The center of the Absolute’s worship below and Ketheric Thorm’s rule above, the Moonrise Towers are pivotal to completing Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3. However, with many decisions to be made, many ways to approach them, and many secrets and tangents to explore, it can be very easy to end up doing something you regret. This walkthrough should help you avoid that, though; it will guide you through Moonrise Towers regardless of your chosen path, ensuring you find everything along the way.
Exits A – Reithwin Town B – Mind Flayer Colony C – Last Light Inn
Points of Interest
NOTE: If you wish to rescue the trapped Tieflings and Deep Gnomes, the prison section (#9 to #11) of this guide should be done BEFORE completing the Gauntlet of Shar.
1 – Tower Entrance
The entrance to Moonrise Towers is strictly guarded. Fortunately for you, you come with the key: the guards will let you into Moonrise, whether you arrive with the Drider Kar’niss or alone, so long as you are a True Soul (so long as you are not playing as Minthara, who will be attacked on sight). After entering the Tower, the guards here will request that you report to Disciple Z’rell within.
Should you cause a disturbance, or later should you assault the Tower (often with Jaheira and the other denizens of Last Light Inn), you will have to deal with the hefty presence of guards (more if you are mounting a proper assault). These guards can prove hard to kill, thanks to the “Dark One’s Blessing” that will moderately heal any guards that hit 0 HP once.
2 – Main Hall
If it is not being assaulted, the Main Hall of Moonrise Towers is fairly unremarkable, aside from the merchants (#3). However, during an assault, the Main Hall becomes one of the largest fights in the game so far, with numerous enemy types (and several possible allies). Between the Zealots (with their “Dark One’s Blessing”, preventing them from being quickly killed), gnolls, trolls, and even a few named characters, this fight can be quite a slog, especially if you haven’t acquired a few allies to assist you.
With Jaheira, the Harpers, the Flaming Fists, Isobel, and the Nightsong (Dame Aylin), however, the fight becomes manageable, so long as you take advantage of what your allies are doing to either focus on their targets, or to let them take hits while you focus on others.
3 – Roah Moonglow and Lann Tarv
There are two merchants very close to each other in the main hall of the Moonrise Towers. So long as Roah Moonglow didn’t die in the Goblin Camp in Act 1 (and she does not fight with the goblins, so she is likely to survive even if you kill them), then she will appear here. While she will have a few lines of dialogue about the Goblin Camp, she is mostly just a merchant.
Lann Tarv, however, is a bugbear merchant with a lot more to him. Firstly, you convince him to give you a discount by getting him to respect you, which you can do with a variety of DC-6, DC-14, and DC-16 Persuasion, Intimidation, or Deception checks. These checks are determined by your class, the character you are playing as, and what you have previously accomplished. Most checks are DC-16 Persuasion check, though you can get advantage often.
Lann Tarv should also be specifically spoken to with Karlach in your party, though, as he will give her 3 Soul Coins for free, so long as you listen to him tell you about all three of the souls contained within.
The first time you enter this chamber, you’ll witness a trial in progress. Ketheric Thorm will be sitting on his throne as judge, and Disciple Z’rell will be his prosecutor. The defendants, a group of goblins and their leader, will be under scrutiny because they failed to find the Mysterious Artefact. Depending on what you did earlier in the game, the leader of the group will either be Minthara (if she survived Act 1) or a goblin — Sazza, Fezzerk, or Darra (again depending on who survived).
If Minthara is on trial, then you’ll get a chance to influence events. If you pass a DC-14 Wisdom check, then you’ll force Minthara to admit her guilt. If you pass a DC-16 Wisdom check, then you’ll force Z’rell to recommend leniency. And if you pass a DC-21 Wisdom check, then you’ll attempt to force Ketheric to find Minthara innocent, but you’ll discover that he doesn’t have a tadpole in his head and thus can’t be influenced. Regardless of your choice, Minthara will get sent to a cell in the Prison (#9), and you’ll trigger the quest Decide Minthara’s Fate.
Once only goblins remain, Ketheric will decide to dispose of them, no matter what you say. This will anger the goblin Drenn, who will proceed to kill Ketheric — twice — only to demonstrate just how invulnerable he is right now. Ketheric and Z’rell will then leave — Ketheric to the Rooftop (#16) and Z’rell to the First Floor (#14) — and it’ll be up to you to decide the goblins’ fate. No matter what you choose, the goblins will disappear from the game, and you won’t see them again.
Araj Oblodra is a merchant. She’ll sell you a variety of potions, poisons, spell scrolls, and accessories, including a Ring of Free Action and a Risky Ring.
Araj will also make you a deal. If you give her one drop of your True Soul blood, then she’ll create an elixir for you. This elixir is based on the Race (and Ancestry for Dragonborn) of the speaker. Each character in your party can donate blood — even if they’re not a True Soul — and you can swap in companions and hirelings from your camp as well. Anybody can drink the resulting elixirs; they’re not restricted to the character whose blood is used. The only cost to the elixirs is the 3 damage they cause from the finger prick.
If you donate blood to Araj, then her approval of you will increase by 15, which means you’ll get better prices when trading with her. Working with Araj here will also cause her to appear in Act 3.
Araj’s elixirs are like regular elixirs in that they’ll last until your next Long Rest. However, at that point you’ll gain the condition Blood-Draw Sickness, which will cause a -1 penalty to all dice rolls until the Long Rest after that. You can drink one of Araj’s elixirs and one regular elixir at the same time. The 14 possible elixirs are listed below:
While talking to Araj, if you ask her what she’s planning to do with your blood, then she’ll mention her family name. If you’re playing a Drow or a Wizard, and if you beat a passive DC-14 History check, then you’ll recognize her house name — and you’ll remember that it was eliminated by the other drow houses because of its “reckless experimentation with illithid breeding-stock.” That is, you’ll realize that Araj doesn’t want True Soul blood; she wants your illithid blood. If you confront Araj with this, then she’ll try to buy your silence. If you accept this bribe, then for each subsequent elixir Araj makes, you’ll receive 200 gold. If you threaten to expose Araj to the Absolutists, then she’ll turn herself invisible and flee from the tower.
After creating an elixir with Araj, she’ll make another request. She’ll know that you travel with a vampire, and she’ll ask you to bring him to her. If you comply, then Araj will request that Astarion bite her. Astarion won’t want to do this — even standing a few feet away, he’ll sense that there’s something wrong with her blood — but he’ll do whatever you ask, with no skill check required. If you force Astarion to bite Araj, then you’ll receive a Potion of Everlasting Vigour (permanent +2 Strength) in exchange, but Astarion will disapprove (-6). If you let Astarion decide for himself, then he’ll refuse the request, and you’ll gain approval with him (+5).
“It was everything I imagined. And then more. I’ll be able to put this to good use.” – Araj Oblodra after being bitten
You’ll meet a cunning killer named Steelclaw here. She’ll mostly be sleeping, possibly because she sampled all of the milk and fish in the area, or because she got tired after chasing down the now-dead mind flayer tadpole at her feet. Or because she’s a cat.
If you talk to Steelclaw using Speak with Animals, then she’ll tell you about being a hunter — and how much she enjoys it. Otherwise, you won’t learn much from her, even if you pass the DC-14 Animal Handling check. She’ll mostly just point you to the nearby cat hole (#7).
If you have an Outlander (like Karlach) in your party when you talk to Steelclaw, then you’ll earn the Mutual Respect inspiration.
7 – Cat Hole
The Cat Hole connected the main level of the Moonrise Towers (or at least the rear balcony) with the lower level. The main level leads into the Throne Room (#4), and Merchants (#3), whereas the lower level leads to the Docks (#8) and the Prison (#9).
You’ll find lots of boxes and crates on the docks. A few guards, including Acolyte Marls, will be watching them. When you talk to Marls, if you beat a DC-14 Intimidation or Persuasion check, then you’ll convince him to let you inspect the containers near him, including a Zhentarim Shipping Crate. You can also beat a DC-2 Wisdom check to use your Illithid powers on Marls, and scare him into leaving (or beat a subsequent DC-14 Wisdom check and put his mind at ease).
When you inspect the Zhentarim Shipping Crate, you’ll discover that it’s filled with tadpoles. If you put the crate into your inventory, then you’ll (silently) gain two of them. If you destroy the crate, then it’ll drop two Mind Flayer Parasite Specimens, plus a living Mind Flayer Tadpole that you can kill for 110 xp.
If the guards see you and attack, that’s okay. Nobody inside the towers will notice if you kill them.
9 – Prison Entrance
When you enter the prison from the Docks (#8) or from near the Main Hall (#2), you will come into the prison entrance. While there isn’t much to say to the guards here, they will be prepared to attack in the event of any prison break, if they catch on. If you are trying to be more stealthy with your prison break, or simply want to avoid these guards, you will likely have to take the boat hidden behind the prison walls (C).
10 – Tieflings’ Cell (Cell 4)
Inside this cell, you’ll meet a group of tieflings: Rolan’s siblings Cal and Lia, plus Danis and Lakrissa, assuming they survived Act 1. They’re a part of the quest Rescue the Tieflings.
11 – Deep Gnomes’ Cell (Cell 2)
Inside this cell, you’ll meet a group of deep gnomes: Nickels, Nimble, and Wulbren Bongle. They’re a part of the quest Rescue Wulbren.
On the main level of the office, you’ll meet the warden herself. She’ll warn you not to speak to the prisoners. If you tell her that the rules don’t apply to you, and beat a DC-6 Deception check, then she’ll suggest that a small bribe might change her mind. However, if you beat a passive DC-16 Insight check, then you’ll realize that she’s toying with you. If you actually pay the warden any gold, then she’ll just keep it and not give you permission. You can also beat a DC-13 Intelligence check to detect the warden’s thoughts, and learn a little more about her office.
Note: If you want to talk to the prisoners, it’s pretty easy to fool Adept Keris next to their cells (#10, #11), and convince him that it’s okay.
Also on the main level, you might notice several levers behind the warden’s desk. The top four open the four prison cells individually. The bottom one opens all four cells at once. Supposedly, pulling the bottom lever will also set off an alarm, but we never noticed anything happening. You should only pull the levers if you want the prisoners to attack the guards and flee from the prison — and possibly die in the attempt. See the quest guides for Rescue the Tieflings and Rescue Wulbren for more information.
The upper level of the office is a restricted area. If the warden sees you climb up there, or if the scrying eye up there spots you, then the warden will charge you with trespassing, and you’ll either have to bribe her (which she’ll accept this time), submit to her and get sent to Cell 3 (in between the gnomes and tieflings), or attack her. To avoid this, wait for the warden to leave her office or stare at one of her bookshelves; then toggle on Hide, toggle on turn-based mode, climb up to the upper level, and one-shot the scrying eye there with just about any attack. If done successfully, you should be able to poke around the upper level and steal whatever you want without anybody noticing.
Note: You can also reach the upper level by jumping to the platforms surrounding of the office, and climbing in from there.
There are four locked chests in the office. You can use the Prison Key (carried by the warden) to open up two of them. Otherwise, you’ll need to beat Sleight of Hand checks between DC-10 and DC-16 to pick their locks. Inside the evidence chest (on the upper level), you’ll find a Browbeaten Circlet. The other chests are random. The only other item of note inside the office is Wulbren’s Hammer (sitting on a table on the upper level), which you might want to use during the quest Rescue Wulbren. You can also pick up the Spellcrux Amulet and a Heavy Crossbow +1 from the warden’s corpse if you kill her.
The locked exit door from the office can be opened using the Prison Key, or by beating a DC-14 Sleight of Hand check to pick its lock.
13 – Ledge
Jumping up to the ledge here will allow you to circle around to the back of the prison, where you’ll find a moored sloop (Exit C), plus the weak walls allowing egress from the prison cells (#10, #11). However, the jump is a little higher than normal, so you might need to use a boost, such as the Enhance Leap spell.
14 – Disciple Z’rell
Before you are able to have an audience with Ketheric Thorm, you must either fight your way to him, or earn your right to have audience with him. Should you opt to assault Moonrise Towers, with or without the assistance of the Nightsong in the Gauntlet of Shar, you’ll simply be able to walk through this door after you have dispatched the Zealots and other followers of the Absolute guarding the place.
However, if you wish to gain audience with Ketheric Thorm without provoking hostilities, you will need to jump through hoops, as will be pointed out by Disciple Z’rell. She will ask you to abduct Isobel from Last Light Inn and to assist Balthazar with acquiring the Nightsong in the Gauntlet of Shar (and she will indicate for you to pry through his room (#15) to help you with this, giving you the key), and will not permit you entry before that point.
While you speak with Z’rell, a variety of Persuasion, Wisdom, and Deception checks may appear, allowing you to understand her or Ketheric better, but these do not change the tasks required to access the roof. You can tell Z’rell that you are “done with orders” and speak with Ketheric immediately, but doing so will anger him and put you in a worse position to bargain with.
15 – Balthazar’s Room
You are permitted free access to Balthazar’s Room if you are friendly with the denizens of the Moonrise Towers, as you will not be seen as trespassing, but rather as investigating Balthazar’s whereabouts. However, you can avoid the DC-14 Sleight of Hand lockpicking check if you speak to Disciple Z’rell (#14) first and get the key.
First things first, you can locate a Moonlantern to the right of the stairs at the entrance to the room. This lantern, when held, will enable you to travel through the thick Shadow Curse that enveloped Reithwin Town without taking damage as you do so.
More interesting, you will be able to find an altar nearby, next to some bookshelves. One of the books on these shelves has a clue, but picking the wrong one will cause a trap to spring and damage you. Look for the bookshelf which is labelled “Protruding Book”, which will reveal what you will need to place on the nearby plinth: a heart.
Thankfully, there are hearts on many of the corpses in this room, which you can place on the plinth next to the bookshelf in order to access Balthazar’s secret chamber. In this room, you can do several things: firstly, you can find out the whereabouts of Balthazar in the Gauntlet of Shar. You can also craft a Shadow Lantern (a unique version of the Moonlantern capable of summoning Shadows) by interacting with the ritual circle in this room or, if you have Gale with you, you can get him to disrupt the ritual circle, giving him permanent advantage on concentration checks when spellcasting.
16 – Ketheric Thorm
There are essentially 2 ways to approach Ketheric Thorm — either by assaulting Moonrise Tower, or by gaining audience with him by completing his tasks.
If you gained audience with Ketheric Thorm by completing (or at least attempting) to acquire the Nightsong from the Gauntlet of Shar and Isobel from Last Light Inn, then he will have a conversation with the player where he will, ultimately, ask them to kneel before a tentacle-full altar. Doing so will progress the main quest, teleporting the player into Balthazar’s clutches, where they will need to escape and deal with Ketheric violently anyway.
No matter what, you will eventually need to fight Ketheric Thorm. This can only really be done after dealing with the Gauntlet of Shar, which will cause Ketheric’s invulnerability to be weakened, but it is still a difficult fight. If you sided with the Nightsong in the Gauntlet of Shar or Jaheira from Last Light Inn, you will have plenty of allies during this assault, which will be necessary because of just how strong Ketheric and his minions are. In addition to Ketheric himself, he also has a large army of Necromites and the mage Susdera.
The best strategy for Ketheric is to make heavy use of your allies, allowing them to take some hits while you deal with Ketheric’s minions. Once he is by himself, he will be much easier to deal with thanks to the advantage you will have in amount of turns. If you are taking on this fight alone, however, then ensuring you have tanks with extremly strong AC (including with buffs) and casters with large AoE spells is the most viable strategy, as the battle is sure to be a slog.
Once you have dealt enough damage to Ketheric, he will flee, creating a hole in one of the towers that leads down to the Mind Flayer Colony (B4).
NOTE: Once the party enters the Mind Flayer Colony through the rooftop (B4), they will be unable to leave it — even to return to their camp — until they complete it. You should choose your party carefully before going into the Mind Flayer Colony proper. Wyll and Gale (especially Wyll) both have unique interactions within the Colony relating to their companion quests.
You can take the boat to the Last Light Inn, before or after rescuing the Tieflings and/or Deep Gnomes. Any that you rescue in the prison can take this boat to the Last Light Inn with you, rescuing them.
Where To Go Next
There are 3 locations you can go to from the Moonrise Towers.
Mind Flayer Colony: Underneath Moonrise Towers, there lies a secret. Accessible several ways, you will need to end up here in order to end Act 2.
Reithwin Town: Heading back into Reithwin Town can give you a chance to clear it out, or to move through it to reach the Gauntlet of Shar. So long as you have a Moonlantern.
Last Light Inn: Should you opt to rescue the imprisoned Tieflings and/or Deep Gnomes in the prison, you can use that as a chance to return safely to Last Light Inn.
Graves is an avid writer, web designer, and gamer, with more ideas than he could hope to achieve in a lifetime. But, armed with a mug of coffee and an overactive imagination, he'll try. When he isn't working on a creative project, he is painting miniatures, reading cheesy sci-fi novels, or making music.
