Hi:

I decided to play MM7 again, reached "The Choice" and installed Judge Sleen, accessed "The Pit", saw Archibald and proceeded to the Breeding Zone.

I cleared our the zone...my party consisting of knight, ranger, cleric and mage. Went back to Archibald and got the message about promotions and honorary promotions. Now for the problem...

When I paid a visit to a dark magic shop, my cleric was allowed to purchase the dark skill but my mage was not.

I checked my character skills profile and "Dark" was there for my cleric as I purchased it, but not for my mage. Further, even though I was promoted, my mage character still indicates "Wizard" as her title in the character screen, as if her promotion was not recognized. When I returned to Archibald the only remaining option is to be promoted to Dark Grandmaster.

So my problem here is what happened ? I've played and completed the game at least a half-dozen times since it's initial release way back then for the PC, and a good 3-4 times via my download from GOG.com and never encountered this issue before. Is there something I'm not considering ?

Fortunately I have a secondary save from halfway thru the Breeding Zone, but I'm wondering if somehow the entire game's save state is now "buggy" and the same will happen again. I'll give it a shot, but has this ever happened to anyone before and if so, what is the resolution ?

Thanks !!
Robert

Well, I tried completing Breeding Zone a second time from the save point, did so, returned to Archibald, received the promotion as before.

I checked "Awards" and on both my cleric and mage it said "Joined the Dark Guild" as before.

I next went immediately to the dark magic shop, and unfortunately it only allowed the cleric to purchase the dark skill...the option was not given for the mage character...so as before I am a member of the guild yet cannot purchase the skill.

Is the entire saved game now "corrupted", or is there something I'm not remembering to do in order for my mage to purchase the dark skill ?

It's been awhile since I've played but out of curiosity, has your wizard done the actual (not the breeding grounds) Lich promotion quest yet? From the wiki: they (Wizards) can instead be promoted to liches by talking to Halfgild Wynac in the Darkenmore Residence in The Pit and completing his quest to fetch four empty soul jars from the Walls of Mist in Celeste. Liches can learn grandmaster dark magic.

After a bit of looking around, it looks like your save should be fine.

Completing the Breeding Grounds will give you membership to the Dark Guild and generates the trust necessary for the people in power to give you further tasks/quests. It is not part of the actual promotion quest for any character class (the second promotion quest becomes available once you've installed a new judge, assuming you've completed the first promotion quest).

Cross-checking online and the game's manual, and all character classes that can learn any Dark magic must complete their second promotion quest before they can learn it. I'm assuming your cleric is a Priest of the Dark already.

As crimson_twilight has said, go complete the Lich promotion quest. You'll need to get a crate of Lich jars and return them to the quest giver.

Thanks !! My priest did her second promotion quest but my wizard did not complete the Lich quest yet.

Wonderful, I'll give it a go next, much appreciated all :)

(I'm speaking as a user here, not a moderator.)

Please mark the relevant post as the solution (doesn't have to be mine; Crimson twilight had the answer and did answer first). That way, others can see your question has been answered, and there will be a link to jump right to the answering post (granted, this isn't an issue in this thread).