The water hits your ankles on turn one. By turn five, it’s past your waist. Somewhere in the flooded wings of the Iron Throne, fifteen people are locked behind glass cell doors, waiting for someone to pull a lever before Gortash’s demolition charges take the whole prison down.
This is the sequence where a full Baldur’s Gate 3 rescue run lives or dies: free all 15 prisoners — Duke Ravengard, the mind flayer Omeluum, and thirteen Gondian engineers — before the countdown hits zero [1] [3]. Every one of them is saveable in a single attempt, on any difficulty, if you split the party the moment the timer starts instead of clearing the prison room by room. I’ve run this both ways — as one pack and split from turn one — and the difference wasn’t speed, it was routing. The split run saved everyone with a turn to spare; the pack run lost two Gondians who were still three rooms away when the water closed over their cell.
Here’s the exact route, the turn budget per wing, and the mechanics that buy you extra turns without spending an action.
Quick Start: Do This Before You Trigger the Countdown
- Save your game first, unless you’re on Honour Mode — this sequence has no do-overs mid-run
- Know your turn budget going in: 8 turns on Explorer, 6 on Balanced, 5 on Tactician and Honour Mode
- Split into 3-4 sub-groups the instant turn one starts. Don’t move as one pack — see the wing map below
- Give every group at least one mobility tool: Misty Step, Dimension Door, Boots of Speed, or a Potion of Speed
- Send your fastest, most mobile character toward the Eastern wing first — Duke Ravengard’s cell is the farthest from the entrance
- Open cell levers by hand whenever you’re adjacent. It doesn’t cost an action, so one character can pop two or three levers in a single turn
- Ignore the sahuagin guards. A dead guard doesn’t free anyone — a wasted turn fighting one does cost you a prisoner
- Once someone’s free, move them straight to the submersible ladder. Don’t stop to loot or fight on the way
How Many Turns You Actually Have
The turn limit is fixed by difficulty, not by how fast you’re moving — this isn’t a soft timer that extends if you’re doing well.
| Difficulty | Turn Limit |
|---|---|
| Explorer | 8 turns |
| Balanced | 6 turns |
| Tactician / Honour Mode | 5 turns |
Anyone still inside the prison when the counter hits zero dies instantly — no save prompt, no reload warning [1] [3]. A couple of guides list Tactician at 4 turns instead of 5, but two independently-verified sources (bg3.wiki and ScreenRant) both confirm 5 [1] [3]. Plan around 5 and treat any extra turn as a buffer, not a number to bank on.
Version note: verified against Patch 8, BG3’s final major update (June 2026). An earlier hotfix fixed the bug where rescued NPCs got stuck climbing the ladder back to the submersible [6] — if you’ve read older guides warning you to babysit that ladder, it’s resolved. Don’t spend a turn waiting on it.
All 15 Prisoners and Where They’re Held
The prison splits into five zones, and they are not evenly loaded — the Western wing alone holds nearly half the hostages.
| Zone | Who’s There | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Central | Two single cells, plus Obelia Toobin in the south tunnel | 3 |
| Western | Two triple-occupant cells | 6 |
| Southern | One locked cell, plus Santoria on a lab triage cot | 2 |
| Southwest corner | Omeluum | 1 |
| Eastern | Locked cell, up to two more Gondians, and Duke Ravengard | 3 |
The thirteen named Gondians include Ceres Olsin, Deedle Ofran, Caralee Grollo, Featherweight Falson, Flansy Thornwhist, Hastar Biggs, Marlono Rhandle, Obelia Toobin, Ogro Nettles, Phoenix Lubbins, Santoria, Thindo Vintervur, and Zumbo Pumbo [1]. You don’t need to memorize the list — the wing map is what matters for routing — but if a walkthrough or companion approval check references one by name, this is where they’re standing.
The Split-Party Route Map
No single guide combines the wing layout with a turn budget — most give you one or the other. Here’s both, built from the confirmed turn limits and cell distances above.
| Zone | Send | Turns to Clear | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern (Duke Ravengard) | Your most mobile character, hasted or with a dash spell | 2-3 turns round trip | 1st — send immediately on turn 1 |
| Western (6 hostages) | Two characters together — the cells are triple-stacked | 2 turns to open both cells, more to fully escort | 2nd — start turn 1, this is your heaviest load |
| Southern | One character | 1-2 turns | 3rd |
| Central | Whoever passes closest en route to the sub | 1 turn | Pick up on the way out, don’t detour for it |
| Southwest (Omeluum) | Any nearby character | 1 turn to free | Free him early — his own teleport spell becomes a second extraction tool |
On Tactician or Honour Mode (5 turns), don’t personally escort every freed Gondian to the ladder — free them, then let them self-path while you keep moving to the next cell. On Explorer (8 turns), you have slack to shove past one or two sahuagin blocking a doorway, but still don’t chase kills; every turn spent swinging is a turn not spent on a lever.
Duke Ravengard isn’t just another name on the roster. His fate is tied to a devil’s bargain: Wyll’s patron Mizora offers him freedom from their infernal pact if his father dies here, or her help saving him in exchange for his soul forever [7]. Rescuing the Duke yourself, without taking either side of that deal, frees Wyll from the pact and keeps his father alive — players call it beating a devil at her own game [7]. He’s also in the single farthest cell from the entrance, which is exactly why the send order above puts your fastest character on him from turn one — waiting even one turn to reach the Eastern wing can put him out of reach on Tactician’s 5-turn clock.
Route by Player Type
| If you’re… | Do this |
|---|---|
| New to this fight | Attempt it on Balanced or Explorer first. Use the same wing order above, but treat Duke and Omeluum as your must-saves if a full clear feels overwhelming — they’re the two with lasting story consequences |
| Casual, just want it done | Skip the rare loot cache in the north entirely. Follow the five-zone send order exactly and don’t improvise mid-run |
| Optimizing for a clean clear | Pre-buff before triggering the sequence — Haste on two characters, Longstrider if you have it. Aim to have all 15 freed by turn 3-4, escort in the final turns |
| Going for 100% | The north loot cache is only realistically reachable on Explorer’s 8-turn budget, after all 15 prisoners are already clear — don’t attempt it on Tactician |
Mechanics That Buy You Extra Turns
These are easy to miss because they’re buried in patch-note-style wiki entries, not spelled out as strategy anywhere else.
- Opening a lever by hand doesn’t cost an action. If you’re standing near two or three levers, you can trigger all of them on the same turn [1] — this is the single biggest reason the Western wing’s 6 hostages are clearable by two characters instead of four.
- Ranged attacks trigger levers remotely. A character with a bow or an attack cantrip can pop a lever from across the flooded room without spending movement to walk inside [1] — useful when the room itself is full of sahuagin.
- Lockpicking is a DC 21-25 Sleight of Hand check if you can’t find the lever [1]. Treat it as a backup, not your main plan — a failed check burns a turn you don’t get back.
- Omeluum’s teleport spell moves itself plus one ally straight to the submersible, once per round, once he’s freed [1] [2]. Free him early specifically so this becomes a second extraction option for the rest of the run.
Where This Fits in Your Act 3 Run
The Iron Throne sits inside the endgame stretch of Act 3, alongside several other timers that all start ticking around the same story beats. If you haven’t mapped which quests expire once you commit to this path, our BG3 Act 3 guide lays out the full order. This fight is also just one of several hard deadlines late in Act 3 — see our time-sensitive quests guide for the others so you don’t lock yourself out of something else while you’re focused on this one.
What NOT to Do
- Don’t kill Gortash before finishing this quest. If he’s already dead, the Iron Throne becomes inaccessible and every prisoner inside is already dead [2] — this is a hard lockout, not a difficulty setting.
- Don’t fight the sahuagin for the XP. They spawn in increasing numbers every turn [4]; the fight scales against you the longer it runs, and every kill is a turn you didn’t spend on a lever.
- Don’t burn every Potion of Speed on turn one. The bonus movement causes a stun once it wears off [5] — save it for whichever turn you actually need the extra distance, not the turn you’re already close.
- Don’t assume splitting the party breaks initiative. BG3 is still turn-based here — you’re not controlling multiple characters simultaneously, you’re sequencing each character’s own turn toward a different destination. Nothing about the routing above requires real-time multitasking.
FAQ
Can I actually save all 15 prisoners with only 5 turns on Tactician or Honour Mode?
Yes — the constraint isn’t the turn count, it’s decision speed. Most guides frame Honour Mode as harder here because of the shorter clock, but the route above clears all five zones inside 5 turns as long as you split immediately instead of scouting first. The action economy tip (levers don’t cost an action) is what makes 5 turns enough; without it, you’d need closer to 7-8.
What actually happens if I don’t save everyone in time?
Anyone left inside dies instantly when the counter hits zero [1]. If any of the Gondians are among them, you also lose the runepowder bomb reward from the Ironhand Gnomes [2] — a crafting loss stacked on top of the story loss, which is why the Western wing’s six hostages get priority over the north loot cache.
Should I bring my whole party together or split into duos?
Split into duos where the hostage count justifies it and solo everywhere else. With a standard 4-person party against five distinct pickup zones, pairing up only for the Western wing’s 6 hostages and sending single characters to the other four zones clears faster than either splitting evenly or moving as one group — the math only works because the Western wing is the one zone with more hostages than a solo character can efficiently free and escort alone.
Does bringing a specific companion or an active romance matter here?
For most of the 15 prisoners, no — nobody’s approval swings on how many Gondians you save. Duke Ravengard is the exception. His rescue is tangled up in Wyll’s story: Mizora offers Wyll freedom from their pact if his father dies, or her help saving him for the price of his soul forever [7]. Rescuing the Duke yourself sidesteps both bad options. If you’re mid-arc on Wyll, that makes this fight worth prioritizing him above the loot cache — see our Wyll romance guide for how the pact and his approval track interact.
Key Takeaway
The Iron Throne rewards a decision made on turn one, not raw speed across five or six turns. Split the party by wing before you’ve even seen how bad the flooding gets, send your fastest character east for Duke Ravengard, and use the lever action-economy trick to clear the Western wing’s six hostages without four separate characters. Do that, and the turn limit stops being the threat — it becomes just a clock you beat with room to spare.
Sources
- [1] Iron Throne — bg3.wiki
- [2] Iron Throne — Fextralife BG3 Wiki
- [3] How To Save The Iron Throne Prisoners In Baldur’s Gate 3 — ScreenRant
- [4] How to Escape the Iron Throne & Save All Prisoners in BG3 — Gamepur
- [5] Iron Throne: How to Save Everyone in 6 Turns — GameRevolution
- [6] BG3 Update May Make A Notoriously Difficult Quest Easier — ScreenRant
- [7] How To Save Duke Ravengard And Wyll’s Soul In Baldur’s Gate 3 — ScreenRant
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.