The Mystery of Angus

[Mel C.]

Not Argus, by the way. Argus's father, Angus.

First of all, why did they give father and son such similar names? Breeds a lot of confusion.

Second, why is there NO sign whatsoever of Angus's fate? I figure he's probably one of those corpses in the cellar of the Sleeping Bull, but some actual proof would be nice.

If you want to do it simply, just put a scroll on one of the corpses written by Angus where he writes about how Batlin used magic to force Angus to show him the way to Silverpate's treasure and how he's afraid that once Batlin finds out he doesn't know the whole way (just the way to open the cellar) he'll be killed. Then a line or two could be added to Devra and Argus and Wilfred's dialogue after the scroll is found.

If you wanted to get a little more creative with it, you could also put a last will on Angus leaving everything to Argus and not Wilfred...then when everybody but Wilfred turns up dead after the Banes it'll look suspicious.

[eris]

For my own part, I don't mind having Angus' fate be a mystery. In the real world, not everything works out, and not every problem can be solved. Whenever I encountered an unsolvable mystery in Ultima I just took it as that kind of situation: as something that not even the mighty power of the Avatar can fix. I feel that these mysteries actually add to the enjoyability of the games by giving them an occasional sense of sadness and loss that cannot be undone or made better in any way.

Eris

[Gradilla Dragon]

Just to point out something:

Cantra and Gwenno had banes of Chaos in them. Maybe Angus had one as well. That sums up the three.

[Chris Schumacher]

It's people!
No, wait, it's cow.
(sorry)

[eris]

Don't eat the Soylent Silver Leaf!

[Andrea B Previtera]

Yes, so right. Some things have to be let unsolved/unexplained and that actually adds a lot to the atmosphere. Each one of the corpses scattered here and there for the dungeons made me think "ah, who was this brave adventurer? from where did he/she hail?" Would those be resurrectable, that atmosphere would be lost.

[Mel C.]

I don't agree. I don't like "mystery". There are enough unnamed corpses everywhere if one wants to stop and speculate about them, but when I get asked by an NPC to do a quest, I actually want some reasonable chance of solving it, and if I can't, I want to know why. I don't like red herrings, or being sent off to do something which is impossible/turns out to be meaningless. IMO, there's too much meaninglessness in SI anyway, as in meaningless mass deaths, and too much arcane serpent/Ophidian gibberish.

[SB-X]

I agree with most of that except the "too much arcane serpent/Ophidian gibberish" comment. It really adds a sense of foreignness to the world, but you can learn it over time. You almost feel like an archaelogist looking at all the runes. But yeah, if something is "unsolvable" it should be easy to see. Strangely enough I don't remember trying to solve those types of quests, so maybe it was obvious to me.

[Bomb Bloke]

Yes, so right. Some things have to be let unsolved/unexplained and that actually adds a lot to the atmosphere. Each one of the corpses scattered here and there for the dungeons made me think "ah, who was this brave adventurer? from where did he/she hail?" Would those be resurrectable, that atmosphere would be lost.

That, and you'd have a lot of NPC's wandering around in the dungeons.

Cantra and Gwenno had the same banes, I always thought. The Wanton bane, same as Dupre.

[Mel C.]

Re: Banes.

Kalen (the guy who tries to kill you in Fawn) has a Chaos Bane also...so if Angus had one too, that would make four...?!?

Maybe they just couldn't keep all the Banes straight...like with the Gwani spouse names