That multiquote kinda buged huh?
From an in-character perspective, we have a character that knows far more than most people in the setting about the tadpoles presenting a definite way to get rid of them.
I presume you mean Lae'zel?
It's not even like she's vague about the method, she describes a process of removal and and I didn't encounter any reason to suspect she was lying at all in my playthrough. So from an in-character perspective, her solution is as close to a guarantee as we get.
I never said she was lying ...
- I (as a person, concidering everything i get from my previous gamplays) just dont believe that her method will be aplicable to our case.
- I (as a Githyanki character) see that mine kin have solution, so i follow it blindly, since my species was allways told that we are supreme ... therefore our method must be the best one.
- I (as any other character) see that Lae'zel is a zealot ... her people knows best, her people do best, her people this, her people that ... everyone around the globe are useless idiots unless they are Gith, even if she litteraly admits that she knows nothing about this world. And then it depends on specific characters if they are willing to thrust the Gith or not, especialy after that encounter with Gith patrol ...
For example:My Tiefling is suspicious charlatan, notorious liar that expect everyone around her to be as false as she is ...
For her, Lae'zel is suspicious, since she never doubt her words, and never doubt her methods ... but need overweight the risk, so she decided to follow her to mountain pass ... there they met Githyanki patrol, and she let Lae'zel do handle the situation ... yet the patrol leader decided that Lae'zel should be beheaded bcs she is infected ...
That is the situation then my Tiefling started to wonder if that whole "purification protocol" isnt just fairytail, that is told to Gith younglings, so they dont struggle when they fail in their hunt, when they are infected, and when its time to end them bcs their people actually believe there is no cure at all.
Also, to add some metainfo flavour ... note the fact that if your character is Githyanki, s/he never heared about purification protocol.
Quite a coincidence, isnt it?
I agree that they're all only possible, but they're possibilities that you have decent, clear reasons to think will work.
As i tryed to explain abowe, it depends on character ...
Some do, some dont ...
Also it depends on how many times you allready tryed.
Specificly it depends on if you allready tryed to ask Hag for her help, before you went futher.
Bcs she reveals to you that you have no ordinary tadpole, therefore your character can presume that ordinary methods will not work.
I recieved no such reason to think the Absolute wasn't just a trap.
As i said in previous reply, it certainly could be a trap.
The problem is that if the Absolute is a trap, then you go for it and you're almost definitely screwed because you're not likely to find out until it's too late.
Nah ...
You are not thinking as overcomfident character that believes in his skills and smarts ... maybe a bit too much.
Such character knows that there is a risk, but believes that he would see that risk soon enough, and with his own skills he will turn that risk in advantage.
Havent you seen any movie, where main character say: "Of course its a trap." ?
The point in such cases is, that traps are working on unaware targets only ... an aware target, have chance to turn the situation over ... its a risk? Sure! Its a huge and dangerous gamble that may or may not pay off. But that is the thing with gamble, more risk usualy means better reward, or that is what people expect at least.
If you go for any other options, then you may have time to try another before it's too late. Going for the Absolute path to my mind has higher stakes for failure than any other path.
I believe you mean "you may
not have time to try another" ...
And yes you may not, but that is the case with all options ... and with anything else your character do, as exploring rest of the map, helping others, fighting gnolls, etc, etc.
It just all depends on your point of view, and on how many information your character curently have.
Few examples:
- My Gith didnt even bother with Tieflings and Druids ... since time is short, and she needed to find creche as soon as possible, so she questioned Zoru and vent to mountain pass.
- My Tiefling decided to help Tieflings, since they are her kin, and in the process rescue Halsin, since she believed that time is short and her both objectives could be completed simultaneously.
- My Drow didnt even entered the groove, since for one he would not expect warm welcome and for two, they are beneath him. But when he explored to the north he find out Goblin patrol, that was bowing to him ... that picked his curiocity, so he traveled to their camp, and find their leader ... there he find out that all of their leaders is unaware of being tadpoled, and they all are part of some cult ... he realized that he should be safe at least until they start to turn (reasons i allready described) so he decided to stick with them, and find out what is happening around here.
At this stage that's still a stupid gamble because we don't know nearly enough about them, certainly not not enough to know if trying to turn it on them would even get us what we want.
Gamble? Sure.
Stupid? Well, potentialy.
What do we know ...
We know that no usual way (Volo, Hag, Gut, potentialy Gith in the future...) we tryed so far isnt working, bcs our tadpole is alterned ...
We know that there is some connection between the Absolute cult and alterned tadpoles ...
We certainly know that the Absolute cult is somehow protected against the change, or at least that they should turn before us ...
We certainly know that none of tadpoled cultist know that they are tadpoled ...
If we kill (or fail to rescue) Halsin, we get his diary, where he specificly writes about tracking tadpoles origin to moonrise towers ...
If we talk to Zentharin slaver/trader, she specificly tells us that most people goblins used to sell to slavery they now send to moonrise towers ...
It seem like enough to me. O_o
Of course if we rush from the groove to goblin camp, then our information will be a little thiner.
With Raphael at least, you know that he's almost certainly powerful enough to do what he says and you know what he wants.
You presume ... same as you can presume with Hag, with Gith, with Gut and with Volo ... but in his case its more about skills, than power.
You don't know that about the Absolute so thinking you can turn their trap against them is kind of insane.
First of all, you dont even know if there is any trap, since nobody expects you to get there.
Since all her followers are unaware of their tadpoles, you can presume that your knowledge of that is your advantage ... that means, if you approach the Absolute, and she will recognize you as one of her followers, just as every other you met so far do ... you might get close enough to destroy her.
Also i dont see how trying to outsmart cambion is anyhow less insane than trying to outsmart self-proclaimed goddess.
Everyone make misstake, all you need is skillfull and ambicious character that will be there to profit from that misstake. :P
Again, even though the other options aren't true guarantees (I still think that the creche is presented in a way that the PC would reasonably think that it is a guarantee though) the Absolute path is the biggest gamble because we're given so little and have to risk a lot even for just information.
Not sure if you are talking here from character perspective, or player perspective.
I don't feel like it's meant to be a secret though.
All i see here is complaining about this path not being clear enough to character ...
What else it would be than a secret?
It's directly tied to one of the two main ways you can complete this part of the story.
Personaly i hope Githyanki chreche will be third one.
If they proove themself to be just another dead route as Hag was, i will be quite sad. :-/
I imagine it as you either join Tieflings, or you join Goblins ... or you dont join either of them, get to Gith, and there they tell you that they allready know about moonrise towers, and you need to go there first for Purification protocol to work ... and when you get back to previous map, you find out that goblins allready attacked the groove, but all leaders died during the attack and rest of both factions are gone.
Either that or groove being covered with magical thorns, and goblins being hostile to you.
So something like what you suggested would actually be perfect because it doesn't seem to me that this is actually supposed to be a mystery.
I would not say "mystery" ... maybe even secret is a too strong word, just not so obvious option.
It's meant to be the "evil" path of this part of the game, while siding with the druids is the "good" path.
Im affraid its a little more complex ...
I believe Larian did elementary misstake when they used those words in one of feedback posts. :-/
There is kazzilion ways to define "good" or "evil" ...
And i would like to not stuck on those terms. :-/
I believe that game provides us many choices that leads to many different outcomes and there is really a LOT permutations ...
And anyone who wish to box any of those outcomes to "good" or "evil" boxes, seem shortsighted to me. :-/
Few examples:
- Your character killed Zevlor, helped Kagha to seal the groove and massacred other Tieflings, childs included, then rescued Halsin who no longer require to kill Goblin leaders, but you killed them anyway since the world will be better without them. > Are you good or evil?
- Your character tryed to persuate Kagha, but failed and killed her with all the other druids, many Tieflings died in the proces ... then you rescued Halsin and killed Goblin leaders that threatened druid groove that will soon be empty. > Are you good or evil?
- Your character redeem Kagha, showed her errors of her way, and helped her kill the shadow druids and allow Tieflings to stay as long as they need with her full support ... then you decided that cult of the Absolute will probably be your better chance, than some druid that was watching captured tadpole ... betray the groove and join the goblins. > Are you good or evil?
- Your character dont interact with Kagha, or Zevlor at all ... go straight to goblin camp, join them and raid the groove ... then you kill Minthara that will betray you, and you will be attacked by Halsin next evening ... you tell him that you hoped they will be able to help you, that now you see that you have made a worst misstake of your life and honestly regrets it ... you refuse to kill Halsin and will KO him instead. (Futher interactions depend on implementation of some interaction to knocked targets.) > Are you good or evil?
- Your character decided to help Tieflings, since they offered reward, he believe that Halsin is his best shot, and expect to find some sweet loot between those who are preparing for war ... so all from purely selfish reasons. > Are you good or evil?
World is not black and white and only a Sith deals in absolutes. :P
If it were meant to be a secret then I feel as though it should be harder to even find the opportunity to join the cult. If it were meant to be a major secret then I would have no problem with having to untangle little dropped hints to learn about it. But to me, the structure of the game suggests that the Absolute is being presented as a second, equally viable option to the Druids and Halsin, so if that's supposed to be the case, then the information for why the cult is a good choice should be presented as clearly as the information for why the Druids are a good choice.
Dunno ... they kinda are, at least to me.
The GM in this scenario is dropping hints while also giving you several far more attractive options to follow. If this were a real GM, I'd think that he was signalling me *not* to go that route.
Yeah, that is concept i like ...
You have main path, and you have alternatives ...
From my perspective GM i signaling you that *this* path is straight, smooth and easy, but *that one* is also possible, if you dare.
If he dont want you to go there, he would not give you those hints. :P
When she said that, I assumed she was a manifestation of the tadpole trying to get me to use my powers more and hurry the process.
May be ... and that is the fun in that relationship, we are suppose to gues what she is, she is suppose to give us puzzling answers with little certainity.
But again, the path is full of even more what-if's than any other paths, to the point that it becomes the least attractive.
Certainly not for me.
