Mind Flayer Colony

The Mind Flayer Colony is a location under the Moonrise Towers Prison in the Shadow-Cursed Lands in Act Two. This area is accessed by jumping down into a tower after the initial Ketheric Thorm fight on the Moonrise Towers Rooftop.

Map of the Mind Flayer Colony

If you arrive here from the Moonrise Towers Rooftop, destroy the membrane and move forward. There will be lots of Intellect Devourers running around the colony. They are not hostile.

Areas

Morgue

• Us can be found here if it was not destroyed on the Nautiloid. You can free Us to get the item Summon Us.
• Chop, a Bugbear who creates Intellect Devourers, can also be found in the morgue.
• If the player threatens to kill Chop, he will respond as though he wants the player to kill him; despite this, attacking him will still make Chop and the surrounding Intellect Devourers (except for Us) hostile. Nonetheless, Chop will comment that he is "free at last" as he is killed. The Intellect Devourers outside of the morgue will still be neutral.

Necrotic Laboratory

In the southeast of the map, at X: 715 Y: -49.

• When you enter the area, a battle with several undead will commence.
• You can find Circlet of Mental Anguish and Braindrain Gloves on a skeleton at X: 750 Y: -138, next to the Waking Mind.
• The Mind-Archive Interface at X: 699 Y: -117 allows you to talk to the brain jars found scattered across the area.
  • The Waking Mind found behind the brain mapping puzzle can grant a permanent buff: Githzerai Mind Barrier.
  • The True Mind, Willing Mind, Butchered Mind, Closed Mind and Fresh Mind brain jars elsewhere in the Colony, as well as the Dark Mind and Slave Mind brain jars from the Nautiloid, will only give dialogue.
  • A note concerning Enver Gortash and The Dark Urge can be found here.
• Solving the brain mapping puzzle will give access to the Blade of Oppressed Souls and the Waking Mind.

Tadpoling Centre

• Zevlor can be found here for the Find Zevlor quest. There is a long room filled with pods; some contain non-hostile humanoid characters, including Zevlor, while others contain Mind Flayers. A Neural Apparatus at X: 689 Y: 17 gives the player a choice between purging all of the pods (Illithid and humanoid alike) and opening them all. If the player chooses to purge the pods, Zevlor will die; if they open the pods, they must fight several Mind Flayers and Intellect Devourers (though the newly-freed NPCs will fight alongside the player, providing significant aid.)
  • Zevlor and the other survivors can potentially turn hostile if they are damaged by the player, including via spell AOE effects such as Cloud of Daggers or Flame Wall.
• In the next area, Mizora is stuck in a pod. The player may free her in order to advance The Blade of Frontiers, Wyll's companion quest.
  • The left control is "annihilate," the right one is "release."
    • If Mizora is freed and Wyll is in the party, Mizora may be persuaded (DC 14) for a reward; this results in her giving Wyll the Infernal Rapier, a unique Very Rare rapier.
    • Killing Mizora via the "annihilate" button results in Wyll dying as well.

Barracks

• Here you will meet Kressa Bonedaughter, who will recognize The Dark Urge. After some dialogue, battle commences with Kressa and her crew. The player may fight them or deceive them. There are several notes that can shed light on The Dark Urge.

Advance to Ketheric Thorm

To the east is the big showdown with Ketheric Thorm. Before descending down the lift use the Restoration Pod to the right of the lift to get a free Long Rest.

A cutscene will then play, wherein the player will see Ketheric Thorm, Gortash and Orin, learn of their plans, and meet the Netherbrain, thus discovering the true identity of the Absolute. If Gale is in the party, the player will have the option to allow him to explode the Netherese Orb; this will kill the Netherbrain, all three Chosen, and your party, resulting in a very early endgame and the credits rolling. If this action is not taken and the party remains unexploded, this cutscene continues with the Elder Brain infecting Duke Ravengard with a Tadpole, before the Chosen of the Dead Three unleash their assault on Baldur's Gate.

Fight with Ketheric

When the second fight with Ketheric starts, Ketheric will begin by calling on Myrkul for aid. Ketheric remains invulnerable so long as he has the Nightsong captured. The player's initial goal is to free Nightsong with the Help action, as she is trapped inside a soul cage by Ketheric.

After the battle will be a series of cutscenes. The player will be teleported back to Moonrise Towers ground floor, where they can speak with some of the characters met in the Shadow-Cursed Lands before heading west to Baldur's Gate. This is the end of Act Two.

Related Locations

• Moonrise Towers Prison
• Oubliette

Related Quests

• Lift the Shadow Curse
• Defeat Ketheric Thorm
• Find Mol
• Find Zevlor
• The Grand Duke
• Embrace Your Potential
• The Wizard of Waterdeep
• The Blade of Frontiers
• The Urge

Notable Loot

Notable items obtained in this location, whether looted, purchased, or obtained as a quest reward:

• Infernal Rapier - Given by Mizora
• Myrkulite Scourge - Looted from Kressa Bonedaughter
• Summon Us - Given by Us
• Resonance Stone
• Blade of Oppressed Souls - Found in the Necrotic Laboratory after solving the brain puzzle
• Waking Mind - Found in the Necrotic Laboratory after solving the brain puzzle
• Braindrain Gloves - Can be looted from a skeleton near Necrotic Laboratory X: 748 Y: -141
• Circlet of Mental Anguish - Can be looted from a skeleton in the Necrotic Laboratory X: 748 Y: -141
• Ketheric's Warhammer - Looted from Ketheric Thorm
• Ketheric's Shield - Looted from Ketheric Thorm
• Reaper's Embrace - Looted from Ketheric Thorm
• Ketheric's Netherstone - Looted from Ketheric Thorm

Notable NPCs

• Chop
• Us
• Kressa Bonedaughter
• Zevlor
• Mizora
• Ketheric Thorm
• Balthazar (conditional)
• Enver Gortash
• Orin

Notes

• The player can overhear Chop from the Oubliette, suggesting that the Morgue and Oubliette share a wall. However, the Mind Flayer Colony cannot be accessed until the end of Act Two, and the player character will note aloud that there's no way through.