I was in a dungeon-running mood. I had enough of exploring around outdoor zones for the time being. I’d quickly find myself in some dungeon and situations, I was just not ready for yet.

First off, I still had a dungeon in Harmondale to run called White Cliff Cave. Then I'd be running off to Barrow Downs and finding myself in quite a situation there. I’d also become quite rich soon but it was not meant to be.

It turns out I ended up having a quest for the White Cliff Cave dungeon anyway. I needed to find out what happened to an adventure that went on exploring the place. Needless to say, he did not make it out alive and I'd end up bringing proof back to his family member.

The biggest challenge in early dungeon runs is not so much the creatures in them. It's clearing enough space at the entrance of the dungeon to give me some space to use ranged and spell combat when I could.

I’d be mostly fighting off troglodytes which are these ugly-looking things in the screenshot above. Quite easy to kill yes. Still, too many of them at once was not a good situation for me until I had some area-of-effect spells acquired.

In situations like this, I'd use the dungeon exit as an advantage. I’d try and pick off as much as I could without getting any of my characters taken out. I’d then exit the dungeon and fully heal up the group before heading back in.

Thankfully by my second time around of doing that. I was able to clear the entryway of the dungeon. That would then give me enough space to move around a bit and use some range to my advantage.

While the dungeon itself was not that big. I’d more than end up finding a big enough adventure to keep me entertained for a little while. This place had it all, chests with loot, loot on the ground, and even a quest item.

Even better I'd find some further upgrades for my group. I ended up finding some plate armor around and would now be on the lookout for the plate skill to train my knight in it.

I also realized my identified item and trap disable skills were just not up to the tasks at hand. I’d be quickly dumping as many skill points into these till I could get them to level four. At level four you can train a skill further to make it an expert. I had no idea where the expert trainer was for either of these skills. I however wanted to be ready when I found one. I would even start saving up some gold as that sort of thing could easily cost me 1k or more gold each.

At least for the time being I could wear non-identified items. Checking the stats page, I could tell what they did for me. At least in terms of something simple to check like AC gain or not.

This dungeon also had a couple of barrels for some quick permanent stat increase for a single character. With how low my caster health was I was badly looking for some endurance gains for them.

After clearing this place out, I headed back into town. I needed to stock up on some food to head over to Barrow Downs. I also gained another level and turned in a quest as well.

Barrow Downs would end up having a higher difficulty than I was expecting. With all the quests pointing me in that direction. I just assumed that was where I should have headed next. It seems perhaps that was not the case.

While looking for another dungeon I came across a chest that almost killed me on opening it. I thought I must have stricken it rich. Look at all that gold and some nice items as well. About 14k gold was in that chest not including the value of the items.

It was sadly not meant to be. The whole thing was one giant trap. I never stood a chance even more so being on such low health as my group was after taking so much damage to open the chest in the first place.

A massive number of creatures spawned in. I was dead before I could even run five steps thinking somehow, I had a chance in the first place. It was a long walk back to Barrow Downs filled with a broken heart.

I then shortly later found myself a dungeon entrance. I had quite a funny feeling that this one was named “Barrow IX.” It was on a massive mountain so I at first thought how cool there must be a bunch of these scatters all over the place to find.

That was somewhat correct and somewhat not. There are a couple of ways in and out of the Barrow dungeon. There were well over a dozen Barrow zones to go through.

To make matters even worse. Sometimes going back the way you came in did not send you back to the zone you were just at. This place would end up being quite the little maze. With the reward almost feels like finding your way back out alive.

I only ended up even going into this dungeon in the first place as I had a quest for it. As it would turn out I would not be returning to this system of dungeons for some time after this first attempt.

The first zone was not that bad. I ended up fighting some goblin-looking things called gogling. While there were far more than I would have liked at the entryway. That is what having a healer is for anyway.

I also found a key in this first one. It would not be the last key I'd find in this system of dungeons either. It ended up unlocking a sliding door that simply displayed numbers on it. Along with a lever that I ended up pulling.

Most of these dungeon zones were quite small as well. They might have a small offset chamber or two to explore. With most of the acting being right at the entryway.

After exploring a couple of these dungeons I learned two things. They were not going in any expected order as far as the naming system was concerned. Along with if trying to go back from a zone portal I might not end up back in the same dungeon I was in.

This also meant I was not lost in a dungeon system I had no idea how long it went on for. I had no idea at the time how many exits this place had other than how I entered into in the first place.

At one point I just consider myself stupid lucky the best kind of lucky there is. I had been surviving but just that. I then went to click on to head into what I was expecting to be another part of the dungeon system. Instead, it popped me outside on the other side of The Barrow Downs map.

I did not manage to find the quest item I was after. I was for a very short moment however just happy to have made it out of the dungeon. That would however be shortly lived

Final Thoughts

My troubles were also just starting. As it turns out Barrow Downs for my level and gear would end up not being so kind to me. Any chest I'd find would nearly kill me. Everything wanted to range attack me.

I also had no idea where anything was yet for this zone. I had no idea where I could go heal let alone buy some food if needed. I was just glad I still had 14 foods remaining. That would at least buy me some time in my ability to take fights slow and use lots of healing.

I was somewhat tempted to try and make it back east to head back into Harmondale. I however wanted to find the dwarfs so I could get some work started on my castle. In the end, that idea ended up winning out. So, I pressed on exploring Barrow Downs despite it being a slow crawl of grind.

A part of me also wanted to go back into the Barrow dungeons. I however was lucky to have found my way out just by luck. I’d later realize just how lucky I was. Along with how nasty of the place it could become.

Information

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