Part 2: Trinsic

The game starts with a red faced being talking to you in a dream. He refers to himself as the "Guardian" and how he will rule Britannia, but it's overall pretty cryptic. When you wake the game begins.

You emerge from a red moongate in the city of Trinsic. Moongates are a means of travelling around Britannia. They are usually blue portals that sit above where a moonstone is buried. In Ultima VII, there are ten moongates in set locations you can use to get around. If you walk through a moongate you are teleported to one of the other gates around Britannia (seemingly at random). You can also use the orb of the moons to summon a red moongate which will also take you to a random blue moongate in the world. The moongate that brings you to Britannia is red, which is unusual.

Your arrival interrupts a conversation between the Avatar's oldest companion and dearest friend, Iolo (pronounced "Yolo") and a stable worker. Iolo is a bard and has been a character right from Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness. Iolo and the stable owner are speaking about a horrific murder which has taken place. Iolo naturally joins your party and the mayor Finnigan asks you to investigate.

The murder scene.

Walking into the stables reveals a grisly scene. A man has been ritualistically murdered in the centre of the stables. A wingless gargoyle (a race of humanoids who live among humans) is also dead in the room out the back. There's a key on the ground which is our first clue. According to the mayor and the stable boy the murdered man is the blacksmith Christopher, and the gargoyle is his assistant Inamo. The mayor suggests I speak to Christopher's now orphaned son Spark about the key.

The mayor of Trinsic, Finnigan, asks me to investigate the murder.

Ultima VII has a paperdoll inventory system. Because I'm playing the game using Exult (a Windows based game engine developed by a third party) this is updated to the UI used in Serpent Isle (the sequel to this game). You drag and drop equipment directly onto each party member and you can see it equipped. Other items can be stored in their backpack or in a bag attached to their leg. Below we have the inventories for Iolo (the grey haired man) and myself. You can see our backpacks as well - you have to manually sort items within them. By modern standard it is tedious, but there is something deeply satisfying about it as well:

The inventory system. The Avatar is the golden haired man, Yolo is the grey haired bard.

I tend to assign each party member with a kind of item they will carry. Perhaps Iolo is the bank and holds all gold and gems, Shamino (we'll meet him soon) carries the food, etc. I let the Avatar hold quest items and magic reagents.

For this first part of the game I am trapped in Trinsic. Trinsic, by the way, is supposedly the city of Honour. The entire city is walled off and the guards will not let me out without a password. To obtain the password I need to investigate the murder in the stables and prove to Finnigan that I have concrete leads to follow.

Travelling around Trinsic I meet a guard who was attacked last night. He didn't see who the attacker was but mentioned whoever hit him over the head probably escaped on a ship called the Crown Jewel. Gargan the shipwright confirms that the Crown Jewel was docked in Trinsic last night and mentions he saw a man with a hook. When I talk to Spark (who is just 14 year old) he confesses seeing a man with a hook and a wingless gargoyle at the time of the murder - and then begs with tears in his eyes to join my party and avenge his father's death. I decide Spark could be an asset and let him join. We also found a use for the key we found at the murder scene. It opened a chest in Christopher's house. Inside the chest was a Fellowship medallion, 100 gold pieces, and a note talking about a delivery. It all looked a bit suspicious.

The Fellowship are a new organisation in Britannia and Trinsic has a branch. The building has the appearance of a church, and the organisation itself seems to match a religion as well. The Fellowship preach three ideas: Strive for Unity, Trust Thy Brother, and Worthiness Preceeds Rewards. At this stage we don't know more about it, but the leader of the Trinsic branch Klog seems like a shifty character, as does his wife. Klog talks about two of his colleagues (Elizabeth and Abraham) who recently visited and they had an argument with Christopher.

We are also on the look out for better gear. Between us we only have a few pieces of leather armour and some basic weapons. Ultima VII is filled with secrets. One such secret is at the armourer in Trinsic. There's a hidden lever which opens up a secret back room.

The secret back room of the armourer.

The inhabitants of Britannia do not take kindly to thievery so I had to be careful. I moved one his items around until the shopkeeper followed me, annoyed and suspicious. I used this opportunity to lure him away from the shop - then sprint back ahead of him and steal all the useful gear I could find. The most interesting item was the tiny dagger with a red hilt on the top right red table in the bottom room (in the screenshot above). This is called a "great dagger" and can be held in one hand. When you swing it it turns into a two-handed sword mid-swing. At this stage in the game this magical weapon is extremely powerful so I made sure to arm the Avatar with it.

At this stage we have some leads and we've learnt as much as we can about the murder. I return to Finnigan and report on my findings. The key opened a chest with the items I mentioned earlier. A man with a hook is the suspect and he is heading to the city of Britain on a ship called the Crown Jewel. It's not part of the report but we also know about Elizabeth and Abraham and suspect they may also be involved somehow. Finnigan is pleased and after answering some copyright questions gives us the password to leave Trinsic ("Blackbird").

This is the most exciting part of the entire game:

The Avatar, Iolo, and Spark leave the gates of Trinsic for the first time

We walk out the gates of Trinsic into the world of Britannia. We now have free reign to explore the entire world, there is nothing limiting us. There is no set quest line that we have to follow - but we have some rough leads to keep an eye out for. Our journey in Britannia has begun!

Something strange happens, however. As we head north along the path the voice of the red being from earlier speaks in my head "Yes, that is the proper direction to travel Avatar..."