While I love to fully explore an area first before diving into any dungeons. With all the side quests I had stacking up. The last thing I wanted was quite a few more on my back. As soon as I found a dungeon I needed while out in Tatalia I jumped right in.

It’s been rather fun so far in Might and Magic VII not knowing if a dungeon you just found is going to end up being some massive or small and easy. This one ended up being called The Tidewater Caverns. Not quite that impressive-sounding now, is it? My Thoughts exactly.

It was at least cool looking despite how small of a dungeon it was. There was a breached wooden ship in the back of the cave that many robbers and skeletons were hiding out of. Like any good pirate ship, it was hiding some secrets as well.

I first needed to clear out the cavern part to get to the ship. I was met with some thieves and quite a bit of water. There ended up being some loot in a side east chamber. It was however all junk. I looted it just so I don’t mistake it as something I forgot to explore or think this dungeon has respawned in some way.

The ship created quite a confined space where the enemies were lying in wait to ambush me up a ramp. I had fallen quite well for the trap as well.

There were some stat barrels nearby that had drawn my eyes in. I was busy hovering over them to see what kind of liquids were inside them to decide which character would drink them for things like luck or might.

Up popped a few shades, skeletons, and who knows what else onto me. Nothing my group could not handle. I should have known better at the very least.

After exploring what I thought was the rest of the ship and a forward section as well. I went to the top of the ship again. I jumped off the ledge and started walking around the ship. There were some things to clear.

I still had not found what I was looking for. I could also tell from the spell wizard's eye that some loot was still on the ground. It was clear I had missed something.

After walking around the pirate boat, a couple more times. Sure, enough there was a hidden compartment as one would expect to find on a pirate ship. The pirate map itself I would later turn in so my cleric could get a class promotion.

I then spent some time going around and upgrading some skills. One thing that badly needed an upgrade was my disarm trap skill. I would have traveled to distant lands just to get it upgraded. At the cost of only 2,500 gold once I had it to level seven was quite a steal. Thankfully I had to go almost nowhere as this person was right in Harmondale and I wanted to check in on my castle anyway.

To my shock while running around getting upgrades for different skills. It looked like Barrow Downs had fully respawned. I found this shocking as Harmondale should have respawned first.

This was one thing I liked about some of the older Might and Magics over the first ones. It’s just so fun once you become a bit more powerful to see a zone has respawned. Fully clear it again with ease.

I’m not sure if it was a bug or what. As I would not see any other zones respawn for quite some time. I however took advantage of the easy experience and some phat loot as well.

There was that one chest in Barrow Downs that was yet again filled. I also realized this time around it did not spawn an ambush after looting it. It teleported me to a different area that had some dense spawns in it.

I ended up walking away with some upgrades. The bow, helm, and two of the rings ended up being nice upgrades. I was kind of hoping the bow would have been a bit more powerful with how crazy looking it was. An upgrade is an upgrade at least.

Since I was already in the area. I checked my quest book and realized I had one to clear The Haunted Mansion. This was a dungeon I noted down but never got around to running. Since I had nowhere else to be it was my next target.

For the quest itself. I needed to fully clear the place out. I would also go on to find some painting on a wall I could take. I attempted to take other paintings in the dungeon but they were not going anywhere.

The undead here must have been holding some kind of party. They sure showed up and tried to get me to get out like some unwanted guest. I decided to crash the party anyway and sent sparks and flames firing right back at them.

There ended up being two side tunnels on the west and east that connected to four different rooms. The doors could only be opened from one side and this was something I discovered while looking for a path out of the dungeon itself.

There also ended up being a library in this place. I was hoping to find lots of higher-end books but mostly scrolls or nothing at all. There was also a book being used as a hidden switch to open a secret passageway.

There was a nice little treasure room with four chests in it. Nothing amazing to talk about in terms of finding upgrades. I did make a quick 6k or so gold plus whatever I got for selling off the contents of those chests.

Final Thoughts

Always fun when some unexpected fun pops up. Along with finding some phat loot and more important upgrades! It is also always great when you think you have done everything a zone has to offer to only realize you missed a dungeon in.

After all that excitement I went off to go do some of the boring stuff. My inventory was full and I needed to sell. I had a few more levels to train. Along with quite a few more skills to upgrade and find expert or master trainers for.

Even better yet. I’d go off and do some quest turn-ins. I guess I was not paying enough attention to some of them to realize they were class promotion quests.

I don’t know much about the class upgrade system itself. What I do know is they give out some decent experience. Along with making non-class honorary members of a lower tier of that class. I’m hoping this will be a way to unlock some higher tier of skills that you the different classes don’t normally have access to. I have not been paying enough attention to be sure of that just yet, however.

Information

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