Might and Magic 3 (Ch. 16)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra

Chapter 16 - Castle Whiteshield

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The next most obvious destination was Castle Whiteshield, near Baywatch. Although we did not have an additional power orb at this time to deliver to Zealot, word of our contribution to Tumult had traveled fast and we were welcomed inside with no trouble.

The guild of joculators had a member here in Zealot's court as well, armed with the same arsenal of guildmaster-approved jokes and gags. It was all we could do to avoid making eye contact with the funny little man and hurrying on our way past.

Zealot, the King Righteous gave us an audience straight away to plead his case, detailing how his armies had battled the Evil One's army to a standstill but had been unable to deliver the finishing blow due to the constant foilings of King Chaotic against either of their plots. Appealing to our sense of decency and compassion -- the human king charged us to deliver the power orbs unto him that all of Terra might be rallied under his safe banner.

To tempt us further to his side--he freely offered the treasures of his castle to us, but with the caveat that they had been sealed with a countersign by the invading dwarven armies of King Chaotic. The secret word that would unlock them was taken from a song that the invaders sang as they tunneled through the walls of the dungeon. -- In his pride, Zealot refused to utter it even to reclaim his treasury.

Praythos, the Whiteshield palace minister was also here and would pay us in gold for any ancient artifacts of good that we had recovered in our adventure.

Four statues in the corners of the keep were dedicated to four heroes of old whose names made up the identity of the spirit overlord of the castle. The first here, JODELLE, was lost in an expedition through the frozen isles.  The second, ASTRIEL, was lost in the war with the gargoyles. The warrior LEADBEST fell in the nearby Evil Eye Forest. And lastly, TESHY went missing into the Isle of Fire.

The hint given for passage into the Whiteshield dungeon was "North before south, east before west, subtract the castle's name and pass the test."

Taken in the right order, the names of the champions would spell out:
JODELLEASTRIELLEADBESTTESHY -- but, with the letters in 'Whiteshield' removed, we were allowed in with the secret word:  JOABARY.

Many strong demons, devils, and other evil things were imprisoned in the dungeon of Whiteshield. Even weakened by their long sentences, the major devils and major demons were dangerous adversaries. The devils in particular had the ability to render someone unconscious with a single blow regardless of how much health we had remaining.

Tucked away in quiet corners were chalices of Zealot's divine elixir--a fragment of that divine spark which gives those powerful kings their right and ability to rule. We helped ourselves to a sample here and there--the power of the elixir would not have as pronounced an effect on us, but it did instill us with an incredible strength.

 Scattered amongst the dwarven bones that littered many of the cells and tunnels, we found the clue we were seeking--the countersign for the treasury lied within the Queen's box.

Among those other bones--we found fragments of a song. Gathering them all up and examining them closely, I was eventually able to piece them all together into a single verse...



His wife's young lover was an Orc named Smello,
With hell-hound's breath and hair of yellow,

The good King Zealot was quite a knave,
To his wife and her lover a box he gave,

The queen was shocked by her pine box,
For the open end had golden locks,

Smello's box sent her reeling,
And wooden planks were her last feeling.

 In his pride, King Zealot may not have been willing to use the countersign, but for us-- 5 million gold for one little "Smello" was a price most fair.

King Zealot may have been willing to part with the treasure, but the honorless Black Knights that guarded the treasury room were not. They were specialists with crossbows--able to accurately hit flesh and bone in ways that left us weakened with a penalty to our strength. And heavily armored in ways that made it difficult to land a strong blow in return. Alicia's powerful 'dragon's breath' magic was more than capable of burning them to cinders though.

In all, Castle Whiteshield was a little smaller than Bloodreign. But the treasure we'd come away with was greater. We were starting to amass quite a fortune here. Very quickly we'd gone from carefully watching our maintenance bill to having such a large gold surplus that we kept most of it with Zahab for safekeeping.