This guide will help you navigate Hap in Curse of the Azure Bonds.
Hap Map
Area Note
When you enter Hap, you’ll find that it is “strangely quiet.” You’ll understand why as you begin to explore, because you’ll start to run into drow patrols. It appears the drow have taken over the town, and the town’s citizens are in hiding.
Note: If you want to avoid combat with the drow patrols, “advance” until you can “parlay,” and then be “meek” to them. They’ll leave you be.
The immediate source of the problem can be found in the barn (#5). There you’ll face an efreeti and some of his dark elf minions. From what we can tell, the more dark elf patrols you defeat in the city, the fewer helpers the efreeti will have, so don’t rush right in to face him. You might also want to stop off at the inn (#2) or the Temple of Sune (#4) to pick up Akabar Bel Akash. He’s a magic user who will join your party for the fight against the efreeti.
After you’ve defeated the efreeti, the town will return to normal, although there won’t much to do here.
1 – Starting Point
This is where you’ll start in the city.
2 – Inn
3 – General Store
You can buy silver mirrors and flasks of oil here.
4 – Temple of Sune
5 – Barn
You’ll face an efreeti and some dark elf minions here. The more dark elf patrols you kill in the city, the fewer minions there will be helping the efreeti, and so you should do some fighting in the city before coming here. However, it looks as though you’ll have to face at least four minions no matter what.
Oddly, the dark elf clerics and mages are way more dangerous than the efreeti, so focus on them first. Once the battle is over, you’ll find a map showing the way to the Dracolich Cave, and the people of the town will tell you that the only way to stop the dark elf menace is to raid the nearby Wizard’s Tower.
When you exit the city, you’ll be able to follow the map to the Dracolich Cave, and you’ll be able to reach the Wizard’s Tower through the cave.
6 – Entrance to the Dracolich Cave
You’ll face many patrols in the cave, and some will include salamanders. Salamanders can only be hit by spells and by magical weapons. However, if they’re helpless, then any attack will kill them outright. So the first time you see them, try your luck with spells like “stinking cloud,” and let your characters with magical weapons take the forefront. In subsequent battles, you can use drow weapons against them (drow long swords are essentially long swords +3).
Note: Drow equipment will decay when it is exposed to sunlight, but it is perfectly safe to use while in the cave.
7 – Arrow
If you “look” you’ll see an arrow pointing west.
8 – Arrow
If you “look” you’ll see an arrow pointing south.
9 – Escort
Four female dark elves will step out of the shadows here and offer to escort you to their commander (#10). No matter what you do, you’ll still be able to meet the commander (choosing “attack” will just cause them to flee).
10 – Silk
If you have a female character in your party, Silk will tell you about her group the Swanmays, and she’ll ask you to infiltrate the Wizard’s Tower to acquire a piece of a black dragon’s heart or at least to drive the dragons out of the tower (journal entry 44). If you accept, then one of your female characters will be marked as a Swanmay, and you’ll then be able to avoid some of the dark elf patrols.
If you don’t have a female character, then Silk will simply tell you to come back to her when you do.
11 – Fighter Barracks
The good news is that you’ll only face dark elf fighters here. The bad news is that you’ll face a dozen of them. If your party is high enough level, then you might be able to just go toe-to-toe with the fighters and be fine. Otherwise, you’re going to need to cast as many “stinking cloud” and “hold person” spells as possible, and hope that the spells disable enough fighters so that you can survive the battle.
You won’t get any special reward for defeating the dark elf fighters, so feel free to skip this battle if you have problems with it.
12 – Salamander Chamber
When you approach the chamber, the salamanders will come out to talk with you. If you’re “sly” with them, then they’ll leave you be, and you’ll be able to explore the chamber at your leisure. Any other response and you’ll have to fight the salamanders. The battle is only worth about 18,000 total experience, and the salamanders won’t drop anything, so don’t feel obligated to fight.
After the salamanders are gone, one way or the other, you’ll be able to loot six fireproof casks. Each time you loot a cask, the character doing the looting will take some damage (and might not be able to loot the cask at all), so spread the looting around if you need to. Inside the casks you’ll find a scroll of protection from dragon breath, gauntlets of dexterity, a magic user scroll, a scroll of protection from paralyzation, a long sword +2 dragon slayer, a pale blue ioun stone (+1 strength), a mace +3, a two-handed sword +2, and a bo stick +1.
13 – Cleric Barracks
When you enter the barracks, the clerics inside will ask you to leave. If you don’t, then you’ll have to face a dozen dark elf clerics, which is a recipe for death unless you have a way to counteract the “hold person” spell (such as the “minor globe of invulnerability” spell).
14 – Anhkheg Battle
When you arrive here, a pair of dark elf fighters will claim that “you have violated our precinct,” and then they’ll attack, along with five anhkhegs.
15 – Magic User Barracks
This is just like the other two barracks, but with magic users instead. Since there isn’t any way to disrupt a dozen dark elf magic users, you’re guaranteed to be inundated with “lightning bolt” and “stinking cloud” spells, and most parties probably won’t have any way to survive. So, like with the cleric barracks (#13), your best option is to skip the fight.
The dark elves will collapse the passage before you can arrive, preventing you from reaching their city.
18 – Battle
Here you’ll face three salamanders, three dark elf fighters, and a dark elf cleric. Once the battle is over, a voice in your head will say, “Great danger lies before you! Be fully prepared!”
19 – Crimdrac the Dracolich
If you surrender to Crimdrac, he’ll escort you to the Wizard’s Tower (Exit C), and you won’t lose any money or anything. “It pleasssesss me to let you live.” If you try to fight Crimdrac, then you’re probably going to have a tough time. He has a -6 AC, meaning your fighters will have a difficult time hitting him, and his breath attacks will do 30-60 damage, meaning your spellcasters will probably get killed. But if you can manage the fight, you’ll earn about 50,000 total experience, and you’ll find some money and jewels on his corpse.
20 – Silk
After you’ve visited the Wizard’s Tower, this is where you can meet Silk if you agreed to acquire dragon parts for her. We only picked up the dragon egg in our game, and for that we received about 50,000 total experience, 5000 platinum pieces, 15 gems, and 10 jewelry. If you were able to kill the dragons on the tower roof, then it’s quite possible that you’ll earn more here.
Exits:
A: Path to the Wilderness.
B: Exit from the Dracolich Cave.
C: Stairs to the Wizard’s Tower.
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Val Hull
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
