Might and Magic 3 (Ch. 18)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra

Chapter 18 - Dark Warrior Keep and the Halls of Insanity

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We were nearly finished with our exploration of the large western island. Only two large fortresses lay with undivulged secrets to us, and both were in the Evil Eye forest between Baywatch and Wildabar.

On the coast--in Red Warrior Keep--Evil warriors gathered to scheme their plots to plunder and pillage King Zealot's lands in the name of Malefactor. To the west, terrible magic and danger lurked within the Halls of Insanity, where the Eye Master's aberrations schemed against all humanoids.

We rallied along the coast and plunged deep into the Warrior's Keep.

An army of dwarves set upon us at the entrance--deserters most likely from Tumult's mercenary army. But we had grown in strength and skill such  that these poor things were barely fodder.

There reaches a point in MM3 around level 20ish or so where almost all 'regular' enemies and even some of the lesser dungeon bosses become cheese and just plowing your way through everything is trivial.

 "A ranger...here?" Stella scowled, "You would forsake the lands of your charge to throw in with your Evil lot?"

"Hrmph--a ranger, here?" the evil ranger countered, "You would forsake the lands of -your- charge to throw in with this motley crew?"

The evil rangers from the frozen north seemed to carry a special hatred for Stella--and she for them. Whenever they made a targeted attack, they seemed to target her preferentially.

In fact, a lot of critters in the game have 'class' hatreds, which I thought was a neat flavor element.

 The entrance to the keep broke off into several long sidechambers--filled with armies of rangers and dwarves--of note at the end of them were the monuments to the Steeds of Legend. This one was dedicated to Desert Breeze--the great steed of the southeast.

"200 yellow soldiers marched across the swamps to drive the minotaur back into its maze. Few returned" read the ominous inscription.

"Ah-ha! At least there's more to this keep than bloodshed!" Lydia exclaimed at the sight of the iron chests scattered throughout.

The explosion didn't come until -after- Lydia had unlocked and disarmed the chest.

I was able to revive her of course. But her armor had been damaged by the blast--she would need to stay on the defensive until we could have her gear repaired.

There's no way to avoid the explosions on the chests in this dungeon. Which makes me wonder just as a thoughtgame whether the explosion is the trap, or if its the intended chest contents. Like 'sealed boom in a can'.

Guarding many of the rooms were jousters--the fighters supreme of Red Warrior Keep. Heavily armored and atop their steeds, they posed a foe that was difficult to land a hit on effectively, and could strike with their couched lances at a pass, doing tremendous damage with a single blow. A prayer of Heroism on either Knell or myself went a long way to giving us the extra power we needed to effectively melee them. Alicia also was able to use her Implosion spell to great effect on them at a distance.

"16 Red Knights took the Fire Isle from the beasts who lived in the flames." I read aloud, "We'd better keep track of these numbers. I'm getting memories of the Arachnoid Cavern."

"I'm on it, Boss. Just keep the Jousters away from me."

"7 Blue Crusaders rode the points from north to south on the Great Isle to recover the scattered artifacts. Their wills were strong, but their campaign doomed."








At the statue of Phantom Sorrow --  "73 Grey Paladins lay siege to castle Blackwind before that mighty fortress finally collapsed."

At the statue of Forest Green -- "8 Green Rangers searched the Orc Meadow for a week plus two before finding the lonely unicorn."

And lastly, at the statue of Shadow Grave -- "2 Black Warriors, with the courage of an army, took the walls of Castle Greywind".

Plunging into the main passage now that we'd explored all the side passages and their monuments, we did not have far to travel before we reached a large chamber where we were attacked by an entire group of jousters--being headed by none less than the lord of this keep -- the Top Jouster. Corak's notebook mentioned that the Top Jouster jealously guarded two Power Orbs, which he believed gave him control over his army.

"Enough with the damned jousters." Knell groaned, "Bernie, Allie--gather in the back. The rest of you come up near me and keep your shields bared."

Stella and Lydia gathered on either side of Knell while I took up a position just behind her and to one side--we all kept our shields out and ready as the Top Jouster came around for another powerful pass.

"What are you planning? You aren't going to attack him by yourself?" I asked.

"Aye--ye keep that Heroism prayer on me and keep yer shields out, all of you. Tighter--tighter, don't leave any gaps. We'll show this dark rider a trick I learned from me days with th' tribe."

The Top Jouster began couching his lance---and when he eyed our tight, heavily shielded formation--he seemed to hesitate in picking a target. Not wanting to pull back now, he continued building speed and then settled on Knell--who was standing at the front without a shield and seemed the most vulnerable.

"Aye...that's it..." she mumbled.

"Knell...," Stella started, looking rather concerned.

"When I make me move, I need ye to fall in and cover me with yer shields. Not too soon now."

Sweating with an incredible tension, we put our trust in our short and stout gnomish friend...who stood perfectly still and seemed to be impossibly calm even as the rest of us began to crack.

And then, at the last moment--when the Top Jouster had come up to full speed and was too close to stop now--Knell shouted, "Now!"

Suddenly bringing her heavy, oversized pike over her body and angling it upward, she dove in and -down- bracing herself in a crouched kneel as we fell in on either side of her--covering her with our shields with the pike sticking out between them.

Unable to change target and too close to stop--the Top Jouster fell prey to Knell's makeshift phalanx. Trying to turn aside in a panic, the Top Jouster only succeeded in exposing his unguarded flanks just in time for Knell to force the heavy pike through him like a skewer, bringing the steed and Jouster both to a clattering halt.

The really big splash effect means you did over 1000 damage with a single attack. Knell is ridiculously strong when high on Heroism.


Later, as we looted the room of treasure--Knell would wipe clean the blade of her pike on the jouster's clothes and smirk down at him.

"Aye...and that is why -real- warriors use spears, not horses."

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The walls of this room formed a secret number... "29". Teleporting into the eye of the "9", we found a hidden cache of treasure. The other treasures in this room contained another blue keycard, which we added to our series. But the Power Orbs were nowhere to be seen.

Ahh--in a small passage off of this one, a statue to Ivory Billow posed a riddle--to count 'the secret number' with Fire Hood and Desert Breeze, while deducting Frost Wing, Forest Green, and Phantom Sorrow..and then multiplying our total by Shadow Grave.

"Let's see...," Lydia worked the numbers with a scribbling of her notes.

"That's 16 and 200...and the secret number in the walls is 29..that makes 245. Minus 7 and 73 and 8...that makes 157...times two is 314."

"Lydia, your way with numbers and riddles is amazing. How the heck did you ever wind up nearly starving under Fountain Head?"

"How did you wind up with a face only a mother could love?" she replied without missing a beat. Her words, as ever--were harsh, but her coy grin only made me smile in return. The words were harsh, but the deeper meaning was still there, unspoken:  We were just born that way.




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The Halls of Insanity were located in the Evil Eye Forest, where much earlier in our adventure we were set upon by the horrible Screamers that could cause madness with their bellowing wail.

Corak's notebook mentioned these halls as the home of the terrible Eye Master and his Eye Tyrant underlings, whose potent magic and grotesque forms could cause insanity merely by lingering one's gaze too long on their bizarre visages.


The notebook did not mention that the Eye Lords had kept an entire kennel of Mini Dragons to serve as roving guard dogs for their lair. My power had progressed some since we first encountered their kind in Blistering Heights, and my prayer of  element protection was now even more proficient at turning back the searing heat of their fire breath.

The Halls of Insanity were aesthetically simple but filled with false walls and teleportation traps that made it difficult to navigate. The entrance opened into a large central lair that divided off into several hallways, blocked by powerful electrical force fields such as these--further blocked by hollow walls just behind them, waiting to be bashed down. The energy flowing through the barrier was much stronger than my prayers of element protection could handle.

But some of them could be 'turned off' by the switches housed in these nearby monuments. In each one--the spirit within asked a riddle.

"A window they seem, that leads to no corridor. Their color's lucid like a gem. Reflections they cast, tho' not a mirror, Beauty resides within them."

"Ahhh,"  I knew this one right away--having been somewhat well-read in old stories and poems.

"The wording is somewhat ponderous and metaphorical, but I do believe the spirit is describing the eyes."

In fact, the other monuments near the other barriers similarly had eye-themed riddles.

"This river of mine always flows down, Never the same is its course. Laden with salt, it outlines a frown, the Great Sea is not its source." -- the riddle on the second monument referred to tears.

"Automatically its done, I don't have to think. It darkens my world for a bit. It comes and it passes as quick as a wink. With a two-fold, cleansing flit." -- on the third monument referred to a blink.

Treasure chests were sealed in some areas of the winding halls, but many of them were guarded with teleportation traps. Stepping close enough to open one would whisk us away to another part of the maze. Sometimes, the teleportation traps were located in the middle of the winding halls as well, making navigating and mapping this place a chore that took trial and error over and over again.

Ultimately, Alicia found that teleporting us directly to the treasure from some distance away allowed us to bypass the warping fields. So we were able to raid the treasure stored here--only to find that many of them were trapped with Insanity or Cursing spells as well.

There is no spell to cure insanity like there is for poison or paralysis or stoning or whatever. And it -is- one of those conditions that worsens over time. One way to deal with the infliction is to use Lloyd's Beacon to save your progress in the map and use a cleric's Town Portal to run back to town and get cured at the temple. The other way is to use the Divine Intervention spell, which will bring everyone's condition back to normal but costs 20 gems and will age the cleric by 5 years unnaturally. The latter is usually the simplest way to go about it if you already raised the Fountain of Nayrah in Piranha Bay to cure unnatural aging.

 As last when we encountered the Evil Eyes and their Eye Master lord, we were taken in by their grotesque forms. To feel so many eyes staring into your soul with such malice and magic was too much for some of us to bear.

"Avert your eyes! Don't look at it too closely!" I tried to warn. It worked for some of us. Alicia was the most innately magic-sensitive of us though and had trouble concentrating, doubling over and clutching her head painfully.

"I can't...I can't stop seeing it!" she cried out. Stella similarly seemed vexed by the sight of the horrible things and lay low behind her shield.

Although their magic was mighty, the Eyes were not so dangerous at close range. Our strategy then was to not waste time with ranged combat but close in immediately and strike them down with strong blows. Robbed of their advantage, they each fell easily to our attacks, and at last the air of insanity that plagued these halls was gone.

Housed in a place of honor was the statue of Golden Mane, the mascot of the Ten Heroes of old--those that they say were borne of the Five Forces.

For the sum of 100,000 gold, the statue could endow us with the knowledge of all adventurer's skills.

This refers to all the secondary skills available in the game, like Cartographer and Detect Hidden Walls and such. Using this statue, you can even gain access to Thievery, which is ordinarily a Robber/Ninja only skill. It is also the only source of a skill called 'Tracker'. The use of which seems unknown. Perhaps it was a skill that was dummied out at some point during development?

 In two opposite ends of the halls, we collected two more Power Orbs to add to our collection. I didn't want to get into any arguments about which King to give them to, so for the time being we hoarded them to ourselves.








At last our exploration of the largest of Terra's isles was complete. Avoiding the Fire Isle for now, it seemed we should investigate either the frozen northern or sandy southern isles next, as we worked our way around the ocean toward the miserable mire that Swamp Town rested on.