Might and Magic VI - The Mandate of Heaven (Part 6) Solution copyright (c) Mike Marcelais. Version 1.0, June 6, 1998 See also the maps in the screenshots section Supplied by Carolyn Brown @~Continued from Issue 61 Castle Darkmoor I hate eyes. That being said, here's how you get through this castle. Either by a bug, or by design, the various Eyes can make magical attacks, such as Dispel Magic, through walls and ceilings. This means that if you "wake up" an eye above or below you, you will find all of your spells being Dispelled without being able to fight back. As such, you should probably start by just running around the castle killing things and worry about collecting loot and solving puzzles on a second pass. That's what I did for a lot of this, which is why the descriptions of the rooms for this location won't be as complete as they are for other areas. From the entrance, head down the corridor and then over the stairs, cleaning out the guardroom to the east. Then head down the corridor south, defeating the undead in the chamber on the west and taking the first passage to the east, directly across from that chamber. Empty out this room and collect treasure. Take the branch to the north and clean out that chamber; then return and head north. This leads to a room that (among other things) has some cauldrons of resistance raising liquid. From here, head up the stairs behind you and you will arrive in a very large room filled with lots of eyes and ogres. The main point of coming up here now is to kill the eyes, as they have been (or will soon be) eliminating your magic through the floor. When you have finished with the eyes (probably after a few trips), don't head up this way. Instead, from the corridor that goes south from the entrance, take it all of the way south, then turn west. At the intersection (right after the floor starts sloping up sharply), turn right (north), and then right again (east), and then right again (south). This opens up into another very large chamber with lots and lots of eyes. These are the other set of eyes that have been terrorizing your magic spells. Now, I returned back to the northern large room, finished out the rest of the Ogres in the room and then headed for the exit near the back of the room. Open the door in the back of the room and head down that passage to the west. When the corridor lets back out into a hallway, turn south and clear out the few liches hiding in the corner down there. Then return and go north up the ramp. This passage will wind around the large room you just came from. When you turn back towards the south, take the side passage to the east. Take the passage north and then turn south again at the intersection and clear out the liches hiding there. Then go back to the intersection and head north. It will lead back to the large room, although there is often an eye or two hiding in that corridor. Return back the way you came to the balcony over the large room and take the south exit (sloping up steeply). Head west at the top of the slope and clear out that room of liches. Proceed through the room, turn south and then west. Charge the band of Ogres blocking your way and proceed down the ramp. You will now be at the top of the slope where you came to clear out the second room of eyes (described above). Turn north in the corridor as if you're going to the room of eyes, but keep going north. There will be a group of Liches there guarding a sign that says "The crimson embers will lead the way". A small niche will open up when you read the sign revealing a lever. Pull the lever. (If you return to the large north room, you'll notice that the large blue cube in the middle of the room has now turned red.) Actually, return to the large north room and head through the south exit. Take the corridor south in the southeast corner of the room and clear out the cubbyhole of rooms there. Now, return to the cube. It should be red now because of the lever you flipped. Cast Jump and jump up and click the cube. This will open the wall that leads north out of this room. Head through there, and kill off the eyes and other beasts guarding the large open area to the north and west. (For those keeping score at home, there are 100 eyes around the perimeter of the building if my corpse count is correct.) Now head in the front door of the structure and go up the south stairs. This puts you down the hall from (instead of in the face of) a group of eyes. Both stairs lead up to a large pillared room filled with more eyes. Power Liches included at no extra charge. When you're finished with the eyes and liches, head across the room and go up the ramps on the far side of the room. Start with the north ramp. The ramp leads to a path running along the north side of the pillared room and leads to some other small rooms near the entrance on the north side. If you head down the steep incline down and to the east, you'll pass by two rooms with bone cages in them and arrive at a passage guarded by some more ogres. Go through this room and then continue east. To the north is the largest potion bottle collection you've ever seen. Now return to the room on the west and head down the stairs. There is a weird room here with several earthen squares and a depression in the middle. Stepping on the earth squares seems to summon Liches into the room. Anyway, cross the room, head up the stairs, and then through the east passage. Continue east, bypassing the two rooms to the north and continue until the corridor turns to the north. At the end of that corridor are eight black potions of Rejuvenation. There is a room filled with ogres to the east; enter that room and clear it out. Then return to the two rooms you bypassed, go through them, and take the corridor on the other side to the west. As you exit that corridor, you will see a very narrow ramp going up. Take that ramp and there will be another "Glowing embers will lead the way" sign that, when read, will reveal a lever. This lever will change the cube in the pillar room to red. Backtrack to the pair of rooms and just east of that is a steep walkway leading up. This will take you to an area that is a mirror of the north side of the pillared rooms. Explore your way through here and you should find yourself on the south walkway on the west side of the pillar room. Return to the pillar room and click on the now crimson cube. This will open the way to the next terrible room. Now go to the room that I said summons liches and proceed west from there. This is another large room filled with lots of eyes and liches. Included is a Lich King. Have fun. When they're all dead, collect the bodies, drink the resistance cauldrons, and look at the sign underneath the cube. When read, it says "the fires of the dead shall burn forever." In the alcove to the west is Memory Crystal Delta, required to complete quest 45. Once the cube is red, click on it and you will be teleported to a small bedroom. In this room is a chest and several piles of gold. There are also three sarcophaguses that you can pillage, but doing so will hurt your reputation. On a podium is the Book of Liches: click on it will destroy it which is what you need to do to complete quest 24. Frozen Highlands This overland area resets every 24 months. Travel By foot east: 5 days to Silver Cove By foot south: 5 days to Free Haven By foot west: 5 days to Kriegspire By coach: 3 days and 200gp to Free Haven (Monday, Thursday). Locations 1 Shadow Guild 2 Arlen Sailor Teaches Mastery in Leather Armor to those with Rank 10 for 3000gp. Jules Miles Teaches Mastery in Dagger to those with Rank 8 and Speed 40 for 5000gp. Anthony Stone Get quest 26, quest 27, and quest 32. 3 Gabe Lester Teaches Mastery in Disarming Traps to those with Rank 7 and Accuracy 30 for 2500gp. Protection Services Teaches Dagger, Merchant, Identify Item, Perception, and Disarm Traps skills for 250gp each. 4 Inn Night: 20gp; Food: 14 for 28gp. 5 Fountain that triggers an ambush by Fire Archers. 6 Marcellus Lutvig Sells membership to Protection Services for 50gp. 7 Ryan Treacle Teaches Mastery in Repair Items to those with Rank 7 and Accuracy 30 for 2500gp. 8 Weapon Store Buy: 2.5; Sell: 4.5 9 Armor Store Buy: 2.5; Sell: 4.5 10 Fountain that gives +10 to level temporarily. 11 Obelisk #7 12 Jacques Kohl Teaches Mastery in Diplomacy to those with Rank 7 and Fame 200 for 2500gp. Eric von Stromgard Get quest 33, quest 34, and quest 35. 13 Dickson Parks Teaches Expert in Mace for 2000gp. Jed Morrison Teaches Expert in Bow for 2000gp. 14 Fountain that gives +20 to might temporarily. 15 Shrine of Endurance 16 Inn Night: 90gp; Food: 30 for 270gp. 17 Bank 18 General Store Buy: 2.0; Sell: 8.0 19 Armor Store Buy: 3.0; Sell: 5.0 21 Blade's End Teaches the Staff, Spear, Sword, Axe, and Repair Item skills for 750gp each. 22 Fountain that gives +5 to might permanently (once only) and kills the drinker. 23 Adept Guild of the Elements Teaches the Earth Magic, Air Magic, Water Magic, and Fire Magic skills for 1250gp each. Sells spellbooks for Earth Magic spells (1-8), Air Magic spells (1- 8), Water Magic spells (1-8), and Fire Magic spells (1-8). 24 Initiate Guild of Dark Teaches the Dark Magic skill for 1500gp. Sells spellbooks for Dark Magic spells (1-6). 25 Fountain that gives +5 to endurance permanently (once only) and kills the drinker. 26 Fredrick Piles Sells membership to Blade's End for 25gp. 27 Weapon Store Buy: 3.0; Sell: 5.0 28 Alchemist Store Buy: 2.0; Sell: 4.0 29 Coach Service 30 Fountain that triggers an ambush. 31 Dragon Tower 32 Marten Holovin Teaches Expert in Dark Magic for 2000gp. 33 Training Hall Maximum Level: 50 34 Rachel Herzl Sells membership to the Dark Guild for 1000gp. 35 Warren Holms Sells membership to the Elemental Guild for 100gp. 36 Temple 37 Icewind Keep 38 Fountain that grants +20 Speed and Accuracy for a day. 39 Fountain that grants +20 AC for a day. Icewind Keep Start by charging right through the front door. You'll quickly get to a gate, which will not open for anything. Your automap should also show a large number of creatures on the other side of the gate, so you probably don't want to go through there anyway. Instead, take the corridor west. In the first room, which is a barracks, there is a passage to a small treasure room. In that room, there is a note telling you that it is possible to leave from the Throne room quickly. That piece of information should be useful. In the room at the end of this corridor, there are two doors. Behind the left door is a switch that opens the gate at the entrance. Behind the right door is some gold. Flip the switch and return to the gate and defeat the army waiting behind it. Now that all of the guards are dead, you'll notice that you have another problem. The next gate is closed. Return back to the corridor and turn east this time. The first barracks room has another passage leading to a room of treasure. And, again, the last room has two doors in it. The one on the right has the lever behind it which opens up the second gate. Returning to that gate, proceed down that passageway to the throne room (and a second army). On the smaller throne, there is a switch in the handle which opens up a secret panel on the east wall. Proceed down this passage to a treasure room containing four chests. Inside one of these chests is the set of Dragon Tower keys. Return these keys to Lord Stromgald in order to solve quest 34. Shadow Guild From the entrance, head west and clean out the corridor of all of the thieves and assassins lurking there. Then head through the bedroom and open the door. You open doors in this place by just walking into them; no clicking on them. (No, I don't know why it is different in this dungeon. Follow the corridors here around clockwise until you loop back to the starting area. Along the way, you should have found a scroll that tells you that the Prince is hiding out in the Sewers under Free Haven. File that away and continue exploring. From the bedroom again, turn the corner south and head downstairs. Down here are a few items in a bag. As you head back up the ramp, you'll notice that the floor has fallen away and leads to a spiked pit. In order to get by it, flip the switch on the wall just on the brink of the pit, return to the room with the sacks, and follow the newly opened corridor back to the main area. To the far north, there is a large room that is nothing more than a trap. There is nothing of use here, except an easy way to get killed by all of the magical attacks that fill the room. @~To be continued next issue - o -