The last time I had stopped in front of the Lycaeum..no wait, that was Empath Abbey, I made a mistake there. My goal was to sail around the map remember? I gathered as much info as I could from the abbey, including stuff about the candle of love and some bard and whatnot. Afterwards I found Yew and collected the rune and the mantra. I also asked Jaana to join me since I wanted a pure magic user in the party to cast spells. I know it would make even more mobs appear but I don't really care, I'm used to random battles in JRPG's so this isn't much different. A thing I found funny is that the whole Antos family is well and alive in Ultima IV and the father came down from his crazy planet it seems. I met the brother, the sister and the father. And they all have crucial information about the candle, book and bell.
In my travels I ended up going pretty much everywhere on the map. I'm not sure I want to get into the details of what I found out in every city and whatnot, it's a LOT of information and it would make for one long ass post, and I don't feel like writing that long. I will focus instead on the interesting stuff.
Once I had seen all three castles and almost all of the cities (at that time I hadn't yet been to Buccaneer's Den, Cove and Vesper) I realized that some of the stuff on the map was missing. Where was Magincia, where I had already been? Where was the den? I took a quick look at the Ultima V and VI maps and there were certainly more islands on there than on the UIV one. So I decided to check out if those islands were indeed in Ultima IV.
I sailed east from Serpent's Hold and ended up at a trio of Volcanoes. I thought it looked pretty cool and decided to take a screenshot for you guys. So I navigate in the middle of the volcanoes and then I realized something: That was the only way of entry and everywhere else there was shallow waters. In fact you can't even get close to the volcanoes because of that. Everything looked weird...and suspicious. Usually in an Ultima when you see something like there's something really important close by. Without even thinking I went south a bit to reach the corner, since everything in Ultima IV always seems to be in a corner, and pressed S. I didn't even think about it, it just came to me naturally and my finger went automatically on the S.Holy crap the skull of mondain was there! Hahahah! That is so cool. In most modern games you can't get plot sensitive items unless you've gotten the quest or heard about them beforehand but in Ultima IV there's none of that. Sort of like the ghost episode in my last post luck and instinct allowed me to take a shortcut here! Now I just have to learn what I am supposed to do with that skull, someone told me that if I use it I lose all of my virtues. I won't use it :|
Afterwards I sailed upward to check out some of the other islands and I found Magincia and eventually, the den. I was happy to finally get my hands on a sextant but..wait..I don't have enough money! BUMMER! Man those FREAKING sea monsters don't give any money and that's all I've been fighting. I can't wait to get back on solid ground.
Also is it me or do NPC's sometime give out false information? Calumny told me that I can find Mandrake Root at the fens of the dead and on the bloody plains. So here I am at the freaking fens looking for Mandrake and I never found any. I searched every square there and I found NOTHING. What the hell did he lie to me? I'll have to check out the plains next and they better be there because if they aren't, I'll be pissed.
At this point I know all of the mantras and I have six of the runes. I know where the last two are but I wanted to be able to dispel fields before getting the one in Trinsic and to get a little stronger before getting the one in the forges of Minoc. Afterwards I'll focus on becoming a partial avatar in all virtues since it seems I need to do that to get my hands on some mystic weapons and armors. I already am a partial avatar in valor, my only one at this point in time! They gave me a vision when I became a partial avatar in valor and it's a weird one. It's a picture of someone fighting skeletons with the rune for F on it. What the hell?
Next I'll get the last two runes I need, get my points in each virtue high enough to become a partial avatar in them, get some mystic weapons and armors and well, plunge into the dungeons for the first time. I'm still really confused about this whole stone business. I know that each altar needs four stones..and the way I understand it there's an altar in every dungeon. Each dungeon is supposed to contain a stone although Hythloth lost his. So I need to know what stones go on which altar in what dungeon before going there. Oh boy, this is going to be something. I'm scared that I missed out on some information along the way, that's going to be painful. I also need to find Cove and Vesper and I think I know how to get there. That's it for today!
3 comments:
the rune that appears in your vision is really important.
I won't spoil it, but write down in your notes those visions you get :)
A piece of advise, get enough reagents for a lot of dispell field spells before you go search for the stones. Most dungeon rooms have some kind of puzzle and a lot of them involve magic fields that have to be dispelled :)
Wasn't lying to you. It's a matter of searching the area at midnight. The manual should tell you it needs to be gathered at midnight (0,0).
Grrr, I hate it when players find items without talking to the right NPC first. I usually just replace it with a cursed item instead. "Well sure, why do you think no one's walked off with it after all these years? This kind of thing wouldn't happen if you talked to more barkeeps instead of starting brawls...."
Actually, I guess Mondain's skull is the ultimate cursed item.
FUN FACT: Hythloth is supposed to be named Hyloth, since hylotheism is the opposite of spirituality. Oh okay, sure, whatever.
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