The side quest Find The Missing Shipment in Baldur’s Gate 3 offers the options to “Find Owner or Open The Chest“. Although opening the chest is not advised for a number of reasons. This article will help you completing sidequest – Find The Missing Shipment in Baldur’s Gate 3
How to start the shipment quest
Find the Missing Shipment is a sidequest in Baldur’s Gate 3. The quest can be started by going northwest after crossing the river north of the Blighted Village. After clearing the area, look for the ‘Dead Caravan Agent’ and read the Shipment Orders. The orders include details about a shipment that these deceased agents were transporting.
How to find the shipment
The Shipment (which is hidden within a cave entrance) can be found in three ways:-
1) From here, you can travel north into a big cave opening surrounded by a swarm of knolls. This is the shortest route, but there may be other wandering knolls along the way. Because all of the knolls are level 5, the struggle will be difficult but uncomplicated.
2) As you climb the cliffs, you’ll come up behind the knolls, where you can dominate the parasite-infested knoll leader, potentially causing them to fight their erstwhile allies.
3) This includes sneaking in and maybe avoiding the conflict entirely, but you’ll need someone who is extremely skilled at stealth. Instead of climbing the cliffs, travel west, where your party will descend to a trap-filled cave entrance.When the battle is ended, you can chat with any survivors. Rugan will give you the opportunity to meet his colleagues, the Zhentarim, in a hideout in Waukeen’s Rest in exchange for your assistance.
Open the chest
If you choose the option “Open the chest”, you will discover an iron flask sealed with a brass stopper. You can still return the iron flask to its owner, but removing the brass stopper will cause a monster to emerge from it. Although defeating the monster is possible but you will not be rewarded with anything helpful. And if you do this, you will be unable to interact with the Zhentarim in a friendly manner. This will almost certainly have implications in the future, as this is a powerful entity, and the wizard client most likely wants this for evil purposes ( Refer to the images down below).
Choices available and its outcomes
Before delivering the chest to its owner, you have certain Choices/Options and its outcome:-
1) Rugan and Olly live and deliver the chest themselves – Rugan and Olly bring their chest back to the hideout. When you visit them, Zarys awards you with gold, experience, and “Harold,” the blue quality crossbow. You also gain access to Brem’s exotic stock.
2) Rugan and Olly die (either by your hands or the Gnolls’) and you obtain the chest – Same as in the first situation.
3) You intimidate Rugan and take the chest for yourself – Rugan is captured and Olly gets killed for failing their mission and trying to cheat the Zhentarim. You have two more options from here:
- As a gesture, kill Rugan and join the Zhentarim. You will have access to Brem’s exotic stock.
- Save Rugan while eliminating the other Zhentarim members. Rugan takes off running. You miss out on some good merchant stuff, as well as Harold. From here, you can either deliver the chest manually, which is not recommended for players.
4) You conspire with Rugan to deliver it yourself and share the money, thereby defrauding the Zhentarim of their deal – The outcome is the same as in the third.
The Zhentarim Hideout
To understand more about the Zhentarim, first identify their hideout. It’s at the shabby door in a barn west of Waukeen’s Rest. The party will be made aware of the Zhentarim Hideout if any of the following conditions are met:
1.) Rugan and Olly were met first, either via conversing with Rugan or by using ‘Speak with Dead’ to converse with his body.
2.) Rugan provides the location of the hideout as well as the password required to enter if the party saves his life. The party discovers a man, Salazon, crouching behind some shelves after a successful perception check. Reciting the password ‘Little serpent, long shadow’ causes him to immediately stand down and provide the key to the hideout’s wardrobe.
3) If the party lacks the password, they can employ PERSUASION. Just relax – I’m not here to fight or to get past the guard salazon. By successfully making the man stand down, the Zhentarim may be dealt with calmly.
Returning the Shipment
1.) Zarys thanks the party for their assistance and considers them a Zhentarim friend if Rugan and Olly are saved and the chest is not stolen from them. Brem, their merchant, unlocks special stock, and Zarys, Harold, awards the party with gold and a crossbow. If Rugan and Olly did not survive, you can still achieve this result by returning the chest to the Zhentarim without opening it.
2.) Rugan is taken by the Zhentarim if he is frightened into giving up the chest or persuaded to split the profits with the party. The party is given the opportunity to join the Zhentarim by killing Rugan as a gesture, after which they are charged with delivering the package to Baldur’s Gate. Harold is still received when Brem opens his particular stock. The party can also murder the other Zhentarim to save Rugan, but they will lose the special stock and crossbow.
3.) The Zhentarim will become hostile if the chest is picked and the Iron Flask is returned to Zarys. Brem will still open his exclusive stock if the player does not inform her that they stole the cargo.
Conclusion
To cut down other options for the players, the best options among those stated above are:
1.) ‘Let Rugan deliver the strongbox without messing with it’ – you’ll receive gold and the Harold, a rare crossbow.
2.) If you opt to ‘Kill Rugan and Oily and decide to deliver yourself:- you’ll gain gold and the Harold, a rare crossbow. Furthermore, delivering the item oneself encourages Zarys to give you more work if you ever reach it to Baldur’s Gate.