WALKTHROUGH OF THE TEMPLE OF BAA (IRONFIST)

MIGHT & MAGIC VI (c) New World Computing and 3DO

I. Intro: This file is a detailed walkthrough of the dungeon known
as the "Temple of Baa" which is south and west of Ironfist Castle.
Beware: this is a major spoiler.  Contained within are the secrets
for solving this dungeon.  Read at your own risk.

II. Pre-requisites

The Temple of Baa is a low level dungeon.  Ideally, your party should be
around 8th to 10th level.  If you try it earlier than that you
should have some good long-range offensive magic as well as enough
hit points to stand toe-to-toe with Skeleton Lords and Knights.  If
you've finished the Shadow Guild hideout this Temple is the next
logical step.

You should have already taken the "Chimes of Harmony" quest from
Janice, the town clerk back in New Sorpigal.  If not, go do that
now.  It will mean extra gold and experience points for you.

I also recommend that your magic-user(s) have Fireball, Ring of Fire
(or better yet, Inferno), Wizard's Eye and plenty of potion
ingredients.  Your healers should have a way to remove Curses and
Cure Disease. All party members should have bows and some skill in
using them. Feather Fall will come in handy but isn't a requirement.
A wand or wands would be very handy right now - Fire, Fireball,
Ice, Deadly Swarms or Harm preferable.

The last thing I strongly urge is for your party to have at least
one member who has good Disarm skill - a minimum of expert rank 4.
Every chest in the Temple is trapped.

III.  First moves: Secure the area

When you want to leave the dungeon to find some healing, the last
thing you want to do is fight your way back to Ironfist.  So plan on
spending at least a day clearing the road south from Ironfist, then
west and north again to the Temple.

The Followers of Baa (and the few Lizardmen) shouldn't be a major
challenge.  If they are, you might reconsider doing the Temple just
now and find another quest.  Clear them out as far west as you can
go or they're liable to pester you when you're low on health and
spell points.

Tip:  The Followers of Baa are very aggressive.  This is a good
thing because it means you can "trigger" them (get just close
enough) and then take up a good defensive position.  Let them come
to you - in ones, twos, and threes you can stand around a corner and
kill Baas all day without taking so much as a hit.  Just keep an eye
on your Wizard's Eye and when you see the red dots move, find
yourself a killing spot.

IV. The Great Hall.

Inside the Temple, proceed down the stairs eastward and open the
door there.  On the other side is a huge room we'll call the Great
Hall for future reference.  This room should be empty (or fairly so)
when you enter, so venture forth bravely.  Remember to keep your
avenue of retreat open until you're certain it's truly empty.

There is a small room in the center of this Great Hall, with 4
doors.  On the north and south walls in the distance are two doors
lit by torchlight, and in each diagonal corner are four large
openings which lead to caves.  Radiating from the small central room
are four low walkways (north, south, east, west) which are elevated
slightly from the lower floor. Make note of this, because if you're
running from danger you don't want to get stalled on the edge of the
walkways.  Use your "X" key to hop up on them.

While the caves might prove interesting - especially if you're high
enough level to have the hit points to spare - they are not
essential to solving the quest.  I suggest ignoring them for now.
They can be explored at your leisure once you've tackled the tougher
parts of the Temple.

Walk to the central room.  The plaques by the doors say "As the
winds blow, the seasons change, and only at the end of all can the
doors be opened." which is supposed to be a clue to the order in
which they are opened.  But you have something better - this file!
If you don't open them in the correct sequence you will receive a
nice little jolt.  Click on each door in this order: North, East,
West, South.  Remember "NEWS" and you'll be ok.

Now stop.  Look around you.  The moment you open the chest inside
this room, you are going to be surrounded and trapped by skeletons.
So now is the time to plan your escape.

What you do next depends on the strength of your party.  If you can
stand in the middle of a crowd of Skeleton Lords and Knights, fight
them and win, then you have nothing to worry about.  But if you're
like me, you've taken this quest before you're level 10 and such a
situation would not be easy.

I suggest moving to the west side of the chest.  Go to turn-based
mode and select your Disarm expert (if he isn't fast enough to be
the first PC selected, get the other characters to swing in the air
to pass their turn).   Now you are on the side closest to the
entryway, so open the chest.  Take the items and gold inside, and
give the key to your Disarm expert.  Close the chest.

Now look around.  Gauge the strength of the crowd of skeletons
between yourself and the exit door you came through to your west.  I
normally have to fire a couple of spells to clear a path, but
however you can do it, I suggest getting back to the entry door as
fast as possible.  You want your back to your escape route while
you're fighting the skeletons.

There are also Priests and Acolytes of Baa in the Great Hall now,
firing Lightning Bolts at you.  I'll leave the details of tactics to
you, here, but my recommendation is to use the entry hall as a
retreat area - the enemies won't follow you back there - to regroup
and heal.  Try to edge forward on one side or the other of the
doorway so the number of skeletons who can attack you is limited.
The last thing you want is to be surrounded with no way to run.

Fireballs work well on the Priests at range, and hack-and-slash and
Ring of Fire are effective on the skeletons.

V. The Six Keys

Fast forward.  You've won the battle with the skeletons handily,
right?  The Great Hall should now be cleared of all enemies.
Perhaps you had to return to the Ironfist Temple a few times, but at
least you got the job done.  You're rested and healed and it's time
to start the next phase of the quest.  There are more traps and more
enemies, so prepare yourself.

Time to go through the north door.  The hallway "T"s, so turn left.
At the end of the hall turn right to the door.  You have the key to
this door already, so select the PC who has the key and open it.
Inside the room is another chest.  This chest is trapped, so be sure
to select your Disarm expert.  Take the key we'll call Key #2.

Don't run back.  As soon as you opened the chest, another crowd of
skeletons has blocked the main door back to the Great Hall.  There
aren't as many as before but you'll still have to fight them.
Remember, they won't follow you into the hall en masse so try luring
one or two at a time to get the odds down more to your liking.

Getting rich now with all the loot?  We're only begun.  Walk across
the Great Hall to the opposite (south) door. Walk straight back,
ignoring the two right and left hallways for now.  The hall will
zig-zag off to your right.  Follow it all the way back and then
around to your right.  At the end of the hall is yet another chest,
this one containing what we'll refer to as Key #3.

Go back the way you came, but turn right at the first opportunity.
The key you just found fits this door.  Inside is another chest,
with Key #4.  But if you have Wiz's Eye working you'll also note
that more skeletons have come to pay a visit.  Deal with them
unmercifully and move on.

Take Key #4 and move back across the Great Hall to the north door
again.  This time, turn right and go to the end of the hall, then
left and through the door.  Another chest, another key we'll number
#5.  And another group of skeletons when you try to return to the
Great Hall.  Smite them mightily.

There's one door remaining that you haven't opened yet.  Go back to
the south door, through it and right at your first opportunity.  You
know the drill.  This is going to be Key #6.  You are now done with
the Great Hall as soon as you clean up the last skeletons and
priests.

VI. The Altar Room.

You are finally ready for the door on the east end of the Great
Hall. Use Key #6 to go through the first doors, then stop and
listen. Have you been hearing the sounds of a fireball somewhere in
the distance?  On the other side of the next door is a trap which
fires off a fireball at regular, timed intervals.  If your timing is
good and you are adroit enough, you can get through this trap
without a scratch.

Stand in front of the door and wait for the next fireball to hit.
As soon as it does, immediately open the door and move to the right
or left, up against the wall.  Notice the two water troughs which
line this room along its entire length.  You can walk along these
troughs and the fireball will not hit you.  Use your "X" key to jump
up into one if you must.  No need to hurry too much.  You're more
likely to make a mistake and take a fireball in the face if you do.

Once you get to the east end of this hall you can get behind the
fireball trap and free of worry for the moment.  Back here the
hallway goes north and south.  Around both corners, at the top of
stairs, are groups of Priests and Acolytes.  To assist your future
path back to help and healing, I suggest you clear both hallways
before going any further.

Once you've done that, go up the stairs and either north or south
until you're centrally located in the hall over where the fireball
hallway was. To the east there should be a new set of stairs going
up.  Move carefully to the top of these stairs.

This room is going to prove to be the toughest one in the Temple, so
proceed cautiously.  There are several triggers set here that will
put you in a bad situation if you're not ready.  If you walk
directly east towards the large blue raised altar you see, you will
find yourself under fire from a large number of Baa Priests. Instead
of exposing yourself to such fire, I recommend running to your right
or left and using the rows of pillars as cover so that you are only
exposed to fire from a few priests at once.  Move quickly east
towards the altar, staying behind the pillars as much as possible.
Stop behind the last one.

Here, a good fireball spell and bow skill are going to be
invaluable.  You have to kill all the priests and acolytes in the
room - do NOT under any circumstances climb the altar stairs to the
altar.  Not yet.  Stay behind the various pillars and stage a
running fight with the priests until you have them all.

That done, if you haven't already done so I would suggest a short
healing break here.  The altar room should be empty of enemies and
as long as you didn't walk up to the altar itself yet, you have time
to do some housekeeping.  The next stage is going to be even more
fun, and you will soon not have the option of going back to Ironfist
for healing unless you have Lloyd's Beacon spell or Town Portal.  So
now is the time.  While you have a moment, look up at the north and
south walls of the room and note the high ledges. Those are your
next objectives.

VII.  The Secret Door

Time to ascend to the altar. The area behind the altar is trapped.
You have two options. If you go up the side of the altar stairs and
hug the back wall until you are directly behind the center of the
altar, you might be able to avoid setting off the trap.  If you are
brave and quick, you can just run up behind the altar, heading for a
point on the wall straight east of where the gong is.  There is a
secret door in the east wall here, and you'll need to select your
keyholder to open it.  The gong itself is worth 2000 gold in Free
Haven, but if you follow my suggestions you will have time to pick
it up later.

Whichever way you do it, if you hear a gong going off somewhere you
will see about a hundred skeletons suddenly materialize in the big
altar room.  They're not invincible, but there are too many for your
party to handle all at once.  So get that secret door open and run
back (east) into the hall.  Some of the skeletons might follow you.
I've found in several playthroughs that if you run north or south a
bit, the main body of the skeletons out in the altar room will move
to that part of the room rather than follow you through the door.
If you do it right you should be able to handle the few that come
with you.

Move north.  Follow the hallway around and up, turning left, then at
the end of the hall left again.  You should emerge on the north
ledge overlooking the altar room.  All the skeletons are very glad
to see you, and click and rattle their joy at your appearance.
Watch the edge of the ledge - this is not the time to fall.

Walk along this ledge west until you see a short hallway going
north.  At the end here is another door.  Use your keyholder PC to
open this and go inside.  The chest here holds the Chimes of Harmony
and some gold and trinkets for you.  It also holds the final key.
You've finished the quest but you are not done getting rich and
earning experience.

Backtrack to the main north-south hall behind the secret door.  Go
all the way south, then turn and go west again.  You'll turn right
and emerge on the other ledge overlooking the main hall.  The layout
here is exactly reversed from the north side - go back to the small
room and open it with that last key you found.  Take a deep breath
and don't stop to count all the gold you just found.  You still have
work to do.

You should be safe up on the ledges.  None of the skeletons in the
room have a ranged attack, so they can't reach you.  You don't have
to fight them if you don't wish.  Cast feather fall and take a
running leap towards the west exit door, then run as fast as you can
back downstairs.  But you will be leaving behind a great deal of
gold and experience points.

I toed up to the edge of the ledge, used "Delete" key to look down
and proceeded to pepper the skeletons with my bows.  You can use
magic if you don't run out of spell points.  Wands are nice here.
You have all the time in the world to wipe out the skeletons.  If
they huddle underneath your point on the ledge, try using Ring of
Fire to make them feel welcome.  And feel free to go back to the
opposite ledge to continue the carnage, since the room is too big to
shoot a bow all the way across.

After you've killed all the skeletons and rested your mouse-clicking
finger, go back to the altar room and pick up your mess.  Don't
forget the gong on the altar - the trap will not reset if you do.
It can be sold in Free Haven along the street just east of the Earth
Guild (south of the docks).

The Chimes themselves belong to Janice back in New Sorpigal.  So
take a vacation and journey to your home.  You've earned it.

Be careful as you leave.  Now that you've opened all the doors, the
fireball trap sends its little surprise all the way through the
Great Hall and hits the main Exit door.  Stay to the side and time
your exit so you don't end up dead after all this hard work!

*****

Marc Fisher
m.fisher@ix.netcom.com