Ultima 7 - Black Gate and Forge of Virtue (Part 2)

                CD ROM solution from Bill Commons

@~Continued from Issue 39

The next town is Cove and here you get the mayor to sign the bill.
Talk to every one in the town and fall in love with Nastassia, I
don't know how this works if you are playing as a girl. Talk to
Rudyon and get his wand and he will tell you of his lost magic
carpet that you may have.  He is also the cheapest for spells and
reagents so buy as many as you can afford.

The spells that I found essential to have are, Create Food,
Telekinesis, Mark, Recall, Reveal, Seance, Unlock Magic, Dispel
Field, Great Heal, Invisibility, Restoration and Resurrect.  After
some time, money is no problem and you can fill your spellbook up
if you want.  Wherever there are mountains you will find caves and
dungeons and most of these are used to get treasure and experience
points, I won't list these, only the important ones.  Also I
travelled every inch of the map but although it takes many
interesting hours and lots of combats it is not necessary to do
so.

You can at this point go to location 7 north and 31 west which is
NW out of Britain and follow the mountain around in an
anticlockwise direction and you will find the magic carpet.  This
makes life a lot easier but I will carry on using the moongate
method of travel. Do not attempt the dungeon at this point as it
is very tough.

An obvious hint about the magic carpet, which I often forgot, is
to make a note of where you leave it. If you are using three modes
of travel, carpet, moongates and virtue stones you can soon hop
around and get carried away in the excitement of the game and lose
the carpet, you then spend hours looking for it.

Return to Britain searching the north west shore of Lake Lock
as you go and in the dead body of a fish you will find the lost
key to farmer Mack's shed.  You will get an uproar from your gang
even moving the garbage around on the shore.  Give the signed bill
to Miranda and pick up the hoe of destruction from the shed.  A
short way east of the shed is the first moongate and this will
take you to the Valorian Isles.  On this island go north through
the cave and travel out through the other entrance. Continue to
Jhelom and talk to Dupre and the Barmaids in the inn.  Go to the
owner's house just NW of the inn and offer to be his champion in a
duel with three thugs.

Carry on across the bridge and enter Kliftin's house, tell him of
Sprellic's plight and he will offer to make a duplicate flag to
give to the duelists. Go back to the inn and wait for a while, do
not talk to anyone until you have got the false flag as this is
one place that the game goes into a loop.  Take the flag to Syria
in the Library of Scars and all is forgiven.  Return to the
moongate and be teleported to Yew forest.  You can't do much here
at the moment so re-enter the moongate to get to Minoc.  Here get
the gypsy to read your fortune and she will tell you of the Time
Lord and the Wisps, also about Nastassia in Cove.  She will tell
you to visit the monks at Empath Abbey to ask about Wisps.  Go to
the mine building and the two mine caves and pick up all the snake
venom that you find.  This can be sold in Britain for 50 gold
each, about 1600 gold if you find it all.  If you make yourself
invisible in these and other caves you will be able to see any
secret passages.  Note the hidden blackrock mine for later.  If
you mark it and make a note of which colour virtue stone you used
it will save a lot of travelling when you need it.

Talk to everyone and discover another murder, also find out that
Hook and the ship Crown Jewel have been here.  Give the box to the
leader of the Fellowship, open or still sealed, and tell her about
the candelabras at the murder site. Talk to Karl the sailor about
his brother and he will give you Owen's plans for a ship.  Take
these to your friend Julia the tinker, she will discover the flaws
and ask you to tell the mayor.  He will cancel the monument of
Owen and when you tell the boat builder about this he will kill
himself.

Return to Yew and go to the abbey, talk to Taylor the monk and he
will say that the Emps can talk to the Wisps for you but they need
honey from the bee cave.  On talking to another monk Kregg he asks
you to give him a potion to make him invisible.  Go to the prison
and look in the wanted files to discover that Kregg is a criminal.
Buy the keys from the guard for 20 gold and enter the cell on the
right, search the skeleton and get 40 gold back.  Pull the lever
in the corner and depart through the secret door.

Go back to Kregg and tell him that he is a thief and he will try
to kill you.  Buy some flowers from the other monk Aimi (I always
thought that monks were men) and give the flowers to Reyna to put
on her mother's grave.  Walk south and west talking to the mage
Nicodemus on the way, buying any spells or reagents that you
require.  It is a good idea to mark this place as several visits
are necessary.  Continue in the same direction until you find a
cave. Leave your companions outside and explore the cave alone.
There are two sources of honey and at either one cast an invisible
spell, pick up some honey and walk out.  Enlist your men again and
travel to the east side of the forest by some blue trees.  There
are lots of fights through the forest so it might be easier to go
by carpet.

Talk to the small ape like creatures called Emps and get passed
around from one to another.  Ask about Julius, Nastassia's father,
and then Salamon the elder asks you to get a contract signed by
the woodcutter to say that he would not cut down any more
silverleaf trees. Go back to the east side of the forest to find
Ben, location 43 north 45 east, and he will sign the contract.
Back to the Emps and after much to-ing and fro-ing you will get a
whistle which will enable you to contact the Wisps. They can be
found in a deserted library in the centre and to the south of the
forest.  Location 45 north 13 west. They offer to trade
information with you, you must get them a notebook from Alagner
the mage on New Magencia, and in return they will tell you how to
find the Time Lord.

Return to Britain and report to Batlin.  He will send you on your
second mission to a supposedly deserted dungeon called Dungeon
Destard.  Do not go there yet as it is full of dragons.  A good
source of gold is on north Avatar's Isle, there are regenerating
pirates in two buildings and as you walk from one to the other you
can win a large amount of gold coins and nuggets each time, I
usually stayed until I had collected about 600 gold.  It is now
time to visit Fire Island and The Forge of Virtue.  But first take
time out to visit your love at Cove to tell her the news of her
father, if you start kissing her remember that you have an
adventure to complete.

The island is in the centre of your map, hidden by the logo of the
game Ultima V 11.  Location 35 south 125 east. I started with
Truth quest, talk to the central statue and he will teleport you
into the dungeon.  If you walk up to the first set of metal walls
and go north through the secret passage, you don't have to do this
quest as the Talisman of Truth is at the end of the passage.  This
would be a bit pointless though as the idea is to play the game.
Carry on and find your first pedestal with a locket on it.  There
are seven of these around this dungeon and on the first six the
locket vanishes.  By the sign 'follow the fire' dismiss your party
and follow the wall around keeping north and fire fields keep
exploding.  Use a great heal spell or drink a yellow potion to
keep you healthy to get to the second locket.

Return to the sign and then go south. This area is full of
invisible walls but I couldn't find a pattern, I just kept running
along until I could go only one way and by trial and error I
eventually reached the third locket.  Get your party to re-join
and head north around the rivers picking up the gold nuggets as a
guide through.  Pick up two more lockets on your travels and the
drawbridge at the top NW corner should lower.  Go across and make
your way very slowly north, there is a firebomb for the speedy.
You will arrive at seven cells, each with a key and a different
set of monsters.  Save the game here as it can be hard. It is a
good idea to lock the cells after getting the key as the monsters
keep regenerating. Step on the platform at the north end and be
teleported to another cell.  Double click on the north wall and a
secret door will open. Head north west and you will arrive at a
wall. Walk north through this and go up and across the bridge.

Now go south and through some passages. The chests in this area
except for the locked one are empty and explode if moved, the
locked one has some magic arrows in it.  In the N/W corner are two
stone golems and again it is advisable to save the game to avoid
having to carry dead companions. When these are defeated you can
get the final disappearing locket.  Make your way back to the
first metal wall and north to the talisman, you will now be
teleported back to the statue.  Talk to the left hand statue and
she tells you to enter the blue moongate in the south west corner.
The Talisman of Love. Go to a building in a field and read
Astelleron's logbook.  This is another area best completed by
yourself as your companions get in your way.

Pick up the bucket by the well, talk to the golem named Bollux. He
will ask you to help his companion named Adjhar who is dying, he
gives you a book which tells of the Stone of Castambre, as you
read it, a spell falls out of the book, which you will need later.
Go north through the cave door and you will arrive at another
field, get a pick on the way.  Place the bucket on or near the
stone and put the pick in your weapon hand. I then went into
combat mode and hacked away at the rock and the tree for hours.
Still it taught me one thing, a nosy deer put its head under the
pick and I found out how to get six venison steaks for my
backpack. If you just double click on the pick and one click on
the tree then the bucket fills up with blood. Leave the pick there
and pull the lever on the north side of the stone. This opens a
secret door back in the cave and in the new room are some good
weapons.

Return to Bollux and carry out the operation as described in the
book, that is click on the bucket and each of the five stones,
then use the spell.  Bollux rips his own heart out when Adjhar
needs one and you have to put this in the body.  Adjhar comes to
life and asks you to repeat the procedure to bring life and a new
heart for his fallen companion.  Do this and the second golem will
return to life.  Get your companions back and ask Adjhar for the
Talisman of Love.  You will then be teleported back to the
statues.  Talk to the last statue, Courage, and she tells you to
go through the right hand moongate.  On your way talk to the
mirror near the moongate and find that a magic daemon lives
inside.  Enter the moongate and be prepared for some tough
battles.

In a while you will reach two rooms each with a lever in it. These
open a double metal wall to allow you through to fight a drake,
not a duck but a young dragon, it regenerates too, go to the room
to the right of it and walk up to the metal wall. This will lower
and allows you to look into a crystal ball.  You see a glass sword
on the floor and a key on a platform. Drop a glass sword on the
floor, you should have picked up six from the secret room in the
love quest or fight the dragon again and get one from the chest by
the body.  A key appears in front of you and this opens the door
north of the drake's room.  Go north and turn in the first opening
on the right and back south again, fight the golems and you will
find two rooms each with a platform in it.  On these are a great
helm and a magic helm, swap these over and the doors to the north
E/W passage opens. Lots more fights and you arrive at a room with
Dracothraxus the dragon. When you have bested him he will give you
a gem, go outside his room and mark it, if you don't want all
those fights again.  Break the mirror with the gem and the daemon
will enter the gem.

@~More next issue             - o -