With how challenging it was just to get to Mount Nighon. I knew my chances of doing much in that region would be quite slim. I however had to know what was lucking in this hard-to-reach region.

As I exited the tunnel of Thunderfist Mountain I came to a horrifying discovery. I was on the top of a mountain and down below were a bunch of hydras. These things solo would not have been so bad. However, there must have been dozens in the cluster just down the mountain way. With more in the surrounding area.

They also started to scatter all over the place. Making it hard to just chase one down and unleash a flurry of high-damaging melee blows. It was almost like they were trying to lure me into a trap. As if I would have taken the bait, I would have enraged further packs of hydras before landing a single melee blow.

I quickly ran back up the mountain. To drop aggression, I went back inside Thunderfist Mountain. By that point, one of my party members was already knocked out and many were in quite bad shape. I ended up spending a little time inside the mountain recovering.

I then went right back into Mount Nighon and hugged the ledge around the mountain cliffs. I was hoping against all hope that the other side of the mountain would be somewhat less death. I was however prepared for the worst.

To my shock down below was a town. Even better yet they were not hostile towards me either. I somehow managed to survive and I don’t question how. I would however question how I was going to get back alive into the tunnel systems and from where I had come. That I felt would be something I'd worry about a little further down the road.

The little town had a couple of fountains in it. Some would give me things like short-term resistance and increased stats. I’d then find a fountain that gave each of my characters two skill points. There was even another one that permanently increased personality by two.

I started to explore what else the small town had to offer. There were a couple of trainers offering things like grandmaster disarm traps or body buildings. What ended up catching my eye was a second set of houses to the northeast of the main town. Inside there I picked up master dagger giving my rouge quite a nice little boost in damage.

I ended up pushing up north till I noticed there was a bridge and a road leading over a mountain. It ended up taking you down into a valley desert. It was filled with hydras. After a couple of attempts, it was clear I lacked the damage output to do much for the time being.

I then decided I'd push towards the south a bit. At least that side of the map was not as bad. Mostly Roc to fight. They were not that bad as long as I kept my distance and kited them around. More times than not if I took my time, they would hardly get any damage on me before I'd take out each little cluster that went after me.

I’m rather glad I decided to stay in this region a bit longer before taking the long run back home. Further to the south and into the western corner of the region I found a shrine that gave each character plus ten personality and intelligence. My two casters were quite thrilled by this discovery.

I then decided I'd push north. I ended up running into another cluster of hydras. This time I knew better and just avoided them without any harm to myself.

Way far up north I ended up finding a dungeon. I took one look at the first creature in there and I could not escape fast enough. Thankfully we had survived that encounter but if I had not run when I did, I doubt I would have.

While I was not able to get a full clear like I would have liked of the region. I did at least uncover enough of the map to get a good idea of where the trouble spots were. I ended up marking this place down as something I'd like to return to when I had a way of dealing with large headers of hydras.

I then went back into Thunderfist Mountain thinking it was the way I had come from. It turns out there is more than one entry and exit into the zone itself. Thankfully the minotaur I found down there was easy enough to pick off. Even more so since I had some skill level increases to give me a slightly better edge than when I was in there last.

At some point, I ended up acquiring this amazing ring. Not only would my healer now have a regenerate spell point over time that would end up bailing me out of many bad situations. I’d a health regeneration on her as well. So even if she would get knocked out but not killed. Both of these items would keep working and she would after some time have a fighting chance again.

I still try and keep some health potions around for situations where the healer is knocked out. Having these regeneration items, however, is a massive increase to the group's survivable chances. As they are not truly dead till the healer is fully taken out.

I then made my way back out of Thunderfist Mountain into the Nighon tunnels. From there I was just a quick and easy run until I found myself back in Stone City. I was somewhat shocked I had survived that adventure. I would also dread any time I needed to go to Mount Nighon as there was no quick way to get there.

Final Thoughts

I then spent some time running around to different trainers, and shops to sell things, and I was looking for spells as well. I swear I spend more time wandering around looking for skill masters than I do anything else in this game. It must have a major part of the days spent zoning between regions compared to anything else I've done.

I also took that moment to do some quest turning in as well. This of course got me some further levels. Where I then needed to find a high enough trainer. I then spent more skill points and found myself needing to find even further master skill trainers for individual skills.

It was however not as easy as finding a trainer itself. I was getting to a point where people needed to have done their class advancement quest. Some of them I have done at this point thinking they were just side quests and not realizing what I had been doing.

Other skills it would become quite apparent that I was having to do a class quest over the run-of-your-mill side mission. My biggest progression bottleneck at this point was not doing the walls of mist. My group however was not quite there yet in terms of survivability and I felt like putting more time into attempting that place again.

Information

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