Ultima VII Tricks and Cheats guide by Ed the Moogle Version 1.01 Copyright 2001 Ed the Moogle Not official in any way. Don't copy or alter this FAQ without permission. If you wish to copy this FAQ, you may not change it from electronic TXT format, and it must not be used in any kind of money-making scheme, including but not limited to: Appearing with ad-banners, pop-up windows, within frames, or within any kind of publication. I am not to be held responsible for any damages done with this file or it's contents. Latest version is at http://www.angelfire.com/games3/edthemoogle . Check the latest version before you e-mail me with questions or comments, or before telling me I'm an idiot because I made a mistake. Failure to do this will result in your e-mail being ignored. Domains that can NEVER use this FAQ (I have had some bad run-ins with these domain/domains before. They have either somehow been making money off my FAQs by the use of ad banners or otherwise). http://faqs.simplenet.com http://www.gamesdomain.com http://vgstrategies.about.com http://www.gamewinners.com If you see this FAQ on any of these sites, or any other site that uses my files without complying to the conditions in the disclaimer, report it to me immediately and I will put an end to it (edmoogle@hotmail.com or brunerp@juno.com) I credit several of these tricks to Dan Simpson and his great Ultima VII guide, as well as the web site "A Fistful of Ultima VII," seen at http://lightning.prohosting.com/~jpmorris . Many thanks to both of them. *Thievery* The do's and don'ts of being a thief. There are a few tricks to insure that you will get away with thievery every time. Thus, Iolo, Dupre, and the rest of your buddies won't get mad and leave (possibly never to return), or change loyalties and try to murder you. -Before eating food items, place them in your inventory first. If you eat a food item directly, your buddies and will get _really_ mad at you. However, you can sometimes neutralize this by making them eat the pilfered food item, although your other characters may get mad and leave instead. -If you're stealing other objects, don't move them. Just open up your inventory screen and drop them into a backpack, bag, or someone's hand, or drag the item directly onto the person you wish to give it to. People can be standing right near you and won't even care that you're robbing 'em blind. -If you're really not having much luck with stealing stuff, just drug anyone present with blue potions, and then help yourself to whatever they've got. They can't try to kill you or call the guards if they're unconscious, after all... Lord British's Castle- The Guardian's newest victim? After collecting roughly 10,000 gold coins from Buccaneer's Den, I found myself seriously low on supplies after an extended battle against some baddies. In desperation, I cast the "Help" spell to return to British's castle, and when I appeared there, I had found that the right-hand wall of the courtyard was missing. The doors were there, the people in the castle acted as if the walls were still there, but the walls themselves? Missing in action. As the game went on, I dropped much of my gold (using the method listed below), but every time I cast "Help" and returned, the hole in the wall just seemed to get bigger and bigger. Oddly enough, though- when I just WALKED into the castle from the streets, the hole was not there. It only seemed to appear (and grow) when the "Help" spell is cast. Ways to Waste Money (or: How to cure oneself of game instability) Here's some effective methods that I have found to cure oneself of game instability, and thus some problems such as flickering/vanishing walls and double-vision mages, as mentioned elsewhere in this guide. Method number one. -Head over to the area near Csil the Healer's place in Britain. -Buy a Powder Keg from Greg in the nearby provisions shop. (30 Gold) -Blow up your buddies in a rather gruesome display. -Revive at Csil's. (450 each) -Repeat until you are a poor man. Method number two. -Stuff as much gold into your inventory as your characters can carry. -Head into a town where there are tons of goodies to steal (Britain, for example). -Move one such item around in the precense of somebody, so that they will yell "Do not touch that!" when you do so. Repeat until the guards barge in. -When the guards ask if you wish to avoid the unpleasantries of a lengthy trial, say Yes, then give him all of your gold. -Refill your backpacks with gold, and repeat until you are a poor man. Note: If a guard asks if you will go quietly, say "No," then use the Help spell or cast Recall on one of the Stones of Virtue to make a quick getaway. *RED-RUM... RED-RUM...* Kill the Jailer Just click into Combat Mode when near Empath Abbey's jailer, Goth, and your characters will get medieval on the poor sap without any order from you. Guess he was just too evil to be liked by your buddies. Just don't go peaceably when a guard asks you to now, or you may never be able to escape from prison... Kill Lord British As most Ultima players know, Lord British is nearly invincible in every Ultima game- no amount of magical bombardment or hacking away with weaponry will do him in. Meanwhile, the opposite is true for him- one touch of his pinky finger will reduce your character to a lump of smoking carbon. Ultima VII is no different, but there are other ways to accomplish this task than trying to pummel his brains out through his ears... There are only two ways to kill Lord British that I have found to work. First, if you have the Forge of Virtue add-on disk and have completed the Isle of Fire, you can simply ask the Demon Sword to kill LB, which does its job quite well. Second, there is a sign hanging above the door leading to Lord British's throne room. He will stand under this sign at roughly 9 AM to 12 PM every day (you can also move him here with the Hack Mover, or attack him and lead him under it (although you may not live long enough to lead him there using this method unless you chug a lot of potions)). Double-click the sign whilst he stands under it, and it will fall down and make a new home in the good king's head (which is quite a pleasant sound to the Guardian's ears). Iolo will then shout something along the lines of "He's dead, Avatar! Yancey-Hausman will pay!" Read the scroll that you find on his body for even more fun. Question: Who's Yancey-Hausman? Batlin's late...in more ways than one! Yes, it is indeed possible to kill Mr. Batlin, the lightning flinging monk that, like Lord British, cannot be killed by conventional means (not even the Demon Sword/Shade Blade/Black Sword can do it). It can only be done in one way, and that is to wait around the Fellowship hall in Britain until the usual Fellowship meeting begins at 9:00, then cast the Death Bolt spell on him while he's conducting the meeting. (I think this will work at any other time, too, but it seems to have the highest rate of success during this time). For some reason, this trick doesn't like to work with the magically impaired, so be sure to boost your Avatar's Intelligence and Magic scores before you try this trick. If you've done the Forge of Virtue quest or have trained your Intelligence and Magic quite a bit, this shouldn't be a problem. There isn't much of interest on his body, other than a scroll that you'd never get to see otherwise. NOTE: This does not cause problems in the sequence near the end of the game, as I had once thought. This is because the Batlin in the end sequence is actually a completely different NPC. Armageddon To see what the end of the world is like firsthand, just cast the Circle Eight spell, aptly named Armageddon. This spell will cause a massive earthquake, followed by lightning flashes and snow, which will result in every NPC in the game to be injured beyond repair (and they cannot be saved!). The only exceptions are the Avatar, Lord British, and Batlin. Go talk to LB and Batlin, and hear what they have to say. If you killed them off earlier by aforementioned methods, though, you'll be all alone in the world... *An avatar's ransom in pilfered goods!* Who wants to be a millionare? As most know, gambling is generally considered a good way to lose money really quickly. Not the case in Ultima VII. If you become a member of the Fellowship and you wear your medallion inside the casino in Buccaneer's Den, the odds on the Rat Race game will improve to 6 to 1, and the Virtue Roulette will improve to 14 to 1. This means that you can wager money on each rat/Virtue square, and no matter what it lands on, you'll still turn up a profit. Good for when you're short on cash. Or, if you're really greedy, you can stack several piles of gold (up to three) on each square/lane to improve your profits even more. For those who want still more winnings, you can fit up to six stacks of gold across the length of the Rat Race table... Note: I wouldn't recommend getting TOO much money, as it will make walls and other objects throughout the world start vanishing and flickering, and if you get way too much it will crash the game. It's usually good to cap it at around 10-20 thousand, because by then you'll most likely be running out of places to store it anyway. I'd recommend bringing a chest or two with you to carry all that loot, as chests can carry up to 99 stones of weight each. You can also steal another one from the casino itself, if you need it (it's got some gold bars inside, too). Lord British's other storeroom Lots of stuff here, including some plate gear a musket. To get in here, enter the secret passage that leads around the perimeter of the castle, and move a barrel found near the kitchen. Flip the switch you find under it to open this area up. Treasure Island Lots of good stuff here. Glass swords, a bit of magic gear, some Gold Bars, etc. To find out where this place is, just grab a gavel and whack a parrot on the head with it (both are readily available in Spark's house in Trinsic). It will tell you the coordinates to find this island. Just keep in mind that your buddies will get mad at you for moving the caltrops here (I have no clue why), so you will need to first take them into your inventory to move them. Serpent's Hold Storeroom Search the up-facing fish in the kitchen (the description for it reads 'Body') to find a key. Take this key to the cave at 177 South, 36 East, and go into the cave here. Use the key you found in the fish to unlock the chest and get another key. Use this key to unlock the treasure room back in Serpent's hold, stocked with a handful of magical weapons. Loot away! X Marks the Spot Well, the key to get into "The Spot," anyway. Fly up to 48 North, 138 East, ignore the Guardian (he will not shut up!), and root through the treausure chest to find a glass sword and a key. Take the key you find to Serpent's Hold, and open up the treasure chest in the main hall with it. The immor(t)al bandits North of the intended entrance to the final dungeon of the game is a small village of Brigands, stocked up with gold bars, powder kegs, and a couple of ships and rooms for you to loot. This is also a good place to gain experience if you need it- just go offscreen from the buildings after killing the pirates within, then come back. They will have come back to life to begin their attack anew (I call 'em the Lazarus bandits). Skara Brae Dresser In the graveyard in Skara Brae, there is a tomb on the far left-hand side. To the left and behind this tomb is a barely-visible switch. Flip this switch to open a door in the nearby crypt. In here is a barely-visible nightstand filled to the brim with a set of magic armor, a Death Scythe, and several plot items required to complete the Skara Brae section of the game. The Giving Tree South of Trinsic, on the west side of the forest, is a tree. Hidden within the branches under the tree is a treasure chest. Pick the lock or break the chest open to find within it a set of magic gear, a Flame Sword, a Sword of Defense, and some other good stuff. Destard Goodies Lots of gems and gold (and even more gems can be found on the Dragon's bodies), and a Spellbook with a few spells in it (it's missing some Linear Spells) can be found in this treasure trove. If the dragons prove too tough to kill, just use the tried-and-true method of looting: Drug 'em with a blue potion, slip by while they're unconsious, and help yourself to their belongings! Dragon's Hoard Within the final dungeon on the Isle of the Avatar is a cave with a bunch of bodies, a dragon, a TON of gold and a few magical items. You need to walk through this area to reach the end of the game, so you can't miss it. Help yourself to whatever you want, and maybe backtrack and use the money to deck out your characters with plate gear if you hadn't done so before coming here (shame on you!). Rob the Bank This method isn't as profitable as, oh, say, the Buccaneer's Den cheat, but it gives a pretty good amount of cash in its own right. First of all, wait until nighttime, then follow the bank keeper, Cynthia, to her house on the east end of town. Kill her, then take the keys that you find on her body. Use these keys to open up the locked doors in the Bank, and help yourself to all the money and gold in the vault. Now drag Cynthia's body over to Lord British and have her resurrected (or you can return her yourself), then come back to the vault the next day and cash in all the gold bars and nuggets. You should turn up about 1400 gold pieces in profit! Not bad for a few minutes' work! The Magic Carpet Outside the entrance to Dungeon Despise (east of Yew) is a magic carpet. This thing allows you to fly over just about everything, so it's definitely worth getting. To find it, just cross the bridge northeast of Yew, then go southeast, following the mountains all the way down to the water. Now walk along the narrow pathway along the water's edge until you reach the carpet. The Trinsic Chimney I'm saving the best for last, just so you know. Among other things in this place are EIGHT complete sets of magical gear, most of the best weapons in the game, a spellbook complete with 100 of each reagent (you get infinite Reagants if you have Hack Mover on, oddly enough), and several plot items, most of which are in invisible chests. In addition, there are a bunch of teleporters that take you to various places all around Britannia. Most often, an object nearby the teleporter will give you a clue as to where it will take you. (The sign reading "The Throne of the Guardian" will take you just there, for example). In order to get here, stack up crates or other objects (loaves of bread and bales of wool, among other things, work too) to reach the roof of the Blacksmith's shop. Then just walk behind the chimney and presto! You're there. I've heard that there are other ways to get to this area. Any help? *Mad Mages!* Nicodemus- Reagent Thief? Here's an interesting quandry that I stumbled upon a while ago. To set the stage, I had collected about 20,000 gold pieces at Buccaneer's Den (which, as any U7 fan knows, makes the game quite unstable. Afterwards, I had decided that I had run a bit too low on Reagents, so I stopped by Nystul's and picked up about 50 of each reagent. I then headed over to Nicodemus' place to pick up the ones that Nystul doesn't sell. Anyway, I bought some stuff off of Nicodemus, and when I went back to check my inventory, I was _completely_ devoid of the Ginseng I had bought from Nystul! Thinking it was only a one-time glitch, I went on to buy some different reagents, and when I checked my inventory again... BOOM! I was now missing almost all of my Blood Moss, as well as small to moderate amounts of some other reagents! In a whim of fury, I pressed the "C" key, double clicked Nico, and watched the bloodshed begin. Then, when I opened up his carcass, I found that he had on him- that's right- roughly all of the reagents that had been missing from my inventory, and then some! I don't know if this is a bug (most likely caused by the fortune in gold pieces in the barrel on my magic carpet) or if this is how he gets his jollies after going insane, but one thing is for sure- I won't be buying reagents from Nicodemus until I find what caused this strange turn of events. Mage wierdness In a different saved game, but still with the aforementioned ridiculous amounts of gold in my posession, I went to buy some Reagants from Nystul, but every time I tried, he gave me the excuse that I did not have enough room in my inventory to carry the reagants. So, I dropped some stuff out of my inventory to make room. When that ended in the same result, I dropped everything other than my empty backpack to make room, and still he complained that I carried too much. In frustration, I picked up my gear and left, instead choosing to run around town and find ways to get rid of my money, until my supplies of gold had dropped down to a more reasonable number of roughly 1000. I returned to Nystul. He appeared to have regained a bit of his sanity in my absence, and chose to sell me some reagants without complaining about lack of space. More fun with those mad mages. -Nicodemus' corpse has quite a few useful magical items and reagents on it. Bump him off, then help yourself. Do keep in mind that you'll need to revive him later in order to complete the game, though. -Start the game with the Cheat Menu, then hold ALT, press the 4 key, and click on Batlin, the mages in the Lycaeum, or Lord British to find some items that resemble bolts of lightning or explosions, among other things. Pick these up with the Hack Mover, equip them in your weapon hand and you'll be able to fire the spells depicted by the icon until its power runs out, and all without Magic Point or Reagent cost! (unfortunately, the Death Bolt Batlin's carrying wears out pretty quick...) -Rudyom or Alagner, when approached in the daytime, will be constantly making potions and setting them down on their tables. Every time they set one down, you will have a few moments to pick it up and add it to your inventory. You can get literally dozens of potions doing this. -Mariah, whether she is "sane" or not, will determine the prices of her spells randomly, the lowest being in the 40-100 gold range. These prices are considerably cheaper than buying them from any other mage, and I'd recommend that you buy as many spells from her as possible, at the lowest prices possible. You'll end up saving quite a chunk of change in the end. (ask two or three times to insure that you get the best deal). Mages steal...from beyond the grave?! Now, here's a wierd occurence, very possibly a glitch. You see, on the Isle of Fire's Test of Courage, in the first room with all the Headless and Skeletons, there are two mages you must fight, one male and the other female. Well, when killed, the female wizard's body looks exactly like Iolo's corpse. Anyway, Iolo was killed in the battle against the two Golems at the end of the hall in that same room, and having no means to revive him, I pressed on, later being killed by a dragon. Well, when I recovered back at the Fellowship Shelter, Iolo was back with me, but he had none of the equipment I had given him prior to arriving at the Isle. I teleported back to the Test of Courage, and searched the mage's body, and found- to my surprise- all of Iolo's equipment! After re-equipping the Bard, I moved on to the battle with the dragons. Again I was killed. When I recovered again, Iolo's stuff had been replaced with items I did not recognize as the ones he had gotten back from the mage. When I teleported back and searched the body near the Dragons, I had found- sure enough- Iolo's equipment! Wierd... *Substance Abuse* The perfect crime! If you want to steal or kill without limit or regrets, you need only a small hoard of Blue Potions and a watchful eye. Merely drug your victim with a blue potion so that they can't call the guards when you're sorting through their things (or trying to kill them), and do the deed. If they wake up in the midst of the crime scene, quickly drug them again. This is helpful when robbing the mint, sneaking into Destard to get gems, etc. Kill almost anyone- and get away with it! To do this trick, you'll need several Green Potions. If you don't have any, go buy or steal some. Now take your green potions and walk over to the person you want to kill. Now cram a green potion down their throat and watch as their HP slowly drains from poison. When the potion wears off, feed them another green potion to drop their HP even more. Once their HP drops down enough, they'll die. I like doing this to Frank the Fox, but it's also helpful for robbing the mint and killing off those pesky dragons in Destard while they're asleep and reduce the risk of losing life and limb. Serpent Venom: Britannia's equivalent to anabolic steroids? Generally, Silver Serpent Venom, when consumed, boosts a character's primary stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence) significantly, possibly up to the maximum allowed (30 in each Stat). However, there is a downside as well- after the effects wear off, the consumer's stats will be dropped down to a dangerously low level. Well, I the task upon myself to find out just exactly how the stuff affects your stats. To start, I exited Trinsic with Iolo and recruited Shamino. Next, I grabbed up all the Serpent Venom I could carry from the butcher's shop in Paws and the mining guild house in Minoc (14 vials or so). To start off, I gave each of my characters 1 vial of the Venom. Their stats improved as follows... BEFORE Str Dex Int Avatar 18 18 18 Iolo 18 19 20 Shamino 18 21 19 DURING Avatar 23 23 23 Iolo 23 24 25 Shamino 23 26 24 Well, now we know that it increases all of characters' stats by 5 points. However, once the effect wore off... AFTER Avatar 17 17 17 Iolo 17 18 19 Shamino 17 20 18 All of their stats were now one point below their former level. Reloading the save, I tried giving each of them two vials. It came with similar effects, and a similar result... BEFORE Avatar 18 18 18 Iolo 18 19 20 Shamino 18 21 19 DURING Avatar 28 28 28 Iolo 28 29 30 Shamino 28 30 29 AFTER Avatar 16 16 16 Iolo 16 17 18 Shamino 16 18 17 Everyone's stats were now who points before their former level, save for Shamino's Dexterity, which was three points below the former. I reloaded my save, and this time tried giving each of them three vials. This brought all of their stats up to 30, but once the Venom wore off... BEFORE Avatar 18 18 18 Iolo 18 19 20 Shamino 18 21 19 DURING Avatar 30 30 30 Iolo 30 30 30 Shamino 30 30 30 AFTER Avatar 12 12 12 Iolo 12 12 12 Shamino 12 12 12 All of their stats had now been dropped down from six to nine points each! From this, I concluded that the characters' stats will drop the same number of vials they take, unless the total stats gained from the venom exceeds 30, which will cause a greater drop when the venom wears off. Putting this into practice one more time, I reloaded the state and gave Shamino four vials and Iolo five. BEFORE Iolo 18 19 20 Shamino 18 21 19 DURING Iolo 30 30 30 Shamino 30 30 30 AFTER Iolo 1 1 1 Shamino 6 6 6 Since both had gone over the 30 limit, their stats now reflected that by dropping them down to very meager levels of strength. Trying one more save, I fed the Iolo 14 vials of the Venom, meaning that all three of his stats would exceed the limit by 63 (!) points. After the effect wore off, I didn't see much of a negative outcome. In fact, what I saw was the bard's ascent to godly power. BEFORE Iolo 18 18 18 DURING Iolo 30 30 30 AFTER Iolo 203 203 203 Iolo's Strength had now shot up to the ridiculously high level of 203 and by checking the Cheat Menu I found that his other stats had done this same, this result most likely achieved by dropping his stats so low that they actually "rolled around" and went back to the positive totals. Liking this result, I reloaded the game again and fed the vials to the Avatar, achieving much the same result. I decided that I liked the idea of having over 200 hit points, and so I went to Lord British's fountain to fill up my life. But when I did so, I found that I was immobile. I checked my Ztats, and found that I had made a _serious_ mistake. Hits: -107 With a scream of agony as the water burned away his flesh, The Avatar slumped to the ground, now in a state far worse than death, much lower on HP than the average victim of the Armageddon spell. It was anyone's guess how he managed to avoid being reduced to a smoking lump of carbon on the floor. Despite his ghastly state of living death, he retained his godly strength, although it still wasn't enough to pull his body off of the floor and continue the quest. Lord British, standing nearby in the courtyard as the Avatar took that last fateful gulp of water, took this motion and created the "Partnership for a Drug-free Britannia," planning to stop this ghastly substance abuse before more would suffer. Okay, maybe I exaggerated a bit on that last part, but to sum up my point, Serpent Venom is pretty nasty stuff once it wears off, unless it is taken in huge amounts, where it can be somewhat helpful. Just don't die or heal the affected character while it's in effect, and whatever you do, don't use it on the Avatar or you won't be able to finish the game! Unless you cheat yourself out of it, anyway. *Cheating* Access the cheat menu To reach this elusive menu which allows you to break every rule in the book, exit to the DOS prompt and type in "Ultima7" to start the game as you normally would. Don't hit enter yet, though. After typing "Ultima7," hit the space key and type "ABCD," then hold the ALT key and press 255 on the numeric keypad (right-hand side of the keyboard). Cheat Menu specifics Next version! Fun with the Cheat Menu As you probably know, with the Cheat Menu one can bend all the rules of Ultima to their liking, creating any item they desire, recruiting anyone, changing anyone's lifestyle to their own liking, etc. Here's a small list of some fun to be had with the Cheat menu. The day Britannia's moat ran red... Now, this one is fun. What you do is program a Wisp to try and kill Lord British, and set it loose in Britannia. Since Wisps are immortal (and so is LB, to an extent), a battle of epic proportions will ensue, with explosions being flung left and right from both sides, usually killing off everyone in the castle as they get caught in the crossfire. Alagner's Three Studies Warning: Don't do this trick if you don't want to spoil the game's ending! You've been warned! You ever looked in the Crystal Ball in Alagner's study after he was murdered? Remember that scene you saw in it? Well, what you saw in that crystal ball is actually a place on the Isle of the Avatar, accessible only by cheating. Just teleport to the hex coordianates a82, 974, 0. However, you should refrain from killing Alagner's murderers, lest ye wish to freeze the game. In addition, there is a THIRD study below that one, although this one is pretty deserted, save for the fact that there is another Alagner in it. Armageddon, Part Two or "Busted, you thieving scoundrel bastard!" If you use the cheat menu to teleport to the hex coordinates 209,407,0, you'll find yourself in a small room with a throne surrounded by fire traps. Teleporting here will cause everyone in the world (sans Lord British and Batlin) to be wounded beyond saving- the same effect as an Armageddon spell. In addition, Lord British will then teleport there, chew you out for cheating, and then open fire with dozens of Lightning spells (if he wasn't dead before you teleported here), most likely causing you to die. However, if you have the Power Avatar cheat on or have the Black Sword, you can stop LB's attacks. Just ask the Black Sword to kill him, or teleport to LB's castle and drop the sign on his head. Note: Clicking on any object or accessing the cheat menu will have their respective descriptor texts replaced with the word "Oink." It is still possible to use the Cheat Menu if this event occurs. The text will just be blotted out by said word, making it a bit more difficult unless you have the commands memorized or written down. The House of the Dead Not to be confused with the arcade game of the same name, Ultima VII's House of the Dead is actually what its name implies- where all of the game's non-evil NPCs go when they die. The NPC "corpse" gets sent here, while the body that is left with your characters is actually considered a container (you can move it around, pick it up, put things in it, etc). To remove a "corpse" from this place, simply revive the "container" corpse where they died (outside the House of the Dead) and the body inside the House will return to its place of death, and the item corpse will vanish. You can get here, if you want, by teleporting via the cheat menu to the Hexidecimal coordinates (5a8, 508, 0). Note: This place will be empty (or close to it) if you cast the Armageddon spell. The Armageddon spell does not actually kill all the NPCs in the game. Rather, it drops their HP to somewhere in the -6 range, and does not allow them to recieve any kind of healing to reverse the effect. *Useless trivia* A "stone" is an English measure of weight. A stone is equal to about 14 pounds of weight. The Jhelom trainer De Snel's name is actually derived from a member of Ultima VII's staff, D. Snell. There is a book somewhere that offers a rather unique explanation for why every door in the Ultima universe is on the south or east end of the building. Does anyone know where this is? *Miscellaneous* Turn your buddies against you. I guess this isn't much of a trick, but oh, well. If you perform a crime (attacking a person, stealing, etc.) while one of your unrecruited buddies is nearby, they will join in the duel to take you down. I guess that they won't let even the Avatar off easy. Also note that in cases where you use the Black Sword on someone that isn't evil or is a party member, your buddies will turn on you even if they are in your party. The game is a bit confused... If you grab up any Serpent Dagger and ask De Snel in Jhelom about a murder commited with it (even if there was no murder commited with the weapon), and then ask for a Demonstration, he'll attack you. This is actually a bit of a glitch, as you find one such dagger at the murder scene in Minoc, but the game can't tell the difference between that dagger and the several other Serpent Daggers lying about in Britannia. Thus, you can ask him about a "murder" even if you never go to Minoc or find the dagger there- the event is simply triggered by posessing a Serpent Dagger. Three-Second Bread Many Ultima VII fans are familiar with Willy, the baker in Britain, and that he offers to give you a job as a baker, paying five gold coins for every five loaves of bread you make. What is odd about this particular job is that you do not need to make dough before you put it in the oven, despite what Willy tells you. You can simply throw some flour on the table, then put the flour directly in the oven, and within a few seconds, a loaf of bread will pop out. Wierdness. Silly Willy Willy seems to have a problem with his vision, or something. I offered to buy some flour over in Paws and bring it to him. I did so, and when I brought it back to Willy, he claimed that I did not have any flour on me! I tried this again while carrying about 10 more bags of flour, with the same result. In frustration, I slayed him and stuffed his carcass in a crate. Oh well, I would have lost money on the deal anyway. You buy them for 14 each, and sell them to him for 4. Not good business, says me. Hello Clarice To make a Hannibal Lecter- esque loaf of bread, simply pick up a bucket of blood from one of the handful of murder sites around Britain, or from the Tree of Life on the Isle of Fire. Now head over to Willy's kitchen, and throw some flour on the table. Now instead of using water to make dough, use the bucket of blood. You now have yourself a rather morbid treat. Get out of jail free (well, almost) In case you were wondering how to break out of the Empath Abbey prison, here's a rundown. -Search the body in your cell to find 40 gold. -Talk to the jailer (Goth), and pay him 20 gold to get the key. -Unlock your cell with the key, then leave the key in the prison in case you get caught thieving again. -Reclaim your gear on the tables in the courtroom. Everyone talks gibberish During the proceedings whilst you are joining the Fellowship, Batlin will ask you two questions, which are actually a disguised form of copy protection. Should you answer them wrong, everyone will talk nonsensical gibberish until you talk to Batlin again and get them right (One person in attendance told me to "Stop gibbering his acidic Canadian" or something to that effect). While the messages they give you may not make sense, they are pretty entertaining, so be sure to try it at least once. "Murder is OK as long as it's done right." -Slight deriative of a Richard Gariott quote Well, as you most certainly know, murder is not taken lightly in Britannia. If you make an attempt on someone's life, it will usually result in you being swarmed with guards (who, fortunately, aren't as strong as their counterparts from previous Ultima games) and angry bystanders. So how do we prevent this? Simple. Kill 'em before they can scream and attract attention. This is most easily done using a powerful weapon, such as a Powder Keg, Death Scythe, Triple Crossbow (my personal favorite), or, of course, the Black Sword. If they don't start shouting for help before they die, you're in the clear. Just make sure to take into account any witnesses who may call for help or try to take you down in the name of justice. Fun with the Black Sword One day, I got bored after completing the events on the Isle of Fire, so I decided to try and murder Batlin with it. The Sword couldn't kill Batlin outright for whatever reason, so instead I relied on using its "Fire" power and sending a screaming inferno of death toward Batlin. Well, he shook it off, and was now attempting to kill me with thrown lightning bolts. Surprisingly, though, he wasn't the only one to make an attempt on my life- all of my followers had joined in the attack as well! Quickly flipping on the Hack Mover, I picked up the Avatar and dropped him on top of a nearby building, getting him out of range of my allies' attacks, save for Jaana (using the hawk) and Iolo (toting a Crossbow). I fled south from them to a second rooftop, and a third, and finally lost them. When I dropped down to the street though, Shamino came barelling down the lane, Serpent Sword in hand. If you have any questions, comments or additions, feel free to send them to brunerp@juno.com or edmoogle@hotmail.com . Put "Ultima VII Tricks FAQ" in the subject.