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.

Description
Looking into these gems reveals a map of the wider surroundings to the adventurer, thus making it easy to find the right way. These gems therefore work the same as the magic spell Peer, but can be used even by people who hold no magic power of their own. However, each gem is only good for a single use, breaking afterwards once the magic in them is used up. These gems 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, these gems vanished without a trace from Britannia.

Locations

 * Sub article: Locations

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.
 * Ay crystal ball encountered in Ultima V fulfilled the same function as these gems.
 * 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.