Destroy the Ancient Tome

Destroy the Ancient Tome is a sub-quest of ⁠Search the Cellar in Act One of Baldur's Gate 3. It is initiated upon finding the book  Necromancy of Thay in the Blighted Village.

Objectives

Objectives and journal entries may vary pending story decisions and outcomes.

Destroy the book.

• Evil is inscribed on every page of this book. But all evil has a weakness - there must be a way to destroy it.
• Only light from the divine can burn away this book's evil.

Quest Complete

• The book has been destroyed, along with any dark secrets it contained. Good riddance.
• The book was too valuable to be destroyed - we decided to take its knowledge for ourselves.
• The book was lost, along with any dark secrets it contained.

Walkthrough

The Necromancy of Thay is obtained during ⁠Search the Cellar in the apothecary's secret laboratory, accessible past the  Ornate Mirror. Removing the book from its trapped room initiates a quest to either ⁠unlock the Necromancy of Thay's secrets or destroy it forever.

The book can only be destroyed by dropping it on the ground and attacking it with ⁠Radiant damage, like  Guiding Bolt. Destroying nets disapproval from  Astarion, but approval from  Karlach,  Lae'zel, and  Wyll. Destroying the book also spawns 3 hostile Shadows.

Throwing the book into a chasm causes it to bounce back to the thrower.