Doug and Ian proudly present:

The Silver Seed - Starless and Bible Black (New version)

A rock opera

Made using:

DR-DOS
DOSbox - A fantastic free DOS emulator for Windows and Linux!
U7run for Windows - Run Ultima 7 inside Windows 9x and NT
Exult - the top Ultima 7 engine for Unix and Windows

Preface

As of this writing, I'm still stuck with half a walkthrough for Skyrim (and a third of a Fallout 3 walkthrough and half a RTCW walkthrough), and I figured it was time for a bit of Ultima again. After completing Ultima 6 I started feeling guilty about the Skyrim business and held off Ultima 7.

Coincidentally it turns out that my brother has been playing Ultima 7 (using the GOG version) and sent me a revised version of the anti-walkthrough, which you are about to read. At some point later this year I will have something for Skyrim, be it half-finished or no, but in the meantime, here's Ian's revised version of the walkthrough.

I remembered you telling me about a reader's suggestion for how to obtain the Ophidian Sword from Batlin in the Dream Realm and significantly shorten the antiwalkthrough thereby.
I've successfully done this and created a draft of a revised antiwalkthrough. Significantly it's no longer necessary to visit the Chaos temples, make soul prisms, free Gwenno or sacrifice Durpe, sorry, Dupre...

For the sake of nostalgia, the original version can be found here:

Starless - original edit

--DTE, May 2013

A brief word about Exult

Exult is an enhanced engine for running Black Gate and Serpent Isle. It adds various new features, such as a heads-up display for the player's health and enables the new Serpent Isle hotkeys in Black Gate.

However, it is a from-scratch rewrite and as such is not bug-for-bug compatible with the real game. To be sure, this was the official policy of the developers at the time the walkthrough was written.

Long story short - the anti-walkthrough might work in Exult, but it's not officially supported.

Starless and Bible Black

1.
After the lightning storm strikes you're left with a rucksack full of junk. Keep the ring and the furry hat, ditch everything else except for food, money, weapons and armour. To get started, we need to go to Moonshade as soon as possible.
First we have to get into Monitor. There are two ways to do this.
First, we can just ask nicely at the gate. This is the most reliable way. But if you have the patience, we can enter through foul means.
This is strictly optional, so if you can't be bothered, just skip to 4.

Recommended soundtrack: Dancing with the Moonlit Knight by Genesis (Selling England By The Pound)

2.
Go to the West gate. Have Shamino drop all his weapons and ask him to leave.
Save, in case it doesn't work. Assail Shamino just outside the gate so that the guardsman sees it. When the guards arrive, disarm yourself but keep hitting Shamino.

If you're unlucky the guards will just slay you. But if it works correctly, Shamino will open his mouth and say:


Wilt thou come quietly?

3.
Say 'Yes'.
Now you have been arrested by your faithful companion and are rotting in jail.
Fortunately there is a secret exit. Break jail and open the West gate using the winch (don't talk to the gatekeeper). Have Shamino join your party and head to the local.

Speak to Lord Marsden, who will explain that all the knights have gone to the pub to bury their fallen comrades.


"We are here.. hic.. to interr the ashesh of Pikemen Groat.."

Just say 'bye' and go back to the West gate; make sure it's open.
Now ask the gatekeeper to open it. He will do the exact opposite, and also call your escort. Marsden and company will now all be moved to the Crypt, where they shall stay in eterna.

4.
Rescue Iolo by talking first to him and then to Marsden, and bribing Spektor with 30 monetari.
To get this amount we need to collect some donations for the Free Iolo fund. Walk around the houses and steal the small amounts of change you find in people's cupboards and nightstands.

Okay. Go to the North Gate at Monitor and go up on the battlements on the eastern side, where the ramparts meet the mountain.

There build a staircase out of bread up on to the crenellations. You should need only three pieces of bread or cheese to make the ladder, which we are building now for later use. Make sure that it's possible for you to walk up onto the crenellations themselves and back down again.

5.
Now get you some Halberds and two-handed swords, these will be very useful when we need to kick some ass.

Finally, get 15 more loaves of bread, which are needed to build a second set of stairs. Keep these in a bag or something, as the staircase needs to be built out-of-town.

You may also wish to pillage the town to your satisfaction just prior to leaving.


You're sitting in your comfort, you don't believe I'm real
You cannot buy protection from the way that I feel

6.
Go directly to the Bank, do not pass Sleeping Bull, do not collect Selina.
We have no need for keys or such nonsense as we are going to do a slightly more traditional break-in.

As you approach the bank, build a stairway to the roof using the 15 loaves and Save.
Now the interesting part begins. Walk around the roof and the magic traps within the bank will be activated. You should get beamed out to the grass beside the bank.

7.
Run quickly to the south-east spell (see screenshot) and you should get teleported INTO the bank. This can be fiddly, so you may need to reload a few times before it works properly.


The spells in the bottom-right will take you into the bank

Now, strip the bank clean, and run around aimlessly inside until you are teleported out. This may take a while, but be patient and it will happen eventually.

8.
Go to the Sleeping Bull, and talk to Flindo. If Selina approaches you, tell her to piss off.
Get Hawk released. Make sure you are only carrying ONE of the gold bars when you do this or they will ALL go to the pikemen, which we Do Not Want.

Recommended soundtrack: When rides the Scion of the Storm by Bal Sagoth (Battle Magic)

9.
Go to Moonshade and talk to Flindo, picking up some blood-moss along the way (it's in the South-East swamp). Just one piece of blood-moss is fine.
Ask Flindo to introduce you to the Magelord, then dither around talking to the mages until Rotoluncia's servant appears. Read the scroll it gives you.

Talk to Flindo again, and ask him about the appointment. You should then get sucked into the banquet hall, no matter what the time of day (or night).

Leave the banquet and ask Fedabiblio to give you a spellbook: he'll say no dice unless you give him mandrake roots. Ask Bucia the provisioner about Pothos. Now find Pothos again and get him to arrange a visit to Erstam, in exchange for some blood moss you just happen to be carrying.
As a by-product this will trigger the Rotoluncia sub-plot. It is interesting to see what happens if all your followers are dead at this point, but that is optional.

	When you confront Roto, steal her Ritual Blooding device and keep it with you.
	If you ever come across any dragons, use it on them to make them say 'Ow!'.


	The blooding device is in a sense the most powerful weapon in the entire game.
	It does just one point of damage with each application, but it ignores armour
	and can be used any number of times whilst the inventory display is open.
	The damage caused by the device then arrives all at once when your inventory is 
	closed. If you're ever having difficulty killing an opponent, just press 'I', then
	use the blooding device on them 20 or so times to make them fall down dead.
	Careful though: if you remove too many hit points at once the game won't
	notice that they're dead, and instead they'll enter a weird, rigid stunned
	state.

10.
Do Erstam and get the Fire-Parrot's egg. Create Boydon and get the Jawbone from Erstam's potting shed. Take his scrolls if it pleases you.

	You may wish to have Boydon join your party; I didn't, because we have
	another follower lined up later on.

You can acquire various potions by watching Vasel work, and stealing them as he puts them down... this does make everyone present quite upset, however. Obtain a green potion using this method... it may come in handy later.
If you can get a second one, give it to Shamino at an inappropriate moment to turn him into the 'Glowing Man'.

11.
Go to Monk Isle via the gate (again, in Erstam's potting shed) and get 3 'fresh' mandrake root. Back at moonshade, trade these in for a spellbook from Fedabiblio.

	To get the Mandrake successfully, you must wait for the Salt Tides
	to be in phase or whatever.  This means consulting the nameless monk
	who seems to have read too much Stephen King, and badgering him
	continually.  To make him easier to identify, shove a green potion
	down his throat to make him glow green.

Go to Pothos' house and get the key hidden under the chair. Open the secret door in the stairs leading to his house. Go downstairs. Take the lightning whip and open the secret door in the north. Open the steel door with Pothos' key and go to the Football Pitch. Grab all the neat stuff and let the beasts kill you (otherwise you'll be trapped).

Steal the comb of beauty from the chest in Columna's garden, and grab the urn of ashes from Frigidazzi's ice room. Lead Frigidazzi on so that she invites you to visit her room at night, leaving her door unlocked. Abuse her trust by stealing the fur boots from her bedroom. Run away without speaking to her.

12.
Now beam out to Silver Seed from Moonshade.
Talk to the keeper and try to appear as fraudulent as possible to instill his doubt.


Yes, I am the Champion of Balance. What's Balance?

Take the keyring and sleep for 168 hours (fourteen 12-hour sessions), ignoring the screams of agony from your followers. If you have Boydon, ask him to leave first, otherwise he may explode from starvation.
Get Boydon to re-join as necessary, and then beam out to Moonshade. Feed the party quickly before they all die.

13.
Go to Stefano's old house outside the western town wall (the key is in a hollow tree outside). Get False Coin and transcribe it - we'll use it to pay for the other spells we will need.

Finally, to reset the Silver Seed, go back to the Gate and try to use the amulet again. Then sleep for another 168 hours in the first bed you come across.

14.
Go to Bucia the provisioner. Make a pile of 100 monetari, and place it at her feet. Now cast False Coin on it repeatedly, creating 500 monetari (approximately 1500 guilders) with each shot.
Pick them all up, and get her to change them into guilders. Do this whenever you need cash. Buy all the spells in town without bothering to haggle.

From hereon, whenever you need to buy something use False Coin to create piles of 100 gold, glowing things or bottletops, depending on the city.
Create the money right in front of the face of the guy you're dealing with. (We both know I'm going to defraud you and you do can't do nuttin'! Hah!)

	Casting False Coin on a stack of gold coins is also a great way
	to conjure up material for building staircases.

15.
Make sure you get the following spells. As you can see, Mortegro the death-mage is our main supplier:

(You may also want Death Vortex, also from Mortegro.)

These spells contain such power that the game itself is unable to withstand their might.

16.
Go to the Silver Seed, bringing with you plenty of gold coins and a ritual blooding device.
Buy the spell Vibrate from the magelady. We're going to have a lot of fun with this spell.

Start by doing the maze.

Everyone who traverses the maze gets 1000 experience points, so take the entire party through instead of just the Avatar. This is easy: lead the party close to the maze boundary, but not so close that they all run off and leave you to it. Tell them all to leave; enter the maze and then, when your weapon vanishes from your hand, call over to your milling minions and ask them to rejoin you. They follow you through the maze, and are a thousand points richer for it. Give Yurel some cheese from a follower's backpack (don't bother searching the dead soldier) and collect the Helm and the orb.

17.
To gain experience quickly, have a chat with Stumpy the dragon (third stairwell in the Aram-Dol area) and solve his riddles. Again, this boosts every character who is on-screen at the time.

Do the Outpost next, collecting the orb and Belt of Strength. In the torture chamber in the Outpost, the second iron maiden leads to a hidden room containing gunpowder. Do not use it to clear the rubble: two blows from a halberd will do the trick just as well. We will need the powder for other tasks later on.

You should have hit level 6 by now. Go and do Aram-Dol.

As you approach the Liche himself, SAVE. Now, cast Vibrate on him. All his spells will plop out onto the floor, rendering him considerably less dangerous. Next, press 'I', drop the ritual blooding device next to him and use it on him about 40 times (keeping the inventory window open all the while so that the game's action is paused). Close the inventory window. With charming banality for such a powerfully evil character, he'll yell "Ow!" in pain and indignation before falling lifeless to the ground. (If instead you'd like to knock him unconscious and deal the final blow yourself, use about 35 applications of the blooding device.)

	Take care not to overshoot these figures by too much,
	or he'll end up alive and stunned with a negative number
	of hit points.

	The Vibrate trick works on any spell-casting enemies.

Take the keys which he dropped and help yourself to the orb and other goodies. Give the Fiend the same treatment. Collect the Ring of Shal and the fourth orb.

18.
Now go back to the Keep and head to the secret chamber in the basement (press the button hidden behind a lamp and descend the stairs which were previously hidden under a beer barrel). Plant the orbs and pick up the Silver Seed. If you kill some of the three witches immediately when they appear (two barrels of powder should do the job) you are treated to a very interesting conversation in which some or all of the speakers are in fact, dead. If you talk to Karnax when he beams in to watch the Silver Tree grow, he will sometimes think that you're on Monk Isle and will transport you back to Moonshade: this is amusing but pointless, since what we actually need is to be right where we are.

Once the Silver Seed is planted, you should have made level 8. If not, go back to Aram-Dol's place and keep killing man-spiders until you have.

JM: I think I need to reprogram the Avatar, he isn't killing properly.
IM: Make the Avatar go berserk
JM: It doesn't seem to be an option.
IM: Your followers are berserk though, aren't they?
JM: I don't think so.
IM: Well they LOOK pretty berserk.. they're all jumping up and down
    shouting 'KILL! KILL!'

19.
We are now going to make use of a 'lEEt ExPlOiT in the Silver Seed.

First, rearrange or temporarily discard possessions so as to give the Avatar 25 stones of spare carrying capacity. Make sure he still has lockpicks, spellbook (plus the Ring of Shal to drive it) and a fairly good weapon.

Go to the northern room where the Keeper hangs out. Notice the grey pillars all around it. Double-click on any one of these pillars.

For reasons never fully explained you should now be in the Test of Purity. Go to the Dupre room and kill the worms with the hammer provided. When the last worm appears, hit it once and kill Dupre with a suitable weapon from your backpack (only the hammer works on the worms, unfortunately). He'll defend himself with a glass sword - quickly Vibrate him and pocket it. (You can sometimes acquire several glass swords in this way). Take his body. Pick the lock on the door and go to the Shamino room; kill him and then everyone else, then press the left button to have your way with the corpses. Finally do Iolo's room, taking the bodies of Dupre and Shamino back with you to reality (I used them to redecorate the Sleeping Bull).

20.
When you leave, the testmaster congratulates you and, without your noticing, removes your gloves, sneaks the Serpent Ring onto your finger and puts your gloves back on again. Maybe he should consider an alternative career as a pickpocket. When you speak to him again he suffers from an attack of amnesia (Who are you? Are you the Promised One?). He is obviously going senile, so you may wish to put him out of his misery.

Now you are in Furnace, get the Serpent tooth from the skeleton among the mushrooms.
Look around and find 6 Chill scrolls, three loaves of bread and various other oddments to build two stairways. One requires 15 objects, the other needs just three.

Build the large stairway next to the brass door between the two northern buildings.

21.
Get onto the wall and head north until you come to the mountains. Follow the mountain edge west until you come to Monitor. Build a little ladder with the three loaves onto the crenellations and go down the ladder on the other side, which you made last time you were in Monitor [4].

You are now in Monitor. At this point you may wish to visit the Sleeping Bull and talk to Ensorcio. You can buy spells from him after a tedious preamble: ask about Hawk, Batlin and his Mentor. He has the Spiral Missile spell, which may be amusing.

22.
Ignore Marsden and DO NOT apply to become a knight, but go to the knight's test anyway.
You should find Schmed outside the test during daylight hours.

Now turn on your 16 tracks, Eddie. In the words of Greg Lake, a bit of vibin' is all it lacks, so cast Vibrate on Schmed and take the key from him. 

	When using Vibrate in this manner, take care that the victim's feet
	are not hidden behind a wall or scenery... otherwise their possessions
	will be dropped underneath it and are lost to you forever.

Now it is time to let Schmed know who the Daddy is, so cast Mass Death.
Walk over his corpse to the Test of Knighthood. Cast heal, unlock the door and lead your followers to glory.
This should be much easier, especially with the tremendous Power at your disposal. You can now, for example, retrieve the key in the snake room using Fetch, instead of banging rocks together. The explosions may be more difficult because they can occur right on top of the other party members: if this causes problems ask everyone to leave, run alone through the corridor of explosions, run back and then get them to re-join.

23.
Take the Claw from the northern end of the maze but ignore the final room with the urn: we already collected one of those from Frigidazzi's house. Leave the test the same way you entered.
With the Urn and the Claw, you will never again be alone, for you may call upon your lupine brethren to comfort you.

In other words, you can now summon an unlimited number of wolves whenever you want.


I love the company of wolves..

24.
The Silver Seed will have taken your followers up to at least level 7, so you should have plenty of unused training points. Now is a good time to head to Monitor and beef up your weedy followers into fearsome weightlifting machines by training with Luther and Caladin (this is optional).

25.
Now, let's step into the Twilight Zone. Head off to Gorlab Swamp. Find the deer south of the swamp and kill three of them, filling your pockets with at least 14 pieces of fresh venison. Give these to your followers. Make sure you have amongst your followers (NOT including the Avatar) approximately 20 stones of carrying capacity.

Just before you enter the swamp, cast Serpent Bond. Immediately press 'I' and transfer the spellbook, Ring of Shal and ritual blooding device to Durpe. You will now turn into a snake and your followers will go away. Slither into the swamp and enter the dream world.

The game will now short-circuit and your followers end up in the Dream Realm as well. But most importantly, we can smuggle some very useful contrabands in and out of the Land of Dreams! 

	It is advisable that you do not die while in the Dream Ream,
	so save often.

	In any case, under no circumstances should you let the Avatar die whilst
	carrying possessions: if he dies, whatever he is carrying will vanish
	forever.

	Since you've got 3 or 4 brutal henchmen backing you up against all comers,
	dying shouldn't be too much of a problem.

26.
Go to Lord British's castle and get the chest of cool stuff (infinity bow, complete suit of magic armour). Find the juggernaut hammer, and go to the arena southeast of the Castle, where there are some gargoyles.

Go into the lower building and get the second infinity bow. Find Stefano's dream of naked women. Nearby is a chest full of gold. Remember, give all the booty to your followers: do not carry it yourself.
Finally, go to the circle of stones. To the northwest is a brass chest, which is trapped, but contains a lightning whip.
Again, give it to your followers.

27.
Gold bars and lightning whips are great for interior decorating, but what we're really here for is something much more audacious. Head to the arena marked 'Dreams of your Enemies'. When Batlin appears, Vibrate him so that he drops the Serpent Sword.

The next step is rather delicate: we need to build a tower of venison inside the arena, which is a whole storey below us and is out of reach. To start with, drop a piece of meat or whatever next to the bannister, making a step so that you can climb up onto the bannister. Save at this point in case several attempts are required for what follows. The precise placement of the objects in the following steps is very important, so we suggest that you copy the positions in the screenshots as exactly as you can.

Cast Create Ice twice on the floor of the arena just next to the space below the bannister, creating two ice blocks next to one another.


Now make a vertical stack of seven pieces of venison atop one of the ice blocks. Place six pieces of venison in a stack right next to it.


Wait about thirty seconds and the ice blocks will spontaneously vanish.


Now we must remind the game that the insides of three dead deer are simply floating in mid-air. Climb off the bannister, pick up the single piece of meat that you used as a step, and move it around on the floor a couple of times. This should be sufficient to remind the game that raw meat wasn't meant to fly, and it will duly correct the situation by whacking the venison down to the floor of the arena.


If the positioning of the ice blocks and the venison was just right, you should be able to walk the Avatar off the bannister and onto the stack of seven pieces of venison. Move the Avatar down onto the shorter stack of vension in such a way that nobody else is standing on the taller stack. (Your followers seem to find walking along the bannister quite difficult so this shouldn't be too hard to arrange.)
Pick up two pieces of venison from the top of the taller stack, reducing it to a stack of five. Step onto the stack of five pieces of venison. Take two pieces off the stack of six, reducing it to a stack of four. Step down again and shorten the pile of five to a pile of three. Proceed in this manner until you have a single piece of vension next to two pieces one on top of the other. Step down to the floor of the arena and pick up the Serpent Sword!

(Thanks to Night Spirit Dragon for originally suggesting the block-of-ice technique)

28.
It is now time to leave the Dream Realm. We could reverse the process of climbing down by rebuilding the meat stack step-by-step and then climbing back onto the bannister, but there's not an awful lot of point. Instead, make sure that the Avatar is carrying NOTHING: move every item which you have even the slightest interest in keeping into your followers' possession, most especially the Serpent Sword, spellbook and Ring of Shal. Nothing which the Avatar is carrying will survive the next few moments. Now bleed the Avatar to death with the ritual blooding device, and rejoice: you will wake to discover that the weapons and heaps of gold you dreamt about have become real! Since we have the Serpent Sword in hand to boot, a host of irksome chores like resurrecting Gwenno, trapping the Banes and communing with the Chaos Hierophant are now just problems for some other guy to deal with.

There remain a couple of errands to run. Go to the Western Forest and look for the Serpent Crown in a hollow tree. Then go into Furnace (via the cave near Monitor) and retrieve the Serpent Stick.

29.
With these tasks completed, it's time to visit the Frozen Wastes. Our method will be... unorthodox. Indeed, we have little choice now.

Go to the Sleeping Bull. Cast Vibrate on Selina to get her key and the Gwani cloak. Have the Avatar wear the latter. In the basement of the inn you should find some cloth.
Take 10 pieces and go to the Serpent Gate, also in the basement. Go to the Silver Seed, and pick up three barrels of gunpowder from the Outpost. Now go back to the 'Bull using the amulet.

30.
Go outside. South of the 'Bull you should find some Ophidian ruins. Northeast of that is a small tower of wood and stuff.
Take one of the many pieces of wood you should find in a stack, then go back to the Ophidian ruins and walk south along the western wall.

Keep pressing yourself against the wall until you find the 'soft spot' which the Avatar can climb up on. Remarkably, the drop is low enough that we can place the wood on the other side of the wall and climb down off the wall. Do so.

31.
Take the orange teleporter. Walk west and round to the blue teleporter, but do not stand on it. Instead, take out your pieces of cloth and build a ladder onto the wall.

Walk onto the wall and follow it until you see a room with some alchemy apparatus and a bed of furs on the floor.

Look carefully at the bedding... in the NE corner a key is poking out. Cast Fetch to make the key yours. Now go back down your ladder and unlock the doors with your ill-gotten key. Go up the stairs nearby and look for the Great Brass Doors in the southwest.

32.
Now, transfer one keg of powder you took from the Outpost to some inconsequential serf, such as Dupre. Press him against the brass door as hard as possible, and detonate the keg.


Bei zwei hundert grad für fünfzehn minuten baken.. und KEINE EIER!

Find Vasculio's digs and read the scroll using Telekinesis (!).
Render Vasculio helpless with Vibrate, and then beat him up (he's pretty feeble). Steal his teeth. Ignore the Gwani Horn, Philatelist's Friend and other junk, but do make sure to take the Flux Analyser.

Recommended soundtrack: Thwarted by the dark by Bal Sagoth (Battle Magic)

33.
When he's dead, build a staircase leading up to the wall of Vasculio's prison (preferably the south wall, between the two braziers. By the lamp post will be fine). There are a lot of crates kicking about, these will do nicely, as will the golden plates on the table in a nearby room. Make sure it is possible to climb onto the wall using the ladder.
Now head to the northern forest using the jawbone, and find the Trapper's lair. Get the Gwani cloak and give it to someone. Leave the others, and head into the cave. Pick up the blue-black potions which will be useful when you need to temporarily warm up your freezing followers.

When you approach the dying trapper, cast Death Vortex on him and you will be treated to another one of those interesting conversations with the dead. Take his furs. In the second cave on the left are some dead trappers, take their Gwani cloaks. To the northeast are three caves in a row each of which has a grey stone floor. Go into the leftmost cave and collect another fur hat and boots from the skeleton. At this point you should have five Gwani cloaks, three fur hats (including the woman's fur cap from the start of the game) and three pairs of fur boots (including the pair we stole from Frigidazzi). The Helm of Light from the Silver Seed also keeps the wearer's head warm, so this makes four warm hats in total.

34.
Find the Gwani place. Head off to the furthest north where Hazard the Trapper lives. We need a suitable entrance, so blow the doors away with gunpowder. (You must use two kegs simultaneously for this to work.)

Open Hazard and then open the chest using his key (using Vibrate on him doesn't work). He babbles something strange about the Gwani being extinct... not yet, they aren't.
Take the amulet you find, the glass sword perhaps, and anything else that looks nice. There's another fur hat and two more pairs of fur boots, adding up to enough warm clothing for five party members. Make sure everyone's warmly dressed.

35.
Go to the Gwani settlement and find Yenani. Give him the amulet, and he should present you with a tooth.
Now. If you ran into any Gwani on the way, you may have found that they take great delight in slaying the rare and endangered ice-dragons (and I quote, "Kill! Kill!").

This will not continue. Cast Mass Death, and with a wave of your hand, the Gwani learn what being an endangered species is like the hard way.

One last time shall the False Prophet come.
This time, the False Prophet will come with a band of warriors.
And they will destroy all that remains of the Gwani Race.

36.
Now we have the Gwani tooth, we may as well use it. The nearest Gate is by Vasculio... we just need to get there. Today we will use 'Poor Man's ethereal travel'.

Build a ladder on to the mountains, using 15 loaves of bread, gold coins or whatever junk you can lay your hands on.


"No, no. Move the fish closer to the corpses..."

Climb upon the mountains, and follow them East until you spot some lava. Walk out into thin air(!) and look for Vasculio's house. Find the wall and walk around it and down the stairs you made earlier. Now there's something you don't see every day.

Find the Serpent Gate and beam off to Sunrise Isle for a quick reconnaisance mission.

37.
Get the icons and put them on the opposing altars, e.g. the Torch of Ethicality on the Swamp of Tolerance.

	It is possible to substitute Frigidazzi's rose for the Rose of Enthusiasm,
	and the abacus from the Temple of Order will work on the Dead Forest of Emotion.

You'll be given a magical book which allows you into the temple proper. The brass chest in the west wing contains a third infinity bow - take it, and anything else which looks good. Get the ice diamond and fire token and open the first set of doors. Don't lose the book, we'll need it again later.

38.
Go through the doors into the next room. Press the following buttons:

All the gates are now open. Take the key from the first floor of the west side. Go downstairs and take the teleporter. You are now on the east side, first floor. Unlock the door and go downstairs. Take the fire-key and go back outside.
Open the ice cube store in the west side using the fire-key and take two cubes. Take the ice-key and get two fire-cubes.

Dump the four cubes on the pedestal. Go through the teleporter if you like, but you'll just get kicked out again.

The remaining cubes make great staircases.

To progress, we need the Serpent Armour (which we don't have) so you'll have to kill yourself in a fire field (try the Fire Zone to the south). You reappear back in the real world.

	The next time you use a Serpent Gate, the game may become
	somewhat distressed and ask you to tell Origin where you are.
	Ignore this and carry on.

39.
When you've finished, go back to Moonshade and find the Trial Room.
Look into it from outside, and cast Telekinesis on the secret door in the North wall.

Go around and into the room. Cast Fetch to get the key. Now open the gate, and go through the teleport with your followers.

When you arrive, you are accosted by an automaton who tells you that you are in the `Mountains Of Freedom', and seems to believe you are some kind of criminal. Vibrate this automaton for your cell key, and hightail it back to Moonshade. Make sure you get the Black Sword.

40.
Now let's find Frigidazzi and pay her that visit she suggested. Wait until midnight. Go to her chamber, and cast Serpent Bond. You are now a snake.

Wake up the magelady; your party will snigger and run away. Now, close your eyes because what's about to happen will give you nightmares.

Recommended Soundtracks:

Frigidazzi will begin frantically dancing naked for Beelzebub.


"Gosh!"

41.
Halfway through the perverse deed, your party sneaks back in to watch.


"Hehehe.. hehehe.. hehehe.. He said 'deed'!"

Filbercio arrives and is understandably horrified by the preternatural adultery now in progress.


"And where did all those wolves come from..?"

42.
A trial is hastily convened and the Avatar is summarily condemned to rot in the inescapable Mountains of Freedom.

The Jury gasps. Cries of despair are heard from your followers. Filbercio seizes control of your body, propelling you inexorably towards the teleporter which leads to your doom.

Helpless, you step onto the platform, and...

...nothing happens.

Go back to the trial room. Everyone seems to have gone a bit funny during the few seconds spent in the other room. Do not talk to Shamino until further notice, and take great care not to double-click on him by accident. If you talk to him, he will corner you with no chance of escape until he has pierced your ears and attached the Serpent Ear-rings to both lobes. What a nice guy.

	If you want Gustacio's spells (delayed blast in particular)
	this is your last chance to do his experiment and get them.
	This is entirely optional.

43.
Now, that trial wasn't much good. I would go so far as to say we have been cheated. Fortunately there is another possible venue.

Head off to Fawn and go in. When Ruggs appears, agree to take the letter.
As soon as you cross the drawbridge, head to Alyssand's shop as fast as possible. As the lute appears, dive into Alyssand's basement. From underground, the lightning flashes and all these people appear out of nowhere to hear Iolo's Early Morning Singing-song.

44.
Find Ruggs and talk to him. Do the letter thing, then unlock the jail so you can commit crime with impunity.
Go to the pub and talk to the owner about strange items. Show him the ring. Talk to Alyssand about the ring and join her cause to overthrow the corrupt government and replace it with a true communist state. Throw the ring away.

The Seneschal should follow you around. He'll go almost anywhere with you if you're patient - lead him on a merry chase over the vales and hills.

Suggested soundtrack: The Knife, Genesis (Trespass)

45.
When you get bored, or he panics and tries to escape, ask for an Audience with Lady Yelinda and then accuse him of following you. Go back to Fawn and talk to Garth. After you have spoken to enough people there should be an attempt on your life.
Try to get the assassin to shoot some of the Fawn residents by hiding behind them. When you get bored, smash him with Death Vortex or mind-blast.
You should now get a summons to see Lady Yelinda.

Talk to her and get b*ll*cked.

46.
Go to the trial. Do what thou wilt. During recess, talk to Alyssand again and get the key.

Now break into the Oracle 8.0 control centre and kill the guy you find there. Reboot the Oracle server and write an SQL query to make it say that Dupre is innocent and the trial is a sham.

It is tempting to set the Oracle to say that Dupre is guilty, but we are going to do something infinitely worse.


Some of you are going to die, (martyrs of course) for the freedom that I shall provide!

47.
Leave Fawn via the Serpent Gate in the palace (there is a brown key in the Northeast wing, and the door is in Yelinda's throne room).
Beam off to Monitor, and then to Skullcrusher via the Cow Place south of the 'Bull. Exit through the small brass door in the northeast corner of the cave. If you head immediately North you should eventually find an illusiory mountain wall leading to Silverpate's treasure. Stop off here to grab the blackrock serpent from amongst the loot.

48.
Make your way anticlockwise around the mountains until you reach the Temple of Tolerance. Use Telekinesis to lower the drawbridge (don't bother with Sethys and his key) and talk to Mortegro. Throw away the scroll he gives you. If he leaves the temple, he will be annihilated by unknown forces, but there is a simple way around this.

Ask Mortegro to join your party, and then, without leaving the temple, strip off all his clothes so he dies of exposure. (A few rounds of Mind Blast or the ritual blooding device will help him along if he needs encouragement.) Carry his body outside and run away until the temple is far out of sight.

When you're ready to have him join, use the Hourglass and back he comes. Make sure that you do NOT go anywhere NEAR the Temple of Tolerance again or he will be utterly destroyed.

Mortegro is a bit of a wimp, but he looks impressive, especially when given the Black Sword or something, and he has one overriding factor: in his backpack is the Death Bolt spell from Ultima 7! Drop his scythe and enter combat mode, making him wield this forbidden spell. Break off combat and transfer the spell to the Avatar. Pass the Axe of Killing or whatever your current weapon is to someone else. Give Mortegro the Belt of Strength and some magical armour so he has a fighting chance. If you're still short of warm clothes for some reason, backtrack around the mountains to the ice cave at the entrance to the Temple of Logic and collect some furs from the corpses in the ice blocks.

	The Death Bolt spell will slightly drain the Avatar's health
	every time it is used.  This can lead to weird effects in which
	the Avatar's health wraps round to 127 health points, or even
	to minus 127, stunning the Avatar for a huge period of time.
	Drawbacks aside, it's still good for a laugh.

49.
Leave the vicinity of the Temple of Tolerance and head towards the extreme northeast of the map.


Head here

Now, continue to the area marked above. There should be a single cave of mud which seems to go nowhere. Enter it and look for secret passages.

The correct cave has an illusiory wall leading to a chamber with lots of dead stuff. Head southeast. If you get accosted by the great white kitties, Mass Sleep can be very useful. Kill the gazers (or disarm them using vibrate) and open the door you come to (this will appear as a black strip that is labeled 'door') with the keyring.

This is the delivery entrance to the Shrine of Order.

Recommended soundtrack: 'As the Vortex illumines the crystalline walls of Kor-Avul-Thaa' by Bal Sagoth (Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne Of Ultima-Thule)

50.
Head east and go to the Wall Of Lights chamber. Selina should appear. As soon as the words 'TO ARMS!' appears, hit 'B' and cast Mass Death. They won't stand a chance. Now take the scroll from her body and transcribe it.

	If you engage Selina in regular combat, note that Selina WILL NOT DIE unless ALL the
	cyclopes she creates have been killed.  If one of them retreats into a corner and is
	ignored, you can hack and slash away at her until the floor is red with blood to no avail.

Go past, and Thoxa will spring Dupre out of jail and bring him to you by some kind of Astral Travel. Now save. Using the fountain to the left of the double doors, put all of your followers to sleep. Run up to Batlin and face him alone. If a follower wakes up and joins you before you reach Batlin, reload and try again. Let the end of the world commence!

And beyond the Vortex, the churning black waters of the void did disgorge the Dwellers-In-Eternal-Shadow.
And upon a horde of winged horrors, brandishing swords of ebon flame, They rode out from the gate..
..and a Terrible Silence fell upon Kor-Avul-Thaa.

51.
Take Batlin's teeth (and the blackrock serpent) and walk back to the double doors next to Selina's corpse. The Banes will be curled up asleep here in a little heap:


Use the hourglass to summon Thoxa. She will give her little spiel again and Dupre, Iolo and Shamino duly pop up out of nowhere to join your party! Massacre the sleeping Banes and put their corpses in your backpacks (if they will fit).

Head to the encampment just outside Fawn. The nearest accessible Serpent Gate is at the Temple of Enthusiasm, just northeast of the cave through which you entered.

Find a bed and sleep in it so one day has passed. Make sure it is afternoon. Now save, and head back to the trial.

52.
The people of Fawn are now in a 'Schrödinger's Cat'-like state, being neither alive nor dead, but somewhere in between until they are observed.
In practice this means that they are alive until you see them, at which point they will suddenly drop stone dead before your eyes.

For this reason, you must take great care that you don't see anyone on the way to the trial, as the game will not be happy if it has to summon a corpse to the proceedings. If Jorvin or Alyssand drops dead before you reach the trial then you're toast.

It is probably best to save before you enter Fawn, as mentioned above, and reload if you see anyone croak on the way in.
If you can't make it work, look for Yelinda in Gorlab Swamp, which you'll have to approach from the northern side to avoid an undesired nap. When you find her skip to [54].

	A good tactic seems to be to keep to the right of the map as much as
	possible and follow the right edge of Fawn (i.e. anti-clockwise) until you
	get near the temple.

	This seems to keep you out of the way of critical people (Jorvin, Alyssand)
	and you should be able to get through the trial.

53.
The trial should now proceed as normal, unless a critical person has been Observed, and thence fallen dead. Lady Yelinda presides, minus her skin, although somehow this doesn't make any difference to her portrait. Once the trial is concluded, she goes completely insane if you speak to her.

54.
Give Yelinda the comb of beauty, then make your way carefully to the Fawn Treasure chamber, then the Serpent Gate. You may notice that the game is now spitting teeth: Jorvin and company are not quite dead, and the game will be interrupted by error messages as you move around the town.

In the Fawn treasure chamber, nick the Serpent Armour and anything else you fancy. (There is a fourth infinity bow.)

Now go back to Sunrise Isle again, via the Gate beneath the palace.

55.
Cross the bridge of fire once more using the serpenty book thing.
Now we are going to wrestle with the Great Serpent of Balance, and steal one of his Eyes.

Recommended soundtrack: 'And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown' by Bal Sagoth (Starfire Burning.....)

Go up to the teleporter. Make sure the Staff, Crown and Armour are in your backpack.. i.e. you are not wearing them.
There are a couple of other 'problems' as well; but without the ear-rings we won't know what they are. For one, we don't have the blackrock Order serpent.

Go through to the altar. Red stuff will appear as the Great Serpent demonstrates his displeasure at the lack of Serpent Tat, by banishing you from his innermost sanctum.

Quickly, put the three Serpent Knick-Knacks (staff, crown, armour) on the altar. This may take more than one go, keep going back through the teleporter until all are in place.

As soon as this is done, some very interesting things take place. You may black out a couple of times, keep disappearing and you will likely see a lot of green magical fluff. The Great Earth Serpent is not a happy bunny.

"What art thou doing?!?"

56.
If all has gone well, you should have not one, but two sets of Serpent knick-knacks in your bag. Go through the teleporter once more, and you may even find a third set of kit, plus the Eye.

Take the eye and all the kit. You will be teleported out. Now go back in, and stand before the altar.
Clear the candles off the table, and place a suit of Serpent Armour on it. As soon as the purple floss appears, press 'I' and place another suit of armour on top (they will stack). Again, press 'I' quickly to pause the game.
Now, place two Serpent Staves on the table. Place a crown on the table and pause with 'I' once more... you may need fast reflexes for this one. Assuming you make it, place a second crown on the table and the ritual will continue.

You will get teleported out again, and some of the stuff will disappear. You will end up by the doors, run though and you should black out again. In the confusion you should find that another set of equipment has been created! Keep doing this to get as much kit as you want. It may amuse you to dress the entire party as Great Hierophants:

Now there's something else you don't see every day..

57.
Now go through the doors and cross the bridge. You should get a personal call from Phil 'Order' Sulak, the lead programmer. Destroy the Servants of Order with Mass Death. Say 'Hi' to the Balance Serpent, dump the Eye and head back out.
On the pedestals nearby are scrolls containing some of the game's most powerful spells. Transcribe any you haven't already picked up. There's also a 5th infinity bow.
Pocket the Serpent Bond scroll (we will need this later) and return to the foyer. There you must burn the Avatar as an offering to the Gods.

58.
You will probably appear in the Icy Wastes of Hell. Find your bridge to Vasculio's house and go back to the Serpent Gate nearby. On the way, use the Flux Analyser on the Black Sword to perform a quick botch repair. Throw the Analyser away.

Via the gate, head to one of the Order temples, and find your way back into the Shrine of Order (via the back route). In the Wall of Lights chamber, find the Powder Room and take four kegs. Now head back to the nearest temple and beam yourself to the Northern Forest.

59.
Now, to advance the plot we need to find and defeat the Banes. The fact that we did this already and have been carrying their bodies around in a bag for several hours is apparently neither here nor there.
In the forest, go south to the Castle of the White Dragon. Go inside and open the double-door, then save.
First try the simple approach. Place one keg of powder against the door, and cast Explode on the keg.
The combined force should take down the door. If it doesn't, reload and try again (there's a substantial random element). If it still doesn't work, load back and try this instead:
Place a keg of powder by the eastern door to the library. Cast Explode on the keg and this door should give way. Pick up all the books you can find. Put one of the books in front of the troublesome door, Save and read the exploding book, from a safe distance.

Hopefully you should now be inside. Use the books (or a single keg and Explosion) to take down the four doors that stand between you and the Banes.

60.
By the hall of the Banes, go into the torture chamber first. There is a healing fountain. Top yourself up.
Lead your followers around the edge of the room to avoid the traps and then trigger the script that causes the banes to attack. Lead them round to the door, and try to get it so that only one comes round into your area. Kill it with the Black Sword (other weapons won't work, this time) and top yourself up with the fountain. Save as necessary and kill them all one by one (again!). You can ditch the Black Sword at this point if you want.

Note that when a Bane dies, the corresponding party member will also die and the two coalesce into a single corpse. When all three Banes are dead, use the hourglass. Dupre, Shamino and Iolo will spring back to life and join your party; when you talk to them they rave and gibber, but they seem content to follow you around, fight your enemies and carry your possessions for you. If anything it's actually an improvement on their usual personalities.

61.
Find the nearest Serpent Gate and beam off to the Temple of Logic. Negotiate the ice-maze (ignoring everything else) and go through the teleporter (the sequence is Red, Yellow, Blue, Red, White). Start a translation service and spell the word BCOW on the floor. For some reason the doors now spring open.

Now you must use your powers of logic and reasoning.

	You are in a room with six automata.
	Only one of them has the key that you need.
	What is the least number of automata that you need to kill
	to be certain of getting the key?

Get all the automata on screen and cast mass-death. Sift through the pieces until you find the key.
Open the western door and ignore the poncy logic puzzle; just cast Dispel Field.

Now pocket the key, take the waters of logic. Do not pour them on Iolo or anyone else. Put the bucket in someone's backpack.
Now leave, and on your way back, find and repair Automaton #7, who is somewhere in the maze. He'll tell you that one of the other Automata must be stopped: we've certainly done that. That's our good deed for the month done, so head back to the exit.

62.
Go to the Temple of Ethicality.
Move the Ring of Shal and your spellbook to one of your followers, and then use the Serpent Bond scroll that you took from Sunrise Isle. Now that you are a snake, meditate on the mat.


I am the Educator here, seeker. We don't like your kind around here.

Answer the questions and you'll get let loose on the practical test.
Hang around until you become human again and your followers arrive. Attack the chest as a snake if you like, it's fun to watch.

Get your spellbook and ring back and enter the central chamber. Cast Mass Death to kill the man you're supposed to save, and use telekinesis to push the button. The Educator will congratulate you.

In the second test, just put all your gold (but not your followers' gold!) onto the pedestal. If you brought the chest from the first test with you, put that on the pedestal too for kicks. Press the button.

As soon as you arrive in the third test, press 'B' and consider your options.
Mass Death is fun, and a stack of gunpowder doubly so, but you run the risk of spending eternity in the test of Ethicality, as only Batlin can release you.
Instead, send him to sleep and carry on as normal. It may help if you have a Blooding Device to bleed yourself about 6 times.


Fool! Thou didst make me dead...

Once the test is completed, go upstairs to get some Water of Ethicality. Again, take care not to get any on you or your followers.

63.
For the Test of Discipline, we need to get drugged up. A good source of potions is the mage in the Silver Seed: as she puts them down you can steal them away without her screaming for your blood.
You can also cast Vibrate to get a job lot of potions out of her. I got enough potions to build a large set of steps in a quite short space of time. The present task, however will naturally take longer, as we are only interested in yellow potions.

Obtain about 9 yellow potions by whatever means you see fit, and beam off to the Temple of Discipline.
If possible, shut down the security system: there is a user manual in the main study upstairs.

When you're ready, go down the central stairwell and go to the test of discipline. The acid seems to hurt the Avatar more than it does your followers, but if you have trouble with them dying then use sleep or paralysis to keep them still while you cross the acid. Move in short but energetic bursts... use the longest mouse pointer to cover as much ground as you can with each step. But after each step, check your health and take drugs as necessary. (You won't take any damage whilst standing still, even if you're standing in a pool of acid.)


Only users lose drugs...

At the foot of the stairs it is very nasty: try to avoid stepping there, as you can get onto the lowest step sideways which is probably easiest. Grab yourself a bucket of discipline. Just one is enough, it's not as though we're going to resurrect Gwenno or anything.

64.
Getting back through the acid would be a pest, so it's a good job we don't have to. We now have all the water necessary, so let's use it. Pour the buckets of water over your followers' heads (Logic for Iolo, Discipline for Dupre, Ethicality for Shamino) and you should get sucked back to Monk Isle, for the second coming of Xenka: Warrior Priestess!

65.
Talk to Xenka and let her give you a serpent's tooth (say 'instructions'). Make your excuses and head out to the newly-accessible Isle of Crypts via the serpent gate. Follow the serpent-shaped dents in the floor, get teleported, grab the scroll from the undead creature and use it to balance the golden serpent idol. Collect the Eye of Chaos and leave via the Serpent Gate.

66.
Go to Moonshade, find Stefano, and talk to him. He will ask you to rescue him from the Death Knight. Agree, and the Knight will appear. Point and laugh as it kills him. Then destroy it and take Stefano somewhere quiet so that Thoxa can resurrect him via the hourglass.

Take the key he gives you and get the bent serpent stick from the shed in the western part of the island.
Then go back to the Serpent Gate, and beam off to Sunrise Isle one final time. Go straight through all the doors and up to the Balance Serpent.

Recommended soundtrack: 'Battle Magic (The Song of the War-Wolves of Caylen-Tor)' by Bal Sagoth (Battle Magic)

Okay, now shove the Eyes on the altar, stick the serpent sticks in their respective holes, and the Serpent should begin to sway drunkenly, unless you are using Exult in which case it will probably have been swaying drunkenly anyway.

Summon a whole pack of wolves using the Claw and Urn.


Now there's something you see every day..

Wield the Serpent Sword that the Dream of Batlin gave you and 'do' the Balance Serpent. Cue telecine, roll credits, end.

The Cutting-Room Floor

Chickens


Cast vibrate on chickens.  The meat and bones will be sucked out through
the beak.  Not a pleasant thought.  The chicken however takes no notice and
goes about its business.  Put the chicken's interior in your food bag.

This also works quite well on cows. The five legs dribble incontinently out of
the body as it wanders around.




...use Create Automaton to give youself a new follower, preferably Rotoluncia's
servant who tried to kill you.  Today we're going for the evil biker look so
dress him in leather and the Helm of Courage.




City of Chaos


You should now be in the City of Chaos.
Find and kill Vasculio and dump enough posessions to carry 3 crates
which you should find to the south.

Root around for the keys and go NE.  Leave the area and go out into the NE
plains.

Find the City Of Order and enter.  Kill the batlin-automaton and nick it's
key.  Nick the keys from the other dead automatons.

Go E using telekinesis and findthe secret passage to the N.
Go around, South and then W to get out.

Find the secret door in the NE and go through.  Now you are in the City
properly.

The library complex is in the middle, we need to get in.
Build a staircase out of crates and bales of wool.  You will need to go
back to the entrance where the Batlin-Automaton was and go E, find 3
more crates and you should be able to finish the structure.

Jump down the stairs and find the Automaton.  Tell it you're the hierophant
and take the staff.  Put the staff on the green pedestal upstairs, and you'll
be in the actual library.  Read a few books and find the keys.

Leave the library complex and find the exit to the SE.  Go through and answer
the riddle, Structure of Order.




	If you have Midnight Mushrumps by Gryphon and you are very clever,
	it is possible to sync Batlin's death with The Ploughboy's Dream so
	the Guardian's voice replaces that of Satan.
E.g.

The thunder roared from underground, the Earth it seemed to gape
Blue flames broke forth and in those flames appeared an awful shape
"SEE HOW I REWARD THOSE WHO FAIL ME!" ..with a voice so clear and deep,
And quivering like an aspen leaf I woke out of my sleep..

The Dream Realm

This is going to involve some very strange stuff, so we need to prepare.
Beam off to Moonshade, and acquire one each of the following reagents.
Yes, I know we have the Ring of Shaal, just do it anyway.

You will need to get: Blood Moss, Black Pearl, Garlic, Spidersilk, Worm Heart and Serpent Scale.

Now get 15 loaves of bread or whatever and go to Gorlab swamp. Give your spellbook, the Ring of Power, and the 15 bits of ladder to your followers.
But make sure the Avatar is carrying the reagents.

Turn into a snake

Now, go to the mad bloke's castle in the southwest.
Build a staircase of the fifteen loaves you brought and go down the battlement stairs.

This is the part of the Dream Ream where you are most likely to be killed, so use extreme caution.

Find the mad bloke and cast Vibrate on him. Take the key.
Open the door and find the other key. Then go fetch the crystal. 

	If you keep getting killed by the mad mage, don't bother..
	We don't really need to do that part.

Silver Seed immortality

From: Joseph P Morris 
Subject: Silver Seed vulnerability warning
Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.ultima.dragons
Organization: IT-HE Software


IT-HE labs has recently discovered a severe vulnerability with the
Silver Seed.  This may lead to malicious local Avatars becoming
trans-mortal and gaining root privilege for the entire system.
We are currently working with Ophidian Inc to try and implement a
fix for this problem, in the meantime it is recommended as a
workaround, that you prevent local Avatars from entering the
Silver Seed by confiscating the Amulet of Balance.

To see if you are vulnerable to this issue, try the following steps:

1. Enter the Silver Seed as a normal user.
2. Kill Suthos the Healer.
3. Engage in combat with Isstanar.  Your Avatar should die.
4. You will probably find that your Avatar, having been resurrected
   in an abnormal fashion has become trans-mortal and can not die.

Under normal circumstances this is only a nuisance problem, since
the trans-mortality only takes place within the chroot jail and
the user will lose this privilege once they log out of the Silver Seed. 
However, when combined with another exploit, it becomes possible for
the user to escape the Silver Seed and thus gain root privilege for
the entire system:

5. Enter Isstanar's chamber and double-click on any one of the grey
   pillars.  If your Avatar has not yet left Moonshade, it should appear
   in the Test of Purity.

6. On completing the Test of Purity, regardless of the outcome
   the Avatar will have exited the Silver Seed abnormally and their
   enhanced priveleges have not been rescinded.  An Avatar in this state
   has permenant trans-mortality and superuser access to the entire game.

Additional Notes from Ian

(Left as exercises for the reader)

I also had a general muck-around and have tried out one or two wholly new things. Here are a few observations which it might be worth a mention even if not incorporated into an antiwalkthrough: