As soon as you walk out of the moongate, you find yourself in the city of Trinsic. If you've played the earlier games, you will know Trinsic by its high city walls. Your companion Iolo will immediately begin talking to you. It seems there has been a horrifying ritual murder in town. Ask Iolo about the murder, and about the earthquake that happens, but don't worry about asking him too much else at this point. You will have plenty of time to talk later.

You will also speak with Finnegan, the mayor of the town, about the murder. Feel free to ask Finnegan anything you like.

After the conversation comes the gruesome part. You are not only an adventurer and a hero, but now you are also a detective. Go into the stables and look at the crime scene. click on everything in the room and collect evidence. After you have enough evidence, talk to Petri the farm hand (if you haven't already) for more information about the murder.

Next, go into the inn right next to the stables. Talk to the innkeeper about what she knows about the murders and order two ales. Click on a chair and sit in it. Iolo will sit in another chair. No you can drink an ale with him and ask him about Britannia. (The inn and ale conversation is not necessary, but it adds to the feeling of immersion.)

After talking to Iolo, get up and walk around town talking to everyone around. Do not miss anyone. Many will claim to know nothing about the murders, but a few will seem a bit suspicious. The most important person you will find is a young teen boy named Spark. He is the victim's son. Once you talk to him, he will ask to join you. Let him, as he is much stronger than he appears, and quite trainable. When he joins, go through the chest in his house and get everything. There is a mallet in his house. Feel free to whack Iolo with it and read his silly responses if you like. It's mean, but also fun, and it doesn't cause any real harm.

Talk to the rest of the people in town if you haven't already. After you are done with that, investigate the Blacksmith's shop. Finally go to the mayor and answer his questions. Some will be about things in the town and some will be about the map. Use the answer card from GOG for the map questions.

After your report, you are free to explore the town. Stop by the armorer and purchase a sturdy sword. DO NOT buy gauntlets as some will be hidden in the field close to town and free for the taking. Also, buy a bedroll. That can be useful. Now the mayor should have given you the password and you can go explore Britannia, including the Forge Of Virtue add-on.
Things to watch out for:
Hidden treasure is scattered throughout the land.
Silver Serpent Venom-This is a dangerous drug and, while it will give your characters a quick boost, it will eventually destroy them. There is one legal buyer of the drug, however, so if you find it, hang on to it and sell it to him. Of course there will be plenty of chances for you to deal, but is that virtuous?
Hidden characters-there is at least one who turns out to be a valuable and loyal party member.
Explore and you will find many surprises. Good luck and enjoy your stay in Britannia.

I hate to ask this, but I bought this yesterday and I was wondering what the interaction controls are. I am using Exult to play, and I am also hearing that you can do anything in game with the mouse. I'm not really getting the hang of it yet. Any tips? Thank you.

Right click to walk, further the cursor is away from you the faster you go
Single left click to identify items,
double left click to interact with items when out of combat mode
Push I for inventory
Push c for combat mode
double left click to attack when in combat mode

There are other short cuts too, but that's the gist

Thanks very much! Now to get music working...

You can also double click on your character to bring up the character menu and double click on your backpack on your picture in the menu to open your inventory.

cool tahnks for the info. ive printed this out and gonna start playing soon . more nub tips appreciated :)

You can find controls at the bottom of this page: http://www.freegameempire.com/games/Ultima-7-The-Black-Gate/manual

Keyboard Commands

C Turns combat mode on and off

I Opens up the Inventory Display of each
party member, beginning with the Avatar.

Z Opens up the Statistics Display for each
party member, beginning with the Avatar.

S Opens up the Save/Load Window.

A Turns all audio effects on and off

V Displays a scroll showing the version
number of your copy of Ultima VII

Alt-X Exits Ultima VII and returns to DOS

H Changes the "handedness" of the mouse
by swapping the functions of the left and
right moues buttons. The left button is
now used to move around, and the right
button to manipulate objects. This "H"
toggle affects only the mouse, not
keyboard commands.

Esc Closes Save/Load windows, if it is open.
If Save/Load is not open, closes all open
displays and windows.

Thanks. I've actually forgotten most of those commands and its nice to know them again.

Is there any way to change that awful font the game uses?

nice one, thanks mate

I'm getting very frustrated spending countless hours stuck in Trinsic.

1) Spark is not offering to join me. I have reloaded games, tried my name instead of Avatar. He also does not mention the hook armed guy or gargoyle.

2) Gilberto is not answering properly.

I only know what to expect, as I've gotten so frustrated, I've read many Walkthroughs.

I'm about to quit, I'm getting so frustrated. What am I doing wrong? I talked to everyone, I dare say. Is there a specific order? I talked to Spark at his Dad's shop...should it wait until his house? Seems ridiculous.

I go talk to the Mayor after talking to everyone countless times, and when he asks what the killer looked like, there is no hook arm choice. Just Scar, Patch and Peg Leg....none of them are correct!

I can't be the only one who's had this happen. Help!

First question is are you using Exult or playing the standard game? I don't remember him even being in his Dad's shop, but I could be wrong. I ran into him in the house. I will say this though, schedules are very important in Ultima, though it doesn't make sense in this case, but say you were trying to get someone to talk about something they want to keep secret, well they aren't going to talk around other people, just like in real life.

This doesn't sounds like that. I'd completely uninstall and reinstall as it kind of sounds like something got corrupted.

Being that I've mapped it out, and know everywhere to go, I may just start over. No, I've heard of this Exult, but DosBox works fine for me now.

I'd love to get going on this one, as I can't wait to finally play Underworld. I've owned that game for so long, but had a hard time playing it on current puters, then it wouldn't work on newer ones, either.
Does the order on this site sound right? It's different than some walkthrus. Which makes me think it matters little, the order.

http://gigi.nullneuron.net/ultima/u7bg/u7wtrins.php

I know I went to talk to Gilberto in the Healer shop, and he wasn't helping at all at that point, then runs out of the building. So, it appears if you are too early, that could be a killer???

Still, this Spark issue has me dumbfounded.
Wait a second......where it says Murder, is that a topic of conversation? Doh...I think I may have just figured it out. I've never clicked on that once. I didn't want to be killing someone innocent:)

Luckily, I have a save, just after the key, with many places left to visit.

The order shouldn't really matter as the options in the dialogue just come up once you've triggered them. As for the Healer running out, he probably was going home at the end of the day or whatever. That's always annoying, but that's how Ultima works with schedule!

The order in that walk through should work. I talked to Spark before finding that key when I played a few weeks ago, and had no trouble getting the Hook conversation going, but I believe I talked to the Fellowship people first.