The Void - in Ultima!

                 A warning from Dave Booth

Stop press!  A phenomenon previously only associated with that
well-known RPG "Daggerfall" has resurfaced to plague the denizens
of the Ultima gameworld.

Daggerfall players will be only too familiar with the
colloquially-named Black Void.  For others, this is the situation.
Should an unwary player character not watch out for gaps between
parts of a dungeon - typically the tops of staircases - he or she
can inadvertently drop through the gap.  The poor PC is then in
the Black Void.  Parts of the dungeon above, below and around them
can be seen.  But the PC is in free-fall, plunging into the
blackness at ever-increasing speed. Unless a swift Levitate or
Slow Fall is enacted, the PC will be dead in seconds as they hit
some unseen lower boundary of the world.  Erk.  Good job that
doesn't happen in other games. But!  I have identified a similar
phenomenon in a most revered of game worlds... Ultima Underworld.

In this case the malign influence which curses Daggerfall has
planted the dark seed of the Void into a game mechanic known to
players as 'Gate Travel'.  This is a form of teleporting.  It is
necessary to possess two Moonstones and the runes for the Gate
Travel spell.  One Moonstone is left in a place to which the PC
wishes to return.  At a later point, casting Gate Travel on the
Moonstone you still possess takes the PC back to the starting
location.

The Guardian has colluded with some dark forces in Daggerfall to
encrypt Vicious Void Technology (VVT)(TM) into certain Moonstones.
This cruel gesture manifests itself thus.

Should a player drop a Moonstone at his feet, then Gate Travel
(pointing the spell at his remaining Moonstone), the result is
unavoidably the Void.

Instead of materialising on the spot, you arrive in a world of
total blackness.  No corporeal or magical light can pierce the
darkness, yet you can move around and act apparently as normal.
However, vision has been completely removed from your life.  Your
PC has literally been blinded by the foul spell woven into your
Moonstone.

Though the PC is not falling to their death, this cruel trick is
more insidious.  Without sight, he or she is easy prey to every
wandering monster, or can stumble unaided into the deep pools of
lava dotted around the Underworld.

The only way to restore your sight is to travel some distance from
your initial point of arrival (avoiding lava, monsters and so on),
then to re-cast Gate Travel on your Moonstone.  Success in this
will return the PC to the starting point.

Underworld denizens beware!  The Lord of Bugs has reared his head
again. Let our shared knowledge be a source of power against his
tyranny.

                              - o -