Baldur’s Gate 3 Grymforge Gnomes: How to rescue the Grymforge Gnomes

After delving deep into the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3, you’ll eventually find yourself in the middle of some trouble between the Deep Gnomes and the druergars. The druergars are using the Deep Gnomes as slaves, and working most of them to death. So much so that they’re fleeing in fear, and desperately wanting to escape.

To save the Grymforge Gnomes, you’re going to need some explosives, and to prepare your party for one hell of a battle against the druergars. You’ll also want to keep an eye on the clock, too, or else the gnomes may meet their demise anyway. Without further ado, here’s how to save the Grymforge Gnomes in Baldur’s Gate 3.

How to rescue the Grymforge Gnomes in Baldur’s Gate 3

When saving the Deep Gnomes in Grymforge, you’ll first want to keep in mind that you have a time limit. If the time runs out before you’ve saved the Gnomes, you’ll fail your quest. So, make sure you save your game once kicking things off.

First things first, you need to kick off this quest if you haven’t already. This can be done after returning Sergeant Thrinn’s missing boots, which will take you directly to her location in Grymforge.

After speaking with her, speak to the Deep Gnomes by the Cave In here; if you rescued the Gnome in Blighted Village, you’ll be able to speak to him - Barcus Wroot - here.

Alternatively, you can speak with the Gnome called Lunkbug. Speaking with either will start the ‘Save the Grymforge Gnomes’ quest.

Now, it’s time to track down and use some explosives.

How to blow up the Grymforge Cave In in Baldur’s Gate 3

If you happen to have two Smokepowder Bombs to hand, this next segment is very easy. If not, we’re going to have to hunt down another Deep Gnome called Philomeen. Lunkbug will tell you about Philomeen, if you can persuade him to; if not, you’ve fortunately got this very useful guide to hand.

Basically, we need to blow-up this Cave In and free True Soul Nere before we can save the Gnomes.

• If you have Smokepowder Bombs:

If you have Smokepowder Bombs (we found some after killing the Goblins at the Goblin Camp!), you can hurl two at the Cave In to make it explode. You’ll want to be careful not to hurt the other Gnomes though, so make sure to save before attempting this.

After a successful explosion, you can continue this guide from ‘Should you side with True Soul Nere?’ below.

• If you don’t have Smokepowder Bombs:

If you don’t have Smokepowder Bombs, don’t fret. You can reload a save from before starting the quest and then spend some time finding them, or we can go and track down another Deep Gnome called Philomeen.

Philomeen will be in possession of the Runepowder Vial, which we can use to blow up the Cave In. She’s snuck off to a secret hiding spot, however. If you need her wares, take a look at our page on where to find Philomeen, and then come back here.

Should you side with True Soul Nere in Baldur's Gate 3?

At the Cave In, with explosives in hand, hurl the Runepowder Vial (or Smokepowder Bombs) at the Cave In, taking care not to hurt the Gnomes working on it. You’ll then want to fire an arrow at the Vial to detonate it once everyone has moved a safe distance away.

True Soul Nere will then emerge from the Cave In, clearly displeased with the Gnomes mistake. During this dialogue, you can choose whether or not to save the Gnomes.

• To rescue the Gnomes, choose ‘Stop! No more innocents will die today, Nere.’
• If for some reason, you fancy siding with the Absolute and killing the Gnomes, choose ‘Finish the slaves, True Soul. For the Absolute.’

After choosing to save the Gnomes, we then selected the following dialogue options:

• Of course I care. I can’t let these gnomes suffer.
• You wouldn’t dare. I’m faithful to the Absolute.

This will then result in a fight between your party, True Soul Nere, and the duergars. If you instead side with Nere, you’ll still be fighting the duergars alongside Nere (who is kind of useless in combat), and the gnomes will die.

A few tips we’ve picked up are that you can actually fight the duergars before speaking with True Soul Nere, and then your party can be positioned much better. You can also recruit the help of Elder Brithvar, who is upset with Nere for having not paid their wages. You'll need to do this before the fight, and Brithvar can be found on a balcony just north of the cave-in, speaking with Stone Guard Kur. They'll take no convincing at all to join, and will make the fight much easier.

Alternatively, shoving as many combatants into the lava as possible, or attempting to disarm them, can save your party from being bludgeoned to death immediately. We also recommend trying to be Level 5 before taking on this fight, but we managed it at Level 4 with the help of Brithvar.

Once the fight is over, you’ll speak with Brithvar, provided that he survived. If not, you’ll be talking with Kirgrath. The gnomes will offer you a Gold reward for their rescue, which you can choose to decline if you feel they need the money more.

Now, you’ll need to either persuade or intimidate the remaining duergar into letting the gnomes free. Once that’s done and the duergar take off, finally, the gnomes will explain that they’re still missing one more gnome; their leader, who has been taken to Moonrise Towers.

You’ll run into them later, but for now, you can lorde over your gnome rescue mission and check out what else Grymforge has to offer. Don’t forget to return to the Myoncid Colony, too, where you can get a reward for delivering Nere’s head.

For more on Baldur’s Gate 3, here's where to find the Adamantine Forge down in Grymforge, and whether you should avenge Glut's circle or not.