If you’re like me, you might be stumped when trying to figure out how to rescue Barcus Wroot in Baldur’s Gate 3, which is also known as the “Rescue the Gnome” side quest. When you reach Blighted Village in Act 1, you can spot him tied to a spinning windmill. However, even when you send away the Goblins watching him, it’s not immediately clear how to actually set him free.
How to Rescue Barcus Wroot in BG3
You need to use a lever inside the windmill to stop it from moving, thereby allowing you to rescue Barcus Wroot. Before you can rescue the Gnome, you’ll have to take care of the Goblins around him. That might mean fighting them depending on how you entered the village, but you might have options to persuade or intimidate them instead. I used Intimidation, which had a Skill Check of 5, so it was easy to succeed on.
Wait a few moments after the Goblins leave before you rescue Barcus because it’s possible they’ll get suspicious and come back if they see the windmill stop. Of course, this isn’t a problem if you killed them all instead. After the Goblins left, I then proceeded to spend far too long trying to cut the rope with arrows and blades, going in and out of turn-based combat in the process to see if I could cut the rope when Barcus was as close to the ground as the windmill brought him.
Naturally, none of those solutions were the correct one. All you need to do to rescue Barcus Wroot is go around to the back of the windmill and pull the lever inside that’s on the left spinning base. Be careful, though! A lever to speed up the windmill is just next to it that you’ll want to avoid.
And with that, you can go back to the front of the windmill and rescue Barcus Root in Baldur’s Gate 3 since it will no longer be spinning. From here, you can continue through the Goblin Camp with help from our BG3 guide hub to answer questions like should you recruit Minthara or where to find Halsin.
