It was time to find out what shape the castle was left in. Along with exploring the Harmondale zone. Things were at least looking up but a lot of work was ahead of me.

While I could have explored the local town around the castle. I said to heck with it and rushed right for it. It was not that impressive looking. It also looked quite run down from the outside. I was starting to wonder before I even got to the doors how bad it would be on the inside.

Once I made it to the castle gates I was greeted by the butler that runs the place. At least he should have been running the place. It turns out he had taken refuge at the local inn. He had been run out by some goblins that took over the castle.

The first order of business was eliminating the foul goblins that took over my castle. I’d then go on to find they had infected the nearby lands as well. A total goblin purge was about to go down and they had no idea what was about to hit them.

I was expecting things like rats. They were also the first things to chart at me full speed. My healer would be doing nothing but healing every single time it was her turn. My sorcerer on the other hand, well her spells were so low damage. I felt she was just better off doing bow and melee damage when things got close enough.

My new castle was so run down. The place was covered in rat nests and fallen stones from the walls caving in. The walls looked like they were covered in a hundred years of smoke. The rugs lining some of the flooring I don’t see how they could ever be salvaged.

This castle I was given as a reward. It was looking more like a massive gold sink to me. I had no idea at the time how I was even going to get the place repaired. Along with what kind of costs or adventures I'd have to go on to get the work done. All I knew was this was now my place and I can only hope at some point I could return it to whatever former glory it had.

It also seemed like I could not even fully explore the castle either. There were only a couple of rooms and passageways I could clear out. There were many empty rooms around the center of the castle. Along with what I can only hope were blocked-off ways that would end up being something a bit grander.

At least it did not take that long to clear out. It was then time to explore the town. While I was looking for the in with my butler to tell him to get back to work. I ended up finding the bank, and shops, and joining a few magic guilds. Along with buying some needed skills. Before I was done fully exploring the town I was yet again broke.

Once I found the inn with my butler in it. I told him it was safe to return to the castle. He told me to rebuild it I'd need to head into Barrow Downs and talk with the dwarves in Stone City for assistance. While I had no idea where that even was. I at least now had something to go on.

This place was riddled with quite a few more goblins. I ended up looting some chain army and a couple of weapons as upgrades as well. While nothing huge it was at least the start of something.

I kind of got the feeling finding some insane item right away like you could do in World of Xeen was a bit of out the question. I still had hopes I'd find that one item I could use to help push my group forward. I however would end up being quite right in this assumption. I was lucky to find slight weapon upgrades for quite some time.

At least in Might and Magic 7, it was a lot easier to explore an entire zone without finding yourself in another one. As with Might and Magic 6, there is a minimum of 5 days of travel between zones by foot and a bit faster by horse or boat. Going anywhere on foot requires having enough food on you as well. Not things World of Xeen and earlier Might and Magic.

To the east ended up being this strange structure that was covered in goblins. I got a little too close and found myself getting attacked by sparks and fire being shot from the structure as well.

I ended up making a second attempt at the location after a short healing break. Four goblins were manning the fort. After I took them out, I ended up exploring around it and triggering a massive goblin wave onto the location.

While I managed to take some of them out with the weapons from the fort. There were just too many of them. I lacked the damage and defense to hold them off even with how few of them managed to survive some nice balls of fire death I was able to rain on them from the defense systems in the fort.

It would end up being a couple of levels before I attempted to take on the fort area again. By then goblins could do very little to me. While I still did not have quite powerful weapons just yet. I was at least able to clear them at a decent speed.

I then went on to further remove even more goblins. I was kind of disappointed by how little gold I was finding. What I was finding was lots of crafting materials for potions. It seems making potions is a huge deal in Might and Magic 7. There is even a dedicated skill for it.

I was kind of suppressed to see this place had a couple of little lakes and even a river. Thankfully there was a bridge to get over to what ended up being a dungeon. I decided to save that dungeon for another day.

In the southwest section of the map, I ended up finding quite a space. There was also a firepit near the road leading into Barrow Downs on the west side of the map. I was half tempted to just jump into Barrow Downs but had a feeling things would end badly for me.

Final Thoughts

I ended up heading back to town a couple of times. Sometimes for food for resting up and healing. Other times I wanted to check to see if I had leveled up yet for more skill points. As quickly as I was getting any gold it was soon spent before leveling up and spells.

I did manage to put a small amount of gold into the bank. I wanted to see if it would earn any interest. Not putting gold into banks was a mistake I made in some of the earlier Might and Magic. While I'd return to the bank a couple of times over the amount would remain the same. I can only guess this early on if not enough time has passed yet or perhaps you don’t get any interest in this one.

I also noticed I had picked up a few quests for Barrow Downs. More or less locking it in as a place I'd want to visit sooner rather than later. If only I had known at the time that questing even side quests were not going to be as straightforward as they were in many of the earlier Might and Magic games. They would at least lead to some amazing adventures along the way.

So far, I've been feeling a bit disappointed with how weak spell casters feel. I’ve been quite dependent on using bows as my main source of damage. That however can’t go on forever as none of the classes in my group can become a master in bow and others could only just learn the basics of using a bow.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic VII.