The Cloakwood Forest, otherwise known as The Cloakwood or simply Cloak Wood, is a relatively small forest due south of the city Baldur's Gate, or directly north-east of the citadel Candlekeep. During the game Baldur's Gate, the forest is comprised of five areas on the World Map which cannot be explored by Gorion's Ward prior to Chapter 4, and must then be subsequently traversed in order to advance the main story-line. Many side quests may be discovered and completed while making this journey.
The first area is entered by heading west from the Friendly Arm Inn, with each subsequent area only reachable from the previous area; there are no shortcuts once the areas are fully explored, and upon reaching the 'heart' of the forest, one must travel back the way they came. Thus, a single one-way trip takes 64 hours, and is seldom completed without being interrupted at least one by a waylaid encounter.
Individual Areas
- First Cloakwood — A woodland with a hunting lodge; spiders and wolves and bears.
- Second Cloakwood — A nest of Spiders; complete with Web traps.
- Third Cloakwood — A druid grove; pointedly made up of fanatical Shadow Druids.
- Fourth Cloakwood — A Wyvern cave; the deepest depths of the forest.
- Cloakwood Mine — An Iron Throne base; ancient iron mine.
Companions
Four potential companions can be found within the Cloakwood:
- Coran; Elf, Fighter / Thief, Chaotic-Good, found in the first area, excels at archery, with a subquest.
- Eldoth; Human, Bard, Neutral-Evil, found in the third area, who is required for recruiting Skie.
- Faldorn; Human, Druid, True-Neutral, also found in the third area, as she's a Shadow Druid.
- Yeslick; Dwarf, Fighter / Cleric, Lawful-Good, found on Cloakwood Mine level 2.