Might and Magic VI - The Mandate of Heaven (Part 10) Solution copyright (c) Mike Marcelais. Version 1.0, June 6, 1998 See also the map in this issue Supplied by Carolyn Brown @~Continued from Issue 65 Dragonsands This overland area resets every 6 months. Travel By foot north: 5 days to Blackshire. By foot west: 5 days to the Hermit's Isle. By foot east: 5 days to the Mire of the Damned. Locations 1 Najat Ramadi will trade Golden Pyramids or Kegs of Wine for Armor 2 Kerman Murian will trade Golden Pyramids or Kegs of Wine for Weapons 3 Irbil Baktarian will trade Golden Pyramids or Kegs of Wine for Miscellaneous Equipment 4 Bandar Jahrom will trade Magic Lamps for Gems. 5 Pedestal Used in quest 38. 6 Fountain that restores 50 hit points. 7 Fountain that gives +10 to all elemental resistances permanently and eradicates you. 8 Fountain that gives +10 to all statistics permanently and eradicates you. 9 Found Zeus on a corpse here. 10 Tomb of VARN 11 Two chests The chests are guarded by a total of 4 fire lizards, 4 lightning lizards, 5 wyrms, 4 giant wyrms, 1 great wyrm, 7 red dragons, 15 blue dragons, and 13 gold dragons. The chests contain the artifacts Morgan and Aphrodite. Found Ares and Apollo on corpses near here. 12 Shrine of the Gods +20 to all statistics permanently. Clicking on the northwest takes you to the New World Computing world. 13 Obelisk #6 14 Rock Under this rock is a chest that rewards you 250,000gp when opened and contains a spellbook of Dark Containment, and Divine Intervention, and the artifacts Morgan, Igraine, and Guinevere. Due to a bug, it gives you another 250,000gp each time the chest is opened. The rock is the one in the center of a circle of other stones and can only be opened after you have read all fifteen Obelisks. Tomb of VARN At the very entrance, click on the hieroglyphs to open the door to actually get into the pyramid proper. Then turn left at the entrance. At the end of the hall is a wall tapestry which translate to: Through the Crossing of the Void be a long and arduous journey, the land you find at the end will be sweet and unspoiled by ancestors or the Enemy. Take heart that your children's children will live in a perfect world free of war, free of famine, and free of fear. Remember your sacred duty to care for the Ship on her long Voyage and ensure her safe arrival in the Promised Land. Tend well the Guardian and house it securely away from the ship lest both be lost in a single misfortune. Now, turn around and head down the corridor towards the east. At the end of the hall, is another tapestry that reads: Remember our Enemy, children, and never underestimate the danger they pose. Though you will never see one during your journey, you must be forever vigilant against invasion from the Void once the Voyage has ended. Mighty beyond words, the Enemy is nonetheless vulnerable after a Crossing, for their numbers are small and their defenses weak. Use the energy weapons carried on the Ship to defeat them, and never, ever engage the Enemy with lesser weapons, or you will surely perish. Head up the steep path and empty out that small room, then go down the ramp. In this room there will be several genies and a Sentinel of VARN. The Sentinel will have a Back Door Key on his body. Take that and go north into the next room. After exploring this very large room, the interesting parts is a large Flame Door on the north side and a smaller door on the west side. There are also two plaques (one on each side of the pillars that are on each side of the central walkway), which read: "In case of energy leak, bathe in one of the medicated pools placed for your safety and convenience", and "Warning! Power Fluctuations! Alert Engineering immediately!" You don't have the key to the Flame Door right now, so head west through the smaller door and down the large steps. Then go through the door on the west wall. In the next room, there is a small switch near the ground on the wall that opens up a wall panel to reveal a chest. The chest contains (among other things), a Crystal Skull, a Flame Door Key, and the Captain's Code scroll. The other exit from the large steps room merely leads to a room with a table. Return to the Flame Door and open it (using the Flame Door key). Proceed up the ramp and kill off all of the guardians here. When you get near the top of the ramp, you might get radiation poisoning. Having Crystal Skulls can cause the periodic damage to sometimes be absorbed, and walking through the large cleansing pools back in the previous room will cure you of the radiation. In the center of this room, there is a plaque on the center pillar. It reads: "The Well of VARN must be keyed last," and "Only the one bearing the key may speak the code". The blue circle on the northwest part of the room is the Well of VARN entrance, and it is where you use the Captain's Code, but you can't do that until all of the other codes have been entered. So proceed instead through the north exit. (There is a cleansing pool at the end of the hallway.) Then turn west. Take the first passage south. It forms a loop (returning to the hallway at the second south intersection). In that loop, there are two rather uninteresting rooms. Continue west down the corridor to the next room and then turn south. You will be in a large pool room, with a dozen nooks on the sides of the wall, each filled with Genies. After you kill them all, and collect their loot, you get to do it again in a second pool room. The last nook on the west side has a passage that leads south. Follow this passage, dealing with the guardians in your way. It leads to a balcony that overlooks the room with the very large pools and the Flame Door. Return to the pool rooms and head south and around the corner. There will be a large room filled with lots of VARN guardians. The north exit from this room leads to what looks like a large library. Each of the bookshelves along the side walls have books of learning in them. The two murals against the north wall, right next to the bookcases, each have a Code scroll in them: the Communication's Code and the Engineer's Code. There is also a chest, but it is locked and you don't have the key yet. Return to the intersection just north of the Well of VARN room and continue east down the hallway. Go all the way to the end of the hallway; clear out that room, then return west and take the passage to the south. If you head down the stairway, it quickly ends in a dead end. Head up the spiral stairway and take it all of the way to the top. Deal with the guardians at the top of the stair, and then return to the corridor that exists half- way down. Take the south corridor (the only one) and enter into a large open area. Once this room is secure, don't continue south; instead return a little bit north and take the passage off to the west. Follow that corridor around, making sure not to fall in the pit. After several rooms, it will dead end, but only after you've finished off a lot of Guardians. Return to the large open room, jump into the center area, and take the passage to the south. It opens up into a room with a large pit in the center of the room. Defeat the genies hanging out here, but don't jump into the pit -- you can't get back out yet and you don't really want to explore that part of the tomb yet. Return to the area just north of the two pool rooms, back on the west side of the pyramid and go through the door to the west. This goes around until you get to a Back Door, which is opened with the Back Door Key. This opens onto a huge room (its width is wider than the entire rest of the pyramid you've explored so far) with a large number of genies in the near corner. The entire room is a large cleansing pool. There are two exits from here -- one is on the center of the north wall at the end of a ramp. This is the Water Temple and you need a key to get in here. The other is at the far northeast corner of the water. Take that corridor. The corridor lets out into a vast area underneath the pyramid's surface. You can follow the large room all of the way around -- you are in the terraces above the starting area. If you go all of the way around, and then climb up the terraces themselves, you will find a doorway at the very, very top of the slope, almost directly above the radiation room. Click on the door to go through it. In the next section, there are three buttons. The left button can only be used safely if the system thinks you're a communications technician. The middle button can only be used safely if the system thinks you're a supply officer. The right button can always be used safely. Push the right button and the elevator will descend to a new level; the revealed tunnel merely leads back to the pyramid "exterior" where you just came from. Return to the "radiation" room, back downstairs, and jump in the large pit on the west side of the room. This drops you down to a lower level room. From this room, take one of the pair of exits (they meet on the other side of the wall), then head down the gauntlet hallway. The last niche on the east wall is really a ramp. Take that passageway. You will enter a room that has three exits to the northwest (the exit you came in), the northeast, and the southwest. There are also cleansing pools here. Head through the northeast exit and follow the corridor. There will be a room of guardians about halfway along the corridor, and then a large room with a spiral ramp that goes up the outside of the room. The topmost door of the ramp leads to a corridor that has a pit (which can be jumped over easily from this direction, since the floor is uneven) and leads back to the door by the spiral stairway on the east side of the radiation room. (The pit leads to the same place that the pit in the radiation room does.) Return to the small pool room with the three exits and take the southwest exit, and take the passage to the south when the exit splits. The first side passage is just a dead end, and the second side passage leads back to the pool room (connecting with the west fork that you didn't take). Continue west down the passage. The third side passage (which forks north) leads to a drop down to another passage. Skip this for now and continue west along the original passage. As the passage turns back to the east, you will come across a pit that allows you to drop down to a passage on the level below. The pit spans but half of the corridor. Walk around the pit and continue east. Take the passage to the south at the intersection -- it will end with a short west-northeast passage that is guarded. The west passage is the passage that you could jump down into using the first pit. When all of the guardians are dead, turn north and proceed down the passage. When the passage turns west, the first side passage to the south is just a short dead-end, but it is the passage that you get into by jumping into the second pit. Continue northwest. The next room has a chest located behind the partition. Inside the chest is the Water Temple Key (which you can use to open the Water Temple in the north part of the pyramid), and a First Mate's Code. Exit this room and continue north. The passage will end with a sealed entrance to the Well of VARN. You cannot get into the Well from this point. Now return to the northernmost part of the pyramid and go to the Water Temple door and open it. Fight all of the guardians and genies hiding in the alcoves in the entrance and then head down the ramp just inside the door to the east. Follow the ramp down to the bottom. Here there is a single Guardian of VARN defending a chest in the wall. Inside that chest is Bibliotheca Chest key and a Navigator's Code. The key opens the chest in the library. Return now to the library (it's south of the two pools; going through the "back door" is the quickest way to get there) and empty out that chest. In the library chest is the Doctor's Code and a VARN Chest key. Now that you have all of the codes, head to the radiation room. In order to key in each of the codes, you need to enter the five pools in the rooms. The pool will ask you for one of the codes and you just enter them in. The order doesn't matter. After you have done all five pools, go to the Well itself and enter in the Captain's Code. [Note: Read the codes that you have to enter backwards.] This will open the Well of VARN and let you descend into it. In the Well, turn to the northeast and click on the "Control Room Entry" area. This opens the door and lets out a number of Patrol and Enforcer units at you. Go through this room (the lights keep turning off and on while you're here), and in the back of the room there is a chest that requires the VARN chest key to open. Inside that chest is a Control Cube -- the cube you need to complete quest 48. New World Computing This is an entirely unnecessary part of the game, but its kinda fun. This hidden area represents (in theory) the office space of the New World Computing employees. From the entrance, turn around and pull the lever in the alcove to operate the elevator and go up to the second floor. Heading south, go around the hallways, ducking into cubicles and collecting the armor and weapons on the ground. Head east through the large archway and then head into the first door on the right. This looks like a library and the bookshelves contain several items of interest. Head through the door on the far side of the room and then through the door straight ahead. In this room, several employees are milling around a table. Go over to that desk and search it to find some more good items. Go through the east doors and through the doors on the other side of the hallway. In this office is a hostile goblin king . When you've killed him, leave. The aura of fear that the room places on you will pass. Head south down the corridor, emptying out the other offices. Heading down the passage to the west finds a pantry that lets you get unlimited food (although sometimes you'll get poisoned), and unlimited potion bottles from the desk. There is also a vending machine that will sell potions in this room. The next office is empty. Return to the hallway and head north. On the left is first an empty office, then another office filled with books. In this office is a hostile goblin. The corridor continues north containing the offices of more employees. Some of them contain items. Head up the corridor following it around to the left. After you've explored all of the offices, return to the elevator and continue west. Go through the door there and explore cubicles and offices. The office in the southwest corner seems to give an unlimited supply of herbs. When you're done looking around, return to the lobby and click on the door to get out. @~More next issue - o -