Once again I am stuck- this time swimming underwater to get to Serpent's Hold.
I seem to remember finding it rather straightforward last time I played the game.

This time I removed all my armour (for speed) but as I go through the tunnel I get the same reaction as you do when swimming in very deep water and I end up drowning every single time.
I tried repeatedly with no luck.
Could it be a bug or am I just a terrible swimmer?

I had an issue with the ghost in Valoria but after reboot of an older saved game it ended up working... Anyone?

By the way as you can gather I am fairly deep into the game so hopefully won't be requiring help for much longer... one hopes!

I know I'm replying to an old thread here, but hopefully this will be of some use to anyone who finds it, like I did, because they ran into this very issue.

The easiest way to get past this bug is simply to cheat. Give yourself super speed, and you'll be able to make it.

To do this, open the file "default.kmp" (found in the root Ulitma 9 directory) in notepad, and add a new section called "'[Cheat Commands]" (without the "")
Then just copy-paste the following under it:


alt+shift+x = toggle_avatar_fast

and change x to whatever key you want to assign to super speed. Then when in game, just hit alt+shift+x and the avatar will move really fast. Hit it again to remove the super speed.

It's not an elegant solution, but with a game as buggy as Ultima 9, sometimes you just have to cheat to be able to beat it...