Ultima V - Making progress

A short update on Ultima V.

I'm still grinding a little bit.

I got a few rings of regeneration, which takes care of mixing and casting healing spells endlessly. At least for now - rings like that randomly disappear when you take them on or off, or over time. Fun limitation on a magic ring, I think.

I also found that my mages can also use throwing axes, so I got them magic throwing axes. Throw-and-return, and high damage. Turn order seems dexterity based, so Otto (DEX 26) goes a lot more often than Jaana (DX 17) and hits more often, too. XP is solely for dealing a killing blow, so the experienced get more experienced.

Fighting in Ultima V, though, is generally not a big thing for plot development. That involves a lot of talking to people, then talking to others, then coming back . . . etc. People have annoyingly specific keywords. I was told someone had a mantra I needed to learn, and would tell me if asked. So I asked. "I can't help you with that." Okay, it's for the shrine of, say, Honesty. "Honesty" triggers "I can't help you with that." "Shrine," however, gets, "I know the mantra for the shrine of (whatever), do you want to know it?" Yes, what have I been asking about? Aaargh!

Anyway, you fight to get resources to solve some problems. Most bad monsters can be one-shot kills with glass swords, so getting better is only a matter of building up HP and ability to cast spells to get past specific obstacles. Killing as a means, not an end. Also, because there are endess nuisance monsters to harass you as you move around . . . even when you're on a flying carpet.

I have found that my quest - go find Lord British in the Underworld - also involves me recovering his regalia from various evil folks that hold them or from the underworld and then using them to defeat the Shadowlords and their catspaw Blackthorn. Okay, fine, go find things.

I have some words of power to unseal the dungeons, but it's not clear why I need to go into them yet. I'll find out. I figure I'll get all of the shrines visited so I can solve their quests, then start in on the underworld. I'm grabbing moonstones as I can, as well. We'll see how that all goes!