Forbidden Cults Unlocks, Spoilers, Weirdness

[anp]

So question. Does anyone know if in your character sheet and winner screen, does the Parasite take over or do you still get the "win" with your original race?

My OCD needs to know before I put this damn thing on.

Even with maxed Parasite tree, both character sheet, winners list and table show you the innate race combo.
For reference, look at my Cornac Possessor winner (link to my chars in signature)

[Thegatso]

Thank you amp!

[Chronosplit]

I've been doing a run with the parasite-in-pocket addon to get the Fanged Collar at the start, so I could see if there are any other significant changes before you can get it by your vault.

So far, I've found out that when you rescue the Merchant you eat him like any escort. You get your free generic point and you join the Assassin Lord, and just like escorts this is the only option. Because he lets you eat him as a um... membership bonus of sorts. Nice touch, but basically it's no randarts for you if you take the plunge early. You also eat the Yeek in the Halfling Ruins.

EDIT: In case you were wondering, Melinda is still treated the same way as any normal run when you're a Parasite. I honestly wasn't expecting anything less.
EDIT 2: This is wrong, the game had me going for a moment, but... there is a point when things take a turn. After I'm done with my run, I'll probably make up a post about who exactly gets ate.

[Ramidel]

1. Zigur let the demented into their city - maybe Insanity is just too new a resource for them to know to hate it yet? Clearly they would not be into it.

Writhing One's tentacle power mentions that you have a psionic field that keeps people from realizing OH GOD IT'S A HORRIBLE TENTACLE MONSTER.

[Chronosplit]

The WTW pet has native Mana regen when it learns something that uses Mana. This is somewhat useful for Seer escorts, because while you don't want to be manaclashed your pet already can. I guess you could also teach it Staff Mastery in this case if you can grab two short staves, but it's generic points are rather thin.

Also, you can use Decayed Devourers as a wall to keep your escort from running into stuff (or as a wall between them and something behind). They do not damage an escort, and even the standard amount is enough to wall off a narrow passage.

EDIT: Persistent Will works very similar to Horrific Display; it may or may not actually help, but it resets the agro of enemies. An interesting thing is that non-arcane is exclusively determined by talents, so things like undead will turn against Bone Giants. It's fun to use this around Tempest Peak to hit the boss with boulders.

[Zeyphor]

I just did some fooling around in dev mode
with a fanged collar, you will eat the following NPCs, gaining 1 generic point per NPC:
1: the lost merchant, after which you join the assassins; there is no option to not join the assassins
2: melinda, after you take her to your fortress and then otherwise kiss her; there is only an option to eat her at that point, at which point you have to eat her if you talk to her
3: fillarel, after being saved, is eaten by you; there is no option to do anything else
4: the yeek wayist, instead of giving you 10% confusion immunity and 15 mental save after being saved, is eaten by you
5: aeryn, after failing or not doing the charred scar quest and defeating her on level 10 of high peak, is automatically eaten by you... which means you sacrificing yourself to close the void portal
6-14: every escort quest is eaten by the parasite, there is no option to not eat the escort... of course, you can avoid this by not getting your head bitten off before doing the escorts

and, don't forget, theres ALSO the free 1 point put into Take a Bite upon getting your head bitten off

so, yeah, all of your escorts turn into generic points, but don't let you get any new categories or skills or tinkers, and you also get 4-5 free generic points, though the 5th one is only used for high peak 10 and the final fight; thats a total of 15 generic points, including 1 point into take a bite

what I don't know, however, is whether or not you eat aeryn after winning without failing the charred scar quest; I haven't been able to finish the charred scar quest in dev mode without failing

[helminthauge]

just confirmed that you don't eat Aeryn if you've saved the Gate of Morning, so no additional point for Linaniil, Atamathon and Hypostasis of Entropy!

[shadowyfour]

In the Occult Regress dungeon- you know, the one that you access by typing the basic code in to the code-locked portal- I found the splattered remains of an adventurer. On top of it appeared to be a piece of lore called something about a log. However, instead of being picked up and read it simply disappeared. I also found no boss in the dungeon and no way out, so it seems very anticlimactic. Can anyone please tell me what was supposed to be on that log?

[azrael]

I believe it basically says that the adventurer is confused and lost, and can't find the way out. They complain about the lack of treasure a bit as well. I've never found a boss in that part of the Occult Egress, so I think that's just the end of the story for that location-- if you don't have the Rod of Recall, you're stuck forever.

[shadowyfour]

Thanks Azrael!

[Chronosplit]

I believe it basically says that the adventurer is confused and lost, and can't find the way out. They complain about the lack of treasure a bit as well. I've never found a boss in that part of the Occult Egress, so I think that's just the end of the story for that location-- if you don't have the Rod of Recall, you're stuck forever.

I found a Searing Horror there once. Never lived long enough to find out if beating it opens anything though.

It's pretty much a trip through the Fortress Portal outside of the adventurer note and the fact that you didn't take it from the fortress, so it's not too out of place to find one.