If you have any problems, find any errors in this walkthrough, or
have something to add, feel free to E-Mail me.
You cannot play this part of the game without Ultima VII: The Black
Gate. The Forge of Virtue is an add in. It is not necessary for you
to have played any of the previous Ultima games, but it would greatly
enhance your experience. Alot of things you experience may seem confusing
if you haven't, but those who have played other Ultima games will
find them obvious. The Forge of Virtue has references mainly towards
Ultima III: Exodus.
Ask Lord British about the tremors you have experienced throughout
Brittania. He will direct you to his ship called the Golden Ankh,
which is located in Vesper. The Isle of Fire is located directly south
of there. You'll have to sail around to the south shore and look for
the narrow passage into the island's harbor. Park your ship and head
north to the Castle of Fire.
Inside the castle is an old scholar named Erethian. His room is in
the west wing. Talk to him and read all the books and stuff in his
room. Don't ask him about being blind though, he'll quit talking to
you. While chastizing you a bit, he'll tell you about the castle,
Exodus, The Dark Core and other important stuff. Go to the room with
the Dark Core in the east wing and use the mirror. Whoa!
Arcadion, the demon, is trapped inside the mirror. He asks you to
free him and tells you of the Ether Gem. Go and ask Erethian about
the demon and the Ether Gem. Now you're ready to go to the Shrine
of Principles,in the north wing, and take the tests.
This test is by far the easiest, and you wont have to fight at all.
Talk to the woman statue in the shrine and go to the moongate, through
a secret door in Erethian's room, to the test. Go south and you will
see a golem standing next to a broken (dead) golem. Talk to him. Bollux
is his name and his brother Adjhar is the dead one. Agree to help
him and he will give you a book about creating golems. Read it, and
pick up the page you drop. Go north from there, into the cave. Go
through the cave, and make sure you get a bucket and a pick as you
do.
You will come out of the cave in a small clearing, and as you walk in you'll be teleported to a small hall. Follow it south to another clearing where a tree is growing out of a rock. This is the Stone of Castambre. Put the bucket down next to it (on the south side), and use your pick on the tree. The bucket will fill with blood. Pick it up, and go back to the golems. Use the bucket on all five of the stones. Read the scroll that fell out of the book.
Bollux will give
up his heart and drop it on his brothers body, then dies. Put the
heart into Adjhar's body, and read the scroll again. Presto! It is
aliiiiiive! Talk to him, and agree to help him, too. Go back to the
Stone of Castambre, and use the pick on the tree again. You should
get the heart you need. Then fill up the bucket as you did before.
Go back and perform the ritual to revive Bollux, as you did Adjhar.
What a happy pair. Talk to Adjhar and he will give you the Talisman
of Love, and teleport you back. You'll recieve a Dexterity of 30.
Now talk to the mage statue in the shrine, and he'll teleport you
to the next test. The south wall you can walk through, and leads to
a large room with a skeleton in the center. Walk along the walls or
you'll find out what scorched him. There is a glass sword you may
want to find in this test, but I wouldn't. The Black Sword you'll
make later is better anyway. Go west out of the room and turn north
where the hood is lying on the floor. You can walk through the wall
here, too. Follow the path north, east, and north again. Flip the
switch on the wall to open the door, and get the Talisman of Truth.
You'll be teleported back to the shrine again. You'll get a 30 Intelligence
and 30 Mana.
Next talk to the Warrior statue, then go to the moongate through the
room with the mirror. Go south and pick the lock on the first gate
you come to. Note! All of the monsters you'll fight during this test
will come back to life after a little while, so make sure yyou watch
out behind you. Inside this room, kill the mage, skeletons, and headless.
Try to kill the mage before he summons the Lich, because he puts up
a good fight! Get the key to the next door off the mage's body and
go through it. Fight the spiders and scorpions and flip the 2 switches
on the floor when you come to each.
That opens the door to the next area. The third room is guarded by a drake. Kill it, and find the corpse of a female warrior. She has a glass sword. Go into the little metal room and look into the crystal ball. Put the glass sword in the platform, and after the crystal ball breaks, get the key to the next room. Go north through the door. If you continue north you will find a camp of trolls an a cyclopse. Kill them and take their food if you need it. Go back south down the hall a little ways and go into the room with the magic helm in it. Get it and head south. Kill the golems as you come to them. Tale the first pass south, if you continue east the passage is blocked by some giant bones. When you find the room with the ordinary helm in it, take it and replace it with the magic one. You should hear a door opening.
Take the ordinary helm
back to where you got the magic one and put it on the pedestal. Another
door opens. Head north again, through the troll and cyclops camp and
follow the passage east. You will come to a completely burned corpse
(it looks like an ash pile) with a magic axe. Go north through the door here, and meet the Dracothraxus! Talk to him, and get ready to
fight. There is another burnt body on the floor here with a glass
sword you can use to kill him. After he is defeated, take the Ether
Gem out of his mouth and go back to Erethian. Talk to him. He will
tell you about a weapon he tried to make once, an summon his blacksmith
equipment. Blacksmith, have you ever forged a weapon?
Erethian will give you the sword blank he was trying to forge. Have
all of your party members leave and wait here out of your way. Put
your weapoms down and pick up the hammer. Fill up the trough by using
the bucket on the well, then the trough. Do this 3 times to fill it.
Ditch the bucket. Use the sword blank on the forge and use the bellows
to heat it up until it is red with a little white stripe. Quickly
use the sword on the anvil, and then the hammer on the sword.
You must do this before it starts to cool. Repeat this a few times until you realize it is to heavy to use as a sword. Now use it on the trough to cool it. Talk to Erethian about it being to heavy. He tells you that binding it to a magical source might help. How about the demon! Use the Ether Gem on the mirror to release Arcadion. With the sword in one hand, and the Ether Gem in the other, talk to the gem and tell it to bind to the sword. Ta Da! You now have the Black Sword, the most powerful sword in Brittania! The sword has some interesting powers you can use by talking to it (er, Arcadion). Magic, Fire, Death, and Return (to the Isle of Fire).
Go back to the Test of Courage and fight Dracothraxus. Use the sword's Death power on the dragon when you're standing close to it. Arcadion and Dracothraxus exchange a few words and the Dragon is killed, only to come back to life again. He leaves and opens the door to the north. Go through it and then through the moongate to get the Talisman of Courage. You recive a Strength of 30. The statue of the warrior will tell you to get the Talisman of Infinity.
Go to Erethian's room and get the Scroll of Infinity. Talk to him,
and he'll refuse to discuss it with you.....but Arcadion will! Talk
to the sword. He will tell you you need the lenses you used to banish
the Codex into the void. They're in the Royal Museum in Brittain.
Use the Orb of the Moons, or your ship if you don't know how, and
go get them.
If you use the Orb, you can use the sword's Return power to get back. Put a lens on each side of the Dark Core, and make sure the torches are lit on the walls. Put the talismans you have on the Dark Core (in the shape of a pie with a piece missing). Erethian will pop in and try to stop you, but his magic fizzles and he dies. The Talisman of Infinity will appear where the piece was missing, and the Dark Core will enter the void. Mission Complete!
Leave the Isle of Fire and return to Lord British. He gives you another
30 Strength and 30 Hit Points. Now you can continue on with the Black
Gate quest.
Ultima is a registered trademark of Origin Systems Inc.
This walkthrough is 1996 by Brian Truter, All rights reserved. You
may use and transmit this document or a text version of it in it's
complete and unedited form via E-Mail, Usenet, FTP, and via BBS. If
you wish to use it in any other purpose, including publication in
another document, please contact me for permission. Any contributions
to this walkthrough are welcome. For more info on the Ultima games,
check out the Kurse
Dragon (http://www.fgi.net/~thor/ultima/ultima.html - Link Broken) home page.
fin! Kurse Dragon