Save the Grymforge Gnomes is a main story quest found in Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate 3. The quest is a required part of the game’s main story progression. Before starting the Save the Grymforge Gnomes quest, understand that it is a time-sensitive quest. You have a specific amount of time to complete the quest, or it will fail. Don’t take long rests or move away during the quest. Complete all of your preparations beforehand.
How to start Save the Grymforge Gnomes in Baldur’s Gate 3
The quest is available in the Grymforge location itself. Here, players need to talk to the gnome Lunkbug. To meet with Lunkbug, players need to talk to Sergeant Thrinn at Grymforge, who has actually captured Lunkbug as his slave and is working him to death. There are two ways to meet Lunkbug himself in BG3.
Save Thulla
The easiest way to progress through and find the Save the Grymforge Gnomes quest in BG3 is by helping Thulla first. Thulla can be found at the Myconid Colony in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Thulla has been attacked and poisoned by Duergars. Pass the Wisdom Check to learn more about the poison and how to cure it, or simply hand over the antitoxin to Thulla. You can also use Lay on Hands and Lesser Restoration spells to save Thulla from her grim fate. This saves Thulla’s life, and you can then talk to her why she was here.
If you agree to help save her people, Thulla will mark the location where you need to go to. You can take the boat found at the Murkwater dock to get to Grymforge. From here, you need to find Lunkbug.
How to save the Gnome prisoners in Grymforge in Baldur’s Gate 3
Before you can get to saving the dark Gnome prisoners, you first need to get to the area where they are held captive. Since the Grymforge Gnomes are captured by Duergars, you will have to kill the Duergar to save the dark Gnomes. Be prepared for a bloodbath during the Save the Grymforge Gnomes quest.
Rescue Skickpit
If you have helped Thulla or not previously, you will still need to follow this. Get to Grymforge and request an audience with Sergeant Thrinn. Make sure to avoid activities that will draw the ire of the whole Grymforge against you.
After players talk to Sergeant Thrinn, they need to persuade Thrinn that they are a True Soul to gain his trust. Here, during your conversation, players will meet Sergeant Thrinn’s slave Skickpit.
Players need to follow Skickpit down the stairs after he is done serving Sergent Thrinn and tell him that they are there to help save him and the other gnomes from slavery. Skickpit won’t believe you at first, but he’ll come around.
To earn Skickpit’s approval, poison the wine container that will kill the dwarves bullying him. Ask him to hide until you rescue the rest of the Grymforge gnomes in BG3.
Find Lunkbug and talk to him
At this point, Skickpit will tell you to meet him at the dig site where gnomes are being forced to labor trying to free True Soul Nere. At the dig site, players can see two gnomes whispering to each other. To see what they are talking about, players need to pass a Wisdom Check for perception. If you do, you will hear the Gnomes talking about getting smoke powder to save their friend.
The male gnome is Lunkbug. Now, if you have helped Thulla before this quest, you can simply tell Lunkbug that Thulla sent you to help, and they will cooperate with you. If not, you need to either intimidate or persuade Lunkbug to tell you what is going on.
Lunkbug will tell you that his clan members are trapped in the cave in along with the True Soul Nere, and they need help clearing out the cave in to free their clan members. However, it is taking too long, and they need the smoke powder to blow out the rubble blocking their path.
Unfortunately, they don’t have any Runepowder bombs and one of the gnomes who had escaped slavery, Philomeen in Baldur’s Gate 3, has some Runepowder Vials that can help. So, they will send you to find the Runepowder bomb.
Deal with Elder Brithvar (Optional)
Before you go on talking to Sergeant Thrinn and True Soul Nere or even the Gnomes, we recommend that you meet with Elder Brithvar. He is the leader of Duergar mercenaries serving Nere. Brithvar seems frustrated because of his contract with True Soul Nere, as he is not paying Brithvar and his mercenaries enough.
As such, if you are willing, you can plot with Brithvar to help take down Nere. Brithvar will share some of Nere’s gold with you and you will get some powerful allies against Nere.
Persuade Philomeen to help you
After talking to Lunkbug, he will mark a location on your spot where he believes Philomeen is. However, we will look at all the steps you need to take to find Philomeen.
Head to the docks, and head west from the Underdark-Grymforge waypoint, head north from the west side of the docks until you get to the Duergar and find Gnome corpses lying here. Near these corpses is a giant iron door. Interact with it and open it using a lockpick to proceed.
Inside the room, players need to pass a Perception check to discover the small button in the corner, that will open the path ahead. Find and interact with the button to proceed. You will find some basic enemies here. Defeat them and continue to get to the door with the intricate pattern on it.
The door is locked, and players need to move along the wall to find a broken segment they can enter through to find Philomeen. Philomeen will be hostile to you, but you can either persuade or intimidate Philomeen. You can also tell Philomeen about saving Thulla to earn her favor immediately.
After getting her to calm down, players can take one Rune Powder Vial from Philomeen. Keep in mind if you try to take all of her Rune Powder Vials, she will detonate them all herself, probably killing you along with herself.
How to get past the rubble in Grymforge
Now, for the sake of this walkthrough, we won’t be siding with True Soul Nere later on and opt to take him out. For this, you should set up your spell slots with the spells you need for the Nere fight, as there are no more Long Rest from here to Nere.
After you get the Rune Powder Vial, head back to the cave-in, and throw the Rune Powder Vial on the rubble. This vial doesn’t explode on contact, and you need to shoot it from afar to detonate it.
Wait for the slave Gnomes to get away from the cave in and shoot the vial with a fire arrow to detonate it. This will clear the rubble completely. If by chance you forced Philomeen to detonate the Rune Powder Vials, you need to find an alternative source.
Fortunately, practically any explosive item can clear out the rubble. The rubble has 14 HP, and you can clear it out by using any other powerful explosives that you might have in your inventory. This will also save you a precious Runepowder bomb.
Talk to Nere (Optional)
Before you clear out the rubble, you can use perception to check if Nere is trying to communicate with you through the rubble. Here, players can pass the Perception check and see through Nere’s eyes what’s going on the other side of the cave in.
After this interaction, you will realize that Nere is infected with a mind flayer parasite and is also a True Soul. True Soul Nere was being given orders by someone else, and this means that Nere’s Absolute is of a Deviant nature. This information has no role here, but some extra context you can get.
How to defeat True Soul Nere
As soon as Nere is free, he will try to kill the Gnomes owing to their inability to free him. Save the Grymforge Gnomes and tell him that you won’t allow Nere’s actions to continue in BG3. Nere will order Thrinn to kill you.
Here, if you have already plotted with Brithvar, you can give him the cue to rebel against Nere. Even if you haven’t plotted already, he will automatically turn on Nere and you will have three options: Either side with Nere, side with Brithvar, or side with none of them.
Since you are planning on defeating True Soul Nere, side with Brithvar so you don’t have to fight him and his Duergars while taking down Nere. You can also get backup this way against Nere.
Nere is a level 5 boss, so you should be at least level 5 as well when fighting Nere. You can use the lava around the fight area to your advantage. Using abilities that push away the enemy such as Thunderwave have a chance to even push off some of the enemies into the lava, killing them instantly. Keep in mind that you and your party members can also fall into the lava.
Next, summon fog around you, or try to reduce Nere’s movement and sight. This causes Nere’s attacks to miss, and you will stay safe from his devastating attacks. Keeping all your party members safe from Nere is crucial as Nere is extremely powerful. We recommended siding with Duergars. If you don’t, you will be sandwiched between Nere and the Duergars, leaving you open from all sides.
You want to depend on elemental attacks when fighting Nere since he is least resistant to such attacks. Use elemental arrows in case you are running a melee build. If you have access to spells, use Alchemist Fire to deal high damage to Nere.
Lastly, you should always maintain a safe distance from Nere. His spells and attacks can practically one-shot you at close range. If Nere is attempting to close the distance, you can use pulse spells to knock him back and maintain the distance.
If you take a long rest after defeating True Soul Nere without talking to the now-freed Gymforge gnomes in BG3, they will go missing. This will bug the Save the Grymforge Gnomes quest and you will be unable to complete it.
So make sure you talk to the Grymforge Gnomes as quickly as possible after killing Nere or the gnomes will disappear.
Rewards for saving Grymforge Gnomes
Once Nere is defeated, players need to convince Brithvar to free the Gnomes from their shackles. You can use both persuasion and intimidation to change his mind and release the enslaved Gnomes. This option to settle things peacefully is available if you sided with the Duergars against Nere and had plotted with him beforehand.
If you fail to persuade or intimidate Brithvar, a fight between you and Elder Brithvar breaks out. Defeat Brithvar to get the Gnomes their freedom.
If you didn’t side with Duergars or had not preplanned with Brithvar, your only option would be to fight him. Again, you need to defeat Brithvar and his Duergars to free the Gnomes.
You will get the following rewards for Save the Grymforge gnomes quest in BG3:
- 2x Illithid Specimen
- Nere’s Head (If you killed Nere instead of letting him live)
- True Soul Nere’s Gold
- Disintegrating Night Walkers (very rare boots)
- Sword of Screams (rare melee weapon)
