The deadly three as far as I see it these creatures. I ended up having quite a terrible run-in with each of them. With a few of my party members not making it out alive requiring the cleric to revive them as well.
While being on the hunt for some new dungeons to run. I headed back up to F4. I had stopped exploring that area as some of the hidden treasures in the land had some rather nasty fights. I was seeking revenge and I'd be getting it.
I ended up being a bit shocked by how much experience I gained in my short amount of time in that area. I can only assume these rather tough-to-kill Vulture Roc are worth a lot of experience.
I had the misfortune of getting three Vulture Rocs when I found a location with some treasure to dig up. At the end of the fight, my barbarian was down to two health. The rest of my party was also quite beaten. I had extended quite a lot of mana tossing some of the biggest spells I had at that group as well.
With this being in the desert. I could not simply just rest wherever I wanted. I ended up going over to an oasis that was not that rare away to heal up from that battle. I then went out and explored F4 further.
I ended up finding several more locations of treasure. This time around I'd only be facing a single Vulture Roc. Funny enough my spells kept missing on dealing damage to this one. It almost felt harder than when I faced three at once. I’m still shocked I ended up winning the first battle let alone just facing one of them.
The loot I got would end up being far-worth it. I ended up getting some new upgrades from two weapons, a piece of armor, and a bunch of rings. There was also a bunch of other stuff I sold for quite a chunk of gold.
While I did not find any nest in F4 to destroy. A neighboring zone ended up having one. With a slash of my spell book this hut of straw burned down to the ground. Netting me a quick 250k experience. I also am wondering if this will end up keeping respawns from both the zone I was in and the one I'm currently in. It seems odd for one to have a nest in and not the other.
After some selling, leveling up, and stocking up food in a town. I headed back out with a goal in mind of hitting up another dungeon. I was quite certain with all the keys I had in my inventory that I would not get rejected at the dungeon gate for entry.
The Magic Cavern ended up being quite a confusing place. There must have been over twenty different chambers in it. With many of them connecting to a couple of others. I would end up getting turned around more than once to realize I was already back in an area I had cleared out.
Death also ended up being quite commonplace here. Linch are quite powerful creatures to be fighting. While I'd toss quite some powerful undead magic at them hoping to score a quick and devastating blow. They often had other plans. Sometimes after the fight, I'd be left with two or three dead characters.
Every time I was just hoping that either my cleric or my paladin would survive. From there I could resurrect the rest of the group. If not, it would be quite a painful walk back to a town to the temple for healing. This happened at least on one occasion.
Many times, even fighting a Lich was by choice. They were often hiding in coffins. I could have just walked on by them and let them rest. I however wanted the loot they were guarding and the massive chunk of experience they rewarded for their downfall.
Thankfully there were a lot of other things to fight in here other than Lich. While sometimes I'd feel quite outnumbered. These would often be quite trivial fights. Many times, even electing to not waste any mana on them. Instead, I'd just start shooting them with arrows at range and then only do melee combat once they got in closer.
There were also two different kinds of pools of liquid on the ground from time to time for a party member to search. One of them rewarded intelligence and the other speed. My sorcerer must have gained well over 100 mana from this place. While my cleric was given all the speed getting to around 120 total speeds. Making Her the first every round and often no creature would come close to being faster than her.
In what must have been one of the final rooms but not for me since I had a few places left unchecked. I ended up finding 5 million gold, some items, and another key. In what must have been a treasure room.
Just when I thought I had looted every key in the game. I found a golden key. I’m half tempted to just start dumping the lower dungeon-tier keys that I'll never use again. It’s not like any creatures in them ever end up respawning anyway. This is a bit of a disappointment as I'd love to re-farm some dungeons.
Just when I thought Lich was bad enough. I’d later discover there was one much harder version of them. It would be in the dungeon of the Tomb of Terror. There would end up being many walks back to town to revive what little was left of my party on so many encounters. Thankfully town was not that far away.
The layout of this place was quite a welcomed one over the Magic Cavern. As I got to just walk down giant hallways that had doors and gates for me to smash down. I could have simply skipped most of the combat in this dungeon. That however would not have been any fun.
There were several crystal skulls here. They did not give any real clues for the most part. They just kept telling me I'd be cursed. That I would not make it out alive. I guess in a way that is a clue. As every single chest in this place would end up cursing my party.
Sometimes I'd just put up with being cursed. Quite the lower stats and damage output. For the most part, my casters were killing everything that was not a Lich or stronger that got anywhere near close to the party anyway. Other times I'd face a taught fight that wiped us and I'd then go and get everyone all cured up for it.
I ended up having quite the epic battle with one named Dark Shade. It even took a couple of attempts. As sometimes he would kill two of my party members in a single turn. I ended up defeating him with four of my group dead before deciding that was more than likely the best outcome I was going to get.
He however was guarding something quite powerful in the end. There were four thrones and I did end up killing quite a few Dark Shades in the area. Anyone who would end up interacting with it would gain an insane number of levels. I however realized they also lost a couple of stat points across the board.
It did seem like a fair trade. I however noticed there were only four chairs. I have at least six main characters. With an option to add another two. I decided I'll leave these chairs to claim for any hirelings or I make some alts to fill out this group. I feel then getting instance access to higher-level characters at the cost of a couple of stat points was more than worth the trade.
Final Thoughts
Just when I thought I would not be dealing with any more deviating creatures that would kill my entire group for quite some time. I ended up finding just that. It’s also kind of fun not knowing how close I am to the end game or not. Other than I would suspect things to get rather strange like being on the spaceship kind of strange towards the end. That tends to be how Might and Magic play out.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic III.
