"I got Sandro his cursed sword, and now he wants me to fight more moldy Necromancers to get some kind of armor made out of bones. Hah! It'll be their bones I smash!"
—Crag Hack
A Cage in the Hand is the third scenario of the Hack and Slash campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death.
Walkthrough[]
Crag Hack must acquire the Rib Cage of Power from one of the Liches haunting the swamp of Ferris to win the scenario. However, if Crag Hack is defeated in combat, the scenario is lost. Crag Hack is limited to level 20 but will carry his experience, skills and spells on to the next scenario.OffBck
Bringing Sandro the sword from Marzeth, Crag Hack is tasked to find a rib cage in a swamp called Ferris. It is told that Sandro entrusted the rib cage to a hero, who was held up in a sanctuary, but the necromancers burned the sanctuary and stole the artifact. Sandro reminds Crag of the rewards and the evil he is fighting against. Crag does not think this is fun anymore, but decides to go look for the rib cage. Since Sandro does not have any friends in the area, Crag has to find the lightblue keymaster tent to unlock a border guard, protecting a neutral Stronghold. The keymaster is in the south, past a gold mine. After capturing the town, each week produces 60 additional goblins for recruitment. To intimidate the necromancers, Crag sends a messenger, claiming he will defeat them all for burning the sanctuary. After a while, the messenger returns as a zombie; Crag kills the messenger, seeing the necromancers want him dead for sending that threatening message.
Crag will have to go to the underground cave close to the town to visit a black keymaster tent, which will give him passage later on. There is also a darkblue keymaster tent, which only unlocks a border guard to shorten the distance to the mines and dwellings east of the town. Crag can either go to south and find a Necropolis town, or east to find an unoccupied Castle town. East of the Castle is a white keymaster tent, which unlocks a white border gate in southwest; the area contains some artifacts, resources, dwellings and a dragon utopia. With enough forces, Crag will have to cross the garrison, either the one south of the eastern Necropolis (45 vampire lords and 50 power liches), or the anti-magic one (45 vampire lords, 50 power liches and 10 dread knights), past the white border gate. While the final Necropolis cannot be accessed (since it is protected by a purple border gate, which lies just in front of the town), Crag has to find the rib cage among the liches. The rib cage lies in the hands of power liches in the most southeastern corner. Upon their defeat, Crag obtains the rib cage.
Towns[]
Strategy[]
The enemy is persistent in attacking towns, so Crag will have to recruit enough forces to pass the enemy (or at least battling the enemies) and defeat the power liches. Heroes are limited to level 20, though Crag is the only carryover hero to the final scenario.
