. Hope you've sharing it around pretty evenly among your party!


Bound in the orc's camp were two mercenary prisoners -- Red Duke and Deadeye -- who breathed their thanks and offered their blades for hire at the Hotel Four in Vulcania.

Nestled at some of the other foothills were goblin villages. Scores and scores of them milling about, plotting their next heinous crimes against civilization most likely.

Whether it's one goblin or 250, we were more than equipped to deal with either. We had become more experienced lately in these kinds of protracted battles and had nothing to fear.

In enormous battles like these, holding down the Auto-Attack key is a godsend. For even speedier progress, you can turn the sound off, which shortens the pause between messages even further.

 At last, we found the sword of Nobility, being guarded by four priests as some kind of holy artifact. Only if we could defeat them would we be judged worthy to take it from this hallowed place.

Although not strong of arm or armor -- the priests -did- have powerful magic. Specifically--a spell of paralysis that could target each of us with a single cast. Within moments--we were all held in their magic binds with the exception of Lucreto, who's sylvan blood and exposure to magic had given him slightly more immunity to such spells. With his thunderbolts and acid streams, he weakened all of the priests into submission, and the sword was ours for the taking!

"See? I told you having an elf in your party was good luck." Sam reminded me.

It may not have given us any concrete leads to follow in the greater scheme of our quests--but the experience reward we gleaned from Lord Hoardall would serve its own purpose.








The next castle on our list to visit was a little further to the west-- the home of Lord Peabody Pinehurst, who apparently was once an apprentice of Corak himself.

Before we left though, we helped ourselves to the M-27 Radicon, exactly where the clue we'd found said to find it. We weren't quite sure what it was for yet--but it had the look of Ancients technology about it and we kept it in a safe place.








For now, it was time to visit Atlantium and put our new experience to use in the training hall.


Clerical Spells - Level 5
5-1: Air Encasement - Encases a target in a field of elemental air, preventing it from taking any turns and dealing 10 damage per round until the target is attacked or shrugs it off. 5 SP + 5 Gems, found near the Plane of Air.

5-2: Deadly Swarm - Sends a plague of vermin and insects to assault up to 10 enemies, doing 4-40 damage. It works indoors -AND- outdoors now! 5 SP + 5 Gems

5-3: Frenzy - Sends a character into a frenzy, making them attack all enemies for massive damage before passing out and losing one Endurance. Worthless. Don't bother. Must be found. 5 SP + 5 Gems.

5-4: Paralyze - Attempts to immobilize up to 10 monsters. 5 SP + 5 Gems.

5-5: Remove Condition - An all-in-one status cure for paralysis, poison, sleep, disease, and silence. 5 SP + 5 Gems.

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Sorceror Spells - Level 5

5-1: Disrupt - Generates a powerful energy field that deals 100 damage to one monster. Useful for attempting to take out a tough enemy early! But only works at long range. 5 SP + 5 Gems 

5-2: Fingers of Death - Channels the vigor of all dead sorcerors into the caster's hand--causing instant death at whomever they point their fingers at. Targets up to -3- enemies in this game instead of just 1 in the last! 5 SP + 5 Gems. Must be found.

5-3: Sand Storm - A buffeting sandstorm flays alive up to 10 enemies, dealing 1-8 damage per level. Only works outdoors! Costs 2 SP per level + 5 Gems

5-4: Shelter - A pocket of sanctuary allows the party to rest for a full day free of the threat of ambush. 5 SP.

5-5: Teleport - Moves the party up to 9 squares in any direction. Useful for bypassing difficult terrain. Doesn't work in all areas. 5 SP.