Ultima VII Part Two - Serpent Isle/The Silver Seed Revision 2 Walkthrough by Glenn E. Brensinger (Doc Shadow) Warning ~~~~~~~~ As with any walkthrough, this can completely ruin the game if you read the entire thing; I recommend not reading more than you have to. While the game is not entirely linear, there are some things that need to be done before you can do other things, so don't read too far past where you currently are in the game. Also, the way the conversation parser is written, knowing the information is not enough to get you past certain points. For example, just because you know what the password to Skullcrusher is, you still have to go get it from Yenani or you will not be able to get inside. For completeness, I have included a few notes on Silver Seed. Even though a walkthrough is included with the game, there are some spots that deserve mention. Introduction ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flashback - The Black Gate. Elizabeth and Abraham, and their hitmen Hook and Forskis, lie dead at your feet. Batlin turns to you and says, "This battle is not done, Avatar. Dost thou imagine thyself an immortal? The Guardian is far more. Return to your precious Earth and rest. Sleep, that he may visit your dreams with countless visions of death in the belly of the Great Sea Serpent. As for me, I shall be gone! Thou shalt never find me! Farewell, Avatar!" And with that, he disappears. Using Rudyam's transmuter wand, you destroy the Black Gate, and with it any chance the Guardian had of entering Britannia. In the months that follow, Lord British orders all Fellowship Halls dismantled, and the members of the Fellowship are slowly converted back into society. (Except maybe for Britain's Mayor Patterson, who turned traitor and was killed in Ultima Underworld II - Labyrinth of Worlds.) However, by destroying the Black Gate to keep the Guardian out of Britannia, you also prevented yourself from returning to Earth, so you have been spending the time contemplating the Guardian's final threat: you can't leave Britannia, but he's free to attack other worlds at will. And what of Batlin? Where DID he go, anyway? What's he up to? Eighteen months after the destruction of the Black Gate, a scroll is found in Batlin's belongings. When Lord British attempts to read it, the Guardian appears, apparantly in a pre-scribed message to Batlin: "Batlin! In the unlikely event that the Avatar stops me from coming through the Black Gate, I command you to follow the unwitting female human Gwenno to the Serpent Isle. There I shall outline my plan to destroy Britannia!" Lord British sends you, Iolo, Dupre, and Shamino to the Serpent Isle to find Gwenno, and stop whatever it is that Batlin and the Guardian are up to. Through the pillars ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a flurry of magic, you arrive at the Serpent Isle, and immediately realize that something is not right. It feels colder than Britannia, which isn't all that bad, but there are colored lightning storms ravaging the island. Wherever the lightning hits, it either creates or destroys something. To really help the situation, Arcadion is angry that you have brought him here, and refuses to offer his powers to you. Walking southward, you suddenly realize the worst of the lightning's power - your friends have disappeared! In addition, your belongings have been replaced with a bunch of strange objects! There is nothing you can do at this point but keep walking, so southward you go, when all of a sudden a woman appears. She introduces herself as Thoxa, a Xenkan Monk. Thoxa asks you some questions from the manual to prove that you really are the Hero from Another World (and also prove that you really did buy this game.) Passing the copy protection tests, you are given the Hourglass of Fate to summon her in case you or one of your party members dies. She tells you of the Prophecies of Xenka, and the coming of the Hero from Another World. (That apparantly is you.) She continues, saying that you will have to find a Serpent Ring, Necklace, and Earrings to gain guidance from the Power that dwells in the Void. Finally, she tells you to find a red bush to enter a secret cave for more answers. Then, as she is leaving, her master Karnax shows up, angry that Thoxa is interfering. In a battle of magic power, they both leave, and there you stand wondering what the zark is going on. Of course, hey, you're the Avatar. You've been in the dark plenty of times before. At this point, you now have four things to do: Find your friends and equipment, figure out what's causing the lightning storms, find out more about this prophecy of the end of the world, and find Gwenno and Batlin and what, if anything, they have to do with all this. A word on organization ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As you go through the game, you're gonna collect a lot of stuff. The more stuff you collect, the more cluttered your packs are going to get. So, you may want to organize stuff accordingly. For example, you can put all your potions in one bag, all your reagents in one box, or all your eggs in one basket (regardless of the warnings against this.) One nice thing about Serpent Isle is that you can have a belt-purse, for the heavily used stuff like lockpicks, money, and keys. You also now have a spot on your back for secondary weapons, your bedroll, etc. If you have the Silver Seed add-in, you can also carry a magic keyring. This makes keys tremendously easier to manage; instead of flipping through dozens of keys to find the right one, you just double-click on the keyring (or press K) and try a door. If you have the right key, it opens, if not, you get a red X and, to add insult to injury, a party member says "You don't have that key." Cheating?? ~~~~~~~~~~~ As you are probably aware by now, there are ways to cheat in this game through the debugging tools that Origin left in the game. I will not refer to them in any way except to offer a warning: using the debugging menus can corrupt your save games, and prevent you from completing the game. Consider that now, before getting close to the end of the game and having to start all over. (I saw a lot of that in the message boards about The Black Gate.) Also, using the debugging menus allows you to do things out of order, which can make things happen out of sequence, prevent things from happening at all, or crash your game entirely. The Silver Seed add-in disables the debugging menus, so if you have created a situation where your character is overloaded or stuck someplace that requires cheating to get out, you may have a problem after installing Silver Seed. Oh, get on with it already... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Shamino runs up wondering what all the fire and noise was, and makes a list of all the new "equipment" you have. You both walk south a ways, and Shamino spots his magic bow lying next to a large skeleton. By chance, you happen to have the skull from this animal, which presents itself as a clue - if you can find where this stuff you're carrying comes from, you can find your missing equipment. The cave Thoxa spoke of is, as she said, near a red bush. Walk through the side of the mountain - really, you can walk right through it - and you will find a bedroll and some lockpicks. As Shamino explains, the Avatar is no common thief, but lockpicks will always come in handy. There are some torches as well, and a scroll explaining Order, Chaos, and Balance, from someone called a Hierophant. This gives you a little background on the residents and their beliefs - instead of the Eight Virtues that you hold near and dear to your heart, they believe in slightly different ideals. Monitor ~~~~~~~~ The first town you come to is Monitor. The guard at the gate lets you into the city after telling you that an enchanter was captured and put in jail for disrupting a funeral. It seems he just appeared out of nowhere... hmm. The guard sends you to the Crematorium to talk to Lord Marsten to find out what's going on. As you enter the Crematorium, the entrance to the Crypts is on the southwest corner of the building, behind a curtain. Lord Marsten is in the Crypts mourning the loss of Astrid, their Champion Knight, who was killed in a Goblin raid. He will tell you about the problem between the Humans and the Goblins, and give you some information about the town and the three warrior groups - Wolves, Bears, and Leopards. He will also tell you, as did the guard, that an enchanter appeared right in the middle of Astrid's funeral. Shamino suggests that it may be the missing Iolo, so Marsten tells you to go look in the jail. At that moment, Dupre comes running up as disoriented as the two of you, and adds to Shamino's list of strange equipment. Exploring the Crypts further reveals a serpent gate. What it's used for, who knows at this point. Going to the jail proves that yes, the enchanter is in fact your friend Iolo. Lord Marsten can't just let Iolo free to a stranger, but if you were a Knight, you could speak for him. Brendann and Caladin will tell you about the Knights Test, which would make you a Knight if you pass. Ask Lord Marsten about it, and he'll give you permission and the password to take the test. Go to the Knights Test (north of the city) and give the password to Shmed. The Knights Test ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Because you must take the test alone, and only with leather armor and a mace, Shamino and Dupre wait outside with your equipment. (Dupre, of course, would have rather waited at the pub...) The test is not difficult the way it is supposed to be laid out, but someone's set a few traps for you. The first part, all you have to do is run past the fireballs. Go to the room in the south, kill the little purple guys, and break open the chest in the corner with your mace. The key to the first door is inside there. The second part, you have to stack up enough rocks in a staircase fashion, so you can reach the key on the top of the pedestal. There are snakes under some of the rocks, so watch out! If you get poisoned, there is a bag with a yellow and red potion around the corner. The key from the pedestal opens the door leading south, which leads to a cyclops. There is a key in the corner, which opens the east door in the hallway. Go through the door, and walk south and east. The hallway heading east from there leads to four chests. The chests are empty, and will explode if you open them. There is an illusionary wall on the east end of the hallway, leading to another key. This key opens the door at the end of the northern hallway. Go south and find a key. Go north and open the door, then go back south and look carefully at the west side of the hallway for a lever. This lever opens a secret panel, leading to a room full of rats and a key. This key opens the gate at the end of the upper hallway. Past this door is a maze, with a fighter hired to kill you. Find a table with a scroll and a claw on it. You have to use the claw on yourself, to draw blood. Take the claw to the end of the hallway, where there are two torches right next to each other. Between them is a secret door, leading to a room with the ashes of Gurnordir, the former Goblin King. Use the bloody claw on the urn, and a wolf will appear. Kill the wolf, and take it with you. For one thing, you need it for the completion of the test, and for the second, the key to the next door is inside the wolf. Go out the door, and down the last hallway, where Shmed will meet you to let you out. He'll attack you, claiming that someone told him to. You will have to kill him, unfortunately. Leave the test, grab your equipment and ask Dupre and Shamino to join you. By the way, if you haven't died yet, (and you probably have,) dying will take you to Monk Isle, since you possess the Hourglass of Fate. Karnax will have resurrected you (and your party if they were with you at the time,) but all you are able to do here is ask some questions about Thoxa and Xenka's prophecy, and then ask to leave Monk Isle. The place you are returned to may not be the place you died, so it's best to save often. If anyone in your party has died, use the Hourglass to summon Thoxa, who will bring any dead party members back to life. You must do this in a clear area - she will not appear in the midst of combat - and you have to be near the dead bodies to bring them back. Go back to Monitor, and tell Marsten, Brendann, or Caladin that you have completed the test. He tells you to take the wolf meat to Lucilla to cook for the banquet (the meat is inside the wolf - you didn't eat it, did you?) and take the wolf's body to Cellia the Furrier who will make you a cloak from the fur. Give her 24 hours to make it (don't bother her until she's done, she has a very large knife, and knows where to use it.) While you're waiting for the cloak, go to Lydia, who will give you the Tattoo of the Knight. When Cellia is done with the cloak, wear it and go back to Marsten. He will tell you to meet everyone in the Banquet Hall, south of the Pub. Go there, and the banquet will begin, with Lord Marsten proclaiming you a Knight of Monitor. They will ask you about the test, giving you a few options as to the hardest part. Depending on how you answer here, they will either disbelieve you or taunt you for being a wimp, so it's better to just change the subject. Harnna will run in crying that her daughter Cantra has been kidnapped, and the rest of the town will start arguing about a traitor in their midst. It seems that someone is leaking military secrets to the Goblins, and Luther blames Simon. Shazanna and Luther will get into a fight, and Marsten will call an end to your banquet. Everyone runs out, going back to their duties. If you need food, here's a great place to stock up - the table is loaded with it. Rejoin your party, and go talk to Lord Marsten. Now that you are a Knight, you can ask to have Iolo freed. (Don't ask Spektor about it, he'll want bail money.) Lord Marsten will give you the key to Iolo's cell so you can let him go. Iolo will add to your inventory list, and off you go. By this time, you should have noticed that you've been poisoned by something. Talk to Harnna in the southwest of the city; she is usually in the fields during the day. She will tell you that you have been poisoned by the tattoo on your face. She can temporarily heal the poison (which will go away on its own if you let it go long enough and have enough hit points) but she needs Varo leaves to completely cure the poison. She will send you to Delphynia in Fawn to get the leaves needed. Go to Lydia and confront her with this information. She will tell you that she has poisoned you for being the pawn of Lord British. (In case you haven't noticed, the people of Serpent Isle are not too fond of Lord British.) She will attack you, so you will be forced to kill her too. Telling Lord Marsten about this will gain his congratulations, as she must have been part of Shmed's conspiracy. (But she wasn't, she had different reasons - hmm...) So, next thing to do is head north to Fawn to get the Varo leaves. Approaching Fawn, you will run into one of the guards in front of the city, who will draw your attention to another figure - Ruggs. Ruggs asks you to deliver a note to Delphynia. Well, you're going there anyway, so tell him Yes and he'll give you the note. The guard issues a warning not to screw up in Fawn, and lets you pass. He also gives you a rundown of the Fellowship people camped outside the city. (Yeah, it looks like you'll have to deal with that rubbish again.) Go to Delphynia, give her the note, and she will give you one to take back to Ruggs. Ask her about the Varo leaves, and she will give them to you. No time to explore the city now, since you're still poisoned, so back to Monitor you go. Give Ruggs the note on the way out of the city, then take the leaves to Harnna, who will heal the poison. She can also answer questions about some of the stuff you are carrying, to give you an idea of where to look for your missing equipment. She will only answer three questions at a time, and then go back to her work, or back to sleep, depending on when you bother her. Once you have asked Harnna about it, Caladin will pay you for the return of the missing urn, and then you can go get Iolo's crossbow from the Crypts if you haven't already. Talk to Lucilla, who takes a liking to you now that you are a Knight. (Talk about a material girl...) Ask her about her duties, and follow through until she mentions the List Field and the tournament. She will mention a shield that Luther suddenly acquired which makes him unbeatable. One of your party will speak up, saying that Luther must have Dupre's shield. If you mention "courting," she will offer to meet you after the pub closes. It's up to you if you wanna do the nasty with her; doing so only gains you a gwani cloak. (Which gets you in trouble later anyway.) Go to Luther, and ask about his new shield. He will refuse to give it back, until you tell him Lucilla called him repulsive. He will challenge you to a fight on the List Field. Go to the List Field during business hours and ask for a fight. Provided you win, Luther will accept you as a friend and give back Dupre's shield. Next thing to do is follow up on this traitor stuff. Talking to several people reveals that the majority of the town blames Krayg. Talking to Krayg gains you nothing more than denials of the charges, but he talks about a place to the north of the Knights Test where he saw a bunch of Goblins meeting. Sounds like a good place to start, so head in that direction. You will find a black monolith surrounded by garbage, and - Goblins! Kill them off, and look around. Dupre, always the good eye for alcohol, will draw your attention to a bottle. Pick it up, and someone will call it a clue. Take the bottle back to Monitor, and ask Lucilla about it. She will tell you that it looks like Fawnish ale that she orders for Simon. Go to Simon and confront him with this; he'll deny it, but keep after him with questions. He'll finally admit to it, and change his appearance back to the Goblin that he is. He'll attack, but before you kill him, he'll tell you where the Goblin camp is as revenge for being betrayed by his leader, Pomdirgun. Take the keys from him; you'll need them to get into the camp. The entrance to the camp is well hidden. Go to the forest north of the Knight's test, and find a hollow tree with rocks around it. Walk north until you get to a dead tree; it hides a staircase leading to an underground cavern. Follow the tunnel to the door, kill off the Goblins, and open the door with the key you took from Simon. Follow the trail to the north, and to the stairs. You will go up and down a few sets of stairs (one of them leads to a Knights Bridge game - the stone harpies will attack you, but there is a firedoom staff in the center.) Pass the water, kill or avoid the sea tentacles, and go up the stairs to the NW. Follow the stairs up and down until you find the cave leading out. (You won't be able to open the door on the right side of the hallway just yet.) Exit the cave, and you'll be at the Goblin camp. No one you run into will talk to you, so you'll just have to kill anyone that attacks you. Pomdirgun is in the center of the camp - he's the one wearing a crown. When you attack him, he'll talk to you. Asking him about the Helm of Courage doesn't stop him from attacking you, but make sure you do ask about it or it won't come up as an option when you talk to Caladin later. Kill him off, as well as anyone else you run into. Pomdirgun is carrying a key - be sure to take it. There's also a Pikeman locked up in the camp - he won't actually join you, but you can let him free if you don't mind his heroic ramblings. Go back into the cave and, with Pomdirgun's key, open the door on the east side of the tunnel. In there you will find gems, money, the Helm of Courage, and two scrolls from Lord Marsten and Spektor to Pomdirgun. Be sure to take the scrolls. Go back to Monitor, and take the scrolls to Caladin. He will order a Pikeman to arrest Lord Marsten and Spektor. If you go back and talk to them in jail, Marsten will tell you about a secret explosive weapon he has hidden away, and Spektor will admit to taking gold from the treasury. Talk to Lucilla, who will give you a key that Spektor had given to her for safe keeping. (This time, if you meet her after hours, she promises to write a book about you. Lucky you... the poor girl obviously needs to get out more.) If you haven't already found it, there is a cave behind a fake mountain wall, west of Harnna's house. Walk through the mountain and unlock the door, and you'll find a passage leading to stolen gold from the treasury, a bunch of powder kegs, and a dead body. Searching the body reveals a letter from Cantra to her father. Go back to Harnna and tell her that you have found her husband's body. Harnna will thank you, saying now she can rest easy, and then ask you if you believe in magic. Answer yes, and she will tell you of a vision she has been getting, and asks you to look in her crystal ball. You will see a vision of Cantra and Batlin dueling it out with magic. Batlin is calling Cantra the Bane of Chaos, whatever that is. True or not, Cantra is apparantly very powerful, since she's holding him off. Harnna asks you to find Cantra. Cantra somehow must fall into the scheme of what's wrong on Serpent Isle, or Batlin wouldn't be so interested in her. Harnna gives you a wooden practice sword that belonged to Cantra, and tells you to find the Hound of Doskar, who can track anyone anywhere by a personal belonging. There are a lot of people in Monitor who can train you, as by now you probably have quite a few training points amassed. Take advantage of this before leaving Monitor. On your way to Fawn, you may want to stop by Fawn Tower and kill off the Goblins there. The Pikemen will then retake their positions guarding the tower. Fawn ~~~~~ Now that you're done at Monitor, you can go back to Fawn and look around. There is a Fellowship camp outside the city. Leon will spout the usual Fellowship drivel, and confirm that Batlin is in fact here and looking for some strange artifacts. (Telling him that the Fellowship is no more in Britannia sends him into fits.) Scots will give you a map of Serpent Isle if you helped Ruggs earlier. Inside Fawn, talk to Delin, the provisioner, who will refer you to his daughter Alyssand. Delin is, unfortunately, a few cards short of a full deck since the loss of his wife, and won't be much help to you except for selling provisions. Alyssand will recognize the silver ring you have, but won't want it back. She will, however, return your magic gauntlets that were apparantly exchanged with the ring by the storm. She also tells you of The Cause, which believes that the Great Captains of the town are up to no good. You can buy provisions from her if you need them. If you asked Harnna and Standarr about the white armor you are wearing, you can go to Kylista and ask her about it. She will give your armor back, or you can just find it in her room. As you are exploring the town, the storm will cause a lute to appear. Iolo picks it up and someone asks him to play a tune. He sings a sad song about Gwenno, which apparantly moves a few people. Go to Chancellor Zulith, and ask for an audience with Lady Yelinda, ruler of Fawn. He promises to try to squeeze you in as soon as possible, and sends you on your way. He can also change money, since each town uses different forms of currency. Eventually, an assassin will attack you, claiming to be working for Batlin. Jorvin, Captain of the Guard, will promise to look into it, but that's about all he will do. However, later he will tell you that because of Iolo's moving song, Yelinda wants to see you immediately. Go to her palace and talk to her; she gives Iolo a necklace to give to Gwenno when he finds her, and offers a toast. Dupre blows the moment by offering a toast to Lord British, the very person these people fled from hundreds of years ago. Yelinda orders Dupre arrested, and you are knocked out. When you come to, you are in the Broken Oar Inn, with a note beside your bed saying you are wanted at the Temple of Beauty. Go there, and Dupre's trial will begin. (Talk about a speedy trial.) Voldin calls witnesses against Dupre, twisting everyone's testimony around so as to convict him. (Typical prosecuting attorney.) There's nothing you can say at this point, until you are given the option to continue or stop here. You can do either, it won't really matter. Lady Yelinda will end the trial when everyone is finished, and ask you to come back tomorrow for Dupre's testimony and judgement. Leave the Temple, and go find Alyssand. She gives you a key, and tells you to look around the Temple that night to see if you can find anything proving that Voldin and Kylista are conspiring against the town. No one else will talk to you, so you have to kill a few hours until nightfall, then go back to the Tower. The key opens the door on the left side of the room by the collection plate. The door leads to a set of stairs which take you downstairs to Dupre's cell. A lever on the wall opens the door to the north, which leads back upstairs to a hidden room next to the Oracle. Voldin is there, and starts talking to you thinking that you are Kylista, then realizes that it's you. He attacks, but is easy to kill. (He's using a decorative sword against three guys with swords, arrows, and whatever else - sheesh!) The following day. go to the trial, and tell them that you don't want to call any witnesses. (You can if you want to, but it has no effect on the outcome.) Yelinda will call a verdict from the Oracle, who will sentence Dupre - and you - to death. Just then, Alyssand comes running in with Jorvin, claiming that the real criminals have been found. She explains that the Oracle's "revelations" are in fact dictated by a control panel in a hidden room, and calls for another verdict to prove it. Yelinda asks the Oracle for another verdict, but this time the Oracle proclaims you innocent and says that the real criminals are Priestess Kylista and Great Captain Voldin. Alyssand changed the levers accordingly, to prove that the Oracle is false. Dupre is freed, and Kylista is imprisoned. Yelinda gives Dupre the Crystal Rose of Love as a token of apology. The Sleeping Bull ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you haven't been there yet, The Sleeping Bull is an inn northeast of Monitor. Devra is in charge, and can sell you food, give you a room for the night, or exchange money. She has your swamp boots, so give her slippers back. She tells you of the pirate Silverpate who built the Sleeping Bull, and exploring the basement you will find a fake door on the north wall, that leads to a large room with a dozen or so teleporter levers. By opening the chests on the left side of the cavern, you will find a large gold key and a treasure map. Hang on to those; you will need the map to find Silverpate's treasure later on, and the key lets you into the treasure cave. The levers will let you pop in and out of the various rooms on the top floor of the inn. Talking to the people here shows that two of them - Kane and Flindo - were waiting for passage to Moonshade, until Captain Hawk was arrested and thrown into the Bull Tower. If you go to the tower to have him freed, they tell you the bail is 100 monetari. So, you go back to the Sleeping Bull, and run into Selina. She offers to help you raise the bail money by looting a building she found. However, you have to go alone with her - your companions must wait at the Inn. When you get to the building, it may look familiar to you. The storm has completely uprooted the Royal Mint from Britain and deposited it here. (Get it? Mint? Deposited? Never mind...) However, there are magic traps, teleporting you all over the place, and sending strange combinations of enemies at you. They will turn from gargoyles to ghosts to harpies to ogres to... when you leave the mint, Selina will call your attention to an ambush of soldiers, and then use a blink ring to escape. You won't stand much of a chance against all of them, but on one of them you will find a note from Batlin, telling them to ambush you at the mint. Selina apparantly was in on all this, and she will not be at the inn waiting for you as she said she would be. Don't worry, you'll get another chance at her later. Take the blue-white key from her pack, and make sure to take the gold bars. If you go back to the Bull Tower with the bail money, they will just increase the bail to 400 monetari, and they will keep increasing it no matter how much money you have. If you offer them gold bars, however, they will give you the key. Let Hawk go, and meet him back at the Sleeping Bull. He will agree to take you to Moonshade with him, since you let him go. Be at the ship waiting, and Hawk will come out, followed by Flindo, Kane, and Kane's bird ("Walla Walla!") The trip won't be great because of the storms, and the ship will land with a crash on Moonshade. *** Note **************************************************************** * * * Due to a bug in Serpent Isle, before you ask Hawk about leaving for * * Moonshade, make sure Flindo and Kane are nearby. If one of them is * * sleeping when you try to leave, the game may get stuck. * * * ************************************************************************* Moonshade ~~~~~~~~~~ Moonshade is the city where all the mages from Moon settled. However, the Mages are a bit stuck up, and won't talk to Mundanes (anyone without magic ability.) The other Mundanes, affectionately known as artisans, will talk to you, and can tell you a bit about the town. If you go back and talk to Flindo the provisioner, he says that he has contacts here, and will get you an audience with the MageLord, Filbercio. Leave him and go talk to others in the town to learn about who is who, and then go back to Flindo. He will tell you that the MageLord will be holding a banquet in your honor, and will summon you when the time is right. Go back about the city, and soon you will be teleported to the MageLord's palace. The MageLord will introduce you to his Council: Gustacio, Mortegro, and Rotoluncia. His mistress, Frigidazzi, is also there. Rotoluncia will attack you, however Gustacio stops her, and she leaves in a huff. Pothos, the apothocary, will run in and further disrupt the banquet, saying that he has been unsuccessful in locating any bloodmoss. Filbercio will say a few choice words to him, dismiss him, then leave. The banquet will break up and you are free to go. There's not much to do here yet, but you are free to explore the manor. As you talk to various people, you will find that Batlin was here, and Rotoluncia was very interested in his friendship with a demon. (Serpent Isle obviously isn't too familiar with Gargoyles.) She assumes that you are a friend of Batlin's, and therefore possess knowledge of controlling demons. She wants this knowledge, and will stop at nothing to get it. An automaton will come to you with a magic scroll that Rotoluncia uses to speak with you; she demands the secret of controlling demons. Just Say No. :) Fedabiblio the Magister tells you about his job, collecting young mages and training them in the ways of the arcane. He tells you the difference between Mages and Mundanes, and can give you a spellbook, but you have to bring him some fresh mandrake from the swamps of Monk Isle. Since you have no way to get to Monk Isle without dying, this will have to wait, as any you might have found lying around won't do - it must be fresh. Now that Pothos is back from his special mission, he can sell you reagents, but if you remember from the banquet, he hasn't found any bloodmoss. If you ask him about it, he says that he will trade his most private secret for it. Go to Bucia and ask about Pothos' secret; she will say that he resembles Erstam, the Mad Mage who brought everyone to Serpent Isle. Go back to Pothos with this information, and he'll send you looking for bloodmoss in exchange for his secret. There is a bunch of bloodmoss to the south, in the middle of the swamp. (Pothos obviously didn't look very carefully.) When you take it to him, he will admit that he is Erstam's son. He will help you talk to Erstam by telling how to summon a giant turtle to take you to Erstam's island. On your way out of the shop, however, Iolo disappears. (It might be a random party member, but in my games, Iolo disappeared both times, so I'm using him for the walkthrough.) Go to the MageLord's palace and tell him about Iolo's disappearance, and he will tell you to search Rotoluncia's place. The automatons guarding the place will try to stop you, but will mention the kidnapping before they attack. You'll have to kill them to get past them. If you haven't already explored her house, make sure to take the serpent tooth from the bag on the table. Go back to the MageLord and tell him that you suspect Rotoluncia. He'll let you borrow his barge to get to her island hideaway in the center of the island lake. Go upstairs first, and grab the key from the drawer, then go downstairs to her torture chamber. (Filbercio called this place a love nest - eek!) Rotoluncia and a small army of magic goblins will attack you. The key to Iolo's cell is on her, as well as the key to the teleporter. Ask Iolo to join you, and take the teleporter back to the MageLord's house. Go to the dock to the north of the island, ring the bell, and the turtle will appear. Get on the turtle, which will take you to Erstam's island. "It's alive! ALIVE!!!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Erstam, as you will find out, is experimenting with the secrets of life and death, a la Dr. Frankenstein. He's got pieces of bodies lying around - some still moving - and a giant machine in his lab. Talk to him, and he'll explain what he's doing. If you mention teleportation, he'll deny it. Go to his assistant, Vasal, and talk to him about teleportation when Erstam is not close by. He'll tell you about a jawbone that Erstam used to travel about the islands. Ask Erstam about it, and he will tell you that he will give it up if you can do something for him. He needs a phoenix egg, and sends you after one. This is a simple task; he teleports you to an island. Follow the cave through the mountain, through the clearing, kill the scorpions, then go into the next cave. You'll get to a fire pit with a dead bird on a pedestal. Flip the switch and the phoenix will be reborn. In gratitude, he'll give you a phoenix egg and point you towards a teleporter to the southwest which takes you back to Erstam's lab. Go back to Erstam, who will tell you to gather up one of each body part and drop them and the phoenix egg into the machine. When you do this, Boydon will pop out. Go back to Erstam, and he'll give you the key to his warehouse and a serpent tooth. Go to the warehouse, get the jawbone, and put the tooth in it, along with the one from Rotoluncia's house. Go back to Erstam, who will give you another tooth. Place every tooth you find or are given into the jawbone. You can ask Boydon to join you, since he is very strong he makes a good pack- mule, but bear in mind that if he takes too much damage, especially from fire, (imagine that,) his body simply explodes. There is no way to repair him either, so save often and keep him away from explosions. The Monks cannot resurrect him. Before leaving, take a last look around Erstam's place for any scrolls that may help you. The serpent gate is in Erstam's warehouse, south of the room with the jawbone in it. To use it, double click on the gate, and you will be teleported to a large floating area with many gates on it. ***** NOTE!!!! ************************************************************** * * * There is a bug in Serpent Isle that comes up every so often if you are * * using a Sound Blaster Pro. When you double cick on the gate, you SHOULD * * teleport to the floating gateway. However, occasionally, you will end up * * back at Erstam's island, and your party will start complaining about how * * cold it is. To fix this, save and exit the game, and change your sound * * setting to Sound Blaster. Restore the game, and try the gate again. It * * should work from there. (Thanks to Brian Watraus at Origin for finding * * that answer!) :D * * * ***************************************************************************** The Serpent Gates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The floating gateway is surrounded by several serpent gates. The gates are blocked by iris doorways; depending on what serpent teeth you have in the jawbone, only certain doors will open for you. Shrine of Chaos Shrine of Order | | | Temple | Temple of Emotion----| of |----Temple of Discipline | Balance | | | | Teleporter Furnace | | | to Sleeping | | | | Monk Isle Isle of the Dead Bull | | | | | | | | | | -------------------- Center gate --------------- | | | | | | | | | | | Erstam's Moonshade | | | Fawn Ruins near the Castle Island | | | of the White Dragon | | | | Crypts | Temple of Enthusiasm----| of |----Temple of Logic | Monitor | | | Temple of Tolerance Temple of Ethicality Go to Monk Isle. When you arrive at the gate, go south and take the stairs up, into the Abbey. Talking to Karnax, Migghim and Thoxa will reveal a bit more about the prophecy, but many of the other monks either don't speak or have nothing important to tell you. (If you talk to a monk, and they say they have no name, then they probably are not important. Any monk that actually has a name is worth talking to. At least in Serpent Isle, once you have spoken to someone, clicking on them gives their name instead of just "monk" or "mage.") There are some parchments in the library that show some writings by Xenka, as well as some books and scrolls written in Ophidian. You can use the translating lens to read them. The swamp to the north will have mandrake roots scattered about. Gather up all you find - you only need one to get a spellbook, but you'll need them for spellcasting later. There's a battered hut in the center, that leads down to the serpent gate and back up into the Abbey. The key to the lower areas is in a hollow tree near the building. If you have the Silver Seed add-in, Karnax will mention the Amulet of Balance, and present it to you in hopes that you can use it to save the world. Using it at a Serpent Gate will teleport you back in time to the age of the Ophidians. More on this at the end of the walkthrough. When you want to leave the island, use the serpent gate to get back to Moonshade. Take the mandrake root to Fedibiblio and he'll give you a spellbook. He asks you some questions from the manual, then conjures a spellbook. At this point, you can now go to Pothos and buy reagents for spells, and Transcribe all the scrolls you have found into your new spellbook. Now that you have a spellbook, the mages of the town will talk to you - viola, instant status symbol. Go back to Frigidazzi's place, and ask her about spells. (The key to her frozen lab is behind a vase on a table to the right of the lab door.) She'll invite you back after midnight to show you a bit of her own magic. Return after midnight alone, and she'll do her Dance of Passion for you. Next morning (what, you thought I was gonna give details? ;D ) Filbercio appears, and catches you with your pants down (quite literally.) He calls a trial of the Council of Mages, who pronounce you guilty, and banish you to the Dungeon Freedom. A note to female Avatars - this is a required step in the game, so, as embarrassing as it may be, Frigidazzi goes both ways. Freedom ~~~~~~~~ You start out in a dungeon cell, with nothing but a staff - your equipment is in a chest back at Filbercio's palace. The automaton watching the place tells you that if you can escape, you can go free. He pops in and out of your cell on occasion; wait until he does, then run in to his room and grab a pick from the table. Kill the automaton (or at least make him back off,) and grab anything you can such as food, bags, etc, and make sure to take the key from the chest. (The automaton is also carrying a key if you can manage to kill him.) Go north, through a false wall at the northwest side of the room, and follow the passage. Find a passage leading south with a Naga at the end of it who will attack you with arrows. Take that false wall passage, kill the Naga, and follow this new passage. When you get to the mage protecting his reagents, beat him up enough to make him escape with the teleporter. (The teleporter won't work until he uses it.) Gather up the reagents and follow him. (You will find a LOT of reagents down here, this is a great place to stock up.) You will eventually run into Stefano, who will offer to join you to help you out. You will have to let him join - you can't finish without a second person. Soon after finding him, you run into a fighter, who is wielding The Black Sword. When you've killed the fighter, Arcadion immediately jumps to your hand, and begs you to release him from the gem. Don't release him yet! Most of Freedom is just kill and run down the hallway. You'll find a door leading to Lorthondo, who kills off that mage who ran away from you earlier. He summons a dracolich to deal with you and leaves. Kill the dracolich, take the key from the south room, and use it to open the door leading to the east. You will enter a chamber with a lot of rooms and a series of levers in the center. By pulling levers, you can open the doors. The object is to let the woman out, and then open the nightmare's stall so she can get to it. She will be killed, and leave behind a carrot and a key. The key opens a chest with more carrots in it. Open the room with the bunny in it, and feed the carrots to it. It will turn into a woman, who will leave you a vase of flowers. Give the flowers to the mourning ranger, who will repay you by fixing the stuck lever. That lever will open the doors blocking the teleporter, so you can get to a blue lever in the middle of nowhere. Pull the lever, walk away in any direction, and you'll be teleported back to Freedom. The lower doors are now open, so you can get out. You'll get to a room with another automaton in it, who will offer to sell you food or healing potions. Don't bother buying anything, since you have to kill the automaton to get out of the room, and can just take what you need after it's dead. You're almost home free, until you run into Lorthondo. You are not strong enough to take him on in combat, but Arcadion will offer to take him for you. He'll only do it if you let him out of the gem, though. You really have no choice, since he won't offer any of his powers to you any more, so let him go. He'll laugh, obliterate Lorthondo, and you are free to go. You are teleported back to Filbercio's house, where Stefano takes his leave of you. Now you have to go find your friends; Iolo is at Gustachio's, Dupre is in the tavern (natch) and Shamino is out in the woods. If you let Boydon join you earlier, he's at the provisions shop. Now that Arcadion is free of the gem, the Black Sword isn't much use as a weapon anymore. Hang on to it, though, as it does prove useful later. When you find Shamino, he gives you a note from Frigidazzi, apologizing for the whole mess. She gives you a pair of Serpent Earrings (remember those?) and a Chill spell, which you should immediately Transcribe. When you end your conversation with Shamino, you are contacted by the Great Earth Serpent: "A new hero has entered this world. Am I dreaming, or is he real?" When you find Iolo, he tells you to talk with Gilbercio, who has been doing some experiments with the magic lightning. Gilbercio gives you a power globe to take to his tower north of the city. Put the globe on the altar, close the gate, and start pulling levers, When you have pulled all of them, open the gate. The globe will explode, and you'll end up to the south near a pit. Go back up to the tower and ask everyone to join you again. Return to Gilbercio and he'll send you to Fedibiblio, who will tell you to look in the crystal ball. You'll see Edrin, Kane's brother, getting hit by lightning and being changed into a parrot. Go back to Fedibilio and he'll send you back to Gilbercio with this information. Gilbercio will give you another power globe and a cage for the bird. Put the bird in the cage and take it back to the tower. Set up the globe again, put the cage on one of the platforms and pull the lever by that platform. The bird will be changed back to Edrin. Gilbercio will reward you with the Mirror of Truth, and give you any spells you want for free. Ask Ducio about the Black Sword. He won't quite believe the part about the Daemon, but he'll send you to Gilbercio. Gilbercio says that the gem in your sword can be repaired, but in order to hold a spirit again, you would need his flux analyzer. Unfortunately, it was stolen years ago. Go to Hawk and ask him about getting off the island. He'll mention an underground passage leading to the mainland, and send you to Julia. She will warn you about the blistering heat down there, and will sell you the key for 40 gilders if you have scribed the Chill spell. The entrance is in a ruined brick building, north of the southern mountain range. Before leaving the island, you will want to go into Columna's basement, and grab the key from the table. (Watch that saw in the wall!) That key opens a chest outside the house in the garden. There is a secret door next to Melino's bed, that leads outside. Inside the chest is the magic Comb of Beauty, which you'll need later. The Old City and the Test of Purity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After entering the underground caves, you will find a city guarded by a Gargoyle named Zhelkas. He tells you that his race is being affected by strange dreams, and he has dreamed about a hero from another world coming to save his people. To prove that you are in fact this hero, you have to take the Test of Purity. He'll let you into the Lost City so you can find the Pillar of Fire. There is a large temple in here with a teleporter in it. You will not be able to get to that teleporter now; you have to have an ice key and a fire key. The key of fire is on a dead body in the bath house, and the key of ice is on a skeleton in the mushroom garden. Place both keys on the altar to get a blackrock key. Open the door blocking the teleporter to access a serpent gate. This way if you have to come back here later, you can use the serpent gate instead of walking. *** NOTE!! **************************************************************** * * * If you have the magic keyring from the Silver Seed add-in, don't put the * * fire and ice keys in the keyring. You cannot remove keys from the magic * * keyring, which means you cannot create the blackrock key. Once you have * * created the blackrock key, you can place it in the magic keyring. * * * **************************************************************************** The pillar is south of the temple; grabbing onto the pillar will teleport you to the three tests of Purity. The first part tests your Ethicality, by giving you the choice of taking advantage of others for your own pleasure or letting them escape. Obviously you want to let the prisoners go free, so press the button on the top. The second one tests your Discipline, giving you a hammer to kill 10 worms. Dupre will keep running up and interrupting you about treasure he found - ignore him, and keep at it. The third tests your Logic, offering you the chance to return home and ignore the problems here on Serpent Isle. Well, going home won't solve anything; all worlds are connected, so if imbalance rips time and space to shreds, it's going to affect the Earth as well. Tell Iolo that you don't want to go home, and he will enter the moongate alone. After this last test, you are returned to the Old City. Zhelkas congratulates you and gives you the Serpent Ring. If you want to leave at this point, he'll open the drawbridge so you can exit to Monitor. Before leaving, you should find the Everlasting Goblet, which acts as an unlimited food source. It's in one of the large buildings on a table with a bunch of other goblets. The Everlasting Goblet looks like it still has something in it. After leaving Furnace, you should go to Cellia at Monitor and stock up on fur hats, boots, and cloaks, since you'll be hitting the polar regions soon. You'll have to exchange money at the Sleeping Bull, since Spektor is in jail. Gorlab Swamp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Attempting to cross Gorlab Swamp knocks you out and sends you to a Dream World. When you reach the Dream World, find Siranush the healer, who will explain to you what needs to be done here. The city of Gorlab was taken over long ago by Rabindrinath, who now imprisons everyone in dreams. You have to go to his castle and take the dream crystal from him so Siranush can destroy it. Now that you have the Helm of Courage, the Crystal Rose of Love, and the Mirror of Truth, you can beat him. (These are the only items you can carry with you into the dream world, and the only items you can take out with you.) There are weapons lying around in golden chests in case you have to fend off dream creatures. (Woulda been nice to have been able to take one of those Infinity Bows back with you... oh well.) You will also find the Temple of Emotion, and the Eye of the Moon. Thoxa appears, telling you to find this temple back in the physical world. Go to Rabindranath's castle, and he'll attack you three times. Each time he will fail, since you are carrying the three items of Truth, Love, and Courage. On the third attempt he'll be destroyed by his own magic. Take the key from him and open the door to the east. You can walk across the void, and grab the crystal. Take the crystal back to Siranush, who will give you the Serpent Necklace as a reward. You will be sent back to the entrance of Gorlab Swamp. Now it is safe to go through to the other side. The Great Earth Serpent will appear. telling you to seek the Eye of the Moon. The Hound of Doskar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Northwest of the road's end, you'll come to a camp led by a crazy ex- Monitorian named Draygan who claims to be immortal. However, if you can talk to Beryl without Draygan listening in, she will tell you that she fears him, and asks for your help. If you can find a plant called the King's Savior, you can put Draygan to sleep and then find out what the secret of his power is. She sends you to the Forest Master for help finding the King's Savior. The Forest Master is to the southwest. He'll tell you about his past, and that he is not from this world. (He's from a world called Pagan, and was driven here when the Guardian took power. Foreshadowing at its best.) He lost the Heart of Elerion, a powerful gem, to Draygan. Now you know what the secret of Draygan's power is. In addition, he tells you that he often talks with the Hound of Doskar. Aha, at last a lead on this pooch! Collect the King's Savior, which is to the northwest of the Forest Master's hut, and go back to Beryl with it. She will tell you to treat some arrows with it, then use them on Draygan. When he is defeated, the Forest Master will appear, demanding the Heart of Elerion. Give it to him, and he will give you a whistle to summon the Hound of Doskar. Before you call the Hound, place the object to track by on the ground, then use the whistle. When he shows up, tell him to TRACK, then point to the object. (In this case, Cantra's wooden practice sword.) The Hound will indicate east, so follow in that direction. Lord Shamino?? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Hound will lead you to the Castle of Lord Shamino, which, as your companion will inform you, was once his home. (An attempt to patch up a missing piece of history left over from Ultima I, no doubt.) He'll give you a map of the place, which is pretty accurate. Go west and find two dead tree stumps; the mountain wall between them is fake. Follow the caverns to get inside the csstle. Once you do get inside, the ghost of Beatrix will start attacking Shamino. (Beatrix is his lost love, he will tell you. After Exodus was defeated, Lord British brought the kingdoms together, and Shamino gave up his rule to serve Lord British. Unfortunately, he left Beatrix alone to fight off the Goblins, who eventually destroyed the castle.) There is a bunkhouse on the east side of the castle, where you will be attacked by undead. On the north wall is a secret door, which will let you get to a room full of switches. These switches control the locks for the rest of the doors in the castle. Explore each room, grabbing any scrolls or reagents you find along the way, and BE CAREFUL in the kitchen! The stoves will spit flames at you, which will destroy Boydon - as I said before, he cannot be repaired. The main building in the center is protected by an energy field unless you have used the practice sword to track Cantra. If you just happened to stumble upon the castle, you cannot go any further until you have acquired the whistle so you can call the Hound. Another case of "knowing where it is won't help you unless you did it for yourself." When you make your way into the castle, you'll be attacked by guards. Go to the throne room, where you will be attacked by more of Batlin's men. Batlin will run in, gloating that you are too late, then he and his Gargoyle bodyguard Palos will teleport out. Go upstairs, where you'll find Cantra's dead body. Thoxa will appear and take Cantra back to Monk Isle. Grab the Fellowship Medallion that Batlin left behind so the Hound can track him. If you haven't already done so, go back to Monitor and stock up on fur boots, hats, and cloaks. I wouldn't recommend getting Gwani cloaks, since you have to deal with the Gwani later. If you don't have a lot of money, you will be able to find furs up in the north, but hopefully you won't freeze before finding them. Check in with Harnna, and let her know that Cantra is alive on Monk Isle. She'll tell you to go back to Monk Isle to see the monks. Thoxa and Karnax will tell you that Cantra's cheese was knocked off her cracker because of the Bane that possessed her. Sure enough, Cantra is not herself, but there isn't any way you can save her. (The back of the game box shows pictures of Cantra in your party. This, along with the battle between you and a mage on a turtle, apparantly were removed from the game before it shipped.) The Frozen North ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is a cave to the north of the Forest Master's hut that leads to the northern areas. Follow it, and put on your fur stuff. (Inside these caves, you will find a key and a ghost who was killed by a pirate. This pirate is in a house north of the Knights Test; it's not necessary to go back and find him, but it's good for a laugh.) When you reach the outside, you'll run into the Gwani. (If you're wearing Gwani cloaks, they will not talk to you.) Their leader, Yenani, tells you of her daughter Neyobi, who is sick. The healer, Baiyanda, needs Ice Dragon blood to save her. Take the bucket to the north, and take the ice raft to Sunrise Island. As some of the other Gwani may tell you, the main entrance is more dangerous, but hey, you're the Avatar! You live for danger! Besides, the side entrance takes longer. Kill the ice dragon, and use the bucket to carry the blood back to Baiyanda. There are a couple of magic scrolls and other things in the dragon's cave if you care to explore it. You will have to use the Hound again, to track Batlin using the Fellowship Medallion he left behind in Shamino's Castle. If you don't do this, Yenani will not give you the password to Skullcrusher. (Again, to prevent you from getting too far ahead out of sequence.) Asking Yenani about Gwenno reveals that she is dead, killed by Hazard the Trapper. Yenani will not tell you where the burial ground is, and without the Gwani horn, you won't be able to free her anyway. The horn was stolen and taken to Skullcrusher. Well, you're gonna need it, so ask Yenani about her secret. Since you saved her daughter, she'll tell you the password to get inside the Skullcrusher Mountains. Skullcrusher ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The entrance to Skullcrusher is to the south of the village. There are five pedestals inside, with five runes. Place each rune on its matching pedestal, then use each one in order of the password Yenani gave you. (Each rune is the first letter of each word in the password.) If the serpent says, "Thou hast forgotten something," then you haven't obtained the password from Yenani. Inside Skullcrusher you will find Vasculio, the undead vampire that everyone was all up in arms about in Moonshade. In his house, you'll find several items that were stolen - Gilbercio's flux analyzer, a necklace from Frigidazzi, Mortegro's Spectral Orb, the Philanderer's Friend, and the living scalp. You will need the wand later, so be sure to grab it. Also, remembering what Gilbercio said about the Black Sword, use the flux analyzer on it. (This repairs the gem, allowing it to contain spirits again.) In the west room, there is a jail cell with a skeleton and a corpse. Kill the skeleton, and grab the serpent teeth from the corpse. Then go to the east room, where Vasculio will attack you. Kill him and take the key from his body. To the northeast of Vasculio's place, there is a door that Vasculio's key opens. (The hallway looks like it's blocked off by rocks, but you can get past it.) This door leads out of the mountains to the Temple of Emotion. If you look into the Eye of the Moon, you'll see Batlin running about, making preparations for your arrival. You don't have to take the lodestones, but be sure to talk to the girl in the force wall. She'll tell you to destroy the pillar in the center, thus freeing her and giving you a fourth lodestone. Spinebreaker and the Shrine of Order ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To the east of the Temple of Emotion is the Spinebreaker Mountains, and Batlin. There is a set of double doors in the mountains, which lead to an automaton that speaks in Batlin's voice. Kill him, and grab the key from him or from one of the dead ones lying about. You will get to a hallway that goes north and south, and a man says that he'll lead you through. He runs off to the south, but don't follow him, since the south hallway is loaded with fireball traps. Go north through a fake wall that leads to a passage southward. Follow east, to a weapons room. To the left of the weapons room is a hidden door that leads to the City of Order. Earthquakes signal that Batlin is opening the Wall of Lights. You know you are going the right way when you open a sliding door and Palos greets you. You will get to an automaton that will not let you pass until you give him the name of the book his quote comes from. You won't be able to answer this until you find the Library of the Hierophant of Order. To gain access to this library, find the Temple of the Hierophant in the center of the city. (See map.) The pedestal in front of it asks for three symbols of order. By reading scrolls lying around, you find that the symbols of order are a serpent dagger showing ethicality, a book of discipline, and an abacus of logic. These items are in temples on the outskirts of the city. Place these three objects on the pedestal in order, and the door will open. You will need the serpent scepter to get to the library, so go downstairs in the Temple and talk to the automaton. It mistakes you for the Hierophant, and gives you the serpent scepter. Go back upstairs and put the scepter on the blue pedestal and you will be teleported to the library. There is a key on a desk in the southwest room under a book. This key opens the hallway to the northwest, which contains the book you have to read. Grab the key from one of the tables and open one of the doors leading to a teleporter to get back to the Temple. With this knowledge, you can now answer the automaton's question and gain access to the Temple of Order. When you enter the Shrine, you will be greeted by Selina (remember her?) Palos, and some other guards. Kill them off, and be sure to scribe the Dispel Field scroll she is carrying. (It might not be a bad idea to save here.) Go into the next room, and you'll find Batlin opening the Wall of Lights. You won't be able to move, and he will attempt to enter the Wall. However, something goes wrong, and he is struck down by the Guardian. ("See how I reward those who fail me!") At this moment, the three Banes of Chaos that Batlin had imprisoned are set free, and they possess your friends. Shamino is possessed by Anarchy, Dupre is possessed by Wantoness, and Iolo is possessed by Insanity. They immediately disappear in an explosion (which is why I suggested saving - if Boydon keeps getting blown apart here, you may want to make him wait outside.) Gather up anything important from your friends' belongings, as well as the Order Serpent from Batlin's body, and the serpent teeth he had collected. The Great Earth Serpent will tell you to find the Gwani Horn from the Skullcrusher mountains. You can walk back there, or use the jawbone now that you have the teeth. The Gwani Horn and Gwenno ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that you have a Dispel Field spell, you can get the horn from Vasculio's place. Take it, and the Earth Serpent will tell you to free Gwenno from the ice. Go back to the Gwani camp, and ask about her. Bwundai will tell you that her body is in their burial grounds, west of the Ice Dragon's island. Go there with the ice raft, and use the horn to free her. Use the hourglass to summon Thoxa, who will bring Gwenno back to life, however Gwenno is not quite herself. The Earth Serpent will tell you that the pain of Chaos has twisted her soul. When you return to the Gwani village, you find that all the Gwani are gone except for Yenani. She will tell you that the others were captured and killed by Hazard the Trapper. Go to the north cave and kill Hazard, and take the amulet from the chest in his room. Take the amulet back to Yenani, who will give you the serpent tooth from inside it. The Banes of Chaos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Go back to Monk Isle and ask Karnax about Gwenno, and the Bane of Chaos. He will wonder where you heard such a term, and tell you to bring him the Serpent Scroll from Fedabiblio in Moonshade. Go to Moonshade via the serpent gate, where you will find that there are dead bodies lying about, and Fedibiblio has been turned to stone. The Philanderer's Friend that you found in Vasculio's house will restore him so you can ask him about the scroll. He will give it to you, and tell you that Shamino the Anarch destroyed everyone in the town except for Ducio, Torissio, and his two students, and then turned him to stone. He'll suggest that now that the mages are gone, it would be in your best interest to search everyone's house for scrolls or items that will help your quest. There are a lot of scrolls lying around, but more importantly, there are serpent teeth in gold chests in the mages' houses. (Strange, those chests weren't there before...) ;> Take the scroll back to Karnax, who will interpret it and send you to find some Water of Discipline, since that is what Gwenno is missing - Discipline. Take the serpent gate to the Temple of Discipline. Discipline ~~~~~~~~~~~ The Temple Altar will shoot sparks at you until you go upstairs and find the two keys for it. Placing the two keys in the altar will stop the sparks, and open the bridge to the center serpent. Take the stairs downstairs. The hallway below leads to the fountain, but it's laden with acid pools, and you can't easily cross the acid without dying. (You could keep on healing yourself, but there's another way.) Go back to Moonshade and talk to Petra, the automaton in the pub. Ask her about acid, to which she will reply that it won't affect her. If you looked around the Temple of Discipline, you ran into a Mind Transfer chamber. Ask her to help you, and she will join you. Go back to the Temple of Discipline and use the Mind Transfer chamber. Now that you have Petra's body, you can survive the acid to get to the fountain. Get two buckets of water so you don't have to come back again later. Take Petra back to Moonshade. While you are there, talk to Stefano, who begs you for help. Because he stole the silk stockings from Columna, she and Torissio have summoned a Death Knight to kill him. He will give you a serpent tooth if you agree to kill the Death Knight for him. The Death Knight will appear, so kill him, then talk to Stefano. He will give you a key to his shed outside the city. Inside that shed is the Blackrock Serpent of Order that you lost in the beginning of the game. Go back to Monk Isle, and give the Water of Discipline to Gwenno. She will come back to her senses, and explain to you that in order to stop the Banes, you have to capture them in soul prisms. She sends you back to Moonshade to find out the secret of creating soul prisms. Ask Torissio about it; he will tell you that Batlin asked for the same secret, and will only give you the secret if you give him back his wand. You're done with it, so give it to him, and he'll tell you that soul prisms are made from Worm Gems. He gives you a Create Soul Prism scroll - scribe it. Go to Ducio and ask him to make three Worm Gems. You will have to have ice worm hearts, so if you don't have any, you can find them in the northern areas, either lying around on the ice or by killing ice worms and searching their dead bodies. When Ducio gives them to you, make them into soul prisms with the Create Soul Prism spell. Each one must now be bathed in the water of the principle of Chaos that each Bane opposes: Tolerance, Enthusiasm, and Emotion. Tolerance ~~~~~~~~~~ Going to the Temple of Tolerance, you find out that Mortegro is trapped there. Remember that Gilbercio said Mortegro disappeared one day and was replaced with an altar? Go downstairs in Gilbercio's basement and put a bucket on the altar, and the bucket will fill with water of Tolerance. Enthusiasm ~~~~~~~~~~~ Follow the maze inside the temple, and go into the northern courtyard. Use the bucket at the well to collect the water. Emotion ~~~~~~~~ Place each lodestone on a stone block by the water, and you can collect the water. Each Temple has a portal-like viewing device, which will show you where the Banes are located. (This is why the Eye of the Moon showed you Batlin earlier - he had the Banes.) You will see your possessed friends at the Castle of the White Dragon. The Castle of the White Dragon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use each soul prism on a bucket of water, and the prisms will change color. Take them to the Castle of the White Dragon (north of the swamp), kill off the magic jesters that appear, and go inside. The ultimate goal is to make it downstairs to the throne room, and kill the Banes. Go through the secret door on the east wall. This leads to the lab; there is a key on the skeleton, which will open the door to the library. From the library, take the balcony to the room with the desk in it. Look in the desk drawer and grab the key. That key opens the door to the room with the spinning wheel and wool in it. Pull the lever behind the stacks of wool to get into the next room. Go through the illusionary wall next to the stairs to get the green key. Go into the music room, and grab the key under the whistle on the table. Go upstairs, and then down into the ballroom. Pick the lock on the door leading to the kitchen, and go through the secret door between the kitchen and dining room. Find the big key under a plate on the table, which will let you into the hallway. Go back into the room by the spinning wheel and use the key from the music room to get into the room with the ankh. Use the lever in the corner of the room to get to the next room. Use the key from the dining room to get to the hallway. Pick the lock to the nursery and get the blue key from the dresser drawer. Go downstairs, and use the blue key on the bedroom to your left. There is a secret door that leads to the passage surrounding the other rooms. Go into the next bedroom and pull the lever by the clock. Go through the passageway and follow it to the eastern side of the area. Pull the lever before passing through both bedrooms. Find another key in the dresser to get to the hall and get to the lower hallway. The torture chamber isn't locked, so you can just walk in and pull the lever. Go back through the eastern passageway into the king's bedroom, which leads to the throne room and your friends. They will attack you, so be prepared for a heck of a battle. When you finally manage to kill off your possessed friends, the Banes' spirits will be trapped in the gem in the hilt of the Black Sword. Use the sword on each of the soul prisms, and the Bane will be stored in that prism. Use the Hourglass of Fate to bring your friends back to life, but you'll notice that they are crazed from their possession. You will have to make them drink water of Order that opposes the Bane that possessed them. Shamino needs Ethicality, Dupre needs Discipline, and Iolo needs Logic. (Lack of Ethicality breeds Anarchy, lack of Discipline breeds Wantonness, and a lack of Logic is Insanity.) Ethicality ~~~~~~~~~~~ You have to take a test to prove your ethicality in order to start the fountain. Go to the meditation mat and use it, and the Educator will ask you three questions. The questions are pretty easy, but here they are: 1. If thou didst come upon one who was sure to die, would it be Ethical to risk death trying to save the doomed person? Or would it be more Ethical to flee before the same fate befell thee? The Ethical answer would be to Risk Death to save another. 2. If thou didst come upon a room of untold wealth within a structure where thou didst not know if the owner lived, would it be Ethical to take the money if thou wert in sore need? Or wouldst thou leave the money to possibly be used for evil ends? You should Leave the Money, since you should not take what is not yours. You have no way of knowing what the money is there for, and have no right to pass judgement on it. 3. If thou wert faced with the certainty of thy death at the hands of an unethical man, wouldst thou yield to him to save thy life? Or would Ethicality demand that thou shouldst continue the struggle unto death? You should Continue onwards, since no matter how dangerous that evil is, you must make every attempt to defeat it. Answering all questions right will let you into the test, which is an enactment of the questions you just answered. There is a chest with a translation scroll, gold, and a jewel. Take everything from the chest and move onwards. The first test is a man engulfed in flames, begging you to enter the flames and press a button to save him. You have to push that button to prove your Ethicality and save him. (Risking death to save another from certain death.) The second test is a hallway with lightning traps that will hit you if you don't put all gold and jewels on a pedestal. Once all gold coins, bars, and jewels are on the pedestal, you can safely cross the hall and press the button to escape. The final test is a battle with Batlin. He almost kills you, and asks if you want to Yield to him or Continue the fight. Continue the fight, and you will have completed the test. You can now go outside the test area and fill a bucket from the fountain. Discipline ~~~~~~~~~~~ This one was done earlier for Gwenno, which is why I said to grab two buckets right away. Logic ~~~~~~ If you ever did those logic puzzles in school or in puzzle magazines, then you know what this test is about. The first puzzle is a series of color coded teleporters. You will find a book in the passage that was written by someone who attempted the Test of Logic. "Red directly precedes White: Blue follows Yellow: Yellow directly follows Red: Yellow and White do not immediately follow one another." The correct sequence is Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, White. The book also mentions the second test: "As heretofore, the access to the doors of the Temple is blocked by a lock. The combination to this lock caused much commotion. Herein is mine experience revealed to thee as it unfolded. Mark my words, for they will save thee much time. I write the letters in our alphabet, but substitute the Serpent Runic letters to make thine understanding plain. I cannot write those cursed snake shapes. The runes must be placed left to right on the floor before the brass doors; any other placement will result in endless frustration. I tried W.O.B. and C., none of the runes were in the right position. I then tried C.B.W. and O.-- again, none of the runes were in the correct position. I then tried the O rune in the first position, which was not where it belonged, and knew I could discern the puzzle... " Based on this, you should be able to figure it out. The answer is to just place them in alphabetical order. This will let you inside the temple, where you find out that Number 7, the automaton that was holding the key to the fountain, is gone. One of the other 6 automatons is guilty, and by talking to them and confirming alibis with each other, you have to determine which one is guilty. Number 1 says he was with 2 and 6 Number 2 says he was with 1 Number 3 says he was with 5 Number 4 says he was with 2 Number 5 says he was with 3 Number 6 says he was with 1 By comparing stories, you can see that Number 4 is lying. Accuse him, and he'll attack you. Kill him and take the key from his body. The key opens the west room with the field in it. The room has a series of blue stones in it, arranged like this: O You have to move one stone such that there are four stones O O O O in each row, and the lines cross in the exact center. The solution is to place the stone on the far left on top of O the stone second from the right, and the field will disappear. Take the key, and use it to access the fountain of Logic. Silverpate's Treasure ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While you are in this area, you should follow the treasure map you found in the basement of the Sleeping Bull. The door is hidden behind a fake mountain wall, and can only be opened with the gold key you found next to the map. The treasure consists of several potions, lots of gold (which isn't worth very much to you now, since there's no one left alive to sell you anything,) and the Blackrock Serpent of Balance. You will need this Serpent of Balance to talk to the Hierophants later. Hello Xenka, Farewell Dupre ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Take the water back to the Castle of the White Dragon, and use each on the appropriate person. They will join you; as soon as they are in your party again, Karnax appears and says that Xenka has returned. You will be teleported to the Abbey on Monk Isle, where Xenka appears and tells you of her visions of the end of the world. She will give you a serpent tooth, and send you to the Isle of the Dead. Here you must speak with The Great Hierophant of Order. However, you must have the Summon Shade spell to talk to the Hierophants, and you probably don't have that spell at this point. The only one who would have spells dealing with the dead would be Mortegro, so go back to the Temple of Tolerance where he was trapped. Talk to Sethys, who used to have the key to the drawbridge control. He tells you that a rat took it. You will have to use the "Serpent Bond" spell to change yourself to a snake, and crawl through the tunnels to retrieve the key. Open the drawbridge, and go talk to Mortegro. He will reward you with the Summon Shade scroll - transcribe it. He'll also offer to sell spells at half price, so if you have any gilders left, you can grab a few spells. He'll ask you to lead him back to Moonshade, but he gets zapped by lightning on the way to the serpent gate. Go back to the Isle of Crypts, and follow the serpent path on the floor. It leads to a room with a gold serpent on a pedestal. You have to balance the gold (wealth) with wisdom. Go into the next room and kill the mummy, who is carrying a scroll explaining what to do at the golden serpent. Put the scroll on the other pedestal, and you will be teleported to a room with a dracolich. Kill it and read the book in the center of the room. You will be teleported to a room with the Serpent Eye of Chaos in it. Dispel the field, and take the Eye. There is a secret door in the north wall that leads to a teleporter. That teleporter leads to the burial chamber of the Great Hierphant of Order. Cast Summon Shade, and he will tell you about the war between Chaos amd Order, and how it separated the Chaos Serpent. You will have to reunite Chaos. You also must arm yourself with his three symbols of power: the Serpent Crown, Staff, and Armor. Crown - Go back to the Sleeping Bull, where you will find a map in Captain Hawk's room leading to a hollow tree. There is some gilders, some filari, and the Serpent Crown. Staff - The Serpent Staff is in Furnace. Find the area with all the trolls in it, and you'll find one guarding the staff. Kill him, and take the key. Armor - Go back to Fawn. Everyone is dead except Ruggs, who tells you that Lady Yelinda ran off to Gorlab Swamp when Mad Iolo attacked. She is running around in shame, pining for her Comb of Beauty. Iolo's punishment to her was to make her ugly as sin, but the Comb can restore her. You found this Comb back in Moonshade, so give it back to her, and she will give you the key to the treasury in Fawn. The Serpent Armor is inside the chest on the first table. There are also some fire swords in another chest. Again, the money does you no good at this point. Reuniting Chaos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Hierophant of Order sends you to the Hierophant of Chaos for information on restoring the Chaos Serpent. If you remember talking to Sethys, he was entrusted with the key by the Hierophant, so go back to the Temple of Tolerance and talk to him. Sethys will mention a key, and think that you were sent by the Hierophant to retrieve it. He'll mention his failure, but offer to join you to go find the Hierophant. As soon as he leaves the Temple however, he dies, telling you to take the Eye of Chaos from him. (You have to be carrying something that belonged to the Hierophant in order to talk to him with Summon Shade.) The body of the Hierophant is lying under a tree near the serpent gate. Cast Summon Shade and he'll explain that the Serpent of Chaos has been separated, and needs to be reunited. He'll give you a scroll with the instructions on restoring Chaos. *** Note **************************************************************** * * * I dunno if this is a common thing, but both times I played the game, * * I ran into the Hierophant of Chaos in a burned down lab near the * * Mint. In fact, there were two of him in there, and I was able to * * talk to both and obtain two scrolls. I wasn't able to read them at * * the time, since they were in Ophidian, but I ended the game with * * three scrolls. * * * ************************************************************************* Go back to Xenka, who will tell you that the imbalance is too great to be restored, so someone who is balanced must sacrifice themself. The only people who qualify for that is your party, so you draw lots, and you lose. She sends you to the Crematorium at Monitor. Go to Monitor, and climb up on top of the cremator. Pull the lever, and Dupre will stop you, saying that you must live to ensure the safety of Britannia. He also feels guilty about all the deaths he caused while he was possessed by the Bane, and wants to make up for it. He jumps into the fires, and his ashes come out the front of the cremator; take the urn and grab whatever of his equipment you need. Go back to Xenka once more, who will tell you that his ashes will be the glue that binds the torn lands. She gives you an Ophidian Sword, and says she can offer you no further help. The next thing to do is reunite Chaos. The Shrine of Chaos ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Hierophant mentioned a great explosion that blew the doors of the Shrine open, so that sounds like as good an idea as any. Go to Monitor and grab two or three kegs of powder from Marsten's secret stash, and take them to the Shrine of Chaos in the Skullcrusher Mountains. (The Shrine is the building with the serpent gate in it.) Blow the doors off their hinges, and go in. (There is another building down there with large gold doors on it, but there's no way to get past them. Origin intended this building to be part of the game, but changed their minds at the last minute.) The Shrine is a huge room with pools of water in it. However, the Antechamber and the Wall of Lights is beyond a secret door on the north side of the room. Put the Blackrock Serpent of Chaos in the slot on the altar to open the Wall of Lights, Place the soul prisms on the appropriate pedestal, and finally put Dupre's ashes on the fourth pedestal. (The Hierophant of Chaos said that you need something to bind the Serpent of Chaos, and Xenka said that Dupre's ashes would be the glue that binds the torn lands.) In a flash of fire, the ashes and soul prisms will disappear, and the Chaos Serpent will talk to you in Dupre's voice. He is keeping it from attacking you so you can escape. Xenka appears and sends you to Sunrise Isle. Take the Blackrock Serpent and leave the Shrine. Restoring Balance ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Take the serpent gate to the Temple of Balance. (This is wierd, since on the map, Sunrise Isle is to the north, but as far as I could tell, the Temple of Balance is only accessable with the serpent gate.) Place a red serpent and a blue serpent from the corners of the Temple on either side of the scale at each end of the temple, and six objects will appear on the pedestals. Take these objects and go outside the Temple. There are three shrines on either side of the Temple. Of the six objects that appeared, you have to place each one on the pedstal in the Shrine that the object opposes. Remember, you're now trying to balance everything. Tolerance opposes Ethicality, Enthusiasm opposes Discipline, and Emotion opposes Logic. So, the proper placement would be: Tolerance - torch Ethicality - chain Enthusiasm - dagger Discipline - rose Emotion - abacus Logic - heart When the final object is placed on its proper pedestal, a book will appear. Read the book, and it will tell you that when you reach the pillars, read the book again. Go to the pillars on the north side of the Temple and read the book. It will tell you that you are worthy to proceed, and an ice bridge will appear. Cross the bridge, and read the book at the next set of pillars. A fire bridge will appear leading to the Shrine of Balance. Go to the west side of the Shrine and dispel the field over the chest, then use the green key in the bag to open it. Read the book to get an idea of what you need to do here: ice balances fire and vice versa. Go to the east side and open the chest with the same green key. Take a serpent candle and place it on the pedestal on the west side. The ice wall will shatter and you can grab the ice diamond. Take one of the chunks of ice, and place it on the pedestal on the east side by the flames. A bridge will appear, allowing you to grab the fire ruby. Place the fire ruby and ice diamond on the pedestals in the center room to open the doors. In the next room, you have to make your way through the teleporters to get the ice and fire keys so you can grab the ice and fire cubes. Stack an ice and then a fire cube on the pedestal, alternating between the two until an entire stairway and a teleporter appear. Read the scroll on the teleporter - you must wear the Serpent Ring, Necklace, and Earrings, and don the Serpent Armor, Crown, and Staff to enter the altar room. Do so, and then step onto the teleporter. The Earth Serpent will tell you what to do from this point. Place the Staff, Armor, and Crown on the altar, and the Eye of Order will appear. You'll be teleported back to the Shrine, and the doors will open into the Wall of Lights. Place the Blackrock Serpents of Balance, Chaos, and Order into the appropriate slots to open the Wall of Lights. Place the Eyes of Chaos and Order on the altar to bring the statue of the Earth Serpent to life. He will tell you to slay him with the serpent sword. Use the Ophidian Sword that Xenka gave you, and strike the statue. You will be teleported into the void, where you oversee the three serpents restoring Balance. Coming Christmas 1993 (snicker) - Ultima VIII - Pagan Silver Seed ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Once Karnax gives you the Amulet of Balance, you can teleport to Seriss at any time. Go to any serpent gate and use the Amulet while wearing it. You will end up at the Keep of Order, affectionately known to the inhabitants as DeathWatch. Isstanar is in charge of the Keep, and does not believe you are the Champion of Balance. Certis, you don't even know what it is you need to do yet, which only feeds his doubts. However, he will tell of the Tree of Balance, which is supposed to restore balance. To grow this tree, you must retrieve the Silver Seed, which is stored somewhere in the Keep - Isstanar isn't going to tell you where though. You have to find four orbs to open the vault. Before you leave him, he will give you a magic keyring to store any keys you find. This saves you the panic of sorting through dozens of keys to open a door. The Keep ~~~~~~~~~ If you need healing, Surok can offer it. He will also resurrect you if you die while in one of the quests. Elissa can train you in magic. Issik's Maze ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You will run into Drusilla, one of three Dark Monks who will try to "help" you. Of the three, she is the only one who does not lie to you. You enter the maze alone and unarmed. (Your inventory disappears.) The maze is made up of a block of rooms, with doors that open and close as you move around. Entering a room will close the door behind you, and open another. More often than not, you take the door that just opened, but in some cases, there will be two possible open doors, and there is some backtracking needed. There's a map included with the game if you really get lost, and committing hari-kiri in one of the open flames scattered about the maze will return you to the beginning. You will find cheese on one of the dead bodies - be sure to grab it, but don't eat it! You have no need for weapons in the maze. You'll find a cat-person named Yurel inside the last section of the maze. He mentions that he is hungry, so offer him cheese. He'll give you the Purple Orb. Right before leaving the maze, you will find Issik's body, with the Helm of Light. As long as you are wearing this Helm, you will have a constant light source - no more torches or Light spells needed! Once you leave the maze, your inventory can be found in the hollow tree north of the entrance. The Abandoned Outpost ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After entering the outpost, head south and look for a secret passage on the left side of the hallway. Follow it to a lever, then go back north to find an open door. Through the door, you will come to a room with magic barriers. To get through the room, push the buttons on the wall in this order: NE, NW, SW. Continue on into the next room, and search the dead bodies. Some of them may be carrying useful items, but what you really need is the lightning whip. Put it on the pedestal in the room to the north and a stairway appears. Take this stairway down, follow the next series of stairs, until you get to a hallway with three pressure plates. Stepping on them changes their position; press them from left to right to clear the sleep fields blocking the hallway. Past this hallway is the Red Orb. Go back down to the torture chamber, south of the dead bodies. Take the scroll from the body in the upper cell, then take the secret passage through the iron maiden. This passage leads to several powder kegs, which the hint book says will help you with the rubble blocking the stairway. I found that an explosion spell works better, and others said simply hacking at it with a sword works just as well. Take the stairs past the rubble to a dead body with a rope. (If you are following the hint book that came with the game, it says that the rope is on a dead body at the spot marked "10" - it's not, it's on the body at 11.) You can use this rope to let you down the well near the entrance. Go all the way to the bottom and read the scroll to dispel the force walls. Kill the ice elementals and grab the Belt of Giant Strength. Note that you cannot have a belt pouch and wear the Belt of Giant Strength at the same time. Aram-Dol's Lair ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The hardest part of this is the lever puzzles. For the first set of levers, pull only the 2nd lever. For the second set, pull the 1st, 2nd, and 5th levers. For the last set, pull the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th levers. In the next hallway, pull the lever in each room, then pull the brass lever at the north end of the hall to open the door. This leads to Aram-Dol. He will assault you with fireballs and other magic. If you have the Magebane sword, the battle will be a LOT easier, as it will strip him of his magic. Kill him, and take the keys from his body to get into his treasure room. You will find Gauntlets of Quickness, a magic axe that increases your combat skill by 10, and the Blue Orb. The Fiend's Domain ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Following the map, this is simple. The thing to remember is not to trust the Fiend. He wants the Ring of Shal to "save the world." Don't give it to him; he's lying. The Golden Orb is on a dead body in the south end of the third level. The Ring is on the second level past a fake wall. Look under the rocks past the animated armor. The Silver Seed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now that you have all four orbs, go back to the Keep and go down to Elissa's lab. To the right of her area, near the stairs, is a candlestick. Move it and push the button behind it. The keg in Elissa's lab will have moved, revealing a set of stairs leading down to the vault. Put the orbs on their proper pedestals. (If you have the correct pedestal, you will get a sparkle of magic and the orb will turn black; otherwise you will just get a puff of grey smoke.) Once you have all four in place, the door will unlock, and you can grab the seed. When you do, the three Dark Monks will appear, and attack you. (You find our that the "Guide" they have been referring to is in fact the Guardian.) Kill them off, and take the keys from them to open the three doors leading to the waterfall. When you get to the waterfall, Karnax will appear and tell you where to plant the seed. Although he says to plant it in front of the waterfall, he doesn't mean the dirt directly in front of it. There is a patch of dirt south of it, that has a small hole in it. Place the seed on the hole, and double-click on it. The Tree of Balance will appear, and Karnax will leave. You are now free to return to the Keep. Before leaving for the present day, you can ask Surok about some of the items you are carrying, and then ask Isstanar for an apology. Use the Amulet of Balance at the serpent gate to return to the quest. By the way, does this look familiar to anyone at Origin? :D Lord British's Castle, eighteen months after the destruction of the Black Gate and the dismantling of The Fellowship. "Yo, homes. All we found among Batlin's belongings was this enchanted scroll, and a map showing the way to a place called the Serpent Isle." "Slap it down there!" "Jump back!" "Batlin! Know that my face is most muppet like! In the event that the Avatar destroys the Black Gate, you must go to the Serpent Isle, there to learn the secret of Acne Medication! Soon I and my horde of muppets will destroy Britannia!" "'Tis my worst fear! I must send the Avatar through the pillars to the Serpent Isle." 'Tis my worst fear... the Origin programmers have been working too hard... :D