In The Flesh

In The Flesh is the 4th quest in the Harbinger of Madness story arcStory arcs are chains of quests that make up a story line. Completing everything in a story arc often yields a nice reward..
The first three quests can be completed in any order to unlock In The Flesh.
Missing • Sinister Storage • Fear Factory • In The Flesh

The Stormreach Chronicle has traced the Mastermind behind the Taken to this recently renovated Harbor property. It's time for you to stop the creation of these abominations once and for all.

Requires access to adventure pack
Definition: Adventure Pack
A list of all adventure packs
: Harbinger of Madness

In The Flesh
Heroic level:	15
Epic level:	None
Duration:	Long
Heroic XP:	♣3,657Solo/Casual ♦6,356Normal ♥6,616Hard ♠6,877Elite
Epic XP:	N/A
Takes place in:	Harborview Lofts
Bestowed by:	Hector Hyssop
NPC contact:	Hector Hyssop
Quest acquired in:	The Harbor
Patron:	The Free Agents
Base favor:	6
Purchase:	Harbinger of Madness or VIP
Extreme Challenge:	Yes

Loading screen

Overview

Chronicle reporter Hector Hyssop has tracked down the person - or thing - responsible for creating the Taken. He wants you to put an end to the horror of the Taken once and for all.

According to Hector, the mastermind behind the Taken is hiding out in a rented loft in the Harbor. Enter the Harborview Lofts to confront this sinister figure.

Spoiler Warning: Spoiler material below this point!

Objectives

Find the Mind Flayer, Yaulthoon
Survive the artistic onslaught
Send Pykzyl to his grave
Access Yaulthoon's Private Wing
Obtain the crest for the Private Wing
Survive this season's latest fleshcrafted fashions
(Optional) Put the Taken creations out of their misery (40 total) — Bonus (10%): Heroic( ♣366 ♦636 ♥662 ♠688 )
(Optional) Put more Taken out of their misery (60 total) — Bonus (10%): Heroic( ♣366 ♦636 ♥662 ♠688 )
(Optional) Attack and Destroy the Dead Pykzyl — Bonus (15%): Heroic( ♣549 ♦953 ♥992 ♠1,032 )
(Optional) Kill the Sculpted Hound — Bonus (10%): Heroic( ♣366 ♦636 ♥662 ♠688 )

What to Expect

Chaos Orbs (optional)
Puzzle (optional: puzzle wheels)
Spawning/respawning monsters

Known Traps

Trap DCs

Blade traps past the secret underwater door leading to the puzzle room; control panel is on the west wall between the second and third set. Can be timed.
Spinning blade traps in front of Dead Pyxzyl's door; control panel is on the west wall before the door. May not always appear.
Air traps on the pillars behind the western secret door; control panels (two) are on the walls by the northern pillars. Only on Elite.

Tips and Misc

Recommended buffs at all times:
- Acid Resistance
- Blur or Displacement
- Greater Heroism
- Death Ward
Most of this quest involves mass numbers of Taken and Renders being thrown at you in melee fights with few surprises. Be aware that the final battle involves respawning Beholders, so it may be difficult to maintain buffs.
Freedom of Movement does NOT block the Sticky effect.
In the Atrium, several Taken will be on display behind glass along the walls. They may break out behind you, so listen for the sound of breaking glass and turn around. Summoned Bearded Devils can teleport behind the glass to fight them.
You must "entertain" the patrons (Taken) of the Hall of the Absurd for 6 waves before Pyzkzyl, a Chaos Beholder, will enter the room. He does not use Anti-Magic Cone, but he CAN instant kill you with Prismatic Spray if he gets lucky, so bring him down fast!
To get to the optional puzzle room, you must go through the plants on the south side of the Atrium into the water, and swim east then south (you'll turn into blank space on the map) and through a secret door. The door is underwater, so use a clicky/spell before entering the water if need be.
West of the crest is another secret door. Behind the door is a pit – in the pit are chaos orbs. Y'know, those fun things that wander around Invaders! and Xorian Cipher? Fortunately, the pit comes equipped with pillars to jump across. Watch out, though, on elite – there's air jet traps on top of the pillars, with two trap Control panels to disable them. There's a lever on the other side that activates force platforms on top of the pillars for those with less than stellar Jump scores.
- If you don't have a rogue or artificer, you can still pass these pillars on Elite. Have a fair Jump score and Feather Fall. Instead of jumping from pillar to pillar, aim for getting ledge grabs on the sides of them. This will trigger the gusts of air but will either miss your character, or knock you down, but a ledge hang animation will override the knockdown and pushback effect. The air traps proc roughly every 5 seconds, so you will have enough time to pull yourself up and jump on to the next platform, even if having to wait ~3 seconds from a knockdown effect. Just be careful, the other side that seems to be safe ground has one last air trap, so aim for the middle or left side.
Sculpted Hound may appear behind either secret door; if so, his chest will replace the appropriate chest.
Now-dead Pyxzyl is undead...a Doomsphere. He is behind a door with a warning sign in the last hallway to Yaulthoon. Take heed of the warning of "Extreme Challenge": he's extremely tough. Bring your Ghost Touch weapons and spell-absorption gear. Soloing tip: Clear the way to shrine in the north before fighting Pyxzyl in the doorway; this gives just enough running time to get to the resurrection shrine if fight goes poorly.
All Taken killed before the end fight count towards the optional.

Hiding behind a Cocoon for the special attack

End Fight:
- Yaulthoon is invulnerable to all damage so long as his visual kinetic armor buff Intellect Fortress is in place. To debuff him, stand behind the cocoons as he's doing his normal ranged attacks (white swirls); the cocoons will burst open, spawning a monster, but when enough are blasted, he'll be stunned, making him vulnerable to attack. Additionally, anyone near one of the smashed cocoons will gain HP and SP!
- Yaulthoon frequently casts Hold Monster on party members. Freedom of Movement is highly recommended for the end fight.
- Yaulthoon's ranged blast is chaotic-aligned and deals evil damage to good-aligned characters.
- Yaulthoon periodically fires multiple Mind Thrust beams that deal force damage and can be fully Will-saved against; however, this requires several successive saves.
- Note that just before the mind-thrust attack starts, 3 breakables (fleshy pods) appears next to Yaulthoon – destroy these to stun Yaulthoon and prevent the attack.
- Yaulthoon, being a Mind Flayer, has, independent of his Intellect Fortress buff, a DR of 10/Byeshk (15 on hard/elite) to overcome.
- If the entire party dies in the final room, you will be transported to the entrance. Unfortunately, you're still dead and there are no shrines near enough to get to. However, pets and/or hires may be able to carry soul stones to a shrine, or other solutions may be possible.

Lights and Wheel Symbols

The six wheels of the puzzle, default starting position.

This random puzzle is not difficult. Next to the treasure (behind glass at one end of the room, see example, right) is your solution – a random number of lights around a random symbol, and, to the right of that, the number of wheels to be used (miniature wheels show amount). Setting a wheel to that symbol is "using" a wheel.
There are six wheels in this room. To solve the puzzle, set the specified number of wheels (no more, no less) to the given symbol, AND the number of lights above those wheels must equal the number of lights on the solution panel.
- First wheel to the right: orange – three lights
- Second wheel to the right: purple – four lights
- Third wheel to the right: blue – one light
- First wheel to the left: cyan – no lights
- Second wheel to the left: green – two lights
- Third wheel to the left: red – five lights
The wheel without lights adds no lights to the final total, but it does count towards to the total number of wheels used if the selected symbol matches the requested one. Set it to something different if that makes too many wheels.
You can "turn" any/all the wheels without spoiling the solution, but they have to end up as above – that many wheels set to that symbol for a total of that many lights.

Example

In the example shown on this page (above right), looking next to the treasure case you can see eight lights around the red 4-pointed star symbol. To the right of that, you see there are two miniature wheels. So, you need to end up using (only) two wheels in total, set to the red star symbol, with a total value of eight lights. (And no more than 2 – if others start on the designated symbol, be sure to change them to something else).

So, in this example, we are looking for: 2 wheels set to the red star symbol, with a total of 8 lights between them. Turning the orange wheel with the three lights and the red wheel with the five lights to the red star symbol would total eight lights. However we also have to turn the cyan wheel without lights because it was set to the red star to start, and we want to exclude it from the number of wheels used (otherwise we'd have 3 wheels). Therefore, you must also change the setting (to anything else) on the wheel with no lights to complete the puzzle.

Bonus XP

Aggression bonus: 33 or more monsters killed +10% Bonus.( ♣366 ♦636 ♥662 ♠688 )
Onslaught bonus: 67 or more monsters killed +15% Bonus.( ♣549 ♦953 ♥992 ♠1,032 )
Conquest bonus: 100 or more monsters killed +25% Bonus.( ♣914 ♦1,589 ♥1,654 ♠1,719 )
Tamper bonus: 1 or more trap disarmed +10% Bonus.( ♣366 ♦636 ♥662 ♠688 )
Neutralization bonus: 2 or more traps disarmed +20% Bonus.( ♣731 ♦1,271 ♥1,323 ♠1,375 )
Ingenious Debilitation bonus: 4 or more traps disarmed +30% Bonus.( ♣1,097 ♦1,907 ♥1,985 ♠2,063 )
Observance bonus: 1 or more secret door discovered +8% Bonus.( ♣293 ♦508 ♥529 ♠550 )
Mischief bonus: 52 or more breakables smashed +8% Bonus.( ♣293 ♦508 ♥529 ♠550 )
Vandal bonus: 68 or more breakables smashed +10% Bonus.( ♣366 ♦636 ♥662 ♠688 )
Ransack bonus: 84 or more breakables smashed +15% Bonus.( ♣549 ♦953 ♥992 ♠1,032 )

Notes: Note the breakables value will increase during the boss fight, as he spawns 3 breakables at regular intervals near the end; you must destroy all 3 before they disappear to get it.

Ransack is only possible with Dead Pykzyl optional done.
Onslaught & Conquest require killing some respawns during the boss fight

Loot

Chests: ♦5Normal ♥5Hard ♠6Elite
- 1 behind a secret door for solving the wheels puzzle
- 1 behind a secret door in the central west section of the map
  - Note that the Sculpted Hound may appear behind either secret door, in which case his chest would supersede the relevant lockbox.
- 1 for killing Pykzyl (Chaos Beholder)
- 1 optional for killing Dead Pykzyl (Undead Beholder)
- ♦1Normal ♥2Hard ♠2Elite at the end for killing Yaulthoon (on elite one of the chests can drop the Mindfury Symbiont)
Collectables: 4
- Mold in the water under the puzzle wheel room
- Cabinet in the display case with Pykzyl's chest
- Cabinet behind the secret door to the west
- Bookshelf in Dead Pykzyl's room
NPC rewards: Random ML 9–13 items, choose from 8. Additionally, the chain end reward will be available if you complete the other quests in the chain.

Named Chest Drop

Last Edited	Item	Type	Enhancements	ML	Bind	Quests
Update 48.4.3 3 years and 29 days BugTime	Parasitic Breastplate ^(edit)	Light Armor	+5 Enhancement Bonus+5 Enhancement Bonus: +5 enhancement bonus to Armor Class. Symbiotic FlexibilitySymbiotic Flexibility: Because this suit of armor has merged with your body, the flexibility it affords you is practically unparalleled. A suit of armor that has this property has a maximum Dexterity bonus 4 higher than normal, and its armor check penalty is reduced by 4. Diehard Diehard: If you are incapacitated while this item is equipped, it will automatically stabilize you as if you had the Diehard feat. Trace of MadnessTrace of Madness: You can almost hear faint, panicked voices when this item is close to you. Perhaps the latent power of this item's hint of madness could be brought out by some catalyst. Symbiotic BacklashSymbiotic Backlash: This item is symbiotic and grants you benefits, but it also deals 2 to 12 extra damage to you when enemies roll a 20 on an attack against you. Rough Hide +3Rough Hide +3: This item fuses with your body and toughens your skin, providing a +3 Primal bonus to your natural armor.	14	Bound to Account on AcquireBound to Account on Acquire: This item is Bound to Account on Acquire	In The Flesh, End chest
Update 65.1 3 months and 5 days Dywypi	Mindfury Symbiont ^(edit)	Trinket	Greater EfficacyGreater Efficacy Caster level: 1 Charges: 3 (3/day) — 3 Charges (Recharged/Day:3) Spell Focus I Spell Focus I: +1 Equipment bonus to the DC of all spells. Spell Lore VISpell Lore VI: Passive: All of your spells gain a 6% Equipment bonus to their chance to critical hit. Constitution -2 Constitution -2: This item makes the wearer less healthy, granting -2 Constitution. Fortitude Save -2 Fortitude Save -2: This item gives a -2 penalty to your Fortitude saves.	15	Bound to Character on AcquireBound to Character on Acquire: This item is Bound to Character on Acquire	In The Flesh, End chest (Heroic Hard or Elite)

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Monsters

Name ^{( picture )}	CR	Type	Race
Beholder ^{( view • edit )}	♦14Normal ♥16Hard ♠19Elite ●♦20Epic Normal ●♥41Epic Hard ●♠66Epic Elite	Aberration	Beholder
Dead Pykzyl ^{( view • edit )}	♦19Normal ♥22Hard ♠28Elite	Undead	Beholder
Greater Thaarak Hound ^{( view • edit )}	♦15Normal ♥18Hard ♠21Elite	Evil Outsider	Hellhound
Mind Flayer Mage ^{( view • edit )}	♦16Normal ♥19Hard ♠23Elite	Aberration	Mind Flayer
Pykzyl ^{( view • edit )}	♦17Normal ♥20Hard ♠25Elite	Aberration	Beholder
Sculpted Hound ^{( view • edit )}	♦17Normal ♠25Elite	Evil Outsider	Hellhound
Taken ^{( view • edit )}	♦13Normal ♥15Hard ♠18Elite	Aberration	Taken
Xorian Render ^{( view • edit )}	♦15Normal ♥18Hard ♠21Elite	Evil Outsider	Demon
Yaulthoon ^{( view • edit )}	♦18Normal ♥22Hard ♠28Elite	Aberration	Mind Flayer
Young Beholder ^{( view • edit )}	♦12Normal ♥14Hard ♠17Elite	Aberration	Beholder