Things ended up going from being stuck in a rather complex puzzle of doors to the easy street of exploration. I ended up finishing off another tower and fully exploring two towns and their sewers.

I was like a frog in a slowly boiling pot of water. At least in terms of things getting slowly more complex over time as I got deeper into things on the dark side of the map. This became rather apparent after I entered the Eastern Tower.

I ended up coming into the Eastern Tower after exploring the Sky Bridge some more. Right next to the door was a key to the Easter Tower itself. Along with no way out. So I had to exit the top of the tower and jump down to enter at the bottom.

This place was set up like a giant maze. While it was not uncommon that I might have to go between multiple different floors to get through things and to where I needed to go. This place was on another level.

Each floor had quite a lot of up and down stairs. Each outer square for the most part on the first floor was leading up to a different section of the second floor. Some of these would just loop back down right next to each other to the floor below. So thankfully there was a bit of a pattern I could work out.

The second floor had even more ways up or down. Since you could go down the way you come. Along with needing to go up to another half a dozen or so passages. This place took quite a few attempts to try and navigate through.

This became even more apparent when I found myself back down on the first floor yet again. I took a step near the center of the room. I realized it was quite settled but I had just been teleported. I was moved one tile of course to keep me from testing out another set of stairs going up. That ended up being a bit of a clue that it was at least one of the stairs that would lead to somewhere I wanted to go.

I had reason to be here. As it was from the information, I had gathered from a ledger of sales that the Jewel of Ages would be here. With that, I could get the fountain of youth restored.

I alone would be needing that fountain up and working again just for this tower. As there were some rather insane opportunities here that would end up aging you quite a bit. One of them would grant fifty intelligences but age you fifty years for the class that benefits from that stat gain.

There was also another object that would give you five levels. It however had an insane cost of you losing all skills. Needless to say, I reloaded the game before making that choice.

It would have been one thing if I had discovered an NPC on the dark side that would sell me all the skills at once for some high gold price. It would however be quite time-consuming trying to re-find all the trainers. There were also just some hard-to-find skills that were found in dungeons that I'll never find again.

I kind of felt like I had enough of an adventure from that tower alone I wanted something a bit less complex. I had in the past done some quest turn-ins for a key to Sandcaster. I however never got around to exploring it more than just finding the trainer.

I was mostly just running in and out of small homes and areas slaying any wizards that popped up to fight me. These guys were quite easy pickings. The sewers of the town were a little more interesting.

There ended up being a guy selling a gym membership for 50k gold. At first, I thought he was selling the skilled bodybuilder since I just read, he was one. I then did a second look and realized I was not paying enough attention. I decided to bite the bullet and just pay up the 50k gold.

I’d say it was well worth it. He unlocked a room where I was able to gain quite a few might stats for my characters along with endurance. There was also a skill in there as I expected bodybuilding that I already had.

The sewer was at least simple. It had a main pipe in the four directions. There were a couple of offshoot pipes to go along. It was however quite easy to follow. Everything down there was just easy to take out as well.

There were a couple of exits from the sewer into the town. I’d pop up them just to double-check check they did not give access to some limited area in the town. It ended up being a good thing I did. I ended up finding the master wizard who the town wanted dead and gained 2 million experiences for my troubles.

It was rather nice having this fully cleared out from the town to the sewers now. I would have done it sooner but I had only rushed into this town in the past to find the trainer before being on my way.

Now I did not have to worry about getting involved in some random fight. In the event, I ended up coming here with a mostly dead group seeking help. With my luck, I'd fully expect that to happen.

I had also now acquired the Lakeside town pass. I had almost forgotten about it. I then realized when checking in on any quests I had outstanding that I had the town pass in my inventory. I was quite thankful just to get another town unlocked and the opportunity to explore it.

It ended up having a massive lake area. There was a boat there that took me to a tiny island. Along with a dungeon that I lacked the key to get into for the time being. I noted the dungeon’s location down thinking how easy it would be to get back there once I got the key for it. I then headed back on the boat to the town.

The town itself was ruled by some evil witch that everyone wanted me to take out. There were also a couple of people in cages. I was told the witches would turn those people into creatures that would attack the townspeople.

There were also some strange witches brewing cauldrons around the place. They ended up having some stat gains in them from drinking them. I was half expecting my characters to be poised and killed. They all however survived.

This town ended up being a fraction of the size of the other two I had been on in the dark side. It had to be about 25% or so of the size. It was also quite lacking in town services like even a place to heal.

All they did have was a magic guild. I ended up answering a rather basic question and was given free membership. Since I had all the spells, I wanted from the cloud side of the map I did not notice anything worth getting from this town. Kind of a shame as Might and Magic III had some interesting spells, I was hoping to encounter in World of Xeen.

With clearing out the top of the town so fast it was time to explore the Lakeside Sewers. The sewers seemed to be even smaller than the town itself. There was one main tunnel heading east to west. Along with another three tunnels connected to it heading north to south.

Of all the odd places I was expecting to find one of the three golden statuettes I've been tasked with requiring. One of them was down in the sewer. Marking now the second one I've found.

The sewers were mostly filled with these evil frog things that had spiked shell. Despite how evil-looking they were. I would be mostly dead from arrows by the time they got into the melee range of my group. My paladin then would land the final blow and I'd move up the sewer to the next combat situation.

Final Thoughts

If only I would not end up in further complex mazes in this game like the first tower I ended in on this adventure. At least the game gives you some breaks in between the madness. At least now I have more towns unlocks although it seems not all are equal in usefulness as the first two towns on the dark side. Quite a bit different than how things were on the cloud side of the map.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic IV And V World of Xeen.