Baldur's Gate 3: Blighted Village cellar guide

The Blighted Village cellar is a particularly interesting side quest tucked away in the early hours of Baldur's Gate 3. Through exploring the settlement, you'll come across a cellar tucked away beneath an apothecary shop. Inside, there are numerous puzzles, including a hidden door and a talking mirror you must get past.

In this guide, we'll take you through the entire process of finding the cellar, and making it through the various puzzles found within. At the end there's a special prize that goes beyond just a fancy sword or helmet, so it's well worth doing in every playthrough.

Where is the Blighted Village cellar?

The trapdoor to the cellar can be found behind the counter in the abandoned apothecary in the Blighted Village. Head inside the building right next to the teleportation point, and you should find it quickly!

Once you make your way down into the cellar, poke around the room for some decent healing-oriented loot and critically, read the Healer's Note on the desk. Once you've done so, make your way to the large wooden bookcase on the north side of the room. Behind this bookcase is a hidden door, which you must reveal by moving this bookcase.

To do so, make your way to the pile of wooden boxes to the left of the bookcase and click-and-drag them out of the way. Behind these boxes is a lever; interacting with it will automatically move the bookcase and allow you to proceed further into the cellar.

Once you're through, you'll reach a room filled with wooden coffins. Inside these coffins are skeletons, who once freed will run around and break other skeletons out if not killed quick enough. It's not a particularly difficult fight, but it is one you can avoid if you wish by simply not interacting with their coffins in the first place.

The only item you need is located to the north side of the room, highlighted in a helpful beam of sunlight. It's a book on a table, which you should read.

With any disturbed skeletons dealt with and a critical book discovered, make your way to the south side of the room and you'll find a mirror. Talk to it to discover that it's been enchanted by a powerful wizard to act as security guard to his secret laboratory.

The enchanted mirror won't let you pass unless you convince it that you're a friend of its master, and to get through you'll have to answer a series of questions correctly. If you get any wrong, the mirror will summon a flaming orb that will travel around the coffin room and explode in several places. This will start fires and free several skeletons from their resting places if you haven't fought them yet, dealing a lot of damage to your party, so it's not a good idea to mess this up!

The answers you should give the mirror are as follows. Note that you must read the Healer's note in the first cellar room and the book in the coffin room to be able to say all of these:

• Yes, an ally! I'm an ally of your master's.
• Szass Tam is a foul, wretched creature.
• I read a doctor's journal - he used Balsam to treat a wound.
• I want to remove the worm from my head.

Note that if you're playing as a Wizard you'll have slightly different dialogue options, but don't be tempted to get smart with the mirror and show off your magely knowledge — it won't end well! Just pick the options that are the same flavour as the ones listed above.

Once you give those answers, the mirror will let you pass into the hidden sanctum beneath the Blighted Village. There's a few smaller treasures inside you should grab, but the most important prize is trapped behind a locked door.

This door is trapped though. Be sure to disarm any and all traps in front and behind the door, so you can avoid getting burnt to bits as you enter. If you are locked in, you can find a key on the outside of the door to bust yourself out.

Inside is an evil-looking Necromancer's Tome, which has a handy slot on the cover for the Dark Amethyst you loot from the Phase Spider Matriarch in the Whispering Depths. Once the two parts of the book are thus assembled you can read it yourself, or give it to a companion. It's quite important, but you won't see the fruits from it until Act 2 and beyond.

Looking for more Baldur's Gate 3 guides? Check out our pieces on How to open the Ancient Door in the Overgrown Ruins, or even a Gale romance guide.