Ultima Underworld: Let Me Level with You (Part 2)

I obtain my first non-broken talisman.

        

I don't remember exactly where Zak is, but I do remember he's with the dwarves. I find him after a few minutes and offer to barter with him. He has one item labeled a "taper." It's not explicitly called the "Taper of Sacrifice," but I assume that's what it is and trade him five gold nuggets for it.

        

Back I go to Level 4. I return to the trolls and ask Lakshi about Lorne. He tells me that Lorne set up the ankh shrine in the next chamber. That's when I realize I already have the Writ of Lorne from my previous visit. I take it back to Dorna, who makes me a knight of the Order and gives me a plate helm. As my next quest, he asked me to retrieve a golden plate from the Maze of Silas.

        

He clearly didn't notice I was already wearing a plate helm.

           

Having already explored the perimeter of the level, I now start filling in the middle areas. Near the knights' outpost, an outcast named Oradinar talks to me about fishing, but I already have a rod and know how to fish, so it's mostly a waste of time. In a chamber I previously walked through in the dark, I find An and Jux runes, the former of which I didn't already have. I'm briefly happy that I can now make An Nox ("Cure Poison"), but then I realize I don't have Nox.

             

In a southeast chamber, I find a sack containing a mysterious note written to the troll Lakshi:

      

I am willing to discuss with you the possibility of your performing a small service for me, which in the end would be beneficial to ourselves and the Abyss as a whole. If you could have several of your subjects do some small favors for me, I would be indebted to you from quite some time.

        

The note isn't signed, but I wonder if it isn't from whoever sent the troll to kidnap Arial. Unfortunately, no keyword I can think of gets a reaction out of Lakshi.

        

Not all trolls are friendly.

       

Not far from the civilized troll area, I find a hostile, feral troll. I win the combat, but at the cost of more than half my vitality. In the next room there's another one, and he kills me. On a reload, I head back to the ankh shrine to spent my two slots on "Sword" and "Defense," angry that I still don't have the matra for "Lore." However, it occurs to me that I can cast Ort Wis Ylem ("Name Enchantment") to identify items. It works with the silver ring I found last time--it turns out to be a Ring of Leap--but the spell takes almost all of my mana.

I defeat the second troll this time. For some reason, he leaves two skulls when he dies. His chamber has a red potion and a wand. There's no consistency in the colors of potions in this game. Green might be health, mana, cure poison, poison, or levitate. I'm carrying about six of them. I really need to start identifying things faster.

I meet an outcast named Linnet, who was tossed in here for a murder, only he claims he's innocent: "I never struck him. I merely held him down whilst my brother kicked him. He should not have treated our sister as he did. And only a weak man could perish from such slight injuries." I have the option to point out that that still makes him a murderer, but I'm polite and he tells me that he heard Arial is going to be sacrificed on one of the lower levels.
           

Avatar, you're from the twentieth century. Enough with the "methinks" and "thou art."

          
What's particularly amusing is that Linnet has a note in his chambers:
      

I, Baron Almric, hereby condemn thee to the Abyss. At morn tomorrow, thou wilt be brouht to the entrance of the cave and released. If thou ever dost return, thou will be considered innocent. Until then, thou art guilty in the eyes of the land.

Do you maybe see a bit of a loophole in this verdict? First, it doesn't say he has to enter the Abyss. Second, even if he does, it doesn't say he hast to go to the bottom and back up or anything. He could just stand by the door and wait for Almric to open it again to throw in yet another prisoner.

There are lots of related issues. Are the goblins, trolls, lizardmen, dwarves, and knights actually trapped here? What if they all marched to the entrance and demanded to be let out? The question is left unanswered by both the material and the NPCs themselves.

Moving on, my Ring of Leap apparently allows for extra long and extra high jumps, so dropping off ledges is no longer inevitably irreversible. I use it to jump into an alcove high on the wall of one room, which leads to a long passage ending at a secret door, which opens to a small room with another An rune and a note saying "Finally, I can cast Curse! Now, to find a way out of this pit." The bones in the chamber suggest the author never did.
       

This is going to be handy.

      
In the center of the level, another grating looks into the "volcanic core," and this time there's the faintest glow at the bottom. I assume it will get brighter as I descend.
           

This would be a convenient waste-disposal method, if nothing else.

          
I clear more and more rooms around the center. In one, I find mushrooms, a full lantern, a book called Diary of a Seer Who Was Embarking on a Troll-Watching Journey, and a pouch with yet another An rune along with In and Quas runes. This level really wanted me to have An. There's a random gray lizardman in another chamber, but he's just a generic NPC and has nothing useful to say or trade.

A watery area takes me to an alcove with a locked chest. I bash at it for a few minutes and it bursts open, spilling a pile of 42 gold coins, a Grav stone, and a Corp stone, both of which I need. The coins I just leave there. I already have more than I can spend. A secret door off of this alcove leads to a room with a "serviceable" long sword, so I replace my short sword.
             

Oddly, my short sword was not damaged.

        
Before seeking the Chaos Knight, I explore an area to the east that requires me to drop off a ledge. I have to kill a skeleton at the base. The room consists of four columns, each activated by a switch on the wall, each elevating me higher in the room. The long jumps allowed by the Ring of Leap are necessary to get from column to column. At the top, I find a small niche with a gold chain and a wand.
          

This pole has really come in handy.

        
Finally, I head to the Chaos Knight's area. It's a large room swarming with mongbats, rats, slimes, and rotworms, all of which I kill. The room is strewn with piles of gold pieces, and since I find two down staircases nearby, I decide to add my own pile and finally alleviate some of my weight.
    

I don't think NPCs in this game are capable of picking up items.

            
Sir Rodrick is at the north end of the large chamber, past a bridge running overhead. He's accompanied by a wolf spider, but the spider is oddly tagged as "mellow" and never loses its cool, even when I'm fighting Rodrick.
    

Rodrick, learn from your pet.

          
"Ha! Another one has come to be defeated by the Chaos Knight!" Rodrick says. He's not bluffing. Even though I run out of the room and return only when I'm healed, he absolutely takes me apart. I die my fifth death in the game.
        

I really have to get around to planting that seed.

          
On a reload, I blast him with a "Fireball" scroll as soon as combat starts, then spend a lot of time running around the room, avoiding his attacks while blasting him with all of the wands that I've been collecting. He absorbs over a dozen "Magic Missiles" and "Lightning Bolts." When the last wand has cracked, I draw my long sword and face him in melee combat--and kill him with the first blow.
       

The aftermath.

         
Killing him puts me at Level 12. Finally. I gained 11 levels on the previous three dungeon levels, but this is my first level-up on Level 4. He drops some gold, a key, and a jeweled long sword, which frankly sounds worse than a regular long sword, but I suspect it's better and thus replace my regular one.

Beyond Rodrick are two doors, one east and one west. The eastern one leads to the "bullfrog puzzle," which as the knights promised, consists of two levers, each capable of 9 positions, and two buttons. These switches are situated next to a vast, empty floor ringed by water. High on the wall in the northeast is a corridor leading out of the chamber.

Some experimentation with the levers and buttons reveals the nature of the puzzle. If you think of the empty floor as a grid of squares, one lever controls the columns and one controls the rows. You set the levers and then hit the top button to raise the square at the intersection of the indicated column and row. You hit the lower button to lower the square.
             

I make a mess of the area figuring out how it works.

           
It takes me a while, but by raising the right combination, I create a ramp that will (in conjunction with my Ring of Leap--this must be why they call it the "bullfrog" puzzle) take me to the corridor. It simply leads to a stairway down, but I suspect this is an otherwise-inaccessible area of Level 5. I make a note to explore it later.

While I'm marking the map, I note what looks like a second corridor or alcove on the southeast side of the chamber. When I view it in the game itself, it just looks like a blank wall. But then earlier hints come to me: "there is more than meets the eye"; "the heights of the north have a hidden counterpart"; "to pass into the unseen, jump through the seen." Sure enough, after I reconfigure the platforms to try, I'm able to jump through an illusory wall to a chamber beyond, where I find a wand and another orb like the one on Level 2.
          

       
Looking into the orb shows me a second mysterious scene: a couple of mages in blue robes wandering around an empty stone chamber. I have no idea what these orbs are about.
        

Quest of the Avoyeurtar.

     
The western door from Rodrick's chamber leads to the Maze of Silas, which is pretty pathetic for a maze. It's basically just a crooked loop. Gold nuggets are strewn across the floor, and I collect them but later leave them in a pile. True to the clues received among the knights, there are multiple secret doors. One of them leads to a door with a silver switch on one side and a gold switch on the other: the Door of Precious Levers.
          

           
The headstones back in the Crux Ansata area held the answer to the door. I'm glad I took screenshots. The letters i on the two headstones are dotted with gold and silver dots, three on each stone, and in order they're silver-gold-gold-silver-silver-gold. I flip the levers and the door opens to the resting chamber of Sir Ingvar. Within is a headstone, his eulogy, and the "gold plate."
      

I confess I was expecting gold plate mail.

       
On the way back to Dorna Ironfist, I stop and see Biden, who's overjoyed that the Chaos Knight is dead and he can go home. Dorna gives me the Standard of Honor for defeating Rodrick.
      

Aren't you guys from Jhelom? Shouldn't you have the whatever of valor? Honor comes from the paladins of Trinsic.

         
For returning the gold plate, he opens the armory and tells me to take my pick of the weapons and armor within. I end this session paralyzed with indecision, as I only have a few pounds of carrying capacity to spare, and I'm surrounded by plate everything.
             

Do I really need this rune bag?

           
From my experience, I'm guessing that joining the knights is optional because you don't technically need those rewards. I suspect I could have killed them all and looted the Standard of Honor (if a bit perversely).  I have four potential ways down to Level 5.
          

The complete--or, at least, close to complete--Level 4.

         
Summary: Finished exploring Level 4. Defeated the Chaos Knight. Became a Knight of the Crux Ansata. Solved the bullfrog puzzle, the Maze of Silas, the Door of Precious Levers, and some other jumping puzzles. Ended up with two artifacts: The Taper of Sacrifice and the Standard of Honor. Still over-encumbered. On to Level 5.

Time so far: 16 hours