I actually jumped right into Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 after wrapping up Act 1. It was a while ago, but there was just too much to talk about to even know where to start. Act 2 is much darker graphically and tonally, but I actually loved that. There was almost a horror element to it and light became such a huge weapon.
Adventuring through the Shadowlands
Shadow Cursed Lands
Halsin, my druid companion, warned me how blighted the shadowlands were. I was in for surprises and horror along the way. Baldur’s Gate 3 made it obvious that light was my best friend in Act 2. A torched worked in most places, but a special magical light was the only way through some darker areas.
On that note, one of the first wtf moments was meeting a group of Absolute cultist goblins. I chose violence first, but it did not go well for me. In my second go, I convinced them I was someone important in the cult (thanks to the tadpole in my head) and required an escort to Moonrise tower.
Cue their request to play the magical Lyre that I thankfully stole from cultists in Act 1. Playing that thing summoned a creepy humanoid-like spider thing. He carried that magical light and I did try killing him for fun. That went even worse for me than the Goblins.
Diplomacy was my easiest option, I followed the caravan of ugly. Lucky for me there was a Harper ambush. That provided me the opportunity to side with the good guys and take out the cultists with help. With that help I was able to finally defeat the cultists and spider guy. It also got me an invite to the Last Light Inn.
What’s great about this whole thread of the game is I could have sided with the bad guys. That would completely change how most of BG3 Act 2 would play out. Not anytime soon, but a bad playthrough is eventually necessary.
Getting Side Tracked Out in the Dark
I met a weird guy called “He-Who-Was” out in the dark too. He wanted me to fetch a ledger to use in a ritual to summon a dead women and torture her for her crimes. I did fetch it and the whole thing was weird. He fed off her anguish, but I was too “good” to completely torture her.
I actually tried a few variations with that creep, but I eventually killed him and stole his gauntlets to summon his Raven. It’s another of the dozens of option side missions worth exploring.
Around that same area, I also played a weird game of hide and seek with a kid named Oliver. I ended up in a fight with his spirit summons, but it turns out this was a very important to lift the curse and not just a random side mission.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 Last Light Inn
When I found my way to the inn in Act 2, the Harpers were all ready to kill my crew as Absolute cultists. Lucky for me, helping the Harpers earlier and my charisma kept me from a fight. It allowed me to reunite with most of the Tieflings I saved in Act 1.
One of the more interesting reunions was with Mol, the leader of a little band of thieves. She was playing chess with that devil, Raphael. I tried to convince her not to make any deals with him, but she does seem clever enough to outsmart him. Baldur’s Gate 3 will pay off that thread later.
I even ran into Jaheira from back in the Emerald Grove in Act 1. She still gave me attitude, but I knew I’d eventually win her over by saving the Last Light Inn like I saved the Grove. BG3 also helped encourage me to get on her good side knowing she is available to recruit as a companion.
While investigating the Last Light inn, I met Art Cullagh among a bunch of the Flaming Fist group. Trying to chat with him and his nurse ended up taking me down a path to eventually cure the Shadow Curse, blighting the land. It also aligned me with Halsin’s companion side quest.
Saving Isobel
The big twist at Last Light inn was when I met Isobel, the protector of the inn. She was busy performing a ritual to reinforce the light shield around the inn. Without that, the darkness and monsters would try to kill everyone. Where things got weird was when a guy with angel wings swooped down to interrupt.
Turns out that guy was Marcus, a former member of the Flaming Fist that betrayed them for the Absolute. His lust for power and those gifted wings drove him to try to kidnap Isobel. On the first try, I died and the next few tries he took her from me. If she’s kidnapped, it dooms most of the Last Light Inn and drastically changes the story.
I wasn’t ready to give up, so my 4th or 5th ty I succeeded in saving Isobel and killing Marcus. It took me a bit to realize the trick was to focus on healing and caring for Isobel during the fight. The path I took was difficult, but seemed worth it for a more positive outcome.
It wasn’t until later that I realized I could have used Sanctuary or Invisibility to more easily save her. In a future evil playthrough, it will be interesting to see how different it is to help kidnap her instead.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 House of Healing
As part of my quest to cure Art Cullagh, BG3 guided me toward the House of Healing. Before even reaching the doors, I ran into a young girl on her own, named Arabella. Her parents were missing and I convinced her to join my camp until I found them.
That was a bit of light before it got dark in the House of Healing. The nurses in that place were obviously evil. They were like something out of American Horror Story Asylum. Before I even spoke to any of them, they were just creepy with their movements. Talking to them pretty much confirmed my suspicions.
Unfortunately, they killed Arabella’s parents, twisted in thinking they were helping them. I used a “Speak to the Dead” spell to find out what really happened to them. When they confirmed they were poisoned, I decided to kill the nurses on that floor.
Thankfully, that did not disturb the truly gruesome work that Dr. Thorm and his nurses performed in the main room. They were torturing a poor man on an operating table, by slicing him. I knew I’d kill them all, but I was going to attempt save the man on their table.
The Doctor is Out Now
My power of persuasion skills convinced Dr. Thorm to instruct his nurses on proper procedures. It was obvious he would be a powerful foe, so watching his own nurses tearing him up for me was a joy. I found there’s no way I could save the man they tortured, so the nurses had to go too.
Because I convinced them to kill their own leader, they let me pass. I took that opportunity to position my team and then sneak attack them into oblivion. Although it was unfortunate that Arabella was now an orphan, it was satisfying to get revenge.
Clearing out that horror show put me well on my way to curing Art Cullagh and therefore working towards a cure for the Shadow curse. It was tough breaking the bad news to Arabella, though. The upside is Withers took on an almost father figure role with her. Turns out she has a ton of potential for magical power.
Another thread to pull later.
The Waning Moon
Back when I met He-Who-Was, his path of torturing a dead traitor led me to the Waning Moon saloon. I had to fetch the dead women, Madeline’s, ledger from the bar. Nothing is that easy in Baldur’s Gate 3. First, I had to confront the bartender, Thisobald Thorm.
With that last name, I assumed he was related to Kethric Throm, the big bad of Act 2. I don’t know what Ketheric did to Thisobald, but he was a gigantic, monstrous thing. There was no way I wanted to fight that thing, so we did the next best thing: drinking competition.
My Dwarf might be smaller in stature, but he is a born drinker. With several successful dice rolls for my constitution, I defeated the bartender with ease. My reward was watching him basically explode from overindulging. First time I beat a boss with a drinking game. It was great to have that option.
Tollhouse in Act 2
As I wrapped up side missions and started the trek to Moonrise Tower, I ran into the Tollhouse. There were all these weird floating heads warning me to leave. Of course I didn’t listen. There was too much gold littered on the ground and safes to open.
I ended up meeting the Toll Keeper and it was another larger than life Thorm. This one was Gerringothe Thorm. She was just as big as the bartender, but adorned in gold. She was a real glutton for gold, asking me for more and more toll money. It was clear I’d need to kill her or go broke and then die.
She destroyed me the first time around. On the second go, I positioned everyone on the roof. I hit her with a sneak attack to do a ton of damage. It took her awhile to get up to me, while her floating skulls took potshots at me.
When she did reach the roof, I lucked out with a great push from Karlach. She pushed her off the roof and hit the first floor. That knocked off a ton of the gold armor she wore. Knocking off that armor helped make quick work of her.
I feel like this whole thing was optional, but fun once I figured out the strategy to win it.
Moonrise Tower
The whole point of Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 was to reach Moonrise Tower and confront the cult of the Absolute. Although I could opt to just attack straight away, I knew that would be a suicide mission. Instead, I talked my way in.
I chatted up all the cult members and wannabes. There was an entertaining little bit of dialog between Karlach and an old friend of hers. If I didn’t have her in my party, I’d imagine the conversation would have gone much differently. A lot of these “what ifs” are the super power of Baldur’s Gate 3.
On that same note, I found a member of the Absolute controlling a group of Gnolls (basically werewolves) in the kitchen. I decided to break that mental control and they mauled her to death. Not exactly a good guy thing to do, but satisfying anyways.
Right around that corner, I also met Araj Oblodra, an intense drow chemist. I convinced Astarion to bite her and let her test his blood for some special potion. He was pretty mad about all that, but complied. She also wanted to experiment with my blood for a stat boosting potion and I obliged.
She seems a tad evil, but I couldn’t resist.
Working as a Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 Double Agent
I snuck down to the Moonrise dungeon to help some Gnomes and Tieflings escape back to the Last Light Inn. That was one of my favorite sequences in Moonrise Tower. I distracted the guards while the Gnomes broke the brittle stone walls and escaped via a boat in the back.
We received a heroes welcome back at the inn and I knew it was the greenlight to go crazy on the Absolute. When I returned to the tower, I was relieved they didn’t attack me on sight. My murder of the guards went unnoticed, for a bit.
I finally confronted Ketheric Thorm in his throne room, but the fight with him had to wait. Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 kept reiterating how he was invincible, at least until I found the weakness. I did get to pass judgement on a group of Goblins that escaped my Act 1 slaughter.
To finish my revenge on them, I opted to give them a chance to fight me for their survival. They failed and it gained me reputation with the Absolute zealots there. That bit of rep helped me find out that a man named Balthazar went to the Grand Mausoleum to seek and secure Ketheric’s source of invincibility.
Before I left on another adventure to track him down, I searched his room and almost died from his magical traps. His place was really creepy and clear he was into necromancy, hardcore. I even found time to rummage through Ketheric’s room and the room of his daughter.
What I found there showed some humanity in his character and a surprise as to who his daughter was. I think killing Ketheric is the only choice to proceed, but good to have a reason for his evil.
Grand Mausoleum and the Gauntlet of Shar
On my way to track down Balthazar, I ran into everyone’s favorite devil, Raphael. He warned me that there was a dangerous enemy to fight down there. With some successful persuasion checks, I got him to spill that it was one of his old enemies.
After taking advantage of a long rest to recharge everyone, I ventured into the depths. There were several puzzles to solve to advance deep, and deeper I went. I eventually ran into a crew of skeleton soldiers and convinced them I was there to help.
Unfortunately for all of us, Sharran spirits emerged from portals to fight us all. I died a few times before I figured out that prioritizing the destruction of their portals was the key. Without reinforcements, we took care of all the spirits together.
My reward was a meeting with Balthazar and his Frankenstein-like monster, Flesh. I convinced them I was there to help, though I wanted to kill that creep right there. My silver tongue was obviously the better route. He pointed me to the Gauntlet of Shar and even gifted me a way to summon his minion, Flesh.
Yugir the Big Demon
As I worked my way through the various Sharran trials, I stumbled upon Yugir, Raphael’s old enemy. He was a huge demon and he had a ton of minions surrounding him. I opted to try the talking route and found out he signed a deal with Raphael.
I had the option to try to fight him right away, convince him to kill his minions as a means to nullify his deal or help him out of the deal another way. The latter was the choice I made, but I screwed it up. There’s a whole puzzle with rats and I chose the wrong choice that locked me out of being able to help him.
I knew I’d need to kill him, so I regret not convincing him to kill his minions first. Even though my uneasy peace with him gave me an opportunity to position for a sneak attack, it was a very tough fight. He kept going invisible and it was only summoning Flesh that tipped things in my favor.
Two Bosses Fighting Each Other
Flesh was like a big tank that stole the enemies attention from my party. He helped me whittle down those minions, before he died himself. It was win-win really. He helped a lot, then died so I didn’t need to fight him with Balthazar later. Towards the end of the fight, Gale was my go to with his magic missile attack.
It guaranteed he’d hit 100%, so my shock when Yugir kicked him down several levels. I lucked out with a health potion throw that revived him, but then I had to wait for them to forget about him to get him all the way back up into the battle.
That whole ordeal prolonged the battle and everyone else died before Gale arrived to provide the finishing blow. I stacked plenty of Revive scrolls, so hard fought, but no serious losses. Killing Yugir also scored the best crossbow that allowed for double shots with a chance of fire.
My Tav’s specialty was ranged weapons, so I kept that equipped all the way to the end of Act 2. With that hard battle behind me, I finished the trials of Shar and found my way to the pool of the Shadowfell. Baldur’s Gate 3 made clear this was the point of no return, so I double checked I finished all the side stuff I wanted.
Shadowfell
After hearing about the Night Song and Night Singer for the whole game, I was happy I’d finally reach it in the Shadowfell. It was the source of Ketheric Thorm’s invincibility, so it had to be mine. The floating dark platforms were like something out of a dream.
Balthazar was already there waiting, so I wasted no time to attack. He summoned an army of skeletons for what was a tough fight even without Flesh around. Once I figured out one of Shadowhearts attacks was very effective on skeletons, I cruised through that bone army.
Balthazar was still very tough without their help. Half my team were downed by the end and I chanced a push by Karlach to send him flying of the edge. Even though I knew it would lose some possibly good loot, I wanted him to die before I did. It was very satisfying and next time I’d push him earlier.
Releasing the Night Song
What was an interesting surprise to the whole Night Song saga was it was a she and not a thing. Night Song stood for the Selunite (Moon Maiden) religion which is against everything Shadowhearts Sharran religion stood for. Shadowheart claimed Shar’s spear at the end of the trials with instructions to kill the Night Song.
By this time in the game, I had convinced her to slowly turn away from Shar and forge her own path. With both Night Song and I convincing her to choose a new path, she chose to reject Shar and spare Night Song. It immediately felt like the right move.
Night Song basically powered up, donned her armor and spread her wings to fly. After telling Shadowheart a bit about her past, she made it clear she was going to kill Ketheric Thorm and flew away. BG3 treated me to a nice cutscene of her spreading her moonlight over the Shadow Cursed lands on her way to Moonrise.
A big fight was coming, but felt good to basically have a god on our side.
Taking the Fight to the Absolute
With the Moon Maiden on our side, it was time to fight the Absolute at Moonrise Tower. The sight of the flying god gathered our allies from the Last Light Inn. It was great to have the Harpers, Tieflings and Flaming Fist join us in our fight.
Helping all those groups helped me to surround the Absolute soldiers to overwhelm them. Even the Gnolls I saved from the kitchen joined in the fight on our side. We fought our way through the bottom rooms and decimated their forces. That was the easy part.
With the minions out of the way, I finally confronted a now vulnerable Ketheric Thorm. Night Song was already there ready to fight and my attempts to talk Ketheric down failed. We fought him and his summons, winning easily, until a giant tentacle attacked us all.
It knocked Night Song out of the fight and Ketheric escaped down into the hole it came from.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 Mindflayer Colony
We jumped down the hole to chase after Ketheric and found a horror show in the depths of the tower. It turned out it was a Mindflayer colony that the Absolute used to breed the parasites they infected everyone with. I felt a bit like I was back on the Nautiloid from Act 1.
While I searched for the final battle of Act 2, I rescued Tieflings from pods and Mizora. She just happened to be the demon that held Wyll’s contract with the hells. It was tempting to just kill her right in the pod, but loop holes in the contract would have doomed Wyll. Mizora is also an entertaining addition to our camp later on.
With all that extra heroism, I finally found Ketheric, but he was joined by his partners Gortash and Orin. I took that opportunity to finish the entire game (in a bad way) by using the magical nuke in Gale’s chest. He blew everyone up and the credits rolled.
The narrator made clear this was not meant to be the end and basically resulted in all the people with parasites instantly turning into Mindflayers. Glad I tried it out, but then it was back to proper progress. With Ketheric’s partners off to Baldur’s Gate, it was finally time for the final fight.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2 Final FIght with Ketheric Thorm
By that time, I had my team set with my Tav as a ranged rouge, Karlach as the tank, Shadowheart as the healer and Gale as the battle mage. I tried convincing Ketheric he was not a bad man and should sacrifice himself, but there was no avoiding a fight. Although I do think I convinced him, his god, Myrkul took control.
He was a very large skeleton, but with Night Song’s help, I finished him off on the first try. I took his Netherstone and secured my path to the actual city of Baldur’s Gate. Before I left for Act 3, I took my victory lap with all the people that I helped along the way.
I even managed to help Halsin save the powerful boy Nathaniel. That secured us a cure for the Shadow Curse and convinced Halsin to permanently join my companions. My victories also helped convince Jaheira to join us and her sarcasm was a great addition to the team.
When I finally left Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2, I felt quite accomplished. I gained powerful allies in my camp and could see the dark curse lifting in the ending cutscene as we traveled to the city.
Heading to the city of Baldur’s Gate for Act 3
I don’t know what my official playtime was when I left Act 2, but I knew it was well over 100 hours. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great game, but I was relieved to leave the darkness of Act 2. Considering the city of Baldur’s Gate is in the name of the game, it was nice to finally go to see it.
I looked forward to start wrapping up all the story threads that spanned through Act 1 and 2. It was also reassuring I could eventually dig into another game in my backlog full steam ahead.