Save the Grymforge Gnomes - Baldur's Gate III Guide - IGN (2024)

Save the Grymforge Gnomes is a side quest in Baldur’s Gate 3. While the fate of most of the gnomes are tied to another quest, there are a few that can be found elsewhere. This walkthrough will guide you through finding all of the gnomes and show you how to rescue them.

How to Start Save the Grymforge Gnomes

To start this quest, cure Thulla in the Myconid Colony. After healing her, she’ll ask that you help free the other gnomes being enslaved by the duergar across the lake in the Underdark. Accepting her request will add the quest to your journal.

Crossing the Lake

To find the Gnomes, you’ll need to head to the Duergar encampment to the southwest of the Myconid Colony and use Gekh Coal’s boat to cross the lake.

If you tell Gekh you found the boots he was searching for, he’ll let you use his boat to return them to Sergeant Thrinn. Once you cross the lake, you’ll have to search through the Grymforge region to find the other gnomes and help them.

Finding Philomeen

To find Philomeen’s hiding spot, and an explosive, walk south around the dock when arriving in Grymforge, until you arrive at a pair of duergar tossing bodies into the water. Convince them to let you take over so they leave, then pick the lock on the large double doors nearby.

Head through and walk over to the northeast corner of the next room until you perceive a button on the wall.

Pushing it reveals a hidden door leading to a large room with a staircase and some suspicious puddles of acid.

Head upstairs, fighting the Ochre Jellies as you go, then take a left at the top of the staircase, heading over to a pointed cliff to the east and leaping to another cliff.

From here, you’ll find a large pair of double doors, but despite their ornate appearance they can be lockpicked.

Head inside to find a deep gnome named Philomeen threatening to set off a cache of explosive powder. If you can talk her down, she’ll offer a vial of the special powder (runepowder) in exchange for letting her go. She may also reveal that she needs to bring this extremely destructive powder to Baldur’s Gate, for reasons she can’t divulge.

It’s up to you whether or not to let her go, but if you refuse her deal she’ll set the powder ablaze, killing herself and potentially your whole party. If anyone is far enough from the blast, they’ll survive, but there seems to be no specific benefit to allowing Philomeen to destroy the cache (besides stopping her from potentially attacking Baldur’s Gate). If you agree to let her go, then enter turn-based mode, you can kill her without the risk of her blowing up the barrel of powder, which you can then loot.

Ultimately, Philomeen won’t be joining the rest of the freed gnomes, but the vial she gives you can be used to free Nere.

Saving Skickpit

On your way to the double doors leading to Philomeen, you may stumble across a gnome named Skickpit being harassed by a pair of dwarves. They’re forcing him to serve them drinks, so if you’d like to free him without starting a fight, wait until Skickpit heads over to a barrel of beer to refill their drinks and heads back to serve them.

Then sneak and interact with the barrel to open a combine menu, adding poison into the second slot in order to poison the whole barrel. Then wait for Skickpit to refill their drinks again and the pair of dwarves will die shortly after they’re served. Speak to him and suggest he runs off to hide until it’s safe.

Saving the Rest of the Gnomes

Once you’ve freed Nere from the cave in, you have the opportunity to turn on him. If you kill him and Sergeant Thrinn, you’ll need to convince Brivthar (or one of his allies, if Brivthar died in the battle with Nere) to let the gnomes go free. This is easier than convincing Nere, but you can still simply turn on the duergar if you fail to persuade him otherwise.

If you choose to ally with Nere, you still have the opportunity to set the gnomes free, but it’s a risky prospect, because Nere will brand you a traitor and attack you if you fail the roll. If you survive the battle or succeed on the roll, you can set the gnomes free.

Once you’ve freed the gnomes, speak to the Beldron to wrap up this quest, and potentially accept another side quest pointing you to Moonrise Towers. You can return to Thulla at the Myconid Colony to let her know you succeeded, but the gnomes you saved will join her in the colony after some time passes.

For moreside questsin the region, use the links below:

• Free True Soul Nere
• Defeat the Duergar Intruders
• Find the Mushroom Picker