I still had a couple of the mid-game zones left I could hit up for levels and loot. They ended up being quicker clears than I was hoping for. Along with having a couple of dungeons, I'd have to return to one day to attempt again.

I had been rather avoiding the Ironsand Desert up to this point. I had popped in there a couple of times in the past and decided at that time it was not time yet. It however had been a few levels since I've last ventured into there.

The town of Rust in there is rather decrepit. Many buildings just have the beams of the structure remaining. I have once been to this town before for some skills.

I also had some quests in the area. Such as needing to pick up a witness who had seen some terrible stuff go down. While I needed to take them back to Alvar I was not in any rush to get back there myself.

It’s kind of odd in this Might and Magic you don’t have any extra slots for a random NPC to join. So, I would have to dismiss one of my characters for that person to join me. I decided before I leave Ironsand I'd swing back by Rust and pick them up for a trip to Alvar.

I then went on my way clearing the region and looking for dungeons to run. At this point, I had quite the stack of quests. I was not sure if there were any dungeons in the area that I needed anything out of. I however suspected there had to be something I needed now or I'd be needing at a future point in time.

One of the first dungeons I ran into was called Troll Tomb. I got to give it to Might and Magic not having many clever dungeon names. One can only guess what I'd end up encountering in a place like that.

At least the dungeon was not the smallest one I've been in. Granted it was yet again a small one. It was also set up like a bit of a maze. There were dozens of doors and passageways where the door would close once you entered it.

There were also multiple levels to the dungeon itself. As you can see from the map there are not any real context clues of how to go up or down into the different levels of the dungeon. Instead, I just wandered around trying to collect any blue dots off the map that were items on the ground.

At one point I was half tempted to just town portal out and run back to the irondesert region. I kind of got lost and it took going through a few rooms to find a stairway that would take me back up to the base floor of the dungeon. From there I was able to retrace my steps and find the exit.

Next up I hit up the Cyclopes Larder. This place had some dense spawns in it that took me a couple of times to crack. At this point, I'm kind of used to that kind of combat. I was hoping at some point to find some powerful upgrades. This would yet be another dungeon that did not happen. I would end up waiting quite some time.

I ended up going down one tunnel and clearing out a room. Then heading back into another tunnel that took me into a room that looked like they cooked their food on giant fire spits. Needless to say, I was not looking to become dinner.

This place ended up having a lot smaller rooms than I was expecting. I ended up finding some people that were in cages. I can only assume they were about to become dinner themselves. I ended up freeing them before further exploring the remainder of the dungeon and clearing it out.

The last dungeon I'd end up encountering would be filled with dragons. I kind of knew I would not stand much of a chance. Even more so with a few of them attacking me at once. So, I marked it down as a dungeon I'd need to return to at some point.

Exploring the rest of Ironsand was at least fun. There were some wild views of lava and more sand than I would ever want to dream about. For the most part, it was an easy place to clear out. Not as hard as the first time I had entered this place.

At one point I headed back to Ravenshore and picked up a different more powerful character to fill the slot I now had open in my group from dropping off the NPC in Alvee. While I would end up unlocking some nice level 50 characters. For the most part, I prefer to stick with the group of characters I've been using for most of the game.

I did make sure to check the gear that any new characters I would end up taking along with me on adventures. Some of them had some nice upgrades for my other characters. I then stuck my old gear on them just in case I ever needed whatever class or character that I now would invite into my group.

Some might call that stealing. I call those free upgrades! It’s kind of sad this was my way of getting some massive upgrades. For far too long I had been using the same gear that I got many levels ago.

Not quite filling my thirst for adventure for the day I next went into the Murmurwoods regions of the game. For whatever reason it felt kind of small. The loot in this place was at least feeling like how loot was back in Might and Magic VI. I don’t know why loot for the most part sucked in VII and VIII. I was at least glad to see some chests loaded to the brim with gold and loot.

Murmurwoods had these nasty wisp flying balls of light things. They were a pain in the butt to kill. I ended up gaining a few levels from clearing out this region. It was clear this was meant to be a harder region. One that I was ready for.

The town in this region was rather small. There were a couple of dungeons. One of them was for the light and since I had plans to work with them I wanted them to join my alliance. I decided to remain friendly with them. Their dungeon was also quite small.

Final Thoughts

I did clear out some dungeons in the Murmurwoods they were however quite pathetic. It was however getting quite late into the night. I ended up doing one of my classic zombie gaming sessions. Where I just went in as brain-dead a zombie, did not take any screenshots, and hardly recall anything.

I did at least the next day realize I had over half a dozen levels I could train each character upon. Along with inventory full of stuff to sell. Sadly, no massive upgrades. I swamped out some rings and that was it.

I swear the amount of time I spend running around getting people upgraded in their skills, looking for skills, and checking shops for upgrades is on par with the amount of time I spend clearing out regions. There was yet again a lot of that once I was done with these two regions for the time being.

I also had quite a few quest turn-ins. I even finished off some class promotions. I know I was thrilled to be able to promote my dark elf. Like with most class promotions she got a nice little boost in health and mana.

Information

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