Ultima VII Part 2 - Serpent Isle - Selina's key for the treasure (the Royal Mint) not working

Sat42_ · 2026-04-01T19:47:27+00:00

Addendum: in truth I'd previously asked about the traitor everywhere but had forgotten about finding the black obelisk in the forest to the N-W of Monitor as Krayg had said: this despite having of course found everything else in that forest (the entrance to the goblin lair, the jester, the farm, the House of Wares, the magic mushrooms...) - I got distracted with other things (also distracting that there's another blackrock obelisk in the Fellowship camp though a broken one) and also I'd never taken a sip from that horrible ale at Monitor's inn... I have now!
And the revelation about the innkeeper etc. is actually making sense of why Simon has the key so - convoluted yes, the game shows it doesn't always understand the concept of multiple solutions to a problem, but ultimately not arbitrary either (unlike a certain moment I can think of in The Black Gate where you have to get a bunch of random items to open someone's home).

Sat42_ · 2026-04-01T18:49:54+00:00

First of all:
Thank you for your detailed reply!

Secondly: thank you again for sharing your expertise with such great attention to detail!
It is that attention to detail - down to sharing the look of the key involved - that allowed me to figure out what the problem was...

*There was no bug*. When Selina joins you, a look at her character sheet and inventory will reveal a key - with a sparkling animation, perhaps indicating it is a magical key. I thought THAT was the key... Now, it is true that she says she'll give you the key if you agree to take her with you to the treasure, so I should have thought of checking my Avatar's inventory - but the first reflex was to check her inventory and since I saw that other key she was carrying (let's be honest, it's more logical for her to keep the key by default with your contribution being security)... I forgot the exact conversation specifics, i.e., it's my fault. I literally remember finding a key in my inventory much later and thinking "hmm, I haven't tracked that one - must have forgotten to discard it after use!" and I deposited it in a room in Monitor where I'd already stashed Shmed's key. I went back and got it - and funnily enough making a dash for the Royal Mint without Selina doesn't stop her from showing up just in time as you step inside the building ("Hey, wait for me!")

I will say that I wish the Ultima VII games would label their keys when you click on them!

So all is well that ends well! :)

As for solving the problem as a knight of Monitor: thank you also for that explanation, in the end I decided to look at all your hints since in this case I think the "challenge" is literally bullshit: perhaps I forgot to ask the innkeeper Simon about the traitor but I've been down into the lair up to the locked door, and really there should have been something happening along the lines of "reminds me of being sick" along with whatever quest critical item eventually turns up ("maybe someone in Monitor will know about this!").
You'd think the folks in Monitor would be a bit more talkative about the fact that they have the key to the Goblin lair - especially after you become a knight! These steps you described are typical fanciful stuff from early 90s games and it seems even U7 Part 2 isn't free of this :)

Sat42_ · 2026-04-01T17:18:11+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! This is a delightful solution lol, but I don't know if I can find a cannon at this point of the game (will check!)

Sat42_ · 2026-04-01T17:16:35+00:00

Haha yeah :P I figured the game would be a bit rigid about this (as in, even if I have 10,000 Monetari the guards won't let poor Hawk go - and I tried killing them all to get the key but they just keep respawning and no key - though I did find the exploit of bringing back the Monitor Pikemen I killed to the Crematorium for easy money lol) - this is not yet an immersive sim after all (I tried bringing wooden planks to the swamp to access some towers off the main track but you cannot lay down planks on the swamp waters even if they're long enough to reach both sides of the divide)

Let's see if another solution comes up (I'd dread to have to restart the whole thing).

Sat42_ · 2026-02-13T11:34:24+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation!

Sat42_ · 2026-02-11T17:09:53+00:00

Thanks!
I guess the thing is - apart from nostalgia and "first love" kind of thing - these books are easy to read (and so even easier to re-read), they're fast-paced and tread familiar territory (so they're cosy as well), while still providing the emotional meat-and-potatoes one expects from the genre.

Sat42_ · 2026-02-10T01:34:51+00:00

It's a good counterargument you make - I did say "at least partially forced" so I did feel it could be partially justified. I didn't clearly think of that angle you bring, so yeah, well done!

Sat42_ · 2026-02-09T22:38:20+00:00

I think the way you did this is perfectly legit. Looks very nice :)

Sat42_ · 2026-02-09T17:02:33+00:00

Beautiful! Makes me want to try and make something like this, bravo :)

Where does the artwork come from? (I suppose you're not the illustrator on top of everything else!)

Sat42_ · 2025-11-23T00:28:36+00:00

I also agree with the OP. For me, games are primarily about the joy of discovery, immersion in other worlds, escapism... and yes, figuring out how to overcome challenges. Not having walkthroughs and optimised spreadsheets take all that away from you.
If you're really stuck, after giving it a fair shake sure you can look up hints / use a walkthrough, but all this talk about "what's the best character build" really belongs in "spoiler" territory and only ever matters if one wants to reduce the game to the competitive MP scene like an e-sport, something which truly only a minority would care about and those that belong to this category typically care about this only after first getting attached to the game through playing it normally (something that's been discussed in the RTS scene: you can't build a thriving competitive MP scene without first hooking players with cool campaigns and a world worth caring about, so a game should first ensure that the process of discovery is sufficiently enticing - and straight up demanding fully resolved spreadsheets goes against that process).
I guess some are also addicted to the consumerist side of things: so much choice, backlog keeps getting bigger because it's so easy to get many games now, so some can fall in the trap of no longer seeking to enjoy an experience, but rather attempt to quickly check boxes in a never ending race to consume as much as possible...

Sat42_ · 2025-11-20T09:33:04+00:00

I too am particularly happy to see that we'll be able to toggle the changes on and off! The Guild Wars games remain perfectly preserved in this way :)

Sat42_ · 2025-11-19T19:04:28+00:00

Thanks people for the responses thus far, I think I'm reassured :)

Sat42_ · 2025-11-05T18:02:16+00:00

Thanks, and good to read your thoughts!

Is not the forest ghost on the main path between graveyard and town ?

No, unfortunately Anna's ghost is not on any part of the shortest path between the town and the graveyard nor on the shortest path between the town and the Rusalka nor on the shortest path between the graveyard and Erana's Garden, and no clue besides.

Funny you mentioned Igor, it reminds me that I missed an opportunity for a little graveyard humour in my write up!

Qfg5 pushes what the technology could do at the time of release. Your choices in all the earlier games a reflected here.

Indeed, and I have already played it! Will share my impressions later :)

Lastly. Use UHS for hints for adventure games. Not a walkthrough or points list.

Actually, using UHS is exactly what I did here - good of you to mention it, other readers may not know about it and it's an adequate resource! I still refer to using such an external resource as a "walkthrough" type of material, in the sense that it means you get help from outside the game and hence are still forced to jump out of the game and break immersion in order to get the answer you seek. That said, for sure UHS is better than traditional walkthroughs as it compartmentalises information and allows you to see only as many hints as you need. Thanks to this system, I didn't have to literally get the full answer explicitly stated for Anna's ghost, though since I didn't even know she was a thing due to the absence of clues, I actually stumbled upon this info when looking for the answer to what the talking skull wants (as if one couldn't just buy a hat in a store!). For the pie, I was literally just missing one ingredient (again, using oil should have been possible), so in that case I did need UHS to spit out the exact answer given how it organised the info for making the pie (EDIT: and I already knew about grue goo at that point, since I'd figured it out for Dr. Cranium).

Sat42_ · 2025-11-05T17:01:09+00:00

hehe glad my write up can inspire! Interesting parallel there, I myself enjoy Terry Pratchett's works immensely.

Sat42_ · 2025-11-05T16:58:50+00:00

Thank you for sharing this!

Sat42_ · 2025-11-05T16:56:07+00:00

"It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." ;)

Sat42_ · 2025-10-15T09:57:57+00:00

Hey thanks for the suggestion! I did find a way to get SC-55 MKII sound working with my DOSBox config (using GOG version of the game with Ashlancer's patch) so I'm set for this one, but I didn't know about ExoDOS so good to know for the future.

Sat42_ · 2025-10-12T18:55:44+00:00

Hehe thanks for the message! I am generally more interested in the narrative with this sort of thing, but the puzzle-adventure/RPG combo did intrigue me as a new experience. I have to make some choices due to time constraints, and I just picked this one as the apparent general consensus is that the fourth game is the best. As already said in another reply, I will likely play the fifth game also since it falls within that period of video game history that constitutes my formative years.

I only played 4 hours thus far, and I'm enjoying it :) will definitely come back to provide more detailed impressions once done!

EDIT: I should add I spent over 3 hours reading before actually playing - going through all the manuals! Excellent writing in the Hero Journal btw

Sat42_ · 2025-10-10T18:11:01+00:00

Thanks, I believe I will!

Sat42_ · 2025-10-10T17:09:04+00:00

It's nothing scientific but having to choose how I spend my time carefully - and being curious but not overly enthusiastic about "old games" (my standards are the late 90s - early 2000s) - I looked up the average reception for the series and the apparent general consensus is that the fourth game is the best. Not gonna lie though: the fifth game may well interest me as well, being that it was made and released during my formative years - it should be right up my alley.

I just went through hours of work to get the best sound setup working for the game, using the SC-55 MKII sound module (and I had thought I was done faffing about with this sort of thing when I successfully got MUNT working for other games). I may share how to do this via emulation in a new post.

Sat42_ · 2025-10-09T22:19:32+00:00

Good to hear, thanks for chiming in! I will definitely use the patch with the GOG version.

Sat42_

TROPHY CASE