Ultima IV: Covetous

 

Back to my usual pattern, I've got some cash to spend, some supplies I'm short on, and dungeons to visit. This next dungeon is both the best one yet and the worst one yet.

I'm out of Zdowns, which are nice to have, and low on Heal which I definitely need more of. I have no idea how many Yups I've got left, the interface isn't large enough to show, but you don't really need those - Xit and multiple Zdowns do the same thing.

Zdown and Heal both need silk, so I start by Gating to Moonglow to restock. Here, I craft 79 Heals and 79 Zdowns, which depletes my ginseng and moss reserves.

Next, Skara Brae, for gingseng and moss, where I max out my Zdowns, Heals, Blinks, and Xits. Anything else needs garlic and/or black pearls, which I have none of, and I'm running low on cash and don't really want to farm more.

Covetous, tucked away in the mountains around Minoc, accessible only by Blink (or ship, or through Hylothe's basement hubs). I walk there from Britain and map out some unexplored territory along the way; the woods north of Lock Lake, and the mountains to the north by Lost Hope Bay.

As I thought - just trees and Godzillas.

Well, that region seems pointlessly inaccessible.

Covetous sighted. I have to Blink to reach it.

Level 1

Three passages.

• The northeast passage leads to a fountain that doesn't do anything, and a gusty corridor that is lined with poison fields and doesn't go anywhere.
• The southeast passage leads to a damaging fountain.
• The middle passage leads to the next level, but first there's a fixed encounter against the covetous undead.

Gotta search the corners for the secret passage

Level 2

 

Just a featureless spiral staircase going downward. I run into a few bats and some slime down here, but that's about it.

Level 3

This time, we're dumped right into a three-screen mini-adventure!

 

Part II. Hardest part is squeezing your party through the initial 2-tile diagonal opening.

Dead end! Or is it?

Secret switch in the northeast corner!

Oh.

The orb here does 400 damage and would boost strength and dexterity, as we might expect. But this is finally an opportunity to use a peering gem.

Sonnuva...

 

We backtrack to the middle room and check for secrets.

click

Tremor works really well in these caverns, BTW

Finally; out of there!

There are two ladders down on this stage - I take the southern one first.

Level 4

Probably safe to assume that both ladders down from level 3 go to this maze of traps. I get the cash stashes and leave.

A fixed encounter in the room before the exit. The balron's cell has a secret switch.

There's also one on the other side.

 

The ladder here goes down two levels!

Level 6

Another diagonally-wrapping level! Like all of them, it's smaller than it looks - in short, there are three orbs of sacrifice, four trapped corners, one ladder that goes up, and two ladder that go both up and down. I take the up-only ladder first.

 

Level 5a

Cash! I haul about $600 before returning to level 6, where I take the other ladder up.

Level 5b

 

More cash! It's another $700 plus a triggered bomb trap in everyone's faces. We take the ladder here down two levels.

Level 7

 

It's a straight corridor to a room.

Crap. What am I supposed to do? Try as I might, I can't leave. I'm pretty sure this room is glitched!

Thankfully, I made a save state before going down to this level, more intended as insurance against AppleWin's instability when changing audio devices than for cheating, but bullshit like this makes me grateful that I did.

Back on level 6, I take the original ladder down.

 

I check out the three black rooms to the south.

Bog-standard encounter against skeletons

Touching the westmost tile opens the east passage. But how does that help?

Spooooky

 

It's a somewhat unnecessary trip, but it confirms that the middle room here is badly designed - you're trapped if you enter from the east because there's no way to unlock the secret passage, and if you do unlock the east side by entering from the north or south, then there's no way to reach it!

That also means there's no way back up except by Yup or Xit.

The west side of this floor has two ladders in the north-south corridor, and two secret passages. 

One secret passage holds the orange stone.

The other goes to a neat looking two-room bridge encounter.

 

New enemy - air elementals!

At the end - a secret ladder

Level 8a

 

I go west first.

I turn back and try east:

 

As expected, it leads to the altar of love. I've been to Despise, Wrong, Covetous, all dungeons opposing love's virtues, and found their respective stones; yellow, green, and orange, plus the white stone seemingly removed from Hylothe.

I try using them.

Almost done here. I return to Covetous and Yup to level 7, and take the northern ladder downward.

 

Level 8b

Not much to see here! A secret passage conceals the other stairs back to level 7. I fight a random encounter inside, which looks interesting from an overhead perspective.

 

I Xit out, Blink back to my horse, and Gate to Britain.

No levels gained, but the healing is nice!

Five stones found, three to go.

My world map - bright areas were explored recently: