Rudyom

Rudyom was a mage living in Cove during both Ultima VI and Ultima VII. He is noted for his experiments regarding blackrock which eventually came to serendipitously produce an  artifact of crucial importance to the Avatar's quest to halt the Guardian's attempted invasion of Britannia.

Description
Rudyom could first be encountered by the Avatar during the age of the gargoyle wars, during which he proved a man of few words outside of the trade of magical provisions. Like many magicians of the age, he was marked by an impressive longevity, and was still alive - albeit much aged - when the hero was once more able to visit him some two-hundred years later in the early Age of Armageddon.

After observing the dramatic change in function of the moongates which resulted from the Guardian's Sphere Generator, Rudyom began researching the magic-negating ore known as blackrock in the hopes of manufacturing a solution. However, like almost all skilled magic users of these days, Rudyom soon fell prey to the disrupted ethereal waves resulting from the Tetrahedron Generator, rendering him senile and witless. Unable to adequate continue his experimentation under such duress, Rudyom produced an ill-crafted transmutation device which he hoped would render blackrock malleable through a combination of magical, magnetic and electrical energies - only to find that it caused the targeted substance to explode spectacularly.

When the Avatar eventually approached him in this fallen state, the once proud mage related his failures to the hero amidst curses, biding that the champion take both his notes on blackrock and the non-functioning wand, should they so wish. In his wandering state of mind, he also made brief mention of his lost Magic Carpet, which he had lent to some adventurers who had never returned it to him. Dismissing the artifact as only semi-functional and of a displeasing color, he gladly bequeathed this to the Avatar, should the hero be able to discover it and make it work.

Should the hero's company have visited Rudyom after the repairing of the ether, they would find the mage much calmed and in high spirits with the return of magic. After the eventual destruction of the Sphere generator, he even claimed some optimism regarding the lost moongates, hoping that their loss would spur on a new age of discovery and technology in the race to re-outfit the realm's transportation systems.

Trivia

 * In Ultima VI Rudyom has what appears to be a pet drake in his possession, which casts small bolts of fire at unwary visitors from its cage.
 * In spite of being the oldest resident of Cove at the time of Ultima VII, Rudyom manages to escape mention by most of the other townsfolk. He is often omitted from conversations naming Nastassia as the only person in Cove to be romantically unentangled, as Rudyom is also single (albeit perhaps not as desirable a catch as Nasstassia).
 * Rudyom is the only mage to sell the immensely destructive Armageddon spell.

Goods

 * His prices in Ultima VI can be found at Ultima VI Magic Shops.
 * His prices in Ultima VII can be found at Ultima VII Magic Shops.