Save the Grymforge Gnomes is a Quest in Baldur's Gate 3. Save the Grymforge Gnomes can be acquired during Act I. Completing Save the Grymforge Gnomes will progress the story forward.
Save the Grymforge Gnomes Objectives
Free the Deep Gnomes
- We spoke to some gnome captives. Their leader Beldron is trapped in the cave-in, and their friend Philomeen ran off with some explosives.
- We found Philomeen — she wants nothing to do with the other deep gnomes. We should focus on helping the others.
Check on the survivors
- We cleared the cave-in. We should check for survivors.
Save the Grymforge Gnomes Walkthrough
- You can get this quest at Myconid colony. Save the wounded gnome (give her an antidote), to get BOOTS OF SPEED.
- Talk to Lunkbug or Barcus Wroot at the Dig site, in Grymforge. If you helped Thulla previously, you can tell her she sent you. You will learn about Philomeen, (You can also learn about her from Brithvar, but not her name), running away with smokepowder
- If you manage to convince Lunkbug to talk, he tells you about Philomeen's escape and points her possible location on your map.
- Go to that location and obtain the Runepowder Vial from Philomeen. Return to the enslaved gnomes. If you don't fight Philomeen, she asks you to tell Laridda that she died.
- When you return to the dig site and blow the rubble open using the Runepowder Vial (or other explosives, see Find Explosives), True Soul Nere will emerge from the explosion, and not too pleased with the Deep Gnomes. You can interrupt him. (In the Cutscene, Nere kills the gnome girl Meerna. There's no way to save her, even if you engage Nere before he blast her into the lava, she will have no interaction and considered dead by other NPCs. )
- After the confrontation, if you decided to save the Gnomes, Beldron will talk to you and tell you about the situation about their leader, Wulbren.
- You will earn Rescue the Gnomes in Moonrise Towers. Unlike the rest of the Deep Gnomes, Barcus Wroot is going to save Wulbren, you can invite him to your camp, and he will accept.
- If you manage to save the gnomes, you can meet them again in Moonrise Towers prison in Act 2 and Angleiron's Cellar in Act 3.
How to unlock Save the Grymforge Gnomes
- You get this quest by talking to Lunkbug, one of the Deep Gnomes being overworked by Sergeant Thrinn at the Grymforge.
- If you saved Barcus Wroot at the Blighted Village, he can be found enslaved here, you can also get this Quest from him.
- You can also earn this quests by saving Thulla at the Myconid Circle.
- Keeping Barcus Wroot and other gnomes alive gives you good reputation among the Ironhand gnomes, in Act 3 you will be able to solve their conflicts with the Gondians and get more allies in final battle. (Gather your Allies)
Save the Grymforge Gnomes Rewards
- You receive gold once you save Beldron. You can decide to decline the offering, stating that he and his people will find it more useful than you.
Save the Grymforge Gnomes Notes & Tips
- Notes & tips go here
AnonymousHere's how I did it pretty easily on my first tactician run (combat lasted barely 2 rounds, no one on my party had to use any heals of any sort)
1) Get the baby spider's to leave (someone on the team must know how to speak with animals). There's a chance they may interrupt as well.
2) Kill the tracking ball thingy where no one could spot it (I do it in the sacrifice room behind where the Duergar are throwing the dead slaves into the water). Activate turn based mode and you should have enough dpr to just kill it before it can do anything.
3) Go up and meet Philo, but you don't need to get her runepowder (you have some smokepowder satchels in a room just before the place where the Duergar were throwing the slaves.
4) Explore the back half of Gyrmforge. Do not go and interact with Elder Brithvar just yet, since if you do, he goes and kills Nere if you try exploring anywhere and don't try to start the fight just yet. Good things to do: Help the stonemason and describe everything. He gives you infernal iron and then he and his partner do not engage/ are friendly for the encounter. Kill the Duergar torturing the beasts in the back, and have them clear the rubble.
5) Explore the area beyond the rubble and disengage all the traps to where your ranged aoe spellcaster can stand on the wide metal platform overlooking the fight area.
6) Go and speak to Elder now. Split your party to have the wizard go up where described earlier. Have your spellblade/ ranged and melee brawler go up the ladder behind where the trader is. This would be excellent vantage in the fight and there is one enemy here who'd otherwise rain fire on your party constantly. That enemy is also the only one who can target your aoe spellcaster immediately. Have your Fighter/tank stand right in the center and have your single target DPR right where they are covered by your tank, and would have a clean shot on Nere when he arrives.
7) Talk to the Sergeant and finish the boots quest if you want to. Talk to the Gnomes if you want to. Blow up the rubble and have the fight begin. There are dialogue options to pick which would make Elder Brithvar and his men be on your side.
With haste or a potion of speed, your single target DPR should be able to burst down Nere to 1/3 -1/4 of his health even before he gets going. Your aoe spellcaster has vantage and cannot be touched in melee for basically the entire fight, and can burn down any grouped up threats you come across. Your spellblade can kill enemy on the platform and then pepper in damage from above as well. Your tank covers your DPR and makes sure that Neer or other hard hitters don't get to your damage dealers too quickly. It's basically a massacre.
- Anonymous
Worst quest so far. Elder Brithvar deal does not always trigger, so if you want to save the gnomes playing fair and following the story, you'll find yourself against 10 duergars plus Nere at once. On top of that, they will also instakill characters pushing them into lava with magic and thunder arrows.
Only way is to kill all duegars before hand in small groups with no reason story-wise.
- Anonymous
Fight - I started with zero spells or bonus resource actions for any group member, and no short rests available = I knew a long rest was needed but gave it a try first...
Personally I locked down the most dangerous foes, like Nere, with hold person and other crowd control. This was crucial to reduce incoming damage and focus my own damage.
2nd, positioning was crucial. There is a landing overlooking the whole fight area, I positioned 3 party members there and joined them with my main ASAP. This had several vital benefits = Height advantage. Forcing enemy to attack in 1s and 2s as they come up the ladder allowing me to focus my damage. Playing "peakaboo" by moving, casting/shooting, then moving back out of danger away from the edge. Plus all the enemy naturally grouped together as they approached the ladder... there is a large brazier above which I shot down to do a huge amount of aoe damage... them grouping together also allowed for some huge thrown aoe item damage.
It was an enjoyable fight, which cost a lot of healing potions and thrown items.
If I could be bothered I would probably reload and long rest , I assume given I coped without, this would render the fight significantly easier, but whatevs, a wins a win. I also imagine being at lower lever, say 3 or 4, would making this fight a lot more challenging.
- Anonymous
Weirdly, Karlach disapproves if you take a side between the mercenaries and Nere, but not if you let the mutiny play out in silence. Then when I assumed someone with her alignment would approve of me negotiating the freedom of the gnomes, neither she nor any other companions reacted. The dialogue choice is also a little confusing because when I saw "rebels" I thought it meant the gnomes, but when she disapproved and they didn't join in the battle I realized the choice just referred to the mercenaries.
- Anonymous
Sided with Brithvar, looted Nere mid fight (1k gold). Freed the Gnomes (intimidation) and I've killed Brithvar and his crew (he mentions that someone was picking his pockets when asked for gold). Now, when talking with Beldron, he says "Here - Ironhand Gnomes honour their debts". I do not receive any gold or items - only 120 xp for finishing the quest. There is also no option to decline.
- Anonymous
Well. That's just damned annoying. I wanted it to not be true, but Larian did Meerna dirty. Coulda chucked his whining brother into the Lava and had her go on a possible vengeance kick... but nope... keep the dope alive and chuck her into the lava... stop from hitting the lava by interrupting the scene? Poof out of existence. Kill Nere before the scene starts? Poof out of existence. Glad I need his head for a quest, chucking the body into the abyss after I loot it, and submerge it in lava, smash it under the forge hammer, and for good measure fry it with a little bit of shock therapy.
- Anonymous
IMPORTANT! : If you travel to another area, other than the Grymforge, after you got the explosive Vial from the runnaway Gnome (Philomeen), and then return to the Grymforge, the rubble will already be taken away, Nere will be laying there, dead and everyone gone (Gnomes and the Dwarves). Meaning you will fail the quest.
I should mention though, that this most likely will only happen if you conspired previously with one of the Dwarves (I forgot his name) to kill Nere, once he gets freed. He hates the absolutes and true Souls, so thats probably why Nere will be found dead on the ground. So, it's best to not leave the Grymforge after getting the Vial and instantly go to free Nere and save the Gnomes.
- Anonymous
If you allied yourself with the Mercenary Duegar and the Gnomes, defeating the True Soul and talking to Elder Brithvar afterwards and choosing other than the "what will happen to the Gnomes" option will automatically enslave them. Talking to Elder Brithvar again won't let you choose any other option. Talked to Beldron after this but he only gave me a canned response, he didn't mention Wulbren.
I thought the options that were presented was just you asking questions not actually making a final decision.
Found it the hard way when I tried talking to Thulla again after spending hours finishing other quests and she's just stuck at Myconid Village. The quest on my Journal says the quest is completed. Sucks that Thulla is basically stuck at the dancing mushroom people.
- Anonymous
Quest is bugged at the very end, no progress after "check for survivors" then everyone leaves after long rest.
- Anonymous
I failed the quest. Guess i took too long to explore the whole place before. Everyone was gone all of a sudden and Nere was lying dead.
- Anonymous
I'm kinda pissed, they all died during a cutscene. At least the drow had GG loot
- Anonymous
The gnome Laridda can be saved, I confirm it. What I did was simply skip the cutscene very quickly, then to my surprise I realized that she was still alive and I can even talk to her: she says "At least some of us are safe, praise her hand of iron" "I wish there were more things to celebrate" that is mentioned in the dialogue, the point is that the gnome is still alive.
- Anonymous
Page says to use the Runpowder but I couldn't get the next described scene since the explosion is way too big and everyone gets hurt, resulting in immidiate retaliation.
- Anonymous
Sad that there's no way to save Meerna from being yeeted into the lava. Interrupting Nere before the cutscene starts makes Meerna disappear.
- Anonymous
Pretty sure I bugged the quest because I cleared Grymforge before talking to Thulla lol. I mean I did kill all the Duergar (like excessively: the beach, the boat boarding, grymforge) and True Soul Nere. But my journal says talk to the deep gnomes (the ones you freed) and I distinctly remember them all scattering during the fight with Nere and Thrinn. Nobody came to thank me after the fight and now hours later I visit the Myconid colony for the first time and meet Thulla lol. No idea where the gnomes are now; teleported around grymforge and underdark looking for them.
- Anonymous
Where do the deep gnomes go after a long rest? I didn't talk to them before resting.
Used Lumps Horn, and they attacked the gnomes.
reloaded and fought the duegar, gnomes joined as the enemy. Could not get these guys to either run away or join our side.
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