A choice between a squid and a hammer [END GAME SPOILERS]

[Mojo's Bizarre Adventure]

So I've done pretty much everything in this playthrough except free orpheus. I even have the hammer. Is there a way to free him without betraying the Emperor? I'd like to complete Laezel's quest, but I also want to be mind flayer buddies with Emperor. The obvious answer would be to just wait until AFTER the elder brain is defeated before freeing Orpheus, but that doesn't seem to be an option... for some reason.

[Husker_85]

Sexy squid daddy vs. angry toad lady

[Lani]

Nope, those are your options. Eat your cake, or keep it.
Sadly, neither side has faith in Gale blowing himself up either, which paradoxically is my preferred ending.

[Mojo's Bizarre Adventure]

Originally posted by Lani:

Nope, those are your options. Eat your cake, or keep it.
Sadly, neither side has faith in Gale blowing himself up either, which paradoxically is my preferred ending.

damn that sucks. I still don't get why we can't just agree to free Orpheus after the elder brain is dead. that seems stupidly obvious

[Husker_85]

I feel bad for my Lae'zel. Learned that she'd been lied to her entire life and that the guy she thought was a villain is actually a hero. Then had to watch me be like
"Yeah, this guy is my companion's savior but you can eat his brain I guess. It's whatevs."

[Aegix Drakan]

Originally posted by Mojo's Bizarre Adventure:

Originally posted by Lani:

Nope, those are your options. Eat your cake, or keep it.
Sadly, neither side has faith in Gale blowing himself up either, which paradoxically is my preferred ending.

damn that sucks. I still don't get why we can't just agree to free Orpheus after the elder brain is dead. that seems stupidly obvious

Yeah that's my current dillemma.

The fact that the Emperor isn't proposing that as an alternative option is making me lean more towards using the hammer than not.

I'm likely going to make that the last thing I do before going for the final boss.

[Toaster Maximus]

Originally posted by Isaac_Clark:

Sexy squid daddy vs. angry toad lady

That is about right.

[Lani]

Originally posted by Mojo's Bizarre Adventure:

Originally posted by Lani:

Nope, those are your options. Eat your cake, or keep it.
Sadly, neither side has faith in Gale blowing himself up either, which paradoxically is my preferred ending.

damn that sucks. I still don't get why we can't just agree to free Orpheus after the elder brain is dead. that seems stupidly obvious

See it as one of many loose threads in this game's story. Not every post climax thread gets tied of anymore in this age of 3 acts rather than 5. Read Lord of the Rings for a 'wrapping things up properly' act 5.
It could've been an interesting epilogue for Lae'Zell where she goes of with the Githyanki to free him afterwards. Hmm, isn't that actually one of her possible endings? So maybe it gets tied off afterall.

As to agreeing with the Emperor to free Orpheus later: Orpheus is his sworn mortal enemy. He's under no circumstances going to agree to any "Let's free this person whose Life Goal is to exterminate all Mindflayers after we defeat the Netherbrain" deal you suggest. This may require some Githyanki lore to realsie but they really, really hate Mindflayers, with reason.

[Knight Hospitaller]

I was TORN at that moment, because Lae'Zell was my main Fighter and I thought any option besides freeing Orpheus would make her leave the party (aside from all the problem with gettin the hammer by contract, then later invading the House of Hope to destroy the contract). So you can imagine my face when I was asked who would become Ghaik, and I TORN AGAIN because my Tav was Shadowheart and I didn't wanted her to lose that pretty face, I wanted her to guide the followers of Shar (yes, I chose THAT option in Act 2, instead of the "good" one) as a Dark Justiciar and new Mother Superior. So, Orpheus became Ghaik in my first playthrough.

Now I'm in my second playthrough, and my main Barbarian is Karlach, so when the time comes, bye bye Orpheus.

[Malicite]

Originally posted by Lani:

Originally posted by Mojo's Bizarre Adventure:

damn that sucks. I still don't get why we can't just agree to free Orpheus after the elder brain is dead. that seems stupidly obvious

See it as one of many loose threads in this game's story. Not every post climax thread gets tied of anymore in this age of 3 acts rather than 5. Read Lord of the Rings for a 'wrapping things up properly' act 5.
It could've been an interesting epilogue for Lae'Zell where she goes of with the Githyanki to free him afterwards. Hmm, isn't that actually one of her possible endings? So maybe it gets tied off afterall.

As to agreeing with the Emperor to free Orpheus later: Orpheus is his sworn mortal enemy. He's under no circumstances going to agree to any "Let's free this person whose Life Goal is to exterminate all Mindflayers after we defeat the Netherbrain" deal you suggest. This may require some Githyanki lore to realsie but they really, really hate Mindflayers, with reason.

I feel you on hating mindflayers. I just got to the beginning of Act 3 (Where you have to enter the astral realm) and the emperor (who is no longer the "dream visitor" which is just revealed to me) is asking me to help him kill the Githyanki.

lol Needless to say, I killed the emperor/dream visitor/ mindflayer and got myself a game over. It was a wtf moment for me. If I want to continue going carrying on with Act 3, I have to help a mindflayer and attack the githyanki who are trying to exterminate the mindflayers. I kinda have no enthusiasm for the game anymore.

[Mister Sir]

Originally posted by Mojo's Bizarre Adventure:

Originally posted by Lani:

Nope, those are your options. Eat your cake, or keep it.
Sadly, neither side has faith in Gale blowing himself up either, which paradoxically is my preferred ending.

damn that sucks. I still don't get why we can't just agree to free Orpheus after the elder brain is dead. that seems stupidly obvious

The reason for it is cause emperor is not a good guy. He is the mindflayer that infected you all in the opening cut scene. He constantly presses you to become full mind flayer or at least embrace it more. He lied about his past more than once and mind controlled people in the past. He can't even fully keep the pretense of care and having feelings as in certain conversations he outright just states "oh yeah, I presented myself like that for you cause I thought it will make you do what I want more" and he says that ♥♥♥♥ without even ability to understand how it's a huge red flag, instead he treats it like a fact and still going "but I still care and stuff! Even when I killed my friend dragon, I did not feel it but I still experienced regret." He is truly alien and wants to overtake absolute if you let him. He does not want to just free orpheus right away or ever because he rather eat him.

[Toaster Maximus]

Originally posted by Mister Sir:

Originally posted by Mojo's Bizarre Adventure:

damn that sucks. I still don't get why we can't just agree to free Orpheus after the elder brain is dead. that seems stupidly obvious

The reason for it is cause emperor is not a good guy. He is the mindflayer that infected you all in the opening cut scene. He constantly presses you to become full mind flayer or at least embrace it more. He lied about his past more than once and mind controlled people in the past. He can't even fully keep the pretense of care and having feelings as in certain conversations he outright just states "oh yeah, I presented myself like that for you cause I thought it will make you do what I want more" and he says that ♥♥♥♥ without even ability to understand how it's a huge red flag, instead he treats it like a fact and still going "but I still care and stuff! Even when I killed my friend dragon, I did not feel it but I still experienced regret." He is truly alien and wants to overtake absolute if you let him. He does not want to just free orpheus right away or ever because he rather eat him.

Tentacle sex so all is good

But yeah no real good guys best just to take over things yourself or in bhaals name, clean wipe of he world

[parent child bowl]

Originally posted by Malicite:

I have to help a mindflayer and attack the githyanki who are trying to exterminate the mindflayers. I kinda have no enthusiasm for the game anymore.

The Githyanki aren't better than the mindflayers. They are a massive threat to the multiverse and you don't want them to exterminate the mindflayers because the existence of the mindflayers is what's keeping them from conquering and dominating the multiverse. You need them bot to keep each other busy and you need Vlaakith to keep the Githyanki weak. Orpheus needs to die.

[Toaster Maximus]

Originally posted by parent child bowl:

Originally posted by Malicite:

I have to help a mindflayer and attack the githyanki who are trying to exterminate the mindflayers. I kinda have no enthusiasm for the game anymore.

The Githyanki aren't better than the mindflayers. They are a massive threat to the multiverse and you don't want them to exterminate the mindflayers because the existence of the mindflayers is what's keeping them from conquering and dominating the multiverse. You need them bot to keep each other busy and you need Vlaakith to keep the Githyanki weak. Orpheus needs to die.

Yeah the gith being able to move across realm space would be bad every dnd fantasy setting would fall to them

[Toaster Maximus]

And people going oh the over god would stop them to keep balance. he can't he has over sight of a very small piece of the multiverse/realm space plus so yeah either side getting the upper hand is bad gith or mind flyer is just pick your flavor of evil

[Lani]

Originally posted by Malicite:

Originally posted by Lani:

See it as one of many loose threads in this game's story. Not every post climax thread gets tied of anymore in this age of 3 acts rather than 5. Read Lord of the Rings for a 'wrapping things up properly' act 5.
It could've been an interesting epilogue for Lae'Zell where she goes of with the Githyanki to free him afterwards. Hmm, isn't that actually one of her possible endings? So maybe it gets tied off afterall.

As to agreeing with the Emperor to free Orpheus later: Orpheus is his sworn mortal enemy. He's under no circumstances going to agree to any "Let's free this person whose Life Goal is to exterminate all Mindflayers after we defeat the Netherbrain" deal you suggest. This may require some Githyanki lore to realsie but they really, really hate Mindflayers, with reason.

I feel you on hating mindflayers. I just got to the beginning of Act 3 (Where you have to enter the astral realm) and the emperor (who is no longer the "dream visitor" which is just revealed to me) is asking me to help him kill the Githyanki.

lol Needless to say, I killed the emperor/dream visitor/ mindflayer and got myself a game over. It was a wtf moment for me. If I want to continue going carrying on with Act 3, I have to help a mindflayer and attack the githyanki who are trying to exterminate the mindflayers. I kinda have no enthusiasm for the game anymore.

Yep, I saw that end screen too.
Didn't demotivafe me though.
I hate plain story arcs where you go from victory to victory without adversity.
There's choices to make in this game and none of them are black and white, evil or good.
All have consequences, mostly how you feel about things.