Peer Gems

Sometimes, even the best adventurer will become totally lost in a dungeon or in the wilderness, with no idea where to return to civilization. In such cases, peer gems come in extremely handy. Looking at such a gem reveals a map of the wider surroundings to the adventurer, thus making it easy to find the right way. However, each gem is only good for a single use, breaking afterwards. They appear in Ultima III, Ultima IV, Ultima V and Ultima VI.

History
Peer gems appeared first during time of Exodus (before, there were other ways to look at the map; see Trivia below). They could only be bought at the illegal guild shops and were quite expensive. This didn't change in the Age of Enlightenment, although monsters could often be found carrying them by the time of the Shadowlords.

By the Gargoyle invasion, any tool shop sold them, breaking the monopoly of the guild. During that time it also was discovered that the magic inside these gems allowed the crafting of Glass Swords, as shown by Dale of Minoc, who could forge a Glass Sword out of five peer gems.

After the time of the False Prophet, they vanished without a trace from Britannia.

Trivia

 * The gem given by Lord British at the beginning of Forge of Virtue in a way also works like a peer gem, only it showed one special place.


 * The spell "Peer" fulfilled the same function as these gems, as did any crystal ball encountered in Ultima V.


 * Peer gems essentially replaced the mapping helms of Ultima II.


 * In Ultima VI, Lord British rewards the Avatar with numerous peer gems for bringing him the book "Wizard of Oz". In the C64-Port of Ultima VI however, peer gems (and the spell) don't exist at all.