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

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

On a failure, Pazuzu's "blast of psionic energy" is unaffected by the sceptre…
Pazuzu's psionic assault is so overwhelming…

Freakin' psionics, man! Not only did Arno's player convince the DM the allow Detect Magic Radar Emplacements, he also convinced the DM to use the psionics rules for the summoned demon.

Psionics appeared in the AD&D Players Handbook Appendix I, starting on page 110. There was only a tiny chance for a non-cheated character to possess psionics: you needed an unmodified INT, WIS, or CHA of 16+, then to roll 100 on percentile dice, modified slightly downwards in the usual arcane AD&D fashion. And I quote:

For each 1 point of intelligence above 16 add 2½ to the dice roll, for each 1 point of wisdom above 16 add 1½ to the dice roll, and for each 1 point of charisma above 16 add ½ to the dice roll (drop all fractions).

So even the most cheaty character ever, with natural 18s in INT, WIS, and CHA would have only

2½ + 2½ + 1½ + 1½ + ½ + ½ = 9 → gets added to whatever we roll on percentile dice, targeting 100 → means we need to roll 91-100 on percentile dice → 10% chance for psionics.

That didn't stop my friends and me from "luckily" having psionics on way, way, WAY more than 1%-10% of our characters.

---

Monsters, of course, are not player characters. They don't have to count up fractions based on their mental ability scores, then roll percentile dice, then repeatedly accidentally knock over the dice until said dice show 00. (Not that I ever did anything so flagrantly dishonest.)

Monsters merely need to be consulted in the relevant manual to see what psionics they are granted. A lot of them have

PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil

but plenty have something like, for example, the Astral Deva

PSIONIC ABILITY: 210
Attack / Defense Modes: ABCE / FGH

Then you'd need to refer back to the PH to see the letter codes for the Modes, and….

Y'know what? Let's just look at Pazuzu in the AD&D Monster Manual II (1983).

Pazuzu has all psionic attack modes and is flat-out immune to psionic attacks so doesn't need any defenses listed. That seems unfair, but it is a demon and they don't give a crap about things like "rules" and "fair play".

We see from the MM2 writeup that this demon is indeed known by the name 'Pazzuzeus' (with two Zs for some reason), so whenever we get to the section of the gamebook that tells us about 'Pazuzeus', it's the same entity.

In the second paragraph we learn how Pazuzu's "especial joy" is to corrupt lawful good clerics and paladins, as he has done in this gamebook. Saying its name three times is "the summons [that] brings Pazuzu to the person speaking."

There are several other tidbits about Pazuzu in the MM2 writeup that I will return to at a later time. For now, back to OUR Carr Delling.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Regardless of whether we have the Sceptre of Bhukod or not, the best we can hope for is to survive the encounter with Arno and Pazuzu and to flee with our wits intact. This brings us back to…

217, redux

Garn says we should split up and meet at his lodgings in "exactly" two hours. "It's at the corner of Wharf Road and Savenbridge, about a mile behind the Moonstar Tavern. You'll see a large gray stallion tethered in front of it."

The armored cavalier wearing spurs disappears into the shadows where he definitely won't make any noise. Dalris vaults over a low fence [no word if she grips a long pole to do so]. And we stagger away hoping to look like a "drunken native minstrel."

Rufyl turns invisible just before a trio of armored men in the crossed logs of Blessed Dyan appear at the corner.

"Hail, Holy Guardshmen!" we call out. "Can you shpare a copper or two to wet a thirshty whistle?" We try to sound drunk and extra-Kandian because these "urbane cavaliers" usually regard "natives" as "uneducated primitives", and won't suspect us of intrigue.

CHA test.
(180) if less than 20 or if we're carrying the Sceptre of Bhukod, or
(186) if 20 or more.

---

We roll 2,1 which added to our CHA 14 is only 17, not even close to what we needed.

180

The oldest guardsman scowls at us and thrusts a torch in our face, scrutinizing our features and our Kandian clothing.

Rufyl telepathically warns us that the corrupt paladin sees through out disguise just in time for us to leap back as the man draws his sword. "Take him, men! He's the one we want!"

We wheel around and pull out our extendo-staff, whirling it in a wide arc to hold them off until "its magic has time to work." We telepathically order Rufyl to strike when we do.

DEX test.
(83) if 18 or more;
(65) if not.

---

We roll 1,5 and add this to our DEX of 11 for a total of 17. sigh You all know what's coming.

65

"Trope ghan", we say in Elven. Our enchanted weapon flares with its pinkish aura [and presumably grows to twelve feet long, although the book doesn't state that], but these experienced paladins are undeterred.

The lead paladin thrusts his torch at us again. We try to ward it off but in a surprise to absolutely no one who followed my tree pruning experiment earlier, using a wooden stick that is twice as tall as we are proves to be incredibly unwieldy. We slam our elbow into the wall at our back which causes us to drop our enchanted quarterstaff.

"Get them, Rufyl!" you shout, hoping to divert their attention. You'll never know if the distraction worked, because two of the swords sever your spinal cord while you're bent over to retrieve your weapon. ✠

DEATH COUNT: 3

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

We wheel around and pull out our extendo-staff…

Why don't we cast a spell here? In other confrontations with paladins in this book (on paths we haven't taken… yet), we are given the opportunity to use just about any spell on our list. But here in a narrow alley where a stupidly long quarterstaff is obviously a terrible choice, that’s what we use. WIS 3 strikes again.

… whirling it in a wide arc to hold them off until "its magic has time to work." …
"Trope ghan”, we say in Elven.

Right, because shouting out two words takes such a long time.

---

Anyway, we're dead. At least this death is fair: it’s our own fault for rolling low on two ability checks in a row.

We can go back and pretend we succeeded on our DEX test at (83), in which case we win the fight on the strength of one trope ghan to the forehead of the first paladin and an invisible pseudodragon stinger to the second which distracts the third so we whack him in the face too. We escape at the cost of 2 HP.

Or we can go back to the section before that and pretend we succeed on our CHA test at (186) where the paladins buy our drunken Kandian act, insult us, and throw us to the ground which costs us, you guessed it, 2 HP.

Either way we end up at (174).

 

[Joshua Randall]

174

We crouch in the shadows until the signs of pursuit fade. Then we look for Garn's lodgings. It takes us an hour to find Savenbridge Road, which is a cramped brick street hardly wider than the alley, yet home to several stately apartment buildings. Outside one of them is tethered a huge, dapple-gray horse.

We creep up the stairs to the second floor where some lantern light spills out from below a door. "Garn! Dalris!" we whisper.

The door opens to reveal Dalris standing at a table in a "tidy, comfortable" room. She smiles and nods at Garn, who was hiding behind the door, sword drawn. "The taciturn bard says nothing, but her eyes are moist as she touches [our] arm in welcome." [Awwwww!]

Garn gives us the manly hand-clasp of greeting and serves us "a heavy crystal goblet of cool wine." He asks if we now understand the eeeeevil that has consumed Saven and will soon spread to all of Tikandia.

We want to know how often "that ritual" takes place. Garn replies that at first it was once a week but is now every night. It has replaced regular vesper services and no one but the Holy Guard may attend. Anyone who resisted the archcleric's call to the services was dismissed.

"Oram himself ordered the paladins to attend?" we ask in disbelief.

The cavalier lowers his eyes for a moment, then nods with a heavy show of sadness. "I fear that our Venerable Master has grown too old to continue leading the Order of Blessed Dyan. His mind has been deteriorating for several years and it was easy for Arno to convince him that this 'Pazuzu' is an astral messenger from Dyan himself."

From here, we turn to
(197) if someone named 'Shanif' warned us about "a creature like Pazuzu",
(213) if we learned from that same person about "a pair of adamantite crowns", or
(192) if we did not talk to Shanif.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Commentary:

We want to know how often "that ritual" takes place. Garn replies that at first it was once a week but is now every night.

Every night, Arno leads a chant of PAZUZU, PAZUZU, PAZUZU! Then Pazuzu itself materializes. Then it brings instructions from 'Blessed Dyan'. Those instructions are to forcibly convert the infidels. And this has been going on for a couple of months.

What are the corrupted paladins waiting for? How many times does 'Blessed Dyan' need to give the same instructions before they are carried out?

… it was easy for Arno to convince him that this 'Pazuzu' is an astral messenger from Dyan himself.

Let me get this straight:

Arno shows up from Seagate Island, home to superstitious villagers, pirates, wizards-in-training, and lions. He tells Oram about Pazuzu, a DEMON LORD whose name is apparently instantly recognizable to all. Oram says, "Wow, this Pazuzu fellow sounds exactly like an astral messenger from Blessed Dyan. Please introduce us, Arno."

Arno produces the statue and Oram says, "Yup. This hideous avian monster is exactly what an astral messenger from Blessed Dyan would look like. We should definitely bring it forth in the cathedral. Oh, and let me order all my underings to attend services. Thanks, Arno!"

[Garn] "I fear that our Venerable Master has grown too old to continue leading the Order of Blessed Dyan."


You don't say.

(197) if someone named 'Shanif' warned us about "a creature like Pazuzu",
(213) if we learned from that same person about "a pair of adamantite crowns", or
(192) if we did not talk to Shanif.

This time the privileged information comes attached to a name, 'Shanif'. We haven't met anyone by that name, nor even had the OPPORTUNITY to do so, on the paths we have taken.

I wonder where we went wrong? Hmm….

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

"None!" [we] reply. "This is why Thayne and your father wanted us to take the sceptre.

They anticipated that we woud need it to flee ungloriously?

We “strip [oh dear] the stiff [oh dear] hollyphant hide from the gleaming wand [oh dear]. The triple pearls at its bulbous end [oh dear] flare instantly in the dim light."

No more hollyphant hide, I guess. Did we really collect it back on the way out?

Dalris opens the door and dives through. Garn follows her, tossing his fine leather cape over his shoulder to free his sword arm. We duck into the sanctuary after them, holding the Sceptre of Bhukod high above our head.

Carr really treats it as a morgenstern.

Arno and Pazuzu whirl to face us. Our old rival seems unconcerned with Dalris and Garn, but he does "glower" at the relic in our hands.

Fact 1 : why would he speak to them, since there have been no known previous interaction between them?
Fact 2 : Arno actually is unconcerned about Carr, he only takes notice of the sceptre.

"Your father's antique wand may have destroyed our teacher,

Unless I am mistaken, Beldon corpse lies in the crypt, guarded by the Crypt Thing, where he got hit by his own Death spell. We exited through teleportation. There is no way anyone at the Academy, let alone Arno, know about his demise. At most, they might assume that he was disintegrated by touching the Door to the Forbidden Office, like many other magic-users before him, since he's not returning calls, but there is no way they are certain he is dead. And there is no way they (1) know that the sceptre was recovered as we absconded it to the druid grove for safety, which would be contradictory to telling everyone we recovered it (2) know that the sceptre was instrumental to Beldon's demise.

In a civilized land, admitting to killing someone might gets one scoff-free, after a lengthy judicial review involving demonstrating acting in self-defense. Which is complicated in this case since we can't really ask the Crypt Thing to provide a testimony, and Beldon was in public very supportive of his nephew, so suddently trying to kill him is hardly believable. Since there was no mention of Carr's jail time, I'd say that there is NO way Arno could legitimately know about Beldon's life meeting an untimely, yet bulbous, end.

Carr Delling,

While Arno was our high school archrival, from his point of view, we were just a teacher's pet he briefly was tasked to tutor five years ago, in the best case. In the hedge wizard trained in the woods by an old drunkard path, there is also no way Arno knows... our name. Even taking the academy path, what a memory to remember a student from 5-6 years ago and recognizing him. Though he may recognize the sceptre.

We should have the opportunity to throw him off by answering "I am no Carr, I am Parrrr, his twice removed cousin!"

but it will not save you and your friends from the wrath of Pazuzu," Arno declares.

This part is correct, since Pazuzu can easily neuter our rod. So much for making even the gods themselves quake in fear.

 

[Joshua Randall]

No more hollyphant hide, I guess. Did we really collect it back on the way out?

The book doesn’t specify, but we will have our sceptre sheathe later when we need it.

Fact 1 : why would [Arno] speak to [Dalris and Garn], since there have been no known previous interaction between them?

That… is a great point. Maybe the book was trying to say that Arno instantly sizes up the elf princess and the cavalier with great hair and realizes they are only a threat to Carr’s pride.

Fact 2 : Arno actually is unconcerned about Carr, he only takes notice of the sceptre.

Like all males of the species, Arno focuses on the size of his enemy’s rod.

I'd say that there is NO way Arno could legitimately know about Beldon's life meeting an untimely, yet bulbous, end.

Right?! People’s knowledge in this book has basically zero relation to reality.

Pazuzu can easily neuter our rod. So much for making even the gods themselves quake in fear.

Pazuzu isn’t a god. It’s a demon. Totally different.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

There is so much wrong in this scene!

Regardless of whether we have the Sceptre of Bhukod or not, the best we can hope for is to survive the encounter with Arno and Pazuzu and to flee with our wits intact. This brings us back to…

This brings us back to the question "why did we even attempt this botched operation?" Now the enemy know about us three and we gained NO information. Arno's presence and Pazuzu involvement were confirmed by Mr Goodlooks the Fallen in the tavern. He knew the number of paladin attending the ceremony. There is litterally ZERO progress that was made during this terribly bad heist attempt, second only to the infamous College Arcane Heist by Team Good 6 years ago.

Alpha Striking Arno would have necessitated sending the paladin to litterally chop Arno's head off (and giving his life heroically in the attempt) while we distract Pazuzu with our rod, not amateurishly slapping ourselves in front of the paladins.

Garn says we should split up and meet at his lodgings in "exactly" two hours. "It's at the corner of Wharf Road and Savenbridge, about a mile behind the Moonstar Tavern. You'll see a large gray stallion tethered in front of it."

Escape plan is being devised during the escape, while we are being pursued by the enemy. No escape ROUTE has been reconnoitered beforehand.

And we stagger away hoping to look like a "drunken native minstrel."

On the way in, it was established that Dalris is a native. Not Carr. He's basically a fair-skinned blonde boy trying to look like an Aztec singer.

Rufyl turns invisible

Rufyl, the invisible, flying, telepathic scout that could ensure that we turn in the street in such a way that we don't meet any patrol...

just before a trio of armored men in the crossed logs of Blessed Dyan appear at the corner.

If he had any common sense.

"Hail, Holy Guardshmen!" we call out. "Can you shpare a copper or two to wet a thirshty whistle?" We try to sound drunk and extra-Kandian because these "urbane cavaliers" usually regard "natives" as "uneducated primitives", and won't suspect us of intrigue.

Well, given our experience with said natives, feigning having an alcohol problem was at least smart. But going our of our way to draw the attention to us by speaking to the guard instead of just lying out by the side of the street like a common bum would be less suspicious. Also, we might have discarded our clothes. The one the guards saw us wearing earlier.

 

[Joshua Randall]

There is so much wrong in this scene!

Now you feel my pain.

"why did we even attempt this botched operation?"

The stated purpose was so Carr could get a look at what Arno was doing with Pazuzu, so we could understand how to defeat their eeeeevil plan. Which in a weird way was successful.

Alpha Striking Arno

Pre-cast Fly and Protection from Evil.
Open secret door.
Fireball centered so its radius includes Arno and as much wooden furniture nearby as possible.
If LOS allows (i.e. if the fireball instantly burns up the fancy cathedral chair), Lightning Bolt Arno.
Wizard Lock the secret door.
GTFO using Fly.

That’s how I would do it.

amateurishly slapping ourselves in front of the paladins

Hey, quit kink shaming us!

Escape plan is being devised during the escape

WIS 3 at work.

On the way in, it was established that Dalris is a native. Not Carr.

Au contraire, mon frer. From section (121), the spell-prep and suit-up scene:

We enter the FREE HUT that was formerly Landor's and now ours and sit down at the same table where our dad "conducted his research into the magic of his ancestors, the sorcerer-kings of Bhukod."

I even mocked this section for establishing that everyone in this entire series is descended from a pointy-eared elf.

Anyway, Carr is Bhukodian, and in book 1 Dalris said that the Kandians are the Empire of Bhukod, so by the transitive property of ancestry, that makes Carr a Kandian.

Rufyl, the invisible, flying, telepathic scout that could ensure that we turn in the street in such a way that we don't meet any patrol...

Ah, my bad. I promised to call out when Rufyl the gamebreaker should have broken the game and didn’t. This is one of those times. Even though Rufyl can’t fly in these books for, I guess, plot reasons, he could still invisibly scout our way to safety as you said. He could also, for that matter, invisibly infiltrate the cathedral and just hang out mind-reading people including Arno. Why have the perfect spy if you’re not going to use him?

Also, we might have discarded our clothes. The one the guards saw us wearing earlier.

What, you mean our Joseph-and-His-Amazing-Technicolor-Dreamcoat with its garish symbols? Nah, totally inconspicuous.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Garn gives us the manly hand-clasp of greeting and serves us "a heavy crystal goblet of cool wine." He asks if we now understand the eeeeevil that has consumed Saven and will soon spread to all of Tikandia.

No. We got exactly no new information. Arno has been seen summoning Pazuzu in front of 100 paladins in the name of Oram. We already knew this because Garr could have told us all the details. We don't know more about what the eeevil would do (since converting the locals isn't something new as it happened during our Dad's time) nor got any clue on how Arno got acquainted with Pazuzu in the first place.

The only new information we got is that he can spank us whenever he wants with his psionics against which our rod is impotent.

The cavalier lowers his eyes for a moment, then nods with a heavy show of sadness. "I fear that our Venerable Master has grown too old to continue leading the Order of Blessed Dyan. His mind has been deteriorating for several years and it was easy for Arno to convince him that this 'Pazuzu' is an astral messenger from Dyan himself."

In case Oram was the only one not to have heard of Pazuzu, Arno has the honesty to call him Lord of the Lower Aerial Kingdom, so we absolutely know he's on the evil side.

(197) if someone named 'Shanif' warned us about "a creature like Pazuzu",
(213) if we learned from that same person about "a pair of adamantite crowns", or
(192) if we did not talk to Shanif.

Sounds like there is a One True Path in the book.

Every night, Arno leads a chant of PAZUZU, PAZUZU, PAZUZU! Then Pazuzu itself materializes. Then it brings instructions from 'Blessed Dyan'. Those instructions are to forcibly convert the infidels. And this has been going on for a couple of months.

What are the corrupted paladins waiting for? How many times does 'Blessed Dyan' need to give the same instructions before they are carried out?

The Paladins have been taught the methods of Team Good. They'll begin printing religiouus material for the locals in around 3 years, and they'll call themselves reactive.

The stated purpose was so Carr could get a look at what Arno was doing with Pazuzu, so we could understand how to defeat their eeeeevil plan. Which in a weird way was successful.

Or not... We still don't have a clue on how to defeat them, though we at least know that a direct, 1-to-33 confrontation isn't how to do it. We've narrowed it down, if we want to be extremely optimistic.

Pre-cast Fly and Protection from Evil.
Open secret door.
Fireball centered so its radius includes Arno and as much wooden furniture nearby as possible.
If LOS allows (i.e. if the fireball instantly burns up the fancy cathedral chair), Lightning Bolt Arno.
Wizard Lock the secret door.
GTFO using Fly.

That’s how I would do it.

And it probably would work. Actually, the secret passage is unneeded since by flying it should be possible to enter by surprise through the stained-glass windows of the cathedral by smashing them for effect.

Au contraire, mon frer. From section (121), the spell-prep and suit-up scene:

We enter the FREE HUT that was formerly Landor's and now ours and sit down at the same table where our dad "conducted his research into the magic of his ancestors, the sorcerer-kings of Bhukod."

I even mocked this section for establishing that everyone in this entire series is descended from a pointy-eared elf.

I don't buy it. The marine on the ship called us the person with the native girlfriend. There is no way anyone would see a couple of Japanese ethnicity and describe them as "a man and his Japanese wife".

You do bring a point with Carr's statement. One possible way to reconcile that is (again) using the genealogical mixing over time. Landor probably came from a wealthy and influential family who could have been, 500 years ago, related to a single sorcerer-king. There is a possibility that, through Georges V's wife and a Hungarian nobility line, Prince Harry is a descendant of Genghis Khan. It doesn't make him a Mongol and he would stick out like a sore thumb if he was trying to mingle in the streets of Ulan-Bator. Which is exactly what Carr is trying to do. Over 20 human generations, since half the genetic material pass to the next, this single ancestor provides roughly 2,000 DNA bases out of 3 billions. And since 99.9% of the genome is common to all humans, there is a very low chance Carr is actually sharing specific DNA with this ancestor. No pointy ears for him.

Another possibility is that Landor, who spoke to the undead sorcerer-kings, got legally adopted -- a technique that might be useful to defeat some magical protections he's strangely fond of... -- and can claim to be a descendant without any blood relation.

Or Landor claimed to be the heir of the sorcerer-kings of Old Bukhod in a metaphorical manner, because he had taken up their legacy and occupation, and Carr is thinking he meant that litterally. He's WIS 3, after all.