Search the Cellar | Baldurs Gate 3 Wiki

Search the Cellar is a Quest in Baldur's Gate 3. Search the Cellar can be acquired during Act 1. Depending on your choices, it might not be possible to complete the quest until reaching a later act. Completing  Search the Cellar will progress the story forward.

Baldur's Gate 3 Search the Cellar Objectives

Find the cellar.

• We found a journal that mentioned a cellar - along with some powerful items. This sounds promising and, more importantly, valuable.

Investigate the cellar.

• We found the cellar mentioned by the journal. Time to have a look around.

Find the necromancer's book.

• The owner of the cellar was more that a doctor - he was a necromancer. And he was obsessed with a particular book.

Decide what to do with the book of necromancy

• We found a strange and powerful tome, 'The Necromancy of Thay'. What should we do with it?

Destroy the Ancient Tome

Destroy the book. 

• Evil is inscribed on every page of this book. But all evil has a weakness - there must be a way to destroy it.

Unlock the Ancient Tome

Unlock the book.

• The necromancer's apprentice mentioned a keygem lost in the tunnels. We need to find it.
• The book is locked tight, and the mechanism isn't shaped for a key. Maybe some kind of stone would work?
• We found the gem to unlock the book.

Find a way to finish The Necromancy of Thay.

• We managed to read most of the book, absorbing some of it's necromantic power, but it snapped shut before we could finish it. There must be a way to reach the end.

How to unlock Search the Cellar

• Read the Apprentice's Journal

Search the Cellar Rewards

• Speak with Dead spell

Search the Cellar Walkthrough

Search the Cellar can be started by reading the Apprentice's Journal. You can find this journal on a Skeleton in the Whispering Depths at (X:-493, Y:-367). The Whispering Depths can be reached through the Well  or through a hole in the floor at the Blacksmith's House in the Blighted Village. Before leaving for the cellar mentioned in the journal, you'll want to grab one more item here in the Whispering Depths.

Head down the southwest path and climb up the Cragged Rock to your right. At (X-539, Y:-364), you'll find some vines going down. Be careful reaching these vines as there's a Phase Spider Matriarch nearby. Either defeat her and the rest of the spiders in the cave to get through, or stealth your way down the vines. Head northwest to (X:-557, Y:-357) to find a Dark Amethyst on the ground.

With these items in hand, you can now make your way to the cellar. Teleport back to the Blighted Village Waypoint. Head into the house right next to the waypoint. Read the Apothecary's Ledger on the bar to learn about the cellar of the house. The cellar can be accessed through a hatch on the floor underneath the window behind the bar.

In the northwest side of the first cellar room, you can find a Healer's Log that you can take a look at to make a future dialogue choice easier to make. When you approach this side of the cellar, your party will roll automatic Perception Checks. If anyone succeeds, you'll find a hidden lever nearby behind three Crates. Interact with it to reveal a hidden passage behind on of the bookshelves nearby.

Head through and follow the linear path to the next chamber. Here, you can open the Mouldering Casket directly to the right for a Scroll of Summon Quasit. If you approach the one in the middle, however, an undead Agile Guardian will pop out of the casket and ambush you. The rest of the guardians hiding in this chamber will come out to join the fight if you approach the casket this way. If you destroy the casket from range instead, you can fight the undead one by one. There are a few Fissured Stalactites on the ceiling you can destroy to deal extra damage.

Once you're done, approach the crevice in the northern wall to find the Dark Journal. Read it to progress the quest a bit further Continue southeast, where you'll find an Ornate Mirror. This Mirror hides a secret and to reveal it, you need to make it believe you are an ally of its master. Interact with it, and your first set of dialogue choices will look like this (some choices may be dependent in your Race and Class):

1. Repeat the name from the book you read: 'Ilyn Toth'.
2. Tell it your name.
3. [DRAGONBORN] I'm, eh - Svriit Hava.
4. Examine your appearance.
5. [WARLOCK] [ARCANA] Examine the mirror, trying to understand it's magic.

The fifth option is a DC 10 Arcana Check exclusive to Warlocks, Sorcerer and Wizard, it will not progress the dialogue.  You should avoid choosing the first option, as this is the name of its master. If you choose the third option, you'll then have the option to declare that you are an ally. The mirror will then ask you about your opinion of Szass Tam. Your character will roll an automatic History Check (the Origin character Gale will pass the Check automatically and give extra lore), but whether you pass this check or not, your next dialogue choice should be saying that Szass Tam is a foul, wretched creature for the mirror to allow you to pass through.

You'll then be asked what balsam ointment is used for. If you read the Healer's Log from earlier, your character will remember having read it and you'll have the choice to answer to clean a wound (the Origin character Gale will also know the answer). For his final question, you'll have the following choices:

1. I'd see the ones I love.
2. I'd look for whatever spells will rid me of this worm in my head.
3. I'd see my enemies suffering.
4. *[SORCERER] Nothing - you're a thing of magic. I can shatter this prison for you, if you wish. 

To gain the mirror's approval, the second choice is a good one, showing that you seek survival and power. If you gave the wrong answer at any point in the conversation, the mirror will send an exploding construct to destroy you. Give the 'correct' answers and the mirror will open up, allowing you to pass through into a secret laboratory.

*The fourth option is only available if you pass Arcana Check earlier and you're Sorcerer, the mirror will also give the approval, for being the first person who asks such a question and welcomes you in.

In the side room on the west side of the laboratory, you'll find a Rusted Key on one of the pot shelves. This key can be used to unlock the gate on the east side of the laboratory. As you approach it, your party will roll automatic Perception Checks. If anyone succeeds, they'll find a trap right in front of the gate that you can disarm through a DC 10 Sleight of Hand Check. Past the gates, your party will roll automatic Perception Checks, again discovering two traps that require succeeding a DC 10 Sleight of Hand Check to disarm. Alternatively, you can place an item on the panel before obtaining the tome to prevent the fireball trap from triggering or use Mage Hand to grab the book from range.

Within the small room, you'll find a tome named The Necromancy of Thay. Place the Dark Amethyst you found earlier in the Whispering Depths into the tome to start. At this point, you'll most likely want to put the book away and make a quick save here. Three people can be given the tome to read, but only one member of your party can read the tome in a single playthrough. Alternatively, this book can be destroyed through Radiant Damage, completing the Destroy the Book sub-objective of the quest. The three people who can read the book are the player character, Astarion, and Gale. If you give it to either Astarion or Gale, you'll gain their approval and you can assume control of them to read the tome. Whoever reads from it will have to succeed in three Wisdom Saving Throws to finish reading from it at this point. If they fail any Saving Throw, the book will remain shut for the rest of the playthrough. The first Saving Throw requires a DC of 10, then the next a DC of 15. Your final set of choices will look like this:

1. [SAVING THROW] Urge your hand to turn another page.
2. [SAVING THROW] Force the book closed.
3. [WISDOM] Drink in the darkness, embracing it, and turn the page.

If you choose the first option, you'll have to succeed in a DC 20 Wisdom Saving Throw. Succeed in at least one Saving Throw, and you'll gain the Necromancy of Thay Status Effect. Succeed in all three Saving Throws, and you'll progress in the Unlock the Tome part of the quest. Head back into the side room to the west where you found the Rusted Key. Pulling the lever at the far end of the room will open up the wall next to it. This leads you back to the entrance of the cellar.

To fully unlock the book, you need to enter the Sorcerous Vault in Baldur's Gate.

To access the vault, sneak into the office of the Sorcerous Sundries, then use the portal there. 

Inside the vault, you can find lots of scrolls and other loot. Don't forget to read The Red Knight's Final Strategem, it gives you a Scroll of Artistry of War.

On the other end of the vault, there are three sealed doors, one leads to Elminster's Vault, and one leads to Karsus' Vault. Both two vaults are locked by now, and you can only open the Silverhand door.

Disarm the traps in the new room, then open the door marked Evocation.

Again, be careful of the traps in the new room, you can put a misc item on the pressure plate to disarm them. Behind the "Wish" door there is a lever to unlock the Elminster's Vault.

Inside Elminster Vault, you will find The Tharchiate Codex which gives you the right knowledge to finish reading Necromancy of Thay. Read The Tharchiate Codex gives you a curse, you can use the Remove Curse spell to counter it.

Now you can finish reading the Necromancy of Thay (DC 20). It gives you a powerful spell called Danse Macabre. (Summon 6 ghouls to fight for you.) 

^{Note: After Patch 1 this was changed to 4 ghouls that are uncontrollable and do not require a corpse.}

^{Note: You can sacrifice the knowledge you learn from the Tome when using the Mirror of Loss in house of Sorrow.}

BG3 Search the Cellar Notes & Tips

• 
  Be careful when you exploring Whispering Depth, there's a Phase Spider Matriarch near the waypoint. Defeat her and you can get Poisoner's Robe (Uncommon clothing). 
• With the Feather Fall spell, you can directly jump to Underdark from this Whispering Depth.
• To access Karsus' Vault, choose Abjuration door, then Silver door.