Curse of the Azure Bonds (PC-98)

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Description

Outside of the town of Tilverton, the party of heroes has been ambushed, captured and cursed with five azure markings called "bonds". These bonds have dangerous magical powers that can take control of the heroes at the most inopportune times. They must now search for the source of the bonds, and free themselves from the curse.

The second in the Gold Box series of role-playing games, Curse of the Azure Bonds is a sequel to Pool of Radiance. The gameplay is nearly identical to that of the predecessor and other Gold Box games. Following the AD&D rules of role-playing, the player creates a party of characters (up to the maximum of six). Two new character classes (Paladin and Ranger) are added to the four basic AD&D classes Fighter, Thief, Mage, and Cleric, which were available in Pool of Radiance. Exploration takes place in pseudo-3D environments, from first-person view. Battles (random as well as pre-set) take the player-controlled and enemy party to a top-down battle screen. Commands are issued in turn-based fashion, and the player-controlled characters can freely navigate the battle field. There is also an overview "world map" that allows instant traveling between cities.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "Curse of the Azure Bonds - A Forgotten Realms™ Fantasy Role-Playing Epic, Vol. II" -- Tag-lined title
• "カース・オブ・アジュア・ボンド" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting: Forgotten Realms
• Dungeons & Dragons (D&D / AD&D) licensees
• Fantasy Creatures: Dragons
• Fantasy Creatures: Dwarves
• Fantasy Creatures: Elves
• Fantasy Creatures: Trolls
• Gameplay feature: Character development - Automatic leveling
• Gameplay feature: Importable characters
• Games with code-wheel copy protection
• Gold Box series
• Inspiration: Literature
• Pool of Radiance series

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Trivia

Cover art

The game box's cover features a painting by artist Clyde Caldwell, entitled Azure Bonds, earlier used as the front cover to the 1988 novel of the same name and the 1989 RPG module Curse of the Azure Bonds (FRC2).

Inspiration

This game is based on the bestselling book of the same name from TSR (1988). Many of the Non-Player Characters (NPCs) that may join your party in the adventure are originally from the said novel written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb.

The three NPCs that may join your cause are:

• Alias, a female human fighter - which can be seen in the front cover of both the box and the book. She's the main character of the novel, also cursed by the strange Azure Bonds.
• Dragonbait, a male Sauron Paladin standing beside Alias, both in the front cover of the box and the book. He's practically her bodyguard also cursed by the strange Azure Bonds. He communicates by omitting smells - which may seem puzzling in the game if you haven't read the novel.
• Last but not least, Akabar, the merchant-mage. A human merchant turned hero-mage.

Alias and Dragonbait will join you together but only in a limited area, which also goes for Akabar in another place.

Other main characters like the Nameless One and the Halfing Bard do not join you as NPCs, but are still seen in the game.

Remake

The entire game has been recreated as a Neverwinter Nights' module by Sarion the Wise. You can find links to modules archives through the related links.

Silver Swan cult

If you have a female character in your group, in the game she can join the Drow's Silver Swan cult.
If you use that character in the sequel: the Secret of the Silver Blades, that character will still be recognized as a Silver Swan member.

Awards

• Power Play
  • Issue 01/1990 - Best Role Playing Game in 1989

Information also contributed by Indra was here, Pseudo_Intellectual, and Sciere.

Related Web Sites

• AtariMania (German release) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• AtariMania (US Gold, Finland and UK releases) (For Atari ST: game entry database; downloadable release; game packaging; advertisement; manuals; magazine reviews; additional material.)
• Commodore 64 Boxed Sets (For C64: high quality game packaging digitalisations. Include box, manual, brochure, additional material.)
• Curse of the Azure Bonds: FAQs & Guides (A collection of various walkthroughs and fact files on GameFaqs.com)
• DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS (Statistics page of compatibility with original DOS version.)
• Hall of Light (For Amiga: game database entry; digitalised manuals; game packaging; screenshots; additional material.)
• Lemon 64 (For C64: game entry database; advertisement; magazine reviews; music; documentation; cover art; additional material.)
• Lemon Amiga (For Amiga: game database entry; magazine reviews; music; manual; additional material.)
• Macintosh Garden, an abandonware games archive (For Macintosh: reviews; game packaging; downloadable releases; manual; screenshots; additional material.)
• Replacementdocs (C64, Quick Reference Card) (Documentation for Commodore 64.)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Adventurers Journal) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Cluebook) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Code Wheel) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Manual) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Replacementdocs (PC, Quick Reference Card) (Documentation for DOS/Windows.)
• Walkthrough (Complete Walkthrough for Curse of the Azure Bonds)
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Encyclopaedic entry for combined platforms.)