This is my first post in a few days. I’ve not exactly had much time and also got distracted this weekend by a request to update one of my other projects (an audio enhancement for a few games which I hacked into scummVM).  This meant setting up a PSP development environment which takes near enough a full day of compiling and tweaking. Anyway thats out of the way now, so its back to Ultima.

Last time I played I’d just been told to fetch a bar to complete this soul cage at the blacksmiths. The bars are very close by in the cemetary railings. I hand one over and he finishes the cage.

Mordra gives me the required instructions to banish the liche. Step 1 involves taking all her potions from her house and combining them into the fireball potion.

The gadget for doing this is at the tortured ones place. I hook up each flask, put an empty one at the other end, light the burner and get my fireball potion.

I also need to dip the cage in the well of souls. This is behind a false wall at the back of the dark tower.

Thats everything in place but I can’t use the cage until midnight when Horance summons everyone to the tower. A lot of waiting later everyone appears at the tower lying still on all the slabs.

I slap the cage on Horance and use the potion.

Rather than killing Horance outright this just banishes the evil spirit from his body and he becomes himself again. I may have just saved his soul but just like everyone else he still has a quest or two for me.  First I have to take the blacksmiths wife back to him.

This part is simple enough.

Next I need to find someone who will go into the well of souls and sacrifice themselves to release all the souls within. He suggests I ask the mayor, but the mayor wants me to ask everyone else first.

While I’m asking everyone, I take the chance to get my reward from Caine. There are no answers to life and death after all – that was worth the effort then….

No one volunteers so I go back to the mayor and he agrees to do the job himself.

I lead him to the well, he jumps in (eventually) and all the souls are freed.

Horance rewards me with his staff. This weapon shoots fireballs and is quite powerful but I’ve not quite decided how useful it is yet as Iolo tends to shoot other people with it in combat.

Thats everything in Skara Brae done. I hitch the ferry back and sail all the way back to New Magincia with the “answer”.

Rather than just handing over the notebook, I have to fetch it myself from the mysterious building to the south. This is a small maze of secret walls, levers, teleports and the like.

It doesn’t prove to be too difficult and I get the end 10 minutes later. The room with the notebook is out of reach so I stack the convenient crates to make steps.

Horances notebook turns out to be more interesting than expected.  Its a detailed critique of the fellowships principles which pretty much states what should be apparent to anyone whos made it this far in the game.

More than this, it also says that the fellowship is being controlled by the guardian who is attempting to take over Britannia and that Batlin, Elizabeth and Abraham are his lieutenants. Its tempting to go over to Britain and take out Batlin but I expect that isn’t an option so I’ll stick with the quests which means taking this notebook to the wisps.

The wisps give me some further information. The guardian is some sort of creature from another dimension who has already conquered other worlds and will destroy Britannia if he can. He is attempting to come here through some sort of black moongate (which is where the title of the game comes in at last).

The wisp also tells me how to reach the timelord. All I have to do is use the moonstone to the NW which seems far too easy.

It works though and I get teleported to some sort of tiny shrine in a void. The time lord has been trapped here by the guardian in some sort of time fold.

The time lord doesn’t say a lot about himself – his job is to help time flow in some manner. He was the one who summoned me from Britannia in the first place but didn’t mean to drop me in Trinsic.

He gives me my next quest. There is some sort of generator in Despise NW of Britain and I need to destroy it. He hints that I won’t be able to do this but I can come back and ask him how if that is the case. He even goes as far as to tell me to use recall spells so I don’t have to do the whole dungeon again which suggests to me that Despise is going to be tough. I should really take the notebook back first I suppose. I’ll see how I feel about that next time I play – I think there is some sort of reward but I don’t really need any more weapons.

This was the session where I finally found out what is really going on in Britannia. You can pick guess of this stuff up along the way from whats happening in the towns but I like the way you see the effects on the world of the fellowship and a chance to make up your own mind before being told outright. 

The hardest part of getting the logger to sign the contract turns out to be finding him. I wander backwards and forwards for ages before finally finding him at the SW of Yew fairly near the sea. He agrees to sign up straight away once I explain things.

I take the contract back and get the leaders permission.

Trelleks wife has now changed her mind and won’t let him join me. She suggests an alternative once I tell her why I need his help and Trellek makes a whistle which I can use to contact the wisps.

I go to the building with the wisps, blow my whistle and the wisp comes over and talks to me. The time lord wants to speak with me but nothing is ever that easy.

The wisps want some information first. I need to go to New Magincia and get Alagnars notebook and they will exchange this for the details of how I can speak to the time lord.

Before I go to New Magincia I go back to Cove to tell Natassia about her father. I get the offer of settling down in Cove but there’s a murderer to track down first.

I sail off to New Magincia. This is a fairly quiet town although there are a few shipwrecked pirates who seem quite out of place here. I find Alagnar but he won’t just give me his notebook. 

I have to first prove my thirst for knowledge by asking the tortured one at Skara Brae for the answers to life and death.

Instead of heading straight over to Skara Brae I call in on Bucaneers Den on the way past to see if I can track down hook. One of the pirates tells me that the Crown Jewel stops around here regularly which sounds promising.

There is a house of games here where I can gamble. I get strong hints that fellowship members always win but I don’t notice it myself when I have a a go. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to do here. I don’t get any leads on hook as everyone denies knowing him. The fellowship is obviously as corrupt here as everywhere else. The baths are obviously a brothel and the house of games is just a crooked casino but the head of the fellowship here describes them in a very different light. Since there isn’t much to do here, I’ve decided I’ll just go to places where I know I have quests from now on. I’ll no doubt need to come back here later.

To get to Skara Brae I need to use a ferry. The ferryman refuses to talk to me until I use the seance spell. After this he takes me to the island for 2 gold.

Skara Brae has been completely wiped out. At some point a mage here turned to evil and became a liche. In the attempt to destroy him one of the town members created a huge fireball which killed the whole town. Now the spirits of these people haunt the town, slaves to the liches call.

There was some sort of plan to kill the liche, involving a soul cage and a less powerful version of the magic fireball that killed everyone. A ghostly blacksmith is still working on the soul cage but is too mad to even realise he is dead. Working on a hint from another ghost, I take a music box he gave to his wife from his smithy. His wife is now enslaved by Horance the Liche but wakes briefly when I play the box.

She gives me a message and ring to take back to the blacksmith before going back into the trance.

The blacksmith regains his composure when I give him the ring. He sends me off to get him an iron bar to complete his cage. I’m clearly going to have to destroy this liche before I can get any answers from the tortured one. The tortured one turns out to be the guy who created the fireball that wiped the town out. He blames himself although it appears that the mayor told him the wrong ingredients so is really the one at fault.

I think I’ve talked to everyone in town at this point although I’ve not seen Horance himself yet so I’ll get the cage finished next and see if anyone offers any more information on  liche killing.

I ask about Elizabeth and Abraham in Paws and shock/horror, I just missed them. These 2 really get about. This time they have gone to Jhelom. I’d like to go and pick Dupre up from Jhelom at some point but its not high on my list for now.

I now go searching around for Destard. My first attempt leads to a dead end + a fight with some sort of sea monster.

I find a cave west of Trinsic with a unicorn inside it. The unicorn isn’t quite what I was expecting and is hiding out because it is fed up of being used as a virgin detector. I get my virginity back every time I return to Britannia it seems, however that works which prompts a few remarks from my companions. This doesn’t seem to be Destard either as the dungeon doesn’t go very far, I can see unreachable areas so I go looking for another entrance.

It doesn’t take much finding. Batlin told me the dungeon was safe but it is infact full of dragons.

To make matters worse there isn’t any gold in the chest for me to fetch. A bit more dungeon exploring reveals a load of gold bars, nuggets and gems so I come out of here pretty wealthy. I’m having to reload a bit with my party getting knocked down by dragons so I’ll use some of this money to buy decent armour.

Batlin acts surprised about the monsters in Destard when I tell him but I don’t exactly believe him.

He allows me to join the fellowship, however. If it wasn’t for the gypsy I’d have backed out before now but I wait around for the evening meeting to be inducted. In the meanwhile I sell off my gold and gems and equip everyone with plate armour.

My companions try to talk me out of joining. I’m a bit uneasy about them using my joining to encourage more members but I don’t really have a choice.

At this point, Batlin asks me what are effectively a couple of copy protection questions with answers from the manual. This confirms better than anything that it must be critical to winning the game. I expected him to give me another quest or send me off to the retreat at this point but nothing else happens for now so its time to head for Yew.

Yew has moved a bit on the map and is now right next to Empath abbey in the utmost NW of Britannia. There hasn’t been a murder here which makes a pleasant change. The abbey is quite a bit smaller than I remember and just has 3 monks living in it.

I ask about the wisps but the monks don’t actually know anything…

but I get pointed towards a race called Emps living in the woods.

I will need some honey before they will approach me. I’ve been told about a bee cave nearby which is the next stop.

The bee cave is a smallish dungeon with giant man size bees buzzing about. I hack my way through them to find some honey right at the end of the dungeon.

Heading the other way I find a couple of sleeping naked people.

They pretend to be some sort of cavemen for a while but are actually ex-Yew residents who fled from the taxman and now prefer to live a basic (very) lifestyle. They tell me that the bees don’t hurt them if they wait for them to sleep, they can walk in and take the honey. This advice is a little late now I’ve slaughtered my way through the whole hive.

I have a bit more of a look around Yew. Its a pretty small place with just a few buildings. One of the monks knows that Natassias father is buried at the cemetery but doesn’t know much about him and neither does anyone else. I do get a good lead on hook – one of the prisoners says he travels around with a gargoyle called Forskis. I definitely need to track this guy down in Buccaneers Den.

Smith is hanging around in Yew as ever and gives me a couple of out of date clues.

There is a magically locked door and some sort of giant chess board which I don’t know what to do with but nothing much else in Yew so I go looking for the Emps.

I find the wisps first hanging around a stone building but I can’t talk to them.

A lot of walking later, I find the spot with the Emps. They take some honey and will then talk to me.

The leader advises me to recruit Trellek to help me with the wisps.

Trellek won’t join without permission from his wife. He does have info on Natassias father though, he died from smoke inhalation after saving an emp family from a fire and is regarded as a hero. Something along these lines was fairly predictable but I’ll go back and tell Natassia after I get done in this area.

Trelleks wife sends me back to their leader for permission and he won’t give me this without a favour. They have a ready prepared contract they want me to get the woodcutter to sign so he won’t cut their trees down. I’ll get this done tommorow and then see what these wisps have to say.

First off today I walked to Minoc. The first people I meet are some gypsies outside of town. They tell me about another double murder of two of their family which has just happened. This seems to be happening in every town I go to. I also get my fortune told for 20 gold. I get a wealth of information from this. I’m told I will need to join the fellowship to discover their nature.

I’m told a new evil is threatening Britannia – this has got to be linked to the fellowship and the guardian.

Specifically some even will happen soon which is connected with the planets. I’ve no idea what this is but need to talk to someone in Moonglow about it. Thats another quest for the list.

The Time Lord is back and I need to find him also. I don’t think I’ve heard any mention of him since Ultima 3 and he was just a collection of world map tiles in that game.

I need to talk to the Wisps to find out how to meet him somewhere in the woods near Yew.

But I need to talk to the monks in Embath abbey before I can talk to the wisps it seems. Thats a whole string of quests for my money then.

Most of the towns population are gathered around the saw mill when I approach including another of my old companions Julia. My party is full up so I don’t ask her to join.

Aside from the murder the other major event in town is a giant 40 foot statue being built for the towns shipwright Owen. This isn’t very popular among the non fellowship members to say the least and there are rumours that Owen isn’t even a good shipwright.

The murder scene looks much like the last 2. There is a strange candleabra + a serpent dagger on the scene but I don’t find anything else.

The BMC (Britannia Mining Company) is in Minoc and I find their mine while looking for the town center. Aside from a couple of dodgy characters trying to tunnel to New Magincia with spoons there is a gargoyle dosed up on serpent venom trying to mine for blackrock. He hints about a motherlode of blackrock being located somewhere in the mine but I’m unable to find it. I do find a magically locked door which I can’t open. I’m curious as to what would happen if I use the wand I found earlier on the motherlode.

The other 2 miners mention a map given to them by Sullivan which might be worth asking about if I find him. The name seems familiar so I’m not sure I haven’t seen him already.

I take Batlins package to the local fellowship branch and get some money back in return. I keep getting the option to ask about Elizabeth and Abraham (two of Batlins companions) at every town and they have always just left, this time for Paws. I’m not that sure why I want to find them but it does look a little dodgy that they left straight after a murder this time. I’ll ask in Paws next time I’m there.

I’ve been led to believe that the candelabra at the murder was a fellowship design. I ask and she denies any link and says it must be some sort of framing attempt.

Owen is about the last person in town that I find. He has been hearing the voice and using it to guide his life. Its not done his ego any good as he is claiming to be the greatest shipwright that has ever lived.

He does have some helpful clues about the murder though. He did see a man with a hook and the Crown Jewel set sail for Paws. Thats the same location as Elizabeth and Abraham who must be suspects now.

A man in the bar gives me the lowdown on Owen shipbuilding talents. Owens ships are so bad they have caused the deaths of many sailors. He stole Owens ship plans and wants me to show them to Julia who might be able to understand them.

The head of the bar gives me my first solid lead. Hook is a pirate who lives in Bucaneers Den!

After fetching the ship plans from his cabin, I show Julia and she confirms they won’t work. I take them to the mayor.

After a bit of toing and froing the mayor decides to cancel the statue and gives me the pleasant job of telling Owen.

Owen doesn ‘t take this news too well and promptly commits suicide. No one in the bar seems too worried. Its solved a few problems for the town but is not the best of endings for this mini-quest. I’ve run out of people to talk to in Minoc so I moongate back to Britain to tell Batlin I have delivered his package.

He has another quest for me which will take me into my first dungeon by the looks of it, unless you count poking around the mine. I need to fetch some gold from a chest in Destard. I seem to remember at the end of Ultima Underworld that Destard was where the inhabitants had moved to, so I’ll be curious to see if they are around.

The more of this game I play, the more I’m being bombarded with quests and I have no idea which leads I should be following if any. My inclination for now is to attempt Batlins quest and see if Elizabeth and Abraham are in Paws on the way. I have a feeling they will probably just have left…

I just had a half hour or so on the game today but managed to get a few things done. I went looking for the key to get the hoe of destruction to start off with. There was only one area that looked likely with a load of dead fish to search there but finding the right one is not easy. Any of the fish facing north have inventories, the ones facing south you just try to eat when you double click on them. I find a fish carrying serpent venom pretty quickly which I can sell if I want.

It takes a while but I find the right fish in the end and get the key.

On the way back I look for Natassia and get a new side quest to try to find how her father died in Yew.

I head out to find Miranda first and give her the bill. There are a load of tentacles in LB’s moat which seems pretty dangerous.

I bump into Nystul in the castle who I managed to miss before. Something is causing magic not to work and all the mages are losing their minds. He still offers to sell me spells and reagents.

Miranda takes the bill but again I don’t seem to get anything for doing the quest. It appears I’ll have to get used to the idea of job satisfaction.

I still haven’t got the hoe so I go back for it now. Its in the locked shed as described. I have a quick look around for the magic carpet at this point but don’t get anywhere and end up restoring a game saved at this point when some of my party members die in combat. I think I might leave the carpet for now and take Batlins package to Minoc next.