The Cold, Calculating Jack

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The Cold, Calculating Jack is a quest in Torment: Tides of Numenera that is acquired after completing Fallen to Earth. It involves searching for Matkina, another castoff and assassin of great renown, who might know the person who helped the Changing God create the resonance chamber.

Acquisition[]

This quest is acquired from different sources, depending on what path the player chose to take in the previous quest. If the player went to the Cult of the Changing God for help, Casmeen and Mimeon are the ones to bring this quest up. Verify who gives this quest if the player went with the Order of Truth.

Walkthrough[]

Rumor has it Matkina, popularly known as the "White Death" was last seen somewhere in the Underbelly. Several people can be asked above her above ground, but none have better information than Mapper underground, who agrees to direct the Last Castoff to the assassin in exchange for a favor: Finding the lair of the Changing God, the only place he hasn't mapped out yet.

Lair of the Changing God[]

The lair of the Changing God is very close to the sticha nest. There are several ways to access it:

Ch'kekt can bring the Last Castoff there after they earn their trust by settling the Shaky Foundations quest peacefully through negotiation.
The Master Foreman can build a digging automaton out of the corpse of a stichus (which can be found in the southwest of the Underbelly). This rewards 3 XP and the machine can bring the party to various destinations.

Neither Ch'kekt nor the automaton are willing to go further than the entrance to the sticha lair. This is where their eggs can be found, which provides a good opportunity to steal them for the Shaky Foundations quest. If Ch'kekt is the one to bring the party there, the sticha and the eggs will be long gone, and the path to the Buried Crossroads, one of the Changing God's lairs will be clear.

Once explored, the Last Castoff can return to Mapper and describe the lair, and he keeps his end of the bargain, revealing that Matkina can be found in an old thieves' bolt-hole called the Cave of Last Words. He says the path to it from the Caravanserai is sealed, but it can be accessed from underground, thanks to the sticha or the automaton.

Cave of Last Words[]

Matkina is more than surprised when the party enters the Cave. Obsessed, nervous, emotionally unstable and having lost memories, she is convinced that another castoff named Tash betrayed her, and she thinks entering the man's memory can resolve some of her questions. Without knowing why, she is sure that it has something to do with a jahk.

She cannot seem to use the merecaster which would enable her to do so. Distrustful yet desperate, she asks for the Last Castoff to enter Tash's mere for her and observe his memory.

Tash's mere reveals a little about Matkina's history, but whatever choices are made, the story doesn't unfold the way Matkina thought. Tash didn't attack her and rip memories from her. With that knowledge, she can finally focus and reveal that Mazzof is the name of the castoff that helped the Changing God build the resonance chamber, and that the best bet is to look for him at the castoff sanctuary, Miel Avest. Matkina can then be asked to join the party and guide them to the sanctuary.

This completes the quest and starts the following one: On the Builder's Trail