How to get and open the Necromancy of Thay Book in BG3 (Baldur’s Gate 3)

by · December 5, 2024

Today we are going to take a look at how to get and how to open the Necromancy of Thay book in BG3 (Baldur’s Gate 3). The Necromancy of Thay book is an item that players often find but don’t really know what to do with. Should you even touch it? After all, it is a dark magic item and likely cursed. But there may be some juicy reward at the end of the road.

This is a long quest, it will take you through Act 1 to Act 3 to complete the Necromancy of Thay quest in Baldur’s Gate 3. Therefore you can simply put it away and not worry about it if you are unsure what to do. In my first playthrough I played a good character and didn’t touch it at all, I actually tried the opposite, more on that later!

If you are interested in a Necromancer Build, then we recommend checking out the BG3 Necromancer Build that also incorporates the Necromancy of Thay book!

Table of Contents:

How to get the Necromancy of Thay Book in BG3

You will find the Necromancy of Thay book in the Blighted Village inside the Apothecary’s Cellar in Baldur’s Gate 3. You will get to the Blighted Village quite early in the game, it is close to the Emerald Grove and the starting area of the game. Once you are in the Blighted Village, make sure to activate the Blighted Village Waypoint. Now simply go inside the house and find and open the secret cellar door behind the counter that leads to the Apothecary’s Cellar.

Once you make your way downstairs you can explore the area. You will notice a lever behind some of the crates (image below). Activate it and a secret door to a gateway will open. Also, make sure to loot all valuable items in the first room.

Once through you will have to fight Guardians. They are pretty tough if you come unprepared, so make sure to be ready.

After the fight continue until you see a big Ornate Mirror on the wall. Click on the Ornate Mirror and a face will appear. This is a magic mirror! It is best if you talk to the mirror with Gale if you have him in your party. Since he has good knowledge of magic. And this is a magic mirror, therefore he is bound to pass the checks mostly with ease.

How to get past the Magic Mirror in the Apothecary’s Cellar in BG3:

Tell it your name
Yes, an ally! I’m an ally of your master’s
A foul lich. May he die a thousand more deaths
Balsam disinfects wounds. Surely everyone knows that…
I’d see myself in my next incarnation: a living manifestation of Netherse magic. A mythal in my own right.

If you follow this interaction with the mirror it will vanish and open the way for you. Now go inside and walk across the room and go through the door on the right. You will find another lever, you can open it to access a shortcut. However, don’t leave yet! Pick up the Rusted Key on the shelf.

Once you have the key go inside the room again and walk towards the Rusted Iron Gate. Be careful, there is a trap that you should disarm before you open the gate.

Once you have opened the gate you will see the Necromancy of Thay book infront of you. However, once again, there is another trap! Disarm the plate below the Necromancy of Thay book, otherwise the Gargoyle will spit fire at you.

Once that is done, you can finally pick up the Necromancy of Thay book inside the Apothecary’s Cellar in Baldur’s Gate 3. Your followers will also comment on the book. If you have Astarion in your party he actually wants you to give the book to him, indicating that he knows what it is. Now that we have the book, it is finally time to figure out how to open the Necromancy of Thay book in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you are playing our Necromancer Build for Baldur’s Gate 3 make sure to keep the book on you!

Note: Once again make sure to loot all valuables, there is some neat gear in that room too!

How to open the Necromancy of Thay Book in BG3

Now lets take a look at how to open the Necromancy of Thay book. Go back up to the Blighted Village and click on the Well next to the Blighted Village Waypoint. Do the following:

Throw a coin into the well
Climb down the bucket rope

And down we go into the Whispering Depths! Once you are down in the Whispering Depths you will notice a lot of webs around. Yes, there is spiders everywhere!

As a quick note, we need to go down there to get us an item called Dark Amethyst to open the Necromancy of Thay book.

Navigating the Whispering Depths in BG3

There are two ways of doing this. Either we fight our way through and defeat all spiders. But there is also a Matriarch Spider boss, make sure to be prepared if you want to fight it. However, like always there is another option in Baldur’s Gate 3. Bring the following:

Potion of Invisibility (or a Stealthy Character)
Scroll of Feather Fall

You can buy a Potion of Invisibility from Trader Auntie Ethel at the Druid Grove. You can buy a Scroll of Feather Fall from Trader Arron also at the Druid Grove in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Here is a quick video on how to best navigate the cave and get the Dark Amethyst. Don’t forget, once you pick up the Dark Amethyst your invisibility will disappear. Therefore make sure to wait until no spider is in your line of sight. After that immediately teleport out of the cave to avoid detection. Or use another Invisibility Potion also works to avoid detection.

Dark Amethyst and the Necromancy of Thay Book

Now we have both the Dark Amethyst and the Necromancy of Thay book. Both items are needed to open the book. Click on the book and select “Place the amethyst in the slot on the book’s cover”. Now you have four choices:

Open the book: Ultimately this is your only choice if you want to open the Necromancy of Thay book.
Drop the tome, ready to destroy it: You can drop the book and destroy it with a spell that deals Radiant damage. For example the Guiding Bolt spell will do. If you do this, three powerful Shadow enemies will spawn, make sure to be prepared! The Shadows are resistant to physical damage.
Give the book to Astarion: You can also give the book to Astarion, he will take a glimps at it and store it away, there are no consequences immediately for doing this.
Put the book away: You can also simply put the book away and store it for later use.

Because we want to open the Necromancy of Thay and discover its secrets it is necessary to select option 1 “Open the book”. The quest is far from done! Now you have to pass three Wisdom checks.

Page 1 – Wisdom Check 10
Page 2 – Wisdom Check 15
Page 3 – Wisdom Check 20

If you fail any of these checks you will get cursed. If you succeed the storyteller will tell you “You have seen too much”. The book will close and the quest will update. The storyteller will also tell you that the “most powerful secrets are guarded by indecipherable glyphs, without a key, they may be locked away forever”.

How to finish reading the Necromancy of Thay book in BG3

To finish reading the Necromancy of Thay book you will need to progress to Act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3. You will need to read the “The Tharciate Codex” first to be able to continue reading the Necromancy of Thay book. The Tharciate Codex will allow you to understand the indecipherable glyphs.

In Act 3 you need to reach the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate and visit the Sorcerous Sundries and enter the Ramazith’s Tower. Once you are inside Sorcerous Sundries go upstairs and Projection will appear. Enter through the far left BLUE portal to get upstairs into the Ramazith’s Tower. Talk to Lorroakan and tell him that you have information regarding the Nightsong. Once you finish talking to him jump on the floating tables and make your way downstairs.

Once you are downstairs it is advised to drink a “See Invisibility Potion”. This will make it easier to find the right buttons and also reveal some levers. Now find the plaque that says “Vault” and click on the button. This will teleport you to the secret vault where we continue our quest to finish reading the Necromancy of Thay book in BG3.

Once you are in the vault open the door, you can walk over because there are invisible barriers that will let you move over the gap. Activate the lever in the next room. Ignore the portal and open the Oak Door behind it. You will have to pass a 15 Dexterity check to pass the door. Now you are inside the “Magic Vault” where things get stiffy if you don’t know in what order to open the doors. On the left side, you see the “Elminster” door which we have to get to. But first, we need to unlock this door by doing the following:

Walk through the Silverhand door
Walk through the Evocation door
Turn around and walk through the Wish door
Pull the lever inside to unlock the Elminster Vault
Walk through the Gate door
Walk through the Illusion door
Walk through the open Elminister door to enter the Elminister Vault
Unlock the Display by passing a 20 Dexterity check or destroy it
Claim “The Tharchiate Codex” and read it

After reading the Tharchiate Codex you will get cursed. You can remove the curse by casting a Remove Curse spell. However, now you can finally finish reading the Necromancy of Thay book! Open the Necromancy of Thay book, you will have to pass another 20 Wisdom check (you can also fail it but you get cursed but still get the spell). Once that is done the quest will update and you will get the Dans Macabre spell. The Dans Macabre spell will allow you to summon 5 Ghouls without having to select a corpse. We also use the Dans Macabre spell for our BG3 Necromancer Build.

Congratulations, now you finally know how to get and how to fully read the Necromancy of Thay book in Baldur’s Gate 3.

How to destroy the Necromancy of Thay Book in BG3

Lastly, you can of course also decide to destroy the Necromancy of Thay book in BG3. Here is how to destroy the Necromancy of Thay book and what will happen when you decide to do so. You need to use a spell that deals Radiant Damage to destroy the Necromancy of Thay book in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Once you cast it on the book it will go up in flames and three Shadows will spawn that will immediately attack you. If you are still low level these might be difficult to fight off. But if you destroy the book when you are higher level they are fairly easy to defeat.