Confusion in White Dragon

[Clock Nova]

It's been a long time since I played through this game, so I can't remember if this is supposed to be happening...

I've just passed through Gorlab Swamp, and my party approached the Castle of the White Dragon. Since the doors were locked, we climbed up to the roof and blew open a door with the 'delayed blast' spell (though a powder keg, or even an exploding book works as well) and went in. Inside, we began running into the perverted versions of Shamino, Iolo, and Dupre (their Bane forms, I think). Finally, we got drawn into a battle with them and it seems to be impossible to kill them.

Is this supposed to be happening this way? Why would my companions be fighting themselves?

[Clock Nova]

Ah. According to the walkthrough, this is NOT supposed to happen. Is this apparent bug in the original as well? Are the doors not flagged as indectructable as they should be? Probably should be fixed.

[wjp]

I can't really remember all that well, but wasn't the drawbridge supposed to be raised until you 'had to' enter the castle?

[MV]

I think that is a bug in the original as well.

In the "final fight" in the throne room, you HAVE to fight them with the fixed daemon sword, and also have 3 soul gems, which at that time you most likely didn't have.

So just bypass it for now until you've finished your adventure in the frozen wastelands to the north.

[artaxerxes]

Yup, you were too early. This part of the game is supposed to happen much later!

Now you should be getting the whistle to call the Hound of Doskar and trace Batlin to Shamino's old castle, which is much more to the north and to the east.

Artaxerxes

[Clock Nova]

Yeah, I backed up and did things in order. Still, is this something that can be easily fixed? I don't remember locked doors being this easy to bypass in the original.

[MeddlingMonk]

Actually, it was. The first time I played SI I blasted my way in (with a powder keg) and didn't realize my mistake until the plot pointed me back toward the castle. By that time all the saved games from before breaking into the castle were overwritten and I had to start over. It's a stupid oversight, really. The designers put a force field across the entrance to the central keep in Shamino's castle to keep you out until the right time but failed to do something similar with the other castle.

[artaxerxes]

good idea.

We should have a list of those little changes to make and have a volounteer to create a patch for the official version of Ultima to correct those little mistakes.

That would be a good sourceforge project!

Artaxerxes

[Clock Nova]

The destructable door problem has caused another minor problem: I blew the door to the Trapper's home, killed him, and returned the Gwani amulet before releasing the Banes. Which means, of course, that a dead Trapper is going to kill the Gwanis and take the amulet.

I'm not trying to do this out of order, it's just been so long since I've played that I don't know I'm not supposed to do it. But then, I shouldn't even be able to.

[irinotecan]

Hmmph, I remember having a related problem in the original game.

*late game spoiler warning*

There is a set of giant double doors in the heirophant(?) city that can only be opened with an explosion. Problem was, the only explosion that would kick open the doors was one from a powder keg. For the longest time I had assumed that the delayed blast explosion and the powder keg explosion caused the same amount of damage, and searched in vain FOREVER for a key to that door. I wasn't until much later that out of frustration, I discovered in a cheat guide that you had to use a powder keg. Ugh.