Ultima Underworld II, Day 1

Well, my sojourn into the gem-encrusted castle of Lord British over the past few days went well. What surprises me about Underworld II is how short it is--or rather, how the various worlds in the game vary so substantially in size. The best example is Lord British's castle where the sewers are full of details that you for the most part will never need to explore! In any case, I zipped down very quickly to the gem on the lowest level--This was mainly because it's easy to get there, and because even the relatively wimpy monsters kill you swiftly when you are a weakling level one chump! I found the lair of a gazer and of a reaper, both of which I will kill at some point.

I also believe I have completed the quests associated with the goblin tower, because I got a blackrock object of some form from a leader there. It's curious how cordial the goblins are in that tower, at least to me. Well, there's a trio that call me monkey boy (hey, morons, you're bipedal monkey-like things too, just green!).

Underworld II is very much like Underworld I. The only aspects that have changed are the size of the view window (a little bigger) and the graphics, which are also slightly improved. Oh yeah, there is also "digitized sound," which means that you hear some rather out of place splats and dings and so on when you fight monsters.

Back to the plot--My recollection is that there are eight worlds to explore, and the first, the goblin tower, is by far the easiest. There is a troll in a jail cell on an upper level, too, but I have forgotten how you get it open. There's a guy named Janar or some such who has the keys, but he's fairly friendly and I don't much want to slice him up. Moreover, being wimpy, I can't! I think the next order of business is to go to Syria and others in the castle and get them to train me so I can hold my own in a fight a bit better.

As a final note, I have heard that the castle caretaker Nanna has been grumbling about worker's rights, and soon I'll need to tell Lord British about it, an infamous source of bugginess in the game. I will actually need to consult a walkthrough to remind myself how to solve this quest exactly correctly and not cause a game-stopping bug. Finally, I will need to cheat--Stupidly, I misspelled my name and I will need to break out some save game editor to fix it. Actually, I might be able to simply open one of the files in a hex editor. We shall see.

I only did four entries in all of July! How sad. But then, that's what employment does for you I guess. Underworld II may go faster than I speculated, but I am taking it at such a snail's pace that it may be awhile before I am done!