Curse of the Azure Bonds: Final Rating

Curse of the Azure Bonds 

United States

Strategic Simulations, Inc. (developer and publisher)
Released 1989 for DOS, Apple II, and C64; 1990 for Amiga and Macintosh; 1991 for Atari ST and PC-98

Date Started: 25 December 2012
Date Ended: 7 January 2013
Total Hours: 21
Difficulty: Moderate (3/5)
Final Rating: 60
Ranking at Time of Posting: 79/83 (95%)

Ranking at Game #455: 449/455 (99%)

So far in the history of CRPGs, we have only seen a handful of games with sequels. They include:

• Ultima
• Wizardry
• The Bard's Tale
• Phantasie
• Questron (including Legacy of the Ancients)
• Might & Magic
• Shard of Spring/Demon's Winter
• Pool of Radiance/Curse of the Azure Bonds

Which of these things is not like the other? It's Ultima. Every other franchise, so far, has featured essentially the same game engine between games, with perhaps some minor improvements in graphics, sound, and the interface. There have been variances in the quality of updating--Wizardry is indistinguishable from Wizardry V, while Might & Magic had some more significant changes--but generally speaking, each game in these series "feels" like it's part of the series. Ultima remains the curious exception throughout its history: they reinvented the game engine for every iteration (with the exception of the two Worlds of Ultima spinoffs from Ultima VI).

Naturally, then, the games in each franchise have very similar ratings. Wizardry I, II, III, and V are all within one point of each other. The variance between the two Might & Magic games is 2 points; the three Bards Tales are within 3 points; the Phantasies are exactly the same. It's to be expected. With the same (or almost the same) game engine, there are limited ways that a game can significantly improve (or screw up). We did see it in Demon's Winter, which had a significantly better story, less linearity, better NPCs, and more role-playing than Shard of Spring despite looking and feeling very similar.

I'm saying all of this to explain why I don't think my rating for Curse of the Azure Bonds is going to look much different than my rating for Pool of Radiance. Curse feels like what it is: a continuation of Pool. I'm writing what appears below without reviewing my Pool of Radiance final rating, but off the top of my head, there were a few interface elements I liked better in Curse but a better story and side-quests in Pool, and I'd be surprised if they don't end up with almost identical final scores.

1. Game World. This franchise is unique in that it takes place in a much larger game world with an enormously detailed history and lore, thanks to countless books, game manuals, magazine articles, modules, and other computer games. Each time you fire up a game set in the Forgotten Realms, you're amid a host of references and allusions to history, characters, and legends. There's nothing comparable to it in this era of CRPGs except perhaps the one BattleTech game.

I have to say, though, that I don't find the Forgotten Realms very compelling. It feels like there's too much in the setting--too many lands, too many races, too many monsters, too many gods. Every type of monster and mythology that could exist does exist; everything that could happen has happened; every plot twist has already been twisted. I was recently playing Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone which concerns a Githyanki general and a Slaad lord vying to see which one of them is going to lay waste to Faerûn. It's supposed to feel epic, but I wanted to tell them, "Guys, you're going to have to get in line behind about three thousand other arch-wizards, demons, gods' spawn, cult leaders, shadow druids, ancient lizard people, Drow matrons, disaffected half-breeds, dragon kings, fallen deities, and interlopers from other planes."

The Dalelands are only a small part of a much bigger world.

 
What the Realms lacks is a strong "core," like spice in Dune or the Force in Star Wars. Some of D&D's other settings have that core: Ravenloft's gothic horror, Dark Sun's dying earth, Planescape's "rules."

On the other hand, it's a good place to set a generic high-fantasy adventure, and once you're familiar with the way things work in the Realms, you can carry that knowledge to dozens of other games. Black dragons breathe acid, basilisks stun you, a platinum piece is worth 5 gold pieces, paladins are lawful good and can lay on hands, thieves can't wear metal armor, gnolls are evil, you can trust Elminster, and anything to do with Bane is bad--no matter whether you're playing Curse of the Azure Bonds, Eye of the Beholder, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, or Icewind Dale.

I'm going to talk about the ties to the book at the end, but aside from Azure Bonds, the creators did a great job outlining the political situation of the area, the history of the Dalelands, and the nature of the various factions. With the possible exception of Tyranthraxus, it makes sense that these five power groups have entered into this uneasy alliance to bond the party for their own ends.

The game also does a good job evolving the world. When you first start playing, and you have all of the bonds on your arms, factions allied against Zhentil Keep treat you rudely and sometimes even attack you. (My party needed to be told about something called "long sleeves.") After you finish Zhentil Keep and lose the bond, those factions become friendly--but Zhent troops now have you on their "Wanted" list and attack on sight. After Silk made my ranger a Swanmay, several characters commented on it. River pirates remain cowed and stop attacking after you kill some of them. In a couple places, the game takes the convenient way out and simply blocks you from returning to places, but overall, it makes you feel like you're effecting permanent changes on the Dalelands. Score: 8.

2. Character Creation and Development. Curse did a good turn by introducing the paladin and ranger classes, and by introducing dual classes. The character system is otherwise indistinguishable from every other D&D game. As with Pool, I liked the ability to customize the icon. (We lost the character portraits, but they were goofy anyway.) My biggest complaint here is the lack of advancement. Imported characters from Pool of Radiance might only be able to advance three or four levels over the course of gameplay. The level caps ensured that my characters maxed well before the end of the game. There is no way to role-play alignments, classes, or races--the latter of which is a good thing, since the literal adaptation of first-edition rules means that you probably don't want anything but humans anyway. But for the few levels that you have, it feels good to get extra attacks and spells, higher backstab multipliers, and other benefits. Score: 6.

My winning mage was a victim of her own "Haste" spells.

 
3. NPC Interaction. There are about as many NPCs in Curse as in Pool, with the difference that many of the ones in this game were drawn from the Azure Bonds book. There are no dialogue options with NPCs, but the game does retain the "attitude" system, which sometimes works (rakshasa leave you alone if you're "haughty"), and there are frequently options other than dialogue.

I missed the hirelings from Pool of Radiance, and I wish there were more NPCs in this game that you could actually take into your party. But the few that do join you have interesting things to say about themselves and the environments. Score: 6.

4. Encounters and Foes. One thing I can say about the Forgotten Realms is that it has an interesting menagerie of creatures, and this game featured an awful lot of them--the manual lists about 40. The developers did a good job programming each monster's unique attacks, although as we discussed, the AI sometimes isn't up to par with these abilities. Having played about a billion hours in Forgotten Realms games, I didn't have to look up descriptions of my foes, but the manual did have them, with even an assessment of their relative difficulty levels (dogs are lowest, dracoliches highest).

 
(Just as an aside: it occurs to me that aside from the dracolich, there isn't a single undead in this game. That's a little unusual for a D&D game.)

The quality of the pre-combat and non-combat encounters was on par with Pool of Radiance, which makes it better than most of the games of the era. I liked the little choices: attack the dragon horde or talk with them; loot the crypts or restore them; punch the bartender or buy a drink; burn the trolls or watch them reassemble; help the rogue rakshasa prove that his comrades are cheating at gambling or just attack him; attack the hookah-smoking Drow or leave them alone. There were a dozen or so small but satisfying encounters along the roadways, including stopping an invading army, removing a displacer beast threat, and saving a farm from ettins. At the same time, though, I felt there were more cases in this game in which the choice was obvious, or the outcome was the same no matter what I chose. Score: 7.

5. Magic and Combat. I still think that the Gold Box system of combat is one of the best ever created. It has everything I like: a turn-based, tactical map; multiple attack and defense options; even some fun animations and sound. Magic is an integral part of the tactics of the game, and you need to carefully select spells to memorize and cast. Backstabbing and wiping out enemies with fireballs and lightning bolts literally never gets old.

Everything I could possibly say here is a rehash of what I said in my "Turn Based vs. Real Time" posting and my Pool of Radiance review, so I'll just conclude with the same thing I said about the first "Gold Box" game: "There are hardly any other games--ancient or modern--that achieve such a perfect blend of melee combat, spells, item use, morale, and (albeit limited) special abilities." That said, the AI limitations were more apparent in this game than its predecessor. Score: 7.

A tough beginning. These priests are capable of high-level spells and I need to damage them all quickly so they can't cast in the first round. There isn't enough space in this corridor to cast "Fireball" without hitting my own party. They're not lined up in the right way for "Lightning Bolt." "Stinking Cloud" would incapacitate maybe three of them. Since there are only five, I could try to have my party take them one-by-one in melee, but if they have better initiative, or I miss one of my attacks. at least two of my party members are getting "Hold Person" cast on them.

6. Equipment. Standard D&D fare, which is generally good. There was a wider variety of equipment in Curse than in Pool, including more rings, girdles, gauntlets, wands, and scrolls. As almost always happens, I was too conservative with my wands, and I ended the game with enough wand power to level a city. Every new map brought one or two equipment upgrades, and a few of them, like the Ring of Wizardry and the Girdle of Giant Strength, were unmitigatedly awesome. But we still don't see any detailed item descriptions, and where the heck are the helms and boots?

My ranger's final equipment list.

I must voice this complaint about this game and many others like it: all the good stuff appears in fixed locations. Why does it have to be this way? I think it would be far better if each reward cache had a random selection of the special items in the game. In the Fire Knives' hideout, you find a long sword +3 frost brand every single time. Why couldn't it occasionally be the Ring of Invisibility, or the long bow +3? It's not like there's a plot-related reason that the long sword has to be there. It would enhance replayability enormously if the items were mixed up. Score: 5.

7. Economy. Almost so bad the game might as well not have had one. Pool of Radiance had a glut in the economy, but at least you had to struggle a bit in the beginning. Curse of the Azure Bonds starts you with enough gold to buy everything in the equipment shop in Tilverton and still have enough left over for training. After that, battles and treasure hauls throw so many gold pieces, gems, and jewelry at you that you find yourself abandoning more than 90% of it--that isn't remotely an exaggeration--and you still have more than you know what to do with. The game did one thing better than Pool by including a magic shop, but even with that, I could have bought everything they stocked multiple times over. I don't understand how a game that does everything else so well could do this aspect so poorly. Score: 2.

There really isn't any point.

8. Quests. The main quest in Curse is more personal than in Pool, but it's still interesting. As with the previous game, there's a certain humility to it: your adventures take place in a small corner of the Realms, and you're basically determining the outcome of some factional strife, not saving the world.

I did like the quests in Pool better, though. The way the clerk fed them to the party, you felt like you were slowly accomplishing the revitalization of Phlan, not just hitting waypoints on the way to the final battle. Curse also doesn't have side-quests in the same way that Pool does, although it does have a few side-dungeons, including the memorable Beholder Corps. There is only one ending to the main quest, and not many quest-based role-playing choices along the way. Score: 6.

9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. No strong complaints. Once I figured out how to enable the Tandy sound, it was actually quite good. There's a certain graphical paucity to the dungeon corridors and rooms, but the monster portraits and icons are good enough. The keyboard controls were intuitive. The "Fix" command was a welcome addition, and I hope the next game straightens out some cumbersome aspects of the combat interface. Score: 6.

10. Gameplay. As I discussed in my Dracandros posting, there is a refreshing nonlinearity to the gameplay. Although you have to do the Fire Knives first and Tyranthraxus last, you can do the three middle stages in any order, and intersperse those with the various optional dungeons and encounters. It doesn't have quite the same world-openness as Pool, but it's better than a lot of games.

Being too nonlinear comes with a price, and I found it in what seemed like excessive difficulty in some areas. But overall, I thought that the difficulty of the game was pitched very well. The pacing was also good; I felt it lasted exactly as long as it needed to.

As for whether it's "replayable," I'd have to say not very. By choosing a different route or different character classes, you might be able to alter the tactical challenge, but you'd have to be really into the game to want to do that. Score: 7.

The final score of 60 actually puts it 4 points below Pool of Radiance but still fairly high; only Ultima V, Pool, and The Dark Heart of Uukrul rank higher. That feels right. Fundamentally, I liked Pool of Radiance better for its story, quests, encounters, and a slightly better (if still bad) economy.

I don't know exactly what this ad is promising, but a teenaged me probably would have been disappointed.

This game throws an additional ingredient into the mix by basing itself on a specific book and introducing NPCs from that book to the game. I'm not sure how well that worked. When Nameless, Olive Ruskettle, and Akabar Bel Akash appear, the game is clearly winking at you, and you feel out of the loop if you don't know who they are. But expecting the reader to go through a 400-page book seems a little unfair. I'm not subtracting points for it, but I'm glad that not many CRPGs are based directly on books. It was a weird decision, really; surely, even when the game was new, only a fraction of the game's players would have read Azure Bonds.

I was hoping that Scorpia would corroborate the slightly "left out" feeling in her review, but she didn't mention it at all instead, in a curiously ornery review in the September 1989 Computer Gaming World, she bemoans that little has changed since Pool of Radiance, "combat still predominates," and there isn't much actual role-playing. (I'm not sure what games in this era she was playing in which there was actual role-playing.)

Best of all, though, she complains that the die rolls seem to be weighted in favor of certain monsters and against the party, and she goes into a long example involving otyughs to prove it. I was beginning to think that she might need a long vacation away from her computer, but the review is supplemented with a memo from SSI programmer Scot Bayless who says that she's right. He explains that they included hit and damage modifiers based on the terrain and environment without necessarily being explicit about it in the game: "Like all good DMs, our authors bend the dice to suit the story."

I'll be back in the Realms, with this party, in less than a year with Secret of the Silver Blades--a game that few of you seem to like--and in 1991 with Pools of Darkness. Four games in four years sounds like a lot, especially by modern standards, and that's just the "Pool of Radiance" series. SSI knew they had something with the Gold Box engine, and in 1990, they also launched the Dragonlance Gold Box series with Champions of Krynn, followed by Death Knights of Krynn in 1991 and The Dark Queen of Krynn in 1992. The two "Savage Frontier" games appeared in 1991 and 1992 respectively, and the company used the engine in a non-D&D context with Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (1990) and a 1992 sequel. As much as I like the Gold Box engine, it'll be a miracle if I'm not thoroughly sick of it by the end of 1992.

The next game might be a bit of a surprise. I'm still trying to figure out the controls for Dragons of Flame. I just bought a game controller, which I've never used on a PC before, and I'm not sure how easy or hard it will be to get it to mimic a 1980s joystick. Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back was never actually released for the PC, so I have to figure out whether to use a fan-made DOS port or learn another emulator. The next game might simply be the one that gives me the least grief.

Gold Box: Spells and their Uses

I'm afraid of what loving this spell so much says about me.

Note: This was updated on 23 September 2014, after I finished Secret of the Silver Blades, to cover the spells in that game and Champions of Krynn.

In a comment on my "Behold" posting, PetrusOctavianus and Tristan Gall educated me as to the virtues of the "Enlarge" spell, which--oh, stop snickering--increases the size and strength of the subject. Unlike many D&D spells, it increases in potency with the mage's level, such that, according to the game manual, "if the caster is 6th level, the target becomes as strong as an ogre; if the caster is 10th level, the target becomes as strong as a fire giant."

It's an extremely useful spell--a bevy of them cast before a big combat can easily turn the tables--and yet I had entirely overlooked it. 

Because of this, after I finished with Dracandros, I forced myself to spend some time in random ruins, determined to cast every spell in the game and note its effects, not just for this game but for all future ones. (My research was helped considerably by a Ring of Wizardry that we found in Dracandros's tower, which doubles my mage's available first-third level spells.) These are the results of my investigations, with the understanding that I didn't cast all spells against all enemies. What I'm looking for are any comments about spells I may not be giving enough credit (or, I suppose, those that I'm giving too much credit). I'll carry this knowledge to the next game and update this list accordingly.

For experimentation purposes, my cleric memorizes an unconventional list of spells.

This is a long posting, and perhaps serves better as a reference rather than something that you read through all at once. I thought it was important to list all the spells because we're going to encounter this same list again and again--for I think 7 more games.

(I have some broader thoughts about the Vancian magic system, but I'm saving those for a later posting. For those unversed in the D&D spell system, suffice to say that both clerics and mages get a certain number of "spell slots" at each level and must "memorize" the spells during periods of sleeping. Thus, you can only re-stock spells at places and times where it's safe to rest.)

Cleric Spells

First Level

Bless. Increases the party's "to hit" rolls by 1. Not terribly powerful, but it also doesn't hurt to cast it just before combat to give the party a slight edge. I wouldn't waste a round on it in combat.

Curse. Reduces the "to hit" rolls of monsters by 1. Partly because the effects are so paltry and partly because enemies who start the game next to party members are immune, I don't think it's worth a combat round, and unlike "Bless," it can't be cast before combat. I'd rather the priest spent it attacking or casting a better spell.

Cure Light Wounds. Healing only 1-8 hit points, it loses its usefulness at higher levels, but it is helpful for getting unconscious characters on their feet before the end of a battle, mostly so they'll get the experience for the battle. En masse, it's useful outside of combat.

Cause Light Wounds. Damages 1-8. Useless now that my priest is capable of doing more than that with a melee weapon.

Detect Magic. Determines what items are magical. Useful at the end of combats to help figure out what to take. I don't waste a cleric slot on it, though; I have my ranger memorize the comparable mage spell.

Protection from Evil. Improves AC and saving throws by 2 against evil enemies, but only for one character. Theoretically useful, but obviated by the paladin's innate abilities and the fourth-level spell that protects the entire party.

Protection from Good. You rarely fight good characters in this series, even as an evil party. I can't imagine when I'd use this.

Resist Cold. Halves cold-based damage and improves saving throws by 3, but only for one character. I don't think Curse features a single cold-based attacker, but Secret certainly does. Like "Resist Fire," when I find I need it, I'll have my cleric dump everything else, memorize six of these, and re-memorize my older spells after the key combat.

As you can see, the cleric swiftly outgrows the first level. I generally keep a couple of "Bless" in memory and save the rest for "Cure Light Wounds."

Second Level

Find Traps. Does what it says, and with greater success than the thief. But traps are rare. I keep one for when I need it.

Hold Person. Paralyzes up to three humanoid targets. Extremely useful even though it often fails. 

Resist Fire. Halves fire-based damage and improves saving throws by 3. It's more useful in this game than "Resist Cold," since I've faced enemies like efreets and salamanders, but again it's something that you memorize in a hurry when you know you'll need it.

Silence 15' Radius. Prevents the target and those adjacent to him from casting spells. I haven't given this one the attention it deserves, preferring to hold or damage rather than silence spellcasters, though "Silence" seems to have a greater chance of success. You can also cast it on your own party members and then maneuver them into a radius of the enemy spellcasters.

Slow Poison. When a character is poisoned in the game, he immediately "dies." "Neutralize Poison" will cure the poison and revive him; "Slow" will revive him for a while, but when it wears off, the character dies permanently. I think it's too risky to use, and I haven't been poisoned in this game anyway.

Snake Charm. Charms snakes, which actually paralyzes them rather than turning them against the attackers. Why there aren't "charm" spells for other creatures, I don't know. It's useful for one battle in Pool, none in Curse, but quite a few in Secret.

"Snake Charm" came in real handy the one time I faced snakes.

 
Spiritual Hammer creates a temporary magic hammer that "does normal hammer damage." Rendered obsolete by any magic weapon, or a stock of regular hammers for that matter.

I thus spend almost all of my Level 2 slots on "Hold Person," with one "Find Traps" in reserve.

Third Level

Animate Dead. This spell appeared in Pool but didn't make the transition to the later games, perhaps because the second game didn't have the same NPC system. It basically turns any dead PC into a zombie NPC who no longer gains experience. It has a few potential uses: you could use it on an existing NPC to keep him from getting a share of the treasure, or on elf party members (who otherwise can't be raised, but since you generally have every incentive to keep a living, experience-gaining party (of both PCs and NPCs), it's hard to see using this much.

Bestow Curse. Reduces enemy THAC0 and saving throws by 4. I'm not sure why I'd use this instead of "Cause Blindness," which does the same things and affects the armor class besides. I guess some enemies are probably immune to blindness. Anyway, I rarely get into this kind of statistics-adjusting on the individual level. Maybe in a tough battle with a "boss-level" foe.

Cure Blindness. Does what it says. I've encountered nothing in any Gold Box game (so far) that blinds me.

 

Cause Blindness. Blinds one's enemy and thus "reduces the target's THAC0, armor class, and saving throws by 4." I'm assuming this is a typo, and that it increases the AC by 4, or I'm inadvertently helping them. In any event, I should probably spend a slot on it for those rare occasions when a single tank-like fighter gives me trouble, but generally I've ignored it.

Cure Disease. Does what it says, although I haven't found any disease-causing agents in Curse or Secret. I often keep one around, just in case.

Cause Disease. "Gives the target a disease that saps his strength and HP." Without knowing exactly how much, I'm not sure I trust the spell enough to spend a slot on it.

Dispel Magic. Removes the effects of general magic spells. Very useful, and I always keep a few handy for characters who get held or charmed. I found it was less useful in Secret, since almost anything it dispels is ineffective against my characters' heightened saving throws.

Prayer. Improves "to hit" rolls and saving throws of the party by 1 while simultaneously reducing enemies' by 1. Like casting "Bless" and "Curse" at the same time, but it actually stacks with "Bless" and can be cast outside combat. I always have at least one of these ready for pre-combat buffing.

Prayer is an important component in pre-combat buffing.

 
Remove Curse. Dispels "Curse" spells and cursed items. Enemies rarely curse me, but it's useful for the occasional cursed item. I find it easier to memorize and cast it when I need it rather than carrying it around.

Fourth Level

Cure Serious Wounds. Supposed to heal 3-17. I find that it almost always heals the low end of that range; otherwise it would be more useful than "Cure Light Wounds" in combat.
 

Cause Serious Wounds. I've decided to carry one of these around. It does 3-17 damage--often less than my melee weapon, but with a near-100% chance of working. Good for when you absolutely must cause damage, or finish off an enemy, this round.

Neutralize Poison. Obviously useful for when it happens, but I've yet to experience it in Curse. I got poisoned a lot more in Pool of Radiance, and it seems odd that it's such a high-level spell. (In Secret, poison came back significantly.)

Poison. Target has to make a saving throw versus poison or die. From my experimentation, I need to spend more slots on this. It often doesn't work, but when it does work, the instant kill is very satisfying.

Protection from Evil, 10' Radius. Like the regular "Protection from Evil," but affects everyone in a radius. I prefer this one for its mass effect, and I almost always use it as a buffing spell before combat.Yes, my paladin has it innately, but it's not easy to keep everyone next to the paladin. If I cast a couple of these on other party members, I increase the odds that everyone will benefit.

Sticks to Snakes. Perhaps the silliest spell in the cleric repertoire. The caster hurls a bunch of sticks at the enemy, which turn into snakes and occupy the target for a few rounds. It almost always fails, and even when it succeeds, it's not nearly as useful as "Hold" spells.

I've typically memorized only "Cure Serious Wounds" and "Protection from Evil" at this level, but thanks to my research, I'm spreading things out a little more.

Fifth Level

Cure Critical Wounds. It supposedly heals 6-27, but like it's predecessor, I find that it's almost always at the low end of the range. I like to keep one to heal melee characters in combat, though most characters who get so low they need it are highly likely to get knocked unconscious (or killed) in the following round anyway.

Cause Critical Wounds. Does 6-27 damage with no saving throw. Has similar virtues to "Cause Serious Wounds," but since it occupies the same spell level as "Slay Living," I think the latter is a better use of the slot.

Dispel Evil. An odd one. Supposedly, when cast on a party member, it improves the character's armor class by 7 "versus summoned evil creatures." When the character hits an evil creature in combat, "it must save versus spells or be dispelled." The problem is, I don't know what constitutes a "summoned creature." If it's limited to those summoned in combat, that literally has never happened, and I don't think the spells even exist in this game.

Flame Strike: 6-48 damage on one target with a chance that the target will make a saving throw and receive half damage. Sounds good, but I think "Slay Living" is a better use of the spell slot.

Raise Dead: Raises dead characters. Useful, of course, but raising characters in this version of the AD&D rules, whether by spell or temple, subtracts a point of constitution. Also, the system of "unconsciousness" in the Gold Box series (characters with between 0 and -10 hit points become "unconscious" instead of killed; if bandaged, they can be revived at the end of the combat) means that individual characters rarely die without taking the entire party with them. I don't keep it memorized.

Slay Living. The enemy target has to make a save versus death or die. But even if he makes the save, he still loses 3-17 hit points. Since even at its worst, it does almost as much damage as "Cause Critical Wounds" or "Flame Strike," and has a chance of causing instant death besides, I find it a better use of the slot than either of those.

I use fifth-level slots almost entirely for "Slay Living," with perhaps one "Cure Critical Wounds" in reserve.

Sixth Level

Heal. Cures disease, blindness, feeblemindedness, and restores all except 1-4 hit points. I don't know why it couldn't restore all hit points, but whatever. One of only two Level 6 spells, and it's too useful to bother with the other.

Harm. Does "terrible damage" to a living creature, leaving only 1-4 hit points. "Heal" is so useful that I haven't taken to memorizing "Harm," so I don't really know if the enemies get saving throws or what. If not, I suppose I could be persuaded to learn it once I have three Level 6 slots.

Magic-User Spells

First Level

Burning Hands. Does 1 point of fire damage per level of the caster. Even with no saving throw, underperforms "Magic Missile" at any level.

Charm Person. Turns one humanoid opponent to your side. It's awesome when it works, but it hardly ever does. I usually keep one around.

Detect Magic. Same as the cleric spell. It's worth having a few memorized to help sort through the post-combat equipment, but I prefer to have my ranger do it.

Enlarge. This is the spell that prompted my investigations. It basically makes every character a better melee fighter. I try to keep enough to cast on my weaker characters before a big battle.

Reduce. Negates an "Enlarge" spell if active, otherwise reduces an enemy in size and power. It seemed promising, but it disappeared after Curse of the Azure Bonds.

Friends. Raises the caster's charisma by 2-8. I have no idea when I would use this spell, or for what reason. I haven't seen any encounters dependent on charisma, and it's not like you have to eke every gold piece out of a shopkeeper in this series.

Magic Missile. An excellent offensive spell that just gets better as the mage increases levels. Each missile only does 2-5 damage, but a Level 11 mage casts 6 of them at once. It casts instantly, there's no saving throw, it has a huge range, and hardly anyone is immune to them.

Protection from Evil. Same as the cleric spell of the same name. No way I'm wasting a first-level mage slot on this.

Protection from Good. Just as useless as the analogous cleric spell, even for evil parties. It disappeared from the mage repertoire after Curse.

Read Magic. Serves as an "identify" spell, but only for magic scrolls. I rarely need to identify them so quickly that I can't just wait until the party gets back to town.

Shield. Protects against magic missile, increases armor class, and improves saving throws. This is another one that I've been completely ignoring and probably serves as a decent pre-combat buffing spell.

Shocking Grasp. Does 1-8 damage plus 1 per level of the caster. Thus, after Level 5, it underperforms "Magic Missile." I've never used it because "Magic Missile" casts at a range and you need to be next to the enemy for "Shocking Grasp." I suppose at low levels it might be a good emergency spell for when enemies charge the mage in melee.

Sleep. Puts 1-16 enemies to sleep. It was great in Pool of Radiance, but it only works on low-level enemies. It hasn't worked once for me in Curse. It mysteriously remains in the Secret manual despite being effective on none of the enemies in the game.

"Sleep" was fantastic against low-level monsters in Pool of Radiance

(As an aside, every time I cast either "Sleep" or "Hold," I can't help but think how horrible it would be to be a victim of one of those spells. In the thick of combat, arrows flying, swords singing, and suddenly your limbs or paralyzed, or you feel your self collapse lethargically to the ground. At that point, you know it's just a matter of time before one of your foes comes over to administer the killing blow while you're helpless, and you won't even be able to defend yourself. If magic was real, "Sleep" and "Hold" would be outlawed by the Geneva Convention.)
 

Lots of spells in Level 1, but I generally keep my slots filled with only three of them: "Charm Person," "Enlarge," and "Magic Missile."

Second Level

Detect Invisibility. Does what it says, allowing party members to target invisible creatures (who are normally untargetable). Few enemies have this ability, and it's tough to determine when an enemy is invisible (he still shows up on the screen; you have to notice that the game won't let you target him).

Invisibility. Makes the target invisible, reducing "to hit" rolls of melee attackers by 4 and making it impossible for enemies to target ranged weapons or spells. But as in most games, it disappears when the character makes an attack or casts a spell. I suppose it would be useful when fleeing (which I never do) or perhaps to protect a spellcaster for the first round.

Knock. Opens locks. There have been a few of these in the game, but the thief's picking skill usually does the trick, and "bashing" works when that fails. I often keep one in memory just in case.

Mirror Image. Creates 1-4 duplicates of the caster which disappear when attacked. A useful protective spell, and I keep one in memory to cast before difficult combats.

Ray of Enfeeblement. Makes the target weak to the tune of -25% strength plus -2% per level of the caster (that's -47% at my level). Theoretically valuable against tough melee opponents, but I've been ignoring it, particularly since you have to already be in melee range to cast it.

Stinking Cloud. Creates a 2x2 square of noxious gas. At best (but rarely), it paralyzes targets. At worst, it prevents them from casting spells and increases their armor class. As some commenters have pointed out, aside from its direct benefits, it's useful because monsters won't walk into it, so you can use it to shape the battlefield the way you want. I usually have one or two at hand for that purpose, or to cast on groups of spellcasters.

Strength. Raises strength by 1-8, but only to a maximum of 18(00). (Why this and "Friends," but not spells that increase the other attributes?) Before I found out about "Enlarge," I used it a lot pre-combat to make decent melee fighters out of my weaker character. But "Enlarge" doesn't have the cap, so it performs a lot better. I keep a couple of "Strength" spells memorized only so I don't spend six slots on "Enlarge."

There are fairly useful spells at this level, although I wish there were a couple of directly-offensive ones (when does "Melf's Acid Arrow" appear?). I keep the slots spread between "Mirror Image," "Stinking Cloud," and "Strength."

Third Level

Blink. Protects the magic user by having him "blink out" after he acts each round, making it impossible for anyone to hit or target him. It would be fantastic, especially for those rounds in which the mage goes early, except that there are so many other awesome third-level spells.
 

Dispel Magic. Removes magic effects from one character. Great spell, but I prefer to use the cleric version and save the Level 3 spell slots for other mage spells.

Fireball. Perhaps the most useful spell in the game, or at least the one I like the most. Does 1d6 per damage for every level of the caster, and over an enormous 37-square area indoors. When I face a large group of enemies all bunched together, I get tingles. Enemies often make saving throws for half-damage, but even then it can disrupt every enemy spellcaster and soften them up spectacularly. It never gets old.

An arrangement custom-made for a fireball.

 
Haste. Doubles the movement of the party, including the number of melee attacks per round. The effects are great, but it comes at the high price of aging the party one year every time it's cast. Only worth it for very difficult boss battles.

Hold Person. Same as the cleric spell, but affects 4 targets instead of 3. I prefer to leave this to the clerics.

Invisibility, 10' radius. Same as "Invisibility," but can affect every character if cast at the beginning of combat. It's a good way to start combat right, and to make the party immune to spellcasters who go before the party members. A good use of this spell is to "Delay" all character actions until the end of the round, after every foe has moved (and generally done something ineffective). I suppose you could memorize multiple iterations of the spell and ensure that your mage goes last every round, effectively giving your party unfettered ranged attacks for a few rounds.

Lightning Bolt. Another fantastic spell, vying with "Fireball" for usefulness. It also does 1d6 damage per level, but in a straight line of 4-8 squares (and it will even rebound off walls). It's great for when enemies line up instead of "bunching."

Protection from Evil, 10' Radius. Same as the cleric spell, and since there are so many useful Level 3 mage spells, I prefer to leave this one to the clerics.

Protection from Good, 10' Radius. I can't imagine a greater waste of a Level 3 mage slot.

Protection from Normal Missiles. Makes the caster immune to non-magic missile weapons. These are relatively rare in the game. The spell would perhaps be useful if enemies with missile weapons had better AI and tried to target the mage, but they don't. I can't see spending a slot on it.

Slow. Halves targets' movements and melee attacks. It affects one enemy per level of the caster. It seems like a useful spell that I've generally ignored in favor of "Lightning Bolt" and "Fireball." I should experiment with it more.

As you can see, Level 3 has some spectacular spells. I wish more of these had been available at Level 2 or Level 4. I generally prioritize "Fireball" and "Lightning Bolt" but keep an "Invisibility, 10' Radius" and "Haste" in reserve when I start to get more than 3 or 4 Level 3 slots.

Fourth Level

Charm Monster. Works like "Charm Person" but on any creature. It has a greater chance of success (though still not high) and affects more than one monster. It's always useful to turn an enemy to your side.
 

Confusion. Puts 2-16 targets in a confused state, which sometimes makes them flee, sometimes makes them attack their comrades, and sometimes makes them just stand around. Another spell that I haven't given as much attention to as it deserves. It often fails.

Dimension Door. Teleports the mage from one point on the battlefield to another. I can't think of any reason I'd use this except to escape, and intelligent movement of the mage means you'll never be in a position where it's necessary.

Fear. Causes enemies to flee. That sounds nice in theory, but you actually want to avoid fleeing enemies. At best, you have to chase them down or take them out with missile weapons. At worst, they escape off the screen, and you don't get their experience or items. "Confusion" is a better use of the slot.

Fire Shield. A neat spell that shrouds the mage in either flames or ice. Not only does it protect against attacks of the same kind, but creatures who hit the mage in melee combat receives twice the damage they cause in return. A nice punishing spell, and I like to cast it before battle. I'm not a big fan of enemies who cast it.

Fumble. Affects one target and causes him to just stand around. If it fails, the target still comes under the effects of a "Slow" spell. I guess it could be useful, but at this level we should be way past targeting one enemy at a time. [Later edit: In the comments below, PetrusOctavianus says that it works well against dragons, who have lousy saving throws, making them "forget" to use their breath attacks.]

Ice Storm. 3-30 hit points of damage to a 21-square area, with no saving throw. It's a useful mass-damage spell, but unlike "Fireball" it doesn't increase in damage as the mage increases in level. I like to keep one around for enemies immune to fire damage.

Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Protects the mage against first- through third-level spells. Potentially useful, but I don't often face enough enemy mages that I can't disrupt their spellcasting. Outclassed by "Globe of Invulnerability" later.

Remove Curse. Same as the third-level cleric spell. Since it's rarely needed, I wouldn't waste a mage spell slot on it.

Bestow Curse. Again, same as the third-level cleric spell. It makes a single melee fighter a little weaker and more vulnerable. It seems very weak for a fourth-level mage spell, and it's gone by Secret of the Silver Blades.

For fourth-level spells, I rarely go outside "Charm Monster," "Confusion," "Fire Shield," and "Ice Storm."

Fifth Level

Cloud Kill. Creates a 3x3 area of poison gas in which lower-level enemies instantly die. This is a great spell in the Infinity Engine games because enemies that don't die instantly take damage every round. I remember a few areas in which I had fun opening a door, firing off a "Cloud Kill," slamming the door shut, and watching my foes take continual damage for five or six rounds. The Gold Box version doesn't do damage to enemies it doesn't kill, though, making it much less useful. It also has a miserable casting range of only 2 squares, and it centers where you cast it.

Viola fails to kill an ettin with a "Cloudkill."

Cone of Cold. 2-5 damage per caster level to all targets in a "cone shaped area." I have a really tough time lining up the spell to hit the enemies I want (and none of my allies), but it's the only really sure-thing offensive spell at this level.

Feeblemind. Reduces the intelligence and wisdom of the target to 3, which makes him incapable of casting spells and worsens saving throws. I keep one on hand for boss-level magic users, although I find that they usually save against it.

Hold Monster. Works like "Hold Person" but on any monster, and up to 4 targets per casting. It often fails, but it's fantastic when it works, allowing any character to kill the monster with an immediate coup de grâce.

I tend to load up on "Hold Monster" at this level, perhaps keeping one "Feeblemind" and one "Cone of Cold."

Sixth Level

Death Spell. Immediately kills opponents in adjacent squares to where it's cast. Awesome when it works, but I find that high-level foes almost always save against it.

Disintegrate. Instant kill on one target. Doesn't work on some creatures, but a surprising number of high-level foes will fall to it.

Flesh to Stone. Petrifies enemies who don't make a saving throw. I guess what I need to do is work out whether this works more often than "Disintegrate" or vice versa, as they both have the same effect.

Globe of Invulnerability. Protects against all spells of Level 1-4. I think it's an absolutely essential buffing spell for mages, keeping them from getting disrupted by "Hold Peson," "Fireball," "Lightning Bolt," or "Magic Missile" before they can cast.

Stone to Flesh. Counters the effects of stoning, which happens so often in Secret of the Silver Blades that you need to keep at least one in memory.

Tough choices at this level. Each is useful enough to have one in inventory, but you only get 2 or 3.

Seventh Level

Delayed Blast Fireball. A more powerful version of "Fireball" that defeats globes of invulnerability. The "delay" part doesn't make any sense in the Gold Box engine--in fact, it casts instantly, which "Fireball" doesn't--but otherwise just as awesome as "Fireball."
  

Mass Invisibility. I guess this is useful to avoid having to keep everyone bunched together after casting "Invisibility, 10' Radius." Otherwise duplicates that spell, so I wouldn't waste what could be another "Fireball' on it.

Power Word, Stun. A curiously lame spell for such a high level. It effects only one creature, the caster has to be directly adjacent to the target, and unlike "Hold," stunning just makes the enemy inert; it doesn't freeze him for a coup de grâce like "Hold." The only thing I can think is that enemies need higher saving throws against it? Either way, "Fireball" is the better option.

No question here: every slot goes to "Delayed Blast Fireball."

Druid Spells

Although the Gold Box series doesn't allow a druid class, there are a small selection of druid spells available to rangers.

First Level

Detect Magic. Works the same as the mage and cleric spells. Since druid spells are otherwise less useful than the ranger simply attacking for a round, I have him memorize these exclusively.

Entangle. Keeps a target from moving, which sounds nice, but it only works outdoors, where I rarely fight. Again, I'd just have the ranger attack.

Faerie Fire. Creates a halo around the enemy and reduces armor class by 2. I can't see spending a round on it.

Invisibility to Animals. Does what it says. For those rare battles exclusively with animals (I literally can't think of one in Curse or Secret), you might as well use the regular mage "Invisibility" spell.

Second Level

Barkskin. A decent buffing spell that reduces AC by 1. It certainly doesn't hurt anything.

Charm Person or Mammal. Like the first-level mage spell but affects any mammal. By the time you get it, most foes have strong saving throws and the ranger is such a good attacker, it's hard to see him spending a round on this. But I should experiment more.

Cure Light Wounds. Same as the first-level cleric spell. Useful for an extra couple of castings.

I tend to memorize "Barkskin" and "Cure Light Wounds" exclusively.

Closing Thoughts

A lot of the spells I've tagged as "useless" are largely about micromanaging statistics: increasing hit rolls and saving throws for the party, decreasing them from the enemy, boosting immunity to certain spell types, and so forth. To me, such spells would make more sense if the combats lasted a lot longer, but the battle against the beholder corps aside, I can't think of one that has lasted more than four or five rounds.

I'm perfectly happy to do this tweaking in camp, just before entering a big battle, but not at the expense of a spell slot better used for an offensive spell, and certainly not at the expense of some action while in combat. I'd much rather just take a swing at an enemy, hitting or missing, than to spend a round casting a spell that might increase my chances of hitting by 20% in the next round.

My tactics might change in later games if the enemies themselves change. There was one memorable battle in Dracondrus's tower with a high-level Drow fighter with a very low armor class and over 100 hit points. Even though I was overpowered for the area, many of my attacks swished by him, and he did a good job pounding down my hit points with multiple attacks per round. If there were more battles like this--against small groups of very powerful foes--it might make more sense to me to have my priests and mages dancing in the periphery of combat, casting spells that slightly altered my melee fighters' odds. We'll see if that happens in later games.

I will update and re-post this entry after I experience Secret of the Silver Blades and Champions of Krynn in 1990, and I'll make edits based on comments that you leave below.

Curse of the Azure Bonds: Won!

The endgame began when we returned to the Standing Stone from Dracandros's tower. The hooded figure who had been helpfully pointing us to the bond-holders took off his hood and--without even an exclamation point--revealed himself as Tyranthraxus. He invited us to attend him in Myth Drannor--the ruins of an ancient elven city to which we will regrettably return in 2001--and disappeared.

I just think there should have been an exclamation point after "Tyranthraxus."

Myth Drannor consisted of three 16 x 16 areas:

• A large cemetery with numerous graves and crypts, populated by rakshashas, giant spiders, phase spiders, thri-kreen, and various ghosts of the old inhabitants.
• An area with ruins of buildings, including more rakshashas, hell hounds, and margoyles.
• A temple containing the minions of Tyranthraxus and, ultimately, the Flamed One himself.

Zapping thri-kreen and phase spiders.

The foes were a notch above the ones I'd encountered through most of the game--which of course you'd expect in the final areas. The spiders were capable of poisoning and thus immediately "killing" my characters in melee combat, so we needed to take them out quickly with "Fireball" spells and have a couple of "Neutralize Poison" spells memorized, just in case. The thri-kreen (an insectoid race whose presence in Myth Drannor was a bit of a mystery) were capable of causing paralysis in melee combat. Hell hounds could breath fire, though were curiously also vulnerable to "Fireball" spells.

The rakshasa are all depicted wearing robes and smoking pipes.

I had always thought that "margoyle" was short for "marine gargoyle," so I was surprised to see them here, but a check of the Forgotten Realms wiki says that I'm wrong: they're just stronger gargoyles. They didn't have any special attacks, but they were tough, and they attacked in packs of dozens--often protecting a couple rakshasa, and in the end, Tyranthraxus himself.

The random encounters in the first two areas weren't so bad; once I'd cleared 10 or 12 of them, they stopped coming. What made these areas interesting was the wide variety of special encounters. The rakshashas, masters of trickery, kept luring my party members into ambushes. The first encounter we had upon entering the graveyard was with an "elven spirit" who tricked us into walking into a spider's web, then revealed herself as a rakshasa (the web made it so we could only move 1 move per round, but it didn't stop us from killing the beast).

In retrospect, believing that we could walk into a spider web, say an incantation, and gain strength was a bit stupid.

 
A short while later, I encountered another elven spirit who offered her "blessing." We nearly refused and prepared for combat, but we decided to see what happened, and this one turned out to be legitimate. 

This was a nice reference to my encounter in Dracandros's.

Because I had no way to tell illusions from reality, I just assumed that everyone was telling the truth. With this policy, I was tricked a few times (although always to the trickster's demise) but also had some positive encounters, including a parlay with the rakshasa leader that led to him withdrawing his support from Tyranthraxus.

This "Red Plume" was a rakshasa in disguise, and he led me into an ambush.

But this fallen warrior was legitimate, and he gave me directions to a treasure cache.

There were some cool role-playing options in the graveyard section that led to a nice reward. At several junctures, we found crypts that had been overturned and looted by Tyranthraxus's minions, and we were given the option to continue looting them or to replace the bones.

In all cases, I role-played as a good party and replaced the bones without looting. In reward, the spirits of Myth Drannor give us a fantastic treasure cache that included a long sword+5, a light crossbow +5, and "blessed quarrels" capable of killing rakshasas in one hit. Since rakshasas are immune to magic, have low armor classes, and tend to hang out behind melee cannon fodder, these came in handy when we faced a large group of them.

 

There were some other unexpected allies. At one point, some Knights of Myth Drannor approached and said that they'd cause a diversion to draw off some of Tyranthraxus's troops during the final battle. I'm not sure what we would have faced if we hadn't received their help.

More mysterious was a stranger called "Nameless" who approached us in the ruins and claimed to have a hand in creating the first bonds. He warned us that with the other four masters dead, nothing was stopping Tyranthraxus from "invoking the full power" of our bonds, and he suggested we try to catch him off-guard. I know from my post-game readings that "Nameless" is actually Finder Wyvernspur, a major figure in the "Finder's Stone" trilogy, of which Azure Bonds is the first novel. (Also, Alias told us a little about him in her journal entry.) Seeking to make his music immortal, Wyvernspur created a magic clone of himself, but ended up abusing the clone and turning him evil. In punishment for his offenses, the Harpers exiled him to a plane and wiped all traces of his music and poems from history.

He's lucky I didn't assume he was a rakshasa and kill him.

Centuries later, a sorceress named Cassana found him and offered to help him continue his work, and the result was Alias, the heroine of Azure Bonds. Through the events of the books, Finder ends up redeeming himself, nobly sacrificing his chance at immortality to prevent the return of Moander, and freeing the Saurials (Dragonbait's race) from Moander's slavery. But in doing so, he somehow absorbs some of Moander's divinity and becomes a demi-god. Anyway, all of that (I think) is in the future for Nameless. Right now, he's just an anonymous friend of the adventurers I've been encountering throughout the game: Alias, Dragonbait, Olive Ruskettle, Akabar, and so on.

Things got hairy when we took a sewer passage to the temple and discovered that a) there was no way to get out of the temple once we entered, and b) there was no way to rest in the temple, which meant no healing or spell-memorization. I stopped mapping and concentrated on finding and killing Tyranthraxus as quickly as I could. Fortunately, the Helm of Dragons we had received from Dracandros kept telling us his location.

Not all was right in Tyranthraxus's domain. Aside from the rakshasa deserting him for no better reason than we parlayed "haughtily," his own priest allies were seeking to undermine him...

...and his own high priest turned out to be Nameless in disguise. I determined this in a poorly-written sequence in which we encountered Tyranthraxus, now suddenly a Zeus-looking dude with lightning shooting from his hands:

What happened to your horns? What happened to being called "The Flamed One"?

I guess he possessed the body of a storm giant at some point. Anyway, he invoked our bonds and compelled us to turn over the three artifacts that we'd been assured would help destroy him--the Helm of Dragons, the Amulet of Lathander, and the Gauntlet of Moander--to his high priest. The priest made a show of destroying them in the Pool of Radiance--oh, yeah, that somehow showed up here--but turned out to have stealthily palmed them. Even more stealthily, he hid his beard:

He could have saved time by just not taking them in the first place.

Then, Big T made a mistake worth of a James Bond villain:

Just before Tyranthraxus killed Nameless, Nameless read the phrase on the parchment and partially, but not completely, released our bonds. Either Nameless faked his death here or the authors of the "Finders Stone Trilogy" did some serious retconning to get him in the next two books. Then again, Fzoul, the Zhent high priest of Bane, also died in this game, and he survives for another 20 years in the books.

For no reason I fully understand, Tyranthraxus went charging off...

...the Knights of Myth Drannor did their thing...

...and we chased Tyranthraxus upstairs, and after cutting our way through a few small parties of minions, finally encountered him in a large room at the end of a hall. He tried to invoke the bonds again, but the party threw off the compulsion with sheer will.

Oh, Tyranthraxus...you don't tell people this kind of thing.

Tyranthraxus attacked with a couple dozen margoyles and about 10 high priests. Naturally, we had buffed with "Haste," "Bless," "Prayer," "Enlarge," "Protection from Evil," and other spells before entering the chamber. The big things we had to watch out for were 1) T's lightning attacks, which were capable of 50-60 points of damage and could easily kill one of my characters if it bounced off a wall; and 2) the priests' "Hold Person" spells. My basic strategy was to take out as many priests and margoyles as quickly as possible with "Fireball"; both Cesario and Viola had it memorized, and I gave a wand to Octavianus.

Tyranthraxus and his minions. There are a bunch more margoyles above and to the left of him.

I delayed my fighters until the end of the first round, when a path through the margoyles had been cleared, and sent them after Tyrnathraxus's storm giant form. With "Haste" and "Enlarge" both active, he went down in just a few hits. It was my ranger, Goldeneye, who had recently been gifted with both a long sword +5 and a Girdle of Giant Strength, who struck the killing blow.

I defeated him three times in a row, but the first two times, one or two of my characters were killed, and I wanted to end the game with everyone alive. I recorded my final victorious fight below.

Tyranthraxus already hadn't been batting 1000, but at this point he completely lost all common sense. First, he told us exactly what he was going to do:

"Oh? This pool over here?"

Then, he told a lie so obvious that the game doesn't even bother to give me the option not to destroy the Pool of Radiance:

I'm not entirely sure how I "shattered" a pool. Or was the gauntlet shattered?

Finally, he gave the worst end-game villain speech since Malcolm Trandle's "You beat me?! I am destroyed." in Sentinel Worlds

In his last moments, he became a poet--admittedly, one who needs to work on his meter.

The bonds faded...

Thank god almighty.

...and the Knights of Myth Drannor showed up--nice timing, guys--to take us to a feast in Shadowdale.

I've pondered the endgame for a while, and I'm still not sure what Tyranthraxus was trying to accomplish. The Fire Knives wanted to use me to kill the King of Cormyr. The Cultists of Moander used my bonds to somehow open a portal to bring Moander back into the realms. Dracandros wanted to compel me to attack some dragons and trick them into killing Elminster and ravaging the Dalelands. The Zhentarim bond had something to do with a factional war among the priests of Bane. But Tyranthraxus never seemed to have a plan. The best I could figure is that he was going to use my party members' bodies as backups in case his storm giant form was slain. (He said something in a speech about being able to possess me through the bonds.) But if that was the case, why invite me to his secret lair? Why not just let me go on adventuring until he needs one of us?

Overall, though, it was a fun, action-packed ending. The final battle felt a tad on the easy side (I think Tyranthraxus should have had a lot more hit points), but I liked the ruins of Myth Drannor, and...huh. Something just occurred to me. The reviled 2001 game I referenced previously is called Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. I just assumed it was a tawdry attempt to capitalize on the name of the famous 1988 game. But did this title and subtitle come together because Myth Drannor is where the Pool of Radiance was last transported, thanks to Tyranthraxus? I never got far enough in the game to find out.

I don't expect the GIMLET to look a lot different from Pool of Radiance, but let's see.