Omeluum

Omeluum is a friendly mind flayer and trader in Baldur's Gate 3. Omeluum can be found at Ebonlake Grotto in the Underdark after being contacted by Blurg. It is a member of the Society of Brilliance and can be asked for help to  remove the tadpole.

Overview

Background

Omeluum was born with a propensity for arcane magic, giving it the strength to resist the elder brain and defect. Following its ambitions to better the world, Omeluum joined the Society of Brilliance, and now conducts research with its friend and fellow member, Blurg. Currently, they are working to improve living conditions in the Underdark, as well as researching a means to subdue mind flayer "appetites" in hopes of reducing his need to consume brains from one per month to perhaps one per year.

Involvement

Act One

The party can first meet Omeluum after talking to the Hobgoblin trader Blurg at the Myconid Colony. Blurg is a fellow scholar of the Society of Brilliance, who calls for Omeluum to help the party. The party has several opportunities to attack Omeluum during dialogue, and some Companions might actually suggest it. Still, if listening to Omeluum the party learns that it is a rogue member of its society, who was born with special powers, that allow it to resist the control of the Elder Brain of its colony. Omeluum feeds on the brains of creatures of the Underdark 'that oppose the Society's goals', and wishes to help others of his kind by discovering a brain-free diet.

Helping Omeluum investigate the parasite

Main article: Help Omeluum investigate the parasite

If accepting the quest Help Omeluum investigate the parasite, Omeluum asks the party to find some rare mushrooms to prepare its special decoct. The recipe includes Tongue of Madness and Timmask Spores, which both supposedly can be found in the Underdark. However, Blurg interjects and suggests that the party might very conveniently look them up in the Arcane Tower of a local cleric, Lenore De Hurst.

Once bringing Omeluum the required ingredients, it will attempt to remove the tadpole.

The party must clear their mind:

• [MONK] [WISDOM] Use meditation to clear your mind. (DC 10 )
• [WISDOM] Draw on your willpower and resist. (DC 10)
• [INTELLIGENCE] Focus on the present, not the illusions. (DC 10)

...and then resist the tadpole fighting the potion:

• [CLERIC] [WISDOM] Call to your god for protection. (DC 15 )
• [BERSERKER] [WISDOM] No fear. ONLY FURY! (DC 15 )
• [BARBARIAN] [WISDOM] Fear? What's that? (DC 15 )
• [WISDOM] Drown out the tadpole by focusing on a tune. (DC 15)
• [WISDOM] Resist the panic from within. (DC 15)
• [INTELLIGENCE] Wall off your mind from the psionic seizure. (DC 15)

Omeluum not only fails, but also makes the tadpole more powerful (granting this to whoever drank the potion Survival Instinct). The Mind Flayer is surprised and worried about the power of the tadpole, and apologizes for not being of service.

Unable to bring the tadpole issue to a close, Omeluum then offers the party the Ring of Mind-Shielding, which can limit the powers of the larva. The party can then makes an offer for it:

• I have gold. Will that suit?
• I've flown on a mind flayer ship. I can trade you details of the schematics, if you're interested.
• How about I tell you more about that nautiloid? Every last detail.
  • [PERFORMANCE] Give a dramatic retelling of your time on the mind flayer ship. (DC 10)
  • [INTELLIGENCE] Offer a detailed, logical analysis of the nautiloid. (DC 10)
  • [INTELLIGENCE] Enrich your story with details from the designs you found on the nautiloid. (DC 10 ) (if the party read the Rune Slate during the Prologue)
• [PERSUASION] I wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for a mind flayer. You owe me. (DC 15)
• [DUERGAR] [GITHYANKI] [PERSUASION] Your people enslaved mine. The debt is yours to repay. (DC 15 )
• [INTIMIDATION] Either give me the ring, or I'll run you through. (DC 20)
• [BARBARIAN] [INTIMIDATION] Something of little value - your life. (DC 20 )
• [BERSERKER] [INTIMIDATION] YOUR LIFE. GIVE IT. (DC 20 )
• [BARD] [PERFORMANCE] Perform the tale of your adventures so far: 'The Ballad of Brains, Brine Pools and Balderdash.' (DC 15)

After passing the ring to the party (by any available way), the quest to help Omeluum investigate the parasite is completed, and Omeluum becomes open for trading with the party. He has several unique items in stock (see below). Purchasing from him a book On Illithids, Volume XXVI and reading it earns the Inspirational Event The Forbidden Arcane (Sage background).

Act Three

Main article: Retrieve Omeluum

If  Steal a Githyanki Egg was resolved without Lady Esther receiving the Githyanki Egg, the party can meet Omeluum's companion Blurg at the Society of Brilliance Lodge. Blurg informs that they both returned to Baldur's Gate to report to the Society of Brilliance their findings about the party's condition. However, shortly afterwards Omeluum decided to investigate the situation on its own… and disappeared. Blurg tells that his friend believed the problem to be connected to the Cult of the Absolute. He seems not to be overly concerned with Omeluum's whereabouts, but shall agree if the party proposes to track the illithid down. This starts the quest Retrieve Omeluum.

There are no clear hints as to where to start searching, apart from Blurg's vague assumptions. However, if helping Zanner Toobin and / or servants of Umberlee (quests  Save the Gondians and  Avenge the Drowned respectively), Omeluum connects to the party telepathically upon docking at the Iron Throne. It will altruistically prompt the party to save Duke Ravengard, who is also held in the underwater prison, and bide the party not to be concerned with its own fate. Nonetheless, it is possible to save the rogue illithid along with Ravengard and some (or all) Gondian captives.

Omeluum is held in a separate cell in the south-west corner of the Iron Throne, behind a locked door (DC 25) and restrained to a surgical bed. If helped, it becomes an Attached Follower with the ability to  Teleport to Submersible. Once rescued, Omeluum teleports to the Lodge. Unlike Blurg, it cannot be traded with, although it can be pickpocketed. To finish the quest Retrieve Omeluum, the party needs to talk to the illithid once more. Omeluum tells that the Society will not actively help the party in its further battles, but provides the party with a Pouch called Omeluum's Boon that contains several items selected from the Society' vaults, in gratitude for saving its tentacles:

• Fungal Bamboozler
• Potion of Supreme Healing
• Scroll of Dimension Door
• Scroll of Sunbeam
• Wizardsbane Oil

Shop

Corresponds to UND_SocietyOfBrilliance_Mindflayer.

Notable items sold

As a trader, Omeluum will sell the following items:

• Boots of Stormy Clamour
• Creation's Echo
• On Illithids, Volume XXVI
• Pearl of Power Amulet
• Ring of Salving
• The Shadespell Circlet

Combat

Attacks and abilities

 Blur ()

Attackers have Disadvantage on Attack rolls against you.

Doesn't affect creatures that don't rely on sight or that can see through illusions.

 Range: Self

 Dissonant Whispers ()

3d6 (3~18) Psychic

 Frighten a creature: they'll have Disadvantage on Ability checks and Attack rolls and they cannot move.

WIS Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Hold Person ()

Hold a humanoid enemy still. They can't Move, Act, or React. Attacks from within  Range: 3 m / 10 ft are always Critical Hits. At the end of each turn, the affected creature can make a Wisdom Saving throw to end this condition.

WIS Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Levitate (Illithid Power) ()

Float effortlessly to a destination.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Recharge: Per Turn

 Mind Blast ()

4d8 (4~32) + Spellcasting modifier Psychic

Spew forth a conical wave of psychic energy and possibly  Stun targets within.

INT Save

AoE: 14 m / 47 ft (Cone)

Recharge: Long rest

 Silence ()

Create a sound-proof sphere. All within are  Silenced and Immune to Thunder damage.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Sleep ()

Put creatures into a magical slumber. Select targets up to a combined 24 Hit Points.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Teleport to Submersible ()

Teleport yourself and up to one ally back to the Submersible.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

(Only while in the Iron Throne)

Related literature

• On Illithids, Volume XXVI

Related quests

•  Help Omeluum investigate the parasite
•  Retrieve Omeluum

Gallery

• 

  Omeluum's model

• 

  Omeluum's Early Access appearance

• 

  Current version

Notes

• As an illithid, Omeluum is addressed using the "it" pronoun.
• Omeluum's origins are remarkably similar to Grazilaxx, another illithid appearing within the Fifth Edition module, Out of the Abyss. Both of them previously worked with a lich before working with the Society of Brilliance.
  • Omeluum is specifically differentiated as not being the same character, as the text of An History of the Society of Brilliance as Told by Its Members mentions both Omeluum and Grazilaxx as separate colleagues in the society, having founded it together with Blurg and several others.
  • As Blurg was initially mentioned as an Orog in Out of the Abyss, with some remnant dialogue that seems to make reference to this idea, it is possible that both of them underwent changes in development; with Omeluum originally intended to be Grazilaxx.
• Omeluum will teleport away after repeated pickpocket attempts.

External links

• Omeluum on the Forgotten Realms Wiki