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Baldur’s Gate 3lets players dive into the world ofDungeons & Dragons, translated from the tabletop to PC and PS5 by Larian Studios. As such, the game is filled with fantastical creatures, deadly adversaries, and intriguing quests forBaldur’s Gate 3’s players to encounter and overcome.
One early quest that can lead to an unexpected outcome isSearch the Cellar, which can be started inAct 1’s Blighted Village. Upon reading a journal in the village alchemist’s house, players will be given the quest to discover the alchemist’s true identity and the contents of his secret cellar below the house.
Updated September 18th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: Every single area of Baldur’s Gate 3 is so densely packed with content that it’s truly astonishing. For example, in Act One alone,there are tons of missable items, hidden areas, and secret puzzles for you to find. One that many players ended up stumbling across is the Necromancy of Thay book, but not all of them figured out how to read said book. With that in mind, why don’t we take an in-depth look at how to obtain this book, how to open this book, and what you’ll gain from reading it? It takes a bit of work and you’ll need to pass some very difficult skill checks for the best rewards, but this book is absolutely worth the time investment needed to obtain it.
Where to Find The Necromancy of Thay
Beneath the Blighted Village
The Necromancy of Thayis an book that you can find very early on in your journey inBaldur’s Gate 3, more specificallyyou can find it in Act One in the Apothecary Basement. All you need to do is travel to the Blighted Village then go into the first house to your left from the Blighted Village waypoint. This is the village Apothecary, and you’ll be able to find a wooden hatch just behind the counter leading into the basement of the Apothecary.
Once you’re in the Apothecary’s basement, look for a lever on the wall behind some crates on the opposite side of the basement from the ladder. Activating this lever will open a nearby secret passageway, which will eventually lead to a confrontation with some Skeleton Guardians. Once you take these out, keep exploring the basement to eventually stumble upon the Ornate Mirror. As it turns out, this is a Magic Mirror that you can actually speak with, and there are a number of different ways you can successfully get past the mirror and into the room holding the Necromancy of Thay book:
Intimidation
15+
You can attempt to intimidate the mirror by threatening to break it.
Bard Intimidation
You can threaten the mirror if you’re a Bard, saying you’ll sell it off as an antique.
Strength
You can use a nearby rock to directly smash the mirror without passing a Toughness threshold.
Dark Journal (Persuasion)
If you found the Dark Journal in the casket in this basement and read it, you can trick the mirror into thinking you are its owner, Ilyn Toth.
Destroy the Mirror
N/A
Outside of the conversation, if you can deal 22+ damage to the mirror in a single hit you can destroy it, passing the medium Toughness threshold.
Pass the Mirror’s Quiz
You can also go down the route of answering a series of questions from the mirror, and this quiz comes with its own skill checks and paths.
After getting past the Magic Mirror,you’ll need to find the Rusted Key or use a variety of other methods to get into the Rusted Iron Gate in this room.You’ll obviously want to disarm the traps in this room first, but once you get inside you’ll be able to grab the Necromancy of Thay book.
How To Open The Necromancy of Thay
You’ll Need to Find a Dark Amethyst
To actually open the Necromancy of Thay book, you’re going to need a ‘Dark Amethyst’.Thankfully, this can also be found in the Blighted Village, more specifically down the well in the village in the lair of the Matriarch Spider. You’ll need to climb down this well (or alternatively break down a wall leading into the cavern beneath the well in the Blacksmith’s cellar). You can find the Dark Amethyst on a pile of bones on the westmost side of this cavern, behind all the Phase Spiders as well as their Matriarch.
The standard path is to defeat all these spiders first and then get the Dark Amethyst,but you may also use stealthor invisibility to sneak past the spiders, grab the Amethyst, and teleport out, though this is a lot trickier to pull off.
After obtaining the Dark Amethyst using whichever route you decide on, simply interact with the Necromancy of Thay book in your inventory. You’ll get the option to ‘Place the amethyst in the slot on the book’s cover’ and you’ll want to select this. From here, you’ll then have four options, and the one you’ll want to choose is to ‘Open the book’.
What To Do With The Necromancy of Thay
If you’re looking up a guide on how to open the Necromancy of Thay book, you probably want to read it successfully.To read this book, you’ll need to pass three separate Wisdom checks after opening the book, and if you fail any of them you’ll suffer a curse(either the Whispers of Madness or Baleful Knowledge curse, both of which do the same thing which is causing Disadvantage on Wisdom Checks until a Remove Curse has been cast on you).
However, with each success, you’ll earn rewards such as the Speak with Dead Ritual Spell, the Forbidden Knowledge passive feature, and even the Danse Macabre spell if you read the book again after obtaining the Tharchiate Codex in Act Three.To be a bit more specific about these skill checks and their rewards:
Turning (at least) one page successfully
Speak with Dead Ritual Spell
Whoever did this will have the Speak with Dead Spell permanently castable as a Ritual Spell for them.
Turning all three pages successfully
Forbidden Knowledge
A permanent passive feature that grants you +1 to all Wisdom Saving Throws and Ability Checks.
Reading the Tharchiate Codex in Act Three
The Tharchiate Codex: Blessing
A passive feature reward for reading the Codex in Act Three, grants the user 20 temp HP per Long Rest.
Re-reading the book after reading the Tharchiate Codex
Danse Macabre Spell
A permanent 5th-level Necromancy Spell unlocks for the character reading the book that allows them to summon 4 (uncontrollable) Ghouls to fight for you. Usable once per Long Rest.
After passing all three of the Saving Throws, you’ll have obtained everything you can from the bookuntil Act Threeand it’ll slam shut, and the book will have served its purpose.Alternatively, you can choose to destroy the book using Radiant damage, but this isn’t really recommended as it only really gets you a bit of approval from Karlach, Lae-zel, and Will and it also forces you to fight 3 hostile Shadows when the book is destroyed.
Overall, the Necromancy of Thay book is one of the most mysterious items in Act One, and it’s great that there are so many different ways to approach opening it and rewards for doing so.
