Classic Games Revisited
Ultima VIII: Pagan Walkthrough
7.22. The Sorcerers
[Optional - Story] You can speak to Devon about Hydros’ release while you are in Tenebrae.
Unload any extra items you may be carrying, then teleport to Carthax Lake. Return to Upper Catacombs 2 by using the exit just to your west.
Walk north until you find a narrow enough spot to cross the water to the east, and jump across. Go east and north past the electric gate through the narrow passage. Continue northeast, jump across the water, and go east all the way across the stone bridge. Turn south after the large stalagmites and jump across the gap. Use the lever to lower one metal gate, only to raise another right in front of it. Walk right up to this metal gate (you will thus be standing on top of the lowered gate) and cast Aerial Servant on the lever. Now both gates will be down and you will be able to walk through.
Or, if you look very carefully on the western wall, there is a switch you can flip. This will lower a wooden gate and you don’t need to bother with the metal gate at all.
Use the Key of the Scion on the locked door and go through to the Lava Tunnel. Go south, down the cliff wall, and south to the southwestern corner of the peninsula. A man will appear and speak to you. Answer any way you like.
7.22.1. Daemon’s Crag Waypoint
Save your game. Now walk to the very edge of the stony land and take three short steps west on to the dark brown lava (make sure to start from the southwestern corner that is jutting out westwards, not southwards). The first bit is safe, a little further and you will start getting hurt. Now you need to make a long jump west. If you jump from the right spot, it can be achieved with a normal long jump in the patched version. In the unpatched version, you may attempt a running long jump but that is extremely difficult to time correctly. Instead, cast Air Walk on yourself and then make the jump. If your jump fails, reload, take another step west and, if you don’t take damage, try again.
Now head south and west around the island and south on to the safe landmass. Go west and south where the land bends. Go to the southeastern corner and jump south over the water. Go a bit east and south, climb up to the passage and exit it to the south to reach Daemon’s Crag. South-southeast of here is the last waypoint.
7.22.2. Choose your Mentor
Across the road from the teleporter (west) is Acolyte Bane’s house. Speak to her, and make sure to ask her about the sorcerers, the acolytes and Vardion. Keep speaking to her until she asks you to get Vardion’s truename and agree to her terms. She will tell you her own truename.
Once you follow through with Bane’s proposal, Vardion will die. You could make the same deal with Vardion and have Bane killed instead. It makes no real difference to the gameplay, only the roleplaying flavor changes.
Exit Bane’s house and follow the road south and west over to the next building. The gold plaque next to the door will announce it as the First Acolyte’s house. Enter and talk to Vardion; ask about himself, the First Acolyte, the sorcerers’ dealings with Tenebrae, shrewd bargaining, and agree with all his demands. Now Vardion will want you to find out Bane’s truename and give you his own.
Now you can speak to Vardion again and give him Bane’s truename (Sabriane) or return to Bane to the east and tell her Vardion’s (Morduin). The other acolyte will be murdered in the cutscene that follows, and you will be given the key to the library to learn how to create Fire spells. If Vardion was murdered, Bane will now be first acolyte.
7.22.3. First Test
Exit whichever house you are in and follow the road west until it is flanked by a building on each side. The larger one to the south houses the library. The gold plaque reads The Hall of the Sorcerers. Go in and unlock the large doors to the west. This is the library.
On a table in the northwest corner is yet another pair of magic leggings. Feel free to read as many books as you want. Pick up all the wands, rods, talismans and symbols you can find. Look carefully, some items are obscured by the environment. Ignore the reagents, take only the foci (or dump the reagents into the large chest). I found a wand, a rod, a talisman and a symbol of Flame Bolt. Just next to the large chest, partially hidden under the bookshelf, is a jewelry box. Take the key from it.
One of the barrels has a large number of candles in it. Drag and put that barrel inside the large chest. Now drag the large chest all the way over to your mentor’s house (north and east of the library). It will take a lot of clicking, but it is much better than having to pick up and store individual reagents in your backpack. The only advantage of siding with Vardion is that this is a shorter trip.
In Vardion’s house, you can find a wand of Flame Bolt in a jewelry box to the north. In Bane’s house, the bag on the table has a rod and a symbol of explosion. Place the chest in an empty space in your mentor’s house, and take the barrel out.
For your first test, you have to prepare Flame Bolt, Flash, and Endure Heat. If you leave the house before finishing, the test is forfeit and you have to start over. Endure Heat requires a rod, so there is no choice in the matter. You can use the wand and rod for the other two.
You are now ready to take the first test, so speak to your mentor and begin. Use the pentagram and candles (make sure they’re lit) in the house, get more candles from the barrel as you need them, and the reagents from the chest you dragged over. You can prepare the spells in any order.
7.22.4. Second Test
Before we proceed, prepare any other spells that you are able, since we have a chestful of reagents to work with. I like to go outside the house and exhaust the charges from both the symbol and wand of Flame Bolt. I use the symbol to create Extinguish, wand for Ignite, and talisman for Banish Daemon. Keep the symbol of Explosion you found earlier, it will be of use in an upcoming test. If you are playing the unpatched game, you may want to create a second wand of Flash instead of Ignite; having many charges of this spell is very useful and you can create Ignite later using a symbol. Finally, take one red candle and put it in your backpack.
Now leave your mentor’s house and follow the road going west all the way to the end. Turn north when it does, west at the end, keep going west until you cross a bridge, and approach the Obsidian Fortress at the end. Don’t try to unlock the doors; they will open automatically as you get close.
As soon as you enter, Malchir will summon two daemons to attack you. As soon as you get control, run directly west past them into an opening. Speak to the daemon here (Arcadion), then walk up to the pentacle. Take the key from the table and unlock the chest. Once again, you have a barrel full of candles and a chest full of reagents and foci. I like to place all the bags on the ground so I can work with all of them open while the chest is closed.
You will require Extinguish, Ignite, Armor of Flames, Explosion, Summon Daemon, and Banish Daemon in a short while, so prepare whichever spells you don’t already have. Now the only fire spells not in your backpack will be Fire Shield, Conflagration and Create Fire. Once you are done, walk west and step on the square platform to be teleported deeper into the fortress.
7.22.5. Four Symbols
You need to retrieve 4 symbols from this region to complete the test. There is one in each cardinal direction and you can get them in any order. Kill or ignore the ghouls. We will head south first. We’ll return to the platform after each trip but don’t step on it until you have all the symbols.
Walk south from the center platform between the pillars, turn west at the end, and south when you are able. A gold plaque tells you that this is the Extinguish passage. The corridor turns west and you’ll come upon a bridge littered with red mushrooms. I like to Flash across the bridge to avoid taking damage and possibly falling into the lava due to knockback. However you make your way across, the corridor turns south. You can avoid the red mushrooms by walking around the north side of the stalagmite. Kill or evade the kith, then run east all the way to the end, and finally south to the end. You'll see a flaming pentagram to the southeast. Cast Extinguish on yourself while standing next to it to put out all the flames. Take the magic helm (finally) and symbol and return to the central platform (northeast, north, west, north around the huge stalagmite, east across the bridge, north, east and north past the pillars).
Go east through another pillar-lined corridor, and turn south. Before going east when you reach that passage, cast Armor of Flames on yourself. To the east, the gold plaque will read Armor of Flames. Go south from the plaque, east as soon as you are able down a long corridor (there’ll be a symbol of Summon Daemon between two pillars if you want it), southeast and south. Take the magic shield from the platform and go south to find the symbol. You need to return the same way (north, west, northwest, west down the long corridor, north to the plaque, west, north, west).
From the platform, head north then east to the next plaque, which reads Flash. Go north to the end of the corridor, then Flash twice across the spiked rollers to the east. Again, Flash twice north across more spiked rollers. Now you need to go west across the field of red mushrooms. Cast Rock Flesh or Intervention and tank through them, leaving you a clear way back. Go east and south, banish the daemon (there’s a symbol with 1 charge in the backpack) and get Flame Sting, the most damaging weapon in the game. A little further east, go through another red mushroom patch to the north before your protection runs out. Kill or avoid the seeker and pick up the symbol. Return to the central platform (south, west, south, east through the benign red mushrooms, Flash south, Flash west, south to the plaque, west, south).
Before going for the last symbol to the west, we will take a little detour. Go west, south, west and south to confront a mad sorcerer. Kill him. On his body you can find some reagents and foci. Also, if you hit the lever along the north wall, you will find a horde of prepared spells, reagents and candles. His pentagram is already almost set up to prepare Conflagration: you need to remove one extra daemon bone hiding behind the large daemon bone at Perivolcan Ze, and one extra brimstone from Aphelion. Move them far away from the pentacle before attempting to charge the talisman.
Depending on how long your fight with the sorcerer lasts, it is possible that an explosion knocks these reagents around. In that case, you are out of luck; you can either place them all back or choose to not create the spell. It is not required for game completion.
If you are running low on Flash, you can create another wand here, and any other spell you wish.
Return to the pillar corridor (east, north, east, north) and continue north to see a gold plaque that reads Endure Heat. The way ahead is a maze with narrow passages and you can get momentarily blocked while trying to find the right way. There are also some undead in the area, so you can choose to become invisible while navigating this region. Also, if you are forced to kill any ghouls, you will have to move their bodies out of the way before proceeding.
After the first pillar, you have to go north, west, southwest, south-southeast, southwest (sticking to the wall for the last one) in quick succession. In the next passage (that goes generally west), go west, southwest, west, northwest, southwest. Finally, go southeast, southwest, and south all the way to the end.
Head west and south, southwest through a narrow passage, and south to a river of lava. Cast Endure Heat before jumping down, and jump across the dark brown patches in the lava, going south. Banish the daemon before climbing up the cliff to your west at the end. Use a scroll of trap destruction if you have one, then take the symbol from the chest. You’ll also find magic armor that you don’t need. You need to return to the central platform the same way (down the cliff, north across the lava, up, north, northeast, east, north through the maze of pillars, east through the continuing maze, north and east to reach the plaque, south and east past the pillars). If you are quick enough, you won’t need to cast Endure Heat to cross back across the lava.
Step on the platform to return to Arcadion. Speak to him and once more step on the platform, this time to go to Malchir.
7.22.6. Third Test
As your final test, Malchir will ask you to cast Flame Bolt, Explosion, and Summon Daemon in that order. Make sure to target him with each spell. Finally, banish the daemon that he summons to complete the test. A ritual will take place at the great pentacle near the Hall of the Sorcerers in a cutscene; you should have been carrying a red candle. If you aren’t, it won’t affect any outcome but you will be spoken sternly to. Be very compliant in all your replies—asking questions or not being in line with the others can eventually lead to your demise, especially if you forgot to bring a candle and Ignite spell.
7.22.7. Tongue of Flame
Walk north to reach the First Acolyte’s house, then follow the road west to cross the bridge to the Obsidian Fortress again. Keep going west to Arcadion’s room, and further west to the platform. This time you need to defeat Malchir in combat. His daemons can be annoying so it is useful to have Banish Daemon ready to cast (keep the talisman in your backpack instead of a bag, and open your inventory as soon as combat begins). I also like to cast Intervention or Rock Flesh.
On Malchir’s dead body you will find the Tongue of Flame, a book about it, magic arm guards, and a few other things. The tongue is the only item you need. In the center of his pentagram is a staff, the only focus that can hold multiple charges of either the Explosion or Create Fire spell. Use his pentagram to make one of these if you wish. The reagents are in a chest to the north. Finally, in that same chest is the Blade of Striking, the last magical weapon in the game. It is nothing special; it just gives +1AC, slightly better chance to hit and the same amount of damage as the Protector.
Unfortunately you can’t use the Recall item within the obsidian fortress, so walk all the way east until you’re out. Keep going east across the bridge and road, south and east all the way to the First Acolyte’s house, and turn south to reach the Great Pentacle. Walk over it to start a fire storm. The tongue of flame will drop out of your backpack; be sure to pick it up again.