hello,
first of all i'm a new user.(and in need of help!)

I entered the mindflayer(illithid) lair before the drow city! I'm having trouble escaping,(getting the doors open to the exit and the head brains's room) Should i go back to a previous safe or try and get through. If so how do i get a collar on the flayers.(the first time i opened the doors i actually had to dominate them!) I've already done most of the areas here and have the anti psionic flasks, so going back is a last possible thing i want to do.

do i have to do the drow city first?

thanks...

Definitely go back to a previous save. The mindflayer lair is an optional quest you'll receive once you've performed a few tasks in the Drow city. It's not useful until then, and it is a pretty lethal place without a well-prepared party. [img]smile.gif[/img]

But can i solve that part first?
I mean, i have a decent party and have been hacking the flayers away!
(i did alot of quets before i attempted to rescue Imoen)

What level is your party? Do you have a ring or item that grants free action? Do you have a summoning wand, boots of speed, and plenty of potions for raising intelligence?

Yeah, all the above...
I'm a monk at 17th level
i have:
Keldorn
Minsc
Imoen
Aerie
Jaheira

can i solve and then go to the drow city?

...Only if you have your Slayer ability. ;) You need all that muscle for something. ;) Of course, I forgot that exporting and reimporting the character removes Slayer ability while it grants Bhaalspawn abilities again... lol, WHUPS! I had to fix THAT one...

You shouldn't have any problem with that party--provided, as Toriuxik stated, you can already turn into the Slayer. But you've been through Spellhold, so that shouldn't be a problem. It's the toughest Underdark area, IMO, unless you cheese your way through. (I don't.)

Well I have the Slayer ability but what would i use it for? Can i still get back to the drow city without defeating the main brain pool?

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There are a pair of essential doors in the Mind Flayer area that require your PC to turn into the Slayer to open. I've read elsewhere that mind controlling (with a collar, from another quest) an illithi lets it open one of the doors, but I've tried this without success.

I actually dominated a mindflayer and brought him into one of the rooms and the door somehow opened? But i haven't tryed this on the exit or the brain pools room? i wonder if it works?

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you don't need to change to the slayer.

stay with me: east of the prison room where you were first thrown into there is a mind flayer in a room with a bunch of machines filled with fluid. collect a vial of this fluid; do this while hidden or invisible; youll need this flayer later.

go south of the prison rooms (2 flayers to kill on the way) and there's another room with beggars asleep on tables. use the fluid to wake them up. after that go to the machine on the east wall and use it to make four collars. equip the collars in your quick slot.

go back to the fluid room and charm that flayer and open the door in the room north of the prison room. the githyanki will gate in blah blah blah.

after that there is only one more door you need a flayer to open so make sure you dont kill them all off. and dont charm ulitharids; for whatever reason they cant open the doors, only your basic mind flayers will.

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use a collar to charm the elder brain; much easier fight.

I actually found that it doesn't matter if you kill the Mind Flayer in the room where you get that fluid: I was exploring the place, whacking enemies, and was stopped my doors that said "Only a being with godlike strength or a powerful mind can open this door." Then I looked around for a Mind Flayer to open the thing for me--and I'd already killed them all. But not really--I found that an extra one spawns in the room with the tanks (north of the slaves) so I just Charmed him to do my dirty work. (The Dire Charm wears off when they open a door, but if you've got another collar you can just do it again.)

Will this open the exit too? or just brain room?

Amergin, you still need to turn into the Slayer. A controlled illithi will not open both the locked doors for you.

Just use a charmed Mind Flayer.

The Mind Flayer in the room with all the vats of red liquid is respawnable. If you ever need another Mind Flayer to control, go to this room. You can get 4 circlets, you only need 2. It takes about 1 turn after you kill the Mind Flayer, before it respawns.

Take note, there is a limited number of respawns, about 20.

I liked parking 5 Skeleton Warriors at the spawning spot, then go do something else like taking a shower. Heh, heh... poor things did not even know what hit then when they dimension doored in.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by fable:
Amergin, you still need to turn into the Slayer. A controlled illithi will not open both the locked doors for you.<hr></blockquote>

wrong. i used slayer change just once in all my games just to see what it would do and that was in brynnlaw. you may be confused.

visualize: brain room has a door, then a corridor, then another door. the brain room door can be picked by a thief, with knock, or by forcing. the other door requires a flayer or the slayer. i have NEVER needed the slayer to finish this quest. gg.

While we're on the subject of the underdark, Where is the blade for the equiliser?

OK, just to add the final words hehe..

You DO NOT need to turn into Slayer to open the doors. There are 2 ways, as the doors tell you: "either a person of godly might or a total brainiack can open the door". Which means that either you turn into the Slayer OR you charm a Mind Flayer. If REP is something you want to keep, then forget the Slayer form and simply use the collars to charm the Mind Flayer. Once you open the door, the flayer will go hostile, you can either kill it or re-charm. If you kill it, then no worries, there will be some further in. Once you beat the brain up, ALL doors will be open for good. Just keep the fluid you get from the brain, it can become handy. As for charming the brain for easier fight, well, why? Golems are goodie extra XP, let it summon them I say :D

Pay attention though that the Illithids and Uliathid (or whatever that thing was) do NOT open the doors! It MUST be Mind Flayer!

I believe the only way to be completely out of Mind Flayer City in the Underdark is to kill the Elder Brain. And to kill the Elder Brain you have to get past the door "with the need godlike strength or powerful mind" message appears, thus the need for the slayer or a controlled mind flayer as various people mentioned. Sorry but its either re-load or finish it, no leaving part way thru.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Amergin:


wrong. i used slayer change just once in all my games just to see what it would do and that was in brynnlaw. you may be confused.

visualize: brain room has a door, then a corridor, then another door. the brain room door can be picked by a thief, with knock, or by forcing. the other door requires a flayer or the slayer. i have NEVER needed the slayer to finish this quest. gg.<hr></blockquote>

I can well picture the sequence of rooms, having been through that quest five times to date. ;) And on no occasion was I able to pick, force, or knock one of the two doors that produces a message about requiring an opener who has godlike strength or intellect. Believe me, I've tried what you suggest, because I'd read it once before, under another forum. It didn't work, though I spent several hours puzzling over it.

The odd-thing was, the illithi was unable to do this, as well. And as I suggested above, this just may be a matter of a fix created by Bioware to force the player into twice becoming the Slayer. If you can't accept the possibility of a fix by the developers (who did it elsewhere in the game--such as the improved combat-sensing dragon AI, which now becomes active when traps are set nearby), then we'll just have to agree to disagree. [img]smile.gif[/img]

thank you everyone, problem solved last night!
i used a collar on the illithid and went through the first door, then picked the second door to the brains room, in the corridor. After i destroyed the brain the exit was opened!

Qflash, a quick question. Are you using SoA with ToB installed; and if not, do you have the latest Bioware patch? I want to get the bottom of why an illithi has never been able to open the doors for me, if possible.

I have the latest patch but i do not have ToB.
your character has to open the door but you have to have an Illithid under your control at that time, (only the brain pool CORRIDOR will open, not the exit of the lair or the door that leads in to the brainpool which can be lockpicked) The exit opens by killing the
brain(did it) or the slayer(i guess).

fable, i think we are in agreement [img]smile.gif[/img] .

there are two "species" that use the flayer avatar, normal mind flayers and ulitharids. you can charm both with the collars but for whatever reason, bioware didnt put in the script that would allow a charmed ulitharid to open those "godly strength/super mind power" doors like the flayers do. it did this before ToB existed and remained with it installed.

as for charming the master brain, i just find it hilarious watching these "superior" beings kill their lord. xp isn't an issue because i'm usually getting HLA's before i even get to Suldanessalar :( .

Bah, that explains it! I've always charmed ulitharids. :rolleyes: No wonder I can't get that door open, that way. :(

Oh, well. When I do my sixth run-through, I'll try again. :D And thanks, Amergin, for clearing that up.

[ 01-24-2002: Message edited by: fable ]</p>

i know the mindflayers respawn in that one room above the save quarters? but do the ulitharids respawn anywhere?

I just wanted to thank everyone that got me through this section, i should have found underdark first...oh well. It was a success!!!

Q

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You dont need to use slayer or go to the drow first I've done this quest before and after the drow sequence and Ive never turned into slayer just put the collars in the quick slot and let them do the work