[AD&D Gamebook] Sceptre of Power (Kingdom of Sorcery, book 1 of 3)

[Joshua Randall]

172

We empty 4 GP into our hand before we toss Thayne the pouch of infinite money generation.

[A rare instance where Carr shows he can think ahead.]

We laboriously prepare the ritual with Thayne's guidance. After going all night [zing!], we suddenly feel a "terrifying presence" centered on the brazier, pulling us in somehow. We concentrate even harder and --

We regain consciousness some time later to a concerned Thayne standing over us. After we explain what we sensed, Thayne says that our familiar must belong to someone else or has been captured by "a power much greater than my magic." He gives us back the money pouch, because the spell didn't work. At least we still get to add Find Familiar to our spellbook.

We then turn to (106).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

OK, WTF?! Is this section supposed to mean that because Rufyl is technically still Landor's servant -- excuse me, "magical assistant" -- we are unable to summon the pseudodragon? That makes no sense at all.

Apparently in this gamebook Find Familiar is locked on to a specific entity, rather than by-the-book Find Familiar that summons whatever random creature is within range at the time you cast the spell.

Let's accept that Find Familiar somehow knows the specific entity that each wizard should summon. As Thayne would put it, Find Familiar works by what we call 'magic'. Then why would Carr's entity be Rufyl, who already belongs to someone else? Put another way: If Rufyl has to serve Landor forever -- excuse me, "magically assist" Landor forever --, even after Landor's demise, then why would Rufyl even be a valid target for Carr's Find Familiar?

Rufyl doesn't get turned over to Carr until Carr reads Landor's scroll in the tower. Which Carr has not done at this point. Therefore Rufyl does not belong to Carr, which means Carr's Find Familiar spell shouldn't care about Rufyl and shouldn't even be able to pick Rufyl as its target.

Or, Rufyl does already belong to Carr, in which case the spell should work to summon Rufyl.

The book can't have it both ways: either Carr's Find Familiar is locked on to Rufyl in which case Landor's scroll that turns Rufyl over to Carr is pointless and Carr's spell should have worked; or Carr's Find Familiar cannot lock on to Rufyl because Rufyl still belongs to Landor, in which case Carr's Find Familiar spell should have functioned normally and summoned something random like a toad.

Leaving the logical contradictions aside, who blocked the spell from functioning?

• Beldon: How? In this path he doesn't even know that Carr exists. Plus Beldon should have no sway over Rufyl.
• The Crypt Thing: Why would the Crypt Thing block the spell? The Crypt Thing is bored and desperately hopes Rufyl brings someone by for entertainment, so it should have no reason to block Rufyl's summoning by Carr.
• Landor: Why would Landor want to prevent Carr from summoning Rufyl when Landor intends to turn Rufyl over to Carr anyway?

Rufyl is the key to the endgame. It is only Rufyl who can convince the Crypt Thing to teleport Carr into the vaults. It shouldn't matter WHERE nor WHEN Carr summons Rufyl: in Landor's study, in the privacy of his quarters at the College Arcane, or here in the mountains of Seagate Island at Thayne's village. In fact, it should be in Landor's interest for Carr to summon Rufyl as soon as possible!

Unless… maybe Landor is still bitter at Thayne because of the warning about Beldon, which Landor ignored, but now Landor blames Thayne anyway because Thayne should have warned Landor harder. Therefore Landor is not going to let Thayne be anywhere nearby when Carr summons Rufyl. No, Landor would rather prevent his own son from gaining key information and aid from the pseudodragon, just to spite his ex-friend Thayne.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

When going back to the scrolling granting control of Rufyl to Carr, we learn that he's passing Rufyl to Carr to serve him.

To summon Rufyl, I, Landor, of College Arcane, do conjure and summon Rufyl, loyal familiar, friend, and servant, to the side of my only son and heir. I charge thee, Rufyl, with the task of serving Carr Delling as you have served me, his father, for more than forty human years.

So what can we tell?

Well, first we get some info on Landor. Assuming Landor was 26 (minimum age to cast FF as a 1st level MU) when he acquired Rufyl and he never recast the spell, he died at more than 66 years old.

So he knocked 16-18 years old Marla when he was... 64.


The spell Landor scribed on the scroll isn't Find familiar, since it wouldn't work for any wizard casting it at level. It is a Landor-developped spell, specially for this use.

So we must conclude that Find Familiar didn't work for unexplained reason, totally unrelatable to Rufyl being acquired later. I don't think there is any reason to assume to the spell was trying to summon Landor's familiar.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Well, first we get some info on Landor. Assuming Landor was 26 (minimum age to cast FF as a 1st level MU) when he acquired Rufyl and he never recast the spell, he died at more than 66 years old.

So he knocked 16-18 years old Marla when he was... 64.

Hahahahaha! I love this running gag. I want Landor to be older and older every time we reference him, until he is eventually 120 years old like Moses who, at the time of his death: “his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.” And believe me, as youngsters in religious school, we had a LOT of fun wondering what Moses’s “natural force” meant. Maybe something that would allow an old, old man to have kids? [snort, snicker]

The spell Landor scribed on the scroll isn't Find familiar, since it wouldn't work for any wizard casting it at level. It is a Landor-developped spell, specially for this use.

That makes a lot of sense. Particularly given that elsewhere Landor made sure the scrolls would auto-translate for his mentally deficient son who may not have learned a lick of magic.

So we must conclude that Find Familiar didn't work for unexplained reason, totally unrelatable to Rufyl being acquired later.

Hmm. We will find out in book 2 there are larger eeeeevil forces at work. Although why they would intervene to prevent Find Familiar from working — who knows!

 

[Joshua Randall]

106

We're resting after a grueling lesson when a boy from Estla's hut runs up to Thayne with a message. We can't understand elvish, but we catch the words Landor, Freeton, and Beldon. [Which are the only important words in the message, so Language Doesn't Matter.]

Thayne dismisses the child and tells us that Estla has visitors "from Tikandia", namely "the old Kandian druid Perth and his daughter Dalris." They knew Landor years ago and have information about him and the Sceptre of Bhukod.

We shiver in excitement at this news of our father: At last, we feel as if we're "starting" our quest!

[Oh Carr. Our quest is two-thirds over, at least in this book.]

But we wonder if our own skills are up to snuff and if we're ready to use "strong magic."

Thayne looks at our spellbook.

If we haven't learned any spells (which is possible if we failed all possible INT tests along the way), then we turn to (129) where a disappointed Thayne tells us to stay behind while he and Darlris sneak into the college to locate the sceptre.

[And given that (129) is a "failure" ending, that must mean they get killed by the murder door or by the sceptre that kills anyone not named Delling. Who could possibly have predicted this outcome?]

Fortunately for Thayne and Dalris, we have learned at least one spell, so we get to continue our quest at (150).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

Thayne describes Perth as "the old Kandian druid". What does that imply about Perth's age, and thus Dalris's age? It may mean that she is back to being much older than Carr. Or it may mean that Perth, like Landor, decided not to have kids until he was in his mid forties.

---

The fact that Thayne says Perth and Dalris have arrived "from Tikandia" implies that Seagate Island is not considered part of Tikandia. Which is odd because normally an island off the coast of a continent or a country is considered part of that continent or country (unless it's a super duper big island). For example, Long Island and Manhattan island are considered part of America / the United States. But as I said from the outset, with no map, we can only speculate as to the size and relationship among any of the geographical areas mentioned in the book.

---

I deliberately left out a key part of the conversation from the "disappointed Thayne" summary because of how crazy it is and how many additional questions it raises about the Sceptre of Bhukod. Here's the complete text:

"When do we leave?" [Carr asks.]

"You don't leave!" replies Thayne. "Without magic, you have no defenses against the power of the sceptre. It would sap your life force and destroy you with its great power. Then Landor's secrets would be lost forever."

[emphasis added]

Let's compare this to how Thayne described the sceptre when we first met him.

(115, redux)

"What is this 'Sceptre of Bhukod'?" [Carr asks.]

"A magical weapon of incredible power," Thayne replies. "The Archcleric Oram feared its power so greatly that he sent his misguided fighters to assassinate your father and procure the sceptre."

(159, redux)

[Thayne says,] "The Bhukodian sceptre is beyond value! But it has such power as you cannot imagine. Tikandian rulers have sought it for centuries. That is why Archcleric Oram sent his corrupt paladins after you two years ago, and that is why your uncle Beldon craves it so!"

---

So leaving aside the confusing parts of the Archcleric Oram situation, when Thayne first describes the sceptre it is a weapon of incredible power whose power is so powerful we cannot imagine its power. Everyone wants it because it's so powerful. There is nothing in Thayne's initial description about how the sceptre will kill anyone who lacks sufficient magic and nothing about Landor modifying the sceptre in any way.

Then when Perth and Dalris stop by for a visit, Thayne says that the sceptre will kill anyone who lacks sufficient magic. So did Thayne always know about the sceptre's lethal properties and chose not to tell us in the bazaar for some reason? Did Thayne NOT always know this, yet somehow instantly gains that knowledge when Perth and Dalris arrive, before Thayne has even spoken to them?

At any rate, Thayne's version of the sceptre "saps your life force and destroys you with its great power." It does this if you are "without magic", meaning that Thayne's version of the sceptre is not a dweomer drainer; rather, it is BLOCKED from killing anyone who has a sufficiently strong dweomer.

All of this is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of how Dalris explains the sceptre to Carr in the College Arcane path.

---

(84, redux)

"Its power is based on protective magic?" [Carr asks].

"Not solely," Dalris replies with a toss of her braid. "The sceptre has the power to drain magical energies from spells, objects, living beings -- anything possessing a dweomer, or enchantment. It stores that energy in its original form and releases it at the will of its wielder."

[...]

"Landor used the same spells that created the sceptre to trap it. He reshaped the energy of the wand so that it would also drain the dweomer of the user -- unless that user was Landor himself."

---

A brief aside to call out the braid-tossing, more than a decade before Robert Jordan would make a woman's braid the centerpiece of the Wheel of Time (1997).

---

Back to the Sceptre of Bhukod:

1. According to Thayne, it will kill you if you lack sufficiently strong magic. (And it doesn't seem to matter if you are Landor or not.)
2. According to Dalris, if you have any magic (dweomer), the sceptre will drain it away -- unless you are Landor (or Carr).

Under scenario 1, only someone with "strong" magic can safely handle the sceptre.

• A non-magical person like one of Oram's fighters? Kaput.
• Someone like Dalris who cheated on her ability rolls and knows 1st level druid spells? Probably OK.
• A novice who has learned some amazingly powerful 1st level magic-user spells like Armor and Burning Hands? Totally safe.
• A novice with the Cantrips Exterminate and Hairy? … Your guess is as good as mine; do these count as "strong" magic?

Under scenario 2, a non-magical person who touches the sceptre should be completely fine: that person has no dweomer to drain away, so nothing happens.

• Oram's fighters? Perfectly fine.
• Ulrik from Marla's village? Also fine.

Side rant regarding Archcleric Oram and the fighters and/or paladins he sent after the sceptre.

• If the sceptre kills non-magic-having people, that might explain why Archcleric Oram had to switch from sending fighters after Landor to sending paladins. Because Fighters don't cast spells, but Paladins do in AD&D starting at level 9.
• Alternatively if the sceptre kills insufficiently strong-magic-having people, then sending paladins wouldn't work unless they were level 9+. Maybe Oram didn't have any beefy paladin underlings. Maybe he sent a bunch of level 1 through level 8 paladins whose lack of strong magic doomed them to death via sceptre.

Back to the main rant: the way Dalris describes Landor's "trap" makes it sound like "drain the dweomer of the user" is a death sentence for ANYONE, regardless of how "strong" their magic-slash-dweomer may be. Which doesn't make any sense AT ALL, because dweomer was NEVER used to mean "life force" in Gygaxian AD&D.

---

I should start referring to the book's titular object as Schrödinger’s Sceptre, given it seems to change its core properties depending upon who interacts with it.

 

[Joshua Randall]

(Nothing to see here. Just an Unseen Servant carrying a torch.)

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Hahahahaha! I love this running gag. I want Landor to be older and older every time we reference him, until he is eventually 120 years old like Moses who, at the time of his death: “his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.”

At some point he'll be around 500, greatly lessening the achievement of locating Old Kandia, since he spend half his youth there.

Commentary:

Thayne describes Perth as "the old Kandian druid". What does that imply about Perth's age, and thus Dalris's age? It may mean that she is back to being much older than Carr. Or it may mean that Perth, like Landor, decided not to have kids until he was in his mid forties.

Maybe much older. Isn't he an elf?

A brief aside to call out the braid-tossing, more than a decade before Robert Jordan would make a woman's braid the centerpiece of the Wheel of Time (1997).

Or 1987's the Kingdom of Wyrd with its braided Seer?

 

[Joshua Randall]

Perth and Dalris are human. My argument earlier was that if they want to claim descent from Ancient Bhukod, an empire of elven sorcerers, that didn’t make sense because they are not elves. However, we allowed they may have such dilute elven blood as to be effectively human. Anyway, they are human in game terms and have a normal human lifespan.

---

As for braids: there must’ve been something in the water that fantasy authors were drinking in those days.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Back to the gamebook. Assuming we learned at least one mighty 1s level spell, perhaps one as mighty and useful as, let's say, Find Familiar (that we can't even cast successfully) -- we are clearly powerful enough to go on the endgame ride.

150

Thayne praises our spell transcriptions, tells us to gather our gear, and we meet Perth and Dalris at (14).

---

14

"The druid priest from Tikandia is a tall man with a full, silver-streaked dark beard and hair."

[The silver in Perth's beard means he is older. If you'd like to revisit some of the age-related questions that plague this gamebook, feel free.]

Perth has a tiara that holds his long hair in place, a tiara with a blue stone that glows with an inner light. A matching blue stone is set in "his druid neck ring, called a torc."

[And… that's it for Perth's tiara and torc. Just your average obviously magical items tossed off for flavor.]

Perth uses the patented method on us: stare-intently-at-someone-to-determine-their-identity -- and says he can see our father's "cheekbones and nose" in us. We're definitely Landor's son, as opposed to some other random urchin with Landor's money pouch, his last name, and Marla as mother.

[We] feel awkward under [Perth's] scrutiny, more because of Perth's daughter than because of the words themselves. Dalris is seated next to her father at Estla's table. Clad in buckskins much like Thayne's, her only ornament is a curious neck ring made of gold. Its open ends are capped with identical red stones. Her dark hair is gathered into a single long braid which reaches almost to her waist.

[This meeting is way less cute than the one outside the tower of the College Arcane, but I do love that we "feel awkward [...] because of Perth's daughter". There is a word for those tingly feelings, Carr, and "awkward" is not it.]

Perth tells us that Landor spent many years among the Kandian people, researching the "ancient spells" of the Bhukodian "wizards". See, that was Landor's secret: he's always angry. No, sorry; wrong secret. Landor's actual secret was that he derived his power from the "sorcerers" of Bhukod.

Dalris gives her speech about her people being the same as the ancient Bhukodian people and we see how noble she looks, starting here and continuing at (50). Most of the text is word-for-word the same as from the College Arcane path.

Perth states that because "one half of your body and spirit come from your father" that inheritance "might" protect us from the power of the "wand".

"Of course, if your life energy differs too much from Landor's, the wand may drain all of it as well as your magic-user's dweomer."

[The words "as well as" differentiate two functions of the wand / sceptre / ranseur: (1) drain your dweomer; (2) drain your life energy. (1) Drain "your" dweomer makes no sense in the context of actual AD&D gameplay because "you" do not have a dweomer; spell effects and magic items do. (2) Drain your "life energy" is pretty damn dangerous and a concrete example of how Landor maybe actually was worthy of the archmage title.]

Finally we are offered a choice:
(92) if we want to test our similarities to our father before we risk wand-related death;
(67) if we're willing to risk having our life energy drained.