Ultima V, Day 8

My progress in Ultima V continues, with the destruction of two more Shadowlords. Finding the shards was somewhat tedious--It turns out the dungeon of Covetous is the source for the Hatred shard (although, interestingly, Wrong connects there, too) and I did not have the Word for that dungeon. Eventually I discovered you had to ask all the townsfolk about COUNCIL in order to find who knows the word, although I *still* have not managed to get the Compassion word. Of course, who cares? Anyway, Hatred was an easy shard to acquire.

Much more difficult was Cowardice, because you have to use lots and lots of Blink spells to teleport between nearby caverns. My mapping was not as effective, and I was frustrated that gems only let you see so far. Now, I was given coordinates, but since I have not been able to find the ****ing sextnant, they were not very useful. Speaking of which, I think my next quest is to find the sextant. I did, however, find some Mystic Arms and Armor, which I didn't even realize existed in the game! I noticed an extremely suspicious blob of lava in the mountains near where Hythloth exited in the Underworld, and I climbed over to investigate. Unsurprisingly, I found a bunch of weapons in the middle of the mysterious blob of lava that otherwise served no purpose! No one I talked to had mentioned them and I didn't even know they were in the game. A lucky find!

With the Shadowlords all dead, I went and snatched British's scepter at Stonegate, killing some daemon who asked me a dumb riddle and attacked me anyway when I got it right. Bastard. The most humorous event of the day was out of curiosity stepping into a pit near the Amulet, and falling a really, really long way into a huge block of lava. Damn.





I'm not sure what to do next. I have to rescue British, obviously, but how? I may go ask Blackthorn for info. Last time I pretty much wandered past him to his bedroom without saying hello (Actually, I did talk to him, and got tossed in jail...so I reloaded), but with the Shadowlords all dead perhaps now he will be helpful.

Oh yeah, I got to the room of children and murdered them all after letting them out of their cages! One of the most infamous rooms in all Ultimas, and one which reappears in most of the later games, too! The Official Book of Ultima by Shay Adams describes the rucus surrounding this in some detail.

Incidentally, I re-read that book...man, is it ridiculous. It talks about how in Ultima V, Blackthorn is not some evil guy who never does anything to you, and he instead regularly impedes your progress. When? Unless I went out of my way to be stupid in the castle, he doesn't do diddly squat. I guess I will say more in the wrap-up after I finish the game, which is coming sooner than expected! At least in terms of days, perhaps not in terms of play-hours ;-)

Finally, a warning: never use a blue potion on yourself. I did and slept for three game days before I broke down and rebooted DOSbox.