It was time to fully explore the island and get out of here. There ended up being two dungeons on the island as well. To escape I had to win a contest that would kickstart some rather interesting things moving forward.

As it would turn out this Might and Magic would be a bit different. Since I skipped over Might and Magic 6 there is a huge difference in combat between this game and World of Xeen. Taking some getting used to again and making this island a bit more challenging than I would have liked.

My first attempt to wander around the island ended rather badly. You would think a Fire Dragonfly would not be that deadly. A single one on their own would not have been that bad. I however ran into many dozens of them at once.

While I managed to take a few of them out there was no recovering from the onslaught of them once my cleric went down. As she is the only one with heals in the group. Making things a bit more challenging than I would have liked in such situations.

I decided to just take the death. I’d lose the 50 gold I had on me. I however did enough damage to the massive swarm of dragonflies I felt such a small loss even this early on was not going to be any kind of deal breaker.

I ended up exploring the island a little slower after that point. I also went over the rules of the contract I needed to win to get off this small island once again. I needed to find a hat, potion, longbow, and a seashell. Quite an odd scavenger hunt if you ask me. One that was far deadlier than one would expect as well.

I know from Might and Magic 6 that the developer loved to hide chests along shorelines and mountains. So, you know I was not about to miss any if they follow the same logic in this game. For the most part, it seems kind of a hit-or-miss.

At the very least, I felt I'd end up in less trouble exploring around the outer edge of the island first. I only needed to worry about getting attacked from the one side. There were also some random buildings and other stuff along the way. Creating some areas I could explore and not expect any enemies to come jumping out from behind any trees.

I then made it back to the part where I got killed. This time I did all the killing. I was shocked by just how many dragonflies were remaining. At least this time I took my time getting aggression on a couple of them at a time. Instead of the entire swarm. I’d then take a few steps backward to avoid pulling any by accident.

All that clearing was more than worth it. I ended up finding a house that was further down from where I got ambushed. The roof was mostly gone and the rest of the structure had seen better days as well.

It had four chests in it. I made a little over 1k gold that would come quite in handy early on. Even better year I found a seashell. I decided to take a safe path back to town and turn in what I had found so far for the contest.

I then went on my way exploring the rest of the Emerald Island. I ended up discovering two entryways into dungeons. I poked my head into them quickly just to see their names before moving along. I’d be quickly returning to them shortly. At least that was the plan anyway.

One of them is The Dragon Lair. Since it seems like I would not be killing any dragon soon. I quickly ran around the chamber looting what I could off the ground. I ended up finding out one of the contests had died in there along with a longbow that I could turn in.

I ended up needing to make a little run to the temple to bring back some characters from tempting fate with a dragon. I hoped dearly that would be the last time I'd be dealing with that dragon in quite some time. I’d thankfully leave the island without having to tempt fate yet again.

The rest of the outdoor part of the island was quite chill. It appears I took out the hardest part right away. It was bigger than I was expecting but not that big.

There are also a lot of water areas left unexplored. I’m not sure if I'll ever make it back to this island to explore them. All I know for now is I don’t have any spell that would allow me to explore that part of the map. So, the tiny part I was able to do would have to be good enough for now. Granted, I do hate seeing so much of the map left unexplored.

Next up it was time to return to the other dungeon I had found. It was called The Temple Of the Moon and it was filled with rats, spiders, and bats for the most part. Along with some other contests that I could attack if I wanted. I however left them alone.

I do say I enjoy the complexity of dungeons a lot more in Might and Magic 7 than I did over Might and Magic 1-5. They are not so much in a grid. There are a lot more deadens and even later on I'd discover depths without having to use multiple zones to have a multiplayer dungeon. It was also kind of fun to see how game development had advanced to the point they could now make dungeons like the way they were in this one.

This place ended up having a few little side chambers I'd find myself wandering into. Once I'd noticed things were chasing after me, I'd back off just a tad. The last thing I needed was some massive room killing me.

This dungeon was also set up in a way I had no idea if I was heading into a dead-end or not. I felt like it lacked having a central point where all the side chambers ran off from. Since the line from the start to the back is quite an irregular path.

I was also a fun mix of dungeon caves to a building that was underground and had things like a library in it. I ended up searching all the bookshelf hoping for some fun finds. I mostly found spell scrolls. This left me a bit disappointed as I wanted to find lots of spell books.

This dungeon ended up yielding a couple more items I needed for the contest. In one of the shelves I was searching in I ended up finding a hat that was needed for the quest. I also found in the library section a floor tile piece that I could take.

Final Thoughts

Once the dungeon was cleared out I left and ran back to the town. I did my final turn-ins and won the contest. The reward would end up being better than I was expecting. Not only did I win a trip off the island. I was deemed the Lord of Harmondale.

What is Harmondale you might be wondering? I had the same thought as well. Turns out I get to have my castle in this one. This takes me back to that feeling of World of Xeen. I just hope the castle system here ends up being a bit more useful and interesting to build out.

Only time will now. Now it feels like a grand adventure is about to take off with me getting off the starting island. Even better the boat did not sink and I ended up making it to where it was heading.

Information

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