The Find the Nightsong quest in Baldur’s Gate 3 is amongst the first side quests you can get at the beginning of the game and spans Act One to Three. The ending of the quest varies depending on your choices, and they can have significant story implications.
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To make it easier, we’ll walk you through the Find the Nightsong quest and lay out the choices you face at the climax of the quest, along with their consequences. Here’s everything you need to know about the Find the Nightsong quest in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Find the Nightsong quest walkthrough in Baldur’s Gate 3
The Find the Nightsong quest can be obtained in the first act of BG3. It’s a long, involved questline that takes you through different areas and characters, so strap in for many hours of gameplay.
The Nightsong is a vital character tied to the end of the story, especially to one particular Elven character in your party.
How to start the Find the Nightsong quest in BG3
The Find the Nightsong quest begins in Act One after you talk to either Liam in the Shattered Sanctum or Aradin in the Druid’s Grove after the first goblin raid attempt.
I prefer starting the quest by talking to Aradin because he appears very early in the game, and this means you don’t have to search the Shattered Sanctun for Liam.
Tip:
After Aradin fights with Zevlor, you can follow him into the Grove to talk to him. Or you can knock him out during his argument with Zevlor—at least then, you’ll know where he is.
After talking to Aradin (or Liam), he tells you a wizard in Baldur’s Gate, Lorroakan, will pay a heavy sum to anyone who brings him the Nightsong. From this point on, the quest progresses slowly, interjecting itself within parts of the main storyline, which means you don’t need to go out of your way to continue with this quest.
Act One: Goblin Camp, Defiled Temple, Underdark, and Grymforge
The quest continues when you head to the Goblin Camp. Along the way, you learn that the Nightsong is being held in the Defiled Ruins, the lowest section of the Goblin Camp. Once you defeat Priestess Gut, you can travel deeper into the ruins, where you will run into her bodyguard. Either pacify, persuade, or avoid the ogre to gain access to the deepest levels of the area.
Tip:
You can also pickpocket the key from Priestess Gut if you aren’t confident in your combat skills.
If you keep going, you run into a dead end and a mysterious symbol on the ground, known as the moon disc or stone disc puzzle. To solve the stone disc puzzle, you must rotate the pieces to form the correct pattern, thus solving the puzzle. There are clues in Priestess Gut’s room, but to make it easier, follow the pattern below to complete it.
If you aren’t confident in your puzzle-solving skills, you can follow these steps:
- Spin the Top circle once
- Spin the Left circle three times
- Spin the Bottom circle once
- Spin the Left circle once
- Spin the Right circle twice
- Spin the Bottom circle once
- Spin the Right circle twice
- Spin the Bottom circle three times
- Spin the Left circle once
After solving the puzzle, the door above (shown by the white path) opens, allowing you to access the Underdark. In the Underdark, you must navigate through a massive underground section until you get to the Grymforge via a boat at the Underdark Beach, roughly at the coordinates X:-9 and Y:-213.
Talking to the people here indicates the trail of the Nightsong has gone cold, and you need to enter the Shadow-Cursed Lands to continue this quest. This is the end of the Act One portion of this quest, but it continues into Act Two.
Act Two: Shadow-Cursed Lands and the Gauntlet of Shar
Finding the Nightsong continues through the main story after you cross the Shadow-Cursed Lands and get to safety. Most of Act Two passes without a sign of the Nightsong, but you eventually pick up essential items needed to get to the Nightsong. Once you get to the Last Light Inn, travel southwards to find Thorm Mausoleum, and the entrance is roughly at the coordinates X:-187 and Y:111.
Travel deeper into the crypt to reach the Gauntlet of Shar, where you finally encounter the Nightsong. Getting to the end is quite daunting since you must go through several puzzles to get there. After solving a series of puzzles and one major boss battle, you get the four Umbral Gems necessary to open the area where the Nightsong awaits.
Before getting here, ensure you take a Long Rest and have Shadowheart and Astarion in your active party. The former is necessary because her personal quest ends here, and the latter will be very helpful when disarming traps in this location.After you finally defeat the boss of this gauntlet, Balthazar, you will encounter the Nightsong and be forced to make a decision.
Tip:
If you don’t care about Balthazar’s loot, you can shove him off the platform, which counts as killing him. And it’s much easier than actually fighting him.
Find the Nightsong: Making the final decision
The Find the Nightsong quest ends after one final decision: Do you kill the Nightsong? The game gives you the following dialog choices:
- “Kill her. Let’s finish this ritual.”
- “[Persuasion] Don’t do it, Shadowheart. Don’t kill her—you’ll regret it.
Should you save or kill the Nightsong in BG3?
Save the Nightsong
Choosing to save the Nightsong requires you to pass a Persuasion check. If you pass, you are presented with another option that states, “Trust Shadowheart—Do not interfere.” Picking this option leaves Shadowheart to her own devices, although you can nudge her in a specific direction if you choose.
Kill the Nightsong
Choosing to kill the Nightsong leads to two more choices: Kill the Nightsong yourself or let Shadowheart do it.
If you choose to kill her yourself, Shadowheart eventually leaves your party permanently (this is irreversible), and her questline abruptly ends. You, of course, won’t be able to romance Shadowheart after she leaves your party, either.
If you let Shadowheart give in to her emotions and kill the Nightsong, Shadowheart becomes possessed by Shar because killing the Nightsong fulfills her duty to the goddess. As a reward, Shadowheart is granted a set of Dark Justiciar Armor and Shar’s Spear of Evening.
Shadowheart’s personality also changes drastically as she becomes more self-absorbed and focused on the principles of Shar. She states that she has no room for love, and this decision might lock you out of further romance options with her. So, if Shadowheart is your companion of choice, don’t let Nightsong die—at all.
Warning:
Killing the Nightsong also results in the death of other crucial characters, like Dammon, the blacksmith who helps you with Karlach’s quest, Isobel at Last Light Inn, and Art Cullagh, who’s vital to Halsin’s quest.
The outcome drastically changes if you convince Shadowheart not to kill the Nightsong. The Nightsong reveals herself to be a daughter of Selune named Dame Aylin and, as such, is a deva. Shadowheart also gains the Moonlight Glaive as a reward, and more romance options open up if you choose to go down that path.
Regardless of your choice, Shadowheart’s Daughter of Darkness quest concludes, and you learn everything you need to know about this complex character. Further romance options give you more insight into her past and make her a loyal party member till the end of the storyline.
This is everything you need to know to start the Find the Nightsong quest and how to finish it in BG3.
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