Editing Find a Cure

''Objectives and journal entries may vary pending story decisions and outcomes.''

Nettie is within the Inner Sanctum of the Druid Grove, where she is healing an injured bird. After telling Nettie that the party is infected, she asks them to move to a more private room where a dead drow with a tadpole can be found. She explains that she has seen victims with tadpoles and that she and Master Halsin were researching them. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the ability to cure the tadpoles, but she believes Halsin would be the best possible option.

Depending on how the party treats Nettie, she can attempt to poison them and may have to be killed to exit the room. If the party is honest with her, she hands them [[Wyvern Poison]] and lets them promise to drink it if they transform. The party can only leave peacefully if they agree.

Speaking to Gut, the player character can allow her to commune with their tadpole, using her own. She is surprised and asks them to follow her to her private room. Gut realizes the player character was kidnapped aboard a mind flayer ship and infected, by searching through their memories. She claims that she can cure them, but actually offers a sleeping potion. If the player character isn't resistant to sleeping potions - like for example elves - and drinks it, they wake up chained up in the Defiled Temple's prison cell. Gut arrives and says that she plans to make them her 'squiddy pet.' If the player character fails to break free, they are rescued by [[Korrilla]], who kills Gut and her ogre servant, [[Polma]].

Auntie Ethel can first be found in [[The Hollow]] where she sells lotions and potions. If the party speaks to her, she says they don't look well and asks what's the matter. The party can be honest about their tadpole infection, to which she says she can help, but she doesn't have the tools in the Grove. She tells the party to meet her at her teahouse in the [[Sunlit Wetlands]] and she'll help them out. Ethel can also be met on the path to the Sunlit Wetlands, south of the [[Blighted Village]], where she is arguing with two men.

Once at Ethel's [[Riverside Teahouse]], she reveals herself to be a hag. She says she's removed tadpoles before and can do it again for one of the player's 'pretty little peepers.' If the bargain is taken, the permanent debuff [[Paid the Price (Condition)|Paid the Price]] is added to the player character in question. Ethel is not able to fulfill her part of the bargain because the tadpoles are enchanted by Netherese magic. If the party attempts to argue with her, she says that they never told her about the magic and she held up her part of the bargain.

Halsin can be found in the [[Worg Pens]] of the Goblin Camp, where he is wild-shaped as a Cave Bear. A group of goblin children are throwing rocks at him. The party can intervene, which results in a fight. After this, Halsin can be spoken to and explains what he knows about the tadpoles. He doesn't have the power to cure them, but he has been extensively researching them and knows they are tied to the cult of [[The Absolute]]. He's been tracking the cult's movements and knows they are headed towards [[Moonrise Towers]], which he advises as the party's next destination.

In the myconid settlement in the [[Underdark]] the party can come across a friendly mind flayer named [[Omeluum]] by speaking with his partner, [[Blurg]] at [[Ebonlake Grotto]]. If the party tells Blurg that they're infected with a tadpole, he calls for Omeluum as someone with expertise on the subject. Omeluum is surprised that the party hasn't transformed yet and suggests that he might commune with their tadpoles. He tells them he can make a concoction of [[Tongue of Madness|Tongues of Madness]] and [[Timmask Spores (Ingredient)|Timmask Spores]] to connect to them. These rare ingredients can be found in the [[Arcane Tower]] to the south. If the party brings back the ingredients and performs the procedure, the tadpole only gets stronger. Still seeking to aid the party, he offers to trade them for a rare [[Ring of Mind-Shielding]], which he and others of his kind had been using to evade the [[Elder Brain]].

The party ultimately has to [[Travel to Moonrise Towers]] - either through the [[Travel through the Underdark|Underdark]] or through the [[Travel through the Mountain Pass|Mountain Pass]], to learn more about the Cult of the Absolute in hopes of curing the tadpoles. This leads to the conclusion that the cult must be defeated in order to have any hope of destroying the tadpoles - not just for the party, but for all of the infected.