I had forgotten about the Death spell. Damn... Yes he was really high level then.
[AD&D Gamebook] Sceptre of Power (Kingdom of Sorcery, book 1 of 3)
- Thread starter Joshua Randall
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I had forgotten about the Death spell. Damn... Yes he was really high level then.
Joshua Randall
Legend
Once again, if we let Beldon into the room that only leads to our inevitable demise. Also we would like the book to stop second-guessing our original decision not to let him in.
Thus, we turn to (32) where we can literally feel the energy radiating off the scrolls, "as if their contents were trying to spring into [our] brain." We contemplate which one to open first:
(206) red ribbon,
(89) blue ribbon, or
(192) black ribbon.
[Landor sure did like his black-blue-red color organization system.]
---
192
If we open the scrolls in what we assume to be the intended order based on the wizards' robe colors (first black, then blue, then red), it turns out the black-ribboned one is the scroll of Summon Rufyl at (192).
If we do that, and once again refuse to let Beldon into the room, we go to section (21) where Rufyl appears and telepathically communicates with us about the Sceptre and its hiding place with the crypt thing, which leads directly to the crypt itself and the final showdown with Beldon.
This means we never get a chance to read Landor's letter to us, which is hugely disappointing once we know that letter exists. So let’s open something else first.
---
89
The blue-ribboned scroll's first few lines read, "To guard yourself against all spoken spells…."
We can keep reading at (111) or tie it back up for later (161).
Weirdly, the appropriately cautious save-for-later approach [an approach that AD&D play in the 1980s very strongly incentivized] leads to death because instead of actually saving the scroll for later, we open the door to Beldon, who grabs the scroll and BOOM.
---
111
We keep reading the scroll of protection. It's written in a magical script but somehow the letters change into those of the Common tongue. "[Our] father must have designed the scroll so that [we] could read it without magical assistance."
[Hahahahaha! Dad knew his son would be an idiot.]
[Alternatively: this is a missed opportunity if we actually learned the Read Magic spell. Although I don’t believe there is any way to get from “learned Read Magic” to “open blue-ribboned scroll”, for some reason!]
To guard against all spoken spells, I, Landor of College Arcane, do anoint this parchment with iron and silver in the manner prescribed by Bhukodian sorcerers to protect my son, Carr, from all evil powers and entities for as long as this magical dweomer does glow.
A purple light glows from the scroll, shoots into our body, and leaves us covered in a "magenta haze".
[The material components -- powdered iron and silver -- are taken directly from the AD&D Players Handbook spell description for Protection From Evil. The duration of the magic-user version is 2 rounds per level (clerics get 3 rounds per level). If Landor's title "Archmagus of Saven" is meant to match the level title of "Arch-Mage" from the PH, he was 18th level! So the Protection From Evil will last for 18 rounds. The combat round in AD&D was 1 minute long, so we'd have 18 minutes of protection. If we are reasonably efficient with the Rufyl summoning and conversation, then the Protection from Evil should still be in effect during the endgame… yet it’s never mentioned again, no matter what choices we make. Weird!]
At this point we can read one of the other two scrolls.
---
206
The red-ribboned scroll is the letter from Landor. This time I will emphasize this passage:
"Beldon will seek to use you to discover my secrets. Then he will seek to destroy you, my sole offspring, because of the Kandian blood in your veins."
So Beldon is a racist now?
From this point we can
(24) read another scroll now [but we’ve already explored all those paths], or
(64) wait until we have more privacy.
Thus, we turn to (32) where we can literally feel the energy radiating off the scrolls, "as if their contents were trying to spring into [our] brain." We contemplate which one to open first:
(206) red ribbon,
(89) blue ribbon, or
(192) black ribbon.
[Landor sure did like his black-blue-red color organization system.]
---
192
If we open the scrolls in what we assume to be the intended order based on the wizards' robe colors (first black, then blue, then red), it turns out the black-ribboned one is the scroll of Summon Rufyl at (192).
If we do that, and once again refuse to let Beldon into the room, we go to section (21) where Rufyl appears and telepathically communicates with us about the Sceptre and its hiding place with the crypt thing, which leads directly to the crypt itself and the final showdown with Beldon.
This means we never get a chance to read Landor's letter to us, which is hugely disappointing once we know that letter exists. So let’s open something else first.
---
89
The blue-ribboned scroll's first few lines read, "To guard yourself against all spoken spells…."
We can keep reading at (111) or tie it back up for later (161).
Weirdly, the appropriately cautious save-for-later approach [an approach that AD&D play in the 1980s very strongly incentivized] leads to death because instead of actually saving the scroll for later, we open the door to Beldon, who grabs the scroll and BOOM.
---
111
We keep reading the scroll of protection. It's written in a magical script but somehow the letters change into those of the Common tongue. "[Our] father must have designed the scroll so that [we] could read it without magical assistance."
[Hahahahaha! Dad knew his son would be an idiot.]
[Alternatively: this is a missed opportunity if we actually learned the Read Magic spell. Although I don’t believe there is any way to get from “learned Read Magic” to “open blue-ribboned scroll”, for some reason!]
To guard against all spoken spells, I, Landor of College Arcane, do anoint this parchment with iron and silver in the manner prescribed by Bhukodian sorcerers to protect my son, Carr, from all evil powers and entities for as long as this magical dweomer does glow.
A purple light glows from the scroll, shoots into our body, and leaves us covered in a "magenta haze".
[The material components -- powdered iron and silver -- are taken directly from the AD&D Players Handbook spell description for Protection From Evil. The duration of the magic-user version is 2 rounds per level (clerics get 3 rounds per level). If Landor's title "Archmagus of Saven" is meant to match the level title of "Arch-Mage" from the PH, he was 18th level! So the Protection From Evil will last for 18 rounds. The combat round in AD&D was 1 minute long, so we'd have 18 minutes of protection. If we are reasonably efficient with the Rufyl summoning and conversation, then the Protection from Evil should still be in effect during the endgame… yet it’s never mentioned again, no matter what choices we make. Weird!]
At this point we can read one of the other two scrolls.
---
206
The red-ribboned scroll is the letter from Landor. This time I will emphasize this passage:
"Beldon will seek to use you to discover my secrets. Then he will seek to destroy you, my sole offspring, because of the Kandian blood in your veins."
So Beldon is a racist now?
From this point we can
(24) read another scroll now [but we’ve already explored all those paths], or
(64) wait until we have more privacy.
Joshua Randall
Legend
64
Beldon continues to pound on the door and yells for us to let him.
"From your father's last words you can only suspect that your uncle either killed Landor or had someone else do it."
We want time and privacy to summon Rufyl…
[uhh… like the privacy of being behind a door that is impassible to anyone but us?]
… so we let Beldon into Landor's study.
[???!!! Gorramit, book, stop twisting our choices into the opposite of what they mean.]
Beldon demands to know what we found. We lie and say, "Nothing."
CHA test!
(170) if 16 or more
(132) if less
---
If we are here we didn't buff up our Charisma by showing up the other students during spell-learnin', but this is still a fairly easy test.
On a success (170) we smuggle the scrolls back to our quarters while Beldon searches Landor's room. Once we are alone we read the remaining two scrolls, one of which summons Rufyl, and that takes us to the endgame.
---
On a failure (132), Beldon shoves his way past us. We confront him and accuse him of killing our father.
"Of course it was I who killed the great Landor!" Beldon replies with a sneer.
[Woah! Commentary below.]
"How else would I have become Grand Master of the most powerful academy of magic in Tikandia? And as soon as I have the Sceptre of Bhukod in my hands, I shall be the most powerful magus in the world!"
We realize we must make the ultimate sacrifice to stop Beldon. Both he and we grab for Landor's scrolls, one of them explodes, and it blows the entire top of the tower to pieces.
DEATH COUNT: Probably about 8 or 9 by now if you count every possible scroll-related boom. But again, they don’t count because my thread, my rules.
Beldon continues to pound on the door and yells for us to let him.
"From your father's last words you can only suspect that your uncle either killed Landor or had someone else do it."
We want time and privacy to summon Rufyl…
[uhh… like the privacy of being behind a door that is impassible to anyone but us?]
… so we let Beldon into Landor's study.
[???!!! Gorramit, book, stop twisting our choices into the opposite of what they mean.]
Beldon demands to know what we found. We lie and say, "Nothing."
CHA test!
(170) if 16 or more
(132) if less
---
If we are here we didn't buff up our Charisma by showing up the other students during spell-learnin', but this is still a fairly easy test.
On a success (170) we smuggle the scrolls back to our quarters while Beldon searches Landor's room. Once we are alone we read the remaining two scrolls, one of which summons Rufyl, and that takes us to the endgame.
---
On a failure (132), Beldon shoves his way past us. We confront him and accuse him of killing our father.
"Of course it was I who killed the great Landor!" Beldon replies with a sneer.
[Woah! Commentary below.]
"How else would I have become Grand Master of the most powerful academy of magic in Tikandia? And as soon as I have the Sceptre of Bhukod in my hands, I shall be the most powerful magus in the world!"
We realize we must make the ultimate sacrifice to stop Beldon. Both he and we grab for Landor's scrolls, one of them explodes, and it blows the entire top of the tower to pieces.
DEATH COUNT: Probably about 8 or 9 by now if you count every possible scroll-related boom. But again, they don’t count because my thread, my rules.
Joshua Randall
Legend
Commentary:
The author has set up two incompatible alternative universes. In one of them, the failure state universe, Beldon did kill Landor in order to seize power. In the other one, the success state universe, Landor willingly gave up his existence to protect the sceptre.
The “most powerful academy of magic in Tikanida" is located in the crummy, run-down, pirate infested Freeton on outlying Seagate Island instead of in bustling, important Saven on the mainland. Why?!
(I will also complain that Seagate Island is not considered part of Tikandia, based on a conversation in another path. So the “most powerful academy of magic in Tikandia” cannot be anywhere outside of Tikandia, by definition.)
Does Beldon not know that anyone other than Landor or Landor’s blood will have their life force drained upon touching the scepter? Thayne and Dalris both know this about the sceptre; if Beldon does not, it implies that Landor may not have modified the sceptre until after he fled from the College Arcane.
Overall, if we choose to enter Landor's study at our first opportunity, one way or another the book is over: either we die in a variety of ways involving Beldon and an exploding scroll or we summon Rufyl and head to the crypt.
On this path we never learn any magic at all! So this is one of those gamebook paths that can be completed with a minimum of fuss, but in my opinion, also a minimum of fun.
The author has set up two incompatible alternative universes. In one of them, the failure state universe, Beldon did kill Landor in order to seize power. In the other one, the success state universe, Landor willingly gave up his existence to protect the sceptre.
The “most powerful academy of magic in Tikanida" is located in the crummy, run-down, pirate infested Freeton on outlying Seagate Island instead of in bustling, important Saven on the mainland. Why?!
(I will also complain that Seagate Island is not considered part of Tikandia, based on a conversation in another path. So the “most powerful academy of magic in Tikandia” cannot be anywhere outside of Tikandia, by definition.)
Does Beldon not know that anyone other than Landor or Landor’s blood will have their life force drained upon touching the scepter? Thayne and Dalris both know this about the sceptre; if Beldon does not, it implies that Landor may not have modified the sceptre until after he fled from the College Arcane.
Overall, if we choose to enter Landor's study at our first opportunity, one way or another the book is over: either we die in a variety of ways involving Beldon and an exploding scroll or we summon Rufyl and head to the crypt.
On this path we never learn any magic at all! So this is one of those gamebook paths that can be completed with a minimum of fuss, but in my opinion, also a minimum of fun.
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That's totally possible. I am not adverse to gamebook have several possible stories in them, as long as there is no inconsistency appearing in them. Of course, given the nature of gamebooks, such attempts often leads to inconsistency unless they are handled, as you say, as failure states.
BTW, about Beldon wanting to kill us for our Kandian blood... it can't come from Mum, since she's Beldon sis, and therefore if she had, he would, and I know racists aren't the smartest guys around but still, he would probably not hate person of the Kandian species as we say nowadays, so that means that Landor descent from Kandia/Bukhod himself, much like Dalris?
Wait... Dalris had a priviledge relationship with Landor. Landor is Kandian. Dalris is Kandian. Perth is an anonymous archruid... if he doesn't claim to be Kandian himself, but only a druid IN Kandia or OF Kandia, he'd advise him to undergo a paternity test.
We're very very charismatic in the family (due to us being complete jerks), what can I say?
Also it would probably be very bad news for Carr, when we think of it.
Because it's located on top an an old
Also, isn't Tikandia the name of the older civilization? Shouldn't it be a Kandian academy if we go by how the bard speaks of herself?
Or that he didn't bother to inform Beldon about this modification.
Landor: "Hey Beldon, can you fetch my sceptre, it's on my desk"
Beldon: "Yes pal, no problem"
Beldon has its life sucked by a defensive dweomer of doom
Landor: "Damn... I should have remembered... Time to recruit another apprentice."
In the past, i was infuriated by bad choices leading to unavoidable death several sections away, especially with several branches leading to this death. I felt cheated. But nowadays, I am only bothered by instant, unpredictable death section like "Before you are two unremarkable, identical doors. Do you open the right door or the left door? The left door? Too bad, you die."
Video games have been infamous for having speedrun (unintended, generally) path to win them by bypassing 90% of the plot. I can see it happening, if somehow we don't talk to Thayne at all, just get to academy, skip all lessons and get our sceptre, so we are on track to be an archmage with no magic. That would be fun since I am pretty sure book 2 will assume you're a wizard, Harry.
Joshua Randall
Legend
Gamebooks with several possible stories are excellent, but extremely rare for the reasons you stated. I was fascinated to discover that Landor's fate is indeterminate at the beginning of the story and only becomes determined once you head down one of the paths.
So early on when I ranted about whether Landor was murdered by Beldon / assassinated by Oram's goons / died under torture in Oram's dungeons / is simply missing / disappeared (literally, magically) -- at least two of those were possible within this gamebook! It does not seem that either of the Oram-related possibilities can become reified within Sceptre of Power. We'll have to see what future books hold. (And I'm not being coy this time: I truly don't remember.)
Apparently yes. This fits the typical young adult story trope where the protagonist's ancestry makes him or her extra, super, duper special.
This gives a new and somewhat icky gloss on Dalris's claim that she "studied magic" with Landor. Studied magic... and what else?
Fair point. But we know from Dalris's boast the she lives on the same mounds as the ancient Bhukodians on the continent of Tikandia. So there are old burial grounds everywhere, and Landor could've put his tower on top of any of them.
(I was surprised you didn't joke that the college was built in Freeton because pirates drove down property values, making the land more affordable -- so there. I did it for you.)
Bhukod and, for some reason, Kandia are the ancient civilization / geographies.
Tikandia is the new name. (Why stick a "Ti" prefix on the old name? No idea.)
Here's an artist's rendition of the geographical relationship among these places. I assure you that any resemblance to the real world is entirely your imagination. I drew this freehand!
I still get pretty annoyed with these. It feels like the author is screwing with me, dragging things out passage after passage to get my hopes up that I've avoided death, only to slam death down upon me 3, 4, 5 passages later.
Yes, the Tomb of Horrors style arbitrary unpredictable instant death is equally objectionable.
I would like my deaths to be due to bad rolls or bad choices. But it has to be an informed bad choice: not flip a coin for which door you open or which free stew you eat.
Some conversation with Thayne is unavoidable, but you can keep it as short as possible and speedrun to the sceptre as you described.
Well, obviously. This isn't the Kingdom of Non-Sorcery trilogy! It'll be interesting to read "The Story So Far" in book 2, assuming I ever stop posting about book 1 here.
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It must have been a good memory, since she still wants to get her hands on his sceptre after all those years.
Are you from New Hampshire or New England?
Here's an artist's rendition of the geographical relationship among these places. I assure you that any resemblance to the real world is entirely your imagination. I drew this freehand!
View attachment 394484
Look, New Zealand!
And I can see Perth on this map, the drawing is so precise.
TBH I was more thinking of a place called the Pirate Alley to be not very wide, like the English channel (teaming with pirates and (more commonly) privateers) or the Straits of Malacca, small enough it's difficult to slip past a pirate ship.
There was one time in Lone Wolf (I think when you visit Helgedad) where they do that. There is a list of loot and some obvious "don't touch that" item, and like 50 sections later, the book randomly asks "do you have this item? If so, it explodes and you're dead".
I chose not to explore the other parts of Book 1 with the Blood Sword series, where you pick another patron, because I wanted to explore more of the main quest, but I the book was quite long, and starting with either Kalugen or Vyl gave a lot of lore (and opportunity to die because neither of them actually want you to succeed...)
Joshua Randall
Legend
I legit LOL'd.
Also: ewwwww!
Point taken. But the difference is that Hampshire, England, and Zealand (and York and Jersey and etc.) were existing places that lent their names to some other place in a different location.
Kandia and Tikandia are the same exact continent, as far as we know.
Amazing! Truly the artist I hired for this knocked it out of the park.
Well, yes, I'm sure the intent was that Pirate Alley is a narrow channel, not a big ocean, but I couldn't resist the Perth visual pun.
Indeed, and I haaaaaaaaated that section. It's only a "gotcha!" once, it punishes you for behavior that was never punished and always rewarded in the past (Thou Shalt Not Leave Behind Loot!), and it wrecks your perfect run if you had one up until that point.
I'm pretty sure the Kingdom of Sorcery trilogy doesn't have any such "do you have this item? if so, you're dead" gotcha, but.... (looks around nervously)
Joshua Randall
Legend
Our next alternate history explores what happens if we decide to start at the bottom by learning cantrips. There are two different sections to turn to depending upon when we answer Beldon's question about where we want to start.
From the initial dining hall conversation, we can turn to (241) to insist we start at a more basic level with someone else; later, during the interview, we can turn to (193) to reiterate that we want to start as a total novice.
---
241
We "don't want to receive any special treatment".
[Carr… the entire POINT of being born into an important family is so that we DO receive special treatment.]
Beldon momentarily frowns, loudly proclaims we won't get any favors from him nor from anyone else, and says our level of study is for him to decide. "In the meantime, senior novice Arno will, I'm sure, teach you the more interesting of his many tricks."
We gulp as we notice Arno look at us with a "cruel gleam in his dark eyes" like "a child about to pull the wings off a butterfly."
We can choose who we eat our meal with:
(13) the "darker man" who is "swarthy and lean, perhaps a bit more than twenty years old" [not Arno, but someone who weirdly resembles him], or
(46) the one with "thick glasses" who is "fair skinned", "chubby", and around our age, or
(75) no-one: we eat our meal alone, in silence.
[The second and third choices stab this aged nerd right in the feels.]
From the initial dining hall conversation, we can turn to (241) to insist we start at a more basic level with someone else; later, during the interview, we can turn to (193) to reiterate that we want to start as a total novice.
---
241
We "don't want to receive any special treatment".
[Carr… the entire POINT of being born into an important family is so that we DO receive special treatment.]
Beldon momentarily frowns, loudly proclaims we won't get any favors from him nor from anyone else, and says our level of study is for him to decide. "In the meantime, senior novice Arno will, I'm sure, teach you the more interesting of his many tricks."
We gulp as we notice Arno look at us with a "cruel gleam in his dark eyes" like "a child about to pull the wings off a butterfly."
We can choose who we eat our meal with:
(13) the "darker man" who is "swarthy and lean, perhaps a bit more than twenty years old" [not Arno, but someone who weirdly resembles him], or
(46) the one with "thick glasses" who is "fair skinned", "chubby", and around our age, or
(75) no-one: we eat our meal alone, in silence.
[The second and third choices stab this aged nerd right in the feels.]
Joshua Randall
Legend
(75) is the same place we end up if we initially say we wanted to start at a higher level of magic: Arno shows us to our room, tells us to leave "all our belongings" outside the door, etc. We've already done that path.
---
(46) has us eat with N-N-N-Nolan whose stammer is a punishment for some unspecified transgression against the "mean" older adepts. Nolan says that Arno is only the teacher for cantrips, while "you'll be with us [the other novices] for spells."
The other person at the table then tells Nolan to shut up before Arno does something worse, and we finish our meal at (75) once again.
---
At (13), we learn from this twenty-something student that Arno knows more magic than any other novice and that we should keep our mouth shut and work as hard as we can. Everyone nearby glances around nervously, we lose 1 point of CHA, and we turn to (75).
---
(46) has us eat with N-N-N-Nolan whose stammer is a punishment for some unspecified transgression against the "mean" older adepts. Nolan says that Arno is only the teacher for cantrips, while "you'll be with us [the other novices] for spells."
The other person at the table then tells Nolan to shut up before Arno does something worse, and we finish our meal at (75) once again.
---
At (13), we learn from this twenty-something student that Arno knows more magic than any other novice and that we should keep our mouth shut and work as hard as we can. Everyone nearby glances around nervously, we lose 1 point of CHA, and we turn to (75).
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