Ultima IV: Circumnavigation

Two sessions ago, I learned a lesson - always carry a few prepared casts of Cure before venturing into the marshes. Now that I barely scraped my way back to Lord British and his free healing after suffering deadly snake bites and a poison trap, and still had a costly resurrection bill for Julia, I've learned a lesson further - always carry a few prepared casts of Cure before venturing anywhere.

But to do that, I'll need reagents. With about $1000, I can afford a few, but I've only seen them available at my starting town of Moonglow, which can only be reached by moongates.

Britannia's dual moon system cycles through 24 phases throughout the month - each moon has eight phases, and both begin their new moon phase at the same time, marking the beginning of the month, but the right moon advances exactly three times as fast as the left moon, causing it to go through three complete cycles each month.

The left moon phase determines where the moongate will be, and the right moon phase determines where the moongate will take you.

Note that while our moon phases from right-to-left, Ultima's moons phase left-to-right. Hence, the pictographs are flipped horizontally.

Phase	Location	Possible destinations	Possible departures
🌑	Verity Bay (E)	🌑🌘🌗	🌑🌗🌔
🌘	Castle Britannia (C)	🌖🌕🌔	🌑🌖🌔
🌗	Valorian Isle (SW)	🌑🌓🌒	🌑🌖🌓
🌖	The Deep Forest (NW)	🌘🌗🌖	🌘🌖🌓
🌕	Minoc (N)	🌕🌔🌓	🌘🌕🌓
🌔	Cape of Heroes (S)	🌑🌘🌒	🌘🌕🌒
🌓	Spiritwood archipelago (W)	🌗🌖🌕	🌗🌕🌒
🌒	???	🌔🌓🌒	🌗🌔🌒

 

I am near Castle Britannia, and I want to go to Verity Bay. This is possible to do in two jumps - the waning gibbous phase is a common destination from my current location and departure to my desired end point. I must wait here for the 🌘🌔 phase for the moongate to open here and take me to Cape of Heroes, and then wait half a month for the 🌔🌑 phase for the moongate there to open and take me to Verity Bay, just one bridge away from Moonglow.

Food, thankfully, depletes slowly when you wait for the moon cycles.

 

Before buying reagents, I stock up on rations, buying 300 in addition to the 100 I've got remaining.

The herb vendor charges:

• $2 for sulfurous ash
• $5 for ginseng
• $6 for garlic
• $3 for spider silk
• $6 for blood moss
• $9 for black pearls
  

The ginseng and garlic are what I need for Cure magic, and that seems a bit steep, but it is what it is - I buy 27 of each for now, for a total bill of $297, which of course I pay in full, leaving me with $437.

I tediously mix 27 doses of Cure, and take the moongate back to Britain where I buy Julia some better armor and a new sling - her mace had proven a liability to her health. I also buy a nice big sword for $300, just to have in case of a desperate melee.

And my mapping efforts begin anew, this time being more thorough with the swamplands. I can't say that the swamplands turned up anything all that interesting that I hadn't seen before, but the effort did make my map more complete and more accurate. I added some previously unseen terrain, corrected some previously unnoticed errors, and connected previously disconnected segments.

Fights were frequent, but still rather easy and mindless. It's easy to accidentally skip your turn by making an input error - the engine is mercilessly unforgiving in that regard, but otherwise so lenient that I couldn't get upset about it. Slings remained my weapon of choice, and often I'd prefer to pelt enemies at point blank rather than spend any keystrokes switching to a more suitable bladed or crushing instrument. Some of the more interesting enemies included rock-throwing ettins, and aquatic spellcasting mermen, but the toughest yet were the venus flytrap-like Zorns, who are simply tanks that shrug off your attacks and hit hard up close. But I never came close to dying; partial healing is just one rest away at all times.

Eventually I found my way back to Empath Abbey, this time unpoisoned.

So there is a healer after all! I just couldn't find the stupid place when I was desperate for one.

• The guards tell me to visit the inner shrine to be "saturated with love."
• Another guard patrolling the hallways tells me that I must acquire a three-part key from the altars in order to enter the codex's chamber.
• A child tells me that four different professions seek truth in the oak grove.
• I find nothing in the shrine except a beggar, with little of interest to say.
• Lord Rob and Lady Marcy sit in the throne room but all I can get from them are heartfelt wishes in my quest for love.
• The oak grove is visible from the throne room, but the door is locked.
• Lady Marcy's lady-in-waiting rests in her quarters near the southeast turret, and doesn't appreciate being bothered.
• Brother Antos offers "great wisdom" in the southeast turret, but won't respond to any keywords that I can think of.
  

I used up the last of my Cure spells mapping out a small swamp on a wooded peninsula west of the abbey - the extreme northwest corner of the continent. And that was fine; I was able to continue southward toward a break in the Serpent's Spine mountain range. Here I poisoned myself opening a trapped chest, but by then I was close enough to Britain that I could walk the rest of the way and pay the healer.

And with that, I had made a complete loop around the northern part of Britannia. My map pieces, with a bit of fine adjustment, all interlocked correctly, giving me a good foundation for future efforts, and all that fighting brought in a good $2500 for resupplying and some experience points to boot - Lord British promoted me and Iolo to level 5, and Julia to level 4.

Visiting Hawkwind, compassion took a dive again - I should probably take it easier on fleeing monsters - but honor and justice went up. On valor, Hawkwind told me I was ready for elevation, and should meditate at the shrine. Of course I still need to find it, and the rune, and the mantra.

I finished up this session by spending the coin - chain mail and a Minoccan magic axe for Julia, more food, and a smattering of Moonglow reagents, mostly curative ingredients.

My map:

 

Compare with last time: