Baldur's Gate 3 Gauntlet of Shar guide

As the gods of Baldur's Gate 3 begin to play a more and more important role in the story, your party seeks an ancient Ketheric relic hidden within the Thorm Mausoleum in the Reithwin Cemetery.

But to get it, they will have to traverse the legendary Gauntlet of Shar, the goddess of darkness’ proving ground for her most dedicated warriors.

Before you undertake this quest, you probably want to head back to camp and add both Shadowheart and Astarion to your party. While neither are technically necessary, the Gauntlet of Shar and some of the characters you find there play an important role in both of their companion quests.

Where to find the Ketheric Relic

You find Reithwin Cemetery between the House of Healing and Masons Guild on the northern side of Reithwin Town in the Shadow-cursed Lands.

As you approach the cemetery gate, if you rescued her in the Grove, a cutscene with Arabella plays. You can agree to look for her parents, but - as you know if you’ve completed the quest with Art Cullagh - they’re currently indisposed at the House of Healing next door. She doesn’t believe you, but you can pass a persuasion or intimidation check to get her to come to your camp for a later side quest.

Next, continue towards the tomb at the back of the cemetery where you see Dark Justiciars fallen in battle. Then, on your right, Raphael, the conniving cambion, appears. He apparently warns you about the dangers inside, but can you trust him?

With Astarion in your party, a key part of his companion quest begins. In exchange for killing the old enemy of Raphael’s inside the tomb, he will help Astarion decipher the runes on his back and their connection to his vampiric master, Cazador.

With that added impetus to explore, head inside.

Ketheric Mausoleum picture puzzle

Inside the mausoleum, open the gate and speak to the Herald of Balthazar. It warns you away from venturing any further.

Go to the back of the chamber and you make an interesting discovery: Isobel’s tomb. Be careful of the trapped marble plates around the sides of the room and press the button on the far wall. There are three buttons: General, Grief, and Moonrise Tower.

The solution to the Ketheric Mausoleum picture puzzle is in the stained book on the right-hand side of the crypt: splendour, tragedy and infamy. From that you can infer you need to press the buttons for Moonrise, Grief and General, in that order.

Gauntlet of Shar Walkthrough - The Answer Lies in Darkness

In the room that’s revealed, interact with the traversal gem to continue. You now stand in front of the legendary Gauntlet of Shar. If you brought her, Shadowheart is unsurprisingly excited. This is where the night goddess put her most devoted followers through their paces to become lauded Dark Justiciars. Perhaps if you can overcome the trials, she can too?

When you’re ready, open the stone door to start.

In this first room, you see an umbral gem cradled by a statue in the middle of the floor. But when you try to take it, you’re flung backwards.

Your only clue: The answer lies in darkness.

To start with, toggle off group mode so no one walks over a trap and select your most dextrous party member. To complete this puzzle, you need to douse all 8 mystic thuribles in the room.

In the four corners of the room there are small rooms with a lever inside, these lower four of the lamps that you can then interact with to douse. Then do the remaining four by the doors at the front and back of the room.

The darkness reveals the path through an invisible maze to reach the umbral gem in the middle of the room.

With that, open the stone door on the other side of the chamber. On your left, you meet three undead, one of which is infected with a tadpole. They help you fight the justiciar avengers and shadows that emerge. You need to destroy the Umbral Tremors as a matter of urgency because they spawn new enemies.

If the marksman survives, he legs it off to the left. Follow him and talk to the reconstituted duellist. Another wave of Tremors beckons - destroy the shadow portals, then the justiciars.

After the battle, you meet Balthazar, commander of the reborn dead - chief advisor to General Thorm. He tells you about the relic you’re after and represents a big chance to gain access to Ketheric when you reach moonrise. Plus, he spills that the artefact is the very thing that Ketheric holds onto power using.

A persuasion check gives you a bell which summons a flesh golem to help whenever you fancy. There’s also a vault door in the room before you reach Balthazar - use Astarion’s massive bonuses to pick the 30 check and inside you find more infernal iron for Karlach.

Return back towards the central chamber and take a left when you see the rat. There are four doors here. Each contains a trial of Shar used to test the worthiness of a would-be Dark Justiciar.

How to complete the Soft-Step Trial - Her Most Vaunted Treasure

Enter the Soft-Step Trial room and interact with the sacrificial bowl. Let Shadowheart deal with it, and the trial opens. Your goal is to sneak past the shadows and get the soft-step trial key from the middle, then open the gate at the back with it and pull the lever.

I’d recommend using a Rogue like Astarion to do this - you’re allowed to sneak attack the shadows to remove them and stop them seeing you.

Kill the first shadow with a sneak attack, then walk to the right and pull the lever. This moves the walls so you can grab the key. Continue around, being careful not to trigger the traps on the floor, then kill the second shadow with a sneak attack.

Continue around, pull the second lever, which opens the gate, then open the wrought iron gate at the back with your trial key. Claim the umbral orb, then make your way back through the maze, pulling the first lever to reset the walls and let you out.

How to complete the Self-same trial - Her Most Hallowed Mercy

In this room, again interact with the bowl and let Shadowheart make her offering. To complete the trial, you need to defeat a party of mirror versions of yourself with each character fighting their own mirror image.

You can’t let the “wrong” character damage a mirror other than themselves - or bad things happen.

As you enter, if you pass a perception check you see the reflections laying in ambush. I’d recommend taking either the right or the left hand staircase, sneaking around with group mode toggled off and attacking the isolated doppelganger with the correct party member.

When they’re all defeated, claim the umbral gem. Use the transporter to get back to the start then head downstairs.

How to complete the Faith-leap trial - Her Most Sacred Path

As you enter this room, take special notice of the diagram on the floor. Any guesses what you might have to do? That’s right. You need to remember the invisible path to reach the next Umbral gem.

After Shadowheart makes the offering, toggle group mode off so no one does anything stupid. I took a picture with my phone of the map to refer to while I went.

Go down to the right and walk forward, then jump to the platform in front of you. Next, walk forward off of this platform and you get teleported to the left, walk a little forward, then right, then up to the middle platform.

Pay attention to having to walk forward off this platform on the right hand side, then go into the middle of the room and jump to the final platform. Claim the umbral gem and interact with the transporter to go back to your crew.

Return to the room where you first fought the shadows and slot one of your gems in the ancient altar.

At this point, Shadowheart senses the presence of Lady Shar, who tells her to get the Spear of Night to make a sacrifice.

This means you need to visit the Silent Library, which is the room with the portal in front of it, next to the third trial downstairs. Inside, you need to defeat all the enemies in the room without casting spells. Destroy the librarian in the middle as you have the other tremors.

There are four buttons: press the one closest to the gate on the right as you face it - all of the others unleash an incredibly powerful lightning bolt.

What can Silence the Nightsong? How to solve the Riddle of the Night

Behind the gate, guarded by some vent traps, is the Riddle of the Night.

It presents the question: What can silence the Nightsong? The answer is in the book on the shelf in the back corner of the library. Only the Nightsinger Shar herself can silence the Nightsong.

From the trapped bookshelf, pick up Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger. You need to place this book on the pedestal to solve the riddle.

Once you place the Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger onto the riddle tablet from your inventory and the treasure room is revealed, containing the Spear of Night. You also get the Dark Justiciar helm from the chest next to the spear.

Claiming the last Umbral Gem

Return to the area where you slot the Umbral Gems, where you first met the three Undead. Now, there’s a path on the right of this area you’ve not taken yet. At the bottom of the stairs, there’s a displacer beast. This leads to the demon that Raphael wants you to kill.

If you’re feeling brave and want to side with Raphael, attack the beast unaware and you get a round of surpise turns to take it out quickly. However, there are much easier ways to approach this encounter.

Follow the beast around the corner and you meet Yurgir, an Orthon, a powerful devil. Level with him that Raphael wants him dead and he says he’s bound to stay there by a contract, or he will become Raphael’s slave.

Ask to see the contract and it’s revealed that Yurgir is the one who killed all of the Dark Justiciars. As the conversation comes to a conclusion you can set Yurgir on a few paths.

First, you can fight him fair and square. Second, you can try and search the place for a way to release him from his contract. Or third, you can try persuasion checks that get him to dismiss his followers, making an eventual fight against him easier. If you’re lucky and take the third option, you can even convince him to kill himself.

Killing him nets you some infernal metal, which you can take to the smith Dammon to make some unique items and the hellfire hand crossbow.

If you say you need to look around, you have to look around the entire temple for clues. If you take the umbral gem, they all attack you.

To start your search, walk out of the front of his throne room, take a right, then climb down the rubble to the floor below.

Then climb down the cragged rock to reach four large vases. Climb further down the second cragged rock, then investigate the ritual pentangle at the foot of the statue of Shar. Read “one becomes many” and you find a note from Raphael. The message says to “speak Itori Mustag thrice” to become your finest self.

Interact with the broken effigy and eventually a rat will appear. Choose the option that they’re not normal rats and you can either kill them all to complete the contract, or let them go for some paltry loot.

The loot isn’t worth it in the slightest, so if you want to take this route set up some hazards like Moonbeam or Spirit Guardians to repel the rats you fight.

At the end you face the final dark justiciar, who, once defeated, will break Yurgir’s contract.

Return to the throne room, and Raphael appears to try and weasel out of the situation. He proposes a new contract, which Yurgir accepts. You’re free to take whatever he leaves behind - the umbral gem and boots of brilliance for bards - but Astarion is left with no information about his scars and is very unhappy, to the point where he will leave if you don’t pass a persuasion or deception check.

If you do kill Yurgir, Raphael does hold up his side of the bargain, so, in the short term at least, persuading the demon to do himself in does seem like the best option.

Whichever you choose, grab the last Umbral Gem and make your way back to the disc in the central chamber to access the inner sanctum.

Now you’re ready to head inside. Interact with the pool, and if you pry into the conversation you hear that Shar wants her to kill a selunite - this apparently has ramifications for the rest of the region, so be ready.

Remember you can fast travel away from this area and return at any time, so complete any side-quests you want from the Last Light Inn, like those involving Art Cullagh, before you continue.

Once you’re at that point you’re finally ready to find the Nightsong.