Might and Magic 3 (Ch. 8)

Ongoing blog of Might and Magic 3: Isles of Terra

Chapter 8 - Arachnoid Cavern

-

We had passed the Arachnoid cavern on our way to Wildabar. The cave lied at the foot of the crystal mountains where Tumult's castle Bloodreign lay.

According to Corak's notebook--the cave used to be the ancestral home of the Gargoyles, before the combined skirmishes of Tumult and Zealot ended up driving them away to the northern peninsula of this island. Left unchecked, the vermin within grew ever more numerous and vile.

Giant spiders, similar to the ones that roamed the coast were here in great numbers--along with large dino beetles. Their carapace was as strong as a rock and it took our combined melee prowess to crush them down.

In four far corners of the cavern--mysterious gold gongs were found. Some inlaid with spiders, and some inlaid with beetles.

"Eh-wot? You think it's some kind of dinner service, maybe? Let's give it a go then...," Knell picked up the mallet..

"Wait--we'd better not--" I tried to talk her out of it.

The noise rang loudly through the empty halls, making the corridors shake with movement. Nothing immediately happened, but the tension in the air had suddenly increased tenfold.

"Ha! Gave it my best shot!"

As we returned down our corridor--the result of the loud noise we'd created was scurrying out of the walls and rampaging our way.

"Fool! Look what you've done!"

I cast Knell a disparaging look, but it was no use to argue now. We employed a strategy of careful tactical retreat. Rushing in to crush one or two of the beetles as fast we could and then falling back to allow a moment for Stella and I to use our healing magic. In the end--we had crushed the beetle army and Knell looked positively pleased with herself covered in the gore of our enemies.

"See? Nothing to it!" she cackled.

"Still--let's not do that again anytime soon!" I said. We could use the gongs to summon more vermin from their hiding places if we so wanted.

The strongest foes in the cavern were giant toxic worms that thrived from the mysterious crystals that dotted the cavern and grew large and fierce. Their bite was poisonous and they were mighty and tough. Even taking on just one was a threat that could have easily killed us all if we had not come prepared.

We moved in carefully and lured them out of their lairs one at a time and then attacked them after I had conducted my ritual prayers for Heroism and Holy Bonus, to grant us more skilled blows and for more damage. Only then could we confidently overcome the dreadful things.

The crystals themselves were powerful and magical deposits that enhanced our attributes at a single touch. But they would only allow one of us to touch before they dimmed and no longer worked. The humming crystals expanded our mind and made us smarter. The green ones endowed a blessing that made us more personable and charming. As magic users, we largely shared the power of the crystals between Stella and myself--who would glean the most benefit from these bonuses.

In many of the chambers there were also thrones, occupied by avatars of the Almighties that gave blessings to humanoid attributes. The chief among them--Lord Might, issued us a little with an unnamed reward for solving it.  "To solve my riddle best, you must visit all the Lords in this cavern and collect their clues, in an order that Lord Word would approve of. Start with mine. My number is two primes less -- than twice the crystals in this mess."

"Ugh." Knell griped, "A number puzzle? I'm not good with math."

Lydia scoffed, "Are you for real? Let me work on it. Any decent robber knows their way around numbers...it's the only way to make sure your fence isn't cheating you."

"There are thirteen crystal deposits scattered around the caves. At least that we've found. Twice thirteen is twenty six...now if we count back to find the primes just below that...let's see...the first one is twenty-three...and then...nineteen! So our starting number is 19."

Of course, Lord Word--being the aspect that he is, would prefer that we then proceed in alphabetical order.

"I am Lord Accuracy," said the lord on the next throne-- "Add half the number there could be of you."

Although we only numbered four--a comfortable group of adventurers generally numbered six. Except we also kept space for two hirelings...

"So...half of eight is four--and that brings us up to 23..." Lydia scribbled on the back of a receipt.

"I am lord Endurance...," said the next.

"Count these thrones and add that, too."

In all, there were ten thrones in the cavern. Eight for each of the Lords, one which remained empty near the entrance--and one where brother Zeta was resting, although we didn't find him until we had nearly finished finding all the others.



"So that's ten--we're up to 33..." Lydia said.

Lord Luck's clue was to add Lord Might's number--and then multiply by two.

"Let's see...33 and Lord Might's number was..what was it? 19? That's 52...multiplied by two is 104."

Lord Magic was engaged in a war of pranks with his neighboring throne occupied by Lord Prayer. His throne was soaked in water as he conjured miniature dragons to go and harass his rival. For a mere 500 gems, he could teach us the art of prestidigitation, a skill of some use to sorcerors which helps them manage their spell point reserve. But alas, we had no sorceror or archer who could take advantage of it.

He also had the next part of the riddle..

"Subtract the gongs...and then multiply by fifty-two."

Lydia moved her receipt to a slightly larger piece of parchment and continued scribbling.  "There were only four gongs, right? 104 minus 4 is 100...multiplied by fifty two...oh--that's easy! 5200."

Lord Prayer was being harassed by miniature dragons--and responded by chanting a prayer that caused rain and thunder to be heard from Lord Magic's throne nearby. For 500 gems, he could teach us the art of Prayermaster--the act of adding the right prostration or genuflecting at the right time to earn the most sympathy from the Almighties. This was a skill I eagerly snapped up to aid my spell point reserve.

"Multiply by the number of gongs to make your answer true."

"Hrmm...5200 by four is...20800. This number's getting a little big and tricky to keep working on." Lydia complained.

"Easy now--I trust you, elf. We're almost finished here I think.

"This is my clue..," said Lord Speed.  "Subtract 449 is all you must do."

It took Lydia a little longer than expected to do the calculation by hand.

"Hang on, hang on!" she moaned at our waiting stares, "Subtracting is harder than it looks. You have to borrow from the tens place and then...lets see...20800 minus 449 is...20351. I think.

At last there was Lord Word, who was pleased that we were working on the numbers in 'the right order'. For a mere 50 gems, he offered to give us the magic of Linguistics--to understand the meaning of words of all languages. I gave the gems and learned the skill myself--for it seemed it would be useful in deciphering old scrolls and books if nothing else.

"Then this is your final clue...subtract my meager meed and your riddle is through."


"What's a meed?" Lydia asked.

"Fifty. Err--fifty gems, that is." I replied. Moments ago, I hadn't known the meaning of the word either. But now as a linguist suddenly the way Lord Word had used it made perfect sense to me.

"Oh...then that's easy."

 "20301".

Lord Might guffawed and was pleased that we had solved his riddle. Our reward from the Lord of Attribution was a mighty blessing in the form of experience and skill bequeathed to us by powers Almighty.

There was more, as well. Lord Might declared that he had the power to 'recharge' the crystals in this cave, that we may benefit from their magic touch again. But such a power was not without a hefty price--only by unlocking the magical energy in 5000 gems would he perform such a service to us. We had not even that amount of gems on hand--but it was something we could consider later in our quest, for sure.

 Amongst the bones that littered the cave, we also found two keys--painted in yellow and gold. The Blue Unholy key could unlock the door to the Cathedral of Carnage for us, where the Moo Cult conducted its most abhorrent rituals.

The Yellow Fortress Key would unlock the Fortress of Fear -- where the mighty Mummy King lorded over lesser undead things and preyed on men and beast alike.

 Ah--we'd also found Brother Zeta resting on one of the thrones. "My brother has told me what you seek and I have your answer...," he said calmly.

"In Terra--a year lasts 100 days. On the day 99, when the year wears long and the dawn of a new year approaches--on that day, the portal on Rainbow Isle will deign to release for you a Seashell of Serenity. In these days, with Blackwind the Spellbinder long dead, only the great nymph of the sea Athea has any use for them. Good luck in your journey friends...and now--please leave me to my peace here. I have much to think about."

We gathered together and were getting ready to walk away..but I stopped and moved back a step.

"Yes?"

"You don't...ahh...happen to have a coin or trinket or anything for us, do you?"

"Are you attempting to rob me, sir?"

"No! No...I was just curious."

I turned to leave. But no sooner had we reached the exit when I heard a voice behind us.

"Oh!"

I turned back around.

"You may as well take this with you. Add it to the ones my brothers gave you."

A shiny object flew through the air and I caught it. It was another quatloo coin.

"Thanks. I'll.. ahh.... treasure it, I guess."