Skip to main content

How to rescue the Blighted Village Gnome in Baldur’s Gate 3

Barcus Wroot is in trouble!

Tav releasing the captured gnome in the Blighted Village in Baldur's Gate 3
Image credit: Larian/VG247

During Baldur's Gate 3, you’ll come across plenty of qualms between the folk that you meet, and lots of meddling Goblins. One such case is in Blighted Village, where you’ll discover a group of Goblins has tied a poor Gnome to a windmill.

Your quest will be to rescue the Gnome, but how you go about it can vary. It can be quite the simple quest, or a complete bloodbath, and that depends on how you and your party choose to act! Without further ado, here’s how to rescue the Gnome in Baldur’s Gate 3.


How to rescue the Gnome in Blighted Village in Baldur’s Gate 3

To save the Gnome in Baldur’s Gate 3, you should have already ventured over to the windmill in the Blighted Village and met with some Goblins. This is at coordinates X11, Y418.

A map of where the goblins and windmill in Baldur's Gate 3's Blighted Village is located
You'll find the windmill and the goblins surrounding it in this location. | Image credit: Larian Studios

These Goblins will have unfortunately tied a Deep Gnome to the windmill, and will be watching him go round and round while pelting him with rocks. How cruel.

After having approached the Goblins, you can choose to leave them be and seek passage, if you really want. If, on the other hand, you’d like to rescue this poor Gnome, you can actually attempt to convince the goblins to leave.

If a player in your party is particularly skilled in Intimidation, and has high Wisdom ability, you should be able to make the Goblins leave without battling. This is provided you succeed your rolls! The Goblins are also Followers of the Absolute, as it turns out, so you can choose to use your Illithid powers in the roll to make your argument a bit more persuasive, if you like.

If you fail to get the Goblins to leave the village, you’ll have no choice but to go to battle with them. Defeat them all until the area is once again safe.

Either way, the Goblins have got to go. Once they’re taken care of, you’ll be able to stop the windmill that the Gnome was tied to and rescue him. Do this by entering the base of the windmill and activating the brake lever shown below. Make sure you press the "brake" lever and not "release brake". The later will send him sailing off to meet a flat and squishy end.

The player looks at the brake for the windmill in the Blighted Village in Baldur's Gate 3
Use the brake to stop the windmill, and then go cut the Gnome loose. | Image credit: Larian Studios

Approach the Gnome and speak with him; it’ll be revealed that he is Barcus Wroot, and he’ll demand you cut him down. At this point, you can finally free him, even if he is a bit demanding.

You don’t receive any reward for helping the Gnome, but you and your party can congratulate yourselves on doing some good in Baldur’s Gate 3, or you can kill him... You’ll also learn a little more about this particular Gnome and how he ended up here.


For more on Baldur’s Gate 3, be sure to go and rescue the Druid Halsin, too. This fella is also under fire from Goblins! On the other hand, if your class or your party isn’t working for you, take a look at how to respec and reclass with Withers.

Read this next