While I don't like the way Larion went about it, I do understand why the Emperor left the party to join the brain.



Mind-flayers are nothing if not logical beings and knowing it would take a mindflayer to defeat the elder brain, and that none of you were currently mindflayers, there was no chance the party would win with Orpheus. I don't think the Emp could forsee Orpheus actually be willing to become a mindflayer himself to defeat the brain.

Ansur helped the Emp break free the 1st time and the Emp went back to Baldur's gate to start his illicit trading ring, until Gortash captured him and returned him to the brain. Since Ansur's now dead dead, if the Emp becomes truly enslaved to the brain again, there is no chance he could break free on his own.

The Emp has been using Orpheus's power without permission this whole time. While Orpheus can be talked into continuing to shield the party, there's no way he would agree to protect/help a full-on mindflayer, especially one who helped keep him enslaved. The second Orpheus stops shielding him, the brain will enslave the Emp and force him return to it. There is no way a logical being is going to 'gamble' on his former prisoner to help him and even if Orpheus did help, he would most assuredly try to kill the Emperor after defeating the brain. So the Emp's choices were:

1) Gamble on the party/Orpheus and end up either enslaved or dead.

2) Return to the brain on his own, fake submission to it, until he could get far enough away to be safely out of it's control.

Logically, he figured his best chance at future autonomy was to return to the brain on his own and try to "fake" submission until he could escape again......because he's done it before. I base this on the book you find on a table before the boat ride to the brain called "Evading the Elder brain" with a dialogue of Gortash interrogating the Emperor after returning him to the brain. If you missed the book, here's what it says:

"Gortash: When we captured you, you were a rogue, an autonomous illithid beyond the power of the elder brain that transformed you.

Emperor: That is correct.

Gortash: When we brought you back into the psionic ambit of our hovering friend the Absolute, your defences were overwhelmed and you returned to your former servile state.

Emperor: Also correct.

Gortash: How did you escape the control of the elder brain in the first place?

Emperor: In my original humanoid form, I possessed an exceptionally strong personality-so much so that even after ceremorphosis I was still substantially 'myself'. Of course, I concealed this beneath a semblance of perfect servitude.

Gortash: And that's why the elder brain was willing to send you out of the colony on scouting missions?

Emperor: Yes, as I told you before.

Gortash: How long did you feign mental slavery before you were able to escape?

Emperor: Thirteen and three-quarters years.

Gortash: Until finally you were given a mission to Baldur's Gate, distant enough to be out of the elder brain's control?

Emperor: That is correct.

Gortash: Remarkable.

Emperor: That is correct.

Gortash: And you don't mind that we've brought you back under psionic control?

Emperor: I am entirely devoted to the needs of our elder brain and of its masters.

Gortash: You're not lying about that, right?

Emperor: Correct. That would be impossible."

While Balduran's strong will may have kept him somewhat autonomous, it required Ansur's help to break free the first time. So by leaving out the Ansur part we can see that the Emp is obviously lying to Gortash about how he got free the first time. He's also lying about even having a "formerly servile state" since his former state wasn't 100% servile at all. This leads me to believe that the Emp has fooled the elder brain with a fake submissiveness not once, but twice. So it's totally believable that if you don't follow his plan to defeat the brain, he would see his best way forward as going to the brain and faking submission a third time until he could escape again. Larion just didn't do the greatest job explaining the Emp's motivation for his choice, since if you miss the book, you miss almost all of his reasoning behind abandoning the party at the 11th hour. So it just seems like he's all "Go Team Tav" until you turn on him and then he's just jarringly "I'm outta here" with little explanation.

Last edited by Myrrh; 27/09/23 01:49 AM.