Part 36: Bonus Update 23.5: Cavern Under Erliquin, Level 7 Sorcerer Spells

Okay, I'm back and I'm pleased to see plenty of votes have accumulated in my absence. The current tally is 6 for Inspectron, 5 for Hacker and 3 for Ironfist, so it's still anyone's race. You've probably got, oh, 16 more hours to vote before I start playing. In the meantime, have a bonus update!



Not really. Judging by the relative quality of the equipment available at each blacksmith and the steadily increasing price of food, the order is Sorpigal, then Portsmith, Algary, Erliquin and finally Dusk. The hintbook puts their maps in roughly the same order, except Dusk and Erliquin are reversed.


Inventory management is a huge issue. You know how each character's info window shows 6 spaces for equipped items and 6 spaces for backpack items? That's all the inventory space you get. On any decent-sized adventure, you may have to start throwing away less valuable items as you find them. It gets even worse in Might & Magic II, which is more generous with treasure but doesn't give you any more space to carry it.

Bonus Update 23.5: Cavern Under Erliquin, Level 7 Sorcerer Spells



This is an interesting little cavern, even if there isn't really much to it. There's a big magical barrier separating the west half of the cave from the east half, and smaller magical barriers walling off treasure. If you knew the access code from the cavern under Dusk (which you do, because you've been reading this LP), you could use the leprechaun to go here early on and collect loads of treasure at a time when gold still actually mattered.

Level 7 Sorcerer Spells

1. NAME: Astral Spell
COST: 7 SP + 5 Gems
TYPE: Non-combat
TARGET: Entire Party
DESCRIPTION: Transports all characters to the astral plane. This highly dangerous and unpredictable area is otherwise impossible to reach.
Did I mention that this game lets you visit the astral plane? Well, it does. Also, the description is a lie: there's one other way to reach the astral plane, although it's much less convenient. There's no real reason to visit the astral plane until the very end of the game, so this spell is going to be forgotten about for a while.

2. NAME: Duplication
COST: 7 SP + 100 Gems
TYPE: Non-combat
TARGET: Spell caster
DESCRIPTION: Allows the caster to exactly duplicate any 1 item in his/her back pack, provided that there is room in the caster's pack for the new item. Small chance that the spell will fail and destroy the original item.
This here is the most abusable spell in the game. 100 gems is a significant cost, and it means you shouldn't cast it frivolously, but it's still amazingly useful. Don't worry about the small risk of destroying the item: just make sure you save at an inn before casting it, and quit and reload if you're unlucky.

3. NAME: Meteor Shower
COST: 7 SP + 5 Gems
TYPE: Combat, Outdoors
TARGET: All monsters
DESCRIPTION: Buries all monsters under a hail of meteors, inflicting 1-120 damage points on each monster.
"Oh boy, am I ever going to have some fun with this spell."
Why are so many of the best attack spells in the game only usable outdoors, where you need them least? Oh well. Spamming Disintegrate is usually the best strategy for a sorcerer in a major battle, anyway, so this spell doesn't see much use.

4. NAME: Power Shield
COST: 7 SP + 5 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: Entire Party
DESCRIPTION: Reduces the damage inflicted on all characters by any attack by 1/2. Lasts for the duration of combat.
This is an excellent spell, and another reason why Sorcerers should have high speed. Cast it at the beginning of any battle in which enemies can inflict far too much damage on you.

5. NAME: Prismatic Light
COST: 7 SP + 5 Gems
TYPE: Combat
TARGET: All monsters
DESCRIPTION: A powerful but erratic spell that has completely unpredictable effects on all monsters.
Nine times out of ten, this will do something useless like blind all monsters. Sure, there's still that one time out of ten that it acts like a multi-target Finger of Death, but those aren't the sort of odds you should be relying on.