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Completed DECENT PERSON SIMULATOR 1985 (ultima 4 lp)

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 59: Ug
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With the three-part key acquired, I think we have everything we need to enter the abyss. Before that I’m going to make one more sweep for Vesper, as well as grab some more rare ingredients to boost up our spell count.

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This time we proactively exit via Deceit so that we can fetch the boat.

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We happen to have a couple mandrake roots still in our inventory, so we whip up a couple more Tremors before setting sail for the mainland.

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We stop by the Guild shop in the Den to grab some more magic gems. We’ll need them for my master plan to find Vesper.

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We’ve also been asking in every tavern we come across about Vesper, but we find no info. Worth a shot, anyway.

Now, to search for Vesper. First we’ll have to fetch our horses from outside Wrong, so that we can double our search speed.

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Unsurprisingly we also dealt with several attackers along the way. I was tempted to try out Tremor in this fight, but orcs are one of the weakest shits in the game. I’d rather see the spell’s full power put to the test on something like demons.

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We didn’t have to wait long, as these fellows showed up mere minutes later. Now we shall see what Tremor can do.

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Three demons are swallowed up by the earth, we immediately kill the fourth thereafter, and the balron flees for the hills. Words cannot describe the beauty.

Just as the prophet Wayward Son foretold, this is a handy spell to have. It’s not guaranteed to kill or cause every enemy to flee, but just being able to attack everything in one move is good enough for me. I think Jinx is the only other area effect spell in our arsenal. Speaking of which, we’ll have to test that out sometime too.

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There you are, now we can begin the search.

Here’s my master plan. We’ll use the horses to gallop across the mainland, occasionally peering at gems to see if we can spot any towns in our vicinity. Towns and dungeons pop up as little squares on the gem map, so we’ll hopefully be able to spot Vesper and then home in on it.

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Like so; this is the area just south of where we harvest nightshade. No towns to be had here, unfortunately.

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Here’s the area just east of Skara Brae, so that you know what the dot for towns looks like. It looks like hills, though, so locations like dungeons tend to blend in a bit.

We spend some time exploring the western side of the mainland. Even with horses to expedite the journey this isn’t the most interesting activity. Before too long I lose interest and start pursuing other things. We’ve run low on Cure spells and need more food, so we’ll make our way to Skara Brae to replenish both.

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Along the way we discover that Tremor affects water creatures too. Not sure how that works, but fine by me.

Fuck, I could watch this all day. So satisfying.

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We stop by Skara Brae, load up on food, and completely forget about mixing more cures; I was distracted with figuring out where to find Vesper.

Rather than explore the rest of the mainland, I’ve now come up with the hypothesis that Vesper could be located on the isle of the abyss. My reasoning being that since we haven’t found it on land yet, it obviously must be at sea. :M

So that’s where we’re headed next.

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Here’s the west half of the island; the shrine of humility’s up to the north. No towns to be had, but we learn something more important. Up to this point I’ve assumed that the mouth of the abyss is just on the other side of the pirate bay, but it looks like we have to travel a bit on foot past there. That weird spirally cross thing at the end is probably the actual mouth.

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Here’s the rest of the island; doesn’t look like there will be any towns hidden within. Guess we’ll have to resume our search on the mainland. But while we’re here we may as well see if we can take a peek at the mouth of the abyss. Back to the pirates.

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We camp out just outside, to force the ships to approach without returning fire, but more continue to spawn every time we move into the inside of the bay. Clearly we’re going to need to strengthen the ship’s hull before we reach the mouth, and that means we must not have found the way to accomplish that. The three items are supposed to be used at the mouth, which we won’t reach until after we’ve cleared the bay, so it must be something else.

Damn. I thought we were ready to roll, but it would seem we haven’t finished the preliminary preparations quite yet. Maybe Vesper will shed some light on this conundrum.

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We return to our horses and start exploring the northern and eastern portions of the mainland. After a while it looks like we might’ve found something nearby the shrine of spirituality, down to the south. Could it be?

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Damn it all, this must be Vesper. How did I miss this for the entire game?
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It? This should be good.

Concerning its job, “Ug, me tough!” On tough, “Ug, me tough!” Hmm.

Concerning Ug, “Me tough! Ug, thee tough?” Ug, I fink so. “Ug, thee tough!” We’ve really struck a chord. I bet we could achieve world peace this way.

The other guard has the same dialogue, so we waltz over to the jester next.

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Shazbot?
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Apparently you’re funny? Is that so?

Concerning her job, “Thou thinks I’m funny! Don’t thou?” I’m sure you can guess what my answer is. “Ah, too bad, I thought I was.” Uh huh.

We move along up the road and find two wizards standing under a big sign that says “VESPER”.

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“We welcome thee to Vesper. Yes, Vesper is a fair village. Hast thou come a long way? We are honored by the visit of one on the quest!”

The other wizard’s name and dialogue are exactly the same, and neither seems to have much else to say, so we continue along the road to the east and then south.

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“I am an apprentice mage! I am the Calumny’s favorite!” Eh? He’s a long ways away from here. “He lives in Yew! Hast thou been to Yew? Calumny knows the quickness spell!”

If you’re curious, the quickness spell supposedly allows your chars to land two blows at the speed of one, with the tradeoff of aging a bit. While being able to double the attack speed would help speed up combat, I’ve never really felt like that justifies aging my companions. Although for all I know it doesn’t actually mean anything in game, since there doesn’t seem to be an age counter anywhere.

So far no one’s had anything to say about ships, their hulls, the abyss, etc., so I’m thinking we were supposed to find out about it someplace else. Next update we’ll finish off exploring Vesper, and then see what we can do about strengthening our boat’s hull for reaching the abyss.
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 60: Reinventing Recovering the Wheel
Let’s continue our exploration of Vesper. Just west of Flatbush are two guards whom we ignore since they probably have the same dialogue as the hulks on the other side. We circle back up to the two wizards by the big sign, and then move south into the enclosure.

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“I seek humility.” Maybe one of these several shepherds will join our party. “When the 3 principles of virtue combine in eight ways pride has no virtue!” Does he mean to say that humility isn’t a virtue, or just that pride isn’t one? “To be proud is not a virtue, and so Magincia was destroyed! Humility is the virtue that remains!”

So in order to be humble your pride must first be broken; a hard lesson to learn. Sounds like the basic archetype of a tragic hero of Greek theater, only in this case it’s not just one person but an entire city whose tragedy serves to teach the audience the lesson.

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He doesn’t have anything to say about ships and their hulls, and won’t join us either, so we move on to the other shepherds.

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This one’s to the south. “I am but a humble shepherd.” Hmph, I’m sure you get to say you’re humble without your virtue counter taking a nosedive. “I am on a pilgrimage unto the shrine of humility! Did thou know that there is no shrine of pride? Very good.”

I don’t get why everyone talks like pride is normally thought of as a virtue. Is it just because Virtuebane distributes pamphlets in public gathering spots? As for the shrine, “It is on the dark island!” Good thing we’ve already found it, because that’s a bit too cryptic for my tastes. He won’t join the party either.

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Hard to be a fair woman when your character model’s skin is brown huehuehue

“I do humble works.” What sort of works? I mean besides that they’re humble ofc. “I can help thee with the mantra!” We already figured that out, but go ahead and tell us anyway if it makes you feel useful. “Since humility is the opposite of pride, so is its mantra! Know ye the mantra of pride?” Yup. “Then reverse it for humility!”

I guess we were supposed to find this town before Magincia. Anyway, she also won’t join us. One more shep to go.

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Lol, shepherdess? Give me a break. What next, female suffrage?

“I seek the shrine. The shrine lies on the north bank of the isle of the abyss and is guarded by endless hoards of daemons! Know the isle? Good.” That’s a lot more to work off than dark island, so props to you Ms Simpleton. As with the rest she won’t join us, so we move farther south and find a weapons shop.

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“I travel these fair lands to spread the virtues!” Always wear protection when traveling these fair lands, lest you contract virtues from Corkrin.

“To know thy progress on the paths of virtue one >must< visit the Seer Hawkwind often! Dost thou do this? Good.” It’d be grand if these npcs would recognize that I’m already an avatar, and thus don’t need these instructions. A glowing ankh tattoo on my forehead might help.

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Mundane selection of weapons. I might buy some flaming oils before we set off for the abyss, but I wonder if the firewall will just impede the party more than the enemies.

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We find this fellow around the left side of the weapons shop, and what looks like another Guild shop too. “I am a serf. Serfs work hard for little pay!” Yeah, yeah, and the world owes you a living and all that. “I work the fields for my master! Dost thou have a master?” Maybe Lord British, but he doesn’t bug us for project updates so Imma say no. “Thou art lucky indeed!”

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“Traveling dan, the tinker man.” Concerning travel, “I know the world is round!” Sorry, bruh, it’s actually flat; you’re just projecting your fat ass onto the entire planet.

If we ask him about tinkers, “I am here to repair goods at the guild shop. Been to the guild shop? Great selection!”

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Dan doesn’t seem to have much else to say so we take a peek at the shop. It’s essentially the same as the Den’s Guild, and I’m pretty sure the prices haven’t changed. We buy a few more gems while we’re here.

There was a doorway just to the left of the Guild, so let’s see what’s inside.

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“I am a thief, I like to borrow!” Those are two different activities, mister. “My favorite things to borrow are horses!” Ah, you must be Lokir’s grandfather. “You can steal horses in the towne Paws! Art thou a thief?” Hmm, now I’m starting to think you’re the Chris Hansen of the theft prevention force. When I say no, “Likely, thou art a wimp!”

Uh huh, you try shifting the tectonic plates to defeat Jormungand and his fraternity brothers and then get back to us on that.

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Asking at the tavern about nightshade nets us the same hint that we found in the Den.

There’s an inn on the other side of the weapons shop, which we ignore. Wandering back outside the enclosure we notice that there’s a gap between its walls and those of the town, so we wander through in search of more npcs.

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We meet this ranger at the southern tip of Vesper. “I teach of the shrines.” That’s cool, might as well give us the lecture. “One >must< visit each shrine for 1, 2 & 3 cycles each for thy paths to be clear! Dost thou visit them often? Very good.” Not sure why angle brackets are suddenly popping up in this town. Could be that it’s inhabited by >them<.

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We meet this fellow back near the entrance, a wise man apparently. “I give wise counsel. Strive ye to know and develop the virtue within thee. The Seer Hawkwind should be consulted >often< for he can see within thee! Dost thou? Good!”

That covers every npc we can find, so it looks like we’ve just about finished up exploring the town. The telescope map shows a couple secret chambers, so we spend a few more minutes searching.

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We end up finding a secret wall just next to the Guild, revealing some treasure that we’ll obviously leave alone. There’s also another guard npc (that other dude is Traveling Dan).

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You know, I don’t think the game goes out of its way to mention that the male npcs are handsome. The inherent misandry promulgated by the matriarchy is a serious detriment to my enjoyment of this product.

“I shall warn thee against taking this gold! Dost thou intend to take it?” Once again, pretty much no one is going to tell you that they are. “That is good.” We take a few moments to search all the treasure chest squares, but don’t find anything special.

With that we’ve spoken with everyone we’ve found so far; we’ll probably come back later to double-check if we missed anything. Unfortunately we weren’t given any information about strengthening the ship’s hull, so I’m pretty much at a loss as to where we’re supposed to go to learn how to accomplish that.

At this point I have to pretty much admit that I must’ve missed something along the way. Since we need to bypass the pirates, and I don’t want to try and navigate the air balloon back to the island, I decide to look up exactly what the game means by strengthening the ship’s hull.

Doing my best to avoid too many spoilers, I learn that some sort of magic wheel is involved. Apparently the H.M.S. Cape has it. Do you remember that ship?

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We sail back to the Serpent’s Isle, where we meet with the wounded sailor that we spoke with before. If you’ll recall he originally told us about his ship and how he’s the lone survivor of its wreck. However, I can’t seem to get him to tell us exactly where to find it.

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Since I now know that I’m supposed to be looking for a wheel I ask him about that, and then he tells us where to look. Checking the world map, the Cape of Heroes is just south of southern tip of the mainland.

At this point I was wondering just how in the fuck I was supposed to know to ask him about the wheel specifically. Well, it unfortunately turns out that I’ve missed a critical npc so far in the Serpent’s Hold. Take a peek at the telescope image:
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Notice how there’s a bit of water just north of the walls? That’s not there just for flavor.

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There are two secret walls to each side of the castle’s throne. What I hadn’t noticed last time we were here was that there’s also another secret wall to the north of the secret that’s to the left of the throne. That wall leads outside, where a lake with a nixie can be seen.

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“I swim the seas!” Concerning seas, “There are many ships at the bottom!” When I ask about ships, “A survivor would know where to search. Hast thou heard of the H.M.S. Cape? She had a magical wheel that would strengthen her hull!”

So that’s how it is. If I’d been more thorough in my previous explorations of Serpent’s Isle, we’d have learned about the Cape’s magical properties and probably asked the sailor about the wheel thereafter.

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The deep waters in the Cape of Heroes are a bit large, but not so much that we can’t just lawnmow them until we find what we need.

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There it is. It’s frustrating that I ended up missing this due to my careless oversight, but at least we have it now.

Where to from here? I think I can now safely say that we do have everything we need to enter the abyss. From here I’m going to farm a few more rare ingredients and then see if I can find that last companion to bring our party number to eight. Obviously we don’t need another char, especially not a shitty shepherd, but I’m curious to see who it is and if we’ve already spoken with them before.

After that I guess it’ll be time to discover what lies waiting for us in the abyss, and achieve our destiny. This long journey is finally coming to a close.
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 61: The Eye of the Hurricane
We’re about ready to begin journeying into the abyss, just going to spend some time building up our supply of spells first.

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While collecting rare ingredients I try out the Kill spell on these balrons. Our hero and Jaana oneshot them both in the first round. Not a bad spell to sink our nightshade into.

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We’re also trying to find the shepherd companion by speaking with every shepherd we can find in all the towns. We end up with the same response from all of them.

Maybe we should go back to Magincia; every other companion has been found in their hometown, after all. Could be that we missed something.

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While double checking with Vesper’s shepherds we found another secret wall by the Guild, leading to one last npc.

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“I can help thee!” Oh cool, maybe you’ll join us? “I know of the skull of Mondain the Wizard! Hast thou heard of it? It is an evil artifact” Oh yeah, we already have it in our traveling pack. “To use it for any reason is a sign of great evil, and no virtue!”

That’s the extent of Servile’s knowledge. Not particularly useful, even if we’d not found the skull yet. He also chooses not to join us, so onward to Magincia.

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We tried using the Jinx spell along the way on some cyclopes, but we ended up killing half of them before we could see the effect. The enemies will basically target each other, in addition to the party, while the J is present on the ui. The spell’s more useful inside dungeon encounters with single-file corridors, where the monsters are pretty much forced to fight each other since they can’t immediately reach the party.

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To reach Magincia we’re going to try out the Gate spell. When it asks to which phase it wants you to input a number from 1 to 8. You can tell which goes to which phase with the game’s quick reference guide:
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After that you’ll be transported to the spot that the moongate appears on. A handy spell to bypass the tedium of the regular moongate patterns.

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Where to start our search? It looks like there’s a sliver of land to travel on to the north and south of the bridge, so hopefully we’ll find a lone shepherd hanging around. Not sure why any would do that, though.

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Nothing to the north; trying to loop around that wall just exits us from the town. Let’s see about the south.

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There you are. We’ll just grab you, toss a sling in your direction, and drag you off to the abyss with us. What an honor for you!

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“A survivor,” is her job. Existing is not an occupation, Katrina. “Magincia was destroyed by its pride. Pride flourishes in the absence of truth, love and courage. Art thou proud?” I’m going to say no, because as far as I’m concerned an avatar actually can’t be proud if they’ve mastered all the virtues. “Humility is the virtue that must overcome pride!” Whatever, welcome aboard.

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:lol: she’s completely useless. Bringing her along is probably a real stupid idea. Oh well, let’s go!

After buying her a sling I spent the next half hour or so buying lots of spell ingredients. I also spent five thousand of our gold pieces on another magic wand, which goes to Iolo.

I’m not putting off the finale any longer; our journey into the abyss begins now! Let's set sail for the isle of the abyss.

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We make sure to
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before entering the pirate cove. I was hoping it would make us invincible, but I guess the extra health will help.

Arrh, bring it on pirates!

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We begin trading blows with the pirates, but it’s clear that our boat will end up at the bottom of the sea. Worse, the wheel can’t be spammed for constant health boosts. We need a new strategy or we’re dead.

...



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Moving next to enemy ships will trigger the boarding combat, even if the boats aren’t parallel. This way we can focus on eliminating the ships one at a time and prevent return fire.

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That was pretty close, but we’re alive. Let’s anchor up and make our way to the mouth of the abyss.

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They’re not going to make it easy for us, that’s for sure. While scrolling through our inventory to check on how many Cures we have I noticed something about the three part key. We didn’t find it in that order; it organized itself like that after the fact. I wonder if that’ll be significant. Maybe the word of passage is supposed to go in that order, too, rather than the order that the bell, book, and candle go in.

We dick around for a bit until the ship’s repaired and set off through the marshes.

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The marsh makes way to hills after a bit, which makes way to lava. Are we going to dive into a volcano? Sidenote, at least I know we wouldn't have been able to bring the balloon here even if we tried, due to zero grasslands to land on.

That fire barrier in the middle of the lava fields must be the entrance. Let’s get over there and hope Katrina doesn’t melt.

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Before anything else we deal with Mondain’s head. Originally I was planning to just keep it, to avoid losing the virtues by using it in the wrong spot, but the mouth’s location is pretty obvious.

Off you go. Hopefully we’re not just leaving this evil artifact for someone else to find years later.

Now then, let’s enter the abyss.

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Just as the shrines recommended, bell goes first.

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I bet we could shatter wine glasses with the resonance.

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Right! Down we go…

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Here we are. One final dungeon, one final challenge. Within a few hours of sweat and toil the secrets of the codex will be ours. Hype get!!
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 62: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 1
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Let’s be off. The dungeon begins with a corridor that travels east for three steps, culminating with a doorway.

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Our first combat in the abyss. The fire lizards are nothing to be concerned about. However…

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The lava shifts to intercept us, causing damage along the way. Not an issue for most of the team, but Katrina needs a couple Heals to survive; I really should’ve tried to find her earlier or just not bothered.

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No break for us. This fight’s easier on the team, at least, since the bridge keeps back the lava. We line up on one side of the river and clobber the lizards before continuing forward.

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Dupre and Julia start this fight standing on lava, taking some unavoidable damage, but besides that the fields don’t change positions.

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It’s the real deal in this dungeon. It’s been so long since we’ve needed to use Heals that I’m starting to wonder if we packed enough.

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I also learned that you cant Dispel lava fields. Makes sense, I guess, since it’s just melted rocks and not magical in nature. We’ll just have to wade through.

Thinking about it now, I probably could’ve used a Protect spell on Katrina to speed things up. In fact I’ve never used that spell at all, since the combat hasn’t been particularly dangerous for so long.

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An empty corridor on the other side. Two steps east and another south lead us to a second doorway. Probably another gauntlet of battles.

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Rather than use Dispels on the sleep barriers we camp out on the other side, using our ranged weaponry to take out the demons. After an initial Tremor to soften them up of course. The electric barriers block off projectiles in addition to people, so you can consider them impassable walls until Dispelled.

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A neat inclusion in the game is that the enemies are affected by the magic barriers too. Look at that demon with his lil sleepy face, daw.

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Same deal in the next room, just with a couple fewer enemies. This time we do Dispel some of the sleep barriers to speed up the fight.

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Another barriers encounter, hopefully the last. All these electric walls probably make this series of rooms ideal for the Jinx spell, since the demons won’t be able to immediately hit the party.

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You can also open up the other side of the wall with the square that Julia’s standing on, giving quicker access to the enemies over there. As well as give you a way around the sleep barriers that doesn’t involve collapsing into slumber every step.

With that out of the way, are we in the clear?

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I’m so glad that Origin Systems figured out what really works as obstacles in this game.

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We’re finally out of the gauntlet. Here’s a bizarre situation. If we’re looking east we see this.

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But north shows this. What’s going on with those walls? Are they in the shapes of +’s?

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The gem doesn’t show them at all, so I’m no closer to understanding. I was planning to set up +’s on my map, but I couldn’t figure out how to get grid cartographer to do that without erasing the first line as I placed the second. So I left it blank, too.

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Both fountains poison, so stay away. Only other item of interest in here’s an altar.

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No stones to be found on this altar. First I try using the three-part key, hoping that this could be the entrance to the chamber. No such luck; we’ll probably have to travel seven floors down first. Maybe this time we should use our own stones, like with the principles altars.

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That’s not too tough, it’s honesty. “The Voice says: Use thy Stone.”

Right. The honesty stone’s blue, so we’ll go with that.

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Ah ha, perhaps this is how we’ll proceed through the rest of the dungeon: a virtue for each floor. It’d work out, since every dungeon before now has had eight floors.

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Very well, the quest continues!

Thanks to the gauntlets of encounters we’re off to a slower start than with the other dungeons. But this octet’s still full of zeal and perseverance, intent on claiming what lies in wait at the bottom of the volcano. Next update we’ll find out what other tricks the abyss has hidden for us.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
Not an issue for most of the team, but Katrina needs a couple Heals to survive; I really should’ve tried to find her earlier or just not bothered.

Where would be the fun in that :troll:
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 63: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 2
Welcome back to 20,000 leagues into the abyss. I’m your host, ore clover. Our octet of adventurers has braved countless hordes of evil to reach this dungeon, in search of the knowledge of the universe. Will they find it?
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Starting position's the up ladder in the middle.
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From the ladder we descended we move to the east. Guess it’s more gauntlets for us. As far as they go, though, this one’s pretty easy.

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We move east into another fight. Don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it already, but I appreciate the continuity of environments in sequential encounters.

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Difficulty’s scaling ever so slightly.

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Gonna go ahead and [NEGATE]; don’t really feel like spending extra time napping. If we’re lucky those brick walls signify an end to the encounters, so we charge east after wasting the baddies.

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We’re back into the corridors, and about now I’ve decided that I’d rather just gem it up and figure out where to go. We have lots to spare, and everyone knows that exploring every corner of a maze is degenerate gameplay.

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Cool, we managed to avoid most of the encounters between here and the ladder we started at.

Here’s an interesting situation. There’s a ladder leading down nearby, but there’s also a couple of shrines tucked away. If this floor is anything like the above, they should turn into ladders as well. I’m going to guess that the easier path will lead us the wrong way, so we’re going through those magical barriers to the altars.

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Unsurprisingly the barriers are all poison; we’ll just Cure everyone once we’re down to floor three.

Here’s another easy virtue to solve; it’s obviously compassion. We’ve both been told that directly in-game, and can deduce it by checking which dungeon has only the Altar of Love.

“The Voice says: Use thy stone.” Yellow this time.

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Here we go. Because I’m a dumbass we also check out the second altar, poisoning most of the team in the process; it asks for the same virtue and stone and then transforms into a second ladder. Between the two we descend with the southern altar’s ladder.
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We're starting in the bottom left corner.
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Nice, another quick floor. Looks like the two ladders take you to different spots in the square. Let’s not bother finding out what sorts of barriers inhabit the other corners.

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Moving through the doorway to our east leads us here. I’ll take it without complaint. We make sure to keep as far out of the center as we can, just in case that would trigger an ambush.

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Hmm. I’m assuming we won’t be able to move on without fighting those two.

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The spot our hero’s standing on triggered the walls to vanish, so perhaps we could’ve avoided a confrontation. Too late now.

We take nine attacks in the next round, so it’s clear that several demons were stacked on stop of each other, like when we were ambushed while resting in inns. I used a Tremor on our next turn and killed eight of them. That cleared up most of the danger, and we stomped the last five or so before continuing north.

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This time the virtue is valor, and its corresponding stone is red. Another floor cleared. Hopefully this pace keeps up; we could be finished within an hour or two.

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Quick sidenote, I just noticed that our hero’s experience count has probably maxed out. Or that’s an unlikely coincidence. Anyway, let’s move on...
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I’m definitely glad I used a gem here; I’ll bet each of those rooms to the south has a combat encounter just to lead to a deadend. We’ll just be continuing east, then!

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We follow the corridor and secret rooms until we reach the magic barrier; at least it’s not poison again. Let’s check the branch up to the north first.

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It loops around to another fire barrier. We’ll just Dispel this and move on through.

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Oh, come on. [NEGATE]

Let’s follow the bridge to the west.

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We cast a Tremor, which naturally kills half the enemies that aren’t jackass tree stumps. The reapers fall quickly enough with fewer bodyguards, but I’m sure we haven’t seen the worst of reaper encounters yet.

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At least we’ve found the altar. This time I have to skim over the different dungeons to figure out which has the particular combination. In the process I realized that only one dungeon will have each possible combination of the three altars. As in, there’s only one dungeon that connects to both the Altar of Truth and the Altar of Love. The virtue and stone are justice and green.

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We’ve descended three more floors, and no doubt four more remain. No brakes on this questing train, next update we’ll keep bowling through the opposition with extreme enthusiasm.
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 64: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 3
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We’ve reached floor five; halfway to destiny. Looks like we’re guaranteed at least three fights here, so let’s get on with it.

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Poisonous fountains again. From here on out I’m regarding future fountains as utterly evil.

Let’s move through those doors to the southeast. We’ll try the door heading east first.

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Oh, uh… let’s try the other one.

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If we have to fight zorns and balrons anyway, might as well stay here. At least the balrons can’t put us to sleep while the zorn’s alive. I hope.

The dragons fall easily enough, but now we’re stuck. No routes forward, and undoubtedly there’s a secret switch behind those electric barriers. But we can’t Dispel them until the zorn’s dead, but he’s sitting comfortably behind them. What to do?

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We fumble around a while, hoping to hit a square that will deactivate the barriers for us, when the zorn reveals the solution; I’d forgotten that they can phase through objects just like ghosts can.

So! All we need to do is twiddle our thumbs until he comes out to play.

...

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Would you hurry up you overgrown eggplant!

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Took five or six minutes, but we have him. The balrons soon follow.

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The spot our hero’s standing on opens the wall. We’ve spent enough time here, let’s keep moving forward.

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Well Chris Al-fucking-mighty! The quest of the avatar should’ve been to gather up as much agent orange as humanly possible, and then coat all of Britannia in it.

This fight’s especially tough because Negate doesn’t stop the gazers from putting our front liners to sleep, slowing our advance. And once we’ve Negated, we can’t use the Awaken spell. Piss.

Bottom line: it was a bad fight, Richard Garriott should feel bad, and I boosted dosbox to 2000 cycles throughout.

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Katrina opens the way for us; you go you fucking worthless shepherd girl! Let’s be sure to never return to this evil chamber.

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This is much better. Takes some time to wipe out the dragons to the south, due to the mountain obstacles, but entirely pleasant in comparison to our previous fight. The dragon surrounded by three mountain squares is resting on the spot that opens the walls to the east.

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The corridor branches to the south and east after the chambers, leading to two of these altars. The virtue’s sacrifice, and the stone’s color is orange.
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We're starting at the ladder to the north.
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This looks crazy, I’m glad we checked with a gem before charging in. There’re basically several doors leading into a big square of chambers, each no doubt with an annoying fight. Well, let’s just be skipping all that. From our current position, as indicated by the red dot, we decide to move through the door to our south.

Sidenote: the money in the corridor’s just from a random encounter. We didn’t bother picking it up because I imagine we won’t need money from this point forward.

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Oh hell, that looks miserabilis. Interestingly we can’t seem to reach them anyway, but I still don’t want to tangle with that encounter.

We quickly amscray back into the corridor, looping around to the other door that will hopefully bypass the majority of fights.

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Along the way we have our first dungeon ambush during a rest. Good to know that’s a thing.

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I’m not complaining about these baddies, but we still can’t reach the rest of the map. Damn, guess we’re going to have to brave the cluster of chambers in the middle before we can continue. After killing the headless we return west to the corridor and enter through the door directly north of us.

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Huh? This one’s a no go too; we check every spot we can reach, but no bridges materialize and no walls vanish.

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Same deal with the next one over…

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And the chamber north of that, too. Just what the divil’s going on here? There’s an inner ring of pathways that we can’t seem to reach from out here. Very frustrating.

Okay, I’ve had enough with this dungeon; I’m not playing its games. We’re leaving this room and teleporting down the rest of the way.

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Somehow I’m not surprised. Why can’t I have nice things, Origin Systems?

That was an unexpected road block. Up next we’ll see if there’s any way through this cluster of chambers. I sure hope it’s not too complicated to solve.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,404
Location
Djibouti
you mean you would just try to go ahead and skip the final dungeon that was so meticulously hand-crafted with love? :^)
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
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Furthermore I would buy a bonsai tree, paint little red eyes on it, and then kill it with triclopyr. I would then mail this to Origin Systems, along with my final score and a note that reads, "You made me do this, Lord British!"

hyperthetically speaking ofc

Chapter 65: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 4
Welcome back to the finale that just doesn’t want to finish. Last we left off the team was stuck looking for an entry point into a degenerate maze. Will they ever escape this house of madness?
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We're currently at the little cursor's spot, just for context.
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We try hopping into the secret chamber to our right and then go south, which brings us back to where we just were earlier. I guess I should have known that would happen. Right, back the way we came!

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We then move back into the corridor, shift over to the door just east of the secret chamber, and move in. Another barrier to entry, the search continues. Since we’re provided a path east we’ll take it.

For those of the audience who are perceptive, you’ve likely noticed how that southern path has an exit leading west. The square directly west of this is the secret chamber we passed through earlier, but we only checked its south exit. So, going into the secret chamber and moving east might get us into the maze.

UNFORTUNATELY I AM NOT PERCEPTIVE

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Moving east we find this chamber. An interesting bit of decoration in the center, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to interact with it. The design of the map seems to imply that there’s an exit leading south, but we can’t find any squares to trigger the walls to vanish.

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We exit east, returning into the corridor. At this point we check out the two chambers on the outskirts of the map, the one to east and the one to the south. Neither has anything of interest; no secrets, so enemies, simple deadends.

Looking at the map again I then realize that they both line up with the altar chamber we eventually hope to reach. Could it be? Is Blink the solution?! Brilliant!

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Clearly, thinking outside of the box keeps me out of it too.

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Back to investigating all the chambers it is. This one’s just north of that horrendous reaper-plus-poison room we found earlier. No way across from this entry point.

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During these proceedings I also move Katrina and Geoffrey to the back of the line; neither have hit a single opponent for the past several hours of playtime. I can understand that with Katrina, but I’m a bit surprised that Geoffrey’s turned useless on us. Perhaps his level is just too low to compete; serves him right for waiting so long to join up, I say!

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We wander around a bit longer, try out the three-part key and the virtue stones in the outskirt chambers to no effect, and then head back to the secret chamber and move east. I don’t remember if I knew we hadn’t checked this way yet, or if we were just randomly entering rooms in the hopes that something would click.

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I’m of course completely surprised that this is here, but it looks like we have our way in.

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Excellent. We’ve reached new ground, and no fights to boot.

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What a happy sight. If we’re lucky the puzzle’s basically solved now that we’ve reached the inner sanctum.

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No need for Negate here, with those squishy bats serving as backup. We quickly clear them out and continue east.

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We’re seeing life from the other side of things. baddumtish, pls stop throwing things at me

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Say hello to your past selves, everyone.

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We meet again, foul demons. From here we want to keep moving south to reach our objective, so I’ll bet that path north just brings us back to the corridor. Could be a square somewhere that will open a path south.

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Hah, found it. Only took killing all six of them, too. Let’s move on.

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More barriers and balrons? Meh, let’s skip this. We move west without fighting.

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Oh crap, the wall shut behind us. We went the wrong way, and now we’re stuck on the outside again. Guess we’re gonna have to start all over, be back in a minute.

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Guess we’ll kill both groups to be sure. Our hero steps on the spot the first balron inhabited, which opens up an extra square in the southern enclosure.

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Stepping on that new spot causes a bridge to materialize, showing us the way. From here we could exit east for the reaper fight, or exit south for the headless fight. Hopefully they both take us where we need to go, because we’re headed south (no pun, or yes pun if you find that funnier).

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Naturally we trigger bridges to form while we're on this side. Oh well.

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Oh boy, this should be fun. At first I thought we wouldn’t need to use Negate, but we ended up having to so that we could actually kill the wizards.

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The four corners of the inner square open up the barriers surrounding the balrons. No point in fighting them now that their muscle’s been trashed.

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Finally, we’ve made it. The virtue’s honor, and the stone’s color is purple. Let’s descend to the next level and hopefully never tread this floor again.

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Heh heh… it looks like a battleaxe.

Two final floors, two final virtues, one final dungeon almost finalized. I honestly thought I’d be finished by now, but you can definitely tell they put extra effort into the level design for the abyss. A little further and we’ll get our hands on the codex, just a little further!
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 66: The Great Stygian Abyss pt. 5
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Clearly we’ll have to travel up the shaft to reach our destination, but might as well check out the three chambers here. Nothing to see, though.

Right, let’s finish quickly and hurry along to floor eight.

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That’s not so bad, easy victory for us. Before we continue, though, I decide to grab the treasure. Obviously we won’t need money where we’re going, but what’s a little extra?

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Oh, blast it all; my greed’s been aptly rewarded. Katrina’s allowed to walk out unmolested, but Jaana has to Dispel her way. Damn, what would we have done if we didn’t have anymore Dispels? Or if this was a solo run? Better not touch anymore of the forbidden treasure.

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Next room. Stepping on the corners adjacent to the purple square in the center opens up the hydras, if you feel like fighting. We accidentally let one of them out, but ignored the rest. I don’t think the game treats walking out of rooms the same as fleeing battles in the overworld.

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Here’s a more interesting encounter. Right now only the ghosts and wisps can reach us, so there must be a secret square somewhere to let us in. But where could it be?

...

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As an aside, I completely forgot to mention this particular spell when I was preparing the team to enter the abyss.
The game’s manual states that this particular spell can be used to turn undead (a fairly common spell in rpg gaems), but the caster must determine the necessary two reagents themselves; the only hint given is that one must use their knowledge of the magical properties of the different ingredients.

Just before entering the abyss I decided to figure out how to make these. One of the docs that came with the game, and now with the GoG release, was The Book of Mystic Wisdom. It provides descriptions and mixture requirements for the game’s spells, as well as general descriptions of the ingredients themselves.

The first ingredient was obvious enough: garlic is said to be used in spells of the warding variety, “of beings once dead” being mentioned specifically. Done, but what could be second? At first I tried mandrake, because it was said to have necromantic properties in the description for the Iceball spell, but that was a no go. I looked through each of the ingredients again and settled for sulphurous ash, mostly because it has to do with flashes of light and stuff; that sounds pretty anti-undead to me. That turned out to be the second ingredient, making this a common spell; I churned out twenty or so, and now we can try it out.

I’m bummed out, though. I was so proud of myself for figuring the recipe out all on my own, and then I forgot to brag about it. :(
Now we will see just what it can do!

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It causes some or all undead enemies to begin fleeing the map. I didn’t immediately realize this, though, because the game makes no mention that this occurs and most of the enemies couldn’t run anyway due to the walls. Not critical to have, but can help speed up fights involving undead.

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Eventually I noticed the secret wall in the bottom right corner, which opened two pathways to the baddies. The spot Jaana’s standing on then opened the way for us to continue.

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Here’s another fun fight. It’s basically “hunt the secret squares” while the balron spams naptime.

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There we are, let’s get out of here. I’m not wasting Dispels to kill the balron.

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Nice, we’ve made it. The virtue’s spirituality and the stone’s color is white.

One more floor to go, shit’s getting real!
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For some reason I decided not to immediately use a gem on entering the floor. This area’s basically a square chamber with a pillar in the center, along with a couple doors in the southeastern corner.

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We enter the door leading south, and the wall shuts behind us. Kicking myself for not using a gem, because for all I know we’ve stumbled into another yuge sequence like on floor 6. We clear out the enemies and move south.

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Not so bad, we’ll just be avoiding all that lava and moving east.

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This area’s pretty much just padding, no special spots to find to open alternate routes. We follow the roundabout, making sure to cast Undead at the start in case it’ll scare off some liches.

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Nothing to worry about from the baddies, but how shall we ever move forward?

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Dupre opens the way; that was easy.

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Hmm, this seems familiar. Moving on east, then.

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I like when the balrons position themselves directly in our line of fire right from the start; good that they know their place.

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After the fight we start wandering around, and Iolo opens up a bit of the wall in the southwestern corner. Let’s get someone over there and see what happens.

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Like a retadr I sent everyone south before checking on the square, which then opened a wall to the north. The game requires all party members to leave the same way, so we had to quickly duck south and then return here to investigate.

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This is the area south, but we ignored it.

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Moving north through the secret opening dumped us back into corridors, giving me the chance to use a gem. Phenomenal, only a bit more to the altar! There is no time to be lost!

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We follow the corridor into the doorway and find eight very familiar looking humanoids standing before us. That’s right, this devilish dungeon has decreed that we fight doppelgangers!

Bring it on; I’ve fantasized about killing myself for years!

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Oh, perhaps I overdid it. And none of them brought any ranged weapons. Clone, I am disappoint.

Hilariously Katrina’s double ends up lasting the longest, requiring three hits to go down. Have I underestimated her? Perhaps with training she could become a shepherd to surpass metal gear.

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We’ll just start this fight off with a Negate so that we can clear out the dragons.

Looking at the map again, exiting south could potentially put us right at the altar while exiting west probably takes us the long way there. Must be a secret here, just have to find it.

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I’m embarrassed to say that it took me ten minutes to find the damn thing, but we’re making progress. The balron uses the new secret wall to attack us directly.

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The spot the balron was standing on reveals a third secret wall. Hopefully the last.

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Perfect, let’s go!

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We’ve had to endure much, you all and I, but soon there will be a new age. The avatar will look upon the codex of ultimate wisdom and usher in an era of peace and prosperity the likes of which Britannia’s never seen.

Will this octet finally complete their quest? Will Jesus Chris establish himself as the messianic figure Britannia needs and deserves?
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Chapter 67: Infinite
I’m ready for the final truth and enlightenment. The time is now!

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Oh, so that’s the big twist to humility. Even if everything good in the world is taken from us, we’ll still be humble. Comforting thought. Stone’s color is black.

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This must be the chamber. Give me the codex!

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I wonder where I put it. Did I just poke the air in front of me?

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Since we need the word of passage immediately after the three part key, I’m going to go with that order for the syllables. TLC, don’t fail me!

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Where are we passing to, though? The chamber’s empty.

“The voice asks: What dost thou possess if all may rely upon your every word?” Uh, loads of money?

Not sure if it’s asking for the principle truth or the virtue honesty. Let’s go with honesty and see what happens.

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Guess I answered right; the voice seems to have drawn a line on the blackboard in recognition.

Guh, this next question’s confusing me. Are we still talking about virtues and not principles? This feels vague; what if different virtues compel different folks to share in the journeys of others? A master of the blade whose clan was killed by his evul bruther would join in the hopes of restoring his HONOR. A fearsome barbarian would join for the VALOR of combat, right? Maybe SACRIFICE would compel one to share in the journeys of others at their own expense? I could rationalize it with most of the virtues, I figure. Couldn’t it have just said, “Which virtue has an orange stone?” or something along those lines? Much clearer.

I guess the real question is what Richard Garriott thinks is the quality, since he wrote the thing. Unfortunately I don’t know him well enough to put mineself into his shoes, and I don’t have him on speed-dial.

Gonna have to answer something, or I’m stuck here forever. I’ll try valor; maybe you have to like fighting to some extent in order to share in adventures in the first place.

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Crap!

Okay, let’s try sacrifice. Going on an adventure with somebody else takes time away from your own goals and activities, right?

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Not gud. Panic mode activates right about now and I answer courage. Mebbe they swapped to principles without telling me?

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Uh oh…

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Buggered by the pop quiz at the end, story of my life.

Right, what to do now? I could find another boat and go through the abyss again. I could also jump off the nearest bridge. Tough choice, not sure which to go with. I think I’ll settle for loading my last save.

Because I’m especially dumb today I forgot to save right before the chamber; my last save was on floor 6. Going to be doing some backtracking for a bit, see you in a minute.

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Right, here we go again! Let’s try honor, because why not? “Thy thoughts are not pure. I ask again.”

Fine! This time I’ll try compassion. Maybe the question provides a hint: What quality compels one to SHARE in the journeys of others?

Sharing is caring!

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That’s easier, should be valor.

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Here we go, now the possible answers are narrowing down. Also, Ultima is a front for the Illuminati confirmed.

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The obvious answer is “nothing”, but that’s not showing up with the other multiple choice options.

Going to go with justice, since it rolls off the tongue best. “Justice should be the same for Lord and Serf alike.” Easiest solution to make that happen is to force everyone to rely on shitty public attorneys when on trial.

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Yes, there’s no stopping me now!

This question tripped me up. I answered humility first, but it turns out that wasn’t correct. Aught means anything (thanks google), so let’s try sacrifice. Same basic concept, juh.

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Honor ofc.

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Lol I tried humility, and was wrong again. Thinking about the question harder I then posited that it’s talking about knowing the true self through meditation (or that there is no self, depending on who you ask), so we’ll go with spirituality.

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Dat’s humility, good way to describe it. Or “poverty”, equally viable as an answer as far as I’m concerned.

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As a sidenote, about here I realized that the symbol forming was mentioned at the end of the History of Britannia. Lord British added an afterword that he finished with, “Gaze upon the device protrayed on the facing page of this tome. Learn it well, for when thou dost gaze upon it again then shall thy life’s quest be revealed.”
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Neat little easter egg for people who read the manual all the way through.

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Not quite sure what it’s asking for here. I figure it’s reasonable to assume that we’re being asked about the three principles now. Of those truth fits that description best imo.

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Had to think about this for a bit. At first I thought it was courage, since you could plunge to the depths of danger while your courage soars. IT WAS ACTUALLY LOVE, BECAUSE IT MAKES YOU HAPPY AND DEPRESSED AT THE SAME TIME!

Good social commentary from Mr Garriott.

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Only one answer left, and that’s courage.

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Wuh woh, I hope we haven’t activated the volcano or something.

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“...Then what is the one thing which encompasses and is the whole of all undeniable Truth, unending Love, and unyielding Courage?” You might recognize part of this question from that dude who was standing outside the walls of Lord Brit’s castle.

Must be asking about the axiom. I could sit here and try to work it out myself, but fortunately there is no need since the game already gave us the word from the shrine meditations.

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The symbol cracks open like an egg, revealing this new one underneath. The caterpillar transforms into the butterfly, as it were.

Lol, is that all there is to it? "Boundless knowledge", but what it really means is just the symbol representing boundless number sets? What about the knowledge of the universe?

“The voice says: Thou hast proven thyself to be truly good in nature. Thou must know that thy quest to become an Avatar is the endless quest of a lifetime. Avatarhood is a living gift. It must always and forever be nurtured to flourish. For if thou dost stray from the paths of virtue, thy way may be lost forever. Return now unto thine own world. Live there as an example to thy people, as our memory of thy gallant deeds serves us.”

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Very fitting, the story ends where it began.

“It seems a time and place very distant. You wonder if it really happened. Then you realize that in your hand you hold The Ankh. You walk away from the circle, knowing that you can always return from whence you came, since you now know the secret of the gates.”

Obviously the first thing our hero should do is go shitpost in General Discussion like any avatar should.

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I've had a lot of fun, and I'm glad I finally sat down to play through this game to the end. Obviously I enjoyed combat the least, but not so much that I'd never play the game again. I liked how the main quest line was nonlinear enough that you end up exploring the entire landmass in the process of solving it, instead of just because you feel like aimlessly wandering.

I liked using the boat a lot. I think the only way it would've been better was if it was also mobile storage and housing, like the boats in Daggerfall. The game doesn't really use an inventory system that warrants that, though, so whatever.

Dialogue worked well. Npcs were straight to the point, and physically typing out the subjects to talk about gave an abstracted feeling of my character driving the conversation instead of just listening. For the most part npcs had particular knowledge based on their area of expertise or where they lived, so it didn't feel like a completely random scavenger hunt. I also prefer it over, for example, the nes port of the game. From clips I've seen npcs just spout a single clue at you, rather than the dialogue system, which feels like it'd be a checklist chore to deal with since you don't have to think about what to ask them.

I liked the dungeon crawling for what it was, although it wasn't as fun as in Wizardry and M&M. That was more due to the combat system, though, rather than inherent design of the dungeons themselves. The abyss was definitely frustrating at points, but I wouldn't change it; ought to step up the difficulty for the final sequence, after all.

Anyway, that's all I can think of right now. I won't bother with a rating, since I tend to go Ign stye with them. Bottom line: Though a bit tedious in spots, it's quite the adventure and I don't think I'd be unreasonable is saying everyone should try it at least once. Especially those dumbfucks on gaming sites who "debate" open world rpgs, but their examples don't extend much beyond Skyrim, Twitcher 3, and Zelda BoTW. :argh:
After viewing this ending, it is clear to me what the quest of the avatar truly is. Lord British wasn’t seeking a champion to save his realm, he was seeking one to save our realm. Yes, that’s right! Using his trans-dimensional powers he pulls basement dwellers into his realm, to teach them the core of what it means to be good. He then vomits them back into the world, to shape it into a more perfect image of what life should truly be like. You can check out the world news of today to see just how effective it’s been so far.

But that’s the crux of the issue: the quest never ends. Though I’ve beaten Ultima 4, I must strive ever onward to maintain the principles and virtues of the avatar. I think the first thing I’ll do is find the nearest magical herbs shop and pay the blind shopkeep precisely what I owe. For the good of the quest!

As for you all, our time together has come to a close. I hope you've found this two month journey entertaining, informative, or at the very least a good time sink when there's nothing important to be done (or especially when there's something important to be done). To everyone who's followed along, and to those in the future who might do likewise, I thank you for taking the time out of your busy shitposting schedules to peruse this lp.

Right, that’s that; show’s over. Return to your lives, fair codexers, and don’t ever forget: The quest never ends!

sean-of-the-dead-have-a-pint-wait-for-it-all-to-blow-over-pub-pint-1388932364M.gif


...

P.S.: Uh, can somebody tell me how to switch the thread’s prefix to "completed"? Is editing thread titles beyond my newfag powers?
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
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Messages
1,878,404
Location
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Good job men :salute: it takes dedication to complete a LP of a game this big :salute:

A5RzGjG.png


OY VEY!

Also, "compassion" on the compassion question was the first thing that popped to my mind :M

P.S.: Uh, can somebody tell me how to switch the thread’s prefix to "completed"? Is editing thread titles beyond my newfag powers?

Click "thread tools" on the ribbon above the first post of the thread page, the one that has page navigation.
 

Eriador

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 18, 2014
Messages
423
Congrats on finishing an LP!

Someone should probably add this to the list of completed Let's Plays.
 

ore clover

Learned
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
171
Click "thread tools" on the ribbon above the first post of the thread page, the one that has page navigation.
I gave that a go, but all I get is the option to make a poll:
dBMQT5z.png


I also tried adding edit to the end of the thread url like so: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...person-simulator-1985-ultima-4-lp.115568/edit, and I received the "You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action," message instead of the "The requested page could not be found," one. Due to that I'm thinking newfags can't edit thread titles.

Mods can, right? JarlFrank Crooked Bee, could one of you pls mark the thread completed?

Good job men :salute: it takes dedication to complete a LP of a game this big :salute:

Congrats on finishing an LP!

GG, bro, GG. :salute:
Thx u guys.

:brodex:

Ultima V when?
I think I'm going to take a break from let's plays for a while; I didn't realize how much time I'd be spending when I started, and I'd like to free that up for other things. But I'm not jumping into Ultima V immediately, anyway, so I'll definitely consider it.
 

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