If you need a safe place to put your money and belongings in Baldur’s Gate… don’t choose the Counting House! If you are hunting after the elusive Stone Lord (and maybe want to rob some rich jerks while you’re at it), then the Counting House is your place to be. Whatever the case, this walkthrough will guide you on how to get through the Counting House’s several layers of security, and how to infiltrate its many vaults once you do.
Map
Points of Interest
NOTE: If you are caught in any forbidden area (and can’t talk your way out), then combat with the Cashguards will initiate. There are various alarms throughout the Counting House: one in the lobby, one in the Clerk’s room, one upstairs, one in the lower level leading to the Vaults, and one outside the Counting House at the Counting House Docks in the Lower City. If combat initiates, the Cashguard will try to activate these (which can be disabled with DC-15 Sleight of Hand checks), summoning all the Cashguards in the Counting House to you. These alarms are not found in the Vaults themselves, only in the bank.
1 – Cashguard Captain
Cashguard Captain Faril is guarding the first door down to the Vaults. She will not let you pass without a Bank Pass, which you can get from Head Clerk Meadhoney (#2), or by stealing one from the Head Clerk’s Office (#3). You can bribe her, but you will first need to pass a DC-30 
Intimidation check, and then also pay 1000 gold, and this will not get you past the Secondary Checkpoint (#7).
2 – Head Clerk Meadhoney
You can speak to Head Clerk Meadhoney in order to obtain a Bank Pass, which will grant you access past the nearby Cashguard Captain (#1) and Secondary Checkpoint (#7). In order to do so, however, you will either need to pay 1000 gold, or else convince Meadhoney to give you a “temporary” Bank Pass (which is exactly the same as a normal bank pass) if you can convince him with a 
Persuasion or Intimidation check. The difficulty will be DC-15 if you pass an earlier passive 
Insight check, or DC-18 if you didn’t. If 
Jaheira speaks to him, then the difficulty will be DC-10.
3 – Head Clerk’s Office
Going upstairs is forbidden to customers, so in order to enter the Head Clerk’s Office, you will need to either become invisible and lock pick the Head Clerk’s DC-20 
Sleight of Hand-locked door (or you can pickpocket the Head Clerk for his key). Alternatively, you can go onto the Counting House Roof (#4) and become small in order to squeeze through a pipe to enter the Head Clerk’s Office.
In this room, you can find a Bank Pass, which you can use to get past the Cashguard Captain (#1) and Secondary Checkpoint (#7), and a Private Stash Key (to a chest in the Back Room (#6)) in a Cabinet.
It should be noted that the hallway between the Head Clerk’s and Head Banker’s Office (#5) includes an awning overlooking the stairway beyond the first gate guarded by the Cashguard Captain (#1), meaning you can jump, fly, or teleport down from the upstairs, bypassing the Captain.
4 – Counting House Roof
By flying or teleporting, or by exiting out the pipe hole (by being small) in the Head Clerk’s Office (#3), you can access the Counting House Roof, or use the Counting House Roof to access the Head Clerk’s Office. On the roof, a successful Perception check can notice a Cracked Tile with a variety of goods a thief might use.
5 – Head Banker’s Office
By going invisibly upstairs and lockpicking the DC-20 Sleight of Hand-locked door, or by being small and using the small pipe in the maintenance room next to the Secondary Checkpoint (#7), you can access the Head Banker’s Office. Using the first method, this office can give you access to the Secondary Checkpoint (#7), letting you bypass the Cashguard Captain (#1).
In the Head Banker’s Office, you can also find a book containing a circled year – 1356 – which is the combination to the High Security Door (#10) in the vaults, as well as a Private Stash Key in a cabinet, used on one of the chests in the Back Room (#6).
It should be noted that the hallway between the Head Clerk’s and Head Banker’s Office (#3) includes an awning overlooking the stairway beyond the first gate guarded by the Cashguard Captain (#1), meaning you can jump, fly, or teleport down from the upstairs, bypassing the Captain.
6 – Back Room
After passing the Cashguard Captain (#1), but before reaching the Secondary Checkpoint (#7), you will pass through the Back Room. In here, you can find several Gilded Chests and Pouches containing some goods, but the real prize are the two Private Stash chests, with each containing a lot of gold and one containing several other useful items.
These can be opened with the keys found in the Head Clerk’s (#3) and Head Banker’s (#5) Offices, or opened with DC-18 Sleight of Hand checks with Thieves Tools.
7 – Secondary Checkpoint
In order to access the Vaults, you will need to get through the Secondary Checkpoint. This checkpoint is much more secure, but with a Bank Pass (which you can receive from Head Clerk Meadhoney (#2) or from the Head Clerk’s Office (#3), the guards will simply let you pass. Lacking those, however, you have a few options:
- Use a Bank Pass you acquired earlier.
- Talking to guards, they will let you pass if you can pass a DC-30 Intimidation or Persuasion check. It should be noted that these are both harder than the same checks against Meadhoney (#2).
- Press the Button behind the desk next to the gate, where Cashguard Artillerist Smathers is positioned, which will disable the traps beyond the gates.
- Go invisible and fly or jump over the pressure plates beyond the gate, which can be seen with passive
Perception checks.
- Brute Force your way through: let the traps go off as you go through the gates (possibly after casting
Greater Invisibility), and then lockpick your way through the DC-25 Sleight of Hand-locked gates.
If you are seen triggering the traps (which can all be disabled with DC-10 Sleight of Hand checks), the Cashguard will turn hostile and raise the alarm.
8 – Counting House Vaults
To the left/north side of the Vaults, you can access the… Vaults. These Vaults are protected by Arcane Circles, which will teleport you to the entrance of the room if you touch them. You can disable them with a ranged attack against two buttons on the wall between Vaults 1 and 2, and Vaults 5 and 6, or you can avoid the Arcane Circles by teleporting.
Each Vault here is locked with a DC-25 Sleight of Hand lock. But every single Vault has an associated key you can find somewhere in Act 3. For the lost of Counting House Vaults, their Keys, and their contents, see below:
- Counting House Vault no.1:
- Counting House Vault no.2:
- Counting House Vault no.3:
- Counting House Vault no.4:
- Key: On Roger Higherberry, who will be at the Wine Festival in the Lower City.
- Contents: Plenty of Hold, several vaulable paintings.
- Counting House Vault no.5:
- Counting House Vault no.6:
9 – Counting House Safes
To the right/south side of the Vaults, you can access the Counting House Safes. These safes are all behind iron bars, requiring teleportation or 
Gaseous Form to get through. These Safes can all be opened with DC-20 Sleight of Hand checks, or can be accessed with their respective keys, found throughout Act 3:
- Counting House Safe no.1:
- Counting House Safe no.2:
- Key: Sold by Skittle in Heapside Prison in the Lower City.
- Contents: Triumphal Helm, +2 Weapons
- Counting House Safe no.3:
- Counting House Safe no.4:
- Key: On Head Clerk Meadhoney (#2). Given to you if you open an account with the Counting House for 10000 Gold.
- Contents: Nothing
- Counting House Safe no.5:
- Counting House Safe no.6:
- Key: In a backpack near the Smuggler’s Loot under the Sailor’s Shack in the Lower City.
- Contents: Various Adventuring Gear, very little Gold
- Counting House Safe no.7:
- Counting House Safe no.8:
- Key: In a mailbox above the entrance to the Guildhall, near Tusgront, in the Lower City.
- Contents: Plenty of Gold and some gold or silver ingots.
10 – High Security Door
At the end of the Vaults, you’ll be meet with a High Security Door, suitably guarding the High Security Vaults (#12). In order to get through it, you will need to place companions on the following buttons, in order: 1-3-5-6 (reflecting the password you learned from the Head Banker’s Office (#5). Alternatively, using 
Create Water and then electrifying that water can short-circuit the Vault Door, or you can lockpick the DC-99 Sleight of Hand-locked door (which you can succeed at with a Critical Success).
11 – Minsc & Bhaalites
Upon your first time entering the High Security Vaults, you will be introduced to the Stone Lord — who is actually 
Minsc. He will burst out of a dead Mimic and then threaten the Head Banker, Rakath Glitterbeard, who he came down with. If Jaheira is in your party, she will want to speak to Minsc, though it will not change what happens next: a Doppelganger version of Jaheira will appear, and she will sway Minsc to leave (magically) with her, sending many Bhaalites to fight you.
There is no way to avoid battle here: while the Counting House Guards and Rakath Glitterbeard will be on your side, the many Bhaalites will be against you.
There is a Death’s Head of Bhaal, who will have two ranks of Unstoppable (meaning the first two attacks against her will only deal 1 damage), an Invoker (who usually focuses on attacking the Counting House staff), and 5 Reapers, all of whom typically end their turn by casting Shroud Self and turning Invisible.
The Reapers are actually the trickiest enemies, with two attacks and the aforementioned invisiblity, so locating them (with either AoE attacks or with See Invisibility) and taking them out is paramount. Aside from that, this isn’t too difficult of a combat, though you should attempt to keep Rakath Glitterbeard alive, if possible.
If he does survive, then he can give you more information on what happened, and request that you locate the 10,000 stolen Gold that Minsc stole (though the theft was somewhat intentional). You can resolve this quest immediately by giving Glitterbeard 10,000 gold, or 5,000 with a DC-20 Persuasion or Intimidation check, though you can actually retrieve the gold from Roah Moonglow or Friol, who have it on a pouch after their meeting with Minsc in the City Sewers.
After this battle, you will be able to find Minsc in the City Sewers, where you can knock him out in order to get a chance to recruit him, provided you have Jaheira with you.
12 – High Security Vaults
The High Security Vaults are all locked with DC-30 Sleight of Hand locks, and cannot be opened magically. Thus, it is best if you can locate the keys in order to open them. These High Security Vaults have some of the most valuable loot in the Counting House, and Rakath will not mind you looting the Vaults, on account of you helping him with the Bhaalites (#11).
The keys for each High Security Vault can be found throughout various locations in Act 3, as follows:
- High Security Vault no.1:
- High Security Vault no.2:
- Key: On Lady Jannath at her estate in the Lower City.
- Contents: Jannath’s Hat, assorted jewelry, plenty of Gold
- High Security Vault no.3:
- High Security Vault no.4:
- Key: In an Opulent Chest in the second floor fo the Water Queen’s House in the Lower City.
- Contents: Trident of the Waves, several Pearl Necklaces, some Gold
- High Security Vault no.5:
- High Security Vault no.6:
- Key: In an Opulent Chest in the northwestern hallway of the Iron Throne.
- Contents: Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen, various books and logs, ingots, some Gold
- High Security Vault no.7:
- High Security Vault no.8:
- Key: In a Jewelry Box near Nocturne in the Cloistre of the Sombre Embrace in the Lower City.
- Contents: Blackmail Files, various loot, some Gold
- High Security Vault no.9:
- Key: Given by (or stolen/looted from) Rakath Glitterbeard himself
- Contents: Elegant Studded Leather
13 – Emptied Grand Vault
In the Emptied Grand Vault, a successful passive Perception check can reveal that the mud in the vaults likely came from the City Sewers, giving you a hint as to where Minsc and the fake Jaheira escaped to.
Exits
A – Lower City
Both exits from the Counting House lead to the Lower City:
- A1: The main entrance to the Counting House.
- A2: From the Counting House Docks in the Lower City. These docks are forbidden, but sneaking through this door can bypass the Cashguard Captain (#1). Or, if you get past the Captain, this can be an exit to the Counting House Docks.
