Might and Magic 2 (Ch. 7)

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


Chapter 7 - Vulcania

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The Polar Express gate was tucked away behind the bar in Tundara--and with our work finished there we were eager to get away from that frozen place and into a town that offered a little more warmth.


You couldn't do more for 'warmth' in Vulcania. The entire place was an excavation camp built on top of an active volcanic mountain range at the border where the plane of Elemental Fire was anchored. The people of this city lived under stern, martial laws for the necessity of the strict order necessary to eke out an existence in such a dangerous part of the world. For some coin, the local soldiers or arms masters could instruct us in their trade.

There was little else of note in the city proper except for these statues, of which there were four in the northern 'wild' hub of the town near where local monsters and beasts were kenneled. Read in a clockwise order, a kind of prophecy was read:

"Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. They all have a king in their Lair. They hold the talons you need to find. To save CRON before its time."

What we had reasoned then during our prison time in Tundara was true--the orb and talons that Kahlon once owned and which Corak was attempting to recover held some tremendous importance to the fate of this world. Since the claw that Corak recovered and the one which Kahlon previously held were now long lost to the odd machinations going on around us--it seemed the next, best way to obtain the Claw was to make our own. Within each of the four corners of Cron there were anchors to the Elemental Planes not far from each major city...if we could travel into the space of those planes safely, we could recover the individual talons themselves from the time and space where the very things originated from in their ancestral homes..

There was a mine underneath Vulcania. Unsurprisingly, there were not many beasts or monsters lurking about--although we did find some groups to ambush regardless. The ground was unsafe down here--with crumbling floors and bubbling lava surging forth from the cracks in the ground. Without a levitation spell, coming here would have been madness.

The secrets of Evil---Right 46 and Left 23. Was this related to a similar message we'd seen about Good wizardry? Lucreto took a note of the message left here, in case it merited further reflection.

Some of the monsters in this place didn't need to fear the abundance of lava because they were too incorporeal to notice it. The wraiths were a cut above the simple reanimated skeletons and corpses we'd encountered before--they were wispy and fast but with vengeful claws that tore deep.

A horrible pealing cry reached our ears. Most of us wanted to turn back, thinking it was the cry of some undead monstrosity. But Sam thought it sounded like the wounded cry of perhaps an injured person or beast and led us closer to the source of the noise.

In the end, it was neither a wounded person or a vicious beast--but simple a local fire giant, mining the walls for granite and singing a local ballad very badly. Extremely badly. It was like a swamp dog with a sore throat braying in a foreign accent. I can't fathom why we remained except out of some strange politeness to the giant, who--when he was finished, simply thanked us for our company and bid us safe travel.

Listening to the giant raises your endurance permanently, and can be repeated up to around 60-ish!

 As we passed this crossroad on our way back upstairs--we suddenly heard another mournful cry. A -real- peal for help this time!  We set off in the direction of the call immediately, ambushed occasionally by wraiths and devils who seemed intent on blocking us from our goal!

Another strange artifact. This time housed apparently in the Luxus Palace Royale itself, where Kahlon's daughter Lamanda currently stayed.

In this far corner of the mine we found two dark-garbed figures who were crouched and hiding from the great beast that divided us from them--a large, three-headed fire hydra made its home among the lava pits of this place, and it was unhappy to see us.

Our protection from Elements magic would help us resist the beasts' fiery breath, but it would only help so much. We concentrated all of our attacks and spells on one head at a time, so as to contain the danger and sustain us through the longer fight to damage and slay the other two heads. After a fierce battle, we were victorious!

 The two ninja who were pinned down by the beast thanked us and offered themselves for hire at Middlegate--but Sofia was distrusting of other ninji and urged us not to consider hiring them. It was too difficult to know, she insisted, which ones were informants or allied with the warlord ninja mistress Dawn.





Well, all's well that ends well -- at any rate. We donated our charity to the Vulcania temple and then-- with little else to explore here, began making plans to visit the last city of Cron.