Chest

Chests in general are used to hold treasure and keep it safe from thieves and the like. This means that beside locking mechanisms, they are often fitted with traps. The contents can vary significantly, determined by many factors (including which Ultima installment one is playing).

Ultima I
Chests can be found in only in dungeons, both at random and after defeating an enemy. They typically contain various types and amounts of coins.

Ultima II
Chests can be found either in dungeons or towers, both at random and after defeating an enemy.

Ultima III
Chests can be found in dungeons and towns and are dropped when a group of enemies are defeated. They can be trapped and contain gold and sometimes an item.

Drop research is ongoing and can be found here.
 * Traps: Poison, Gas Bomb, Acid, Bomb
 * Gold: 12-27,48-63
 * Other items: Mace, Leather Armor, Axe, Cloth Armour, Sling, Dagger...?

Ultima IV
Chests function much as in Ultima III, but do not drop items.


 * Traps: Poison, Gas Bomb, Acid, Bomb
 * Gold: ?

Ultima V
(to be added)

Later Installments
(to be added)

Traps
Chests are not always harmless. Apart from the threat of mimics, normal treasure chests are often trapped by their owners in order to prevent any tampering with them due to potentially lethal consequences. However, the adventurer isn't completely helpless against these traps. With the detect trap spell, it is possible to find these hidden dangers. The unlock spell further opens these chests, while at the same time destroying the traps.

There are four different traps found in chests:

Poison

From the harmful traps, this is still the least damaging one. Opening the chest, the thief is greeted with a spray of poison. Nothing that a cure spell can't fix.

Gas Bomb

Seen only in Ultima III, this variant of the poison trap envelops the entire party in a noxious cloud, poisoning everyone in the group.

Acid

This trap is more nasty than the poison trap. Instead of poison, the thief is sprayed with acid. The acid is very damaging, and if not properly treated with the heal spell, has potential lasting health-effects.

Bomb

This is the worst of all traps. Trying to open the chest will trigger a bomb-trap which will blow apart the chest, destroying its contents. The powerful explosion will seriously injure anyone nearby, meaning the entire party.

This is the only trap which can also be encountered hiding in the floor of dungeons (especially Ultima V).

Curse

This is the only trap that does not do any physical harm. Instead, it puts the curse spell on the person fiddling with the lock. Seen only on the Serpent Isle, these traps were rarely encountered.