Tadpoling Centre

Tadpoling Centre, with Neural Apparatus, full and empty pods seen

Tadpoling Centre is a room within the Mind Flayer Colony under Moonrise Towers, where captives of the Cult of the Absolute deemed worthy of further 'usage' are kept, tadpoled and sometimes turned into mind flayers. It can be reached (as the rest of the colony) only within Act Two of the game and only after initial fight with Ketheric Thorm.

Description

How to find

After descending into the colony and destroying fleshy membrane at the entrance, the party should go along the corridor. The Tadpoling Centre will be the first turn to the left, fenced off by Flesh-Wrought Door.

What's inside

The Tadpoling Centre is a round room with four detached fleshy pillars and ten Mind Flayer Pods along the walls (five to each side). Some are empty, some contain newly created mind flayers, but some keep NPCs that the party has already met in the game (see below). The room is 'maintained' by several Intellect Devourers that run along back and forth the room and corridors.

Under each pod there is an active 'button', glowing either red (empty pod) or cyan (occupied pod). Interacting with cyan buttons will bring forth a Narrator line that briefly describe the person that is (or was) inside.

To the right of the entrance:

• Empty pod
• Mind flayer
• Empty pod
• Zevlor
• Mind flayer

To the left of the entrance:

• Empty pod (it, however, still preserves some scraps of Duke Ravengard's personality)
• Mind flayer
• Manip Shuurga
• Mind flayer
• Gauntlet Yeva

Across the entrance is the corridor (leading to the room with larvae brine pools). To the right side of it stands Neural Apparatus that controls all the pods in the room. Interacting with it enacts a dialogue, where the party will be prompted to decide the fate of all those who is still alive within the pods: either to release them, to kill them all (purge the pods) or to leave as they were (this allows to start the dialogue anew later).

Choosing any will result in gaining Approval or Disapproval from different party members (f.e., releasing captives is approved by Shadowheart or Karlach and disapproved by Astarion, Minthara or Lae'zel).

The pods cannot be operated separately, so either all pod inhabitants who are still alive must be killed or freed at once. A battle starts if the inhabitants are freed because all four released mind flayers instantaneously turn hostile and attack. However, the other NPCs that stayed within the pods intact and were freed become temporary allies and fight along the party. Intellect Devourers running around join the battle, too, siding with the mind flayers.

Zevlor and the other survivors can potentially turn hostile if they take damage from the party, even unintentionally.

After the battle

After resolving the battle the party can speak with the allies who survived.

• Gauntlet Yeva will tell that Duke Ravengard was taken from his pod not very long before, still human and able to resist the convoy guards.
• Manip Shuurga will just lament herself being unable to help the Duke.
• Talking to Zevlor will reveal what actually happened to him when the refugees' caravan had been attacked by cultists upon entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands. This dialogue ends the quest Find Zevlor. After that, Zevlor says he is going to gather whoever he can around the colony and guide them out to safety. If the party convince the former Hellrider that he still might be worthy, Zevlor will be available in Act Three as an aidee in the final battle through the Gather Your Allies quest.

Brine pools room

Behind the Tadpoling Centre is another room with a cascade of several brine pools alike the one that the party had already seen on the nautiloid. These are empty of larvae, and this fact will discompose and bemuse the Dream Guardian. However, interacting with the most left brine pool gives a chance to catch one last Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen (requires a DC 16 Perception check).

In this room stand two more detached Mind Flayer Pods, one of which contains captured Mizora inside (Rescue Zariel's Asset). This is the point when the party can start helping Wyll (if he was recruited and still alive) to break his Warlock pact - in order to do this, passing DC 16 Intimidation check while speaking with Mizora is necessary.

Her pod has its own controlling panel with two switches marked by illithid symbols that must first be deciphered by an ( DC 10 Arcana check). One frees the cambion, while another annihilates her. Killing Mizora in the pod will instantly kill Wyll, too. Also it is possible to smash the pod open (requires DC 14 Strength check).

In this room there is also a book that partially reveals the peculiarities of the tadpoled condition.

Notes

In Act Three, when the Emperor recalls discovering the colony under Moonrise Towers and being captured, his memories do not contain pictures of Tadpoling Centre. It remembers his human form simply tied to a chair when being infected with a tadpole.