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

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

It’s weird that earlier in the book the rolls go straight to hard failure while here in the bazaar fight we get a soft failure with a chance to redeem ourselves.

For example, one could imagine that the failed bluff vs. Ulrik could’ve led to “make a DEX test to leap out of the cart before his goons hurl you over the side”, or the failed “be-a-friend-to-Wendel” passage could’ve led to one of the various possibilities I listed previously.

But nope. Both of those are instant deaths.

It’s like the DM feels bad for killing our character twice, so during this fight it’s something like…

DM: The pirates rush towards you!
Carr: I whip out my cutlass.
DM: Make a DEX test.
Carr: Failure.
DM: They, umm, uhh, well one of them fights the other guy and one of them, err, approaches you carefully because you’re in a defensive stance.
Carr: I am?
DM: Yeah! I mean, obviously. You don’t have any fight-y training. Make another DEX test.
Carr: Success! I slash him!
DM: Umm… actually, you, uhh… he trips on a rock.
Carr: Gee, thanks. Way to make me feel heroic.
DM: The crowd urges you to run away.
Carr: No way! I stab the pirate who tripped on a rock while he’s down.
DM: Umm… the crowd really thinks you should run away.
Carr: sigh Fine. I can take a hint. I run away.
DM: (whew, avoided another player kill there)

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Well, I guess we should have kept our head low. It looks like the sailor won't be able to repay us for helping him.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The crowd shouts in excitement at the fight and calls us out as "the beggar with the sword" who "looks dangerous".

They are taking sides. And not ours, criticizing our choice of fashion and warning the sailors.

It was mentionned earlier that the seaway was called Pirates Alley. I guess we were forewarned. Everybody leaves near the wharf because everyone is a pirate in town.

The pirate swings his scimitar [formerly a saber] at us but we duck and it whistles past, fanning the hairs on the back of our neck. Our assailant is thrown off balance, catches his shoe in a conveniently located hole caused by a missing cobblestone, and falls to the ground. The crowd laughs.

We hear a grunt from behind us and turn to see the man we warned go down beneath the second pirate's club. Someone in the crowd advises us to run.

So, we're 1 down on each side -- we could easily finish the fallen pirates with a quick cutlass swipe and turn to fight the other guy. It's risky, but we already had an uncanny half-success. Also, I think running will make them follow us, so it's only delaying the problem. We're not known for our athletic prowess. I expect to see this end in blood.

 

[Joshua Randall]

So, we're 1 down on each side

No; sorry, pronoun confusion. The man we warned, who was making out with the woman who's apparently in on the attack, got clubbed to the ground by one of the two "brace of lions" pirates. So we are now outnumbered two-to-one.

Stabbing the nearest pirate who tripped on a loose cobblestone is what you and I would like to do, but Carr is forced to run for it.

 

[Joshua Randall]

211

We wonder to ourselves why we're fighting experienced swordsmen when luck is the only thing that has kept us alive. [Hey! We rolled that 18 fair and square!]

We run through the crowd and dodge through a hole in the wall into a cul-de-sac where the vendors store empty baskets and barrels. We perch atop a basket [a sturdy one, apparently] where we can watch the entrance to our hiding spot.

Exhaustion from a week's worth of hard travel and lack of food catches up to us. We're about to nod off when we hear a voice say, "Have some cold wine to refresh yourself after all that exercise." But we are positive no one has entered the cul-de-sac other than us!

We turn to (6).

---

6

A small man with curly red hair and beard is somehow standing near the mud wall where the cul-de-sac dead ends. How'd he get there?

He holds a wineskin out to us, while his other hand holds a knobby wooden staff; he also has a wide dagger at his belt. His clothes are made from soft buckskin dyed in autumn shades and he wears a brown cloak with the hood thrown back.

[If this description doesn't scream "adventuring NPC!" to you, you probably haven't played enough D&D.]

"Go on, take the wine," he insists.

As the book puts it,

(79) if our thirst is stronger than our caution, or
(56) if we refuse the wine and keep our hand on our cutlass

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

He wears a hood, he's a questgiver. We should 100% trust him. He was probably on his way to sit ominously in the corner of a tavern smoking a pipe when we interrupted him.

 

[Joshua Randall]

79

Look, if this red-headed stranger had wanted to hurt us, he could've waited until we fell asleep and then slit our throat. Plus, free wine!

Too thirsty for caution (as the book puts it), we "squirt some cool liquid" into our mouth.

[This is such a great touch in the writing. With a wineskin, you do need to squirt the liquid out; it doesn't pour out like it would from a bottle. The modern day analogy would be one of those sports-drink bottles with the kind of cap that requires a squeeze to dispense liquid, so that it doesn't slosh all over the place while you're running or biking.]

Turns out the wine is a double-strength restorative tonic and we can regain one die's worth of HP. Sweet! Or, it would be, if we had lost any HP thus far.

[So if this is a double-strength tonic that restores ONE die of HP, would a single-strength tonic only restore d6/2 HP? Yikes!]

We feel better than we have in ages. That was some good wine! We hand the skin back to the stranger and notice he has slightly pointed ears and bright green eyes.

Turn to (102).

---

102

"You're an elf!" we blurt.

"And you're an oaf!" he replies.

[Hahahaha! I freakin' love that retort. It has been stuck in my head for almost 40 years.]

The stranger explains that here in Freeton it's impolite to mention someone's ancestry because most people are hiding from their past. We're lucky that this fellow is so chill. He introduces himself as Thayne and sketches a small bow.

We ignore his bow and demand to know how he got into the cul-de-sac, which we were sure was empty.

Thayne says it was a minor illusion but nothing compared to what a professional thief could do. Particularly a thief interested in the gold we've been "flashing around." We bristle at Thayne's mention of our gold and clutch our pouch tightly to our chest. "Where did you see our gold?" we demand to know.

[This is one of those continuity errors in CYOA-style gamebooks that are hard to avoid. There are a lot of paths where we use our money to buy something, but we managed to take the only path that doesn't involve using any money at all. Thus, we have not actually been "flashing around" our gold, so there is no possible way Thayne could've seen it.]

"I'm not after your gold, but you'd better take care of that pouch," Thayne responds.

Huh? The pouch? We start to ask why the pouch is important.

"You imbecile!" Thayne interjects.

[Hahahaha! You go, Thayne. Show Carr what a doofus he is. I mean, we is. Are. We are.]

Thayne wants to know how a bum like us came into possession of Landor's magic moneybag.

It's unsettling that some strange elf we just met could recognize our father's old pouch. We can…

(115) tell him who we are, or
(140) lie about the bag

 

[Joshua Randall]

115

We are a hot-headed teenager with a WIS of 3 (apparently). Of course we tell this stranger, who has already called us an "oaf" an "imbecile", that we are THE Carr Delling, descendant of an ARCHMAGE whose power filled the GODS THEMSELVES with fear!

(Plus it doesn't seem like a good idea to lie about something that the stranger knows more about than we do.)

Thayne verifies that we are Landor's son by staring closely at our facial features. And just like that, all suspicions fade away and caution is gone.

In an extremely long section, Thayne unloads a massive info dump upon us.

• He knew our father, whom he calls the Archmagus of Saven, very well. Thayne studied under Landor until Thayne departed the academy because of Beldon (see below).
• Landor was the most powerful mage in all of Tikandia. [Well, duh, if even the gods feared him.]
• Thayne cryptically comments that our father died "the victim of great evil or even greater ignorance."
• Thayne tells us that Beldon is evil and would like to use our father's spellbooks to evil ends. That's why Thayne left the academy.
• Beldon worked with our father until the latter discovered the Sceptre of Bhukod, Bhukod being "a kingdom of sorcery described in Tikandian legends". [Ding! Take a shot every time the series title is mentioned.] At which point Beldon's "greed and ambition" drove him away from Landor.
• The sceptre is so powerful that the Archcleric Oram ordered his "fighters" to assassinate Landor (!) and procure the sceptre.
• Although some say Landor died in Oram's dungeons, which isn't compatible with the "fighters" story. (That's kidnap and torture, not assassination.)

Our mind reels at all this. We ask about our father's spellbook, the legacy he left us. Thayne tells us to be satisfied with the coinpurse."It's much safer than Landor's spells."

Why should we be satisfied with four gold pieces, we want to know.

Thayne is shocked we don't know about the pouch. [Why is Thayne shocked, though? Us not knowing about the pouch was already established before the info dump.] He asks us to give it to him so he can show us what it does. We can…

(152) hand over the coinpurse, or…
(123) keep it inside our shirt

---

152

We've already trusted this stranger with our lives so we hand over the coinpurse.

Thayne empties the four coins out into our hand. Then he pronounces the word "Lucre" and shakes the purse. It jingles, and he pours out four MORE coins into his own hand.

We suspect trickery which doesn't surprise Thayne. He gives us back the coinpurse and we use the command word "Lucre" to make our own new set of four coins.

"How does it work?" we want to know. Thayne laughs and says he knew that would be the first thing Landor's son would ask. "It works by something we call 'magic'," Thayne says condescendingly. [Hahahaha! Never change, Thayne.]

In response to our question as to whether Landor made the purse, Thayne scoffs; such a powerful item would be beyond even Landor's might. No, Landor found this item "among others even more fabulous" in the ruins of lost Bhukod.

Turn to (159).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

Hoo boy, this coinpurse is a can of worms and then some. There doesn't seem to be any cooldown period on it, which means the purse can create an infinite supply of gold coins. That also means it can create an infinite supply of matter, which puts this purse among the most dangerous magic items in existence: an unscrupulous or careless user could literally drown the entire world in gold coins, given enough time.

Leaving aside the potential for world ending shenanigans, the coinpurse begs the question: why were Carr and Marla forced to live in squalid poverty when they had unlimited wealth at their disposal? (Even if not unlimited, four gold pieces a day would've been more than enough to keep them well fed and housed.)

Maybe Landor died before he could explain the coinpurse's secret to Marla or Carr. That makes sense if Landor died immediately after its discovery. Or maybe Landor was just as much of a doofus as Carr is, and he never thought he should tell his wife and son about this incredibly useful magic item.

---

As for the relationship among Thayne, Landor, and Beldon:

Thayne and Beldon studied under Landor. So, either Landor is considerably older than his wife (Beldon is Marla's younger brother); Beldon is much younger than Marla; or we lack the usual "teacher is a generation older than students" paradigm. All are possible; none are confirmed.

Beldon's evil was so obvious before the discovery of the Sceptre of Bhukod that Thayne left the academy because of it. Err… Thayne didn't want to tell Landor, "Hey, your brother-in-law is evil"? Or he did but Landor brushed it off? Or Landor had some kind of loyalty-to-wife's-brother situation that compelled Landor to keep Beldon as a student? Again -- many possible reasons; no actual explanation.

So Landor found the sceptre and the super evil Beldon, who coveted it… also left the academy. Beldon didn't try to steal the sceptre for himself? Beldon didn't ally with Oram to take it by force? Or Beldon was scared to try because of how powerful Landor was? But then if Landor was so powerful, how did he end up either assassinated or kidnapped and tortured to death by Oram?

WHY DOES THIS STORY NOT MAKE ANY SENSE TO ME NOW?!

We're going to put ourselves back into Carr's shoes and roleplay his apparent WIS 3 and teenage lack of consideration for such niceties. Carr has a magic money pouch, a burning desire to recover his father's spellbooks, the seeds of revenge against Oram and/or Beldon, and now the knowledge of the existence of the Sceptre of Bhukod. That's enough to keep Carr busy without worries about plot coherence.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

My take... A WIS 3 score runs in the family. I know it's not politically correct to assign penality to races, but clearly the race of Landar suffer a -15. To ensure his wife and son financial autonomy, he gave her a magic pouch of infinite wealth but forgot to explain how it works and what the command word is. Oopsie. I imagine Marla must have been quite disappointed when she open the package labelled "in case something happens to me, this should set you off for life" and find a purse with a measly 4 coins inside.

Also, he somehow forgot to tell Mum about the fact that her brother had turned to Evil. Well, you addressed that. But, hum, what kind of brother let her sister live in poverty among dimwitted peasants. I understand they had to escape an immediate threat, but getting in touch the following year to say "I have bought a small seaside cottage far south of saven for you and on my way here I torched the village of morons that exiled you" would have been nice. The fact he didn't even send a Christmas card should hint Marla that maybe, maybe, her brother isn't Good-aligned anymore.

I wouldn't be surprised if Landor married a girl his students' age. And since an alternative version of Carr saw that she could cast spells, he maybe just married one of his students. It... rarely happens in real life because deontology forbids teacher to fool with students (how do they say? Fraternize? Well, the intent wasn't to do something a guy does with his bros, but...), but in a medieval world...

Maybe that's a reason...

Dr Landor: I have summoned you because I saw your Deontology test. You're clearly in the Neutral Evil square of the alignment quadrant. This is concerning. Why shouldn't I expel you?
Beldon: You're sleeping with my sister. Maybe we should discuss deontology in front of the full faculty?
Dr Landor: and I wanted to congratulate you, I have decided to appoint you as prefect!

It's worse than being captured by Oram, who might have been a cleric so powerful the gods themselves feared him. Landor was killed/arrested by Oram's FIGHTERS. The kind that tend to turn to crispy, charred meat after he says "Fireball". Not to speak of Contingent Planeshift. Hypothesis: the gods of Tikandia are extremely fearful. They are not gods in the sense of absolutely powerful being, they are actually a pantheon of kobolds.

Also, with WIS 3, I guess we don't have the option to end the adventure here, moving to another island altogether, generate, based on the fact that Lucre takes half a mississippi, around 480 gp in a minute and use that wealth to fund a mercenary army to take over the island and "remove" anyone who wronged us in the past? Thayne litterally told us it was the safest path.