Have you found the Baldur’s Gate 3 iron flask in the caravan strongbox? You can find this by meeting the two Zhentarim mercenaries being attacked by Gnolls, with the strongbox in the cave near them. If you don’t open it, you can deliver it to the Zhentarim, if you do, well, they won’t be too pleased. But what’s actually inside it, and is it worth opening it and upsetting the Zhentarim? Read on and find out!
Baldur's Gate 3 Caravan Strongbox guide
To get to the caravan strongbox, you'll need to venture through the cave near Waukeen's Rest. However you get into the cave you'll meet Rugan, the leader of some Zhentarim mercenaries. You can make sort of friends with him and trigger the mission Missing Shipment which tasks you with finding some of his friends at drinking spot by the tavern, using the code 'little serpent, long shadow'.
While he seems friendly, he won't let you near the strongbox and you can't get it open without killing everyone - if you keep trying to look at it, he'll stop you and repeated efforts will trigger a fight. If you’re dead set on taking possession of it, but don’t want to fight everyone, you can pass two speech checks to take it off their hands while keeping them alive. Lockpicking it will also trigger a fight straight away, so make your choice as to how you'll trigger the inevitable if you decide to fight them or steal the chest.
What's in the caravan strongbox in Baldur's Gate 3
While there's a few things in the Baldur's Gate 3 caravan strongbox, the main thing of interest is an Iron Flask. If you examine it and pass an Arcana check you'll find out it's a 'powerful magical item capable of trapping and holding a creature'. Obviously that begs the question what creature? The answer is a level 5 Spectator:
If you just open the bottle this thing will appear and you'll instantly find yourself in a fight. It's got 95 hit points and, while it's not too hard to defeat, you'll get nothing from it. The creature doesn't drop any loot. It's better to hold onto the bottle and use it as a sort of monster grenade - if you're having a tricky fight, or want to soften up some opponents first, just throw the bottle at the problem you want to solve and let the Spectator deal with - though keep in mind that the spectator will not be friendly to you, and will attack anybody nearby, allies and enemies alike, until everything is dead.
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