From the U6 Project website:

It is with much pleasure that we announce the release of Team Archon's next milestone of the Ultima 6 Project, Milestone 8 (M8) for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). This is the beta release for the project, which will be followed shortly by the 1.0 release. Some things to look forward to in this release:

• The entire world is now complete, and ready for players to explore.

• All NPC's are in place, and all the quests have been implemented.

• New weapons are available for the player to discover.

• Tangle Vines are now in game, and should pose a nasty surprise to unwary travelers.

• Enhancements have been made to the map and journal systems, and the Compendium is now available as part of the Journal.

The Compendium section of the Journal has lots of useful information for the player about the world of Britannia. As the player explores Britannia, additional information will become available. This picture shows a page from the Compendium which shows the Nightshade entry selected from the Reagents section of the "Arcana" category.