(This is part of my journey playing through Ultima VII. You can follow the entire series on the Nostalgia Lane page.)

I felt bad about leaving Weston behind to joy ride on my new magic carpet, so I flew back to the castle and smacked Lord British around until he saw the error of his ways. Smacked him with words and truth, I mean to say. Man, this guy is the most oblivious fantasy ruler I’ve ever met.

Time to put to work all of the new gear I’ve been getting! We head out of town and do a little robber patrol. It’s an insanely fast fight, as they give us no trouble at all. And it nets me a new boomerang, because why wouldn’t an Australian weapon be in a fantasy version of medieval Britain?

We hop on the carpet and head east for the quaint burg of Cove. When we get there one of my companions starts freaking out because, hey look, there’s the Compassion shrine. To me, it’s a “please loot this spiffy ring that’s sitting out in the open air” shrine, but whatever gets you excited, man.

I’m surprised to find another old companion? No, Ultima VII; at this point I’d be surprised if I walked into a town and didn’t stumble over some former companion. According to the latest census, “previous Syp companions” makes up 72% of the population of this continent.

Anyway, Jaana joins my merry band of food munchers, and off we go!

So let me get this straight. Britain is the city of Compassion. Cove has the shrine of Compassion, but is the city of Passion. Why… don’t you swap shrines, or something?

Cove is very small, so it’s not long before I’m knocking on the door of the mage Rudyom. In a fit of irony, he mentions that adventurers had borrowed his big blue magic carpet a few weeks ago. The carpet that I just found. I do not think I will tell him that I am using it. At least not for now.

Like the other mage that was in Lord British’s castle, Rudyom’s mind seems to be going. He can’t remember much and can’t do spells at all. He did indicate that he was working with “blackrock” to help combat the declining magic and created a special wand to work with it. However, the wand just blows up the rock and there are just fragments and garbage all over the house. I take the fragments and wand, and call it a day.