Curse of Scotland excluded, making the 7, later called the "beer card", a "stop") but there is no direct relation with the 9. Gomme's book goes on to claim "At the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds is Pope; therefore the nine of diamonds is the curse of Scotland". "The Spectator" review considered the claim "more cogent in form than in matter". A letter written in response to "The Spectator's" book review pointed out that the saying was established well before Culloden, and preferred the Pope Joan theory to other explanations. Other explanations given in the letter were: An 1864 book
Curse of the Azure Bonds at the beginning of the game. SSI received criticism for this decision, and had to come up with new solutions to balance play in future games. According to GameSpy, ""Azure Bonds" was a more than worthy addition to the series, and was, in many ways, superior to its prequel". Curse of the Azure Bonds Curse of the Azure Bonds is a role-playing video game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc (SSI) in 1989. It is the second in a four-part series of Forgotten Realms "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" Gold Box adventure computer games, continuing the events after the first