Might and Magic 3 (Ch. 13)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra

Chapter 13 - Cyclops Cavern




The region just to the right of the Druid's hold is the "Valley of Trolls". Apparently, trolls used to make their camps there--but, as with many places we had visited, the recent strife had lasting ramifications for the natives there.

In this filthy camp, discarded weapons and treasures were strewn about--torn banners announced evidence of Castle Bloodreign--Tumult's home.

All of the trolls had been displaced from the valley by the remnants of Malefactor's army of Ogres, who had since settled here--unable to force their way back out through Zealot's forces. Here--they thrived on unwary adventurers who would dare to stray so far from the main roads. Their sprite allies would place a curse to hex our fortune and make us easier prey....if we were unwary adventurers.

They found us much less helpless, though. Climbing through the mountains near the coast--we got the drop on their barracks first--setting it aflame and then scattering and slaying them as we desired!

Two hermits in the hills, Philtar and Guiltar the wise, taught us of powerful thrones enchanted with beneficial magic in the ruined castles of Blackwind and Greywind on the isles of illusion--but that the thrones would only work on each of their wedding days to the mermaid Anathema. Having already gleaned the wedding days from the more sociable undead near the cathedral of carnage--we made a pledge to visit the islands as the year drew closers to days 50 and 60.

There was one other place of note on the edge of the coast--a dangerous-looking cave, littered with gnawed humanoid bones around the entrance. Such a sight would have been a clear warning to the wise to stay away.

"Are you -mad-? Whatever lives in there has been eating adventurers for lunch!" Lydia protested as I prepared a prayer of light for our spelunking.

"Don't worry--if things get too dangerous I can use a spell of time distortion." Alicia reassured her, "It won't last long, but it'll be enough to give us a run to safety."

The entrance to the cave was littered with more Wild Fungus. But there was something else of immediate note, too--these swirling pools were dotted here and there throughout our progress.

"Ugh....-hurk-" Bernadene felt slightly queasy and needed to stay a few steps behind. The smell of rot was thick in the air. It was clear that the pools were the rancid blood and waters of creatures long dead. Drained of their blood into these basins like an abbatoir.

"Phew...." I gasped, "What's keeping it swirling and liquid instead of just rotting and drying up?" I asked Alicia.

"There's more than just blood and guts in here. It contains all the life forces and sorcery, too. There's probably a fair bit of magic in them, if you've the stomach to wade in and see. But it might be dangerous."

In fact, entering the pools did seem to have three effects. On wading into one, the swirling life forces and energy could gather and be absorbed into you, leaving you with more experience and skills than before. However--the process was harsh and damaging. The magic power could overwhelm and harm you if you didn't have the endurance to withstand it. Thirdly--you stank to high heaven afterwards.

"Hey!" Knell called from one of the pools,  "There's an item in this one! It's..it's...aiiiiEEEEE!"

With a horrified scream, our barbarian friend climbed out of her pool--but the powerful magic of the basin had followed her and started to eat away at her flesh with an indescribable vigor. I could not relate the agony we saw here--except to say that we had nightmares for days afterward.

"Don't move any of the bones! Don't touch it!" I warned everyone as we circled around Knell's remains. She had been eradicated---no mere spell of raising the dead would save her now. We needed to keep her bones intact until we could bring her back to the temple to be revived. I did not have the experience yet to attempt to resurrect her myself.

"I'll set a Lloyd's Beacon here." Alicia said--etching a rune into a nearby wall,  "We can retrace our steps to Fountain Head and then return here right away."

"What -is- this thing she found?" Stella asked--carefully retrieving the spent item from where Knell had dropped it.

Lydia shuddered, "It's an Ancient Fizbin of Misfortune....I've...I've heard that anyone who holds one is doomed to a horrible death...and soon."

Stella dropped the thing in startled fright at this revelation. Alicia tilted her head softly, examining it, and then carefully picked it up and stowed it in her bag.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Anything with that much magic power is too dangerous to leave laying around. I will hold onto it until I think of a way to put it to good use."

The Ancient Fizbin of Misfortune causes horrible things to happen to the person carrying it that normally wouldn't happen. Is there a fountain that gives you a strength buff if you drink from it? The person with the Fizbin will die instead. Things like that. It does have exactly one use that will be revealed later, although it is not terribly important. You can also just discard it at any time.

 "Ugh....," Knell groaned after coming around, once the monks had finished rebuilding her body and binding her spirit to it again once more.

"I feel like I just went through a dragon's bowels." she moaned--too weakened to even be angry.

"Trust me--you don't even want to know." I told her.


Placed here and there deeper in the cave were spear traps. Much like the guillotine traps in the Slithercult Stronghold, they would hit all of us swiftly if we strayed into them. Many of them were in open spaces where Alicia could Jump us through them, but one or two were packed tightly in corners like these that couldn't be avoided.

"Something's coming...," Stella warned us--as we drew our weapons and crept down the hall to the lumbering figure we saw ahead.

The cyclops is one of the Giant races. Large, incredibly strong--and usually not very kind. The cyclopses that inhabited these caves were so large that they had to remain stooped on one knee in order to lunge in and reach at us with their powerful hands. With one good blow they could land such a concussive strike that we could find ourselves confused and unable to distinguish friend from foe. That is--if it didn't knock us unconscious straight away.

"I think it broke my armor." gasped Lydia, who we were helping to recover once we'd finally defeated the horrible thing. As she stood up--several rows of the chains in her steel chainmail cracked and dangled uselessly.

"He did. It's going to cost a lot to repair too...but we killed it at least. See? It's not to dangerous in here..."

Oh dear. Our little scuffle had attracted some attention from the thing's siblings.

"That time distortion would come in use right about now!" I called for Alicia.

Regrouping a little further away, we had a little more time to prepare a proper offense. I used my prayers of Heroism and Holy Bonus--while Alicia erected a power shield over us to mitigate the cyclops's powerful blows.

With our strength recovered and boosted, we stood a more equal chance against the cyclopses and then took the fight directly to their 'king' who was lurking nearby. A withered and older giant with blows so powerful he could knock even Knell unconscious with one or two well-placed ones. In a bitter fight, we nonetheless were victorious over it--but not without several of us unconscious and many sets of broken armor. We had pilfered a lot of gold from the giant's treasure chests, but had also run up quite a maintenance bill just the same.

There were no clues or Power Orbs to take away from our haul, but we did retrieve a dark red key from one of the skeletons that littered the inner chambers. With it--we could enter the Dark Warriors Keep where evil knights and brigands gathered to pillage and raid various passerby. But that would be an adventure for another day. For now, battered and bruised but more experienced for it all, we trudged back to Fountain Head to rest and resupply and begin the expensive process of fixing our broken armor.