Serpent Isle: Armor Wars

Getting this screenshot was a lot more work than it should have been.

     

As this session begins, I decide to be oddly stubborn about getting Dupre's shield back from Luther. The problem, as I outlined last time, is that Luther will only relinquish the shield if I beat him in a duel, and he only duels on the List Field. You can choose to train or fight on the List Field, but if you "fight," you end up fighting everyone, whereas training is done one-on-one with your chosen opponent. Thus, to ensure I can win a fair fight against Luther, I have to have enough points to train. I decide to try to get these points by returning to the dungeon I found last time, partly because there's a chance it also has my spellbook. The book was replaced with a chunk of pumice, and several NPCs have indicated that pumice, a volcanic rock, probably comes from a dungeon called "Furnace." I don't know for sure that this dungeon near Monitor is Furnace, but it makes sense, as knights apparently often go questing there.

    

The trip is a partial success. I get some armor pieces to replace the ones I accidentally sold. We kill enough trolls for Dupre to level up, and we loot a ton more gems from their bodies. This time, some weird flaming dude attacks me with fireballs, but fortunately we're able to kill him before he does much damage. We find a magic axe in a pile of debris that I had missed last time. We even bring back a couple of pikemen's bodies for cremation. Renfry pays us 100 monetari each.

       

Renfry should be glad we're not evil, or he'd learn what the term "perverse incentive" means.

       

It's a failure in that we don't figure out how to open the locked grate or the locked door (behind which I can see a serpent staff) or figure out how to lower the drawbridge. Or find the spellbook. 

   

Combat has the same problems as The Black Gate: It's a complete mess in which it's nearly impossible to figure out what anyone is doing. Luck plays a huge role. The Avatar does nothing if an enemy isn't right next to him. Other companions vacillate between doing nothing and charging off-screen after distant enemies you haven't even seen yet, sometimes on the other sides of walls. Adjusting party "tactics" doesn't seem to have any effect. Enemies respawn as quickly as it takes to leave a screen and return. The only thing I haven't been able to assess is whether "friendly fire" is as big a problem as in the previous game.

        

Different combat strategies produce very little difference in results.

     

The next day, we arrive early at the List Field. I take a save, then send Dupre to train with Luther. He defeats Luther in about three blows. But Luther just says he's impressed and nothing else. Maybe training with him isn't enough. We waste most of a day trying to catch Luther off the field. He doesn't leave until late afternoon, and when he does, we can't find him in the training hall, sculptor's shop, or tavern. We have to resort to finding him in his house at night again. When we do, he has no new dialogue, continues to insist the shield is his, and continues to invite us to challenge him on the List Field.

   

Fed up with this part of the quest, we sleep for the night in our inn (Simon's body remains in the lobby, just as Lydia's did in her shop) and then head for the goblin encampment. The stairway behind the dead tree leads to a small dungeon with three goblins guarding a locked iron door. We dispatch the goblins and unlock the door with Simon's key. 

       

You'd think the guards would be on the other side.

     

Beyond the door is a large, multi-level dungeon, which I find surprising because I don't believe any of the dungeons in The Black Gate were multi-level (despite plenty of them in previous Ultimas). A little Googling confirms what I already suspected based on previous remarks from commenters: Both The Black Gate and Serpent Isle exist entirely on one "plane." In Gate, because you can explore the entire plane by ship and magic carpet, all dungeons had to be hidden within mountain ranges, constrained by those ranges' sizes and shapes. Stairs, in the rare places they exist, are illusory, simply moving you laterally to graphics that appear to be higher than the surrounding base, but never have anything underneath them.

   

Serpent Isle also exists on a single plane, but here you have no way of exploring the entire overworld. The magic carpet is back in Britannia, and for plot reasons, there are no ships on the sea. Thus, the developers could use the edges and corners of the world for whatever they want, including multiple levels per dungeon and levels that don't really fit within the constraints of the mountain ranges. When you go up and down stairways in dungeons, you're functionally just teleporting to other parts of the same plane. If you could see a true map of the Serpent Isle, you would find it crammed with dungeon levels and alternate instances of key overworld locations, all of them just slightly out of view of the Serpent Isle's coasts.

   

These goblins could use a housekeeper.

    

Getting back to the goblin dungeon specifically, it takes us a few visits to get through it. I wonder if the developers intended players to do some other things, or at least find a spellbook, before tackling this part of the game. There are fire, sleep, and poison fields throughout the dungeon that we must walk through as we have no means of dispelling them. I die twice, both times resurrected (by the monks) in Harnna's cornfield back in Monitor. Features of the dungeon include:

   

• An area full of headless, who often carry gold nuggets.

• A barrel full of potions.

• A room with five casks of liquor behind a magically-locked door. I can't get through the door but I don't particularly need to get at the goblin brew anyway.

       

The goblins magically-lock this but not their treasure room.

        

• A cavern with an enormous game board of 49 squares. It is reminiscent of Knight's Bridge in Britannia (see this entry), but with some key differences. It has the same number of squares as Knight's Bridge, but without the "roped off" squares on both sides. Where Knight's Bridge had a chest in the center that you had to dribble around, this one has an immobile pedestal in the center with a firedoom staff on it. Like Knight's Bridge, the game seems to involve human knights against gargoyles, but Knight's Bridge had interchangeable pieces that the player could move, while this board has pieces in different poses--plus one that looks like Lord British--and they won't be budged. A number of stone harpies stand on the board and come to life and attack when we approach. There's also a crazed mage in the room who tosses fireballs at us. A sign on the wall says, "DO NOT DISTURB GAMEMASTERS." Very weird. The stone harpies were responsible for one of my deaths, and the firedoom staff was responsible for the other when I actually tried to use it in combat. Has anyone actually successfully used the firedoom staff?

      

And wasn't the firedoom staff red in the previous game?

     

• A stairway leading down to a pool of water. Some headless lurk on the shores. A sign reads, "BEWARE OF WATER CREATURES," but there are none in this room. 

• A second, larger, "pool" room, with five monoliths erected around a fountain. Anywhere from one to four tentacles erupt every time the party enters this room. The fountain heals, though, so it's a great place to grind.

       

A rare instance of a Wilhelm Scream in text format.

      

• A cavern containing a destroyed stone building with a checkerboard floor. A statue of a lich (or just an immobile lich?) shoots fireballs continually to the south. A fire wand rests on a pedestal. Mongbats patrol the southern part of the chamber. I can't find any way to stop the flow of fireballs or "kill" the lich.

     

What was this ever for?

     

• A chest with four poison potions that explodes when we open it.

• A room full of treasure that we have no way to access. The door won't respond to our blows or to picks.

      

The dungeon finally disgorges us in a seaside enclave with about a dozen huts. There's a well and a trio of campfires in the center. The area is swarming with goblins, of course, both male and female. Their disheveled huts show repeated signs of human butchery, including corpses, heads, limbs, and buckets of blood. The body of a female knight has a Sword of Defense; I wonder if this is Astrid.

     

You read my mind, Dupre.

    

We make our way slowly through them, killing goblins and collecting loot and food. The largest hut, with several furnishings (though still a dirt floor), belongs to Pomdirgun, the goblin king. We catch him sleeping, though he soon wakes up. After a couple of blows, he wants to talk. He presents his case simply: Serpent Isle (or at least this part) used to belong to the goblins; then men came and started killing goblins; one day, the goblins will kill all the men and reclaim their land. Their cause would be more sympathetic without all the butchery. Pomdirgun loses interest in talking after a few dialogue options. Some goblins rush in behind us. We're victorious in the subsequent battle, with no deaths, which surprises me. Pomdirgun drops a key and another magic axe. A chest in his hut has a pile of monetari, a pile of filari, and a couple of gems.

      

I love how in this game, there's no ambiguity that the goblins just need to be killed.

      

More important, a crate has a second key and 23 burst arrows. I'm going to assume these are Shamino's and the hairbrush we found belongs to Pomdirgun.

   

A crate in another hut contains, oddly, a Fellowship medallion. Yet another hut has a locked door with a pikeman on the other side. We free him, and he introduces himself as Johnson, probably the same Johnson who wrote Fighting is an Art.

     

Although he doesn't seem quite as brave as he claimed he was in the book.

      

Back in the dungeon, we use the goblin king's key to open the locked door. The room is full of liquor, gems, jewelry, and money. There are 15 guilders, 28 monetari, 10 gems, and several pieces of jewelry. I wonder why Pomdirgun is hoarding money used by each of the cities on the continent. There's a gold sextant, which I swap for my regular sextant, though I don't see how it's any better.

        

The goblin hoard.

    

Most important, the Helm of Courage sits on a table with two pieces of paper nearby. After settling the helm on my own head, I take a look at the papers. One of them is a scroll signed by Marsten, the leader of Monitor, though he stylizes himself as "king" in the signature line. He outlines his plans to send the Bears on a patrol near Bull Tower, then withdraw his forces from the tower, allowing the goblins to both destroy the patrol and sack the Sleeping Bull. In the letter, he describes his "enemies" as the Wolves and the Bears. The second letter is an older one, giving the goblins the information they needed to destroy the patrol near Fawn Tower and capture Astrid. It's signed by Spektor. Marsten and Spektor clearly decided at some point that the other factions in Monitor were somehow worse than the goblins. 

       

The Guardian should teach Marsten how to do the giant-talking-head-scroll thing.

     

We head back to town, where Marsten and Spektor have some 'splainin to do. We talk to a few people as we pass, but no one seems to recognize that I'm wearing the Helm of Monitor. We find Marsten and Spektor in Town Hall. Marsten has no new dialogue options, but we can tell Spektor we know he's a traitor, and we do. He shouts that he can defend himself, but then doesn't attack. Sighing, we head off to find Brendann, the leader of our command, to see if he's interested. 

       

"I just won't!"

       

Fortunately, that works. He's surprised that the traitor isn't Luther, but he vows to have Marsten and Spektor arrested. He also names me Champion Knight. He says that Bull Tower will need to be warned; I have no option to tell him that the goblin king is dead. After the conversation, he shouts, "Pikemen!" and three pikemen appear, but there's no more to the conversation. They act quickly, though: by the time we reach the jail, Marsten and Spektor are already in separate cells.

      

Oh, $$@#%. As you'll see, by the end of this session, I had completely forgotten about this.

    

Marsten gives the expected explanation: he needed to weaken the Wolves and Bears so the Leopards could rule the city--and somehow thereafter deal with the goblins despite the reduction in population. He says he had a "secret weapon" to defend the city, a "substance," but I'll never find it. I suspect he means blackrock. Spektor defends himself with the same logic, but adds that Cantra's father "stumbled into our secret cave, so he had to be killed." He adds that the secret weapon is "explosive." 

        

There is absolutely no analogue to this in contemporary politics.

        

We've done a great job depopulating Monitor. I'm beginning to wonder if there's anyone in town who isn't a traitor of some kind. 

   

The goblin expedition leveled up the Avatar and Dupre by one and Shamino and Iolo by two. Time to get Dupre's damned shield back. The next morning, I head to the List Field, where I have the Avatar ask to train with Luther. Fortunately, I defeat him. Luther acknowledges his defeat humbly: "Thou art a better man than I am." Unlike last time, I find him almost right away in Andral's studio--except that he won't talk to me while he's having his statue created.

        

I'm a little insulted.

     

I run around the rest of the town to see if anyone has a reaction to recent events. I have no idea who's in charge now. Both Brendann and Caladin hang around Town Hall during the day, but neither has assumed the role of money-changer, so I guess I'm screwed in that regard until I visit one of the other towns.

   

Lucilla in the tavern is the only one with any important dialogue. She says that Spektor gave her a key for safekeeping. I assume it opens the door to the "secret cave" he mentioned. At first, I assume it's the locked door in the dungeon I've already explored, but it doesn't work. I next go through the crypts, looking for secret doors. I don't find any, but I do see the slightest bit of a corridor south of the crypts that seems inaccessible from them. Exploring the mountain range to the south, I find a hidden door in the right location (accessible from within the town) that leads to a locked door.

     

I still don't see how you can have an illusory wall in a mountain.

     

We open the door with the key, enter the caverns beyond, and find 10 powder kegs, four locked chests, and the corpse of a pikeman. It's Cantra's father, as evidenced by a note on his body. The chests (which open with the same key) each have coins and gems, which I leave in place for now, maybe permanently. I mean, Spektor embezzled it from the treasury; it's not mine. So the substance that Marsten mentioned wasn't blackrock; it was just regular gunpowder. We've had that for hundreds of years in Britannia.

   

Back in town, I catch up with Luther in the training hall. "Now that thou hast bested me on the field of battle," he says, "I am thy friend." As my friend, he happily (and finally!) turns over Dupre's Shield, reclaiming his own. Well, technically, he reclaims a different Shield of Monitor that was in Iolo's pack, but I guess they're all interchangeable.

      

He's certainly changed his tune.

      

The last order of business is to notify Harnna about the fate of her husband. She's grateful but doesn't ask us to do anything special. I take his body to the crematorium for the usual 100 monetari reward.

     

He's right over there!

     

Miscellaneous notes:

   

• Double-clicking on cows causes all the companions to shout, "Moo!"

        

Grow up, Shamino.

     

• One exception to enemy respawning: at one point, I cleaned the goblins out of Fawn Tower, and when I returned, a pikeman was patrolling the location.

• Lightning continues to strike randomly, occasionally damaging the party, occasionally dropping random objects.

    

Wouldn't it be nice if all lightning strikes left bouquets of flowers behind?

   

• In the forest, I found a lot of money and a serpent crown stuffed in the hollow of a tree.

      

Geocaching!

     

• My companions keep unequipping their weapons, usually when I sleep, but often in the middle of the day. I have no idea how to stop this.

     

And speaking of equipment, let's do a quick equipment check:

    

• Gideon, the Avatar, has a Sword of Defense, chain armor, Helm of Monitor, magic shield, magic leggings, magic boots, gauntlets, and a Gwani cloak.

• Dupre has a magic axe, chain armor, chain helm, Dupre's Shield, chain leggings, chain boots, chain gauntlets, and my wolf cloak.

• Shamino has a magic axe, leather armor, chain helm, Shield of Monitor, chain leggings, and leather boots.

• Iolo has a bow, leather armor, leather helm, chain leggings, and leather boots. He'll run out of arrows eventually, so he has a crossbow and bolts in his pack. When he runs out of those, he also has a Shield of Monitor and a regular morningstar in his pack.

    

There's a book somewhere that gives weapon statistics--at least, I saw one in The Black Gate. I don't remember the values. I know that eventually I'm going to have to figure out the best weapons from a lot of potential possibilities.

     

I think I'm done with Monitor for now. It's time to explore avenues and new adventures on the Serpent Isle.
   
Time so far: 10 hours

 

 

*****

 

Lost equipment status:

 

• My spellbook was replaced with a chunk of pumice. Harnna thinks Krayg might know more about it. Krayg says such stones come from the center of the Earth, and Standarr often goes deep on his Quests of Courage. Standarr mentions a dungeon called Furnace.
  
• My Black Sword was replaced with a ruddy rock.
  
• My glass sword was replaced with a pinecone. Pine trees are found in the great forest to the north, according to Harnna.
  
• The blackrock serpent was replaced by a pair of fine stockings.
• A hunk of mutton was replaced by a bottle of ice wine. Harnna suggests that I run it by Simon at the inn. Simon says it's probably made by the rangers of Moonshade.
  
• A leg of meat was replaced by 83 filari, a currency from one of the cities. Shamino's note oddly doesn't mention the money. This is the only trade in which I came out ahead.
  
• Rudyom's Wand was replaced by a strange apparatus. Harnna doesn't know what to make of it but thinks that it may have something to do with Fawn's statuary or Moonshade's magic.
  
• My magic armor was replaced by an enameled breast plate, "suitable for ceremonial occasions." Harnna says I should ask Standarr the armourer about it. Standarr says that he made it for Kylista, priestess of Fawn.
  
• My magic helm was replaced by a woman's fur cap. Shamino's note says it's "ridiculous." I think it's very practical and not obviously a woman's at all. Harnna thinks it might be the work of Cellia the Furrier. Cellia recognizes it and says she created it for a mage in Moonshade named Frigidazzi.
• My magic gauntlets were replaced by a ring. Shamino's note says that it's a "finely crafted ring, of silver, of a size to fit a small woman or child." I don't know what to make of the Avatar wearing it, then. Harnna points us to Lucilla, who is "interested in baubles and trinkets," but Lucilla only offers that it might be a marriage or engagement ring.
  
• Dupre's Magebane has been replaced by a blue egg. Based on the thickness of the shell, Harnna thinks it probably comes from a bird that lives up north.
  
• Dupre's Shield has been replaced by a Shield of Monitor. Harnna mentions that it could belong to anyone, and I should inquire around and see if anyone is missing a shield. Later, I hear that Luther has a new magic shield.
  
• Shamino's 24 burst arrows were replaced with an odd hairbrush. "Crude," according to Shamino. Harnna has an odd reaction to it and says I should ask Templar about it. Templar says that it's a goblin hairbrush, made from the bones of their victims. Found in a goblin hut.
  
• Shamino's dagger was replaced with a severed limb. The note clarifies that it's a "bloody hand." Harnna suggests we check with Renfry to see if he's encountered a body missing a hand. Renfry doesn't know where it came from, but he deduces that it's "not dead," so some kind of magic is involved.
  
• Shamino's swamp boots were replaced with a pair of slippers, "such as might be worn in the privacy of one's home." Harnna doesn't believe they belong to anyone in Monitor and suggests I check with Krayg the Provisioner. Krayg says the closest place where someone might wear these is Sleeping Bull.
  
• Shamino's magic bow was replaced with a bear skull Found in the opening minutes.
• Iolo's crossbow has been replaced with an urn with ashes. Harnna confirms what I already know: it's a funeral urn, and Caladin's grandfather's urn is missing. Found in the Monitor crypts.
  
• Five torches Iolo was carrying in his pack have been replaced by a pumpkin. Iolo's list doesn't mention this substitution, and all the others have been one-for-one.

 

Game 486: Antepenult (1989)

 

Then I guess I'm not going to send your shareware fee.

        

Antepenult

United States

Independently developed; published as shareware

Released 1989 for Amiga
Date Started: 18 February 2023

     

Ultima clones get a bad rap sometimes, but the problem is that they clone the wrong Ultima. Ultima and Ultima II were innovative for their years, but they were utterly outdone by their sequels--to the point that I wouldn't play either today except as historical curios. Unfortunately, legions of developers have effectively forced me to play those games by making generic iconographic games with one-line NPC dialogues and one-command combat systems.

  

Antepenult is an Ultima clone--in fact, it's what my glossary calls a "Ztats Clone"; that is, an Ultima clone so clone-y that it even includes the Z)tats command. But it's paradoxically refreshing in that it clones Ultima IV (and a little of V) rather than the more simplistic earlier titles. This includes keyword-based dialogue, a developing backstory learned from NPCs, and the ability to target enemies in combat. I found its opening hours much more engaging than the typical clone.

    

The game, designed by Paul Falstad, makes no effort to hide its roots. Its README file includes "apologies to Lord British." Of course, the very title pokes fun at its inspiration. ("Antepenultimate" means "third from best" or "third from last." I wonder what title Falstad thinks deserves the designation of "penultimate.") The tiles, NPC icons, and monster icons look mostly identical. The phases of two moons are shown above the exploration window. There's a line-of-sight-based fog of war. Not only does the keyboard interface include a Z)tats command, but it also includes B)oard (a ship or horse), P)eer (at a gem), and Q)uit and Save. It has the same three character attributes: strength, dexterity, and intelligence. The king who sets you off on the quest, Lord Hypnos, is an in-game avatar of Falstad himself, as HYPNOS was his handle on several online service providers. Hypnos's castle even includes a jester named Chuckles.

         

Of all the things to adapt . . .

     

There are losses that ultimately make Antepenult, as its name suggests, rank lower than Ultima IV. There's only one character and apparently no magic system. Inventory is stripped down, and even if it turns out that the game has dungeons, I don't think they'll use a first-person interface. There's no sound. But it also has some elements of originality that I enjoyed. These include:

   

• Graphics aren't necessarily just blocky tiles. The author uses diagonals and curves to more organically depict transitions in terrain. I want to say the only time that Ultima IV or V did this was with the barriers set up by the three Shadowlords that you have to dispel. My memory of these is so strong that when I encountered a curved white wall in Antepenult, I immediately assumed there was something evil about it.

• Antepenult has combat occur on the same screen as exploration, but it still offers the ability to target a chosen enemy and to fight more than one enemy at once.

• The author designed some clever dissolve/wipes when you transition between maps (e.g., from the overworld to a city). 

• Antepenult draws its character and place names from the ancient world, primarily cities and locations in Greece and Anatolia, plus some references to biblical mythology.

      

The game begins with no creation, and the documentation that comes with it doesn't give you any kind of backstory. You slowly learn that you're in the land of Havilah (from a land mentioned in Genesis). The unnamed character starts with 500 hit points, 400 gold, 999 food, 25 each of the three attributes, and no weapons, armor, keys, torches, or sextants. He starts outside what turns out to be Castle Chryse (several figures or places in ancient Greece).

      

My first conversation.

       

I enter Chryse and started poking around and talking to NPCs. NPC dialogue uses the same basic approach as Ultima IV. You get a visual description of each NPC as you initiate dialogue, and all of them respond to NAME, HEALTH, and JOB. Their responses to those prompts lead to further dialogue. One key difference is that Antepenult considers the entire word, not just the first four letters, so for instance DARKNESS produces a different answer than DARK. Where you are in the conversation also seems to matter. Sometimes, NPCs won't respond to the same keyword that they responded to a few lines ago. That makes things a bit more difficult. 

    

Guards (who all have the same dialogue and respond "just a guard" when asked their names) direct me to Lord Hypnos's throne room, which requires going through a garden and up a ladder. You'd think the throne room would be more accessible. Hypnos is surrounded by guards, his throne at the west end of a hall. To get to him, you have to cross a bridge that goes through lava or fire.

      

In dialogue, he relates that he used to share power with his brother, Lord Sylvan, who ruled the west country from his Castle Pergamum. But something destroyed the castle and plunged that part of the land into darkness. The nearby forest is overrun with monsters; the town of Megara has become a den of thieves; and the town of Argolis is in ruins.

     

"We"? I don't rule anything.

     

Hypnos charges me with finding out what happened to Pergamum and with discovering the source of the darkness. He says I should start by going to Laodicea to the north and west. He encourages me to get a horse and use the road, even though it's longer, as the forest is unsafe.

     

Chryse has a stable, a healer, and a few other features:

    

• There's a zoo on the second floor with a number of monsters in walled cages. A guard identifies them as dragons, zorns, serpents, gazers, reapers, sea beasts, liches, and hydras. A druid named Pekah suggests there might be a way into the cages, but he doesn't know what it is.

      

I hope the zookeepers are the highest paid positions in the kingdom.

       

• There's a dock, ship, and lake somehow contained on the upper floor of the castle. Boarding the ship lets me sail to the far corner of the lake, where I find a daemon. He identifies himself as Diogmos. "In the Gehennen Bathos shall I surely kill thee!" he shrieks. "Follow the river Acheron!" He then does 56 points of damage to me and disappears. 

       

This is quite a feat of engineering.

     

• The same thing happens in the northwest corner of the castle, which has a demon named Sphage in a room marked by the Greek letters chi, theta, omega, and . . . I don't know if it's supposed to be nu or pi. I have no idea how this would be pronounced. In any event, the demon tells me he'll kill me in the Gehennan Bathos, "west of the great lake," swats me, and disappears.

     

Why not just kill me now?

       

• A third room has a demon on the other side of what looks like a lump of ice. I can't get to him.

• A sailor named Tmoles tells me I should ask a prisoner named Nabal about a sextant, which you need for the L)ocate command. 

• A handful of NPCs hanging around a "MESS HALL" do not respond to T)alk. These are the only NPCs in the game so far of which this is true. 

• A cook named Cookie tends a huge fire in the kitchen. I force myself to walk through the fire to search the far corner, as Ultima IV probably would have hidden something there. This game did not.

      

Damn. Someone already found that rune.

      

It costs only 30 gold to buy a horse on the first floor. I head out looking for weapons and armor, as I didn't find either in the castle. I find both in the nearby town of Larissa. I buy a mace for 200 gold and then realize I don't have enough for any armor; the armor shop only sells cloth for 200 and leather for 600.

   

The game occasionally throws in a "thee" or "thy" but isn't as serious about it as Ultima.

     

A fighter named Capys suggests that I "try the meeting room" if I'm on a quest. I can't find such a place, but there are a couple of locked doors, and I haven't found any keys yet. A paladin named Polydeuces asks if I fight for Havilah. A fighter named Pyrasos says they sell axes in Megara. There's a pub, and I find that if I tip the bartender enough, I can feed him keywords, but he doesn't respond to anything I can think to ask.

   

I leave town and start following the road to Laodicea, but I'm ready for combat, so I ignore the king's advice to stay out of the forest. Before long, I'm attacked by a couple of spiders. When you attack an enemy, you can target anyone on screen (with missile weapons if they're more than a square away). Each enemy icon might have multiple enemies beneath it. Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of tactics, partly because there isn't any magic. When enemies die, they leave a chest behind that you can G)et. There's a chance of a trap, and if there is, there's a chance of evading it.

       

One spider has left a chest. I target the second group.

      

In this first session, I faced giant spiders, insects, sea horses, ghosts, and bats. All of them drop chests except for the aquatic creatures. All give experience when you kill them, and before long, I was up to Level 3. Leveling increases your attributes by around 5 points each (my strength and dexterity are now at 35, but for some reason my intelligence is at 37) and your maximum hit points by 100.

   

I reach Laodicea. It has a food shop, an inn, a pub, a weapon shop, and an armor shop, but multiple NPCs alert me that you can't fully explore the city without renting a ship. This costs only 10 gold pieces. (The ships you rent lack cannons, so you can't turn them on the townsfolk.) I sail around the city's outer moat and access a few hidden places, including a room marked with Greek letters full of mage and cleric NPCs.

         

Technically, "ships."

     

Through a variety of conversations, I learn that the evil that destroyed Pergamum is a daemon. It can be defeated with a gold dagger. This little group of NPCs is part of a secret cabal called "Ikhthys" that seeks to end the daemon's evil. There's a second group somewhere else; I should ask someone named Saul about that. A cleric named Athanasius argues with me about whether the world is flat or round. I suppose I don't really know in this setting.

       

Just as long as we agree that it's not a torus.

     

Elsewhere, there's a jail with locked cells. On an island, a thief named Pheres attacks me when I talk with him. I kill him, but this is apparently the wrong thing to do, as it incurs the wrath of the guards, and I'm forced to reload.

    

After some grinding, I'm able to buy some cloth armor, but my real concern now is food. I have less than half of the original amount, and it depletes at a rate of 1 per 4 moves. Food sells at a rate of 1 food for 1 gold piece. I get about 15 gold from the average combat, and it takes me close to 60 moves to find the average combat; enemies are not very plentiful. I'm going to have to find some place with more lucrative pickings.

   

I'm debating whether I'm going to try to map the overworld. I always hate having to do that in top-down games, and it will be particularly hard here because the non-blockiness of the graphics makes it tough to tell where the coastal tiles end. Still, it's probably better than being paranoid that I'll miss something.

      

Some miscellaneous notes:

    

• Sometimes, there are multiple characters of the same name. There are actually two jesters named Chuckles in the Castle Chryse foyer, and in the city of Laodicea, I found a bard named Dymas entertaining three children, all named Cythera.

• The interface doesn't make use of H, J, K, M, N, or V. Instead of just having the game say the equivalent of "Huh?" when you press them, Falstad programmed dummy commands: H)arvest, J)udge, K)ibitz, M)aterialize, N)ag, and V)erbenate, all of which produce silly messages.

      

Because some of you like silly messages.

     

• If you stand still without doing anything, the moons continue to change phases, but enemies don't move and your food does not deplete.

• The game warns you not to try to find secret doors by bashing into walls. I assume this is because bashing into walls freezes the interface for about 10 seconds. I don't know if there are any other secret doors or mechanisms to find them.

• Hit points regenerate over time, one every eight turns.

• The game is exposing my ignorance of various alphabets. Either the game is mixing Greek and Cyrillic or there are ways of writing Greek letters that I didn't know about.

       

How do you interpret this?

       

• The game lets you ride your horse inside the castle and towns, but you can't go through doors with it. You can't X)it it inside, so it's best to leave it outside.

• There are a lot of treasure chests in some of the towns. I don't know whether these are just for show or whether there's a way to reach them. If so, it must involve secret doors somehow. 

       

This may be an Ultima clone, but I'm no avatar.

          

I made contact with Paul Falstad after I'd written most of this entry. He clarified the release year as 1989. He put "not" before "© 1989" on the title screen not because it wasn't 1989 but because he didn't feel comfortable "copyrighting" it after taking so much from Ultima, thematically and graphically. He released it by uploading it to GEnie and perhaps PeopleLink. An update followed in the early 1990s that fixed some bugs.

    

It's fortunate that I reached him, because apparently the unregistered version of the game is more difficult than the registered version. He still had the generator that took the serial number shown on the title screen and turned it into an unlock code that I could enter in the game. 

   

Thanks to commenter mpx for first alerting me to this game (in 2016!) and commenter Busca for helping me find some information about it.

       

Time so far: 2 hours

Serpent Isle: Love and Lightning

 

Best not to study those pixels too carefully.

         

As I covered at the end of my last entry, there seems to be no avoiding a resurrection and discussion with Karnak, as reloading will just put me in the same situation again: almost dead, with no way to heal. Karnak apologizes for our previous meeting but says Thoxa overstepped by giving me the Hourglass of Fate. He tells me more about Xenka's visions, which referred to the prophesied hero as "from another world"; he becomes excited when I confess I'm not from Sosaria. He tells me that Miggim, the librarian, found a forgotten chest that contained an amulet and a scroll identifying it as the Amulet of Balance. He gives it to me, suggesting that I try using it near a serpent gate. After a few more words, he sends me back to the gates of Fawn, hit points restored.

     

"Let's name ourselves after her!"

          

At first, it appears I'm no longer poisoned, but pretty soon I'm green again and Shamino is telling me I look terrible. We enter the city to look for Delphynia. I'm not interested in doing a full exploration yet, so we bypass anything that doesn't look like a greenhouse. Fawn seems to be built on top of the water, with bridges connecting artificial islands. I circle the entire town, and the only thing I can find anything like a "greenhouse" is the Royal Gardens, but no one is there.

      

You're about to be struck by some terrible fist.

       

I sleep in the owner's bed until she shows up. Fortunately, it turns out to be Delphynia. She is grateful to receive Ruggs's letter, but torn because everything she has been taught tells her that physical ugliness is a sign of internal evil. She may be right in this case: It turns out that Ruggs is a member of the Fellowship. He came to town with Batlin preaching their philosophy. Delphynia fell for him and thinks she's to blame for the storms. Nonetheless, she gives me a letter to bring back to him. She also, thankfully, gives me the Varo leaves without requiring some side quest or something.

        

More like, "Before I kill Shamino."

      

It's 04:21 as we leave Fawn to head back to Monitor. As we approach the bridge, Dupre remarks that it's blocked, but it's not, so I don't know what he's talking about. To avoid the goblins south of town, we cut east across the open plain to the main road, then follow it south to Monitor. We go to Harnna's house immediately. She's asleep, but we bustle about until she wakes up. With the Varo leaves, she heals the poison.

  

She also has some insight into our lost items--or, rather, the new items that replaced them. I've appended them to the "lost and found" list below. I get these comments over several conversations, as Harnna likes to cut things off after a couple of topics. Some of her answers point us to other townsfolk. 

      

      

We get my new wolf cloak from Cellia, then head outside to pass the time until nightfall and the victory banquet. We explore east of the city and almost immediately find a cave heading into the mountains. It leads to a cave with several trolls, which we kill with little problem. Their bodies yield gold, gems, and a few useful items like leather helmets and gloves. The tunnel opens into a large area with a bridge crossing a pool of lava. My companions start complaining about the heat. We come to a chamber with several corpses with nothing on them. In an adjacent room, we find two warriors who immediately start demanding water. Before we can do anything, they attack us and we're forced to kill them. Between their floor and bodies, we find several pelts, items of food, and armor upgrades.

       

Sporting my fancy new cloak.

    

We find a fiery room with a drawbridge, but the bridge is up on the other side. Another bridge is down, but on the other side, we just find a locked gate. There's also a locked metal door in a room full of trolls.

       

This is more than I intended to take on right now.

   

By the time we get out of the caves, our pockets are bursting with gems, and it's quite late. We head directly for the banquet hall. For some reason, Dupre and Shamino stay outside as the banquet begins. I wonder why neither of them were interested in taking the Knight's Test, in addition to or instead of me.

   

Lord Marsten welcomes us to the banquet, and both Caladin and Brendannn, as the heads of their orders, make little speeches. During the meal, Flicken asks what part of the test I found most difficult. Between the options--gremlins, explosions, cyclopes, and "the invisible man"--I guess I found the cyclopes the most difficult. I answer such, but during the subsequent conversation, I end up telling the knights about all of the elements I experienced. They react with a mixture of disbelief and horror, explaining that the test isn't supposed to have any of these elements. This makes me wonder how the normal test runs. The candidate just unlocks some doors, stacks some rocks, and heads for the exit? Anyway, Marsten vows to speak with Shmed, giving me no option to relate that I've already killed him.

       

Uh . . . yeah. About Shmed . . .

      

Harnna suddenly bursts in, saying that Cantra is missing. Most of the knights think that the goblins must have taken her. Harnna insists otherwise but offers no evidence. If that isn't enough, Templar--the only survivor of the goblin attack in which Astrid was killed and the Helm of Monitor lost--declares that his patrol was betrayed and there's a traitor in town. An argument erupts, with Spektor insisting that there's no traitor, Luther accusing Krayg, Shazanna defending Krayg, and Luther and Shazanna trading blows with weapons before Marsten ends the banquet and asks me to speak to Harnna. We fill our packs with food and leave.

     

No point letting this go to waste.

   

I head over to Harnna's place. She asks if I believe in magic, to which I of course say yes, and she tells me to look inside her crystal ball. I do. The image shows Batlin and Cantra in a richly-furnished room in some kind of castle. Batlin is chasing her around the room while she shouts, "Leave me alone! I am but a little girl." But Batlin replies: "I know what thou art, Bane of Chaos. That body is but a shell that thou dost wear." The two of them exchange spells--fire, poison, lightning. The image fades. 

         

Batlin has become unhinged.

    

"As thou hast now seen," Harnna says, "the peril that faces Cantra doth go beyond merely taken by the Goblins. Some foul thing doth possess her." She implores us to rescue her, saying that the other knights think she's already dead at the hands of goblins. Of course, we say we'll do it. She gives us Cantra's practice sword and says we should find one of the legendary Hounds of Doskar. She has also seen a vision that we'll need the Helm of Monitor to complete the quest.

   

We knock off for the night. The next day, Marsten finally gives me the key to set Iolo free. The first thing Iolo tells us is that half his items have been replaced with new ones. He adds to Shamino's list, and I add to the list below.

    

You were perfectly capable of spellcasting when I met you.

  

We make another round of the NPCs in town, asking about the items on the list and any other new dialogue options. Some highlights:

    

• Renfry, the operator of the crematorium, will pay for the bodies of pikemen returned to the city. There were a bunch in those caves. We bring him Lydia's body, which no one has cleared from her house, but apparently that doesn't count.

• Cellia the Furrier tells me that the most valuable pelts are from fierce creatures called Gwanis who live far to the north. Goblin chiefs often wear these cloaks to demonstrate their prowess. Cellia won't buy pelts from us, so I've been hauling around the ones I found in the caves for no reason.

      

Don't interrupt Cellia in her work.

     

• Krayg says he's not the only one who likes to take long walks in the woods; he's seen someone else, but never clearly. He says the goblins gather in the "midst of the great cypress woods north of the Knight's Test," and I might find some evidence there about the traitor. I sell him my excess leather goods, and I end up selling him items right off the bodies of my companions, as there's no way when selling to differentiate items you're wearing from items in your pack.

• Standarr tells me that knights frequently go on Quests of Courage, usually to slay goblins, but sometimes to explore a dungeon called Furnace. A knight named Pendar is missing after heading there. I wonder if that's the dungeon I explored.

• Andral is working on a statue of Luther, who yells at me for trying to talk to him while he's posing.

• Brendann, the captain of my command, asks me to follow up on Krayg's clues about the goblin meeting place and the other person in the forest. (He thinks Krayg is innocent.) Brendann fancies himself a ladies man and has an opinion about all of the women in town. Lydia, the tattoo artist I killed for poisoning me, has a sister in Moonshade.

• Spektor won't exchange for gems. I'm not sure where I sell those.

• Caladin is happy to get his grandfather's urn back, and he gives us some coins as a reward. We return to the crypts to retrieve Iolo's crossbow.

• Marsten seems satisfied that Lydia and Shmed were the "goblin spies" and there's no more problem now that they're gone. 

      

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone in this town isn't a spy.

    

• Lucilla, the barmaid, hates Luther and says that he apparently has a new magic shield. While talking to her, I get a "court" option, and she asks if I'd like to meet her later. I say yes, and she says to stop back after the bar closes, "in the wee hours before dawn."

    

There are a bunch of knights I can't speak with because they're hanging out on the List Field, which remains locked.

   

At this point, I take stock of where I am. I have several open quests and tasks:

   

• Gwenno has gone to Monk Isle, having sailed on a ship before all the shipping was shut down. Ironically, I appear on Monk Isle every time I die, but I have no way to ask about Gwenno, and Karnak returns me to where I died when the conversation is over. I'll have to get to Monk Isle the long way somehow. Someone in Monitor told me that there might be ships leaving from Fawn--or was it Moonshade?

• Batlin is on the loose and has apparently kidnapped Cantra, who is possessed by something called the Bane of Chaos. I have no idea where they are, but Batlin's trail leads to Sleeping Bull and I know at least one of his companions, Rugg, is hanging around there, spouting Fellowship nonsense.

• Monitor still has problems with goblins and potential traitors, plus the missing Helm of Monitor. I don't know if there are any more traitors. I don't even know if Lydia and Shmed had anything to do with the goblins; it sounds like they might have been working for Batlin. Somehow, Lydia found out I serve Lord British, after all.

• I've got all my lost items, with leads taking me just about every direction, but the only one I'm really worried about is the Black Sword, which can't fall in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, no one has had anything to say about the ruddy rock. Perhaps someone in one of the other towns will know something.

• I'm supposed to try the Amulet of Balance at the Serpent Gate.

• The Avatar has 6 training points and Dupre and Shamino have 3.

       

Looking at the list, I decide that the Batlin/Cantra quest is the most important, but Harnna says I'll need the Helm of Monitor to rescue the girl, so I guess I'd better track that down. Instead of heading right to the area suggested by Krayg, I start exploring my way northward, but in east-west strips, remaining west of the main road. Lightning strikes repeatedly as we walk, transforming rocks and leaving miscellaneous debris in their places.

   

Several NPCs have told me about ruins from an ancient civilization of demons, and I see them everywhere. There are thick forests with weird-looking trees, and we get attacked by stray goblins a few times. West of the Knight's Test, we're attacked by a wolf and a bear, and just north of that, we're forced to kill three ragged-looking mages running some kind of ritual around a cauldron and sacrificial altar.

    

North of that, the world opens to a large, thick wood, and things get weird. Some kind of clown comes out of a dilapidated shack and attacks me. We have to kill him. In his shack is a chest with some money, but a trap leaves me poisoned. There are more goblins, but also snakes, wild boars, and gremlins, and I swear I'm attacked by a rabbit at some point. We come to a locked two story building in good condition with a sign that reads "HOUSE OF WARES" in Britannian. I can't find any way in, and my picks don't work on the door. 

     

A House of Wares doesn't make much sense if you can't get in!

      

There's a house with the front door wide open, and a woman's body, severed in half, between the house and the well. The situation is worse inside, where the entire building is ransacked and the body of a man lies on the floor. There's a dead child in the stables outside. A cow and two pigs have oddly been left unmolested.

       

Someone should have warned them about building a house in goblin territory.

       

At last, we come to the monolith that Krayg told us about, and we kill a few goblins in a quick battle. Dupre calls attention to a bottle of Fawnish Ale on the ground, and Shamino notes that it's the same variety that Simon the innkeeper gave me. I'm not sure that's quite the clue that he thinks it is. One would assume ale from Fawn would be sold and consumed all over the island. The goblins, having recently conquered a tower near Fawn, probably pillaged it. Shamino acts like it's a smoking gun.

       

You're like a horrible version of Watson.

      

Back in town, we head to the inn to question Simon. He says he must have dropped the bottle while out for a walk. I accuse him of lying, and he drops his guise, somehow turning into a goblin. "Thou hast found my secret! Now, thou must die!" he shrieks. The ensuing battle goes about as well for him as any four-on-one combat does. With his dying breaths, he says that he's lived in Monitor for years as a spy, his appearance transformed by a magic potion. He has related patrol routes and other military intelligence to the goblin king Pomdirgun. But Pomdirgun betrayed Simon, keeping the Helm of Monitor that he had promised Simon.

         

Does the smell of barbershops make you break into hoarse sobs?

      

We promise to slay Pomdirgun, and Simon tells us that the entrance to their domain is hidden beneath a great dead tree surrounded by rocks, north of the Knight's Test. He gives us a key to an iron door sealing the passage.

    

There are three keys on his body, but one opens all the doors in the inn, and another opens a chest in his room with 76 monetari, so I leave those behind. The inn, of course, we claim for ourselves. No more sleeping on bedrolls on the streets.

   

Three of us can now level up. I return to the List Field, and I realize I missed something before. There's a guy sitting at a desk on the upper level. You can tell him that you want to fight or train, and he lets you into the field. I have options to train with Caladin, Shazzana, Brendann, or Luther. I take a save and give them all a try. You can't take your equipment with you when you fight or train. Instead, you get a standard-issue weapon of the type you choose, and the guard takes the rest of what you're carrying. The guard has opinions about your chosen weapon, too. If you choose a spear or halberd, he says something to the effect that only a coward fights from a distance (despite most Monitorian pikemen carrying halberds and Caladin using one). He praises the choice of a hammer or axe.

      

I always imagined an axe "severed" rather than "crunched."

      

All trainers take 3 training points and 50 monetari per session and increase a combination of strength, dexterity, and combat. Maximum hit points seem to increase with strength. Brendann increases dexterity by 1 and combat by 3; Caladin increases strength by 2 and combat by 1; Luther increases strength by 3; and Shazzana increases dexterity by 2 and combat by 3. My Avatar needs strength and dexterity in equal balance, so I have him do one session with Shazzana and one with Caladin. Dupre, who needs stamina, trains one session with Shazzana, and Shamino trains once with Caladin. In both of the Avatar's sessions, the trainer "wins" the combat, but Dupre manages to defeat Shazzana. This doesn't seem to affect the benefits of training.

   

Getting all the training organized actually takes us a couple of days, since the trainers are on the field at different times. In between, we run scouting missions to the woods north of the Knight's Test, looking for the entrance to the goblin camp. I eventually find it, but man is it hard to pick out. I use my sextant to mark the location (69S, 32W) because I'm not sure I'll find it again. We're pretty wounded by the time we reach the entrance, so we return to town to get a good night's sleep before we attack the goblins. 

        

You can vaguely make out the stairs behind the tree.

     

Early one morning, after most of a night's sleep, the Avatar visits Lucilla at the tavern and gives her the keyword "rendezvous" (but in case he's forgotten, he can also ask "name"). She tells him to meet in her bedroom. There, she squeals, "I am ready now! Come to bed my love!" The Avatar's companions become uncomfortable and scatter from the room. 

       

I can't believe I walked in here with all of you in the first place.

    

A brief cut scene shows the Avatar step behind a curtain in Lucilla's room and emerge unclothed, though still carrying his sword, which is a little kinky. He jumps on Lucilla's bed. The screen goes dark and morning dawns. Lucilla gushes about how satisfied she is and gives the Avatar her father's prized Gwani cloak. She kisses him and leaves to run the tavern while the Avatar gets up and dresses. "What a beautiful morning!" he remarks. The companions are all waiting in the tavern's common area. 

     

It would have been funnier if the Avatar had been a dud in bed.

    

In the morning, I park myself outside the List Field, hoping to intercept Luther as he arrives. Unfortunately, NPCs haven't quite worked like that since Ultima V. There, they always had some physical presence, and you could always find or intercept them. Starting in Ultima VI, NPCs do go from one place to another, but you only see them in transition if you happen to occupy the same screen as them. If you've lost sight of them, the game will happily teleport them from one place to another without giving you any ability to intercept them en route.

   

Unable to find Luther during the day, I resort to doing it at night, wandering through houses during the early hours until I find his, then making enough noise that he wakes up. We tell him what other people have said about him ("bully"; "repulsive") and he demands satisfaction on the List Field. We accuse him of stealing Dupre's shield, and he demands satisfaction on the List Field. We deny that he is the greatest knight of Monitor, and he demands we face him on the List Field.

       

Luther's answer to everything.

     

The problem is that whatever Luther says, you can't go to the List Field and just fight one knight. You end up having to fight everyone on the field. None of my characters have been able to withstand that. Maybe training with Luther instead of fighting him will work, but I need to get another level up before I can train again.

      

Miscellaneous notes:

    

• Before Cantra disappeared, the crystal ball in Harnna's house just showed us images of a solar system.

       

This actually looks like it could be our solar system.

     

• Torches last about 20 seconds in this game.

• The jail key that freed Iolo doesn't unlock any of the other cells. I wonder if it's even possible to get into them. Picks don't work and my attempts to bash down the doors failed, too.

• Marsten gets briefly philosophical when told about Simon's treachery.

      

Read the room, Marsten.

     

• I'm not 100% sure, but I think Monitor is larger than any city in The Black Gate. It still doesn't feel anything like a "real" city, of course, but it's a step in the right direction. In addition to named NPCs, there are many generic "pikemen" wandering around, and there are a lot of small houses.

• I wonder if the name "Lydia" for the tattoo artist is supposed to be a reference to the old Groucho Marx number.

• When I finish training or fighting at the List Field and get my equipment back, it's all in the wrong places. Similarly, every time my companions temporarily leave the party and I have to get them back, they've all unequipped their weapons.

    

As for my list of lost items, here's the updated intelligence:

  

• My spellbook was replaced with a chunk of pumice. Harnna thinks Krayg might know more about it. Krayg says such stones come from the center of the Earth, and Standarr often goes deep on his Quests of Courage. Standarr mentions a dungeon called Furnace.
  
• My Black Sword was replaced with a ruddy rock.
  
• My glass sword was replaced with a pinecone. Pine trees are found in the great forest to the north, according to Harnna.
  
• The blackrock serpent was replaced by a pair of fine stockings.
• A hunk of mutton was replaced by a bottle of ice wine. Harnna suggests that I run it by Simon at the inn. Simon says it's probably made by the rangers of Moonshade.
  
• A leg of meat was replaced by 83 filari, a currency from one of the cities. Shamino's note oddly doesn't mention the money. This is the only trade in which I came out ahead.
  
• Rudyom's Wand was replaced by a strange apparatus. Harnna doesn't know what to make of it but thinks that it may have something to do with Fawn's statuary or Moonshade's magic.
  
• My magic armor was replaced by an enameled breast plate, "suitable for ceremonial occasions." Harnna says I should ask Standarr the armourer about it. Standarr says that he made it for Kylista, priestess of Fawn.
  
• My magic helm was replaced by a woman's fur cap. Shamino's note says it's "ridiculous." I think it's very practical and not obviously a woman's at all. Harnna thinks it might be the work of Cellia the Furrier. Cellia recognizes it and says she created it for a mage in Moonshade named Frigidazzi.

This shot has nothing to do with this list, but I didn't get to use all the images I took in the dungeon earlier.

 

• My magic gauntlets were replaced by a ring. Shamino's note says that it's a "finely crafted ring, of silver, of a size to fit a small woman or child." I don't know what to make of the Avatar wearing it, then. Harnna points us to Lucilla, who is "interested in baubles and trinkets," but Lucilla only offers that it might be a marriage or engagement ring.
  
• Dupre's Magebane has been replaced by a blue egg. Based on the thickness of the shell, Harnna thinks it probably comes from a bird that lives up north.
  
• Dupre's Shield has been replaced by a Shield of Monitor. Harnna mentions that it could belong to anyone, and I should inquire around and see if anyone is missing a shield. Later, I hear that Luther has a new magic shield.
  
• Shamino's 24 burst arrows were replaced with an odd hairbrush. "Crude," according to Shamino. Harnna has an odd reaction to it and says I should ask Templar about it. Templar says that it's a goblin hairbrush, made from the bones of their victims.
  
• Shamino's dagger was replaced with a severed limb. The note clarifies that it's a "bloody hand." Actually, I suppose the hairbrush could have replaced the dagger and the hand could have replaced the burst arrows. Harnna suggests we check with Renfry to see if he's encountered a body missing a hand. Renfry doesn't know where it came from, but he deduces that it's "not dead," so some kind of magic is involved.
  
• Shamino's swamp boots were replaced with a pair of slippers, "such as might be worn in the privacy of one's home." Harnna doesn't believe they belong to anyone in Monitor and suggests I check with Krayg the Provisioner. Krayg says the closest place where someone might wear these is Sleeping Bull.
  
• Shamino's magic bow was replaced with a bear skull.
• Iolo's crossbow has been replaced with an urn with ashes. Harnna confirms what I already know: it's a funeral urn, and Caladin's grandfather's urn is missing.
  
• Five torches Iolo was carrying in his pack have been replaced by a pumpkin. Iolo's list doesn't mention this substitution, and all the others have been one-for-one.
  

      

Next time: We recover the Helm of Monitor and continue to depopulate the town.

   

Time so far: 5 hours