What Is In The Iron Flask In Baldur's Gate 3?

The Iron Flask is a mysterious item in Baldur's Gate 3, but what's inside it?

The vast, unique variety of items in Baldur's Gate 3 tends to be both a delight and a dilemma. While the effects of items are often readily disclosed in tooltips, others, like the Iron Flask, offer only cryptic hints. In fact, its bewildering description might make even seasoned adventurers hesitate, and for good reason.

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If mishandled, the Iron Flask can potentially wreak havoc on your entire party. Yet, when used at the opportune moment, it can be a game-changing asset, swinging the most dire combats in your favor. This guide will explain exactly what the Iron Flask does, ensuring that you harness its power for benefit, and not blunder.

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the storyline of Baldur's Gate 3.

The Iron Flask itself can be found during the Find The Missing Shipment questline, which sees you rescuing (or dooming) a group of merchants hiding in a cave (X:-10, Y: 513) near the Risen Road waypoint.

This group of merchants in question have been cornered in a small cave by hungry gnolls, and are barely able to fend them off. You'll be able to rescue them by killing the gnolls or convincing the pack leader to eat herself.

If the merchants are alive after your daring rescue, you'll be able to strike up a conversation with one of them—Rugan. During this time, you can persuade or intimidate them into leaving behind their cargo: a single Caravan Strongbox that can be found inside the cave.

A successful History check will confirm that they are part of the Zhentarim, an unscrupulous mercantile group who deals in immoral trades. This will give you a better chance at convincing them to leave behind their cargo.

If you fail to convince them to leave their stuff behind, don't worry! They'll stay there for a bit—so you can send in someone with high stealth to grab the whole chest, then teleport or run away.

Stealing the cargo will affect your interactions at the Zhentarim Hideout later on.

A successful Arcana check will reveal that the Iron Flask is capable of trapping a creature, and the one in your hand is currently occupied. The question is, what's inside?

And the answer is: nothing good! Trapped in the Iron Flask is a Spectator, a fearsome level 5 aberration that is capable of wiping out an unprepared party with lots of crowd-control and hard-hitting features.

Spectator

Health (Easy/Normal/Tactician)

95 / 136 / 176

AC

14

Size

Medium

Type

Aberration

Weight

220lb

EXP

150xp

Thankfully, however, it's immune and resistant to no damage types, meaning that a team of similar level that can tank its paralyzing and wounding rays will easily dispatch it.

The real value of the Iron Flask, however, is the fact that it will break open when thrown.

So the next time you're facing a tough opponent in an enclosed area (such as in Dror Ragzlin's ritual chamber), you can throw the Iron Flask in, shut the doors, and enjoy the ensuing chaos.

NEXT: Baldur's Gate 3: How To Get Infernal Iron

Raised on games like Pokemon RSE and Minecraft, Annie is a freelance writer with an ardent passion for multimedia storytelling. She has a BA in Writing, Rhetoric and Composition, along with minors in English Studies and Game Design / Animation.