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‘Look for Lost Thing’ is most certainly one of the oldest RPG tricks in the book so far as quests go, and while these can often make for tedious filler moments in a lot of titles, the Trapped Man Quest in Baldur’s Gate 3 is at least a bit of a head-scratcher. At face value, this is one of the simpler tasks in the game: save Benryn and find his lost Dowry. Nevertheless, I’m sure I’m not alone in spending far more time than I should’ve trying to figure it out.
Fear not if you’re in the same boat. In this guide, I’m going to go through this short quest bit by bit so that you can finally give poor Benryn some closure.
Bottom Line Up Front
If you’re in a rush, here are the key things you should know for saving Benryn and finding the Dowry.
- Saving Benryn requires you to head to the second floor of the main house in Waukeen’s Rest and remove the wooden beam that’s trapping him.
- To enter the burning building and locate Benryn, you can either kick down the front door of the house, access the room directly by exploring the adjoining building on the left, or enter through one of the back windows through the archway.
- Having been saved, Benryn will shortly find his deceased wife, whom you’ll need to temporarily bring back from the dead by using The Amulet of Lost Voices. The spirit will then explain that the Dowry Benryn seeks is hidden in the barn; you’ll find it [a ring] in a haystack at the entrance of the first barn, located through the arch on the right (even if you don’t have the amulet, you can still find it there).
- With the Dowry in hand, return to Benryn to give it to him and end the quest.
The Quest in Question
If you’ve heard about this infamous quest and want to solve it—or you just need a recap of what’s going on—here’s how to start The Trapped Man.
Reaching Waukeen’s Rest
The quest you’re looking for is located in the Risen Road area, where you first come across Karlach. The Risen Road is actually much bigger than it first seems, and to locate Benryn, you’ll need to head to the Waukeen’s Rest settlement. This area is located north-west of the Risen Road Waypoint.
All things considered, this is a pretty treacherous road: the place is teaming with Gnolls, a mutated type of Hyena. You’ll run into a couple of packs on your journey to the village, so come prepared and fully rested.
Having made it past the groups of Gnolls, you’ll soon come across the entrance to Waukeen’s Rest. Head to the location indicated on the map below and go through the large double doors.
What you’ll find is a sorry state of affairs. The place has been ransacked and is currently ablaze with ferocious flames. Once you venture into the buildings, you need to watch where you step, as the patches of fire will cause you to take damage. Even if you make it through unscathed, the rest of your party will likely stroll right through. This damage can add up quickly, so use an ice spell on the ground to temporarily quell the flames.
Reaching Benryn
Waukeen’s Rest has quite an odd layout. It took me a while to realize that most of the buildings are connected and that there are actually several ways to find Benryn. Take a look at the image below to get a better handle on your surroundings and the options available to you.
Your eyes will first be drawn to the four guards trying to push open a large front door indicated above, and this is the most obvious entry point to Benryn’s location.
If you have Karlach with you, switch to her and speak with one of the guards. Here, you’ll be able to perform a strength check to knock down the door, and being given double dice rolls plus Karlach’s own strength advantage, you should make quick work of it. Rather than have the whole party pick their way through the flames, just head in with Karlach, as she’s the only character you really need.
Once inside, you’ll hear Benryn calling out for help. Make your way up the staircase ahead to find him in the room on the right. Entering the room he’s trapped in through the main door will cause a huge explosion, so avoid that. Instead, stand back and use a ranged attack on the wooden planks next to the door to get inside.
If you prefer, you can alternitively head up the ladder indicated in the image above and use the Jump action to get to the walkway leading to Benryn. Wooden planks once again block the path, so you’ll need to destroy these to make it through. The planks can be broken either with conventional weapons or magic, but again, make sure you use ranged attacks. There will be a big explosion when you break through, so you want to make sure you and your party are out of the way.
There’s also one final way to make it to Benryn. If you go through the arch to the left of the central plaza and head right to reach a bank of small windows, by using the jump option you can hop through to the main building.
Saving Benryn and Finding His Wife
Whichever method you choose to get to Benryn, you’ll immediately enter a cutscene that shows him pinned down by a huge wooden beam. Karlach can lift the thing off him by performing a strength check.
Having got him up, you now need to get him out. The game will automatically switch to turn-based mode so that you can navigate through the flames more easily, but rather than making your way through the whole house and out the front door, just head back through the planks you knocked down (or knock them down now if you came through the front door).
As indicated in the image above, the body of Mirilith, Benryn’s wife, is sadly in the room across the short walkway. He’ll run straight over to her and begin to mourn.
Note: With Benryn saved, it’s important to head back into the flaming house and across to the other room on the far side of the second floor. An NPC called Councilor Florrick is also trapped, and she’s an important character for the Rescue the Grand Duke quest later on. Once again, you’ll need to knock down some planks of wood to free her.
If she does die, the quest in question won’t be lost to you; without spoiling anything, all will be revealed to you back at camp, but to progress the quest most optimally, you’ll want to keep Councilor Florrick alive. She’ll make her own way out of the building, and having finished The Trapped Man quest, you can find her outside by the front doors of the main building.
Finding Benryn’s Wife and the Dowry
Benryn is understandably distraught about the death of his wife, and upon inquiring what separated the two of them, he reveals they parted after an argument regarding a Dowry — an item traditionally given by a bride to her husband on her wedding day.
With Benryn then asking to be left alone to mourn, there’s no indication of what to do next. It turns out that to finish the quest, you need to find this dowry by resurrecting Mirilith’s corpse.
To do this, you need a piece of jewelry called The Amulet of Lost Voices. This item is found during the Overgrown Ruins Quest you’ll have gained access to earlier on in the game, so if you haven’t completed it already, head there first. You can find the Dowry regardless just by searching the small settlement, but this is a great item to have anyway.
Luckily for me, I already had the item and didn’t know it. Equipping it enables you to perform a new spell called Speak with the Dead that momentarily brings a corpse back to life so that you can stiltedly converse with it. Perform the spell on Mirileth, and she’ll tell you all about how she died and where to find the dowery.
She reveals that the Dowry is hidden in ‘the barn’, which you’ll find by going through the main arch off to the left of the square. The barn will be on your right as you enter a smaller courtyard, and the dowery is hidden in a large haystack to the left of the doorway.
To find it, you might need to try several members of your party. My own character didn’t have the perception to locate it, but when I tried with Gale, a box popped straight out of the bale with the Dowry inside—a simple ring with an inscription. Again, if you can’t be bothered to find the amulet, just go straight to the hay bale, and the Dowry will be there without having to resurrect Mirilith.
Irrespective of how you find it, take the Dowry back to Benryn for him to thank you and end the quest.
Extra Stuff to Do in the Area
While Benryn’s plight is the main event at Waukeen’s Rest and speaking with Councilor Florrick is second on the list, there are still some other extra bits you can engage within the area.
The Zhentarim Basement
In between the barn with the dowry in it and the other one at the far end, you’ll notice a building with some boxes piled up at the door. Slip inside, and you’ll find yourself at a standoff with a man ready to blow the place to smithereens. If you can pass a couple of checks, you’ll persuade him to let you down into a new area hidden behind a wardrobe on the floor below.
The passage leads to a huge underground area known as the Zhentarim Basement. Make sure to save before your encounter with this guy: if you fail one or both checks (which is easy to do), most of your party will perish.
Raid the Kitchen
Finding enough supplies for a long rest back at camp is a constant struggle in Baldur’s Gate 3, and the kitchen within the main building at Waukeen’s Rest has a ton of food inside.
Heading through the front doors, take an immediate right to enter the kitchen. Make sure you look through everything; even when I thought I finished, I kept noticing sausages and courgettes here and there—there’s more than enough food here to reach that all-important number forty.
Calm the Ox
There are actually two barns at Waukeen’s Rest: one on the right through the arch where you find the Dowry, and another straight ahead behind a dead ox on the ground. Inside the barn, there’s a second ox—one that’s alive this time but very frightened. If you have the animal speaking ability, you can calm him, and he’ll explain everything that happened during the raid. Without this ability, you may still be able to choose animal handling to calm him and avoid a fight.
Wrapping Up
I hope this guide proved useful in leading you through the Trapped Man quest and to Benryn and Mirileth’s stashed Dowery. If you’re stumped on any other quests or concepts in Baldur’s Gate 3, be sure to do a search for the game on the site to browse our catalog of other guides. You could check out our general romance guide, for example, or our recommendations on the latest and best mods.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question:Â Once I have the Dowry, can I accidentally lose it?
Answer: Just make sure you don’t accidentally sell it. This is why quick saves are important, though if you don’t have a close enough save, you can always put Benryn out of his misery to complete the quest…
Question: Will giving Benryn the Dowry cause any approvals or disapprovals in my party?
Answer: Yes. Astarion will disapprove if you give the Dowry back as opposed to selling it. Leave him back at camp when you give Benryn the Dowry if you want to avoid this.
Question: Benryn had already died once I arrived at Waukeen’s rest. What happened?
Answer: This occurrence seems to be a common bug some players are experiencing. You can reload an earlier save to see if it helps, but other than that, you might just need to wait for a patch. You can read more about it in this Reddit thread.
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