Ok, made it to freedom isles but no mana spring
. I've scouted a fair bit on freedom isles but can't seem to locate it. I got blind and target, blind let me beat the abandoned castle ( kill the paintings! much xp!), and enabled me to get to level 10 (0 losses) before freedom isle on time.
Might have to just plough through freedom isle and not concern myself too much with casualties, or skip 20 turns every battle to get back the mana. I've already burnt through about 9 mana potions.