Act 2: Explore Shadow-Cursed Lands
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- We came through this entrance for a specific reason. There's a goblin here who leads you to a group of other goblins. I think this is meant for the evil playthrough, they are waiting to escort you to Moonrise Towers. We're going to meet up with them and kill them to get their pixie, that way we will be immune to the shadow curse right away!
- So pull out a torch and follow the goblin that greets you to his camp. When you get there, just fight them and take them out, should be an easy fight. You can tell the one messing with the dog to go fetch, and he will be out of the fight (but will show up later as a cursed goblin).
- Once that fight is over, heal up and play the spider lyre. This will call the drider who has the lamp with the pixie. You can either convince him to give it to you, or kill him. I usually kill him, he's not too difficult. He can be a little annoying because of his over-use of sanctuary, but otherwise not too bad.
- Once he's dead or you have the lantern, let the pixie out. You can ask her for protection from the shadow curse. She will give you a buff and a bell. Keep the bell, if you die or the buff runs out for some reason, just use the bell to re-buff. You're now immune to the shadow curse!
- Now that we're immune, we can do some shopping and get some easy kills. Since we are bard, we can take out all 3 Thorms and Yurgir without lifting a finger!
- Head west down the path. We can get some shopping done at Moonrise and kill some Thorms before we head to Last Light Inn. You can see the path I took to get to the Tollhouse without fighting.
- Once you're in the Tollhouse, we can deal with the first Thorm. Head upstairs and talk to Gerringothe Thorm with MC bard. Feel free to use Friends
- [BARD] Ballads, sonnets, jigs - the list is endless, really.
- Toss the creature a gold piece
- I don't hand out so much gold for so little in return.
- [PERSUASION] Why stay in this rotted building? Take your gold and be free.
- [PERSUASION] Says who? Seems to me there's no one here to oversee you.
- Head back downstairs and keep going west to the Moonrise Towers waypoint. Once you get the waypoint, keep heading west into the Waning Moon. Before talking to Thisobald Thorm, equip Astarions armor on the MC bard. Having cat's grace gives us advantage on the checks talking to him. Just keep using [SLEIGHT OF HAND] and [BARD PERFORMANCE] checks until he dies. Not much to loot in here, except maybe some alcohol. There's a book below the loose planks for the crow quest. Make sure to swap armor back.
- Go back to the waypoint then head north. You'll come to a rotunda fight with some shadows. They aren't too tough. Shadowheart really shines in act 2 with radiance of the dawn and other radiant spells. Plus the light from Blood of Lathander blinds most of them.
- You can go into the rotunda, interact with the plaques in the order North, West, East. The top line should spell out OUR LADY OF LOSS, etc.
- You can use Shadowheart to get some free buffs, or you can roll and try your luck with someone else. When you've used the 3rd, a wall will come down. Have Shadowheart interact with the altar to do the ritual. Take the gifts from the left and right, don't take the dagger or it starts a fight. Head back outside.
- Keep going north. You'll find Arabella. Agree to find her parents and let her stay at the camp. Keep going north, you'll come to a door leading into the House of Healing.
- Go in and through the double doors on the left to find the last Thorm, Malus. Talk to him with MC bard. Feel free to use Friends
- A student, yes. Do please enlighten me.
- [PERSUASION] The sisters aren't ready. They'll make me sick instead of curing me.
- [PERSUASION] Why not have them hone their skills on each other?
- [BARD][PERSUASION] I am not worthy! Please, show me how a master works - I would be honoured.
- Go north out of the building, you'll find Raphael and a waypoint. Just wanted to get this waypoint so we don't have to walk all the way back later. Warp to Moonrise Towers and head in.
- Be friendly, don't start any fights yet. Talk to Lann Tarv inside on the right if you want to sell, he doesn't really have anything we need though. You can use the Fistbreaker helm on Lae'zel or get the Fire Acuity one in Last Light Inn soon.
- Go into the main room to meet Ketheric and get through the event.
- Go into the east room to meet Araj Oblodra. You can give her blood/Astarion's blood if you want. Since we use strength potions, we don't really need the +2 potion she gives us, but you can always use it on bard or someone else if you just want some strength. I go through with it because she gives you a fun buff in act 3 and Astarion doesn't really get that mad (unless you're romancing him). Buy the risky ring for bard and thunderskin cloak for Shadowheart.
- That's about it for now in Moonrise. We'll come back soon to clear out all these bad guys and rescue the Tieflings. We can head to Last Light Inn next to get some more upgrades before we start fighting. Warp to Moonrise waypoint, head east through the tollhouse across the rive and then north to get there. You can grab the Shadowed Battlefield waypoint on the way.
- Talk to the Quartermaster Talli. I bought Hat of Uninhibited Kushigo and Cloak of Protection for Astarion, and Amulet of the Harpers for MC bard.
- You can shop with Dammon, but he doesn't have anything we need. You can give him your infernal iron so he will make some stuff for you. I actually used the Flawed Helldusk Helmet on MC bard. I used the Flawed Helldusk Gloves on Astarion. They probably don't have enough money to buy the armor off you. Save it for next act when we do our shopping spree, we will be spending thousands and it can offset that.
- Next to Dammon are some cows. Use a potion of animal speaking on them. One of them will turn into a blob and you can kill it for a best in slot hat for Lae'zel.
- Go to the back of the Inn on the west side to find a door into the prison. In the SW cell, you can break some boxes and then the wall behind it. Go through. Go through the locked door in the next room. There will be a trapped locked chest. Disarm and open it for Coruscation Ring, one of Shadowheart's best in slot rings.
- There is a fight in the next room, but it's insanely annoying and easy to die, I just skip it. Go inside the inn and talk to Jaheira. Now we're done triggering events and upgrading for now. We can get another upgrade if we go save the Tieflings, so let's do that and come back for Isabela later.
- Warp to Moonrise waypoint, then head downstairs into the prison. The stairs are in the SW room.
- I highly suggest turning off all the lights again, so we don't aggro more than we want. Start in the south room with the 2 questioners. Shut the door behind you and just take them out.
- Next you can get the guy right inside the entrance to the basement. If the lights are off, usually the 2 at the top of the stairs won't aggro. If they do, it takes them a turn to get to you at least so you have time. Your options for dealing with the scrying eyes are still booming blade or throw them into the pit.
- Once the entrance room is clear, you can head out the door to the north and kill the guys at the dock outside. You can try to get the patrols alone, but even if the others aggro, they have to waste some turns to get to you. So just shoot them as they rush you then finish them off. Keep in mind you can still warp back and forth to another area to get healed for free. Most of these fights don't require high level spells, just health. So it helps you conserve camp resources til we need them.
- Once the dock is clear, go back inside and towards the prison. Clear out the last couple of guards, then head into the center building to kill the warden.
- Go upstairs in the building and get Wulbren's hammer. There's probably another scrying eye up here if it didn't aggro in the warden fight. Just booming blade it to death. Don't open the cells. I did this once and they just run out to the docks and then off into the shadow curse and die. So we need them to break through the back wall instead of doing that.
- Go out and talk to the tieflings,
- Then talk to Wulbren
- Throw his hammer into his cell.
- Tell him it's time to go
- Watch him break through the wall and go get the tieflings
- Now go open the cells and walk back there with them to the boat. Open just 2nd from the left to be safe
- Take them on the boat to Last Light Inn
- Head into the inn to get a new robe for Lae'zel from Alfira. Now we have most of the new gear for this act and should be pretty close to level 8. Talk to Wulbren and Rolan as well. After this, I was 300 xp away from level 8. There are some small fights and events we can do to level up and that will make the rest of these small fights easier (even if we can do them now, it's HM, so might as well do easiest first)
- Make your way to this spot on the map to meet He Who Was (if you didn't pickup the book from Waning Moon, then go get taht first) You can forgive the lady or not. If you forgive her, he will attack you. We don't need any of the rewards, so whatever floats your boat. I think you get a bird summon if you side with him, but it's pretty weak and useless. Mostly for flavor if you want.
- There is a fight on the way to He Who Was. It triggers if you approach this chest. You can do it before or after. It's just a bunch of plant monsters. By the end of these 2 fights, I was level 8 with everyone.
- Even though we're level 8, there's a couple more things we can do before dealing with the story. Our goal is to be level 9 before we take on Ketheric, it makes it much easier. Warp to Shadowed Battlefield waypoint, then head east. You'll find Oliver there. Play hide and seek with him. He's behind the cart outside, then goes back in the house. Fight the shades he brings out.
- Warp to Moonrise, then head north. Right past the rotunda, head east into the Mason's Guild.There's an ornate wooden hatch in the back, go down it. Go around the back and up the stairs. You'll find a keyhole thing with a perception check next to the bare wall.Unlock it so you can go through. You can disarm the chest if you want, I would separate MC bard from the group and leave the rest outside of the lines. If you fail the disarm, some walls trap you there while things shoot fire at you. You can disarm them too, but don't want to get the whole group caught in case worst case happens. Keep going through the next door, there will be a fight with shades that annoyingly keep going invisible. I would cast spirit guardians, and then huddle on top of Shadowheart. Make them come to you and get hit by spirit guardians.After the fight, there's a chest in the back you need to disarm and unlock. It has the Helm of Arcane Acuity. This is best in slot for MC bard. Once you get the mystic scoundrel ring in act 3, you can start using control spells as your bonus action (we'll switch to a normal bow, so it won't be a problem).
- There's 1 more fight we can do before we finish cleaning up Moonrise. Warp to Moonrise again, head north. When you get to the rotunda, go west. Start sneaking when they talk about the gith detector. Sneak up the ramp to the left to get the jump on the gith. They shouldn't be too hard to deal with. Haste can help
- We have 2 things left, clearing out Moonrise, and dealing with the shadow-curse. Moonrise is easier and probably need a long rest for it, so lets do Moonrise first.
- Go to Moonrise Towers. Shut the front door and kill the guys out front first. I try to kill the guys with the circles underneath them first. They cast hunger of hadar which is super annoying. Don't forget to turn off lights and close doors as you're going through.
- Go inside and head upstairs. Talk to Z'rell. She will go in the other room. Follow her in and close the door, then kill her. You can ask her for a demonstration of her power, and she will kill the ogre for you as well (show me the power she gave you, in the first conversation). Once she's dead, go out and kill the zombies and other lady.
- Don't forget to keep looting everyone and selling. I have close to 15k gold right now. You will need about 10k to buy all the upgrades in act 3 (probably more, I can't remember right now). I think it's not more though, since we don't have a heavy armor user. Dammon's legendary gear is pricy, but we won't need it. When you go north into the rooms, you'll see a scrying eye. He didn't aggro, and throwing doesn't seem to aggro if he takes no damage. So I just kept throwing him north through the rooms til he was outside, then threw him off the roof where he won't bother anyone. There's also a robot dog up here. If you kill it, it won't join in the fight with Ketheric. Also kill whatever wandering guards are left up here. In the dog room, there's a locked chest with a letter to Ketheric and a cape. The letter opens some dialogue options with Ketheric, you can equip the cape on someone, I put it on the bard.
- The next room over has a mimic. He dropped Spineshudder Amulet, I equipped to Shadowheart. That should be it for the upstairs.
- At the bottom of the stairs should be 1-2 guards. Despite how precarious it looks, you can take them out without aggroing others. Just turn off the lights to be safe, and try not to move far, it will be a close quarters battle.
- Head to the SW room, the one with the ogre. Stand in the far corner (away from the main room) and attack the ogre to start. Don't move forward to engage anyone, let them come to you and it won't aggro the next room over.
- Go to the SE room. Talk to the lady with Shadowheart (need a wisdom roll). Sever the connection to Barnabus, he will kill her. Then he talks to MC bard. Use Illithid Wisdom if you have it to get him to chill. BTW, with the parasites, once everyone has cull the weak, and MC/Astarion have ability drain, get favourable beginnings and luck of the far realms with MC first, then Astarion. You can also get charm with MC before you give 2 more to Astarion, but that's up to you.
- Now the only rooms left should be the Ketheric throne room and the main entrance room. I would clear the throne room first. It's a smaller fight, just make sure the doors are closed. Once that's done, you can either do the main room fight by yourself, or save it for when you come back with the Harpers. I usually do it now, but if you're not confident since it's a big fight, feel free to save it for when you have help.IF you decide to do it now, I suggest tagging the goblins from the room in the east and playing the waiting game. Similar to the goblin camp, abuse line of sight and make them run to you. Then the doorway + movement will filter them in slowly. This is much more manageable. It's a big fight, so if you do it now use spirit guardians (and keep her near the door so people hit it while coming in). Haste is ok, but since we're filtering them in slowly, it might be a waste. Since everything else is dead, don't worry so much about the eyeballs, there's no help to call for.FYI, as far as spirit guardians go, I typically just use level 3 spell slot. I'm not using it for damage, mainly to apply radiant orbs/reverberation, and save the higher spell slots for a fireball or something, but it's up to you, there's no wrong way to burn some evil.
- Now that we're done there, we have 1 more thing to do before wrapping up the story here. Let's cure the shadow-curse. Warp to Last Light Inn and go to the north room.
- Talk to Art Cullagh (the guy on the bed).
- Play the instrument we found at Malus.
- Go to camp and talk to Halsin
- Go back to Art Cullagh and talk to Halsin
- For this fight, fire wall and spirit guardians are overpowered. If you don't have a fire wall scroll, I would go back to Withers and respec Lae'zel to pick that instead of fireball/counterspell. You can respec back after this fight. Go out to where Halsin is. The main goal is to protect the portal.
- Have Shadowheart cast spirit guardians and stand near the edge to catch anyone who gets that far
- Have Lae'zel cast fire wall to block most of the map and catch a lot of the weak creatures in insta-death
- Have MC bard and Astarion kill as much as they can (they can be wherever)
- Prioritize killing anything attacking the portal (things that get to close, or archers that sit back and shoot at it)
- If you fail to protect the portal it's not the worst thing in the world, just don't die.
- It's really not too bad if Lae'zel and Shadowheart have good positioning, most the enemies are weak and will die instantly
- Afterwards, go back to camp and talk to Halsin. Mention you saw a cursed child. Make sure you're ready for another decent fight (haste and spirit guardians). Warp to Shadowed Battlefield waypoint, then head east to Oliver again. He will throw a fit and then a portal will be left behind. Go through the portal to start a fight.For this fight:
- Haste and spirit guardians
- Magic missle is good for taking out all the weak guys
- When they die, they leave behind a puddle of shadow energy that hurts you, so try to kill them away from you
- Just mop up the shadows, it does damage to the shield.
- After killing the owlbear shadow the shield should break
- Tell Thaniel he's not alone and he will go to camp to be with Halsin
- Head to Last Light Inn. Before talking to Isabela, leave Lae'zel downstairs with the tieflings. There will be a demon spawning down there and she can help them out. Once you're ready, go talk to Isabela upstairs to start the fight. Prioritize killing Marcus and the other demons that are coming after Isabela. It's not too bad of a fight at this level, should be over quick. Once that's done, we are all done except Gauntlet of Shar and Ketheric! Act 2 is pretty short.