How To Save True Soul Nere In Baldur's Gate 3

Dec 24, 2023

If you decide you want to save True Soul Nere at the Grymforge in Baldur's Gate 3, we've got all the information you'll need right here.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a game about balance, about inner peace, and about not throwing your mouse and keyboard across the room when you roll poorly in initiative against True Soul Nere. No fight holds more difficulty and sheer infamy than this Grymforge quest and encounter.

RELATED: Baldur's Gate 3: Where To Find Karlach

Should you find your way through the Underdark, across the Dark Waters, and into the heart of Grymforge, you'll find three souls in need of your desperate help and attention. Will you assist in freeing this poor True Soul and the gnomes beneath his control, or will you turn your back on one guilty party and two innocents?

True Soul Nere is found at a cave-in at the heart and end of the Grymforge. You'll need to have found your way into it one way or another.

Speak with the Commander of the Duergar (Sergeant Thrinn) here to learn that Nere and a few gnomes were caught in a blast.

Time is of the essence, and due to the poison fog on the other side, you won't be able to leave the Underdark or take a Long Rest from the start of this quest - doing so will end in automatic failure and Nere's death.

When you're done with Sergeant Thrinn, you can interact with the rubble to speak with Nere. However, he doesn't provide the information you seek to free him. Instead, there are two people you can talk to to advance the quest:

Regardless of how you find the information, your sources will point you to a Deep Gnome named Philomeen.

Philomeen has entirely skipped town and headed for a distant corner of the Grymforge area. To reach her, return to the docks area of Grymforge, where you might have sailed in from the Decrepit Village. Follow the waterfront to the left and around a corner until you reach an area filled with dead Gnome bodies (Coordinates: X: -611, Y: 407).

There are two Duergar here pushing the bodies into the water. Persuade them to leave in one manner or another and unlock the big doors beside the bodies.

Inside the next room, head towards the large statue in the room in the back and look left to what appears to be a stone formation that looks like a walled-up door or fireplace. With a successful Passive Perception check, you can find a button on the right side along the vertical, purple border.

Press the button to open a secret passage forward.

There will be a room here up the stairs with a few enemy Oozes. They can be very tricky to deal with, and you should try conserving as many spell slots as possible if you plan on fighting and killing True Soul Nere. You won't get the chance to Long Rest, so every spell slot will matter.

When the oozes are defeated, go to the top of the room up the second flight of stairs to the left, where there's a large gap. Jump across the gap on the other side.

You should be able to make the jump, but if you're having trouble, try using the Githyanki Psionics with Lae'zel or the Jump spell.

Go through the set of double doors between the braziers here to find Philomeen inside.

She'll hold her bucket of Runepowder (highly explosive) hostage, and you'll need to convince her to take several deep breaths rather than blow everyone surface-high.

You only need a vial of the Runepowder to complete this quest, so whether you accept her offer to give it to you or you try to keep her from taking the whole Runepowder set is up to you.

With that vial, you can return to the Grymforge main area with True Soul Nere.

The Runepowder Vial should be inside your inventory. Take it to where Nere and the gnomes have been trapped.

You do not need to speak with Sergeant Thrinn first, but it is recommended that if you wish to fight Nere, you speak with the guard, Elder Brithvar, if you have not already. If you do not, you will have to fight Nere, Sergeant Thrinn's men, and Brithvar's forces.

Throw the Runepowder Vial at the rubble. It will stick to the rocks there.

Once in place, the gnomes will scatter. Ensure that they're a safe distance away, and then use a small ranged Fire attack (like Fire Bolt) to light the fuse.

The rubble will finally be cleared with that explosion, and Nere and two Deep Gnomes will emerge. However, he will immediately kill one of them upon exiting the debris.

From here, you'll be able to make your decision:

The choice is yours.

NEXT: Baldur's Gate 3: Where To Find Karlach

Alexis is an ex-narrative designer & game developer working freelance in the game journalism industry. Games with engaging stories are her bread & butter, and game journalism is her guilty pleasure and partially an excuse to justify buying more games. She has graduated from Washington University in St. Louis & Oxford University, holds a Bacherlor's in English Creative Writing, and has a minor in GrecoRoman Classics.