Might and Magic V:Darkside of Xeen / World of Xeen Part 15 Solution by Alex van Kaam @~The final part! We climbed up the south/east tower and we entered the armory, here we sold all the stuff we had found and we repaired our own armor. We now had 5 mil. gold pieces so we headed to the training school where we levelled our levels and raised them until we had 1 mil. left. We were now all at level 98, wow. What do do next, we still had to free prince Roland and to open the way to the clouds above Darkstone tower, we did get the Silver ID Card, maybe we could use it to enter that section of Sheltem's dungeon which we couldn't enter before. We decided to try so we headed to castle Alamar, once there we entered the dungeon and we headed to the skull, we showed it our ID card and a wall to the north vanished, we headed north into.... --------> Sheltem's dungeon, another part revealed <-------- Another small room with another skull and another key, this time the key we found was for Darkstone tower, it seemed we were on the right track, the skull however wouldn't let up pass without, you guested it, the proper ID. Well, we did have the key to Darkstone tower so we headed back to the Clouds side of Xeen and on to Darkstone tower. Once there we had no problem with the guard and so we entered.... --------> Darkstone tower, we made it, or didn't we ? <-------- The first floor was filled with two Onyx Golems, four statues and two gongs, the Onyx Golems were not too hard to kill, they did however drain our magic points. When we explored this floor completely we saw that the walls in the middle formed a '3', hmmmmm..., on the statues we saw some strange letters and numbers, we wrote them down and we continued. We headed to the staircase but as we wanted to climb up we were stopped with the answer 'No Sound No Ground', it seemed we had to bang the gongs. Since we didn't have a choice we headed to the first gong and Roodhaar hit it, we were immediately struck by a magic missile and behind us appeared another Onyx Golem, we killed it and we went to the second gong, here happened exactly the same. After killing the second Onyx Golem we headed to the staircase and we were allowed to climb up. On the second floor we found two more Onyx Golems, four statues and another gong, the walls formed an '4'. We killed the Onyx Golems, examined the statues, again some letters and numbers' and we hit the gong. This time two Onyx Golems appeared, we killed them and we headed up the stairs to the next floor. On this third floor we found again two Onyx Golems, four more statues, two gongs and the walls formed a '2'. We killed the Onyx Golems, and we hit both the gongs, this time three Onyx Golems appeared, it was a tough battle, some of us were knocked out cold but we defeated them. We then headed to the staircase and up to level four, here we found two more Onyx Golems, which we killed, four more statues, we read them but that was all, a showcase, two skulls and the walls formed an 'E'. The showcase was protected by a force field so we couldn't open it. The skull however had something to say, the south one told us: 'level 1 + level 2 + level 3 = 9, E is the number of gongs' That was correct, 3+4+2 is 9 and since there were 5 gongs E is 5. With this we headed to the north skull, it had a riddle: 'level 1 * level 2 * level 3 * E = ', the answer was easy, Rak*el answered with '120' and the force field around the showcase was gone. When we opened the case we saw we had the Golden ID Card, great, we then headed to the stairs leading up to the clouds above Darkstone Tower, but we couldn't climb them, some kind of force field stopped us, aaargh..... The only thing left to do was to go back to Sheltem's dungeon and see if we could enter the last area.... --------> Sheltem's dungeon, the last time, I swear <-------- Once there we headed to the skull and it allowed us to go north into another area, here we found two Xeen Power juices, which we all drank from to gain +5 levels, and we found a coffin, after opening it we found Prince Roland, he was very pleased and very grateful to us but he told us that we had to go to the southern sphinx to find the key that would allow us to enter the clouds above Darkstone Tower and let Roland marry queen Kalindra. He gave us the key to the sphinx and he left, to prepare for the wedding he said, he sure was a positive thinker. Well, we had at least fulfilled the fourth part of the quest, now only the third part was left, so we headed to the Clouds side of Xeen and into the desert, we had to search a little but we soon found the Sphinx, we had no trouble with the guard and we entered...... --------> The Southern Sphinx, the entrance floor <-------- From the entrance we could go north, east or west, we first headed north and we came to two similar rooms with some barrels, a golden snake candle and some ghost mummyies. We killed the mummyies, examined the barrels, some were filled with embalming fluid, we left it alone. When we examined the candle it offered us protection against the swinging dead for 2 mil., we told it we wanted some protection but since we only had 1.7 mil. it refused. We headed back to the entrance and from there east, here we first found a room with two sarcophagi, but even I with my might at 111 couldn't open them, we continued east and north until we came to an area with some curse field, stepping on them cursed me only, once we were through the area Gothmog cast Divine Intervention to cure me. At the end of this east section we found some stairs leading up to level two, as we tried to climb them we were asked a name, since we didn't know the name that it wanted we were pushed back. We headed back to the entrance and from there west, past another room with two sarcophagi, passed a swinging axe, some bash in walls until we came to three swinging axes, Roodhaar cast Jump twice so we could keep the damage low. Beyond these axes we found an area which was full of axes, it took a lot of Divine Interventions but in the end we reached a staircase leading down into..... -----------> The Southern Sphinx, the dungeon <----------- This was an area full of long corridors, lots of Dragon mummies, 9 Super Dragon Embalmer potions, and some runes. First we killed all the dragons, the Implosion spell was very handy to damage them before they were close, then we read all the runes and we got the following: 'Study the lessons to learn my name', 'Don't feed the dragon', 'R', 'C', 'A', 'I', 'P' and 'D'. Next we all drank in turn from the potions, they raised our levels by 5, and after that we entered the treasure room north of the stairs, we entered it using Teleport, as we did to reach some of the small section on this floor which contained a potion. We found six treasures of which only one was real, and that was the north/west one, we took it, 2.000.000 Gp. and a lot of nice items. With the treasure and the letters we headed back up the stairs to the entrance floor and from there to the stairs leading up to level 2. When we arrived there we had to give a name, made out of the letters R-C-A-I-P-D, this took us a full day !!!, we tried everything but without any success, until........ Just as we wanted to call it a day Rak*el said 'PICARD', and we could climb up...... --------> The Southern Sphinx, level 2 <-------- On this level we first saw a throne, it was the throne of legends, since the two heads of Gandalf's spell said no we didn't sit on it although Nomad saw himself as a real legend....... South of this throne we found another throne, when we approached we were greeted by Picard the Aged, he told us that if we wanted the Chime of Opening he had to have the Widget in return, since we had no choice we agreed and we left him. Before we left the Sphinx however we first explored this floor, we found 4 books which were of no use to us at all, we also found four sarcophagi, after opening them we encountered a Phase Mummy, we took care of them and we left the Sphinx. Picard told us that the Widget could be obtained from Halon the Inventor who lived north of Darkstone tower, so we headed to the tower and, as Picard told us, north of it we found Halon in a straw hut. As we entered he told us that he needed some lava to keep his water clock going in this cold region, we of course agreed. We left his hut and we headed towards Mount Firestone, where, as Halon told us, we should get the lava. At the mountain itself we couldn't find any lava that we could pick up, so we explored all the streams of lava until we found a magical piece of lava near the south/west stream. We picked it up and we returned to Halon, he gave us the Widget which we brought to Picard, he in return gave us the the Chime of opening. We thanked him and we headed to Darkstone tower and up to level 4, we carefully approached the staircase leading up.......no force field, it seemed the chime worked, we climbed up the stairs into..... --------> The Clouds above Darkstone Tower <-------- This was a long long winding road that led to a temple in the middle, we cast jump to jump across the opening that was between us and the temple, and as we entered we were greeted by the Dragon Pharaoh........... Well, it was a very nice and impressive ceremony, but the best part was when the Power Cube and the Staff of Xeen were united... Large beams of light, pure power, shot into the air, then they split and headed towards the reflectors on the corners of the world, they then were sent to the other side of the world and they came together again. It was great, beam after beam appeared, and slowly our flat world became a large round world, indeed a day to remember. At the end all our friends came and thanked us for our brave effort, and many asked us what we would be doing next, we didn't know........... ------------> THE END <------------ -> or not ? <- That evening we went late to sleep, and we didn't sleep very well, until Roodhaar woke us up, she said 'What about that part in the Golem dungeon, or that other dungeon we have a key for, and the northern sphinx..........', she was right, there were still many dungeons and cities left that we didn't explore yet............. And believe me, there were some really weird places left, maybe I'll tell you about these some day, until then.... Long live Xeen ------------> THE REAL END <------------ -> or not ? <- - o -