Again Serpent Isle plot.

[Max aka Moscow Dragon]

I cannot disclose the source of this text, sorry.

Here is it:

Ultima VII, Part Two: THE SERPENT ISLE
Town Plots - Raymond
Version 1.1


MONNITOR

Monnitor is a coastal/mountain town and the first major dwelling the player will encounter in the game. Like Jhelom in Britannia, Monnitor was founded on Valor, and most of the inhabitants are warrior-types who enjoy a good brawl. The "duelling" activity is prominent in many areas of the town. "Quests of Courage" are encouraged and seem to be a staple of the community. One must prove oneself worthy if one is to gain any sort of respect. Once the player has their respect, the Avatar gains an extra consonant somewhere in his name, and will be addressed that way by the townspeople from that point on.

In Monnitor, the Avatar can pick up adventuring supplies: weapons, armour, provisions, food, etc. The only trick is that he will need money--specifically the coin of Monnitor (the equivalent of a gold coin is one monnetar--plural is monnetari). The following things can happen in Monnitor before the "madness" begins:
. The Avatar can learn about 1-3 "quests of courage" which will reward the player with monnetari,
experience, and training.
. The Avatar will learn clues concerning the whereabouts of Gwenno and Batlin.
. The Avatar will learn about the Knights' Test, a gauntlet of skill which will gain the people's
respect. He will be rewarded with an artifact of Courage upon completion (and a second
consonant somewhere in his name!) (Probably one of the aforementioned "quests of courage")
. The Avatar will learn of the missing child and will be asked to find him.

The town Monnitor will consist of:
Town Hall (mayor's office)
Pub ("The Slashing Sword")
Armourer/Blacksmith
Training Hall/"Gymnasium"
An Inn ("The Snoring Warrior")
Provisioner shop
Clothing shop
Sculptor shop (builds statues of warriors)
Undertaker
Residences

NPCs of note:
Mayor Marstten - burly, tough but friendly; takes a shine to the Avatar immediately until he learns of
the Lord British connection--then nothing sways his opinion of the player until the player
performs a certain deed
Luddwig - the town bully; looks for a fight for the hell of it
Spekktor - the town's (only) intellectual--a bookwormish type, but very intelligent; he is respected
by the town, for he keeps the books and generates income for the fighters
Fatimma - barmaid with a heart of gold; and a secret
Renffry - the undertaker; canny, shifty-eyed old man
Brendann - the armourer/blacksmith; ex-fighter
Zazzana - a female fighter/trainer
Flickken - strict census-taker of Monnitor; most likely the first NPC the player encounters, as he
"checks in" anyone coming into the city and give the party what are essentially ID cards
Harnna -- the mother of the missing child, Nickkla
Franttor - the father of Nickkla
Shnydder - the innkeeper
Priqquant - the sculptor; will eventually do a bust of the Avatar (toward the end of the game)
Cellia - the clothing shop owner
Craigg - the provisioner
Other fighters and wenches as needed

(Needless to say, the townsfolk of Monnitor took a real shine to Gwenno when she arrived--she was
thought of highly in the town!)

KNIGHTS' TEST
Knights' Test is a puzzle-filled "dungeon" or obstacle course; at the end of the course is some kind of widget/trinket which the Avatar must bring back to Mayor Marstten to prove he was successful.
One NPC may be needed as the "guardian" of Knights' Test.

MINOR PLOTS
Quests of courage:
a. Knights' Test: gives Avatar respect and status; will make everyone cooperative
b. Slaying a bear: ferocious bears lurk in the forest outside of town; the Avatar must kill one,
and bring its skin to the Pub for the Sunday Night Bear Stew
c. "Duelling": the Avatar must participate in "games" with the local fighters for money--
archery, cannon firing, etc.

Sculptor plot:
Return a chunk of blackrock to Priqquant. Batlin had stolen a piece; the ore is extremely rare
on Serpent Isle; Priqquant uses it for sculpting; he has a method for melting it down,
which the Avatar can learn.

Find Gwenno:
Spekktor will know much about what she was doing in Monnitor

Find Batlin:
Priqquant, the Mayor, and Renffry will provide clues to Batlin's whereabouts

Find Nickkla:
The child is missing; everyone is concerned; his parents will give big reward if the body
is brought back


NOTE: All of the above happens before the "madness".


MONNITOR, post-"madness":

Later in the game, after the Bane of Wantonness possesses Dupre, the companion becomes a white ape and leaves the party. By the time the Avatar arrives back at Monnitor, the entire town has changed. Every NPC has become either a bull, a bear, or a panther. The Bulls are sex-driven and roam the city; they will attack anything that stands in their way. The Panthers are territorial, staying mostly in one area; they will attack if approached. The Bears are cannibalistic hunters, and like the Bulls, roam about searching for prey. Dupre is able to control any one of these three factions, and will take on the characteristics of the Bears, Bulls, or Panthers at will.

The NPCs have changed thusly:
Mayor Marstten - a bear
Luddwig - a bear
Spekktor - a panther
Fatimma - a panther
Renffry - a bull
Brendann - a bull
Zazzana - a panther
Flickken - a bull
Harnna -- a panther
Franttor - a bear
Shnydder - a bear
Priqquant - a bull
Cellia - a panther
Craigg - a bear
Other fighters and wenches as needed

Each of these animal NPCs can be spoken to normally; they will remember who they are, but their perceptions of their "past lives" are that they were "wrong" and "misguided" and now they are living their lives in a truthful fashion.

Naturally, the Avatar must correct the city, and he must do this by curing Dupre himself. The only way to do this is by actually slaying Dupre (which replaces the ape type with the original Dupre type). The Bane must be trapped in the Soul-Jar at this point. Dupre's body must then be taken to the Shrine of Discipline (after it is repaired) and "cleansed". This restores Dupre back to his normal self.

After the town has been restored to normalcy, Priqquant will make a blackrock statue of the Avatar. This statue can then be used as one of the Magical Wards that forces that Chaos Snake into the Wall of Lights.

[RazorBlade]

Hmm.. WOW!
Very interesting, like Andys researches. Do you have more of that? Never seen any designernotes from this game before, but i think you wont release your source.
I wonder what is really left of the development...

BTW, seems to be an early version, most puzzles can only be solved by killing the bad guy;) Not very Spector-like..

[Colourless]

I know how Max got that, and there is no way that I will tell you where he got it, nor who he got it from.

Also, that text is the real deal straight from the SI Design Docs.

-Colourless Dragon

[RazorBlade]

Already knew I wont get it, so I dont see the point in pointing it out..?!;)

*cough*willyoutellme?*cough* hehe

Im curious, is there a digital version of some this stuff or just what is left in the private property of the involved person?

If back in those days they were like the people im currently working and developing with the questions answers itself;)

For me it has two reasons to be interessted, a)Im currently heavily involved in developing a game and b) Im a big Spector fan. So I wonder if these are his notes(so at the moment I doubt it.)

[Max aka Moscow Dragon]

The collection of names is great.

"Fatima" is a well-used Middle-Asian female name, while "Renfry" seem to be old Saxon.

Well, OK, U7BG have several Russian names. "Zinaida", "Nastassia" (OK, it would be "Anastassia" - Russian and Greek name), "Sasha" which is Russian short form for "Alexander" and "Tanya".

[Grimlock Dragon]

Way to go Max! Is there any chance your source can enlighten us on some other cut plot elements?

[Nil Einne]

Razor, a bit old but in case you or others are still wondering, I doubt that these are Spectors notes. They are clearly very early design notes as you might realise by the fact they are only 1.1 (compared to 2.4 of the Moonshade town plot document) and the fact that the notes are very brief and contain a lot of vague references to things that will/should be done, e.g. "end of the course is some kind of widget/trinket", "One NPC may be needed as the "guardian" of Knights' Test.". And how do I know they are Spector's? Well look carefully at the top. It says Raymond. A quick google search will tell you this is probably Raymond Benson who is credited with a design role in Ultima 7.5 and who also worked on MadMage.

Another interesting thing is that it appears they were gonna call the town monnitor not monitor (unless these were transribed by someone from text documents and that person didn't know the proper name.

[Annorax]

This looks sweet, I hope one day someone really cool will be able to remake this lost Ultima...

[dino]

The name "Monnitor" is because of a weird double-syllable tradition. Notice how all the names have double-consonants because of they are knights, and how the Avatar gains consonants as he progresses, and how Gwenno is popular with the Monitorians because of the double "n" in her name.

Strange tradition, though very original.

[Colourless]

The notes came from a different source to the complete ones. And yes, these are a very very early version.

[XxVenomxX]

Yes, the extra consonants were the only thing keeping me from sharing a name with a character in my favorite game. Brendan, as opposed to Brendann. Oh well, close enough, hehe.

[artaxerxes]

Dino2 wrote:
> and how the Avatar gains
> consonants as he progresses,

Indeed, how?
Could you explain what you meant Dino?

Artaxerxes

[dino]

I was referring to this section of the first post in this thread:

One must prove oneself worthy if one is to gain any sort of respect. Once the player has their respect, the Avatar gains an extra consonant somewhere in his name, and will be addressed that way by the townspeople from that point on.

This means that the more people prove themselves worthy, the more consonants they get in their name. For example, Avatar would have been called "Avvatar" once he completed a quest, and then "Avvattar" once he completed another. That's how I understand it, anyway.

This was probably scrapped because it would be impossible to keep adding consonants. They'd have to write an algorithm that adds consonants to the name that the player chose, and that'd be one heck of a load of work. It also wouldn't make sense, because when a person runs out of single consonants in his name, he wouldn't be able to get more recognition.

[artaxerxes]

And imagine if he called himself Oui-Oui !!

Artaxerxes