[AD&D Gamebook] The Sorcerer's Crown (Kingdom of Sorcery, book 2 of 3)

[Joshua Randall]

From a game design point of view, this is infuriating. Without forewarning, two of the three choices we have are doomed to fail from the moment we embark -- only to discover that after several choices.

Correct. And I did not remember that aspect of this book when I sat down to replay it in 2025 (at I write this). I probably last played these books a couple of years after their publication, so 1987-1988 timeframe. Then I held onto them for the intervening decades because of my packrat tendencies.

I vaguely remembered this book as the one in which Arno re-appears, we have the introduction of [redacted] into the plot, and there are the gnolls and paladins. I did not remember that the Seagate Island paths always end in death (or nonlethal failure)... at least, the way we have traversed them thus far.

(Hint: the incoming / outgoing nodes to which I called attention previously. Hmm....)

So yes, the minute you choose (137) Seagate Island from the gear-up scene, you're dead: you just don't know it yet. We'll see if the other choice, to go directly to Saven, fares any better....

As I've written a few times, The Sorcerer's Crown has what I believe to be a VERY strange flowchart compared to the stereotypical gamebook. I've downloaded a program that helps you draw flowcharts for gamebooks so I don't have to do it by hand in a mind-map program. I want to compare book 2 to book 1, at the least.

If the drunken explanation gave us solid hints that Seagate Island is absolutely locked-up and there approaching it is so risky it's doomed to failure, maybe...

Indeed. This book is super frustrating because alongside the unreliable drunken narrator, we also get so much wishy-washy language that we can never be sure whether a fact that is given to us is (1) true in a Platonic sense; (2) believed to be true by one of the NPCs, but not actually true; (3) potentially true, but not solidified until we choose a path (like whether Landor was murdered by Beldon in book 1 vs. gave up his own life willingly). And then we add in (4) insane gamebook moon-logic where things are true, not-true, and kumquat-fish-octagon all at the same time.

So how can you as gamebook player decide what to do? You can't decide based on normal deductive nor inductive reasoning because the gamebook's insane moon-logic is immune to that approach. Instead you must blindly grope through the paths; you must seek knowledge knowing in the back of your mind that your initial paths will inevitably lead to failure and death. As I put it in @Jfdlsjfd 's thread, Gamebooks do illustrate a quite esoteric occult belief system in which true and complete knowledge is only possible after one’s own death!

But in this case, the evil event happened... last year. We could wait two or three days off while Perth finishes chanting

Oh, I have not forgotten that I need to rant about how slow out of the blocks Team Good Guys is. A good portion of the badness in this book could've been prevented with timely action A YEAR AGO.

But now that a year has gone by, why the sudden rush? As far as we know, there is no imminent danger that is any worse today than it was a year ago. Unless this book is going to reveal that Arno is on the cusp of getting past the Door of Doom equivalent? Which is possible. My memory is clearly quite bad when it comes to The Sorcerer's Crown.

[snip image]
A barren wasteland.

[snip image]
A coastal marsh.

Can you spot the 7 subtle differences between the two images?

insert <corporate wants you to find the difference - they're the same picture> meme here

At least, that seems to be how the gamebook would respond.

a shortcut/detour through the swamp

We should clearly avoid the barren swamp wasteland marsh, because it is a location with a Capitalized Nouns name, and as we all know, such places are of no importance whatsoever, especially when your magical sidekick tells you to stay far away from them.

(So yeah, I'm making a sub-optimal choice to avoid Yellow Marsh, but (1) it's the choice I really did make a few weeks ago when I started this gamebook; and (2) in the end it'll lead to a more entertaining thread.)

Maybe the key to understanding the bad choices in this book is knowing that boating is bad for your continued existence?

Especially when you were born in a coastal town and then moved to a nearby island.

 

[Joshua Randall]

113

"What we want is a way to reach Saven without telling Arno we're coming." [Carr says.] "If the paladins are guarding the road, we need to stay away from it. Even if we go through the woods, there's a chance that a patrol would see us and report us to the archcleric."

[*For the record, that is two "ifs" and "a chance" in one paragraph. I’ll stop calling out the wishy-washy language from now on, so just imagine me getting red in the face each and every time.*]

Dalris agrees we should avoid quantum roads that pass through one of two possible swamps (one of which is also a barren wasteland) and may possibly run afoul of paladins who may or may not be patrolling. Instead she sends a messenger raven ahead to ask for a boat. She guides us through the forest -- no manticores are harmed this time -- and we both try to soothe Rufyl who is extremely anxious about sea travel, for some unexplained reason.

The fishing boat stinks of rotten fish, but we make ourselves as comfortable as possible for the journey. The fishermen do their thing. It's "nearly dusk" when we see the port city of Saven on the horizon.

[*We left Wealwood at daybreak, headed to the coast, got on a fishing boat, and now it's "nearly dusk" when we spot Saven on the horizon, meaning it is still pretty damn far away. How the heck wide is Pirates' Alley?*]

We also see "a fast ship flying the flag of the Saven archclericy" bearing down upon us.

"Marines!" blurts one of the fishermen. "An' they be well-armed! I count twenty cannon."

[*Yikes! And yes, you read that right. This gameworld has cannons.*]

The archclericy vessel sends up a string of brightly colored pennants, a set of message flags. (Cool!) They are orders for the fishing boat to "come to and let 'em board."

The captain of the fishing boat says there's "a slim chance we could make the coast before they blow us out of the water", at which point we could lose them in the shallows. Or we could "let 'em board like they be askin'." He's game to do whatever "mistress" Dalris advises.

Dalris turns to us. "What do we do now?"
(207) to let them board, or
(189) to run for the coast.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Dalris agrees we should avoid quantum roads that pass through one of two possible swamps (one of which is also a barren wasteland) and may possibly run afoul of paladins who may or may not be patrolling. Instead she sends a messenger raven ahead to ask for a boat. She guides us through the forest -- no manticores are harmed this time -- and we both try to soothe Rufyl who is extremely anxious about sea travel, for some unexplained reason.

Especially strange since he's a flying creature and we will only follow the coastline.

The fishing boat stinks of rotten fish, but we make ourselves as comfortable as possible for the journey. The fishermen do their thing. It's "nearly dusk" when we see the port city of Saven on the horizon.

[*We left Wealwood at daybreak, headed to the coast, got on a fishing boat, and now it's "nearly dusk" when we spot Saven on the horizon, meaning it is still pretty damn far away. How the heck wide is Pirates' Alley?*]

Unless I am mistaken, I don't think we ever crossed Pirates' Alley. The Alley is supposed to be between the Kandian mainland and Seagate Island. We're taking a boat from one point of the Kandian mainland (closest shore to our Wealwood) and we're navigating along the coast to Saven, on the same Kandian mainland. So there is no link to the width of the Pirates' Alley. Also, since we're coasting, seeing Saven on the horizon can be just a few fathoms away if we just passed a cape and saw Saven just behind.

Also, the horizon at sea is just like 5 km away if it's a small fishing raft, 20 km if seen from the lookout of a larger ship (and 620 km from 30,000 meters high, allowing you to cross from the coast of Xen'drik to Sharn in less than 3 charges of a "sight-only" helm of teleportation).

Also, I envision Seagate to be the last land before getting to a huge ocean, hence the name.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Gah! Now I am the one who mixed up Tikandia and Seagate.

As for Rufyl, we haven’t come across it yet, but he cannot fly; or at least, not well or for long. Which is weird, because to the best of my knowledge, AD&D pseudodragons did have a fly speed.

 

[Joshua Randall]

207

We can't fight the marines [*note this for later*] and their ship is faster than "this old tub" [*we are so diplomatic in front of the fishing boat's captain*], so we tell Dalris to tell the captain to tell his men to let the marines come aboard. After they board, "maybe" [*headdesk*] we can bluff or charm them into letting us go.

Dalris turns to give the orders, and we contemplate the approaching "war galley" and whether we should use magic to manipulate the marines.

(90) to use a spell we already know;
(16) to use a more powerful spell from our traveling spellbook; or
(49) to handle them without magic.

---

This is the Kingdom of Sorcery trilogy, not the Kingdom of Handling Problems Without Using Magic trilogy. We're definitely casting a spell.

The three spells in the traveling spellbook are wholly unsuited for this situation.

• Enchant an Item isn't going to convince the marines to let us go.
• Contact Other Plane is for information gathering.
• Polymorph Other might be useful in a fight, but we've been told we can't fight the marines. [*Why not? We have our full complement of offensive sp -- never mind. It's not worth the SAN loss to contemplate our utter loss of agency.*]

By process of elimination, that means we fall back on a spell we already know.

---

90

As the ship approaches we take note of the TWO DOZEN armored knights who stand ready to board, weapons drawn. We mentally review our prepared spells.

(12) to attack the marines with magic, or
(43) to control them without violence.

---

"Attack the marines with magic"? sigh Gamebook, buddy. Please stop second-guessing the decisions we already made. We decided to let the marines board and to manipulate them with magic. Not attack them. In fact we were specifically told that we CAN'T fight the marines!

---

43

We tell Dalris that we should avoid fighting the "several" dozen well-armed marines. "The best way to handle a group that large is by gentler, persuasive magic."

"I know about 'white' magic and 'black' magic, but this is the first time I've ever heard of 'yellow' magic!" chides Dalris. "Being cooped up in that cabin for five years with your father's books has made you timid, Carr Delling!"

We begin to protest that we are not a coward, but then shrug and turn away from her "sneering expression." Dalris stomps off. Rufyl telepathically asks why we didn't explain the limitations of our attack spells to her.

"It's useless to say anything to her after she's made up her mind," we think back. "Besides, there's no time. [We've] got to decide on a spell and prepare it."

Rufyl stops communicating and we wonder if he's gone to soothe Dalris "as he does after [our] frequent arguments with her."

The sound of a grappling hook slamming into the deck jolts us away from our self-pity and back to the "manipulative control spells" we've learned.

(38) Friends,
(58) Sleep, or
(74) Suggestion.

Be sure to mark the spell you choose off your Stats Card before turning to the section shown.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

…"several" dozen well-armed marines…

There were only two dozen in the prior section. We should be extra careful around these rapidly multiplying marines.

---

"I know about 'white' magic and 'black' magic, but this is the first time I've ever heard of 'yellow' magic!" chides Dalris.

Sick burn, daughter of Perth.

But… are you the same person who objected to the use of Magic Missile to mortally wound a savage, man-eating manticore? I want to understand here. It's unacceptable to use offensive magic on a vicious wild animal whose description includes the terms "man" and "eat", but it is acceptable to use offensive magic on the marines who are just doing their jobs. Is that right?

In addition, weren't you the one who told us we haven't learned to temper knowledge with wisdom? Well, it seems much wiser to use gentle, manipulative magic on the SEVERAL DOZEN marines than to use offensive magic that cannot possibly defeat them all in one "round".

Yet you decide to insult us as "cowards"!

I, the gamebook reader-slash-player, REALLY wish there were an option here to feel so angry at Dalris's insult that we lash out with as much magical might as we can. That would fit Carr's still-mentally-a-teenage-hothead personality much better than meek acceptance of the "coward" label.

---

"Besides, there's no time. I've got to decide on a spell and prepare it."

No. We don't need to "prepare" a spell. All of our spells are already "prepared" (or memorized). The up-front work has been done. The only thing that remains is to cast our chosen spell.

As part of casting that spell, we do need to have the material components at the ready. Which we do, because they are all stored nicely in our Deeppockets cloak.

---

Be sure to mark the spell you choose off your Stats Card before turning to the section shown.

Or: don't cheat you filthy cheater!

---

(38) Friends,
(58) Sleep, or
(74) Suggestion.

Sleep is not going to be able to handle "several dozen" marines. At BEST, AD&D Sleep could affect 4d4 creatures of up to 1 HD; even if the paladin-marines are that low level, max of 4d4=16 is much less than "several dozen".

And besides, Arno is not here to get excited and sweaty about the possibilities of doing "anything we want" to the sleeping victims.

So the choice is between the weaker and stronger versions of spells that get people to do what you want. The blurbs are not that useful.

• Friends (1st level) - Manipulates others by making them like the spellcaster.
• Suggestion (3rd) - Enable user to plant ideas in victim's head.

If you didn't play AD&D nor own the Players Handbook, you wouldn't know that Suggestion is a higher-level spell than Friends and much more narratively powerful. But fortunately for you, dear readers, I did and I do.

---

Friends - PH p. 66

A friends spell causes the magic-user to gain a temporary increase of 2-8 points of charisma -- or a temporary lowering of charisma by 1-4 points -- depending on whether creatures within the area of effect make -- or fail -- [sic; should be opposite order] their saving throw versus magic. Those that fail their saving throw will be very impressed with the spell caster and desire greatly to be his or her friend and help. Those that do not fail will be uneasy in the spell caster's presence and tend to find him or her irritating.

---

Suggestion - PH p. 75

When this spell is cast by the magic-user, he or she influences the actions of the chosen recipient by utterance of a few words -- phrases, or a sentence or two -- suggesting a course of action desirable to the spell caster. [...] The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the action sound reasonable; a request asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act will automatically negate the effect of the spell. However, a suggestion that a pool of acid was actually pure water, and a quick dip would be refreshing, is another matter; or the urging that a cessation of attack upon the magic-user's party would benefit a red dragon, for the group could loot a rich treasure elsewhere through co-operative action, is likewise a reasonable use of the spell's power. The course of action of a suggestion can continue in effect for a considerable duration, such as in the case of the red dragon mentioned above.

---

One of these spells is an ability score buff and the other is mind control as long as you don't suggest something suicidal (or if you do, cloak it in rules-lawer speak).

The choice is obvious.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Indeed. We need to increase our Charisma to impress all those guards. Just having Random Marine #14 think it's a great thing to help us won't do anything about the rest of the crowd.

It could be different if we had access to the captain of the ship, though, someone of high enough rank that his order will be followed mindlessly by the troops.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Sadly in AD&D, bonuses to your Charisma did not allow you to spam Persuasion (nor Bluff nor Intimidate nor ...) because there were no skills in AD&D. What Charisma did was control the Maximum Number of Henchmen your character could retain, their Loyalty, and provided a Reaction Adjustment to the reaction score upon first meeting other creatures.

The key words being "upon first meeting". We already met the marines, so whatever their reaction towards us was, a temporary CHA buff won't help now. Therefore, Friends won't help at this point [well, it shouldn't; in the gamebook, it's basically Suggestion lite, so we end up at the same place we're about to end up, more or less].

Side note -- in actual AD&D, not gamebook world, Charisma was the god stat. Running around with 10 henchmen (CHA 17) or 15 henchman (CHA 18) as opposed to the measly 4 henchmen that a CHA 9-11 character retained -- yeah. That was a biiiiig difference.

Not to mention the +15% (CHA 15) to +35% (!) (CHA 18) Reaction Adjustment you could obtain.

 

[Joshua Randall]

74

We stand next to Dalris and the invisible Rufyl while the marines search the fishing boat for contraband. Our Kandian cloak with its "distracting mystical symbols" prevents anyone from noticing as we locate the "tiny ball of honeycomb wax mixed with powdered viper's tongue -- the material components of [our] Suggestion spell."

Rufyl wants to know what the marines are looking for. We don't know, but we reply that we can suggest something to distract them.

We see the leader of the boarding party, "a burly marine officer wearing the scarlet insignia of Archcleric Oram's private paladin guards, the Knights of Blessed Dyan." We pop the tiny ball of wax into our mouth, swallow it, and say the spellwords, "Mafran, mafran."

Our suggestion is that when his men finish their search for nonexistent contraband, they might like to listen to some traditional Kandian music and songs played by our "lady friend". The officer attempts to resist our spell, his eyes quivering….

INT test
(62) if 22 or more.
(53) if less.

---

62

The Google dice roller is pent up after approximately a billion sections without being asked to engage the game mechanics, so it unleashes a 6 & 5 which added to our base INT 19 gives us a 30. Booyah!

"Jongleurs?" says the marine’s officer, showing off his old-timey vocabulary. "This native gentleman" and "his comely girlfriend" must be minstrels, which makes this "a showboat, not a smugglers’ scow!"

The laugh track fires up — wait, sorry; that’s actually the boarding party laughing. They make some crude jokes about actresses. Dalris gets into the part we "thrust" upon her [oh dear] and promises that if the marines land us at Saven, she’ll give them a show they’ll never forget.

The marines cheer even more loudly as Dalris "cocks [oh dear] her head at the nearest marines and smiles coquettishly."

If they could only see the ice behind those promising embers! we think.

"What ice? And I don’t see any fire, either!" Rufyl thinks, because apparently now he’s the alien outsider who doesn’t understand this Earth-man concept known as "metaphor".

We tell Rufyl to stay invisible and out of the way until the marines get us to Saven. Meanwhile Dalris is flirting with the three marines who are helping her cross the gangplank to their galley. Once on the other ship, Dalris pulls out her flute and plays a jaunty tune. Two of the marines dance with each other which causes the rest to laugh even louder.

Dalris "sings, dances, plays, and frolics" for the rest of the brief voyage.The "moon-eyed" marines put us (and, unknowingly, Rufyl) into a launch and row us to the "busy dock of Tikandia’s largest port." Dalris waits until they are out of earshot, then tells us we’re not allowed to choose her cover story next time. She had to do all the work "because you have the acting skills of a lamppost!"

We ignore the jibe and exclaim, "You were wonderful!"

"I’m a professional bard," Dalris replies coolly. "Now let’s find the cathedral and see if we can spot this old rival of yours."

Dalris turns and heads for the street at the end of the pier. You watch her long black braid dance lightly against the tight leather of her trousers and smile softly before following her haughty but captivating figure.

Wipe the drool off your face and turn to (100).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

"This native gentleman" and "his comely girlfriend" must be minstrels…

"Comely" is not only a great old-timey word, but also a subtle reference to Comeliness, the seventh ability score introduced in AD&D's Unearthed Arcana to bifurcate physical attractiveness from personal magnetism (Charisma).

As that book put it, "While Charisma deals specifically with leadership and interactions between characters, comeliness deals with attractiveness and first impressions. Comeliness is not charisma…." (UA p. 6, emphasis in original)

Except that in THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE, "Charisma, however, affects comeliness." Huh? WHY? I can assure you that in real life, someone's personal magnetism and leadership qualities do not travel back in time to affect the physical beauty they were born with.

But in AD&D, your charisma ability score applied a modifier to the 3d6 you rolled for comeliness, from -5 at Charisma 3 to +3 at Charisma 18. Your comeliness was then also adjusted by your character's race (-3 for Half-orcs, -1 for dwarves and gnomes, 0 for halflings and humans, +1 for half-elves and sylvan elves, and +2 for grey elves and high elves), except that your adjusted comeliness only applied to the reactions of other races, not your own race.

Got all that?

Then you consulted the modified comeliness value on a scale from -16 to +30 and got results ranging from disgust and a desire to be away from so ugly a creature, to initial unease possible to overcome with charisma, to no effect, to "interest in viewing the individual [because] he or she is good-looking", to head-turning beauty, all the way to a quasi-magical fascinate power at sufficiently high you-must-be-cheating comeliness scores.

---

Also, the paladin-marine referred to Dalris as our GIRLFRIEND!

swoon

---

We ignore the jibe and exclaim, "You were wonderful!"

Once in a while, Carr is NOT a jerk.

---

Dalris turns and heads for the street at the end of the pier. You watch her long black braid dance lightly against the tight leather of her trousers and smile softly before following her haughty but captivating figure.

Yowza!