Yeah. I don't know. Orpheus' first words are that he smells the stench of illithid upon the party, making it sound like he isn't infected himself. If he was infected with a tadpole at that point, I would think that he would not treat them with such disdain, even if he is a proud Gith. I mean, I would think he would not respond by saying WE have illithid stench on us.
Now, he would clearly be upset that we destroyed his honor guard and worked with the Emperor, but seeing as how he seems pretty knowledgeable that the Grand Design is the ultimate evil here, I would think that he would even be a bit more understanding of why we killed his honor guard if he was also infected. The desire to be cured from an illithid tadpole would be far more honorable to someone like him, I would think, than surrendering to be executed for something even HE has floating around in his brain.
Yeah, I just have a hard time believing he is infected by that point, and I have an even harder time believing that HE would accept being a mind flayer even IF he had a tadpole in his brain. No. He abhors illithids, and although I could see him not necessarily trusting anyone but himself to face the Absolute with the Netherstones, I REALLY struggle with him just saying, "Yep. The Emperor was right. Although my mother's powers flow through me and we used them to free ourselves and our people eons ago from illithid elder brains, I wholeheartedly believe that the only way I could possibly defeat this Netherbrain - which I've never faced a Netherbrain before, mind you, so I couldn't possibly fully know how powerful it is - is if one of us becomes a brand new mind flayer. And since I only trust myself, I'm willing to do it. Never mind that they are the most vile things imaginable to me. I'm just willing to accept this and run with it. Please kill me afterwards, by the way. Thanks."
My struggle with this ending was it felt like an unnecessary sacrifice. I went with Orpheus as a savior because I thought it might be the only way for NO ONE to turn into a mind flayer, and I ABSOLUTELY did not trust the Emperor. He was willing to kill his old best friend for survival sake. How much more readily would he toss me and my companions aside and just take over the Netherbrain himself as soon as he got his hands on the Netherstones? So as I sat there pondering how this could go, I thought that Orpheus might be powerful enough to defeat the Netherbrain WITH our help. We would use the Netherstones combined - 3 of my characters hitting it at the same time - and Orpheus would use his powers to suppress part of the Netherbrain's power. Together, we could hit the Netherbrain from different, unexpected angles while Orpheus suppressed a good portion of its power. After all, the whole game made such a big deal about just how powerful the dumb relic was, and Orpheus is the power behind it. So why SHOULDN'T Orpheus have a much greater impact against it while maintaining his original form?
It just didn't make sense to me, and it didn't sit well with me. But then again, I wasn't real happy with any of my other options, so I went with it.
BTW. The above is not how the fanfic goes. I'm taking it in a slightly different direction.
