Completed DECENT PERSON SIMULATOR 1985 (ultima 4 lp)

[ore clover]

Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar​

It’s time to open up your linens closet, throw on some bedsheets, and show the world the true meaning of being a good person! Welcome to ore clover’s 2017 lp extravaganza of Origin’s Ultima 4!

This is a game that I’ve been meaning to give a proper playthrough to for years. To this point I’ve started it twice, but never advanced very far before moving on to other games. But that changes here and now. And what better way to play this game to completion than to chronicle my journey to the Codex? That way you can provide me with encouraging words, should I falter, like “NEXT UPDATE WHEN FAGGOT?” or “What, you haven’t finished yet? kys pls”

I received the dos version of this game for free with my GoG account when I first signed up, so I’ll be using that. Updates will be provided via screenshots with written commentary. Honest feedback, questions and comments are welcome and might even be read.

Table of Contents

Spoiler

Chapter I: Actual Gameplay Commences
Chapter II: If you consider dialogue gameplay, that is...
Chapter III: Wrapping up Moonglow and Moving on
Chapter IV: Lycaeum and finding British Leader Man
Chapter V: Talking with king english ruler guy
Bonus: Lycaeum Telescope's Images
Chapter VI: Seeking Disciples
Chapter VII: Hanging in the Boonies
Chapter VIII: The Honorabru Town
Chapter IX: "This time a girl actually showed up."
Chapter X: Run Out of Town for Homicide
Chapter XI: Who Sees the Seer?
Chapter XII: Thingken About Honest
Chapter XIII: Yar Har Fiddle-Dee-Dee
Chapter XIV: More Boating and Shrine Thunking
Chapter XV: Horses and Hellions
Chapter XVI: Den of Baddies and Another Shrine
Chapter XVII: Tasteful Interactions with Secret Walls
Chapter 18: I'm sick of typing out these damn roman numerals. No wonder Rome collapsed...
Chapter 19: All You Need Is Love
Chapter 20: Fighting Insomnia
Chapter 21: Combat Sidetracking and Prism Peering
Chapter 22: We Are Sentri
Chapter 23: Jhelom and Valor
Chapter 24: Nautical Tribulations and the Final Rune
Chapter 25: Spooky Scary Skeletons
Chapter 26: went for a five minute hike, spent half an hour lost in the woods
Chapter 27: Searching For the Village Hidden in the Lake
Chapter 28: Testing the Waters of a Dungeon
Chapter 29: Gathering More Clues
Chapter 30: Blood Donors Racket
Chapter 31: Deceit pt. 1
Chapter 32: Deceit pt. 2
Chapter 33: Deceit pt. 3
Chapter 34: Spending the Loot
Chapter 35: Bribing Bartenders
Chapter 36: Primitives Can't Work Air Balloons
Chapter 37: Destard pt. 1
Chapter 38: Destard pt. 2
Chapter 39: A bit more Hythloth exploration plus sum Covetous
Chapter 40: More Covetous Exploration
Chapter 41: The Magnificent Seven
Chapter 42: Groundhog Day
Chapter 43: Magincia Revisited
Chapter 44: Bein Spiritchull
Chapter 45: Go Where the Wind Blows
Chapter 46: Finding the Village Hidden in the Lake
Chapter 47: Stones and Syllables
Chapter 48: Wrong pt. 1
Chapter 49: Wrong pt. 2
Chapter 50: Wrong pt. 3
Chapter 51: Shame pt. 1
Chapter 52: Shame pt. 2
Chapter 53: Shame Intermission: Seeking our Roots
Chapter 54: Shame pt. 3
Chapter 55: Shame pt. 4 and Despise pt. 1
Chapter 56: Despise pt. 2
Chapter 57: Despise pt. 3
Chapter 58: If You've Got the Stones for It
Chapter 59: Ug
Chapter 60: Reinventing Recovering the Wheel
Chapter 61: The Eye of the Hurricane
Chapter 62: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 1
Chapter 63: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 2
Chapter 64: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 3
Chapter 65: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 4
Chapter 66: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 5
Chapter 67: Infinite

With the pleasantries exchanged, and the guests seated, let’s begin:

Spoiler

He certainly takes that alter-ego name of his seriously, does he not?

This game doesn’t use multiple saves; you either continue your game, or erase it and start a new one. I’ll do my best to not resort to reloading backups.

A future avatar needs a name that invokes the best of us. I can think of no finer candidate than the name of our lord and savior, the one and only (uh, I mean three-in-one and only): Jesus the Christ!

Oh right, character limits. That’s fine, no problem; we’ll just chuck out that article and -

I guess I'll have to go with male, since this backwards game doesn't provide a fully implemented gender slider. What were they thinking?

And with that, our story begins.

Our poor hero has been harassed on the shoutbox, bombarded with retadred's, and Grimoire still hasn’t released. Perhaps a walk will help him recover from the heinous cyberbullying.

Just what we need; a good afternoon nap, and then it’s back to the wholesome embrace of General Discussion.

What’s this? A bright blue block floating on the grass? I thought they said absinthe doesn’t work...

Perhaps it's an obelisk? Should I book a flight to Jupiter?

Ah, an ankh! The sacred symbol of life and rebirth. Everyone knows that, right?

I've been making arcane skill-checks, in case you were wondering.

Of course, ancient cartography. Another no-brainer.

Oops, bad roll. Oh well, let’s read the strange book we found. What could go wrong?

Uh huh.

Eh? You're not just going to tell me what's in it?

This is referring to a booklet that shipped with the game, The History of Britannia. GoG includes it with some other goodies in the “extras” download. If you’re curious, here’s a link to a repository of Ultima 4's extras. The Book of History gives a quick rundown of the first three games, an overview of geography, items, shops, monsters, etc., and some helpful gameplay tips sprinkled throughout.

Most importantly, it ends by briefly explaining the Quest of the Avatar. Basically Britain-land has vanquished all its worst evils, and now must learn to lead better lives through the example of an avatar. Makes sense; if you run out of real problems, it’s probably time to start redefining society.

Spoiler

:selfhate:

A fair? What century is this?

I love renaissance fairs! Just like LARPing, my favorite recreational sport!

Sounds like a cult. The sensible thing would probably be to turn round.

Let's keep going.

Glowing people? Have I been transported to Chernobyl?

Uh oh, a gypsy? I’m not interested in whatever you’re selling!

At this point the game asks you to decide a course to take with several different scenarios. CnC!

Spoiler

Uh, I don’t get it. What’s so impure about running a tavern? Oh, maybe it’s also a strip club or brothel; sign me up! I'll gladly sacrifice myself for my poor uncle.

Letting somebody insult you without response sounds pretty low-T to me. That ass should apologize!

Okay, frist of all: That’s not my money to freely hand out. Where’s the option to give a coin from my own pocket? But more importantly, everyone knows beggars are on the take for the Gray Fox. I’m not about to aid a criminal.

How is this even a question. Paladins vanquish evil, and make the world a better place; shepherds are useless peasants. Just look at his patched-up shambles of an outfit!

A little gentrification never hurt anyone. Besides, I doubt that landowner will bother lending me a helping hand once I'm out of a job.

Uh huh, like I’m going to let my buddy take all the glory. I’m sure he’d let me have his table scraps once he’s rich and famous, mhm hmm.

Bout time. This long-ass intro makes for one swole OP.

When the big guy up top screws up, his lackeys take the fall for him. I won’t make that mistake.

… and that’ll do it for the introductory sequence. I’ll call it there. Join us next time when we enter the world of Great Britain and begin our Quest of the Avatar!

 

[Dayyālu]

A Codex LP that's not a Japanese porn game (hey, they have their place though) or another attempt to kill me in a RTS?

Godspeed, man. I'll freely admit I never managed to get that far in old Ultimas, 7-8 are my limits. And I hate 8.

 

[Wayward Son]

Hope you manage to finish this, really do. I'll be one of those voices chanting "More Fagit"

 

[ore clover]

A Codex LP that's not a Japanese porn game (hey, they have their place though) or another attempt to kill me in a RTS?

Godspeed, man. I'll freely admit I never managed to get that far in old Ultimas, 7-8 are my limits. And I hate 8.

I'm going to give it the old college try. I started playing a week in advance, so I have a few updates already set up. I'm going to try and keep them coming slow and steady so that I don't overtake my progress; ideally, I'll finish the game and then spend another week or two publishing the rest of the updates.

Hope you manage to finish this, really do. I'll be one of those voices chanting "More Fagit"

Much appreciated, my good mudcrab.

 

[Tigranes]

Will be reading, dear fellow.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

A Codex LP that's not a Japanese porn game (hey, they have their place though) or another attempt to kill me in a RTS?

Godspeed, man. I'll freely admit I never managed to get that far in old Ultimas, 7-8 are my limits. And I hate 8.

I'm going to give it the old college try. I started playing a week in advance, so I have a few updates already set up. I'm going to try and keep them coming slow and steady so that I don't overtake my progress; ideally, I'll finish the game and then spend another week or two publishing the rest of the updates.

Hope you manage to finish this, really do. I'll be one of those voices chanting "More Fagit"

Much appreciated, my good mudcrab.

The problem with that method is that, at some point, you'll have people 'advising' you on stuff you shoulda done and why didn't you do this that or the other, but it'll all be irrelevant cos you'll be 10-20 hours ahead by then.

 

[ore clover]

I can always hol' up my play sessions if people would rather be on the cutting edge of my let's play progress. I'm still very much in the early stages, and it wouldn't be any skin off my nose. Feel free to pitch in with your opinions, everyone.

Anywho...

Chapter I: Actual Gameplay Commences

In today’s update we finally begin the game in earnest. Welcome to the world of Ultima 4. Simple graphics, but everything’s easily distinguishable. That little stick fellow in the middle of the screen represents our hero, the little fort’s a town, the green swirlies are dense brush and so on.

Spoiler

Let’s take a peek at our hero’s starting stats. Every command is assigned to a separate hotkey; pressing “z” pulls up the stats (yes, ztats. There’s only so many letters in the alphabet okay?)

Pretty straightforward. Class, three attributes, current and max hitpoints, mana points, current level and experience, along with equipped items. You can also scroll through sub menus of spare equipment, spells, reagents, etc. with the direction keys.

How about a quick rundown of the spellcasting mechanic? In Ultima 4, you prepare a spell by first mixing a certain combination of alchemical ingredients into a potion. Once that’s finished, the spell is added to your inventory, and can be used by anyone with the required mana cost; casting it will consume the potion. So in addition to keeping track of mana points, you also need to make more spells in the first place to actually use them. Resource management!

This playthrough isn’t completely blind; I’ve learned a couple things from my previous attempts. With that, let’s make our first spells. We start the game with ginseng and garlic. The game’s manual has most of the ingredient combinations for spells, with explanations of the function each ingredient serves. Mostly fluff, but it’s neat that they tried to assign specific properties to each ingredient and then work from there.

I’m going to make some Cure spells, which cure poison. If we encounter random enemies in the wilderness, they can leave behind trapped chests. Stocking up on Cure spells now will make sure I don’t have to desperately tear across the countryside looking for a healer after failing to disarm a poison trap.

Simple as that! Select your spell, list your ingredients, hit enter.

With that out of the way, let’s explore the nearby town. Now comes a good chunk of gameplay in Ultima 4; dialogue. Let’s see what that fellow over there has to say, shall we?

Quick rundown: you type a word in, usually a topic prompt, and hopefully the npc will respond. The manual gives some conversation starters, like “name” “job” “health”. As you talk to people you’ll find new prompts to use, and different people respond to different prompts. A bit of an information gathering puzzle. This mage’s name is Calabrini.

Ah, the town of Moonglow; I assume one must endure the glow of many moons whenever their team scores a goal. I only just arrived, so no need for healing.

A shrine to the north? Mayhap you’ll tell me more?

“That I cannot help thee with.”

Npcs say this every time you give a prompt they know nothing about. I’ll be seeing this phrase quite a lot, won’t I?

We cross the bridge and spot another mage. How about you, what’s your name? What’s your job?

Blue stone? What's that?

An honesty stone? Of course I’ll search.

Of course you’re not going to just tell me the uses, are you?

Nevertheless, it’s another clue. Within the first few minutes, we now know that there’s a shrine to the north, and a blue honesty stone inside a dungeon.


Going east, the road splits three ways. I take the south route and find another npc.

Uh huh, yeah sure. You’re Shakespeare, whatever you say bud.

Npcs love asking yes or no questions.

As you’ve probably guessed, this will mostly be a talking update. Let’s leave Will to his war on corruption, and check out that shop over there.

Before we speak with the proprietor, let's chat up a nearby npc for clues.

Uh… need to make sure I don’t set off a paradox here… no?

Phew!

Have you noticed how the majority of people here seem to be mages blabbering about honesty? Moonglow is one of the eight towns devoted to the eight virtues, honesty in this case. A town filled to the brim with honest wizards? Is such a thing even possible?

On that note, isn’t it odd that I’m plopped next to an honest town after a crazy gypsy tells me I’m honest? Hmm.

Ah, magical herbs. Now’s my chance to queue up some more spells. Magic herb shops are your main source of spell ingredients. They don’t sell everything; a couple need to be found through, as of yet, unknown means.

The list of common ingredients. For my purposes, I’ll be needing quite a bit of all of them.

For some reason you have to specify how much you’re going to pay after hearing the price. I guess in case I want to cheat someone, or feel like giving them more? For now I pay the desired price; I just want the ingredients.

After I purchase a bit of all of them, I make my way out of the shop and down the road to the east.

Great, another gypsy.

I think I’ll call it there; I’m still trying to figure out what an ideal amount of screens will be for an update. Next time we’ll receive our fortune and continue interacting with Moonglow’s inhabitants.

 

[ore clover]

Chapter II: If you consider dialogue gameplay, that is...

We return to our hero’s explorations of Moonglow. He’s just been accosted by another vagrant. What could the future hold in store?

Spoiler

Heh, the codex dwells in the depths of an abyss. Very topical, I must say.

Moving east, I enter what looks to be a medieval hospital. And over here in the corner:

Fun fact: If you feel like it, you can initiate combat with any of the npcs wandering the town (including children!

) Doing so transports you to a battle map, which we’ll see later on. Hilariously, the same happens with the wounded in healer shops, who will somehow still manage to move around and fight back.

Nigel? Good choice for an apprenticeship.
:cheersmate:

Nope. Will you show me where he is? I’d like to learn that spell too.

Hmph, thanks for nothing. Oh well, we have a name at least. But what about the spell? What does it do?

Shazam, naturally, doesn’t tell me; he probably doesn’t know either.

There’s a deli in town too. If you haven’t seen, there’s two counters above the dialogue window: one for food, one for gold. Food, I’m pretty sure, slowly counts down as the days go on, or if you camp out in the wilderness to recover health and mana. Food stores like this deli can replenish your supply.

Who left this thing here unattended? Parents these days; no accountability.

I meant you, you little parasite.

What? Gross, get that away from me! Don’t you know sharing sandwiches is a serious contributor to the AIDS epidemic?

"It's awful yummy!" Whatever, kid, enjoy your hepatitis.

Heading up north, I bump into an alchemist named Cosima. Other than providing me the opportunity to brag about my alchemy skills, she tells me that the Sleep spell requires “but one part spider silk!” Which would be helpful, if I didn’t already know that thanks to the game manual.

Moving east past her, I accidentally exited the town. But here’s a good spot to show how to save the game. In Ultima 4, you can only save the game while out in the wilderness, not while inside towns (I didn’t realize this the first time I played the game, and lost a good half hour of progress). Just hit "Q" when in the overworld.

While I’m out here, may as well mix up all those spells I bought reagents for.

I mixed up everything I had, realized I botched up something along the line, and grabbed a couple more ingredients from the shop to round out my planned spell amounts. As you can see, each spell is assigned to a different letter of the alphabet. A is Awaken, C is Cure, and so on.

I remember from previous experience that wilderness encounters aren’t usually that dangerous, so I’ve just made a couple spells of each as a buffer. Depending on how the game goes, I may need quite a few more mixtures closer to the end.

Back up in the northern section of town, in the inn, I meet Cromwell. He claims to speak of the virtues of honesty (there are more than one?), and asks me if I strive to be honest.

What’s this mantra, then?

AHM? Does that have a meaning?

“That I cannot help thee with.”

Another clue. Perhaps the shrine to the north, mentioned by Calabrini, is one and the same. No doubt the blue stone of honesty fits in somehow, too.

Next to Cromwell is a mystic mage (I can tell just by looking at him, apparently).

That doesn’t really sound like a job to me. You sure you’re not just saying you’re honest to make people think you’re honest? I ask him about honesty, and he says “Speak the truth and shame the evil forces!” He then says evil still exists within us, and asks me if I wish to conquer mine own evil.

“The quest of a lifetime!” I hope it doesn’t take that long; these updates are dragged out enough as it is.

You can use inns to rest. It’s usually cheaper than paying a healer, but you might not recover all your hitpoints; plus, room size might factor into how many party members can rest at once.

Wandering into the inn’s rooms, we find another child. This one’s “playful”. I think I'll have a seat over there...

Huh? No you aren’t; we’ve never met before.

No, get away from me. My parents told me never to talk to strange children. Stranger danger, stay back!

You’ll get over it.

Leaving the inn, I investigate a patch of grass just west. There’s a chest in the middle, and some more npcs. One of them is a jester by the name of Dekker.

Sorry, pal. I've been throwing around more than enough shitty jokes already; no point in inviting you to do likewise.

Comes with the territory.

And with that, another episode of Decent Person Simulator 1985 comes to a close. Next time we’ll actually start some overworld exploration. Along with more talking, of course.

 

[Darth Roxor]

- Art thou my friend?

- No.

- I am sad.

best dialogues

 

[ore clover]

Chapter III: Wrapping up Moonglow and Moving on

We return to our hero’s explorations of Moonglow. He’s just told off a jester for being too happy. Let’s check that other npc, who was standing next to the chest.

Spoiler

Oh, do you?

“Yes, I hope to go on a great quest!”

It just so happens that I am on an adventure. You could’st even call it a quest.

Excellent, I’ve found a follower! You can be the Mary Magdalene to my Jeebus! We’ll copulate, and give rise to an enlightened lineage of humanity, bearing the secret knowledge of -

Playing hard to get, I see. That’s okay, I can deal. Maybe I’ll swing by later and buy you a coffee.

As for the chest, I’ll leave it alone for now. I feel like a good person isn’t supposed to take other people’s things. Far as I can tell I’ve explored the town. Before I leave, though, I notice what looks like a beggar in an isolated corner.

Oh boy.

Do you now? When I ask him about the sun he shouts, “The moons are my enemies!” When I ask him about them, he just turns away. Fine by me.

Time to explore the surrounding environs. Let’s start by crossing that bridge.

Uh oh, a troll hiding under the bridge.

“Fallout 3 is what Fallout 1 would’ve been if not for technological limitations!”

Here’s how combat works: Everyone gets one action per round. You can move position, attack with your weapon, or cast spells. If you attack or cast, you then choose the direction.

While I move into position, the troll makes the first attack. That little dot up top is a projectile he threw diagonally. Unfortunately, I am incapable of doing likewise; just cardinal directions for me.

We close the gap, and take turns clobbering each other over the head. I have 200 hitpoints, so I’m not concerned.

This happens a lot; when enemies take several hits, they usually start running away rather than risk dying.

“Troika went out of business simply because their games are shit!”

Being a good person, I let him live; the battle is won. You've perhaps noticed I've lost some hitpoints since he started fleeing. Just because they're fleeing doesn't mean an enemy won't stoop to potshots.

Even though I didn’t kill the enemy, he still left a chest of gold behind. Being a mage I don’t know much about disarming traps, but still manage to evade this one.

Not much down here, so let’s check out the north a bit.

Hmm, this looks like a castle rather than a town. Unrelated, you’ve probably seen the fog of war past the trees; forests restrict vision due to their dense foliage.

I enter the castle, and discover that it is the Lycaeum. This must be where Nigel lives, just like Captain Marvel said.

There’s a couple guards out front, so I chat one of them up.

Ooh, a baroness. Maybe I’ll introduce myself. Before heading in, I notice someone slumped up against the Lycaeum’s wall.

Hmm, a beggar. At least this one doesn’t look insane.

I toss some gold pieces his way before moving on. Maybe that will make up for that time I didn’t give a beggar a coin because I was too honest.

Entering the main hall I meet a stately wizard named Tymus, here to welcome me.

I think it’s eight towns for eight virtues, but maybe there’s more? Do tell.

Moving through the pathway to the right, I bump into Nigel. He tells me he teaches magical spells (such as separating an appendage from its larger conglomerate), so I ask him about that Recall spell his apprentice mentioned.

Oh, I already knew about that spell thanks to the manual; maybe his apprentice flubbed up the name? Unfortunately it requires mandrake root, an ingredient that we can’t find in any old shop.

I leave Nigel and head deeper into the Lycaeum. Down the hall I speak with a wounded soldier in the healer's.

Uh, are you talking about whether I’ve seen a dungeon or an altar? Either way, the answer’s the same.

Ah, another clue. The dungeons in the game are possibly linked together, which would speed up finding them.

And with that another episode of Decent Person Simulator 1985 comes to a close. Next time we'll continue exploring what the Lycaeum has to offer.

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[ore clover]

Chapter IV: Lycaeum and finding British Leader Man

The time has come to continue our chronicling of the Quest for Good Things. We join our hero as he continues his investigation of the Lycaeum, making his way to the throne room.

Spoiler

For whatever reason, I’m still talking to guards. This fellow’s named Jon.

Uh, no? I thought the towns followed virtues.

Oh, so the principles are each a different combination of a larger set of virtues. I hope no one’s going to quiz me.

I check with the guard next to Jon, who coincidentally also happens to be named Jon. The jester further up’s named Zajac. He tells me his job is to entertain, but when I ask him to he says, “Ah, not now.” Gotta love the rigid work hours the Jester’s Union set up.

I check with the mage on the other side, who’s wearing strange armor (once again according to my impeccable perception). Name’s Scatu.

Oh right, the Seer. The History of England mentions this fellow named Hawkwind who can determine how dutifully you’re following each of the virtues. He lives in Lord Britiain’s castle, so maybe we’ll check him out whenever we find it.

I approach the double throne, and finally chat up the lovely baroness; she’s the one on the right, if you can’t tell. Hmm, something’s odd here… could it be?

Spoiler

All she wants to talk about is how she and her man rule in the name of truth; her hubby simply directs me back to her if I ask him questions. She then asks me if I seek truth. I say yes, and she says, “Then thou may find it!”

Yeah, thanks a lot. Some of these npcs are competing to usurp my title of Britannia's biggest asshole, I swear.

Leaving the throne room, I head back down to the left and up another hallway. Strangely, this door doesn’t want to open; first locked door I’ve encountered, perhaps? There’s a command in the manual called “Jimmy Lock,” which uses a magic key to open locked doors. I guess I’ll keep my eye out for one of those keys.

Continuing further up this hallway I bump into a druid who seems strangely familiar (Assumptions: The Video Game at this point). His name’s Father Antos.

Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to want to give me any knowledge before I ask for it, and since I don’t know what to ask…

Perhaps I’ll come back later whenever I have a specific object or location I’m looking for.

To the right of Antos is this fellow. I ask more, and he tells me he has a telescope in this observatory. “Search there by the end. Thou shalt find a knob.” He then asks if I know where, even though this is a narrow room with no branches.

This pink dildo shows you maps for, I assume, all the different towns in the game. It lists A through P of the alphabet, which would be enough for an update all on its own, so I’ll leave that for later.

Before I continue on, I head back to that locked door. I have an Open spell, so maybe it opens doors?

After this impressive display of prestidigitation, nothing happens. It turns out that the Open spell specifically targets locked chests, not doors. Oops, I should’ve RTFM more closely.

Moving down, I head to the left once more and find a group of people referring to themselves as truth seekers.

He provides helpful information. If I can find the shrine of honesty, I suppose I use its mantra to meditate. Not sure how the honesty stone factors in, since it’s in a dungeon at the moment.

The rest of the truth seekers don’t really want to talk to me, and that completes my explorations of the Lycaeum (until I figure out how to open that one door, anyway). I depart and explore some more. I reach the northern tip of the island, and start heading east.

Woah, sea monster. He’ll fling fireballs at you, including diagonally, so I instead engage these skeletons to slow him down.

Doesn’t seem like skeletons use ranged weaponry, so we close in and commence the combat. There are actually two skeletons in this fight; that dot next to Chris represents his melee strike as he attacks the one adjacent.

After they take a couple hits, both skeletons decide to flee. Not really something I expected, and I let them go just in case; I don’t remember whether it’s cool to kill evil creatures while they’re running.

The skeletons run, leaving behind their booty. Even though the sea serpent seems to be gone, he’s hanging around just outside of the fov. So, I leave the bridge unexplored and begin circling back to Moonglow.

I’m not sure what sort of monster that is; nixies, maybe (the game’s equivalent of mermen)? It doesn’t leave the water, so I ignore it.

Heading back into town I buy some more ingredients, to replenish some spells, and start asking random people to join me. It doesn’t work. Still single and free, I decide to check out resting at the inn before moving on.

Ugh, he doesn’t look too good. There’s such a thing as sleeping on beds, you know.

With hitpoints and spell points restored, I depart Moonglow. A couple orcs attack me outside, and I scare them off with blunt trauma. After that a couple rogues attack next, which worries me a bit more; from experience I know that rogues will pickpocket some of your money while in melee combat. Time to show them just what our hero can do!

With a flash of light, I fling a fireball at one of the rogues; it doesn’t kill him outright, but he flees the moment his turn comes up. His companion takes another fireball head on, but keeps charging. I wait until he closes in range and clobber him with my staff, sending him running for the hills. Have I actually killed anyone yet?

I duck back into town, make some more fireballs, and then leave again. A troll and an orc come at me, and I send them packing too.

At this point I’d like to move on to some other island, but two more orc groups come charging out from the woods.

New monster! That’s an ettin, a two headed brute. You know, like this guy:

Spoiler

He throws boulders as a ranged attack. I fall back to the two rocks up to the right for cover, so that I can duke it out with the orc in relative safety.

The orc makes a break for it, while the ettin and I play ring around the posy so that I can get in close without taking a rock to the face. Once we’re up close the ettin is surprisingly fragile; he runs away after two hits. He throws one more boulder just before leaving, but I’d already hid behind a rock.

The other group is just a couple orcs; nothing to worry about. I do manage to spring a poison trap while opening their chest, but a quick Cure puts that concern to rest.

That curtained doorway down there’s a moongate. There are several of these scattered across the isles of Britannia. How do they work? The History of Britannia once again provides the information. The two moons control this method of transport; the two circles at the top of the screen show their current phases. The one on the left controls which gate opens at any specific moment, and the moon on the right decides to which other gate it will take you.

Technically the history book names the moons Trammel and Felucca, but I have an easier time remembering them as “left moon” and “right moon”. Sue me.

If you’ve seen the map that came with the game, it has little black and white dots spread about. These represent each moongate, and the particular phase one of the moons needs to be to activate it. With a bit of patience, you can use these gates to travel all over the world.

Notice how there are two new moons? Since they’re both the same, walking into this moongate now will just teleport me right back here; a new moon is the phase connected to Moonglow’s island.

If I wait until the moon on the right (destination moon) begins to wax, I can travel to a new location. It just so happens that I’m now standing outside the gates of…

This castle houses the big man himself, Lord British. I was actually planning to include speaking with him in this update, but those fights sort of bogged it down.

With that, another episode of Good Deeds Man has concluded. Next time, our hero will speak with the fellow responsible for bringing him to this strange world in the first place.

 

[ore clover]

Chapter V: Talking with king english ruler guy

The Quest of the Avatar continues! Our hero has stumbled through a moongate and finds himself standing before Lord British’s fortress.

Spoiler

The guards tell me that Lord British is on the second floor. I enter the main hall and encounter a jester, who asks me if I have an ankh. I tell him I do, and he says, “Then enter in peace!” I wonder if ankhs are a rare artifact, for Avatars, or just anyone who’s considered welcome in the castle has been given one.

Another ankh, on a pedestal over the water. At this fork, I head left.

Behind this door hides the Seer, Hawkwind. Those purple floor tiles are sleep energy fields, which require Dispel to get past; not sure what all the traps are for. I remember visiting Hawkwind during my earlier unfinished playthrough, and he berated me as a coward due to all the fights I was running from (usually rogues since I didn’t want to lose any money).

I’ll visit him later on, once I’ve had enough time to actually walk or stray from the different virtues. I head up the hallway past that second door, which is where I walked in from to access this area.

This sausage fest looks to be the guard quarters. They don’t have much to say, so I move on.

This is a ladder. You go down them with “D” for descend, and up with “K” for klimb. Heh, give Richard Garriott some kool kredits for that. I klimb the ladder to the second floor.

Just down the hall from the ladder is the kitchen. It’s full of children who refuse to talk to me, and a couple chefs (one referring to himself as “Le Chef”) who tell me I should try their soup but don’t actually offer any.

Moving along I approach the throne room, and speak to a jester in front. He takes the time to praise his bard.

“A shame, we do!”

The bard in question won’t talk to me; I’m sure that’s just because he’s very busy, mhm hmm. There’s also another jester in here, named Jester Twin. Uh, is that a pun? “Just your twin?” Whatever.

Oh, well hello. What’s your name?

She tells me she is Juliet; I ask if there’s a Romeo, which doesn’t get me any unique response. Aw yiss, she must be single.

I ask her what her job is, and she tells me that she can help me. I’m hitting it off pretty well.

Uh, that wasn’t really what I had in mind, but okay. Help me learn how the virtues fit with the principles.

Why can’t anyone just give me a straight answer? You clearly know, woman!



Moving on, I approach the man himself, Lord British. He looks something like this:

Spoiler

Strap yourselves in, folks; this will be a while.

I ask about the quest.

I ask about the abyss.

I ask him about the codex, but he doesn’t seem to know any specifics. So I instead ask about the Avatar.

I ask about the virtues.

I ask him about each of the individual virtues.

With all the virtues defined, I then ask him for help on the quest.

Eight travelers, and I assume that includes me. If that’s the case, then there’s probably one for each virtue. And since that gypsy assigned honesty to me, I’ll wager that’s why no one in Moonglow wants to join me; I represent the virtue already.

I ask Lord British to join me, but he declines. Come to think of it, I wonder why he can’t just do all this himself? He’s already in charge; doesn’t seem like such a stretch to also set the standards of morality for everyone himself.

Before I leave the castle I check out another hallway on the second floor, which contains a jail. In here there’s a couple regular prisoners, and what looks to be some sort of monster; based on its appearance, I’m thinking it’s a reaper.

On my way out of the castle, I find a healer's down on the first floor. A solemn ranger, Sheila, is hanging out inside, and she says she’s searching for the inner light.

Okay, so now I know what I need to enter shrines. It sounds to me like I will need to visit a shrine for each virtue, after finding its rune, and then meditating via the mantra. Still not sure how the stones fit into all this.

Next to Sheila is a wounded fighter, Seesha. She also gives me a helpful tip.

I’ll call the update there; all that dialogue bloated it up. Now that British has told us what we need to do, we can officially begin the quest. See you next time.

 

[Darth Roxor]

i never felt like playing any ultima because they all looked boran (except 8 which is mega-majestic)

cant say ultima 4 doesnt look particularly not-boran on a closer look

 

[Viata]

Posting so I can follow it. Love this game.

 

[ore clover]

Bonus: Lycaeum Telescope's Images

Before the quest continues, let's have a quick update for all those different knob settings on the Lycaeum's telescope. From what I can tell, it shows off most or all of the overworld town locations.

Spoiler

Lord British's castle, first floor. Looks like there might be some hidden rooms I have yet to check out.

This looks like the Lycaeum; you can see the telescope in the top right corner. Not sure how it's viewing itself, though. Maybe it curves up after going out the window, and can be rotated directly below. Or, I suppose the explanation could always be:

Spoiler

Not sure which location this is. Don't think I've been here yet.

Here's Moonglow, the first town we investigated. You can even see the chest out in the open up to the northwest.

This one's Britain, the town of compassion, just next to Castle Lord British. We'll be visiting here in the next update.

This is Yew, the town of justice, in the forests to the north of Castle Lord British, next to a moongate.

This is Trinisic, town of the Paladins.

This one might be the ruins of Magincia. I remember wandering to this location in a previous playthrough, but quickly vacating when I spotted a nearby demon.

This one I think is a town called Paws. Another location we'll be seeing soon.

That's that. I might come back to this update and edit it as I learn more of the locations. Next update we'll resume the questing.

 

[ore clover]

Chapter VI: Seeking Disciples

We return once more to the ongoing quest for enlightenment! Our hero was nearly talked to death by Lord British, but his will is strong.

Spoiler

Any messianic figure worth their weight in unleavened bread loaves has an entourage of slobbering groupies, so let’s find some of our own. There’s a town right next to Brit’s castle, so that’s a good place to start. It’s named Britain.

Lord British, Britannia, Britain? I'm getting major vibes of :patriot: level patriotism here. I took a quick jaunt to Wikipedia and discovered that, while he was born in Cambridge, Richard Garriott's parents are both Americans. That must be where he gets it from.

As a helpful reference, maybe I'll use those telescope images for a quick overview whenever we enter a new town. Here's the layout of Britain:

Spoiler

Chatting up the guards reveals this town to be one of compassion. Other than saying that we should all be filthy :russia:'s, he asks me if I kill non-evil creatures. I’m pretty sure I haven’t yet, but if it was self-defense I don’t see why not.

Yeah, yeah, you tell that to a giant python as it’s squeezing the life out of you. I walk down the road, and head up at a fork. There’s a cheerful guard (with the same shaming attitude) next to a weapons and armor shop.

A large selection of weapons for sale, most of which I can’t use anyway. However I do remember, from the history book, that mages are capable of wielding slings.

Sounds like a deal to me. It’ll help keep my innards inside me if I can pelt orcs with stones from the other side of the combat zone. You can only have one weapon equipped at a time, but it’s not like I’m rending mountains in twain with my staff.

Ooh, a spicy woman. What’s your name, hot stuff?

Spoiler

She mentions that she’s a fighting bard, and that bard’s know many things. Naturally, though, I have to figure out what to ask her first before she’ll impart her boundless knowledge on me.

The fellow next to her is a drunken fighter; says his name is Joe. Between hiccups he asks me for rum. I don’t think I have any on me, so I refuse.

“Ah, be a joe!”

The armor selection is decent, but mages can’t wear anything better than clothes. Good to keep this place in mind for when I have followers who can, though.

Leaving the shop I make my way back to the fork and head to the right. As I walk toward this town’s inn, I spot a beggar.

Her name’s Sprite. I have lots of spare cash, so I take the opportunity to be a compassionate soul.

Excellent, another rune. I’ll have to pay that spicy femme a second visit.

Technically I still haven’t paid Sprite, so I guess I could just leave. But that wouldn’t be the sort of thing a decent person should do, so I toss her some coins before moving on.

That’s a start, at least.

I head back to the inn, and since the price’s only 15 gp I decide to take a nap. Afterward I notice that there’s a shepherd staying in the adjacent room, so I invite myself in.

His name’s mentor, and he tells the tale of how demons destroyed Magincia due to its overwhelming pride. He then asks me if I’m proud, so I honestly answer that I am (what else am I supposed to say? “I am absolutely not proud one little bit!”?)

“That is not a virtue!”

I remember Lord British mentioning the ruins of Magincia when I asked about humility. No doubt a humble heart must travel there to accomplish some goal or other for the Quest.

Heading up from the inn I find a tavern, with three more drunken fighters. They all say they’re Joe, and ask for rum. Since I still don’t have any, I step up to the counter.

I pay the money, but as far as I can tell nothing was added to my inventory. Plus he said ale, so I think I just chugged a mug.

Leaving the tavern I begin my search for the compassion rune. Although I mostly wander aimlessly and hope that it’ll just be sitting out in the open somewhere.

I bump into a tired shepherd named Shalimar, who’s watching over children; he says it takes a great deal of compassion.

The game’s intro didn’t say anything about “your kids are driving you up the wall!” so I guess “no” is a safe answer here.

The kid next to Shalimar won’t tell me his name, but he does tell me how to learn the mantra: “Ask Cricket!”

Did you notice the musician in the tavern? He’s Cricket; he was too busy playing to respond last time I talked to him, but maybe I can try again.

That’s two mantras down, six to go.

I start trying to find the rune again, and notice a healing shop with a couple patients. One of them, named Sebastian says he knows a terrible secret. He’s very quick to tell me it, so I have to wonder how secret it actually is.

If you’ve played the earlier Ultima games (or read the history book like I did), you’ll remember that Mondain was the antagonist of Ultima 1. Sebastian goes on to say that an evil artifact of some sort remains, in a location called Buccaneer’s Den. He asks me if I’ll find and destroy it.

“Then ask at the pub there of the skull!”

Uh, does that mean the artifact is Mondain’s head? I suppose I’ll find out once I find the den. The other patient doesn’t respond, so he’s probably sleeping or dead.

As I continue my search for the rune, I bump into a druid named Shapero. He’s looking for someone named Julio. If that's a reference, I don't recognize it.

“Find the shrine of compassion east across two bridges!”

Neat, now I know the general location of two shrines: Honesty is probably just north of Moonglow, and compassion is somewhere east of Britain.

My search brings me to a grassy outcrop in the southeastern area of town, where some children are listening to a bard by a campfire. Along with yet another jester. This one asks me if I give to the needy, which I do.

The bard at the campfire’s named Iolo. His job is playing for all the people.

“A shame.”

He took that well. He also mentions, concerning compassion, “If you treat someone else well then they will have reason to do the same.” Nice euphemism for the golden rule, but I feel I should point out to Iolo that that doesn’t mean people will actually do the same; just that they now have a reason to.

The children don’t give me any names, and say that their job is singing. “Ho eyo he hum!” it goes. Maybe I’ll need to remember that later.

I still can’t figure out where that rune is, and when I head back to the tavern I find out that one of the drunk Joe’s actually isn’t a drunk Joe.

Okay, that’s a new item to look for. Unless he’s talking about the virtue stones. He says, “A one-handed beggar knows their secrets! Find him in Serpent castle for he knows of orbs!”

Since I’m stupid, and already forgot that I was supposed to ask around the tavern in Buccaneer’s Den about that ancient skull, I spend the next minute or so bothering everyone in Britain’s tavern about the skull.

I’m not sure what happened, because I still don’t have any rum. If I ask any of the Joe’s about the stones, they say, “The yellow stone is in the dungeon of despise...” So, that must be the stone of compassion. Despise being the opposite of compassion, as far as Ultima 4 is concerned. Just like deceit and honesty.

After some more asking around about the skull, and fruitlessly looking for the rune, I give up on both counts and start asking random people to join me. And hark sooth, one accepts!

Cool, my first disciple. Pretty nice of him too, after I trashed his music and all.

So ends another episode of Ultimate the Fourth. Another dialogue heavy segment, but we did acquire a new member for our quest. Join us next time as the quest continues!

 

[Darth Roxor]

let's have a quick update for all those different knob settings

that's right man, work that knob

 

[ore clover]

that's right man, work that knob

Spoiler

I can see how the game can come across as boring. If you haven't played it before, and aren't using the cluebook or a walkthrough, a lot of time has to be spent on meticulous npc conversing to figure out what to do.

Truth be told, I figure more than half the reason I didn't progress very far before quitting originally was due to not taking good notes; I'd leave off for a few days, and then forget the clues I'd learned. This let's play has helped a lot, since I'm now checking over everything while writing the updates.

 

[ore clover]

Chapter VII: Hanging in the Boonies

Welcome back to my let’s play of Ultirna 4. Last we left off, our hero had found his first companion. What could be in store for these brave adventurers?

Spoiler

Let’s check out Iolo’s stats. He’s more dexterous, but that’s about it; I’m both smarter and stronger. He’s a level higher than me, though, which nets him a hundred extra hitpoints. He’ll also make a good trap disarmer.

Bards can wear leather armor, so I decide to grab some from the store. It’s a bit pricey, but I’m not spending my cash on much else right now.

Equipping weapons and armor is simple. Press “R” to “ready weapon,” and press “W” to “wear armor.” You’re then shown the list of spare equipment, and choose an option to equip; your currently equipped weapon/armor gets swapped out. Iolo puts on the leather armor, and we sell his clothes for 25 gp.

We spend another minute or so trying to find that blasted rune, but still fail. Giving up, we instead head outside to seek out other towns and followers.

I forgot to mention when Iolo was added to the team: Notice how he doesn’t show up while we wander? Our hero’s stick figure remains the representation of the entire party while we explore towns, dungeons and the wilderness; everyone else remains hidden until a fight commences. Just like Final Fantasy, my favorite chinese role playing game!

Those orcs attack us, which gives me a chance to use Iolo’s sling for ranged combat.

Fighting with a ranged weapon works the same as with melee. Hit “A” and select a direction for your attack. Difference being that you launch a projectile potentially across the entire zone.

It’s not foolproof. Obstacles can block the path of the projectiles, which I’d already discovered while dodging that ettin’s boulders.

The orcs run, unsurprisingly, but we accidentally kill one because I wasn’t paying attention. Hopefully that doesn’t factor too harshly into our morality meter.

We move south, hugging the coast as we go.

With a band of pickpocketing rogues inbound, we prepare for battle. Do you remember that sling I bought before Iolo joined the team? I have our hero equip that now, to try and thin the rogues’ numbers before they close in.

One of them flees after a single hit, and the other takes multiple stones to the head before crumpling in a dead heap.

We don’t have much time to regroup. As Iolo opens the chest, a group of orcs approaches from the brush, and starts pursuing us further south.

Using my world map, I’m trying to make my way down south to what looks like another moongate location, as well as a town. Unfortunately we’re not exactly pathfinders, and the dense brush slows our pace considerably; a confrontation with the orcs is inevitable.

Nothing we can’t handle. We double team one of them, while the other gets lost in the brush and rocks. Neither survive.

After crossing two consecutive bridges (which can actually be spotted on the world map, nice level of detail there) we see what looks like some sort of village. We decide to enter, and discover its name is Paws.

Spoiler

I’m a bit concerned we’re walking into some sort of degenerate furry convention in the boonies, but we still need to seek out information and followers.

At the gate we meet the chief guard of Paws, Wilmoore. He asks if we mean to cause trouble, so I of course say we are not. We then head off the road, and speak with a bard named Little Jon. He claims to sing of Britannia.

Hmm, news travels quickly; I don’t think I’ve been here for very long.

Eh heh.

If you type in “earth” he’ll respond with, “I hope someday thou may return!” I’m not sure if he means return to earth, or return to Britannia after leaving. Unless I complete the quest of the avatar, though, I probably won’t ever get the chance to leave.

We head further down and meet a hooded ranger in the southwest corner of the village. His name’s Barren. We call that “sterile” where I come from, but anyway… he tells us that he travels the land.

Hmph. Up yours, buddy; I happen to have a significantly high intelligence stat, I’ll have you know!

“We shall see.”

I’ll bet that chucklefuck’s secretly a demon, or something. We skirt along the south wall of town, and notice stables for horses.

We decline the offer for now; with the party to likely begin growing, I’ll need to mix up some more spells before I buy anything else.

Just outside the stables we find a jester named Asemly. He says he’s here to serve us, and dances and sings. He asks if that interests me, so I say it does. “Good!” That’s about it; he doesn’t join us, and goes “Tra la la!” when I ask about dancing.

Just past Asemly we see a guard, who refuses to talk with us, and a little girl.

Damn mooch. Somebody find a factory for this kid to work in!

We see another guard, who also doesn’t talk to us. He’s standing just outside the Folley Tavern. I head inside, to speak with the proprietors and customers. In the center is a “very large woman” that serves the ale. “We have the finest brew in Britannia!”

Yup, just like how every restaurant serves the world’s best coffee. We head over to one of the patrons, named Sven.

It’s spelled “ja” by the by, Mr Garriott. I extend an invitation for Sven to join my troupe, but unfortunately chopping off orc heads doesn’t seem high on his priorities list.

On the other side of the tavern is a man of many years, named Zair the Wise.

Oh yes, boundless secrets indeed (someday I’ll get my hands on that Stones of Arnhem thread!). But perhaps we’re thinking of separate abysses. I tell him I haven’t seen the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom, to which he replies “Seek it!” Very helpful.

Like with the other tavern, Greg and Rob provide food and drinks. We don’t really need either, but I try a mug to see if our hero’s hitpoints are restored. Nothing seems to happen; maybe it affects mana points (I couldn’t say what the before and after numbers for that were since I was focusing on the health).

We leave and start circling around the tavern, skirting the north wall of Paws. Up there we encounter a young mage named Jingles (they’re certainly competing with Might and Magic 2 for goofy npc names and interactions).

Ah, that would make moongate travel much more convenient; the spell is said to allow you to travel to any moongate whenever you want. Hopefully his master is about to die of old age. The manual mentions that there’s an urban legend where the person who teaches someone else this spell is doomed to never cast it themselves again. Whether or not it’s made up to keep the little guy down, we’ll have to discover for ourselves.

He says that his master’s name is Mentorian, and asks if I’ve seen him.

I’ll need to find myself a ship, then. On our way back to the entrance of the village, we notice an armor shop that we missed the first time through. They sell cloth and leather, neither of which we need. There’s a few more npcs in the store, so we chat them up.

One of them is a wise lord: Sir Simon the keeper. He won’t tell me what he keeps, though. Standing next to him is a wise lady. She’s Lady Tessa the keeper, but she also won’t spill the beans. The third one’s a tall muscular knight named Sir Hobie; he serves Lord British, but I couldn’t get any specifics on that.

Directly south of the armor shop is a general market.

Nice name; don’t let ol’ Anita know you exist. Damsel’s here to buy food; according to her, Paws has the best rations. The market keeper, Max, sells food in bundles of 25 for 30 gp each bundle; not sure about quality, but I’m pretty sure I saw lower prices in Moonglow.

From there we decide to keep moving south, to see if we can find that town and moongate.

That wraps up another thrilling installment of Ultima 4. Tune in next time as we continue our search for towns, groupies, and knowledge.

 

[Tigranes]

Having enjoyed Ultima VII and none else, yeah, it seems like the gameplay itself is rather underwhelming, though it's definitely nice to be able to ask folk various things and to romp through an organised fairy tale narrative. Appreciating the LP though.

 

[ore clover]

So far the game's shined the most when I'm out and about, looking for new locations. The freeform exploration has been done pretty well imo; a couple days ago I said, "I'll just find this one shrine and be done in fifteen minutes," and ended up playing for a little over an hour due to bumping into other stuff along the way.

Oh and before I forget, here you go Viata:

Chapter VIII: The Honorabru Town

We return to the Lord of the Avatars, directed by ore clover. Our hero, with his new compatriot Iolo, has left Paws for greener pastures, in search of new friends.

Spoiler

We keep hugging the coast as much as we can, forcing our way south through brush to avoid the nearby hills. A group of two skellies accosts us, but both flee after one hit from our slings. I ponder again whether or not it would virtuous to vanquish fleeing skeletons.

We finish them off. Hopefully that doesn’t bite us later on.

We loot the chest they brought with them, and notice a lone orc charging right for us. We hit him twice in the face, but he continues the charge. A third stone kills him dead. Uh, rabies maybe?

We continue our journey south, taking advantage of a swath of grassland to boost our speed.

Hmm...

Spoiler

We engage two of the groups for a total of six orcs and one troll ("Starfield's gonna dominate E3, guys!"). During one of the fights, I accidentally move off of the combat zone while Iolo finishes the battle; hopefully Hawkwind won’t call me a coward for that.

We continue south through brush and into a dead-end peninsula (you can spot it on the world map; it’s just north of a group of four islands), where the last group of orcs takes us on. I accidentally kill another one as it tries to flee; I’ve lost count by now, so whatever.

Right about then I realized that we’d overshot our target, so we start heading back up north.

Some more orcs and skellies pursue us through hills and brush as we close in on what I figure is the general area of the moongate.

Oops, what are we doing back here? Overshot again, crap!

Mountain combat at least makes for a more interesting battleground. As you can imagine, we end up winning. The group of skeletons is right behind, though.

Woah, not what I was expecting. Those are evil wizards with the skeletons, perhaps their summoners. That’s not hair on the one on the right; it is said that a mage’s head and shoulders glow with a blue aura while they channel magic, represented by a flashing arc in-game.

That purple-blue sphere was cast by the wizard on the left. I’m not sure what spell it was, since we’ve been casting fireballs mainly; hopefully it was a magic missile. On a side note, I attempted to have Iolo cast a fireball, and learned that his paltry 13 mana count is too low to handle it. Perhaps I should mix some magic missiles for him throw around.

Our hero kills one of the mages with two fireballs, and then we tagteam the second. He flees after a few hits, and the skeletons quickly follow.

After a few more orcs fail to end us, we finally find the town we’ve been searching for. Upon entering we learn that it is Trinsic. The guards quickly identify it as the town of honor (which you probably remember Lord British telling us; I of course had already forgotten).

Spoiler

Excellent, we’ll look him up. Just to the right of the gate guards is a strong paladin named Rigmore, who officially welcomes us to Trinsic. He also mentions, “Wisdom on the virtue of honor is found throughout this towne.” He tells us to seek our path, rather than just telling us where to go.

Heading down we meet a shining paladin named Lexington, the warlord of Trinsic. Seems an odd title to have for a paladin, but he claims to have solved many quests. According to him, solving quests brings one honor.

Huh, don’t take others gold? How am I supposed to make money? Hopefully he’s just talking about chests that townsmen have, and not the gold left behind by enemies.

As for not attacking non-evil creatures, I assume that means I just have to let them bump into us on the overworld map, instead of hitting “A” to engage them.

I head down to the southwest corner of town, which is hidden by trees. A mage is hanging out here, alone, surrounded by poison energy fields. Fortunately we don’t spring them on our way through. The mage announces himself as Virgil, and says that he makes magical fields. His favorite is poison.

If you say so; you went out of your way to ask, after all.

I throw a few more topics at him, but none stick. We leave him and his fields, and bump into a wandering mage named Quix. She claims to be seeking the skeleton. I consider pointing out that there’s one hiding inside her, but she clearly doesn’t want just any old pile of bones.

If that's the case, I certainly would like to find this skeleton as well! Unfortunately she doesn’t know where it is, and just urges us to seek it as well.

Hugging the south wall, we encounter this lone boy and bull behind some trees. The lad claims to have run from the bull, and asks if it is gone yet. He then asks us to save him, but I’m not sure how to make the bull go away so we leave them for now.

Just north of the boy is a tall wizard named Swindrik. He says he casts spells of great power, and when I reply that I do as well he asks me what the most powerful reagent is. Since mandrake and nightshade are the two ingredients not found in stores, I make a guess and go with mandrake.

Do you remember how we just visited the Folley Tavern, in the village Paws? You do? That’s great, congratulations! That makes one of us! I’d completely forgotten the name of the tavern in Paws, so I just log this bit of info aways.

He won’t tell us anything about nightshade, the other rare ingredient, so we head further north and bump into a searching paladin named Kline. He’s searching for the entrance to the shrine of honor.

Ffs, you tell me! On retrospect, he’s probably talking about the rune of honor and the mantra of honor, but at the time I was too annoyed at his ambiguity to come to that conclusion.

Moving on we find an inn, and speak with a soulful fighter named Dergin. He seeks a place to rest, after questing long and hard (heh heh… those are the game’s words, not mine).

I tell him I’m not enlightened, and he lets us know that the shrine is to the southwest beyond swamps. Neat, we’ll just load up on some more Cure spells whenever we decide to tackle that.

We wander over through the door on the left, and enter a tavern. We meet a sleepy fighter named Publius, who drinks a toast to honor. He asks us what’s left when honor is lost; maybe we’re supposed to answer with whatever the dungeon opposite of honor is, but I’m not sure what that is at the moment. Further within the tavern we spot a handsome fighter named Dupre. As you know, he allegedly joins questing bands.

I suppose we’ll swing by later, then. We still don’t have the rune or mantra of honor, but the town’s mostly explored so we head back outside. The group of orcs that was chasing us before, as well as some rogues, follow us around as we search for the nearby moongate.

Here’s the location of the moongate; this one opens when the left moon is a waning crescent (edit: I think it's technically a waning gibbous, not crescent; sorry for the confusion, all you moon phase buffs).

While waiting for the gate to appear, the orcs and rogues attack us; we handily defeat them all. Since it takes a while for the gate to show I start to worry we’re at the wrong spot, so we wander off north and fight some skeletons. After beating them I notice that we’re near Trinsic again, so I check the world map and conclude that we shouldn’t have left that spot. Whoops.

Some more rogues and skeletons accost us on the way, and while we wait for the moongate some more orcs show up.

Unfortunately, they are too late. The gate materializes, we wait until the right moon becomes new and…

Voila, back outside Moonglow. Just as planned; I spend the next fifteen minutes using our spare cash to mix up some more spells.

That’s that; another stimulating adventure under the bag. Join us next time when we continue our quest to sift important clues out of droves of npc dialogue, and beg strangers to join our cause.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Jesus Ch. is an avatar of barely adequate honour it seems.

 

[ore clover]

Chapter IX: "This time a girl actually showed up."

We return to the climactic tale of our hero and his pawn Iolo. After questing long and hard, they’ve stopped off at Moonglow to resupply and rest…

Spoiler

Check it; now we’re magically equipped to handle most situations in the near future. There’s still a couple we don’t have yet, primarily due to requiring rare ingredients, but besides that I think we’re good to go. Departing Moonglow, we make our way to the nearby moongate, crossing the bridge in the process.

Oh, good; that troll brought friends this time.

“What’s that? MCA’s guest writing some side characters again? When will you admit he’s a has-been?”

We kill the fiend that dared say that, and let the other two run away. They throw a few axes at us, but we position ourselves out of reach.

Unfortunately Iolo poisons himself on their trapped chest, and just like that two more trolls attack from under the bridge. Must’ve stumbled onto some sort of convention.

A quick Cure eliminates the first problem, and we engage the trolls. They do a decent job dodging our stones, and land a few hits themselves. As they flee, our hero casts a Heal, bringing his hitpoints from 86 back up to 172.

And now we wait.

...

During the interim our hero casts a Heal on Iolo, bringing his hitpoints back to 220.

...

Once the moongate pops up, we use it to get back to Leader English Fellow’s castle.

Here’s how you level up: Once you’ve reached the experience threshold, Lord British will see it through the next time you speak with him. Iolo doesn’t have enough for level 4 yet, so now we’re both level 3. Now our hero also has 300 hitpoints; I haven’t noticed any constitution stat, so hp may be separate from class. We’ll just have to see once we find more followers.

We depart the castle, just in time to see the active moongate. Ignoring the oncoming group of orcs we boldly charge into the gate. As you can see, the right moon is currently a waxing gibbous; that corresponds to a moongate in the forests to the northwest.

It’s a bit intimidating, since we can’t see much of anything beyond the forests, but we press on to the east. There’s a town somewhere nearby, and we intend to find it.

Ah hah, that wasn’t too difficult. Eat your heart out, Bilbo Baggins and the Seven Dwarves!

This town is named Yew. If you’ll recall, Lord British identified it as a druid haven.

Spoiler

As we enter, we immediately see a wise druid named Dwp.

… uh, I don’t think he inherited his wisdom from his parents, if that name's anything to go by.

Dweeb welcomes us to the city of justice. “Love no one more than the truth, for justice seeks no favors. Temper thy justice with understanding.” That works for me; I love myself over everything else, and I embody honesty. Honesty is the soul of truth, as Shakespeare once said. Next to Dwp is a big guard, who both doesn’t give a name or much of anything else. We move down south to a dry goods shop.

We stop to chat with this sleek ranger, who gives no name either. She’s looking for a home on the range. “Where the deer and antelope play.”

Spoiler

She asks if we’ve heard of such a place. I’m not sure if that wonderful melody references a specific range, but I have heard it at the very least. “Seldom is heard a discouraging word!”

We quickly make our way over to the other ranger in the shop. She ALSO wishes to sing at us, so we shuffle over to the counter instead.

Food prices aren’t much better over here, it seems. We’ll have to find a town nearby the farms so we can exploit the surplus!

We leave the store and briefly beg Dwp to join us; he refuses. Moving to the east we meet a druid named Druid. She seeks justice, and tells us to seek the shrine.

Nice! We don’t have the rune yet, but now we know the general location of another virtue shrine. “Ask Talfourd for he knows of the rune.”

Keeping that in mind we continue exploring the town. Next we come across a wandering druid, also named Druid. If that weren't enough, most of the druids walking about are named Druid.

This town, man.

She also seeks justice. Just below her is a healing spot, with a withered form at the counter. Her name’s Frida, and she begs for her poor baby.

We give her fifteen gold pieces for her baby’s healing. Now that I thunk about it, and remembering that it would’ve cost two-hundred pieces to heal our hero a while back, that probably wasn’t a very useful gesture.

The two bodies over to the sides don’t respond; rest in peace? We leave the healer's and move through some trees bordering a river. The water appears to encircle the entire town. In the middle of some trees running the southern border of town we encounter a lone boy name Short Round. When I ask about his job he says he works for Jones, and follows up, “I think Indi’s on a quest!”

… I genuinely did not get the reference until writing up this update. Please forgive me.

I’m having fun playing the game, so I decide that our hero and Iolo must also be enjoying themselves. “Write to Lord British and tell him!!!”

Heh, just like sending our final scores to New World Computing.

We head back toward the center of town, and enter what looks like what passes for their seat of government. We’re met by a thin man named Pinrod, who takes council on justice. He asks if we fight for justice, and replies, “Good, the druids chant the mantra!”

Okay, so we’ll have to check out the druids and see if we can learn it. We wander into the council chamber, and meet another thin man named Pinrod (Jesus Chris, these druids...).

Ah, we’ve found him. We ask about the rune, and in response he asks if I can honestly claim to be guilty of no crime whatsoever. There was that one time I scored three parking tickets in one evening, so…

At first I thought he was committing us to prison, but then I realized a possible alternative interpretation. You can press “S” to “search,” which I haven’t bothered to do so far because you press “G” to open chests ("Get Chest"). Perhaps we’re supposed to find runes by using the search command? That could explain why I didn’t see the compassion rune in Britain (the town next to Lord British’s castle, if you’re confused).

Next door to Talfourd is a jail with two cells; one’s filled with what looks like two beggars, and the other has some regular looking npc in it. We head to his cell first.

I ask him about his job, and he turns away (lol, I guess that’s a bit mean to ask of a prisoner). I then re-initiate the conversation and ask about the rune. “On guard! Fool!”

At least we know his class now. We easily best him, and he begins to flee. I let him leave without thinking.

Uh, did we just release a prisoner?

Turns out he had 21 gold pieces on him, and when we search we also find the rune of justice. Huzzah!

We head out of the council, and I spot a druid hanging on the other side of the water. We can’t swim, so we begin searching for a way around. While traveling up north we bump into another druid named Druid, but asking about the mantra doesn’t yield any results; typing “chant” doesn’t either. Maybe I’m supposed to clue it together from something else they say?

In the top left corner of town we spot some chanting druids. Unfortunately they don’t seem to want to tell me the mantra either. This fellow says, “I am Silent,” when I ask his name. Uh, I don’t get it. If there’s a puzzle going on here, I’m stumped. We check out the other druids at the campfire.

This one’s a quiet druid. “True justice satisfies all, false none.” I’m pretty sure this is the first druid in town that we’ve met whose name isn’t Druid (besides Silent ofc). I wonder…

Huzzah! We may not have figured out the mantra yet, but we’ve found the rune of justice and acquired a follower who embodies justice. And a girl, too! We’re not just some sorry pack of nerds, it would seem.

That’ll end this update. Up next we’ll glance over Jaana’s stats and continue exploring Yew, the town of Justice.

 

[Darth Roxor]