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

[Jfdlsjfd]

I am now tempted to imagine the adventure of Carr written in the worst possible way.

He carts his mother, runs from the mobster cousins, doesn't notice his mum casting a Fear spell, gets to Delmer's shaman, runs from the mob, runs into the mountain, runs from the pirate pressgang, runs from Thayne, runs from the flowers along the fence, arrives at the Academy, fumbles in front of Beldon, drops his pouch by being tricked into it by Arno, enter the Forbidden Room, reads a random spell and summons Rufyl, gets teleported, runs to the scepter of Bukhod and wins, not noticing in his happy dance that Beldon got killed by his own, reflected spell.

This is Forrest Gump.

 

[Joshua Randall]

142

We stare in amazement at the magical giant who "somehow" knows who we are and what we're thinking, because even though we travel with a telepathic pseudodragon who can't keep his scaly snout out of our thoughts, the concept of mind-reading eludes us. We're about to ask why Shanif grabbed Dalris when his answer appears in our head before we can form the words: "Observe where the bard was walking, son of Landor!"

We step closer to Dalris's footprints and begin to sink into the ooze while the surface bubbles and quivers. We stare in disbelief as a form rises from the muck. Dalris screams that it's a mud-man and we need to get out of the mire "before it starts throwing itself at you!"

DEX test.
(190) if 19 or more;
(59) if less.

---

Commentary:

We're about to ask why Shanif grabbed Dalris when his answer appears in our head before we can form the words: "Observe where the bard was walking, son of Landor!"

People in genre fiction are terrible at communication. The reason that Shanif grabbed Dalris was to prevent her from blundering into a mud-man, so the proper response to our question is not "Observe!", it's "Don't move!" Quickly followed by, "There is a dangerous monster just in front of you in the mud."

Or heck, he has a hand free: he could grab us too, perhaps while explaining the danger.

DEX test.

Uh oh. That's our worst ability score.

We roll 3, 2 which added to our DEX 11 is only a 16.

Dun dun duhhhhhnnnnn….

 

[Joshua Randall]

59

In our haste to escape from the mud-man, we lose our footing and fall face forward into the ooze. We turn our head to see if the monster is following us just in time to get hit in the face by a gooey glob of it.

The force of that attack drives us deeper into the ooze where we can’t breathe. We panic and try to wipe the muck away from our mouth and nose, but it’s like paste. Our chest heaves convulsively as we try to breathe.

”Don’t try to breathe!” Rufyl admonishes. Whatever else he’s trying to tell us, we cannot make out as we “sink into a darkness even thicker than the madman’s gooey missile….”

We return to consciousness as water soaks us. Dalris leans over us, her expression of worry changing to relief mixed with irritation.

She says we should stick to magic and not depend upon our “mountain boy’s agility” any more. “If it hadn’t been for Shanif’s quick reflexes and his magical water, you'd still be trying to breathe solid mud!”

We turn to see Rufyl “in glorious full color” sitting in front of the huge monster who not only saved us, but knows who we are!

Turn to (133).

---

Commentary:

In our haste to escape from the mud-man, we lose our footing and fall face forward into the ooze.

We did fail the DEX test. But I would far prefer to read a paragraph in which the mud-man's excellent accuracy with its blobs is why we get slimed, rather than our own pratfall.

”Don’t try to breathe!” Rufyl admonishes.

Rufyl. Buddy. Trying to breathe is autonomic.

Also who says "Don't try to breathe"? The normal cliché here would be "Try not to breathe," which at least makes some sense, because you can temporarily override your autonomic nervous system by holding your breath (literally trying NOT to breathe).

We turn to see Rufyl “in glorious full color”...

Rufyl is always in "full color" when not invisible. Unless we've ended up in the beginning part of the movie The Wizard of Oz, somehow.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

We return to consciousness as water soaks us. Dalris leans over us, her expression of worry changing to relief mixed with irritation.

She says we should stick to magic and not depend upon our “mountain boy’s agility” any more.

She's the same Dalris that consistently belittles us when we try to use magic, isn't she?

“If it hadn’t been for Shanif’s quick reflexes and his magical water, you'd still be trying to breathe solid mud!”

The same Shanif you've been attacking, sword drawn, seconds ago, barely failing to step into the mud monster, irritating him (legitimately) so he attacked us?

In our haste to escape from the mud-man, we lose our footing and fall face forward into the ooze.

We did fail the DEX test. But I would far prefer to read a paragraph in which the mud-man's excellent accuracy with its blobs is why we get slimed, rather than our own pratfall.

We could have lost footing without the presence of the mudman. We failed a Walking ability check and nearly died.

”Don’t try to breathe!” Rufyl admonishes.

Rufyl. Buddy. Trying to breathe is autonomic.

Also who says "Don't try to breathe"? The normal cliché here would be "Try not to breathe," which at least makes some sense, because you can temporarily override your autonomic nervous system by holding your breath (literally trying NOT to breathe).

I'd say the better advice would be "hold your breath!" but hey...

We turn to see Rufyl “in glorious full color”...

Rufyl is always in "full color" when not invisible. Unless we've ended up in the beginning part of the movie The Wizard of Oz, somehow.

I think he was yellowish at some point because of the acid fog.

 

[Joshua Randall]

133

“This is your father’s former familiar, Rufyl, I presume,” says the marid.

We want to know how he knew our father.

“Are you sure that is the question you wish me to answer?” Shanif responds

We demand to know what he means by “the” question.

“I will answer any one question you choose to ask me, son of Landor, out of respect for your father.”

Dalris says she thought fantastic creatures were supposed to grant three wishes, not answer a single question. Shanif says he could do that if he wanted to, which he doesn’t, because he’s intellectually superior to his lesser cousins the genies and djinn.

Dalris grabs our arm and turns us to face her. “This is our chance to find out what Arno is up to without having to go to Saven!” she exclaims.

Our head agrees, but our heart yearns for knowledge of our father, causing us to hesitate.

Shanif comments that it’s a difficult choice. “You desire to know your father’s greatest secret, yet you also wish to ask me about Arno, your old rival from College Arcane.”

[quoting the next paragraph in full]

"Since you can read my mind, you know that I seek to learn of the threat that Arno brings to Tikandia from Seagate Island, and of a way to end it. Can you give me that information, Shanif?"

[end quote]

Shanif smugly replies that those are two questions and that we have to choose between knowing the nature of Arno’s threat and the knowledge we need to confront him.

We turn away and contemplate our question.
(17) Landor’s greatest secret.
(56) The nature of Arno’s great power.
(128) How to combat the evils that confront Tikandia.

"The choice is yours," the gamebook reminds us, in case readers in the 1980s thought about doing a Let’s Play, I guess.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

“This is your father’s former familiar, Rufyl, I presume,” says the marid.

What a dumb statement. Did Shanif think this is some other four-foot-tall psuedodragon that follows us around?

"Since you can read my mind, you know that I seek to learn of the threat that Arno brings to Tikandia from Seagate Island, and of a way to end it. Can you give me that information, Shanif?"

We are VERY lucky that Shanif did not interpret this as THE question.

Carr: Can you give me that information, Shanif?
Shanif: Yes.
Carr: …
Carr: Well?
Shanif: You already asked your question, and I answered it. Now get out of here.

…you know that I seek to learn of the threat that Arno brings to Tikandia from Seagate Island…

What, specifically, did Arno bring to Tikandia (the mainland) from Seagate (the island)?

• Himself?
• Pazuzu?
• The [redacted McGuffin] we are about to learn about?
• Nothing in particular and this is yet more mix-up involving where people are located?

We turn away and contemplate our question.
(17) Landor’s greatest secret.
(56) The nature of Arno’s great power.
(128) How to combat the evils that confront Tikandia.

As I commented elsewhere, gamebooks frequently give you a choice between two useful pieces of information and one completely bonkers useless piece of information. In this case: which is which?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Commentary:

“This is your father’s former familiar, Rufyl, I presume,” says the marid.

What a dumb statement. Did Shanif think this is some other four-foot-tall psuedodragon that follows us around?

This is part of the constant criticism toward Carr's ability. "Oh, probably you aren't able to cast Find Familiar by yourself, it must be your father's pseudodragon that is following you around..."

"Since you can read my mind, you know that I seek to learn of the threat that Arno brings to Tikandia from Seagate Island, and of a way to end it. Can you give me that information, Shanif?"

We are VERY lucky that Shanif did not interpret this as THE question.

Yes, Carr is WIS 3, he could botch his question twice in a row. Admittedly, he didn't know the 1-question-rule on the first time.

Also:

Dalris says she thought fantastic creatures were supposed to grant three wishes, not answer a single question. Shanif says he could do that if he wanted to, which he doesn’t, because he’s intellectually superior to his lesser cousins the genies and djinn.

Does she really thinks that genies and djinns roam the world giving out wishes? Or do they stand in small booth where you put a coin in the slot and you get 3 wishes? Aladdin got a Genie to serve him because he was magically bound to serve the owner of the lamp and he acquired the lamp. It's not specific to the nature of djinns to grant wishes, it's just that Aladdin was the Djinn owner. Which doesn't seem to be the case here with the wild Marid.

At least in the other book being read, the party forces the Genie to grant wishes instead of squashing the party because they (1) either tricked the Genie into making a bet and losing (2) or used another enslaving device they happened to possess and bluffed the Genie into thinking we actually knew how to use it (3) or effectively cast the Djinn-Enslaving spell.

Also, Dalris again:

Dalris grabs our arm and turns us to face her

We aren't even allowed to MOVE around freely. We're really being babysat. Maybe that's why they just all call us Son of Landor...

We turn away and contemplate our question.
(17) Landor’s greatest secret.
(56) The nature of Arno’s great power.
(128) How to combat the evils that confront Tikandia.

As I commented elsewhere, gamebooks frequently give you a choice between two useful pieces of information and one completely bonkers useless piece of information. In this case: which is which?

Actually learning that Dalris is our half-sister would be fun. Not incredibly useful, but hey. Also "He always lamented that his son was dumb as a brick". While being the trick choice, it's has the most entertaining potential.

Also, beware of "how to combat the evils that confront Tikandia?" since "With passion and dedication!" is a valid answer to that question.


And... actually... yes, I'd really like to know how Landor got the respect of the Marid despite Rufyl saying the Yellow Marshes are the worst place on Earth.

 

[Joshua Randall]

"Oh, probably you aren't able to cast Find Familiar by yourself, it must be your father's pseudodragon that is following you around..."

It is our father's pseudodragon! And depending upon what path we took in book 1, we didn't cast Find Familiar ourselves -- on the College Arcane path, we got Rufyl from a specially prepared scroll (that bypasses the actual Find Familiar casting with the herbs and the brazier).

Does she really thinks that genies and djinns roam the world giving out wishes?

First, it's always been funny that AD&D can't make up its mind if the transliteration is "djinni" or "genie". In the Monster Manual 1, they are listed under "djinni". In the Monster Manual 2, under Marid, we get this sentence:

A marid is the most powerful of all geniekind (see "Dao, "Djinni," "Efreeti," and "Jann.")

So AD&D has its cake and eats it too: "djinni" is a specific subtype of monster and "geniekind" is the larger group or type of related monsters.

Second, in AD&D a genie/djinni can in fact grant wishes!

The capture and enslavement of djinn is better left to the device of the referee. [...]
A noble djinni (1% chance) is able to grant three wishes to his master, but he will do no other services, and upon granting the third wish he is freed of servitude.

Actually learning that Dalris is our half-sister would be fun.

Wouldn't it? That would give another fun Star Wars parallel: Luke is attracted to Leia but later finds out (i.e., script was rewritten) that she's his sister.

Alternatively, Shanif could tell us:

"Landor's greatest secret is how he seduced a scullery maid who bought fish at the Freeton market when not dodging pirate press gangs."

beware of "how to combat the evils that confront Tikandia?" since "With passion and dedication!" is a valid answer to that question.

Oh man, that would be FANTASTIC. A real "screw you" to the player-reader for a malformed question. Just like Gygax intended!

how Landor got the respect of the Marid despite Rufyl saying the Yellow Marshes are the worst place on Earth.

While we do find out why the marid is in the barren yellow wasteland marsh, we never explicitly find out how Landor earned Shanif's respect. Because of course we don't.

 

[Joshua Randall]

We turn away and contemplate our question.
(17) Landor’s greatest secret.
(56) The nature of Arno’s great power.
(128) How to combat the evils that confront Tikandia.

I know everyone is dying to know, so I'll ask all three questions, in order. You can decide for yourselves which is the One True Question!

---

17

We reason that knowledge of either fact about Arno without the other might be useless. And we know that genies and djinn like to trick humans with their Wish spells. This marid might be equally devious.

Dalris glowers at us and accuses us of being a power-mad sorcerer who doesn’t care about Tikandia at all.

We respond that more magical knowledge is just what the doctor ordered, because “if Thayne’s description of what’s happening on Seagate Island was accurate, [we’re] not powerful enough to face Arno.”

Dalris buries her face in her hands and turns away.

We ask our burning question: “What was [our] father’s greatest secret?”

“Aha! Greed triumphs over virtue once more!” Shanif replies.

We angrily tell him to answer the question.

Shanif says that first we must hear the story of the last days of Bhukod, because that is part of Landor’s secret. “The desolation you see around you was wrought by the same tarrasque that destroyed the Bhukodian Empire.” The tarrasque is even now sleeping “within the ancient temple”, lured by the self-sacrifice of numerous wizards of Bhukod who allowed it to feed upon them while they used their combined sorcery to cast a permanent Imprisonment spell. “It is that very prison which I now guard,” Shanif concludes.

We cry out in alarm at the thought of a tarrasque this close to Wealwood and Saven. We have read stories about “the horrible great saurians and their voracious appetites for all living things. The monsters are virtually indestructible.”

Dalris wants to know why Shanif has to guard the tarrasque if the wizards imprisoned it. (Imprisoned it, even.)

”What is done by magic can be undone by magic,” Shanif answers. He was given his charge by the Bhukodian sorcerers before they died “to insure that the tarrasque’s slumber would never be disturbed by later wizards. Not even the great Landor himself could reverse my masters’ spell.”

We don’t recall reading about any of this in Landor’s notes: no Yellow Marsh, no Shanif, and certainly no tarrasque.

Shanif, reading our mind, thunders that this is Landor’s greatest secret. (It wouldn’t be a secret if Landor wrote it down. Duh.) Landor discovered another way into the tomb of the tarrasque, which is where he found the Sceptre of Bhukod “as well as the twin crowns of Lolth and Aerdrie. And it is here that the greatest magical treasure of all awaits Landor’s successor.”

We want to know what is the greatest treasure of all, how to enter the tomb, and what are “the twin crowns of Lolth and Aerdrie”?

Get used to disappointment as we turn to (178).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

We respond that more magical knowledge is just what the doctor ordered, because “if Thayne’s description of what’s happening on Seagate Island was accurate, [we’re] not powerful enough to face Arno.”

Here we go again. Thayne did not "describe" what "is happening" on Seagate Island. Instead he brought us information that's A YEAR OLD: Haslum used a scroll of Gate to summon a demon (for some inexplicable reason), then disappeared, after which Arno took over the College Arcane.

Thayne DID tell us about the paladins leaving their posts in the marshes… of Tikanida. NOT Seagate Island.

Once again, the gamebook author seems confused about what happened, where it happened, and who did it. Lending credence to our belief that this book suffered through a plot rewrite.

We ask our burning question: “What was [our] father’s greatest secret?”
“Aha! Greed triumphs over virtue once more!” Shanif replies.

This isn't greed. It's curiosity.

Greed would be if we asked something like "Where can I find more treasure?"

“The desolation you see around you was wrought by the same tarrasque that destroyed the Bhukodian Empire.”

Wiggity wiggity WHUT?!

Raise your hand if you predicted The Tarrasque would show up in this series. I sure didn't!

The Tarrasque is one of D&D’s distinctive monsters, based loosely on French mythology.

The monster's name should be spelled with only one 'R', but D&D doubled the letter for some reason.

The D&D version was introduced in Monster Manual II (which I begin to wonder: was this the only monster book that Morris Simon owned?) as a singular, unique monster. Thus it is confusing that when Carr remembers what he read he uses the plural words "monsters" and "saurians".

In the MM2 writeup (page 117), we find the source for the repeated insistence that this wet swamp is somehow also a barren wasteland:

The legendary tarrasque is possibly the most dreaded monster of alI, for when it is active it ravishes the countryside for miles. All vegetation and animal life is devoured or driven away. The land through which the monster passes becomes a barren waste which requires years to recover.

It still doesn't make any sense that the ravaged countryside would end up as a wetland.

Lasty, I'll point out that Tarrasque is yet another key name with an 'arrrrr' sound in it.

… they used their combined sorcery to cast a permanent Imprisonment spell.

Imprisonment is a 9th level magic-user spell that causes the victim to become "entombed in a state of suspended animation (cf. temporal stasis) in a small sphere far below the surface of the earth."

Permanently.

Well, permanently until the reverse of the spell (Freedom) is cast. But you have to know the creature's "name and background" and if you don't get them "perfectly", then there's a 10% chance that you'll accidentally free 1d100 other creatures. Which implies there are a lot of high level magic-users running around Imprisoning things.

… this is Landor’s greatest secret: Landor discovered another way into the tomb of the tarrasque…
… "It is here that the greatest magical treasure of all awaits Landor’s successor.”

Someone took the word "entomb" in the Imprisonment spell description too literally. Imprisonment (the spell) doesn't construct a pharaoh-style elaborate architectural feature for the victim. The spell metaphorically entombs the victim somewhere down in the bedrock. Not somewhere you can get to from the surface, else the Duration: Permanent wouldn't apply, and you wouldn't need to reverse a 9th-level spell to free the Imprisoned creature.

But let's accept that in gamebook-world, this particular Tarrasque is imprisoned in a literal tomb. A tomb that has an entrance. An entrance that Shanif is guarding. Where that might be, we don't know, given that we are in the middle of nowhere. Maybe the entrance is disguised or just out of sight in the thick sulfuric fog.

Landor discovered another way into the tomb. Whether that was another physical entrance, a magic portal, teleportation coordinate, or polymorphing into a burrowing creature -- we don't know. But we don't need to know. The mere knowledge that a tomb exists, has a Tarrasque in it, and contains "the greatest magical treasure of all" is enough for us to begin a search. But do we do that after this section?

Of course not.

… what are “the twin crowns of Lolth and Aerdrie”?

What, indeed! I bet you wish we had asked a different question. Good thing I'm cheating, and we will.

---

Based on all these sections, Shanif clearly met Landor when Landor and Rufyl traveled to the Yellow Marsh 20+ years ago. But did Rufyl ever mention this vitally important trip? No, he did not. Not even after we proposed going to Yellow Marsh in the discussion about the best route to Saven.

Rufyl also should have mentioned that in addition to the mega-powerful Sceptre of Bhukod, Landor found the twin adamantite crowns. Why would Landor's familiar withhold this information?! The only possible reason is meta-textual: because it would ruin the surprise of meeting Shanif and hearing the story from him.