Venture into Baldur’s Gate 3’s cellar under the Blighted Village, and you’ll find a series of hidden doors, with one being guarded by a talkative mirror. You’ll want to get past this mirror, especially as the Baldur's Gate 3 Necromancy of Thay and everything that comes with it is hidden behind there.
There are a number of different ways that you can get through the mirror in BG3, as well as find Shovel, a delightful and erudite companion. Here’s how you can loot to your heart’s content and get past the secret cellar door.
How to open the cellar door in Baldur's Gate 3
The cellar in Baldur's Gate 3 under the Blighted Village Apothecary has an obvious secret door behind a bookcase, but it's hard to know how to open it. What you need to do to open the secret door is move the crates to the left of the bookcase, by pressing down on the mouse while your character stands near them and dragging them to the side. Behind them is a lever, marked on the image above - pull that to move the bookcase and open the secret door!
Behind the secret door is an open cave with undead enemies hidden in their coffins. Interacting with the coffins will cause you to be surprised, giving them an extra round of combat, but you don’t need to fight them, and can safely avoid the fight by not interacting with the coffins.
After that, progressing will find a little wooden platform to the east - and a big ornate mirror that shows a little more than your own face when you look into it.
How to get past the Ornate Mirror in Baldur's Gate 3
The Ornate mirror speaks when spoken to, and is enchanted to allow an ally of its master through. To convince it to let you through, give the following replies in this order:
1. (Any non-aggressive response).
2. "Yes, an ally! I'm an ally of your master's."
3. "Szass Tam is a foul, wretched creature."
4. "I read a doctor's journal - he used balsam ointment to clean a wound." (dialogue option varies depending on whether you have read the book near the lever that opens the bookcase secret door). If you have not done this, you can still say to clean a wound, just without the additional context.
5. (Any answer except "I'd see the ones I love.")
It’s also possible to skip the puzzle with a successful Intimidation, Persuasion, or Strength check.
Doing this correctly will allow you into the laboratory of Ilyn Toth, but failing will have the door summon a construct to attack you. If you get past, you can find the Baldur's Gate 3 Necromancy of Thay (be warned, the cage it's kept in is trapped by a pressure plate just outside you'll want to disarm).
How to find the Cellar in Baldur's Gate 3
If you've heard about the cellar to search in Baldur's Gate 3 but aren't sure where to find it, you can find it inside the Apothecary shop - the one filled with all the plants and bottles - just to the left as you enter the Blighted Village. Behind the counter is a wooden hatch, shown on the image above, at coordinates X:32 Y:379. Just interact with that to drop down and find the first room with the bookcase mentioned above.
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