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

[Joshua Randall]

Don't you worry: before we complete depart this area, we will explore an alternate timeline in which we retain our rod and then waggle our wand in front of Arno and Pazuzu.

But first....

---

210

We stare wide-eyed as "a horrible apparition emerges from the statue." The corrupt paladins' chants grow louder and faster.

PAZUZU! PAZUZU! PAZUZU! … PAZUZU! PAZUZU! PAZUZU!

As if the creature is responding to their call, the winged thing hops from the carved pedestal to the altar's surface next to it. The crested avian head stretches upward and emits a low, whistling screech from its beaked mouth. The unnatural squawk mingles with the worshipping chants and mounts until it is louder than all the combined shouts of the congregation. Then, suddenly, the chanting and the squawks stop abruptly, leaving a profound silence that seems even louder than the screeching cry which still reverberates in [our] brain.

"Holy Brigit, protect us!" Dalris whispers, frozen in horrified fascination.

Arno shouts out:

"BRAVE DEFENDERS OF BLESSED DYAN, PAZUZU IS AMONG US! HEAR HIS MESSAGE FROM THE HOLY ONE!"

His voice still has the unusual accents that we have never been able to place.

Various paladins ask "Great Pazuzu" to bring the commands of Blessed Dyan "so that [they] may do His will!"

Arno steps off to the side and sits on a large wooden throne. Pazuzu hops down from the altar and over to the steps where Arno was standing, then raises its hands for silence.

"Hear then the wishes of Blessed Dyan!" the creature commands. Its voice is hollow and muffled, as if it were being shouted inside a metal tub, yet the pronunciation and accents are perfect and educated.

"Dyan instructs you to beware of insurrection from the infidels in Kandia, particularly those who call themselves druids. Even now, they seek to sabotage our holy mission to spread the true faith throughout Tikandia by sending their spies and agents among us."

Angry murmurs pass through the crowd, along with the words "kill" and "war".

Pazuzu calls for silence and declares that he can feel the presence of strangers who are enemies of "Lord Dyan". He orders the paladins to "search every corner of this cathedral and Saven until we find them and cleanse this holy city of their wickedness!"

Garn taps us on the shoulder and suggests this is our cue to get the heck out of here.

(217) to quickly leave the cathedral;
(199) to confront Arno and Pazuzu.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

This section is a fantastic culmination to the cathedral infiltration. Morris Simon paints a vivid picture of the candlelit sanctuary, the thunderous chants, and the creepy statue that comes to life. We learn of the threat posed by the enemy and we get to see the absolute control that Arno and Pazuzu wield over the corrupted paladins. It's unironically great.

The crested avian head stretches upward and emits a low, whistling screech from its beaked mouth. [it gets loud and louder until] the chanting and the squawks stop abruptly, leaving a profound silence….

This paragraph reminds us of when we summoned Rufyl in book 1, which also involved a whistling noise:

As soon as we read the last word [of the scroll that Landor left us], a "shrill whistling noise" fills the room. Something begins to materialize on the desk. As the shape materializes, the whistling noise diminishes, such that it almost seems to create itself from the sound.

… bring the commands of Blessed Dyan "so that [they] may do His will!"
… "Lord Dyan"...

Despite the female name homonym (Dyan / Dianne), Blessed Dyan is a male deity.

… our holy mission to spread the true faith throughout Tikandia …

As far as evil plans go, this is… sadly historically accurate.

In the real world, spreading the true faith wasn't backed up by demons and sorcery. Also in the real world, there weren't powerful archdruids, bards, and ranger-wizards on the side of the "natives". Things still got pretty bad.

Still, this begs a question: what has the order of Blessed Dyan been doing up until now if NOT spreading the true faith? They've apparently had some success, given that pilgrims from the Kandian hinterlands were regularly attending services in Saven up until recently. When they stopped attending. Due to the demon. So that worked well.

Arno's and Pazuzu's orders are, what, to spread the true faith HARDER?

On the subject of faith: conspicuous by his absence here -- Archcleric Oram, whom Arno was "even now" trying to convince to use the Holy Guard against the Kandians. I like to imagine that Arno got tired of using words and decided to have Pazuzu eat Oram.

Pazuzu declares that he can feel the presence of strangers…. "Search every corner of this cathedral and Saven!"

Neither Pazuzu nor the paladins can pinpoint our location even though we are standing right behind the altar, still wearing our Deeppockets cloak. Detect Magic works in mysterious ways.

 

[Joshua Randall]

199

There is no way THE Carr Delling, descendant of an ARCHMAGE whose power filled the GODS THEMSELVES with fear, will wimp out just because our school-days rival Arno has a pet DEMON LORD.

As the book puts it, “[we] realize in a flash that Arno has indeed stumbled upon some incredible power which must be stopped before it gets even stronger.”

We whisper to Garn that we need to get into the sanctuary to stop “this evil menace immediately before Arno can unleash that creature upon the whole of Tikandia.”

Garn whispers back that there is a hidden latch that will open a panel behind the archcleric’s chair and that we can get in without anyone seeing us for a few minutes.

Dalris points out there are over a hundred warriors in the cathedral. We say she and Garn just need to protect us while we use “whatever magic we can” and that “if” they can hold off the enemy who outnumber us 33-to-1, we can strike “Arno and his ugly friend” and dodge back into the secret passage before anyone knows what’s happening.

Garn asks what we can do against “that creature”.

We pause, because we’re not sure any of our spells will work against this terrible enemy.

(112) if we have the Sceptre of Bhukod under our cloak, or
(88) to “try” a spell anyway.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

As the book puts it, “[we] realize in a flash that Arno has indeed stumbled upon some incredible power which must be stopped before it gets even stronger.”

Really? You don’t say! What was our first clue? Was is the DEMON LORD?

Garn whispers back that there is a hidden latch that will open a panel behind the archcleric’s chair and that we can get in without anyone seeing us for a few minutes.

As usual, the geography of the gamebook makes no sense. Arno is currently sitting in the archcleric’s chair (or “throne”) to the side of the altar. Pazuzu is standing on the steps in front of the altar. One hundred corrupt paladins have their attention directed towards Pazuzu, and thus Arno and the chair are easily within their field of view.

When we emerge from the secret passage behind the archcleric’s chair, we will be fully in view of the entire congregation.

…“if” they can hold off the enemy who outnumber us 33-to-1, we can strike “Arno and his ugly friend” before anyone knows what’s happening.

That’s two different plans.

1. Hold off a hundred paladins while Carr works some magic.
2. Sneak-attack Arno and Pazuzu then dodge back into the secret passage.

You don’t need to hold people off if you sneak attack and dodge away before anyone knows what’s happening.

Also: my math is faulty. In the “hold off” plan, it’ll be just Dalris and Garn doing the holding off, while Carr casts a spell. So that’s 50-to-1, not 33-to-1.

We pause, because we’re not sure any of our spells will work against this terrible enemy.

Oh, great. NOW the book tells us this.

(112) if we have the Sceptre of Bhukod under our cloak, or
(88) to “try” a spell anyway.

Strictly speaking, everything we do in the gamebook is a “try”, because we don’t know in advance if it will succeed or not. However, in practice, most choices will read “to do thus-and-so, turn to (###)”. When the gamebook instead uses the word “try”, that is not a good sign.

In this section we don’t have any choice: we either use the sceptre or we “try” a spell.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Various paladins ask "Great Pazuzu" to bring the commands of Blessed Dyan "so that [they] may do His will!"

Then, maybe they are not corrupted. They are still faithful to Bob Dylan, but they were somehow convinced (failed Insight check) that he has appointed Pazuzu (failed Arcana check) as his spokebirdman, didn't notice the discrepancy between the former credo ("thou shall protect the meek") and the new ("thou shall oppress the meek") (failed Religion check). After that, they are probably trained to obey their leaders. Maybe they took all their non-weapon proficiencies in Underwater Basketweaving?

Arno steps off to the side and sits on a large wooden throne. Pazuzu hops down from the altar and over to the steps where Arno was standing, then raises its hands for silence.

Metatext reading makes me guess that it isn't Pazuzu but a mere creature called a pazuzeus.

"Dyan instructs you to beware of insurrection from the infidels in Kandia, particularly those who call themselves druids. Even now, they seek to sabotage our holy mission to spread the true faith throughout Tikandia by sending their spies and agents among us."

Which is 100% correct. It is absolutely logical that the druid would defend their religion influence over the locals by sabotaging the effort of the Archclericy to spread the True Faith belief in Dylan. Which is the reason they came here in the first place.

Angry murmurs pass through the crowd, along with the words "kill" and "war".

That's on the paladins. Pazazu didn't mention that. He told them to spread the faith, they retorted with cries of murder and violence. The evil was already present in their heart, and they pervert the words of the Holy Pazuzu, Spokebird of Bless Dyan -- which makes me think they'd have opposed Landor when he acted against "corrupt priest" that in the past tried to convert locals forcefully. Dalris called them corrupt priests, aknowledging that the local Kandian have no problem with regular priests converting people peacefully by preaching. We didn't had clashes with the paladins before because they were busy guarding the six gnolls in Seagate's swamp.

Pazuzu calls for silence and declares that he can feel the presence of strangers who are enemies of "Lord Dyan".

Which is, again, 100% truthful. He can sense Garrrn, who stopped being a member of the elite guard and is currently plotting against his former friends, and Dalris, who is daugther to a leading religious figure opposing Dyan.

He orders the paladins to "search every corner of this cathedral and Saven until we find them and cleanse this holy city of their wickedness!"

An order which can only be understood as a call to violence by the most wicked audience. There is no doubt that Blessed Dyan, through Pazuzu the Honest, as he is now called, wanted them to search the cathedral and the city so the paladin couul spill holy water on the path the unholy three trod, to wash away the sins we commited.

At no point so far did we get a proof that Pazuzu is a fraud. After all, he has free will, therefore he could have atoned from his depiction in the MM and embraced the cult of Bob Dylan.

Commentary:

This section is a fantastic culmination to the cathedral infiltration. Morris Simon paints a vivid picture of the candlelit sanctuary, the thunderous chants, and the creepy statue that comes to life. We learn of the threat posed by the enemy and we get to see the absolute control that Arno and Pazuzu wield over the corrupted paladins. It's unironically great.

Yup.

On the subject of faith: conspicuous by his absence here -- Archcleric Oram, whom Arno was "even now" trying to convince to use the Holy Guard against the Kandians. I like to imagine that Arno got tired of using words and decided to have Pazuzu eat Oram.

Indeed. He is either into custody and a bona fide nice guy, or is just very happy to delegate things while he meditates on how to implement the peaceful orders of Pazuzu in a way that doesn't involve the mindless violence that is propagated by his own troops.

Garn whispers back that there is a hidden latch that will open a panel behind the archcleric’s chair and that we can get in without anyone seeing us for a few minutes.

That would be a great plan. We emerge behind the altar, where noone in the room can see us, two meters away from Arno, then we jump on him, yell "remember sixth grade" and touch him with the bulbous end of our rod and flee before anyone can react.

Too bad you insisted that we couldn't take our rod inside.

Dalris points out there are over a hundred warriors in the cathedral. We say she and Garn just need to protect us while we use “whatever magic we can” and that “if” they can hold off the enemy who outnumber us 33-to-1, we can strike “Arno and his ugly friend” and dodge back into the secret passage before anyone knows what’s happening.

Garn asks what we can do against “that creature”.

I'd suggest the Hairy cantrip.

If that's not an option, Pazuzu is currently a small wooden statue. Burning Hand or Fireball would be appropriate.

Commentary:

As the book puts it, “[we] realize in a flash that Arno has indeed stumbled upon some incredible power which must be stopped before it gets even stronger.”

Really? You don’t say! What was our first clue? Was is the DEMON LORD?

What demon lord? What we have seen is a clever use of Ventriloquism and maybe an animated mannikin.

Garn whispers back that there is a hidden latch that will open a panel behind the archcleric’s chair and that we can get in without anyone seeing us for a few minutes.

As usual, the geography of the gamebook makes no sense. Arno is currently sitting in the archcleric’s chair (or “throne”) to the side of the altar. Pazuz is standing on the steps in front of the altar. One hundred corrupt paladins have their attention directed towards Pazuzu, and thus Arno and the chair are easily within their field of view.

I beg to differ.

MAPMAKING MODE (in which you'll understand why I use AI to draw instead of using a brush).

Sky view.

Front view of the church's chair with Arno sitting:

Instead that in this image, the altar is in front, not besides the chair. It is totally possible to emerge behind the chair, and be in front view of the audience just before striking and get back behind the chair before the paladin (who were not described has having ranged weapons) can react.

When we emerge from the secret passage behind the archcleric’s chair, we will be fully in view of the entire congregation.

We will be hidden by the chair, this is a mighty huge chair, fitting for an average Archcleric.

(The original photography is apparently 15m high and 7m wide, so we would have to run roughly 3 meters in the open after emerging from behind the chair).

That’s two different plans.

1. Hold off a hundred paladins while Carr works some magic.
2. Sneak-attack Arno and Pazuzu then dodge back into the secret passage.

You don’t need to hold people off if you sneak attack and dodge away before anyone knows what’s happening.

WIS 3, they are.

We pause, because we’re not sure any of our spells will work against this terrible enemy.

Oh, great. NOW the book tells us this.

We have at least 10 spells that could be used. But I am pretty sure you'll rant when the book gives us 3 ineffective choices in order for us to have a funny but totally avoidable death.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Metatext reading makes me guess that it isn't Pazuzu but a mere creature called a pazuzeus.

You're both right and wrong. We are going to find out that Pazuzeus refers to the same entity known as Pazuzu. Buttttt... you do raise a good point (later) that maybe the thing in the cathedral is not literally Pazuz(e)u(s).

That's on the paladins. Pazazu didn't mention that. He told them to spread the faith, they retorted with cries of murder and violence. The evil was already present in their heart, and they pervert the words of the Holy Pazuzu

Hahahahaha! You spin out a frighteningly plausible tale by which Pazuzu is not that bad and the paladins themselves are the source of all eeeeevil.

I'd suggest the Hairy cantrip.

Killing me.

MAPMAKING MODE

Best. Map. Ever.

We will be hidden by the chair, this is a mighty huge chair, fitting for an average Archcleric.
(The original photography is apparently 15m high and 7m wide)

I bow to your superior knowledge of church furniture.

We have at least 10 spells that could be used. But I am pretty sure you'll rant when the book gives us 3 ineffective choices ...

It's like you know me.

 

[Joshua Randall]

88

Dalris squints through the peephole and whispers that the "warriors" are beginning to search the cathedral, so we need to act fast.

We consider whether to launch our attack with "one of [our] more powerful offensive spells", "such as"

• Burning Hands
• Magic Missile
• Fireball
• Lightning Bolt

Or we can sacrifice the element of surprise to use a defensive spell, "such as"

• Armor
• Protection from Evil
• Fly

We have to select one spell from those listed above [so much for “such as”], mark it off, and THEN turn to (34).

---

Commentary:

Let's go over our spells.

• Burning Hands [cone 3 ft. by 120 degrees, 1 HP damage per magic-user's level, no save] -- The 'no save' aspect saves (heh) this spell from complete uselessness, but 6 damage isn't going to do jack here. Especially considering that we could instead cast…
• Magic Missile [1d4+1 damage X 3 (?) missiles, unerringly strike their target] -- With 3 missiles the total damage is 3d4+3, or 6-15. Meaning that Magic Missile completely outclasses Burning Hands on a pure damage basis.
• Fireball [long range; 33,000 cu. ft. volume; 1d6 damage per magic-user's level, ignites combustables, save for half] -- Assuming Carr is 6th level, this is 6d6 damage, an average of 21. This would kill a bunch of low-level paladins. It might even kill Arno if he is a similar level to us and rolled poorly on HP. It should arguably set the entire sanctuary on fire (wooden pews, cloth, wax candles…) but such effects were notoriously up to the DM and dependent upon the player's arguing ability.
• Lightning Bolt [medium range, 1d6 damage per magic-user's level, save for half; can blast through or rebound off barriers, depending upon how strong they are] -- Also 6d6 damage, average 21, and now you get to bring out your ruler and protractor to determine how to angle the bolt the hit as many things as possible.
• Armor [gives magic-user an AC of 8, or 2 better than unarmored (lower is better in AD&D)] -- An extra 2 AC is not going to save us from 100 angry paladins. Nor will it do anything against Arno's spells, nor Pazuzu's demonic abilities.
• Fly [fly at roughly double normal walking speed for 1 turn/level + 1d6 turns] -- An excellent mobility spell that would keep us from being melee'd to death by angry paladins; we'd just have to hope they don't have missile weapons. Still wouldn't protect us from Arno's spells.
• Protection from Evil [prevents bodily contact by 'enchanted or conjured' creatures including demons; imposes -2 attack upon them; grants magic-user +2 saves against them] -- The biggest threat here is Pazuzu. This will prevent him from using demonic mojo against us. Leaving only an enemy wizard (who likely outclasses us) and 100 paladins (but they're going to be held off by Dalris and Perth - no problem).

As I see it, our real choice is between Fireball and Protection from Evil. The former might snuff Arno, but would only mildly annoy Pazuzu. The latter would protect us from Pazuzu, but not do anything about Arno.

(Lightning Bolt could also kill Arno, but I left my protractor in my junior high school locker back in 1986.)

Although it's tempting to take the opportunity to rid the world of our sneering school-days rival (not to mention incinerate all the furniture in the cathedral), the safer play is Protection from Evil so that Pazuzu can't corrupt us the way he did the paladins.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Or we can sacrifice the element of surprise to use a defensive spell, "such as"

• Armor
• Protection from Evil
• Fly

I am pretty sure concentration isn't a AD&D thing. What would blast the element of surprise if we were to take 3 rounds to cast ALL those spells? Are the paladins making a beeline toward our secret latch for some reason? "Search the cathedral" should not be immediately followed by a through search of the seat of their leader, instead they should spread randomly toward the entrances? Vocal components don't need to be shouted, for Dylan's sake.

On the plus side, I like the idea of having the reader select the spell before going to a single resolution section, instead of having a long list of sections for each choices, inflating the number of sections without providing a real chance, unless they have wildly different effects on how the scene unfolds.

Let's go over our spells.

• Burning Hands [cone 3 ft. by 120 degrees, 1 HP damage per magic-user's level, no save] -- The 'no save' aspect saves (heh) this spell from complete uselessness, but 6 damage isn't going to do jack here. Especially considering that we could instead cast…

Unless we can convince the 100 paladins to stack themselves in a 3 ft cone. 120° is a third of the full circle, that's approximately 9 square feet, or 11 paladins per square foot. With some luck, they are all thin because gluttony is a sin, but even then... that's a lot of stacking.

• Magic Missile [1d4+1 damage X 3 (?) missiles, unerringly strike their target] -- With 3 missiles the total damage is 3d4+3, or 6-15. Meaning that Magic Missile completely outclasses Burning Hands on a pure damage basis.

I somehow doubt that Arno, despite being a MU, has only 15 (best case) HP.
I suppose we don't get to cast Empowered Maximized Quickened Magic Missile until 3e?

• Fireball [long range; 33,000 cu. ft. volume; 1d6 damage per magic-user's level, ignites combustables, save for half] -- Assuming Carr is 6th level, this is 6d6 damage, an average of 21. This would kill a bunch of low-level paladins. It might even kill Arno if he is a similar level to us and rolled poorly on HP. It should arguably set the entire sanctuary on fire (wooden pews, cloth, wax candles…) but such effects were notoriously up to the DM and dependent upon the player's arguing ability.

Is there a problem to which Fireball isn't the solution? We might even argue that the chair can be but on fire and keep burning Sitting Arno to death.

• Lightning Bolt [medium range, 1d6 damage per magic-user's level, save for half; can blast through or rebound off barriers, depending upon how strong they are] -- Also 6d6 damage, average 21, and now you get to bring out your ruler and protractor to determine how to angle the bolt the hit as many things as possible.

It could hit each paladin twice if it can zigzag between the stone walls and pillars of the church, pinball style.

• Fly [fly at roughly double normal walking speed for 1 turn/level + 1d6 turns] -- An excellent mobility spell that would keep us from being melee'd to death by angry paladins; we'd just have to hope they don't have missile weapons. Still wouldn't protect us from Arno's spells.

Also, Pazuzu is described has having wings, isn't he? He might follow us and take us down why we drop small pebbles on the paladins to death.

• Protection from Evil [prevents bodily contact by 'enchanted or conjured' creatures including demons; imposes -2 attack upon them; grants magic-user +2 saves against them] -- The biggest threat here is Pazuzu. This will prevent him from using demonic mojo against us. Leaving only an enemy wizard (who likely outclasses us) and 100 paladins (but they're going to be held off by Dalris and Perth - no problem).

As I see it, our real choice is between Fireball and Protection from Evil. The former might snuff Arno, but would only mildly annoy Pazuzu. The latter would protect us from Pazuzu, but not do anything about Arno.

I'd advice casting that because -- you didn't mention how long it lasts but if it's long enough to be of use we should have cast that BEFORE entering the cathedral... Aren't we INT 19?

(Lightning Bolt could also kill Arno, but I left my protractor in my junior high school locker back in 1986.)

You can easily create a 120° arc with only a compass.

Spoiler

There is a reason math geeks tend to play wizards magic-users (on top of their ability to self-insert into scrawny, nerdy guys blasting jocks with fireballs, which stays the choice I root for OUR Carr to make).

Although it's tempting to take the opportunity to rid the world of our sneering school-days rival (not to mention incinerate all the furniture in the cathedral), the safer play is Protection from Evil so that Pazuzu can't corrupt us the way he did the paladins.

By turning us into peaceful preachers? It would at least mellow Dalris's temper.

 

[Joshua Randall]

take 3 rounds to cast ALL those spells?

Absolutely we would have, if this were a full-on AD&D game. I distinctly recall a 1980s Dragon Magazine article about how wizards could best deploy their longer duration spells, so that mode of play was officially recommended.

I like the idea of having the reader select the spell before going to a single resolution section, instead of having a long list of sections for each choices

It seems nice in theory, but in practice this still ends up being an almost binary choice, as you shall see. Still, by forcing you to pick your spell before turning to the next section, the gamebook does in a weird way mirror the official AD&D combat rules which stated that spellcasters had to choose their spell for the round before knowing the results of initiative. Which meant you could choose a spell that would be end up being interrupted by a faster combatant stabbing you, or you could choose a spell that would end up being irrelevant (for example, you choose to cast Hold Person on the enemy cleric, who gets killed by the party’s barbarian before your magic-user gets his turn).

I somehow doubt that Arno, despite being a MU, has only 15 (best case) HP.

OUR Carr Delling has only 15 HP, so it’s possible. Although we suspect Arno is higher level than us. Maybe not high enough level to throw around Permanency effects (17th level), but higher than our measly 6th level self.

I suppose we don't get to cast Empowered Maximized Quickened Magic Missile until 3e?

Correct. No metamagic in AD&D.

I do have to say that very few things sound more badass than 3e metamagicked spells, as Mostin the Metagnostic and his erstwhile nemesis Feezuu proved in Sepulchrave’s story hour here (in one of my favorite passages).

Spoiler: Mostin vs. Feezuu

Mostin teleported himself onto the porch. Feezuu stood in the doorway. Behind her, an uridezu rat-demon, several dretch and a dozen quasits were running and flying around inside causing mayhem.

But this time, the Alienist had the jump

Mostin flung an empowered sonically substituted burst of ‘Chain Lightning’ which almost blew the Cambion off of her feet. Inside the house, quasits dropped like flies from the secondary arcs.

Incanting, the Alienist summoned three bearded devils.

"Kill the woman, then the demons," he instructed. "Try not to smash the house up."

As Feezuu turned to see the devils rushing at her, her face suddenly revealed an expression of understanding. She gaped.

With the merest gesture, Mostin hurled another quickened sonic bolt before she could react. Her resistance held, and Mostin grasped his amulet and braced himself.

Feezuu cast a quickened haste, hit Mostin and the devils with an empowered, maximized acid substituted ‘Fireball’ and then aimed a ‘Finger of Death’ at the Alienist. One of the devils vanished, consumed in acid. The necromantic spell was absorbed harmlessly by the amulet, and Mostin thanked several random deities. He looked down to notice that his skin was dripping off of his arms.

Is there a problem to which Fireball isn't the solution?

If the first Fireball didn’t solve your problem, use more Fireballs.

I'd advice casting [Protection from Evil] because -- you didn't mention how long it lasts

Only 2 rounds per level for magic-users (3 rounds per level for clerics), so not something you can cast way in advance. But if you’re reasonably quiet and clever, you could and should cast Protection from Evil before opening the door to a certain combat.

[Pazuzu’s demonic mojo] would at least mellow Dalris's temper.

Oh. Oh my. Are you SURE you haven’t read this gamebook?

 

[Joshua Randall]

34

We prepare our spell [Aaaaargh! It's. Already. Prepared!] and tell Dalris to open the secret door. The three of us slip into the sanctuary behind the chair. No one can see us until we "stand erect" to confront Arno.

Arno and Pazuzu don't notice us until a paladin in the front row shouts out, "There they are!" The crowd quiets instantly, anticipating a word from Arno. He does not disappoint.

Our "swarthy rival" whirls around and smiles.

"Ah, Carr. I rather thought it might be you. In fact, I'd imagined you'd appear sooner than this. And the daughter of Perth. Look, Pazuzu! The Archdruid of Kandia has sent his daughter for us to play with until we have the pleasure of his own company."

Pazuzu points his finger at Dalris.

In the candlelit sanctuary, the beam of violet light which streak from his fingertip is breathtakingly beautiful. It envelops the bard's lithe figure, surrounding her like a radiant cocoon. The defiant scowl on Dalris's face melts, softening to a contented, lazy smile. You writhe in embarrassment as you watch -- it's as if she were being bathed in warmth and a thousand sensual pleasures.

The bard's hand relaxes. She lowers her sword and begins to walk languidly, even seductively, toward the monster called Pazuzu.

Garn, being a man of action, leaps forward to grab Dalris by the shoulder. She shakes him off and reaches towards Pazuzu. "The look of rapture on her face magnifies her wild Kandian beauty, framed in the violet aura of the spell."

"Do something, Carr!" yells Garn.

"Yes, Delling, please 'do something'," Arno sneers.

These words tear us away from our "helpless fascination", and we notice Arno passing a hand across his dark forehead and mumbling a word we don't understand.

(18) if we prepared an offensive spell or Fly;
(29) if we prepared Armor or Protection from Evil.