Serpent Isle, Day 4

The 5th day of my adventure in Serpent isle began by telling Hawk we needed to hit the water and sail to Moonshade. he agreed, in spite of the danger; soon, myself, a local merchant, a peasant and his parrot, and Hawk were on board ship and avoiding lightning storms. I was fortunate to avoid the "waiting in the ship forever" bug that others have encountered, although I was made nervoud that the parrot walked towards the boat, then suddenly turned the opposite direction and went off screen. He came back a few seconds later, though.

Moonshade is a big island, and of the cities I think it has the most distinctive layout. Monitor is cool because all the streets have names (how many of you bothered to read them?), and Fawn has awesome architecture and a certain empty feeling (Fawn seems full of empty houses), but every home in Moonshade is distinctive and it's very easy to remember who lives where.

Like Fawn, the Moonshade quest is spent, to some extent, waiting around. First, a witch sends me a scroll; then, Flindo arranges a banquet for me. The banquet, much like the one in Monitor, was interrupted by bad news about blood moss, but on the plus side the automaton nearby did not complain when I bagged the whole feast in Shamino's backpack, including the "demon roast."

The next two quests are a little questionable in my mind--First, you have to go retrieve blood moss from a swamp. Why? because Pothis, the local apothecary, is too weak to avoid a few slimes to get it himself. Then, Rotoluncia (the witch mentioned above) steals one of your companions under the brainless premise that because Batling had a pet daemon (actually a gargoyle...), we must know how to control daemons. I guess she "summon daemon" spell from Ultima 6 and earlier has been forgotten? In any case, you have to go kill her, and she proves to also be a total wimp. She is hiding out on an island that previously she'd shared with the ruler of the city; in their shared bedroom we discover a banana, a whip, and a diaper, among other things, and thus learn too much information about their activities.

Back in town, Pothos gives information required to go meet his fater, the mad mage. This time playing through the game, I finally remembered that I do NOT need to write down the mantra and all that are required to summon a turtle to go meet him.

General comments...
Iolo makes an odd statement about how I was able to use power without understanding it in the days of the False Prophet. Huh? Maybe he is referring to the fact that I retrieved the Codex without knowing the gargoyles revered it?

The game got slightly confuse with respect to Mortego. He is standing in his house, asking "How did I get here?" and the like over and over again. However, that's what he says after he is teleported off to one of the serpent shrines off in the frozen north, and it is curious that he's saying it now. He was willing to summon the ghost of Christopher of Trinsic for me, though, who gave me little useful information.

Finally, I retrieved a dubious magical compass from the Seminarium (sp?), and I have packed it away along with a magic orb that gives quotes like "Ask again later" and "You can count on it" a la a magic 8 ball (it also, disturbingly, tells me to trust the Guardian...). I have designated Iolo as my Junk Carrier, while Shamino is my Food and Supplies man and Dupre is my Gold man. I hang on to important quest items.