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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 9573541" data-attributes="member: 7737">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:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">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.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">According to Dalris, if you have any magic (dweomer), the sceptre will drain it away -- unless you are Landor (or Carr).</li> </ol>Under scenario 1, only someone with "strong" magic can safely handle the sceptre.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A non-magical person like one of Oram's fighters? Kaput.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Someone like Dalris who cheated on her ability rolls and knows 1st level druid spells? Probably OK.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A novice who has learned some amazingly powerful 1st level magic-user spells like Armor and Burning Hands? Totally safe. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A novice with the Cantrips Exterminate and Hairy? … Your guess is as good as mine; do these count as "strong" magic?</li> </ul>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. <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Oram's fighters? Perfectly fine. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ulrik from Marla's village? Also fine.</li> </ul>Side rant regarding Archcleric Oram and the fighters and/or paladins he sent after the sceptre.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> </ul>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.</blockquote>

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