Ultima VII Part II:Serpent Isle - Part 10

                  Walkthrough by Belisana
                 Supplied by Julian Gregory

@~Continued from Issue 41

THE CITY/TEMPLE OF ORDER/BATLIN

To find Batlin and the City of Order, you can call the Hound of
Doskar again.  You'll need to go east of the mountains you're near
now, to 39N 96E.

Once inside, an automaton speaking with Batlin's voice will attack
you. Kill it and take its arrow-shaped key, which will unlock the
door to the left.  Up this corridor is a storage area with some
reagents in crates. (Some of the other dead automatons here also
have arrow keys.) The right-hand corridor will take you to an
automaton who'll ask you for a password. There's no way to find
this password, but there's a button you can't reach near the
automaton. Use Telekinesis on it, and then kill the automaton (it
has an arrow key, too).

Go east to the button-operated doors leading north and south.
Brunt will meet you there, and will ask you to follow him. Don't
-- the hallway to the south is seriously trapped. Go north instead
and walk through the illusionary wall to the north. The dark
passage goes north, east, south and then west, back into the N/S
hallway beyond the traps. Don't bother with the pirate's body;
it's trapped and has nothing useful.

Go east at the end of the hall. The room at the east end (opened
with an arrow key), has bows and many types of magic arrows. To
your left, you'll see a trapper in a dark passage. Go back to the
E/W hallway and search the north wall near where you saw the
trapper. There's a secret door, and another dark passage leading
north into the city.

Once in the city, go to the second floor of the building just to
the south.  You'll find a scroll explaining the Temple of the
Order Hierophant, his Great Library, the pedestal before the
temple door, the symbols needed to open the door, and the portal
to the Great Library inside the temple.

The Hierophant's Temple is in the center of town; the pedestal is
on its east side, near the serpent gate. To get the three objects
you need for the pedestal, go to the three meditation rooms on the
city's SW, SE and NW sides.

In the SW (Reflect on Ethicality), take any of the three scrolls;
in the SE (Meditate on Logic), take the abacus; in the NW (Examine
Discipline), take the dagger.

In the mage's lab (on the north side), you'll find a poem that
tells you even more explicitly about the three symbols. There's
also some reagents and potions there. There's some food in the
restaurant full of rats.

Go to the Temple's pedestal and read the plaque. When it says
"Order symbol that doth speak of principles and wisdom," put the
scroll on the pedestal.  When it says "Order symbol for the
strength of the mind and willpower," put the dagger on the
pedestal. When it says "Order symbol for a straight path of
truth," put the abacus on the pedestal. The temple's doors will
open.

Inside the temple, go downstairs and talk to the Hierophant's
automaton.  Tell it you are the Hierophant, and it will give you
the Serpent Scepter.  (There are a fire wand and a lightning wand
in the nightstands.)

Go upstairs and put the scepter on the blue pedestal, and you'll
be teleported to the Library. Read and look under all the books.
One of them tells about Hierophant funerals, which will help you
later on the Isle of Crypts; one gives you very useful information
about the symbols you'll encounter later in the Temple of Balance;
one tells you about the Ophhidians' nine temples, all of which
you'll eventually visit.  Take the tan key on a table, and the
yellow key under a red book.  Unlock the steel doors to the NW
with the yellow key. Read the book "The Structure of Order" on the
spotlighted pedestal (reading this book sets a flag).  The tan key
opens the doors to the two teleporters, both of which take you
back to the serpent gate area.

Northeast of the serpent gate, you'll find a door labelled "Vault
of the Dead."  You can't open it until you get the key inside the
Temple of Order (to the east). The northeast entrance to the
temple is blocked; there's a magic bow and some magic arrows
downstairs.

Take the southeast entrance to the temple, and push the button on
the pedestal. Pothos, Batlin's gargoyle, meets you, challenges,
and leaves as the gate opens. The next room is heavily trapped, so
cast Destroy Traps on the serpent sculptures and in the center of
the room. There's nothing useful downstairs here.

Talk to the automaton at the gate to the right of the pool of
water. Say you follow Order. Answer his test with the name of the
fourth book, "The Structure of Order."

Press the button at the next gate, and Deadeye will meet you. Go
north up the hallway (which is trapped every four or five steps).
You'll find a gold door (locked) and a dead pirate. If you still
have the blue-and-white key you took from Selina at the
transplanted Britannia Mint, it will unlock this door (and the
back entrance/exit from the temple).

If you don't have that key, take the pirate's red-and-blue key and
go back to the city. His key will unlock the Vault of the Dead.
Beyond the corpses, go through the tall wooden door onto the green
carpet. It's an elevator, operated by a green button on its north
edge. Go up, east across a bridge, and down the steps. The gold
door to the north is the back entrance/exit.  Continue east to
another tall wooden door. Go north, and through the next wooden
door.  You'll come out in the temple's antechamber, and will be
attacked by Batlin's four henchmen, including Selina. They're hard
to kill, but you have to get them all. Be sure to search Selina's
body. She has a Dispel Field scroll, which you'll need later (put
it in your spellbook immediately). She also has a blink ring.

Note: At this point, check your companions' inventory. You're
going to lose them in a few minutes (temporarily), and although
they'll leave their stuff on the floor, you'll have a mess to sort
out if they have any small items such as keys or food. If you
can't carry those kinds of items yourself, just leave them on the
floor somewhere. They won't go anywhere.

Go through the big wooden doors into the temple's inner sanctum.
On the left side, you'll find a gold key that's useless, a Create
Automaton spell, a gray key that opens one of the chests, a
trapped chest (empty), and an untrapped chest with some cold
potions. On the right side, you'll find a Fire Snake scroll, some
potions, and some powder kegs.

Up the middle, you'll find Batlin, trying his best to open the
Wall of Lights.  You'll be frozen in place in a cut scene, so
don't bother trying to do anything until it's over. Batlin will
fail to open the Wall, and the Guardian will kill him. When he
dies, the Banes of Chaos will get loose and will take over your
companions' bodies. Shamino will say "I am Anarchy." Dupre will
say "I am Wantonness." And Iolo will say "I am Insanity." Then
they'll vanish, leaving all their possessions on the floor.

At this point, the Earth Serpent will tell you to seek the gwani
horn. It's in Vasculio's house back in Chaos, and you now have the
Dispel Field spell needed to free it.

Before you go, search Batlin's body and take the blackrock Chaos
Serpent and the serpent jawbone. His yellow key seems to be
useless. Note the slot in the floor -- it's facing the other way
from Batlin's serpent. He was trying to use the Chaos Serpent in
the Temple of Order, which was why he failed.

Batlin's jawbone has six teeth in it. They are: #3 Chaos; #4
Order; #5 Temple of Discipline; #10 Sleeping Bull; #14 Temple of
Enthusiasm; and #18 Temple of Logic. Put these teeth in your
jawbone, and you can now gate to any of these locations.

If you go out the back entrance, you'll find two trapped chests
behind a blue fire-field wall. They hold some magic scrolls and a
lightning whip. There's also a powder keg and some serpent arrows
hereabouts. Look for a winding dark passage behind an illusionary
wall west of the post in the NW corner of the cavern. It takes you
out of the temple at about 67N 123E.

FREEING GWENNO

From here, head back to the City of Chaos and cast Dispel Field to
get the gwani horn. The Earth Serpent will tell you to "Free
Gwenno. Free her from the ice."

Go north and pick up the gwani ice raft again. You're heading to
an island that's at about 91N 52W, but you'll need to go north and
then west to get around the ice floes. Gwenno's tomb (an ice
obelisk) is in the center of the farthest-west ice cavern. Use the
horn to shatter the ice. You can call the monks to resurrect
Gwenno where she is, or you can carry her body back to Monk Isle
yourself. If you call the monks, Gwenno will be back at Monk Isle
when you get there.

After you've gotten Gwenno resurrected, the Earth Serpent will
tell you that one of the Chaos banes has twisted her soul. Indeed,
if you try to talk to her, you'll discover that she's nutty as a
fruitcake. Talk to Karnax (the head monk) and ask him about the
Banes of Chaos. He'll send you to find Fedabiblio and the original
Serpent Scroll. Bring it to Karnax, and he'll be able to help you
cure Gwenno.

BACK TO MOONSHADE

When you return to Moonshade, you'll find that Shamino the Anarch,
driven by his Chaos Bane, has devastated the place. Almost
everyone is dead, and wild beasties are roaming the streets.

Find Andrio and Freli, Fedabiblio's students. Andrio will tell you
that Fedabiblio has been turned into a statue, and that
Torrissio's wand may be the way to release him. Freli will tell
you that the Serpent Scroll is in the Seminarium library, but that
only Fedabiblio can get it for you.

Go to the Seminarium and use the green wand you got from
Vasculio's house on Fedabiblio. (DON'T ask Torrissio about it --
he'll take it away from you and you'll have to use Vibrate to get
it back from him.)

Note: Somewhere near the Seminarium, you'll find Gustacio's body.
He has a scroll from Melino that talks about your blackrock
sword's ability to contain bound spirits -- like banes,
f'rinstance.

Talk to Fedabiblio. He'll tell you what happened in Moonshade.
He'll also give you the green key to Hawk's chest at the inn. (You
already have Hawk's treasure, including the serpent crown, so
don't bother looking for it.) He'll also tell you that Stefano is
still alive, but is being pursued by a monster of some sort
(you'll need to rescue him). And he'll tell you that Torrissio and
Ducio are still alive (you'll need help from both of them).
Finally, he'll suggest that you search the dead mages' houses for
useful items like scrolls and serpent teeth.

He'll give you the Serpent Scroll. Use Translate to read it. It's
by Ssithnos, the last Chaos Hierophant, and it's the original of
the translated fragment you found at the very beginning of the
game. It tells about balance and the forces of Chaos and Order,
and it should make more sense to you now than the fragment did.
Make a few notes: you'll need this information later.

You need to go back to Monk Island, but it's probably a good idea
to explore the devastated Moonshade and look for more serpents'
teeth. You'll find the #2 tooth (Temple of Emotion) in a brass
chest in Torrissio's house. While you're there, you can reanimate
the two broken automatons in Torrissio's lab if you haven't
already done so. They're good for carrying stuff, and can fight a
bit if you give them good weapons.

Note: When you've added the automatons to your party, you might
want to go back to the Temple of Order and pick up your
companions' stuff. The automatons can use it until you get your
companions back, and they can easily carry it all. If you need to
ask your automatons to leave your party for any reason before you
get your companions back, try casting Serpent Bond and just
slithering away from them. They'll stay where you leave them until
you talk to them again. If you just ask them to leave, they'll
dump all their possessions into your inventory and on the ground,
creating a gawdawful mess.

Note: Petra's still alive at the Blue Boar Inn, but she won't
offer to join your party until you've been to the Temple of
Discipline and seen the acid.

Tooth #17 (Temple of Ethicality) is in a brass chest in Gustacio's
basement.  There are duplicate teeth (#8 and #9) to the ones you
got from Vasculio's house in Frigidazzi's house and Filbercio's
palace. Since you don't need them, don't bother to get them.

CURING GWENNO

Go back to Monk Isle and talk to Karnax again. He'll take the
scroll and tell you about the six Chaos/Order virtues and their
anti-virtues, which take over when there's no balance. You should
recognize three of them as the banes that have taken over your
companions, even though the first one is listed as "amorality"
instead of "anarchy." (It's a text error, not a legitimate clue.)

He'll make you a chart of this information, and will tell you that
a lack of the virtue Discipline has produced Wantonness in Gwenno.
To cure her, he'll say, have the victim drink the water from the
temple dedicated to the virtue that the person lacks. (This is the
same process you'll need to use to cure your companions later in
the game.) Now, you'll need to go to the Temple of Discipline to
get water for Gwenno.  Take two empty buckets, by the way --
you'll need another bucketful for Dupre.  To get there, use the
serpent gate.  From serpent central, use the east gate off the NE
corridor. (The temple's coordinates on the ground are 44N 86E.)

TEMPLE OF DISCIPLINE

Once inside the temple, cast Destroy Traps on the altar. Talk to
the automaton in the NE room. It'll speak in fragments, but the
gist of what it's saying is that only an automaton can get through
the acid that leads to the water of Discipline. Don't bother with
the force field blocking the entrance to the bane-jail room. The
jail's empty.

Go down the stairs on the left. In the south room downstairs, find
the secret door in the tomb wall. Inside the tomb, pick open the
invisible chest and get the brown key. Go back to the main floor.

Press the button on the right wall, and the door to the right-hand
stairs up will open. Go up the right-hand stairs. Find the secret
door that opens the room to the south. Get the arrow key and the
obsidian Y in the desk. Unlock the room to the north with the
brown key. Take the quartz Y in the brass chest. In the center
room, the invisible chest holds serpent arrows.

Go back to the main floor and push the button on the left wall. It
will open the left-hand stairs up. Go upstairs. The room to the
north has some empty buckets. In the center room to the south,
read the books: one tells about body transference, one explains
about the test of discipline, and one tells how to use the
Y-shaped keys with the slots on the altar to open a bridge to the
water of Discipline.

Go back to the main floor. Put the quartz Y in the left-hand altar
slot, and the obsidian Y in the right-hand slot. Now, despite what
the book said, swap the positions of the Y pieces. When you put
the obsidian Y in the left slot, a bridge leading to the stairs
behind the serpent statue should appear.  Go down the serpent
stairs and unlock the south room with the arrow key. Take the blue
key from the chest, and unlock the door to the north. Take one
step inside that door, and you'll discover the acid. Go back out
to the serpent gate and head for Moonshade.

Note: You can make it through the acid yourself if you cast Vas
Mani every few steps, but you'll miss setting a flag and an
interesting bit of business.

Once in Moonshade, head for the Blue Boar Inn and talk to Petra.
She should now have 'acid' as a keyword. Ask her about acid, and
she'll join your party.

Note: Petra's a pretty good fighter if you give her a good weapon,
and she's trainable. When she has a few training points, go to the
Sleeping Bull and look for Wilfred, the only survivor. He'll train
you and Petra, and your companions (when you get them back). He'll
also join your party, but he'll leave you high and dry if he gets
hurt.

Go back to the Temple of Discipline and enter the body
transference room.  Talk to Petra, and she'll get on the left-hand
platform. Press the button; your avatar will get on the right-hand
platform and the transference will proceed. DON'T talk to Petra
after you've swapped bodies, or she'll follow you through the acid
wearing YOUR body. Go downstairs, walk through the acid, and get
TWO bucketfuls of water of Discipline. Walk back through the acid
and go back to the transference room. Now, talk to Petra and
she'll follow you again. You'll be hit by lightning, and you'll
have your own body back.  Go back to Monk Isle and use the water
of Discipline on Gwenno.  (Double click on the bucket and click
the crosshairs on Gwenno.) Now that she's cured, she'll have a lot
to say. Most important, she'll tell you that you have to cage the
banes again before you can restore balance. Go to Moonshade,
she'll say, and find out who gave Batlin the secret of trapping
souls.

MAKING BANE CAGES

Go to Moonshade and find Torrissio (he'll probably be in
Filbercio's palace).  He'll tell you that Batlin bought the spell
you're seeking, too, but that the soul prisms it makes are not
strong enough to contain souls of great power. He wants his wand
as the price for the spell. Give it to him, and he'll stop talking
to you. Talk to him again, and he'll give you the Soul Prism
spell. He'll tell you to seek out Ducio for the worm gems you'll
need to make the soul prisms. If you ask him about Stefano, he'll
tell you that he plans to have him killed for messing up his
affair with the late Columna.

Go to Ducio's workshop and ask him about Worm Gems. He'll make one
for you if you have some worm hearts (you'll need nine,
altogether). Since you need three Soul Prisms, you'll need to ask
three times about the Worm Gems. Now, transcribe Torrissio's Soul
Prism spell into your spellbook, and cast it on each of the worm
gems. The gems will change from round to diamond-shaped, and will
now ID as empty soul prisms.

From here, go back to Monk Island and talk to Gwenno again. She'll
tell you that to make the prisms strong enough, you need to bathe
the prisms in the waters that are connected to the banes (Emotion,
Enthusiasm, and Tolerance).  She'll also tell you about the
devices in each of these temples that will show you the banes'
current location.

If you already have the water of Emotion, you won't need to go
back to that temple. To bathe a prism, double click on the bucket
and click the crosshairs on the prism. If you're using the water
of Emotion, the prism you bathe in it will turn blue.

@~More next issue
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