Part 44: Chapter 5, Part 9

Raven left us a note on the outside of the dungeon. Why didn't she help us? She only would have had to press 3 buttons.




After taking a few steps out of the dungeon, we are accosted!


: There you are, just as Tydus said you'd be! Now, return my dagger to me or I'll carve you into pieces and feed you to the wolves!
: Dagger? Sorry, but I don't have your dagger.
: You are a liar and a fool! Prepare to die!
: Look for yourself; I do not have your dagger.
: You speak the truth. I know this because the giant cone I wear on my face is a truth detector.
: I humbly apologize, my friend.
: I was told by Tydus that the man who stole my dagger would be traveling this way.
: I knew that most everyone in Moonglow could not be trusted, but Tydus as well? This is a sad day.
: Who is Tydus?
: He is a powerful mage who is the keeper of the Lycaeum. He has assumed control of the Lycaeum and will allow no one to consult the Oracle without paying a fee.
: You should be wary of this mage.
: Who are you?
: I am Duncan, a traveling fighter skilled in the art of swordplay.
: Why do you seek the dagger?
: The dagger is a treasured family heirloom, given to me by my father. I would be most appreciative if you would keep a lookout for it.
: I will search for your dagger, farewell.
: Wait, since I was so rash in my accusation, I would like to offer some recompense by way of advice: Beware of the deceit of the people in Moonglow.
: You saw how Tydus fooled me; don't let the same happen to you.


Quest Added: Trouble in Moonglow.








ooh, pretty.


On the way into the city we are approached by a disgusting little urchin!




: What is it, boy? [NOTE: The Avatar sounds exactly like he's talking to a dog when he says this]
: My father is being attacked by a band of murderous thieves!
: Where's your father?
: He's in our home in Moonglow.
: Please help us, mister. Please! I don't want my daddy to die!




Being the good Avatar and certainly not a murderer of prostitutes, we rush to his aid!




: Hey, you're the boy who told me his father was being attacked.
: He was being attacked, it's just that they took him somewhere else, really. He's um, at the healer's now, 'cause they didn't kill him.
: Really?
: Uh huh, really.
: Alright then, I've got to go. You behave yourself.

The Avatar is like 400 years old. Damn kids these days need to learn to respect their elders.




Before we get on with our quest, we have an errand to run in the Moonglow magic store.


SECRET DUNGEON ALERT



Inside the magic store are four globes.




Clicking on all four globes makes the center display turn into this elevator to hell.




The elevator to hell - or hellevator, if you prefer - takes us to this small storage room.

"Why would we want to go here?" you might ask. The answer will surprise you!




First we restock ourselves with healing potions.




Then we head over to the gargoyle statue on the wall. There's a very, very small target on the statue, right under where my cursor is. It's pretty much impossible to discover this hidden exit by accident. The only reason I did, back in the day, is because clicking on the statue played the 'activate' animation but it didn't do anything, so I kept clicking on it until something did. I used to be much more obsessive-compulsive.




After taking a few steps down the hallway, we are teleported back into the storage room and an armored orc appears ahead of us. These bastards are tough, and with the stun effect on the battleaxe it can very easily kill us before we get a chance to kill it.




The easiest way to kill it is to bash it with the warhammer and pray.




THIS HAPPENS TEN TIMES.




After that we are finally free to continue down the passageway.




The "dungeon" consists of a number of small, rectangular rooms. Some of the walls retract into the floor as we approach them. Some of them do not. The dungeon consists of 80 of these rooms arranged in a grid. It is absolutely fucking enormous and I have absolutely no way of remembering the correct route through all of the rooms (having navigated it with my epic sense of direction ), so instead I'll just post some highlights!




All of the models in Ultima 9 seem to use the same mesh heirarchy, meaning that changing the behavior of an object is simply a matter of changing what AI is attached to what model. This entire dungeon is full of nothing but pirates who have had their AI fucked with. This pirate, for instance, thinks he's a chicken.




This is a hummingbird pirate.




This pirate thinks he's a hellhound.




This room is full of butterfly pirates.




This pirate thinks he's an ettin!




There are some pirates dancing in the water tank here.




And this tiny, tiny pirate on the bar is apparently some sort of skeleton or something. We take the ribcage so it can't come back to life as a normal-sized skeleton.




Our reward for completing this secret dungeon is our third glass sword! This is great because there are only supposed to be three in the whole game, and we still have one more to find.


We can get back to the magic shop by going back through the maze, hitting the purple button and taking the elevator back up. Yay!