It’s not that I did not have the combat ability to take this place sooner. The last time I went through it I felt lost like I was in a maze. The last thing I wanted to be was in a situation where I could not find a way to get out and had to just take a full group wipe to escape.

What makes the Dwarven Barrows such an issue is It’s not a single zone that is a massive maze. It’s sixteen zones with only three of them having an exit. I was also looking for a single zone at the time called Zokarr’s Tomb

While I ended up going in here for one quest that was in Zokarr’s Tomb. Much later I'd have been returning just to place an item I already had in my inventory at a tombstone. It’s kind of funny already having had that item that I could not just have lucked out and done it without having the quest active in the first place.

My last struggles with this place were also due to the large volume of things all attacking you every time you entered into a zone you had yet to clear out. While things like bats, zombies, and skeletons are not that hard. Back then dealing with a dozen creatures all hitting me at once was the issue.

This time around I got answers to dealing with being crowded by large hordes of monsters. I have spells like spark that can take down a couple in a single cast. I also have quite upgraded weapons from last time so most things would end up getting killed in a hit or two.

While most of the sixteen zones are quite small compared to other dungeons. Sometimes just having a couple of small chambers in each one of them to clear out. They are often filled with hidden side areas.

I kind of wish I had at this point invested a bit more skill points into perception. Much later on when I'd have to return to this place for another quest. It was just easier to loot and find the hidden areas as they were flashing bright red with a might higher perception skill displaying such things.

Some of the hidden areas were quite covered in loot. Even without being able to see where a hidden wall was. I at least had a spell that showed quite a few blue icons on the mini-map to indicate that there was a bunch of loot on the ground.

To know where I already had been. I started writing down the different zone numbers. While yes it was easy to tell if I had been to an area due to all the creatures already being killed. I had been in here before and I wanted to recheck everything with fresh eyes.

So I just started writing down routes I had been to. Like VII, IX, V, I, XV, XIII, and so forth. I mostly did this so I would not end up repeat entering into the same zones twice. As many times you could not just go back the way you just came.

There was also the lever system of this place. In most of the zones, you could see a board next to the exits into the other zones. They would give you indications that you would end up going to XI, II, VIII, or VI. That would depend on if you took the left or right exit and if the lever was in the up or down position.

For a while I was trying to keep track of the order of zones I was going through. After a while, it just made more sense to order things in numeric order. That way I could quickly check to see if I had already been in a zone or not.

I’m also glad I ended up coming in here with nearly an empty inventory and lots of food. The amount of loot while not that great was quite a lot. I also ended up needing to take quite a few med breaks just because of the large volume of creatures my group was constantly facing.

At one point it was starting to cross my mind that I had yet to discover another exit or the boss. Since death would be my only way of getting out of there if I did not find the exit. There is always that part of me that wonders any time I've come into this maze if I'll find the way back out again.

At the very least I figured if I could clear most of the zones out. I'd just have to sit through spamming on exits hoping to find a way out once the time came to that. For the time being, however, I was still rocking quite well and my group was getting some decent experience.

Then came that moment was I found Zokazz’s Tomb. In there, I needed to find a guy to speak with. There ended up being a central chamber a chamber in each of the four directions.

At this point in my adventure, it was quite late and I was more than about to pass out. Things were so fuzzy I don’t quite even recall what happened once I found that area. I just know I was glad to have finally finished off whatever quest that drove me to go into such an insane thing.

I also knew things were far from being over. I still had to find an exit out of this massive maze I found myself in of zones. After a while, I started to just spam on the exit doors hoping to see any sign whatsoever that I was about to get out.

Final Thoughts

After entering into another six or seven zones. I turned around to look back at the wall and I noticed an icon for a tree for one of the doors. That tree was a sign to indicate I had found a real exit out of this place.

I also noticed what zone I was in. I now had in my notes two different zones that would lead to me escaping this dungeon. While I never wanted to come back into this dungeon ever again. Such knowledge did come in handy when I found myself in a very unwilling mood coming back to the Dwarven Barrow.

Information

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