Despite the name, Beleazar And The Beast is no tale of a kidnapped princess falling in love through Stockholm Syndrome, but rather a story of mad science and brain eating. In other words, it’s perfect Torment material!
To activate this side quest, head to Circus Minor (the starting market segment of Sagus Cliffs immediately after the Reef Of Fallen Worlds) and look for the glowing blue tank in the center with the tentacled monstrosity.
The setup immediately brings to mind the aboleth in a tank from Baldur’s Gate II — and that seems intentional, as we have another hyper intelligent but incredibly aggressive creature. We won’t be doing any quests for the Nychthemeron though, and instead will likely kill him to extract secrets from his cranial matter.
To get started, first talk to El-Jinto in front of the Nychthemeron tank to learn what the creature is and how it was captured. Next, talk to Beleazar just slightly north and to the west of the tank (he’s hiding right behind the small tent building).
In order to start the quest, you must succeed at a Intellect / Persuasion check before Beleazar will tell you what he’s scheming. Agree to help Beleazar and take the Teleport Nodule.
Learning about the Nychthemeron
Decide On A Quest Route
Now you’ve got two different routes to take that will both complete the quest with different rewards:
- Turn in Beleazar
- Help Beleazar in his mad quest for science
Turning him in results in 25 XP and 20 shins, while helping Beleazar results in more XP and an item, but requires more effort and a very difficult battle.
If you don’t feel good about releasing and then killing a creature just so this madman can raise his standing with the Aeon Priests, go back to El-Jinto and tell him what’s up.
You can either help out Beleazar by agreeing to turn over El-Jinto’s research notes, or instead insist that the budding research scientist learn about this creature the hard way and give him nothing.
That’s all really no fun though, so instead you should probably go place the Teleport Nodule near the creature. To get close enough to the tank undetected, either pay 100 shins (which is a pointless waste of money) or follow the dialog options to listen to their story of how the beast was captured and talk your way into a closer look at the tank.
Planting the Teleport Nodule
As soon as the deed is done, El-Jinto and his companion will freak out and demand to know what happened. If you want to take the Blue Tide route, point out you discovered a weakness in the cage and that they should be grateful.
Fighting the Nychthemeron
While some of the dialog in this quest indicates the Nychthemeron will engage in conversation at night rather than battle anyone who comes near, that doesn’t seem to actually work. For instance, you can go break the time clock further north in Circus Minor and turn it perpetually nighttime, but that doesn’t actually change the battle with the Nychthemeron. It’s unclear if this is a bug or just a minor problem in the text that wasn’t caught.
The Nychthemeron is located at the southeast end of the Reef Of Fallen Worlds near where you landed at the beginning of the game. We need to take some precautions before charging ahead, though.
First and foremost — don’t fight him on your own! Recruit Erritis first in the Sagus Cliffs, and then go down to the Underbelly to recruit Varrenoth, who only joins for this one battle.
You can access the Underbelly through an exit heading down in the Sagus Cliffs area or another in Circus Minor. Varrenoth is found in the southwest section near the fishing pole. Follow the conversation options to discover she’s actually an automaton being controlled remotely from another location, then ask if she’d like to help kill a dangerous creature in the reef.
Getting a little mechanical help
Now we’re finally ready to battle the Nychthemeron, which is undoubtedly the hardest single enemy at this point in the game — with 120 HP, multiple attacks per round, area effect attacks, and push back attacks.
Flanking is an absolute must due to the creature’s high armor (without flanking, expect your base to-hit chance to be 50 – 65%), but don’t pile all of your party around him at once since they are going to just get knocked back anyway.
Instead, keep at least one member out of the blast radius of his area whip attacks to launch ranged attacks, nano esoteries, or cypher attacks. Due to the high health of the enemy, only heal if absolutely necessary — it’s better to do more damage and let someone fall unconscious than waste time healing each round and giving the creature more opportunities for a total party wipe.
If you’ve saved your powerful 12 – 20 damage cyphers and didn’t use them in the battle against the Adversary, they can be very useful here. Killing the Nychthemeron unlocks the For Knowledge? achievement.
Take his brain back to Beleazar to complete the quest, earning extra XP, shins, and the Psychic Guard ornament, which boosts a character’s Cypher Use Skill by 1.
One dead Nychthemeron
More Tides Of Numenera Guides
Beleazar And The Beast is just one of a horde of quests available in the Sagus Cliffs and beyond to more bizarre areas of the Ninth World. Get the most out of your playthrough with our other Torment guides:
- Fifth Eye Tavern / Eyes Of The Adversary walkthrough
- Beginner’s guide to Numenera
- Class and character creation guide
- Complete Torment achievements list
Published: Mar 1, 2017 01:16 pm