It was time to go to the dark side of World of Xeen. This area is also known as Might and Magic V. I had been there once before but never explored beyond jumping back over to the cloud side. Time to head off to explore new towns, lands, and dungeons.

Getting to the dark side is not that hard. I just needed to find a pyramid. I knew the perfect place to find one as well. I walked up to it and oddly enough you need to hold down a bunch of keys to get teleported over.

I was now in a strange new land and town. There were quite a few NPCs here as well. Many gave quests, some offered skills I already had, and some just talked nonsense.

Like most towns in Might and Magic, this one is overrun as well. I ended up talking to the leader of the town. Ended up finding out I was in in Castleview. I always kind of laugh a little at how simple the naming of things was for many games back in the day.

I ended up finding out the town was overrun by gremlins. Many I had already killed. I however had to find its king and take him out as well if I wished. I kind of have a feeling this place was going to be easy. After all, this would have been the starting area for Might and Magic V. I can only assume there were some kind of level adjustments done for World of Xeen.

I ended up finding some of the usual and to-be-expected buildings while exploring around. Everywhere from a place to heal to the inn. The inn itself was only offering for sale 5 days of food. I was kind of hoping it be more. Looks like I might have to head back to the cloud side from time to time to get large amounts of food or just make my own with food spell.

This town ended up having quite a few narrow roads. Everywhere I turned I'd run into a gremlin. There were also quite a few small homes. I entered into the homes and did a fair bit of looting. While no upgrades I must have made an easy 5k gold from robbing the locals.

I then noticed quite a wide area. It was just filled with gremlins. As I cleared it out and went closer to the center, I realized there was an NPC in the back. It would end up being the goblin kin and he gave me some chat options.

It looks like Might and Magic V might just have some choices you make that have an effect kind of gameplay. I can’t be quite sure if all chat would have led to me needing to kill the goblin or not. That day I just wanted to do lots of killing. So, I gave the little goblin king no outs.

The goblin king attempted to send an army after me for wishing him death. None of them could withstand a single arrow blow. I quickly cleared the area. It was then time for him to face my sword. He lasted about as long as his guards and that was not long at all.

I then went back to my looting spree of the town. In Might and Magic IV of World of Xeen there were not that many puzzles I had to solve. Quite quickly I was starting to notice a few already. It seems like that might end up being something rather big on the dark side of the game.

I ended up coming across quite a few bigger homes that had chests in all of them. The chests all had different labels depending on the house. In the first house, I noticed the chests just had numbers 1 to 9. So, I just opened them all in order and was rewarded for my time 50k experience.

I also found out from an NPC his brother had been arrested. He was offering a reward for breaking him out of the jails of the town. I did not care much to find out what he was accused of doing. All I knew was there was some gold in it for me.

I ended up raiding the jail as well. They had locked up some gremlins as well but since I had already killed their king, I did not see any reason to keep them breathing either. I even found some loot hidden in one of the jail beds.

After exploring the town, a couple of times over. It was time to head into the dungeon. I can only hope each town has a dungeon-like they did in Might and Magic III. I had some lady offer me a reward for finding her necklace while I was down there.

The place was filled with sewer rats and slugs. Again, all easy things for me to one hit. Before I could start clearing, I ended up finding someone who lived down there. They offered me a reward if I’d kill the rat queen that was controlling the sewers. To take out my pair in a single day I could not say no to such a request. So, I marched onward.

A couple of times I'd find ladders while exploring the sewers. Some of them brought me back up into the town. One of them was even a largely unexplored area I had yet to find that was filled with rats.

Other ladders took me into hidden chambers that were in the sewer themselves. I even found myself in what looked like a treasure room. I must have made around 10k gold alone while looting in there.

There were also a few barrels for my group to gain some boosts of might and endurance. I gave all the might to the second character in the group since the first two might scores are used to break down walls. I gave the endurance I found to the casters in hopes they would get killed less often.

The sewers also had two main junctions that split off into four directions each. I ended up going through most of the trash rarely finding anything at all. I however could not turn down an opportunity to search for loot.

In one of the areas I cleared out, I ended up finding the necklace I needed to return to the lady. She would end up giving me 100k experience for my troubles. Now that is a quest reward worth my time.

At one point I ended up coming to a south-western chamber on the map. It was filled to the brim with waves of rats. If I had to guess the rat queen must been among them. As I did not see him anywhere else. I also must have killed him in one shot.

I did however find out I killed the queen rat after talking with the guy who lived in the sewer. He also has his chest. The first time I attempted to open it I was warned he was looking at me. Now that I did not need him anymore I tempted fate and opened his up chest.

In the chest was some paperwork showing the guy who lived in the sewer was some massive high-level evil dude. Perhaps that is why he was hiding down there. I was expecting quite a fight on my hands as he did not take kindly to my attempt to steal from him.

It was time to start using some magic on the dark side of World of Xeen. My fireball almost killed him. After that I couple of hits with some melee weapons and down he went. I was expecting far more of a fight out of him. I guess not.

Final Thoughts

For my effects in the first town and down in the dungeon, I found myself holding my first dungeon key on the dark side. I have no idea where the tower even is. I have barely even explored the outside of the town yet.

So far this side has been quite easy since I'm in a rather low-level area. It has also felt rather rewarding. Kind of like the level of reward the clouds side of the game was lacking. I can only hope this keeps up. I’d love to get a few more levels on my characters in a rather short amount of time.

Information

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