I’d end up traveling all over the map for this adventure of mine. There would be far more lows than highs. I would at least get some quests finished, some skills trained higher, and find all sorts of fun trouble along the way.

I was hoping at some point that some a bunch of lower-level zones would start respawning. It seems however that they have quite longer respawn times in Might and Magic VII than they do in VI. After wasting some time for a bit I decided I just needed to keep pushing and hoping things don’t end in total disaster.

One place I had yet to check out was Avlee. This place ended up having some rather nasty elements that would wipe the floor of me. Thankfully they for the most part are in areas that I can just avoid.

To the earth and southeast are a bunch of islands that I'd fail to clear. They were covered in elementals. I’d make a few attempts but each one ended with the group getting killed. The best I could do was snipe a couple of them and then run for my life. I decided such struggles were not worth it for the being.

I would also deep down south of the town in Avlee find a castle that has a bridge and a moat. The water around it was surrounded by further water elementals. Inside that castle, I'd later would be things I had zero chance of killing let alone surviving a couple of hits from with my current level and gear.

Just to get anywhere in this zone was a nightmare in itself even when not dealing with the elementals. There was lots of hilly terrain covering ambushes from wyverns that would just swoop in and cause me all kinds of issues.

I ended up taking things quite slow. As long as I did not get aggression on too many of them at a time, I had a chance. It was quite clear I was pushing my luck by entering into this zone. That is always the fun of it however learning where your next bounty is and coming back later to overcome things.

On one of my trips in town to restock on food. I ended up discovering a fountain that gave each of my characters two permanent endurance. I also took a break from all the battling to go around and discover there were quite a few master or grandmaster level trainers in this town for things like air magic to armsmaster.

At least in my struggle, I ended up clearing the north-western of the map before deciding to give up on Avlee for the time being. There I ended up finding exactly my reason for coming into this zone in the first place. It was a dungeon called Hall Under The Hill.

Right as you walk in you end up in a circle puzzle. I ended up going around it in both directions a couple of times before hearing an odd notice and noticed I had been opening in the mound in the middle of the room.

Instead, was the Faerine King who I had a letter sitting in my inventory for quite some time to deliver to him. What I did not know at the time was there would be further areas to explore in this area.

While the dungeon itself was not that massive. With three main areas and about six total rooms in total. I’d end up getting some easy experience from clearing all the dragonflies that were in the dungeon. Along with finding a little bit of loot.

There was also a little puzzle to solve to get a key that would then open a door to the king’s treasure. This place also had a couple of other hidden wall areas that I ended up finding by closely looking at the map. The King’s treasure itself was not worth noting.

As if I had not taken enough punishment yet. I decided to head back over to Deyja. I ended up exploring around there a bit further and finding a dungeon called William’s Tower.

After clearing out a couple of sword guards at the bottom. I went up a massive lift. Up there I ended up finding William himself and he was not in a good mood to see me. I barely managed to jump back onto the lift and escape with only one of my characters remaining.

With all the excitement I had up till this point. I was looking to take things a bit slower. I ended up heading back to The Barrow Downs. I don’t know if it’s a bug or what but this place seems to reset quite often.

I ended up re-clearing most if not the entire zone to gain some experience. I also made sure to hit up the chest so you get teleported into a trap for opening. This thing is always loaded and I ended up getting some new boots and a helm out of the deal. Along with quite a bit of gold.

Since things went so well, I decided to push my luck again. The Barrow Downs has a a place called Stone City. In Stone City, it connects to Nighon Tunnels. Those tunnels then connect to Thunderfist Mountain.

I have in the past walked into Thunderfist Mountain and got owned by the minotaur and warlock that can be found inside. This time around I was not taking no for an answer. There was as one might expect a lot of running towards the exit back into Nighon and recovering.

Needless to say, anytime I ran into a minotaur with red shorts I ran for my life. All the rest of them I could handle. The big ones though I did my best to avoid or deal with one on one if that was not always the case.

One thing I'd keep noticing and this place was no different. There was a real lack of chest loot that felt like it was on pair for the difficulty of an area. There was some loot on the ground but nothing that screamed as a huge upgrade.

I had quite a few not-so-great pieces of gear on me. I’d even hit up quite a few shops as I moved around the map from town to town. The loot in this one just feels quite lacking when comparing Might and Magic VII to something like World of Xeen. It’s kind of like the loot slowly decided as the Might and Magic series progressed along.

After exploring around the mountain for a bit. I ended up finding a spot I could fully exploit to take out any minitour I needed. There was this bridge where they could not cross over. I guess I've yet to have to fight a creature on a bridge. It’s quite clear they did not have a walk mesh to cross it. So, I lured quite a few minotaur including one with red shorts to one side of it. I then sat there taking it down with ranged damage slowly over time.

Final Thoughts

I had been wanting to know for quite some time where all these tunnel systems would end up taking you. While I've yet to fully explore Thunderfist Mountain itself. As soon as I found an exit to the east, I ended up taking it. It was a zone called Mount Nihon.

That place itself would end up not being so kind to me. It was however something that had been killing me for quite some time and the killing was about to just get started.

While I was quite all over the place in this one from Avlee to Mount Nighon. That is sometimes the mark of a great adventure. So many ups and downs and finding out where you don’t belong.

Information

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