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Locationmajor

Flymm's Cobblers

Baldur’s Gate 3, base game, Act Three

Importancemajor

Key takeaways

  • Flymm’s Cobblers is a distinct small location inside the Lower City, not a name for the whole surrounding street or for nearby businesses.
  • The only entrance is at approximately X -34, Y: -110, just south of Stormshore Armoury and near the Lower City Central Wall gate. The building has a shop floor and an upper floor, but no basement.
  • Dravo Flymm and Sally Flymm are both traders, selling a small selection of ordinary shoes and boots.
  • The upstairs locked chest contains the Scrapbook of Letters, which connects Gortash, the Dark Urge, Raphael and Helsik to the Dead Three’s plans.
  • Detect Thoughts and illithid dialogue reveal that the Flymms are tadpoled and that Sally’s apparent devotion to Gortash conceals a trapped consciousness.
  • The area outside the shop changes after the Steel Watch Foundry is destroyed The detained civilians and patrol disappear, and children later inspect the remains of the Steel Watcher.

About this guide

Spoiler warning: This guide discusses Enver Gortash’s family, the Dark Urge, Raphael, the Steel Watch and several Act Three quests.

Overview

Baldur’s Gate 3, base game, Act Three

Baldur’s Gate 3, base game, Act Three

Introduction

Flymm’s Cobblers is a small shoe shop and family home in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate. It is easy to overlook because it contains no major combat encounter, waypoint or obvious quest marker. Its importance is almost entirely narrative: the shop is the home of Dravo and Sally Flymm, the parents of Enver Gortash, and a quiet location where the game exposes the personal history behind one of Act Three’s principal villains.

The building also contains a useful piece of missable lore, a locked chest, ordinary footwear, two traders and several conversations that change depending on whether you use Detect Thoughts, illithid dialogue, Speak with Dead or bring Karlach. Outside, the surrounding street contains a small Flaming Fist and Steel Watch scene, an opportunistic vendor and a progression-dependent aftermath involving children and a destroyed Steel Watcher.

Internal layout

There is no basement. The first-floor chest is beside the bed and is locked when first encountered.

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Flymm’s Cobblers has two usable levels

  1. 01
    Ground floor: the retail shop and counter, where Dravo and Sally stand.
  2. 02
    First floor: the Flymm family’s bedroom, kitchen and workshop.

Reaching the shop

The simplest approach is to enter the Lower City and travel towards the Stormshore Armoury. From the armoury, move south through the Lower City Central Wall gate. Flymm’s Cobblers is the small building immediately in this area, with its entrance tucked beneath the upper storey.

Flymm’s Cobblers is not itself a checkpoint or fast-travel destination. The location is reached on foot from the Lower City streets.

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A practical exploration route is

  1. 01
    Enter the Lower City.
  2. 02
    Visit or identify Stormshore Armoury as your northern landmark.
  3. 03
    Pass through the Lower City Central Wall gate.
  4. 04
    Look for the low entrance beneath the overhanging first floor.
  5. 05
    Speak with both traders before opening containers or taking items.
  6. 06
    Search the ground floor for the portrait and shop stock.
  7. 07
    Climb upstairs and inspect the bedroom, kitchen and workshop.
  8. 08
    Open the locked chest beside the bed.
  9. 09
    Leave the shop and investigate the vendor and the security scene beneath the wall arch.
  10. 10
    Return later if you have destroyed the Steel Watch Foundry to see the altered outside scene.

Note

“Flymm’s Cobblers. Walk in a pauper, strut out a duke.”

The ground-floor store

The ground floor is a functioning shoe shop. Dravo and Sally Flymm stand inside and can both be spoken to and traded with. Their stock consists of ordinary boots and shoes rather than significant magical equipment. The Lower City trader directory lists both of them as normal-wealth traders selling boots and shoes.

The shop’s public presentation is deliberately uncomfortable. Dravo enthusiastically describes it as the family home of “our Archduke Enver Gortash”, while a painted portrait of Gortash hangs above the counter. The portrait is distinct from the mass-produced posters seen around Baldur’s Gate. A passive DC 7 Perception check highlights it, after which a party member can comment on the painting.

The wording is a pointed joke about Gortash’s rise from the Flymms’ struggling Lower City household to the position of Archduke.

Trading

Both Dravo and Sally can trade. Their stock is modest and mainly consists of common footwear, including camp shoes and similar items. This is a functional shop, but it is not a high-value equipment destination. Players looking for strong Act Three gear should not expect unique armour, weapons or major magical items here.

The shop also contains several common shoes that can be looted. These are red-outlined, so taking them is treated as theft rather than as free public stock. Dravo and Sally can likewise be pickpocketed for substantial amounts of gold, reported as more than 1,500 gold from each in the relevant location data.

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Their identity

Dravo and Sally are not merely local shopkeepers. They are Enver Gortash’s parents, and Flymm’s Cobblers is the house where he was raised. Their dialogue presents the couple as proud of their son’s public success, but the player can uncover a much darker explanation.

Both parents are tadpoled by Gortash. Sally’s mind remains present beneath the compulsion and can respond with a faint cry for help when the player attempts to read her thoughts. Dravo’s mind appears empty when contacted in the same way. An illithid dialogue option can reveal that the tadpoles are suppressing the couple’s true identities.

A successful Detect Thoughts interaction is listed as a DC 10 check. The result is notably different for Sally and Dravo. Sally’s mind gives the clearest indication that the friendly behaviour is not voluntary.

Recommended conversation order: For the fullest version of the scene

  1. 01
    Speak to Dravo and Sally normally.
  2. 02
    Examine or notice the portrait of Gortash.
  3. 03
    Use Detect Thoughts if the option is available.
  4. 04
    Follow the illithid dialogue option after Sally’s mind reacts.
  5. 05
    Question Sally about Gortash and the family’s history.
  6. 06
    If Dravo later dies, use Speak with Dead on him for additional information.

What Sally reveals

Sally’s conversation provides background on Gortash’s childhood, his parents’ financial problems and the decision that changed his life. The Flymms fell into debt and eventually accepted money from a warlock in exchange for their son’s service. This connects to Gortash’s time in the House of Hope and his later relationship with Raphael’s sphere of influence.

The revelation is important because it reframes Gortash’s character. His history is not presented as a simple rise from poverty. It includes parental resentment, exploitation, a transaction involving his childhood and a later act of revenge against the people who sold him.

What Dravo reveals

Dravo’s mind is largely inaccessible while he is alive, but Speak with Dead can provide further information if he is killed. His responses identify himself as Gortash’s father and describe Enver as foolish, needy and troublesome. He confirms that the Flymms were heavily in debt and sold their son after a warlock offered them money.

Dravo can also explain that Gortash’s Steel Watchers are his greatest weapon and that his traps and mechanisms can be turned against him. This information is particularly relevant to the wider Act Three campaign, although the shop itself does not contain a boss encounter or a mechanism for disabling the Steel Watch.

Named residents

Gortash is not normally a resident standing inside the shop during the relevant Act Three scenes. He is included in the directory because of the location’s family and story connection, not because he functions as an occupant.

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The upper floor contains the private part of the Flymm residence:

The building has no basement, so the upstairs rooms are the only private domestic area attached to the shop.

The locked chest

The chest beside the bed can be opened in either of two verified ways:

The chest contains minor loot and the Scrapbook of Letters. If you want to avoid an unnecessary theft confrontation, speaking with Sally and obtaining or stealing her key is one possible route. Alternatively, a character skilled in Sleight of Hand can open the chest directly.

Scrapbook of Letters

The Scrapbook of Letters is the most important item in the building. It contains correspondence between Gortash and the Dark Urge concerning the beginning of the Dead Three’s power-ascending plot.

The scrapbook also mentions Helsik as someone capable of providing a portal to the Nine Hells. As a result, reading it can advance or contribute to quests connected with Orpheus and Raphael, including the route towards the House of Hope. The location source notes that the Dark Urge does not receive an additional personal-quest development merely from reading the scrapbook, despite its connection to the character’s past.

Items and literature directory

The Curled-Toe Boots are a specifically documented fixed item, found on a shelf inside Flymm’s Cobblers at approximately X: -22, Y: -110. They are common boots worth 5 gold.

The location’s literature references also include the Cobbler’s Ledger and The Ultimate State. The available location listing identifies these as related literature, but the evidence consulted here does not establish that every listed text is a guaranteed, separately interactable pickup in every current game state. Treat those two entries as literature associated with the location rather than as fully verified fixed chest contents.

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Karlach has a specific reaction to meeting Gortash’s parents. Her response is sarcastic at first, but after the player successfully interrogates Sally about the Flymm family and Gortash, Karlach can initiate a further conversation.

Karlach considers whether Gortash’s treatment by his parents helped shape the person he became. She does not regard this as an excuse for his betrayal of her or for his crimes. This interaction is therefore worth seeing if Karlach is in the active party, particularly before leaving the shop after uncovering Sally’s story.

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The named location extends to the immediate exterior scenes around the building, but not to the neighbouring businesses. These outdoor encounters are separate from the shop interior and can change according to campaign progress.

Honest Vendor

On a porch west of the shop, Honest Vendor sells supposed “protection charms” against the Absolute. The charms are ordinary, non-magical rings and necklaces rather than genuine protective equipment.

Two gilded chests beneath the stall contain similar common valuables. A nearby Civilian wants help saving her fiancé from the cult but is reluctant to buy the vendor’s goods openly. Honest Vendor is therefore a small social vignette and a minor trader, not a reliable source of magical protection.

Flaming Fist and Steel Watch inspection

Beneath the Lower City Central Wall archway, a Flaming Fist patrol and a Steel Watcher detain several civilians. The Steel Watcher scans the civilians one by one while the Flaming Fists order everyone to remain calm and obey.

This is a useful local illustration of the city’s security state under Gortash. It is not a normal shop service and does not turn Flymm’s Cobblers into a Flaming Fist facility.

Security and law-enforcement directory

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The exterior inspection scene is progression-sensitive.

If the Steel Watch Foundry is destroyed, the patrol and detained civilians disappear. After a Long Rest, two children, Markiza and Doober, appear to investigate the remains of the Steel Watcher. They are fascinated by the broken machine, while Markiza comments on a rotten smell coming from it.

This change is environmental rather than a new Flymm’s Cobblers quest. It demonstrates the wider consequences of dismantling Gortash’s security apparatus and provides a small civilian perspective on the aftermath.

Post-Foundry outdoor directory

The patrol and detained civilians should not be listed as simultaneously present in this later state. They are replaced by the children’s scene according to the documented progression change.

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Flymm’s Cobblers is not the headquarters of any quest, but it contributes information and items to several Act Three threads.

Consider Gortash’s Bargain

The shop gives personal context for Gortash. Speaking with his parents, examining the portrait and reading the letters help explain his history and motivations, although none of these actions alone resolves the wider Gortash storyline.

Get Gortash’s Netherstone

The family conversations and the Scrapbook of Letters provide additional background while pursuing Gortash. Dravo’s post-mortem comments about the Steel Watch can also offer useful thematic and practical information about Gortash’s defences.

Deal with the Devil

The Scrapbook of Letters mentions Helsik and a route into the Nine Hells. This makes it relevant to the Raphael and House of Hope storyline, although the shop does not itself open the portal or replace the need to visit Helsik.

Free Orpheus and The Githyanki Warrior

The scrapbook’s references to the Dead Three, Raphael and Helsik can contribute to the information flow of quests involving Orpheus and the githyanki. The exact quest update can depend on the order in which the player reads documents and visits related locations.

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Related quest directory

Is Flymm’s Cobblers a real shop?

Yes. It is both a functioning shop and the Flymm family home. Dravo and Sally can trade with the player, but their stock is limited to ordinary boots and shoes.

Where is Flymm’s Cobblers?

It is in the Lower City, just south of Stormshore Armoury and near the Lower City Central Wall gate. The entrance is approximately at X: -34, Y: -110.

Is there a basement?

No. The building has a ground-floor shop and first-floor domestic rooms, but no basement.

Are Dravo and Sally enemies?

They are normally encountered as civilian traders and are not presented as a standard combat encounter. Their tadpole condition and Gortash’s control over them are the important story elements.

What is in the upstairs chest?

The chest contains minor loot and the Scrapbook of Letters. It can be opened with Sally’s key or with a DC 20 Sleight of Hand check.

Does the scrapbook matter for the Dark Urge?

It is directly connected to the Dark Urge’s past and to the Dead Three’s plot. However, the location evidence consulted here states that reading it does not add a separate personal-quest development for a Dark Urge origin character. It remains relevant to Orpheus- and Raphael-related quest progression.

Does Karlach have special dialogue here?

Yes. Karlach reacts to meeting Gortash’s parents and can comment further after Sally’s story has been uncovered.

Do the Flaming Fist and Steel Watcher remain after the Foundry is destroyed?

According to the documented progression state, no. After the Steel Watch Foundry is destroyed, the patrol and detained civilians disappear. After a Long Rest, Markiza and Doober inspect the remains of the Steel Watcher instead.

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Flymm’s Cobblers is one of Act Three’s strongest examples of a small location carrying disproportionate narrative weight. Its public identity is humble and domestic, but nearly every detail points towards Gortash’s rise:

The shop is therefore best understood as a narrative landmark, minor trading location and optional lore room, rather than as a dungeon or combat area.

Sources