The artifact amulet Morgan increases the effect of all Elementla Magic spells (including Water) by 50%, and this stacks with the effect of a Ring of Water Magic, so that a water spell cast by a wearer of both Morgan and a Ring of Water magic has its effect increased by 125%.

Therefore, a Lloyds Beacon spell cast by a master of Water Magic with 12 points of skill in Water Magic will last for 84 days (skill x weeks). If he's wearing either Morgan or a Ring of Water magic, the spell will last 126 days (skill x weeks x 1.5). However, if he's wearing both Morgan and a Ring Of Water magic, the spell will last for 189 days (skill x weeks x 1.5 x 1.5).

The only other way of getting the spell to last longer is to increase the caster's skill in Water magic by putting more skill points into it.

I'd be interested to learn how you compared MMX with MMVI. My two favourites among the MM games are still 3 & 6. MM3 is now ancient, but in its day it was ground-breaking, and in terms of the sheer skill and ingenuity in the number and variety of the riddles and puzzles it set the player, it set a standard which IMO no other RPG has matched. The only game I ever enjoyed as much as those two was The Legend of Darkmoon (Eye of the Beholder 2), but compared to the Might & Magic series, that lacked a lot in replayability.

But then, the gaming experience from years gone by is completely different from the experience nowadays. Originally, I think it was more or less intended to be a way to pass time on a rainy day, or a Sunday afternoon. A modern replacement to the board game, if you will.

The problem is, with all these upgrades and such available for purchase, gaming nowadays seems to have become more of a cash cow than anything else. To me, being hit up to upgrade this or that during the game is a real turnoff!

As for MM7, the lack of ability to have both Light and Dark Magic is definitely a challenge in itself. Some quests are only available for one or the other (Besides the Promotion quests.) It's been quite interesting following the different paths over the years, and seeing what all can be done on either side.

I've purchased the full back catalogues of MM, Wizardry, Eye Of The Beholder and Ultima through Good Old Games over the years, and was most eagerly looking forward to MM3, largely because of your strong recommendation. But I found that modern systems have spoiled me for going back to the old turn-and-tile-based systems, where you have to take each turn and step separately, randomly encounter 99 goblins, but have a spell that can wipe them all out in one casting, but it still takes five minutes to cycle through the deaths, etc etc etc. So I never lasted longer than about half an hour each time I've tried to start. I played MM2 back in the day and enjoyed it, but this was before things evolved. If I had played them in their era, I'm sure I'd have the same fond memories as you, but I just can't sit through it now.

Admittedly, there were some bad glitches (but not insurmountable.) If you played too long at a sitting, the game was likely to crash. But if you only played for about 30 to 40 minutes, it worked fine. Some of the posers in the game were too tough for me to suss out, but there are/were a lot of hints online. (I've written down a lot of them, so if you're stuck, I may be able to help. Just be aware that I can't go back and play the game, since I'm boycotting UBI at the moment.)