I set out to find Despise. The description NW of Britain was quite vague to say the least. I end up going all the way through the Serpent Spine mountains and around the top of them and do find a dungeon entrance after a while. Shamino doesn’t give  me a name for this dungeon when we get near which isn’t promising but I have a look anyway. This dungeon turns out to be pretty huge so I assume I’ve got the right place but after a lot of walking around I get to a locked door I don’t have a key for. There is a mage behind this door who is lost and wants to know the way out. I tell him, he disappears and I still can’t get through the door. With nothing left to do I make my way out and look for another dungeon. What makes me think this may not be the right one is the mention of the magic carpet from earlier being at the entrance to Despise and I haven’t seen it.

I find a really narrow path by the side of a river nearby and follow this along.

Sure enough there is a magic carpet at the end of it. Its not quite what I expected I have to say – its a little big to carry around unlike the Ultima 5 one. There is also the entrance to Despise at last. It took me about 1-2 hours to play to here in this session without really achieving much so I held off on posting until I had more to say.

Despise turns out to be smaller than the dungeon I was just in if anything. I stumble across some sort of invasion party intending to attack LB’s castle but we wipe them out pretty easily. They have some nice equipment including a complete set of magic armour.

After a bit of walking around I come across a red moongate which looks highly suspicious. If I walk into it I get teleported back a few steps so I cast mark here. (The first time I actually walk straight through in an obvious bug!)

Walking round the side, I can see the sphere so this is definitely the right place. I exit the dungeon via a convenient teleport.

This brings me back to Britain. I mention the guardian to LB but he doesn’t seem to believe me.

As instructed I go back to ask the time lord how to get to the sphere. I need to get an enchanted hourglass from Nicodemus it seems.

Nicodemus has sold his hourglass but I can buy it in Paws cheaply so this is easily solved. Getting it enchanted is another matter.

The moongate from the timelords drops me in Moonglow this time. I’ve not been here before so I take the time to look around.

There is an animated model of the planets here which doesn’t seem to serve any purpose that I can see.

The lycaeum is full of books each of which can be read although I’ve pretty much skipped reading the books while playing this.

Penumbra the mage is still around having put herself into a sleep for 200 years to await my return. I need to solve a series of clues to get into her house though. These are just a series of objects to find. The first clue above “Hammer here to enter” means I have to find a hammer and drop it on the ground. I don’t have one with me so I carry on looking around Moonglow.

Nelson in the observatory says he can make a viewer for me if I fetch him a crystal. I’ve no idea why I need this but the guy in the pub has already offered to sell me a crystal so I know how to get it if I want it.

I find a hammer in one of the house and take it back. The plaque changes to a different object which I have to find.

The fellowship here is about as trustworthy as ever. The leader here is being usurped by his assistant and gets me to unwittingly deliver some poisoned wine. I don’t know if there is any way to catch him out in this crime but he gets away with it for now by denying knowledge.

A lot of objects later I get into Penumbra’s house. I wake her using a potion lying on the table.

She can’t think straight presumably for the same reason as all the other mages and wants me to fetch some blackrock to make a shield.

There is blackrock aplenty in Cove. I get four pieces and put them on each pedastle.

Shes not done with sending me on errands yet. The generator causing the problems with magic is in the nearby dungeon but I can’t do anything about it without some ring I need to fetch from Terfin.

The gargoyles have embraced the fellowship like everyone else it seems although they also still have their old shrines. I pretty much ignore any side quests here and head straight for Lord Draxinusum.

Nothing in Britannia is ever simple and he has sold the ring to the Sultan of Spectran. That is a new island just to the NW. I sail over to take a look.

The Sultan is quite mad and talks to an invisible harem. He will let me take what I want on the bright side but seems a bit too jovial about that.

Sure enough a “rock hard” stone harpy attacks as soon as I approach his vault. This thing is tough. I try a few strategies after getting my party wiped out several times. The one that seems to work is just giving Iolo a magic bow + magic arrows. As soon as I did that we took the harpy down in no time. I take the ring from the vault.

Penumbra enchants the ring and I set off to the dungeon to shut down the generator.

The dungeon is quite brief really and not too hard. I have to instruct my companions to wait when I get close. The generator sends constant lightning bolts against me but they don’t hurt whilst wearing the ring.

Inside the generator is a big red monster. I use the death power of the sword to take it out in one hit. Using the little box destroys the generator.

I regather my party and we head back to Yew to get the hourglass enchanted. I recall straight back to the sphere. Inside this one is a series of moongates where I have to pick one of 2 each time in the correct order to reach the end. This is really easy and I make it in a couple of attempts (although I’m possibly just lucky here).

After destroying the sphere the time lord chimes in with a load of new information. I need something to destroy blackrock – I’m still carrying rudyoms wand around so thats not a problem. There is another generator to destroy at the fellowship retreat – this is the one that transmits the guardians voice.

After that I need to head for Bucaneers Den it would seem. Before any of this I decide to head for Jhelom. I’ve gone through most of the game here and still not picked Dupre up.

I’ve missed Elizabeth and Abraham yet again in Jhelom. I’ve pretty much stopped trying to find them anyway – it seems like a wild goose chase.

Dupre is hanging around the pub as ever on a survey of Britannias pubs. I get him to join up.

The obligatory local crisis I have to solve in Jhelom this time involves the owner of the pub who has managed to steal the standard of honor, hand it to a thief and accepted three duels with the hardest fighters in Jhelom.

I find an old fighter who suggests we make a fake flag to get around this problem. Unfortunately he takes forever to finish it by which point I’ve been attacked by the duellists and had to wipe them out. It solved the problem at any rate….

Why he didn’t tell me this at the time I don’t know but I can’t get to the generator without a caddelite helmet. Caddelite comes from meteors so I need to find one of these. The observatory has to be the place to go.

Nelson is pretty helpful and points me in the right direction.

The meteor landed on Ambrosia (is this the place from Ultima 3?). Its somewhere in the NE of the map apparently so I go looking for it.

It doesn’t take much finding. There is an over-friendly sprite called Kissme here who confirms I’m in the right place.

The cadellite is guarded by a fearsom looking hydra..

It dies in about 1 second and isn’t half as tough as I expected. The corpse contains its last 2 meals.

The caddellite meteor is just to the south. I take a few lumps of the rock.

Zorn in Minoc makes me some helmets free of charge so its back to the fellowship retreat.

Inside the final generator is a strange maze. Paths or traps pop up when I step in certain places. The path through is complicated but there is pretty much only ever one option so its not that hard to get to the middle.

After destroying this final generator the time lord pipes up again. The small cube I get by destroying this big one will work on fellowship members to make them tell me the truth. This sounds seriously useful – I should really head from Britain and try this out on Batlin but he advises me to go to Bucaneers Den which is what I’m going to do next.