Serpent Isle: What Ought to Be the Last Battle

Dupre urges me to quit this game.

      

As this session begins, Gwenno is resurrected and healed, but the Banes of Chaos are still inhabiting Iolo, Dupre, and Shamino--who are apparently holed up at the Castle of the White Dragon. Gwenno has suggested that I ask around Moonshade to see about caging the banes again.

   

I take the serpent gate system to Moonshade and begin a circuit. Fedabiblio has nothing new to say, though he seems to have taken over Gustacio's old house. Ducio is still working in his shop. 

     

I find Torrissio wandering around the magelord's palace again. With him, I have a new dialogue option of "soul trapping." "So thou dost seek to learn the ancient art of imprisoning souls within gems," he says. Well, no, not until now. He mentions that he gave the same information to Batlin, along with a warning that gems are not generally strong enough to keep souls of great power trapped. In exchange, he wants the Philanderer's Friend, which I have to go back and retrieve from the hub.

        

Uh . . . yeah. That's totally what I seek.

     

He says that souls can be imprisoned in Worm Gems with a special spell, which he gives me: "Create Soul Prism." I immediately transcribe it, and it fills in the final Level 4 slot. He says Ducio the Artisan can make those gems. 

Ducio, for his part, says that he'll need three worm hearts--and that Batlin also asked him for the gems. I tossed my reagent bag ages ago, I think back in the Silver Seed. I warp back there to grab the bag, and fortunately the game doesn't make me wait a week before returning--I guess that only applied when the quest was unfinished.

     

A brief return to the Silver Seed.

      

Ducio takes the hearts and makes me four worm gems--I figure best to have an extra. I cast "Create Soul Prism" on each of them, which for some reason turns them from spheres to cubes.

   

Back on Monk Isle, Gwenno tells me that to contain the Banes, I'll have to "take the soul cages and bathe them in the water of the temple that is connected to that Bane." No problem. Thanks to my last expedition, I've got the Waters of Emotion, Enthusiasm, and . . . bollocks. The Temple of Tolerance is the one I couldn't figure out. I head back there and mess around a while and still can't figure it out. There's  no fountain like the other temples, and dipping a bucket in the water surrounding the little island does nothing.

        

Keep talking, moron.

     

Scouting around, I return to the basement and speak to Sethys, Agent of Chaos, again (his presence here is still entirely unexplained). He continues to think I'm a servant of Order. Among other things, he gives me the hint that it turns out I need: "Even now, thou dost lust to topple the altar of this temple. But I shall not tell thee where it lies! I shall not aid thee in stopping the glorious waters which flow from it, nor shall I aid thee in placing the sacred containers upon it." That suggests that the Waters of Tolerance are collected by placing a bucket on the altar, not by dipping it into the existing waters. The problem is, I can't find an altar.

    

I'm sorry to say that I have to look up a hint for this one. In my defense, this game is so damned long that it's hard to remember things that happened 40 hours ago. The key is remembering that Mortegro, who I later found in this temple, standing where the altar should be, had been snatched from his own basement--and replaced with the altar from the temple. If I had re-read my own entry, I would have figured it out. I have to go back to Mortegro's basement, killing a random naga on the way, and place a bucket on the altar there. It fills automatically.

          

I should have gotten this one first.

       

With the three chaos waters now in my possession, I treat each of the soul prisms with one of them. This changes their colors and re-names them to Prism of Enthusiasm, Prism of Emotion, and Prism of Tolerance.

      

The three assembled prisms.

      

Nothing left to do but confront my former friends. I take the serpent gate to the north forest and walk to the castle. As I approach, packs of homicidal jesters keep teleporting near me and attacking. This gives me a chance to try out some of the Level 6 and 7 spells (see below). 

   

A scroll is at the foot of the drawbridge to the castle: "Come on in and join the party." A specter stands in the entry hall, shouting, "I am the King of the White Dragon!" He offers to "protect me" by taking me to the realm of death, then either turns into a blue dragon or summons a blue dragon. Either way, it's an easy battle and the King of the White Dragon is never seen again.

           

Good for you.

           

The Castle of the White Dragon has a main floor, an upper floor, and a basement. Each floor has numerous rooms with locked doors. The path through them is relatively linear and repetitive. As I enter each room, one of my possessed companions appears and delivers a gibe, joke, or threat, then leaves me to deal with some easy summoned creature. For instance, the first room I enter is full of mirrors. Iolo appears to say: "Come and see the freak show, Avatar!" The mirrors turn into duplicates of me--if I had a glass jaw. As they die, they turn into (I think) wildmen.

         

You should have gone with, "Time to sing your swan song, Avatar."

     

"Come and relax, Avatar," Shamino says as I enter a den. A nightmare is there to attack me. He runs off after one blow of my axe. "Come and dance a jig with these fine fellows, Avatar," Dupre mocks before leaving me to deal with half a dozen headless in a ballroom.

    

One of the rooms is a library. "I have some hot new titles for thee," Shamino puns as I enter. Three or four of the books are titled Great Practical Jokes, with Chapter One titled, "Exploding Books." As I close them, they all explode into fireballs--at the locations of the books. Fortunately, I'm reading them from half a screen away and don't take any damage. 

          

It's nice that the game lets you read books without actually taking them off the shelf.

       

A Journal of the King of the White Dragon fleshes out the story of the island, and Shamino's role in it, a bit more. It's written from the perspective of the King of the White Dragon as he rapidly descends into madness. The king claims that he used to rule the land alone, but he decided to share power with Shamino and even built Shamino his castle. Shamino then asked for the king's daughter, Beatrix, in marriage. The king happily sent his daughter to Shamino's castle. But around this time, Shamino became obsessed with Mondain, went to seek advice from Lord British, and never returned. Beatrix died of a broken heart. As for the King of the White Dragon, it sounds from his journal like he invited all his subjects to a blow-out Solstice Festival and then poisoned them. That would explain the corpses all over the place.

   

As usual, Origin manages to create all kinds of problems with the existing lore. Shamino is in his castle during the events of Ultima, so clearly he didn't wander off to help Lord British defeat Mondain. It would have made more sense if he'd gone to help defeat Minax, perhaps doing something useful in Sosaria while the player character was foiling her plans on Earth. I suppose that doesn't fit the story of how Serpent Isle spun off from Sosaria when Mondain's gem was destroyed, but they could have made that the result of something that Minax did, or even Exodus. And the backstory for the king's madness is pretty lame. He went homicidally insane because Shamino abandoned his daughter? No one with such poor coping skills ought to be king in the first place.

      

I thought this ballroom was pretty neat.

      

There's another book called A Treatise on Torture, written by the King of the White Dragon's servant, Evad, and wow, is it gruesome. It describes how the king tortured one of his guests by tying tourniquets on all four of his limbs and causing necrosis. He apparently killed his own wife by sewing her into a bull's carcass and letting her get pecked to death by "vultures and other carrion beasts."

         

I got this message a lot in the castle.

        

I don't find keys to all of the doors in the castle, but I do find my way to the throne room, where fountains spew blood, statues shoot fireballs, fire belches from the floor, and the three Banes sit in thrones at the far end. Iolo speaks for the three of them: "I had almost tired of waiting for thee, Avatar. Thou'rt some hero . . . it took thee long enough."

    

Expecting a modestly-hard battle, I am unprepared for what happens, which is that I die in about two seconds. On a reload, I try various spells, but either they don't work ("Time Stop") or it appears that the Banes are immune to them. I try summoning creatures to occupy them, but they have eyes only for me and charge right through my cyclopes and skeletons. I try buffing with "Might" and "Protection," but it just wastes spell points. I reject an obvious solution--going back to the serpent gate hub and returning with a party of automatons--just because I don't feel like making the walk through the swamp again.

         

I don't know what I'm casting here, but it doesn't work.

       

After a while, I manage to flee out of the chamber, trap Dupre and Iolo on the other side of a wall, and fight Shamino one-on-one. I prepare to heal every time my health gets low. But he manages to kill me, at full health, in a single blow.

   

I  finally consult a spoiler site in desperation. It turns out that the Banes will only die if attacked with the Black Sword. Apparently, you need to trap them in the Black Sword's gem. If this was explained anywhere by any NPC, I forgot about it or didn't record it in the first place. It doesn't really make sense to me. Clearly, Batlin managed to trap them (if only briefly) in prisms, and he didn't have the Black Sword. Why couldn't I just duct-tape the prisms to my axe and kill them with that weapon? Why do I even need the prisms if the Black Sword will contain them? 

        

I and my army of summoned skeletons march to our doom.

         

Not being able to kill them doesn't explain why they're able to kill me so easily. I think the game decides to just kill you if you're using the wrong weapon rather than give you the false hope that would come from a longer combat.

    

Even with the Black Sword, the combat isn't easy. For some reason, I find it easier to kill them if I lead them outside the throne room. I have to cast "Great Heal" several times during the battle. But one by one, they go down. "I shall not forget that thou hast beaten me, vile human!" Shamino screams. "Vanquished by a mere mortal!" Dupre howls. As for Iolo:

          

You got that from Shamino, two minutes ago, right? Yeah, I heard him, too. You gonna plagiarize the whole thing? Do you have any thoughts of your own on this matter?

       

(In later experimentation, conducted after I have this entire entry drafted, I discover that they're not actually immune to magic, nor to non-Black Sword weapon damage. They just won't take any damage from anything unless you're holding the Black Sword. "Death Vortex" and other instant-death spells actually work quite well as long as the Avatar is holding the Black Sword when he casts them. Presumably, they can also be killed by other companions, if you have any, as long as the Avatar is wielding the Black Sword.)

     

When all three are dead before me, the Banes presumably in the gem of the Black Sword, I double-click the hourglass and summon Thoxa to resurrect them. She returns them all to life, but just as with Gwenno and Cantra, they're all insane. No problem. I just need to heal them with the Waters of Logic, Ethicality and . . . oh, #$%*. I used the Water of Discipline on Gwenno. And that was the one where I had to walk through acid. Leaving the three of them standing in the castle halls, I walk all the way back to the serpent gate in the North Forest, return to the hub, return to the Temple of Discipline, walk through the acid (stopping to heal myself every few steps), get the water, and reverse the whole process. That takes like 20% of this game session.

       

Let's not be hasty.

       

Back in the castle, I definitely take the time to review the companions' previous statements carefully to determine which of them needs which bucket of water. I don't just save and do it through trial and error, no sir. That would be lame.

   

With all three of them restored, I double-click on them to talk to them, and guess what they have to say about the last 20 hours of the game? Nothing. Not one word. They have no reaction to being possessed by Banes, no reaction to having slaughtered most of the game world. The only dialogue options are "Join" and "Bye." Only Iolo has any new dialogue, expressing happiness that Gwenno is alive--something I must have told him off-screen. 

       

You clueless idiot.

      

I get ready to walk back to a serpent gate and then go to the serpent gate hub to re-equip my companions, but suddenly Karnax's face is on the screen: "The bells are signaling the return of Xenka! Thou art the Hero from Another World. It is for thee that she doth return. We must hurry!" We're suddenly teleported to the chapel on Monk Isle, where an undulating star ("the energies from beyond the Void," according to Karnax) eventually turns into Xenka herself.

       

Make up your minds.

       

Xenka immediately starts berating the monks for not recording her prophecies accurately. "I knew that if I did not promise to return that these laggard monks would drift away from the task I set them," she grouses. "As it is, they have nearly brought disaster upon us all."

   

In subsequent conversation, she doesn't really explain what she means. She does fill in a bit of her backstory: she was a commoner, a wife, and a mother when she was suddenly seized by prophecy. Her husband took her to the mages of Moonshade, but they dismissed her, saying she was crazy. She has a particular scorn for those mages, interpreting their schism with Lord British not as a quest for freedom but as a way to avoid being tied to the virtue of honesty (as Moonglow subsequently was). 

       

Why did you have to leave in the first place?

       

Xenka says she'll help me if I don't know what to do next. She gives me the final Serpent's Tooth and says, "Thou must seek the Dead on the Isle of Crypts." I'm frankly not sure why I need to do anything at all. Batlin is dead, Gwenno is alive, Balance is restored. Why can't I get on a ship and go home? In fact, let's just say I did that. Game over.

    

No? I suppose not. Very well. I spend half an hour finding the tooth in my pack, then add it to the jawbone. While I'm on the subject, I didn't discover until this entry that "J" calls up the jawbone automatically and "B" calls up the spellbook. This whole time, I had been opening my pack, clearing items out of the way, and double-clicking on them. I should have figured it out; I already knew that "K" activates the key ring and "M" opens the map (among others). I'm sure it was in the manual that I read six months ago.

    

It takes me another half hour to re-equip everyone back at the serpent gate hub, mostly because when the automatons dropped their items, all the stuff came out of their packs. I have to shift a mountain of gems, coins, gold bars, and potions to get at the weapons and armor underneath. When I'm done, all of the companions have melee weapons--the magic axes that I know I had are nowhere to be found. 

         

Trying to find my party's equipment amidst a bunch of treasure I can't spend.

         

Xenka's Serpent Tooth activates the last serpent gate, which dumps us on the Isle of Crypts, far to the northwest. On arrival, the party immediately starts complaining about the cold. They can go screw themselves. My days of micromanaging a separate inventory of warm gear are long gone. Anyway, it's not long before we find a cave entrance. "PEACE TO THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE PATH OF THE SERPENT," a plaque announces as we enter. We start exploring and, bloody hell, this is going to be another Whole Thing. I'll have to do it later.

      

Time so far: 99 hours

       

Comments on Level 6/7 Spells

Level 6

 

Betray. Works like "Charm" in most games, causing an enemy to turn on his companions. It would be more useful in a more tactical, less chaotic game. (That line applies to just about every spell in the game.) Would have been great in the Banes battle if they weren't immune. In this game, I can't think of any battle with multiple high-level foes where it would make a difference. Most likely, I'd fail to remember which enemy was charmed and just attack him.

    

Dispel Illusion. "Destroys the knots of force that create an illusion, affecting structures and creatures alike." I've probably been under-utilizing this one. I verified during this session that it identifies (and opens) secret doors. I don't really know what else it does. Are there any places in the game with illusory creatures? 

     

The spell opens a secret door in the wall that I could normally just walk through.

     

Cause Fear. Sends all enemies fleeing in panic. Not bad, but for 3 more spell points, you can kill them all and get the experience; for 1 less, you can put them all to sleep and kill them without having to hunt them down.  Not a good choice for battles where you absolutely need to kill someone because now you have to find him.

    

"Cause Fear" sends multiple enemy jesters fleeing into the swamp.

         

Fire Field. Creates a single-square burning field of fire on the ground, which I guess you hope enemies walk through. If they do, it damages them a couple of hit points. Also damages you if you walk through it, so best not to cast it in a corridor you're going to have to traverse again. Unless I'm missing something, not worth the spell points. Also, the fire appears to be blue, and the syllables are IN FRIO GRAV, so despite the spell's name, I think you're really creating a cold field.

 

Fire Ring. Creates a bunch of fire fields in a circle. They last a fraction of the time as "Fire Field" and there's nothing about a circle that particularly makes sense for this spell. A wall would be better. Similar to "Fire Field," the spell's syllables suggest that the "fire" field is actually cold.

         

I cast "Fire Ring" on some alligators. It seems cruel.

      

Cold Strike. Man, this level really goes with a theme. This one causes cold flames to erupt at the feet of every non-party member on-screen, so you don't want to cast it with NPCs or penguins around. I rather like it. Because it targets enemies wherever they are, there's no need to get them in a cluster, and there are no issues with timing. Rarely kills, though.

 

Create Ammo. Creates arrows or bolts, "depending on which weapon the caster's party has more of." If you like magic bows, it's a great spell when coupled with the third-level "Enchant Missiles."

 

Create Automaton. A great spell for creating companions for yourself if you don't like the original party or if they've gone and gotten themselves possessed. You have to have a dead automaton to cast it on, so it's really more of a "Revive Automaton" spell. I used it to pack a bunch of gear out of the City of Order, but I wasn't interested in having automaton companions permanently.

 

Level 7

 

Energy Field.  Basically creates a magic wall. I guess you could use it to stop an enemy from chasing you, but it's not hard to get away from them as it is. In a more tactical game, it could be used to shape the combat terrain more favorably. The fields don't last very long, though.

     

Trapping Isstanar in his room.

      

Energy Mist. Creates less of a "mist" and more of a wad of sparkles  that do damage to anyone they pass through.

 

Mass Awaken. Wakes up everyone in the party who's asleep. I'm not sure I've ever been in a position in which multiple party members were asleep.

 

Mass Might. Raises everyone's attributes about a dozen points each. The effects in combat are less obvious than they should be; random numbers govern more than attributes. As with "Mass Protection," when I experiment on polar bears, I don't notice a major difference in the amount of time it takes me to kill them. Still, it wouldn't hurt to have it going more often than I do.

     

Over-buffing before a battle with a spider.

     

Poison Mist. Creates a column of noxious vapor that poisons everyone who walks through it. This causes them to take a point of damage every couple of seconds until it wears off after about a minute. Absolutely useless unless you had some reason to kill someone without attacking him directly, and even then a poison potion would target them directly and be less likely to affect your own characters.

 

Restoration. Heals everyone of all wounds and poisons. I haven't been casting it because I haven't had a party, but I suspect it will be my default healing spell for the rest of the game.

 

Vibrate. Weird spell. The book says that it causes targets to shake. "The effect not only damages the subject but also loosens any hold on possessions." In fact, it doesn't seem to damage them at all--nor even make them hostile--and it causes them to drop all their stuff on the ground. This creates some weird situations. For instance, when I try it randomly on Fedabilbo in Moonshade, it causes him to drop two potions, a lightning bolt which I can't move or pick up ("too heavy!") and a backpack with several reagents but also some kind of pulsating wand that the game won't even acknowledge when I click on it. If this game weren't so long, I'd be tempted to go around and cast it on everyone. I wonder if you can use this to get quest items without doing the quests. Next time someone gives me something, I'm going to reload and try it.

      

Fedabilbo spills all his loot.

             

Lightning. Blasts a single target with lightning. Cool, but for a couple more points, I can just kill them outright.