Spoiler: The Zhentarim and the Missing Shipment possible paths

[McChuggernaut]

Don't want to know what happens? Then don't read this. You have been warned.

I did this quest every way possible. It is incredibly complex, but most people won't see even a tenth of what it has to offer. It's very easy to end quickly, and think you got all you could out of it. This is what I found:

First off, there are multiple ways into the Zhent hideout. You can pass a couple rolls when you enter the barn containing the hideout entrance at Waukeen's Rest to have the dude hiding in the barn (Salazon) give you a key that will let you in. Second, you can save the two Zhents protecting the chest first, and they will give you a password.

Once in, their leader will offer you a quest to help get their lost shipment back if you didn't already. Go save the two trapped Zhents from the gnolls, then walk back to their hideout (Teleporting back doesn't seem to give the two time to return to their hideout, and they need to be there for you to complete the quest that way.). Their leader will then give you a small amount of gold. She claims it will be a lot, but in my experience it was only a few hundred coins or so. This gives you access to the "Special Stock" their merchant has.

If you also chose to extort the two trapped Zhents for gold, they will be pissy at you. If you didn't and left amicably, Rugan offers to have you meet up with him in the Eflsong Tavern in Baldur's Gate after you return and talk to him at the Zhent hideout. What comes of this invitation is currently unknown, since BG3 is in early access at the time I'm writing this, and we don't have access to the city of Baldur's Gate.

The "Special Stock" is pretty crap. Just some pricey basic +1 weapons and armor. Not worth it at all, imo. You can find or pickpocket better or equivalent stuff just on the first map. This is a rather paltry reward for all the trouble you go through to finish this quest.

I tried the following options (Every option I could find.):

If you pass a scripted History check when first talking to the two Zhents after you rescue them (Always pick the top conversation option. Others can lock you out of this path.), you can reveal to them that you know they are Zhentarim. This in turn unlocks a Persuasion check to convince them to welch on their deal, and you both sell and split the profit for what's in the box. The plan is for you to take the box to a fence in Baldur's Gate later on and split the profits, but...

On arriving back at the hideout, you find that the jig is up, Rugan is tied to a chair being tortured and Olly is dead (Although for me, the cinematic was bugged and Olly was still standing there till the end of the cutscene, at which time his body is on the ground.). You have 3 options at this point. One is to pass an automatic History check and quote a line from the writings of the founder of the Zhentarim, which prompts Zara to let you live IF you obey her and kill Rugan. You can also pass a difficult Persuade check, saying you are "smarter than Rugan", and she will let you go as long as you, again, agree to kill Rugan (These two choices both result in you keeping the chest, being called a Zhentarim "recruit", and told to go ahead and deliver the chest to Baldur's Gate. You do not gain access to the merchant's "Special Stock". You can loot the bodies of Olly and Rugan.) Finally, an extremely difficult check allows you to Intimidate them, which results again in having to kill Rugan but keeping the chest, the option to deliver it yourself, no access to the "Secret Stock", and being able to loot Rugan and Olly's bodies.

You could, I presume, simply not return to the Zhentarim hideout, but that probably keeps you from working with them in the future. No idea what happens to Olly and Rugan if you don't. Presumably they are still killed.

Stealing the chest/contents while they are alive or threatening them into handing it over - They never show back up at the hideout. You can't return the chest yourself. The outcome is the same whether you unlock it or not, remove the contents or not. This may be an oversight or bug.

Killing them/gnolls kill them - Now, this is very strange. If they both end up dead, you DO get the option to return the chest yourself, an option which you DON'T get if you steal/take it while they live.

Both Zents dead and returning the chest UN OPENED - If you do this, their leader seems much more pleased with you, tells you that you are a "friend of the Zhents", and she will have work for you in Baldur's Gate. You lose possession of the chest.You aren't told you can see the merchant's "Special Stock" but you still get to. Strangely, the merchant will tell you after you back out of the trade menu that he "Can't show you the "good" stuff" till his leader says so, but he already showed it to you anyway...this is an obvious bug.

Returning the chest Unlocked (But with the flask still in it) - Upon unlocking the chest, the quest immediately fails with the message "You broke the seal. No point in returning it now.". You can't do that, it seems.

If you decide to keep the flask in the chest for yourself, you can do two things with it:

Give it to Gale - It counts as an "artifact" he can absorb as part of his story series of quests.

Open it - A spectator pops out. Upon death it drops...NOTHING!

So what's the best outcome? I would say making the deal to fence the chest, returning to the hideout, then passing one of the persuade checks and killing Rugan. All your options stay open (keeping the chest, delivering it for the zhents, finding it's "owner", working for the Zhentarim later on, giving the contents to Gale, or opening the flask.). You get to loot Rugan and Olly. The worst option is keeping it and opening the flask. You just fight a monster that drops nothing, you lose everything else, and the quest ends there.

As for what happens when you keep the chest and continue the quest branches in Baldur's gate, I don't know yet because the game ends at the end of Act 1, before you get access to the city, and we won't until full release!

[Wolff]

I hand in the shipment every time. I like buying and selling from the Zhentarims.

[brendan_in_china]

One thing I meant to do in kind-of-evil play through is generally be a good guy, entice Minthara to raid the grove - and use the flask to bomb the cowardly druids holed up in their sanctum.

Haven't tested, but I think if I have flask-thrower hidden from sight I can defend the grove (with only 3) and punish the druids - without agro'ing them.

We'll see.

[SpaceNvader]

You can use the spectator in a fight. Just throw it far enough away on unsuspecting enemies so that it attacks enemies first and not you. I used it on the githayanki as a distraction before engaging them.

[Harulem]

I made the error of teleporting back to the hideout after saving them. They never make it back. Even if you go back to them, and then again come back to the hideout on foot, they never leave the cave.
The solution I then tried to use was to kill them, and then try to give back the chest myself. But I ran into another bug, and the game acted as if I had actually saved them and they had made it safely back to the hideout.
I got the full reward and got to keep the flask

[RamzaBehoulve]

I just killed them in the cave after they said to let me die dealing with the Gnolls, then I opened the bottle and killed the Spectator.

[Wb_*]

Saved them, used an invis potion to steal the chest ( and another one just after taking the chest ). escaped without being detected.
I have the password, the 2 guards suspect nothing and they still like me.
If I go back to the zhent I can free rugan ( but that starts a fight with everyone else ) or finish him.
I can give the chest back unopened and get every reward, buy everything from the vendor that i could use, then free rugan, kill everyone...
And I don't really know what happens after that .
The possibilites are actually insane.
Rugan despawn if you do that, not sure it's worth it.

[fadingathedges]

I didn't have the History check option, so I used Minor Illusion to distract them and grabbed the chest, then left. I found them at the Zhent hideout, got paid without mentioning the lockbox I was carrying, then killed all the Zhents. Hoping I'm not locked out of trying to turn it in and kill more Zhents once I get to BG.

[['w']]

Short: Destroy chair of Rugan and you receive no malus, Rugan says thx and vanishes into thin air.

Long:

Helped Rugan and Olly against the Gnolls, reloaded multiple times until i could save Olly, after that I told Rugan that we should just sell the flask and he was fine with that.

Arrived at the hideout, passed the history check, but didn't want to kill Rugan, Olly dead at the floor still moving his face, Rugan bound to a chair, first time I set everything on fire with a grease spell, reloaded and saved Rugan.

When I destroy his ropes, I get the message that it was witnessed and I receive a -5 malus on his opinion about me, Rugan draws his weapon and vanishes into thin air.

So I reloaded and destroyed Rugan's chair, as he was bound to the chair it splinters and leaves him on the floor, he stands up and thanks me, after that he vanishes.

There is a lyre and a music box as loot!

freeing him from his ropes, Rugan runs away, -5 points malus
https://ibb.co/yN0Xrc7

destroying Rugan's chair, Rugan thanks me and runs away
https://ibb.co/DrvtL1L

[Dre G Writer]

So, this is how the quest played out when i did it. I saw the Gnolls, killed a few from stealth, and then started combat, thanks to the worm in my head, turned the leader gnoll against everyone and force her to kill herself via multiple skill checks.

Talked to the men, we kicked off really well, he gave me the password and im like, aight coo, But the option to read his mind popped up, got curious, tried to read his mind, failed, hes pissed now. Started combat. Slaughtered them both. They were already wounded from fighting the gnolls.

Lockpicket chest, picked up glowing bottle with evil face on it, da fug is this???

I use speak to the dead, but used the illusion spell to change into a dwarve so the people i just killed would talk to me. Told me where the hideout was and who they were and what they were doing. Told me not to open chest, its dangerous uuhhhh............ whoops.

Got to the INN location, whole place on fire. What the hell happened here!? saved the head lady in the burning building, then fought a cow for some reason, didnt want to kill it so I fleed from battle. Came back with another character and use speak to animals second time, told it i was no monster. Was hoping it would have info about the hideout. It didn't

Hideout right next door to cow as my character said, this was the place. Oh.
Gave guy the password, went into the place, gave them the password, they disabled the traps, and let me in. I convinced the merchant to give me the slave, set slave free and told him to pay me back once I get to baldurs gate.

Talked to head lady in the hideout, told her I was here to drop off their cargo, gave her the glow bottle, she takes it and freaks out, HOLY $H!T YOU OPENED THE CARGO!!! YOUVE KILLED US ALL! GUARDS!! ATTACK.

Me hella confused about what just happened, WUT!? WTF.

Now im in combat, slaughtered them all. Sorcerer casting multiple fireballs is no joke.

idiot set fire to a line of oil, which blew up everyone and everything below us. maybe wasnt idiot as i believed as all lootables were destroyed as well. Maybe destroying evidence or keeping us from the spoils.

save the game still in the hideout as thats where I left off before having to go to bed last night to get up for work the next day. Will be back there once I get off work today.

[Ancient Toaster]

Jesus I am missing so much stuff in my current game. I fought the Gnolls outside the cave, talked to Rugan and Olly and basically more or less got the chest from them by persuasion and then Rugan gave me the code. I found the entrance at the place on fire (Waukeens Rest) and entered. The chest wasn't with me at the time, and when the boss asked me to kil Rugan, I refused, so this resulted in a battle. I killed them all, got 500 gold from the boss, still have the chest AND I let Rugan go.

[Cuculan]

Maybe its just me, but I have the chest, but I cant 'give' it to Zarys. Iv put it on the floor in front of her, Iv tried engaging in coversation and I told her I met her team and then she says soemthing about spinning a tale to get coin. But no other options outside of that. What am I missing? :)

[['w']]

引用自 Cuculan：

Maybe its just me, but I have the chest, but I cant 'give' it to Zarys. Iv put it on the floor in front of her, Iv tried engaging in coversation and I told her I met her team and then she says soemthing about spinning a tale to get coin. But no other options outside of that. What am I missing? :)

No idea, didn't even know that you can carry chests around, I lockpicked it and took the bottle out of it

[Cuculan]

引用自 |wilb|：

引用自 Cuculan：

Maybe its just me, but I have the chest, but I cant 'give' it to Zarys. Iv put it on the floor in front of her, Iv tried engaging in coversation and I told her I met her team and then she says soemthing about spinning a tale to get coin. But no other options outside of that. What am I missing? :)

No idea, didn't even know that you can carry chests around, I lockpicked it and took the bottle out of it

I love this game - its bizarre everyone has a different interaction!!! :)

[Gvyomar]

Hi!
Someone knows. is there any way stay on good terms with Zarys (give her the chest unopened) in order to work with her group in future, and still stole the chest later (in the same hideout of Zarys)? To carry yourself to owner.

引用自 Cuculan：

引用自 |wilb|：

No idea, didn't even know that you can carry chests around, I lockpicked it and took the bottle out of it

I love this game - its bizarre everyone has a different interaction!!! :)

Indeed! ^^

EDIT: Done! You can steal the chest from Zarys and Zhentarim still are friendly! Now would be nice the game let give it to owner when team arrive Baldur´s Gate.

[['w']]

引用自 Gvyomar：

Hi!
Someone knows. is there any way stay on good terms with Zarys (give her the chest unopened) in order to work with her group in future, and still stole the chest later (in the same hideout of Zarys)? To carry yourself to owner.

引用自 Cuculan：

I love this game - its bizarre everyone has a different interaction!!! :)

Indeed! ^^

EDIT: Done! You can steal the chest from Zarys and Zhentarim still are friendly! Now would be nice the game let give it to owner when team arrive Baldur´s Gate.

nice way to handle it :D