Pagan: Super Green

It would be nice if this door would just stay open.

         

I start this session by returning to the Upper Catacombs, which I don't think I fully explored last time. Following the rightmost wall pattern, I first come to a door to the Lower Catacombs. It's locked, but it opens with my Key of the Scion, which being a staff instead of an actual key, doesn't go on the same key ring that I can use for every other key.

    

The Lower Catacombs that I enter do not seem to be the same place I visited before (by falling down a pit). It's a maze of  columbaria and bones, cracked floors showing lava underneath, fireballs shooting constantly from hidden spouts on the walls (why?). Levers open gates as I move forward. Skeletons stand as sentinels against the walls but rarely attack.

      

This doesn't seem right.

        

Continuing to follow the right wall, I come across a door flanked by two skeletons and a fireball spitter. The door closes as I get near, but I'm able to open it again. Unfortunately, I cannot get through it. In the game's perspective, the open door blocks the passage beyond, so I cannot see whether there's actually an opening or just a blank wall. I try jumping for some reason, and it works, sending me soaring through the door and into a room with multiple treasure chests, flasks of oil, and weapons. The chests have banal things like helmets, more oil flasks, and shields—until I open one full of magical weapons, including a copy of the Slayer mace I've been carrying for multiple sessions. Is this some kind of cheat room? If so, the player ought not to be able to stumble into it so carelessly. I'm on the verge of letting myself take a magic shield when I realize I have no way out of the room. I don't want to navigate back here, so I reload from outside of the room and continue. 

    

Twenty minutes later, I'm so annoyed by the Lower Catacombs' constant fireballs, lava pools, skeletons, one-way gates, and twisty passages that I just reload from the beginning of this session, undoing all my progress. Why am I bothering to explore anyway? My character is already at max statistics and has more money than he knows what to do with.

   

I re-enter the Upper Catacombs and this time head right for the Birthplace of Moriens. When I unlock the door with the Key of the Scion and enter, it seems I've been teleported to an entirely different dungeon. An altar with some sparkly lights above it has a plaque reading: "The Birthplace of Moriens"; it seems odd to me that he was born on an altar in the catacombs.

 

His parents were into some kinky stuff.

     

I continue exploring this area and find the remains of some previous adventurer. Based on a letter and a book found in his backpack, I gather his name was Trecaste. He was sent on a mission from someone  named Drokar to find the ancient Zealan shrines to the gods of emotion, "which could be the key to freedom." The shrines were mentioned in a book written by someone named Yradan the Scholar. Drokar warned Trecaste that "the agents of the Titans, both human and otherwise, are numerous."

      

A large set of double doors exits this tomb to the east, where I enter a twisty earthenwork cavern. Encounters here:

   

• Spiked balls rolling back and forth across the corridor in several places. I try to avoid them and of course manage to walk into them every single time.

     

Just what the dungeon needed.

       

• Five levers surrounding a fenced-off chest. "Do not go near that, Avatar," the Guardian advises as I approach. When I pull one of the levers, the others all activate in a particular order. I watch the order, figuring I will have to replicate it. But as soon as I pull the first one, the gates lower and I have access to the chest, which has a single key to a nearby double-door. I don't know what the other levers were for. When I try a couple, it just sets off traps, so I leave them alone and continue on.

      

This was easier than it looks like it should have been.

       

• A chest has something called the Skull of Quakes. It seems to be a usable item, as I get a targeting cursor when I double-click it. 

• A gate that I cannot figure out how to open, so I have to approach the area from a different direction.

        

Never figured this one out.

       

• This different direction involves a room with a maze of one-way gates. I'm able to avoid a lot of them by climbing up to a platform and just jumping over them, although that's perhaps the intended solution.

     

I feel like I should be able to leap over these fences.

         

• The maze dead-ends in a gravestone that reads "AMRAZHAR. BY THE ANCIENT ONES, HE IS MET." I'm about to turn around and go back (to where?) when I realize that a nearby table has a vial of blood, a pile of blackmoor on it, and an empty pouch. These are the two reagents needed for "Open Ground," the spell that opens passages in stone walls. Figuring that's too specific to be a coincidence, I mix the spell and cast it. Instead of a hole opening in the wall, a pit opens in the ground. It then takes me longer to figure out how to finagle the game into actually letting me jump into the pit than it took to solve the puzzle in the first place. 

• A bunch of locked doors that none of my keys open. 

        

The Avatar can see that this pit goes straight through to the next floor, but I cannot.

         

I arrive at a room with a table and a bunch of colored "rolling spheres," like billiard balls, some on the table and some on the floor. There's also a skull on the floor. A closed gate is shut nearby. I spend a good half an hour in this room, trying to figure out what to do. Double-clicking on the balls causes them to skitter away from the player, and if they hit another ball, they carom in a predictable direction. The physics are fun, but to what end? What do the colors mean? Can I even see all of them?

      

I spent forever trying to bonk the balls into the skull, trying each color, then trying each color off of a different color. I try shooting the balls under the gate, which doesn't work. Finally, I'm at my wit's end. I open my browser to search for a hint, then I figured if I'm going to do this, I might as well do it right. I download the official cluebook and search for a hint there. Do you know what the answer is? To throw one of the balls (which the book calls "marbles") onto the raised platform beyond the gate. That's it. None of the colors or physics or the number of balls has anything to do with it. Meanwhile, there's nothing about the platform that says "throw something up here." This may be one of the worst CRPG anti-puzzles ever designed.

         

Someone needs to suffer for this.

      

The area beyond has chests and barrels with a bunch of reagents, almost 250 obsidian coins, and two keys. One of the keys opens one of the doors in my backpath, but there's nothing behind it but bones and trash.

   

I next come to a puzzle involving three stairways with three pressure plates in front of them. In contrast to the "rolling ball" puzzle, this one I ultimately find tough but fair. Some experimentation shows that:

   

• Each stairway has four steps. 

• The rearmost step can be up to four steps high. The third step can be up to three steps high, and so forth. 

• Stepping on each plate affects the stairway in front of it. 

• The first time the Avatar steps on a plate, it lowers the forwardmost step in the associated staircase by its current height.

• The second time he steps on a plate (whether the same one or a different one), it raises the rearmost step that is not currently raised by the same height.

• However, no step can be higher than the step behind it. Nothing happens in that case.

   

I hope that makes sense. The overall goal is to slowly transfer the stairs from the rightmost staircase to the middle staircase, using the leftmost staircase as a kind of holding place. Solving the puzzle felt very familiar. At first, I thought it was like playing solitaire and transferring cards between stacks so you can put the cards you want in the correct order. It is a bit like that, but my memory was more atavistic than that. Suddenly, I recalled a toy I had when I was a kid—maybe when I was four or five years old—involving three pegs with fat plastic rings around them, with the goal to transfer the rings from one peg to another. I did some Googling, and it turns out that this puzzle is called the "Tower of Hanoi" and was invented in 1883. It works with any number of disks (or stairs) and only three pegs, but the total number of moves needed to complete the transformation is 2^n-1 with n being the number of disks. With four stairs, I needed 15 moves to solve the puzzle, not accounting for any errors, which sounds right.

             

In the midst of the puzzle. I started by walking on the tiles, but there was a handy clock nearby, and it seemed easier just to stand in one place and transfer the clock between plates.

           

At the top of the stairs are a couple of beams of light that kill me when I try to cross them. I can't find any way to turn them off, and throwing things through them doesn't accomplish anything. I can't climb the walls around them. At first, I think this is the moment for the "Withstand Death" spell, but something tells me to try "Rock Flesh" first, and that works. Nearly put myself in a walking dead position there, since "Withstand Death" apparently works only once, and you need it in a very specific place.

      

On the other side, I come to a temple with three statues, two male, one female, and I gather these are the old gods of emotion worshiped by the Zealans. I seem to have gone far afield from Moriens' Birthplace. The door behind the statues is locked. I find a key beneath a skeleton, but it doesn't open the door. I turn around to try the key in the doors in my backpath, and of course I forget about the lasers and blunder right into them, forcing me to reload from before I even solved the rolling ball puzzle. What's wrong with me?

        

Every. Damned. Time.

          

One of the doors the key opens takes me to a room with a Zealan Ceremonial Shield, with three icons that appear to be a sword, a hand, and scales of justice. The game won't let me equip it as a shield, but I'm so over-encumbered that I have to leave my regular shield behind to take it. 

   

Back in the temple, I put the shield on the shrine. Nothing happens at first, but then I walk into the area between the three statutes, and they begin speaking to me.

   

• Male: Greetings, Avatar. We are aware of you and from where you come. We also know of what you seek.

• Female: And we wish to help you! You must become your destiny.

• Avatar: What is my destiny?

• Female: That is not important now. Know that we wish to help you in your quest. Behind us lies the tomb of Khumash-Gor.

• Avatar: Who is Khumash-Gor?

• Other Male: Only the most fearsome warrior who ever lived! Eons ago, he was a great chieftain to our worshipers. But now he lies forever entombed in honor of his valor.

• Female: With him rests an artifact that is the key to tremendous power. It is made of Blackrock, a substance with which you have considerable familiarity. The small object is shaped like a pyramid. But be warned!

• Other Male: For even in death, Khumash-Gor has kept the fighting spirit to which he held so tenaciously in life. He will not part readily with his possessions.

• Female: Good luck, Avatar.

      

Assuming that the three ancient gods named in the Chronicle of Pagan are the only emotional gods, I suspect the first male is Apathas, god of impartiality. He delivers his lines in an indifferent monotone. That means the female god is Amoras, the goddess of love and joy, and the other male is Odion, god of hate and grief.

     

Alas, the gods spoke only on audio, no subtitles.

         

Khumash-Gor is mentioned in the Chronicle of Pagan as the warleader who united the Zealans into a single society, although his empire did not survive his death. He seems to be based on Genghis Khan. 

    

The problem is, the door behind them still doesn't open. I waste a lot of time running around the level, shifting every pile of bones and piece of junk, looking for the key. Eventually, I head back to the cluebook (boy, is that dam broken now) and discover that I have to use one of Mythran's Scrolls of Dispelling Magic Portals on the door. And that's what the scrolls are called, cluebook, not "Opening Scrolls" like you have it. So apparently they work on both illusory walls and regular doors—two completely different things. What makes this door magical, even? How many other locked doors could have been opened with this spell? How did players ever win this game back in the day?

    
"Who is foolish enough to disturb the sanctity of Khumash-Gor!" a corpse in a throne demands as I enter. A phantom appears, but it dies after a few swings of Slayer, leaving the Scepter of Khumash Gor. A chest behind him has Blackrock pendant. 

     

Khumash-Gor is just a regular ghost.

       

Back outside, the gods congratulate me, saying the Blackrock pendant is the key to unlocking a great power. Then they lay out the rest of their plan: I will become the fifth elemental titan, the Titan of Ether. I will then steal the powers, and the worshipers, from the other titans. "The greater the abilities you can accrue, the better chance you have of weakening the other four and eventually standing with them as more than just equal." They recommend that I somehow deal with Hydros in her underground temple next, even though I haven't exactly stolen Lithos's power or worshipers yet.

     

To me, this sounds like a plan for the gods of the Zealans to get revenge on the elemental titans who usurped them, not a plan for me to get home. I go back through the screenshots to recall what Mythran told me: "It is the power of the Titans that makes [interplanetary] travel impossible . . . Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that to depart from Pagan, one must master the powers of all four of the Titans." This whole time, I've been assuming that an extra-dimensional portal will somehow require me to channel Air, Earth, Fire, and Water together like an Aes Sedai in The Wheel of Time or something. But a reread of Mythran's text suggests that he means the Titans are somehow blocking inter-dimensional transport, and I'll thus need their powers to defeat them and destroy this blockade. That's the only way I can come up with to reconcile Mythran's suggestion with the Zealan gods' plans, anyway.

        

The elemental titans suck, no argument, and I suspect that they're either creations of the Guardian or somehow in league with him. They don't seem to be very good for the Pagans, and thus worthy of toppling, although I'm not sure the God of Apathy or the God of Hate are better options. Plus, the damage seems to have already been done. There are about a dozen people left on Pagan. The best I can do is open a portal and lead them all to a different place, not restore their ancient gods.

   

There is an extent to which these conversations re-contextualize the events to which I objected during the previous session. If the Avatar already suspected all of this, and was just playing Lithos for a fool, his behavior is a bit more defensible, although I still feel bad about lying to Vividos and the other necromancers. I think the bigger problem with Pagan is the Avatar himself. Commenters are right that previous Ultimas didn't give a lot of role-playing options, but it still felt to me that the Avatar was more of a real person. His dialogue occasionally had a bit of wit. He had friends. The Avatar of Pagan is a featureless marionette, helmeted even when he isn't wearing a helmet, constantly repeating the last thing that an NPC said, as if he recently read a pop psychology book about mirroring. I don't know what's going through his mind. It's not the same thing going through my mind. There's no relationship between player and Avatar.

     

As I head back to Vividos—goddamn it, I walked through the lasers again—I have to wonder what his big spiritual experience was at the Birthplace of Moriens. Was it the shiny lights? Or did he make it all the way to the Zealan gods? When I return to Vividos, I tell him I've completed the quest, but all he has to say is, "I hope that your experience was as wonderful as my own." He has no more dialogue options or quests. I guess I've finished the Lithos questline, then? I don't really feel like I've defeated him or stolen his followers, not that there are many left.

      

Well . . . I now have a quest to steal your power and kill your god, so probably not.

        

So where do I even go to learn Tempestry, Sorcery, or Theurgy? The theurgists supposedly live on Argentrock Isle, reachable by a bridge, but I don't believe I've found this bridge. The sorcerers live at Sorcerer's Enclave, but I don't know how to reach that, either. As for the tempests—well, Devon is the Tempest, thanks to me, but the Zealan gods mentioned something about an underground temple. Devon, wandering around the palace still in his fisherman's clothes, has nothing to offer.

          

A different Ultima might let me help with that kind of thing.

        

I end up doing a full follow-the-right-wall loop around Tenebrae again, looking for anything I missed, re-talking to everyone I see, discovering nothing new. I end up back in the cemetery again, then the Catacombs, not actually believing that the path to anyplace can run through the Catacombs, especially given that you need an earth magic spell to enter in the first place. But I continue following the right wall, eventually coming back to the Lower Catacombs entrance where I began this session. I sigh, enter, and spend a half hour dealing with lava, fireballs, skeletons, ghosts, one-way gates, levers, innumerable dead-ends, and equally innumerable reloads before finally emerging in a new area with a plaque reading: "NOW ENTERING THE PIT OF DEATH." I explore this area for a little while, then accidentally jump into some lava, then quit.

      

Just before tragedy.

          

Time so far: 33 hours 

    

****

   

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10/16/2026