If you are wandering through the Stonegarden graveyard on Reaper’s Coast, chances are you have walked past a chest sitting in the middle of a fire between two lizard statues. That is the Thrice-Bound Chest, and it belongs to the quest Speaking in Forked Tongues.

You will have to move the chest out of the fire first, and then open it with the password. A real lizard with the Scholar tag and the Pet Pal talent can get the password from Xiuh, the salamander in Ryker’s house. If your party can’t do that, you can still talk the chest open, try the consul’s leg, or simply smash it.

Below, I will go through every method, what each one requires and which one is worth your time.

Where to find the chest

The chest is in the Stonegarden cemetery, a short walk south of the Stonegarden Graveyard waypoint. You cannot miss it, as it sits right between two fire-spitting lizard statues and is permanently on fire.

As long as it burns, you cannot really do anything with it. Use Teleportation (or Telekinesis if someone has it) to pull the chest out of the flames. Once it is on normal ground, you can talk to it with a lizard character, and it will tell you that it only opens for its owner’s password.

For reference, the chest is level 12, so you will usually run into it while you are already busy with Ryker and the rest of Reaper’s Coast.

Method 1: Get the password from Xiuh

This is the “proper” solution and the one that gives by far the most experience.

Xiuh is a salamander that lives in Ryker’s Rest, in the room where you first talk to Ryker. Its previous master was a lizard, so it only speaks an old lizard dialect. To get anything out of it, the character talking to it needs all of the following:

• to be an actual lizard (not a character shapeshifted into one)
• the Scholar tag
• the Pet Pal talent

There is no Persuasion check with Xiuh. The check that some wikis mention belongs to the chest itself (Method 2).

Mind that the Mask of the Shapeshifter does not work here. Players on the Steam and Larian forums report that Xiuh simply ignores a character wearing a lizard face, even with Pet Pal and Scholar, and the Fextralife wiki notes that this was patched out at some point. In other words, you are going to need the Red Prince or a custom lizard.

The Scholar tag is the part that trips most people up. Having a lizard in the party is not enough, as a lizard with the Noble tag and Pet Pal still gets nothing but hissing. Check your lizard’s tags on the character sheet before you walk all the way to Ryker’s house.

If your lizard only lacks Pet Pal, you can temporarily move points around with the Magic Mirror on the lower deck of the Lady Vengeance and change them back afterwards.

Once you have the password, go back to the chest and use the dialogue option to quietly sing the password to it. The chest opens and the quest is done.

Method 2: Talk the chest into opening

If you do not have a real lizard with the right tag, you can try to persuade the chest itself. For this one a lizard face from the Mask of the Shapeshifter is fine, but the character still needs the Scholar tag. Fane has it by default, so Fane in a lizard face is the easy pick.

You need to pass a Persuasion check, which according to the wiki is not a high one. It completes the quest, but it gives noticeably less experience than the password route.

Method 3: Eat Consul Zara’s leg

This is the method most guides forget, and it is a little bit morbid.

The chest belonged to a lizard consul called Zara (most guides call her Zur, but the game itself only ever says Zara), and one of her legs ended up in Ryker’s basement. It is on or under the table there, hidden between other body parts. Hold Alt to highlight items so you can find it more easily, and check the name before you eat anything.

An elf (or anyone who has turned into an elf with the Mask of the Shapeshifter) can eat the leg and will see the consul’s memories, including the song that opens the chest.

However, only the character who ate the leg gets the new dialogue option, so that same character has to talk to the chest. That is most likely why some players report getting no new option at all after eating it. If you can pass the check from Method 2 anyway, the leg does not really save you anything, but it is a nice way around it if nobody in your party can.

Do not confuse this leg with the lizard remains you dig up in the same graveyard for the quest Stranger in a Strange Land. Those belong to a different lizard and will not help with the chest.

Method 4: Just break it open

The chest can also be smashed with a few hits, and some players simply lockpick it. Smashing it gets you the loot and closes the quest with the note that you opened the chest, but you get a lot less experience than from the password.

There is one trap here, though. If you lockpick the chest before you have talked to it, you can no longer finish the quest the normal way, and the quest stays stuck in your journal. Luckily, the fix is simple. Destroy the chest, and the quest will close.

Which method should you use?

If you have a real lizard with Scholar and Pet Pal, I would say Xiuh is the way to go, since it gives the most experience and only costs you a short walk. If you do not, put on a lizard face and talk the chest open. The consul’s leg is worth a try if nobody in your party can pass that check.

And if none of that fits your party, smash it.

Bear in mind that players who opened it are not exactly impressed by the loot inside. The real reward is the experience, so if you cannot meet any of the requirements, do not spend an hour respeccing just for this chest.

Conclusion

The Thrice-Bound Chest looks like a big secret, but it mostly comes down to party composition. Pull it out of the fire, check whether you have a real lizard with the Scholar tag and Pet Pal, and if you do not, a bit of Persuasion or a good old hammer will do the job. And if you have just cleared the Driftwood arena on the same trip, here is where to use the Key of the One.