How to get the Necromancy of Thay in BG3

There are many peculiar items you’ll get your hands on in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the Necromancy of Thay is one of them. It takes some work to get to it, and then you’ll have quite the decision once you’ve found it.

This Ancient Tome is suitably creepy, given its name, but grants you the ability to Speak with the Dead if you open it. Before you even open the Necromancy of Thay, you’ve got to find it first. That’s no easy task, as you’ll have to do some digging to even get to the book’s location.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Necromancy of Thay: How to search the cellar and open the secret passage 

The Necromancy of Thay can be found in the Apothecary’s cellar in the Blighted Village. The Apothecary’s house is at coordinates (X:34, Y:379). If you’re facing the Blighted Village waypoint stone, his house is the one to the left with the big double wooden doors. If you go straight into the house, then turn right, you’ll find the cellar hatch behind the Apothecary’s counter. Go into the cellar.

Once you’re in the cellar, you need to head to the back of the room, straight in the direction the ladder rungs are facing, until you reach a painting of a landscape beside a large bookcase and a stack of crates. Remove the painting and move the crates shown in the image below to you will find a hidden lever. This causes the bookcase to slide to one side, revealing a secret passage.

Enter the secret passage, follow the secret passage and you will see coffins. If you click on a coffin, a skeleton will appear for you to fight. This skeleton will then open the other coffins, so you’ll have a few of them to deal with before moving forward. If you want to avoid a fight, I advise avoiding those coffins as much as possible.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Necromancy of Thay: How to answer the mirror questions

Keep following the path up some stairs until you reach a large mirror beside some kegs. Interact with the mirror, and it will begin a dialogue where it asks you to “Speak your name.” You are given a handful of dialogue options, but you’ll want to choose to “Tell it your name.” The mirror will say it doesn’t know that name and will ask you to declare yourself an ally. Choose the dialogue option, “Yes, an ally! I am an ally of your master’s.” 

To prove you’re an ally, you will need to answer the mirror’s next questions correctly for it to let you in. You can also test your Intimidation skills to try to brute-force your way in, but be careful: The DC is 15, and if you fail your roll, the mirror will summon an orb that creates a path of flames and breaks open the caskets, launching you into a tough battle. This would be a great place to save the game in case of some bad luck or if you simply choose the wrong answer.

Here’s what we recommend answering for each question:

• Question 1: What think you of the Zulkir known as Szass Tam?
  • Answer: Szass Tam is a foul, wretched creature.
• Question 2: Tell me, why might one use balsam ointment?
  • Answer: To clean a wound.
• Question 3: If you could see anything in me, what would it be?
  • Answer: I’d look for whatever spell will rid me of this worm in my head.

Once you’ve answered these questions correctly, the mirror will disappear, revealing another secret passageway. Go through it.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Necromancy of Thay: How to get the rusted key and open the rusted iron gate

Once you go through the hidden passageway before the mirror, you will be in a large room. On the left of where you come into the room, there will be a locked, rusted iron gate that you can lockpick with a set of Thieves’ Tools. Be careful, though: a metal plate will trigger a trap underneath the book, so be sure to disarm it before picking it up.

If you don’t have a set of Thieves’ Tools, all is not lost. Head to the other side of the room to find a smaller room with a shelf on the right-hand side. You can find the rusted key needed to open the locked door on that shelf, as shown in the video below. Pick the key up and head straight ahead out of the room to get back to the locked gate.

Directly at the foot of the gate is a metal-plate trap that can be detected with passive perception. If you can, disarm the trap to avoid the headache. Once that’s done, open the gate and you will see the Necromancy of Thay on a table.

There are more traps in this room, including a gargoyle statue on both the left and right sides of the room. You don’t need to disable those traps before picking up the book, but if you want to be thorough, you can disable them and look around. If you’d like to play it extra safe, though, you can use Mage Hand to pull the book to you.

After you’ve picked up the book, you need to decide whether to destroy or read the Necromancy of Thay.