“Hear now the tale of twin crowns, Carr Delling, and of their discovery by your father.”
Landor discovered both crowns. Except…
“Centuries later, at the height of the Bhukodian empire, someone discovered Aerdrie’s adamantite crown and enshrined it inside the temple of the sorcerer-kings.”
We ask if our father was the one who found it. […] Landor found the Sorcerer’s Crown…
… Landor discovered only Aerdrie’s crown.
I'll take the opposite stance on this conundrum. In my absolutely honest and unbiased understanding, Landor did recover the two crowns of immense power. Being WIS 3, like anyone in his family (or in his universe, actually), he sent the good crown to the only remaining elf female leader he knows, figuring it would be respectful of their culture to return such an artifact(*), and immediately started to experiment like your typical mad wizard on Lolth's crown. With its power, it could inspire FEAR TO THE GODS THEMSELVES. Because let's be honest, we've been using the Sceptre of Bukhod and the ability to bounce a magical spell back to its caster, while neat, doesn't seem impressive enough. There must be something else.
(* = of course, it's 95.6% probable that he neglected to mention the powers of the crown to Estla, so she just stored it in her jewelry box...)
In order for the crown NOT to be stolen from him, he secured it in a secret magical lab somewhere.
At some points, he dies.
Years later, Haslum summons a demon, and, being WIS 3, leaves his lab and go for a sandwich while the demon is stranded, bound, in the pentacle. Arno (which was a student 5 years ago, and is still probably an inexperienced wizard) sneaks into Haslum's office to get his assignment for his detention, chat with the demon, and asks him to bring him back Lolth's crown he had read about in Beldon's notes that were left accessible to all since his mysterious disappearance four years earlier.
Then he kills everyone in the tower by blocking the exit with a Fire Trap spell cast thanks to the immense power of the crown, and, out of boredom, yells Pazuzu three times and ask him for a plan to become the master of the world. Pazuzu wasn't required to appear, but sensing an opportunity to get Lolth's crown out of his servant, he accepted, looking forward to show up at the next party with Lolth's crown on his head just to piss her off.
The plot is 100% consistent.
Also, we'll need to be extra careful about dates, especially mentions on when did landor acquire the crown+sceptre, and gave it to Estla. I suspect we'll get the opportunity to have a 86-years old Landor seducing teenager Marla soon. I am really getting Dragon Ball's Master Roshi vibes...
For a rare ceremonial occasion at which both queens would be present, “a famed elven wizard” made two identical enchanted crowns of adamantite.
A wizard so famous that his name isn’t important. Bah! Details.
Speaking of unimportant details:
“Centuries later, at the height of the Bhukodian empire, someone discovered Aerdrie’s adamantite crown and enshrined it inside the temple of the sorcerer-kings.”
Wait wait wait. Why wasn’t Aerdrie still wearing her crown? Even if she wasn’t, how did the elven goddess and her people lose such an important cultural relic and magical item?
Because it was in the "early days of Tikandia". The elven goddess waned because the surface elves died out. Remember Carr's surprise at Thayne being an Elf? It wasn't because he was raised in a shepherd hut and considered the backward village of Delmer to be a metropolis, it's because Elves are incredibly rare. Most probably from some catastrophe in the long past, or maybe because their blood died out from interbreeding with human, hence everyone's claim to be an elf princess despite not, you know, being an elf. At the time of the Bukhod Empire's height, the elves were mostly extinct, their culture wiped out, the worship of Aerdrie totally stopped in a world where power comes from worship, so the crowns where just lying around in a ruin. A party of adventurer looted this dungeon, and got the crown back for someone who was just sitting in the corner of a tavern looking enigmatic. This guy decided to add the crowns to the list of objects too dangerous to be used, and put them alongside an underground Tarrasque for safekeeping.
The dark elf Lolth “of the evil race known in Kandia as the Drow”…
Oh, they’re “known in Kandia” as the Drow? What are they called outside Kandia?
They are called the droh, and in some other place the dro. Nobody ever determined how to pronounce their name correctly. It pisses them off, and that's why they tend to pillage, rape and plunder: it's not that they are evil, it's because they resent the lack of respect from the surface-dwelling races.
…the “fair-haired and gentle” Aerdrie.
Aerdrie Faenya, Queen of the Avariel, or winged elves. Weird that the wings are not mentioned in this gamebook.
(Hmm. Now that I think about it, Avariel may not have existed in 1e AD&D?)
Maybe they are in Monster Manual II ?
Optimally, this could’ve come from Carr’s research: by piecing together obscure references in his father’s notes, the son of Landor realized that the bad things happening were due to Arno’s discovery and use of Lolth’s crown.
I'd play that book!
or Thayne (as part elf and/or gatherer of information).
Drunk people tend to spew incoherent tales, so yes.
Then the plot of this book could be about Carr’s search for the crown of Aerdrie which is the only thing that can match the power of its twin. And for the love of the entire AD&D pantheon: don’t put the object of the quest atop the head of a friendly NPC (that’s bad enough) who we may not even have met in book 1!
She's a jerk, I think. From what I remember, she had no qualm lobotomizing us for not agreeing to go along with a stupid plan and asking for specifics. Taking the crown off her decapitated head seems the obvious next step -- though I suspect the logical course of action, which is to turn Rufyl into a Roc and wipe the elf camp before anyone can react as he's naturally going there, then confronting Estla about our inheritance and getting our loot back, won't be offered as a valid path in this book.
