Eye of the Beholder 2 Walkthrough - The Azure Tower, Level 2
By Daniel D'Agostino, 2011-10-22 / EOB2 Walkthrough / EOB2 Info
Sources of Magic
As you start walking from the stairs from Level 1, a plaque immediately advises you to "disperse the magic". On each side of the next room is a statue. While standing on the pressure plate in front either of the statues, cast Dispel Magic. This spell is available to both clerics and mages, and you should also have a wand of Dispel Magic at this point.
You need to cast the spell three times to achieve the following effects:
- The wall behind you disappears.
- The wall next to it disappears, opening up the passage.
- Another passage slightly further on opens, leading to Alain (more on this in a minute).
Walking onwards, take the left passage (available only if you cast Dispel Magic a third time) to reach Alain. The character who touches him will immediately level up (I recommend having a mage do this), so this gives you some free and easy experience.
Make your way back, and this time follow the passage heading to the east from the Dispel Magic room. Here you should have your first encounter with a bulette, which is a mean beast capable of doing about 75 points of damage with one bite.
Heart, Body and Soul
This area is inhabited by basilisks, who have the power to petrify party members. Should this happen, you need to use magic dust to restore them. If you have a level 12 mage (which is very unlikely), you can alternatively cast Stone To Flesh.
On the north side of this area are two doors. One is closed and has no visible means of opening it. The other leads to a small room with a plaque about the "heart, body and soul" and an ornament with three gem sockets. You need to find three gems in this area and place them in this ornament to open the other door.
The passage to the east will take you across moving pits to more basilisks and the soul gem. The west passage has an illusionary north wall leading to the body gem, and the teleporters lead to the heart gem.
Fireball Land
After placing the three gems in the ornament, the other north door will open. Proceed, taking the left fork. Notice the locked door requiring a crystal key, which you can optionally come back to later. Finally, reach a room with a row of pits which you cannot cross.
The button on the wall will summon a basilisk, which will move around and eventually step on a pressure plate on the other side of the pits, closing the one closest to the passage you came from. Cross quickly and take out the basilisk, and proceed through the door.
Now you enter an area full of pressure plates that trigger fireballs that hurt a lot. Make your way south, avoiding the fireballs as you can. While heading south, pull the first two levers to open the door to the south, and step on the pressure plate near the door. While this closes the pit, it also triggers a fireball to be shot at you.
Through the south door, a bulette steps on a pressure plate, triggering an inevitable fireball. Kill it and help yourself to a shell key and a mage scroll of improved invisibility.
The area to the east has a different setup of pressure plates that trigger fireballs at other locations in the area. The bulettes that inhabit this place may thus step on a pressure plate far from you and remotely nuke you. Despite this, don't miss the crimson key to the south, and the polished shield to the north.
The Challenge
Use the shell key to go through the door to the southeast. The mouth will invite you to a challenge against some unknown creature, by stepping through the teleporter, but only after leaving your spellbooks and holy symbols behind at the south alcove. If you don't do this, you are accused of cheating and are teleported to a small room where you are surrounded by three bulettes and must kill them all before leaving. Doing this repeatedly is actually a good source of experience points.
When you do leave your magic items behind, the teleporter leads to a different room where you must face four bulettes openly. Note that it is possible to wield magic anyway by having your spell list open when you drop your spellbook. The bulettes here will let you strike first; take them all down and proceed through the illusionary wall on the north wall. A plaque invites you on, as the bulettes were only a small part of the challenge.
Through the next teleporter, you reach the Wall of Souls, and a plaque tells you about it: each time you hit it, your whole party takes damage. Have your party rest (which takes ages without cleric spells, but still works), and then attack the Wall of Souls repeatedly until it breaks. Rest again before proceeding.
Finally, you meet the host of the challenge. He is a cross between several beasts, is not listed in the manual, and is quite easy to kill. You now get the Eye of Talon and can proceed through an illusionary north wall.
The teleporter takes you to a new room where you get back all your spellbooks and holy symbols, and also acquire another polished shield. A plaque congratulates you on your victory, and a final illusionary wall to the west takes you back to the row of pits.
The Amulet of Life
Make your way to the southeast, to the area with the plaque that warns you about "The Sentry" - a bulette that blocks the entrance to the next room, and that you can take down at a distance since it will attack only if you approach it. Upon death it drops a crystal key.
Before proceeding in the Sentry area, you can optionally take a brief trip back to the locked door near the room with the row of pits and use the crystal key to get through it.
There are some transparent walls in this new area that bar access to the Amulet of Life that is behind them. By pulling the levers in a particular combination and pressing the button on the opposite wall, the configuration of transparent walls changes, allowing access to the Amulet.
The Amulet of Life has the power to resurrect a dead party member, and can be used by anyone. Thus it is useful if you lost your cleric(s) and have no way to cast Raise Dead. Naturally, an alternative is using the ankh symbol near the entrance to Darkmoon.
There is nothing of interest beyond the east door.
The Sentry Area
Back at the Sentry area, a new puzzle involving pressure plates bars your way. Each time you step on a pressure plate, the wall moves to block your path. The trick is to stand on a pressure plate on one side of the room and throw an object at the other side, so the wall moves away from you.
Put the Eye of the Talon in the hole in the wall to open the door, and then take the Eye back. The pressure plate ahead will summon three bulettes to attack you, so step back and kill them one by one. The stairs to the east lead to Level 3.