”The Spider Climb spell works this time just as well now as it did when you first learned it five years ago.”
OUR Carr Delling did not learn Spider Climb in book 1. Just sayin’.
(He could have picked it up in the intervening years, I suppose.)
“How sharp is your sense of nonmagical trap detection?”
We definitely only need to be concerned about NONMAGICAL traps, because there certainly can’t ASLO be a magical trap on the tower’s top door. It says right here in the Villain Lair Regulations, Section IV, Paragraph 2: "No more than one magical trap may be placed on any given structure. (See Appendix I: Definitions for the meaning of 'structure'.)"
Sarcasm aside, a generous reading might be that Carr’s Detect Magic spell is still in operation by the time he reaches the top of the tower (it would last for 12 rounds at magic-user level 6, more than enough time for Carr to spider climb his way up the tower) so he’d see any dweomers on the door at the top.
There is a major plot point that OUR Carr Delling does not actually know yet which is spoiled in this section. Arguably, this could be intentional, but I'll enclose it in spoilers for those who want to discover the information the "right" way.
171
Our powerful thrust (with our spell, sheesh!) breaks the incantation on the door and blasts it open.
Our nostrils are assaulted by the unmistakable smell of death and decay. We see a corpse just inside the door, its face half-eaten by rats. (Gnarly!)
Dalris proves she is played by a seasoned AD&D-er because she advises us not to loot the body in case it is infested with Rot Grubs.
We descend to the next landing and stop outside the door to Landor’s study. Dalris asks if we know what we’re looking for. [Hint: it’s not Landor’s spellbooks.] We put aside our memories of the Door of Death and turn to the other door on the landing, the one that leads into the College Arcane’s library and archive.
“We want to find every reference we can to some twin adamantite crowns,” we say.
And we’re not going to be interrupted, because we’re the only living humans in College Arcane. Everyone else was sealed in here “by spells too powerful to break,” and they “probably” died of starvation.
Dalris looks appropriately horrified. Together, we enter “the scrollery” and find it ransacked. Scrolls have been opened and discarded in a heap, “as if someone had conducted a hasty search for some particular spell or information.”
We intuit that the dead inhabitants of College Arcane were looking for a way out of here.
”Perhaps a few of them made it. Perhaps they polymorphed themselves into something that could crawl under a door. Perhaps they found a teleport scroll and are now walking the streets of Freetown or even Saven. We really can’t say.”
Dalris shudders again but gets to work. However, after only a few minutes she utters a “druid curse”. All of the scrolls are written in Wizard’s Scrawl that she can’t read.
We nod; we're using our permanent Read Magic on the scrolls. We tell Dalris to scout the tower while we stay here.
Hours pass as we lose ourselves amongst the scrolls. We finally spot the phrase “Sorcerer’s Crown” [take a shot when the gamebook’s title is mentioned] “in regards to Bhukod.” We skim the document but it “only” an inventory of stuff Landor recovered from the ruins. We are just about to toss aside this obviously unimportant scroll when Dalris shouts from the landing.
She points up to the tower’s trap door which is “sealed from the inside.” Oh no! We realize that door must have been sealed with a Wizard Lock rather than a Hold Portal, and we’ve used our only Knock spell.
”We’re trapped in here like those other poor fools were!” Dalris exclaims. “And for what? This?” She grabs the scroll from our hand and is about to rip it into pieces when she stops and snorts. It’s in Common, but “it’s just a list of magical items I’ll never see.” She reads the list and stops at “Sorcerer’s Crown”. [take a shot]
Wait a minute… is that the name of Thayne’s matriarch, Estla, scrawled in the margin?
We take the parchment and study it more carefully. In Landor's handwriting, it reads: "Presented adamantite crown to Estla at Aerdrie ritual."
”Thayne never needed the Sceptre of Bhukod,” you tell Dalris. “He already had the only weapon that would’ve worked against Arno — right here on Seagate Island!”
”The Crown of Aerdie!” Dalris gasps.
”The one they call the Sorcerer’s Crown [take a shot],” you add grimly. “Thayne's aunt has had it all along, ever since my father gave it to her at this ritual. With it, Thayne’s elves could have resisted whatever evils Arno summoned by the power of its twin, the Crown of Lolth.”
The look of wonder fades from Dalris’s eyes as you both realize that there’s nothing you can do to escape the magical prison
to tell Estla, the elven matriarch, of the great power she possesses.
Ohhhhhkay. It’s been a while since I worked myself into a frothing rant, but in a book filled with frustrating deaths, this one takes the cake.
Let’s start with that timeless pastime, complaining about timelines.
We see a corpse just inside the door, its face half-eaten by rats.
I do not want these phrases to be in my Google search history:
"how long does it take to starve to death",
"how long does it take for dead bodies to be eaten by rats", and
"how long do dead bodies smell".
I’m going to guess the answers are (1) weeks; (2) not very long; and (3) depends on a bunch of factors like temperature and local vermin and insect population.
We know it was “less than two months” ago that Arno arrived in Saven to harangue Oram. We can presume he departed College Arcane just after he sealed up its inhabitants. After realizing they were sealed in, some of the wizards ransacked the scroll library and made it out. The rest starved to death, then were eaten by rats, and are still smelly and gross when we arrive.
That’s… at least plausible. Now for the nonsense.
“We want to find every reference we can to some twin adamantite crowns,” we say.
No. We. Do. Not.
On this path, we are here for this reason:
"I need to talk to some of my father's closest friends and fellow wizards at College Arcane. They might know of a way to stop Pazuzu, whoever or whatever it is."
The twin adamantite crowns are something that Shanif the Marid apparently could have told us about, but we haven’t met him.
Everyone else was sealed in here “by spells too powerful to break,” and they “probably” died of starvation.
Our interior monologue says that the tower was sealed “by spells too powerful to break”, which is demonstrably untrue — we broke the Wizard Lock (temporarily) on our way in — but even so this "too powerful to break" realization should be the IMMEDIATE trigger for us to GTFO before we join the pile of rat-eaten corpses.
Also, they only “probably” died of starvation? Gee, if only someone scouted the tower to find out more. Oh wait. Dalris did. But apparently didn’t learn anything useful in several hours of searching.
We finally spot the phrase “Sorcerer’s Crown” “in regards to Bhukod.”
As opposed to all the references to Sorcerer’s Crowns that are NOT in regards to Bhukod?
We skim the document but it “only” an inventory of stuff Landor recovered from the ruins.
”Only” an inventory… ONLY an inventory…!!!
Let me get this straight. For what is now 20 years, in the library of College Arcane — not in Landor’s sealed study; in the library — there has been a document that lists every magic item Landor recovered from the Bhukodian ruins. You remember Bhukod, right? The ancient empire of elven sorcerers so awesome and cool that Tikandian rulers have sought it for centuries. That Bhukod. Any reference to which would be a major find.
And hey! Here’s a list of a bunch of sweet magical loot that Landor recovered from awesomely cool Ancient Bhukod. Except apparently NOBODY CARED.
Haslum, the cautious and kindly scroll master, found this list unremarkable. Beldon, the scheming villain who desperately wanted to get his hands on the Sceptre of Bhukod, took one look at the inventory and thought, “Nah, not important.” Two decades worth of inquisitive magic-users in training pawed through the library, came across this detailed record of powerful magical artifacts, and moved on to the more interesting scrolls.
DOES EVERYONE IN THIS SERIES HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE?!?!?!?!?!
We realize that door must have been sealed with a Wizard Lock rather than a Hold Portal, and we’ve used our only Knock spell.
We have used our “only” nonexistent Knock spell. That’s because this gamebook insists upon crippling our magic-user character by refusing to let him regain his spells. So let’s play by the gamebook’s ridiculous rules. We can only use each of our spells once.
If only we had something that could get us out of this. Where could we possibly look for ideas? Oh hey! How about in the same section.
"Perhaps a few of them made it. Perhaps they polymorphed themselves into something that could crawl under a door."
Sadly, we cannot polymorph ourselves into an ox and then call ourselves dumb as one. But we could use Polymorph Other on Dalris. Perhaps into one of the delightful insects that have been feasting on the decomposing bodies in this tower of IDIOTS.
Turning our girlfriend into a bug does seem a bit drastic, though. Maybe there's another way.
Gotta think of something.
Hmm.
Hmmmm.
Insects that feast on dead flesh… lay their eggs in it… that hatch into maggots (or in D&D terms, Rot Grubs)… what are those things called?
snaps fingers
---
From gamebook #1, section (45):
Beldon leads us up the stairs to the 15-foot-wide landing that contains the door to Landor's quarters and... the other door, which is "an airy, well-lit chamber" filled with "benches, shelves, and cupboards" all "stacked with an amazing variety of books, maps, and scrolls."
For the chamber to be “airy” and “well lit” it must have windows. You know, those openings in the walls that let in light and oxygen?
But I’m sure in the gamebook, even if the windows definitively existed, they’d be narrow slits through which we cannot fit (unlike their counterparts in Landor’s study). Thus the Fly spell is also off the table.
---
We are back to being trapped behind a Wizard Lock on the door at the top of the tower and a Fire Trap on the door at the bottom of the tower. If only there were some way to DISsipate the SPELls of these MAGICal impediments to our progress.
From my earlier quote of the AD&D PH rules for Dispel Magic, we know there’s only a percent chance that we succeed at dispelling Arno’s mighty magic. The way things are going, if this option existed, it probably wouldn’t allow an INT test at all; it would just narrate how our Dispel Magic is too feeble to work.
---
Disappointed in the failure of our Dispel Magic to do the job it was designed for, we stand dejected near the door that bars our way. The wooden door. The door, made of wood, which comes from trees, that come from forests, that are sometimes set on fire by lightning strikes.
Even if you believe that Wizard Lock makes a door magically tough (it does not), we could avoid the door at the top of the tower and choose to blast the door at the bottom of the tower.
Depending upon which edition of the game we are using, the door would have around 10 to 25 hit points. The bottom door is described in book 1 as massive and sturdy, so let’s say 25 HP.
We get to blast it twice with 6d6 spells, an average 21 damage each time. That should be more than enough to destroy the door. Looked at another way: on 12d6 there is a 99.89% chance we deal at least 25 damage.
If we somehow roll low, we could follow up with Burning Hands for another 6 damage that has no save and that explicitly sets objects on fire.
But this section being an intended inescapable death trap, I’m sure that in the gamebook, the door would survive our spell barrage.
---
Here we sit, dejected, our spells spent. The whoosh of a Fireball, the zot of a Lightning Bolt, and the pfoebrauknayt ( /feh-brohg-nite/ ) of a Burning Hands have shattered the silence of the grave inside the tower. Does anyone hear the noises as we invoke our dweomers? Or the wails of anguish that escape our already parched lips? (For in this gamebook, no doubt we begin dying of thirst after three hours.)
From this book's The Story So Far:
You would have failed in your quest had your father not bequeathed to you his loyal familiar, a telepathic pseudodragon named Rufyl.
Of course! Our beloved magical assistant, who can read minds and apparently does so all the time, even during otherwise intimate scenes.
Rufyl telepathically muses how curious Dalris’s and our thoughts are. "They’re so different, yet so similar! Master Carr is hoping that Dalris…."
We tell Rufyl to be quiet and keep his scaly snout out of our thoughts.
"Come on, you loud-brained chameleon!"
Surely this incredibly curious creature will care about our comfort and commingle its consciousness with ours. As I wrote before,
Rufyl's mind-reading ability is INCREDIBLY powerful. Game-breakingly so. Sometimes it'll be used in the books to that effect, and sometimes it won't. I will of course rant about the latter times.
We will explain our situation, and Rufyl will fly… er, figuratively speaking… Rufyl will crawl rapidly across the land to Thayne's village, where this gamebook's canonical Carr Delling learned magic. There, the sudden appearance of a miniature red dragon will not cause a panic among the elves. They will calmly listen to the pseudodragon and mount a rescue mission.
The elves will still need to get through the trapped and extra-thick door, but surely the twinkiest of all AD&D races can handle obstacles so trivial.
But no. Of course we don't do any of the above, nor any of a dozen other things a supposedly INT 19 character could come up with. Instead we meekly submit to our death by starvation.
We take the parchment and study it more carefully. "Presented adamantite crown to Estla at Aerdrie ritual."
[...] "The one they call the Sorcerer’s Crown [take a shot]," we add grimly. "Thayne's aunt has had it all along, ever since my father gave it to her at this ritual."
Landor presented a magical crown that he recovered from Ancient Bhukod to Estla. The fact that the crown came from Ancient Bhukod already makes it super important. And the presentation was made at an "Aerdrie ritual". Even if we don't know who Aerdie is (although the characters apparently recognize the name of one of the elven goddesses), the fact that it's a ritual at all means that Landor didn't just casually hand over the crown -- although that behavior would be perfectly in character -- he made a big deal about it.
Everyone in Estla's village would know about the presentation of the crown. It would've been seared into people's memories for the last 20 years. Thayne would certainly know about the crown, given that Estla is his aunt (or grand-aunt, depending upon the numbered section).
But apparently nobody thought this crown was important nor had any powers? Apparently the act of wearing it never did jack squat for Estla? Aaaaargh!
This death section has so much frustrating stupidity concentrated into one place it threatens to collapse in on itself and suck us in with no escape possible.
I'll walk over the corner where the book landed after I threw it in disgust and reluctantly pick it up. For you, dear readers, deserve a successful end to this story, EVEN THOUGH NONE OF THE DUMMIES IN THIS STORY DO.
It is weird that after the first book, which emphasizes the natural surroundings and climate, we get none of that in this book. Does the lack of mention mean anything?
Yes, I actually skimmed the thread to see if there was information in the manticore part about the natural surroundings. I also tried to check if a swamp could exist up North, but unfortunately, I learnt that 20% of Sweden is marshland and ferns.
(Seriously: it's gotta be the last one. I am sure Morris Simon was not writing for future nit-pickers of his climate, terrain, body of water sizes, and sunrise/sunset times. Normally I would let this stuff go, but it's so much more fun to rant about it instead!)
We thank “that Brigit of yours” that Dalris stopped us from being complete idiots. Our only choice is to climb the wall, just as we did five years ago. We “hope” our Spider Climb spell still works. [Umm… why wouldn’t it?]
You ranted about the tower being more difficult to climb than 5 years ago. Which is an excellent point. I'd like to out-rant you by pointing out that it's an INT check that is more difficult. So basically, the spell has become more difficult to cast, irrespective of the tower being now harder to climb, probably because it's winter and it's covered in ice. As time passes, magic is more difficult to cast, which can lead to the only logical conclusion that magic is slipping out of the campaign world.
Or they suffered from a cataclysmic event called edition change.
We can rule out the hypothesis that Rufyl is like the emu or the ostrich, winged but unable to fly. Because then, Carr wouldn't need to tell IT that he can't fly (while it can make sens that he would say that if it would be very tiring for Rufyl to attempt to do more than hovering). As a ground animal, it would be self-evident. Unless it is an attempt to mock Rufyl for having two small wings compared to other pseudodragon, but that's a terribly mean thing to say to your pet. Especially when he can actually understand what you mean.
It must be one of those cartoon animal that are winged but somehow, can only hover near their owner at waist level and don't seem to be able to rise even at tree-level... It's not how winged flight work! While it's cute and show that they love their owner, it's infuriating when it leads to the party's demise in a gamebook context. It doesn't in cartoon because they tend to end well for the protagonist.
(Now that I think of it, it would be fun to have a Director's Cut of E.T where Elliott runs at full speed on his bicycle after having seen the lights in the forest, and is run over by a truckk as he ignores a stop sign, ending the movie at the 10 minutes mark. And then is shot by NORAD for illegally entering a controlled airspace. Bike kills, children, drive responsibly, children!)
It's a behaviour of many Detect Magic spells in videogames, where the magical item is outlined on the background so you don't forget to loot/discard it. But those postdate the writing of the book. Is the author a visionary?
”The Spider Climb spell works this time just as well now as it did when you first learned it five years ago.” We surge past Dalris, reach the battlements, put our shoes back on, and reach out a hand to help Dalris up the last few feet.
While OUR Carr is depicted correctly, I question Dalris ability to stay on the rocky tower given how her hands and feet are positionned. Goodbye Dalris, it was fun knowing you! (We know from book 1 that falling from the tower was instant death).
We focus our concentration on the trap door, feel our dweomer “mount” inside us until we’re about to burst [oh dear], then unleash the Knock spell with a cry of “Nutush!”
There is a major plot point that OUR Carr Delling does not actually know yet which is spoiled in this section. Arguably, this could be intentional, but I'll enclose it in spoilers for those who want to discover the information the "right" way.
This can't be intentional. Raising the topic they raise at this point can only elicit a "wtf are they talking about?" feeling, followed by a "I must have landed on the wrong section" feeling, quite common when doing a gamebook without noting down the section path on a sheet of paper. For reference, of course, not for backtracking in case of a sudden and undeserved death, as it would be cheating.
And we’re not going to be interrupted, because we’re the only living humans in College Arcane. Everyone else was sealed in here “by spells too powerful to break,” and they “probably” died of starvation.
Which might have come apparent BEFORE. If the College Arcane is abandonned, climbing the outer wall might have been wise (instead of going through the front door), but why bother to go to the tower instead of visiting the rest of the building first, where there is supposedly noone to be seen? There is a formidable amount of loot that could be gained from this, as well as information on what could explain the disappearance of every living soul in the building. Even the townspeople must know. "The Arcane College? They used to buy vegetable from us at the market, but we haven't seen any of their provisionner in two month... now that I think of it, I didn't see any student either since that day..."
Dalris looks appropriately horrified. Together, we enter “the scrollery” and find it ransacked. Scrolls have been opened and discarded in a heap, “as if someone had conducted a hasty search for some particular spell or information.”
We intuit that the dead inhabitants of College Arcane were looking for a way out of here.
”Perhaps a few of them made it. Perhaps they polymorphed themselves into something that could crawl under a door. Perhaps they found a teleport scroll and are now walking the streets of Freetown or even Saven. We really can’t say.”
It is oddly reminising of the events the dashing group of heroines were part of in the shamelessly cross-promoted thread where the protagonists where trapped with a leper in a room with a one-way door. At least, this one is magically warded and the windows are several stories high.
How high, though? Feather Fall is a first level spell, and even if they were all trapped without their spellbook to memorize it, between certain death and trying to jump, I am pretty sure some might have tried to jump. We should have seen a pile of bodies at the bottome of the tower.
Dalris shudders again but gets to work. However, after only a few minutes she utters a “druid curse”. All of the scrolls are written in Wizard’s Scrawl that she can’t read.
At this point, she's inside the room, since she can read the scrolls in the scrollery.
Then, she scouts the tower, which means she is outside the room. So, there is a way to go from the inside of the room to the rest of the tower unimpeded and without resorting to magic.
Why did the scholars all choose to die in the scrollery and not in the rest of the rooms or on the landing? There is a preferred place to die in buildings?
Hours pass as we lose ourselves amongst the scrolls. We finally spot the phrase “Sorcerer’s Crown” [take a shot when the gamebook’s title is mentioned] “in regards to Bhukod.” We skim the document but it “only” an inventory of stuff Landor recovered from the ruins. We are just about to toss aside this obviously unimportant scroll when Dalris shouts from the landing.
At least, there is no chance of contracting leprosy.
With regards to the characters trying to escape and deciding it's just not worth it and choosing to die instead...
1. The wizards probably didn't die of hunger. It would have taken weeks. They most probably died of thirst first, unless there is a tap in the tower.
2. It's quite strange that, among ALL the teachers of this magic schools, and ALL the students but maybe they stop teaching spells at first level, NO-ONE had a useful spell to cast. You made a first-class rant about Carr not trying his own spells, but there were several other ways to either escape, or even just call for help. Don't they have Sending? Can't they just Skywrite "Help, we are trapped in the tower, please come and open the tower's door? And we have nine words left for filler text!" Can't they f...ing teleport? They are supposed to be advanced magic users, yet they don't seem to have usefull spells in mind.
3. Also, the idea that some might have escaped with useful scrolls while the other died doesn't make sense, unless they are all huge jerks. They escape, and they just roam the street of Freeton doing nothing, instead of just getting there the next day to open the door from the outside (potentially having memorized the necessary spells to overcome a closed door)?
4. Sorry to be mean but... the door below is guarded by a fire trap, isn't it? I liked you a lot Dalris, but you probably have more hitpoints. You've the better chance of making it, so clench your jaws and open that door, while OUR Carr will follow unharmed. You took meatshield class levels, that what you're for, protecting squishy wizards in dungeon.
Or you could climb down, since you don't need any Spider Climb spell on the way up.
Oh, and Rufyl, being worried after a few hour, could certainly HEAR us shouting from the window if he was wandering the courtyard. Enough that he'd come near the door, and it has been demonstrated that his telepathy ability functions through doors (in Delmer, in one of the dying path). So he can get instructions on what to do.
Or he could do as you said, assuming that we come from the elven village, warn them as they are our closest allies.
Or be mean.
Since he is invisible, he can mindspeak to a random peasant and tell them "the wizards in the arcane college need you to open a bloody door and you'll get riches beyond your wildest dream" If he does that to everyone, I am pretty sure SOMEONE in town will try it. Or he could focus on one and threaten to shout in his mind so he can no longer sleep until the door is open.
It's a behaviour of many Detect Magic spells in videogames, where the magical item is outlined on the background [...] But those postdate the writing of the book. Is the author a visionary?
Maybe! I'm now super curious about the first recorded instance of "detect magic makes stuff glow [a certain color]". Maybe someone can get a grad school paper out of this!
This can't be intentional. Raising the topic they raise at this point can only elicit a "wtf are they talking about?" feeling, followed by a "I must have landed on the wrong section" feeling
I did [REDACT] one previous descriptor of one of the crowns, and we have come across a few places where we are supposed to turn to a particular section if 'someone' / Shanif / the Marid told us about a pair of adamantine crowns. So, we as players-readers retain that knowledge, even though Carr does not.
Still, the info we gain in this section comes so completely out of the blue that it is a major "WTF?" moment as you said.
For those of you who want to separate Carr's knowledge from your own, don't open those spoiler blocks.
For those of you who want to experience this as the gamebook player-reader would, go ahead and open them.
Carr and Dalris are still dead either way, though.
I can neither prove nor disprove this, but by implication in book 1, the only two entrances to the College Arcane are the massive door at the base of the central tower and the trapdoor on its top.
There is a formidable amount of loot that could be gained from this, as well as information on what could explain the disappearance of every living soul in the building.
We would loot the bodies (Rot Grubs be damned) except there seems to be only one body. Dalris's scouting mission never gives any details, but you'd think she would have something to say about the PRESENCE OR LACK of other bodies in the building. One guy made it up near the top-of-tower trapdoor, succumbed to thirst, and was partially eaten by rats; and... everyone else made it out? Or there are a whole bunch more dead bodies that aren't being mentioned?
How high, though? Feather Fall is a first level spell, and even if they were all trapped without their spellbook to memorize it, between certain death and trying to jump, I am pretty sure some might have tried to jump. We should have seen a pile of bodies at the bottom of the tower.
We should certainly see more evidence that people tried and failed to escape than one guy dead at the top of the tower. From the central tower you can get into the dining hall or the dormitories, and surely those have windows. We also know there are chimneys on the wings of the school (they are described in gamebook 1), so if people were desperate enough they might try climbing up a chimney.
Then, she scouts the tower, which means she is outside the room. So, there is a way to go from the inside of the room to the rest of the tower unimpeded and without resorting to magic.
Above the 15-foot-wide landing level is the trap door that leads to the top of the tower. That's the one that is Wizard Locked. Below, at ground level, is the main entrance door with a Fire Trap on it. The door to Landor's study was deactivated in book 1. The door to the library is a regular boring door. There are presumably also side corridors that leads to the wings of the college (the "whitewashed buildings" from book 1.)
Dalris and Carr are free to roam around inside the tower (or the wings) but they are utterly stymied by the Wizard Lock and the Fire Trap.
What's weird is there is no mention of any dead bodies in the library / scrollery. Are there a bunch of bodies but it's just not important to mention them? Did they disperse elsewhere and die in other places... and still aren't mentioned?
4. Sorry to be mean but... the door below is guarded by a fire trap, isn't it? I liked you a lot Dalris, but you probably have more hitpoints. You've the better chance of making it, so clench your jaws and open that door,
The Area of Effect of the Fire Trap spell in AD&D is "object touched". One could argue that this does not specify the person doing the touching has to be alive. We have at least one dead body. Stretch that guy's arm out and touch the door with his fingertips. (Better to risk Rot Grubs than to do nothing.)
One might also argue that "touched" does not have to mean "by hand". Both Carr and Dalris have extendo-weapons. Stand at the full distance away and poke the door.
Since [Rufyl] is invisible, he can mindspeak to a random peasant and tell them "the wizards in the arcane college need you to open a bloody door and you'll get riches beyond your wildest dream"
Hahahahaha! Once again, I really want to play in the version of the gamebook where we are eeeeevil and manipulate others to their demise and our benefit.
All signs point to Shanif the Marid as the source of key information regarding a pair of adamantite crowns and a being called 'Pazuzeus'. How do we reach Shanif?
If you are like 13-year-old Joshua, proud owner of the AD&D Monster Manual II, you have already looked up the Marid.
You take note of the fact that Marids "are formed of material from the Elemental Plane of Water" and have a whole bunch of water-adjacent magic. You decide, quite logically and intelligently (at least, if you are anything like 13-year-old Joshua), that the path to Shanif the Marid in this gamebook must lie on the water.
So you restart the gamebook. Knowing what you already know, you decide to leave the Sceptre of Bhukod safely in Wealwood -- it doesn't help us vs. Pazuzu and it can get us killed vs. the gnolls -- and hop on Dalris's kinsman's boat.
You sail for Saven, because from flipping ahead, you realize there are no significantly different choices to make on the boat journey to Seagate Island. This time, when the archclericy war galley appears, you decide to make a run for it. Maybe by running away we will be saved by Shanif the Marid who, in gratitude for us leading a 20-cannon ship into his domain, rewards us with knowledge.
Maybe! I'm now super curious about the first recorded instance of "detect magic makes stuff glow [a certain color]". Maybe someone can get a grad school paper out of this!
I am, too. It was in Eye of the Beholder (items in your inventory highlighted in blue if magical). Much before, games weren't graphical enough. Maybe Dungeon Master (1987) was old enough and graphical enough?
I can neither prove nor disprove this, but by implication in book 1, the only two entrances to the College Arcane are the massive door at the base of the central tower and the trapdoor on its top.
We would loot the bodies (Rot Grubs be damned) except there seems to be only one body. Dalris's scouting mission never gives any details, but you'd think she would have something to say about the PRESENCE OR LACK of other bodies in the building. One guy made it up near the top-of-tower trapdoor, succumbed to thirst, and was partially eaten by rats; and... everyone else made it out? Or there are a whole bunch more dead bodies that aren't being mentioned?
If I found a single dead body in an empty appartment (not a thing that happens to many, fortunately), I wouldn't conclude that everyone in the building is dead.
Above the 15-foot-wide landing level is the trap door that leads to the top of the tower. That's the one that is Wizard Locked. Below, at ground level, is the main entrance door with a Fire Trap on it. The door to Landor's study was deactivated in book 1. The door to the library is a regular boring door. There are presumably also side corridors that leads to the wings of the college (the "whitewashed buildings" from book 1.)
So, basically, it's a 2 stories tower, 50 feet high (IIRC from book 1).
Also, seeing your awesome map got me one new idea to escape. Get into Landor's study, and think loudly to the Crypt Spawn to teleport us in. Explain we want to leave, but we'd like to be teleported somewhere outside the college. Nice seeing you, see you agian in 5 to 6 years, immortal chap.
OK, I thought the way to the wings was behind the bottom trapdoor. Hence the idea that there was a courtyard for Carr to stand in to see Dalris approaching the tower in book 1.
If we can roam the dorms and the wings, then the ways to escape become innumerables. They must have windows, as your mentionned. They cook their food and have a dining room with regular food served, this means they have a kitchen. So much for starving... and they could have tried to burn down the building if needed. It would have attracted the attention of people outside.
In book one, you mentionned something about a garden with a fence and some Zombie Plant, I don't remember exactly, but if there is a garden, there is a chance it's accessible from the academy...
The Area of Effect of the Fire Trap spell in AD&D is "object touched". One could argue that this does not specify the person doing the touching has to be alive. We have at least one dead body. Stretch that guy's arm out and touch the door with his fingertips. (Better to risk Rot Grubs than to do nothing.)
