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

[Joshua Randall]

Pet Peeve alert. Until there is a second of the same name, people aren't titled "the first".

Hah! Good point.

When I was a kid — around the time I first played these books — I signed my name

Joshua E. Randall I

(It looked fancier with even bigger serifs.)

Yes, it was completely dorky and dumb, and now everyone knows that about me. Oversharing! What the internet was created for.

Did they utter the name of Pazuzu three times in a row?

Wait for it….

I am not surprised that arcane expert such as Carr would also be familiar with the name of powerful demon existing in his world.

That’s a good point.

It is still weird that Garrrrrn casually drops the info about “the cult of Pazuzu; you know, the demon lord” and we all move right past it to argue about colonial oppression.

He is correcting us (falsely) to assert superiority in front of Dalris.

He has to resort to such tactics to make up for his utter lack of game. Have you heard Garrrrrn’s flirting? It’s god-awful.

If Oram (back when he was venerable and holy) arrestokilled Dad because he was stirring trouble against the established religion, it would have been worth mentionning instead of saying Oram feared his power or something, or implying Oram was evil at this time.

I think the author was going for a situation where Oram was already, many years ago, a less-than-truly righteous religious authority figure. Like the Three Musketeers version of Cardinal Richelieu. Presumably we are to take Carr at his word that Landor only opposed the corrupt priests in the hinterlands (there to forcibly convert the native Kandians, presumably). All of this is standard religion-as-force-for-oppression boilerplate.

If Dad was indeed doing right and was hunted down for doing the right thing, then Oram was evil much earlier than "two month ago",

True. Although there are degrees of evil and Oram may have skirted just this side of it. (Oram is a cleric, not a paladin, so the AD&D rules aren’t quite as strict about alignment.)

You can't "neither believes or disbelieves". It's binary. If he still has doubts, then he is by definition not believing us.

There you go. An even stronger argument than mine. I should chalk up the “neither believes nor disbelieves” as another example of wishy-washy language (and as you pointed out, logically impossible language), but… I said I would stop pointing out all these examples. (Too late!)

That's the moment we take his hand while having the sceptre protrude from our sleeve, so we nudge him with it and BAM. He falls dead, nose into the frew stew, while we say "you would have fared better had you respected my father or believed now. Instead, you're going to the afterlife of the fallen paladin. Good luck, dretch."

Badass! I now want there to be an alternate version of this series in which Carr is eeeeevil and uses his magic and his bulbous rod to attain UNLIMITED POWAAAAAH!!!!!

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

And unlimited money. Don't forget we have unlimited money, so there is absolutely no reason to skimp on paid stew, should free stew become unavailable.

 

[Joshua Randall]

172

Fresh off our manly hand-clasp with Garn, we decide to tell him everything: our rivalry with Arno; Thayne's information from his "sources"; and "Perth's warnings about Arno's pact with unearthly forces."

Hearing Perth's name, Garn remarks, "The Archdruid of Kandia. The father of this lovely wildflower."

We expect Dalris to be annoyed by Garn's outrageous flirting, but she grins instead. She says there's nothing much to tell: she's "finishing [her] third year of bardic studies at Fochlucan College", she collects Bhukodian artifacts "especially magical ones such as [her] flute", and she enjoys taking care of her invisible, telepathic, it's-not-a-red-dragon pet. [OK, OK. I added the part about Rufyl.]

Garn remarks that the magic flute must be what he sensed with his Detect Magic -- "among other things" (as he glances at us). He wants to know if he's correct that Dalris has mastered both fighter-ing and thief-ing because both are required to attend a bardic college.

Dalris blushes again.

[That's 3 times for those keeping track, and if you are, you should have taken 3 shots by now.]

She explains that Perth sent her as an envoy to Saven "when I was in my teens," where she learned swordplay from "a young gallant in Oram's household. As for the thievery, those were times of great intrigue between the Kandian people and their colonial masters. I was more of an 'information source' than a thief, but the skills are similar."

Garm exclaims that Dalris was A SPY! He looks uncertain, and we think, Just like a paladin to look for evil everywhere.

Dalris retorts that her people "are descended from the mightiest rulers of Tikandia" and that Garn's "so-called Holy Guard has waged a bigoted war against Kandians since the archclericy was founded," and calls them heathens.

Garn protests that this isn't so and that "The Knights of Blessed Dyan have moved against the Kandian tribes only when evil influences have jeopardized our priests…."

We tell them both to knock it off, even though we're enjoying the fact that Dalris's hostility has been redirected to someone other than ourselves. We remind Dalris and Garn that we have a job to do: we need to get into the cathedral and "see [Arno] in action in order to know what we're fighting."

Garn says he can take us to a hidden entrance "known only to a few of the senior paladins. It leads directly to the sanctuary, just behind the main altar."

Dalris is ready to go, but we have to turn to…

(161) if we're carrying the Sceptre of Bhukod, or
(214) if not.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

…"Perth's warnings about Arno's pact with unearthly forces."

Huh? Perth said no such thing. It would've been super helpful if he had.

[Dalris is] "finishing [her] third year of bardic studies at Fochlucan College"...

This is a fun callout to the AD&D Bard. At level 1 (which means character level 11 overall) the bard is a Probationer, but thereafter she becomes associated with a specific College, one for every three bard levels from 2 through 22. These are:

• Fochlucan
• Mac-Fuirmidh
• Doss
• Canaith
• Cli
• Anstruth
• Ollamh

At bard level 23 the character is Magna Alumnae.

According to the Notes Regarding Bards Table II on page 118 of the AD&D PH,

College is an important distinction to a bard, and he or she will not associate with a bard of a lesser college. The exception to this rule are the Magna Alumnae who will happily aid (by advice and suggestion) any other bard of any level.

Apparently after 3 million XP worth of bard-ing, during which time the bard would haughtily refuse to CONSIDER those PLEBES in the lower-ranked colleges, she suddenly transcends all that at level 23 and becomes friend and mentor to all? Sure, why not.

Also: if Dalris is just now finishing her studies at Fochlucan College, that means that at most she is a 4th level bard. Which means that in the FIVE YEARS since the previous book, Dalris has gained only THREE LEVELS. That is an even worse rate of advancement than Carr, who gained five levels over that span. (Which was in itself pathetically slow.)

Truly, Team Good Guys lives the slow motion life in all aspects of their being.

"The father of this lovely wildflower."

Garn. Bruh. Your pickup lines are PAINFULLY bad.

…[Dalris] collects Bhukodian artifacts…

The implication in the first book was that Ancient Bhukod was so forgotten and mysterious that only the great Landor was able to discover the Sceptre of Bhukod (along with other relics like the Money Pouch Of Infinite Lucre). Now in this book, Bhukodian artifacts are commonplace enough that Dalris can collect them.

[Dalris] explains that Perth sent her as an envoy to Saven "when I was in my teens," where she learned swordplay….

Hoo boy. Here we go again with one of our favorite games, How Old Is Dalris?

In the thread for the previous book, we came to no definitive conclusion, but floated ages anywhere from in her 30s

to a minimum of 23, but probably 27-28,

but then again maybe 33 given the minimum fighter age plus all the leveling up she had to do

although maybe that assumed too slow of a level-up progression so she was only 19.

In book 2, if we accept the most generous possible reading of "in my teens", then Dalris was sent to learn swordplay at age 13. If she was as rapid a student as possible, she could've still been 13 when she finished gaining 5 levels of fighter, and 5 levels of thief via "information sourcing", and then had her daddy sign off on "sure, honey, you know druidic magic now" to become a bard. At age 13.

(Also somewhere in there she "was trained by the great Landor himself!" Possibly as a toddler while drooling on his spellbooks.)

I… am not super comfortable with a 13-year-old Dalris meeting OUR Carr Delling on the grounds of the College Arcane where she is described as "a young woman, dressed in the buckskin clothing of a frontiersman or ranger. The wild beauty in her face and body can't be hidden, however, even in the crudely tanned skins."

"Young woman" implies older than 13, to me; and I do not want to think about the "body" that "can't be hidden" of a 13-year-old.

So what does "young woman" mean?

Thanks to my extensive research that required literally SECONDS of Google use, according to 42 USC § 280m(g), "the term 'young women' means women 15 to 44 years of age." 44 years of age is a VERY generous definition of the commonplace word 'young', but… lawyers, amirite?

However, if we take the lowest end of that range, then Dalris as "a young woman" dressed in buckskin could have been 15 years old when she learned swordplay. And if we retain our assumptions about her rapid advancement through 5 levels of fighter + 5 levels of thief + Druidic training with daddy dearest, then Dalris would still be 15 years old when she met Carr. Conveniently the same age as OUR Carr Delling in book 1.

I am still not super comfortable with the comments about her body if she's only 15, but it's possible, and congruent with her learning swordplay "in her teens."

Or we could make Dalris 18 in book 1 so it would at least not be illegal to contemplate her body. In which case she would be 23 in this book, to Carr's… 22, because 15=16+5=22, according to gamebook math.

…those were times of great intrigue between the Kandian people and their colonial masters…

More worldbuilding!

The archclericy (which may be synonymous with the political government of Tikandia) are the "colonial masters" here. That is, they are outsiders, and not native Kandians. This begs the question of where the "colonial masters" came FROM. I do not recall if we ever find out.

…we're enjoying the fact that Dalris's hostility has been redirected to someone other than ourselves.

OUR Carr Delling continues to have a pretty messed up relationship with Dalris.

…we need to get into the cathedral and "see [Arno] in action in order to know what we're fighting."

Finally!

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

172

Fresh off our manly hand-clasp with Garn, we decide to tell him everything: our rivalry with Arno;

Honestly, isn't that lame? You pointed out the continuity problem with THEIR Carr, but OUR Carr had a... rivarly. Let's imagine the dialogue.

Proud Paladin: "I will fight the Evil Arno to the death, because he worships the demon, perverted the pure heart of our leader, the blessed archcleric Oram the Not-Numbered-Yet, defiled the cathedral of Blessed Dyan, corrupted our holy host of knights, raised an army of (six) gnolls to oppress the people of Delmer and brought evil to the land of Kandia."
Cantankerous Carr: "I will join your holy fight to the death, because Arno tried to pranck me into stripping naked in the hall of our dorm and called me a teacher's pet."*
Perplexed Paladin: "errr... cool story, bro?"

* While there is an alternate reality where he does kill us, by definition it didn't happen to OUR canonical Carr.

Thayne's information from his "sources"; and "Perth's warnings about Arno's pact with unearthly forces."

Wut? Ah, you noticed that, too.

Hearing Perth's name, Garn remarks, "The Archdruid of Kandia. The father of this lovely wildflower."

I must now conclude that she's wearing a "My Dad is the Greatest Druid of Kandia" T-shirt when doing undercover spying missions.

We expect Dalris to be annoyed by Garn's outrageous flirting, but she grins instead.

With the amount of grinning and blushing, I think she's more a teenager than a young 44 years old woman.

Dalris retorts that her people "are descended from the mightiest rulers of Tikandia" and that Garn's "so-called Holy Guard has waged a bigoted war against Kandians since the archclericy was founded," and calls them heathens.

Garn protests that this isn't so and that "The Knights of Blessed Dyan have moved against the Kandian tribes only when evil influences have jeopardized our priests…."

Discussing religion and politics at a Tinder date often doesn't end well, Garrrrn.

We tell them both to knock it off, even though we're enjoying the fact that Dalris's hostility has been redirected to someone other than ourselves.

I will do a re-read of Grey Star (which was titled in French Astre d'Or, which means Gold Star, for some reason). I have shared here that I missed the hints that Tanith was the titular character's love interest when I read the story as a kid. But know that I see how Dalris and Carr behave, I think the hints might have been more hidden than I thought...

We remind Dalris and Garn that we have a job to do: we need to get into the cathedral and "see [Arno] in action in order to know what we're fighting."

And get hit by a Death spell. Yes, theoretically, our sceptre should absorb the dweomer, but the Paladin has just cast a Charisma-enhancing spell ON US and it wasn't absorbed (I accepted the earlier argument that Detect Magic wasn't really cast at someone but cast at the viewer, but the 1st edition equivalent of Eagle's Splendour isn't. So we must conclude our rod is now spent, which is why Dalris is looking elsewhere suddenly.

• Fochlucan
• Mac-Fuirmidh
• Doss
• Canaith
• Cli
• Anstruth
• Ollamh

At bard level 23 the character is Magna Alumnae.

Wow. That's from where the name of the seven bardic instruments came? It was never explained in the later DMGs that featured them. Cool lore.

According to the Notes Regarding Bards Table II on page 118 of the AD&D PH,

College is an important distinction to a bard, and he or she will not associate with a bard of a lesser college. The exception to this rule are the Magna Alumnae who will happily aid (by advice and suggestion) any other bard of any level.

DM: "your friend falls into the pit trap, barely holding to the floor by a single hand."
Player1, a level 19 bard: "I call my friends for help"
Player2, a bard, too, but level 22: "MWAHAHAHA and now you die, you filthy sophomore!".

The rule about association is a harsh one. On the other hand, a group with two bards deserves a lot of death.

Also: if Dalris is just now finishing her studies at Fochlucan College, that means that at most she is a 4th level bard. Which means that in the FIVE YEARS since the previous book, Dalris has gained only THREE LEVELS. That is an even worse rate of advancement than Carr, who gained five levels over that span. (Which was in itself pathetically slow.)

She's attending while residing in a druidic grove in central Kandia. Maybe she would progress quicker if she actually attended the classes?

Truly, Team Good Guys lives the slow motion life in all aspects of their being.

I lolled.

…[Dalris] collects Bhukodian artifacts…

The implication in the first book was that Ancient Bhukod was so forgotten and mysterious that only the great Landor was able to discover the Sceptre of Bhukod (along with other relics like the Money Pouch Of Infinite Lucre). Now in this book, Bhukodian artifacts are commonplace enough that Dalris can collect them.

Collecting them is mostly easy since, as we pointed out, there are NUMEROUS people who were there when the Bukhodian empire was active. It's like collecting mugs and T-shirt of Donald Reagan.

In book 2, if we accept the most generous possible reading of "in my teens", then Dalris was sent to learn swordplay at age 13. If she was as rapid a student as possible, she could've still been 13 when she finished gaining 5 levels of fighter, and 5 levels of thief via "information sourcing", and then had her daddy sign off on "sure, honey, you know druidic magic now" to become a bard. At age 13.

It also assumes she avoided the minimum age for qualifying for a class, and that she immediately went to the failed College Arcane heist after her mission in Saven. Possible, but uncanny.

(Also somewhere in there she "was trained by the great Landor himself!" Possibly as a toddler while drooling on his spellbooks.)

For this I have a new theory. We still have to clarify what the paladin of Bob Dylan did to our father. We know for sure they didn't kill him, since he chose to cease to exist in this plane (instead of teleporting with the sceptre to the crypt and spend time with his crypt thing buddy until things calmed down). But we also suspect he was arrested. Explanation to make everyone right: he did oppose some evil, corrupted priest in central Kandia, who sued him, so he was rightly arrested by the law-enforcing knights, brought before not-yet-evil, not-yet-numbered Oram, taken in custody pending trial, AT THIS POINT HE'S JAILED IN THE SAME CELL AS DALRIS, TO WHOM HE BRIEFLY TEACHES MAGIC, and two month later, he's tried, and released as charges are dismissed after the prosecutor decided that he didn't break the law in opposing heretic priests.

The only problem with this version is that she must be 13ish when Landor was still alive, so it's more coherent with a 28+ years old Dalris when young, underage Carr meets her for the first time.

I am still not super comfortable with the comments about her body if she's only 15, but it's possible, and congruent with her learning swordplay "in her teens."

If they are both 15 years old, is that wrong? Teenagers fantasize about teenagers their age and would certainly describe a girl of their age as "gorgeous" or "hot" even if an adult wouldn't use those terms for kids. [Might be a cultural thing: much like the drinking age and practice isn't the same between France and the US, there might be less taboo with teenager sex on this side of the pond. In a recent legal discussion about the age of consent for children, it was passed into law that minors can have consensual sex starting at the age of 13 as long as there is no more than 5 years of age difference between them -- though personally, I find 13-18 to be rather creepy [but 17-19 totally OK, they can be in the same class at school, and it would be a pairing which would have been made illegal if there wasn't this clause and they just determined that minors can't give informed consent].

On the other hand, if she indeed started at 13, she is now soon to be 18 (the approximately 5 years later can be six, but it can also be 4...), in a bar, drinking beer, while a paladin is hitting on her, after disembarking from a ship on which she mesmerized sailors with her supple dances? I can see that something can sound wrong with this scene.

…we need to get into the cathedral and "see [Arno] in action in order to know what we're fighting."

Finally!

If having the sceptre means we die, I will start to seriously question the gamebook's logic...

 

[Joshua Randall]

OUR Carr had a... rivalry.

When you put it like that, it does seem like the stakes of the student rivalry pale in comparison to “corrupted almost all of the paladins into worship of A DEMON LORD”. However, given this is a book aimed at teenagers, we mustn’t forget that who made fun of who at school and who let you sit at their table in the lunchroom was of vital importance, certainly equal in your teenage mind to demonic plots.

With the amount of grinning and blushing, I think she's more a teenager than a young 44 years old woman.

Or perhaps just a big ditz? Who’s to say when a “young woman” outgrows grinning and blushing?

I will do a re-read of Grey Star (which was titled in French Astre d'Or, which means Gold Star, for some reason).

Heh! Gold Star is something people my age got in school for doing good work. A little shiny metallic sticker on your homework.

I have shared here that I missed the hints that Tanith was the titular character's love interest when I read the story as a kid.

I’m not sure how much romance Grey Star and Tanith could have got up to when every single numbered passage had them running away from thri-kreen (or whatever the Southern Magnamund equivalent were called).

That's from where the name of the seven bardic instruments came? It was never explained in the later DMGs that featured them. Cool lore.

It is! There’s no further information about the “colleges” in the AD&D DMG, although they were fleshed out later, and had the various magic items tied to them. I always wondered if Gygax made those names up out of whole cloth, found them in an obscure source somewhere, or what.

The rule about association is a harsh one. On the other hand, a group with two bards deserves a lot of death.

Our party now consists of a Magic-User with WIS 3 and some O.P. artifact the player’s last character left him, a cheater’s-class Cavalier, and a $@%^&! Bard. It’s awful.

Collecting them is mostly easy since, as we pointed out, there are NUMEROUS people who were there when the Bukhodian empire was active.

Haha, true! Dalris probably got her magic flute at a flea market.

If they are both 15 years old, is that wrong? Teenagers fantasize about teenagers their age and would certainly describe a girl of their age as "gorgeous" or "hot" even if an adult wouldn't use those terms for kids.

I am more concerned about adult Morris Simon writing about and adult me reading about the wild beauty and gorgeous body of an underaged Dalris. As you know, here in the prudish U.S.A., anyone under the age of 18 is utterly verböten!

(But yes. Of course a 15-year-old Carr could find a 15-year-old Dalris attractive and that would be perfectly normal.)

If having the sceptre means we die, I will start to seriously question the gamebook's logic...

Given that this the second time in a tight cluster of passages that the book has asked about and warned about the sceptre, I am torn about what to do with it. On the one hand, the O.P. artifact seems like it would come in handy when confronting A DEMON LORD. On the other hand, gamebook logic suggests the sceptre may have significant downside when we enter a cathedral full of Always-On Detect Magic paladins.

Hmm…..

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

When you put it like that, it does seem like the stakes of the student rivalry pale in comparison to “corrupted almost all of the paladins into worship of A DEMON LORD”. However, given this is a book aimed at teenagers, we mustn’t forget that who made fun of who at school and who let you sit at their table in the lunchroom was of vital importance, certainly equal in your teenage mind to demonic plots.

You're right. It's true that it is a relatable evil. And an explained evil. Arno was mean to other students. We saw that. On several occasions. It is more concrete and real than Uncle Beldon's evil plan (outside of him being ready to kill us for our sceptre) and Arno's current evil plan (which, in this path, consists of corrupting a bunch of already evillish troops if we trust Dalris and we do absolutely provided she's old enough, without any specific goal, according to "sources"). Because honestly, if Arno is just corrupting the personal guard of the tyrant Archcleric (I buy your idea that the church of Bob Dylan is also the temporal power of Kandia) in order to make a coup and appoint himself as supreme ruler, it's ambitious but not particularly evil, even if it involves asking that Pazuzu chap for help.

Side note on worldbuilding: the attire of Dalris, the nature-worship of the native, the use of the word native itself, the fact that Dalris is described as having tanned skin, her culture polytheistic... Is it far-fetched to think that Kandians are not-Native South Americans (with ancient Bukhod being not-Toltec civilization collapsing in the past) and the "colonists" are not-Spanish (importance of church, centralized power, converting people forcibly, probably monotheistic...)

I’m not sure how much romance Grey Star and Tanith could have got up to when every single numbered passage had them running away from thri-kreen (or whatever the Southern Magnamund equivalent were called).

Not sure either. I am pretty sure nothing happens until they kiss marry in the last section of the last book. There might be some holding hands and a suspicious hug at some point.

I am more concerned about adult Morris Simon writing about and adult me reading about the wild beauty and gorgeous body of an underaged Dalris.

Yeah, our jokes can be off given her quantum age. And if she's of the correct age, she should be Carr's motherly figure, not girlfriend.

Given that this the second time in a tight cluster of passages that the book has asked about and warned about the sceptre, I am torn about what to do with it. On the one hand, the O.P. artifact seems like it would come in handy when confronting A DEMON LORD. On the other hand, gamebook logic suggests the sceptre may have significant downside when we enter a cathedral full of Always-On Detect Magic paladins.

Sure. But we did take him, and it wouuld be unwise to leave it in an inn's room...




Edit: I have scoured the Internet to know more about those name, now that my interest has been piqued. Asking ChatGPT yielded an answer, that might have been inspired by D&D website and not historical references, but it finally yielded a source and, lo and behold, Wikipedia, article Early Irish law:

Poetic grades​

Paralleling the status of the lay grades are the grades of the filid (poets). Each poetic rank corresponds to a particular lay (and ecclesiastical) rank, from Bóaire to king. In Uraicecht na Ríar these are given as fochloc, macfuirmid, dos, cano, clí, ánruth, and ollam. These are given the same status as and the same honour prices as the lay grades, and hence have effectively the same rights. The qualifications for each grade is where the difference occurs. The qualifications fit into three categories, the status of the poet's parent or grandparent, their skill and their training. A particular number of compositions are given for each rank, with the ollam having 350.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Side note on worldbuilding: the attire of Dalris, the nature-worship of the native, the use of the word native itself, the fact that Dalris is described as having tanned skin, her culture polytheistic... Is it far-fetched to think that Kandians are not-Native South Americans (with ancient Bukhod being not-Toltec civilization collapsing in the past) and the "colonists" are not-Spanish (importance of church, centralized power, converting people forcibly, probably monotheistic...)

That fits. Although I think the story is a Rorschach Test that we interpret according to our own beliefs.

For an U.S.American audience the Kandians could be Native (North) Americans; and the church could be various U.S.American anti-Catholic fears. Or disestablishmentarianism in general. (And yes, I’ve always wanted an excuse to type that word.)

Wikipedia, article Early Irish law:

Wow, great find! The main footnoted secondary source is to a book from 1987 (Breatnach, Liam (1987). Uraicecht na Ríar: the poetic grades in early Irish law. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 978-0901282897), so that couldn’t be Gygax’s source. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Gygax read the primary Irish sources.

 

[Joshua Randall]

161

Before we go, Garn reminds us that he was able to use Detect Magic to sense the size of our -- sorry. The "powerful aura" of something we carry.

We lie and say he must be detecting our Deeppockets cloak plus the components and spellbooks we carry.

Garn shakes his head and says that he's sensed many such auras in his time but what he senses now is much more powerful. He doesn't need to know what we're carrying nor why, but he's concerned that "its dweomer is likely to broadcast our presence to any paladin there."

Rufyl telepathically informs us that although Garn doesn't specifically know about the Sceptre of Bhukod, he does sense its presence. Umm, yes, Rufyl. That's exactly what Garn just said.

Garn offers to hide our magical item in his quarters alongside his enchanted armor and weapons.

We wonder to ourselves if Garn is one of Arno's henchmen trying to disarm us before we face him.

(81) if we let Garn hide the Sceptre of Bhukod, or
(143) to ignore Garn's warning and take the sceptre into the cathedral.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

…"[the sceptre's] dweomer is likely to broadcast our presence to any paladin there."

The paladins can sense the dweomer of the sceptre if and only if one of them has the Detect Magic spell up and is looking in our direction. If the sceptre “broadcasts” its dweomer like a radio signal, then someone needs to have a radio receiver turned on and tuned to the right channel to pick up the signal. Paladins don’t always have their Detect Magic radios turned on because they only have enough battery power for 30 minutes a day at best (at levels 14+). In addition, they technically need to be facing the source of the signal; if Carr snuck up behind a paladin with Detect Magic active but facing away, the paladin would detect — nothing.

However, this book continues to imply that Detect Magic can (1) be made permanent and fixed to an area (like on the ports of Seagate Island) and (2) emanates from spellcasters all the time.

Garn offers to hide our magical item in his quarters alongside his enchanted armor and weapons.

Given the book’s version of Detect Magic, Garn’s statement implies that ALL magic is now considered suspect. Arno is not taking any chances: anyone carrying or using magic is to be considered an enemy. Which leaves only Arno and his pet paladins with “legitimate” supernatural power.

You have to admire the villain’s thoroughness.

We wonder to ourselves if Garn is one of Arno's henchmen trying to disarm us before we face him.

If Garn were one of Arno's henchmen, he would've ratted us out the moment he detected our magic. This is a dumb thing to wonder, Carr. WIS 3 at work.

(81) if we let Garn hide the Sceptre of Bhukod, or
(143) to ignore Garn's warning and take the sceptre into the cathedral.

Sheesh, book, that’s a lot of red lights going off! Very well. We'll let Garn handle our rod.