Chest
Chests in general are used to hold treasure and keep it safe from thieves and anything else that would threaten the value of the contents within. This means that besides locking mechanisms, they are often fitted with traps. The contents can vary significantly, determined by many factors (including the Ultima installment being played).
By Game[edit]
Akalabeth[edit]
Chests can be found only in the dungeons of Akalabeth and are found randomly within them. They contain either gold or one of the game's limited variety of items.
Ultima I[edit]
Chests in Ultima I can be found only in dungeons, both at random and after defeating an enemy. They typically contain various types and amounts of coins.
The Unlock spell could be used to safely disarm and open a chest.
Ultima II[edit]
Chests in Ultima II can be found either in dungeons or towers, both randomly and after defeating an enemy. Various armour and weaponry can be found in some structures throughout the lands, but stored outside the confines of treasure chests.
Ultima III[edit]
Chests can be found in dungeons and towns of Ultima III and are dropped when a group of enemies are defeated. They can be trapped and contain gold and sometimes an item.
- Traps: poison, gas bomb, acid, bomb
- Gold: 12–27,48–63
- Other items: mace, leather armour, axe, cloth armour, sling, dagger...?
Drop research is ongoing and can be found here.
The clerical Appar Unem spell (or a high Dexterity) could safely disarm and open a chest, as could a skilled thief, barbarian, lark, alchemist, or ranger.
There is a rare monster that is a chest. In some versions (including the PC-port) the player can stand on top of it and open it, but it will still attack.
The chests of Ultima III would effectively block the passage of other creatures, but some monsters with out-of-combat attacks could destroy them.
Ultima IV[edit]
Ultima IV chests function much as in Ultima III, but do not drop items.
- Traps: poison, acid, sleep, bomb
- Gold: 10–100
The Open spell could be used to safely disarm and open a chest, as could a high Dexterity.
Dropped chests could also function as a means to bypass toxic swamps or other hindering terrain, provided monsters could be persuaded to drop them nearby.
Ultima V[edit]
In the time of the Shadowlords, chests found throughout the realm could be locked as well as trapped, but could contain virtually any type of item that could be carried (aside from special quest items).
The An Sanct spell could be used to safely disarm and open a chest (as well as unlock many locked doors), as could a high Dexterity.
Any enemies carrying chests would drop them immediately after being defeated on the battlefield, allowing them to be looted individually. Such chests blocked passage by either friend or foe, but would not block fire from ranged weapons.
Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II[edit]
Chests are found in fixed locations, they cannot be picked up, carried, or moved by players, monsters, or other entities.
In these games there is no way to inspect the contents of a container that is not in inventory, and there is no way to bring the chest into inventory, therefore it's contents cannot be inspected. Using a chest (when it is unlocked) will imediately dump it's contents onto the surrounding floor. The chest's 3d model does not have an opened state, so there is no indication that a chest is opened or has been opened.
A chest can be locked and would need an appropriate key to unlock it. Alternatively it can be opened with a lockpick and suffecient lockpick skill or an open spell. Note that contrary to it's name, the open spell does not open the chest or door it is cast on, but merely unlocks it. Another way to get to the contents is to smash it open with a weapon or bare hand, or destroy it with missiles or spells. Some locked chests are locked and there does not exist a key within the game to unlock them. Some chests (usually described as "massive" chests) are immune to physical damage.
| TODO | determine if there is a probability of contents being damaged or destroyed when a chest is destroyed |
| TODO | Chests use the same locking mechanism as doors. Some doors have their locks flagged as immune to lockpicks and/or immune to open spells. Determine if any chests have locks that use these flags. |
In the DOS version of Ultima Underworld, locked doors and chests must be manually unlocked by the player with a key from inventory. In the PSX version, locked doors are automatically unlocked if a player has a key anywhere in their inventory, but chests must still be unlocked manually.
Chests can also be trapped.
| TODO | Determine what diabbles traps. Does unlocking with a key always do it? Does picklocking do it? Does picklock skill and/or trap skill factor in? Does the open spell? Does bashing it? etc |
Later Installments[edit]
| TODO | add details of chests from other games |
Traps[edit]
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 is not 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[edit]
From the harmful traps, this is still the least damaging one. Upon opening the chest, the thief is greeted with a spray of poison. Nothing that a cure spell cannot fix.
Gas Bomb[edit]
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[edit]
This trap is more nasty than the poison trap. Instead of poison, the thief is sprayed with acid. The acid causes heavy damage, and if not properly treated with the Heal spell, has potential lasting health effects[Citation needed].
Bomb[edit]
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 that can also be encountered hidden in the floor of dungeons (especially in Ultima V).
Curse[edit]
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.
See Also[edit]
Gallery[edit]
Inspecting a chest in Ultima V
A chest in Ultima Underworld
A chest in PSX-port of Ultima Underworld
A chest in Ultima VII
A chest in Ultima Underworld II
A chest in Ultima VIII
A chest in Ultima IX
