The next map piece is in the hands of a woman at Serpents Hold. Thats a location which I haven’t been to yet, when I walk in the front door I’m asked if I want to join the order of the Silver Serpent. I’m let straight in but apparently I have to make my own shield.

I ask the local blacksmith about this shield and he would make it for me if I have all the needed parts (which I don’t). I leave this for now and get back onto finding the map piece.

The  map piece is in the hands of Morchella who wants a silver serpent shield in exchange. It turns out the magic shield I’ve been using for days that I got in one of the dungeons fits the bill so she just hands this over without me having to do anything. I have lost my nice shield though so I buy a spiked shield instead to replace it.

One minor curiosity is that Seggallion from Knights Of Legend is hanging around the bar here. He gives me a long story about how he ended up in Britannia. He would have joined my party but I don’t need reminding about Knights of Legend so I leave him behind.

The next map is in the hands of a hermit on Dagger Isle apparently. I find after sailing round the island for a bit. He doesn’t look like someone you would want to run into on a dark night but does tell me he has hidden the map in his house.

Moving the stuff around in his house reveals a set of stairs…. 

which go down to a tiny little basement which has the map in it.

The next piece is to be found at Empath abbey allegedly. I try to take the direct round the world route only to forget that the world is flat in Ultima 6. I have no idea why and can’t say it adds credibility to the world but I turn round and go the long way.

The mortician at Empath Abbey is having a spat with the gravedigger about something and nothing. I run between the two of them carrying a load of messages.

And eventually they settle their differences. I’m rewarded by being aloud to loot the mages corpse he has.

The guy who had the map piece turns out to be dead but I run into his widow.

Aparently the map was stolen by some gypsies. There are a dodgy looking lot of gyspies hanging around Trinsic so I head straight there.

And one of them sells me the map for 50 gold pieces after a bit of haggling. Thats the last of the 8 pieces – the final 3 were strangely easy. Since I had to go through the hardest dungeon of the game so far to get the egg and the clues to them I’d expected them to be difficult.

I head back to Bucaneers Den and Homer gives me the last piece in exchange for me bringing him back the cloak thats in the loot. I never got around to bringing it him back, but it will teach him not to spend all his time sat in the pub. 

Outside the pub, I assemble the map. Homer informed me that the island at the top left was Bucaneers Den. That makes the right New Magincia.

Its a short sail to find the island. The directions I was given start from inside those 3 stones.

This lead to a suspicious looking spot of ground if I ever saw one. Digging here reveals a hole into another dungeon.

The pirate caves prove to be quite tricky with some tough monsters, bear traps, holes leading into lava pits, etc… Eventually I get to the bottom and find a whole room full of stuff including the tablet I’ve been looking for and also a fan which I’ll be needing later.

I take the tablet to Mariah who manages to read the book and point me to Sin Vraal who I’ve already talked to once. Since I’ve already been to the gargoyle world this isn’t really new information and scant reward for hours of chasing map parts.

While I’m here I have a look round the library and find the book on ballooning. I want to get to the gargoyle temple by flying so I’ll need this next. It points me towards Minoc so I head there and ask around.

Isabella points me towards Selganor…

Who in turn tells me to go to Suteks castle.

Suteks island turns out to be a pretty odd place. In what has to be a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference, the moment I get there I’m set upon by rabbits. Thankfully they are less dangerous than the one in the film.

There are loads of two headed animals around + no way in to the castle. Thankfully my telekinesis spell from yesterday comes in here.

The castle is full of hidden doors and not easy to get about in. I make my way through to this hydra which my party finishes off…

to reveal Suteks lab. This is not a pleasant place by all accounts.

Sutek is friendly enough as long as I’m polite and tells me the baloonists body is in his catacombs.

The catacombs prove to have more levers and the like – I just pull the lot of them.

This lets loose about the biggest monster I saw in the game. Hes not too hard to kill as I attack the tail while the heads behind a wall.

On the next level is a two headed talking horse with one lying and one truthful head. Its dead easy to work out which is which with a couple of questions but you could just try both directions and reload anyway.

Another level down I find my ex baloonist and get the baloon plans off his corpse. I need a string of things (a basket, rope, cauldron and bag. Rope and a cauldron I already have.

I need to make the bag out of silk so it will be light enough. I buy a load of spider silk from a magic shop. Arbeth in Paws spins it into thread.

Thindle can’t weave it though and sends me to Charlotte in New Magincia.

Charlotte makes my cloth for a small fee.

Back in Paws, Marissa makes my bag.

In Minoc, Michelle makes my giant basket. I’ve now got everything I need so its back to gargoyle land…

First off I go the the hall to fetch the broken lens. There is a small library here also with the history of the gargoyles. Aparently they summoned the codex here in the first place and the process is described in detail. Other books also describe the gargoyles equivalent to the Britannian virtues with Passion, Control And Diligence forming the 3 fundamental principles.

I talk to the gargoyle prophet Naxatilor and he sends me to get the lens fixed.

This is just a case of asking the right person and doesn’t even cost me anything.

Going back to Naxatilor, I now get the quest that will ultimately finish the game. I must create a human lens also and retrieve the Vortex cube, then go to the codex to find out what to do with them. I can’t go to the codex without being on a quest though which is where the balloon comes in.

Using the balloon and the fan(to change wind direction) I enter the temple and talk to the triangle in the middle.

It won’t send me on a quest until I’ve gone to each of the 3 gargoyle shrines.

The shrine of control is another lever-fest. A lot of trial and error and I get all the portculises open.

At the far end of the hall is a statue of Mondain who is apparently the embodyment of Control. Not sure what I think about that but I guess it kind of fits but he apparently lost his self control which is why he did what he did.

He gives me another mantra at the end.

The shrine of passion is similar enough. This turns out to be a statue of Minax – there is a pattern emerging here. I guess she showed passion when she was telling me to DIE FOOL!!!.

I get another mantra.

The last shrine is a bit trickier and has more secret doors.

I get there in the end and get the obligatory statue of Exodus (who looked nothing like this).

After a speech on diligence he gives me another mantra. I like the idea of tieing this into the first trilogy a bit – the speeches by the statues were a bit poor in some ways and each pretty much repeated the last. The idea was better than the execution all in all – why would gargoyles who regarded us as demons until recently have humans representing their virtues anyway?

I go back to the temple with the 3 quests done and get sent off to the codex.

First though, I’ve still got a lens and a cube to get.

A star watching mage makes the lens for me – he needs to study a glass sword before he can do it but I’ve been carrying a few of them around for ages so thats no problem.

On the way to Stonegate, I stop off to mention the book to Sin Vrall. He tells me to go to see the gargoyles and to get there through Hythloth. Bit late now….

I also run into a moonstone I accidently buried right back at the start of the game. By waiting until the right phase of the moon, the gate disappears.

Leaving just the moonstone which I pick up again. I’ll be needing that in a bit.

My attempts to walk to stonegate fail as I need to sail into it from the top of the map. When I finally decide this I find it pretty quickly and run into a child who is being raised by cyclops.

The female says the cube is in the cellar, but I will need the key off the male. He won’t give this to me until I take his fishing rod and catch a fish. I guess this quest was just to illustrate that you could actually do this as it takes about a minute.

Getting through the cellar is tougher but I finally get the cube and can head for the codex.

The guardians let me straight in.

Reading the codex, gives me plain instructions on what to do.

I put the lenses either side and the cube infront. I drop all 8 moonstones into the cube then use it.

Theres a nice swirly screen effect…

the codex has vanished and the end game kicks in.

Something you only discover in the end game is that the Rule Britannia and gargoyle music play ontop of each other and actually form a harmony. This is pretty clever stuff, since the gargoyle theme still sounds good in its own right (a lot less annoying than Rule Britannia infact).

I’ve enjoyed this Ultima more than any of the others so far. Having played the whole thing now, I agree with the comment from a couple of days back that the orb of the moons does mess around with the storyline. Getting the map was largely pointless except for me needing the fan. I never went through Hythloth at all since I could just warp down to the gargoyle world. However, not being able to warp around at all with such a huge map would be no fun at all. It really looks like the orb was added at the last minute to solve this problem and it had a few knock on effects. The game needed some system where the orb didn’t take you somewhere until you had been there once – this would have worked fine and solved the problem without affecting the story.

More music would have been nice – it can grate a little after a while. I love the dungeon theme but it lasts about 30 seconds. You must hear it hundreds of times. Its not the best version of Stones in Ultima 6 either.

These are minor nitpicks in what is a truly epic game though. The storyline with the gargoyles is very well done and I like the role reversal that takes place when you find out you stole the codex from them and are really the aggressor. I’m looking forward to Ultima 7 now but the series branched out at this point and I have 4 Ultima spinoffs before then as well + a load of other games. Its not mentioned that I’m sent back to earth at the end of this game although I must be as I’m sure Savage Empire was set on Earth.

Next: Wing Commander – Secret Missions 1

The next map piece was lost on a shipwreck. Thats not much to go on but I do remember talking to someone who mentioned a shipwreck around the cape of heroes. Surprisingly, I don’t have to look around for long to find a wrecked ship guarded by a load of skeletons. I search the ship and its another piece found.

The next clue is a guy in Jhelom with a hook. He tells me he was using the map to start a fire in the dungeon Wrong. I trek up to Wrong but I can’t get through any of the doors without an Unlock Magic spell. I’ve not bought any reagents or spells at any point yet so I guess I’d better start.

The first shop I go to doesn’t sell that spell I need – I get a few others while I’m there + reagents. I’m not allowed to buy level 8 spells without talking to the wisps apparently.

Back in Moonglow I use my newly bought dispel field spell to get through a seriously well guarded room.

Inside, Penumbra gives me a minor clue about needing two lenses but not much else.

I wander around looking for places to buy spells and run into some wisps. They give me an armageddon spell which will destroy all life. Not much use but I guess I can buy level 8 spells from Xiao now.

Eventually I find somewhere to sell me an unlock magic spell and head back for Wrong. I manage to get down a level but get stuck again. There is a room full of levers none of which seem to open the portculis I need to get through. I can see another lever behind another closed portculis but can’t get to it.

Another couple of long walks later, and I’m back with my new Telekinesis spell. I make my way down to the bottom level, fight past a hydra, and find the map hidden behind a secret door.

It doesn’t look like much progress but I must have spent about 2 hours on this session. How all these map pieces ended up at the bottom of every dungeon, I will never know but its keeping me entertained at any rate. I had this notion that Ultima 6 would be a lot smaller than 5 with the improved graphics but it doesn’t feel it – I hope the other half of this tablet proves useful if I ever find it.

Now, I’ve got the clues I’m going to follow them all down 1 by 1. The first apparently went off to kill a daemon in the dry lands. This has the be Sin Vrall, the friendly demon from the last game and sure enough I ask him about a pirate and he says he got dragged off by the ants.

I’ve seen a few giant ants in the desert – a lot of walking and I come across a hole which leads into a four level ant nest. This place is truly huge and not surprisingly full of ants. The ants really aren’t very tough though – its a lot easier than Destard.

When I eventually get to the bottom of the dungeon, I find Hawkins body with the map piece on it.

The next piece looks to be in the Dungeon Shame. I walk around attempting to find this dungeon. I know I’m off course when I see a sign for Iolos Hut. Smith is still there giving me clues about the last game.

I do find another dungeon on my travels (the cyclops cave). Apart from cyclops there isn’t much here apart from food and powder kegs on the bottom floor. I grab a few kegs and all the food and leave.

I do eventually find Shame. The problem was I needed a skiff to get there so I could row down between some mountains. The dungeon is pretty easy apart from the poison everywhere which I’ve no means of curing yet. I just about make it down to the bottom floor and run into the pirate who gives me his bit of the map, but refuses to come with me and dies on the spot.

Thats 3 out of 9. Getting these map pieces is proving to be a big job but I’m collecting quite a bit of money and equipment on my way through. I’m a bit fed up of getting poisoned – I think I’ll go in search of some swamp boots next so I don’t have this problem.

I’m really enjoying these quests for the map pieces. It feels like the game started properly after the shrine quests were completed.

I started out today by heading for Mariah in the Lycaeum to see about getting this book translated. She has half of a tablet she bought from some gypsies which is kind of a rosetta stone for the gargoyle language. This starts off a quest to find the other half which starts with tracking down the gypsies she bought it from.

Luckily enough they are exactly where I saw them last. Apparently the tablet had been lost while in the hands of a pirate called Captain Hawkins. This means a trip to bucaneers den.

Unfortunately, I don’t have enough money for a boat so I have to trek through the sewers underneath LB’s castle and then through another dungeon up in Bucaneers Den.

While on the way there is a thief living in the sewers who’s belt I will need in Bucaneers Den to join the thieves guild. I only know this from playing the game before but while I’m here I may as well get it. I’m supposed to steal it from her but there is a nice trick where you can push her onto her own bear trap and kill her off without losing karma. This also nets me a load of glass swords,

To get between the two dungeons I have to sail to a small island in an underground lake. There is a conveniently placed skiff for this.

Since I have the belt, I’m allowed straight into the thieves guild. In the inn, one of the sailors on Hawkins ship tells me that to find the tablet I need to locate the hidden treasure. To find this I need all nine parts of a map (he has one but won’t give it to me without the others). He gives me clues towards four of these parts all of which I’ve screenshotted here. (If I hadn’t joined the guild he wouldn’t have told me this).

Another local at the pub gives me a clue about balooning and points me at a book in the Lycaeum – I’ll look that one up later.

To get the rest of the clues I need to talk to the cook at Trinsic but he won’t tell me anything without a dragons egg.

To get a dragons egg I have to struggle through Destard. This really isn’t too easy at all – I haven’t a chance against the horde of dragons at the bottom but manage to sneak in and steal a couple of eggs before I’m killed off and magiced back to LB’s castle (with eggs).

Sandy now gives me a whole host of clues for the rest of the people with the map pieces. One of them is owned by the town mayor himself. I presume it is 8 map pieces for eight towns…. but I don’t actually know that yet.

After accusing him of being an ex pirate the mayor coughs up the map piece. 1 down and 8 to go then.

Something I will say with this session of play is that the game feels far more like an RPG than it did when I was clearing the shrines now that I’m having to battle through dungeons and the like. Experience seems to be dished out fairly generously so I’m levelling up quite fast but I could do with buying some decent equipment and spells which I’ve neglected to do so far – I’ll need the money to do it first. I bought a ship in Buccaneers Den which cleared out my funds but I’m feeling a bit better off now than I was. I’ll probably still carry on tracking down the rest of the map pieces for now and worry about equipment when I really need it as I expect I will find loads in the dungeons.

I’ve got started on Ultima 6 with about a 3 hour session. It’s a huge change from Ultima 5, where combat was all important. This game almost belongs in a different genre. So far, I’ve been spending all my time exploring the towns and talking to everyone in them. The conversation trees are just huge now for every single character, everyone has a portrait and a different personality and it feels more like a real world than ever before. Having said that a lot of the towns only consist of a few buildings which is a little unrealistic, but its difficult keeping track of everything as it is so I shouldn’t complain.

I started out with a chat to LB who reiterates my quest to solve the gargoyle problem.

It seems that Iolo grabbed a tablet with writing on it while I was being rescued. Nystul the royal wizard advises we take this to Mariah at the Lycaeum. I never got around to this since I only even just remembered the quest while writing this. I really should be taking notes while I play this game. Anyway, he also advises me about the black stone I picked up on earth and LB gives me the full details on it. Basically, if I use the stone on a tile surrounding myself a moongate appears, which tile changes the location I get teleported to. This is incredibly useful and can be used to speed around all the games locations.

I set out to free all the shrines – I figure I will need the runes to do this and ask around in Britain. Arianna, a young bard, has been awarded the rune. I ask her parents if I can borrow it and they give me the ok.

A quick walk to the shrine of compassion, and I’m set upon by gargoyles. Thankfully there are only 3 so we just about survive. I use the rune, say the mantra and the shrine is freed. I (or any of my party) can talk to the shrine if I want to level up at this point.

When I head back to Britain, I run into a travelling band of gypsies. I remember from years back that they were important for some reason but I’ve no idea what it was now. No doubt I will find out later.

Freeing the rest of the shrines follows a pattern of sorts. I have to ask the towns leader about the rune and they will give point me in the right direction. I already know the mantras so I’m not worrying about them. I head for Yew next and run into one of my old companions Jaana, who joins up.

It turns out the rune was stolen by Boskin, who has been caught but the rune is still lost. He agrees to tell me where it is as long as I take it away which sounds ok to me.

The rune is under a plant in the pub – easy when you know where to look.

I try walking to the shrine but get massacred every time by the gargoyles. If I use the moonstone to warp there however, I seem to be safe + it drops be right on the shrine so I can just cleanse it and warp out again. I stick with this strategy for the rest of this day.

The next rune turns out to have disappeared along with its owner. I eventually find out that he dies and is buried in a crypt under the pub.

New Magincia next. I teleport into the middle of a flock of sheep.

The rune here was stolen by a rat and dragged into a hole in the wall. I’m given the solution to retrieving it by a child working in the bar. Back at LB’s castle Sherry the mouse joins my party after I give her some cheese and she is able to go into the hole in the wall and retrieve the rune.

In Trinsic, I have to join the guild to be allowed to borrow the rune. This means I have to make some panpipes and learn stones. Gwenno has already joined my party so learning stones is easy enough. Panpipes require a freshly cut board of Yew, so I have to warp to Yew, buy a log, warp back, get it cut and the sawmill, then Jaana turns it into pipes.

The town mayor now gives me the rune.

The rune of honor is the easiest of the lot. Its left in the middle of the town as no one would be dishonarable enough to steal it….

At this point, I’ve retrieved all the runes and freed all the shrines and am at a slight loss as to what to do next. I decide to use the moonstone to warp down to the gargoyle side of the world. 

The gargoyles don’t attack on sight for the most part but I can’t understand a word they say.

I remember from last time I played this that Captain Johne is just inside the entrance to Hythloth. The entrance takes a bit of finding but I get there in the end.

He fills me in on a lot of the story for the game.

It turns out the gargoyles aren’t evil after all, but are just trying to save their world from destruction. Apparently moving the codex after Ultima 4 is destroying their world. This is a great plot twist (if I didn’t already know about it).

John sends me to meet up with Beh Lem (a friendly gargoyle) who has been helping him with their language. He also gives me a scroll which I use to learn the langauge myself.  Beh Lem tells me that the world can only be saved through my sacrifice which the gargoyles have taken literally but could mean several things.

He points me in the direction of another gargoyle who says I must surrender to the gargoyle inquisitor.

I do this and he places an amulet on my neck which will apparently hold me to my promise to come back and be sacrficed when the moons are aligned. Lets hope this isn’t too soon. All the gargoyles will talk to me now.

I’ve had hints about other quests such as retrieving a gargoyle cube from Stonegate which was apparently stolen by human thieves. I’ll attempt that and head for the Lycaeum next.

As ever, I’ve really rushed through this post. There is far too much happens in a session of play on this game for me to attempt to get it all in. I must have talked to about 70 or 80 NPC’s all of which had loads to say.  I’m kind of overwhelmed by how much conversation, I’ve had to remember. I really should have been taking notes. Having done all 8 major towns now, its probably a bit late to start but I’ll correct that when I make it to Ultima 7.

This doesn’t feel anything like Ultima 5 to me at all – the series really took a new direction here. I like the single scale map so you just walk out of one place straight into another. I kind of miss the 3D dungeons but in all honesty they were getting less important each game as the pre-designed rooms took over. Ultima Underworld more than made up for the lack of dungeons anyway. I’ve hardly been involved in combat since I started, just a few wild animals here and there. This is fine by me and the gameplay here is more about puzzle solving and exploring.

As much as I like the early games, I think all the changes are for the better. You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over. I think being a fan of the whole series, requires you to like quite a few genres and opinion differs wildly with different people loving or hating different parts of the series. So far I’ve enjoyed them all so hopefully that will continue – I’ve never played 7, SI or 8 though so I’ll hold out judgement for now.