Vividos has sent you on a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Moriens to
"pay homage to Moriens and hope for a visitation". The only given clue to its
location is that you should "seek out the signs that mark the way" in the
Upper Catacombs.
Go back to the Upper Catacombs the same way you did before - by casting
Open Ground at the building north of the monastery. Once inside, follow a similar
course as before by first taking the north passage, then going east beyond fence
and skeletons and then all the way east to the pile of skeletons and northwest
to the fence with the "Danger do not enter" sign. Go on the north side and walk
through the metal wall by the red pillar, which you lowered last time. Go east,
and the building you want is in the second turning south. If you have the
patch, the sign beside the door will read "The Birthplace of Moriens"; if not
it will read "Towards Fate do you travel".
Unlock the door with the Key of the Scion and enter. The north turning is a
dead-end with a useless altar and some lights, so go west. Jump over the lava
and go west to a dead-end with some rising ghouls and a "Rest in Peace" sign.
Use the Restore to Sight scroll on the skeleton to make a chest appear under the
plaque. It is full of explosives, and has magic armour and seven different
potions.
Go back to the lava and go northwest this time. In the backpack is a
book on Zealan mythology and a scroll hinting
that you are just about to enter a Zealan Shrine. Go north of the backpack
through the doors and into the shrine.
Getting the Skull of Quakes
Go north past rolling spiked spheres and a door, and east past a north
turning to five levers arranged as if on the points of a pentagram around a
fenced chest at the centre of the imaginary pentagram. Just north of there is a
pair of massive locked doors. The idea is to pull 2 to 4 levers in the correct
sequence to lower the fence surrounding the chest, which contains the key to the
locked door. The consequences of pulling the wrong levers is either inverting the
screen (without an immediate remedy) or unleashing Avatar-seeking fireballs.
The solution is random, but I believe that there may be a fixed sequence of things
to do, hinted at by the computer. This is partly because of the pentagram
arrangement of the levers, but also because the Avatar will usually look in the
direction of the next lever you have to pull (if he does not, you usually need
to pull the same one you just pulled). Unfortunately, this does not always
work, but I got it to work most of the time. You will have to solve the puzzle
by trial and error using these hints, until someone finds a fixed solution.
(Update 26th May 2023: see the Ultima
8 walkthrough by gibberishh for the puzzle solution.)
Once you solve the puzzle and the fence is lowered, unlock the door with the
key from the chest. Once you go in, the only available path will take you to a
dead-end with a trapped chest. Grab the Skull of Quakes from the chest and keep
it for later used. You can also pick up cash and reagents from the floor and
the skeletons.
Reaching the Zealan Temple
Go back to where you skipped the northern junction, and this time take it.
You have now come to the fence maze. Gates in the fences will
sometimes lower when you approach them, but will sometimes also seal your way
back. Pick the gates east, north, west and west again so that you come to an
elevated oassage. Climb onto it, take two or three steps west and jump north
out of the maze.
Follow the west path and climb onto the elevated ground. Jump over the water
pit and you will end up at the tomb of Amrezhar (whoever he is). On a table you
are given a bag and reagents to cast Open Ground; do just that, and the ground
before the tombstone will fall apart. Jump into the hole and drop down to the
level below.
To the east is a Zealan Ceremonial Shield, which is blocked off by stalagmites.
You can only reach it later via the doors beyond the stalagmites. Go west, north,
east and east again until you see a table and floor filled with rolling spheres
(like marbles). You need to throw an object on the raised pressure plate just
north of the fence in order to lower the gate. From here you can collect 2 keys,
reagents, lots of cash (under a skull candle in a chest) and other goodies.
Jump over the beam to avoid injury, and go east. You have just come to a
classic puzzle in programming - the Towers of Hanoi, just that
you will need your mind to solve it, not a program. This game involves three
staircases - a complete one of four steps on the right and two places
on the left and in the middle for temporarily putting steps. The objective is
to build a complete staircase in the middle. When you step on a pressure plate
in front of a staircase, the first step will be lowered, and will be brought
to the staircase where you next step on a pressure plate. You cannot, however,
have a bigger step in front of a smaller step. This is not easy to solve without
help in a game like this, but try it out physically by using four different-sized
coins and it will all be much simpler. This is the solution just in case you
can't or don't feel like solving it yourself:
Right → Left (step 1)
Right → Middle (step 2)
Left → Middle (step 1)
Right → Left (step 3)
Middle → Right (step 1)
Middle → Left (step 2)
Right → Left (step 1)
Right → Middle (step 4)
Left → Middle (step 1)
Left → Right (step 2)
Middle → Right (step 1)
Left → Middle (step 3)
Right → Left (step 1)
Right → Middle (step 2)
Left → Middle (step 1)
The red and blue beams now blocking your way are death beams. You can only
go through them alive by ingesting a purple potion, or casting
Rock Flesh or
Withstand
Death. After the beams, you finally arrive at the Zealan Temple.
The Zealan Temple
Unlock both doors and take the key under a skeleton on a bench.
This is a master key that unlocks many small double-doors throughout the shrine,
allowing quicker access to various places. The statues in the temple will not
yet speak to you because, as is described in Yradan's
book, you need to show them the Zealan Ceremonial Shield you saw earlier.
Leave the temple and go through the east doors, unlocking them with the
key you just picked up. Do the same with the doors to the south and you're back
at the Towers of Hanoi puzzle. Go west beyond the south turning with the quake
beam and there are more doors to unlock in the south direction. Unlock just one
more set of double-doors south of here, and you've gotten to the Zealan
Ceremonial Shield.
Find your way back to the temple (north all the way, east all the way, north,
west, north, west). Place the shield on the altar, and the Zealan deity statues
suddenly become animated. They tell you to get a pyramid-shaped object made of
blackrock from the Tomb of Khumash-Gor, which is the room behind them.
Use Mythran's scroll to unlock the doors, and go in. Khumash-Gor's ghost will
attack you; kill it with magic weapons or Grant Peace. It will drop the Scimitar
of Khumash-Gor. From the small boxes in the back you can pick up the Obelisk Tip
(the required item) and a keyring (most likely the first one you'll encounter if
you don't have the patch). The chest contains some healing potions. It's curious
that you'll also find some Tenebraen Ale... Khumash-Gor after all was a Zealan,
and is not likely to have gotten Pagan alcohol as a birthday present.
Go back to the Zealan deities. They will speak important information about
your quest. They will talk about the Fifth Element (Ether), and how you must
become its Titan by stealing the powers of the other Titans. Finally, you are
set to seek the other Titans - Hydros in her underground temple and Stratos and
Pyros who dwell on the surface. No clue is given about where to find their
dwelling places.
Go back to the Upper Catacombs the same way you did before - by casting
Open Ground at the building north of the monastery. Once inside, follow a similar
course as before by first taking the north passage, then going east beyond fence
and skeletons and then all the way east to the pile of skeletons and northwest
to the fence with the "Danger do not enter" sign. Go on the north side and walk
through the metal wall by the red pillar, which you lowered last time. Go east,
and the building you want is in the second turning south. If you have the
patch, the sign beside the door will read "The Birthplace of Moriens"; if not
it will read "Towards Fate do you travel".
