Part 23: Closing Thoughts

It was enjoyable playing the Black Gate again. This is the second time I have completed it, the last being before my first child was born around seven years ago.

What I didn't get this time was the wonder, and the sense of exploration. Because I know almost every part of the game world, there were very few surprises. The closest I got to that sense of wonder was in the final dungeon as I made my way towards the Black Gate.

I've been thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of the game, and I wanted to expand on those below.

Themes

For a game made in the early 1990's Black Gate is incredibly complex in terms of the content it covers and the depth of ideas.

The first and most obvious theme was the role of organised religion which was explored through The Fellowship. My interpretation is that the game is critical of some aspects of organised religion - particularly where the masses are taught to accept directives from above without questioning the impact they could have on the world around them.

The class system was also explored in pockets throughout the game. The over-arching plot here was how Lord British and his advisers and the Britannian Tax Council were seen by many working-class citizens as taking advantage. It was hinted that the reality of the situation was blown out of proportion by The Fellowship to create animosity between the people and Lord British, but it was still a theme that was covered and was the driving force behind some of the minor plot points (like the statue being defaced in Serpent's Hold).

Race was really covered in the previous game Ultima VI: The False Prophet, but there were more than a few loose ends to tie up in Black Gate. The human and gargoyle populations had mostly reverted back to old hatreds, expelling most gargoyles from the mainland to the island of Terfin. Vesper was a dark and violent place and there was a real sense that this racial hatred would never be dissolved completely. Is that the message of the game? That racial tension is something we can't really overcome? The game also takes the side of the minority - the gargoyles. It is the humans in the game who show the greatest hatred and ignorance.

Richard Garriott loves his philosophical systems:

• The eight virtues and the three principles they stem from (Truth, Love, and Courage)
• The three Gargish (gargoyle) principles of Control, Passion, and Diligence and their own set of eight virtues.
• The Triad of Inner Strength that The Fellowship promote - which is really about subservience

There's a whole (and much more complex) set of systems to come in The Serpent Isle too. I really like these, and as cookie cutter and simplified as they are when you think about them in the real world, they are something unique that makes Ultima games just a little bit different and interesting. What other game deals with value systems and makes them centre-stage in the game?

The runic language is another structure in the game which gives it a little added depth. I think it is genius how this language is explicitly tied in with magic - each spell is a set of runic words and each word has a 'power' meaning. It ties things together, and it feels right.

Another very minor theme was pollution and the environment. This was explored with the Britannian Mining Council and the pollution around Lock Lake, as well as the deforestation of the Silverleaf forests for the delicacy of its bark, and how that was impacting the Emps.

The final theme I noticed was that of numbers three and eight:

• The eight virtues, with their corresponding towns and shrines.
• The eight anti-virtues with the corresponding dungeons.
• The three human and gargoyle principles, and the Triad of Inner Strength
• The three generators
• The Avatar's three great companions

The less specific theme I think is how many aspects of the game are grouped together.

History

Perhaps my favourite thing about the game is the enormous sense of history. Because it is the seventh game in the main series (not including Ultima Underworld, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams) there is a huge amount of material behind it. I remember reading the manual when I first obtained the game as a child, and it contained a concise version of the history up to this point. It made everything I came across in this game so much more meaningful.

It gives a real sense of gravitas to everything. Every location in Britannia has historical relevance to the past games - from the shrines, the towns, the dungeons, the people - the entire Forge of Virtue story was about the remnants of Exodus from Ultima III.

I like the setting of this game. A lot of time has passed since the Avatar was in Britannia and everything has sort of fallen apart. The virtues are no longer being upheld with great vigor - people have forgotten, fallen into old habits. This is a world which has just kept going, without any major crisis, but there are cracks emerging on the edges of society. I think it raises an interesting question - in long periods of peace and prosperity, how do we keep the lessons of the past (during not so pleasant times) in the forefront of our minds so that we make the right decisions moving forward? Otherwise history is doomed to repeat itself.

Characters

The Guardian was a fantastic villain. I loved the concept of a villain who is incapable of directly affecting the game world - so he has to use his guile and rely on others to enact his will in Britannia. I even love the idea of this uber-powerful villain who moves between worlds destroying them. I think it fits nicely into the Ultima world because it exposes to Britannia to something fresh and new. Everything about the Age of Darkness games was about stuff happening in Sosaria (Britannia was part of this bigger world before Exodus). The Age of Enlightenment is really all about picking up the pieces after the Age of Darkness. What I like about The Guardian is he brings a foreign and very different style of evil to Britannia.

One of the things I don't like about the game is the number of companions. A party of eight seemed overcrowded, and we never go the chance to get to know most of the party - most of the interesting dialogue came from Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre with a few cameos from Spark. Origin must have agreed because in Serpent Isle the party limit was four (mostly...).

Another thing I didn't like was the corny characterisation of the Fellowship members. In every town most people who were members of The Fellowship had this shit-eating grin on their face and acted like total twats. It was very linear - the people in The Fellowship were irritating beyond belief, and everyone else could see them for what they were. I think this could have been a lot more subtle and dynamic.

One of the things I didn't like about the NPC's in the game was how they related to of space. The game world is pretty small - it takes only a few moments to walk from one end of most towns to the other. Yet there are people in the towns who claim to have lived there all their life but have never managed to meet other people in the same tiny town who have also been there their entire lives. It doesn't make any sense, and I found it took me out of the story and the world.

Mechanics

The level of detail in the game for the time it was made is breathtaking. Even by modern standards, the detail is impressive.

A few notes:

• The automatic combat AI was a double edged sword. It made controlling a party of eight possible, but sometimes the party went and did some seriously stupid stuff which cost them their lives.
• Keys. If it wasn't for Exult I would have spent a LOT of time sifting through my collections of keys at every new locked door I found. Luckily Exult has a feature where if you hit the "k" key it will simultaneously use all the keys you have in your possession. How I dealt with keys before Exult is a mystery.
• The Forge of Virtue was OK in terms of the story, but the power it gives you ruins the game. Having a main character who is more powerful at the start of the game than he or she usually would be at the end (keeping the Black Sword in mind) is bad game design. It takes away that sense of progressing the Avatar and getting stronger as the game goes on.

Trivia

Just for fun:

• My favourite location? Probably Yew and Yew Forest. It's one of the places filled with the most secrets and interesting interactions in the game.
• Favourite character? Probably The Guardian for the reasons I mentioned earlier. I quite like Sullivan the Trickster - we hear about him all over Britannia and finally get to meet him right near the end of the game - and his dialogue did not disappoint.
• Favourite weapon? The Magebane. I didn't even use it this game, but it is the most bad-ass looking weapon in the game by far, and perhaps the rarest (I know of two).
• Least favourite enemy? Definitely liches. Those guys are broken - they just cast Death Bolt as soon as they see you and you wake up in Paws and have to re-load. That's just bad game design.
• Favourite enemy? Stone harpies - because they were one of the only enemies that were an actual challenge after completing Forge of Virtue.

I'm considering doing a similar play-through of Ultima VII Part Two: The Serpent Isle. I need a break first, then we'll see how we go.

Closing Thoughts

Ultima VII: Black Gate is to video games what Shakespeare is to theatre. It is so rich and complex for the era it was made that I genuinely wonder how any group of human beings could have made it.

My closing thoughts would be only how disappointed I am that we didn't get sequels to this game to live up to the potential that this game promised. The Serpent Isle is pretty amazing, but it all went down hill from there.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you got something out of it.

Part 22: The Black Gate

It all comes down to this, the final showdown. The Isle of the Avatar is the most southeastern island in Britannia:

Our first stop was a bandit village near the jetty. The highlight was killing a warrior in full magic armour and a sword of defense:

We flew around until we found the entrance to the Shrine of the Codex. The Guardian laughed maniacally in my head as we approached:

Upon the shrine was a scroll which explained that the Codex of Ultima Wisdom once sat on its pedestal, but now resides in the Void to be observed by both humans and gargoyles.

A single cave led into the mountains and towards our final adventure.  The first thing we saw as a giant throne... the sign simply stated "The Throne of The Guardian":

Just below we came across living and sleeping quarters for Fellowship members. They attacked us on sight so we had to take them down. In a room hidden by a tapestry we found a lever that opened the doors to proceed.

We had to complete a level puzzle to obtain a key from a corpse. Whoever she was, she was wearing an ankh - the sign of the virtues. That key opened up an even bigger lever puzzle. After lots of trial and error we opened up some pathways to the north and south. To the north was the den of a dragon with a lot of magical armour as loot. The dragon had a child's body inside its corpse... and there was a sign outside saying "beware of the dragon". On the child's corpse was a Fellowship medallion.

Beyond the dragon's den was an waterway with a scroll that provided us a clue about something called the Throne of Change and 'Virtue' showing me the way.

We continued on avoiding traps. At one point we encountered a paladin wearing full magic armour with a juggernaut hammer - but found ourselves blocked at a door that we didn't have the key for.

There were too many puzzles to cover - lots of teleporters, traps which sprung fire and energy fields, several liches who kept one-shotting me with Death Bolts. And then we came across the Throne of Many Changes.

Sitting on the throne teleports you to one of three locations, but the room directly around the throne looks identical to the others. The first room we came to had a hidden room with a hostile mage. He had magic armour and a key. The hostile mages spell book was on a table and the bookmark was on the Armageddon spell (which ends all life in Britannia... you can actually cast this spell in the game with predictable consequences). There was yet another key in a backpack in a hidden cavern below that.

We sat back on the Throne of Many Changes. Some passages below took us to a teleporter that took us back to a place we had been before. I followed this around in the hopes of returning to the room with the locked door where I killed the paladin. We found it but the key didn't open the door...

We went back to the giant level puzzle and then south this time. We added more to the dozens of Fellowship members we had slain up to this point, and obtained yet another key by a well. After all of this right at the bottom we found the room with the paladin and the well key opened that door! At this point I was completely lost.

We went back to the Throne of Many Changes and tried again. This time on in the third location the throne took us to we found a hidden passage to the northeast. We battled a lich (that kept one hit killing me again, what a broken enemy!). I tried to use Arcadion in the Black Sword to kill the lich but he said the lich was beyond his power to destroy and I should try hacking it to bits or using fire!

Beyond the lich was another throne called the Throne of Virtue. Remembering the clue I found earlier I sat on it until I was struck by lightning, then returned to the Throne of Many Changes. Sitting on the throne took us to a fourth previously inaccessible room.

We fought yet another lich and found a teleporter. Memory told me this was the teleporter which would take us to the final room with the Black Gate, so I got out my bedroll and slept to heal us up and so I could restore my mana.

And then we stepped on the teleporter...

Stop the Avatar! I will come through the Black Gate now. Do NOT let him near!

I decided not to waste time, and opened with the eighth circle spell Mass Death. At the same time we were hit with devastating power which almost killed each and every one of us - but the spell managed to take Hook out. Batlin, seeing Hook was down fled. And with that the Mass Death spell took its full effect and all but Batlin lay strewn across the floor.

The Black Gate lay behind an impenetrable barrier. Noticing the mechanism around it I knew exactly what I do. I placed the tetrahedron, cube, and sphere prisms in the respective slots - leaving the Black Gate exposed.

So, Avatar. The moment of truth has come! You can destroy the Black Gate but you will never return to your beloved Earth, or you can come through now and go home... It is your choice.

And so, my final decision. I could walk through the Black Gate and return to Earth but leave Britannia for The Guardian to lay waste to... or destroy it using Rudyom's wand but be stranded in Britannia forever. It was an easy choice... I aimed the wand an shattered the gate...

No you cannot do that, you must not! Damn you Avatar... Damn you! Avatar, you think you have won? Think again. You are unable to leave Britannia whereas I am free to enter other worlds. Hmmm. Perhaps your puny Earth shall be my next target!

And as the last of The Guardian's maniacal laughter faded out I completed Ultima VII: The Black Gate.

Next up, I will finish with a summary, analyse some aspects of the game, and leave some closing thoughts.

Part 21: Buccaneer's Den

Buccaneer's Den is the home of pirates, gambling, and people avoiding taxes. It resides on a large island in central Britannia:

We flew there by carpet to check the place out. As always, we talked to everyone in town (after evicting someone from their bed and sleeping in it until morning). Talking to the townsfolk was much more interesting with the cube in my pocket. It vibrated several times and we learnt the truth about a lot of things:

The House of Games

• The Crown Jewel frequently visits Buccaneer's Den, and then moves on to the Isle of the Avatar. This is the probable location of the Black Gate. It repeats the trip frequently (shipping blackrock to the isle to build the Black Gate?)
• There's a broken friendship between two old pirates named Mole and Blacktooth. Blacktooth is disappointed that Mole has gone so "soft" since joining The Fellowship.
• Hook lives beneath the House of Games. I noticed a cave entrance behind a locked door there, I will need to find the key. Apparently Sintag can direct me to Hook's lair. I was also told outright that Hook is the Fellowship's "chief executioner" along with his assistant Forskis. I also learned that Hook was trained by Master De Snel in Jhelom which makes a lot of sense (and De Snel was The Fellowship's first executioner!)
• Buccaneer's Den has a Fellowship hall and Abraham is the leader. In fact just about everyone in town is a member, and The Fellowship appear to fund every business on the island. Danag, the interim leader of the local branch here, told me I was condemned to die after the cube prism forced him to speak truthfully. 
• Elizabeth is the "director of special projects" for The Fellowship and works directly with Batlin. Abraham is in charge of identifying targets for Hook to execute (and he apparently cheats at cards). In fact Danag told me outright that their current special project is the construction of the Black Gate - it doesn't get any clearer than that.
• Elizabeth and Abraham have also gone to the Isle of the Avatar to work on a "special project".
• The Black Gate is housed on the Isle of the Avatar in a secret complex within a dungeon. It is housed within the Shrine of the Codex and a special key is needed to open the barrier. There are only four keys - owned by Hook, Batlin, Elizabeth, and Abraham. Apparently Hook keeps one in his abode.
• There were several attractive women in town who refused to speak to me unless I went to The Baths in the evening.
• Sullivan the Trickster has been in town posing as the Avatar and was caught cheating at cards. He is now somewhere in Hook's lair in some kind of torture chamber. The torture chamber is an official part of The Fellowship...
• About a year ago a man named Duncan stole from the House of Games and was arrested. He disappeared from his cell one night and his corpse was found mutilated in the fashion of the other victims of Hook.

Behind the Fellowship hall I noticed a secret back room. A hidden door took me into a small room, and I used the Telekinesis spell to flick a lever through a wall and open another. I was tempted to wait and come back later... I feel like the "correct" way to get here is to speak to Sintag when he is working at the House of Games (it was daytime so he wasn't there). But curiosity got the better of me and I took a look around.

We found the torture chamber. Inside was a troll torturer and a lot of grim looking devices. We politely asked the troll, Grod, to stop torturing the prisoners but he refused. 

In one of the cells we finally met Sullivan the Trickster, an Avatar costume on the ground beside him. Our discussion was interesting - he told me all about posing as me to rob places all over Britannia, but how he had been caught stealing from The Fellowship. He also told me that he suspects once The Guardian enters Britannia (he is a member, I am not sure how he knew this) that everyone - including the Fellowship leaders - will be "eliminated". 

Also in prison was Anton, apprentice to Alagner. Anton was caught collecting information about The Fellowship.

Further around we found a secret entrance into The Baths, explored a lot of caves which teleported us around, and eventually came back to the torture chamber and killed Grod. He had two keys on his person. I freed both Sullivan and Anton who were both extremely thankful.

Heading the other direction from where we first entered the cave system we found Hook's lair. Inside were notes confirming the Crown Jewel is on the Isle of the Avatar. Even more interesting was Hook's "hit list" which contained Lord British, and myself, the Avatar:

We found a little more loot, and also Hook's key to the Black Gate which I am sure I will need shortly.

The last thing we did before leaving Buccaneer's Den was to stop in at The Baths. We paid the fee of 300 gold and went inside, much to Spark's delight. 

I was hoping to rescue the women and men who work here, but there didn't seem like I had a way to do that. In fact, the seemed to enjoy their job. If it's not clear by now The Baths is a fancy brothel.

The more I talked with "Wench" the more my own character reminded me that I am being distracted from my quest and I should probably go. Way to ruin my fun Avatar!

And with that, our time in Buccaneer's Den has come to an end. 

Next time we will visit the Isle of the Avatar, delve into the largest dungeon in the game, and hopefully destroy the Black Gate and prevent The Guardian from entering (and destroying) Britannia!

Part 20: The Cube Generator

We flew to the place on the map with where the compass sits and came across a sealed in cove with two dinosaur skulls at the entrance. The Guardian spoke to me:

Do you really know where you're going Avatar?

Exploring around we found a magically sealed fort in the middle of an inlet. To enter, we will need to go and get a ship because there is nowhere to land. We also found a camp of pirates and mages, a lich, and a fairy. We decided to quickly collect a ship, and remembered that Lord British had provided us the deed to the Golden Ankh berthed in Vesper.

So, for the first time in the game, we traveled by ship.

I went to cast Unlock Magic to open the door to the fort I mentioned earlier, but the spell failed! It appears magic does not work on Ambrosia. We disembarked on a broken stone wharf and explored. There was a cave to the north of the island and outside was a fairy throwing magic dust into the air. Her name was Kissme.

My party - Iolo, Shamino, even Spark all volunteered to kiss her to 'protect' me from whatever foul magic she may have at her disposal. She ended up planting a sloppy kiss on Iolo's cheek.

What we did learn from Kissme was that the Caddellite can be found in a pit with a hydra (a three headed dragon). She warned me that the hydra was very protective of the Caddellite.

I briefly explored the cave but found it hard to make progress without my spells. It must be Kissme's dust which is blocking magic. The solution is to travel away from Ambrosia and cast the linear spell "Weather". This causes it to rain which counteracts the fairy dust everywhere. We tried this but it didn't seem to work.

Inside the cave a lich behind a magically locked door summoned waves of enemies before teleporting in himself. He killed Sentry and Spark. I was lucky to have Jaana there to resurrect them both (we had to sleep for a while in the cave for her to recover).

We came across another magically locked door completely blocking our progress. I went back out to the island and found some powder kegs (explosives) by that camp I saw earlier to see if they could blow the door open.

It didn't work. However, for whatever reason, I was able to cast spells at that point in the cave so I was able to unlock it.

And then we came across the three headed hydra. We spoke to the hydra's three heads - Shandu, Shanda, and Shando. The hydra decided I was its food and only spoke to me out of amusement.

When they learnt I meant to take the Caddellite they attacked, but the hydra turned out to be one of the easiest enemies I've encountered in the game - killing deer for food is significantly more challenging.

On the hydras corpse was a headless corpse, and inside that was a troll, and inside that was a "fire bolt". I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be able to see that - I think Exult messed up. I gave it to Dupre to see if it would act as a weapon and we moved on (it didn't work).

Just down from the hydra was the meteor crater. We picked up eight pieces of Caddellite (it was pretty heavy) and headed back out of the cave.

We sailed back to Vesper to collect our flying carpet and then flew on to Minoc to visit the blacksmith Zorn.

Zorn was more than happy to craft us the required helmets, crafted them right before our eyes.

We are now each sporting a blue winged helmet which should protect us from the damaging sonic waves emitted by the Cube Generator:

We returned to the Meditation Retreat and the Cube Generator. The helmets worked, we were able to bypass the exterior defense mechanism (the piercing sound) and approach it:

I took some healing potions and bandages from Jaana, left my party behind, and entered...

Inside is the most complex puzzle in the game. It requires moving around tiny platforms to try and get to the centre. There are traps everywhere, invisible walls, and to get to the centre requires walking on pretty much every part of the structure at one point or another.

(This puzzle beat me when I was a kid. I remember giving up after dying so many times).

It was pretty challenging this time around too. At several points I arrived at the centre, but an invisible wall blocked me. The Guardian laughed at me each time:

No, no, no. Pick again!

... said The Guardian. Along with many other taunts. Finally, after having to heal myself several times and re-tracing my own steps multiple times... I made it to the centre:

We picked up the cube shaped prism, and the Cube Generator was no more. The Time Lord appeared and told us something interesting. The cube shaped prism I now have in my possession has the power to coerce people into telling the truth! He instructed us to take it to Buccaneer's Den to find the location of the Black Gate.

Next time we will travel to Buccaneer's Den to find the location of the Black Gate and see what else those unscrupulous pirates are up to!

Part 19: The Sphere Generator

We dropped our flying carpet off in Britain and used the moongates to reach Yew. Nicodemus was a different person, as we had hoped. In a matter of moments we had our enchanted hourglass.

I then used the fourth circle spell Recall on the white virtue stone Jaana held in her backpack. Remember, we cast "Mark" on this same stone just outside the Sphere Generator in Dungeon Despise. In an instant we were back outside the generator.

I walked through the external defense mechanism (the outer gate) and into the generator. Inside, the inner defense mechanism was a puzzle:

On each platform you have to pick to go through a red or blue moongate. You have to pick correctly several times in succession in order to get to the centre. This was not a challenge for me - after two decades I can still remember the solution which is "red", "blue", "blue", "red". And just like that we had the prism in our reach:

I grabbed it and the Sphere Generator exploded before us. The Time Lord appeared and delivered some grave news - he is now free, but The Guardian engineered the generator so that if it was destroyed it would permanently disable the moongates. This means that I (The Avatar) cannot travel home to Earth via moongate as I have so many times before. The only chance I have to return home is to use The Black Gate.

The Time Lord informed me that before I locate The Black Gate there is one more generator which needs to be disabled. This generator allows The Guardian to speak to the people of Britannia and hold influence over them. He suggested I search around Serpent's Hold to find it and that it will be in the shape of a cube.

Finally, the Time Lord informed me that when I destroy the Cube Generator that I am to travel to Buccaneer's Den to find the location of the Black Gate. I can also now summon the Time Lord at will by using my enchanted hourglass.

Before we left there were some areas of Dungeon Despise that I had skipped past earlier. I ventured to the east to explore them. At one point I had to cast Unlock Magic three times in a row to reach the lair of a mad mage. Inside we found reagents and magic wands.

From memory, Despise is a pretty big dungeon with secret areas that teleport you around the place. I decided not to pursue this exploration for the meantime, I have ample gear and supplies and I don't feel the reward would match the effort.

After casting Help and returning to Britain we jumped on our carpet and flew to the place nearest to Serpent's Hold that is most likely to house the Cube Generator - the Fellowship Meditation Retreat.

The Meditation Retreat was a complete bore. If you remember, the one thing Ian said I was not allowed to do is enter the cave at the back of the retreat... so that is exactly what I did.

Inside we met the warrior Gorn who I have apparently met in previous games. Gorn hears the voice of The Guardian but thinks it is his mentor Brom. He followed the voice to this cave as it gets clearer the closer he gets (to the Cube Generator). And then, mid conversation The Guardian spoke to him and told him not to trust me - and that was the end of that conversation!

I ventured deeper into the cave and a battle-scarred old female warrior name Iriale Silvermist stopped me. She told me that Ian will be most displeased that I broke the rules and did not believe me when I told her I was The Avatar. She gave me one chance to turn around and leave, The Guardian speaking to her as she spoke to me. I refused to go. She attacked, and we slew her with one swipe of our weapons.

Avatar, you are not welcome here.

... spoke The Guardian as we approached the Cube Generator. But as we got close a piercing noise smashed into the party, damaging us heavily, and making each of them scream out in pain.

Not knowing how to proceed we use the hourglass to summon the Time Lord. We told him about the noise that prevented us approaching the Cube Generator. He suggested we build special helmets which will block our ears using a special mineral named Caddellite that comes from meteorites. He told us to visit Brion at the observatory in Moonglow to find out how to obtain them. He also warned that once inside the generator The Guardian will try and influence me and I must not listen to him.

We left the cave and flew to Moonglow to see Brion. Brion told me the last known location where meteors struck was to the northeast and that there are rumors of a mythical island in that direction that his brother at the Lycaeum might know more about. He also mentioned that the blacksmith Zorn in Minoc would be the right man to fashion us helmets if we managed to obtained some Caddellite.

His brother, Nelson, was no help but directed us to Jillian. Jillian told us about the long lost continent of Ambrosia. Meteors struck the continent and laid waste to the primary city. She guessed the ruins of the city would lie under the rubble.

With that brief information, we decided to fly to the northeast in search of the mythical island of Ambrosia!

Next time we will find some Caddellite, get some stylish helmets made, and uncover the secrets of the Cube Generator.

Part 18: The Tetrahedron Generator

We flew back to Penumbra in Moonglow and showed her our ethereal ring. She enchanted the ring for me and told me to take it to the generator in Dungeon Deceit. She also warned me that I must go in alone.

We flew straight to Dungeon Deceit. Right by the entrance was the Shrine of Honesty which was a pleasant surprise.

We entered the dungeon prepared for the worst. After running down a corridor with arrows whistling past as we came across two women - Amanda and Eiko on a quest to kill a cyclops named Iskander Ironheart who killed their father.

We found Ironheart outside and talked to him. He is apparently a cyclops hero. The cyclops talked about coming across the Tetrahedron Generator but being hit by waves of amnesia and waking up further away from it some time later. He talked about a longing to settle down and finish his life of adventuring - he seemed a very gentle and thoughtful being. And then his side of the Amanda and Eiko story came out. Kalideth was a mage himself and succumbed to the mages madness, attacking Ironheart unprovoked. So, his story is that he killed Kalideth in self defense.

We decided to leave him in peace and explored into the dungeon. We came across dragons, stone harpies, illusion walls, and magical traps which when sprung would trap some of our party behind energy fields. I would not have survived without my spell book.

As we came to a room sealed with magical locks The Guardian spoke again:

Do not go in, you will surely die!

Seems like a pretty good room to enter to me. Inside we found the Tetrahedron Generator:

As I approached the generator lighting pummeled my party so we quickly retreated. I took a glass sword from Shamino for good measure and then asked each member of my party to wait outside. I then slipped the ethereal ring on my finger and walked inside...

A hideous beast attacked me. In the past I have used a glass sword to dispatch this enormous enemy but this time I called upon Arcadion inside my Black Sword. He deemed this enemy worthy of his attention and slew him instantly before my eyes. With that I approached and touched the small prism in the centre of the generator, and it exploded. All that was left was a small tetrahedron shaped prism on the floor which I took:

Magic has now been restored to Britannia! I collected my companions and we walked out of the dungeon (I would have used a spell but the flying carpet was outside the entrance...)

Something new happened in the dungeon - I ran out of mana! I do not recall this ever happening before. I had to rely on Jaana to heal me after a gazer almost slew me.

We decided to visit some of the mages in Britannia to see how they had changed. We started with Penumbra. Because she had already been protected by the blackrock I placed around her, there was not much more to hear - although she thanked us for saving mages everywhere.

Wis-Sur in Vesper didn't have much more of interest to say either. It was a little disappointing - I just saved them from insanity, I was hoping for some stories of what it had been like.

We decided to take the flying carpet back to Britain for safekeeping.

Next time we will visit Nicodemus to get our hourglass enchanted, then return to the Sphere Generator to fix the moongates.

Part 17: Serpent's Hold and Spektran

Before we can head to the Tetrahedron Generator in Dungeon Deceit we have a few errands. Firstly, we traveled to the Fellowship Meditation Retreat just west of Terfin:

A man named Ian was guarding the entrance. We asked him about Elizabeth and Abraham and he mentioned that had traveled to Buccaneer's Den. The town of pirates seems odd place for such 'upstanding citizens' to visit. He also talked about the retreat and how only Fellowship members with a key are permitted to enter. Ian gave me a key (noticing my pendant). He mentioned one rule - not to enter the cave out the back as it is off limits. We decided to pass on exploring the retreat for now and instead traveled west to Serpent's Hold - not for any other reason that we had not yet explored it:

(My hidden agenda is I know there is a cache of magic weaponry that I would like to get my hands on)

The first thing I noticed outside the infamous knight's hold was one of the statues of Lord British out the front had been defaced, and there appeared to be blood on the ground beneath it.

Speaking to everyone here is what I found:

• The lord of the hold, John-Paul asked me to investigate the defacing of the statue. He suggested I speak to Sir Denton first.
• Sir Richter (the armourer) gave me some stone chips that were found at the base of the statue.
• Lady Tory who has some powers of intuition told me Sir Jordan has been nervous lately and I should speak to him about the statue. If you remember, after our adventures in Dungeon Destard we found a baby in a harpy nest just outside "lightning whip cave". Well, turns out Lady Tory is the mother of that baby - and we returned him and placed him awkwardly back in his cradle.
• Sir Jordan, when asked about the statue, said he heard the sounds of fighting the evening the statue was defaced. He also heard a woman cry out in surprise. He thinks it was lady Jehanne.
• I confronted Jehanne and she broke in front of me. She claims her husband, Sir Pendaran, defaced the statue and battled another knight who chanced upon him. The blood belongs to the other knight he battled.
• I went to Sir Pendaran and confronted him - and he admitted it. It stems from his resentment of Lord British and his 'ruling class'. Ideas The Fellowship are pushing to their members (he is one). There was no need for battle, Pendaran agreed to beg his fellow knights for forgiveness.

Exploring the castle we also saw the glorious cache of magic weaponry I had mentioned earlier:

From left to right a magic sword, sword of defense, firesword, juggernaut hammer, great dagger, magic axe, and a magebane.

There's a bit of a puzzle to get the weapons. It starts with the fish lined up in the kitchens. One of the fish is facing the wrong way and is in fact a lootable corpse. Inside the fish corpse was a key. There was another key under a shirt in Sir Richter's room. The keys still didn't open the door to the weapons vault so we explored a little and found a cave south of the castle.

The fish key opens a key inside the cave, and along with the shirt key opens the weapons vault! Back when I first played the game I never figured that out.

The cave with the third key is a bit tricky. There was a "Gazer" there that one hit killed me a Death Bolt a couple of times. I ended up casting Death Bolt myself to end it quickly and get to the chest.

We left Serpent's Hold after returning a baby (which we had been dragging around in our backpacks for weeks... into very dangerous places... without feeding or caring for it...), solved a statue vandalism crime case, and with Iolo rocking a juggernaut hammer - the best ranged weapon in the game.

Next we traveled to the Island of Spektran in search of the ethereal ring:

Martingo, the Sultan of Spektran, is as mad as any of the mages of Britannia - but I think he was mad before the ether was disturbed. He speaks to an invisible girlfriend named Lucinda - in fact an entire invisible harem. He also sold me a banana for 3 gold...

The key thing is that he agreed I could take the ring if I could get into his vault - which he suggested was impossible. 

The vault itself was not so complicated, but was guarded by a stone harpy - perhaps the most dangerous enemy in the game. Luckily, Shamino had a collection of glass swords on hand and we slew the beast with a single strike. On its corpse was the key to the vault.

We took the ring (along with all the other magic rings he had in storage) and headed back to Moonglow to get Penumbra to enchant it.

Next time we will enter the Dungeon Deceit and restore magic across Britannia!