Ultima IV Day 2

I'm back! So I played a couple hours of Ultima IV today for the first time since the first day. It was interesting to say the least!

I did play some twice since the last post but they were quick 30 minutes trips at the most. I basically ran around, fought some monsters, gathered some gold and bought some weapons. Today had a bit of that too but this time I also gathered some information from multiple places.

The first thing I did today was go to Trinsic and recruit Dupre. When Iolo joined my party I was really shocked at the sudden increase of monsters outside and was regretting my choice a little bit. But now I sort of decided that since I recruited one member might as well get em all. So I started off with Dupre in Trinsic and proceeded to pillage the town of its information.

At this point in time I have 4 pages of notes on file. I use a word processor to takes my notes, finding it easier than writing them by hand. And they're easier to manage too. I wonder if I still have my dad's notebook somewhere? Probably but anyway that would be cheating, or almost.






Speaking of notebooks, I was recently looking for some of my old Ultima stuff and I stumbled on the book 'The way of the avatar, a guide to Ultima IV'. Back when I had Ultima IV on the C64 that book was in the box so I thought it came with the game. So I check it out and I'm like "HOLY HELL THIS THING ROCKS! It has dungeon maps!". I'm thinking that FINALLY Origin realized how awful it was to have to map levels or buy tons of gems so they woke up and decided to print the maps in the manuals! Man was I happy.

But then while I was reading I thought something wasn't right. In the description the book actually tells you that there is a certain stone in one of the dungeons. I thought "Hey why are they spoiling the game for me? I'm supposed to find that on my own not learn it in the manual!". At this point I started to think that maybe this didn't come with the box but was actually a guide for the game..I know what you're thinking: "It's written A GUIDE TO ULTIMA IV ON THE COVER DUMBASS" but you have to realize that I had always seen that book included in the Ultima IV box. I went on www.ultimacollectors.info and yup, it's not normally included with the g of a dungeoname. Bummer.

I'll still use it for those sweet dungeon maps though, I hate friggin mazes!

























Let's go back to my adventures shall we? So I decided to talk to everyone in Trinsic. I think I learned pretty much everything I wanted to. I now know the mantra of Honor, I know where the rune is but I want to be able to dispel fields or at least cure poison before trying my luck. I also had received advice from someone else to ask about...the white stone at the local pub so I did and they told me about some hermit living in lock lake. So once I did everything I could I moved on to paws.




In paws I did the same thing as in Trinsic, gather info. This time I surprisingly found the rune of humility there in some hills to the south east. I also talked to some guy at the pub who told me about the word of passage for the codex. He told me to seek his brother at Lock Lake. Again! There's actually a THIRD person who told me to look for someone there, so I'm starting to see a pattern here. At this point I have no idea how to get there but somehow I'd bet it has something to do with the whirpools, tornados OR the moongates. I'll try the moongates first :)









At this point I thought it was a grand time to learn to cast spells. I'll be honest with you guys, I've never really dabbled that much in the Ultima spell system. When I played Ultima IV as a kid I never tried to cast spells much. Ultima 1-3 obviously don't count since they use the classic magic points for their spells. The only Ultima in which I have used reagents in is Ultima Online, so yeah I don't know much. But it's actually quite easy when you look at the manual, and I think I'm going to enjoy this a good deal. In the picture here you can see me looking at how to create a cure spell, and you can also check out my notes in the background.




Then I smelled the wind and the wind told me "See the world friend! See the world!" So that's what I did. We boarded one of my boats and headed for adventure. Although to be frank I headed straight for Jhelom to buy some weapons and armors for my guys and then decided to head up to Skara Brae for...I can't remember why I did that. To check things out I guess, to smell the flowers and pray a bit. I saw Shamino and thought OH DUDE CMON IN WE HAVE SOME ROOM and he agreed so now I have four dudes in my party. I bought a bunch of reagents at the shop, 10 of each to be exact, and then took a look at my party and saw Dupre half dead so I told him "Cmon old Brother let's go take a nap". He Obviously agreed. At the inn the owner warned us that it was haunted..yeah right. Give me that key and shut your yap! So he did and I sort of regretted it at first..because when I woke up a ghost was in my room! He didn't seem hostile though so I engaged in a sweet conversation with him but there was a problem: he had nothing to say.

So I proceeded to exploit the Ultima IV system and ask him about rune, mantra and stone in succession and guess what? He knew about the white stone! He told me the stone was atop the serpent's spine and I'd have to fly to get it, or something. Weee!








After that we headed out and continued our dangerous trip, getting attacked from all sides from all manners of beasties. Shamino was having a hard time with his measly 200 hp so I parked in front of the lycaeum and that's where I stopped, and that's also where my next tale will begin! Take care!