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

[Joshua Randall]

Knight of the White Mountain, I guess?

But of course.

We can frigging WALK from Delmer to Freeton

Indeed, and there is even a numbered section for what happens when you arrive in Freeton having come from Delmer! So I am truly baffled why after we visit Wendel, we cannot go to Freeton.

can we not just jump off the cliff and cast Feather Fall? Or climb DOWN using Spider Climb? We memorized TWO spells to that effect, only not to remember that we can cast them?

Apparently we are so depressed by Wendel's story that we give up altogether.

He could at least offer to marry us so we can raise the next generation of heroes to save the world. If we're stuck here...

Hahahahaha! Damn right. There really ought to be a second generation of kids forced to deal with the problems their parents left unsolved.

Hmm. This reminds me of one of my favorite story hours on EN World, The Knights of Spellforge Keep, in which (some of) the children of a previous story's heroes must go out and hero their own hero stuff.
(If you want to see how all of Dr. Midnight’s story fits together, I wrote that up.)

How does he knows that the random girl we brought back home with us is the daughter of Perth?

Well, you see...
...
Huh. That's a really good question. If Wendel has never left Delmer (and it sure seems like he hasn't), there is no possible way he could have met Dalris nor Perth. Unless one of them came here previously; but if that is the case, why wouldn't Dalris have said something about it on our way here?

Perth, 13th level Druid: how are you doing, sweetie?
Dalris, delusional elf princess: not good, we arrived in Delmer, and we're trapped in a cleric's hut, because there are six gnolls outside
Perth, 13th level Druid: looks like you'll have to spend the remainder of your life trapped there, since there is nothing I can do against such a fearsome opposition. Goodbye and farewell.

Right?! Not only should we be able to handle this problem ourselves, Perth should DEFINITELY be able to solo this adventure.

I think this is a really unfair endgame, that was totally impossible to predict.

Correct. And while impossible to predict endings are part of the genre, this one feels particularly lame.

So whatever happens if we go to Delmer, we lose unfairly?

(69) if we've come to Delmer from Wealwood
(75) if we've come by way of Saven

Hmm.....

 

[Joshua Randall]

The path from Wealwood directly to Delmer always ends in failure. (It doesn't matter how we get past the gnolls.) So let's rewind and choose to go from Wealwood to somewhere else on Seagate Island.

---

137, redux

Where should we land?

(2) Delmer
(57) Freeton
(80) “the uninhabited southern side of the island” [en route to Thayne's village]

---

[For reasons that will NOT be made clear at this time, I rule out section (80) altogether.]

57

"Let's just sail into Freeton as if we're a small merchant ship and worry about the guards when we get there."

[WIS 3 at work.]

The fishing boat's master must also have WIS 3, because he readily agrees to this plan. The harbor lights are bright against the moonless sky when we drop anchor in the bay. The captain lends us his spyglass, which we use to study the figures milling about on the pier.

We realize they are gnolls, they're all over the wharf, and say, "They must have broken out of their reservation in the bogs."

Dalris reminds us: that is exactly what Thayne told us, "but they didn't have to escape from the reservation -- the Knights of Dyan let them go!"

"Incroyable!" we exclaim. Through the spyglass we can see that the gnolls' "huge bodies resemble two-legged hyenas in tattered fur clothing and shabby sweat-stained leather armor. Adding to their menacing appearance are heavy iron weapons."

We climb into the dinghy with Rufyl and Dalris, and debate whether to
(30) slip past the gnoll guards, or
(144) confront them openly.

---

Commentary:

[Carr] : "They must have broken out of their reservation in the bogs."
Dalris reminds us: that is exactly what Thayne told us, "but they didn't have to escape from the reservation -- the Knights of Dyan let them go!"

Oh dear. This use of the word "reservation" has not aged well. Even in the 1980s this was pretty bad.

We climb into the dinghy with Rufyl and Dalris, and debate whether to
(30) slip past the gnoll guards, or
(144) confront them openly.

These are the same numbered sections as the arrive-in-Delmer path. We took (30) before, to end up at (13) to be asked where we are headed, Delmer or Freeton. This time the answer is Freeton so we will proceed to (92) in the next update.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

57

That was my second choice. After torching OUR cousin, I'd like us to see what is happening in OUR inherited academy.

"Let's just sail into Freeton as if we're a small merchant ship and worry about the guards when we get there."

[WIS 3 at work.]

Indeed. Also, WIS 3 for believing that anyone would mistake a fisherman raft for a small merchantman. Well, admittedly, they are gnolls, and I am pretty sure in those backward time of intolerance and prejudice, gnolls had a penalty to INT, but we don't know they're gnolls at this point.

The harbor lights are bright against the moonless sky when we drop anchor in the bay. The captain lends us his spyglass, which we use to study the figures milling about on the pier.

The sky is moonless when we reach Freeton. It's also a "moonless, cloudy night" when we reach Delmer. Obviously, it doesn't take a long time to circumnavigate Seagate Island, which is consistant with a quite small island whose dimension we calculated in the last book. I'm glad the author took care to insert subtle hints to that effect.

We realize they are gnolls, they're all over the wharf, and say, "They must have broken out of their reservation in the bogs."

Animal reservations. Gnolls weren't people back then. And contrary to orcs, the jury is still out about them if you read the thread on the 2025 MM, they are considered more like aberrations.

Don't forget this setting is full of druid that don't want us to kill a manticore, so they are certainly concern about the well-being of BG3 gnolls to the point of having wildlife reservations built for them.

"Incroyable!" we exclaim. Through the spyglass we can see that the gnolls' "huge bodies resemble two-legged hyenas in tattered fur clothing and shabby sweat-stained leather armor. Adding to their menacing appearance are heavy iron weapons."

Why is a author so focused on iron weapons. Steel would be strange, but this isn't the bronze age anymore, the standard is to carry iron weapons in D&D? We're not playing Runequest.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Why is an author so focused on iron weapons.

I noticed that also. It’s weird.

I’m sure (as in I know for a fact) there was a Dragon magazine article in the 1e/2e era about weapon materials and quality. But given these are enemies’ weapons, who cares?

It could also be a reference to how iron is of use against the Fay in folklore, and that gets extended to general “iron is anti magic” sometimes. But this is never stated nor demonstrated in this gamebook.

So the fact the weapons are made of iron is an oddly specific detail that is set up with no payoff. Why? No idea.

 

[Joshua Randall]

92

The College of Arcane Sciences "founded by your father before you were born" looms over Freeton's harbor "like the watchtower it was in the days of pirates and smugglers on the Tikandian frontier."

Dalris asks how we want to do this: "Do we just present ourselves at the door, or do we get inside a bit more furtively?"

Rufyl jumps in mentally to remind us that Thayne's "sources" reported that Arno had taken over the College. "Is it not likely that the College has changed under Arno's questionable guidance?"

We shake our head and give this incredible response:

"At an academy of magic, there's always someone more advanced than you in certain areas of occult knowledge. That one fact keeps things honest and even. You learn to respect your colleagues' powers even if their level is lower than yours."

Rufyl seems confused; as the book puts it, The pseudodragon often has difficulty following the devious machinations of humans.

Dalris chuckles and adds, "Carr is saying that sorcerers like himself are just too damned independent to be dominated by each other."

Rufyl, channeling the gamebook reader, sighs mentally.

(110) if we've come here straight from Wealwood
(45) if we've come directly from Saven
(23) if we've come by way of Delmer

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

The College of Arcane Sciences "founded by your father before you were born"...

I should hope so, given it was founded 38 > 40 years ago, and we were born only 16 + 5 = 22 years ago.

(Yes, I know the founding date is now 5 years older than it was in book 1. So fine. It was founded 43 > 45 years ago. Happy?)

… "like the watchtower it was in the days of pirates and smugglers on the Tikandian frontier."

You mean the days in the ancient past of five years ago, when Thayne had us "translate" a map of pirate tunnels?

Or maybe you mean the ancient past of EARLIER TODAY, when Dalris's kinsmen SMUGGLED US HERE?

Dalris asks how we want to do this: "Do we just present ourselves at the door…?"

It's official: Dalris also has WIS 3.

"At an academy of magic, there's always someone more advanced than you in certain areas of occult knowledge. That one fact keeps things honest and even. You learn to respect your colleagues' powers even if their level is lower than yours."

In a gamebook series full of sanity-shattering nonsensical writing, this paragraph is either the pièce de résistance or a brilliant example of parody.

• There's always someone more advanced than you in certain areas of occult knowledge. -- The College Arcane has a strict color-coded robes hierarchy; the lighter your robes, the closer you are to archmage-level understanding of magic. The higher you climb, the more your understanding outclasses those beneath you. Now, maybe this sentence is supposed to be saying something about specialization of knowledge. Sure. But….
• That one fact keeps things honest and even. -- This HAS TO BE sarcasm from the doctor of anthropology Morris Simon. As anyone who has ever spent any time in academia knows, the fact that someone else knows more than you not only doesn't "keep things honest and even", it ACTIVELY DETRACTS from honestly and even-handedness because you HATE the people who know more than you, so you work to undermine them using any means available.
• You learn to respect your colleagues' powers… --- Hahahahaha!
• … even if their level is lower than yours. --- Ahhhhh hahahahahahahahahaha! collapses to the ground, unable to breathe

Dalris chuckles and adds, "Carr is saying that sorcerers like himself are just too damned independent to be dominated by each other."

Whatever element of truth this statement has figuratively, it ignores the in-world reality that Arno convinced a bunch of paladins to turn 180 degrees from their oaths and become eeeeevil. Given that Arno corrupted a bunch of noble paladins, he could also easily corrupt a bunch of stereotypically amoral sorcerers to join his cause.

Or, for that matter: maybe Arno LITERALLY dominated the other sorcerers of the College Arcane!

---

(110) if we've come here straight from Wealwood
(45) if we've come directly from Saven
(23) if we've come by way of Delmer

Our first example of a TRIPLE inbound node. Mostly we conceive of gamebooks as flowcharts in which some sections are decision points that lead you down different outbound paths. This gamebook expands on that to bring multiple inbound paths together to one section, but then instead of using that section as the narrow point of a funnel that only leads in one direction, it allows the paths to split apart again.

I’ll have more to say about this when we reach the end of our journey.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Do we have any information that Arno has a concrete eeeevil plan? Or is it a quantum evil, like his predecessor Uncle Beldon (who wasn't that bad until he tried to kill us).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Do we have any information that Arno has a concrete eeeevil plan?

Not yet. That’s one of the things we are trying to find out. Along with how do we stop said eeeeevil plan.

 

[Joshua Randall]

110

We determine that the quickest way to find out if Thayne's sources inside the academy knew what they were talking about is: "Let's just use the front door."

[There is not a facepalm meme big enough to apply here.]

"If Arno's friends have taken over the college, the sooner we know about it, the sooner we can do something about it."

We step up to the door, reach for the door handle, and as soon as our hand touches the cold metal, we're enveloped by a mass of flames.

The heat of the Fire Trap spell is so intense that your agony lasts only a few seconds before you disappear into oblivion. ✠

DEATH COUNT: 2
NONLETHAL FAILURE COUNT: 1

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

I know that stupid gamebook deaths are part of the appeal, but this one is SO stupid it's not even fun.

Can we cast Detect Magic (to sense the Fire Trap) or Dispel Magic (to remove the Fire Trap) — both on our list of SPECIAL SPELLS? Nope.

Can we make an Intelligence test to examine the door some other way? Nope.

Does Dalris, an experienced thief, have a better approach? Nope.

Does Rufyl, who can read minds, want to jump in here with a warning? Nope.

---

The heat of the Fire Trap spell is so intense…

Not really. The damage is "1-4 hit points plus 1 hit point per level of the magic-user who cast the spell, or one-half the total amount for creatures successfully saving versus magic." (AD&D PH, p. 77)

At best Arno is 15th level (if he personally cast the 8th level Permanency spell himself, which is looking less and less likely), so his Fire Trap would deal 16-19 damage.

OUR Carr Delling has 15 HP, which means that on a successful saving throw he cannot take lethal damage from Arno's Fire Trap! (max damage 19 / 2 on save = 9 damage)

For OUR Carr Delling to take lethal damage on a save, the magic-user who cast the Fire Trap would have to be at least 26th level (best roll on variable die 4 + 26 = 30 damage / 2 on save = 15 damage).

Not only does the book take away our ability to use the proper magical countermeasures here, it doesn't even bother with HP damage. Why do we have HP on our bookmark-slash-character-sheet if they're never going to get used?

Bah! I say. Bah!