BG3 Counting House quest guide
The Counting House high-security bank is supposed to be one of the safest places in all of Baldur's Gate 3 - until the Absolute came along, of course!
At the intersection of two big quests in Baldur's Gate 3, your party is tasked with both finding the legendary hero Minsc of Rashemen for Jaheira and aiding the Underduke of the Thieves' Guild against the mysterious Stone Lord. The trail of both leads to a heist at the Counting House bank in the Lower City, where a trap has been laid to defeat the Stone Lord for good.
In the Undercellar, the lair of the Thieves’ Guild, you speak to their leader, Nine Fingers Keene. She’s heavily guarded and in deep conversation with an accountant. It seems like their protection racket is falling apart, but when you’re noticed conversation turns to you.
Your reputation precedes you, and Keene wants you to help the Guild push back against the Cult of the Absolute and their new ally, the Stone Lord. This is a perfect opportunity for you to rally more help to your cause and gather allies as the Emperor bade you, so ask what you can do to help.
Keene says that Minsc of Rashemen is one and the same with the mysterious Stone Lord they’re up against, and has been turned to follow the Absolute. Nine Fingers has word of the Stone Lord’s next hit and plans to ambush it. Pledge your help to Jaheira to put a stop to it and try to help Minsc.
But Nine Fingers won’t play nice, meaning you have to scour the hideout for clues on the ambush before you can proceed. On the desk nearby you see a note called: “From the desk of Rakath Glitterbeard, Head Banker”. Read that and your journal updates.
Leave the hideout and make your way to the Counting House in the southwest corner of the Lower City.
How to get into the Counting House
Enter the Counting House via the front door and you will need a pass to enter the large iron fence in the middle of the foyer.
Talk to Head Clerk Meadhoney next to the gate and Jaheira will intervene. Meadhoney spills that the head banker is downstairs with Minsc in Stone Lord guise.
You need to pass a persuasion check to enter unmolested, but it should be simple enough by this point in the game. Meadhoney gives you a pass downstairs, so make your way through.
If you’re the sticky-fingered sort, make good use of the unsupervised time you get here and rifle through the pouches, chests and other boxes for loads of gems and money. The private stashes are also well-worth opening: they contain huge amounts of gold. Then go through the double-doors on the right. Proceed through the next hallway, show your pass again, then head down another set of stairs and through the vault door.
In the next room, the ledger on the desk tells you that Minsc is being given a tour of the lower vaults, so that’s where you need to go.
If you have a thief with high dexterity, you now have almost free reign to rob the bank blind.
Use a ranged weapon to shoot the buttons in the middle of the room and you can walk on the seals. Number 6 has a load of jewels and money. Number 1 has loads of gold. Number 2 has tons of expensive scrolls. Number 3 has wine and other booze. Number 4 has gold and art. Then 5, which you can open if you have avery’s key, has a load of gold and a scroll of revivify.
Continue down the corridor to advance.
How to solve the Counting House Door puzzle
In front of you, you find a puzzle where you have to stand members of your party on the right symbols on the floor to advance. The codes are apparently found on the second floor of the bank in the head bankers office, all the way back upstairs. To avoid this hoo-ha, you can just brute force the puzzle by stepping on every block and seeing which light up blue.
The solution is top left, top right, middle middle, middle right.
Inside the high-security vaults, after another passageway transition, a cutscene plays. After the cutscene, where a doppelganger Jaheira appears to take Minsc away, a fight breaks out with a load of Bhaalite cultists.
When they’re done with, speak to the Head Banker if he’s still alive. He offers you a reward if you can retake the gold that the enthralled Minsc stole.
For a lead on what to do next, search the bodies of the Death Heads and read the note named “Orders from J”. This points you towards the sewers, where we already know there’s something fishy going on.
They’re not bothered about you stealing everything that’s not nailed down from the vaults, so it’s time for you to break out a thief again.
In High-security vault 9 there’s a great set of light armor - the elegant studded armor. In vault number 4 there’s the trident of the waves. In vault 5, is Ravengard’s Scourger and his diary. In 6, is a parasite and a load of letters written by Gortash about the central plot.
In 1 is the Nymph cloak which lets you dominate a person. In 2, you find Lady Jannath’s vault. Her hat gives you advantage in persuasion and deception checks, making them almost a breeze. In 3, you find the Long Arm of the Gur crossbow, which is very strong against undead creatures. In 7 you get the knock knuckle gloves, then in 8 you find the Patriar Blackmail Files.
You can now leave and go about any other quests you want to undertake before you venture into the sewers to deal with about 20 different side quests at once.