Might and Magic (Ch. 15)

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



Chapter 15: Gates to Another World

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Finn could not be persuaded to come with us. He had drunken more than his fill of adventure, he said.

In the beginning, the greedy, inexperienced Robber had infuriated us all time and time again with his inept handling of the myriad traps we encountered. But in time, he became a treasure hunter deft and skilled as any could claim to be. He could pick a lock and disarm a trap faster than it took someone to use a key.

From the outset, his interest had been wealth. It was enough that he had helped rescue King Alamar, he explained. With the immense coin he had gathered, he wanted to return to Portsmith and retire, surrounded by the bevy of voluptuous ladies there.


Betty June had no desire to breach the world of Varn and discover what mysteries and horrors lie beyond. More than anything else, she desired to stay in the Inner Sanctum and learn everything that the machines and humanoid there could teach her. Such mysteries could take a lifetime, and she could not be persuaded to reconsider.

At long last, it was just Faulkner, Alicia, Sam, and myself.

We four made unlikely allies. For in the beginning Faulkner and I had considered ourselves quite evil. And yet, perhaps Sam's zeal had rubbed off on us a little. And in return, our indignity perhaps rubbed off a little on he and Alicia, too. For although our reasons for wanting to travel to the Gates were different, our motivations still drove us along a similar drive.

For Sam and Alicia, it was a want to finish what Corak had started. An unwillingness to shirk duty and let Sheltem go free. Everything that Sheltem had done to Varn, he could easily be doing to other worlds, and Sam in his driven zeal would not stand for it. Alicia vowed to go with him and fight by his side evermore.

For Faulkner and myself, it was discovering that our potential for greatness was more immeasurable than either of us had imagined. Where we had started as gruff, rough-edged youthed evicted from their mother's house and picking fights for small change, we had somehow evolved into great adventurers of our own. With my sword and his clerical spells and penchant for lore and research, we made a great team. And now that we had 'conquered' Varn in this way, the promise of a new adventure beyond our world was too fantastic to dismiss.

We returned to B1 to those strange doors that were closed to us before. The place called the Gates to Another World. Only this time, as though recognizing our newfound knowledge of the Inner Sanctum, the portal opened to us.

Like a shimmering, liquid glass in a tall frame, the way was clear for us. Samuel stepped through first, making a prayer to his temple first. Followed by Alicia. And then by Faulkner--and lastly, taking one last look around the only Varn I had known for my whole life---I stepped through into places unknown.

The rush of stars and air both blinded and deafened me. A great force was pushing on us harshly, as though we were travelling at great speed. Suddenly, I felt Faulkner and Alicia fall out of sight from me.

"Faulkner!" -- my voice was muted and distorted by the rush of everything around us. It sounded warbled and unintelligible even to my own ears.

I saw Sam reach for Alicia before she, too, was torn away by forces too great for us to resist, and instantly she was gone.

With neither of us desiring to lose sight of one another, Sam and I managed to get close enough that we gripped each other by the wrist. Wherever we were going, the two of us were going together.

I strained my eyes and looked for my brother, but did not see him. Nor Alicia. Wherever they were going, I hoped they were going together, too. I was stunned...but I was not afraid. We were separated for now. But I knew, somewhere among these travels between worlds, we would find each other again.

A bright light was coming close to us and blinded us--there was another world approaching, and we were finding ourselves drawn to it....

And on this new world, a new story would unfold.



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Phew! So, that's it for Might and Magic.

Final Thoughts: The game is actually much larger than is probably obvious from my blogging about it. There are tons of other sidequests that I decided weren't interesting enough to blog about. Such as the Clerics of the South--the artifacts that raise your attributes...the different landmarks you can explore in the various cities, and so forth. It was enough to just try and get a coherent story out of it all.

The game's greatest strength was that, for its time especially, it was -incredibly- open-ended. Compared to other RPGs of the time like the Bard's Tale or Ultima, Might and Magic has a massive overworld and locations to visit.

The game's greatest weakness was that, for its time especially, it was -incredibly open-ended. You are given no concrete goal to start your adventure with, or even to finish it necessarily. When this game was ported to the NES, the story in the manual was literally summarized as a one sentence blurb that said "Find the inner sanctum". It makes it a daunting experience to even figure out where you should be starting.