Commentary:
Dalris's list raises more questions than it answers.
The first question is "why is it Dalris that explains that?". If she's supposed to be the age of Carr, she's a teenager, and adults are talking to Carr. If she's twice or more his age, setting up another inappropriate relationship we're so fond of, then it's OK.
Also, if she is Carr's age, that means that Landor was having an affair with Marla and Perth's wife (let's call her Canberra) roughly at the same time. Since Perth is established to be around 50 with a beard not totally grey but with silver streaks, it means he was 35 at most when Carr was born, let's 33 when he was concieved. If his wife was his age or younger, which isn't surprising from someone in a position of power in a medieval setting, 64-years old Landor is confirmed to be interested in younger women as a trend, not just Marla.
If Dalris is 35, then she was born 20 years before Landor's death, when he was 45 -- fine -- and when Perth was 15. And Perth's wife was, hum...
New hypothesis to reconcile everything: Landor knocked teenage Canberra, his student, up, making her stop her study of magic. Then she got back to Kandian land in shame and was hastily betrothed to a young guy, who later happened to become archdruid of Kandia, Perth. 6 months later, Dalris is born, and never told that she was adopted by Perth. She was however used to see Landor coming by at their house when she was a child -- he had to deposit child support money after all, there is no way to just do a bank transfer in a medieval setting -- and probably at some point he gave her a magic colouring book, so she vaguely remembers "studying under Landor". At age 18, she unlocks the funds left by Landor as part of child support, netting her the GP and therefore XP to reach the required MU and fighter level to become a bard.
We're progressively putting the pieces of the plot together.
- Landor hid the sceptre in a crypt below the academy: How could anyone other than Landor, Rufyl, and the Crypt Thing know this? Landor hadn't done it yet when he departed the druid grove to go back to the academy; and after he did it, Landor disappeared. The only thing that makes sense is that Landor told Perth and Dalris about his PLAN to hide the sceptre. But from their perspective, how do they know he succeeded?
On day 1 of their 15-years old combing of the island to search for Landor's son, they had cast Augury, revealing that:
"Marla Delling of Delmer has borne a heir to Landor that will one day pick up his father's sceptre from the crypt under his academy, where it will rest safely until this day."
Unfortunately, the cryptic augury didn't yield any useful information about Carr's whereabouts.
- The only way to reach the crypt is through Landor's quarters: Again, how could anyone know this? That was Landor's PLAN and as it turned out, it worked. But the plan requires multiple steps in which you first summon Rufyl, then Rufyl goes to talk to the Crypt Thing, then the Crypt Thing teleports you to the vault. Did Landor share these elaborate steps with Perth and Dalris before he left?
This can't be true. The people who built the crypt probably didn't enter through Landor's quarters, built centuries later. Even if they blocked the access to the crypt with a large stone, there
is another way to reach the crypt, possibly requiring the use of magic. Or a shovel.
- Landor's quarters have been wizard locked since "his murder" (!) 15 years ago: The "murder" part of this cannot be true, because in this timeline, Carr will end up in Landor's quarters and read Landor's letter wherein Landor explains how he gave up his own existence to power the Crypt Thing / Sceptre / vault hiding place situation. There is no timeline in which "Landor was murdered" and "Carr gets into the vault" are both true at the same time.
There is a possibility that The Thayne Team actually believes that Landor was killed on the way back, after locking the sceptre out.
Knowing that the quarters are wizard locked proves that they already sent someone to the academy, and he was shown that particular door, on the distinctinve 15-feet wide landing.
Also, if we accept that "Your father decided to change alignment" is equal to "your father was killed by <his new screen name>", then we can accepted that "Your father was forced to perform a ritual that cost his life to protect the sceptre from his enemy" is equal to "your father was killed by the enemy".
- Beldon has been trying to gain access ever since, but has so far been unable to break the seal: What exactly has Beldon been trying? He's powerful enough to cast 6th level spells and he has a limitless supply of expendable students. How hard is it to break one darned wizard lock?
In my current campaign, I play a character in a group who has located a tomb in which rests powerful, ancient, evil, world-destroying relic. The group has decided that the next step of our quest consists of destroying the key to the tomb. I am having a blast repeating that destroying the key will hardly prove a problem to anyone once the location of the tomb is widely known. But I am not listened to.
This is the exact same problem here. Let's discount the window for a second. Let's discard the ease of removing Arcane Lock on a door. Casting desintegrate on the WALL would be enough. Or getting a pike, asking Dr Sluggart, the Divination Teacher, to stand aside from the middle of his appartment, and burrowing one stair down. There are thousands of way to do that in 15 years.
- "We think" that Landor's personal spellbooks are in the room: This is a lie. Perth and Dalris KNOW FOR A FACT that Landor's spellbooks are in the druid grove. I still don't understand the point of this lie. Team Good Guys have already convinced Carr of the sceptre's importance and that he needs to recover it to save the world from Beldeon's unspecified eeeeevil. If they said, "And after you recover the sceptre, we'll take you to the grove where you can read your father's spellbooks," that would be an EVEN STRONGER reason for Carr to help. The lie makes it LESS likely that Carr will want to help. Recall that Carr was uncomfortable with Estla's aura-reading because Carr knew that Thayne withheld information, or to put it another way, because Thayne lied to Carr. In other words: when Carr is lied to, he balks and doesn't want to proceed. So WHY would Team Good Guy make up a lie out of thin air about the spellbooks, knowing that this lie will make Carr NOT WANT TO HELP THEM?!
Especially since "We think the spellbooks are in the room" will be proven false before Carr accesses the sceptre. So he might totally abort the mission saying "the information you've been operating on is incorrect, the spellbooks weren't in the room, so I prefered to retreat as there is a strong chance the secret access to some crypt from there is also wrong".
- Perth "has learned" that Beldon "is close to solving the problem of the wizard's lock": Whaaaaat?!?! How has Perth "learned" this? Who is Perth's inside man?!?!
He cast Augury on the second day of his combing of Freeton, revealing that: "The sun will have risen thrice in the sky after the son of Landor has learned his first cantrip when the sceptre of Power will be recovered".
Since Thayne taught Carr two days ago, if they don't act right now, then the three days will have passed and therefore Beldon is very close to get the sceptre unless they do something right now.
