Baldur’s Gate 3 has many quests that feature NPCs like Philomeen that will provide you items to complete future quests. BG3 can become hard to complete because of a special item hidden from you during the quest. One such quest is the Free True Soul Nere.
You can start this quest when you reach Grymforge. True Soul Nere and a few gnomes are trapped behind a cave and don’t have much time. When you speak to people around you, they tell you to find Philomeen in BG3.
Philomeen is a deep gnome who has escaped from the Duergars. She was fed up with the cruelty being done to her and her people. She also took the Runepowder barrel and ran far away to prepare and fight against the Duergars to free her people.
The mining gnomes will tell you about Philomeen and the Runepowder, but they don’t know where she is. We will now see where Philomeen is, how to get to her, and the possible outcomes of the dialogues with her in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Philomeen location in Baldur’s Gate 3
When you have talked to the miners and guards near the cave-in, you must find Philomeen in BG3. She is in the northeastern part of Grymforge, as shown in the map above. You will have to fast travel to the Underdark-Grymforge waypoint to get to her. From here, move eastward and take the stairs.
Move along the water until you see a locked double door. You will also find two men and many bodies near the door. You will need to unlock this door. Use your character with the highest dexterity so that the Sleight of Hand is successful.
When you unlock the door, move to the far left end of the room. Here you will have to pass a perception check to find a hidden button that will unlock the hidden door to the right of it. Move through the secret door, and two large Double iron doors will be in a small corridor. Move through any door you want and find a few stairs to your right.
A perception check will occur because three level 5 Orchre Jellies in Baldur’s Gate 3 will ambush you. These are resistant to slashing damage, but you can quickly deal damage if you have Piercing or Bludgeoning weapons or have a range build. Also, the ooze on the floor will poison you and your teammates, so avoid it.
When the Orchre Jellies are dealt with, move up the stairs and take the right path. Follow along until you reach the edge of a cliff with a fall in front of you. You must jump from here to the platform in front and move ahead. Now you will find a locked double door. You don’t have to unlock this door and only walk to the back side of the building to find a blown-out wall.
You can use this to enter the chamber, and at the very end of this chamber will be Baldur’s Gate 3 Philomeen.
Possible outcomes of Dialogues with Philomeen in BG3
When you have found Philomeen, you should move towards her, and a dialogue sequence will start. She will threaten to explode herself and the Runepowder too. This is because Philomeen thinks that the Nere sends you to capture her. Also, she doesn’t want to go back.
During the dialogue, you will have many ability checks which you can use to persuade Philomeen. Choose those dialogues which suit your character’s abilities and give you more chances to succeed in calming her down.
1. Succeeding at calming down Philomeen
When you have successfully calmed Philomeen in BG3 down such that she no longer feels you are a threat, she will hand the vile to you. This will not be a lot, but it will be enough to open the cave-in.
Now simply take the vile back to the miners and throw it on the pile of rocks, stand back, and shoot a fire-based projectile to make it explode. This will free the gnomes, and you will complete the Free True Soul Nere quest.
2. Failing to calm down Philomeen
If you fail to calm Philomeen down, she will explode herself and the powder too. This will completely wipe out the powder in the process. You can, however, find more powder other than this stash.
To get your hands on more powder, there will be a backpack with a map of all the stash of the smoke powder on it. When you find it, you can explore the cave-in like before.
3. Attacking Philomeen
The last option to get the Runepoweder from Philomeen is by attacking her. She has a lot of it; when you negotiate with her, she will only give you a small amount. With this method, you will get a lot more than before.
For this, you will have to side with the Duergar and choose to attack Philomeen in BG3. Usually, during the fight, the barrel with explosives will explode. You can, however, prevent that from happening by passing a dexterity check of DC20.
Philomeen isn’t there at her hiding spot?
A bug is associated with this quest in which she will not be there when you reach Philomeen’s hideout in BG3. There are a few ways to solve this problem.
The first method is reloading to a previous save before encountering the Orchre Jellies, killing them, and doing the whole thing again. This has worked a few times, but people have not found Philomeen still after performing this method.
You might also not find her where she is because you might not have searched the area properly. BG3’s map does not show layers in its map, so you have no clue which floor she might be on. You might have missed the hidden switch that opens the passage to her hiding spot.
Finally, if you fail to find Philomeen in any way, there is a simple workaround to complete the quest. You can look for a bag with the map near her hiding spot which will show the location of another stash of the Smokepowder.
