Oxam's Tower - Curse of the Azure Bonds

This guide will help you navigate Oxam’s Tower in Curse of the Azure Bonds.

Oxam’s Tower Map

Area Note

Unlike the other optional areas in the game, Oxam’s Tower has fixed battles, and you’ll need to explore to find them. Some of the battles are very difficult, so you should wait a while before coming here.

The tower rooms and the dungeon are colored in light gray. The caverns are in a darker gray. This is just to make the divisions easier to see.

1 – Sitting Room

If you “search” in here you’ll find a random treasure.

2 – Minotaurs

You’ll be attacked by several minotaurs here. On their bodies you can find plate mail +1 and battle axes +1.

3 – Treasure

If you “search” in this room you’ll find a random treasure.

4 – Stairs to the Top of the Tower

There are five more levels to the tower, but they are small and relatively uninteresting. The main attraction is at the top, where you’ll face a high priest of Bane, plus some otyughs and a few Zhentil fighters. If you cast “silence” on the priest, then this is a very easy battle. Once it is over, you’ll find plate mail +2, plus some random treasures.

5 – Entrance to the Dungeon

6 – Medusas

You’ll face three medusas here, along with several gryphons. Obviously, concentrate on the medusas first since they are the nastier of the two. You’ll receive a random treasure from the encounter.

7 – Arrow Trap

8 – One-way Teleporter

The teleporter will take you back to the entrance of the tower.

9 – Fighter Battle

You’ll be attacked by about 15 Zhentil fighters here.

10 – Otyugh Battle

You’ll have to fight a trio of otyughs here.

11 – Battle

You’ll face a medusa and some ogres and gryphons here.

12 – Gas Spore

The gas spore looks like a beholder, but if you “attack” it, it will explode, damaging your party. If you “leave” it instead, nothing will happen.

13 – Entrance to the Caverns

You’ll meet a man here who will tell you, “The Beholder Corps is… Gaak!” Then a large round shape will disappear into the darkness. If you haven’t saved for a while, now would a good time to do so.

14 – Beholder

The beholder will tell you that you’re not invited to the conference going on, and he’ll allow you to leave peaceably. But if you want to visit the rooms to the west, you’ll have top fight him. Beholders can’t be hit by spells, so you’ll have to rush him with your melee fighters.

15 – Dark Elf Lord

On the lord’s corpse, you’ll find an invitation to the conference. You should also find some random treasures.

16 – Guards

The guards will “cower back” at your approach, but if you “attack” them they’ll turn out to be rakshasas. If you instead “leave,” then you’ll appear back in the hallway, but the rakshasas will disappear.

Rakshasas can’t be hit by spells, but they won’t have any problems pegging you with “lightning bolts” and spells of their own. The best way to deal with them (if you want to deal with them at all) is to buff up before the fight and then hope your melee fighters kill them quickly. You’ll find an invitation to the conference on the corpses of the rakshasas.

17 – Beholders

You’ll face thee beholders here. If you can kill them without having anybody disintegrated (which takes some luck), then you’ll earn about 60,000 total experience, and you’ll find a list indicating that rakshasas and dark elves are attending the conference, but that efreet, vampires, and liches all declined to come.

18 – Conference

You’ll stumble into a conference discussing “the fate of adventurers,” and you’ll be given two options: “flee in panic” or “throw caution to the wind.” There is absolutely no way to win the battle unless you have the dust of disappearance from the Fire Knives Hideout. Among other things, there are 15 beholders involved. So if you don’t have the dust, flee and just skip this battle.

If you have the dust, then if you use it before the battle starts, it will prevent enemies from casting spells on you, and it will only allow enemies to use melee attacks against you if you’re adjacent to them. With that sort of advantage, you should be able to work your way through the enemies, and earn a whopping 76,508 experience for each character in your party. You’ll find random treasures after the battle.