I’ll assume this ended poorly.

With four of the stones in my pocket, a full party of eight, and sitting on the doorstep of Cove, it was time to ply the last batch of townsfolk for clues. Many of the threads I’d followed led to this small little village hidden off the coast of a lake, and it was time to tie them up into as neat a bow as I was able. Somewhere within this little village were the answers to the last questions I had about this quest of mine, and I was determined to draw them out.

…

There was one last thing I’d been directed to Cove to find, though, and after a little poking around I found the Candle of Love in a little alcove off of the shrine they had there. The shrine’s Ankh also gave me a handy checklist of what I’d need to enter the chamber of the codex when I finally made my way to the bottom of the Abyss. I’d need to be an eight-part avatar, have the key of three parts, and know the word of passage and the one pure axiom. I only fulfilled one of those pieces, but I knew how to obtain two of the others, and I had much to consider in regards to the last. I considered myself well informed by this point.

…

…I ventured into Shame through the altar room. This was a longer journey, but eventually I made my way to the second floor where the purple stone lay awaiting me. I took the ladder up – and discovered that this part of the first floor didn’t have an exit ladder. Well, I decided I wasn’t quite up to backtracking quite that much, and caved – I mixed and cast an X-it spell.

Only to plunge back into Hythloth and make a run of the altar rooms. I’d noticed that each dungeon connected to the altar room associated with the principles that formed the virtue that stood in contrast to each dungeon, and since Hythloth was Spirituality’s opposite, that meant it connected to all three. And sure enough, after enough poking about in its depths, fighting off demons, and placing the proper stones in the right places, I pocketed first one third of the key, then a second, then finally the last. A few spells later, I was back in Castle British, who raised Mariah another level – and then told me I was ready for the Abyss.

But after making his way through all of that and much, much more — click on through to read all about it — he found himself poised on the edge of victory:

And I paused a moment. Enlightenment in eight virtues. Tracking down the eight colored stones. Checking out the Book of Truth from the Lycaeum’s library. Pulling up the Bell of Courage from the depths of the sea. Finding the Candle of Love in a small alcove. Scrounging about in the dark depths to find the three parts of the key. The Word of Passage. The wheel from the Cape. Even the very Skull of Mondain himself. Everything I needed was there, either in my hands or in my head. The knowledge I needed, the necessary items, and seven stalwart companions that had fought by my side against dragons, gazers, zorns, demons, balrons, reapers, the most terrifying creatures the depths could think to throw at us.

All that remained was the Stygian Abyss itself. And there, down in the very heart of the darkest pit in all of Britannia, lay the object of my quest. The Codex of Ultimate Wisdom.

No doubt we’ll read about his completion of the game some time within the next week!