Part 17: Covetous & Shame

Covetous & Shame



Covetous is kinda south of Minoc. It's tricky, although not as tricky as Shame! A few zots downwards and we find a zoo full of liches.



Those are sleep fields, but we can shoot through them, which rather trivializes the whole affair.



Walking through the sleep field (or dispelling it, in this case) reveals a tunnel blocked by force fields. Dispell one, and I'm on my way.



More skeletons and mages. Skeletons ain't shit at this point, even to my underleveled companions.



This room's a bit trickier. Phantoms are good fighters (which you might expect from animated shields and swords), and ghosts can not only pass through walls, they can attack while still inside them, rendering them unattackable. This is easily foiled by stepping away from them, since they're melee range only.



Once down to the bottom of Covetous, it's time to head back up a floor. Because I can.



L7 seems like a dead end up the second ladder, but walking through a wall reveals...



...the orange stone! Alright, let's boogie.



Back to Lord British, who gives me a few more levels. Then it's time to run around grabbing reagents and stuff and off to Shame.



For reasons totally unknown, Shame is the trickiest dungeon in the game. Just entering it shows off why. The stone is actually only on the second floor, but when we first enter the dungeon we have no choice but to take a ladder all the way down to L7.



And from there, into some 2D rooms.



The Crypt, huh? Creepy. Swamp tiles poison just like they do above ground.



Approaching the east side causes a coffin to open. Stepping inside, though obviously ill-advised, opens the east wall.



Eventually there's a ladder going back up. It goes a long way, but we want to stop at L4 and walk through a wall.



Always peer into magic gems, kids!



Now as it just so happens, I'm capable of warping up to where the stone is now. You never thought I'd cast Up spells, did you? Hah!



Just one more force field in my way, and then...



The purple stone. That's all eight of them. Now what to do with them?

Why, go all the way back down to L8 of course!



A fountain on the lowest level of Shame casts a full Heal on anyone who drinks from it. It works an infinite number of times, too. Why is this good?



Because right next to it are two magic orbs which raise your stats by +5 each. There are actually some of these in almost every dungeon, and they tend to raise different stats, but they have a cost: They deal hundreds of points of damage, and the more stats they raise, the more damage they do. You have to be level 5 to survive these orbs in Shame, and level 7 or 8 to survive the +5 to all stats ones in Hythloth. Why do this? Well, it's kind of pointless if you just want to beat the game, but since the Avatar's stats can transfer over in a big way to the next game, it's obvious that I want them maxed out at 50 if possible.



This room is actually a little strange; you enter from the north into the western part, and exit west through the wall. Then you exit east through a different wall in the next room, and wind up here, in a room full of monsters. This part is dangerous because Reapers and Gazers sleep, and with 5 of them they will do this often.



This is the first room I entered; see below for the secret walls. Entering that black square opens a route back. Also there are dragons here, but who cares, dragons suck.

Until Ultima V, where they're real asspounders and can summon daemons. That's not fun.



We exit out into a lonely, quiet part of Shame with two hallways leading to a couple rooms. What's all this then?



Strange! The Altar Room of Courage. It's guarded by a pair of hydras which are easily dispatched.



Using the altar requires four stones, corresponding to courage. You always use the white stone (spirituality) in each altar, and you never use the black stone, so technically you only need seven stones until the very end of the game.

Doing this gives us the Key of Courage, part of the three part key needed in the Stygian Abyss.

I then enter the way I came and check out the other room.



Altar Room of Truth, huh?



That means I can get the next part of the key.

Now wait a minute. Shame is the dungeon associated with Honor. Honor is associated with Truth and Courage. I entered one altar room from the west, and another from the east. Where do the other exits go?



Like supposing I walk off here to the other side of the Altar Room of Truth?



Wait, what? Now I'm on L8 of dungeon Wrong! Wrong also espouses the principle of Truth. Could it be that every dungeon is connected with the altar rooms associated with the principles of the virtue it serves?

You betcha! The north exits lead to the dungeon which only embodies a single virtue (so Despise, Deceit, and Destard). The west and east exits connect between the dungeons associated with two principles (Wrong, Shame, and Covetous). So where does the south exit go? If the north is associated with one, and the east and west with two...



Then the south exit of all three altars leads to the dungeon associated with all three. Hythloth! In fact, thanks to the altar rooms, you can do every single dungeon in the game by just climbing down the ladder of Lord British's Castle into Hythloth and going between altar rooms as you collect the six stones. As long as you bring the white stone with you, you can get the three part key in a single dive.



I could go to Wrong or Covetous or something to get to the Altar Room of Love, but going through Hythloth is easier.



And that's the three part key. Now, what's the easiest way to get the hell out of here? I suppose X-it spelling from Despise is quicker but like an idiot I went back to Hythloth.



Hello old friend. The winds of fortune may yet lead us back to Lord British!



Well, you know, eventually. So we have the Bell, Book, and Candle, plus all eight runes, all eight stones, and the three part key. Plus we've got 8/8 Partial Avatarhood. I suppose that's everything, huh?



And so it's back to the Stygian Abyss. This time, I can actually enter. Standing on the center volcano and using the Bell, Book, and Candle, the entrance to the Stygian Abyss opens. At the bottom lies the Codex of Infinite Wisdom and the end of the game. If we can get there.