Help Omeluum Investigate the Parasite

Help Omeluum Investigate the Parasite is a sub-quest of Act One's main quest,  Find a Cure. It can be initiated by speaking with Blurg and Omeluum at Ebonlake Grotto (the Myconid Colony), and informing them of the parasite.

Omeluum hopes to aid the party in removing their parasite.

Objectives

Let Omeluum examine the parasite.

• We mentioned the parasite to Blurg, a hobgoblin. His colleague, a mind flayer named Omeluum, offered to examine it. Perhaps it can cure us?

Ask Omeluum how to negate the tadpole's magic.

• The mind flayer couldn't extract the parasite, but offered us a way to negate the magic protecting it.

Find the mushrooms Omeluum requested.

• To help us, Omeluum requires a Tongue of Madness mushroom and some Timmask Spores. We can find both at the mysterious tower nearby.
• We found some Timmask Spores. We'll need to bring them back to Omeluum once we find the Tongue of Madness.
• We found the Tongue of Madness. We'll need to bring it back to Omeluum along with the Timmask Spores.

Drink the potion Omeluum made for us.

• Before Omeluum can start the procedure, we'll need to drink the potion it made from the mushrooms we found.

Get the Ring of Mind Shielding from Omeluum.

• The potion Omeluum gave us didn't work - it made the parasite even stronger. To calm it down, Omeluum is willing to trade us a ring of mind shielding.

Quest Completed!

• We left the area before Omeluum could help. We'll need to find a cure somewhere else.

Walkthrough

The quest is officially started by talking to Blurg, who upon learning about your situation (if the party chose to share), summons his ally Omeluum to consult. Talking to Omeluum and agreeing to its plan to brew the potion will kick off the quest.

To complete this quest, the party will have to travel to the Arcane Tower per Omeluum's instructions to obtain the items they need.

However, it is also possible to both acquire Tongue of Madness and Timmask Spores without entering the tower. For Timmask mushrooms, approaching them in turn based mode and picking up the spores before they disappear works. Tongue of Madness can be bought from Derryth Bonecloak.

The Arcane Tower

Dealing with the defences

An active Arcane Cannon.

The tower is guarded by automated Arcane Turrets. They are automatically hostile and will shoot at the party members whenever they're in sight-line and in range - there is a targeting indicator that will tell this. Anything that breaks this line of sight indicator - i.e. solid obstacles - will effectively stop the attacks.

Automated defences do not trigger a turn-based combat encounter - rather, they will shoot and attack in real-time exploration mode as well. It is recommended to turn on turn-based mode to make movement and controlling the party more manageable.

In general, there are a few approaches to dealing with these the Arcane Cannons:

• Brute force - the cannons can be directly damaged and rendered inoperable. They have some resistances and Lightning vulnerability.
• Override - the cannons can be shut down once gaining access to the 1st floor and restores power.
• Running by/Stealth - this is best done in turn-based mode as it'll allow the party members to move cover-to-cover between turns.
• Anti-Magic - as the Arcane Cannons are magical constructs, being within the vicinity of the Anti-Magic effect of the Sussur Bloom will shut them down temporarily.
  • Sussur Blooms can be found in the garden at the bottom of the Arcane Tower, or at the Sussur Tree in Dread Hollow.
  • Attacking a Cannon while it's shut-down by the Anti-Magic field will destroy it, as opposed to "knocking it out".

Cannons that have previously been rendered inoperable (by brute force) but not destroyed can actually be revived by the Anti-Magic aura, by walking into and then out of its range.

Navigating the tower

The fungus on the south wall serving as jumping platforms.

In general, there are two formal/obvious ways to navigate the tower:

• Platforming on the fungus growing on the South side of the tower through which the party can access the 2nd floor, and the exterior of the 1st.
• Restoring power and using the elevator (all floors).

If having access to flight (such as the  Fly spell, or the Circle of the Moon Druid's Dire Raven form), the party can completely bypass the need to restore the tower's power. However, this means they'll give up on 25 Experience and potentially inspiration points for the Guild Artisan background.

To successfully finish the quest, it is necessary to visit first floor (greenhouse), which contains some Tongue of Madness mushroom and Timmask Spores. Once they have these, they can return to Omeluum to finish the quest. Everything else is strictly optional. See Arcane Tower for more information.

Returning to Omeluum

Once returning to Omeluum, it will brew the potion as promised, and attempts to extract the tadpole from the talking party member.

If passing a passive DC 10 Insight check, the party can learn that Omeluum expects doubt and fear from them. If asked if the experiment is dangerous, it will tell them that it does not know what the potion will make them see or feel, but that they may become a danger to themselves. The illithid will however reassure them that the potion won't kill them.

The character that drinks the potion will automatically attempt a series of saving throws.

First saving throw

A passive DC 15  Constitution saving throw which, if failed, will inflict  Poisoned on the character for 10 rounds.

Second saving throw

Once Omeluum starts psionically probing, the tadpole will resist, and the party member must choose whether to attempt a save, either with a DC 10  Intelligence saving throw or DC 10  Wisdom saving throw. If the party member fails the saving throw, they gain the  Tongue of Madness condition for 5 turns, which gives them Disadvantage on Charisma checks.

Third saving throw

The interacting party member must finally attempt a second saving throw, this time with a DC 15  Wisdom saving throw or DC 15  Intelligence saving throw. (There are three dialogue options, but two of them lead to the same Wisdom saving throw while the third is Intelligence.) The party member is Dazed for 5 turns if they fail this save, which gives them disadvantage on Wisdom and Intelligence checks.

Survival Instinct

Regardless of which saves were successful, Omeluum is unable to extract the tadpole. Rather, its intervention has caused the tadpole to become stronger. This results in the party member that drank the potion gaining the Survival Instinct power. At this point, the quest will be marked as complete.

As it was unable to help, Omeluum will offer the party its Ring of Mind-Shielding, though it would not part with it completely for free.

The party can either buy this ring or convince Omeluum to give it to them in several variants: by DC 15 Persuasion check (Githyanki have a unique dialogue line for this option), DC 20 Intimidation check, or proposing to describe the inner structure of a Nautiloid. The latter demands either an DC 10 Intelligence check which has an Advantage if the player has read a relevant Rune Slate while being on the ship in the Prologue, or a DC 10 Performance check.

Quest rewards

• The character who drinks Omeluum's potion gains the Survival Instinct tadpole ability.
• Ring of Mind-Shielding (can be purchased or obtained through checks).
• Omeluum becomes a trader, with notable items like Pearl of Power Amulet and Creation's Echo in its inventory.

Notes

• Although Lae'zel, if she is present, will be extremely rude to Omeluum and generally hostile to the idea of working with an Illithid, her Approval is not affected by anything that happens in this quest.