It was time to break out of this town and its caves I’ve had enough grinding here. If it’s one thing I don’t miss about the old school games is the amount of grinding required by repeating far too similar of a task over and over again.
While I’ve known of a way out of Sorpigal to many other towns I just had no idea which one to head to next. I even considered being teleported by the leprechaun I found the other day to the second town list. Thankfully I did not act with haste as it turns out that might have been a huge mistake doing so.
At the very least if I venture to the wrong place and end up in a town that I can’t level to get out of. There is always the option to abandon that party and remake a new group. Granted the idea of doing so somewhat sucks.
One thing that has come to mind is making a character and leaving it in Sorpigal as storage. While you don’t have a sash or a bank as far as I can tell in this game. You can swap out characters in a group at any time. Everything is not limited to different play thoughts. That also makes progress a bit questioning in my mind if it must be character-specific or perhaps some items define how far along you are. I am far too early into this game to get a grasp on that yet.
For now, however, I don’t have any gear I’d like to leave behind for any future alts or perhaps even rescue attempts of some sort. I have to just do the best I can and hope I don’t get all six of my characters trapped somewhere I can’t get them out of.
I ended up doing a couple of final runs in the caverns. By then I ran into a quest giver that is just known as an elderly man. He needed a courier service for a scroll to another town. That town ended up being called Erliquin. I took this as the hint I needed as to where it should possibly go next.
A few of my characters got their next level up but not all of them since at least one ended up joining the group later than the others. I went back to the hidden teleporter in Sorpigal. I had not realized at the time you were only given numbers and not town names to teleport to.
It took a couple of tries but I ended up finding out that the town I needed to go to was listed as town 5. How unfortunate it was the last town on the list to go check out. I was starting to think perhaps I could not get to the town in question by being teleported to it. I was also getting tired of having to exit the game and reload since there did not appear to be a way back in many of the towns I ended up in.
For the time being, heading to Erliquin ended up being a one-way trip. I have no idea how I’m even going to get back. I’m just hoping this place won’t smash me into the ground and spit me back out into the inn itself.
I ended up exploring around the town for a while trying to learn my way around. This place was yet another area I could get lost in. Mostly because some two wide areas have nothing at all. As such you just see a blankness when looking in their direction.
There were also barriers around the center of the town. I found it most annoying that I could not just directly walk between the inn, shop, trainer, and everything else. Instead, I’d have to take a rectangular formation of a walk around. In the end, I’m just thankful it’s also so close enough to each other and easy to find.
In the end, I found the quest turn in NPC and acquired a nice chunk of gold. I went and ran off to the shop to buy a few upgrades for my characters. Some characters would receive hand-me-downs as I upgraded my tanks and others that have a wider array of armor they can wear.
Classes such as my casters have quite the restriction on what kind of armor they can even wear. They have the lowest heal and the lowest amount of armor. I always hope in any combat situation they are the last to get hit which thankfully since they are in the back of the group happens a lot less than the tanks in the front. However, they still do get hit.
One thing I discovered is encounters in the town of Erliquin appeared to be quite rare. I ran all over the place over and over again and unlike Sorpigal I’d rarely have anything attack me. There was however an exception to this. I ended up finding pits of treasure to loot all over the town and needless to say the guards quickly found me and put me into the ground. Note to self that treasure is not mine to take! Even though I want the gold.
After a while, I decided it was time to head outside. Finding the way out of these things is always a task in itself. You would not think the door leading to the outside was this exact spot at this wall would you? Thankfully I kind of just ran into it. I decided to hit yes to see where it would take me.
I was quite confident since I had just upgraded a few pieces of gear that I’d have a fighting chance for whatever I was about to encounter. The next area ended up being called B-1 after I asked my sorcerer. I first thought to myself what kind of basic name is that? Then again I such at naming things so who am I to judge someone for simply calling a zone “B-1.” I’m almost jealous of the simplicity of the naming.
What I’m not so jealous of is the insanity of this next zone. I could not help but wonder how I defeated this many creatures in a turn-based game? I would later learn pack sizes could get even bigger than the one I ran into.
Final Thoughts
While I had survived my first encounter just barely. It did not take long before I found myself looking at another death screen. I was sent back to the inn at Erliquin with all progress that had yet to be saved lost.
I then went out again to B-1 to attempt some grinding. It did not take long to start feeling like perhaps I made quite a grave mistake. Was I ready to leave Sorpigal after all? Either way, that choice was already made and I’d have to suffer through it and forward. At least the rewards here are a lot better if I make it back to the inn alive with anything!
Other Content
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Might And Magic 1.
