While exploring the Blighted Village in Baldur’s Gate 3, players may come across the Secret Cellar Door in the basem*nt of the abandoned apothecary shop. Although this abandoned village might seem innocuous at first glance, there are dark secrets lurking underground. By opening the Secret Cellar Door, the party can expect all kinds of magical hijinks as part of the Search the Cellar side quest.
To access the apothecary’s cellar, you’ll first need to find the apothecary shop at X:35, Y:378, where you’ll find a hidden hatch behind the main shop counter. There are quite a few hidden side quests to be found in the Blighted Village, including the Finish the Masterwork side quest. However, the Search the Cellar side quest is perhaps the most varied, and you’ll benefit from having a strong party with a diverse set of skills.
How To Open The Secret Cellar Door In The Blighted Village
The cellar itself isn’t anything special, but there are a few useful items and crafting ingredients for potions lying around. However, there’s more to the cellar than meets the eye. On the north wall of the cellar, you’ll find a hidden lever behind some crates that you can pull. This opens the Secret Cellar Door behind the bookcase nearby, allowing you to enter a hidden area.
The lever is relatively well-hidden, so you may need to smash or move the wooden crates stacked against the wall to find it. At this point, it’s a good idea to take a Short Rest. There’s a lot to do in the area beyond the door, and not all of it is pleasant.
How To Explore The Secret Cellar In Baldur’s Gate 3
The party will end up in a mossy underground cavern with several Mouldering Caskets: these contain hostile skeletons that will attack if their rest is disturbed. The skeletons will attempt to open the other coffins, giving the party even more enemies to fight. An effective tactic is to attack the Fissured Stalactites on the cavern ceiling; these will fall and crush the caskets.
Once the skeletons have been dispatched, you’ll be able to access Ilyn Toth’s Lair by speaking to the Ornate Mirror. Certain classes and races will have some mildly amusing dialogue options, but the Ornate Mirror will not let you pass unless you answer its questions in a specific way.
Make sure to pick up the Scroll of Summon Quasit from one of the caskets. This lets you summon Shovel the Quasit, a mischievous and disturbingly vicious magical companion.
The room beyond has some interesting loot, but the most important item in the room is Baldur’s Gate 3’s Necromancy of Thay. This book is on top of a hidden pressure plate and there are a few other traps; you can disarm them all, grab the book and run, or even just toss another book onto the pressure plate, Raiders of the Lost Ark style.
You can destroy the book or attempt to read it. However, you’ll need to get the Dark Amethyst by defeating the Phase Spider Matriarch in order to open it. Reading the book and attempting to learn its dark secrets has interesting consequences in Act Three of Baldur’s Gate 3, so it’s arguably worth saving this dark tome from destruction.
