Might and Magic 3 (Ch. 10)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra

Chapter 10 - Swamp Town

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It was as quiet as a specter of death in Swamp Town. I found the tell-tale crease of something relevant in Corak's notebook and paged through it quietly while my three companions walked with me with their weapons ready--looking for danger amid the eerie silence.

"The great necromancer--Von Emosh loomed over the city and reduced it to this state...," I mused out loud.

"Corak's notebook is a little outdated. I don't see any ninja clans operating here. I don't see -anything-. Most of the roads leading out of the square are blocked up."

Knell tapped on one of the walls -- "Walled up recently, in fact. Maybe the ninja sealed things up on their way out of town. We can probably break these down--the masonry hasn't had enough years to set in."

"Hello?! Is anyone there?!" I bellowed out loud nearest to one of the walls. Lydia and Stella listened intently.

"I thought I heard a voice. And there's movement, definitely movement."

"Let's break it down."

Knell and I combined our strength to bash the wall to pieces--revealing the doorway to the former alehouse. In response to our rude entrance--two extremely sauced ninjas flung themselves out of the entranceway and attacked, but were of little consequence to us.

"Not -all- the ninja have left then, I take it."

A thick layer of dust coated everything in the bar. From all around us, we could hear the ghostly cries of departed adventurers past and present. Their poltergeists sending trays and bottles back and forth from one table to the next while a blank-eyed apparition hovered behind the counter.

"F...Faulkner, I really don't like this. This place is bad news." Stella warned.

"Shh--calm yourself, my friends. It may sound farfetched, but I've made pilgrimages to cities of the dead before." I reassured them--remembering the lost city of Dusk that my brother and Sam and the rest had visited on Varn.

"*psshh.* Tha'sh right." came a mumble from one of the long-abandoned corners of the bar.

"The tricksh, you shee---ish to not reMIND them ohhf it. -hrk- Don't rub their -facesh- in it."

"You...you're still alive?" I asked as an unsteady half-orcess brought herself out from behind a tray of dwindling bottles. The smell of rancid ale about her was almost overpowering. She was dressed only in some shabby clothes and looked like she hadn't bathed in days.

"Phew...if you're gonna get sauced, you could at least go for the -good- stuff." I chastised her.

"Shaddup!" the half-orc spat miserably, "I got sh...shang...er---marooned, in thish awful city over a -YEAR- ago and then got walled in -HERE- with nothing to barter w-urk- with but a pittansh of gold and all my gear! And thoshh horrible ninjash for company!"

She swaggered up to the counter and scowled at the ghostly bartender, "What do -yoo- need gold for anyway now, bub? You ain't gonna need it where -yur- going!"

The bartender's ghostly visage suddenly grew tense and strained. I stepped in to take the half-orc away and defuse to situation.

"Now-now, don't worry. Those two ninjas are gone now. You've been living this whole time on cheap beer and tavern food?" I asked her, leading her away to join the rest of us away from the bar.

"'sh not bad shtuff...keepsh a long time, which wassh my only sshavin' grace. 's expensive though..." the orc explained as she shared some of her Fruity Surprise paste with us.

Lydia let the orc settle in at our table and talk with my other friends--pulling me aside and speaking rather coarsely once we were out of earshot.

"Boss--I know what you're thinkin', but I gotta say it anyway. Are you really gonna lug this drunk with us?" Lydia flashed her gaze back at the orc and then returned it to me.

"Well...she is trapped and helpless here....," I started explaining. But when I saw Lydia's scowl I knew she would never buy an appeal to charity.

"Okay, I admit it." I explained, "I'm a pretty good judge of character and I don't know if I see anything in particular about her that stands out...but she's an archer."

"An archer? How can you tell?" Lydia quirked an eyebrow.

"She's bartered away all her gear, see? With just her short sleeves on, you can see the scar on her forearm...there." I pointed just as a good angle of her forearm was turned toward us.

"So? She's got a scar." Lydia was nonplussed.

"So--that's the kinda scar someone only gets when they're learning how to use longbows most of their lives. Crossbows and slings like the rest of you don't cut that deep."

"Oh...hunh. I never woulda guessed."

"If she's an archer--then that means she's got a basic grasp of Sorcery. And we desperately need a sorceror." I explained.

"So? We could hire a sorceror at the Heights. I heard there's a really powerful sorceress there controlling all the demons with an iron fist."

"Really? Hrm...--nevermind that. How are we going to get to Blistering Heights anyway, walk on the lava? None of us can cast a Town Portal yet."

The orcess archer was getting into an altercation with Knell over a game of dice. Knell was in the process of upturning the table and throwing her mug of ale in the archer's face while Stella looked beside herself trying to control the situation. All around them--the ghosts and spectres of dead adventurers watched curiously..and then, with a kind of vital spark that called their zest for life back into memory--they began carousing with each other.

"-Really-? -Now- of all times?! Auughh...Lydia, c'mon." I dragged her with me to meet our other friends where--between Stella and Lydia and myself, we dragged ourselves back out into the town square while a tavern brawl of the dead began taking place behind us.

"You managed to start a bar fight with the undead. How pathetic can you get?" I chastised them.

"We managed to start a bar fight with the undead! That was -awesome-!" Knell cheered with glee. "I like this girl. What's your name, sparky?"

"Heehee-- -hic-..it'sh B..Bernadene."

At that moment, a ravenous ghoul came crashing out from behind one of the other sealed walls, the debris knocking our new friend unconscious. Although it gave us quite a start at it's sudden entrance, we had plowed our way through much more of it's number in the Land of the Gargoyles. After that--we regrouped at the Temple Moonshadow, which was being guarded by a few more ninja stragglers. The temple--one of the last few places that housed the living, had monks who attended our wounds and let us rest for a short while in exchange for a hefty donation.

"So...ahh, Bernadene, was it?" I asked cautiously.

"Ugh...yea, what is it?" she asked rather glumly. The monk's antidotes were flushing the alcohol from her system and sobering her up in an unpleasant hurry.

"We're on something of a quest, you see. All for different reasons, but our path is the same. And as you might notice---we are bereft of anyone skilled in the finer parts of thaumaturgy..."

"Are you.....asking me to come -with- you?" she asked, with a look on her face that seemed to wince with both delight and horror.

"Well...I gather that your last travelling group didn't turn out so well for you....but yes."

She snorted, "I've got no money and aren't doing anything else. I'll come with you. But only because you asked nicely. Handsome." she grinned devilishly in a way that suddenly made me feel very awkward.

Our next stop was a visit to the ghostly smithy, from which we gathered and shelled out some gold to equip our new ally. As she was being fitted, Stella took me aside to warn me.

"Just don't ask what happened to her last group leader." she warned.

"Why? What -did- happen?"

"She was mentioning it to us at the tavern while you and Lydia stepped away. He was her eighth husband, she said. And a right cheating bastard at that...until he accidentally drowned in some quicksand near here without a levitation spell."

I involuntarily shuddered. Suddenly--I felt like I had way too many women in my group. I hadn't noticed it before, really. My mind had been preoccupied with finding Corak and wringing some answers out of the alien bastard's mouth.

The greater part of the city had been turned into a kind of extended burial ground. Shallow graves were tucked away in corners all over the place, and the scent of fresh earth and rot still hung heavily in the air.

"Well--you all know the deal," I forewarned the more squeamish Stella and Bernadene, "If the deceased have any valuables that can aid us, they're ours. Don't worry. I'm a cleric--I can do this. Lydia?"

While the other two looked away in disgust, Lydia brought a shovel and Knell and Lydia and myself began turning fresh earth to look for valuables.

"Oops."

This one had apparently died with a bit more vengeance in his heart than the rest. The black miasma of his curse settled on all of us, even Stella and Bernadene.

"Hey! But I didn't even do any digging!" Stella complained.


This time, it is the -characters- who have been cursed. A status condition that lowers your luck stat. Luck -is- considered a vital stat--so if it drops to 0, you die!

"Let's get the blessings of the temple and avoid this grave in the future."

"You're a cleric and you can -do- this, huh boss?" Lydia griped.

"Those legs are looking mighty breakable today." I retorted.

She gave me a hard punch on the shoulder, but I could still see her stifled grin.

Some of the other graves housed restless spirits who took form when their remains were unearthed. True ghosts are a tricky foe. They are incorporeal such that physical attacks pass right through them--at the same time, they are made of such dense ectoplasmic energy that a simple Turn Undead doesn't have the same efficacy as it does on a zombie or skeleton. It took several prayers of Turning along with Stella's lightning bolt spells to force the ghost to dissipate back into the ether, leaving behind a handful of magic gems.

Ghosts can also cause unnatural aging with their attacks. Which leads to another important part-- There is no rejuvenation spell in MM3 like there is in 1 or 2. UNNATURAL aging can eventually be undone after completing a sidequest, but natural aging is irreversible.

There are only 100 days in Terra's year, as opposed to 180 in CRON's. So those years do tend to add up quickly if you're playing for awhile. However--it is also not quite the same death sentence that aging was in the earlier games.

Past about age 50 or so, characters will begin losing strength, endurance, speed, and accuracy. At the same time, they will begin -gaining- intelligence and personality. Past certain benchmarks, these losses and gains become exponentially more pronounced. And of course--being vital stats, if any of them drops to 0, that character will die of 'old age'.

On the other hand, if you've been finding all the different ways to buff your character's vital stats in the different dungeons--it's perfectly possible to have a character who can absorb all those stat losses and still come out with something greater than 0. In which case, they are effectively immortal. After age 250, the game stops counting.

 Other graves where the dead slept more peacefully often came up with gold or valuable jewelry. They certainly wouldn't be missing those!

"Sheltem...." I paused in horror as I recognized the name on the inscription.

"Hrm?" Stella asked, seeing my reaction to the statue.

"I didn't think he would be out walking around, is all." I mouthed, slightly distracted in deep thought.

"Oh--that's not who you're looking for, is it? I thought you were looking for Coh-Rak."

"No...I mean yes! I mean--oh, I'm sorry. I lost my concentration for a moment."

"Shall I tell you the story of Sheltem the Dark?" Stella offered.

"Yeah. Anything you know about him." I asked eagerly.

"It is a tale whispered in the stars...that the dark king underneath Terra sleeps...and he is called Sheltem the Dark--and that he was awoken by four meddling adventurers in the service of Princess Trueberry who managed to steal away under the pyramids. So furious was he at their intrusion that the dark one placed their heads on pikes around the swamps..."

"That's foul."

"But that's only the beginning. Princess Trueberry had hired them because she had been warned by the great unicorn Icarus--the protector of Terra's growth and future. As Icarus thrives--so too does the future of all Terra..."

I was suddenly reminded of the house of sparrows that I'd seen in the Orc Meadow. The resting place of Icarus who had passed on before his time.

"To ensure that nobody would interrupt the dark one's schemes again--Sheltem abducted Princess Trueberry and forced her hand--to use her virgin touch to rend the alicorn from Icarus's noble visage against her will...and in doing so cursed herself to remain forever a prisoner of her own treachery and tragedy. Imprisoned they say on this very island...until that day when people come to her with enough stirrings of love in their heart that it may pierce that solemn gloom and set her free once more..."

"If it will trouble that menace's foul schemes again--we should set her free if possible."

"Maybe. But can one person--one group such as our motley crew, carry -that- much unrequited love in their hearts?"

"Hrmm...," It was quite a staying thought, I must admit.  "Nevertheless--we should investigate."

The halls underneath Swamp Town consisted of more coffins to raid, along with a series of twisting passages that Corak's notebook called the "halls of aging", which promised great power at their ends.

But first, we would have to deal with the Scorpia--the so-called "Mistresses of Death" who could poison us all with the merest llewd gesture.




There is actually a very funny reason why Scorpia exists in the game, and it can be found here: http://www.fuyoh.net/2009/09/27/reviews-of-might-and-magic/

 Hungry reapers awakened from some of the coffins--hungry for fresh souls to harvest. My Turn Undead prayer was starting to feel slightly out of its class with these more powerful undead aberrations--luckily, reapers are not as immune to physical attacks as ghosts are.

In one of the coffins lay the restless spirit of Gagish the Conjurer. In life--he was once the servant of Malefactor, the king Malicious. But growing distrustful of his power--Malefactor had his spirit imprisoned here in a state between life and death.

Such was his awed reputation--that even in this current state he was considered a revered member of the local Buzzard's Guild. And even though he had no need of it--he would not deign to give us a membership for less than 5000 gold.

The "halls of aging" were aptly named. Lined with electrical traps and populated heavily with roaming phantoms--who could age us unnaturally of our youth with an icy grip. We had to attack quickly and with our best spells, not sparing any gems in the process.

At the end of one hall was an altar to Ule--the goddess of might. At the other end--an altar to Karnen, the goddess of endurance. From both of these altars, we could find ourselves blessed with the strength and endurance of legends!

These altars will check to see if anyone's might or endurance is less than 60-ish. If they are, they will boost them -permanently- by 20 points! And can be repeated up to that 60-ish cutoff. If you're rolling new characters like I am as you play--this is a good spot to bring them to get their vital stats more caught up with the rest of your group.

 As we exited the undercroft--we found a piece of graffiti for the nearby mirror portal. The passphrase--if we should desire to come back to this haunted place--was DOOMED.










I was glad we had plumbed all the resources we could readily find from this town, but I was eager to leave. Spending too much time on haunted grounds always leaves me feeling uneasy. With an archer in our group, we could use a levitation spell to explore more of the nearby swamp--but I was vexed by a want to find a way into Blistering Heights--the last major city on Terra.

But how in the world were we going to get into the middle of the Isle of Fire, infested with devils and demons and all sorts of dangers beyond our coping skills?