Knight's Test



The Knight's Test is a dungeon located in the Knight Mountains north of Monitor on Serpent Isle.

Description
The Knight's Test is a special dungeon created by the people of Monitor to serve as a trial through which new Knights might receive their initiation. All Monitorians are required to brave its dangers and attain knighthood when they turn fifteen or face exile from the city. It is also possible for those not native to Monitor to undertake the ordeal there and become recognized as Knights. Those entering the testing grounds must enter alone and may take no arms or armour with them save for a simple leather hauberk and a mace. While the various pitfalls that initiates face there are supposed to be secrets, their nature is widely known, and prior to the Avatar's own trial at the Knight's Test, the hero could learn various tips about surviving it from the young Cantra, who was poised to undergo the Test herself within a month or so of the Avatar's landing on Serpent Isle. In particular, the girl would caution the hero to puzzle through the various challenges on multiple spatial levels and to move quickly in order to evade the dungeon's explosive traps.

Once a prospective Knight makes their way to the conclusion of their trial, he or she must shed their own blood with a sharpened claw set aside for the task and thereafter mix that blood with the ashes of the Goblin chieftain Gurnordir. This act will summon the initiate's totem animal: a leopard, a wolf, or a bear. The animal determines the Command to which the new Knight belongs, and after slaying the beast, he or she must bring the animal back to the city to have its pelt made into a cloak and its body cooked into the central meal for a banquet in celebration of his or her newly attained Knighthood. Prior to these festivities, the new Knight will also receive a tattoo, indicating his or her Command.

As alluded to above, it became necessary in the course of the Avatar's adventures for the hero to undertake this ordeal. After petitioning Lord Marsten, the Avatar was given instructions to approach Shmed, the Master of the Test, with the password necessary to gain admittance to the grounds: "Courage is the Soul of Life." Upon entering the dungeon, however, a unique challenge lay in wait for the hero. Unbeknownst to any, Shmed had conspired with his lover, Selina, to outfit the area with traps, such that magical beasts would be summoned to kill the Avatar. A Monitorian pikeman, whose name is unknown, was also hired as an assassin and was outfitted with some means to render himself invisible (although whatever potion, spell, or device accomplished this proved faulty and sporadic). Ultimately, however, the Avatar outwitted or overcame these additional obstacles and was initiated into Monitor's Wolf Command with the honors of Knighthood.

Trivia

 * As the various gremlins and cyclopes appear in the Knight's Test, the words of the incantation "Kal Xen" appear, indicating that somebody unseen is conjuring them.
 * The two fountains in the chamber in which Gurnordir's ashes lie have restorative properties and will heal one's wounds.

Solution

 * For a solution to this dungeon, see the applicable portion of the Dungeon Solution for Ultima VII/2.